Prater Body Works Plus, LLC, is located in Eldon, Missouri, a town of just 5,000 - close to major resort areas, many miles from any metropolis, and not on any major thoroughfare. The only dealership in town that has a larger body shop is the State Farm direct repair shop for the area. 

Franklin

As you can see, Prater's shop has a limited market to draw on for business, and yet Iva Prater, her husband David, her three sons Joey, Brad and Eric, and her son-in-law, Ken, all make a living from the shop. Iva is the one who works at keeping business coming into the shop. She and her husband have been in the body shop business since 1981. The shop has grown to eleven bays with four technicians, so she has obviously succeeded. How does she do it?

One strategy that has helped is having a towing service and a mechanical service along with the body shop. The automotive shop does diagnostic scanning, 3,000-mile service, transmission service, heating and cooling services, water pumps, alternators, starters, timing belts, four wheel alignments (with a Hunter System) and more. This allows them to do fleet maintenance and repair work for a number of local fleets. And it opens the door to doing body repairs for any of the fleet vehicles that get damaged.

When business gets slow

I first communicated with Prater in November 2005. The tourist season had come to an end and, as usual, business dropped off. To get things moving, Prater sent letters to 200 businesses, some with fleets as small as two or three vehicles. I suggested following up with a postcard to prospective customers with a before and after photo of some spectacular repair, plus a couple of good testimonials. She sent out 500 cards. She also writes a family-oriented newsletter that she sends out to more than 1,000 prior customers. And for a while she wrote a weekly column for a local newspaper. She distributed four dozen coffee mugs and wrote letters to insurance adjusters offering her facility as an independent place to do inspections.

This year high gas prices have reduced driving and therefore collision damages, so many shop owners tell me it has been a slower year than most. Prater has begun looking into even more novel ways of calling attention to her shop. One of her projects has been to look into delivering seminars for women drivers in her area. There have been numerous reports of women drivers being cheated by unscrupulous shop owners who take advantage of their lack of mechanical knowledge. Prater believes there is a market for women who want to know what to look out for when bringing their vehicle to a shop for mechanical or body work.

Prater knows that if a lady attends a seminar given by her, she will understand her car better and not get fooled by dishonest garage owners - and she will be likely to bring her car to Prater when she needs repairs.

Female customers, in particular, feel comfortable entering Prater Body Works via an inviting shaded entrance.

Help during a tragedy

Another avenue for generating business came about as a result of a local tragedy this year. Two teenagers were killed in automobile accidents. In a big city this would merit little attention, but in such a small town, everyone is shocked by two such tragic events. To acknowledge the seriousness of these events, the town put on a Safe Driving Day.

Prater offered her facility as one focal point for the event and I provided her with a 16-page booklet covering key driving safety topics like "Drowsy Driving Dangers," "Tailgating & Braking Safety," and ways to prevent children and pets from being killed in accidents. She was able to reproduce the booklet and distribute it to many people who attended the event (contact me if you're interested in reproducing the booklet for distribution).