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The Gearbox Podcast brings on industry professionals to explore the day-to-day operations of owning and operating a shop. From common frustrations to industry-wide shifts, this podcast covers it with fun and insightful conversations.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:13]:
My name is Jimmy Purdy, shop owner, master tech, transmission builder, and the host of the Gearbox podcast. Here I talk with new and seasoned shop owners, as well as industry professionals, about day to day operations within their own shops and all the failures and successes that come along the way, from what grinds your gears to having to shift gears in the automotive industry. This is the Gearbox podcast. So, this is not new to you, but I guess it's kind of a new venture anyway, right?
Nate Winston [00:00:41]:
Oh, it's 100% new venture, yeah. Because, you know, I've been in the industry for 15 years with my partner down the street, and had to break up that and doing this completely solo on everything. So it's a very new adventure now.
Jimmy Purdy [00:00:58]:
We gotta. We gotta back up a little bit. Partnership breakups are always juicy conversations.
Nate Winston [00:01:04]:
Yes. Yeah, they can be.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:06]:
Is there a story behind that or what. What, uh. What led you to venture out on your own? You just trying to. What's the story?
Nate Winston [00:01:14]:
Um, to venture out on my own. It was too much stress between me and my partner as far as being on the same page, um, of business aspects. I of have a whole future ahead of me, of where I want to go, what I want to do, as I'm raising my family of four kids. But between me and him, our visions are not the same. And it's just hard to do things in life when you're not on the same page. Over the last 15 years, you know, anytime we make plans or want to succeed in life, I fulfill everything that I need to do. But my partner, he lacks in that and doesn't really do what needs to be done, per se. That's just one aspect.
Jimmy Purdy [00:01:59]:
And employees, that's a pretty big aspect.
Nate Winston [00:02:01]:
Oh, yeah, it is. You know, we're at two different stages of life where, you know, I'm only 38 years old with four kids, and he just turned 60, and he already raised his kids and that sort of thing. So he doesn't work as hard as I do on a day to day basis, but yet we take home the same amount of money, we get paid the same, and I do 80% of the labor of working. You know, it's just.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:24]:
Oh, I see. So you're still the technician role in the business.
Nate Winston [00:02:27]:
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, he sits down and smokes all day long on the back picnic table, you know, and I got a lot of work that needs to be done. It's just hard to stay motivated each day when you see that happening on a day to day basis.
Jimmy Purdy [00:02:42]:
And then how long has this been? How long before you dissolved it or decided, I'm not doing this anymore.
Nate Winston [00:02:49]:
Well, we've been together for 15 years. Started out with absolutely no clientele, nothing, very little tools, and made a name for ourselves, for the shop, anyways. And for me for a good 15 years. And it was very hard every single day and stressful all day long, but had to weigh out the pros and cons of should I stay or should I leave? And that sort of thing. You know, I've always. I've wanted to leave for about ten or twelve years now. And everything lined up perfectly right now to where now's the time I got it. I gotta part ways.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:28]:
Yeah. I mean, I feel it's just like the breaking point. I feel like a lot of. A lot of people can probably relate to this. Cause it's like they're working for somebody that feels the same, but you actually partnered with them and in a way, kind of felt like you're just a disgruntled employee.
Nate Winston [00:03:43]:
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:44]:
Of your own business. And I feel like that would probably make it worse. Right.
Nate Winston [00:03:48]:
Yeah. No doubts.
Jimmy Purdy [00:03:50]:
Because you also have taken on all the fiscal responsibilities and you're not getting, I guess, the respect you deserve, I guess. I guess is a way to put it, 100%.
Nate Winston [00:03:59]:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We had a pretty big employee lawsuit recently that. That ended, that seriously broke the camel's back. And it was a year and a half long lawsuit, and I knew it was coming. And when we do lose that issue, it was definitely time to break apart and just move full throttle on my own, do everything I need to do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:23]:
Yeah. You can't keep putting that kind of stuff on your shoulders if someone else isn't willing to step up on there. But on that point, too, I mean, yeah, I mean, there obviously had to been multiple conversations as far as, like, trying to get on the same page. Right. And it didn't obviously work out. Like, you weren't able to come to. To that, but.
Nate Winston [00:04:41]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:41]:
That's like, that's a situation, I think a lot of us fear of going into a partnership. Right. Like, that's the reason why I think a lot for me anyways, like, wanting to bring in a partner to do something like that is like, what you're describing is like, the ultimate fear.
Nate Winston [00:04:55]:
Mm hmm.
Jimmy Purdy [00:04:56]:
So it's a good. I mean, you've. You've got some life experience that some of us probably never will by unfortunate events, but.
Nate Winston [00:05:04]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:05:05]:
I mean, how do those conversations go? Like, how do you. How do you try to manage that? Or how do you. I mean, you did it for long enough where it's something you hadn't been doing something right, to move the needle in your direction, to get you to stay.
Nate Winston [00:05:14]:
Right. The only thing that was really, truly getting me to stay was not so much my partner itself, but the love for what I do with the cars. Love diagnosing the cars, the community, and all of our clients, those were. And support my family, those were your, like, four or five key factors that was keeping me there. Seeing my vision, where I want to go with my family, trying to buy a home, trying to move out of a neighborhood, things like that. All of last year, those were my driving factors as to why I continue to stay with my partner. And plus, I really didn't have any desire to go and just look for a job and go work for somebody else. And that sort of thing just wasn't my forte, wasn't my taste.
Nate Winston [00:06:01]:
But every time we do have those heart to heart conversations, it was always nerve wracking, heart beaten extremely fast because you're having those confrontations, those very hard things to deal with, you know? And I never liked having those conversations, but I knew they had to be made in order for me to move forward with where I want to go, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:23]:
Yeah. I mean, some good experience, too, because I don't think that ever goes away. It's just such a weird feeling to, like, have to, like, talk to. I don't know. You say like a. Like an adult, right? Like, yeah. Whether they're 20 years older than you, they're the same age, or even if they're younger than you.
Nate Winston [00:06:43]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:06:43]:
It's like you have these different things in different ways. You're trying to see it from their point of view, and it's like, how difficult is it to, like, have to talk to someone that's your senior that doesn't understand, doesn't want to jump on the page with you, but there's got to be a little empathy on your side, too, right? We're like, you realize where he is in his stage of life, so you got to. I mean, how do you pull him back out of that? Like, you're trying to get him to. Well, I get it. You're. You're in a different stage of life, but we need to get on the same page. And I think a lot of partnerships when it comes to business is, well, we just. We just manage the business.
