Here's a common quandary facing collision or mechanical repairers - You want to either open a second location or satellite office or just plain relocate, but how do you decide where you're going to open that second shop or where you're going to relocate? Are you going to go by your instincts or feelings or something more concrete like facts?

A wise old man once told me, "Do what you know is right, not what you feel is right." There are so many times in business when we want to do things that feel right. However, feelings can get distorted and be influenced by many different things. If you want to open another shop or relocate, I would suggest you start doing some research into your market area.

That's what my brother and I did. We wanted to open a second collision shop and had an area picked out. But we weren't sure whether the traffic we saw on our drive out to the new location was accurate or if it had to do with the fact that the county fair had let out, and there was heavier traffic than normal. So we turned to the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and its research department for help.

ASA offers free market profiles to its members. (For nonmembers, it charges a small fee for this service.) What are market profiles? Market profiles are a great and untapped resource that more members should take advantage of. A market profile presents a picture of the driving and lifestyle habits of the consumers around your shop, along with the number and size of competing businesses. A key benefit to obtaining a market profile is the ability to determine the number of vehicles within a given area (based on ZIP code) and calculate how many accidents, claims and dollars should be claimed by the area's collision repair facilities.

These types of demographics are priceless. We used the information to open our second facility last year, and it has been a successful venture for us. ASA market profiles enabled us to gather the facts that we needed and not just go by feelings or instincts. This information was incredibly helpful with determining the location of our second shop. We also requested market profiles of other areas to help us with our marketing plan. The information helped us figure out our advertising strategies for a particular area. Once again, we were able to operate on the facts and not just a "hunch."

Before you pursue an additional location, satellite office, relocate or throw out advertising money randomly, I urge you to get the facts. An ASA member can get up to five free ZIP code market profiles per year. Contact Karin White, research and project specialist, at karinw@ASAshop.org to get your market profile today.

Ron Nagy and his brother own two collision repair shops in Doylestown, Ohio. He is an affiliate director and a member of the Collision Division Operations Committee.

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