Jimmy Lea chats with industry veteran Greg Buckley to pull lessons from decades of shop ownership. Greg shares the Wilmington shop’s history with a shiplap ceiling, a former diner footprint, and a community effort restoring nearby family graves. He traces the business back to 1966 and his father’s fearless promotion and racing roots, then explains how he took the reins. A central theme is succession planning with a five year runway, clear roles, and keeping property as a retirement asset. Greg warns buyers to fix their own shops first and to do deep diligence on targets. He shifts the focus from vanity revenue to net profit and cash, and urges coaching, masterminds, and continuous education. The conversation explores bridging the labor owner divide with transparency and respect, plus raising professionalism through higher standards and possibly licensing.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

Greg Buckley, President of Buckley’s Auto Care

Show Highlights:

[00:00:00] - Jimmy and Greg open with stories about the past and future, then spotlight the only shop bay Greg knows with a shiplap wood ceiling and why you preserve unique character, not paint over it.

[00:01:30] - The Wilmington shop backstory includes the first California Ranch style Shell station in Delaware, a former hamburger stand footprint, and a community project to honor a neighboring family cemetery.

[00:04:51] - Heritage matters. Greg reflects on Native American roots while Jimmy shares a Cherokee family story, showing how lineage shapes values and leadership.

[00:09:06] - Origin story. Greg’s dad starts in 1966, blends Firestone experience with fearless local marketing and drag racing credibility to build a neighborhood institution.

[00:13:26] - Succession in practice. Retain property as a retirement asset, define roles for the next generation, and commit to a five year transition plan.

[00:18:41] - Before buying another shop, fix your own operation and perform deep due diligence to avoid sellers with poor records, erased tickets, and no reinvestment.

[00:24:55] - Expect chaos when launching additional locations. Stabilize with process people and written playbooks.

[00:29:23] - Get a coach and accountability. Revenue is vanity, net profit and cash in the bank are sanity.

[00:33:19] - Bridge the employee owner perception gap on pricing and margins by educating teams on the true cost of running a healthy shop.

[00:37:57] - Masterminds turn mountains into molehills. Elevate professionalism with ongoing education and stronger standards, potentially licensing.

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Jimmy Lee with the Institute, and this is the Leading Edge podcast coming to you live. Via recording. Greg Buckley and I are sitting here. Just gonna have a good old chat and talk about the good old days and the days that are ahead. This is gonna be an awesome conversation and Greg, thank you so much for joining me today.

Jimmy Lea: How are you?

Greg Buckley: My pleasure, man. Jimmy, when you, when I got the phone call and the invite, I said, I gotta hop on with my good friend Jimmy, you know, and you know, let's chit chat like you just said. You and I, we could talk for days, weeks, months.

Jimmy Lea: Right. And never repeat the same story

Greg Buckley: and never repeat.

Greg Buckley: Right. So we, you know, to, to our audience, we are going to be disciplined this time and hopefully get in, get out, say what we need to say. And all within what, Jimmy? 30 minutes. Oh yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Good. Good luck with that. So, I was blessed to be able to travel all across North America and visit shops in their shops.

Jimmy Lea: I was able to see what makes shops unique. Amazing, and to date, as far as I know, you are the only shop with a. Shiplap wood ceiling in the shop in the bay. Yeah.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. Yes. Isn't it crazy? Every time I wanna redo the, think about redoing the bay and we actually did it, but we kept the ceiling. We weren't really we weren't gonna get rid of it, you know?

Jimmy Lea: No. And you can't paint it. You can't paint. ITT can't. It's so beautiful. You can't cover it. You've gotta beautify it, magnify it, and it's an absolutely gorgeous location. You've done so much in that Wilmington. That's the Wilmington location, right? That's the

Greg Buckley: Wilmington location. Yeah. And the dumpy old equipment barn, but it's, but it serves a purpose.

Greg Buckley: So, but the the Wilmington location a little history on that ceiling was in that location. That was the first Shell Oil company gas station service station in the California Ranch model. So, you know, you have the sling it roof. And you had the wood the two bay and it was, that was the model back then.

Greg Buckley: And that was the first one in the state of Delaware when shell came in. And it lasted for approximately maybe 18 to 24 months, was not a longstanding unit. Traffic was, yeah. Someone did. I don't think someone did. This wasn't right. Work. No. And before that behind the building and the three bays you see exposed, facing the highway behind that Yes.

Greg Buckley: Was an original hamburger stand called Greenhill green Hill Hamburger. I think it was Greenhill Diner or something like that. Okay, anyway. Okay. And when we moved in, sure enough, we saw the footprint of the old hamburger stand, you know, the whole hamburger drive-in which was unique. So there was a lot of history to that location, you know, and then down here.

Greg Buckley: The history of our location here. The families are all Native American, the Harmon, lingos, Norwoods, and the streets great family. They're interconnected through marriages and relationships, and in fact, they're one of the family graveyards is right next to the shop, so, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Greg Buckley: So we have spirits in and out, you know, spirits in the bottle and spirits. That's amazing. Yeah. And you know, we actually had a, when we first moved in. Down here in Millsboro we had a little get together, the community we came to. I got the community together to actually rehabilitate the overgrown plots.