Jimmy Purdy [00:07:13]:
We're not working in a day to day. But if you don't find the employees is like, how do you manage that? Like, someone's got to be the employee, someone needs to be compensated correctly for that.
Nate Winston [00:07:23]:
Absolutely. And that was the other thing, you know, employees, you know, you speak of employees where we all need to have technicians, employees working with you. And over the last 15 years working together, we've counted. I've counted. We've had over 80 to 85 different technicians and employees that work for us, but it's hard for them to work for us because you got two managing partners, and it's like the employees play the mom and dad game. Me, I'm a driver. I like to work, work, work, get things done, check with employees, see if they need help, things like that. But when I'm out there working, then my partner doesn't work as much and he smokes.
Nate Winston [00:08:02]:
Most of our employees, they smoke, so they could just go outside and smoke all the time with him. And that irritates me and frustrates me when we got misses Jones's car up on the lift and she's up front waiting for her oil change and come on, we got to get this done, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:17]:
So. Yeah, the path of. The path of least resistance, right?
Nate Winston [00:08:21]:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:22]:
And it's no, it's no fault of, like, necessarily the technicians. I mean, you're going to have a few of them that'll be like, you maybe, you know, they call them the unicorns, right. That come along, sure want to move the needle. But for the most part, most people get a job because they're moving the. To the leaf. The path of least resistance.
Nate Winston [00:08:38]:
Absolutely. That's easy to do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:08:39]:
And it's like, if you see that, like, I'll just go do that. If I get paid the same to smoke outside as I do to wreck this car up, like, what? I mean, I don't have that mindset either. Like, I don't. I'd rather be in there working or go home. Like, if, you know, if I'm not here, like, making money or, like, doing something, like, I'll just go home and, like, I don't need to be here.
Nate Winston [00:09:00]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:00]:
Collect a check. Right.
Nate Winston [00:09:02]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:02]:
But I think for a lot, that's. That's kind of like their mindset, and it's hard and it's no fault. I mean, it takes a good leader, it takes leadership to say, look, man, if we get this stuff done, you get paid more, and then it's like, you can go enjoy your weekend because you're gonna have money to go enjoy your weekend, and it's like, you're here to work, and then I'll pay you more as, like, you produce more. And it's, you know, but it takes a special kind of person as a leader to, like, move that needle and get people that are in that thought process to realize, wow, if I work hard, I'll be compensated. But that's also the biggest problem of the whole industry, right? Like, it's like guys just shown, clock in, clock out, and then as the owner, you're just, you're just hoping, hey, get that car fixed. Why are you asking me? Don't ask me questions. You know, just get it fixed. Get it fixed.
Jimmy Purdy [00:09:46]:
And then before you know it, a year goes by and the technicians are burnt out and they don't want to do anymore. And it's like this. It's so. And it's, like, everywhere. It's, like, rampant. And so technicians are just jumping ship, jumping ship, jumping ship. And everyone's like, there's a technician shortage. It's like, you know what I mean?
Nate Winston [00:10:00]:
Like, I do. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:01]:
If you really dive into it, it's like, man, if you just, like, paid attention to people.
Nate Winston [00:10:06]:
Absolutely, 100%. Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:08]:
But it's so hard because in, like, your position, you're fighting your own, uh, your own leader, in a sense, your own partner.
Nate Winston [00:10:14]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:15]:
You know? And it's like the last thing you can really physically, mentally do is. Is lead a group of technicians when you're frustrated because you don't even know how to have that conversation with them. Smoking outside. Like, how do I even, like, yeah, how would you even manage, like, go out there and confront that? Hey, hey, you guys, you need to stop smoking. Hey, we're allowed our ten minute breaks. Boss is like, yeah, and he owns it too. Like, oh, my God.
Nate Winston [00:10:37]:
So what do you do? I can't tell him to stop when he owns half the company. He does. What do you want whenever, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:10:43]:
And, yeah, I think it comes down to, like, clearly defined roles when it comes to, like, partnerships. But as we all start, I mean, you and I are both young. If we get into a partnership, we're just like, hey, shake my hand, and let's get this thing going. Right, right. That sounds good to me. Let's get the last thing on your mind is, like, contracts and, like, division of property, and, like, you're just like, this is getting this thing rolling, and then we'll deal with that stuff later, which is, like, the biggest mistake, but it's like, at the time, you don't know what you don't know.
Nate Winston [00:11:11]:
Right. And that's how it started. We shook each other's hands. You're in charge of this. You're in charge of that. Let's get moving. Let's make a business and make money fixing cars. You know, that's how it started to begin with.
Nate Winston [00:11:22]:
And, you know, ten years into it, we started making contracts and life insurance contracts and buy sell agreements and things like that. But we would start it, and then when I bring it up again, it would fizzle away for the next day. And we just would never move forward to paying an attorney, getting into life insurance policy in place, making sure we're paying the premium each month. And he never really wanted to make that next step, to pay what you have to pay each month to get that life insurance activated or the buy sell agreement activated on one another. And we just never move forward. And here we are trying to dissolve everything, and we have lots of problems right now. You know, I can only imagine. So if you do go into a partnership, anybody goes into a partnership, you have to have contracts, black and white, who gets what.
Nate Winston [00:12:10]:
What are you doing? Like you said, ownership roles, you know, clearly defined roles in the workplace. You know, you have to.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:20]:
Yeah, it's like a prenuptial. Pre nuptial agreement. Right? Like. But, like, you do it every time with a partnership. You don't have to do it every time with a marriage. In fact, I don't think it's a good idea to ask for that on your wedding day.
Nate Winston [00:12:32]:
No, no.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:34]:
Really bad idea to ask.
Nate Winston [00:12:35]:
No, I had a friend tell me before I got married, you should probably get a prenup. Well, we're not friends anymore, so.
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:41]:
Yeah, so I'm not bringing that up. I'm not going to say that. No, it takes, like. Hey, so we were thinking about me and my buddy. We're talking about a prenup. What do you think about that, sweetheart? Well, let me know how that goes for you.
Nate Winston [00:12:52]:
Yeah, let's stop now and let's not get married. You know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:12:56]:
So it's still important with a partnership. I mean, that's different.
