Rebuilder Shifts from Sales to Business Owner Niche Market Keeps Profit Growing By Traci Matt Associate Editor Danny Harrington has logged 20 years in the electrical rebuilding indus- try, but at the beginning of this year took on a role he’d never experienced — shop owner. “Td always dreamed of owning my own business,” said Harrington. “But I never knew there was so much paper- work and bills to pay. Throw your 40 hour workweek out the door. Talk about headaches. Is it worth it? Yes, indeed.” In February, Harrington became owner of Stan’s Westside Auto Electric, Inc., located on the outskirts of Sapulpa, Okla., just west of Tulsa. He purchased the shop from his retiring employer and company founder Stan Johnson, who started the business in his garage in 1986. “Danny knows how to build a product and he knows how to sell a product,” said Johnson. “Now he just needs to maintain and make sure it’s quality work.” Johnson said the past success of Stan’s Westside has been a combination of a good product and diversification into “a lot of different things” such as scissor lifts and commercial battery chargers. “The main thing about it is quality,” said Johnson. “People don’t like taking things on and off too many times.” Harrington was hired 15 years ago as sales manager for Stan’s Westside after working for another rebuilder for five years in sales and rebuilding. “He needed a sales manager. His sales routes were all crisscrossed so the first thing I did was organize them,” said Harrington. “In less than six months I doubled his business.” Today, in addition to remanufacturing, repairing and selling all types of starters and alternators, more than half of their business is working directly with major equipment rental companies nationwide. They repair and sell DC motors and bat- tery chargers for commercial applica- tions such as aerial equipment and floor scrubbers. Harrington said a good reputa- tion with the local equipment rental places gave them an inside track to this national warranty work. They presently serve more than 200 rental locations around the U.S. “They ship it in, we repair it and ship it right back out. I would say this might be one of our special niches because we are also an authorized warranty facility for some of the charger manufacturers, which they don’t sell to the public,” said Harrington. Stan’s Westside also carries a private label battery charger. They call on local and regional cus- tomers weekly, and have a fair amount of walk-in business due to their visible location on a state highway and their three-bay facility for on-car work. Their previous shop was on a four-lane inter- state and the complicated access route wasn’t conducive to a lot of over-the- counter business. Stan REMANUFACTURED REPAIRED —— 927 N 97° jo ees NEW ‘Starters ‘DC Motors pavy Duty «Industrial – Automotive __ ATV*Import+ Farm: Marine pictured here with employees Shawn Blevins (M), snd Miguel Jara (R). “A good location makes all the dif- ference in the world,” said Harrington. He employs three technician/rebuilders that are “more than willing to go the extra mile for our customers” and work diligently to increase their tech- nical knowledge. “Not only are they smart but they are willing to learn new things every day. That is a must in our type of work, because if you don’t keep up with all the new units coming out these days, some- one else will and that would be a major downfall,” he said. Harrington said their Web site, www.dcelectricmotors.com, has been a consistent source of business. “You’d be surprised at how many people go the Internet—even locally,” he said. “But we learned through experi- ence that having the proper keywords is a must to direct customers to your site.” They have between 30 and 40 key- words, including their company name, city name, and various manufacturers’ names. Harrington said they have several e-mails from prospective customers each time he checks the site’s e-mail account. “If you’re just a one man shop you probably don’t need a Web site because you have all the work you can handle. But if you’re looking to expand, a Web site is a great place to start,’ he said. According to Harrington, the process of purchasing the business from his employer was relatively painless. Since he didn’t change the company name, some of the tax and corporate paper- work and stress were reduced. The hardest thing was getting the checking account transferred, but that was due to some confusion at the local bank. The process took about a year and initially included another employee as a partner. When that employee eventually took another job, Johnson approached Harrington about buying the business solo. “Since Stan’s has been in business for 23 years and is very reputable, I couldn’t see just shutting the doors. So we came to an agreement, and here we are today still open for business,” said Harrington. “And Stan was even nice enough to leave money in the bank for the next month’s operating expenses. I ca