Todd Compton shares how a childhood surrounded by NASCAR legends and go-kart engines pushed him toward a life in automotive repair. His path moved through military service, dealership work, and an intense side-hustle era before finally opening Compton’s Automotive in 2005. Todd walks through the expansions of his shop, the risks he took, and the financial lessons that came slower than the technical ones. He opens up about tax challenges, audits, and the importance of finding a competent CPA. Todd reflects on learning to run a business instead of just turning wrenches and why protecting employees with benefits matters. The conversation closes with his passion project, Tools in Schools, where he advocates for bringing trades education back to students. It’s a story of grit, growth, and giving back to the next generation.

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

Guest(s):

Todd Compton, Owner of Compton’s Automotive 

Show Highlights:

[00:02:28] – Todd describes how growing up around NASCAR giants like Buddy Baker and Robert Yates shaped his early fascination with cars.

Don’t miss exclusive insights, expert takeaways, and real talk you won’t hear anywhere else. Hit Subscribe, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear this!

Links & Resources: 

________________________________________

Episode Transcript Disclaimer

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Hello, my name is Jimmy Lea with the Institute for Automotive Business Excellence, and you are listening to the Leading Edge podcast. Joining me today is Todd Compton of To Compton's Automotive in North Carolina. Todd, how the heck are you, brother? I'm doing well, Jimmy. Oh, that's so good to hear, man.

Jimmy Lea: How's the weather in North Carolina right now? Oh, it's about right now it's about sunny and 70 degrees. Dang. Oh my gosh. It's cold. Where am I? I'm in Utah. Yeah. This morning it was 48 degrees. I think our high today is 52. Being a guy from the desert. We just moved to Northern Utah, so this is cold for me.

Jimmy Lea: I'm bet. And 70 in November's. Gotta be hot for North Carolina.

Todd Compton: Yeah. And office. Last Wednesday, Thursday. We had little bit snow here.

Jimmy Lea: You had snow. Where are you? Charlotte, North Carolina. I love Charlotte. Oh my gosh, dude, Charlotte is one of the best Joey's truck repair. You know Joey?

Todd Compton: Joey

Todd Compton: I knew his last name.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, it's Are you on the tip of your tongue when you've got it cock?

Todd Compton: Not familiar.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, okay. He's on the southwest side of town.

Todd Compton: That's where I'm at.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, are you? Joey's truck repair. He does a lot of fleet work.

Todd Compton: Yeah. I'm over by the county airport area.

Jimmy Lea: No, he's, he, I think he's past the airport anyways.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. When you look it up, make some introductions 'cause you, and I think you enjoy, you get along really well. He's a good dude.

Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. I was say when you fly from Utah, when you fly into Charlotte, you will fly pretty much over my shop.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome.

Todd Compton: Yeah. So that's cool.

Todd Compton: I always look out the window when I look down, make sure the guys are working.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, you do. Right? Well, I, and I'll tell you what, if ever I move out of Utah, I hope that Charlotte, north Carolina's on the list. Good. I love Charlotte, North Carolina. I love Charlotte. It's gorgeous place.

Todd Compton: So is Utah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Utah's pretty great too. Pretty great too. So, couple questions for you about your journey here in the automotive aftermarket industry. I love, always love to start with your history and your past. How did you get into. The automotive aftermarket.

Todd Compton: That's a long story. Yep. It probably really started when I was when I was a kid probably pre-teen years.

Todd Compton: My dad he was in he was into being in Charlie we were big in NASCAR or my nascar, my dad. My dad was. This was back, you know, I mean, you know, when my mom and dad went to school with buddy Baker, Robert Yates, you know, I mean, and knew these people, you know, I mean, went to school with them.

Todd Compton: And so, I, you know, growing up as a kid, I remember I remember my dad taking me to these race shops and I'll never forget gonna Daral, which is Dar, I remember sitting in the 88 Kade car as. Seven, eight years old, something like that. So we were big into go carts as well. And so, in 1985, my father passed away.

Todd Compton: And in the building we had all these go carts and all these brick Stratton engines. And and so I wanted to learn how to build these things, you know, take apart and. I blew several of them up. You know, I didn't know what the oil pickup little tab was on the bridges and Stratton figured it wasn't important.

Todd Compton: And so, well it was like the oil splash shield thing, you know? And I didn't think it was important. Well, you know, put a hole on them in engine. But anyway, fast forward a little bit. I, you know, I get in high school my ultimate goal was I was wanting to get into a race shop and and work on race cars is really what I wanted to do, and design 'em and build them.

Todd Compton: The closer my dad's had a frame shop and he would build frames for Robert Yates and I think some for Rick Hendrick, you know, back, and this was back in the 80, late eighties, early nineties. And so, I when I went, when I got into high school, I took Automechanics one, two, and three and, the third ot, catch three, we went to this central Piedmont Community College. So to take college courses there. So, and then about this time, desert Storm was started to kick out up

Todd Compton: Ooh.

Todd Compton: And, you know, out, you know, in Kuwait. And so, I joined the military in the Army. And and so I went in and I.

