Chips Away Franchise. Yay or Nay???

[Thom89]

Where do I start..... Chips away=nightmare in my personal experience, I spend a lot of time putting right., quite frankly very shoddy repairs, that only look half good from a distance. Unless you can pick this up straight away, and it really is all about skill and technique, you will not make money. Unless you can pick up some contracts very quickly, you will be doing lots of waiting round for the phone to ring You would have to do some serious networking around garages to make contacts to get work, turn out a couple of bad jobs, and your name will be mud! To make a living, I would say that you need to do 3 to 4 cars a day. every day...

I know of 3 different people that do Chips away, and 2 independents, the ones that work for themselves make more money, and do work exclusively for the "Trade" but crucially, all of them are ex motor trade painters, and can work at speed, under pressure, and getting it right first time...

Have you considered Paint less dent removal? far more lucrative, and if you're any good at it, I guarantee you will be in demand!
Avoid the franchise part, get some kit together, and practice on old panels, theirs even courses to go on...

Thom

[Guy]

i don't know about chips away but what i would say of any 'on site' chip and scratch repair services and results that I have seen is that they don't, in my experience, achieve a perfect result... i see cars every day that have had 'touch ups' on bumpers, wings etc... if they are not using a low bake oven then the longevity of repairs are also questionable..

however.. there are ways to go into the SMART repair industry

http://www.smartexpress.co.uk/ specifically http://www.smartexpress.co.uk/default.aspx?upid=69&msid=5

you might also like to consider an autosmart franchise... http://www.startautosmart.co.uk/ in my experience Autosmart franchisees make money and act more in the way of a reseller who is knowledgable and friendly and helpful. its worth exploring.

[Seanl]

Cheers Guy, just had a look and I will definately consider the smartexpress stuff. Just have to add it all up and see what I will need, and what sort of prices I am looking at with the funds that will be available.
Had a look at the startautosmart one as well, but there are no franchise opportunities in the SW unfortunately. Thanks again mate. 

[Guy]

Cheers Guy, just had a look and I will definately consider the smartexpress stuff. Just have to add it all up and see what I will need, and what sort of prices I am looking at with the funds that will be available.
Had a look at the startautosmart one as well, but there are no franchise opportunities in the SW unfortunately. Thanks again mate. 

no probs...   otherwise have you thought about going into the trade using fixed premises? Your quality of work would be much higher.

[Seanl]

Thats an option further down the line, and depending how it all pans out. As said in the original post, I have absolutely no experience when it comes to body repairs, so a mobile unit with smaller repairs would probably be best suited to start out with. If all was to go well, I could then expand into other territories, and get a fixed premesise but atm thats just a pipe dream!

[Exonian]

There's a guy who left my work a few years ago doing this sort of stuff, possibly the same company (Chipsaway). I know one of the guys I see most days plays golf (yawn) with him so I'll ask him to have a word with him at the weekend.
From what I've heard in the past he's doing okay, he subcontracts the dent stuff out.

Would I use one of these companies? Yes. I don't like the car going in for proper paint repairs as the low bake oven dulls all the exterior plastics and windscreen wipers and they lose their sheen, ending up an oxidised greyish colour. Plus an Ibiza TDI I bought from a main dealer some years ago had a smart repair done on the rear bumper to remove a few light scratches and he did an amazing job of hiding the marks.

Personally I'd agree with going into the dent removal side either instead of or as well as. Car park dings are a nightmare and if you could get your name around locally there's a big area in Devon and Cornwall that needs decent cover for this sort of thing. I've even thought about doing it myself a few years ago when redundancy was mentioned but nothing came of it. There are plenty of smallish car shows where you could get through a good few cars in the course of a weekend, hundreds of dealerships in the South West that need quality repairs on retail cars plus the hundreds of Arfur Daleys about. Then there's the local forums, do some good quality work for reasonable money and people will seek you out - car forums are full of people with car OCD and want their car perfect! Get your name around the local Polish car washes too, maybe offer referral £££ for recommendations.

As with any small business, if you're prepared to be on duty for more than the 9-5 typical working day there can be money to be made, especially weekends. As you're ex-forces you should have no problems there!

[Seanl]

Cheers Ex, yeah looking at the PDR that Guy suggested, I could deffinately incorporate this into the business. It just expands the skill set I would have, and would bring in more income for moi! No need to refer then! Like you said, I am deffinately willing to put in the hours to get it off the ground. I suppose that may well be the reason others have failed. Still in early stages, but just scoping out peoples oppinions. Like you said as well, offer out good discounts for forum members on here and other forums, and as long as the job is to a good standard, word should get around.   

[Seanl]

Well just had a preliminary meeting with the business advisor at the bank, and he see's no reason why it couldnt happen with regards to my personal finances! Next step is to attend an open day, and get some sort of business plan. I think its then a comparison of the business plan with regards to financing the whole thing against predicted income, and how much it would be to set it up myself. Again though experience deffinately counts, and as I have nil, and no network of contacts in the trade, I'm not sure that I could make an indipendant operation work. Will go down to a few of the body shops on valley road next week though and see if they would like a tea b!tch without pay!  Am I likely to get told to do one though, as I could turn out to be another potential competitor?

[Jay]

Am I likely to get told to do one though, as I could turn out to be another potential competitor?

You can only try  Just be ready to leg it in case they say no and want to show you some rope and an anvil on the pier