Larry Edwards, Author at BodyShop Business
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Getting Your Money’s Worth

"How does a consolidator arrive at the value of a shop?" — Clyde Wilkerson, owner, Wilkerson Body & Frame, Kokomo, Ind. To answer this question, we must first define which type of consolidator you might be dealing with. Collision shop consolidators generally fall into one of two categories. The Predator First, there’s the consolidator whose

Price Fixing or Price Negotiating

“Why do insurance companies control a shop’s labor rates? Isn’t this price fixing?” –– Ron Humphress, former parts manager, Good News Auto Body Shop, Salisbury, Md. Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edition, defines price fixing as an “artificial setting or maintenance of prices at a certain level contrary to the workings of the free market.” Price

On Your Mark … Get Set … Go!: Benchmarking

Are your employees living up to their potential? Is your shop? One way to be sure is to use benchmarks. Benchmarking allows you to compare your business’ performance to other businesses so you can discover where opportunity exists.

Survival Strategies for Independents

Consolidation or Independence?

More Than A Desk Job: Office Managers

Being the office manager for a collision repair shop can be an exciting, sometimes confusing and very rewarding job. The key to reaping the rewards of efficient, organized and informed office mangers is to give them more responsibility than simply answering the phones, greeting customers and balancing the checkbook.

Sizing Up Your Support Staff

Do you know every task your business must perform and how long it takes to perform each one? You need to, if you want to create an ideal staff to support the production of labor and profits.

Creating The Super Estimator

Transform a mild-mannered estimator into “The Man Who Sells Steel Repair” by teaching him how to communicate effectively with people.

Before You Build: Plan!

Shop owners have lost more money on new facilities in one day than they’ve earned in a lifetime. When designing and building your own facility, plan, plan and plan some more.

Shop Gone Bad

Good shops utilize their facilities and technicians efficiently. Bad shops don’t. Surprisingly, profitable shops are often the worst

A 10-Step Plan to Profitability

A set of procedures that are very helpful for analyzing the operational and financial health
of body shops.