165 - Cruise Control to Cash Flow: The Mobile Auto Repair Journey with Clinton Coffman

165 - Cruise Control to Cash Flow: The Mobile Auto Repair Journey with Clinton Coffman October 30, 2025 - 00:36:10

 

Show Summary:

Starting a mobile shop in December took grit, but Clinton Coffman shows how discipline on costs and smart marketing can outpace top-line growth. He walks through lessons from dealerships to Firestone to launching Cruise Control Convenient Car Care. Clinton breaks down why Local Services Ads beat DIY PPC for his model, why he prices a firm onsite minimum, and how he schedules 1–3 cars per day to protect quality. We dig into parts sourcing without delivery, the limits of driveway repairs, and the debate between staying mobile or moving to a small brick and mortar. Clinton shares a possible pivot toward a “basic services” lane that’s easier to staff and scale. The episode closes on family, legacy, and building a business his kids could choose to join.

 

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

 

Guest(s):

Clinton Coffman, Owner of Cruise Control Convenient Car Care

 

Show Highlights:

[00:03:15] - Clinton’s path from WyoTech to dealerships and Firestone, and the spark that pushed him toward mobile repair.
[00:06:11] - Launching in December on purpose: “If I can survive the slowest month, I can thrive in the good ones.”
[00:07:42] - First two weeks hit about $7K; 2024 averages to ~$180K while learning what expenses to cut.
[00:09:29] - Lower sales, higher take-home: $16.5K less sold but $8.5K more net by trimming subscriptions and spend.
[00:10:24] - Marketing that works: monthly CRM text blasts and Google Local Services Ads with pay-per-lead economics.
[00:12:16] - ROAS reality: some weeks are heavy diagnostics with low conversion; overall GP-based returns trend near 5:1.
[00:16:41] - The mobile squeeze: scheduling is hard when each driveway job ties you up until it’s done.
[00:19:56] - Parts without delivery: juggling WORLDPAC, Parts Authority, and O’Reilly means more drive time and will-calls.
[00:23:39] - The non-negotiable trip minimum: why $140 to show up protects time and mirrors trades like HVAC and plumbing.
[00:24:47] - What’s next: weighing a small shop, or pivoting mobile to a high-throughput lane of brakes, oil, filters, and wipers.
[00:33:25] - Success defined: provide for family, build something durable his kids can choose to join.

 

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

 

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.

 

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Hello, my name is Jimmy Lea, and this is the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence. You are listening to the Leading Edge podcast, my friend. It is so good to be with you today. So glad you're able to join and listen to this conversation that Clint and I are gonna have about his mobile business.

Jimmy Lea: Clint Coffman is the owner of Cruise Control. Cruise control. Hold on, I'll get it. Cruise Control Convenient Car Care out of Tacoma, Washington, Clinton, thank you for being here brother. How are you?

Clinton Coffman: I'm doing great. How are you?

Jimmy Lea: You know, that was a mouthful. I tried five times before I got it, but the, there it is. There's, that is a mouthful. And you've got all the C's in the name Clinton Coffman, Cruise Control Convenient Car Care, all the C's. Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. It, hindsight is 2020. Right. But I'm kind of stuck with the name now 'cause that's what people know.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. The alliteration in your family must be epic.

Clinton Coffman: Yes. We have four generations of firstborn sons with the letters C in their first name.

Jimmy Lea: So are you the third or the fourth?

Clinton Coffman: I'm the third.

Jimmy Lea: I am also the third. We are James Lee. James Arthur James. Bruce, James Christian. My son is James, Derek, A, B, c, D. That's crazy. Did you guys do different middle names or is it exactly the same for James? So it's,

Clinton Coffman: it's different first names, but they all start with the letter C. So it was Charles was my grandfather.

Clinton Coffman: My dad's Chris. I'm Clinton, my son is Colin. Of course it is. Yeah. So you didn't have any option but to go with another C.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Right. No, and my son, his name was picked back in college when I was in college. When I was in high school. I knew he was gonna be a James D. James d something. Yeah. So are all of your children starting with the letter C?

