DO IT FOR A LIVING

Latest Episodes:

069: Greg of GSC Power Division shares his path to manufacturing billet camshafts. Jul 25, 2016

Show notes

Greg Caloudas has been tinkering with cars his whole life but he never imaged that he would be developing and manufacturing engine internals. His first experience with an import was back in 1999 when he purchased a 1994 Supra. He had seen an upgraded one at a race track and though, "I've got to have one!" While in college, Greg majored in Business Management with the plan of working for himself. He wasn't really interested in the family business of restaurants and real estate. He began modifying his Supra and quickly realized there was a market for him to become a dealer and sell parts online. What started as a side business turned into GSC Motorsports (using his initials as the business name).

One day, Greg was approached by somebody who had some unbranded cams available for Evo's. There was a long wait for the HKS cams at the time so Greg decided to purchase the 50 or so sets and market them as GSC Cams. He sold all of them in a few months' time with a relatively unknown business. This result caused Greg to focus more of his efforts on manufacturing and selling camshafts. He realized pretty quickly that he would need to manufacture his own products here in the US versus having them made overseas. This ensures that he can closely monitor and control the quality of his product. Once he decided to dive into manufacturing a billet cam, this became even more important!

068: Steven Aghakhani tells us how he manages being an 8th grader who also races supercars! Jul 18, 2016

Show notes

Steven Aghakhani is a 13 year old who races exotic cars for a living! Everything from McClarens, Porsches, Lamborghinis, and even Formula 1 cars. His racing career began when he was 6 in go carts and it quickly morphed into something more serious. He has participated in several half mile events as well as raced at numerous circuit tracks.

Even though money is an obvious help in getting started racing super cars, Steven explains that there is a ton of mental and physical training required to sustain the strain of racing at 100% for hours at a time. He trains all the time and is at the track almost every day. But he has to balance this racing life with his school life with hopes that he can attend UCLA to study law and follow in his father's footsteps.

067: Jay Payson shares his experience of growing HP Tuners over the past decade. Jul 11, 2016

Show notes

Jay Payson's love of motored vehicles goes all the way back before he can remember. He began working at a repair shop / filling station in his late teens where he learned a ton of information about cars. He gave college a try but that wasn't quite his thing. So he found an automotive program through General Motors at a community college which really peaked his interest. He worked at a few dealerships and then transitioned to a testing facility. His various jobs over the years moved him to Michigan to go where the work was.

In 1999, he went to work for SuperChips as a calibrator. Things have come a long way from floppy drive flash tunes! He moved into upper management by 2004 where he helped them grow several hundred percent over the years. He then moved to HP Tuners where he has been for almost 10 years. He has helped grow this company as well and focuses on creating mutually beneficial relationships with other companies.

066: Ravi Dolwani shares how he created the performance division of CSF Radiator Jul 04, 2016

Show notes

Ravi Dolwani is a 4th generation member of the CSF Radiator company and is the CEO of the High Performance Division. This division is something that he started around 2010 with the intent of expanding the business to markets besides OEM manufacturers (such as Isuzu, John Deere, Mercedes Benz, etc.). He thought this expansion would be very seamless, but he soon found out this was not the case at all. He had to hit the pavement and go out to meet shops and spread the word about what he wanted to provide. Over the years, he grew the brand and proved that CSF could make a superior product.

Ravi put a lot of thought into how they sell their products. He made the decision to only sell through distributors and not go direct to consumers. The margins may be less, but this allows his team to focus on developing great products and not spend so much time on customer service inquiries. This all falls on the shoulders of the retailers who sell the product. Ravi has also been able to leverage economies of scale by piggybacking off the infrastructure of the parent company. This allows him to create a great product at a reasonable rate.

065: Lee Sweitzer details the steps he is taking to open up his shop, Sweitzer Performance Jun 27, 2016

Show notes

Lee Sweitzer has been around Mustangs all his life and even had a 1984 5.0 Mustang for his first car. At 17, he graduated high school and joined the service to become a Marine. He was stationed in Southern California and continued to race Mustangs. He has spent several years planning and preparing to open up his own performance shop to follow his passion. Lee has seen shop owners work themselves to the bone and is trying very hard to avoid falling into those pitfalls. He understands that it takes a bunch of hard work, but he wants to avoid making mistakes by researching ways to operate more efficiently. He has attended the Essentials of Operating a Shop seminar, many business seminars, talked with business coaches, and read business books.

He has just received the keys to his initial shop space and has begun to get the business going part time. It is a very small space but he really isn't tied down to a lease agreement so he has the option to move out whenever he needs more space. Lee already plans to work part time for several months to build up a client base and then look into moving into a larger space to hold multiple lifts and eventually, a chassis dyno. He is taking the task of opening up a shop very seriously and wants to limit his risk of making mistakes as he moves forward. Writing a formal business plan was an integral part of this process. While this may seem rare in the performance automotive world, writing a business plan forces you to take a hard look at the structure of how you want to operate.

