Squid's Rod Shop is a full-service hot rod and custom car shop based in Hickory, North Carolina. We specialize in high-end fabrication, engine swaps, award-winning paintwork, and full custom builds. Our projects range from resto-mods to one-of-a-kind show cars, and we take pride in precision craftsmanship and clear communication with our customers throughout every step of the build process.

Before GlobalWorkshop, we were juggling multiple spreadsheets, text threads, and whiteboards to manage our workflow. It was a patchwork of tools that never quite fit together cleanly. Technicians recorded their time and progress on handwritten sheets daily. The handwritten sheets had to be converted to invoices and update emails for every customer on a weekly basis.

We needed a better way to stay organized across multiple complex projects while keeping our customers in the loop. As the shop grew, it became harder to track progress, assign/track tasks, and ensure nothing slipped through the cracks. Many of our customers are from out of state and we needed a way to keep them engaged and excited in the daily progress of their builds.

It was creating unnecessary stress for our team and making it harder to scale efficiently. Communication sometimes lagged, both internally and with customers, and updates could get lost in the shuffle. We were spending too much time managing information instead of building cars.

GlobalWorkshop was built specifically for custom shops like ours. It gave us a central hub for job tracking, scheduling, internal notes, and customer updates—all in one place. It allowed us to build relationships with customers over long distances and send daily project updates without any additional steps added to our technician's daily process.

It’s helped us streamline our operations, tighten up internal communication, and maintain transparency with our clients. Every project is now clearly tracked, from metalwork to final assembly. Customers love getting regular photo updates and knowing exactly where their build stands.

Absolutely. It’s improved team accountability and efficiency, and it's made onboarding new employees easier since the entire workflow is already mapped out. It allows us to rotate employees across multiple builds by allowing them to review all the previous work already accomplished on a project they are taking over. It also helps demonstrate our professionalism, transparency, and craftsmanship to potential customers—our process is clear, documented, and consistent.

If you’re running a custom shop and still relying on disjointed tools or manual systems, GlobalWorkshop is a game-changer. It gives you the structure you need without getting in the way of the creativity that makes your shop unique.