New to everything

[zdlamkin8195]

First off, I am a young professional within the medical field. I have a great job that pays well, but I am looking into taking on a new project. This winter, I had the great luck of needing 3 separate windshield repairs due to random acts of violence towards my windshield from flying gravel. Fortunately, I got to know the local windshield repair man at my hometown (I used him when I would go back home bc my parents are loyal customers) very well and he informed me of the great opportunities within this field. So I am seriously looking into windshield repairs. My current job has awesome hours, I am free after lunch most afternoons until the winter months roll around (we usually put in more hours Oct-Jan). I know that buying a delta professional windshield repair kit is the first step, but what steps should be taken after that? I am very ambitious and I am always wanting to learn, so please educate me on how to get started on providing QUALITY windshield repairs as well as simple business advice...any help is very much appreciated. Thanks!

[DryStar]

First off, I am a young professional within the medical field. I have a great job that pays well, but I am looking into taking on a new project. This winter, I had the great luck of needing 3 separate windshield repairs due to random acts of violence towards my windshield from flying gravel. Fortunately, I got to know the local windshield repair man at my hometown (I used him when I would go back home bc my parents are loyal customers) very well and he informed me of the great opportunities within this field. So I am seriously looking into windshield repairs. My current job has awesome hours, I am free after lunch most afternoons until the winter months roll around (we usually put in more hours Oct-Jan). I know that buying a delta windshield repair kit is the first step, but what steps should be taken after that? I am very ambitious and I am always wanting to learn, so please educate me on how to get started on providing QUALITY windshield repairs as well as simple business advice...any help is very much appreciated. Thanks!

Your first statement is you have a job that pays well! I' m sure many others on here wish they did. Be grateful what you have and stick with it. You sound greedy but that's only my only my observation about the post. . Doing lunch repairs might work out for you but would be very limited. Good Luck...to whatever you decide.

[Dr.Chipster]

Good for you. Start here on this forum and get as much information as you can. Get in touch with folks at Delta Kits for tools and training. If I could go back in time and start over I would get the training. Heck, maybe I will someday. You can make a good part-time income with windshield repair, I did for about 5 years before going full-time. There are a few on this forum that are part-time. Makes me feel good that someone with your background sees the potential in this business. It is a great business and I know I have made the right choice to pursue it full-time. Good Luck.

[DryStar]

Dr. Chipster, I've visited your website and noticed you offer repairs at $25. How do you profit at this low rate? Just curious.

[Dr.Chipster]

Dr. Chipster, I've visited your website and noticed you offer repairs at $25. How do you profit at this low rate? Just curious.

E-mail me.

[puka pau]

How to profit performing repairs for $25 is no big secret: Get really proficient at what you do, get a lot of steady repeat business and minimize the drive time between accounts by concentrating on a concise area. Case in point- here's how I spent last Friday, 4/8/11:

According to my log, in 4 hours 20 minutes including drive time between accounts (appoximately 15 miles) but not counting commute time from home to the first account or the drive home from the last account I visited three car dealers (two independent and one factory) and one fleet (a tour bus company). I charge the car dealers $25 per car regardless of the amount of damage (one or a dozen, same price) and I charge the fleet $35 for the first and $15 each for each additional. I did 16 chip repairs and one 9 inch crack repair. I billed $335 total. That works out to an average of just under $20/repair (including the crack repair) an average of just under $78/hr and an average of a little more than 15 minutes/repair for the four hours and twenty minutes. This includes walking/surveying, getting authorization when necessary, schmoozing and submitting invoices and getting purchase orders and driving between accounts. Now lest anyone think that I just rush through a repair and do minimally acceptable work, I've known the contact person at all of these accounts for at least fifteen years and in one case more than twenty. These guys are all experienced professionals and are capable of telling the difference between good and not good and if I didn't perform I'd have been out the door and down the road long ago.

So to sum up: If you don't sit under a tent or at a car wash or cold call canvass or sit at home or at the office/shop waiting for the phone to ring you too can profit by doing work for 30% of what an insurance company pays. It is work, however. You just need that ethic.

Cheers;

Puka Pau

[puka pau]

Well, I did a whole lot better today than last Friday.
Accounts visited: 1 factory car dealer, 2 tour bus companies, 1 wholesale produce distributor fleet
Authorization needed to repair: None
Elapsed time: 5.5 hours including drive time between accounts and about twenty minutes I spent running an errand
Repairs: 21
Total Billed: $565.00
Average Price/repair: $26.90
Average dollars/hour: $102.72

My point is not to brag but to impress on anyone who's interested that WSR, as any business, is a numbers game. You have to do volume to make money and to do volume you need repeat business from customers that can provide steady repeat business. How much you make per repair is less important than how many repairs you perform. The more you do the more capable you become. The more capable you become the more repairs you are able to perform in a specific time period. The more repairs you are able to perform in a specific time period the less you can charge per repair and still make a reasonable profit. The less you are able to charge and make a reasonable profit, the more you can keep competition at bay. I either owned or managed several businesses before I got into WSR and I never had a problem being the low bidder as long as I was bidding apples to apples and by doing that could secure a reasonable profit.

In my opinion, if you are one of those who maintains that "I would never do a repair for less than (fill in the blank)" then you are probably one of those who needs to work for wages. One of the 21 repairs I did today was for the wife of one of my contact people. It was a star about the size of a quarter with approximately a dozen or so legs. My normal price for a customer like this is $0.00. She insisted on paying me something. I took $10.00. Bought me a sixpack. I drink the good stuff.

Cheers;

Puka Pau

[Dave M]

Puka Pau,

Can you fill us in with some more info, because your time frame is difficult for me to comprehend! Did you have to walk the lots at those three accounts or were the vehicles already lined up waiting for you? Do you use multiple injectors? Taking off your 20 minute errand and your drive time ( 1/2 hour or more?) would leave you with about 4.5 hours to do 21 repairs or 12.5 minutes per repair. Really??

[Frank EU]

Puka Pau,

Can you fill us in with some more info, because your time frame is difficult for me to comprehend! Did you have to walk the lots at those three accounts or were the vehicles already lined up waiting for you? Do you use multiple injectors? Taking off your 20 minute errand and your drive time ( 1/2 hour or more?) would leave you with about 4.5 hours to do 21 repairs or 12.5 minutes per repair. Really??

Well, we perform similar numbers Dave! Indeed, with multiple injectors.

[t4k]

Puka Pau,

Can you fill us in with some more info, because your time frame is difficult for me to comprehend! Did you have to walk the lots at those three accounts or were the vehicles already lined up waiting for you? Do you use multiple injectors? Taking off your 20 minute errand and your drive time ( 1/2 hour or more?) would leave you with about 4.5 hours to do 21 repairs or 12.5 minutes per repair. Really??

Well, we perform similar numbers Dave! Indeed, with multiple injectors.

I have four injectors going at one time on my bigger lots. I play leap frog with them.