My experience goes all the way back to the day I was born.
I guess you could say I am a lifer, I was born into this Industry back in 1965, my father started his very first job as a "lot boy" ( a term used widely in the dealership industry), his duties were to clean up the dealer lot, pull weeds, place furniture in the show homes, etc. He was a very motivated individual and his boss quickly caught up on that. He would routinely ask my dad to perform more and more tasks at the dealership, and one day the dealer had a home sold and had it delivered to the home site and was now ready to be "set up", however, the guy he had hired to do the job was a no show and the customer was planning on moving in by the next day. The dealer turned to my dad and asked him if he thought he could set up the home. My dad had always been they type of individual that would absorb everything around him, and had watched the set up guy install several homes over the months, so he quickly said "sure!". He performed the task and thus became the dealers new set up guy. It wasn't long after that when another instance presented itself, the dealer's driver that would deliver the homes was not available to take a new home sale to the customers lot. The dealer being impressed with my father's work ethic again turned to him and asked if he thought he could drive that big truck and take the home to the customer's lot, once again he said "sure!". You can guess what happened next, he became the dealer's transport AND set up guy, the days of cleaning the lot were now beyond him.
It did not take long before my father realized there was an opportunity for him to start a business of his own and it was then that Magic Mobile Homes was born. My father and mother ran a very successful set up and transport business for several years, during this time, my father's entrepreneurial spirit led him decide that they should start a dealership of their own. Now Magic Mobile Homes was a multi-faceted company that had its imprint into just about every segment of the mobile home industry.
Years past and i was growing up, my parents took my brothers and myself just about everywhere they went (mostly during the summer & after school) as a young teenager, i was learning and absorbing everything my parents did. I learned about plumbing, electrical, construction, business, etc. The most valuable take away I look back at is that my parents cared about people, they had a strong ethical standard when it came to customer service. My father would often state the old adage "If you don't have time to do it right then don't do it at all". I can remember being a younger man and wanting to go home after 5:00 or so, and he would harp on my about finishing what I started, that led to many long 12-14 hour days. My dad was the hardest working people, even as he grew older, he would out work many of our employees that were in their twenties.
After I graduated high school, I jumped into the family business with both feet. With both of my parents, myself and a couple employees, and a lot of hard work, Magic Mobile Homes grew into one of the largest Transport, & Set Up companies in the State. I was infatuated with the business side of everything, from watching my father sell our services, negotiate deals with vendors, to how he dealt with banks, I couldn't get enough of it.
I felt the gravitational pull of the entrepreneurial spirit drawing me in deeper and deeper into the business, I would constantly be looking for greater opportunities for our business and decided to push our services into permanent foundations and utilities. I took some classes and was soon able to acquire my General Contractor's license and a Residential Electrician's license. We had one of only a couple of businesses in the entire State that could offer a turn key service to place a manufactured home on private land. Without sub contracting anyone, we would transport the home, build the foundation, set electrical poles, septic tanks, gas yard lines, interior close up to include drywall, tape and texture, paint, carpet installation, and more.
We were riding a wave, then a life changing event happened. I was up in the mountains with my family and decided to rent a couple for four wheelers to ride around the trails. I got a bit full of myself an decided to take on a very steep hill, and I didn't quite make it to the top. I down shifted to get a lower gear and then the ATV pulled up and over, I went tumbling down the hill head over heels and as the ATV came over the top of me, I felt my back pop. My legs immediately went numb and I could not move. After I endured an hour trip in the ambulance and then an emergency plane ride back to Albuquerque, the doctors told me I had a broken back and would be paralyzed for the rest of my life. I began the long road to recovery with many hours and days of physical therapy, I was working really hard to build my strength back up and do everything the therapist asked and more. I am not sure what I thought the payoff would be, but it did not hit me until I was finally able to come home from the hospital, "what am I going to do now?" I could no longer do any of the physical work that I had done all my adult life.
