Today we’d like to introduce you to Larry Grimmer.
Larry, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started in the automotive business about 1986 with a fairly aggressive local muffler chain that was beginning to grow. Working my way up from service writer, chain parts manager, computerizing company stores and franchises. Operations manager/Part owner for 3 stores for about 4 years and left with an opportunity to go solo because of a difference in where we were going and management style. So I opened 2 shops in 2001 the week before 9/11 and thought “what do I do now” most of my employees freaked out and we worked through it and built a good customer base with hard work and honesty. I sold one of the shops and concentrated on just one by being there every day which worked out well numbers were up, things were looking good. Well, the next big red-letter day happened and almost ended my story right there. On August 8th, 2008 we experience a tornado and the building was severely damaged and I experienced another “what do we do now” moments. I spent the next 8 months looking for a new location, keeping all of our customers informed and became HOOSIER MUFFLER & BRAKE. I knew the name was a little limiting but not a handicap. We opened on April 5th, 2009 and have never looked back. Were a family owned and operated business that knows that if we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will. We have expanded our services to meet the needs of our customers.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, not a smooth road at all. I have always believed that whatever you want to achieve can be done with hard work, not giving up and a lucky break every once and a while. So I guess if you consider those obstacles or challenges, we face those every day.
Please tell us about Hoosier Muffler and Brake.
I guess the biggest thing we are known for is performance/custom work, especially exhaust. This has ranged from older cars like the 1950 Chevy pickup that started out as just an exhaust leak that turned into to rebuilding the front suspension, engine, and exhaust along with some serious framework to customizing a 2016 Dodge Charger Hellcat’s exhaust. What I’m most proud of is our relationships with most of our customers, When you come in with an issue and some other shop and already had their hands in there and made things worse. Those are the problems that you need to spend time just talking to your customer and ask questions and listen. So many issues can be solved correctly with that attitude instead of just making a snap diagnosis and be wrong.
We also strongly believe that so many customers really have no idea what repair may have just been done and why it was done. I know that I have done my job when you can go back home and be able to explain to someone else because there are so many times I hear “they fixed something ” and they have no idea what they just paid for.
Were also not like those chain repair shop where a high job average is mandatory. I also believe that being a family owned and operated is important, you know who you’re going to deal with, I’m very proud of Josh who I work with the shop and my son Lorne our IT guy and I can’t forget my wife Donna handling all the data entry.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Really not very much, all those past experiences are learning experiences and made me and the business what it is today. It would be hard to appreciate where we are today if we make mistakes along the way. We now that I think about it maybe just one thing, recently we really started to use social media for self-promotion and advertising. My son, Lorne has been in charge of that, he was previously a computer program tester in the automotive field and decided to change fields and start his own Social Media Marking company (Purple Binder Marketing). I feel that with all the media platforms that we use has been very effective in increasing our name recognition. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t believe you would even know we existed. So I guess we would have started that much earlier.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3485 Ridge Rd., Highland, IN 46322
- Website: http://www.autorepairhighlandin.com/
- Phone: 219-838-7779
- Email: Hoosiermufflerandbrake@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoosiermufflerandbrake/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Hoosiermufflerandbrake
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@Hoosier_muffler
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hoosier-muffler-and-brakes-highland-3
Image Credit:
Lorne Grimmer
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