Todd Compton: Of all the jobs I probably could have picked. I went in as a heavy wheel mechanic and I wanted to work out in the field. So, by the time I got through basic training or getting ready to go into a IT, they'd called a ceasefire. So I never gotta go. I didn't get to go. So then after that I ended up going to you know, college, went to Nashville Auto Diesel College in, out in Tennessee.

Todd Compton: And when I was out there, I graduated. I mean, I worked for a dealership out there. And I did trim work and oil changes.

Jimmy Lea: Trim work. Trim work. Like body work?

Todd Compton: No. So like in dealership, in the dealership world, you have this, the dealership was specialized, so you had your drivability guys that fixed your check engine lights, left the problems.

Todd Compton: Then you had your line guys, which would do your oil leaks cylinder heads, valve covers, things like that. Then you had your trim guy, which he would do like, rattles squeaks, water leaks. You know, if a trim panel was discolored, you know, you'd warrant, it was almost all warranty work. Oh, wow.

Todd Compton: You know, you know, carpet that was slightly frayed or whatever you're replacing the carpet. And so, so they had me doing, like I said, I was quickly got, and I did trim work, so I remember keeping a five gallon bucket between my two stalls. I would be pulling a door panel off a Corvette and then, you know, they'd say, Todd and dispatch.

Todd Compton: I'd go up there and they'd have a waiter oil change for me. And so now I'm doing oil change. So, I did that and I finished the college, then I I moved back to Charlotte and I went to some of the race teams. And one of the guys that was really good friends with my father, he blackballed me.

Jimmy Lea: Oh no.

Todd Compton: He did. Yeah. And he said you did not wanna be in this industry. It's 70 hours a week, you know, and it's you know, the guys take the car out, they crash and they come back and they do it all over again. And he says, this is just, I'm not gonna let you in this industry. You're not going, you're not coming in.

Todd Compton: All right. You know? And so, I remember talking to several engine builders at the time. There was a company called Hendrick Mer Sports, and it was Hendrick Mer Sports. Those Yates. And so anyway he told me just as long as he was alive, he's not gonna lemme get in and not that he was being, and so as a young man, I'm like, that's kind of messed up, you know?

Todd Compton: And and so that's terrible. But I look back on it now and I'm glad he did what he did. Yeah, because around that time I had recently gotten married. I had a young child. And so, he's like, you know, this is not the life for you. Not this time. So, so I came back, Charlotte. Then I started working for a Pontiac dealership doing used cars.

Todd Compton: And so, my passion, I started to figure out that electrical work and drivability was really where I started. I started, I had fun at, fun doing. Well, let me pre preface that by when I was in Col I forgot I went to Colorado for a couple years, so, actually that's where I met my wife. And that's right.

Todd Compton: 'cause I ca I, I graduated school went in the military, came back, Charlotte, then decided to move out to Colorado and 'cause yeah, race was not going, it wasn't do anything here for me. So that's what I Colorado to, and I went out to Colorado from a Toby Keith song. And when I was living in Nashville and we talked about moving out west, you know, where there's women in gold and things like that.

Todd Compton: I'm like, you know, I'm gonna go out west. And so, alright. And the first dealer trip I worked for, the service manager hired me on like a Thursday and then he said, go ahead and move my box in on Saturday. And so I get my box moved in. I show up Monday morning. Service manager was fired that Friday.

Todd Compton: And so the service director, he's like, who are you? What are you doing here?

Jimmy Lea: Right. You're a new guy.

Todd Compton: Well, I was hired, yeah. So they gave me a bay with they gave me one bay no lift. Oh, see. And so, the only thing that I could do was al. And so, so I started doing electrical work. I starved. I starved.

Todd Compton: And fortunately it was a dealership back. They had two chips. So I'd get there at seven 30 in the morning, work, sometimes 10 at night. And and try to, and just trying to learn. So anyway, so then I meet my wife up there and I moved her back to Charles. Yeah. And then that's when I went to work for Pontiac dealership and doing its cars.

Todd Compton: Okay.

Todd Compton: I did that for about a year. And a Chevrolet dealership that I applied at when I started. When I came back to Charlotte they had drivability spot open and so they they asked me if I wanna come work for 'em. So, that's what I wanted to do. So that's what I did. And so, I worked at dealership for nine years and I became Wow.

Todd Compton: Master a SC certified GM Master certified. And I got bored. I got bored. Oh yeah, because you look at a ticket and you already knew what was wrong with it.

Todd Compton: It was just, it was pattern failures.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. And, and you were seeing, so you were seeing the same job, the same cars.

Todd Compton: Correct.

Jimmy Lea: The same everything over and over again. You're like, oh my gosh, I could do this in my sleep now blindfolded. Correct. Correct. Gimme something else.

Todd Compton: Correct. Yes. And so, about let's see, probably about in year 2000 I met a a good friend.

Todd Compton: I met this guy and he had a. Storage unit that he worked out of doing side work. And so he and I gotta talking. In fact he brought his truck to the GM dealership for some warranty work. And the way the bays were set up was, you know, people could walk right, right outside the bays, you know, and I was right, the service drive.

