Most shop owners in our industry are past middle age, and many are nearing retirement or thinking seriously about stepping away. At the same time, there are younger technicians who have mastered the trade and are beginning to wonder what it would take to own and run a shop of their own. I have lived both sides of that question. I opened my own shop in 1984, then sold it and retired in 2021.
My name is Kit Lindsay, and I tumbled into this industry at 20 years old because of a bad deal. I had installed a used 727 in a 1970 Plymouth Fury that didn’t work. The salvage yard owner handed me $50 to buy an overhaul kit and told me to get lost.
Being the resourceful guy that I am, I grabbed the original 727 and some books and spent the next three days taking the first one apart, then the other. Eventually, I got it right, and it worked great. I also realized something important: nobody within 50 miles of me seemed to know how transmissions worked. I decided I was going to become that guy, one way or another.
From there, I worked on anything I could get my hands on and read everything I could find about transmissions. This was about the time ASE became a thing, so I was one of the first guys around to take the tests. I passed both the automatic and manual transmission tests.
Soon, I found myself at the local Chevrolet dealership. I asked if they had room for an ASE-certified transmission mechanic, and they said yes. I told them I had been working mostly on Chrysler and Ford vehicles, but if they sent me to GM school, I would come to work for them.
I became the biggest pest the GM training center ever saw. I learned everything I could about everything I could get my hands on. This was in 1982, and the 700-R4 was new to the industry. I asked about transmissions, diesel engines, vibration diagnosis, root cause analysis, and anything else that had to do with the driveline in anything GM made.
After two years, I had learned enough to strike out on my own. On November 26, 1984, I opened my first shop in my father’s basement garage.
Slowly and steadily, I gained market share and eventually found a commercial property I could “hermit crab” into and make the business official. Three years later, I bought a two-acre lot inside the city limits on the main drag and built a four-bay garage. A year after that, I added two more bays. The business kept getting better, with a few rough patches along the way. When I sold the operation to one of my employees, Cody, we had four indoor lifts, two outdoor lifts, a full machine shop, a 30-day waiting list, and six hard-working people on staff.
Opening my own shop was the right decision for me, based on my circumstances at the time. But would it be the right decision today? And how can I help potential owners make the right decision when their time comes?
That is why I decided to write a series of articles comparing the two paths: starting a new transmission shop from scratch or buying an established business.
In the installments ahead, I plan to cover assessing your market, securing a location, building a financial strategy, understanding government regulations, and creating an exit plan. Each step requires a significant investment of time and money, which is why purchasing an existing shop may be the better option for some people.
I don’t want shop owners to read this and think I am encouraging employees to leave, nor am I saying they should not open their own shops. This is a significant decision, and both options deserve serious consideration. Current owners should look at their own timeline and ask whether there is an ambitious, capable employee who could eventually buy the business. Done well, that kind of transition can provide continued income for both parties without destabilizing the market.
This industry has given me a wonderful life. I would do it all over again if I had the chance, though I would do some things differently now that I am older and wiser. My hope is that this series will help the next generation of shop owners make better decisions—and avoid a few of the mistakes I made along the way.
