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

Shawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

There is not enough professionals in rural areas in America to hire. So you have to take extra time to find people to hire and then you need to take the time to train the individuals because they usually don’t have a background in the industry. After that you hope they become successful enough, and trained enough so we can send the employees to higher education. That is the only way to have the industry professionals that are needed in such areas. Especially when it’s too hot in temps or to cold in temps for customers to be stranded on the side of the road for hours at a time waiting for the tows ahead of them to get done, so they can be saved too.

Shawn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As for myself I was active duty military for many years. After retiring I moved home to a very small rural area here in Utah. I got my first civilian job that didn’t last but a month because it wasn’t for me. I then started at a tire shop and worked for several months. As I worked there I began to realize there was only that one shop for tires, and all they mainly carried was heavy duty semi tires, so a lot of customers that got towed in couldn’t receive immediate help to get them back on the road. I then began brainstorming, there was no one here for oil changes, our community was traveling about 60 miles any which direction looking for other assistance. I then decided to become my own company. and be my own brand. I knew structurally what I wanted and I always strived and pushed to become my own company. I started small, just myself and a service truck I purchased at a auction and put together. I only carried used tires at the beginning, then my wife and I went into figuring out getting new tires and what kind of working relationships we could pull together to get accounts and be able to provide new tires as well. Shortly after that we talked to my grandma and worked out renting her garage to work out of, we are a small mom and pop shop at the moment, but continue to strive for bigger. I purchased a tire and balancer machine and set up shop. Brought on my first employee, who happens to be my uncle no less, we love having a family atmosphere workplace. Have slowly continued to grow and just recently added some of my own semi tires, new in stock into my inventory.

I couldn’t be more proud that regardless of all the obstacles we’ve faced since we opened we have bounced back and are becoming better and stronger. My prices are fair, I get my customers taken care of as quickly as possible to get them back on the road. We’re kind, respectful, and have no hidden fees for our services. At the end of the day we are only human and we treat our customers the way we would want to be treated in their situations.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

My biggest story is our first winter as a company. You see, because of us being rural a lot of our traffic is during the summer with tourism. The winters are cold and very very slow. With becoming slow the calls are not there, and although you aren’t bringing in as much as you do the bills doesn’t change. They remain the same, so it gets extremely stressful to consider it all and hope the savings you put together while on the “in season” is enough to get through the slow winters.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Our biggest source of new clients is actually other local small businesses referrals and local referrals. We try to stay very active in our relationships with others because the referrals we all give each other is great. As a small business we rather get the customer taken care of as fast as possible to we refer each other jobs for better assistance based on what it is. Our second biggest drive is Google, it was a big struggle with google to start, but once we figured out the appropriate information to list and all the details to put into our ad, it has helped raise our call volumes and it’s been easier for customers to find us. We couldn’t be more thankful for the community relationships we have built here.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okeefettl
• Other: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALiCzsau09Zw5sOim1hCeeutx0EhRP_sqA:1668812978568&q=o%27keefe+tire+tow+and+lube&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqyKLm7Lj7AhVcFjQIHcEcA4wQBSgAegQIEhAB&biw=1920&bih=937&dpr=1 Check out our google!

Image Credits
Shawn, Shelby, James, Stephen, Josh