800 Collision Repair Shops Closed in 2025.
Who's Next?
The collision market is shrinking, but most shops are still carrying the overhead they built when work was plentiful.
Repairable claims are shrinking. Total losses are rising. Labor, materials, equipment, insurance, software, and overhead all cost more.
Yet many independent shops are still operating with the expense structure they built when work was plentiful.
The question is no longer simply, “How do we grow?”
It is, “Can this business survive on fewer cars?”
The Financial Safety Net explains why the independent collision shop’s greatest advantage may not be size, certification, equipment, or DRP volume. It may be the ability to remain lean, control dependency, protect the skills that create revenue, and make better decisions about what belongs inside the business.
The Business Model That Worked Five Years Ago May Not Work For The Next Five
This Paper Helps Shop Owners Answer the Questions That Matter Now
- Can the business operate if a key technician, painter, estimator, or manager leaves?
- Does the owner understand the work well enough to evaluate, train, and step in?
- Which services genuinely belong under the shop’s roof?
- Which operations should be sublet rather than turned into another fixed cost?
- Is the shop building direct customer demand or relying primarily on insurer volume?
- Does every employee and expense contribute to revenue, quality, or customer retention?
- Can the business remain profitable with fewer repairs?
The paper provides a framework for:
Reducing dangerous payroll and operational dependency
Protecting the hands-on skills that create revenue
Evaluating ADAS, certification, equipment, and vendor investments
Separating genuine strategy from advice designed to sell another service
Building customer-pay and consumer-direct opportunities
Using automation to reduce administrative cost without weakening the craft
Creating employee training, accountability, and advancement systems
Deciding how to survive smaller rather than blindly chasing volume
Kristen Felder brings more than 30 years of experience across collision repair and insurance claims. Raised in a family body shop, she later worked as an adjuster, salvage coordinator, claims trainer, and claims manager before founding Collision Hub.
Her perspective connects both sides of the claim: the physical work required to repair the vehicle and the insurance processes that control payment, communication, documentation, and customer expectations.
The paper identifies the risks.
Our C-20 groups help you make the changes.
C-20 is a focused peer advisory and implementation group for collision repair businesses that want stronger insurance processes, more accurate estimating, better customer communication, and more disciplined business management.
Members do not simply listen to presentations. They bring real files, real estimates, real customer problems, real financial questions, and real operational decisions into the room.
The difficulty is deciding where to begin, knowing whether you are solving the right problem, and continuing the work after the urgency of today’s business takes over again.
That is why we created the C-20 groups.
