I did not grow up working on cars. My father did not own an auto repair shop; he was an insurance salesman who preferred spending time at the golf course to doing any work around the house.
I have always loved cars. Secretly driving around the block at age 14 helped me be a seasoned driver by the time driver education rolled around. My high school motor-head boyfriend took me to the races on weekends and let me pretend to be a race car driver sitting behind the wheel of his motor-head car.
But, there were no opportunities for me in the automotive world. So, I went to college for Hotel Restaurant Management and had a catering business for over 14 years.
Everything changed when I had my baby. I quickly realized that babies and catering did not mix. I knew that if I was going to stay sane, I was going to have to either hire a nanny to raise my child or become a stay at home mom with a very part-time job. Well I didn’t wait 34 years to have a child to hand her over to someone else to raise, so I hung up my apron! I wrote down all my skills and put a dollar amount of what I could make beside them. The biggest bang for the buck was bookkeeping.
I got a job as the bookkeeper at the Auto Repair shop that I took my car in for service and repairs. It was great fun hanging around the shop. I drove the auto technicians crazy with all my questions, and the trade magazines laying around (Brake & Front End, Under Car Digest, etc.) were so interesting I would take them home and read them from cover to cover. Slowly I learning the how’s, why’s, when’s and where’s of cars.
The owner kept finding me talking to his customers about things like: why it was important to the health of their car to get a cooling system power flush, what a brake job entailed, why they should rotate their tires every other oil change, etc. So much so, that he asked me if I would like a full time job as the Service Advisor. This is the point person for any repair shop or dealership. They answer the telephone, check people in the morning, call to explain what was needed to do the job, order parts and check people out after the job was completed.
What a great job! It was fast paced, full of variety, incredible social, and I was helping people keep their families safe and their cars reliable as they cruised on down the road.
I thought we should be busier and took a bunch of marketing, business and operation classes. We joined the CinRon Automotive Pinnacle Group. This is a Mastermind group of 80 of the Best, Top Notch Independent Repair shops from around the country with two fabulous consultants to teach all the latest and greatest. I was traveling four times a year to learn more and more about running a successful auto repair shop. The business doubled in size and the owner of the business asked me to be his business partner.
Now I was a female auto repair shop owner. How cool is that! This totally motivated me. I now wanted to not only help my customers, but wanted to reach out and help everyone, everywhere.
So I started writing.
I started off writing a monthly auto care newsletter to my client base. Then Vermont Women Magazine asked me if I could write a regular automotive column which we named “Under The Hood”. I was getting such great feedback that I added free reports and helpful checklists to the shops website www.autocraftsmen.com.
Then I noticed a re-occurring problem. Customers would purchase a used car without taking advantage of our Used Car Inspection Service. They had an amateur mechanic friend or relative look over the car to determine if it was worth the money. Then they would come into our shop and say, “I need an oil change, and would you have a tech check out that weird noise in the front end?” I would send it on back and would cringe when one of the techs would call me into the bays because they wanted to show me something.
Next would come the dirty deed. I had to be the one to tell them, “We are not going to do the oil change on your car, because that funny noise in the front end will cost about $600 to fix and it’s not really worth fixing with everything else we found wrong on it.”
Then it would happen. They would either yell at me or start crying. UH, I hated this!
I wanted to fix this re-occurring problem. I wanted to make a difference. So, I wrote a step-by-step, fill in the blank workbook: How to Buy a GREAT Used Car. I got such great feedback from the hard copy that I created a PDF version that could be download it immediately of the our website
The next logical step was to create a How To Buy A Great Used Car Class. I practiced by going into driver education classes and then branched out to a variety of groups. I was able to get this important information in front of people BEFORE they handed over their hard earned money on an unworthy vehicle.
I still felt I wasn’t reaching enough people. So I put together a class and a turn-key kit for other Auto Repair Shops so they could be the Used Car Experts in their communities. I teach how important it is to educate the public about buying a used car, how to give a thorough used car inspection, and give the information consumers need to buy a Great Used Car! Now there are over 60 other repairs shops around the country helping to spread the word!
My book got the attention of The Women’s Car Care Council (www.women.carcare.org). They asked me to speak at their annual meeting in the summer of 2006, and then asked me to join the education committee of the board of the WCCC. Now I am working with other women in the automotive industry to encourage women to become active vehicle maintainers; and to promote career opportunities for women in the automotive parts and service industry.
This got the attention of Jody DeVere, one of the brilliant minds behind www.AskPatty.com . She asked me to be on her panel of Automotive Expert Women.
I now start my day off by answering questions about buying used cars, automotive repair and maintenance from women around the country. I send her copies of my automotive articles and the one on Fuel Economy got the attention of National Public Radio. I was asked to be a guest expert on Talk of the Nation with Neil Cohan and was able to reach thousands of people and teach them how to get better fuel economy with their automobiles.
Bedazzled film
Being on national radio made me dream BIG! Wouldn’t it be a great idea & a lot of FUN to have an automotive TV show? Give folks a visual way to learn automotive tips to keep their families safe while driving down the road of life. I could use the help of all my automotive expert connections from around the country and we could give them the information they need to make informed decisions. Thus, Amy’s Garage was born!
If you’re an AutoGirl… how did you get in the business?
Manderlay download A local website launched last month is also devoted to women. Janes-list.com is for military wives whose husbands have been deployed.
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