Government and fleet work form the basis for small shop's success

Lakewood, Wash.--Dave Cline marked the ninth anniversary of his business, Image Auto Body & Paint Center, in August, and though he said he finds aspects of the collision repair industry frustrating, he's obviously proud of the business he's built.
"A large percentage of new businesses don't make it past their first few years, and we're well past that," he said. "We've made it to past where I think some people thought I would fail. But I've made it, I think, because we're a small, family-operated business and do a good job for a fair amount of money."
Cline considers himself at the tail-end of the "old school" combination techs, doing both body and paint work for more than a decade for shops in the Olympia area before he and his wife, Shari, launched their own business just outside the fence of McChord Air Force Base in 1998. He calls Shari "the brains behind the business."
"I can do all this out here," he said, standing in the 3,300-square-foot production area of the shop. "But it takes two of us to make this operation work. She does all the taxes, all the state stuff, and the bookwork. I don't know that stuff, but she is very smart on that."
Cline said his father is also involved in the business, handling "heavy work," such as frame pulls using the shop's Buske frame rack and repair work involving air-conditioning condensers and radiators.
"We also have a part-time painter who comes in and works with me if I can't handle all the load, and there's times when I can't," Cline said.
The company's other full-time employee is apprentice Bradley Shaw, Cline said, who has worked at the shop for about a year after getting to know him because they were both involved in racing.
"He asked if he could work on my racecar and that he needed a job," he said. "I've sort of taken him under my wing and am trying to teach him that this is a good trade to be in. He's a lucky kid because he's learning this hands-on. He has a friend who is paying tuition at a local school for someone to teach him this trade, while Brad is here making a paycheck and learning it all faster hands-on. And just being around actual customers and a working facility means a lot more than some of what these kids get out of school."
The shop brings in work from a variety of sources. The nearby Air Force base results in government fleets being among Image Auto Body's largest accounts, Cline said.
"Since the war has hit us, I've seen a drastic drop in the number of estimates and the civilian part of our business, but the government part of it still seems to come through," he said.
Cline said the company also works on rental cars through Hertz, exchanges referrals with a mobile mechanic, and attracts other customers through its Web site, Yellow Pages, and military phone book advertising, and his "late-model NASCAR" racing involvement. About twice a month in the spring and summer, Cline said he runs his 2006 Monte Carlo--with an all-aftermarket body--at his "home track" of South Sound Speedway in Rochester.
"It's expensive, but it's what I like to do," he said of his 20 years in racing. "It's one of the reasons I was motivated to start the shop."
   Cline said he made a switch to Sherwin-Williams' refinish products last year and spent three days earlier this year at painter-certification training at Sherwin-William's training center in Reno, Nev.
"I learned a lot down there and still use the reference manual and notes from that," he said. "And it was nice meeting other people from other parts of the country that face the same things I face here. The Sherwin-Williams product is a little more pricey than what I had been using, but I'm loving it. The color matches are better. We have better variances. The whole system is faster. Blends are good. We don't seem to have to fight it as much as I used to with what I'd been using."
Cline said he also has been pleased with the shop's Snap-on MIG welder and the Viking paint booth he was able to acquire years ago from a shop going out of business.
"I've made nothing but money out of it, and I could still probably sell it for three times what I paid for it," he said. "I've thought about doing that and putting in a newer booth, but since I don't own the building, if I did that I'd probably put in a cross-draft so I don't have to dig a pit."
Cline said his main business goal is not necessarily to grow significantly but to have a more consistent flow of work that would enable him to hire one more technician. That, he said, would allow him to focus more time and energy on the office-related work of the business and reduce the amount of time he spends at the shop.
One of his frustrations with the industry, Cline said, has been his inability to arrange for some insurer referrals of work that would give him that more consistent flow of work he's looking for. He said he finds it ironic that some insurers are unhappy that some jobs take a day or two longer at his shop than they would at one with more personnel, yet continue to refer work to shops that have weeks of backlog when others nearby have the ability to start those jobs right away.
"We've got a nice clean shop. We're businesslike," Cline said, ticking off his shop's selling features. "We've got warranties just like everybody else. If there's a problem with a job, bring it back and I'll fix it, no questions asked."
Even if he's not successful in attracting insurance referrals, Cline said, he's confident that the service he offers will continue to attract the customers his shop needs to succeed.