Are You Sure You Want To Learn Paintless Dent Repair?

A lot of people think they want to learn paintless dent repair but very few really know what its all about. In this article I'm going to try to lay out the truth about the pdr industry so you can understand exactly what it is you are getting yourself into before you have made a big investment and gotten in over your head.

The first thing you should understand is that the paintless dent repair industry is divided into to professions. While there is a fair amount of overlap between the two, they are definitely different disciplines. These two divisions are Door Ding Repair and Hail Damage Repair. While these two divisions share a lot of the same tools and techniques, they are quite literally, two different industries, both of which are extremely competitive.

The door ding business is usually set up as a local operation and almost always affords the technician the opportunity to be home every night. This business relies almost exclusively on wholesale work, primarily from car dealers and auctions, with some direct customer retail sprinkled in to sweeten the pot. The wholesale industry is dominated in most markets by large brokers that employ the individual technician and then expect them to maintain a quota level of production. They are often paid on a straight percentage of the gross they produce. This gives them incentive to sell hard to try to expand their production, thereby expanding their income.

Even though these technicians are out working with their noses on the trenches of the paintless dent removal industry, they have very little real freedom because they are usually working under one form of contact or another, all of which will contain a non-competence agreement that keeps them from actually doing anything on their own. Basically they have a regular job every day that requires them to be at a certain place at a certain time with a boss looking over their shoulder at their productivity but they don't have any of the security of a regular job because they are usually under contract as an independent contractor. If the are not an independent contractor but an employee, then they will have even less freedom. Of course, guys in that position aren't going to be paying for their own training anyway and won't ever make any kind of real money in the paintless dent repair industry.

The hail damage repair end of the pdr industry is almost the polar opposite of the door ding industry in many ways. The hail damage technician is almost never home when they are working. The old saying of, "gotta go where the work is", is particularly true for this industry. These days a good hail tech can easily travel the entire world repairing hail damage if they so desire. Even though hail storms and hail work are seasonal. This international aspect of the industry allows technicians to work as much as they want, even year round if they want to.

The hail repair industry is extremely volatile and offers virtually no guarantees from one season to the next. This can often result in a feast and famine tendency for new technicians who are still adjusting to the dent world but this uncertainty tends to also puts the profit margins significantly higher than the door ding industry. Where a door dent tech is proud of himself to make $500 in a day, a hail tech that made the same $500 would be on the cell phone looking for something else complaining that he was starving to death. It's all in perspective. It's not unusual for a hail damage repair tech to only work two to four month out of a year and be sitting at the house again waiting on next spring. This sounds terrible until you take into consideration that he quite probably made fifty to seventy five thousand dollars in those few months. The hail technician that has the ability to budget his money can find himself with quite a bit of flexibility.

The extreme money up for grabs in the paintless dent repair industry, both door dents and hail damage, have attracted a lot of less than trustworthy people to it. Some of these guys are just people that are broke and trying to make a big hit, others however, are absolute criminals and are only out to steal as much as they possibly can. The difficulty for someone new to the pdr industry is knowing who to trust and who not to trust. The fact is, you have to figure it out for yourself. Never get yourself into a financial situation with anyone that you can't survive being completely screwed over. Never stay on a job until you have to be paid before you ca afford to get home. Most importantly, never go out on a job if you can't afford to turn around and come back home the next day. (You would be amazed how often this happens.)

While the PDR industry is tough and very cut-throat, it is also conducive to developing some strong friendships and alliances while providing a very lucrative income opportunity. Now that the truth of the nasty underbelly of this business has been exposed for you, do you still want to learn paintless dent repair?

Yes, you say?


Good

Welcome to Learn Paintless Dent Repair

Welcome to Learn Paintless Dent Repair!

We are glad you finally found our site and hope you decide to stick around for a while. If you were toying with the idea of learning paintless dent repair but haven't quite made the jump, this site is just for you. We will be discussing all of the ins and outs of the pdr industry and everything that is required to learn it. Check back often as we guide you down the road to learn paintless dent repair.