Todd Compton: So he saw me pull his truck in. He started, he struck the ation swimming and we started talking in. And so, he tells me. He comes ever. And then, and his wife brings her vehicle in and she, you know, so we started developing a, you know, friendly relationship. And I come to find out, you know, he works on cars at nighttime, you know, he's a building superintendent during the daytime, then he works cars at night.

Todd Compton: And so, I ended up, he and I started working together outta the storage unit and we worked really well together. And so I've worked there. Really seven days a week. I leave the dealership at five 30 and then I had it set up at that storage unit where we had a refrigerator. We had electric.

Todd Compton: Electric grill. Yeah, we had a microwave. And so we, and then we cooked dinner and then still keep on working.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh.

Todd Compton: And then of course, now, by this time I have two kids.

Jimmy Lea: I was gonna say, yeah, you're still a young married couple. You got probably a couple kids there at home.

Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. And so, there were plenty of nights where I would leave in the dark and I'd come home in the dark.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Todd Compton: And I would see my kids right. You know, my wife would just leave me a note, said, Hey, there's a plate in the stove. So I missed a lot of time with my kids around that time. And so, but what I was missing, what I was wanting to learn was. Again, going back to the pattern failures, you know, I was working on newer cars.

Todd Compton: It got boring. I'd done everything I could do at the dealership. Yeah, as much as I could do. And I wanted more. I just wanted more. And so the only way I could do this, you know, I took in some, the most junk cards, you know, and, you know, we didn't have a lift and some vehicles, we had to deflate the tires, get 'em, roll 'em in, roll them in into the storage unit.

Todd Compton: And sometimes we work out in the rain. You know, I remember working on a Cadillac STS and it started pouring out rain. I'm doing a tuneup on it, and I got rain falling down in the back of my jeans, you know? And going in places where you don't want it to go.

Jimmy Lea: Right.

Todd Compton: So I did this for about four years, and my wife, she, you know, it was, initially, it was seven days a week, then it was you know, six days a week.

Todd Compton: And she says, you know what? She goes. You cut down to five days. I did. And then finally it got to the point where I started building a little bit of reputation. And and so I remember asking my wife, I said, you know, are you ready to, I remember sitting in the kitchen with my wife and I said are you willing to lose everything we've got?

Todd Compton: And I said, I'm ready to go into business with myself. And so, I was so naive, very naive. And I you know, I even asked my buddy that he and I worked together to chop together with, he, he was not prepared to make that jump. He was comfortable doing what he was doing. You know, he had the the security of healthcare you know, steady paying job, you know, retirement, stuff like that.

Todd Compton: He just was not ready to let that go. So. I was I had money saved up a money market. I cashed all that in. I bought a few pieces of equipment and found a place to rent. And and June 20 June 21st thousand five, I opened the doors.

Jimmy Lea: Wow.

Todd Compton: And so that's kind of how, that's the journey that kind of got me into the independent world is really, it all came down to boredom and Oh, yeah.

Todd Compton: Wanting more.

Jimmy Lea: June 21st, the summer solstice. Ah any relation there of you opening June 21st or just happens to be a Wednesday or whatever it was?

Todd Compton: The only, only connection to that was I started at the dealership June 1st, 1996. I'm sorry, June 21st, 1996. I wanted to complete, I wanted to finish it nine years.

Todd Compton: June 21st, 19, you know, 2005. So that's kind of the, that's kind of the that, that's significant of the date.

Jimmy Lea: Nice.

Todd Compton: I my shop foreman and service manager at the dealership, you know, they could have just really ruined me, but I had, I told them three months in advance what I was wanting do, because I had to, I still needed a job, but I still need to handle looking at buildings.

Todd Compton: I still need to handle getting a lift put in. I still needed to handle. The attorney you know, getting my the S corp set up. So there's all these things I still had to get set up and I, but I still need to maintain some income. And so they were, I mean, they could have told me, you know what, just, you know, just leave now, you know, but I, they did, you know, so that I worked out the full three months and that they allowed me to do it, you know, and so I'm very grateful for those guys.

Todd Compton: And the funny thing is this, my service manager is actually now one of my customers.

Jimmy Lea: That's great. That's awesome.

Todd Compton: So, so that's kind of how I got into the independent world. I love that. Long story.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Long story. There is no short version to that. That's pretty dang cool, man.

Jimmy Lea: Congrats and thank you for your service in the armed services. Even in the thank you eyes of conflict. You jump right in the fray to say, I send me coach, put me in, I can take care of this. That's super awesome. I appreciate that. So what does the shop look like today and is this the same that it was when it, when you started June 21st or have you expanded?

Jimmy Lea: What does it look like?

Todd Compton: So, my very first shop was a is a 1800 square foot building. It had one bay door on one side and one bay door on the other. And it was in a row of. About 10 units, all about the same. They're all 10 units. Were right at 1800 square feet. Like a

Jimmy Lea: strip mall? Or was it a more commercial?

Jimmy Lea: More commercial.

Todd Compton: Okay. It was right by the airport. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. So it was like,

Todd Compton: Yeah, I mean, like the pe like the building behind me was US Air, and they had. Their their tugboat, their tug, I'm not sure what we call them the tug, the pushers and stuff. They'd keep those there and they'd kind have mechanic chop in the air.