Greg Buckley: We learned the history of everybody and we we dressed up the the markers, the gravestones and all of that. It was really exceptional. We got some print got, I mean, it wasn't there to do, you know, promotional, but it came in and the community came together around it. And so now we have taken it on to where we maintained it to the best we can.

Greg Buckley: I mean, it's really a bugger, but there's I think there's nine or 11 family members. From the 18 hundreds through the early 19 hundreds that are resting there. And yeah it's really cool. It's just unique situations that you know, you find out about, and again, the families are amazing.

Greg Buckley: I mean, they're, yeah. You know, so we're fortunate and just little quirky stuff you find out about everything, so,

Jimmy Lea: well, that's a unique stewardship that you have elevated. Greg, thank you. Yeah,

Greg Buckley: you welcome that.

Jimmy Lea: That is sacred ground. That is family that is resting and

Greg Buckley: yeah,

Jimmy Lea: It allows you to educate the community as well as.

Jimmy Lea: Give honor to those that are there.

Greg Buckley: That is super cool. Well, yeah, it's pretty cool. Thank you. And we appreciate it. That was really the true mission. I, my, my mom was Native American and you know, she had some bloodlines. I can't, I don't think she was a hundred percent. I don't think that at all.

Greg Buckley: But my grandfather, I. Her father was. And there's just something there with, you know, the heritage part of it. And plus, like you said, honoring the family that's there and it's, it is special. You know, and believe it or not, you know, when I pull into the lottery, I walk over, I'll say, Hey guys, how you.

Greg Buckley: You know, you know, I wanna keep on the good side, you know? Yes. Oh

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Absolutely. So, so what line of Native American history is in your oh

Greg Buckley: gosh Nana coat. No my, my mom was Blackfoot that an offshoot that came out of nbr. The Blackfoot was pretty much central, you know, mid America and Nebraska and that area.

Greg Buckley: They had one offshoot that went eastbound and was in the Virginia area, and they were below the Nanako. The Nanako here in Sussex and Del Marva, the area here. We're the dominant tribe that really raised the agricultural level in our state and our area to where, you know, back in, well it still is. It's a lot of farmland and they, in fact, the development that is right behind the shop here in Millsboro.

Greg Buckley: It was a farm owned by nor Mr. Norwood who built this shop here as an equipment barn, and he built homes along Harmon's Hill. There are some Harmons that live on the, on this road as well. And so it's a, you know, it's really funny, Jimmy. I mean, the street, the state identification number of this street is 3 0 2, our area code.

Greg Buckley: And so yeah, it's, you might want, it's some crazy stuff that comes. You find out about Right. And then you start putting all these little connections together and you go, wow, man, how did I land in the middle of this soup? You know? And here I am. And you know, I do believe that it is a special location and you know, we're just playing it like, like we should, nice and easy, that kind of thing, so.

Greg Buckley: Oh, that's

Jimmy Lea: beautiful. My, my great grandmother was a Cherokee princess, and she Oh, yeah. Great. Two greats.

Jimmy Lea: Dad met her. Her name is Alpha Nations.

Greg Buckley: Oh wow. Wow. Really nickname, huh? How about that?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And she married a mountain man. And they were married for a short amount of time.

Jimmy Lea: Not a great amount of time. But because of her beliefs in the afterlife, she spoke of John as if though he was still alive, like he was just gone to the store for milk. I'll be back anytime I, and she would look forward. I'm looking forward to the eternities I'm gonna be able to spend with John and it's just a beautiful story.

Jimmy Lea: And my dad told me about that and I was just,

Greg Buckley: isn't that amazing?

Jimmy Lea: Oh it's fascinating and

Greg Buckley: I love it. It never leaves you, that story's like it never leaves you it actually, I, I think it becomes part of your makeup. You understand a little bit of where you originate it from and it's a tangible thing.

Greg Buckley: It's not something that somebody say, okay, well, I guess. They're from there. No. You have actual proof of their heritage, their lineage, and it, you start to say, well, okay, well there is something special.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah. It's cool.

Greg Buckley: Very

Jimmy Lea: cool. We'll have to exchange Native American stories sometime. I guess, yeah.

Greg Buckley: I'm, I, you know, I don't know how much I got from my mom. My, my grandparents they did originate from out of Virginia. My grandmother has a, on my mom's side, has a whole history of. Her side being involved with you know, colonial Virginia. Oh, so there's stories that, yeah, there's stories that I, my sister is now the keeper of the secrets, I guess, or the stories, and she's still finding things out and unfortunately.

Greg Buckley: Over the last, you know, few years or even decades, a lot of the family members from that era have passed on, you know, and We got what we got, you know, and now we're, you know, making our own. So, you know, it's interesting.

Jimmy Lea: Document it as much as you possibly can. Oh God, yeah. Oh my gosh, that's so good.

Jimmy Lea: Well, speaking of stories and documenting history and you're taking over for pops.

Jimmy Lea: And what's the story there? How did you guys, how did he get started in the business?

