Tinting For Car Dealerships

Are you ready to work for the main car dealers in your area? Because  if you're not ready - you'll make a fool out of yourself.

The First thing you need to have before you try and attract the main car dealerships to use you for their car window tinting is you need confidence, it's no good just doing the week long training course and thinking your the next big rockstar in the car window tinting world!

You need to take your time, get your skills together, keep practising, do some jobs the free and you need to do this for as long as it takes until you're ready to take on the work and the volume that a main dealer can give to you.  Don't just be tempted to go in there and try and win the business purely on the price, we can all be busy fools if we're not careful, so going there with the attitude that you're going to earn good money from the work you are doing should be at the forefront of your mind.

It really does depend where in the world you are as to how you you will approach this, I know for a fact and lots of states in America, the main dealerships will preload the work. This means that there will already tint the windows on around 70% of the cars before they are even sold, as they know most customers will choose this option when they're ordering the car.
So the dealership is already well versed in the car window tinting business, and lots of them will have in-house window tinters working for them on a full time basis.

These are the car dealerships you should avoid! They'll be paying a low price per car already, will most likely be using an electronic plotter to cut out the film and have a big deal going with the film manufacturers. So don't think you can go in there with your low ball price and get the jobs because it won't work.

You need to search in your location for the smaller car dealerships, maybe the ones who specialise in a low volume brand, these are the guys that you should approach initially, offer to do them a free installation, it has been proven that everybody wants something for nothing, so offer them something for free. With all this being said, don't go piling in there when you've got no experience, or you haven't got the required skills, because you dont want to make a mess of the job and give yourself a bad name, sit tight work hard keep practising, and you'll make it, then the rewards will come.

I think the secret to success, is to not run before you can walk. I know lots of window tinters who after just a couple of months think they are the best in the west, when in fact they produce  very poor work but don't know it... Maybe in a few years time, they will look back and realise just how much their work has improved and how bad as it was when they first started out.

Tinting For Car Dealers

And, one more thing..Keep It Legal !

Get more info on car window tinting training at http://www.carwindowtintingtraining.com/

Read more

The Ultimate Guide To Dot Matrix Part 2

In the last post we discussed dot matrix, I mentioned about the thickness of the film and how this can affect the look of the dot matrix after the window has been tinted, and the method used to shrink the film has a big impact again on the finished look.

BMW Dot Matrix Problem!

So in this article now I will talk about a few things that can have a positive effect on how the dot matrix looks, one option after you've tinted the  windows is to heat of the dot matrix and try and dry that area of the film out more and then apply some pressure with a hard card wrapped in a cotton cloth or using a piece of blue max squeegee, you can then apply pressure to the heated film.Using this method, you heat the film for about 6-8 seconds over an area around 6 inches constantly moving the heat gun  backwards and forwards you will see the matrix area change  its state slightly, this is the time when you need to remove the heat and apply pressure with your hard card or piece of blue max squeegee. You need to be very careful doing this, you can burn the rubber trims that are close to the dot matrix, or  you can even cause the film to blister as you have used too much heat.

This method really does take some testing to establish how much heat you can give the film before it blisters,one thing you can do once you get the dotmatrix ready to push down into place, is the spray some  cold water on the glass, you may see some smoking or steaming at this point is the glass cools, you then push hard with your hard card or piece of Blue Max squeegee push the film down and almost embed into the dot matrix area.The effect here is that you will improve the look of the dot matrix dramatically, by pushing the film into the heated dot matrix area that white silvery look that is common to see on a lot of vehicles which have tinted windows, will almost look like a factory tinted glasses if you get this method correct.

 NOTE:- Be careful when heating the matrix and cooling with water, their in an extremely low risk of glass fracture but you have been warned!!

The next time you tint some windows allow the film to dry for a  while before you practice this method, it does take some trial and error to establish the timings that work for you and each film responds differently to this method so this is just one of the things you can do to improve the look of the matrix and elevate the quality of finish of your car window tinting

 Another area of dot matrix is a big problem but not just car window tinters, but for customers as well, is the big band of dot matrix at the top of some vehicles on the back window.Common vehicle that causes a problem for a lot of window tinters is the BMW 3 series, this vehicle has a deep dot matrix at the top of the back window that is around three or 4 inches deep, I'll discuss now a few ways of dealing with this area of the glass.

