Body Shop Bussiness

I have contemplated for some time starting my own business. Body Shop is of interest to me because I enjoy cars, I have a good eye on quality work, and I have experience and contacts in the insurance industry. I am in the beginning stages of researching, all of my experience would be on the business side. Just wondering if anybody has a any experience/advice in this industry. From what I read it is a competitive industry and requires state of the art equipment. I have looked locally, there is a body shop for sale, but the location and equipment is not the top of the line.

I wouldn't start one now, they only have 10-20 years left. Semi-autonomous cars are going to hurt the industry badly, and fully autonomous cars are only going to leave behind a little cottage industry compared to what exists now.

In other words, body shops are photo development stores (remember those?) and autonomous cars are digital cameras.

Collision shops are a cutthroat industry. Pretty much everybody and their mother is against you making a profit.

The insurance companies will put you on starvation wages and insist that you do things their way.

The customers are grumpy cause they don't want to be there in the first place.

The environmental lobby hates you with a passion. They will insist that you follow an ever higher bar to save the planet.

DO NOT buy an existing business if it includes the property because you will end up footing the clean-up bill for the toxic waste that has leached into the soil.

Be aware that you will be running a business. The owner's job in any business is to work ON the Business, not IN the business. Big difference.

If you want to live off of a cottage industry style business, I can recommend a restoration shop rather than a collision shop. It is a completely different game.

I had wondered about the restoration shop, doesn't that require the right economically developed city?

Body shops here come and go and change hands faster than bbq joints.

That said, several I know are doing very well. They do not do cheap work or junk work. They cater to people with money and at least semi-valuable cars. No not just Mercedes and the like, but you never see a clapped out Civic in their shop either.

The environmental regulations for body shops aren't that exciting or difficult to comply with. Buy supplies locally, use an HVLP gun, paint in a booth, have your painters trained, don't dump things down the drain or on the ground, have a trash hauler empty your dumpster. That's about it.

A buddy of mine owns a successful restoration shop. He does say it's tough, but he doesn't have to put up with a lot of issues a production shop doing insurance jobs does. I think he's been in business since 1990 or so.

Some of the info in here is correct. It is a VERY competitive industry. The market is relatively small, and there are a lot of shops out there. With the ever advancing technology in new cars, you need to invest heavily in the latest (read expensive) technology and have a lot of certifications. If you want to be part of the "network" shop program for large insurance companies, they'll require these certifications (I-CAR for example). It's not correct that insurance companies will put you on starvation wages. They'll pay competitive labor rates and part prices. I also don't agree that body shops are a dying breed. I think the mom-n-pop shops are, because they just can't afford to keep up with modern technology. They can fix a 1998 Honda Accord but wouldn't know what to do with a 2015 BMW 7 series. So the big shops will eat up the small ones for the most part.

Other than that, go for it...

trigun7469 wrote: I had wondered about the restoration shop, doesn't that require the right economically developed city?

Depends. If you are niche enough, then a tiny town in the middle of nowhere is best because your space is cheap, and people are traveling anyway to get to you. (i.e. if you are one of the only shops in the country restoring pre-WWII rolls royces).

On the other hand, if you are restoring corvettes, you probably should be at least within an hour drive of a city that buys a lot of corvettes.

I think what I am interested is more of the Gas Monkey Garage and playing the role of Richard, but it seems as though selling the brand is very important.

trigun7469 wrote: I think what I am interested is more of the Gas Monkey Garage and playing the role of Richard, but it seems as though selling the brand is very important.

That guy sure is a "Richard".

rcutclif wrote:

trigun7469 wrote: I had wondered about the restoration shop, doesn't that require the right economically developed city?

Depends. If you are niche enough, then a tiny town in the middle of nowhere is best because your space is cheap, and people are traveling anyway to get to you. (i.e. if you are one of the only shops in the country restoring pre-WWII rolls royces).

Agreed. I know a guy in York, PA who runs a pretty successful shop on his property out in the middle of nowhere. His overhead is low and he doesn't advertise (not even a sign at the driveway), but he does good work, charges reasonable prices and works quickly (only works on a few job at once, so nothing sits around). Last I talked to him, he had more work than he knows what to do with.

rcutclif wrote:

trigun7469 wrote: I had wondered about the restoration shop, doesn't that require the right economically developed city?

Depends. If you are niche enough, then a tiny town in the middle of nowhere is best because your space is cheap, and people are traveling anyway to get to you. (i.e. if you are one of the only shops in the country restoring pre-WWII rolls royces). On the other hand, if you are restoring corvettes, you probably should be at least within an hour drive of a city that buys a lot of corvettes.

Our restoration shop has two or three local customers. We regularly get cars shipped from all over the country. I am working on cars from Florida, Texas, New York, Washington and San Francisco right now.

My experience with the "restoration Shop" came about as a side effect of my car hobby that led to metal shaping and panel repair.

I ended up doing a shell re-hab job for one person who sent me another person who sent me two people and next thing I knew I was scheduling a year ahead and assembling complete cars. At that point I said to myself: "Self, you have a job and you don't need another", wrapped up what I had to do and took no more clients. The alternative was to quit the day job and grow the restoration hobby into a business.

If you think you have an aptitude for this sort of thing, go ahead and start in your garage. You will get a quick feel of what is is like to work to a customers needs, budget and expectations. You will also learn that your tools wear out at a much faster rate and you should budget for that and other overhead that eats your money.

The good news is that real craftsmen are a dying breed. If you can deliver the goods, you will be in demand.

I have the sheet metal restoration on the back-shelf as a retirement hobby job; do enough to pay for groceries and beer. Then again, my experience has shown that the "rent a handyman" small home repair gig is not too bad either and uses a lot of the skills that most auto enthusiast seem to develop. Cash payment is what makes these things work.

Running a business is a whole other matter. Its what ruins having your own business.