Greg Buckley: Well, he started in 66. He's got a really unique story young man 20. Yeah, 26 years old. He was working for his sister's husband at the time, Toni's, they owned a oh, a hardware store, very large hardware store.

Greg Buckley: It would be, you know. More than a general store back in the early sixties. Yeah. And you know, he worked with he sold tires, farm tires, whatever. So Firestone was where he got his, you know, I guess training or whatever. And of course he was street racer. He is a. Really good looking guy. You know what, he had all that going on.

Greg Buckley: It was a typical, like fifties type thing you'd think of, right?

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Oh

Greg Buckley: yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Greg Buckley: So, you know, his dream was to have a location or find something to do automotive wise. And what happened was he started at the hardware store. Selling tires. He got picked up by Firestone corporate offered him a job, and he went onto the wholesale market up in Pennsylvania, Delco Chester County, those areas.

Greg Buckley: So for five years first five years of my life, it was really spent in Pennsylvania and tramps in around, you know, that area as he was building his network of you know, shops to sell tires to, you know, wholesale. Then one day Atlantic Ridgefield. The Arco of today Atlantic Richfield knocked and said, Hey, we have a location opening up literally right down from his boyhood home.

Greg Buckley: Oh my word. Yeah. Three, three blocks down. And so naturally he said, that's mine. I gotta have it. So that's where it started. It was 1966 as a two bay. And then he grew it and had fun and did everything you're supposed to do. Loved to entertain, loved to. Promote if I learned anything about promoting and marketing, it was all from him.

Greg Buckley: 'cause he had no fear. He literally had no fear of being foolish. He had no fear of being a fool or looked at as such. Costumes were generally. Except it all over the place. I mean, so he built his business as a community with that. Plus, you know, he was a drag racer, very successful drag racer. We had a couple of what we were all Fords, so we had some modified versions of, you know, certain v Well, they were, we had a fairlane.

Greg Buckley: Two fair Lanes, a wagon a two door all Mustangs. And we went as far as we could. He won a championship and stock racing, so he had all that going on, and plus, with his charm and looks and everything, you know, look I know he's my dad, but the dude was a package, you know, I mean, he had everything.

Greg Buckley: He was high spirited, loved what he did. And so he had built a successful business in his own neighborhood, and that was something that was kind of rare. So, in 95 as he was aging and we were coming up, you know, we said that it might be time, you know, things are changing and, you know, we went from full service to self-serve, which really decimated our whole.

Greg Buckley: I think the whole service industry really when we went to self-service, 'cause it just took away the personal touch. And so we had reiterations of different models that we had to use to get by on the volume. And of course you're always in a cutthroat situation with the wholesale, the fuel. The oil companies and or the wholesalers.

Greg Buckley: So, over the period it got a little tiring. 95 we purchased dad out, you know, and said, Hey, we're gonna take over the shop, the business, and so forth. And he said, okay, great. He, 40 years is what his mark was. We hung in there for a little bit more. And that was at that location. And then we migrated up to where we are today in Wilmington.

Greg Buckley: With the five basics, pay shop, you know, property and all that stuff. So. That's how Dad started. That's how we took over and, you know, one generation to the next. And that's where we're at now. We're onto the third. And, you know, I'm in a secession type planning mode, I guess, you know, with Scott and Steve taking over, they're doing a hell of a job with, you know, with the operations.

Greg Buckley: And I'm really proud of 'em. I can't say enough about how they've grown as men and they've grown as a team and a partnership, which is really critical. And one of the things that, I think there's a lesson here for the audience. Is that when you're trying to, and this isn't a fam, I have to be very accurate here, very specific, that this is all involves family business, you know, for those of you that don't have a family member that you're giving it to or selling it to whatever, what I did was I had to make sure that those family members were credible enough that they could work together well enough.

Greg Buckley: They understood their roles. And that way I was pretty much secured in what my retirement slash future would be as I exit out. And I, you know, I don't have 10 million in the bank, you know, so I have to still look at my assets and say I gotta protect them. So you have to protect them with a good partnership that's going to continue that.

Greg Buckley: And plus you're building for their future as well. So that's what we've done. That's where we're at. And it's been. It's been difficult, right? 'cause you're d Well,

Jimmy Lea: it's, yeah, it's not easy.

Greg Buckley: It's not easy. 'cause you've got not only two personalities, but your personality gets in there too. So Yeah.

Greg Buckley: You got three, you know, and all the inbetweens yeah. That's, we're right now. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Congratulations. So are you you sold them the business, does that mean you also sold them the property or do you retain that as part of your assets?

Greg Buckley: I'm retaining, that's part of my assets. Yeah. They'll, when I'm ready to go to Ville, you know, the attorneys will work all that out.

Greg Buckley: But no that's what my retirement's gonna be based on, you know, amongst other things. But it's the business that they should have. They've, they're earning it. Let's put that way. And we haven't gotten to the point of a sale number or anything of that nature. 'cause we're still, we've got five years.

Greg Buckley: To really put something together here. We're just, now, we've just come to the agreement of going, okay, well what's Greg going to do? And we got together and said, this is what Greg's going to do. I don't know how I'm going to get there yet, but we will all decide and make fair for everybody. So that's what I mean.

