This question is not simple to answer.
A successful person will tell you that every task you think about doing should have an hourly rate attached to it. If the task you are considering is a lower hourly rate than the one or few things you do, then hire it out.
Also, the amount of time spent mastering the task you want to perform should be factored in. Plus the cost of tooling up, buying the equipment needed to do it.
That is the pragmatic answer.
I think there’s more to it sometimes. Like how closely does the skill required relate to what you already know? Would time spent learning and doing bring benefits beyond the physical thing produced?
For example, many new methods in lighting were discovered by guys dinking around and trying to find a different, better way.
So you might uncover a tool that’s never been seen. No doubt this is what lead to the release of the whale tail in 1998.
I believe it is always best to hire it done when you can, yet admittedly, I don’t always follow this.
For tools, not likely I will make my own as there’s so much good stuff out there. It’s a different story when it comes to a service.
I grew up with a Dad who changed the oil in his own cars, repaired them as needed and this had an impact on me. I really tried to follow his example.
He was an electronics expert and computer technician in the days before desktop PC’s. He worked on room size computers called Mainframes.
It was also his hobby. Maybe you’re old enough to remember Heathkit, a company that sold build-it- yourself electronic kits.
Dad built our first console Television (1967), a stereo with a teak rolltop cover, 2 custom wood cabinet speaker/ end tables, and many smaller kits.
He was always working on someone’s TV at their house while the rest of us visited. This was at a time before transistors and solid state components. When you could go to the corner grocery and use the tube tester for free.
By the time I was an adult I wanted to work on stuff for people, but the 1980’s brought cars to market that were not so simple to work on. Mostly, I found I didn’t enjoy it like Dad did.
Now I have my cars serviced at a great mechanic and I love it. Letting go and not trying to be my own mechanic was liberating.
Some things are not so easy to let go of, though. At a very young age, Dad bought me a transistor radio which I proceeded to tear the back off of to look inside. I started asking him questions and so began my education in electronics.
You’ve heard the phrase, “I know just enough to be dangerous.”
This is true and I’ll tell you why.
Over time I’ve tried to raise the quality of the editing on the monthly DVD’s. Last year I switched to Apple’s Mac computers because they do video better than PC’s.
I liked it so much I gave the first one to my son and bought another last July.
It worked great but one speaker started buzzing after a few months.
Not wanting to send it back to Apple and be without it, I looked into replacing it myself. I went online and found a tutorial that looked easy enough and that the speakers were only 20 bucks to replace.
Fixing this myself exposed one more risk to doing things yourself, the risk of messing up since I don’t know what I’m doing.
Long story short, I caused a problem that will be hundreds to fix and the computer has now been in the shop for nine weeks.
So if you notice the absence of music and cool DVD menus, blame it on my do it myself mentality.
Back to the question: should you build your own tools? I gave the answer above, but here I will add this: If it takes up time best spent practicing on dents it could cost you months of progress.
There is a host of emotional reasons we put off important, sometimes difficult tasks.
Best to ask yourself, “Am I using this as an excuse for avoiding something I just don’t want to do?”
Should you get Certified?
Frank Intrieri sent this excellent question recently:
“I was surfing the net and found a site that has PDR Certifications https://www.valenational.com/tech.htm. I think it would be a good idea to have the word “Certified” stamped on the side of my truck. Any comments here??”
Frank, your question couldn’t come at a better time as shown in the accompanying article from “Automotive Body Repair News”.
First a little history about certification.
Around 1994 someone formed an organization very similar to NAPDRT. I think that one was called the PDRNTA for Paintless Dent Repair National Trade Association or something like it.
Their goal was to certify techs back then. You would pay them a couple of hundred and push a dent in front of them and they would rubber stamp you as a PDR tech (or not).
The question we immediately asked was “Who certifies the certifier?” The word esoteric applies here and it means: confined to and understandable only to an enlightened inner circle. With a skill as esoteric as PDR who is qualified to judge another’s work? In the yearly PDR Olympics they judge based on smooth and flat, and I suppose that is fair.
I believe a tech knows he is good and capable enough to please his customers. I also think a person knows he needs polishing and practice.
So along comes Vale as noted in Frank’s question and they have done their best to make it the fairest possible test there is.
The dents are made by a controlled machine, an air powered gun that drives a ball at the panel at close range.
The repairs are graded by an optical sensor used on panels which registers differences in depth and smoothness.
Back to who certifies the certifier. The machine is calibrated to accept or reject repairs by a predetermined set of standards, meaning another PDR tech or a group of them, decided what makes a good repair.