Clinton Coffman: No, it's just the firstborn son. Just

Jimmy Lea: the firstborn.

Clinton Coffman: Okay.

Jimmy Lea: Firstborn son. First born son. Oh, is your, do you have an older, oldest daughter? I've got two

Clinton Coffman: daughters who are older.

Jimmy Lea: Me too. Did you see this here? These are my, I did see that. These are my, that's my oldest daughter and second oldest, and that's my son.

Jimmy Lea: Nice, nice. Yes. So here's my connection to Tacoma, Washington, and I have a picture. This is an awesome picture. I think this embodies Tacoma, Washington ginormous. Imagine with me a ginormous. Pickup truck. Big, huge mud wheels. It's an older Chevy truck, maybe it's a Ford truck. And on the back tailgate is a bumper sticker that says I identify as a Prius

Clinton Coffman: that could be construed as Tacoma.

Jimmy Lea: I think what he was wanting was those those parking spaces that are right up front, say for the compact cars.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, it's so funny. Hey, so Clinton, how in, how did you get into the crazy automotive aftermarket world?

Clinton Coffman: So, I've been in auto tech my entire adult life. Okay. 20 years old. I went out to Wyoming Technical Institute.

Clinton Coffman: Spent a year out there. Worked in dealerships for a long period of time in Wyoming. No I moved back here once I was so you moved back to Washington outta school? Yeah. Outta school in the Tacoma area, you know, eventually remember cash for clunkers. Oh yeah, cash for

Jimmy Lea: Clunkers. That just about killed us.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. And I was like in between Lube tech and like a B Tech at the time.

Jimmy Lea: Okay, so you were a solid C plus is what I'm hearing. Yeah,

Clinton Coffman: yeah. And you kind of get pigeonholed.

Jimmy Lea: You

Clinton Coffman: do. You know, I was really good at. Doing inspections, right? So I could get on the Lu Rack and I could sell stuff. Oh. So they moved me back to the Lu Rack 'cause I was making them more money than the Lu Tech and they laid them off.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. Then after a year and all the jobs are going through a tech not learning anything. No, of course not. So eventually I ended up leaving the Honda dealership I was at because I was like, dude. How am I getting any better at what I want to do? Yeah. This is a further in your career. I understand your need for what I need to do's do for you's, but like you wouldn't even send me back to school.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: So, I ended up going to a used car dealership, one of the biggest in the state. It was actually right next door. So I took my little tool cart and I literally pushed it up the hill to the next dealership. That's hilarious. That's awesome. And I spent about four years there. Then ended up going to Firestone.

Clinton Coffman: Oh, nice. Okay. So I spent five, six years of Firestone and then eventually I heard about this new company that was doing mobile repair. So I was like, oh, that's interesting. I've always kind of wanted to be my own boss. I mean, I wrote my first business plan when I was about 11 years old. So, nice. Yeah. I never actually pulled the trigger.

Clinton Coffman: 'cause you know, it's scary. Well, you're 11. Well yeah, but even at, I had kids young, so like going out on my own. The risk versus reward. Yeah. Kinda became like a fear factor. Sure. I spent about another four years there, kind of learned how mobile should and shouldn't work. Okay. And then I was like, you know what, like you only live once Yolo.

Clinton Coffman: If I've been wanting to do something like this my whole life and haven't figured out what it is, but I know how to fix cars, why not just do it? So, and. That was about two years ago now, and it's been a journey to say the least.

Jimmy Lea: So, so you struck out on your own, towards the end of COVID shutting down, people are returning to normal.

Jimmy Lea: They're still a little scared, but they're returning to normal and you strike out with a mobile business?

Jimmy Lea: Wow.

Clinton Coffman: Wow. In December. The slowest time of year. I figured if I could make it, then I could make it in the good months.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, right. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I saw the the, your kids' announcement on Facebook got a big announcement.

Jimmy Lea: We're so excited. Oh, bless your kids. That was fun. That's awesome. They did that for you. So you struck out in December. Is this December of 23?