Todd Compton: Next to me was a was a trucking company that was in another building.

Todd Compton: And like in, in the strip building that I was in one guy fabricated things for lawnmowers. He welded titanium and aluminum and stuff like that then.

Todd Compton: And another guy like another two doors down hit all he did was he polished the semi-truck gas tankers, you know, you know the tankers you see going down the road that carry liquids or whatever.

Todd Compton: He would bring these in and he would, he had ac crew guys and they'd sit there and they'd polish these things and, you know, to where they would just like look like mirrors.

Todd Compton: So like I said, it was a pretty industrial area and all brick brown. Yeah. You know, and so I remember July 4th, 2005 to try to stand out because when you looked at the row of buildings, every building looked, I mean, it was just, so you took a building that was a hundred yards long, roughly, or so, and you just had all these brown doors.

Todd Compton: Yep. Man, doors were all brown. So it's all L at the same.

Jimmy Lea: Same. So yeah,

Todd Compton: I was at the very end of one of the buildings. So what I did is I painted my door white. So that way when I was on the phone with anybody and I could tell 'em, you know, say, Hey, I 47 32 West Boulevard, suite eye, just look for the white bay door.

Jimmy Lea: Perfect.

Todd Compton: And so that way people would know where I'm at.

Todd Compton: Yeah.

Todd Compton: And so, and I was in that building from June. Oh five to February of oh six, then I moved about a block away to a, another kind industrial area, and I moved up to 4,000 square feet. At this time is when I hired my first employee, when I moved into that building.

Todd Compton: And I installed a couple more lifts. And so, I was in that building from two April, 2006 to around April, 2008, and I got kind of pushed outta that building 'cause the airport bought the property. It was privately owned, the airport bought the property. And I remember getting a letter saying that at some point the road will be closed, these buildings will be demolished.

Todd Compton: And so, you know, I had to find a place to, to go. So, I was on a test drive and I happened to see a building that was for for lease. And it was just literally, it was just a block away from where I was at. So I'm like, that works. But it was much bigger. It was 7,000 square feet and of course the rent's higher, all kind of stuff.

Todd Compton: Higher. I had more exposure to the road, to one of the main roads. So that's important.

Jimmy Lea: That's one of the rules of real estate is location. Yeah. Location. Location. So. Yeah. Not a bad move, but 7,000. You're doubling darn here.

Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. So, I,

Jimmy Lea: I I wanna pause you here for one quick second. When you started in June of oh five, how many lifts did you have in that 1800 square feet?

Jimmy Lea: One, one lift. And when you went to 4,000 square feet, how many lifts did you have in the building?

Todd Compton: I bought, when I moved in that building I bought one more, and then about four. 'cause actually the Lyft guy. Actually, lemme do 90 day financing. So I didn't have the money.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. So,

Todd Compton: so I bought one lift and he installed that one.

Todd Compton: So then once I got that one paid for, he installed the th actually had me third lift.

Todd Compton: Okay.

Todd Compton: And so, then when I got that paid for, I kind of lifted along a little bit and then I ended up buying a a Midrise a Midrise lived. Okay. That's where I stopped. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: Right there.

Todd Compton: Okay.

Jimmy Lea: So now you moved to 7,000 square feet.

Jimmy Lea: How many bays is this? How many lists do you have? How many techs are you now employing at the new location?

Todd Compton: So the location I'm at now it's still kind of, it's not like your typical automotive repair shop. It's still warehouse. So people, you don't see the, when you drive up to the front, you don't see the base.

Todd Compton: We have five loading docks in the back of the shop. And then we have a drive-in that's, you know, drive-in bay.

Todd Compton: Yeah.

Todd Compton: And so, in fact, this building used to be for Sears. Sears and Uck.

Todd Compton: Yeah. They

Todd Compton: used to use it for their, I guess, midterm shipping. You know, they'll bring them from the airport for 'em in this building.

Todd Compton: Then they'd ship 'em out to wherever they need to go.

Jimmy Lea: Right. It was like a hub. Yeah. And then they send it out. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: Follow you exactly.

Todd Compton: So. So when you look at the shop, you know, they're not, it's not like your typical shop where, you know, each bay is has a door or something like that, you know.

Todd Compton: So the way it's set up is I have I have an alignment rack, and then I have see this 2, 3, 4. So I got one alignment rack, and then four, two post lifts all in a line. And then I have another two post lift kinda off in a corner. So I got five, two post lifts and five, two post lifts. Yes. And then alignment.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. Nice. And how many technicians do you have for the the five different lifts?

Todd Compton: Three.

Jimmy Lea: Three. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. That's very cool. Do you get a lot of work for your alignment rack?

Todd Compton: We sell a lot of work in easy alignment rack.

Todd Compton: We, before I bought it, we were sub laying a lot of work out to a lot of alignment out to another chop.

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Todd Compton: And you know, I gotta say it's probably the most expensive lift in the chop that it gets used to least.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my gosh. That's what I've heard. That's what I've heard.

