Shop of the Month

West Coast Frame & Collision Repair

SMS Interview   October 12, 2006

Shop Profile:

Name: West Coast Frame & Collision Repair
Type: Heavy Truck & Equipment Collision & Paint
Location:West Sacramento, CA
Number of Employees: 20
Years in Business: 8
Sales: 3 Million Annual
Owner: Randall Erbes
G.M.: Curt Metcalf

 

SMS: Can you give us a picture of your business?

Randall Erbes: Sure. We are a heavy truck and equipment collision and paint facility, and we are expanding into mechanical repair.  We have 20 employees and the shop can fit 20 Semis.  We have several divisions in the business including replacement parts.  I started this business eight years ago after running another operation very successfully for ten years.  I built this business on my reputation for technical excellence.  We work on such high liability equipment and trucks that I felt I had to be out in the shop constantly to ensure the quality was there.

This created a problem where I could not expand.  My business was stuck for three years at the 1.7-1.8 million a year.  The people I had in the office at that time told me we had hit our ceiling, we had reached the businesses potential and there was no way to expand past this point.  I didn’t buy it.  I said to myself, “If I don’t do something different I am going to be at the same point a year from now.”  That was unacceptable to me.  I needed a mentor, some one who could show me how to break through this wall.

SMS: What did you do?

Randall: Well, in the beginning of 2005 we put in a new paint booth which added to our state-of-the-art paint system.  This helped and increased revenues quite a bit, but I knew this wasn’t the long term fix.  Later in the same year my daughter who is a partner with her husband in their own successful business, Duane’s Auto Body suggested that I look into Management Success!  On the strength of her recommendation, and I couldn’t argue with how well they are doing, Curt my general manager and son-in-law his wife Christie my other daughter and I signed up with Management Success!  What’s important to understand here is Curt and Christie came into the business new with no prior experience and we have been growing ever since!  In less than a year we have taken the business from $150,000 a month to $255,000 a month.  We are projected out to gross over three million this year! 

SMS:  What did you learn from Management Success! to realize this kind of gain?

Randall:  Structure!  The management structure of my business is completely different now.  We have the systems in place that allows a greatly increased level of production and a way of monitoring the business that allows me to make the right decisions at the right time.  My understanding of employees is much greater, and I know how to recruit and hire the right people.  Another benefit working with Management Success! is that I now have a place to send my staff to get management training and I know they will train them they way I want them to be trained.

SMS:  Are you still doing a lot of hands on management?

Randall: Good observation!  I’m a hands on guy and like I said earlier this business was built on my reputation. One of the key things I got from Management Success is learning how to be the owner and how to turn over the management duties.  I have moved my office upstairs which makes me less assessable and Curt has taken on many of the day-to-day management duties off my plate. And since we are much better at hiring the right people and knowing how to manage employees I don’t need to be in the back all the time micro-managing.  I now have the management structure I always needed.

SMS:  So what does Curt do exactly?

Randall:  He is managing all the different departments. Once a week we have a department meeting with the department heads. We have several different divisions within the company, so we have the department head meeting every Friday to discuss the work in progress.  Also I just locked up an expansion to where we have added another 5000 sq ft of building to our facility. Beginning November 1st we are opening up a Fire Truck Division that works strictly on fire trucks. General repair as well as wreck repair. Contracts are being signed this month and go into effect November 1st.  This will add 5000 sq ft and three techs to start out with. We have signed contracts already with different fire districts from middle to northern California.  So that is some of the executive stuff I have been working on, and Curt keeps everything running.

SMS:  Sounds like the business is on the right track.

Randall:  Yes it is—I smile a lot more now and don’t try to carry the weight of the whole business on my shoulders.  Management Success! has help me do this and whole heartedly recommend them.

 

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