Re: First time on Forum

[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.

[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.. (",)

[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.

[starstruck]

For the newbies - as time passes and you gain experience and become proficient at wsr, don't let yourself become a narrow minded expert or a know-it-all. Stay open minded and humble. There is always more to learn and always other ways and other opinions. Don't become one who is too smart for their own good!

[harrellbenjamin]

For the newbies - as time passes and you gain experience and become proficient at windshield repair, don't let yourself become a narrow minded expert or a know-it-all. Stay open minded and humble. There is always more to learn and always other ways and other opinions. Don't become one who is too smart for their own good!

Thats a great rule to follow!! Dont you think?:eusa_clap :eusa_clap nice quote to live by..............................................
if you can

[starstruck]

Thank you!