Todd Compton: Yeah. So, but you know, it was one of those things where, the guys were hesitant on me. And this goes years back. Yeah. You know, before I really learning how to do certain things, they'd be hesitant to sell front end stuff because then they had to send it out for an alignment, you know?

Todd Compton: And so, I think something's got maybe overlooked

Todd Compton: Yeah. At the time.

Jimmy Lea: Probably. Probably.

Todd Compton: Yeah. And and now that we have the equipment, it's like, you know it, now we have different technicians since then.

Todd Compton: So, but now I can't say that for certain that's what was happening.

Todd Compton: But I got a feeling that, you know if the guys can't complete the job themselves, you know, then why, which it doesn't injustice to the customer.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, it totally does. What kind of alignment rack is it?

Todd Compton: It's a hundred alarm rack.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, nice. Have you talked to Mr. Jay Allen? You had him up to the shop, do some training?

Todd Compton: Well, he's been to my shop that he has not, yeah, he's not done training here. But,

Jimmy Lea: well get your boys trained, get 'em, get all the boys and girls there in the shop, get 'em all trained on that Hunter, hunter alignment rack with Jay Allen.

Jimmy Lea: And then when they come back, they're gonna sell a ton more alignment work because now they're comfortable, they've been trained, they understand. Sure. Yeah,

Todd Compton: yeah. We're still all three of 'em. Well, at least two of them. Yeah. They're I would say that they have an ego on alignments, but you they have a couple of their own race cars and they set, they, they play around with alignment stuff all the time.

Todd Compton: Sure. And so I'm not saying they can't learn anything, not what I'm saying at all. But I'm saying is they are pretty competent. On, you know, looking, sometimes even looking outside the box on getting alignment. Right. You know, not always the fact respect will get something right.

Todd Compton: Yeah. Go out and

Todd Compton: drive it, and you bring it back and, you know, it's like, all right, man, this needs to be changed up a little bit.

Todd Compton: So they're not just they wanna make sure it's right when it leaves.

Jimmy Lea: No. That, and that's exactly what everybody wants. Everybody wants to make sure it's right before it leaves. You wanna make sure it's dialed in. It's not just good enough. You want it to be exactly good enough.

Jimmy Lea: Not just. So, no, I totally get that, that is awesome. Congrats on your new building too. So, are you in the process of buying this building or are you just gonna stay leasing this building? What's the plan? No, I,

Todd Compton: I, I've spoken to the landlord about it and right now he just he likes receiving those checks.

Todd Compton: He's not, see I don't think he's retirement age yet, but, okay. He's got multiple in Charlotte. He's got, I mean, that's his main career. Is he owns buildings all throughout Charlotte.

Todd Compton: And I've talked to him about buying the building and, you know, his big concern right now, at least right now is the tax hit. And he's like, yeah, right now comfortable receiving. Like, I don't need to sell it. You know, he goes, and if I do sell it, then I'm paying all his tax on it and I get it. I get it. So he didn't say no.

Jimmy Lea: Well, and if he puts it in a 10 31 exchange, he can go and buy a car wash or storage units or another warehouse somewhere else. And that's probably the best, quickest and easiest is those warehouses where you've got a company in there.

Jimmy Lea: They're gonna use it. They're gonna store stuff in it. They're assembling stuff in it. They're gonna do whatever they do in their warehouse and ship in and ship out. And it's probably easy for 'em, it's probably not a conversation or six to take 'em to lunch, take 'em to dinner, and make sure you've got that first ride of refusal.

Jimmy Lea: 'cause you want your name on that? Yeah. Absolutely.

Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I, I have not spoken to him about the first Right. Refusal. Refusal, but yet, but you know, he'll come in and just say hello and check in on things and I'll kind of casually talk to him. His name's Craig.

Todd Compton: He's like, Hey Craig, you know, you wanna sell this thing to me? And ah, nah, eh, not yet.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, because he could sell the warehouse to you and buy a 12 unit apartment complex, or 24 unit apartment complex. You know, you 10 31 exchange that, and now he's into something else that's making him 3, 4, 5 times what he was making.

Todd Compton: It's very, it's very true. Very true. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Well, let me know when you wanna negotiate with him and I'll fly out there and we'll sit down for, got it. Oh, that'd be fun. That'd be fun. Well, congrats on your journey. Congrats on the success of you your businesses. It's a sobering conversation to have at the dinner table with your wife and say, Hey, are you ready to lose everything? I wanna start my own business. What's some of those lessons that you learned very quickly in starting your own business?

Todd Compton: Well, I won't say they were learned very quickly tell you that you know, when I remember trying to mathematically think about what I needed to make.

Todd Compton: And there's coming from a technician to a business owner.

Todd Compton: So many different, I remember taking a notepad thinking, okay, if I bill out, literally, you're probably on these numbers, but I think what I remember is like, alright, if I bill out 11 hours this week at $65 an hour is what my labor rate was. I love it. And I was like, all right, so then I've got rent, I've got power, I've got, you know, and.

Todd Compton: I was always putting my own paycheck last. Yeah. I was like, where's leftover is without, you know, then, you know, that first year I kept, I put money into, I kept, I put as much money back into the companies I could.