Nate Winston [00:13:01]:
Way different.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:02]:
Well, people change over the years, too, you know? And now you're. You're. Now you're in the kind of. The worst part of it is, like. And. And part of it's probably like you just, like, you know what? Just like in a bad marriage, just have it all. Just keep it all right. Yeah, but it's everything you've worked for for the last.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:18]:
I mean, a huge portion of your life now. Like. Yeah, that's half of your life at this point, the time that you've worked for. So. Yeah, what a difficult situation to be. To be thrown in.
Nate Winston [00:13:27]:
It is. But in part of life that I got to go through right now, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:32]:
Yeah.
Nate Winston [00:13:32]:
Sucks, but.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:33]:
Well, it's in invaluable lessons. I mean, everything I've learned is by the mistakes I've made. Sure. I think a lot of people go into business trying to be perfect.
Nate Winston [00:13:40]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:40]:
Especially when it comes to cars. Like, everyone wants to fix every car perfectly. Everyone wants these systems that are perfect every time is you don't even know what that is until you make the mistake.
Nate Winston [00:13:50]:
Mm hmm. You know, 100%. Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:13:52]:
And some of the best guys that give you the best advice that run these, you know, coaching companies or that are great educators, it's because all the mistakes they made, right.
Nate Winston [00:14:00]:
I mean, over the years. Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:02]:
It has to be like, how else do you learn this stuff besides, like, making a mistake and then, like, don't do that again, right?
Nate Winston [00:14:08]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:08]:
Next time I get a partnership and it's like, you don't even have to question it. Like, if you, if some attorney was like, hey, it's going to be five grand to set all this stuff up, and you're like, done, no problem. Right. Like, if you're going to own a partnership, but if you'd never done it before, your first thought, your mind is like 5000. For what? Do I really need all these contracts?
Nate Winston [00:14:24]:
All right. Yes, you do. I believe it now.
Jimmy Purdy [00:14:30]:
So, so what, as far as your. Is there a specialty that you're into or what's moving into now?
Nate Winston [00:14:37]:
What I'm moving into, I'm moving in towards, you know, fixing up a lot more Honda's Acuras, Toyotas and Lexus, you know, your japanese cars. Those are just the cars that I like to service. I've been around them forever in a day. I grew up with Hondas and Toyotas. That's just all I drive with the reliabilities of them, you know? So, yeah, I specialize in them, but also, I'm not going to lose all of my customer relationships that I've built over the last 15 years that are going to follow me over here where I'm in the same city. So I will continue to service most american cars, foreign cars, no Europeans, no diesels, you know, Chevy's, Dutch Chryslers, all those products. I'll continue to service them because I learned over the years, over 15 years, I've learned a lot about them and they're pretty easy to work on, you know, so.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:32]:
And on the notation of clients. So that's got to be a touchy subject right now. And you can't tell clients where to go.
Nate Winston [00:15:43]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:43]:
So you guys are dividing. Right. And it's like, these are my clients, these are yours. But people, like, it doesn't work that way. Right. And I went through it, too. When I bought my shop, it was like some people I didn't want coming back.
Nate Winston [00:15:56]:
Right, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:57]:
But they wanted the deal from the old owner.
Nate Winston [00:15:59]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:15:59]:
And they thought, and I mean, still to this day, five years later, coming, hey, so I knew, you know, I knew him. And so you're gonna give me a good deal, like, what is so long? What are you talking about?
Nate Winston [00:16:08]:
Right, correct.
Jimmy Purdy [00:16:09]:
Some of those you want to get rid of, some of them are part of. And this. Is he moving forward with another shop, is he?
Nate Winston [00:16:15]:
Yeah, it's very rid of everything. It's very touchy, you know, the tools and the assets of the company. The tools wise that we somewhat divided. You know, I took some. He took some and kept some there. I saw the tire machines. I still need to go back and put, pull out and get. But as far as the dissolvement of the business name, you know, legally through the tax records and registration, it's.
Nate Winston [00:16:41]:
It's under East Coast Performance, LLC, limited liability company. But to the city, we did business as ECP auto repair and service. So that name alone of those words were never registered through the tax records. But he found out a way where he was able to go and register ECP auto repair and service and just stay at that building and not take the signs down and just keep the signs up and just continue to run business. But under proper name of ECP auto repair and service for the last 15 years. So he'll just keep the name, didn't buy me out or anything like that. And then we have over, you know, 3000 repair orders and customers in our database. Tech Techmetric is a service that we use, and so that'll stay with it, maybe, but I don't know how we would dissolve that or delete it or something because he didn't actually buy me out.
Nate Winston [00:17:39]:
He didn't purchase all of those customers from me for my half of the business. So I'm trying to figure out what to do with that portion yet as it's in my name.
Jimmy Purdy [00:17:50]:
Yeah, they call it goodwill. Right? Like ownership goodwill. As far as, like, as long as you continue running the business like them, they anticipate the clients will stay and so you can put a price on the goodwill.
Nate Winston [00:18:01]:
I don't.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:02]:
I don't see that really being. I don't know that that's interesting to think because, because they're gonna follow you or they're not gonna follow you.
Nate Winston [00:18:11]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:12]:
And how much of that did you see during your, during that of, like, people came in specifically for you and didn't, wanted to stay away when he was, and vice versa. They saw you up front. They're like, no, I want to talk to him. I mean, what was the division like, doing? Like, day to day operations?
Nate Winston [00:18:28]:
Day to day operations was, you know, 99% me. I was the face of the company. I was upfront and did the work, check in, did the work diagnosing, check customers out, check the clients out, get all that handled. I did all of that. Most people didn't even, you know, a few percent of the people did not even knew, know that I had a partner or did not even know who John was or they thought the guy out back was just an employee of mine.
Jimmy Purdy [00:18:57]:
Wow.
Nate Winston [00:18:58]:
So a lot of them will be following me right over here, just right down the street, you know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:04]:
Yeah. Be an easy transition. I mean, obviously put putting any sort of monetary value on, on any of that. It doesn't even seem worth it.
Nate Winston [00:19:11]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:13]:
Kind of strange. And how did you end up having to move out of that building?
Nate Winston [00:19:17]:
How did I move out? Or.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:19]:
Well, like, how did that, so he sounds like he's staying in the, in the prior location, and you looks like you're in a new place.
Nate Winston [00:19:26]:
Correct.
Jimmy Purdy [00:19:26]:
Was that like agreed upon or you're just like, I got to get out?
Nate Winston [00:19:31]:
No, it wasn't really agreed upon. We had a pretty good falling out the night before thanksgiving and real good, bad argument about it, about things, of how the business is being ran. And I told them the first of the new year, I'm done. January or December 31, I'm done. I think it's best that we split ways. And I'm officially going to be leaving the shop. And I made all my plans from thanksgiving time all the way up until now, where I made my two month plan of moving out then.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:07]:
So just a better, better situation for you to just go find something, rent and just.