Clinton Coffman: 2023, yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. Oh my gosh, man. Okay, so you strike out on your own. What is it you close your first month, your second month? What does that look like for you as a solopreneur?

Jimmy Lea: So, first month

Clinton Coffman: I ended up getting really lucky. Okay. The first phone call I got, I ended up selling $2,500 worth of work.

Jimmy Lea: Beautiful. Love that. So,

Clinton Coffman: It was a short month because I started like the week before Christmas, so I only had like two weeks that month. I ended up doing about seven K,

Jimmy Lea: seven K in two months.

Jimmy Lea: Righteous. Yeah. That's pretty dang good, man. Congrats.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. And then January, do you remember what January looked like? January 24? I don't remember

Clinton Coffman: exactly off the top of my head.

Jimmy Lea: Ish. Ish. You can have a big ish on that. It was probably

Clinton Coffman: like eight to nine. Okay. Okay. Probably eight to nine. And it grew to closer to about 1516 KA month in total sales.

Clinton Coffman: Nice. Over the, over 2024. That's about what I averaged at about 180 k in sales.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congrats.

Clinton Coffman: Solid. Then once I looked at my p and ls at the end of the year and I was like, man, I've got a lot of expenses. I want the nice things, right? So I was paying for the marketing companies. I was paying for top of the line, all the bells and whistles, CRMs, and.

Clinton Coffman: I was like, man there's gotta be a different way. There's a lot I'm leaving out before it gets to my wallet. Yeah. Yeah. So I started, what can I cut? What can I cut? I have actually done, what was it? I got it here.

Clinton Coffman: I've got a 39% increase this year already in net, in sales, net revenue. Oh. In net revenue and net revenue 2%. De I've actually, where is it? Sorry, I got my notes here.

Jimmy Lea: No, you're good. So you, I have sold Uhhuh

Clinton Coffman: $16,500 less in sales, but I have made $8,500 more into my pocket.

Jimmy Lea: Dude, congratulations.

Jimmy Lea: Controlling those expenses. That's how to do it.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. You know, your first year you just, I was like, I'm just gonna throw everything at the wall, see what sticks.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. The mistake of many a business that does it, and most of them aren't where you are, most of them fail. Most of them have to close the door.

Jimmy Lea: 'cause they tried to stick too much and nothing stuck. So Yeah. They're out. Yeah. It's, so if you can reduce your expenses by $500 a month, five times 12, six grand a year, that goes right to the bottom line. That goes to your net profit. Absolutely. Oh, congratulations. So, so for marketing, what are you doing now as a mobile tech?

Clinton Coffman: So right now I've got a CRM, so I send a blast text message out once a month. Nice.

Jimmy Lea: Okay.

Clinton Coffman: Sometimes twice a month. It depends on how busy I am. Sure. And I do local service ads on Google

Jimmy Lea: local service ads. Okay.

Clinton Coffman: And it, local service ads has been a godsend for me. Good. Congrats. Because you, you pay per qualified lead, not per click.

Clinton Coffman: No. You know, because I spent a lot of time in the evenings learning Google ads. Yes. You know, it's like how do I do this so I don't have to pay somebody a thousand, $1,400 a month Yep. On top of my ad spend. Correct. Right. So, I mean, I even took a month long class. Wow. I paid for and

Jimmy Lea: to study Google ads, looking at local

Clinton Coffman: service ads, and there's nobody else secret.

Clinton Coffman: Nobody else in my area,

Jimmy Lea: knock on wood.

Clinton Coffman: Yep. Runs local service ads for auto repair.

Jimmy Lea: So what's and congrats on figuring that out and doing it. Most Google ads, you might be anywhere from a dollar to $5. To $8 per click and a a local service ad. What are you spending per click? Per, sorry.

Jimmy Lea: Per qualified lead.

