"That's really what's unique about us, the fact that we have big 16-foot doors and a 54-foot-long, 18-foot-high Nova Verta drive-through booth that allows us to work on buses, high-end RVs, and even construction equipment and oddball stuff," Rehorn said. "It's allowed us to maintain a real mix of business."

Rehorn said he worked as a technician and estimator before launching his own business in a garage in 1991, moving after five years to a 2,000-square-foot shop. About five years ago, he said he bought a parcel of land and built the company's current facility, which has 12,000 square feet of production space, plus 2,000 square feet of office space.

Like many Northern California shop owners, Rehorn said business is down from what it was three years ago and that he currently has six employees.

"We'd grown from this point before and shrunk back, but these are my core guys," Rehorn said of his employees. "Everyone here has been with me almost 10 years."

He acknowledges that he failed to market effectively from the business' early days, in part because until recently business had been good.

"That's my worst blunder," he said. "I needed to devote more time to it. I'm going to do that now--I have to--but if from day one we'd had a consistent marketing plan, I think we would be a little better off now."

But despite that lack of marketing, Autobody Workshop has developed a mixed bag of work sources, Rehorn said. He has direct repair agreements with Progressive Insurance and Permanent General that he estimates account for 30 to 40 percent of his business. RV dealer referrals and work on other large vehicles account for another 10-15 percent. The shop does used-car work for a Lexus dealer and repairs and paints armored vehicles for Brink's. Other fleets, along with repeat and customer referrals, make up the balance.

Although he said the Progressive program works well, Rehorn plans to use direct mail, Internet search engine placement, and other means to cultivate more customer and RV referrals and fleet work rather than pursue additional insurance relationships.

In terms of vendor relationships, Rehorn said he has been "real happy" with the shop's paint jobber, Jim's Color Corner, and that he has chosen to stock both DuPont ChromaSystem and Spies Hecker paint lines.

"The Spies is particularly good on European vehicles," Rehorn said. "It's OE on most of the European vehicles, which is a good selling point to the customer."

He also has nothing but positive things to say about the Nova Verta booth.

"It's performed very well," he said. "It has a door in the center, so we can split it and it will operate as two stand-alones to spray and bake independently."

All the mechanics of the booth, along with the shop's compressor, are housed just outside the shop.

"So when the booth or compressor is running, it sounds just like it does now," Rehorn said inside the quiet shop. "You cannot hear them."

The body side of the operation is also well-equipped, with a Western two-post lift; three BendPak low-rise lifts to bring vehicles up to a more comfortable working height for technicians; a Elektron Multispot M80 resistance spot welder along with Lincoln Electric and Miller MIG welders; a Brewco frame machine; and the Car-O-Liner Vision electronic measuring system.

Rehorn has not made the switch to waterborne paint as yet, but said he did work to make the facility "green" in other ways. Skylights flood the shop with natural light, eliminating the need to use other lighting much of the time, and all washwater is recovered and filtered, he said.

When asked about the biggest challenges he faces in the business, Rehorn said it may be what he calls "extortion" by local governmental agencies.

"I've got a beef with the fire inspector right now," Rehorn said. "This place was built state-of-the-art, with sprinklers and fire extinguishers and a fire alarm system on a dedicated phone line that I spend $1,400 a year to have monitored. On top of that, I have insurance, obviously, and a fire house down the street. Recently they send over a fire inspector, and we pass, but then they send me a bill wanting $700 a year because we have a paint booth. That gets very irritating."

It's another example, he said, of how business costs continue to rise faster than revenue. Still, Rehorn said he has few regrets about how the facility he designed and built has served the business.

"The shop itself performs beautifully. I'm very happy with the shop," he said.

The only design change he said he wished he'd made was to make the employee break room a little larger and his own office a little smaller.

"I spend very little time in my office," he said. "I'm a bit of a micromanager and like to be out here all the time."

But when he looks ahead, Rehorn said he actually has short-term hopes of spending even less time at the business.
"I'd either like to have the business sold or have someone else running it for me in five years," he said.