Shop of the Month

Integrity Auto
Blake Brueggeman, Owner

"I finally had to fess up to myself that although I was a great tech I didn’t know beans about running a business."

I guess I got into this business like a lot of other people.  I grew up on a farm and got my first car when I was 16.  My dad told me I’d better learn how to work on it, or get a job so that I can pay someone else to work on it, but not to expect him to fix it when I broke it! 

So I learned how to fix cars on that car. I found I had a knack for figuring mechanical things out and getting things done. I also figured out that I liked working on cars.  I attended Vo-Tech school while in high school and expanded my knowledge in the area of mechanics. Being a mechanic was not what I had planned to do with my life; I wanted to be a professional musician. But I found I could make a living at turning wrenches much easier than playing in a band!

I found a job at an independent shop in town, got married and worked in that shop for 12 years.  I looked at my situation with a growing family; had two kids by then, and realized I needed more money.  I asked my boss if he had plans on selling the shop some day and found he was grooming his son-in-law to take over the shop.  At that point the ownership bug really bit me and so I started looking around.  There was a small shop in town and the owner was going down hill; health problems and such.  I approached him about selling his business to me and he jumped at it!  He actually just gave it to me.  So there I was 33 years old and in business for myself.

The first year and a-half was a blur.  I was a great tech and I didn’t shy away from anything.  I especially liked the challenge of tackling a car that had been to a couple of other shops and nobody could get it right, but I could.  As a result I had way more work than I could handle.  About six months after I opened the shop a friend of mine came in to help me, but he’d come-and-go. I always called him my half employee.  I hired a customer’s son a year later who didn’t know anything but liked coming to the shop and hanging around. I turned him into a pretty good helper but after a year he decided to move to California, as his wife was in the military and was transferred to San Diego.  That left me with my half guy.

I was working all kinds of crazy hours.  I would get to the shop before eight and most nights I didn’t get home until after eleven. My two kids were young and this was taking a toll at home.  It seemed that no matter how hard I worked I couldn’t get ahead, in fact I just kept getting deeper in debt.  Like a lot of guys, I take pride in my work and the ability to fix things and paying my bills on time, but I wasn’t able to make that happen. I kept getting flyers from Management Success! about their seminar on how to run a shop, and I kept throwing them out.  I finally had to fess up to myself that although I was a great tech I didn’t know beans about running a business. So, I decided to attend the seminar the next time it was in Denver.

Well I’ve got to tell you that I found out I didn’t have a clue.  I was so totally unaware of what I was suppose to do as a businessman.  Everything the speaker touched on had something to do with me.  The section on hiring the right people and motivating employees blew me away.  Knowing what numbers I needed to track and what to do when things weren’t running right was amazing to me.  You’ve got to understand, the only numbers I knew were in the check book; if there was money there I was doing ok, or at least I thought I was.  The speaker went over pricing, reading a profit and loss statement and what the margins had to be to put money in my pocket.  He went over shop flow and production snags, things I never thought about.  Before I went to the seminar I never did any kind of advertising other than word of mouth.  I learned how to set up an ad correctly to pull in the kind of customers I wanted and needed.  I took 39 pages of notes!

That was back in 2001.  That year I grossed a little less than $50,000.  Five years later I have a new shop and I’m projecting a gross income of $700,000.  Pride had stopped me from seeking help, I’m not a stupid man, but that was a stupid mistake.  I almost lost my marriage and I was getting close to giving up on my dreams of having a successful business.  Having money is great, but having a good life is even better.  My advice to anyone who owns a shop is “Give Management Success a call and don’t waste another day trying to figure out something you haven’t been trained to do.”  Tech skills are great if you’re a tech.  But if you own a business you have got to have management skills.

Blake Brueggeman, Owner
Integrity Auto Repair
Grand Junction, CO

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