I cannot give an opinion on it as I’ve not taken the test. I do know techs who have and I’ll tell you what they said.
Two of them work for PARS mentioned in the accompanying article, and have also worked for me at different times. Both qualified at the Master Craftsman level meaning they had to fix a large, deep dent. Both of them told me the dents were level but not firm. “If you would have touched them they would have fallen back in,” they said.
They considered it “tricking” the machine.
This is where certification fails I think. To fix the dents to acceptable stiffness, you would have to work the dent up, push it down with a finger and work it again, repeating until the area becomes firm. Some techs call this adding orange peel because they might use a sharp tool to draw the metal together, or work harden it as I have written in the manuals. Then a little sand and buff and you’ll never see it again and it will stay forever.
The steps in that last paragraph would fail the dent under the camera due to the added texture. Also, some techs might not be able to achieve this level of true complete repair in the one hour allowed.
So working the dent for the camera and working a dent for the real world seem to be two different things.
Please don’t get me wrong, working a large deep dent to smoothness is an achievement to be proud of. It just hasn’t given a true snapshot of the technician’s skill.
If the firmness of the dented area is not restored, when the customer waxes the car and puts pressure on it, they could fall back in.
The other technician I know who took the test has also worked for me and is an excellent tech, as long as you inspect each car he does. The minute he senses you’re not watching, he’ll fly them out the door with missed dents, low spots and glue pulls left high and unfinished.
So I have to agree with the article as being certified does not determine whether said tech will do good work, just that he or she is capable of doing so.
Really, Frank asked a marketing question as he realizes the value of being certified from an advertising point of view.
This is true and he’s making the point that anything you use to help your customers to feel good about choosing you is valuable.
Remember, customers make buying decisions on emotion then justify with logic. Your being certified would be more of a logical reason in this case.
To illustrate, a male customer chooses you for his dent repair because of the confidence you showed when you estimated it. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something drove him to choose you even though you were the highest estimate he got. Later, his wife wants to know if he called and found the cheapest place like she told him to.
“No, I didn’t pick the cheapest. I chose this guy because he was certified and gave a lifetime guarantee.”
I’ve encouraged you to sell what you got. You might be in a market with techs who scream out their years of experience. Being certified might be a selling point which can make up for experience.
Smartest of all is to leverage each job to the highest value. Gather testimonials from each one, get a small video camera and ask them to give it on video as you see in this month’s and last months’ DVD.
Take before and after photos of even your smallest dents. Go ahead and carry a cheap tripod with you and put yourself in the picture using the camera’s self timer. This gives more of a human touch to them and it keeps people from stealing them on the web.
What about the PDR industry?
In the article you see techs fighting against the brokers and large companies and it gives the illusion it’s all going to get weird or somehow blow up and POW! No more PDR business.
There certainly are enough numbers of techs to consider it an “industry”. I and others have estimated 10,000 worldwide.
Thinking of it as an industry can be stifling to your success. What do I mean?
By taking this position, I expect phone calls from other techs saying “don’t you want to be part of something bigger, don’t you want to have a voice in your industry?”
First, when you look at PDR’s brief history, things have gone along just fine. What I mean is this. Each year there has been an ever increasing shift towards quality. The cream always rises to the top and Paintless Dent Repair has been no exception.
Take drilling for example. You have seen me drill and my position is that the best repair comes from the best access. If you give full disclosure to customer and seal it with a zinc rich primer and plug, then no harm done. As you get better and better, you’ll want to find ways to access without when you can. There are some places where I just won’t drill, like roof rails in door jambs and inside fender edges by the hood. Thankfully, we have come a long way from the first ever hail car I saw fixed without painting in 1989. I pulled back the hood insulator and saw swiss cheese.
But PARS and Dent Wizard have taken the position of no drilling, ever. If they can’t get to the back and it’s not cost effective to glue pull, let the body shop fix it.
At first, I considered this a marketing move, a Unique Selling Proposition to make them stand out from the crowd.
I have a man on the inside, who has worked for both companies and here’s what he told me.
“PARS and Dent Wizard assumed this position not because they wanted to leave panels unfixed or money on the table. They did so because the insurance companies want no problems down the road.
The whole reason big insurance works with and endorses a big hail team company is they police themselves.
Imagine a large catastrophe that requires hundreds of techs to fulfill the repairs. If they were allowed to drill, how would you be able to promise none of them ever drilled in a structural area or crumple zone?
