October is Fall Car Care Month As the calendar turns to October and the start of fall is upon us, now is a good reminder that October is Fall Car Care Month. October is a good time to assess the condition of your car and determine if it needs maintenance.  It has been through a long summer with continued exposure to the hot weather, and maybe a long trip or two mixed in.  Now is the time to take your car in for any work that may need to be done before the winter weather arrives.  It feels a long way off right now, but the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting that two-thirds of the country will encounter a colder-than-normal season. So with that in mind, October’s a good time to get your car inspected at Milex Complete Auto Care or ... read more

Five Ways You Could Accidentally, Inadvertently Damage Your Car Routine maintenance or some standard problems with your car will lead you to bring in your vehicle at your local Milex Complete Auto Care or Mr. Transmission shop.  However, there will sometimes be some unexpected circumstances that require service that can be preventable. With our busy daily lives, we don’t always think about simple things we may be doing that can hurt the performance of our car.  Here are a few things to keep in mind and prevent an unnecessary trip into the shop for service. Driving near empty. Many people will wait to fill up on gas to when the needle hovers around “E,”. Maybe that is the sign that it is time for a refill.  Other times you may be too busy to stop, or the price at a certain station may be a few cents high.  Aside from taking ... read more

Be Prepared: 9 Must-Haves in Your Car In Case There’s an Emergency Nobody likes to think about it, but things can go wrong when you’re driving. Sometimes very wrong. One reason we often tell people to bring their vehicles in for regular maintenance is that things are less likely to go wrong if you take care of your car. You’re far less likely to have a flat tire or to see your car engine suddenly go up in smoke if you’re bringing in your car to Mr. Transmission Milex Complete Auto Care for regular oil changes. After all, it’s called Milex Complete Auto Care for a reason. Fluids are topped off, and if there’s a filter that needs changed, or the tires are looking anemic, we’ll let you know.  You also should stop by Alta Mere, the Automotive Outfitters, which have a lot of ... read more

Most business owners want to grow a business. The question is – how to grow it? After all, there are a lot of ways to grow a business in the wrong way. You can expand your business to the point that you’re spending more on the infrastructure or inventory than you’re receiving in revenue. You can spread yourself too thin, where your business is doing too many different things and none of them very well. There’s a reason the term growing pains is often thrown around. Growing can involve a fair amount of agony. That’s why we’re big fans of co-branding, the concept of having a business that has two or three or more brands under one roof. In other words, if you run a Milex Complete Auto Care, a full-service auto repair shop, you might also be the owner of a Mr. Transmission, which does transmission and clutch repair. It’s a way of growing and avoiding growing ... read more

Some people think that if you’re a franchise owner, that’s it. You own one franchise, and you’re almost a glorified employee who works for the franchisor. You aren’t really a business owner. You can never grow your business. You just have one stand-alone store in the franchise network, and that’s it. But that simply isn’t the case, as you may already know. Some franchise owners end up running businesses that operate and manage several different franchises. You could own a corporation that has five gas stations in a region, six restaurants and three clothing stores. No, it wouldn’t happen overnight, but the point is that some people do take that approach. Those people are often called master franchisees or area developers, and obviously, it takes a long time to get to that stage in one’s career, if you go that route. But the point is, being a franchise owner never means that you can’t grow and expand your business – and we tak ... read more

For some of us, it’s that time of year again. Suddenly, we have more passengers in our car than usual. On our way to work, or on our way from work, we’re shuttling our kids – and maybe the neighbor’s kids – to school. That’s right. Back to school doesn't’t just mean back to school shopping. For some parents, it means back to school driving and picking up your kids from after school activities. Well, whatever your situation is, we at Moran Family of Brands think that this is probably a good time to offer some back-to-school carpool safety suggestions. There’s certainly never a bad time to think about car safety. So if your car is more full than ever, remember these safety tips. Buckle up. You probably don’t need any convincing that seatbelts save lives, but just in case your passengers do, the statistics make a good argument. According to the most recent statistics ... read more

If you’ve thought many times about starting a business but quickly dismissed the idea, there are probably some logical reasons holding you back.  Fear of failure, having the proper guidance and being able to market and sell your product or service could all be reasons why you hesitate in starting your own business. One possible solution to overcoming many of these fears is by looking into franchising. That is, running a business that is part of a regional or nationwide company. As you presumably know, McDonald’s is a franchise. So is Subway, Ace Hardware and Circle K. In fact, there are over 3,000 types of franchise brands in a wide range of industries. When you own a franchise, you’re the business owner – but it’s a little similar to being a condominium owner. In that situation, you own the property and have a lot of leewa ... read more

In the heat of summer, we’re sure you remembered basic vehicle maintenance tips for helping your car deal with sunlight and increasing temperatures. The rising mercury level in your thermometer isn’t the only thing that makes summer so hard on your vehicle. Summer weather brings extreme temperatures and heavy thunderstorms, which can lead to unique hazards. Here’s a list of things you might have forgotten in preparing your vehicle for the summer conditions. Tires When the weather gets hotter, the air in your tires will expand, so the first thing you’ll want to do is make sure they are not over-inflated. You will also need to check your tires for cracks, low treads and other imperfections that could be dangerous in the long run. The heavy, sudden rains that can often happen in the summer can test your tires, and the worst time you want to discover your tires need to be r ... read more