 One method that is used on these type of windows is the sanding method, I'm not a big fan of this method but have tried it a few times over the years, you need to sand the matrix very carefully using 1000 grade wet and dry paper,be careful when sanding this area as if you stray onto the clear glass you will scratch the glass, it may be advisable to apply some masking tape to the top of the screen just below the dot matrix area.Sand the matrix in  even strokes and wipe off any black residue that may come from the matrix, I'm talking here about sanding with a wet sounding method, when the matrix is ready you should find you have no more black residue coming off the dots.Really clean the dots well after you have sanded them using an alcohol solution like IPA or Dirt Off which is a Llumar product.If the dots are not clean then you will spoil the look of the installation as the cleanliness means the film will stick very well to the dotted area.

 Another more popular method of dealing with this dotted area is to use Glue, install the film in the normal manner and squeegee out all the water, then peel back with film from the dot matrix area and apply a thin bead of glue along the bottom row of dots.You need to make sure you use a water-based glue,  a popular choice of glue is Elmers Blue school gel. (This is available in America,  I have yet to find it in the UK, but their are plenty of water based glues available) . What you need to do after applying the glue, is using a MacTac squeegee or a regular hard card with a piece of tissue wrapped around it, push slowly in upwards direction and push the glue through the dotted area, you may see some glue come out of the top of the film and this is quite normal, if you push too hard you will push all the glue out and defeat the object of the procedure, so push gently as what you are doing here is replacing the air and water that is trapped in the dotmatrix area with the glue, it is a good idea to have somebody stand on the outside of the vehicle watching those you work,  they can tell you if you miss any areas and don't leave any  patches, this method works great but like everything else with car window tinting it takes practice,.

 That's all for now for this part of the dot matrix trilogy, next time I'll talk about dry dropping and using an alcohol mix makes to  improve the dot matrix.

Read more

Don't Let Dot Matrix Get You Down

Extra Work Needed To Fix Matrix

Hate it or HATE IT!!!!! Dot Matrix is here to stay... if you are not sure what it is, go and take a look at your car windows, on a lot of cars nowadays you will see that where the clear glass meets the black part of the glass, you will see a dotted edge at the point these two areas meet - This is called Dot Matrix.

This dot matrix area is something that window tinters the world over hate..in fact, I dont know of anybody who is in the window tinting game who has a good word to say for it!
So why the big downer on Dot Matrix...firstly, it is one obvious sign to the customer who has had their windows tinted that the windows may not look like factory tinted glass, they can see the silvery appearance that ocours on this part of the glass, and no matter how clean you have carried out the installation, they will look at this and think.."They have not done a proper job!"

Listen...dot matrix is something you can deal with as part of the installation, but at a cost to the customer!
I always show them a car with normal matrix and say that you may have a silver appearance on this area of the glass, let them get any objections out of the way early, before you have done the work, if they sound like they are not impressed with the look of the dot matrix, then offer them a solution, tell them that you can do the extra work involved in making the dot matrix look better, but at a price. It may take an hour extra to go around all the dots and heat them down into position, this is a pain in the aas job!...i know some installers who do this off the bat, but if they are not charging for their time taken to do this - it's their loss.

One option is to tell the customer to push down the matrix in a week, some tint shops tell the customer to bring the car back in a week and they can take a look, I thinks its better to show them how, when you push the wet dot matrix down with your thumb, it looks better, if you invite every customer to come back after a week i think you will regret it! You will have them visiting you on a regular basis then, thinking they are not doing it right...dont go down that road unless you really want to!

I wil be posting some tips in the next article on how to improve the look of your dot matrix, you need a few different approaches depending on the type of windows you are tinting.

Get more window tinitng tips here.

Keep tuned.

Read more

Marketing When Times Are Tough Part 2

Hey guys, we're having some good feedback on this blog lately and thanks if you're one of those who pops in regularly to view my posts, it's nice to be appreciated!! Please leave a comment and if I feel it's relevant I will happily approve it, if it's spam and you are trying to just abuse my generosity then kiss my ***!!

Our last post dealt with marketing your business when times are tough, I hear lots of stories about people who have so many customers they don't know where to turn, and the biggest stress is managing the work load. But, trust me its not the same for everybody, if you're in a small town or a sleepy area you may have to work a lot harder to generate business than the big boys in the big cities

So that's we said last time in our previous article, you need to look at your overheads, reduce your cost base to a minimum, maybe look further and seek collaboration and work from somewhere with a low overhead, or even your own garage!!