Clinton Coffman: Per qualified lead. It's about, that's hard to say. 'cause they don't give you as much information. Yeah. Right. So I spend anywhere between 250 and $400 a week, depending on how I'm already doing. Yep. My return on ad spend is about three to one. Congrats. Nice. So, some months it's better.

Clinton Coffman: Yes. Some months it's worse, you know? Yep. Sometimes you go out there four or five times a week to do a diag for a no start, and it's like, oh, you have a blown head gasket. Oh, you have $9,000 worth of work to do on your 2006 Corolla. And they're like, I can't spend that kind of money on it. And so.

Clinton Coffman: That's where it gets real tricky with mobile repair.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Because you're,

Clinton Coffman: you're limited on what you can do.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Right. For sure. For sure. Alright, so, a three to one is good, however, your goal needs to be six to one. Yes. Okay. I totally agree. So you already know that. Totally

Clinton Coffman: agree with that. Yeah. At five.

Jimmy Lea: Five to one, you're covering your expenses, your labor, your parts, your da. If you factor it all in at six to one, now you're on the gravy side, so yeah. Yeah. Six to one. Love it. I love it that you already know that.

Clinton Coffman: Is that. Total sales are gross profit.

Jimmy Lea: Just on total. Ooh. Are you doing gross profit three to one?

Clinton Coffman: I base everything off of gross profit.

Jimmy Lea: Congratulations. So, okay, so if you were to convert that for me, if you would, if you don't mind. So if total sales to clicks,

Clinton Coffman: let's see, I, so I've got a 60 to 65% parts margin. So I don't know the math. That's beautiful to, to convert that. Nope, you're doing good.

Clinton Coffman: Probably closer to five to one.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I think you are. If you are let's do public math. Always dangerous. Yeah. So on a monthly, if you're doing 10 to 15,000, let's call it 15, 16, can I call it 16? So it's four grand a week? Yeah. Yeah. You could call it that. Four. Four grand a week and a $400 local ad spend.

Jimmy Lea: That's a 10 to one. Yeah. Yeah. Solid. And if you get it down into the $200 ad spend and you're at four grand, that's a lot more. Yeah. I'm not doing that public math. Not right now, dude. Congrats bro. So, and I applaud you for doing it off the gross profit because that gross, that's the

Clinton Coffman: number that really matters.

Clinton Coffman: Parts are expensive.

Jimmy Lea: Well, and gross profit, yes. But to your point before, even more important than gross profit is net profit. Yes. How much is in your pocket? At the end of the day, you have had to control your expenses. So important. You control your expenses. Now you control what comes into your pocket.

Jimmy Lea: Most businesses, most sales companies, will applaud those who sell the most. When in actuality they really should turn around and say, okay, but how much did you keep? Exactly. How much did you keep? Exactly. And that interestingly at the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, we're a coaching training company.

Jimmy Lea: You're aware of that? We have an awards ceremony, an awards program. We have the $100,000 net profit club. The 200,000 net profit, the 300,000 net profit, 400, 500, 700, I think there's a seven 50. And we have one shop that's doing a million dollars net profit.

Clinton Coffman: Shut up. That's amazing. That's gotta be a big shop.

Jimmy Lea: He has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 bays in one building and four bays in another building. Yeah. He's up in Denver, Colorado. That makes, and yeah, he does. He does. Well. He is paying attention to the numbers. And that's what you did. Yeah. You're paying attention to the numbers. What can I cut? What is superfluous here?

Jimmy Lea: That we can vote it off the island and really do more with less. And that's what you've done. 16,000 less in sales. Okay. Big deal. We are eight grand up. We're doing more with less. So I applaud you Clinton. That's freaking awesome, dude. Congrats. So where are you at today? Here you are, two years down the road.

Jimmy Lea: Where are you at today? So

Clinton Coffman: my next goal is mobile is extremely hard to schedule. Whoa. Yeah. What if your appointments are like, say, okay, bring it in and then if it takes three hours to diagnose it. You've got another bay you can pull in and do the oil change or the brake job or whatever. I am in your driveway.