064: Carlos Tirado explains how he leveraged forums and friendships to create Tirado Custom Coatings Jun 20, 2016

Show notes

Carlos Tirado remembers reading car enthusiast magazines while riding the school bus every day. His brother bought a 1995 DSM and he fell in love with imports. His brother sold the car but Carlos was able to track it down and purchase it back when he was in high school. After graduation, he went to college to work with electronics and it just didn't interest him as much as he hoped. He shifted gears and changed his major to automotive refinishing. This is where he found how he could turn his passion for cars into a way to make money. He stumbled into powder coating when he saw some people posting on the forum needing their DSM valve covers to be powder coated.

Carlos met Jorge of JMS Racing and they formed a business and personal relationship of working together. The business officially started when Carlos asked his forum buddies what he should call his business. He has since moved locations to be right by JMS Racing and continues to capitalize on that business relationship.

He now rents a 1000 square foot facility and keeps it full of work. He has focused on producing the highest quality product possible and has invested quite a bit on upgrading his equipment. Carlos hopes to hire one or two employees over the next year and move to a larger facility so he can meet the demand for his work.

063: Jack McGee of Jacks Transmissions shares how he has improved his business by working smarter, not harder Jun 13, 2016

Show notes

Jack McGee's earliest memories of working on electronics, and even repairing VCR's when he was 8. All of this was taking place in Jack's home country of Spain and a little bit in Italy. It wasn't until he was 15 that his father retired from the military and they moved to Colorado Springs, CO where he still lives today.

His first real business venture was partnering with local electronic stores and repair various items these stores would collect. This was a great venture for a while but he could see the market beginning to shrink and decided to stop this side repair business. He entered the workforce as a typical employee: guaranteed work, benefits, overtime pay, etc. But it just didn't satisfy his need for exciting work. So he left this job and spent some time taking a break from life responsibilities. A few years go by and Jack ended up purchasing a Galant VR4 which he eventually rebuilt the trans for. Word spread that he was doing this and he started doing more and more work on these cars. One thing led to another and Jack looked up one day and had purchased a 5000 square foot building which he still works out of today.

Now, Jack does everything he can to make the customers happy and keep improving his business. Difficult problems have arisen, but he and his team have done whatever they could to solve any issues that customers may encounter. And he is continually looking for ways to increase the efficiency at his shop. With 13 employees, this task is quite daunting but totally worth it when they can cut out wasteful activities. This has helped Jacks Transmissions become more successful than ever and given them direction on where to focus their efforts.

062: Jeremy Gerber of Roadster Shop says the keys to success are hard work and improving the operations at the shop Jun 06, 2016

Show notes

Jeremy is a 4th generation gearhead. He grew up working on everything from go carts to dune buggies to race cars while growing up. And he still has the same passion today as he did when he was a kid. The traditional college path just didn't feel right and Jeremy decided to go back to work with his dad at one of his body shops. This is when he began transitioning towards working on hot rods. He got a job at a small hot rod shop and eventually purchased the shop. They have since moved from the original location and have grown to 50,000 square feet and employ 60 people.

Jeremy is very focused on making improvements at the shop. As the business has grown, he and his brother have had to take on more professional roles and drift away from getting their hands dirty. This means implementing new software to manage and track the workflow called GlobalShop. They work hard to ensure their fabricators have all the parts and tools they need within easy reach. They talk with the chassis guys to hear ways to speed up and simplify the processes. They attribute a lot of their success to constantly improving their operations.

061: Don Herring Jr gives us an insight into how successful dealerships are operated May 30, 2016

Show notes

Don explains the ins and outs of running a successful dealership. While dealerships are often considered in a negative light, they are in the business of making money and are pretty efficient at doing so. Don provides valuable insight about the methods and metrics they use to gauge success and make decisions. They hold weekly status meetings and utilize software to track and delegate every aspect of the business. Listen in to gain knowledge about ways that you can improve operations at your shop!

Don Herring Jr. started his automotive career at 12 when he began washing cars at a dealership. During high school, he moved up to work in the parts department. He went off to college thinking he was going to become a doctor, then changed plans with the hopes of entering the air force. Unfortunately, his timing coincided with the end of the cold war and his aspirations of entering the air force diminished. So he again turned his attention to the automotive industry. He was making very good money being a car salesman during college and moved back to Dallas to join the family dealership. By 2005, his family had 3 dealerships and Don Herring Jr was in charge of the third dealership. He survived the 2008 economic turndown and 2015 has been their best year since then.

060: Justin Miller of Force-Fed Performance explains the difficulties of running a small business May 23, 2016

Show notes

In this episode, we go down a slightly different path and interview a smaller shop owner to get his perspective on running a performance shop.

Justin Miller started working as a dealer tech at age 17in Raleigh, NC. He began doing work and selling parts online in his free time. Justin has worked hard to grow his business with an initial investment of his own $1200. He now rents a 4200 sq ft building with a dyno and several lifts. And he employees 1 full time technician and a receptionist.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected