In order to make true strides in this industry of collision repair, you need to further your knowledge and stay ahead by capitalizing on trends not yet widely known or understood by other technicians in the industry.

You need to study and learn as much as you possibly can and make adjustments where needed. Learn from your past mistakes, be observant when watching others and continually strive to improve your techniques.

Applying yourself to your future opens doors to gaining much more work. As I’ve spoken about before, the industry is shifting and shifting fast. Aluminum is the new black and you need to make yourself fully aware of the differences this will mean to your personal business. If you are shrugging off the inevitable, then you are setting yourself up for failure.

Many body shops are making the changes needed to accommodate the changes and it may be in your best interest to see who is and go visit them. Get their ideas on where they are going with the changes and what they think it will mean to their future. I can’t imagine that they would kick you out because you are genuinely curious. Find out what the best time to stop by is and go and check it out.

Aluminum is the future so begin to focus in this direction. Some shops have been set up for quite a while because they only work on high-end cars, which means they have been dealing with the aluminum issues for a while. Even as far back as 2008 since that is when European cars such as the Mercedes S Class have been using aluminum paneling.