At one point or another, most shop owners will have retirement on their mind. It’s not always an option to pass on your business to someone else, but sometimes, there are opportunities to pass on your legacy to another emerging shop owner.
The hard part is deciding who will be responsible for the customers left behind. But for shops with longtime technicians, sometimes the answer is already in front of you.
After 30 years of operation, when Blaine and Donna Jenkins sold Auto-Tech Service Center—a repair shop in Winchester, Virginia—they didn’t initially think of it, either. But the support they provided to longtime technician Tim Holzer made him realize he was ready to take the mantle.
Both Jenkins and Holzer took a moment to share what that process looked like for them, and how other shops can learn from their experience to establish their own process for employee succession.
Establish a Standard
As a shop owner, Jenkins has regarded regular training as invaluable to his business’ success. He was always investing in classes, updating equipment, and anything that could help the shop to evolve and keep pace with the industry.
This is where retaining employees can pay off huge in the long-run, as Holzer spent 25 years learning the culture of Auto-Tech Service Center and being shaped by this standard. Today, it helps him maintain the level of quality seen under Jenkins’ leadership. “I’m pretty much running everything the way I’ve seen and watched them do things, because that’s really all I know,” says Holzer. “Blaine and Donna both taught me a bunch over the years.”
A shop being up-to-date is a never-ending, constant effort. It’s what solidified a standard among Auto-Tech Service Center’s technicians, as well as a customer base solid enough to be retained after Holzer took over. Because of Auto-Tech Service Center’s dedication to training and modern equipment, other shops in the area ended up sending over more complex repairs, such as electrical diagnostics.
This led to a strong, loyal customer base being built, which became more familiar and trusting of not only Jenkins, but his entire team as well. “If a guy’s at a shop and they send him to another shop because they can’t diagnose the vehicle properly, as a rule, we retain those customers, because once you fix their cars, they’ll continue coming, even if you’re not trying to solicit their business. It just becomes a loyalty issue,” says Jenkins.
Connect With Your Most Solid Employees
Jenkins advises that if a shop is going to transition its ownership to an employee, the transition should be planned well in advance. Though ideal, this isn’t how it turned out for Jenkins and Holzer. Although Jenkins had floated the idea to Holzer, they hadn’t seriously discussed it; however, it set the stage for Holzer having greater ambitions.
“Until Blaine actually said something about me having this one day, I just thought of being a tech at that point,” tells Holzer.
After over two decades of working at Auto-Tech Service Center, Holzer actually pursued his own auto repair business before he launched Ironsides Garage—however, it didn’t operate out of a shop, but was a mobile repair business he was doing alongside his son. It wasn’t the right fit, though. Holzer missed having the equipment and tools of a shop at his disposal.
Fortunately, Jenkins maintained contact with Holzer, having relied on him as a solid employee for so many years, and when Holzer found out that Jenkins was finally retiring, he said he wanted to take over the facility.
Although a deal to sell the property was already made, the buyer showed no interest in buying Auto-Tech Service Center as a business. Unsatisfied with mobile repair, Holzer had the idea to continue serving Jenkins’ customers himself. It ended up working out well for them, but Jenkins recommends that other shops take as much time as they need to negotiate and find the best deal they can.
“Ideally, I would have liked to have had him take over Auto-Tech directly, and been able to work out something where he could have owned the building as well. But it’s just the way the cards fell. It didn’t work out for us,” explains Jenkins. “So, yeah, that would have been my advice: to negotiate the deal ahead of time.”
Assist with Transitioning
Jenkins didn’t sell the Auto-Tech Service Center brand over to Holzer, but what he could do was to share his customer list and publicly endorse the shop. It’s contributed to Ironsides Garage retaining nearly all of Auto-Tech Service Center’s clientele.
Right now, Jenkins and his wife are focused on enjoying their retirement—but he still frequently drops by to check on Holzer, and has always been just a quick phone call away.
“If I do need him, he’s available. And there’s been a couple times I needed some assistance or advice or whatnot. I’ve given him a call, and every now and then he’ll just pop in to see how things are going,” says Holzer.
