A History of Success and Change
The time: 1894. The place: Boston, Mass. The body shop: Fitzpatrick Brothers.
Speaking Their Language: Female Customers
Understand your female customers and you’ll not only make the repair process less intimidating, you’ll gain their loyalty, too
Internet Insight
You’ve no doubt heard about the Internet. Whether it’s those commercials with guys in suits surfing in the streets, Al Gore talking about the Information Superhighway or somebody on the radio telling you about "dot com," it’s all around you. You may even be a “netizen” yourself.
The Cost of Going Global
Since each country’s refinish market is at a different stage of maturity, product needs vary – making formulation costly for manufacturers and standardization of VOC rules nearly impossible.
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.