Page 4 - Australasian Paint & Panel Jul-Aug 2020

Editorial
4
PAINT&PANEL
JULY / AUGUST 2020
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
EDITOR
Sam Street
(02) 9213 8334 samstreet@yaffa.com.au NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Lynette Rochford
(02) 9213 8331
0407 241 554 lynetterochford@yaffa.com.au ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Michelle Liebenberg
(02) 9213 8302 Michelleliebenberg@yaffa.com.au PUBLISHER
Helen Davies
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Ana Heraud
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Ana Heraud
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Member Circulations Audit Board
GRATITUDE
AND ATTITUDE
G
in
RATITUDE AND ATTITUDE ARE NOT
challenges; they are choices.” Autobody repair is not a glamorous dustry but I think everyone read-
ing this must be grateful that it is an es- sential industry. 'Glamorous' airline pi- lots, actors, musicians, film directors and just about everyone connected with the travel industry have been decimated by the business conditions necessitated by coronavirus. Yes it’s been tough for the collision repair industry but almost all of you are still here and doing more than just treading water.
I’ve been so impressed by the pragmat- ic attitudes of so many repairers I have been speaking with during lockdown and beyond. You could have thrown your hands up in despair but instead seized downtime as an opportunity to improve business processes, refurbish parts of the business, train, refine business plans, ex- pand – in short, invest time taking posi- tive steps to ensure you will emerge as better businesses with better teams. One repairer in Melbourne, who relies on rent- al companies for a significant chunk of his income, has still invested in a recali- bration system because he is constantly thinking of ways to streamline and
improve his business and has confidence in the future. Steve O’Brien from iBody- shop reports that during April to July 62 more shops signed up and that he was in- undated with calls from people on how to get more out of the system. I-CAR reports a healthy uptake of people accessing on- line training courses. You have quickly adapted to new working conditions and ways of interacting with customers.
Yes, the situation is far from over and what has happened in Melbourne could happen in other states, but just take a moment to reflect on what you have achieved in incredibly challenging cir- cumstances and maybe allow yourself a pat on the back.
While I’m frankly gutted that I won’t doing the Paint & Panel awards judging in person this year, I’m also grateful that we will be able to digitally judge more businesses than we usually do given all the travel we won’t be undertaking. In the meantime keep up with the great at- titude and remember the gratitude.
Sam Street – Editor
You’ll be seeing our smiling faces over zoom for ultimate social distancing.