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.
Overcoming Roadblocks
Three men – Bob Anderson, Jerry Kottschade and Joe Sanders – have devoted a great deal of time over the years to assume positions of leadership within their chosen field.
Need Money? Renovations
When running a successful business, a shop owner will – at some point – utter the word “renovations”. In his next breath, he’ll shake his head and utter the words “need money”.
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.
Getting the Most from HVLP Spray Guns
Whether your shop is located in an area of the country that requires your painters to use HVLP spray guns or you just purchased them to save money, your painters need to
make several changes in reduction and technique to get the best job from this technology.
Shop Forum/Addressing Aftermarket Parts
Some collision-repair specialists don’t mind using aftermarket parts, some do. For those who do mind, how do they deal with having to use them when an insurance company says
so?
Shop Management/The Future is Now
Even if you’re 30 years from retirement and 40 years from death (so you think), it’s still in your – and your loved ones – best interests to plan for these events.