New Website Launch For CCAR

Charlie Ayers, president of the Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair (CCAR), recently announced the launch of a new website for the group. CCAR currently serves hundreds of affiliates and thousands of users worldwide, and administers millions of automotive safety and hazmat tests each year. In this past fiscal year alone, which ended in September 2011, CCAR saw in excess of 4 million tests passed.

CCAR said the new website at www.ccar-greenlink.org provides for a much-needed facelift, a new platform allowing for ease of updating and the ability to provide greater access to information and product through blogs and other social channels.

The new site showcases CCAR’s "safe, clean and green" philosophy – so green in fact, that the website itself is hosted on servers that are powered by wind.

“It’s not just empty words about the environment for us here at CCAR,” said Ayers. “Wind turbines generate the power to run our website; and safety, cleanliness and care for our environment are at the core of our product offering, from automotive hazardous waste training to safety and pollution with our S/P2 training, to the actual awarding of ‘GreenLink Status’ to collision and automotive repair shops around the country.”

According to CCAR Executive Director Daren Fristoe, automotive repair and collision shops can apply to earn "GreenLink" shop status through CCAR and once approved, can display the designation to customers on counters, in windows and on their websites. "This has been shown to increase traffic and sales from environmentally conscious potential customers,” he added.

CCAR provides all the collateral material for display once a shop has earned the GreenLink status.

When Your Shop Is Worth Much More Than You Thought

Although every sale of a shop in which I am involved has its own unique set of circumstances, which makes my job both very interesting and very challenging, Cowden Automotive stands out as particularly memorable because I was able to demonstrate to the long-time owner, Paul Cowden, that his business was worth about three times what he had initially thought.

Case Study: Owner of San Francisco-based Import Service Shop Delighted to Discover Just How Valuable His Business is to Qualified Buyers
I sometimes share case studies of the clients I have been able to assist in my role as an aftermarket business broker and provider of intermediary and advisory services. I do that when I think the story will provide a reader in similar circumstances with new insights or helpful information.
In the case of Cowden Automotive, Inc., I acted in a consulting capacity assisting the owner and his broker in valuing the business, creating a marketing plan, finding a qualified buyer, and arranging financing for the sale.
Although every sale of a shop in which I am involved has its own unique set of circumstances, which makes my job both very interesting and very challenging, Cowden Automotive stands out as particularly memorable because I was able to demonstrate to the long-time owner, Paul Cowden, that his business was worth about three times what he had initially thought.
Needless to say, delivering that kind of good news to a shop owner is a rewarding experience. Discovering that the sale of his business would result in his retirement nest-egg being substantially larger than he had ever thought was a fitting tribute to someone who had spent his entire working career as a busy automotive service shop owner.

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