Shop of the Month

Marshall Motors
Thom Marshall, Owner
Dallas, TX

Originally I started out in this business as a technician. After high school I took a job working for a company called Almark. They put the little markers on the road. They found out that I had some kind of knowledge on how to make their trucks continue to run. So I ended up working on the trucks in their shop.

Eventually, I left Almark and moved back to Dallas. I bounced around from several jobs. A neighbor mentioned an automotive shop that they thought I should go to work for, so needing a job; I went by this little Volkswagen shop. They said why would you want to come here to work on cars? And my answer was to become rich and famous! They thought that was hysterical, so they hired me! It was a partnership between 2 guys, and the partnership ended one evening about 6:30 in the parking lot. The partner that knew how to fix cars but didn't know how to run a business, ended up with the business. The next thing I knew, I was the one in the office dealing with customers!

I started doing the majority of office stuff and ended up working there for about 5 years. Around that time, a gentleman came to town and he wanted to open up an exotic car repair shop which at that time was something new for Dallas. There wasn't anyone that had a high end exotic repair shop. You know, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, the whole 9 yards. A mutual friend told this fellow about me and so he called and offered me a ridiculous amount of money. Since I still had the goal to be rich and famous I said OK, when do I start! So I started as a technician over there. I worked on Ferraris, Lamborghinis, BMWs, Mercedes, and Volvos. The place was completely different from other imports shops in Dallas. Most of them were little bitty hole in the wall type places. This place had 18 bays and 9 technicians.

This was back in the early 80s when the grey market vehicles were a big deal. His big deal was he had tied in with a couple of guys who were importing a lot of cars from Europe over here. We were doing the DOTs to get them up to American standards so the cars would pass inspection and get titled. That went along for quite a little while. And as many businesses go it finally hit the wall and everything went wrong. The business ended up with all kinds of problems and then, Poof! It magically disappeared.

So once again I found myself unemployed. It was kind of a strange time because when that business closed its doors, the gentleman that I had worked for before over at the little VW shop had lost the lease on his property. He wanted me to come back to work for him, but he wanted to move to the far side of Dallas. Well I knew that was a mistake. It was one of those deals that I tried to explain that people there don't get their cars fixed. The put it on jack stands in their front yard!

I told him that I just as soon stay in North Dallas. So he said, "Why don't you find a building? Why don't you open up a shop here?" I thought that was a brilliant idea.

The next thing I know, before I even had a shop he was giving all his old customers my phone number, and they were calling me at home. After he lost his lease, He didn't know what he wanted to do but people kept calling him so he just started telling them to call me. The next thing I knew I had cars parked all up and down the street, and the city of Dallas got on me about having cars in my yard. So I decided that maybe I need to find a place to work out of. I was afraid to spend much money on rent so I found a place that I could afford and I moved in. It was most affordable because it ONLY HAD 3 walls! The front had fallen off, and due to my high financial situation, I made the 4th wall out of chain link. I didn't even go looking for building inspection! I think if Dallas had really known that they would probably have squawked.

I was in there for about 5 years, and started building up my business. I was primarily working on Volkswagens, and the 80s model Hondas, Nissans, and other Japanese cars, that kind of stuff. I had gotten to the point where I needed help. I didn't know how to hire people and I didn't want to pay too much so I started hiring homeless people. I found out that they didn't make good employees. I was having a hard time with this employee concept. I had to go through the point where I found out that homeless don't make good employees. It was a learning curve.

The funny part was I had a young lady come to me and apply for the position of technician. I really wasn't quite sure how that was going to work out, because I had never dealt with a female working on cars. She was only a little step up from the homeless people. She was a good technician but her personal life was very scary. She was real good looking, which caused all kinds of problems. My wife came up to the shop one day and I was notified very quickly that the female tech had to go. I tried to explain to her that she was an employee and not somebody I would even socialize with, much less be seen on the streets with, but she had to go and that was all there was to it. I was back to being a one-man show.

The 3 sided shop continued to grow and things started to get out of control. At that time my sister January became unemployed, so I told her, get over here! I got her over there with the intentions of making her run the office. Of course when it's only a 2 man operation, you end of doing everything. I ended up getting January out there, having her work on cars with me; helping me get stuff done, building engines and stuff. We've pretty much been together ever since. At the same time we were both going through divorces. Our spouses found each other more interesting. It was just all going to Hades in a hand basket. I just wanted out of the shop and out of everything. That's when things started tail-spinning down to a point where I did shut down the shop.

