I fell into the auto body trade almost by accident. My car had been in an accident and I took it to a local shop where I got to know the owner and manager and we became friends.
My original vocation was a mechanic at a local farm machinery dealership. My father had his own repair business and I worked with him for several years and—since I was not inclined to plan my life—I just continued in that trade. This would have been the late seventies.
I eventually moved to the city and worked for a large Farm Implement dealership where I quite enjoyed the work and the people. What caused me to leave the trade was one particularly nasty job that caused me to start thinking about my future health and financial prospects. I quit that job in 1981 at age 25 and started working with a company called Premier Autoware.
Premier Autoware sold parts and shop supplies to bodyshops and garages, paying me as a commission salesperson. At first, I loved the job—I got to travel a territory, meet lots of interesting people and I made decent money. To this day I always treat salespeople that call on me with courtesy and respect, I’ve been there and done it, so I know they are just trying to make a living and look after their family.
The challenge was that interest rates were climbing to records proportions of 20 percent, and most of my customers were quite literally shutting down. My earning potential was taking a beating, every business was hurting, except for one—the bodyshops.
No matter how hard this business can be, you must realize that it is practically recession proof. If people are driving, you are going to have accidents and, in this instance, we had a big hailstorm that year.
One of my Autoware customers was the shop where I had my car fixed and they needed a parts person. They offered me the job, which I gratefully took as I had recently bought a new home with a 16 percent mortgage and our first child was on the way.
My training consisted of about a 10-minute discussion of how to receive and
tag parts then deliver them to the parts storage area or the body man if the job
was in the shop. Essentially, I had a Hilroy notebook with the job number on
the left side margin followed by the customer’s name and vehicle details.
My training consisted of about a 10-minute discussion of how to receive and tag parts then deliver them to the parts storage area or the bodyman if the job was in the shop. Essentially, I had a Hilroy notebook with the job number on the left side margin followed by the customer’s name and vehicle details. When parts arrived, I would get the invoices, check the job number, write the customer’s name on the invoice and go to look for those parts. Not being from the collision trade, I had no idea what a ‘scalp mldg’ or a ‘reveal mldg’ or a ‘belt mldg’ was. In addition, all the estimates back then were handwritten and some of the appraisers had scrawl that resembled a dying chicken walking across the page!
With the responsibility of a mortgage payment and a new baby on the way my attitude was to ‘burn the ships’ and do whatever it took to succeed. I was determined not to mess up this job, so I came early, stayed late, worked weekends and figured it all out. I came to realize that this was standard operating procedures for most shops; throw the employee into the job and they either sink or swim. I was a swimmer, but I think it would have been much better if there had been a proper onboarding process in place. After about four months I was getting into a groove and quite enjoying the work. I think that the autobody industry is a fantastic opportunity to use your problem-solving skills and help people that are going through an unfortunate experience. Tough as it can be it is weirdly satisfying when all the stakeholders are happy.
During this time, I had the opportunity to work with a very special man that was our shop foreman. He was easily the best ‘people person’ I ever met. He had to please the owner, the customer, the insurance company and the employees–quite the balancing act and he was superb at it. I learned a lot from him on how to deal with people, especially when everyone is under stress. He was a great mentor to me and was instrumental in helping me get acclimatized to the industry.
Unfortunately, this foreman landed in some hot water. I won’t get into specifics, but let’s just say boss came to me and told me that I was now the new shop foreman!
I told him he was nuts; I had just barely figured out the parts department and I had no idea about how to run the production portion of a body shop. He told me I would figure it out! Another round of Super High Intensity Training (SHIT) for me. Back to coming in early, staying late, working weekends in order to try and figure this job out.
This was tough, it took about a year to really get my head wrapped around it and earn the trust of the employees, some of them twice my age. I was lucky that there were a few employees that really stepped up to help me do my job but, for the most part it was an uphill battle. Learning to estimate body damage, doing estimates by hand, not using the P-Pages (I did not know they existed), dealing with insurance company appraisers who I believed would never steer me wrong. You get the idea—it was trial by fire.
After the first year I had pretty much been had by everyone that could take advantage of me and I was learning how to stand up for myself and the shop. I started to develop a clientele that liked me and trusted me. I had joined the local Kinsmen Club and met a bunch of other young men that became good friends and customers, things were starting to roll and get easier.
Then our insurance company, SGI, introduced a new estimating platform called Audatex because they had worksheets that could be converted to computerized estimates. After using Mitchell, where you estimate from the outside in, it was tough using a platform that estimated from the inside out. In addition, SGI told us there were no P-Pages, the estimating platform had everything included in it!
This was another steep learning curve that did not last for very long as Mitchell soon developed their estimating software and got the contract back. I learned during this time that you cannot always count on your insurance ‘partner’ to tell you the truth. Whether it was intentional or not, this little experiment cost shops a lot of money. From the bodyshop side, I saw lots to disappoint me on shop ethics. I saw panels repaired that were supposed to be replaced, vehicles meant for other shops that were dragged into our shop and taken apart so they could stay for us to repair, insurance company employees that had keys to our shop so they could work on their own vehicles and in return allow generous repair times on insurance jobs.
After the first year I had pretty much been had by everyone that could take advantage of me and I was learning how to stand up for myself and the shop. Things were starting to roll and get easier.
It seemed that this was just the way things were until SGI cracked down on some badapple employees. Thus, started the long winter of SGI/bodyshop relations that exists to this day. I’m sure every new hire hears the story of this infamous purge and they fear that it could happen to them.
After a few years of learning the business, I was approached by another large independent shop—Parr Auto Body—to come and manage the entire business. This was intriguing to me on several levels. I liked the idea that I could call the shots with regards to ethics and even the quality of work that the shop did. It is not that my current shop did not do decent work—compared to other shops—but I had seen some European paint and body techniques that quite frankly were much superior to what we were doing. In addition, they offered me the opportunity to buy in and become a partner in the business!
One of the owners of Parr Auto Body was a fellow from my hometown that I knew well as I grew up across the street from his family. I always liked him so I immediately felt that Parr would be a good fit. The business was struggling financially at the time so I advised the owners that I would come on board but hold off on buying in until I could determine that I could get it turned around and profitable. When I told my current employer that I was going to take this new employment opportunity he advised me that I should back away for my own good. He explained that he and a partner were very close to buying Parr and their plans were to put me in charge of the operation. Further, he advised me that Parr was on the brink of bankruptcy so that if I went there, chances were I would lose that job anyway. He advised me to decline the job and throw my lot in with him and his partner.
That night my wife and I did a lot of soul searching and reviewing the ‘what if’ scenarios. We concluded that in some instances there is no right or wrong decision, you simply decide and then do what you can to make it the right decision. I liked the idea of being able to call the shots when it came to how the business would function, and my wife quietly assured me that if it didn’t work out, I could always find another job.
When I told my present employer that I had made the decision to go he told me to pack up my stuff and leave. I didn’t even get the chance say goodbye to the men and women I had been working with the last three and a half years.
Breaking up is never easy.
