In this year’s Industry Profile, we polled respondents on such topics as number of shops owned, years in business and trade show attendance to gain a clearer picture of the men — and women — who lead this industry every day.
The average shop owner:
– is 35 to 49 years old
– has been in the industry for almost 24 years
– has been in business for more than 19 years
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Attendance Record
Trade shows: Some people love them, some people don’t. (It’s kind of like escargot. You either savor their flavor or gag at the thought of their rubbery texture.) While some trade show sponsors have changed venues and their seminar structure to entice new attendees, other industry groups have established new shows with new objectives in cities across the country. Less than 34 percent of this year’s respondents said they attended a national or local trade show in 1999. Of those who attended, most went to catch up on new technology, see products firsthand before purchasing them or learn about industry trends. Most of the 66.4 percent who said they didn’t get blisters on their feet walking an exhibit hall and didn’t let their butts go numb sitting in a seminar attributed their absence to being too busy to leave the shop. |
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How This Survey is Done
The 2000 BodyShop Business Industry Profile was conducted by Babcox Research, a division of Babcox Publications, and executed via a nationwide mail program to 6,000 body shops. The survey consisted of six two-page questionnaires, and each questionnaire was sent to a subsample of 1,000 BodyShop Business readers. Readers were chosen through a systematic sampling procedure in which every “nth” name was selected from a BodyShop Business subscription list. The sample was adjusted to provide geographic representation. Surveys were mailed in February 2000, and Babcox Research received 946 completed questionnaires for an effective return rate of 15.9 percent. |
