Cars, SUVs, Trucks

Like cars, and like doing something with your hands? Tired of working an office job? One of the places where a lot of small entrepreneurs are carving niches for themselves is in the auto body work field. One of the hot beds of this is Detroit, and Detroit auto body shops are a thriving business, largely because of the ability to get spare parts, and because more people in Detroit are holding onto cars until they literally stop running.

Now, there are a lot of steps in starting up a business – and aside from mentioning that you need a business plan and some financing to get your Detroit auto body shop working, we’re going to only touch on them in passing. Your business plan should start with the basics and fundamentals first and foremost.

What’s The Market For A Detroit Auto Body Shop?

Detroit is currently the eleventh most populous metro area in the United States, and has a lot of drivers; it’s also suffering from a serious economic crisis, and has some underserved areas for this. Depending on what part of Detroit you set your auto body shop in, there’s going to be plenty of opportunity to find customers and help them get their cars on the road.

As far as business goes, even a Detroit auto body shop, you need to choose the right location. You could have the greatest auto body shop in existence, and if people can’t find you, you won’t be doing any business at all. There are many commercial properties in Detroit right now that are going for rather cheap, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding a decent storefront.

Outreaching

Once you’re set up, you need to do outreach. Your business will survive or die based on how much traffic (literal, in this case) you get. Your quality of work is one of the major areas that will build business down the road in the future, through word of mouth sales, and customer referrals, and is the fundamental skill you’re selling.

After your business has been launched, outreach is the next logical step. First of all, you need word of mouth advertising. The best way to do this is to ensure that both you and your employees are doing high quality work that will keep the customers coming back. Not only will they return, they’ll tell

Another form of outreach is to insurance carriers. Getting insurance companies to refer your business to their auto insurance clients is critical; it’s often the first word-of-mouth advertising you get. It’s also important that the job be done at a high quality level to keep those referrals going. Most insurance carriers will ask you to fill out extra paper work in addition to the usual invoicing or billing, and while nobody likes paperwork, it’s hard to stay in business without that regular supply of insurance company traffic in this field.

Supply and Competition

Detroit auto body shops have a huge local advantage. They can usually get parts for most American makes of cars much less expensively than anywhere else in the world. You also have an advantage in getting Original Equipment Manufacturer parts compared to the rest of the world. Lining up your parts supplier(s) is the most important foundational element of running a Detroit auto body shop.

Nine times out of ten, it’s bad news that brings you to the body shop. However, if you choose a reliable and reputable company, the experience doesn’t have to be awful. Detroit resident Parker Herring writes about his experiences with different Detroit Auto Body Specialists. Follow the link to find out what YOU should know before choosing a Detroit Auto Body Specialist.