Greg Buckley: It's almost, it's not quite step one, but we're nowhere near finished, so, you know. Yeah you're,

Jimmy Lea: well, I'll say you're not at kung fu level zero. I know we're definitely at step one, which is recognizing and saying, okay guys, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna come up with a plan that says, in the next five years I'm out and you're in.

Greg Buckley: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Because what happens, Greg? And we've seen it.

Jimmy Lea: So many times it comes to a point where somebody says, okay, that's it. I'm gonna sell today.

Greg Buckley: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Okay, well go back three to five years and start the process because you can't sell today. Okay. You could, but you're gonna get pennies on the dollar instead of absolutely getting what it's worth.

Greg Buckley: Yeah, without a doubt. And nobody wants that. I mean, you why? Do that. If you're going to lose the value of your assets that you've worked hard for, you know, oh yeah. Bring somebody in that can help raise the value of the business. You know, confi configure it any way you want, you know, whereas fairness, because they're building value and you know, you, you got all that to go through.

Greg Buckley: But you have to have somebody who's gonna be dedicated and that takes time. I mean, you can, I. I really feel for, you know, shops that don't have, that they're not thinking of their exit. Yeah. Because at the ages that we're all getting, and at one point I don't shop owners need to realize that they're never, they're not 25 forever.

Greg Buckley: No, you know, you get to the 65 and maybe earlier, whatever, you know, you start to get that knock on your back of your head going, Hey, wait a minute. You know, I, I don't think I got too many years. I'm getting tired. I, you know, I'm attracted to other things in life. I want to do things differently.

Greg Buckley: Well, what do I do? Yeah. And so you need to be prepared for that any way you can, and that's where. You know, you should always think of your exit. Always. Yeah. And how you're gonna do it. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. No, that's so true. That's so true. You gotta think of your exit and you gotta think of it now.

Greg Buckley: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Well, what's

Greg Buckley: the first thing they tell you when you open a business?

Greg Buckley: Learn to learn your, learn how to get out of it. Learn how not to work in it, right?

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. You know, and Greg, there's people that come to us all the time that are saying, Hey, I we're, I want to evaluate this business. I wanna see if this is a business I wanna buy. Right? And we'll say, okay, and we'll look at it and we'll evaluate it.

Jimmy Lea: And it's like, you know, yeah, this is probably a good deal to buy, however, pause. Let's look at your own. Dumpster fire that you're operating. By the way, you are not ready. You are not ready to invest in another property. You need to take care of your home before you go looking at anybody else.

Greg Buckley: Yep. Yeah, you're not

Jimmy Lea: ready. You can't be operating at a two 3% net profit. You've gotta be in that 20% net profit. Yeah. You're gonna pay more in taxes. That's all right. Right. You're earning more so you can pay more. Correct. And that's okay. Correct. You've gotta be in a position that investors want to look at you.

Greg Buckley: Right. You can't. Well, I, you can't, you a good example is what I experienced here in Millsboro. All right. And actually, if I think about it was in Wilmington as well, you know, Wilmington. We had to move because of the contractual agreements with the whole deal the fuel distributor, right?

Greg Buckley: It wasn't the old company we're doing, so we had to move. The rent was coming way over top. We weren't meeting numbers. We could, we just could not survive on a three bay with the amount of expenses that small little footprint was costing us. So. You know, we said, okay, great, we're moving. And we came upon, you know, my attorney goes right to anybody that you know that has service bays that are ready to roll.

Greg Buckley: You can put a lift in and walk in. Well, we found our current location in Wilmington, there in Newport. And the gentleman had a tenant who was stiffing him for the past nine, 10 months. He got to the point, yeah, he got to the point and he said, okay. You're out, Greg, go, here's the key. Open up and you can have everything that's in the, in there right now, meaning that we had five lifts ready to go.

Greg Buckley: That he goes, they're yours. You can have 'em. Part of the building benches. I brought in wifi and the key to the door and we started doing business right away. This was after the weird thing was, is that when I purchased dad, when we purchased dad, we had a lease extension. We signed the oil company or wholesale distributor.

Greg Buckley: Thought we signed a new lease. Well, the extension ran out one year earlier, so I'll never forget this. We're in the, we're trying to figure out how we can exit this agreement gracefully and inexpensively. No rent through, no nothing. So we're going through our files and our records and we find the agreement that we signed with them and it's, and it expired.

Greg Buckley: And so I said, oh my God. I went and I showed it to the sales person. I go, look man, we're free and clear. You know, nothing. Right? So we scattered, we just got up the street and they were left with an empty building 'cause they didn't have anybody coming in and Wow. Yeah. And we walked into Wilmington. With a laptop.

Greg Buckley: Literally with this lap. Well, a laptop. Yeah. And started doing business in Millsboro. And I think I've shared this story maybe a few times here, but I repeat it 'cause it's, there's a lot of lessons here for, you know, if you think you're gonna operate your business without structure, alright. And rely and have fun with all the cash that you bring in.

