New to the Forum or to Windshield Repair - Please stop here first

[Blind Squirrel]

I have suggested to Jeff, 3 or 4 years ago when this forum had about half the postings that it does now, that Delta revamp and "categorize" the posts so that a newbie could look up what has already been discussed many times already and tends to irritate us veterans.
What the forum has is the "Search" function which is useful if you know what you're looking for.
So, FLASH, I think we need to establish a "Due Dilligence" checklist of all the things a newbie needs to do and research before deciding to get into this business as well what to do when they decide to make the committment. And, of course, include the "keywords" to use when using the search function.
Then, perhaps Brent would consider making it a "sticky", that is if we can make it easy to understand.

All that said, my first item for inclusion is:
1. Do you have the physical ability to perform windshields repairs? Do you have good "hand/eye" coordination? Do you have the physical stamina to get up on a step stool and maintain your balance while repairing a chip on a tall Dodge Ram truck?

Anyone else want to chime in?

[screenman]

Do you have the ability to take rejection over and over until you get the work you require. Do you have drive and ambition by the bucket load to succeed and provide well for yourself and those around you. Can you do the research that is required to start and run a succesful business. Can you be reliable and consistent with your future customers. Do you have a good command of your chosen language and good communications skills. Without all these it is still possible to make a living from windshield repair but with them the income will be better. Try as hard as I might I just cannot be nice all the time but I will try harder.


As any of you who have seen my picture in MTE you will see I am a superb athlete and steps are not too much of a problem as long as they are not too high.

[Brent Deines]

As suggested by several windshield repair forum veterans, this thread is a great place to start for those new to the windshield repair industry, and also those new to this windshield repair forum...I hope.

Reading through this thread may help save some time and aggravation as it is quite likely that many of the questions you will ask have already been covered in previous threads.

Keep in mind that this thread is being started from scratch, but hopefully the old timers will offer basic information that will help newbies figure out if windshield repair is the right business for them, how not to get burned when selecting suppliers, and how to find things on the forum without having everyone repeat the same information over and over again.

[Blind Squirrel]

Research and develop a business plan.

One of the best things about this business is the low startup costs. For around $5000 you can be up and running but there are some essential intangibles that need to be mentioned
1.A business plan. www.genbusiness.com has some free information in their "learning center" that is helpful. Windshield repair is fairly uncomplicated so you probably don't need to hire a consultant.

2.a market analysis, some choices made on how you are going to approach your market based on personal preferences and local demographics.

3. Sales training and coaching if you lack that experience. This is the "do or die" aspect of this or any other business for that matter. It's OK if you don't know how to sell now. What's not OK is not being willing to make the committment to learn.

4. A good accounting system. Having this in the beginning saves a lot of challenges later on. Don't neglect the IRS!

The leading causes of small business failure is a lack of a defined business/marketing plan and proper accounting.

I recommend Keith Rosen's "The Complete Idiots Guide to Cold Calling". You can get it at Borders or Barnes and Noble. Although intended for sales of much more complex offerings, there is some very helpful insights for the windshield repair business. One of my favorites is based on the concept of "non-negotiable prospecting", that is, "the only way to build your business is to see enough people as frequently as possible with the intention of presenting your service".
www.profitbuilders.com is Keith Rosen's website, there you will find a number of free articles that are very helpful.

[starstruck]

Here's my #1 advice for any newbie in the windshield repair business.


Work breeds work. Get out, get going, get noticed, get aquainted, and get busy. Don't sit on your butt waiting for something to happen. You have to make it happen. Over time you will see that the jobs you do will breed new jobs. If you do quality work and give good service at a fair price, your business will build itself just by staying busy!

As simple as it sounds, I truly believe that the key to success in this business is being productive with your days. Spend time between jobs actively promoting your business. If you sit at home doing nothing, nothing is what you will get!

[gt_repair]

You better be a people person and be able to sell your self.

If you you look like you are not sure about your self how can you sell your self. You are your best or worst advertizer.

[RockyBalboa]

To All New Comers..
Get A Plan Set Up On How You Will Target Ur Repairs..who You Will Appoach..how U Will Over Come Rejection.. A Good Kit And Training On How You Can Improve Your Weaknesses.. Keep Lookin At This Forum 4 Tips.. Build Ur Confidence. Speak To Screenman For Advice, He Seems Very Experienced.. Know Ur Stuff Because Ppl Wont Give U A Chance If U Come Across Inexperienced..

All The Best.. (",)

[Blind Squirrel]

Living by the Golden Dozen

by Tom Hopkins

Here's the best way I've ever found to pull the best performance out of yourself. It's an extremely simple method. Not easy, simple. First, hang copies of these twelve words where you'll see them at work, in your car, and at your home:

I MUST DO THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING

POSSIBLE AT EVERY GIVEN MOMENT.

Now comes the important part: Dedicate yourself to living that declaration.

It doesn't help to look at those words once in a while and think, "That's what I'm going to start doing just as soon as I can get myself together." If you really want to achieve, start living by those dozen words now.

Doing so requires only four steps. But let's get one thing clear: Doing the most productive thing possible means just that--the most productive thing. Not look busy. Not get by. But doing the most productive thing possible at that given moment, no matter how distasteful, hard, or worrisome the thing might be. This often means facing up to an unpleasant task, or heading into a likely rejection. It means shooting for the top when you know you should, but are afraid to. It means preparing when you need to prepare and doing when you need to do.

That's why I say it isn't easy, and why so few people follow it. It is simple, though. Anyone can do it--you just have to want to.

Consciously repeat these four steps minute by minute until they become second nature:

(1) Tell yourself, "I must do the most productive thing possible at every given moment."

(2) Decide what the most productive thing is.

(3) Do it.

(4) When you've pushed that thing as far forward as you can right now, go back to step (1)
and start over.