Clinton Coffman: You are my sole priority until I leave. Right? Whoa. Yeah. So, so it makes scheduling sometimes very difficult and you gotta be really picky about what you're going to go out and do.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: You know what I mean? So,

Jimmy Lea: so do you, do those. No start diags late in the afternoon because you know it's gonna be heavy duty and you're gonna have to schedule it for later.

Clinton Coffman: So here's, I try to schedule as many jobs early in the week, first thing in the morning.

Jimmy Lea: Love it. Okay.

Clinton Coffman: That way I can potentially have time if they wanna do it, go pick up parts or you grill them on the phone and you try to guess like, this sounds most likely, like you're gonna need a starter. So I'm gonna pick up a starter beforehand.

Clinton Coffman: Hopefully that's what it is. You're not always right, you know? 'cause customers, they say things

Jimmy Lea: yeah. They're not a technician. Don't, they're not, don't know. They don't know.

Clinton Coffman: They don't know. So what's their heart? You gotta try to guess a little bit. So there's a lot of picking up parts and then returning them.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. And that all takes time, bro. Yeah. And then I'll schedule the next is a three o'clock, which I try to schedule like, Hey, we can get the diag done, most likely we're gonna have to come back. Yeah. If I get really busy and it seems right, I'll schedule a noon. So two to three cars, one to three cars a day.

Clinton Coffman: Oh, wow. One to three cars a day. Yeah. And that's the most I can do, you know, some weeks it's five cars.

Jimmy Lea: How challenging is it for you to get parts?

Clinton Coffman: So it's just, it's time consuming.

Jimmy Lea: Time consuming. Are you loyal to a flag? Are you loyal to. A particular parts store or do you just go for the most convenient?

Clinton Coffman: So it, it depends. Okay. I use three vendors mainly. I'll use worldpac, O'Reilly's, and Parts Authority. How do you wor use worldpac?

Jimmy Lea: I have an account. Well, I parts, I apologize. I understand that. And they deliver. So what are they delivering it to your house? Nobody

Clinton Coffman: delivers. I have to go pick it up because I'm,

Jimmy Lea: because you're mobile.

Jimmy Lea: Because I'm mobile. I thought Worldpac like they don't have stores that's a will call

Clinton Coffman: at

Jimmy Lea: their warehouse. At the DC Yeah, at the warehouse. Okay.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. So I, so you must be close to the DC and pick them up. I don't use Worldpac that often because they're kind of out of the way. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. You

Clinton Coffman: know but if I'm.

Clinton Coffman: Close to them and they've got, they make good parts.

Jimmy Lea: They do. You know what I

Clinton Coffman: mean?

Jimmy Lea: They do. Or

Clinton Coffman: if it's a European car, then I'm like, I would way rather just get the WORLDPAC stuff 'cause I know it's better.

Jimmy Lea: Yep yep.

Clinton Coffman: Then I use

Jimmy Lea: them. And who are your other two? 'cause as soon as you said Worldpac, I was like,

Jimmy Lea: wait a second.

Jimmy Lea: How in the world is he doing that? Are they. Delivering it to somebody's physical home address. Oh, wouldn't that be nice

Clinton Coffman: if I could get them just to bring it to their house, that'd be helpful. Oh, that would be so much better. But no, they're not gonna do that. That's kind of unfeasible. 'cause then I'd have to be like, here's the address.

Clinton Coffman: And then sometimes it's gonna take an hour and a half for them to get the part there anyways, and I'm just standing there.

Jimmy Lea: Well that, that somebody's driving to take off and go do another car and come back after the park gets there. But they don't do that anyways.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. So, so the other two flags, O'Reilly's

Clinton Coffman: and Parts Authority.

Clinton Coffman: Parts Authority, okay.

Jimmy Lea: And you must have a pretty good saturation in your area of those stores so that you're able to be fairly loyal to them.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Parts Authority is just like worldpac. Oh really? They just, it's, you

Jimmy Lea: don't have physical stores.

Clinton Coffman: No they're a warehouse dude. I, I-S-I-N-C and Parts Authority.