Greg Buckley: That's exactly what this owner did prior, and I literally had worked for him before I made the agreement to make a deal on this place. I worked for him for a week as a sales, as a service counter, you know, an advisor. I wanted to see what the activity was beyond the the regular due diligence I had to do, whether the property was good, this and that, and neighborhood, all that.

Greg Buckley: I said, okay, my final thing is I'm looking down and work for you. So I did, and the practices that he had, him and his son were absolutely atrocious. I said, man, this is like 1960 tasa. I mean, receipts torn up, right? Oh no. Oh no. Yeah. Parts bought with personal checks.

Jimmy Lea: Oh

Greg Buckley: gosh. And he had shop he had a snap on shop key for his SMS.

Greg Buckley: And so when a client would come in. There was only one receipt, and when they left, that receipt got erased and a new person took that receipt over. Oh no.

Jimmy Lea: Oh

Greg Buckley: no. So there was, I don't even know if there was called that curbside warranty, but he had nothing and he, there was no reinvestment into the building, into the equipment.

Greg Buckley: So basically I brought, you know, a liquidation type situation where I had to convince, I did convince him that you're gonna work on my terms. Not nobody else's. 'cause I said, buddy, I said, you know, there's not a bank in the world that's gonna take this and you know there's no sugar daddy that's gonna overpay.

Greg Buckley: I said, this is what's gonna happen. You know, so we got the deal done. But he was on Bendit knee. He had no leverage to secure his hard work. Over the last, you know, five or six years plus the value of the property. And I kind of really I said, man, that's a shame. 'cause you know, he's worked hard. He's 66, he's an old tech, he's was really good.

Greg Buckley: And you know, he thought that, you know, money was too easy and he would always say, oh, it's like taking candy from a baby down here. And well, you know, it's, it was ignorance. So that's what you gotta, I mean, yeah, it's a harder road to do it the right way. In the long run, you have to have your assets in place and have your profits and structure ready for the, you know, for the, for your future as an owner.

Greg Buckley: You know, and I'm not perfect. I will die every day. I, you know, I'll screw up somewhere, you know, and you know, even with two shops and all the decades I got into business, I still screw up, you know, or I'm not accurate or I'm not the best I can be. And it's always a work in progress and for me.

Greg Buckley: You know, being MSO now I'm three years into it. There's still stuff every day that I have to change. You know, we can segue into processes because I really am not the process guy. Thank goodness for my son. He is, and he can write processes and he can write a Bible for you in, in, in a day. Oh, wow.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. And my son-in-law will execute those processes. So that's where I knew okay. These guys got it. So cool.

Jimmy Lea: Cool. So what if somebody came to you for advice or you're giving yourself advice to start a shop today, what advice would you give yourself?

Greg Buckley: I would say that definitely get involved with some coaching.

Greg Buckley: Talk to colleagues that, you know, you may have the opportunity to know if you're coming in fresh from a non-automotive. Field or you know, expertise, then, you know, you definitely have to get to know some people and understand and learn. Definitely be as cap as well capitalized as you can be.

Greg Buckley: Stay disciplined, you know, I'm trying to think of all the things that I didn't do and now that I know I should have, you know, so, and really just gosh. I mean, it's such a hard question 'cause I'm thinking, well, what is it that is the first thing that you should do? Well definitely be capitalized to the point where you can survive.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. Know what you need to do to take your first check home. I mean, you gotta pay yourself. And it's gonna be tough. I mean, if you're starting with scratch, it's definitely a tougher road. I don't know. I, it's, that's hard for me to answer. With one, you know, with one line because there's so much involves with, you know, knowing your area, knowing the client base.

Greg Buckley: That's one thing where I would I think that's a practice that I would share. Wherever I'm at, whatever, wherever I have gone into, I have done a lot of homework on the area. I've done a lot of work on the who's who, and I'm not afraid to say that I'd go down to the granular levels of knowing who the VIP area of the areas are.

Greg Buckley: Who are the players what's the community like? I, who's the politicians, get the lay of the land, you know, and make sure that I don't cross too many people or anybody actually. And I did that. Down here for sure. 'cause I'm 85 miles from my home. And even though I've been here for fun at the beaches and I've known the area and all that, I haven't known who in the area.

Greg Buckley: And so, you know, I think it's good that no matter where you're at, you know, the community, if you're stretching out beyond your home base. If you're, if like I did 85 miles away, I have to learn who the people are. I gotta learn where, who's what, how to parts to network, the distribution, all of that.

Greg Buckley: And that's really important. So I dunno, that's one thing I did.

Jimmy Lea: No, I like that. And 85 miles isn't that far, but it's 85 miles. It's that far. Oh,

Greg Buckley: sure.

Jimmy Lea: It's far. You can't just pop over for lunch. You gotta plan way ahead.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. Yeah, you do. And that's the thing that we did do, I mean, we planned as well as we could with deliveries.

Greg Buckley: And we would take we would meet in. Halfway to get parts. If we needed something from Wilmington, we couldn't get equipment, we would share equipment until we built the budgets up and where we were buying our own. And you know, so yeah, there logistically it was a nightmare for year one, you know, until we got our act together a little bit and things calmed down.