Todd Compton: You know, some of the things I guess that, you know, over the years, you know, I stayed in my own little bubble. Yeah. I still, it took me a while to, to remove myself from the shop and actually run the business, you know, and manage the business. It took me, that's what probably took me so long to figure out to, I got, I had to step outta the shop.

Todd Compton: Yeah. I kept getting pulled back in. I kept getting pulled back in and I didn't know my numbers, but that's, yeah. Yeah, being in business for 20 years I guess I'm a, I'm an at tune late bloomer, but you know, for, if I could tell anybody that's starting off, learn the numbers first, you know, understand it because I did not, you know, I, you know, the years of 2020 and 21, 22, I got into a ton of trouble with the IRS, and it was not necessarily completely, and I'm gonna tell you, it wasn't completely my fault. My CPA just didn't file my taxes for three years.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, ouch.

Todd Compton: Ouch. Ouch ouch. And so, you know, I always thought, you know, I hear you hear on like movies or different things or whatever about, you know, my CPA, you know, you know, they're trying to keep me safe, you know, well, it's, when there, I don't know.

Todd Compton: You don't know what you don't know. And I felt that, Hey, as long as I see case, tell me everything's okay. I guess I'm making money, but I didn't know what I was looking at. I had no clue what a PL state looked at. I didn't know what a balance sheet was. I didn't know what cash a cash flow staple was.

Todd Compton: I didn't know any of that stuff was. It's like, Hey, okay, CPAs, he's taking care of the books. If he's, if he tees away from me to make more money, then I'm sure he'll let know. But until then, I'm gonna continue on, just turn wrenches and try to do the best I can and make whatever I can, you know, and make whatever I can.

Todd Compton: So that was probably the biggest thing for me was, is, continuing on as a technician.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Todd Compton: And not a business owner. So was that quick lesson learned? Not really. You know, because I still enjoyed working on the cars. I still enjoy it, you know, it still allowed me to take my family to, you know, vacations to mountains, take trips, you know, you know, we got involved some go-karts, dirt bikes, you know, bought a little camper.

Todd Compton: I mean, so we still had a good kids. Still brought were brought up. Well. But we were never, but we always slight, we always slightly struggled. Oh yeah, I'm sure. And I'm sure if we took some of that stuff out, we would've been okay. You know?

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Todd Compton: We were not saying like we were starving, you know, but we were living pretty tight.

Todd Compton: But we still, we also wanna put the, those memories in for, you know, us and the kids.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, so it's good that you did that. The kids will remember those trips and those vacations and those overnight camp outs.

Todd Compton: Oh, they do. They do. Yeah. They bring it up. They bring it up and so, so for so long I focused on working on the cars and just trying to take care of customers that I had no clue about my finances, none.

Todd Compton: And so that's probably. The longest, quickest lesson that I guess I've learned.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Well, and you hit on a point that a lot of shop owners today, that they came up through the shop. They came up through the shop just like you. They worked at a dealership, or they worked at another independent garage, and they got up to a point where they thought, you know what?

Jimmy Lea: I want to do this. I wanna be the boss. I wanna be the business owner. Mm-hmm. They're phenomenal technicians they can work on darn near any car any day, time of day. Any anything blindfolded, not a problem. They don't have the same business acumen to run a business as they do to fix a car or to run a car.

Todd Compton: Absolutely.

Jimmy Lea: And so your advice is totally sound and I'll echo it. Get education, get learning. There's so many free resources available on the internet at your chamber of commerce at the community college. They'll teach you go to the small business development. They have classes, courses, all the time to help.

Jimmy Lea: The budding entrepreneur that wants to start a business. What do I need to do first? What do I need to understand? And to your point CPAs, there's two kinds. There's one that just takes everything you give them and they file it digitally. They're not looking out for you, they're just putting numbers on paper.

Todd Compton: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: And two is the kind of CPA that you want. And that's that tax advisor who's gonna say, Hey, you know what, if you do this. You can get this if you buy this piece of equipment at this time not now, but by this time you have these tax advantages. If you wait and hold off till next year to buy that equipment, it's gonna help you.

Jimmy Lea: You've got all your tax deductions you need this year. This is something for next year. You that type of a CPA it's a rare breed.

Todd Compton: Yeah. And the CPA that I've got now we're. There's still a few piece, few messes that we're still cleaning up from those years. From,

Jimmy Lea: from those three years.

Todd Compton: Yeah. And so we're not quite there where he can kind of gimme that advice yet.

Todd Compton: But you know, I mean, quick example is, you know, the alignment rack. Yeah. Previous CPA did not what's the word I'm looking for? He didn't add it into my, my. Property tax for the county. Oh

Jimmy Lea: no.

Todd Compton: And so when the new CPA found mistakes course he had to, you know, he had submitted.

Todd Compton: Yeah. And so then I got hit for three years for my property taxes.

Jimmy Lea: Sure. Money, sure.