After I recuperated from my injury, I started to go back to the office a couple hours a day to keep my mind right, there wasn't much I could do at this point, so I started to reimagine myself. What could I do with my brain now that my body would no longer have the abilities it once had? So I decided to enroll in college. I started my higher education at the age of 34 years old at the University of New Mexico, I was the old guy in a wheelchair amongst 20 year old kids, boy was that another mental challenge. But I stuck to it. Time went on, and I kept challenging myself, I put myself on the ballot to be elected to the Board of Directors for our State Manufactured Housing Association as the Transportation and Installer representative, not long after that I was appointed by our Governor to sit on the Regulatory Commission that oversees the Manufactured Housing Industry.
My parents and younger brothers kept the Transport and construction business going for a few years and as I came closer to graduation I was realizing that the parts and supply side of the business was something I could use my background towards. We had an large office with a garage and I decided to start a small retail store in that space, our location was on the far west side of town that was expanding rapidly and the only other store that sold mobile home parts was way on the other side of town. I started off buying wholesale from the distributor across town and sold retail on my side of town, I was pleasantly surprised as to how much demand there was for these products! It was not long before I set up a family meeting with my parents and brothers to discuss the potential of transitioning our business model. We had a decent parcel of land and the building already, we just needed to decide if we would sell off our construction and transportation equipment and replace them with delivery trucks, store fixtures, and inventory. We took the leap and pulled all of our resources together and started a full on distribution company, I can remember ordering our first full truckload of skirting, it was something like $30k and it took us almost 6 months to turn, nowadays we turn a truckload approximately every 30 days! That first load helped propel us forward and soon after we ordered a truckload of mobile home anchor supplies and then another and another product line each month after that. Within a couple of years we opened a second location in Las Cruces NM and were dominating our region in Manufactured Housing parts and supplies. A few more years passed and we had grown beyond our expectations, we had completely filled up the existing building we were selling out of, as well as shipping containers and outdoor storage, I realized that if we were going to be the main source for mobile home supplies in the state, that we should look and feel like it. So I began looking for a proper sized warehouse that would have the indoor capacity for even more inventory, pallet shelving, offices and retail storefront. We got lucky and found the perfect location right in the middle of town, it was a 15,00 sq ft building with upper and lower office space and 20' tall ceiling height in the warehouse that would accommodate full height pallet shelving. We made an offer on the building and completed the purchase and began the arduous task of moving our entire operation to the new location, as well as some renovations. The work was hard and very stressful, but really paid off. My vision had come to life! We now had a conventional distribution center and could comfortably state that we were the largest source for mobile home parts in the entire state.
Business was going very well, and now that we had the building and several delivery trucks, people from around the US were starting to take notice, It had not been but three years at our new location that two of the largest distribution companies in the whole US started poking around in New Mexico. One of them took the approach that they would simply try to push their way into our territory with low prices and unkept promises of better service, but they were not successful. The second showed up unexpectedly at one of the State association annual conventions and set up a vendor booth alongside of us and one of the other local stores. This had never been done before, none of the National distributors had ever shown any interest in attending one of the New Mexico annual conventions, I could smell something brewing. The Distributor representative was very cordial and did not come off as threatening or aggressive. Several months passed and then out of the blue, one of the representatives from that company called and asked if we could schedule a meeting, I accepted. The meeting went very well, still no mention of any interest, just a cordial conversation about business and my background. Several months passed again, and I received another call requesting a time they could come visit our warehouse, I accepted. This time, it was a more formal meeting with two representatives. We had a very good visit for several hours, and then came the "ask", "would you consider selling your family business?", I told them that I was expecting the question, and the yes, we had considered it. At this point I felt that I had two choices, I could sell the company and join the buyer and attempt to grow even larger with the backing of a National Distributor, or I could refuse and risk the potential of them coming in anyway and crushing our business with lower prices. As you can image, we decided to sell.
I was able to set up my parent’s retirement in style, and my two brothers and I stayed on with the company in our existing roles. I was able to take the business to heights I could not have imagined with this National company over the next five years. After that, I felt the need to branch out and do something else, I resigned and started a new company as a consultant, working to help the Manufactured Housing Industry and homeowners in a variety of capacities.
Life has been good, and I love what I do.
I hope this story encourages others to reach for their dreams and pursue happiness!
