The Right Manager for the Job Anthony NM

When opening another location, it's crucial to find a manager whose talents complement your business - and whose business sense can help take your business to the next level.

By Tom Holmes
11/1/1998

It's been said that about 70 percent of the way collision repairers do business has changed in the past five years. It's also been said that the only way independent collision repair shops will survive in this big-business era - with consolidators and franchisers breathing down their necks - is to expand into multiple locations.

While this statement isn't totally true - savvy independent business people will always have their place in the collision repair industry - expanding to more than one location can be a smart move for some.

Determining whether or not to expand your business into a multi-shop operation is a complex decision - a decision that must be made carefully and strategically. But once the decision has been made to go the multi-shop route, you'll quickly find that a lot of time must be spent researching potential acquisitions - or building a new facility - meeting with bankers, working to assimilate the new facility, etc. And all the time spent doing these things takes time - time away from the original business.

For this reason, you'll often find you need to hire a manager - or managers - to run the existing facility or both facilities. But who should the manager be? Should the manager be the previous owner of the shop acquired? Maybe. But, typically, the...