Todd Compton: Well then I don't know if that, I don't know for certain, but all of a sudden now I'm going through a me a county audit and and so. Wait to see how that's gonna turn out.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So, well, and if ever you have to error, you error on the side of doing what's right, do what's right, and let the consequence follow, no matter what it might be.

Jimmy Lea: I, I, if you do what's right, you have that integrity and you stick to it, there's people gonna look out for you. And the universe will come to your rescue. Don't know how, don't know when, don't know where, don't know why, but it will. When you do what's right, and that's what you're doing is fixing past messes.

Jimmy Lea: All right. Hey, we'll get this, I gotta get it done, I gotta get done. Right? But yeah, now you're in an audit. So a quick little thing, you know, going from a

Todd Compton: technical to business owner. So, so we have a 401k here at the top. Nice. And so, and this is where my the new CPA got me out of.

Todd Compton: Really big trouble. I'm, I mean, devastating trouble. So there's a form called a Form 5,500 that you have to fill out as the as the corporate, as the owner, or as the entity. Shows that you're being basically fair on the 401k. And with that what they're kinda looking for is that the, that you're making sure they're making sure that you're offering that 401k to all your employees.

Todd Compton: It's just not a tax shelter, just for the you know, their principal owners.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Yep.

Todd Compton: And so, that form is due on October 15th, I spaced it. Oh, no. And so, it was due October, the one I've done 'em all. I've done the, all the ones prior, but I, you know, so 20, 24 I spaced it later, forgot about it.

Todd Compton: And so. I got a letter in January of February of 25, January, February, and so I went and filled out, I said,

Todd Compton: i'll go get filled out. I'll get it done. And so, I knew there might have been a fine, you know, I was thinking there was a $750 fine. Well, yeah, if I'd have called the IRS Oh, no, actually it was Department of Labor.

Todd Compton: If I called the Department of Labor and disputed my calls, it'd been a seven $50 fine.

Todd Compton: But because I went and just filled the paperwork out, sent it on in, it was a $25,000 fine. And ouch. I was like, how, what do I do? Like what do I do? You know, and I'm looking online, figuring out ways to try to get out of it or, you know, I was like.

Todd Compton: Punish doesn't fit the crime.

Todd Compton: No, I mean,

Todd Compton: I mean, I mean, it's not like the r arrest where I'm evading tax. It was like, I just didn't tell the government that. Yeah I'm making sure everyone's got 4K. And so my CPA, I told my CPA about it. He's like, alright, gimme, gimme a couple hours. I'll give it right, right back with you.

Todd Compton: And so I don't like to take advantage of natural disasters. This is what happened. He found a clause or a not something that North Carolina did with Hurricane Helene, and that if you end up filing late on your taxes, that the, any penalties would be forgiven. And so, even though we were in an area that was not affected, the way the law was written was that was in North Carolina.

Todd Compton: So he submitted the paperwork from North Carolina and it came back and that 25,000 penalty was forgiven.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. I,

Todd Compton: I was like, oh my gosh.

Jimmy Lea: Oh yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Todd Compton: So yeah, you go back 20 years and you're working on wrenches. You fast forward. Would you ever think that if I forgot, forget to fill this form, it's gonna cost this money?

Todd Compton: Or as a technician, you know, working the dealership? Do I, did I ever think about hr, you know, human resources? Did I ever think about life insurance? Did I think about short term long disability? You know. I mean, none, you know, and so, there's all these things you don't think about. And like short term, long term.

Todd Compton: One of my technicians years ago, he was in a, in an accident and he broke his wrist. Not here the shot, but, and, you know, and a wrist is very important when you're working on vehicles.

Jimmy Lea: Amen. Yep.

Todd Compton: So he had three kids you know, this was he was kinda the breadwinner and now he can't work so. What composition does that put me in?

Todd Compton: You know, do I, not only do I lose the technician, but I care about the technician. So I paid him his wage for three months or probably three months. I did not replace him. I ended up going out and doing, trying to work, do the cars, and that cost me a lot of money. I was like, you know, and then finally I was talking to one of my insurance guys.

Todd Compton: He's like, you know, if you ever talking about short-term, long-term disability, I was like, no, tell me more about it. And so, when he told me about it and so we picked out the right policy, and again, you're talking about, we're not talking about RES anymore, we're talking about policies. Yeah. And when he comes to this stuff and so, I picked out the top policy.

Todd Compton: And so now anytime I hired somebody, ar owned that policy. Well, they like it or not. I, nobody pays for it. So they get short term, long terms of disability because I do not ever wanna be put in a position to where I, I have an employee that may not be able to take care of themselves or their family for income.

Todd Compton: With the younger generation, they don't wanna put in their four one k. They don't wanna spend the money on short term, long term. But you know what, it's an investment for me, so I'm gonna spend that money each month, make sure that they're covered.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Your peace of mind is worth more than, whatever they think they want or don't want.

Todd Compton: I know that got a little bit of rabbit hole, but I just wanted to share that little tidbit there.

Jimmy Lea: No, Todd, that's phenomenal. I love the rabbit holes. I love the way the ways, the means, the areas that we go down and the things we get to talk about.