I must say that working from my own garage would not suit me personally,it would be a problem as I am not in a big town with a good population and people may not willing to come to my home, but it is a brilliant business model for car window tinting, low overheads from working at home, high profits with low material cost is a a great business solution.

But, alas that's not for everybody so you may have to look at the alternatives and in this article want to talk about how you can optimise and engage with your customers in an automatic way.

How about this one, you could use an auto responder, that's an e-mail system that sends out an automatic e-mail when it receives an input from a customer. You could set up a predetermined e-mail to go to the customer when he fills out a contact form with a check box on your website, for example, please give me a price for a four door saloon car, you could have a specific e-mail that is sent to the customer depending upon what they select from the check box, an SUV window tint , a hatchback, a saloon vehicle, would all send a different e-mail with a different price. If the customer doesn't buy it from you, you could automatically after a predetermined amount of time, say three days, send them a follow up e-mail offering them a slight discount or incentive to buy from you, if they still dont buy, send another one of them even better deal, this can be done automatically with no intervention from yourself, how good is that!

Think about automation...it's a great time saver and makes you look efficient with your marketing!!


I wil update this post next few days with a link to my chosen auto responder system, it's worth checking out, plus they have a free one dollar trial so why not give it a try.

Marketing For Tint Shops

Read more

Marketing Your Business When Times Are Tough Part 1

Yeh, its tough out there!!

Operating a small business in a recession is no fun...and if you dont keep a handle on things, before you know it your flood of customers could become a trickle and leave you in a mess!

Ok I am no expert on business mastery, but lets say I have done it for real, not like some of these business gurus who spout all the crap and pretend to help other people, and profit from their mis-fortune sometimes!

Anyway, I'm rambling, lets get back on track.

If you are finding business tough right now, get used to it!!..because I dont think things are changing anytime soon!

You must take a good hard luck at the situation and that starts with your fixed costs.

It's all well and good having a nice shiny business, but if you are getting little custom then you need to change things and thats starts with looking for a way out of this situation and try and think about how you can reduce your monthly overheads.

The answer is collaboration!

I say take your business to your customers, target the motor dealers in your area and offer an on-site service, you will be using their facilities and utilities and giving them a top notch service on their own doorstep. I think this is the best business model for tint shops when times are tough! 

You may need to brush up on your pattern making and adapting your techniques for mobile as it is really a different ball game so expect a few issues with quality when you first start doing mobile tinting.

Get Social

You MUST harness the power of social media and make this your best friend. The viral aspect and sharing of your status updates can be a real driver for new business. Make offers that can be redeemed by your customers, try and engage the customer with pics of cars, make videos showing your skills and even video testimonials from your customers...you can shoot and publish videos direct from your smartphone and have it online in a few minutes.

Offer one free window tint installation a month for people who like and share your business page and make sure to visit facebook.com/username and set the username for your business so you can use it properly in your marketing.

Gotta go now, to do some status updates to get my buzz going for this week!

Watch this video to see how you should be doing it and the time needed to make it work!

I can help you with your car window tinting seo

  

Read more

Panels On 'V' Panels Off When Car Window Tinting

Depending on which side of the water you are (USA/Europe) you may well never have come across the installation method of installing the film in one shot as opposed to installing the top half of the film and raising the glass then installing the bottom half.

 I would not like to guess at the figures but in Europe, I reckon at least 75% of installation on doors are done in this way, as opposed to the USA where more like 90% are installed in the half and half method. So today i will focus on the bottom loading method and why its popular in Europe.

 1. Out of the USA, lots of car window tinters like to give the perfect finish to the top edge of the door glass, this is easier to achieve with the bottom load method, you can install the film, do your bit and let it dry, then come back to it after you have completed the rest of the installation, then the edges of the window can be filed to a perfect finish. This is the preferred method over the micro edge and has become the standard in many parts of the world.

 2. Olfa Shaving is another method for getting the ultimate edge finish, this is a hard technique to master and you will be pulling your hair out until you get the method down but perseverance here will be well worth the struggle. With the shaving method you can even shave the edge when it's still wet, whereas with filing the edge needs to be dry to get the best finish.

 3. One other benefit of the bottom load method is that you don't tend to get pinch marks at the side of the film like you can get with the half and half method and this is a big factor in why this method is popular. The video below shows bottom loading and shaving with the olfa blade.

