Glassdoc;26264 wrote:Don, anyone will tell you its being in the right place at the right time.. Is your vehicle lettered? So, potential customers see you first.. Plant the seed and it will grow.. When I first started I hit up beauty salons with flyers, barber shops, even putt flyers with tear off (phone number) tabs in the grocery stores It works! Being seen is very important.. People are not mind readers.. So if they see your vehicle or jacket/uniform they will inquire.. As for finding customers, yes Corporate centers are a mega plex of cars.. But not always friendly about letting vendors do their thing.. Try advertising in the local "free" classifieds, see if you can start drawing some cliental. good luck.
Glassdoc
Going to try your approach, with all your advertising you tried..hmm. vehicle advertsing, guess i can try that also..grcery stores will let u do this? ok
Wenmt by a hotel today,,can't put anything up, but would think that would be a good bvusiness opportunit..what do you think?
Unfortunatley there's always the chance of dealing with people who want to try to get something for nothing. I received my first bounced check a couple of weeks ago, I found out when my bank notified me that they bounced the check and were charging me a service charge. The repair that I fixed was a good job and the customer was happy. I accepted the check and went on my merry way. When I found out that the check had bounced I called the customer and they refused to honor the check, I went to their bank and the bank informed me that there was insufficent funds in their account.
Now what's a person to do? Do you turn them in to the D.A's office for check fraud? Take them to small claim's court and spend more time and money to collect $50.00? Turn them over to a collection agency and hope that they will contact the credit reporting agencies for a $50.00 collection? Or just walk away and chalk it up to experience?
Well after talking to a good friend who used to own a collection agency, he suggested none of the above because of the time and money involved. What he did recommend to do for people like that was send them a letter that you are going to donate the $50.00 to them and that you will be sending them a 1099 form at the end of the year. He said what usually happens is that they forget to claim the 1099 form on their income taxes and somewhere down the road the I.R.S. audits them for the 1099 form. Because it may take a couple of years for the I.R.S to catch up with them, there will be fees and penalties involved that they will be responsible to pay for and it will probably be more than the $50.00 that they screwed you out off.
I'm not saying that this is for everyone, but it is a way to deal with people who think they can get away without paying for services rendered.
Placed my flyers in 9-10 beauty salons, went to all the laundry mats in my area, and today placed a flyer with 20 companies overing them a 20% discount until Oct 15th. Placed an ad in the local Universitynespaper, they publish 12,000 copies 5 days a week and they have over 120 locations on the university campus.
I have not received one ph call!!!
So, you guys say you go commercial complexes, find a car and ask the receptionist who own it and if they would like it repaired? Well, I did that got nowhere, cause nooone knew owned the car?
So i am not making any money and i do not know what to do?
Are you all using insurance companies, cause from what I read noone seems to use them..so where does that leave me?
donsf49;26389 wrote:Glassdoc
Going to try your approach, with all your advertising you tried..hmm. vehicle advertsing, guess i can try that also..grcery stores will let u do this? ok
Wenmt by a hotel today,,can't put anything up, but would think that would be a good bvusiness opportunit..what do you think?
Coitster;14550 wrote:How To Sell Cash Repairs
Well hello again everyone. I was asked to put out another post, this one on the topic of Selling Cash Windshield Repairs. Everyone knows by now what has started to happen with State Farm Ins and many other insurance companies are now also talking about doing away with covering repairs. But I have good news
There are 8 good working hours in most days, just keep at it. Do not stop talking to potential customer. Personaly I have never used flyers or adverts that have worked very well. I find the best way is face to face.
Remember each no is closer to a yes. One other thing I would like to add is when you get those repairs make sure you do them better than anyone else.
Best of luck.
33,000 + screen repairs over 18 years and still learning.
Over
Also I Ran An Ad In Our Local University Newspaper, 12,000 Printed Daily M-f, Started Yesterday..nothing, College Is About 22,ooo Students, Who Know How Many Professors And Such...
So Here I Am Struggling Big Time
Those business locations only 15 to 20 try 200, we have someone is the quickest put down you can get, stop back again next week and the week after for at least 3 months. this is what selling is about. For years many of us have said this business is more about selling than repair.
Do not waste any more money on advertising, just keep on knocking on doors, if you see a job outside someones house call and ask for the work. Last of all do not give.
33,000 + screen repairs over 18 years and still learning.
Over
I feel your frustration starting a new business but to be perfectly honest many of us have shared similar experiences building ours.
When I opened my first full service glass and auto accessory business I thought as soon as I put the open for business sign up...jobs would come pouring in.
Why wouldn't they? I had the cleanest, hottest graphically designed building and showroom for my entire area, plus I had spent over $1800 monthly with direct mailers, local news adds and yellow pages. At one time I even did a year with cable spots! (not cheap)
Well unfortunately at start up, business didn't come pouring in!!! It took another 2 years of clever marketing, advertising and providing superior quality customer service before anybody took notice. In my third year our consistent efforts and patience finally paid off. I went from #10 to the #2 store without sacrificing quality or giving out the lowest price. Actually we were higher than all of them. In the 4th year we seen the closings of 3 of our 10 closest competitors. The dealership accounts that once told us they already had somebody else were now using us exclusively as their preferred vendor.
Was I thinking about giving up my first year? Yeah, I seriously was! Money was becoming tight and I was scared. My entire($150,000)life savings was on the line to make this business work. Did I give up? No I didn't because it wasn't a choice! Was it the smartest business investment I ever made? No not really! It was a 70-80 hour a week job running this business that provided less in income than working my 40 hour repair only biz.
Starting a windshield repair only business is much different from what I went through opening up a full blown auto glass and accessory shop. In repair, you don't have the overhead with a building lease, high insurances, liability, employee concerns or possible comp claims and your completely in control of your own destiny.
The very worst you could ever do in this biz is to not make much but also not lose much....because the investment is so small.
Like Screenman stated, this business is about sales and that one on one customer experience. If you can provide that first great impression, business will eventually come to you, if you can't all the advertising in the world won't help much.
I read something the other day that said "never repair a strangers windshield" Make him your friend first! That is so true in line of this business!
Good luck Don and never become discouraged! Good things will come your way with persistence.