Nate Winston [00:20:11]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:12]:
I guess in a, in another way, be the bigger man and walk away.
Nate Winston [00:20:15]:
Exactly. Absolutely. It was.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:17]:
Want to try to fight over that?
Nate Winston [00:20:19]:
Nope. Nope. It's too much stress on my heart and my body to just keep staying and deal with it each day in and day out. So I'm just going to leave.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:28]:
Can't blame you there.
Nate Winston [00:20:30]:
So. Yeah, it is. But it's just hard now that I have attorneys involved trying to dissolve everything and fill out billions of papers to close the chapter of the business, you know, that's a lot of work while trying to open up a new business. So I'm doing everything all together at one time, you know? Yeah, that's always fun, trying to do it and be happy all at the same time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:20:55]:
That's all. That's automotive repair in a nutshell. It's feast or famine, right? It's like you sit around, do nothing, or everybody shows up broken at the same time at all.
Nate Winston [00:21:03]:
Yep. Yep. I don't know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:05]:
Always all the same type of vehicles or the same damn type of repairs and, like, what is going on right now.
Nate Winston [00:21:10]:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:13]:
Car gods put on us.
Nate Winston [00:21:15]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:17]:
So a little on your. On your background, I mean, sounds like you've been on automotive your whole life, right?
Nate Winston [00:21:22]:
It sounds like it, but no.
Jimmy Purdy [00:21:24]:
Okay.
Nate Winston [00:21:25]:
Nope. So before automotive, you know, in high school, all my grades were terrible. They were like D's and F's. Barely passed. I failed English class three different times in high school. I took construction and remodeling class in high school because I thought I wanted to do construction. I wanted to build houses, but I really took it because my buddies were taking it and I wanted to hang out with them in class. This and that.
Nate Winston [00:21:53]:
Goof off. But really, I was horrible at it. Ended up building houses for about a year or two after high school. Had numerous of jobs from the age of 18 to 22 in every industry, from food service to manufacturing, construction, oil change, loop tech, things like that. You know, I was definitely all over the board trying to figure out what I want to do in life. Where's my job? Where's my career? I didn't go to college. I did not go to trade school because I did not want to waste money on something. I don't know what I'm going to do or what.
Nate Winston [00:22:31]:
What I even enjoy doing, you know? And that's when I got a job at a factory making vertical blinds, you know, in a manufacturing powder company. And that's when my partner, now, we became. He was my boss, but we became friends, and he saw that I like to work on my own car a little bit here and there. And we both decided, hey, let's open up a auto repair or a high performance repair shop called east coast performance. That was the name where we do fast and furious kind of cars, turbos, things like that, you know, but there's not a real good market for it. So we tried it for a few months and didn't work out too well. So then we turned it around to ECP, make the abbreviation short auto repair. And service and just, let's just fix up misses Jones's breaks that just came in because we're starving, we have no income, and we need to do something.
Nate Winston [00:23:26]:
So let's fix her breaks up for a couple hundred bucks and go from there and realize, hey, we're pretty good at this. We can make some money and let's just go down this path, you know? And 15 years later, we made it a success. And I was single at the time, living in an apartment down the street, and got kicked out and moved for nonpayment and moved into the repair shop, lived into a little tiny office, 200 square foot office, maybe, and lived there for eight months, working 100 hours a week with no paycheck at all and trying to learn about cars and learn about business and how to fix up brakes and alternators and things like that and learn about it. And here I am now, married, four kids, and own a house, you know, so, I mean, I open it.
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:16]:
And opening a shop on your own?
Nate Winston [00:24:18]:
Absolutely. So I do not regret my path of route of life, but it was very hard and struggles all the time. But also there was a lot of good, happy times as well, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:31]:
Yeah. It's like if you like what you're doing, that's the main thing. And bouncing around, and I feel like that's pretty relatable. I mean, I was. I. I did drywall for a long time, through high school, too, and tried the construction thing and tried this and that and the other thing, and it always kind of, like, pulls you back. And I feel like there's a lot of that reflection when you look back ten years and you're like, did I make the right choice?
Nate Winston [00:24:51]:
Right?
Jimmy Purdy [00:24:52]:
Like, am I. Am I supposed to be an auto technician? Then you realize how much add hd you have or add you have, and you're like, yeah, I definitely. This is definitely where I'm supposed to be.
Nate Winston [00:25:00]:
Yes. A hundred? Yes, yes. My wife tells me I have adhd up badly, and I had that all throughout high school, you know? So, yeah, I feel like that's like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:09]:
A common trend, you know, even if it's just like a touch of it.
Nate Winston [00:25:11]:
You know, it's like, it's like, like.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:13]:
The different colors, you know, there's definitely, definitely different strokes of it.
Nate Winston [00:25:16]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:16]:
Maybe not as severe as others, but it's like, it's one of those things where you got to be doing something different every day.
Nate Winston [00:25:21]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:21]:
Well, my different. You need it. You need to have a different problem every day.
Nate Winston [00:25:25]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, my wife even told me, you know, she went to the basement to do one thing, and then she got sidetracked with something else, and then five minutes, five other things, and I'm like, hot. So you have add or ADHD as well, and we all have it. We are humans. That's just how we all are. You know, some of us are a.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:43]:
Little worse, and then we end up working on cars for some reason.
Nate Winston [00:25:46]:
I'll bring her, and she helps me bleed, bleed out some breaks the other day at the house, you know, so. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:25:53]:
Oh, get her. Bring her in. I mean, that's the only way to do it. My wife runs the office, and she started as. Not as a anthropology major and went to college and. And all that, and somehow took a hard left and ended up running. Running the office of an automotive shop.
Nate Winston [00:26:12]:
Yikes. Well, I hope that was a good decision.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:15]:
She deals with people every day, so it's kind of the same thing. She was just looking at more like the, you know, people that weren't standing upright anymore, but.
Nate Winston [00:26:22]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:22]:
It's kind of the same. Yeah, we did a lot of, you know, the psychology part of it, and sure, it takes a lot of education to run a shop. I don't think. I think that's another stigma in the industry. It's like you're just a big, stupid grease monkey and you just, you know, do the repair, and you get, I don't know, give me, like, $500 and call it a day. Right? And it's like, that's it, right? And it's like. It's just like this weird vision, but it's. It's.
