History in the making: Home-based business remains mighty By Richard R. Vensel Editor’s Note: This month we debut a series of articles for 2009 which will chronicle the recent history of automotive electrical rebuilding through the eyes of our suppliers. We hope “History in the Making” will be enlightening to those who are new to the industry, and pleasantly reminiscent to those who have been around the block with us a few times already. Vw Enterprises offers sales and education to customers who rebuild or rewind alternators, generators, starters and all their related parts. My wife Barbara and I started our rebuilders—large and small rebuilders worldwide. We specialize in helping solve problems in the rebuilding industry and teach new salvage processes along with selling and designing tools and equipment for these processes. We sup- ply a complete line of tools, equipment and supplies for the automotive aftermar- ket. Our goal was and is do to all we can to help the rebuilding industry. Our ongo- ing commitment to educate the rebuilder has taken many forms. Our original 25 customers have expanded to over 2,000 customers worldwide. We have continued to listen to our customers’ needs as well as the industry needs and responded as fast as possible with solu- tions. We now offer a complete catalog printed and online and a Web site, www.venselenterprises.com. business in the early 1980s to serve the small auto electric aftermarket worldwide. We targeted the small electrical rebuilders and those interested in rebuilding and salvaging or rewinding all parts possible. Today we also offer spe- cialized sales training and assistance along with consult- ing services. Our business is, and has always been, located at 3710 Riverside Drive in the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake, II. Our office and ware- house facilities are run out of our home. Our office and part of our storage are attached to our house. We do not manu- facture at this location; we design, sell and ship our stocked items. The remain- der of our sales is drop-shipped directly from the manufacturer, which oftentimes saves our customers in freight charges. As Vensel Enterprises president (and a proud Marine), I handle technical development, sales, training and consult- ing and have 47-plus years of experience in the industry. Barbara is vice president for purchasing and accounts payable with more than 25 years of experience. Sandy Hendershot does our sales, mar- keting, advertising, collections, shipping and customer service with over 30 years of experience. Our staff has remained pretty much the same since the beginning. We started out with about 25 (L to R) Barbara Vensel, Richard Vensel and Sandy Hendershot. We are constantly trying to keep infor- mation and literature up-to-date and sim- plified for the rebuilding industry. With the rapidly changing technology, we are looking for and designing tools and equipment to help keep the rebuilder cur- rent with the market changes in our pub- lished articles and on our Web site. Our customer base has not changed over the years; it remains one-man shops up to and including aftermarket OEMs. Our customers are now based all over the world in countries such as Canada, Mexico, Australia, Pacific Rim, Europe and Malaysia. Thanks also to Barbara Vensel and Sandy Hendershot for their input. EDRIE|