Read more

Benefits Of Car Window Film

If you are wondering if tinting your cars windows is the right thing to do please read on, in this article I will be discussing the ideas that never came to your mind when window tinting. As you may know there are many benefits from having your car windows tinted. One that you may never have thought of is the fact that when you apply the car window tinting you will be fighting global warming. That is right, this is because when the window film is in place you will have a cooler car. This allows you to use less energy to cool the car on hot days. This reduction in energy also provides a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Great isn’t it?

If you thought that was great, there are more benefits as well. What about safety? The film used in car window tinting will help to ensure the window does not separate and shatter if you ever get into a collision. Yes, people take auto glass for granted and don't realise that tempered car glass when broken will shatter into small pieces, but with the window film installed will give you another layer of protection in this instance.

When the car window tint is applied to the window, the product will use quality adhesive. This ensures the likeliness of the glass shattering drops drastically. This means that when you get this product installed into your car you will be improving the overall safety rating of your car to ensure that you and your passengers are as safe as possible while in your vehicle.

Something that has become a major player in many people’s eyes is the subject of skin cancer. Many who spend a lot of time in cars will know that the prolonged exposure to the sun can cause many problems. In the sunny climates all over the world this is even more prevalent. Many people know that if you go out into the sun you wear sunscreen. However, this is not so when people think about driving. This lessened use of sunscreen in automobiles can cause problems. Car window tinting can help to reduce the exposure of the harmful UV rays that have been proven to cause cancer. This means that you do not have to worry as much about your exposure levels.
On top of your skin thanking you for this, your car will as well. The extended exposure of the UV rays from the sun on the inside of the car cause the parts to dull and lose their new look. It can also make leather crack. The window tinting is yet another layer of protection you can add to your car’s interior to reduce these risks.

Then you get to another reason that many people already know. Car window tinting will increase the level of privacy within your car. This means that people will not be able to look into your back seat and see what is there. If a potential thief does not know what is in the cab of your car you will lessen the chance of becoming a target. This safety precaution is good not only for the items in the car, but your car’s windows as well.

Read more

Removing Door Panels When Window Tinting

A quick guide to door trim removal when car window tinting.

Once your are fresh off your car window tinting training course and are ready to rock the world with your car window tinting skills you will most likely come across your first brick wall. That will be leaning to remove door panels to get your window film applied.

Some guys have the experience from work they have done in the past, maybe they used to do mechanical work or vehicle glazing and door trim removal is easy...but if you have never done any door trim removal, then you will have a learning curve ahead of you for sure in your quest to become a car window tinting ninja.

Many newbies who start out fresh will come up against many problems and door trim removal will probably be the toughest  to get their head around.
Here I recommend you start to use some of the car window tinting forums or seek the help of a mentor, the latter is easier said than done, as people who have worked hard to get the knowledge dont want to share it with the new kid on the block.
My advice is start off being friendly with other forum members, dont try and make out you are "The Bomb" when quite clearly you are not as you will get shot down in flames pretty quickly.

Ok, lets get back on topic, door panel removal, in most cases it will not be required to remove the full door panel, on lots of cars you can just pop the top of the door panel back and using a special hook tool, catch hold of the rubber moulding or rub rail at the top of the door, when this rubber trim is removed, you can install the film a little lower down in the door and stop any chance of the film peeling from the bottom upwards. This technique is good for lots of cars, I use it on some BMW's, Audis, Fords, Renaults and a host of others.

You need to equip yourself with some essential door trim removal tools like trim pullers and special clip tools but i think the most useful set of tools will be a set of Bojo trim tools, these are a set of plastic wedges which can be used without damaging any trim and are perfect for sliding between two plastic surfaces that need to be seperated or for exposing trim clips that run down the side of the door.

Next Time - How To Market Your New Car Window Tinting Business






Read more

Mobile Car Tinting For Customer Convenience

I know this might be a strange topic for this blog but over the last 10 years of tinting cars I have had my fair share of female customers and I used to make a point of asking them why they chose to come to my business over going to one of my competitors. Always engage the customer at every opportunity without coming across as a smart ass, they don't like that. Try and build some confidence that you are the best person for the job and use your sales spiel to get the sale.

Be respectful: yeh, I think if my wife read this blog she would disagree and say I don't respect women enough…especially her!!, but if you want to close the deal and get the car window tinting job on their car then you have to respect them. They may not have the knowledge of some of the male customers, they may not have done any research into the subject or let you know they want an nano-ceramic non reflective film at 15% transparency but they do want window tinting from you all the same.

