156: Alejandro and Pablo Moreno of Tandem Automotive

01/06/20 • 80 min

Alejandro and Pablo Moreno didn’t start a shop together but found they could grow a business by working as a team. Alejandro got his engineering degree, worked at Bell Helicopter for a while, and went back to school to get his MBA. In the meantime, Pablo was an auto mechanic, went to flight school, and then decided to start Tandem Automotive with a friend to work on drift cars (hence the name).

When Alejandro finished grad school, he was looking for some sort of entrepreneurial venture and wanted to help Pablo. He crunched some numbers and made some changes at Tandem Automotive. His quickly discovered that something needed to change at the business if they wanted it to succeed. They looked at their current customer based and decided it was best to specialize in modifying and maintaining Toyota SUV’s and trucks.

Alejandro used his CAD skills and designed a custom wheel for their common application. While he thought it would be a great way to generate some extra profit, it turned out to be a real headache. Dealing with overseas manufacturing turned out to be extremely difficult and costly. But they overcame the hurdles and have had several hundred wheels produced.

Tandem Automotive has also undergone several ups and downs with employees. They have tried to balance the number of techs with the workload but have struggled to hire hard workers and keep them busy with work. They have put systems in place to track the time and verify that they are charging appropriately and making money.

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155: Theresa Contreras and Sara Morosan of LGE-CTS Motorsports

The business was originally started by their parents who did maintenance and custom work in California. Theresa studied graphic design and worked as a machinist. She went back to work in the family auto body shop and worked in the front end. She taught herself how to pinstripe and paint and continues to do so to this day! Sara was also interested in working at some sort of automotive business and studied business and automotive classes. Strangely enough, she worked at a competitor’s auto body shop for a few months before realizing she wanted to start a business that sold aftermarket parts. She started the business from the family body shop before building a dedicated space in 1999.

These businesses operated separately until 2011 when they merged the two businesses. LGE-CTS Motorsports is a combination of the two original names. LGE stands for Louie & Gerry Enterprises and CTS stands for Custom Truck Shop. They now do a bunch of SEMA builds for Ford and Kia as well as custom builds for retail customers. During the slower season, they focus efforts on the repair side of the business. And they are currently working on expanding the online store to help generate revenue throughout the year.

They now work out of a 12,000 sqft building that they rent from their parents and employ 13 people. They are both very active with SEMA and other organizations to get people (and specifically, girls) active in the automotive industry and interested in making a career out of it. You can also find them at offroad and enthusiast events throughout the year. They keep themselves very busy and wouldn’t have it any other way!

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157: Matt Beenen returns with BuiltRight Industries

Since he was a kid, Matt always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Using inspiration from his childhood, he decided to start a side gig to follow his dreams. His initial idea consisted of 50 latches that allow you to drop the Ford F-150 back seat down to access some secret storage. To his surprise, a Facebook post in a small F-150 group resulted in him selling out rather quickly. So, he began his journey to go at the business full-time.

His second product development was a bedside rack system for the F-150’s. This side hustle first took over a bedroom, then grew into the garage, and grew again into a storage unit that was run off a generator and a string of lights.

His biggest struggle has been dealing with knockoffs that originate from his success on Amazon. He even wrote a blog article warning other small business owners about the pitfalls and helping people learn from his experience.

Fast forward to today and BuiltRight Industries is housed in a 5000 sqft warehouse and has 2 full time employees and a couple part timers. He has worked hard to expand the business to other vehicles and continues to develop new products. And he has even begun selling his products through Turn14.