Jimmy Purdy [00:26:44]:
It's so much. And you have to watch your numbers so closely to make a profit. You know, you can't charge people $300 an hour and then just let it all come out in the wash. It's. It's not a high end service that we're providing, but it's very profitable if you actually monitor all your percentages. But how do you do that if you're not. If you're not educating yourself?
Nate Winston [00:27:05]:
Right, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:07]:
And one of the things I always saw when I first started was he would take apart. Right? And this is the guy about the shop. For him, he'd take apart and then just throw a random number on top of that. Right. So whatever. Call an alternator $60. He paid for the alternator, and he'd be going through the estimate, like, um, throw $12 on that, and then we got, uh, you know, four spark plugs, and put it. Put a dollar 50 on each one of those spark plugs.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:33]:
And it was just like this. Every estimate was written like that.
Nate Winston [00:27:35]:
Hmm. Interesting.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:37]:
Like, and this is. This is, I don't know, almost 20 years ago now. Uh, I mean, it was a long time ago, so I was like, times are different, but still, percentages have been around since the dawn of time.
Nate Winston [00:27:49]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:27:50]:
You know, but it's just. Just interesting. Like, and a lot of people, I think, are still kind of running their shop that way. They're still doing handwritten invoices. They're not using anything electronic, and they're fine under the radar, and they don't want to pay taxes. And it's like, I get it. I get it. Right? When you get the cash in your pocket, it feels good, but it's worthless.
Nate Winston [00:28:08]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:09]:
You can't. What are you gonna do with a hundred thousand dollars cash?
Nate Winston [00:28:11]:
Right, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:12]:
I mean, you. Yeah, you can get smart about it, but it's like, you gotta hide it, you gotta manage it. It's a lot. It's actually a lot of paper. It's kind of heavy. What do you do with all that? You know? Like, you can't store in a safety deposit box. It's like, you can't just go deposit in a bank. Like, so what do you do with all this cash, you know? And I don't know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:32]:
It's just, you get to a point where it's like, it's a good thing to pay taxes because it means you're making money. Oh, sure. I don't know.
Nate Winston [00:28:39]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:39]:
It's. But to have these handwritten invoices and just throw these random numbers on top, and then at the end of the year, you're doing 700, 800,000 gross. But you've only got $10,000 in the bank, and you're like, how come I didn't make any money?
Nate Winston [00:28:51]:
Right, right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:28:52]:
It's like, really? You're not paying attention. That's why.
Nate Winston [00:28:55]:
Right. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I don't know, my paying end of the year taxes, you know, I want to make sure I'm making money and making sure I'm making a living, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:04]:
Yeah. And divided up into quarterlies, even. Or it's just like, every year, you just learn one more thing to kind of, like, ease that tension and ease that and realize, like, okay, this is. This is probably the right way to go.
Nate Winston [00:29:15]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:15]:
You know, you start grossing over a million dollars a year, it's like, it's a good idea to, like, know where all that money's going, right?
Nate Winston [00:29:21]:
Absolutely. 100%.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:23]:
Two $3 million a year. And it's like, that 10% net is a pretty big number at $3 million a year. It's like, okay, we're doing all right, you know?
Nate Winston [00:29:30]:
Yep, absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:31]:
It just. It blows me away. Like, still here in this day and age. Like, there's people that aren't Internet savvy. They don't. They don't want to be on the Internet. They don't want to Google stuff. They don't want to, you know, get chat GBT.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:41]:
Right. And it's like, I'm not using that. I don't know.
Nate Winston [00:29:44]:
I don't know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:44]:
I don't know your stand on it. But it's like, this is the new standard, right? It's like, this is. It's like the bar was just lifted up. This isn't some secret. Like, everybody's doing it. So if you don't do it, you're behind.
Nate Winston [00:29:55]:
Yep, absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:29:56]:
Having a website. Yeah. And I don't know how these shops are running. Not having any sort of marketing or it just. I don't. I just don't get it.
Nate Winston [00:30:05]:
Yeah. I don't.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:06]:
Either you're either lying or you're not charging enough.
Nate Winston [00:30:10]:
Yep. Or both. Yep. Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:13]:
That could be both. There's always.
Nate Winston [00:30:15]:
Absolutely. You know, I'm real big in Google and Google Adwords and Facebook and putting up videos, pictures, things like that, you know, and getting into your local community groups. You know, that's all good advertisement right there, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:29]:
Right. And you're not a month out of work, right? Like, no, you're still looking for work.
Nate Winston [00:30:34]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:34]:
You're doing all these things. And, I mean, you're busy, you're making a paycheck, you're making a living, you're paying rent, but it's like, you're not four weeks out, five weeks out. And I feel like that's like a common trend. It's like. So I just don't get some of these other shops that absolutely refuse to do any of that, but yet their schedule still two, three weeks out.
Nate Winston [00:30:53]:
Right. Usually people that are scheduled that far out, they charge too little, apparently. That's what I've heard over the years.
Jimmy Purdy [00:30:59]:
It's got to be.
Nate Winston [00:31:00]:
They're not, I mean, charging enough. I'm not too sure that how that works, but, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:05]:
Or the thought process of, like, if you're marking up parts, you're ripping your client off, right?
Nate Winston [00:31:09]:
Mm hmm.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:10]:
What do you think about that?
Nate Winston [00:31:11]:
Um, no, because doesn't your superstore do that? Doesn't Walmart do that or your grocery stores, they all buy it really cheap or get huge discounts, and then they put it up to where they need to be, to where they're able to make a living and make a profit and be able to keep the doors open.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:28]:
Right, right.
Nate Winston [00:31:29]:
I mean, and this is.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:30]:
And you're. And you're kind of, in a day one sense right now, not necessarily technically, but for your own shop. And, you know, this is a very important thing. And I think a lot of maybe shop owners start into it, and it's like, well, I'm brand new, so I got to lower my prices and make sure I'm competitive with the market.
Nate Winston [00:31:46]:
Right. It's like a lost leader. Oh, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:31:51]:
Like, you. You're just wasting your time to make no profit.
Nate Winston [00:31:53]:
Mm hmm. Nope. I'm gonna continue to charge exactly what I've been doing down the street. And. And right now, this whole. This upcoming. My first week right now, I'm booked up with 13 appointments already, you know, from me talking to different people and that sort of thing, you know? So I'm gonna continue to charge the same. I'm not dropping my prices or anything because people know what I pay for my shop equipment, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:16]:
Yeah.