Clinton Coffman: It's the same company, but they have different names in different places.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. I thought that we I thought that Parts Authority was also brick and mortar, but I, yeah, they might,

Clinton Coffman: they might be in other areas, but we've got in other areas warehouses, three warehouses here from Parts Authority. Oh, wow.

Clinton Coffman: Pretty good. So there's one way up north. There's one in Fife, which isn't too far away, and there's one just right down the street from my house.

Jimmy Lea: Got it. Nice. Besides parts, what else is challenging for you as a mobile tech versus what you might think brick and mortar has?

Clinton Coffman: Again, it's scheduling.

Clinton Coffman: Scheduling, yes. Scheduling is the hardest thing, and then it's sometimes I just can't do the job. Go out there. It's like you need a transmission in your Chevy pickup truck. I am not pulling your transmission out in your driveway. I'm just not gonna do it all by myself. Could I probably do it? Sure. But then how much longer than book time am I gonna spend on it?

Clinton Coffman: Twice. What if I drop the thing on my face

Jimmy Lea: and you're crawling around on the ground? Yeah. The Chevy truck's up on jacks, but that only gives you a foot and a half. Exactly. That transmission barely fits under the Oh, geez. Yeah. No, what

Clinton Coffman: a nightmare. Yeah. So it's that. And then the other thing is, for some reason, which I don't fully understand, the only people, this is gonna sound harsh, but the people who know who mobile mechanics are a thing, don't have a lot of money.

Clinton Coffman: Oh yeah. Then every once in a while you'll find somebody, like, it's always easier to make money selling to rich people. Let's just be

Jimmy Lea: honest. Yeah. They got the money, they got the funds, they can pay for it. Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: And so there's a lot of times I'll go out there and it's a $700 repair, which is not crazy expensive in the automotive world.

Jimmy Lea: No that's a pretty good average.

Clinton Coffman: And then I've got financing options with my tech metrics so they can't get approved.

Jimmy Lea: Oh geez.

Clinton Coffman: So it's like, okay,

Jimmy Lea: well pull the scratch together when you got it. I guess. I guess there's, lemme know,

Clinton Coffman: there's, and another thing that's difficult is I have to charge a minimum to come out.

Clinton Coffman: I can't do free break inspections. No, I can't go do a free battery check. No. So sometimes it would be great to do more breaks. Right. But it throws people off when I say, yeah, I can come out to your house, but it's $140 minimum, whether you buy the brakes or not, when they could take it to Midas or wherever and they'll look at 'em for free because it's not costing them any time.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, I mean, it is.

Clinton Coffman: It is. But the potential upside is way higher than me. Driving 20 minutes to your house, putting your car on Jack's, taking the wheels off.

Jimmy Lea: But it's also the exact same thing that a plumber charges. That electrician charges. Yeah. The HVAC charges. If you want the convenience of me coming to your home, it's 140 bucks for me to show up to your front door.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Whether I do anything or not. And of course you're gonna do whatever it is they've hired you to come out there and do anyways. Oh, that's good. That's awesome. So what's what is the future? What does the future look like for you Clinton?

Clinton Coffman: So I'm going back and forth. Do I want a brick and mortar location, because that's fair.

Clinton Coffman: I don't wanna lay on the pavement forever.

Jimmy Lea: Amen. Yeah. There is a beauty. I don't even wanna turn

Clinton Coffman: wrenches forever. I would, I'm getting to a point in my life where I would rather have somebody else go do the work and I can operate the business instead of owning a job. Amen. With mobile it's.

Clinton Coffman: Finding talent. It's hard. That's willing to do it. Yeah. You know, and they're actually, I can trust them to not leave a wheel loose or misdiagnose or anything because there's no supervision.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Right. There's no key seat other than pictures on a cell phone.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. It's that, or I'm going to, I'm looking into.

Clinton Coffman: My top job categories.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah,

Clinton Coffman: like, so I make the most money on brakes, engine repairs. That's like check engine lights, spark plug, stuff like that. And cooling systems. Those are my three most profitable besides diagnostics, because I charge a diagnostic fee for everything. So it's obviously through the roof.

