We recently connected with Oscar Granados and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Oscar thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
I had Owned a few other businesses prior to Scottsdale Collision Center, The one right before this one took 4 years of blood sweat and tears. At the end of that for a number of different reasons and many of witch I couldn’t control, we had to dissolved the business. this really took a toll and I thought this is where I draw the line as an Entrepreneur. at this point at had been going at “owning my own business” since I was 21 yrs old, at the end of the last business I was 34yrs old. So lets just say that was a huge blow and didn’t want to do it anymore, So then I decided to go into the employee work force and that didn’t last long. I had an interview with a buddy of mine that had been working for a company for years and had and opportunity for me. SO i thought this was going to be it, When I showed up to the interview I realized that being an employee was not for me. My father had been in the Collision Industry all his life and we had talked about opening up a shop so he can have a good place to work. I then emersed myself in the collision industry and that’s when I found out this industry is in need of a huge overhaul and thought there was a huge opportunity. So I decided to open up a collision center with the intention to do the best for the customer (GREAT SERVICE) and back it up with quality repairs, WE also decided not to team up with any insurance companies so we can remain our transparency. This was a huge risk as most collision centers team up with the insurance so they will get fed work. the problem with that is that you jeopardize quality and integrity as the insurance dictates how you do business. Long story short I took a huge risk and bought the shop. worked here for free for 4 weeks to understand it before I bought it. I pulled the trigger and it started with my dad as a body guy a painter and myself. this was 5 yrs ago. last year (December) my dad was able to retire. we hired our 25th employee and we are on track to hit 5mil this year, we are becoming a house hold name and the goal is to change the way we do business in the collision industry and become a staple.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was born in Mexico, came here when I was 13yrs old and didn’t speak the language, I quickly realize that speaking the language was something that I needed to master if I wanted to really take advantage of the “America Dream” so I did. slowly made my way into the work force, started off working at a call center at 16, doing a lot of translating since it was a mortgage company and they had a good flow of spanish speaking customers. this allowed me to learn how to speak better english and also understand the Loan process, so much in deed that by the age of 18 I took a test to become a loan officer and sure enough I had passed and became one. fast forward 1 year and I opened up a Brokerage, at this point I though i had made it and boy was I wrong. 2008 came along and I was too inexperienced to understand what was coming, Rug got pulled from underneath me and I lost it all. moved back with parents for a few months. (extremely tough/ Depressing) after a few months I realize that being depressed and locked up wasnt going to change anything so back to the work force I go. Got a call from a marketing company and was hired on the spot. long story short, I didn’t realize it was a sales job, but not just any sales job, this was a 100% commission and door 2 door job. I was not very excited but at this point, i felt as i didn’t have a choise and needed to try it out. with in 2 weeks I became top producer and was being recognize. with in 2 months I was offered the opportunity to “expand ” with the company. At this point I was excited I was seeing results and was being acknowledged. little did a know this was a bit of a pyramid/multi-level marketing, but by this time I didnt care I really thought I could make it to the top. So I “burned all my bridges” put my head down and made it work. fast forward 7 years, at this point I had expanded, lived and opened shops in multiple states and was living in Connecticut. I had climbed the latter pretty far before I realized that to get any higher I would have to play the “politics game” I have was more integrity than that and decided that keeping that was a better option. so I decided to Leave everything behind. so I packed my car with as much as I could and move back to AZ. Again back to my parent house but this time, My girl friend now my wife moved back with me and surprisingly my admin also moved back with me. Right away I build a door to door business to make some income and at the same time built and LED lighting company from scratch. 4 yrs later we had a full blown LED manufatured, distribution and instalation in 9 states and overseas. right after that is when this also fell apart due to some uncontrollable circumstances. its a shame as I really thought this business was amazing and had huge potential to go global. well it didn’t. This is when I spoke to my father and told him I would open a shop and if he would be interested in coming along, the goal at fist was to run small shop that would provide a living for all of us and a safe fun place to work for my dad. But the more I learned about this industry the more excited I got about it. I started doing more and better. started letting people know who we were and business started picking up. “experts” started to come to the shop wondering what we were doing. They initially said we couldnt do over 1 mil out of my location. so I made it my goal to do so. by end of year 1 we surpass that, end of year 2 we hit 2 mil and today we have our 3rd location at capacity that we opened 6 months ago and now have 25 employees and growing. the goal is to turn this business in to a nationwide company, house hold name doing over 100m a year.
