It’s All In The Mix: Do it Yourself and Save on Materials
Mixing your own paint is the single best way to save money on a shop’s material bill – in fact, no other individual change will make a shop more profit than in-house paint mixing.
What’s the Bright Idea?
Shop owners share their thoughts on how to make their businesses – and yours – more successful
Legal Insight: Know Laws that Affect Your Business
As a body shop owner, you have a lot to worry and think about. If you’re successful, though, you probably make the time to check the quality of the paint work leaving your shop
– even though you employ painters.
Get More Green from Your Yellow
Most body shops advertise in the Yellow Pages, and many of those shop owners renew their ads every year, leaving well enough alone.
Ask the Executives
There’s no better place to go for advice than to those who’ve reached the top. To help you climb your ladder of success, we asked Clark Plucinski and Russell Verona – both industry leaders and BodyShop Business Executives of the Year – questions ranging
from productivity to customer relations to future trends:
Starting Over
Russ Manley and his father, Ron, have run Manley and Son Auto Body and Paint in Forsyth, Mo., for 34 years. In the early years, custom work was the bread and butter for the shop, but because of poor work conditions, paint jobs that went wrong were as prevalent as the ones that went right.
Negotiating with an Insurance Adjuster
Regardless of where the majority of your business comes from, one fact of life of owning a collision-repair shop is having to negotiate with an insurance adjuster.
Keep It Separate: Business and Personal Income
It’s been said that it’s best not to mix business with pleasure – and this is especially true when it comes to Uncle Sam. According to the Internal Revenue Service, business and personal income should always remain apart.
Straightening Modern Metal: Using Heat
Using heat to facilitate the straightening of a modern automobile or light truck is very tempting.
Is High-Tech Worth the Cost?
When computerized measuring systems first became available, most shop owners considered them luxuries that only the biggest, busiest and best shops could afford.