Jimmy Lea: Because who would've thought that wrenching in a dealership 20 years ago that you would've had a form 5,500 that you had to fill out? Almost cost you $25,000. But thank heavens you had a good CPA. Yeah. That did some research and found a loophole for you. Call it a loophole. Call it a saving grace.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You're in the state of North Carolina. You are protected. Oh my word. I mean, that's phenomenal, Todd that's just so cool. I like your advice of getting that education. Do you have any technicians right now that are thinking, Hey, you know, that's entrepreneur bug might be biting? Like you might want to educate them?

Jimmy Lea: No they're all

Todd Compton: not yet. Alright. Not yet. They, they enjoy, they they're. When we go to training especially like the a CE or a CA,

Todd Compton: they're so in tune to the scopes and turbos and stuff like that. I mean, they're, that's just where they're at right now in their life.

Todd Compton: You know, that's that's what they desire at the moment. I mean, one technician, I mean, we work, we've talked a little bit about GPS and things like that and he's. Kinda like poking at it a little bit, but probably not enough yet to wanna start training, you know, gonna classes on it yet.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah, for sure. Well, when they do, you make sure you educate them because there's so many free resources. I mean, shoot, look at the institute and the YouTube channel for the institute, all that free information, all that data, all that knowledge. Anybody can tap into all that information and knowledge.

Jimmy Lea: It's available and it's there. So it's pretty dang cool. I'd love to land this plane here with you, Todd. Now I have one last final question for you. Tell me about tools in schools.

Todd Compton: See you better research on me. Huh? So that's tools of Schools is a organization here in Charlotte that that we're trying to.

Todd Compton: Educate, educate the young students that there's more to life than going to college. And and that the trades, whether it be automotive, plumbing, electrical hang and air, that those are successful, rewarding trades to get into.

Todd Compton: And that, you know, the school systems have taken out the tools, you know, there's no vocational classes anymore, and so.

Todd Compton: Until you put a tool in front of a student's hand, a kid's hand, you don't know if they're going, they don't know if they're gonna like it or not, you know? And so what we're trying to accomplish is getting that out there to them, putting a trow in their hand, putting a, you know, little small, you know, butane torch for plumbing in their hand, you know, and you know, sweating out the copper and, you know, putting you know, an impact wrench in their hand.

Todd Compton: But, you know, just letting them play around with the stuff. Showing them the the scan tools and showing them you different things, the way they're exposed to it. You know, that maybe one day, you know, as they're trying to determine their career that, you know, it's like, you know, I kind of enjoyed, I kind, that was kind, it kind of seemed interesting to me.

Todd Compton: I mean, more into it. And so we're going and talking to students that are, you know, I've spoken to students as low as I think sixth grade. And that's fun. That's interesting. God bless the teachers on that, I'll tell you that. And so, then the ninth, 10th, 11th, yeah. 12th graders.

Todd Compton: You can tell the questions that as the, they start touring in age from, well, I don't know, 13 to 17, 18.

Todd Compton: That's right. The questions you're gonna start maturing and actually some of the questions that, you know, we get that, that I've gotten. Been interesting when it comes to automotive side and so being, the whole thing was just being in front of them and trying to educate the students and the teachers, you know, that the world's not survive on everybody's gonna be a doctor or a lawyer.

Todd Compton: You know, you know, when you got houses that gotta be built, you got, I mean, you, they all have depend on somebody. Pick something. And fixing things is going away, you know, and that human capacity of fixing things or building things.

Jimmy Lea: Or the curiosity to take it apart.

Todd Compton: Yeah. Yeah. And creativity.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Todd Compton: Yeah. To build things. Yeah. The carpenters, I can't do anything for it, but carpenters, they have an eye for it. And so, and if you're playing video games all day, you're not exposed to it. You'll never know if you've got the eye for it or not. You never know if you could be an amazing carpenter or not, you know?

Todd Compton: And so that's what we're trying do.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Thanks for putting tools in schools. So, is Daniel still with you guys?

Todd Compton: He is, yes.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. How long's he been? Daniel

Todd Compton: Daniel's done very well. And he's been with me since he was in high school.

Jimmy Lea: That's awesome. So he's, was he one of your apprentice?

Jimmy Lea: Yes. Nice. Congrats man. That's very cool. And what level technician is he now?

Todd Compton: If he hears this, he's gonna be a a plus.

Todd Compton: He's he's a good between a, a, b and a. Nice. He still, he's still got some learning to do. But he has done I mean at this point it just seems get some experience and get some things are they kind of challenge him very hardly, you know, to, for him to, you know, to start moving on up a little bit.

Jimmy Lea: Totally agree. Totally agree To be an expert. It takes at least 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours is at least five years. And where you were at the dealership at nine years, you were almost twice the expert. Yeah. Daniel's got a little ways to go. He's got four years under his belt, so he's up there. Yep. And we just need to keep challenging him so he doesn't get bored.

Jimmy Lea: That's right. Yeah. Very cool, Todd. Well thank you very much man. I really appreciate you spending some time with me today.

Todd Compton: Absolutely. It's fun.

Jimmy Lea: Thank you. We'll talk to you again soon.

Todd Compton: Alright, take care.