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| In the beginning |
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Some call it an American dream....
It started as just something me and my husband used to talk about as teenagers. Dennis is from Oroville Washington where we met. The cabin above is where we lived when we started out together. Dennis had always been interested in the body shop business, he had taken some classes in school, I remember telling him my family was in that line of work, my dad was a painter for over 25 years up in the valley. We would joke around about the kind of shop we would have some day if it ever happened. Dennis hitch hiked to Casa Grande with only 80 dollars in his pocket 20 years ago not knowing what to expect, he of course started working in fast food 3 jobs to be exact just to make ends meat. Back then minimum wage was $ 3.05 per hour, he eventually got a job working where my dad worked at Big Two Toyota and worked at various shops after that learning the art of refinishing cars. We later moved to Casa Grande where he worked for a local shop in town where he was the painter and my dad was one of his preppers, he did that for about 8 years. Our bookkeeper Billie Wilkins always encouraged Dennis to open his own shop; little did we know such an opportunity would arise for him to go into business with a friend. We remained in business for 3 years with them. At some point in time, the couple decided they no longer wanted to continue with the shop. At one point in time, they called and said they wanted out and were willing to sell the business, we of course wanted to buy it but at the time, Dennis was an employee also. I remember we called the employees who had working for us at the time and told them the situation and if they wanted to stay and stick it out with us all we could do was try, there were no guarantees. Our employees were willing to try to see what would happen; we were just starting out at the time so we did not have much to work with. One day a truck came in with extensive damage to the side, we still have those photos that gave us the start we needed, the customer already had the check with her, which exceeded $9000.00. This is still a loyal customer to date. Today our business continues to grow and me and my husband Dennis continue to work together as a team along with our employees. Dennis does all the painting and estimating as well as communicating with the customers. I have seen him work 10-12 hours a day if necessary. He will meet customers at 6:00 Am if they need an early drop-off. He gives 110% to our business. We started this business not just for ourselves but our two daughters Jessica and Crystal. Jessica is graduating from high school and is attending NAU and Crystal ASU and working full time.
We are a family owned and operated business. We have found that honesty and quality workmanship is an essential part of our business as well as being able to help customers with all there needs. We treat everyone that comes into our shop the same, regardless if it is a $100.00 repair or $5000.00 repair. We will try to make the customers experience as pleasant as possible knowing they have came to our shop under the stress of having an accident. We ourselves have been in that situation and it is stressful. As the community continues to grow so does our business, we have people that are coming from the valley due to referrals by our customers. We owe our success not only to our customers and insurance partners but also to our employees who continue to work along side us. Customers and employees are essential to the success of any business. Business needs both to continue to grow and be prosperous. We have built our business on what our slogan says...Honesty-Integrity-Commitment and Service
Stop in today and give us a try...
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Dennis and I have two reasons for what we do in our life and they are the two below. Our daughters are part of the future. They are the reasons we work so hard in our business.
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