pendent are diverse. But they all lead ness and begin planning the future, the start his own transmission shop.
eventually to a major intersection: the brothers invested in business training. Kit has become accomplished both
Business Model. At this point on the They joined ATRA. Terry Greenhut as a businessman and as a technician.
road, the aspiring transmission tech has sold them on the idea of abandoning Visit him on line at www.lindsaytrans-
to morph into a new profession. the price business and focusing on the mission.com.
The humble beginnings of fixing profit business. Ron Woodworth was a gener-
transmissions for friends in the garage In 1980 the focus of their business al mechanic at a Ford dealership in
at home or as a moonlighter at night changed. They moved to a high profile Hamilton Ontario, Canada. A merge
must give way to going head-to-head location along the Trans Canada high- of two Ford dealerships in his town
with the real competitors listed in the way in the heart of Ottawa. To read the resulted in staff reductions. The shop
Yellow Pages. Beware! The qualifica- rest of their story, visit their web site at manager knew that he would be asked
tions for excellence as a businessperson www.bnn-transmission.com. to fire Ron, so before the order came
aren’t the same as the qualifications Mario Jauregui had a different down, he sent Ron to the Ford transmis-
for excellence as a transmission tech. story. Mario graduated from trade sion school.
The sign on the road to success says school in January, 1992. He says he Ron escaped being fired, but he
“Proceed with Caution.” was always in love with transmissions sure got fired-up about transmissions.
throughout his school years, so he went As a result, Ron got the inspiration to
Abbreviated Case Studies to work for a transmission shop after major in transmissions and eventually
Those who choose to build their graduation. As an R&R tech he learned open his own shop. Forty years later,
own business go through growing pains. the basics of transmission technology. Ron is a transmission tech who owns
Barry and Nazib Charania own B&N In 1996, he graduated to running and operates a thriving transmission
Transmissions in Ottawa, Canada’s that shop. In 1998, he opened his own business.
capital city. They have a stellar opera- shop, which went well for him. In 2004, In the April, 2007 issue of GEARS,
tion that focuses on high profile clien- Mario sold that shop. Over the course Managing Editor Rodger Bland wrote
tele like affluent retail customers and of 12 years, Mario went from trade an article entitled Meet Bob as part of
government fleets. school graduate to retirement! the What’s Working program. Bob’s
But Barry and his brother Nazib In April, 2008, Mario started up story is another case of running the
didn’t start out that way. As East Indians once again. His shop is located in a shop on two tracks.
living in Uganda during the days of town of 200,000 people, and has five
the brutal Idi Amin, their family was competitors. He has a five-bay shop What’s Your Story?
expelled from Uganda as victims of with five techs. His numbers are confi- The stories of independent trans-
“ethnic cleansing.” All their belongings dential, but it looks like he’s in the same mission shops are unique tales of indi-
were confiscated. The brothers were league as the New York bank CEOs! viduals from a variety of backgrounds
mechanics by trade, familiar with man- Mario realized early that his love with fortune and misfortune directing
ual transmissions but not automatics. of transmissions wasn’t enough to bring their paths.
They immigrated to Canada where success. Mario learned from the best As you listen to these stories, you’ll
Barry worked in a Montreal transmis- trainers in our industry, such as Bob hear a common theme. The independent
sion shop as a cleanup worker and Cooper, Terry Greenhut, and Mike Lee. shop owners who survived and grew to
shop helper. The separatist movement Mario learned about the business part compete with the franchised shops are
in Quebec forced them to move once of the transmission business. ATRA the ones who established a business
again, this time to Ottawa, where Barry has been a central institution for Mario model early in their development. The
worked in another transmission shop as as he built Express Transmissions in twin tracks that transmission shops run
an R&R tech. Stockton, CA. Check his web site at on are common to all transmission
In 1972, Barry and Nazib decided www.expresstransmissions.com. shops.
to launch their own shop in a closed, Kit Lindsay in Missouri started In the next edition of GEARS, we’ll
two-bay gas station. They had a hard transmission work when a friend of his draw together the debate about fran-
time. They had no established reputa- bought a scrapyard 727 transmission chising in the transmission business.
tion, so they offered their services to for his 1972 Plymouth Fury. The used Before then, I’d really like to hear your
the lowest class of customers: taxi unit didn’t work. Kit offered to try his story, too.
operators. Surprisingly, the taxi drivers first transmission repair with a $30 kit If you’re franchised, why did you
became their ambassadors, telling all and an agreement that if it worked his go that route, and are you happy with
their riders about B&N Transmission, friend owed him $35. It worked. the franchise system? If you’re an inde-
creating an Outside Sales Program that This gave Kit the inspiration to pendent, share your story about how
I’d never heard of before. learn more about transmissions. He you got started and how the trip has
Here’s the important part of this got a job with the local GM dealership been so far. Write to me at mandmtrans-
story: As Barry and Nazib began to and attended GM training school. Kit mission@shaw.ca or by snail mail via
experience growth in their business, was fortunate to make friends with two GEARS.
they got to the Business Model inter- influential men: the lead transmission
section. To bring order to their busi- trainer and an investor who helped Kit
GEARS March 2010 15
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