Page 56 - Australasian Paint & Panel Mar-Apr 2019

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PEOPLE MATTER
56 In the Right Direction • 58 Smoko with Lozo
PAINT&PANEL MARCH / APRIL 2019
SLOW START
OUR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION COUPLE
E
AST COAST COLLISION HAS
been digging for solid founda- tions in this first quarter, helped out by business coach Ben Fewtrell and Business Services Manager for Valspar’s Quality First program Mel- anie Spink. The company is now in a good position to achieve more in the sec-
ond quarter of the financial year.
To recap, East Coast Paint and Panel (ECPP) is typical of many start up auto- body repair shops (it was founded in 2014). Marc Debono is a spray painter by trade and oversees the workshop. His life partner Cara Lea Lewis has the bulk of the responsibility for running the rest of the business and came from a hospitality background. The couple have no formal business training and admit they have been flying by the seat of their pants es- sentially, thus far. And thus far they have done well, plenty of work, much of it yard work and driveable repairs for the many hire companies in Cairns as well as some insurance and private work with the odd
restoration thrown in.
They realised though that if they were to
take their business to the next level then there had to be some fundamental chang- es. The first step they took with business coach Ben Fewtrell of Max My Profit was to set their goals. Many bodyshops just jog along, possibly growing and doing OK fi- nancially but with no clear direction, ECPP was no exception. 'We want to grow' is not a specific goal and so they agreed that they will aim to generate a gross profit of $500,000 in five years time – that is a giant leap from where they are currently. They now have a destination and by reaching
out for help they will be able to construct a map to reach that destination.
THE BORING BIT
The couple have lots of ideas about how to increase their business and let's be honest that is the fun part. Going after new con- tracts, marketing your wares, the satisfac- tion of bringing in new business. The 'bor- ing' bit is sorting out all of the financials - in terms of knowing where every cent is spent, how much you spend in the paint shop, how much in the panel shop, what your cost of sales are etc.
Up until now Lewis admits she has had a somewhat scattergun approach which has meant their accountant only has a general picture of profit and loss. Lewis has now completed a number of online courses to do with understanding how to break down business costs on the Max my Profit training hub. She's also spent two days with Spink from Valspar who has given her simple spread sheets to start tracking more variables. Valspar's Quality First program offers business consultancy and industry benchmarking to customers.
NOT TAKING IT PERSONALY
Then stress struck with a serious family health situation. This is without doubt one of the great difficulties of running a small business. You work day and night and often weekends, but when there's a family emer- gency or you fall sick, there's no one to pick up the slack. On top of the family emergen- cy the couple managed to catch a dose of the flu and then the universe threw in a bout of gastro, because pain loves to party.
These factors drew Lewis' eye off the ball and so the financial information that coach Fewtrell needs was a slow in coming but has been delivered now.
Another small business owner bug bear is that non-small business owners don't understand the pressures and realities of running that business. Lewis' family had been phoning her during business hours and she has now had to set boundaries to ensure that unless there is an actual emer- gency, personal calls are for out of hours.
KPIS
While ECPP is small (for now), standard op- erating procedures (SOPs) and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential to any business. Standard operating proce- dures need to be in place for any repetitive task in the workshop or office, from how you greet customers, to how the workshop should be left at the end of the day. Putting these in place allows all staff to know what’s expect- ed of them and the KPIs can measure their
success. Spink spent two days at ECCP helping Lew- is to understand and set up KPIs and SOPs.
Lewis said: “Melanie explained everything in terms I could totally un-
LEFT: Workshop proceedures are now set out visually, to standardise how it’s done.