In June of 2009 we made a huge leap of faith in the worst of economic times and decided to move our families and our business to Central Florida. The first few months I had second guessed my decision on more than one occasion, the next few months I questioned myself even more. What sane person would up root their family and business in the same year 133 banks have closed their doors and move 1200 miles away? No one said I was sane….. So read on.
After much deliberation on my part, something had occurred to me, the last time I was in a pinch like this was at the end of 2001 when I knew I was going to lose my income (JOB)… and that brought out the best in me, even in the worst of times. Losing my job (while it seemed like the end of the earth at the time) gave me an opportunity to start my own business doing something I really loved; building engines and making cars go fast.
After much deliberation on my part, something had occurred to me, the last time I was in a pinch like this was at the end of 2001 when I knew I was going to lose my income (JOB)… and that brought out the best in me, even in the worst of times. Losing my job (while it seemed like the end of the earth at the time) gave me an opportunity to start my own business doing something I really loved; building engines and making cars go fast.
In the beginning, business was that simple – people call, I provide a service and/ or parts and I do the work myself and shake hands and move on to the next job. Then, all of the sudden three years later I have thirty employees to take care of and I asked myself – when did I sign up for this? While I would not change any of the past eight years, the people I have met along the way, or the employees I have hired – I would do things differently given another chance. Do things differently – interesting, but what would you do different? I will explain, keep reading.
Somewhere along the way I lost sight of what was most important to me – enjoying what I do every day while providing a great shopping experience, at an affordable price, with the best service possible. Those of you who have built a business from the ground up know what I am talking about, we all strive to provide a great service, and fill a niche in the market where we can excel and grow. We set priorities and how sometimes yours (priorities) go out the window when you are forced to meet payroll, pay insurance, rent, healthcare, and the other eighty things no one told you about when you started your business.
All of these years later how many people who have done over thirty million dollars in sales look back and wonder where their company went, and what they would change if they could? Change is an interesting word, change brought us to Florida – and change while sometimes painful is usually a good thing.
This brought about some soul searching – and made me think, maybe now is our opportunity to get back to basics by focusing on our “core competencies” – or for a more simplistic explanation - “do what we do, and do it very well”. We are a high performance machine shop who specializes in getting the most performance for your hard earned dollar – we are “under the hood specialist”. We specialize in hard parts to include all of your engine rebuilding and turbocharger needs.
We have successfully designed and built upon our years of experience in machining to produce over eight different casting projects; we have sold thousands of turbochargers, and have machined and built over 700 short blocks. While many people are suffering in this housing market it brings upon us an opportunity to take advantage of a phenomenal deal on a brand new commercial property about five miles from our current location in Sanford. This will afford us the opportunity to keep cost down and better serve our core customers. We will be getting back to basics for 2010 and only focusing on what we do well – and best of all, have a little bit of fun again.
More details to come soon including details on a new website!
Mike Huml Slowboy - http://www.slowboyracing.com/
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