Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christopher Mancini. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christopher, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I had been making custom furniture and restoring vintage trailers for a few years with my brother-in-law Quinten, which we started after Covid hit, both of us leaving behind the service industry. My focus during those years was primarily woodworking which I loved, however we also did welding for various projects. My mom had mentioned a distant family member’s son was looking for a welder for his growing business, TB Performance Products, and she put me in touch with Daniel Check.

He and I hit it off right away. Basically he needed help producing a few car parts because his demand was rising exponentially. I admit was nervous at first because the craftsmanship in welding car parts is very obvious and there is little to no room for error. So, after a couple years of welding products for Daniel, he approached me about buying the business from him. We would be fabricating all the parts his company made. I was very nervous to take the leap. Another career shift? Will my wife be onboard with this idea? Will Quinten be onboard to shift gears to welding fulltime? Can we really afford to buy a business? On top of those questions, was the fact that almost every thing in my workshop was geared for woodworking. I would have to restructure the whole shop. Luckily both Quinten and my wife Alexis were up for the challenge.

Taking over something that is successful and loved by a big community is nerve wracking, I am not gonna lie. But the thought of jumping back into the car world, which I was born and raised in, was just too good to pass up. Luckily, Alex Smith, a long time friend of Daniel’s, whom had worked on fabrication before taking on the role of social media and sales manager of TB stayed on board! Alex is THE MAN when it comes to making friends in the car community and helping them build their dream cars. His enthusiasm for the cars and the genuine attention he pays to the TB Performance community makes him an essential part of our team.
It has been almost a year that we took over TB Performance Products, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel very lucky.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Cars were nothing new to me. I grew up in my grandfather’s wrecking yard, Norman’s Auto Parts in San Marcos, CA, in the 80’s and 90’s where all my family worked, learning all about fixing cars and car restoration. He also had a stable of classic Fords and hot rods he restored and showed. Actually, he helped me build and restore my first car at age 15, a 1966 Mustang coupe that sat in his wrecking yard. We worked on it every chance I could until I was finally old enough to get my license. In fact, our workshop is in one of the buildings where the wrecking yard was, which my grandmother still owns.

And now proudly, TB Performance Products runs out of the same building. We produce aftermarket car parts to improve performance, handling and traction to the car modification community. It’s definitely a niche market, but it’s so amazing to be part of the community. Every customer is building their own dream car by modifying different aspects. We focus on performance and handling, including chassis bracing, torque gussets and strut bars.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

The acquisition process was fairly smooth, as the previous owner Daniel agreed to stay onboard, and accessible for the first three months. We also inherited Alex , which provided high value support with all the logistics of running the day to day operations. We kept the same book-keeper as well, which was a major help to my wife Alexis which runs the finance and logistics side of the operations. Having these key people in place, especially the first few months, and preparing for our first black Friday sale was essential. We focused on learning as much as we could on how things were previously run, and avoided too many changes, even though our heads filled with all kinds of new ideas. We really wanted to get a good handle of productions and manufacturing, and maintain a high level of customer service. We serve a very niche community, so we knew we had to uphold the kind of care and attention the TB Performance Community was accustomed to and rightfully deserved. We did have to find some new vendors, as the business was originally located out of Temecula, and we are in North County San Diego, so that did present a challenge, but after a bit of trial and error, we have established great relationships locally.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We sell our products on our website, as well as Amazon and eBay. There are also severally vendors that sell our products as well through out the USA and one in Canada, which is fantastic. Selling our products on our website gives us full control of the selling process, while Amazon and eBay introduces us to a wider audience. People tend to have more consumer confidence in big platforms such as Amazon and eBay because not only are they big, recognizable names, but they also take comfort in the customer service of these big companies. Selling on our website with our own terms and conditions, or through our trusted vendors which are well respected in the car modification community is preferred. But yes, we sell on the Amazon and eBay as well because, well, you have to play the game!

Selling our website not only gives us full control, but it allows us to build relationships with our customers. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, and friendliness. Folks buying our parts range from well seasoned mechanics, to young kids modifying their first car, teaching themselves as they go or using YouTube to educate themselves on their builds. We want every single one of those customers to feel welcomed by TB Performance Products. Once in a while we’ll get an email that reads “sorry to bother you” or “this may be a stupid question but”, and we think that’s absolutely heartbreaking. We are NEVER bothered by our customer’s questions. That’s something my wife Alexis is big on, everyone is welcome! Everyone should feel like they belong in the TB community. We hold no ego, no attitude at TB Performance, we are just as excited about what our customers are building as they are. We are a community, learning as we go, sharing experience with each other and feeling proud of our builds. It’s very personal to our customers, the cars they spend hours working on, the hard earned money they save to buy these modification parts, it all really matters to them, so it matters to us! This is something Alex Smith understands genuinely, and as the social media voice for TB on various platforms, he has done an outstanding job carrying that message.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tbperformanceproducts.com/
• Instagram: @ tb_performance_products
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TBPerformanceproductsofficial