Talk a good job: One of the things I hear about from female customers is that some of my competitors will not give them the time of day, just like all other sales enquiries, take the 5 minutes or whatever it takes to ask the right questions, one of the best ways to close the sale is to focus on the benefits that car window film will bring to the rear seat passengers, and that's most likely going to be Kids. So sell on the heat rejection benefits of the film and how much protection it can offer. For more info on the benefits of car window film see this blog post from last week.

Marketing for Girls: Your sales message you deliver via your marketing materials can attract a varied audience and you will find that pitching your products to women is a good thing, a lot of the time they will control the purse strings and will make the buying decisions in the household. Poor old hubby is out at work all day and she may be doing lunch with the girls and keep her happy and she will happily gab to her lunch companions that you are the go-to guy for window tinting in your area.

You may need specific marketing pieces that target both male and female audience, do a little bit of market research with your female customers and just ask the question - "what made you choose us today"? - I am sure you will be surprised by some of the answers you will receive, store these in the mental marking bank - your brain, or write them down so you can be better equipped for your next marketing piece - its always nice to score with the girls and if you can make some nice money at the same time - double bonus!

My friend Richard over at Car Tinting Melbourne offers a mobile car tinting service to customers, and lots of ladies like this service, as they sometimes feel intimidated in a male workshop environment and his service offers the personal touch combined with convenience.

You can see his website at http://cartintingmelbourne.com.au/

Read more

Tinting A Curved Rear Window

Quick and Dirty Tips For Dealing With Curved Windows

Curvature is one of the things you will learn to deal with early on in your car window tinting career, if you have undergone any sort of formal training, you will no doubt have spent the first few days of your training heat shrinking rear windows. I remember back to my first training session, the instructor grabed a window from a Renault clio, which at the time was one of the most difficult rear windows to shrink, he was just showing off basically that he could shrink the film in a few minutes, I was pretty blown away when i saw that to be honest.

I spent a good 2 days powder shrinking windows with talc, that was the technique we used and i continued powder shrinking for at least another 5 years, now I use a different method using Soap, but if I had to go back to using that damn powder shrink method I would not be a happy bunny. You can see my previous post on soap shrinking here. Although I found that I could shrink curved windows OK with powder but once I migrated to soap shrinking, the time taken when it came to heat shrinking pretty much halved overnight.

So what are the differences between the 2 methods?
When powder shinking, you use the powder to stop the film from sticking to the glass,  the powder sort of allows the film to float on the layer of powder and when you shrink the film with the heatgun, it doesnt stick to the glass.

The technique for powder shrinking is completely different to soap shrinking, when you powder shrunk, you still anchor the film in the 'H' pattern but then use a small circular motion with the heatgun as you flow left and right and dont focus so much on the fingers in the film like you would when wet shinking., it takes time to shrink a complete window, I would say around 20 minutes when you are a beginner, and thats for a fairly standard window, then you must perform a wet check, here you flush the powder out from under the film and smooth the film out with your hands, be careful as if you have'nt shrunk the film well, you may get a crease at this point.

With the soap shrink method, you tend to shrink a larger area of film at one time, not the small circles like when powder shrinking, and there is no need for a wet check either, as when you use a hard card with a felt edge, you can pin the film to the glass and make the film like a tight skin, you will get far fewer fingers popping up on the inside when you install the film. I just wish i discovered soap shrinking earlier in my carerre, the guys that are coming into the game now have it easy if they get a good trainer, one who taches tinting with door panels in place and soap shrinking. You can find out more on soap shrinking here.

When dealing with extreme curvature on back windows you may need to learn another technique as powder shrinking has it's limts and although I find you can do some pretty urved windows in soap, you will need to learn the Lift & Pull technique. this is a mix of wet shrinking and pulling, you need to leave the film longer than normal as you will need to pull the film by hand, i will try and find a video of the lift and pull method as a video can explain it better than I can.

Forgot to mention - to the guy who is using my articles and passing them off as his own, I am onto you! I dont write articles for you to rank your own site with!

Read more

Join Our Free Webinar!

Why not check out our new webinar, if you are interested in the car window tinting business and want a few pointers before you go and sink any real money into tools , this 15 minute webinar will run through some of the tools you need to buy to get started. Sign up below for access.

Read more