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Bears
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PaintScratch.com
The Ultimate Automotive Touch-Up Paint Supplier
Susan Frissell
Women With Wheels
If you’ve ever experienced the endless search for touch-up paint for your car, then you’ll know how impossible it can be. In the days when I used to keep my cars longer than three years, I often went looking for matching paint to fill in those dings and scratches. If the local NAPA store didn’t have it, I’d go from auto supply store to auto supply store, to some of the automotive supply store franchises. Often in vain, for locating matching touch-up paint was often a futile exercise.
Apparently, entrepreneur-extraordinaire Collin Harris must have had the same frustrating experience. Hence, the reason he founded PaintScratch.com, the ultimate source for vehicle touch-up paint.
The entrepreneur that he is, Harris founded PaintScratch.com, a website that sells automotive touch up paint. The leading provider of automotive touchup paint for cars, truck, fleet and SUV’s on the internet, PaintScratch.com enables customers to identify, locate and purchase touchup paint of more than 6,000 colors from vehicles manufactured in North America and Europe since 1980. With the right information, Harris claims he can match paints from as far back as the 1930s.
Before PaintScratch.com was thought of, Harris founded Bio Pac, Inc. in 1991, a bulk cleaning product line. From that, he developed yourEsite.com, a web hosting company that also offers contract programming services and web design
Before the internet came to be, Harris started his career in 1981 in the automotive business and founded Car Works Autobody, Inc., in Boulder, Colorado. After five years in business, he sold, then shortly thereafter, founded Digitree Systems, Inc., creating collision management software for the automotive industry. In 1988, he sold Digitree Systems, Inc. to Mitchell International, Inc. where he became V.P., supervising the collision management software group.
Finding that Elusive Paint
Surfing over to PaintScratch.com, consumers and businesses can efficiently identify, locate and purchase touchup paint. A one-stop solution for touchup paint for customers, PaintScratch.com has been assisting car owners since May of 2000. Finding a specific color is done by selecting the year, make and model of a vehicle. Users are shown a list of colors with names and vehicle color codes, and are then able to determine the color of touchup paint from the list of colors shown for the vehicle. If your color is not shown, PaintScratch.com offers step-by-step instructions on how to find the color identification plate on your vehicle.
According to Harris, the process takes less than sixty seconds to complete, from the time you log on until purchase. Even General Motors have been referring customers to Harris’ site, says the founder. The paint, notes Harris, is "custom made with the same quality automotive paint and color used originally on the vehicle."
Harris started out advertising PaintScratch.com solely on the Internet. He wanted to start slow so as not to be overwhelmed. "With 100 million cars in America, if I made a big splash," he says, "I’d be overrun with business." PaintScratch.com is listed with a handful of search engine companies, something Harris is especially vigilant about watching.
In December of 2000, PaintScratch.com was averaging about 200 orders each month. Working by himself, Harris’ only interaction with customers is over the web. Orders are filled by a company in the Bay Area.
Each bottle of PaintScratch.com touchup paint costs $19.95; spray cans, $34.95. For more information about PaintScratch.com, visit the website at www.PaintScratch.com.