Welcome all, and it’s nice of you to take the time to view my very first blog on www.bodyshopconsulting.com
Not to be confused with www.bodyshopconsulting.co.uk my consultancy website.
I intend to make this a monthly blog. A tool that will have useful topics and items in its content to help with profitability to the Body Shops and the people that follow it. Profitability secures existence, and jobs.
I will also be making comment on trends and views taken from the media and people within the Collision and Body Shop Industry.
An ongoing feature of my body shop blog will be to have a regular monthly slice of a very big cake called Change – Definition: an act or process through which something becomes different.
Change: A topic that cannot be explained or understood in short space of reading. Changing the culture of a business and the people within that business is the biggest challenge, anyone, or any business can undertake. I think we can all agree that none of us likes change – me included! Change disrupts businesses, change disrupts people. So, for my part I’m going to break it all down in to bite-size monthly chunks, to get you thinking that when the time comes for you, it can be done!
Remember, change should be an ongoing part of the business and change is necessary to meet the challenges that our industry is thrusting upon us all at such a fast rate. If you are thinking of changing the culture of a business, your business, or you are currently undergoing change, then this section of the blog is for you. The ups and downs and the pitfalls! What to expect along the way. I have done CHANGE: so many times, I’ve lost count!
But, the issues and the problems encountered are exactly the same in every change process I have undertaken. The names of the people are the only thing that changes when I do “change”.
It’s gonna be a bumpy ride everyone, but someone’s got to do it! So, buckle up and sit tight for the ride…
Therefore, I’m going to need someone to ride shotgun for me on my bumpy ride…so we will try to have a regular monthly guest contributor slot. Writing about what either does, or does not, concern them, in the Collision Industry today. Also, getting them writing and expressing what their future vision might look like to us in the coming years. Lastly, contributing and adding their personal view on change, if change has happened to them – then what was the outcome?
It might be a good idea to have a few contributors perhaps with views from around the world. Rotating the views from different continents and Collision markets around the world each month – it could be quite interesting. Anyone reading this from outside the UK, would you like to contribute to this Collision blog on an ad hoc basis? You can be a – Body Shop Consultant, Body Shop Owner, Body Shop Manager, from the Motor Manufacturer Collision sector, someone from the shop floor that has got something to say or an opinion they want to share. Feel free to let us know what’s going on in your world.
A saying I’ve always liked and used often, after someone said it to me once, is “Forewarned is Forearmed” it speaks volumes when fully understood. Using this ‘phrase’ in not only in your business life, but in your personal life, can help make you make the right decision, time and time again. An example of this turn of phrase when it was first said to me, was when I was a Snap-On-Tools dealer in the UK many many years ago. Cutting the story short, let’s just say the person that said it to me saved me from losing a substantial amount of money when disclosing what he meant by saying the ‘phrase’!
The contributors will be from all sides of the Collision (crash) and Body Shop Industry. I like to think I can ask and get people that have high profile within our industry that have a view on things. Also, the people that work in all the other departments of running a Body Shop – The administration (front of house) the estimator, the panel man/woman, the painter, the mechanical and trim man/woman, the workshop controller, the Body Shop Manager, the Body Shop owner, the multi Body Shop owner. Everyone has a view or an opinion on Body Shops, the people that work within them, those that supply them with work. All of us want to know where life is taking us.
Please Note: I’m going to not use the word Crash and substitute the word Collision from this point forward in future blogs. As this terminology, would not be recognised so much in the other parts of the automotive world that this blog may reach. The terms “Collision” and “Collision Industry” are being used more frequently that represent the Crash Industry as we know it in the UK. The terminology also seems to be adopted by the rest of the world too. This changing of words makes me think of when I was a very young boy, remembering vividly my dad saying at 4.45pm on a Saturday afternoon “put the wireless on Ray so we can listen to the football results” “don’t you mean radio dad? No one says wireless these days!”. Those of you that can remember that Americanism creeping in to our vocabulary are as old as me! Those of you reading this that only know radio as being the term for turning on the wireless, will know what it’s like for us old’ns when your young children say to you “what was a smartphone dad!?” Ouch!
We will be having different “ten most” lists . Items that you want to talk about or gain more information and knowledge from the blog. You can even suggest what “ten” questions to ask. We can throw questions out there in to the www.world wide web and find an expert on the subject – who knows!
Another addition to the monthly blog will be a book review.
I will be reading and reviewing books that I need to read, and in so doing, pass on the titles for you to obtain a copy if you are so inclined. You can never have enough information about business management that can be applied to any business in any industry. If you have the want, the need and desire to read about business management then I’m sure this will be a useful tool to get you improving how you manage, or how you would manage in the future. Whatever your age, whatever your current position, it’s never too early and never too late to start reading and learning about how others manage in management. Some of you reading this blog right now will be our future managers, or even future owners in this body shop industry. The challenges of being profitable in such a fast-changing industry will never be greater, you will need as much information and knowledge as you can get…
Although this is my monthly blog, I see it as your blog too. Raising ideas, questions about this wonderful challenging industry of ours.
I look forward to seeing you on the next one.
Ray