Don't be a fanatic. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do at a given moment is to sit down with your favorite person and spend an hour watching the sun go down. Sometimes the most productive thing possible will be exercising, sleeping, or taking a well-deserved vacation. And, very often, the most productive thing you can do this minute will be the last thing you want to do right now. The edge between winners and losers cuts sharpest at this precise point.

Winners almost always do what they think is the most productive thing possible at every given moment; losers almost never do. When you look at what winners and losers actually do moment by moment, the difference between these two divisions of the human race really is that small. But the results of those small differences keep adding to each other at every given moment until they reach a critical size. Then they start multiplying.

Look at the results obtained by anyone you know who is doing the most productive thing possible with most of his or her moments. Then, look at the results obtained by all the people you know who'll do what's easiest rather than what's most productive every chance they get.

You'll see an enormous difference. What's been accumulated and multiplied by many moments spent productively will be knowledge, skill, health, contacts, opportunities-and at least the beginnings of wealth. What's been accumulated and multiplied by many moments given to doing the easiest thing possible? Perhaps some debt for pleasures consumed and forgotten, some extra pounds around the middle, and some time moved from one's future to one's past, some missed opportunities-little or nothing of value will be retained.

We live moment by moment, not year by year. Do the most productive thing you can think of with each and every moment as you live it and your future is assured. Do that all day every working day and your progress will soon astound everyone who knows you. More importantly, you'll be astounded, delighted-and justifiably proud of yourself.

[Brent Deines]

Choosing the right windshield repair system is often a much more difficult task than some may think. Every manufacturer claims to have the best equipment and resins, and yet the tooling, chemistry, and techniques vary greatly.

Do all the research you can, attend as much training as you can prior to purchasing a system, and then purchase the two or three systems that impress you the most. Do as many repairs as possible with each system for a few weeks and compare the results, then return all but the best one. Just be sure you get a written guarantee that you can return the systems that you choose not to keep. Beware of any company will not guarantee in writing that their products will perform as promised.

If you cannot attend multiple company training sessions and/or cannot afford to purchase several repair systems to compare them side by side, at least try to make it to an industry trade show where the top competitors offer demonstrations of their products. Again, beware of any company that refuses to give a live demonstration of their product.

I have stated this in many threads in the past, but I believe it to be one of the most important decisions you will make when entering into the windshield repair business, and therefore I believe it is worth repeating. Delta Kits receives far too many calls from new windshield repair technicians who are unhappy with their choice of windshield repair system, but are denied approval to return the system that failed to perform as promised. We also hear from a lot of veteran windshield repair technicians that they know there are better systems than they are currently using, but they have too much invested in their current equipment to upgrade. That's a shame.

If anyone tells you that all windshield repair systems are the same, they have not tried every system and/or have not been properly trained. Training classes and/or trade show demonstrations prove this fact. If a company tells you you don't have to drill with their equipment but drills every repair at a trade show or training class...well you will have to make up your own mind about that company.

Training is only as good as the trainer. Unfortunately a lot of windshield repair technicians claim to do great repairs, and love to teach others their secrets, but we find that even technicians with a great deal of experience often have nothing to compare their work with, and sometimes are not doing the high quality work that they think they are. For that reason I recommend that if at all possible you go out and look at the work that your potential competitors are doing. Remember, you don't want to be as good as they are, you want to be better than they are. Since "most" windshield repair technicians receive very little training, and many are using equipment that offers limited results at best, you need to set your standards high. Realistic, but high.

For example: I recently visited one of the locations owned by a very good customer of mine to see how they ran their operation. This customer has a number of locations and they do all their own training, but no one from this company has ever attending a Delta Kits training class, so I decided not to tell the technician who I was, but instead just ask some basic questions.

I assumed that they had found our training video satisfactory and were following Delta Kits recommended procedures, so I was shocked when the technician told me she was drilling every repair, and went on to explain that drilling was a "necessity". I won't go into a lot of detail but I also found that this technician was doing a lot of other things that were contrary to our training as well as industry standard best practices. She was very proud of her craft, and explained to me that she did better repairs than the rest of the industry, because of the techniques she had been taught by her trainer.

I finally told the technician who I was and invited her to a Delta Kits factory training and certification class. She graciously declined, stating that she had already received training and had a great deal of experience, so she did not feel Delta Kits training would be of any benefit. Before I left she told me that she was very excited that her company was promoting her to a training position. I had to bite my tongue as I walked away.

Make no mistake, this was a very bright young lady with a lot of potential. The only thing keeping her from being a fantastic windshield repair technician was the training she received, and the fact that she had nothing to compare her work to except that of other technicians in her company who were also trained improperly. I know if I can convince her to come to training she will understand why we recommend the procedures that we do, but if I cannot convince her to come to training she will be out there training others to do inferior repairs.

While I believe that there is no substitute for hands on training, I recommend you be very careful about selecting who will be training you. In the case cited above, video training would have been a much better choice, and I see this happen far too often.

Whenever possible, have the manufacturer of the windshield repair equipment you will be using provide the training, then ride with someone to get some real world experience if you have the opportunity.

[Brent Deines]

This thread was meant to be for old timers giving advice to those new to the business or to the forum, not to debate techniques or equipment choices. We have hundreds of other threads for that. I'm sorry if my last post gave the wrong impression. It was not about me, Delta Kits, or drilling. It was simply meant to encourage new technicians to seek qualified technicians for their training, and to do their homework before purchasing a windshield repair system. End of story.

Therefore I am moving the last 3 posts to a new thread called "Drilling Philosophy 101". If you have a piece of advice that you believe will be beneficial to new technicians, by all means post it in the "New to the Forum or to Windshield Repair..." thread, but if you want to debate techniques please take it to another thread.