Social Networking and a Local Business

By the way, just celebrated our tenth year in business, kinda cool, kinda cool. But enough about me, what about this facebook twitter thingy? Not a day goes by that I don't get telemarketed for help or advertising with twitter and facebook. Fan pages, tweets, getting people to "like" my company and such are being touted as the single most important thing in the world to my company's survival and there's so many companies with their hands out to help me with this strategically important yet vague expenditure. My response has been to remove all links from my site to Twitter and Facebook and I stopped working our fan page on Facebook and will take it down as soon as I figure out how to do it. It's nobody's business if I'm working on your car, and I have no business trying to insert my company into your social fun. I love Facebook for keeping track of cousins, nieces and nephews and the occasional high school sweetheart, but if my clients want to share my business with someone, they can do it when THEY deem it appropriate, not from my advertising pressure. There's enough clutter in the world, I want to be more efficient. Thanks for ten great years, I hope to do this forever. EPA Update on Rule 6H Regarding 3 Ounce Cup Exemption

In summary, using a three ounce cup does not exempt you from rule 6H. For thos not paying attention, it means all paint must be sprayed inside an appropriate spray booth with appropriate equipment unless you are exempt through using non volotile organic compound materials, like I do at RECON Bumper and Dent Repair. For those paying attention, here's the letter from my supplier Recently there has been a “clarification” concerning NESHAP 6H Rule, also known as the 3oz Cup Rule which affects many mobile paint vendors throughout the country. I have done my best to summaries the changes as well as providing links to the actual EPA documentation. This a link to the actual rule , you can read this if you like, but it essentially says you can’t spray paints containing certain heavy metals outside of a spray booth along with a variety of other details. There is an exception to parts of this rule which states that if you spray from a gun with a cup size less than 3oz, you could avoid this part of the regulation. Our industry pretty much took off with this and the paint gun manufacturers even developed 3oz cups and that, from most people’s perspective, made this rule irrelevant. A group called the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) asked for a clarification of the 3oz cup usage from the EPA, as the rule was interpreted to allowing a painter to fill his 3oz cup numerous times which from standpoint of the SCRS seemed to circumvent the rule. The EPA recently issued a statement in agreement with the SCRS and now clearly states that the use of a 3oz cup does not allow for an exemption to the ruling and the refilling of a 3oz cup circumvents the 6H rule allowing them to bring enforcement action. Basically this means that if you refill your 3oz cup then you are violating the law and are subject to being fined. Here is a link to a summary of this from bodyshopbusiness.com which contains a link to the response from the EPA In June of 2009 Paint Bull made the transition from Solvent based to Waterbased Paint which would allow our customers to claim a complete exemption from the 6H rule and also become compliant with Rule 1151 which has become known as the California Waterbased rule. While the 6H Rule is concerned with Heavy Metals, Rule 1151 is concerned with VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). One of the best explanations of the history of this rule along with a great FAQ’s section from the major paint manufactures can be found at: Waterborne FAQ This is a very interesting read, and I highly recommend it. Our long term belief is that eventually the entire country will accept this 1151 Rule, the article lists the 19 states that are expected to soon adopt this ruling. Paint Bull is committed to providing our customers with the ability to comply with these Rules in the best way possible, which we are still convinced, is by the application of Waterbased Paints.

 

SEO, A Small Business Owner's Perspective

Beware the Parking Lot Repairer

So you have some damage on your car and haven't fixed it yet. One of these days in a parking lot someone is going to offer to repair it. Fifty dollars? $100? Who knows what it costs, but if they do a lousy repair, what's your recourse? Check online reviews, customer referrals and check to see if they have a license and certifications to perform the repair. This Cadillac in the pictures was repaired for $50, but after it peeled the paint, it cost an additional $100 to repair what they had done before I could do our repair. Look before you leap.

 

SEO, A Small Business Owner's Perspective