Clinton Coffman: So. I'm starting to question whether I need to change the model from a diag heavy to a more of like a tire shop in your driveway without doing tires. Ooh, brake oil changes, air filters,

Jimmy Lea: which your

Clinton Coffman: wipers, the basic stuff that you can train somebody to do quickly and efficiently, right? Because, yeah, finding somebody would.

Clinton Coffman: My 20 years of experience, who's willing to do what I'm willing to do to work for myself as opposed to just getting a paycheck.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: I know that's gonna be hard to impossible.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: It's already hard enough to find tax.

Jimmy Lea: Well, and Clinton I do believe you will find there are many opportunities out there right now.

Jimmy Lea: As you're driving around. Pay attention to the shops and every once in a while, stop in, talk to the owner. See where they're at. You may find a shop with a lady or a gentleman that's 65 plus years old, and they're looking to retire and get out and be done. And you just keep courting 'em. Keep courting 'em.

Jimmy Lea: Keep courting 'em, keep talking to 'em. And eventually they're just gonna say, all right, Clinton, here's the keys. It's yours.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. You know, I almost had a three bay shop last year. Ooh. That was getting ready to retire. It was about 30 minutes away out in the peninsula. It was a nice, affluent neighborhood.

Clinton Coffman: Beautiful. But as soon as we got his PS P and Ls, I was working with Kevin at the institute. Yep. He was my coach for the first year. Kevin Clark. We looked through those p and Ls and what he wanted and what he was making. Were not adding up. We were about 40 to 60% off on what it was worth and what he wanted.

Clinton Coffman: It's just like, man this place has. Amazing potential, but there is, there's no way I can give you what you're demanding.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. I can't buy the blue sky you've you're offering right now.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. I can't buy, you can't buy a shop based on its potential. Yeah. You gotta buy on what it's actually making at that time.

Jimmy Lea: Are you still going around? Do you still stop by? Do you still say hello?

Clinton Coffman: So I'm not necessarily going from shop to shop and talking to people, but I'm keeping my eye out. I'm looking for empty buildings. I'm on prey and all those other commercial real estate sites, looking for a building. You know, there's a few around, but man, they want.

Clinton Coffman: I found a four bay shop right down the street. It's completely empty.

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Clinton Coffman: I want 10 grand a month. Yeah. And I'm like, that's close to my total sales every month. I can't afford that. You know what mean not? Not right now. You can't this with a lot of money to begin with. That's why I started with mobile.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: You

Clinton Coffman: know, so it's tricky. It's tricky. It

Jimmy Lea: is tricky. And I, and you're right. And if I have some advice for you, unsolicited, unpaid, and you know what free advice is worth, take it into advisement. Yeah. Look at the shops that already have people in it. Stop trying to get the empty shop. 'cause you're starting from scratch.

Jimmy Lea: Zero. Start with something that's already in second gear, third gear. That's little better because you can take it up from there. Go back to this guy. So I'll tell you a story. Way back in the day, I bought, or I started a franchise. We did house cleaning, yard care and handyman services, and there was a cleaning business.

Jimmy Lea: Business for sale. And I saw it on Facebook or Craigslist or something way back in the day. And I called her up and I said hey, we own a cleaning company. You own a cleaning company, you're for sale. What's your number? And it was like way up here. And I was like, oh, okay. You know, I, thanks. I appreciate the number.

Jimmy Lea: Would you be willing to get together? I'd love to sit down and talk to you, see what you've got, what your assets are, look at the whole p and l and all that kind of stuff. So we get there, we get together and we get looking at stuff. And I said, Hey I'm not afraid by the number, but I am afraid that your business isn't justifying the number that you're looking for.

Jimmy Lea: What's what would be your number? And she came off a couple thousand. I said, okay, no, cool. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And I kept in touch with her. I called every two months or so. And come to find out. She had gone and gotten her teaching degree and was going to the next school year, gonna be going back to teaching school.