I guess you could say I am a lifer, I was born into this Industry back in 1965, my father started his very first job as a "lot boy" ( a term used widely in the dealership industry), his duties were to clean up the dealer lot, pull weeds, place furniture in the show homes, etc. He was a very motivated individual and his boss quickly caught up on that. He would routinely ask my dad to perform more and more tasks at the dealership, and one day the dealer had a home sold and had it delivered to the home site and was now ready to be "set up", however, the guy he had hired to do the job was a no show and the customer was planning on moving in by the next day. The dealer turned to my dad and asked him if he thought he could set up the home. My dad had always been they type of individual that would absorb everything around him, and had watched the set up guy install several homes over the months, so he quickly said "sure!". He performed the task and thus became the dealers new set up guy. It wasn't long after that when another instance presented itself, the dealer's driver that would deliver the homes was not available to take a new home sale to the customers lot. The dealer being impressed with my father's work ethic again turned to him and asked if he thought he could drive that big truck and take the home to the customer's lot, once again he said "sure!". You can guess what happened next, he became the dealer's transport AND set up guy, the days of cleaning the lot were now beyond him.
It did not take long before my father realized there was an opportunity for him to start a business of his own and it was then that Magic Mobile Homes was born. My father and mother ran a very successful set up and transport business for several years, during this time, my father's entrepreneurial spirit led him decide that they should start a dealership of their own. Now Magic Mobile Homes was a multi-faceted company that had its imprint into just about every segment of the mobile home industry.
Years past and i was growing up, my parents took my brothers and myself just about everywhere they went (mostly during the summer & after school) as a young teenager, i was learning and absorbing everything my parents did. I learned about plumbing, electrical, construction, business, etc. The most valuable take away I look back at is that my parents cared about people, they had a strong ethical standard when it came to customer service. My father would often state the old adage "If you don't have time to do it right then don't do it at all". I can remember being a younger man and wanting to go home after 5:00 or so, and he would harp on my about finishing what I started, that led to many long 12-14 hour days. My dad was the hardest working people, even as he grew older, he would out work many of our employees that were in their twenties.
After I graduated high school, I jumped into the family business with both feet. With both of my parents, myself and a couple employees, and a lot of hard work, Magic Mobile Homes grew into one of the largest Transport, & Set Up companies in the State. I was infatuated with the business side of everything, from watching my father sell our services, negotiate deals with vendors, to how he dealt with banks, I couldn't get enough of it.
I felt the gravitational pull of the entrepreneurial spirit drawing me in deeper and deeper into the business, I would constantly be looking for greater opportunities for our business and decided to push our services into permanent foundations and utilities. I took some classes and was soon able to acquire my General Contractor's license and a Residential Electrician's license. We had one of only a couple of businesses in the entire State that could offer a turn key service to place a manufactured home on private land. Without sub contracting anyone, we would transport the home, build the foundation, set electrical poles, septic tanks, gas yard lines, interior close up to include drywall, tape and texture, paint, carpet installation, and more.
We were riding a wave, then a life changing event happened. I was up in the mountains with my family and decided to rent a couple for four wheelers to ride around the trails. I got a bit full of myself an decided to take on a very steep hill, and I didn't quite make it to the top. I down shifted to get a lower gear and then the ATV pulled up and over, I went tumbling down the hill head over heels and as the ATV came over the top of me, I felt my back pop. My legs immediately went numb and I could not move. After I endured an hour trip in the ambulance and then an emergency plane ride back to Albuquerque, the doctors told me I had a broken back and would be paralyzed for the rest of my life. I began the long road to recovery with many hours and days of physical therapy, I was working really hard to build my strength back up and do everything the therapist asked and more. I am not sure what I thought the payoff would be, but it did not hit me until I was finally able to come home from the hospital, "what am I going to do now?" I could no longer do any of the physical work that I had done all my adult life.
