By Rich Diegle
I recently had to the pleasure to interview Adam Inocelda, co-owner of A&J Automotive Repair and Fleet Service, an eight-bay, 6,500-square-foot mechanical repair facility in Rancho Cordova, Calif. Early in the interview, I realized that their success hinged on some unique business practices.
Rich: The first question I have for you is: How long have you been in business?
Adam: We opened in 2009. It’s been a family-run operation from the beginning. In the shop, it’s just my brother Jon, my dad “Pops” and me. We started out with a small loan from Pops when he retired from the fire department, and we just kept building up the business from there.
Rich: So, is it just three of you, or have you hired other techs?
Adam: Over the years, we’ve tried to bring techs in at entry-level and train them to do preventive maintenance. Unfortunately, they didn’t work out for numerous reasons. We quickly found that there wasn’t a lot of good techs to choose from, and we wanted to preserve the reputation of the shop, so it was almost easier to do it ourselves. My brother and I were able to make some scheduling adjustments to handle the workload and still grow the business.
Rich: Have there been many challenges in operating a family-run business?
Adam: For us …