Robert Minotti Has Built a Career on Embracing Change
By SARAH PERKINS
Robert Minotti did not originally plan to end up in the automotive industry.Now the President of Fix Auto Rexdale, Minotti originally boasted dreams of becoming an architect. In high school, he set his sights on graduating early in order to go to college for design but was waylaid by a summer job at a bodyshop that set him onto a much different course of action—although he didn’t know it at the time.
Minotti told Collision Repair magazine how the summer inbetween high school and post-secondary, his uncle got him a job with a family friend’s bodyshop where he was very quickly signed onto an apprenticeship. “I didn’t initially like it,” Minotti said. “I didn’t want to fix cars because I thought that it was too dirty, but I also didn’t want to abandon what I’d started. I wanted to see it through.”
Minotti did more than just see the apprenticeship through. Rather than leaving to become an architect like he had initially planned, he instead split his time between getting his journeyman’s license and business classes at Ryerson University. Even with this dedication, Minotti was not entirely won over by the idea of hands-on collision work. Instead, Robert decided to get into insurance and estimation work.
“I was conscious of different shops reputations at the time,” said Minotti, “I wanted to find something that would be a good fit.” This fit came in the form of a partnership with Grand Touring Collision Services, which Minotti owned for over twenty years before recently selling. After leaving Grand Touring Collision Services behind, Minotti continued to explore different levels of the industry including teaching at automotive trade shows on the side.
When he began to grow bored of his ongoing projects Minotti once again answered the call of opportunity and allowed it to take him someplace new. In 2016, Robert’s eldest son suggested opening their first family-owned business with Fix Auto Rexdale. This suggestion was quickly followed by the growth of other businesses such as Collision Repair Experts Mississauga opening in 2019 and Collision Repair Experts Ajax opening in 2021.
Now, both of Minotti’s sons are in the business, one working as a painter while the other helps to manage the Mississauga store.
Robert says that, like him, both of his sons growing up initially “sought greener pastures” in other careers, but they eventually came back to help their father and, as Minotti puts it, “have become leaders in their own right.” Just as Minotti supports open-mindness to new things, so too does he see the value in an intergenerational business model. “Both my sons and I have generational mindsets, and this allows us to approach problems with different ways of thinking,” said Robert.
“My sons are definitely more tech savvy. I think it’s a good thing to have the older generations work with the new because it fosters a space of intergenerational learning.”
When it comes to working with family, Minotti also offered Collision Repair this advice: “You have to separate family from business so that relationship dynamics don’t cross and in a business environment, you have to treat your family like equals.”
When asked what he sees as the biggest challenge he’s faced so far in his diverse automotive career, Minotti highlighted the very thing that has helped him get to where he is: change.
In recent years, Minotti finds challenges in the increasing advancement of new technology, but, he sees this as an opportunity. “You learn about something you’ve never heard of before,” he said, in reference to incorporating new tech into the workspace. “You have to learn about new things and grow with them or else you risk falling behind.”
“As you grow older, you risk getting stuck in your ways. This is something that I’ve always tried to avoid.” When asked by Collision Repair what plans he has for the future, he noted that in 2022, his business began offering calibration services. Today he sees the field as offering a lot of possibilities.
As such, for Minotti, the future is far from being set in stone. Just as following opportunities has allowed him to grow his business and knowledge, so too do his future plans include taking moments as they come.
“You can’t come out of school thinking you know everything,” Minotti said. “You have to keep learning and keep working on your craft.” With hopes of acquiring more shops in the future as well as expanding the calibration services and glass services of his businesses, for Minotti, the pathway to growth is one of embracing whatever the future brings.
“If you have a plan and people you can trust, and you set up systems that work for you, then you’ll have a winning combination.” While Minotti may not have originally planned on getting into the automotive industry, since he started down the path that fateful summer as a teenager, he has consistently worked on putting his best foot forward so as to walk down a road for success. While the path may not have always been clear, for Minotti, “you shouldn’t be afraid of failure and following through with ideas. If you see an opportunity, then think it through and act on it.”