Greg Buckley: And that's, I guess that's a big, that's another thing to expect chaos. Expect chaos. Don't be naive to think that everything's gonna be rosy and you're gonna make a lot of money starting off. I mean, if you're fortunate and you have, you know, wheels underneath you, or maybe it's your third, fourth, fifth location, okay.

Greg Buckley: That, that doesn't count. If you're fresh coming from a toolbox to a cash register, you know, and working the room, it's a whole different story. So, yeah.

Jimmy Lea: It's so true. It's so true. It is. It's amazing what can be done, and I think you hit the nail on the head too, is to get a coach, get somebody who can

Greg Buckley: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Hold you accountable. Because a lot of times we think we can do it. We think, oh I'll do this, so I'll make sure I get this done. And then you give yourself leading and see, and you give yourself too much rope and then you end up behind the eight ball trying to get stuff done. And you can't do that.

Jimmy Lea: You get a coach, get somebody who's gonna hold you accountable. And gonna work with you.

Greg Buckley: Right. Very important. And it's also important that you know, the coach is there to actually monitor and watch where your numbers are going to be and help you understand the intricacies of how those numbers work and what it means when they don't, you know?

Greg Buckley: Yeah. I mean, I myself always thought that my top line revenue number was. Glorious. You know, it was like, oh my God did this. I'm so proud of myself. What was all vanity? And it took me a while to understand that's BS because it's not that top line number, that's the most important one. It's your bottom line.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. The net profit. What you take home, what I take home. There you go. What's in the bank? So we, you know, yeah. And so, you know, I clearly remember I have two very good friends and colleagues here in Wilmington that really schooled me early. And I can never forget this, is that, we're at a seminar with Mitch Schneider when he was touring.

Greg Buckley: Okay. And Mitch was there talking about numbers and modern shop. You know, he set the precedent on what it's like to be a modern shop. So everybody was fi he was, you know, he was it, right? Yeah. Yeah. And you know. My two buddies are, they're talking and doing, and they're very they're very smart.

Greg Buckley: Very smart. I mean, I, they have taught me a lot, you know, and, you know, they're yapping and all this. And I said, well, I'm doing this much money. I'm, and I'm peacocking. My chest is out to here. And they go, just take home. Well, well, you know, I don't think I got anything right now. You know, take home once, you know, yeah.

Greg Buckley: I'm eating peanut butter and jelly. When I was like, okay, you ain't there yet, pal. Yep. How effective knowing your numbers will be. And I still took a while to fully understand and still today, you know, I, again jumping into any small business, excuse me you have to respect your numbers and you really have to understand.

Greg Buckley: How they flow, what their meanings are, why they are what they are, and you can't be afraid to set your mark correctly, you know? Yeah. That I really think that's something that needs to be taught to everybody in the organization. Everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And it has to be respect for that. You know, if we get into tech versus owner, which is the flavor of the year right now, online and social and all of our channels.

Greg Buckley: There will never be a equal level between an employee and an owner. I like, I hate to say that, but there's not, and there's no, you're not gonna get what the owner needs. You know, it's labor versus ownership and if the labor wants to become an owner, jump in man, and nobody's stopping you, but you know, there, just making sure that

Jimmy Lea: you're prepared.

Jimmy Lea: True be because every technician out there thinks, oh my gosh, the door rate's 150 bucks an hour or 200 bucks an hour, and you're paying me 30 bucks an hour or 40 or 50. Right. Whatever the number is. Right. You're thinking the owner is keeping the difference between my hourly and the door rate.

Greg Buckley: Sure. Yeah.

Greg Buckley: They're

Jimmy Lea: not even close. No.

Greg Buckley: No. And the other, the biggest thing is our counter. Folks I've had, yeah. Had people employed with me that will say, well, why are you, why are your prices higher than the dealer? Why are your parts Mark markup higher than the dealer for cost? I'm saying, you know, I said in myself I wish we had this conversation and I was aware of this with your problem prior for me bringing you on, or what kinda education do you need to understand that this isn't how it works?

Greg Buckley: You know, I'm not gonna take the MSRP and say, okay, here you go, you know, great. It doesn't work that way. So our, this is what it costs for me to run my business. Yeah. This is what costs to have. You have a. Pretty comfortable position, you know what I mean? So if you don't want that, you can let me know. I mean, we can, I can put you in a McDonald's uniform and you can go shuffle burgers.

Greg Buckley: You, you know, whatever you want. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. So I think that there really does I, you know, and all of what I see online right now. There, there is this perception that owners are evil and owners don't care and all that. And I don't see that to be true in 90% of the cases or the people I know.

Greg Buckley: You know? Yeah. And I can leave it at that, but you know, that's.

Jimmy Lea: No, it is, it's true. And what we would say to them is, go get an education.

Jimmy Lea: The Chamber of Commerce has free classes. Your community college has free classes. The business administration has free classes to help you understand what it takes to be a business owner.

Jimmy Lea: Once you've taken those classes and now you're going to asta or you're going to sema or you're going to vision and you're taking additional. Owner classes, not the technical classes. This is owner, the, it's a different skill set. It's a different muscle. You've never exercised a business owner muscle before, so you need to get into the reps.