If the customer was in a wreck and an inspector or worse a hungry lawyer got hold of it, a law suit is sure to follow. Since big insurance have deep pockets, they are the most exposed. Choosing a no drilling position protects the insurance company, and really every one down the chain of repair.
The collision shops are happy as they get to repair the panels without access. The hail tech is happy because he avoids the time consuming, tough to get to panels and moves on to the next car.”
As you can see from his statement it depends on which hat you are wearing. Or, where did the job come from?
If you have a retail store during a hail storm and a customer comes in off the street, you work for them. Your goal is to fix as much of the car paintless as you can. It’s what they want. Almost every time I point to a dent that is repairable but has cracked paint, they want it fixed and sealed with clear touch up. They don’t want their car to go to you and a body shop. They just want it fixed.
At the same time, you may have a car in your shop that was subcontracted to you by a body shop. Now who is the customer? In this case you work for the body shop and you will want to work with them to fix what can be fixed and let them do the rest. I will tell you in my experience, most shops want you to fix as much as possible and are put off when it looks like a tech is just not trying or willing to try.
The scenario is different if the body shop is part of a Direct Repair Program partnering with a hail company. Now the insurance company is the customer and what they want drives the way the repair must go. Since they want protection from litigation and fast damage recovery they choose a no drilling approach.
All of this has an interesting effect on the “industry”. I know I’m much more cautious about drilling than ever before. Call it peer pressure, call it increased awareness I’m not sure. I just know I feel the urge to do better and get better over time. I know you do too.
Defying Industy Norms
I study many different businesses and you should too. What amazes me is how every large breakthrough in any business comes when a brave soul steps out and goes contrary to what his “industry” is doing.
In contrast the businesses doing poorly or even just mediocre are copying and doing the same things everyone else in their industry are doing.
You see it in advertising, particularly yellow pages. They all say the same things.
So I encourage you to pay attention to what the industy is doing but at the same time watch out for a feeling of “I can’t do that. It’s just not done in our industry.”
Some of you can feel this when it comes to using the Paintless Mentor System. There are a large number of you who frequent the forums and would not admit to learning this skill from my system. It’s hostile territory, so I don’t blame you.
Already you are feeling the effects of peer pressure that exists there.
You need to be crystal clear about what the industry has done for you. If you discovered a cool new way to use a light or some other technical method, great. Just remember, it didn’t come from the industry, it came from an individual willing to share it.
We all have the need or desire to be accepted.
But I simply cannot point to one thin dime that I have earned in PDR that came from the “industry”. Giving in to the desire for acceptance is not going to help you or I make more money.
In fact it will cost you.
Consider this. The vast majority of the most outspoken members of any industry are really not doing well in business. They are often substituting industry recognition for success. Things are not always as they appear.
Take the forums for example. What makes a person appear expert? Under their name is the number of posts. The more posts they make the more expert they appear.
Were you aware that some with the most posts have yet to fix a dent for money? Yet, they give opinions to influence the industry when clearly they are ill qualified to do so.
Now that you know this, I want to address a couple of things from the accompanying article.
First, the technician who stated “there are only so many cars to fix”. This is true in a hailstorm and really does not and cannot change.
Is it best to resist this reality or embrace it and work with it? I’ll take the latter and so have the big hail companies. They were very smart to do the end around and partner with big insurance. It makes good business sense.
Should you as a tech lobby your government because this is unfair to you as an individual? It’s ridiculous.
All the bickering and complaining is going to do is turn the spotlight on what techs are making and how fast they earn it.
They cannot expect sympathy from the collision repair or any other industry when they make several times the income of those folks.
Also, you read about the tech complaining about his receiving 52.5 percent of the ticket. Yet there is nothing to stop that tech from starting his own company and building those relationships with insurance himself.
I can’t tell you how many techs I’ve heard say, “I just want to put my head down and push.” I’ve said it myself.
Big hail companies exist because they built systems to help big insurance recover quickly from big losses.
You can duplicate this even on a small scale. Start thinking about the systems you will use to help your collision shops estimate, schedule and fulfill the repairs on their big losses.
To get your creative juices flowing as you think about this, consider Dent Wizard’s system for hail.
No skilled dent technician will take out headliners or taillights at a storm. If you work a storm on one of their big Catastrophe sites you really will “put your head down and push.” They have techs for R & I and they have techs for dents. See how this goes back to the beginning of this letter? Dent techs are worth a certain dollar amount for every dent they push or hour they work. Taking out a headliner is a lower value skill, so someone else does that and the tech maximizes his earning capacity.
I’ll bet they don’t fix their own computers either.
Till next time,
Happy pushing,
Tim Olson