On Thursday, August 9th I will be hosting a panel discussion at the MSO Symposium at NACE. It will be a great event (as always) with some of the top thought leaders in the collision repair segment of the automotive aftermarket.
I’ll be hosting a panel discussion on the growing pains of building a multi – location business. It should be a great event, and I have a number of panelists that I have a ton of respect for that will be sharing their insights, challenges, and learnings from growing their businesses from small businesses to thriving multi-location organizations.
I’m still finalizing the list of panelists – if you think you’d like to participate in this discussion and you own and operate 4 or more locations hit REPLY.
I’ve had a whirlwind summer. I recently came back from Germany where I was one of a handful of keynote presenters at IBIS Worldwide. What a great opportunity it was to present to a global audience on consolidation and growth trend in North America. I have a ton of respect for the IBIS organization and the value they provide to the industry. You can see a recent video post I did summarizing the event here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6412329083396460544
At IBIS I talked quite a bit about the challenge of growth in an industry that is perceived by outsiders to be in decline due to the tidal wave of technology to be applied to vehicles in the coming years. Yet when you look at the data, frequency, severity, the size of the car park, and vehicle component prices (parts, paint, etc.) are all projected to increase substantially over the next 5 years.
Certainly there will be an impact from driverless and assisted driving technology in the medium to long term. But to date, no one has presented a thorough analysis of data that demonstrates a material impact over the next 60 to 120 months. That is quite a bit of runway. 2035 seems to be the year I most often hear referenced as a date to potentially be concerned about the negative impact of such technologies. A lot can happen in 20 years!
As a result, the unfortunate truth is that banks and other funding sources have shied away from the industry due to [mis]perceived risk. As a result, I have been very focused on building out offerings designed to bring resources and capital to this industry to support those that share my point of view that now is a great time to be in the industry.
I am particularly excited about our Growth Capital services. The Growth Capital arm of my business is designed to help you finance the growth and expansion of your business. The collision industry is undergoing a significant period of retooling and reinvestment and our Growth Capital division was created to help you finance your investment.
If you need to make a significant investment – an acquisition, the construction of a new location, the purchase of equipment – I want to work with you to ensure you get access to the capital you need to continue to grow and expand your business.
If you’re at NACE let’s connect in August. But if not, hit REPLY or give me a call. Our conversations are always confidential.