Panels on verses panels off when tinting a car door window.

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.

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A Close Shave With KT!

I would like to show you today the Olfa Shaving Technique - well i say me, It's actually mt Friend KT.
he is the real Daddy when it comes to shaving the windows with an Olfa knife.

It takes a lot of practice to get this technique down and you will burn through a  lot of blades practicing.

The good thing though, is that you can use some film scraps and just keep practising, so that when you come to do it live on the car you have a better chance of getting it right.

Anyway, KT sent me this video clip and I am happy to share it with you.

Here is look at the finished result and this is what you should be aiming for in your car window tinting!

You can shave or file your edges to get this level of finish!

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Time To Get Tough On Marketing Your Car Wndow Tinting Business 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.

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Marketing Your Car WIndow Tint 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!

CLICK HERE for my Tint Slime Review

  

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Tint Slime Review

This is a follow up on my last article on tint slime, I have now had a chance to try out the product and wanted to give you a quick review right here and now.

I got a gallon size container of the product from my regular supplier. And tested out a few ratios to get the correct mixture. It seems that Tint Slime is very concentrated, I used around four fluid ounces per litre of water. Bare in mind that your mixture will change depending on the weather conditions, as I write this the weather is cold, it's winter, and it's only just a few degrees above freezing.

So let's not beat around the bush, I'll tell you know I really think about Tint Slime and whether or not it's something you should look at using for car window tinting.

My first impressions are that Tint Slime is is Definitely something I'll be using!!. In the cold in winter weather it can be hard to get the right mixture for your slip solution and it seems to perform well in my low temperatures .

Ive now Tinted a few cars using Tint Slime and I think it really seems to suit my style well, I don't like too much slip when I carry out my installations, and just one pass of the squeegee seems to make the film tack down quickly. It was good on quarter windows, you could slide the film into position and use a hard card to just pin the film down, and it didn't slide any more and thenn allowed you to extract the water nicely

So it was a good experience using this product, and yes I do certainly recommend it. Some people online are saying it's expensive and it's not necessary, but you must move with the times, and stop being such a tight ars*, it's very concentrated and 1 gallon of this stuff will last for ages.

So I have no hesitation about using this product, the films seem to dry out quicker, and when it dries quicker, you can spot the  very small contamination easier - contamination!!..who gets that! basically, you can see that bit sooner than you would do with normal mounting solution like baby shampoo as the film dries faster.

I would even consider using two bottles of slip solution, one with a slightly more concentrated mixture for fixed back windows, and a lighter mix for quarter windows etc...

Hey Tight Ass - Now go try this stuff!

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Tint Slime Review Coming Soon

For many years now I have used the film on product from Llumar, and if I'm stuck and I've run out of film on I'll use Johnson's baby shampoo, but, at long last, there is a new kid on the block. Tint Slime is the latest product to hit the car window tinting business, it's a new innovative cleaning and mounting solution for your window film, and the bonus is it smells of apples!!

  I have ordered myself some and it's due for delivery tomorrow, so I will update this blog post with my findings. But, speaking to some of the guys in the know , they really like it!! The film is meant to dry out quicker and it'll show you if you do have any contamination, which you shouldn't have! And it is very concentrated, so you'll need a very small amount in your spray bottles, so it should be quite good value for money and go a long way! So stay tuned and I'll update you on the Tint Slime in a week or so, I'm looking forward to using this product, isn't that sad that something like Tint Slime gets me  excited!!

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

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.

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