When asked to write a guest article for AutoInc., it was difficult to not just get up on my soapbox and expand on my views of the industry. However, rather than stand on my bench and complain of all the things I can think of that is wrong with our industry, I decided a more proactive approach to the industry's woes would be to get off the bench and "get back into the game."

The auto body industry can be compared to a very complicated game with a lot of players involved and many moves to make. Many shop owners, like myself, have looked forward to the days where we can sit back on the benches and watch the wonderful world of auto body from the side lines. I believe we can do this with a well managed staff, but with so many changes and long needed improvements at hand, in our industry today, we need to get off the bench and join our team in a new position.

At NACE this year, the address given by Johnny Mock really put forth a lot of excellent goals for the new year, and we often wonder how are we going to make these changes happen as we sit on our benches. Only through a united need, urgency and strength of individual shops standing together will we even begin to succeed on those goals.

It is all too easy to blame insurance companies or estimate caps, technician shortages, etc., on why we are struggling so much to be successful. I know I can't wait, nor afford to wait, for somebody else to make these changes happen. The insurance companies' benefit may be that they have been in the game a lot more than we have; they never sit on the bench.

My first game plan is to break down our daily processes that become so habitual and monitor all aspects of our repair facility, finding ways for improvement so our shop continues to be successful. Examples of some moves might be to send in time study requests to any of the information providers; possibly turn down some repair jobs because you feel they will not be profitable; audit repairs to ensure you're getting paid for operations that are being done; pay attention to job costing and learn to make jobs profitable; catch up on I-CAR classes; attend an AMI class; and expand your ASE certification. A lot of these moves and others interact with other areas of our industry, helping it look better for future technicians and helping it become stronger on its issues. As with all games, they move on to the next level - and as shop owners and managers, our next level is participating in a local ASA chapter or trade association, getting involved with a local school and being a sponsor at a vo-tech to mentor a student, to mention a few options. Some of these "plays and levels" have fallen out of the game because we have too many of us sitting on the benches complaining.

I know I can't go change laws tomorrow in Washington, but I can make changes at my own shop and get involved with others so eventually we all can change the laws and start winning instead of losing. However, goals will not be made with half of us sitting on the bench waiting for a miracle or that "Hail Mary pass." Somehow, whatever the position, we need more people in the auto body industry to get back into the game!

Bob Fischer is president of ASA-Minnesota and is the owner of Fischer Collision Repair Center in Inver Grove Heights, Minn.

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