Greg Buckley: Exactly. So as a

Jimmy Lea: technician, you ha you are highly skilled, super highly skilled in repairing vehicles. You are a novice when it comes to running a business.

Greg Buckley: Absolutely. Yeah. So educate

Jimmy Lea: yourself. Well, you know,

Greg Buckley: one of the, one of the things and you know, I say coaching, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can do it when you can afford it, when you think you have time for it.

Greg Buckley: But you bring up a very good point. I really invested my time into programs that did not cost me anything but my time. Yeah. And that's expensive enough. But, you know, I had the SPA, right? Then you have score. Which is all retired executives that are volunteering their time to help you. Public library, all the books and resources there.

Greg Buckley: Goldman Sachs, 10,000 entrepreneurs get together and you're in classes for nine weeks and you really do drill down and it gives you these. Jump off points in a sense, but you do learn like spreadsheets and you learn numbers, and you have people assisting you that it's only costing your time. So if you're working till five o'clock and they say, well, can you meet at six?

Greg Buckley: You should meet at six o'clock. And it's a valuable situation. Or if you have to go at nine o'clock in the morning to meet them, these people are volunteering their time. That's a, it's a great. Initial point for everybody to really understand because those resources are there. Yeah. And we pay for them in our taxes and everything like that.

Greg Buckley: So take advantage of them. They're very important. And they're all over. Everyone has them. And so, you know, get the basics down and then you can move into like the institute or all a, anyone where else you would feel comfortable with.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Find out. And there's so much information you bring up a good point, Greg, find there is.

Jimmy Lea: Hundreds and thousands of hours of videos on YouTube. Millions, trillions of hours. You've gotta be very selective on what you want to consume and what you want to bring into your life. So find a coaching and training company and go find their YouTube channel and then consume everything in there.

Jimmy Lea: Everything

Greg Buckley: that's there. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Everything. Implement what they are telling you to do in those videos. Implement it in your shop. See the business, see the difference, see what's happening, and you'll see the needle move. And when it does now maybe you're ready for that next level. That next step.

Jimmy Lea: And it's the face-to-face, one-on-one coaching your business will hockey stick. And if it doesn't hockey stick, meaning your profits don't go from here to hockey stick, it goes way high. You might not be with the right coaching company.

Greg Buckley: Right.

Jimmy Lea: It always does. The natural progression for those that come in with our program as a one-on-one is the natural progression is to go into the group environment, the Mastermind.

Jimmy Lea: This is where you're meeting with other shop owners that are in the very similar, same trenches that you are here. You come to the group and you're like, oh my gosh, world's coming to an end. This mountain can't climb this mountain. And the group goes, Greg, that was Tuesday. Here's the solution.

Jimmy Lea: Come on, let's go. That's right. And they've been there. They've done that.

Greg Buckley: Very good point, right? It is. Take a break, let it go, give it some time. Let it like, not fester, but let it calm down and you always come back with the right solution

Jimmy Lea: And here is the solution. Greg, here's the solution.

Jimmy Lea: Here's what we've done. This is what I did in my shop. Here's what Joe did in his shop. Here's what Steve did in his shop. We faced the exact same situation or a very similar situation, and here's three different solutions of what we did. You got this and then that mountain becomes a mole hill.

Greg Buckley: Yeah, it does.

Greg Buckley: It really does. It's easy to

Jimmy Lea: get over it

Greg Buckley: and it's, but you know, it is hard to, to when you're in the middle of it, the, it's very difficult to see outside of it, you know, and you say to yourself, oh my God, you know, I'm trapped. I can't do this. I, you know, maybe I can't make payroll this week. Okay, well, you will, some, something will come up.

Greg Buckley: You'll do it, you know, it'll be fine. And the best thing is just. Calm down, take a break, you know, and you'll get through it. So yeah. So true. A lot of good stuff.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Greg Buckley: So true. Greg,

Jimmy Lea: thank you so

Greg Buckley: much,

Jimmy Lea: man. Sure. If you had a magic wand and you could change anything in this gorgeous, beautiful industry that we have, what would you be?

Jimmy Lea: Change in the industry.

Greg Buckley: I think we touched on it with the labor versus owner. I wish that we would grow into a little bit more mature level of thought and respect for each side, you know? Yeah. You know, we said the labor needs to understand what an owner goes through, but the owner does need to understand.

Greg Buckley: Where their labor is or how to take care of and communicate. And they really appreciate where the labor and their employees and team members are. There is I've shared a few times, there's a great book by by a rabbi, and it's not religious in any way, but it shows, it talks about the respect, the level of respect that if you are a technician.

Greg Buckley: You're a technician. That's where you're at. That was your choice. You wish to remain a technician. That's your choice, okay? That for you are working for somebody, and that's your choice. You make the choice. You respect the person who is trying to make sure that you do have that. Level of income that you wish.

Greg Buckley: It's a partnership. The owner needs to respect that end of it as well. From the side of well, I need to be, I need to be careful of what that person is. I'm an owner. Yes, it's my risk, it's my money, it's everything. At the same time, what's my responsibility to that person? I wanna make sure that they are healthy.

