Word of advice for new guy

[christiaan]

Hey guys firstly wanted to say the information on this forum is priceless. Thanks to all you guys who post info on here to help new guys, it is really appreciated by myself and I am sure many other new guys who got their start by reading on here.
I have been researching glass repair for the past couple of weeks and actually have purchased a couple of items for doing glass scratch repair but finding that it is much more labor intensive and time consuming than I first thought. Currently I am a full time PDR tech for a local lexus dealer making decent money but hate working for a boss. I only went in house cus the market got really saturated in my area for PDR.
I have been very intrigued by chip repair and think that I could really be succesful with it but I have kind of a personal dillemma. I have a friend that I have known for some time who actually lives in the same neighborhood as me that has been doing chip repair for the past 15 years or so. He does mostly dealer work and insurance.
I see the guy almost everyday and I am concerned that if he finds out I am considering getting a repair kit and going out there and trying to make a business of this things will get uncomfortable between us.
Any ideas on how I could handle this?
Incidentally the reason I even purchased the scratch repair was because he told me he passes on these all the time and that if I could figure out a way to get them repaired there would be a ton of work out there for me. Then it seemed like for a couple of weeks he avoided me when he found out that I purchased a scratch repair kit and told me he was concerned that I would go out and try to get into his accounts.
I dont know maybe I shouldnt care or be too concerned but I would rather not have any uncomfortable confrontations with the guy.
Any help you guys have would be great.
Thanks again!
Christiaan

[maxryde]

Well you may lose the friendship, but if your set on repair then go to your friend and talk!! If he is a good tech you can work around each other. I have 4 or 5 techs in my area and we don't overlap very much. Just work it out. Having a 15 year tech to lean on should give you an atvantage. Just start a dialog and set some ground rules (agreed to) and you will find plenty to stay busy on if you work out the area between you. I don't have an issue finding work! Oh, and you can talk about your "hard spots" too (believe me they will alway be there) if you have a rolling dialog. The fact is there is plenty of work available. Survey the passing motorist on your local freeway (drive 5mph under the traffic flow), I find 40 percent have repairable damage. So can you sell them is the question?

[screenman]

A real friend will be happy you are trying to get on in life, phone Delta now and get booked in. The real friend may also have told you in the first place why he did not do all the scratch work out there. Get into windshield repair and find some more friends.

[christiaan]

thanks for the replies guys. definitely some good advice. besides, I will only be able to start part time at first anyway since I work full time at the dealership and I was thinking of starting with a couple of fleet accounts and mixing in a little retail and trying to stay away from the car lots.
I am sure there is plenty of work to go around.. I remember he mentioned that there are hardly any glass repair guys around here and the fact that he does mostly dealership work should make it so we never run into each other at all.
would you guys suggest going with a single or double bridge system for starters?

[maxryde]

Well you can go with one but I think it prudent to have at least two. Consider getting a minimum of 4 for fleet work.

[Brent Deines]

Originally Posted by christiaan

Hey guys firstly wanted to say the information on this forum is priceless. Thanks to all you guys who post info on here to help new guys, it is really appreciated by myself and I am sure many other new guys who got their start by reading on here.
I have been researching glass repair for the past couple of weeks and actually have purchased a couple of items for doing glass scratch repair but finding that it is much more labor intensive and time consuming than I first thought. Currently I am a full time PDR tech for a local lexus dealer making decent money but hate working for a boss. I only went in house cus the market got really saturated in my area for PDR.
I have been very intrigued by chip repair and think that I could really be succesful with it but I have kind of a personal dillemma. I have a friend that I have known for some time who actually lives in the same neighborhood as me that has been doing chip repair for the past 15 years or so. He does mostly dealer work and insurance.
I see the guy almost everyday and I am concerned that if he finds out I am considering getting a repair kit and going out there and trying to make a business of this things will get uncomfortable between us.
Any ideas on how I could handle this?
Incidentally the reason I even purchased the scratch repair was because he told me he passes on these all the time and that if I could figure out a way to get them repaired there would be a ton of work out there for me. Then it seemed like for a couple of weeks he avoided me when he found out that I purchased a scratch repair kit and told me he was concerned that I would go out and try to get into his accounts.
I dont know maybe I shouldnt care or be too concerned but I would rather not have any uncomfortable confrontations with the guy.
Any help you guys have would be great.
Thanks again!
Christiaan

I think you will find there is a lot more windshield repair business than scratch repair business. Windshield repair is definitely less labor intensive and in my experience more profitable. I think the real market for scratch repair is on the commercial side, not the automotive side.

As for the issue with the friend, I agree with the others. I have been on both sides of that situation and it can be uncomfortable, but I never found it to be something that we couldn't get past if both parties are honest and play fair. When I rented moving trucks and had a UPS drop a customer and friend ended up being my biggest competition, but we would sometimes trade equipment, refer rentals to each other when we didn't have equipment to rent, and work together to bring more equipment into the area. Working together made it very difficult for the other dealers in the area to compete, even those that had been in the industry much longer than either of us.