Nate Winston [00:32:17]:
So.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:18]:
And it's like, in a sense, you need more than you were making before now. Right. Because it's like you have all these new things, and, I mean, you have a lot of other back fees to pay for, and, I mean, there's. You got a lot going on. You got a lot on your plate, and it's like, to lower your fees to be competitive is like the. The last thing that should be happening.
Nate Winston [00:32:32]:
Correct.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:33]:
You know, because you need more profit. But it's a scary thing when. When you. When you're feeling slow in your first year, two years, three years in, you know, like, you want to hit that panic button. And how many times have you been in that situation where it's, like, getting a little slow and you want to hit that panic button? Right. Like, send out the oil discounts.
Nate Winston [00:32:51]:
No. No. Nope. Absolutely. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:56]:
The last thing you want is a bunch of discount oil changes. What you want to.
Nate Winston [00:32:59]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:32:59]:
You want to be broke and busy.
Nate Winston [00:33:01]:
Yeah, no, thanks. I'm okay. I mean, over at the other shop, I was never slow. I was never slow. Maybe the first couple years, we had some slow points and slow periods, but, I mean, for the last ten years, I was always jamming, always busy doing anywhere between 15 to 20 cars a week, which is perfect. And there was always things to be doing every single day.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:24]:
Now, your vision moving forward you're getting a little older now.
Nate Winston [00:33:28]:
Yes.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:29]:
I didn't say old.
Nate Winston [00:33:31]:
That's good.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:33]:
I'm in your age bracket, so we're not. We're not old. We're getting old.
Nate Winston [00:33:36]:
A lot of gray hair.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:37]:
Yeah, I've been blessed, but I don't kids either, so maybe that's a lot to do with it.
Nate Winston [00:33:43]:
Well, there are four kids in the ring. Holy cannoli. That I can only imagine.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:48]:
That's how you get the gray hairs on. That's. That's the secret to the gray hair.
Nate Winston [00:33:51]:
It is, yes. Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:33:54]:
So your vision moving forward now you got the shop. How. How do you see this unfolding in the next, say, five years?
Nate Winston [00:34:02]:
Within the next five years, I'm going to continue to be operating right here, same location, right here on this facility. This landlord, he has a plot of land right next door. He's working on building some storage units on the back half of this plant. Plot of land that's completely undeveloped. It's a couple of acres. It's like two or three acres. I want to say in about five years, I'm going to continue to talk to him to let me buy the front half or divide the parcel up and purchase the front half land from him and then get a good loan. To be able to do that and then five years after that, or even at the same time, just depends on how the loan is structured.
Nate Winston [00:34:48]:
I would like to build a really good, really nice four or five. About a five bay shop, state of the art facility right there on the front half, looking at the main street called State Road. That's where I see myself within the next five to ten years. Twelve years planning right now. Have my kids come in, work with me if they choose to, which they're very hands on, have full staff, have technicians, employees, things like that to help me move forward in that aspect. That's. I'm not going anywhere in my city. That's.
Nate Winston [00:35:24]:
That's what I'm working on and building right now with my accountant, with my banker to set me up for success. And we're going to start building that now and make sure all my percentages are where they need to be to be able to see that vision unfold.
Jimmy Purdy [00:35:40]:
That's exciting. How do you, how do you look at the business side of it? Are you still looking at being out in the bays? How are you disconnecting yourself from the kind of the day to day? Do you have any intent to do that? Are you happy with staying, being a lead producer or are you trying to step away and the ownership position.
Nate Winston [00:36:00]:
Not right now. No. I don't see that happening. Not now. Probably not ever. Just because I truly enjoy fixing the cars. I truly being out there in the shop all day long with the guys. I do plan on retiring one day.
Nate Winston [00:36:13]:
Yeah. Um, and then taking, you know, four or five weeks vacation a year when I'm in my sixties, sure. Um, but I don't see that happening for a very, very long time.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:25]:
So your. Your vision with the shop is still you running. Run in the front, run in the back.
Nate Winston [00:36:31]:
Oh, no. Um, no, that'd be like. Yeah, that'd be long term. Yeah. I'll plan on hiring somebody for, like, your front service counter person to be able to check customers and things like that. It's hard to get away from that. We tried that a while ago, three different times at the other place. But, yeah, I'll probably distance myself from there.
Jimmy Purdy [00:36:53]:
So you want to go to the tech side and have someone take you out front instead of hiring a technician, you going up front? Because, I mean, there's two different. I mean, there's always the different ways to look at it. Like, you can either divorce yourself from the office or you could divorce yourself from the shop. Just depends on what you like, you know? And it's just interesting to get other, you know, everyone's kind of take on that. I mean, I. I enjoy talking, so I don't mind being up front, and it's like. So I kind of moved away from the shop first.
Nate Winston [00:37:20]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:20]:
You know, as far as, like, being a technician, but.
Nate Winston [00:37:22]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:37:23]:
I like to get back there, too, and get my hands dirty, so I think it's nice when it's yours because you can do everything, even though everyone tells you, stay the hell out of it. Dude, you're slowing me down. Get out of my way, please. Like, sorry, I just wanted to get back here and do something.
Nate Winston [00:37:36]:
Right. Right, absolutely. That's something I want to have to think about over the years. I don't know, 100%, no answer. Because I really enjoy it all. I love talking to customers. I love numbers, and I love the satisfaction of, you see something broken, you buy the new part, you fix it. It's working great.
Nate Winston [00:37:53]:
I'm very happy and satisfied customers happy. I just love the. The full circle of everything from. From the beginning of the day to the end of the day, you know? I don't know quite yet. I can't answer that honestly.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:07]:
That's fair. And I had a. I had a pretty good conversation the other night about. About that, and you. You're gonna provide a fantastic service. You as the owner, you as the service advisor, use the technician. You as you. Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:23]:
You're providing this level of service that no one else can compete with.
Nate Winston [00:38:27]:
Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:27]:
Like, you're already in the top 1%, and now you're controlling the whole aspects of the business. But it gets to a point where you can't do all that. Right.
Nate Winston [00:38:37]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:37]:
You get so busy where you just have to either dial back and be comfortable with that. That. That kind of ceiling you're at.
Nate Winston [00:38:45]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:38:45]:
Because there's only so much you can do, or you have to sacrifice some level of your service, some level of you, I guess, integrity, in a way, to be able to take that next shift forward. Right. And that's a big. That's a big one. And you have to be okay with that. And some. Some guys aren't, like. And girls.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:04]:
Women not okay with that. Like, I want to run this. I want to do everything myself.
