It Matters: Manners and Grammar
Honesty and integrity matter. Ethical behavior matters. Funny times, phantom invoices, buried deductibles are wrong. Doing “anything it takes” to get the business is wrong. If you want to stop reading here, it’s OK. I am the mother of two teenagers, so I’m used to being ignored. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. However, I do
This Way Guys: Dealing with Steering
When an insurer began steering 60 percent of his customers to the competition, this shop owner didn’t sit around complaining about his bad luck. Instead he went looking for a way to get his customers back.
Web Browser: Mentors at Work
Currently this industry loses seven out of 10 apprentice candidates in the first 18 months and once they leave, they often leave the auto industry for good. Collision shops, insurers, mechanical shops and dealerships cannot afford to allow this to continue,” says Mentors At Work president and CEO Mark Claypool. Mentors At Work is an
Fast Food Drives Us to Distraction
I’ve been trying to tell my husband for some time now that he’s a hazard on wheels. A salesman, he’s off every day pedaling his wares and driving long distances to do it. And to keep on schedule, he’s often eating on the go. That means he’s ingesting anything from messy chicken sandwiches to (and
34-Money Matters
Today, many investors and small-business owners find discount notes offered by U.S. government-sponsored agencies to be excellent cash management instruments to help meet capital preservation, cash flow and yield needs.
The Clear That Took Afternoons Off: Clearcoat Problem
It started with a phone call. A customer was having trouble with his clearcoat. It seems the clear just didn’t spray right in the afternoon, so he was convinced that something was wrong with it or the hardener. I decided to gather some facts before I went down to see him. I knew the shop
You Want a Piece of Me: Sectioning
The term sectioning makes some of us regress into our memories to a time when we lived to cut and splice automobile bodies to such an extent that they became unrecognizable as to their original make or model. Come on, admit it, at least half of you are looking back, somewhat reverently, thinking about the
Got Friction? Metal Department vs. Paint Department
One of the longest-running battles within a collision repair facility is the one between the metal department and paint department. And in some of the shops I’ve worked with throughout the world, it had escalated past a battle – it was more like a civil war going on between these two main production departments. Each
Becoming the Mask Master
When I started in this business, I couldn’t wait to pull the masking paper off that “flawless” paint job that I’d so meticulously laid down on that well-massaged custom. In fact, you’d often find me tugging on the tape and ripping paper before even cleaning my gun. What I lacked in sense I made up
The H2: A 6,400-Pound Baby Hummer
With the birth of the Hummer H2 (the younger brother of the military-inspired Hummer H1), the ultimate off-road machine just became more civilian- and freeway-friendly. Though not as big its big brother, the H2 isn’t small by any means, nor is it completely civilized. I predict this new addition could lead to a messy sibling
Market Pricing: Examining the Forces Behind It
independently of recessions and bear markets? Some industry leaders would say yes, they do. The reality is that body shop sales tend to follow meteorological trends rather than economic indicators. Hail storms and the shellacking of ice that some cities get in the winter do more to drive markets for body work than does the
Choosing a Management System
I’d like to share with your readers one of my experiences. In 1999, we expanded our business to a new location and a larger facility. Previously, we operated from a shop located behind our home for 14 years and had become quite successful. Along with building and expansion came numerous headaches we hadn’t expected but