Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Sutton
I owned a race car chassis building shop & starved for a couple years until a mentor taught me the "business of business" ... and I made my shop profitable & smooth running. But it is no small task. I am sure there are ProTouring shops that do a great job at both ... making money & keeping employees. But it is very challenging in any business ... and even harder if the market pays less for higher grade work.
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As a technical rep for a very large jobber in the north east I have almost 200 collision/ restoration shops to deal with regularly. It is amazing to me how many are owned by guys that can fix a dent or paint a car with high quality, but have no idea how to really run a business.
Body shop owners typically fall into one of two categories. the first, and smallest group is the guys that are business minded and "get it". These are the guys that are very forward thinking. New products, great equipment etc etc....
The second and much larger group are the guys that worked in a body shop making their hourly wage. They saw the boss making money, owning a nice house. Maybe had a boat and a snow mobile etc. So they decide, well if he can do it so can I. So they rent a building and have business cards made up. Bang, they are in business. What they didn't ever consider is that their old boss had more of a business mind. These are the guys that are getting by, but barely. Maybe they last 20 years, but they are just squeaking by. Scrounging for every $$. The sad fact is most will fold up and go out of business within five years.
Glenn