Family body shop spawns two spin-off enterprises

Father, daughter and son team operate trio of Wisconsin collision repair-related businesses

Members of the Goff family owners of Goff s Auto Body Inc., have gone the same route as some of America's favorite TV shows-they've mastered the art of the spin-off Just as the 11-year run of "Happy Days" spawned the hit show "Laverne and Shirley" as well as hosted the first appearance of Mork of"Mork and Mindy" fame, Goff's Auto Body has launched two spin-offs in the autobody repair industry.

Founded in 1968 by Bob Goff in Pewaukee, Wis., Goff's Auto Body Inc. started out as a small, four-car garage that helped Bob exercise his talents as a hobbyist painter.The revenue from the shop helped him build his business and his family Five kids and 30 years later, Goff had amassed 13,600 sq. ft. of shop space and was looking to open another facility in nearby Waukesha,Wis. He turned to his daughter Angie for help.

As a child, growing up in a house across the street from her father's body shop,Angie spent a lot of time in the shop but never envisioned herself working there. "My father worked long hours and if I wanted to spend time with him, I would have to go across the street to see him. He would give us projects to do with the leftover paints. But I didn't ever think I would be in the body shop business," she recalls. During high school and college she cleaned the shop's office to earn spending money but that was the extent of her involvement-until after college.

Things came full circle for Angie after she finished graduate school with a degree in business law from San Diego State University. After selling used computer equipment while she was in school,Angie decided she liked the potential of her father's business and wanted to have a hand in its growth. She also liked the business' shift from a hobby-oriented facility to a profit-oriented operation, and she signed on as operations manager.

The shop's growth made opening another shop imminent, and one of the defining issues was whether Angie wanted to take on the responsibility of running a second shop. She welcomed the addition.

"My dad wouldn't have built this shop if I wasn't committed to it," she says. In 1998, the Goffs put the finishing touches on Goff's Collision Repair Center, a 19,000-sq.-ft. facility with 40 bays and state-of-theart equipment.

Angie's involvement with the two shops freed her father up to do what he loves best-working with his hands. When people come to the shop, "they think my father is the maintenance man," Angie says. "He loves to build things. When something is broken around here, I call him."

Bob used his creativity and skills to develop a unique-and locally famous-advertising campaign. During one lunch meeting, Bob's attorney proposed an idea that he believed would boost the shop's profile in the community. He suggested taking a collision-damaged car and putting it through the middle of a billboard, creating a 3-D ad. The idea clicked in Bob's mind, and he took the family car, which had been involved in an accident, and posted it for everyone to see. Then he went one step further and dressed up mannequins for each holiday and put them on the billboard as well. The creation was an instant hit with passersby as well as with the local media. The papers were so enchanted with the billboard that reporters wrote story after story about the shop, which translated into free advertising, Angie says. When some local kids shot arrows through the mannequin, another round of newspaper articles was published and the billboard was photographed again for posterity

Bob's innovative streak also led him to invent Goff's Curtain Walls, a movable curtain to separate areas of the body shop without the expense or permanence of building a wall.The idea struck him when he was faced with the space limitations that many shop owners struggle to overcome. He envisioned an accordion-like partition that could be used as a prep station and built a prototype for his shop. The invention took off when shop owners came through the area on a tour, saw the curtain and were intrigued by it. Bob then took the next step, and with the help of his son, Tony he printed black-andwhite brochures and distributed them at a Society for Collision Repair Specialists' (SCRS) meeting. He and his son came back with a dozen orders for their product but had no set plan to manufacture it. They learned as much about the "cutand-sew," or awning, industry as they could and then went to work on a business plan. They secured a manufacturer and produced their first lot with much success. In time, they built their own manufacturing facility Tony is the company's general manager, while Bob contributes his two cents to all three businesses.

The family ownership adds another dimension to the businesses that Angie says she enjoys, although it can be difficult at times. Tony and Angie bounce ideas off each other, but they don't give each other any special treatment. "If I want to buy curtains from him (Tony], he charges me," Angie says. But they also offer each other a perspective that only a family member and fellow industry member can.

Although Angie is dedicated to her shops, she also teaches business law and is working on her doctorate. Her diverse interests give her balance, she says.They also help her brainstorm for the shops' advertising campaigns. "The key is to keep it fresh," she says.

With two younger sisters still in high school and college, there is also potential for fresh Goff family members to jump into the business. If they decide to take the collision repair route, who knows what other spinoffs may result from their ideas.