Greg Buckley: I wanna make sure that they are successful. I wanna make sure that they grow so. I hope that there is, that there becomes this understanding that one side or the other is never going to get what they get. It's never gonna be a hundred percent. There's always gonna be this working the yin and yang.

Greg Buckley: You know, you, some things are gonna work and some things aren't, you know? And that has to be understood. I think if we get to that point. We will have less animosity from both, you know, you know, and it starts with language, it starts with communications, it starts with respect. And if we get to that point, I think that we'll have a much better industry.

Greg Buckley: One that's accepting of you know, bringing people in and being proud to bring people in. I, that's another thing that kind of like, it irritates me. I'm sure it irritates a lot of other people, but you have. Certain folks that are saying, well, I would never get back into this. I'm telling my young kids never do this and all that, and yet I have, yeah.

Greg Buckley: I'm going like, man, you really would eat your young, wouldn't you? You know, I said, I have two young men right now with me here in Millsboro that are amazing. One young man, he's, he just turned 17. He is top five in his school, number one in his automotive class. This kid is ready to go. I mean, he is a superstar waiting.

Greg Buckley: The other young man, Zach, he came to us because he was doing signs and he was doing graphic designs and he said, I want something more challenging. And he had a knack for putting things together and he said, can I come in as a, we'll change in turn, whatever. Sure. Okay, minute. Well, he is firing on more than all cylinders, so we have the potential to bring quality individuals in.

Greg Buckley: What we have to do, and I think the independents are much better with this, of course, you know, is we're not gonna throw them to the pits. We're going to train them, we're gonna give them the education that they need, and we're not just gonna, you know, make 'em work, you know, flat rate and all that other stuff.

Greg Buckley: You know, so we have these opportunities in front of us. We need to really, seriously consider. Licensing. I'm an advocate for putting us under a license. I think that it puts a a good level for us as a profession. You know, we're the only, I believe we are, the only trade is not licensed and not being licensed restricts us from certain opportunities that we get to work with.

Greg Buckley: Others, you know, like, you know, I remember I could not bid on, I could not bid with the rate that I needed because I wasn't a licensed trade. This was with the state. I, this was years back going after some state contracts. Right. That looked good. I, okay. Okay. We can try. Well, I couldn't bid because I wasn't licensed.

Greg Buckley: Yet the electrician could, the HVAC people could you know, all of that. And so, you know, when you think about it I think that we are going to be destined to be licensed in some degree. And I think it'll be good. So, you know, I think respect, and I think that we can, we, at some point we're gonna need to challenge ourselves on how professional we wanna be.

Greg Buckley: You know, and where that leads us. I don't think we can, I don't know of anybody that, well, let's put it this way. You, if you own an ev, would you take it to the person down the street with broken glass doors and all that, and a shabby looking place? You would say no, you know, and. Where would you go?

Greg Buckley: You'd have to go to someone who understands all that. Well, that's gonna take someone with credibility. Does the license give us the extra credibility that we need? Yeah. So anyway, that's my thoughts for today.

Jimmy Lea: Well, that's a beautiful magic wand moment there, Greg Buckley. I love it. I love it. And it sounds like there's a lot of.

Jimmy Lea: Coaching and training that happens inside of that as well, for us to take it to that next level.

Greg Buckley: Yeah. There is all the way around. I mean, from, you know, technical training to shop ownership training, all of that stuff, it's very important, you know, and then very important. Yeah. Making and the biggest thing is be willing to constantly educate yourself.

Greg Buckley: Do not be a hermit. Do not be those, you know, an ostrich with your head in the sand. You have to continue. Continuous education is just you know, something that you have to do. And like for most of us today I think we have expanded horizons, whether due to, you know, our ability to continue to work.

Greg Buckley: You know, I might be 65, but I don't think I'm ready to really just drop out altogether. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Yeah. You're still gonna be a contributing member of society. You're not gonna retire.

Greg Buckley: No, I, well,

Greg Buckley: I can't because I, my wife won't let me. She, that's why we just bought the house down here. So I have my little getaway and she can stay in Wilmington, and I'm here in Millsboro.

Greg Buckley: Oh, brother. Yeah. Patty always says, well. W when are you going to Millsboro? You know, and we joke about it. S dare. She's here with me this week, but, you know.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome.

Greg Buckley: That's funny. Well go. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, you're wrap it up.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. We're gonna wrap things up. Thank you so much, Greg. You're You are awesome.

Jimmy Lea: I appreciate your wisdom, your insight, your influence. It goes so deep in this automotive industry and you are one of the sage members of your community. Thank you so much. I just wanna help.

Greg Buckley: Thank you, Jimmy, and I appreciate you and the institute allowing me to come on and you know, blab away for a little bit.

Greg Buckley: I I love what I do. I've always enjoyed this industry. I really do respect it, everybody. I've said this before, we wear our heart on our sleeves. We expose it sometimes too much, but it's who we are and we've always been that way. I've been proud to be part of it. I still look for ways to help you know, and do what I need to do, and so I appreciate the words I do.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. My good friend Greg Buckley of Buckley's Automotive. Thank you Greg. Appreciate it. My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute and this is the Leading Edge podcast.