The key to all this is a ton of Discipline, waking up every day and attack it like it the first day of business, to treat others the way you want to be treated. create an amazing culture where people like to work and are happy at work. This industry is know for people not being treated like people. so we do just that. make people feel wanted and greatfull that they choose to come here everyday and that they are part of the team. money isn’t the only reason or the main reason why people come and go. people like to feel valued and appreciated and we try our best to do just that. we are not perfect by any means but we are doing our best,
In the customer side, we help customers with as much as we can. from walking them through the entire process, educate them on how everything is going to go, but also be an advocate for them and their vehicle to ensure every thing that the vehicle needs gets addressed, approved and repaired back to Pre-collision status.
we pride ourself on the customer service we provide and want any customer to feel welcome to come and drop off their vehicle for repairs.. no matter if its Grandma, mom, daughter etc. we will educate them on what is going to happen answer all questions and make sure they undestand the process, so they feel comfortable that they chose the right place.
I don’t try to compete with other shop, the market supports and its in need of some changes and I truly feel this is what we are providing and becoming pioneers and the way we do business in the Automotive Industry.
What I want people to know is not to fear the collision industry any more. we are here to help and to make sure everyone receives the service and repairs they deserve.
What im most proud of is not only the amounts of obstacles we have had to overcome to get here, working with family, pandemics, having 3 kids and adopting my wife’s special needs brother, building a house and growing a business in a competitive market and still keeping our integrity and also maintaining an amazing place to work and being profitable,
we are here to stay. to provide quality of service backed up with quality repairs. to provide a safe and fun place to work for employees and opportunities for the hard working individuals
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
This is something that I have always done in my life and would like to say I feel like its something I am capable of doing pretty good with out downtime.
Not only moving countries and had to pivot my goals and where I wanted to be changed, To not having the ability to attend a university due to the Immigration system being so outdated and prevented me from going. To every career or job that i have had to change. From being in the mortgage industry and having to do Door to Door sales, Pivoting from that to launch a Full blown LED company that I started from scratch, from manufacturing to install and having to Pivot to running a collision center and now also a Mobile tire shop.
I think this is crucial in life as you have to learn from your mistakes or simply soothing that is no longer working or providing you with what you need. happiness, income, opportunity or growth.
than take the information leaned and apply it to the next thing you pivot to. this will ensure that the next thing will have the best chance of success possible and will eliminate any down time dwelling on what happened on the last one.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
This is pretty simple to say, but hard for alot of people to do.
Do the right thing for people all the time , If you say you are going to do something, DO IT.
Besides keeping and maintaining this, we took on what would put us on the map, we took on jobs people didn’t want to do, all the exotic cars, the custom work and showcased it, people figured if people trust us enough to have us work on a 200k car and keep coming back. their daily will be ok with us. so I did this for a 2 years and now hold a very good reputation in the valley and in the industry. We made sure to strive for a 5 star rating and now we are working on making sure we post daily and are agressive with SEO and PPC to make sure everyone knows we exist and that all our customers love the work!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://scottsdalecollisionaz.com/ (shop) https://www.instagram.com/og__on__ig/ (personal)
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottsdale_cc/ (shop) https://www.instagram.com/og__on__ig/ (personal)
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottsdalescc1/ https://www.facebook.com/oscar.granados.33821
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@scottsdale_cc
Image Credits
pictures by Jesus Iturralde with @ITRVisuals