Nate Winston [00:39:07]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:08]:
And I'm okay with having this cap. Having the ceiling.
Nate Winston [00:39:11]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:39:12]:
The only way to get past that. That glass, that ceiling is to say, I gotta. I gotta sacrifice something. I gotta sacrifice the level of service in the office. I gotta sacrifice the level of service in the shop. It's a. It's a tough. It's a tough one to come to grips with.
Nate Winston [00:39:25]:
It is. Yeah. It truly is. And I want to be able to sacrifice that, and I want to exceed that cap. I don't want to just be stuck at one cap. You know, for the last two years, you know, I travel all over the country visiting different shops. I'd make my own personal shop tour blog on Facebook, call it what you will to. I would visit different companies and see how they operate, see how many employees they have, what their shop setup is looking like, because I knew this day right now is coming, and here it is.
Nate Winston [00:39:58]:
It's right now where I wanted to move out of the repair shop that I was at, split up the partnership, and here I am. And I was like, man, this is amazing. You know, I went to Ryan Blair's shop down there in Texas and Blair automotive with his european repair facility, God bless him, I won't service those cars. But he has a fantastic operation, you know? And I look at myself, I'm like, man, this is great. This is exactly what I want. I don't want multiple shops. And that's okay for me. It's.
Nate Winston [00:40:26]:
If other people want it, that's great. I don't want multiple shops. I just want one fantastic, state of the art facility. As me being the owner, singular owner. With my wife and our family, where we have service advisors, we have great technicians, we have great parking, great clientele. That's what I desire over the next, you know, 10, 15, 30 years as I am continuing to work before I retire. That's what I desire. That's my vision.
Nate Winston [00:40:55]:
They always talk about, keep the end in mind. Well, what does that end look like? How are you going to get there? What are you going to do each and every day to be able to get to your goal? And it's not a matter of, well, I can't wait to make $10 million this year. It's a huge lifelong journey, and that's what I'm on right now. And day one starts, um, this upcoming Monday morning when I open up business, you know. So, um, yeah, day one of the next 30 years, you know. No kidding.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:26]:
Day one of the rest your life.
Nate Winston [00:41:27]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:27]:
Like men in black. Put the suit on. So this is the last you everywhere.
Nate Winston [00:41:31]:
Absolutely. Yep. So my, my kids love it. My wife is fully supportive and backs me up 100% of this, and, uh, so does the whole city and everybody, you know. So I'm. I'm very happy and excited.
Jimmy Purdy [00:41:45]:
Yeah, it's exciting time, you know, and it's just making those small steps and. Yeah, man, it's.
Nate Winston [00:41:53]:
And it's hard to step back, you know, it's hard to stop answering the phone because that's one of my pet peeves, is when that phone rings, I will drop everything I'm doing to go answer that phone, you know, to take care of that customer, who is going to need some kind of repair, who's going to need that help. Whether need repair advice or just have a flat tire, I don't care. I'll do my best to help you, you know? Right.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:14]:
And what's your, what's your arro?
Nate Winston [00:42:16]:
Um, over there? It was like around, you know, 700 5800 somewhere in that ballpark, you know, $800 phone call. Right. Absolutely. You don't. Sure. Absolutely, absolutely. Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:29]:
Yeah, that's what I mean, the laws of averages. That's just how it works. And, yeah, and, yeah, and that's.
Nate Winston [00:42:35]:
And, you know, the other frustrating part is, you know, the phone would be ring and I'd be knee deep in work and he's outside smoking the phone. And then I'm trying to rely on him. You know, our business coach, you know, six, seven years ago, told us about this phone company called Uma Phone Services. Have you heard of them?
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:51]:
Uma.
Nate Winston [00:42:51]:
It's kind of, it's kind of like RingCentral. They're Internet based, cloud based, Internet phone service.
Jimmy Purdy [00:42:57]:
We use inbound.
Nate Winston [00:42:59]:
Inbound. Or it's like VoIp, you know, voice over ip. Right?
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:02]:
Yeah, that's what it is. It's a voice.
Nate Winston [00:43:04]:
And so I signed up with him two months ago, got my phone number and everything into where now, before our phones would ring, ring, ring. If we miss a phone call, you have no idea who it was. You can't call them back. You don't have caller id or anything. It's just through at and t, a landline. Now it rings to my landline. If I miss it, it goes to my cell phone as well at the same time to where. If I miss that phone call, that's okay.
Nate Winston [00:43:29]:
I will call them back. If I miss it, I'll call them back. I know who it is, and I can provide some kind of service to whoever may be calling. It's just really, really great, you know? And. And I brought that up to him seven years ago, and we never wanted to make that switch. Well, as soon as I started my company, I hopped on board and I called him right away.
Jimmy Purdy [00:43:50]:
Oh, yeah. I mean, I think I waited too long to do that because, yeah, we have the same style. And you get the transcribed messages to your email. So if you miss the call, it goes your email. You get an email alert with the transcribed message, not to mention the spam blockers. So you get no spam blockers. You can set it up so it's like they can dial one if they're new, if they're two if they're existing. So your service advisors know, oh, this is a new client, or, oh, this is going to be, you know, someone that's already in the shop, and it's like, what, a huge shift of, like, having just the phone ring.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:20]:
Yeah, I hate. I hate when the phone. Well, I like when the phone rings, but I hate the sound of a ringing phone.
Nate Winston [00:44:24]:
Okay.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:25]:
I just. Oh, my God. All day long to hear that over and over and over. So now it's just like this nice little chime. It's just a chime. Okay. I can deal with that.
Nate Winston [00:44:34]:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:37]:
All day. It's like saying somebody answered the phone, you know, but to have a voip like that is like, what a game changer.
Nate Winston [00:44:43]:
It truly is. It truly is. I love it so much, you know? I really do.
Jimmy Purdy [00:44:48]:
Yeah. And then, then I was able to hook my, my mic up to the. Because you can use uconnect through the inbound, so you can. I use the web, so you can click on numbers on your web pages, and it'll call through your computer. And I have my mic and my headphone set up so I can sound like this as I'm talking to clients.
Nate Winston [00:45:06]:
Right. That's so cool. You kind of love technology. That's so awesome.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:10]:
Oh, yeah. If it works, when it works.
Nate Winston [00:45:13]:
There you go.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:14]:
Sometimes it's, like, a little too much.
Nate Winston [00:45:16]:
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:17]:
Everyone gets a little frustrated when it's like, none of this is working. Everything is cloud based, and then the Internet goes down.
