Windshield Repair Forum

I think you can make 80K a year. Several years that I have really went out and hit it I did a lot better then that. It just takes some work. For example, let me give you a few examples of how to do it. First spend about an hour every morning, (preferably between 8 AM and 9 AM). Call some fleet companies and talk to them about doing some chip repair for them. Personaly when I do this I can personaly book at least 2 companies which equal about 3 to 5 cars for that 1 hour of calling, and besides its cash money now. Then go out and do some cold selling, if you are doing it right you should be doing at least 1 job an hour for cold calling. So you can do it, remember you usually have about 22 work days in a month, and that is taking all your weekends off. Thats just one way to do it.
David
Coitster

Thanks, again, for the encouragement.... I purchased a marketing packet from Impact Marketing & ordered My Delta Kit (EZK-120 and ENT-202). The only thing slowing me down, is deciding what to name my business. I plan to also offer Aquapel to my customers & I am seriously considering offering a fairly new product called Slushbusters, which is supposed to knock the ice off the wipers in the winter (that ice has always drove me nuts). I know that some of you have also offered wiper replacement, I am also considering that (looking at Trico, ClearPlus, and others - I even checked on Everblades; heated wipers). What brand wiper would you guys reccommend?

Furthermore, I plan to restore headlights and would eventually like to add other services. I did purchase a professional glue dent puller (haven't tried it yet).

I would really like to go to the training in Orlando in January. However, I am not at a point that I am able to commit to it yet.

Removed reference to a company that has requested their name not be mentioned in this forum

Its looks to me that you might be biting off a bit to much just get out there and repair screens ( assuming you are properly trained ) and worry about a name later.

As for a glue puller I have been doing paintless dent repair for about 4 years and believe me you can do more damage with that tool than you can imagine without a lot of practise, It is a tool that is used by some PDR men I have one but it is only used as a last resort and the job takes a lot of skill to get right.Coister or Johnnyque back me up on this one.

Try to do one thing well and then progress from there.

I can back you up on the glue puller, had one for 2 years now and have not seen 1 dent removed properly with it. I also think headlight resurfacing goes hand in hand with wsr, but that is tough to get consistant results. I have developed some methods that work good but not on every car, there are alot of different plastics out there.

Coitster,

Not to sound pestimistic but can you honestly say your first year in WSR yeilded $80,000 dollars before having any training or background experience? Is it possible? Yeah it is....but is it probable? No it's not! This guy that quit his $80,000 a year job has some work to do with repair before he even gets close to that figure. You know that, I know that and everybody else knows that!

So lets try and be more honest with newbies!

so what is a resonable amount? and has anyone got any idea when a training class will be offered in the washington d.c. area?

Average $400-500 a week I think is a good realistic goal for a newbie but it could be much higher depending on circumstances and personal ability. If you can't get to that level after a while, you probably won't stay with it anyway if you are working it full time. I used to do that amount for a long time, but it's what I wanted and I did it in two days a week or less. I had a lot of spare time...life was easy then

$1000 a week is possible but will be out of reach for most newbies to do on a consistent basis, imo.

Once a business is established things can change of course. $70-80K is a good goal, and I think that's about the ceiling for a one man operation if you plan to have a life and not work all the time.

A very few manage to do 100K. You have to be very driven to pull down $400+ average every day, even if you can find that much work. Really, you need to be doing like $500 a day to offset the slow days, no work days. 10-12 retail jobs a day or 15-20 wholesale...

Ok, let me start off about the glue puller, I don't like most glue pullers in general because if you don't know what you are doing they will mess up a good paint job. Most dent guys do their work with actual dent tools that go inside the vehicle and work the dent out from the inside of the panel. Do yourself a favor and don't do dents unless you go to school for it otherwise you are going to have many problems with it. Now as to answer the second question can you make $80,000 a year your first year in the biz. Can't honestly answer that, I was selling replacements and chips for almost 7 years before I went to chips only. My first year, yea I did make that just doing chips. It may take you a couple months to get the hang of it. But it has also been my experiance that most people make this business way to hard.

Its about the simplest business I know and I have always treated it like that, I don't do anything complicated or over think something. People that I have worked with I am always telling them to keep it simple. They just think there is some magic formula to make this work and I just dissagree with that. Get out and work the business, talk to people.

Another good way to think about it is this. You will loose 100% of the jobs that you don't ask for....... Think about that. I ask everywhere I go if someone has a chip in their windshield. People who have riden with me can attest to that, because they watch me do it. Even in the grocery store check out line.
David
Coitster

Coitster....
You say to spend an hour in the morning calling fleet companies to pick up work, I thought you had to go looking for the chipwork when the vehicles were parked...

What fleet companies are you looking for? Small private or large cooperate, cars or big trucks, I know all are candidates for W.S.R. Im just trying to grasp the idea of working fleet accounts and it really baffles me, If a company has a fleet of trucks like UPS, Fed Ex or Pepsi arent they on the road working??? or are we looking for rental cars and U-haul/Ryder trucks???...

When do companies like Pepsi, Fed Ex get their W.S.R. done???

Could you please explain cold calling, where do you start??? do you just search thru parking lots looking at cars as if you were ready to steal their radio???

I thought I read somewhere on this forum that fleets get charged a little more than car dealers... Is that correct???

Sorry, but Im used to working for dealers...

Thanks to all for your input, it is appreciated...

What ever happened to the KISS principal?
Coister you have got it right.
Plan your work work your plan.
I have read a lot of posts where people are asking for info about this business
and there has been some great stuff.... here.
In my opinion the key to forecasting your income potential is to spend time, devloping a business plan.
I don't recall any one making this recommendation.Try it.It will answer a lot of your questions for you when you finish it.
Good Luck.....