It's a very different story for Doug Crook and Todd Tipp.

"We have a better friendship and partnership than most people's marriages," Tipp said.

"His assets are my liability and vice versa," Crook said.  "We depend on each other.  Where he's strong, I get help, and vice versa."

Crook and Tipp are co-owners of Olympia Collision Repair in Washington's capital city.  The two have been partners since acquiring the business in 1995, but have known each other much longer.

"Todd and I grew up together in Sumner, three blocks from each other," Crook said.  "We've known each other since we were six years old.  We were always ripping our parents' cars apart."

A friend of Tipp's had operated Olympic Collision Repair in a 3,000-square-foot building, but the business was all but dormant when Tipp and Crook took it over.

"We had no insurance relationships; it was strictly walk-in business," Crook said.  "We had two bodymen and a painter, and Todd and I chasing sales.  Ideally, we wanted to do custom muscle car restoration.  But we soon realized that insurance work and collision business is the bread and butter."

Within three or four years, the two said, they found their business outgrowing their facility.  They began scouting for other locations, and at one point purchased a parcel of land nearby only to learn that city restrictions wouldn't allow a building any larger than their current shop.

But the two say they still recall the day they realized they needed to kick their relocation plans into high gear.   Crook arrived at the shop on a Tuesday, he said, to find surveyors working for a large retailer in the area.

"We were leasing that property, so what a horrible feeling, knowing we could suddenly be out in 30 days," he said.

"That was a wake-up call," Tipp agreed.

At about that same time, one of their technicians knocked over the shop's air conditioning machine. Crook drove a few blocks away to a shop that did automotive air conditioning and brake work, hoping they might have the part he needed to fix the machine.

"While I was there, I heard the owner saying it was for sale," Crook said.  "I called Todd and told him to get over here.  We'd been looking for three or four years and not finding anything.  We came to a deal, and moved in here in November of 2003."

The move gave the company a 10,000-square-foot facility on nearly three acres--plenty of space for vehicle storage, future shop expansion or other development.

 
Crook and Tipp now have nine employees, producing about $2 million in annual sales.  Over the years, they've acquired four frame racks, the newest a smaller Chassis Liner Profit Puller that Tipp called a "cash cow."

"We also have a (Blackhawk) Apex measuring system," Tipp said.  "It's great.  If you have a borderline total that's stranded out in the parking lot, you can even take this out there and throw it underneath the car to see what's going on."

He said the shop's Bend Pak lift is particularly helpful when the three insurance companies that operate drive-in claims at the shop need access to the underside of a vehicle.  And the shop's latest purchase is an Autotron induction heater.

"It's a great tool,"  Tipp said.  "If we've got a quarter glass to pull and the glass company can't get out until tomorrow, we can Autotron it out ourselves and just have the glass company put the glass back in after it's painted.  We're learning more every day what that tool can do."

The move to the larger shop also gave Tipp and Crook the chance to put together a new paint department that includes a drive-through Global Finishing Solutions paint booth and two Global heated prep decks.  Tipp said the shop's switch to BASF's Glasurit paint line two years ago was among the "best moves" the company has made, in part because the system's color chips are actual sprayed out panels, not inks.

"That means we no longer have to tint nine out of 10 colors," Tipp said.  "It's phenomenal."

Tipp and Crook have done a number of things to build direct repair agreements with about 10 insurers.  The shop's office includes an Enterprise rental car facility, making it convenient for customers to pick up and return replacement vehicles.  The shop also has maintained the I-CAR Gold Class designation for nearly six years.

 
"When a technician applies to work here and has taken the time to complete I-CAR classes, it shows a commitment," Crook said.  "It's a commitment we have, too.  We're putting people back into cars that were badly damaged.  It's got to be done right.  The I-CAR sign says we've spent the time for continuing education."

But Crook said insurer referrals help the business maintain a three- to four-week backlog of work much of the year also because of the co-owners' outlook.

"We promote ourselves to insurance companies by trying to make them recognize that we know they're in business, too," he said.  "We're going to be paid well and get what we deserve, but at the same time, we're going to be competitive and not forget that CEO has to answer to his shareholders.  I think insurance companies realize that's how we operate."

Tipp and Crook both say that their business goals include being able to each get away from the shop regularly to spend time with their wives and children.  That's part of what their successful partnership allows.

"You have to make time for your family because this place will consume you if you let it," Tipp said.  "The insurance companies would love to have you working two shifts, seven days a week.  We see it differently."

"We've always said this is a big rock that we're both pushing up the hill," Crook continued.  "If we're not both doing it right, it will mow us over.  And we hope that someday it starts doing down the other side and we'll be able to sit back a bit.  We're just not too sure how far from the top we are."