Meant To Be: Big Discount Tire has Origins From Owner's Youth
When he was growing up, the last thing Jose Guerrero expected to be doing as an adult was running his own tire and auto service shop. The youngest of six children, Guerrero was already familiar with the auto repair business. His father, Chon, owned Guerrero’s Body and Paint in Alice, Texas. It was literally the last place Jose wanted to work.
“It was just not my mode of fun,” he says. His interests were academics and sports, and he studied political science, Spanish and pre-law at the University of Oklahoma. But while he was going to college, his car would break down, and he quickly became dissatisfied with the service he received at several local auto repair centers.
“I felt they could have done better to inform me about their prices,” he relates. He thought he could do better. “One of these days,” he uttered in frustration, “I’m going to open up my own shop.”
You probably can guess where the story goes next: several years pass while Guerrero pursues other business ventures that fuel his desire to be an entrepreneur. “I was really into business,” he says of that time.
One day, he saw a newspaper ad for a building for sale, the 50-year-old Okie Tire and Rubber Co. in Oklahoma City, which had been vacant for three years. At first, he just saw it as a building and pondered its potential use. He was looking for a business with big demand. While driving around town, it occurred to him that he was seeing cars everywhere he went. “Every car has four tires,” he reasoned, “and every car breaks down, so that’s what I’ll do.” He thought, “If I am not going to succeed, it it’s my own fault because the demand is there.”
A Challenge
Guerrero called his father to tell him he was going to purchase a service and tire shop. “Son, can you even put air in your own tires?” his astute father asked. Guerrero was stunned. “That really motivated me. He said it in a joking manner, but it was more his craft than mine, and the one thing I did not want was to let my dad see me fail.”
There likely was another, more emotional reason. When Guererro was a still a child, his dad’s shop burned to the ground. He remembers that night vividly, being awakened by the police and taken to see the shop ablaze. “It was a very sad time in our family,” Guerrero recalls, and with his own new business he believed, “One shop might have gone down, but I’m keeping the tradition going.”
Another childhood lesson also proved to be a motivation. Guerrero describes his dad as a very hard worker, and he tried to instill that ethic in his youngest boy. He said, “Son, you can tell a lot about a man just by the way he brooms; if he’s barely brooming, he’s not going to be a good worker. Always put a lot of effort into what you’re doing, even if it is just brooming.”
It was a lesson the young Guerrero took to heart. After a year-and-a half spent painting and remodeling, Guerrero opened Big Discount Tire in April 2006. The 32-year-old entrepreneur was proud to put the same commitment of blood, sweat and tears into his building as his father had put into his shop, “making sure it was clean and worthy of being called a tire center.”
He told his dad, “I’m really good at finding people who are good at what they do, and I can manage it.”
Guerrero recalls thinking business would be good from the start, “but the first day we only had one customer, and that wasn’t until 4:30 pm and it was an oil change. It’s one of my proudest moments. I am honored that person came to see me.” He is still humbled every time a customer comes into his shop. “They have so many other choices, yet they choose to come to me.”
The store, located on a busy two-lane street, has 12,000 square feet of space, with 12 bays and a big overhang that will accommodate 10 more cars. Guerrero currently has five employees. In addition to selling tires, he also offers full-service automotive repair, alignments, plus paint and body work. Soon to be added is a tow service with two flatbed wreckers.
Strategies for Success
The shop draws customers from all over Oklahoma, Guerrero says. “I’ve even had customers spend the night in Oklahoma City just to buy tires before driving back to their home town.”
Why? “I have the best prices. I know everyone says that, but I really do,” he adds with no immodesty. He buys in such quantities that he can get the same prices as the biggest dealers in town. He’s fortunate that he has about 100,000 tires at his disposal within 10-to-15 minutes.
The store offers a wide range of tires across the price-point spectrum. “A lot of customers want to buy used tires,” he says, “and I let them know that for a few dollars more they can get a good, lower-priced tire that’s better than used.
“The customers who find me have looked for the lowest price and they leave pretty happy. I can offer the lowest price because I do volume. I make up my difference from the business I get when they tell their friends or their family members.” Guerrero also mentions that the local auto parts stores where he buys parts refer people to his tire dealership, as well.
Customers know they’ll get lowest price, so that allows Guerrero to talk to them without sales pressure. He’s usually the one at the front counter, and he encourages his customers to consider the store a place to get coffee and talk with a friend, not a salesman. They feel more comfortable talking about issues their car is having, and Guerrero or one of his technicians can offer suggestions on maintenance or repair services.
When they leave, they’re not only customers, but a friend. “People will call and ask my opinion or just call to see how I’m doing,” he says. For services his shop does not perform, he stays well informed on who does them at a good price, and willingly shares that information with his customers.
Another advantage is that Guerrero speaks both English and Spanish, a comfort factor for the local Hispanic community. Big Discount Tire is well-known in both communities, primarily because of his aggressive advertising campaign.
To attract attention in his city neighborhood, Guerrero says he intentionally made the store stick out with bright circus-type red and white colors that definitely announce it as a tire and automotive center. He advertises in the phone book and newspapers, with big ads that emphasize the guaranteed lowest price.
Guerrero was interested in advertising on billboards until he learned the price. So he came up with a creative solution: he bought some old rental trucks cheap and turned them into rolling billboards. The box trucks were repainted with “Big Discount Tires, Guaranteed Lowest Prices” in giant letters on the side, complete with address, phone number and tire brands offered. The trucks move all over town, often settling in the parking lots of his friends – loyal customers who are happy to oblige. If he knows a competitor is opening up a shop in a new location, he’ll know someone in the nearby neighborhood where he can park one of his advertising trucks for free.
Paternal Approval
Guerrero says his dad’s very proud of his accomplishments and impressed because the store is always busy. “I still can’t believe it,” Guerrero adds about his father. “I never thought he’d ask me, ‘What do you think is wrong with my car?’ It was my brother who was more into cars, but fate has it this way.” Being a tire dealer began as a challenge, but he is quick to add, “Now I enjoy what I’m doing.”
Guerrero keeps in his desk drawer a memento from that awful day from his youth, a hammer found among the smoldering ruins of his dad’s shop. He keeps it as an inspiration, and says he looks at it every morning to remind himself of his father’s determination – and as a reminder to not disappoint his father or his customers.