After I recuperated from my injury, I started to go back to the office a couple hours a day to keep my mind right, there wasn't much I could do at this point, so I started to reimagine myself. What could I do with my brain now that my body would no longer have the abilities it once had? So I decided to enroll in college. I started my higher education at the age of 34 years old at the University of New Mexico, I was the old guy in a wheelchair amongst 20 year old kids, boy was that another mental challenge. But I stuck to it. Time went on, and I kept challenging myself, I put myself on the ballot to be elected to the Board of Directors for our State Manufactured Housing Association as the Transportation and Installer representative, not long after that I was appointed by our Governor to sit on the Regulatory Commission that oversees the Manufactured Housing Industry.
My parents and younger brothers kept the Transport and construction business going for a few years and as I came closer to graduation I was realizing that the parts and supply side of the business was something I could use my background towards. We had an large office with a garage and I decided to start a small retail store in that space, our location was on the far west side of town that was expanding rapidly and the only other store that sold mobile home parts was way on the other side of town. I started off buying wholesale from the distributor across town and sold retail on my side of town, I was pleasantly surprised as to how much demand there was for these products! It was not long before I set up a family meeting with my parents and brothers to discuss the potential of transitioning our business model. We had a decent parcel of land and the building already, we just needed to decide if we would sell off our construction and transportation equipment and replace them with delivery trucks, store fixtures, and inventory. We took the leap and pulled all of our resources together and started a full on distribution company, I can remember ordering our first full truckload of skirting, it was something like $30k and it took us almost 6 months to turn, nowadays we turn a truckload approximately every 30 days! That first load helped propel us forward and soon after we ordered a truckload of mobile home anchor supplies and then another and another product line each month after that. Within a couple of years we opened a second location in Las Cruces NM and were dominating our region in Manufactured Housing parts and supplies. A few more years passed and we had grown beyond our expectations, we had completely filled up the existing building we were selling out of, as well as shipping containers and outdoor storage, I realized that if we were going to be the main source for mobile home supplies in the state, that we should look and feel like it. So I began looking for a proper sized warehouse that would have the indoor capacity for even more inventory, pallet shelving, offices and retail storefront. We got lucky and found the perfect location right in the middle of town, it was a 15,00 sq ft building with upper and lower office space and 20' tall ceiling height in the warehouse that would accommodate full height pallet shelving. We made an offer on the building and completed the purchase and began the arduous task of moving our entire operation to the new location, as well as some renovations. The work was hard and very stressful, but really paid off. My vision had come to life! We now had a conventional distribution center and could comfortably state that we were the largest source for mobile home parts in the entire state.
Business was going very well, and now that we had the building and several delivery trucks, people from around the US were starting to take notice, It had not been but three years at our new location that two of the largest distribution companies in the whole US started poking around in New Mexico. One of them took the approach that they would simply try to push their way into our territory with low prices and unkept promises of better service, but they were not successful. The second showed up unexpectedly at one of the State association annual conventions and set up a vendor booth alongside of us and one of the other local stores. This had never been done before, none of the National distributors had ever shown any interest in attending one of the New Mexico annual conventions, I could smell something brewing. The Distributor representative was very cordial and did not come off as threatening or aggressive. Several months passed and then out of the blue, one of the representatives from that company called and asked if we could schedule a meeting, I accepted. The meeting went very well, still no mention of any interest, just a cordial conversation about business and my background. Several months passed again, and I received another call requesting a time they could come visit our warehouse, I accepted. This time, it was a more formal meeting with two representatives. We had a very good visit for several hours, and then came the "ask", "would you consider selling your family business?", I told them that I was expecting the question, and the yes, we had considered it. At this point I felt that I had two choices, I could sell the company and join the buyer and attempt to grow even larger with the backing of a National Distributor, or I could refuse and risk the potential of them coming in anyway and crushing our business with lower prices. As you can image, we decided to sell.
I was able to set up my parent’s retirement in style, and my two brothers and I stayed on with the company in our existing roles. I was able to take the business to heights I could not have imagined with this National company over the next five years. After that, I felt the need to branch out and do something else, I resigned and started a new company as a consultant, working to help the Manufactured Housing Industry and homeowners in a variety of capacities.
Life has been good, and I love what I do.
I hope this story encourages others to reach for their dreams and pursue happiness!