Nate Winston [00:45:24]:
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:24]:
Like, okay, okay, old man, you win today. You win. You're right. Your handwritten freaking invoices win today. Because the Internet, that's, like, the biggest thing is, like, you try to get someone that's a little older, older into it, and they're like, why would I do that? What if the Internet goes down, right?
Nate Winston [00:45:40]:
That one time, once every six months. Right, right. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:46]:
Look at how much we're gaining while it's working, though.
Nate Winston [00:45:49]:
Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:45:50]:
100% taking that next step. I mean, it's. Yeah, it's exciting. And to hear you're now able to do whatever you want to do and the things that you need to do to elevate your business, because a lot of that stuff is kind of holding you back. And when you're trying to explain this stuff that you're already on board with, it's just so much wasted time. Like, dude, this. This is what we need to do. Our SMS system needs to be a 2024 point of POS system.
Jimmy Purdy [00:46:19]:
We need to have. There's just so many things that every year, as vehicles evolve, and that's the one thing I've never understood with auto repair. Like, these cars are evolving so fast, but these business management styles and systems are. Are older, you know? Like, all that stuff in the shop needs to be upgraded as the cars come in. Right. It's like you're working on these cars that are so advanced, but yet you're in this 1980s point of sale system, right. Or using an at and t landline or whatever, and it's like, there's so much new technology. That's where the bars at now, you know? Like, if you're.
Jimmy Purdy [00:46:57]:
You're not just getting a step ahead, you're just keeping up with the Joneses.
Nate Winston [00:47:01]:
Absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:01]:
For the one percenters, anyway. And it's like, I just, like, a million dollars a year gross is just the bar now, you know? Like, that's just, like, the entry level. It's not that much anymore. Like, really, like. And I didn't catch. What state are you in?
Nate Winston [00:47:16]:
Ohio.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:17]:
Ohio. Okay.
Nate Winston [00:47:18]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:18]:
Your cost of living is obviously gone up like everybody.
Nate Winston [00:47:20]:
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:21]:
Not as bad as here in California, but.
Nate Winston [00:47:24]:
No, no, no. Which is good.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:26]:
$700,000 house is a two bedroom starter home. That's 800 sqft. It's like, what?
Nate Winston [00:47:32]:
Yeah, no, no, no.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:34]:
Gonna make $150,000 a year to qualify for that. Like, it's just crazy times. And it's like, unless you keep up with all this stuff, you just get so far behind so quickly, and it's just like, if you only wanted to work on, you know, the older cars, say you only had, like, 2000 to 2005 cars coming in the shop. Imagine a 2023 ram coming in.
Nate Winston [00:47:53]:
You'd be so lost, it'd be over your head.
Jimmy Purdy [00:47:57]:
My scan tool doesn't hook up. Why not? You have auto off. What's an auto off? Really?
Nate Winston [00:48:02]:
Mm hmm. Yeah. I know what you mean. Yep. It's. Technology is evolving every single day, and it's making our job harder, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:11]:
Yeah. Or more interesting.
Nate Winston [00:48:13]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:14]:
But I mean, we all. We all do this because we like hard challenges, I guess. I don't know.
Nate Winston [00:48:17]:
I understand what our problem is, but I don't know.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:19]:
Again, I think it's add.
Nate Winston [00:48:21]:
That is true. Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:23]:
This looks like a really hard challenge I'm in. I don't think most people think like that.
Nate Winston [00:48:27]:
Right?
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:27]:
No, people go the other direction. Like, that's really hard. I'm not going to do it. It's like, no, that's really hard. I want to do that.
Nate Winston [00:48:33]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:35]:
What's wrong with this? Well, cool, man.
Nate Winston [00:48:40]:
Yeah.
Jimmy Purdy [00:48:41]:
A lot of good information. Great story, man. It's like. Yeah, it's not nice to hear, but it's. We're all kind of in this. It's kind of same thing together. It's probably different problems we deal with, and it's just, you either have it or you don't. And it's like a lot of guys probably on the fence right now in the industry because it just seems like everything's getting thrown at them, curveballs left and right, and they just feel like, this isn't for me, but you.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:07]:
You're just a prime example of, like, just keep doing it.
Nate Winston [00:49:10]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:11]:
Eventually, it works out.
Nate Winston [00:49:12]:
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I got beaten up several times, mentally and physically on the cars, and there's been plenty of times where I just wanted to just give up, throw it in towel, and just pack up my tools, head home and get a job doing something else, you know? But stuck with it, you know, it's. It's my story, it's my journey, and. Yep. You just gotta stick with it, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:37]:
That's right. I like it. Cool. Thanks for coming on.
Nate Winston [00:49:40]:
Yeah, I appreciate it. Absolutely. I'm glad to be here and give you my time. Absolutely. Anything I could do to help inspire other people and hear my story. And if I could be of help of anybody, I'd love to, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:53]:
And then you mentioned your videos. I want to just real quick recap on that.
Nate Winston [00:49:57]:
Yep.
Jimmy Purdy [00:49:57]:
So you did some shop tours. Is there something someone can go check that out and. Yeah, I think that's the most valuable stuff you could ever think of. Like, looking at other people's operations is huge.
Nate Winston [00:50:06]:
Yeah, absolutely. That's on my personal Facebook page. You go there, you look at my pictures, and then it's in one of the albums, you know, and it's just, you know, I see carm doing that, but it's through virtual, you know, he. And that's great. And I was able to do it, but I wanted to try to take it an extra step further and spend my own money. Spend my own time and just travel around the country to different really cool looking shops that I wanted to become and get to know the owner, get to know the shop atmosphere, take pictures. But when you physically go and look at the shop, you have a different aspect and a whole new appreciation as to the industry, what they did, how they got there, hear their story in person, shake hands with them, network. It's totally different.
Nate Winston [00:50:54]:
And I really enjoy doing it, and I still am when I have the time, you know?
Jimmy Purdy [00:50:59]:
Yeah, you're going to probably not have.
Nate Winston [00:51:00]:
Much time here soon, but right now. But it's something. I'm glad.
Jimmy Purdy [00:51:04]:
I'll come back around.
Nate Winston [00:51:05]:
Oh, absolutely.
Jimmy Purdy [00:51:06]:
You're the owner. You can leave whenever you want.
Nate Winston [00:51:08]:
That is true, yes. I get infinite amount of time. I can do whatever.
Jimmy Purdy [00:51:12]:
Sure. Yes.