Owners of independent mechanical and collision repair shops are busy — they are typically hands on owner-operators who are heavily involved in day-to-day operations. However, because they spend a good part of their day working on cars, they often aren’t as focused as they should be on the “business” side of operating their business.
That’s a situation that a new association in New York City hopes to remedy. The New York City Auto Repair Association (NYCARA), which launched at the beginning of the year, is a non-profit group that wants to create a community of repair professionals, while also providing educational resources to help owners run their businesses better.
The group was formed by Paul Stern, owner of auto equipment distributor LIFTNOW, and Paul Stern, Jr., head of marketing and business development at the company.
The association grew out of conversations that LIFTNOW had with its customers in the region. “Especially in the independent repair world, we’re seeing a gap between the increasing complexity of vehicles and the increasingly competitive landscape as dealerships beef up their service offerings, and the need for knowledge and education among independent repairers,” Stern Jr. says.
“Independent shops want to catch up to the rest of the world and remain competitive so they can service these new vehicles and bring in new customers,” Stern Jr. added.
Stern, Jr. says that the group hope to bring together professionals from every segment of the independent repair market, including professionals, students, and technicians. The primary focus of the group will be mechanical shops, but they are also targeting collision shops for membership as well.
“As insurance companies begin to pay for different repair services, and as new procedures are established that weren’t there a few years ago, the line between mechanical and collision continues to get blurred,” Stern Jr. says. “We are mechanical first, though. The collision shops are well served by the collision associations in our area, but there isn’t an association for the independent and mechanical world that is auto-repair first.”
NYCARA will serve New York’s five boroughs, as well as Long Island and Westchester. The group will provide educational content (including events and seminars) targeted at management, space and lease constraints, competitive issues, and insurance laws.
“We had an interest meeting in early January,” Stern Jr. says. “A lot of mechanical guys are owner operators and are overloaded with work, so getting them away from the shop to demonstrate the value of an association is the first hurdle we’re facing. We’ve reached out to other associations in the area, and we’re trying to model our membership efforts after what they’ve done. The mechanical world is different, and there seems to be less of a wealth of knowledge out there than there is in the collision sector. That’s where we see the opportunity for the association.”
The group is working with other local repair organizations (including the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers and the Long Island Auto Body Repairmen’s Association) to build membership, learn best practices, and establish its niche in providing resources for underserved segments of the repair industry in the region.
“Our mission is to empower these auto repairers to run their businesses better and in my mind that starts with education, events and resources, and extends to putting together a good benefits package and establishing industry partners,” Stern Jr. says. “We also want to provide marketing assistance and hiring assistance. The most common ting we hear as an equipment distributor is that these shops are struggling to find and retain good help, and there are no resources out there to help them with that.”
Stern Jr. expects membership development efforts to pick up again in the fall. For shops interested in joining NYCARA, visit the group’s website (www.nycara.org), call (917) 522-5912, or email [email protected].