Jimmy Lea: So in the meantime, she lost a couple of accounts and I came, I called her up and I'd say, Hey, so what's your number now? How's it going? How's business? What's your number now? And it just kept coming down and down and down and down. And it got to a point where it was like, okay, I can do that.

Jimmy Lea: What you've got left on the books, what you've got left that you're selling. I don't want any of your equipment. But if you're gonna throw it away, I'll take it so you don't have to throw it away. Sure. But you keep your truck, you keep your stuff I'm ready to just take your clients. 'cause that's essentially all I was buying.

Jimmy Lea: And that might be the situation that you're in with this per this shop out on the peninsula is, hey, they gave you blue sky here the other day. They've had time to marinate and maybe that couple got together and finally said, you know what, maybe we are ready to just get out and be done.

Clinton Coffman: That's what I was really hoping for, but somebody bought it.

Clinton Coffman: Oh, somebody bought it. Like for the number they were asking. We were about a month and a half after. I was like I can't you guys, somebody decided it was worth it. Where are they at? I don't know. Do you know the details?

Jimmy Lea: You don't know the details? I don't

Clinton Coffman: know. I heard a rumor the other week 'cause I have a buddy whose parents live out there.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. The building's for rent. Oh. And I've been meaning all week to call just to see if they're open. Nice. Because maybe I hope not for him.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: Right. But maybe that building is empty now. Because things didn't work out.

Jimmy Lea: Yep, yep.

Clinton Coffman: But yeah, I would feel, I'd feel really bad for the guy who ended up spending that money and then within a year it's

Jimmy Lea: closed down Ed

Clinton Coffman: and he's got a family.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. No I don't wish any ill will on anybody, but I also know what I'm go, willing to do for my family.

Clinton Coffman: Absolutely.

Jimmy Lea: And that's what you've gotta look after. You gotta look after number one. 'cause nobody else will look after you. Clinton. Nope. You look after you. I love it. I love it. Hey, well, one last final question for you, Clinton.

Jimmy Lea: As we land this plane, what does success look like for you? So whether that's today or in the future, what does success look like?

Clinton Coffman: So number one is taking care of my family, raising my kids in the right way, being able to afford. We're talking in a financial way to give them the opportunities my parents were able to give me.

Clinton Coffman: That's number one. Number two, I would love this to become something, whatever that iteration becomes, right. I'm not opposed to any direction that it goes. As long as it goes something I can pass down.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Clinton Coffman: Something I can be like, Hey, kid. Do you wanna learn how to do this or not? If you don't, that's fine.

Clinton Coffman: I don't wanna pressure any of them into following in any footsteps.

Jimmy Lea: Right.

Clinton Coffman: But I would love, especially with the job market the way it is, and AI taking a lot of entry level jobs. Yep. Now I've got 17 year olds, she's been applying at places. For a year and a half now. Oh my gosh. And you know, McDonald's won't call her back.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my word.

Clinton Coffman: It's crazy, right? Like when I was 15, 14, I had a paper route.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Those don't

Clinton Coffman: even exist anymore,

Jimmy Lea: dude. I was 12, 13. Yeah. Then I started a yard care. I was doing lawn mowing lawns. I was making more than teachers at school.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. And now, nowadays it's like. It's very hard to get these kids into something.

Clinton Coffman: Yeah. You get a college degree. It's hard to get in somewhere now. Yeah. So something that they can at least fall back on, you know? Yeah. Success is knowing my kids are okay, they're doing the right thing. That I can take care of my, myself and them.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That peace, the happiness that comes with knowing the family's covered.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. Well, Clint I know you are gonna be successful. I know you're gonna have a successful life, brother. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. If there's anything I can do along the way to help you out, brother, I'm a phone call away.

Clinton Coffman: Absolutely. Absolutely. I appreciate you, Jimmy.

Clinton Coffman: Thanks for having me on.

Jimmy Lea: You're very welcome. Thank you, Clinton. We'll talk to you soon. Alright. Take care.