I went to work for another shop for a little while and had the realization that if this guy could make a shop run the way he was running it, (he was fruiter than the day was long) by golly I could do it!. So I told him that I could make more money sitting at home watching soap operas. I started working on cars in my driveway again. I had my brother in law ask me what it would take to go back in business again. I said Money! He said you think you could find a shop for 500 a month? I said yea but would probably only have 3 walls! So he told me to go out and look. The amazing part was after looking for a couple of weeks, I found a building! It was kind of run down but it had 4 walls and a roof!

So I opened the doors back up. And that was in Sept 88. I began building the business up. We started plugging away and doing real good. January came back and she has been with me ever since.

We started rolling along till about 1994 when the business starting having problems. We started losing money hand over fist. We had all kinds of problems. It was one of those deals where you can't lose money fast enough. I was getting very disgruntled, very unhappy. It was creating a lot of conflict at home with my second wife and everywhere else.

Finally, August of 1996 I came into January's office and said this is it. I'm slamming the doors on this place. I've had all I can stand and I can't stand no more! I was livid! The thing that yanked my chain was that every other call was a bill collector. So I finally got fed up enough that I sat down with all our bills. Everything! I figured out what would it take to pay off all our bills. Do I take my credit cards to pay all the bills and then pay off my credit cards? After tallying up, this wave came across me, that I owed over one hundred thousand dollars! The next thing that hit me was I can't pay that off in my lifetime! I would NEVER be able to pay off 100 thousand dollars! What am I doing here?!

I went back to January and told her. I could not imagine being any lower. There was no way we could pull out of that type of a deal. We could work the rest of our lives and never be able to play catch up or make money at this or anything else.

Then she pulled out this flyer from Management Success with a picture of a goofy looking guy on it talking about shop management, and asked if I had ever seen that. And I said yea, I'd thrown a 1000 of those things away. So she said how would you feel about going to this? I explained to her that I felt that it was just a little bit too late, that the odds of them having some magic wand were pretty close to impossible. She said, I'd like you to go with me. I said I had no interest. Then she said, "But I've already paid for it!"

So I said OK. I'll do whatever you want to do. I can argue with my wife, I can't argue with my sister. So we went to the Seminar. It was very mind blowing. He was very exact. Hit the nail on the head. He was talking to us out of all the people in that room! Everything he was saying, everything out of his mouth! It was one of those deals where all you could do was look over your shoulder because you knew it was some type of plot! Somebody knew something about you and you didn't know how they knew it!

So I guess about the end of the first day, I found myself taking notes. Which I had no intention of doing. But for some reason I was possessed. I don't know why I was taking notes. Because I had already made the decision that we were not opening Monday morning! Monday morning when the guys came in I was going to tell them to pack their stuff! Load your trucks and get the heck out of my yard!

We went back for some cockamamie reason on Sunday. The funny part was that this guy that had been up there in front of this audience all day Saturday ranting and raving on his soapbox had gotten my curiosity up!

I had gotten to the hotel at 6AM that morning and sat down at the restaurant. I want to check this guy out. There was something about this guy that was a little strange! This Mike Lee guy comes down and the first thing I noticed about him is that he did not wait to be seated. He walked right in, figured out where he wanted to sit and sat down. He sat there for less than 30 seconds and his coffee cup had not been filled so he walked over and started filling his cup and sat down. Probably sat there for 2 or 3 minutes, got up and walked into the kitchen. The next thing I knew is that he had more people waiting on him. I thought that's kind of interesting. Then there was a guy that came in and sat next to him that had a big stack of papers. Then he takes his papers and takes off. Then another guy comes in there and shuffles a bunch of paperwork in front of him and he takes off.

I just thought this guy sitting at this table has got my curiosity up! He's got my interest. He's just a little different. So I paid a little more attention the second day, and I found myself taking a whole lot more notes.

That two day seminar changed my life! It gave me a whole new way to look at my business. I make good money now, I have a new shop, my stress level is way down because I now know how to hire the right people, and I now have the confidence to handle the situations that we all have to deal with on a day-to day basis. Life is good.

If you are thinking about going to the Management Success seminar, stop thinking and just go! I think that it's a door, it an opening, it's a chance, it's an adventure! Take it, take everything right down every word, and absorb it. Let it be the door to show you that you can make a living in this business. You can make money, and you can have a life.

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