Shop Profile: Little Red's Auto Collision/Glass

Name: Little Red’s Auto Collision/Glass
Location: San Leandro, Calif.
Size: 10,000 sq. ft.
Volume: 15 repairs per month
Revenue: $700,000 annual revenues
Employees: 8

In the late 1980s, Muhawich, the son of a working-class father who emigrated from the Middle East, was working as a San Francisco parking lot attendant. He became friends with a co-worker who in 1988 started a body shop, also in San Francisco, with his stepfather. Muhawich had worked in a body shop as a teenager and began to help out informally at his friend’s shop, sometimes working on high-end paint jobs for wealthy car owners whom the friends had met through their parking work.

Steep rents forced the San Francisco shop, which was named Little Red’s Auto Body, to close down for six months in 1996. But the next year Muhawich borrowed money from his family to invest in his friend’s business—and a new location. The shop opened 25 miles away in San Leandro and retained its name but continued without the stepfather. In spite of the move, the business continued to struggle. “We were repairing fleet vehicles, rental cars, post office vehicles just to get by,” says Muhawich. “When we were able to pick up something better, we went ahead and took it. We were buying and selling spray booths and equipment to other body shops. Whatever we made on equipment, we put toward the shop.”

By late 1998, Muhawich says, his partner wanted out and took another job. “But I had borrowed money and felt ‘You don’t just walk away,’” Muhawich says. While the partners resolved ownership issues that eventually left Muhawich as sole proprietor, Muhawich’s brother came to work in the shop and helped turn the business around. The company lost some fleet business when his partner left, but Muhawich was able to get most of the clients back.

An important break came in 1999 when the business, by then known as Little Red’s Auto Collision/Glass, got its first direct repair program. “I called around and had to market the company and explain what equipment we had and what kind of person I was,” says Muhawich. “I would get hold of the insurance companies and ask who I should be in contact with. There were people who listened—and some that didn’t give you a chance to speak.” Little Red’s is now on four DRP programs, which generate about 90 percent of the company’s business.

One of the factors that helped persuade insurance companies to put Little Red’s on their DRP programs, Muhawich says, was the shop’s I-CAR Gold status, which the company obtained in 1999. I-CAR training, he says, is “very good—it always has something to make the process easier, and this business is completely a learning process.” 

The DRP programs helped Little Red’s turn the corner. “By 2001, I realized we had finally made it,” Muhawich says, adding that the business is now self-sustaining and has grown to have eight employees.

Muhawich shares his current goals for the company. “I’m trying to build a really good reputation and to be highly professional,” he says, “and I’d like to get more DRPs to look at me.” Although customer satisfaction index scores consistently run above 90 percent on the most important question—“Would you refer a friend?”—Muhawich also wants to improve on delivery time.

In addition, he would like to land some dealership accounts—and he continues to explore new training opportunities for his people, such as schools specific to certain vehicle manufacturers. Training, he says is “a huge plus for the employee and for the shop—you’re making people become even more professional.”

Noting that he continues to put in long hours, Muhawich says, “It’s still a struggle, but it’s easier than it was. At times I get frustrated, but good things have started to come my way.”