Paintless dent repair (PDR) is a relatively cost effective business to start. Your most expensive investment at the beginning will be the tools and training. I will show you later in this article how to save thousands of dollars in tool costs at the beginning of your career.
ON A SIDE NOTE: Research the snot out of training schools before you go anywhere to train, as this will be one of the largest upfront costs and if you end up going to the wrong school, you will have flushed however much you spent down the drain.
TRAINING:
Travel to and from school of choice. $250.00- $750.00
Lost income during training. Varies
Lodging and expenses during training. $250.00-$750.00
Cost of training. $950.00-$10,000.00
Cost of tools. $750.00-$2,500.00
Business Registration. $100.00
Marketing materials. $100.00-$300.00
As you can see the cost for starting a PDR business ranges from $2,500.00 up to $15,000.00. Not bad at $2,500.00. I can show you how to cut that cost even lower.
PDR SCHOOLS AND TOOLS
Most schools want to sell you on whatever they believe will sell you into their training session. ie: We have the best tools, you need two weeks hands on training, the instructor is everything, etc etc. So they will get you to believe that it is what THEY have to offer that will make you a good PDR tech. NOT TRUE! You will be a good PDR tech based on several variables, but the most important is you. So if your deadset on training, because you believe you can learn PDR, you must choose your school based on what you can afford. I personally had less than 12 hours of over the shoulder instruction. But I was committed to becoming great at PDR, and did so.
The key to saving money here is find a PDR tech in your area, ask him/her if you can shadow them for a week. Tell them you will pay them $500.00 each week you are with them. Then ask them a ton of questions as you are out and about with them. Ask them about their training, how they learned, what techniques taught them the quickest. Learn that way first.
The key to saving money on tools is this: DON'T BUY THEM! You need to be sure that after you train you can genuinely see you have what it takes to learn PDR. You need a PDR light, 2-3 tools and a tapdown. That's it. Practice the thing the PDR tech showed you and you will see within a week whether or not you should follow through with PDR training.
If you go to a school, tell them you do not want to purchase a toolset until you have completed training. Why spend that money until you can see your improvement. Then buy the beginners set. As you progress in PDR skill, buy additional tools.
If you follow the instructions posted here you could save yourself 15,000 dollars! Do it. Save money.
