For the past eight years out in McLean, Texas, Derek Jones has been running his auto care business, Western Auto Solutions, out of a 1600-square-foot shop. Despite the location’s small size, Jones had a big clientele, serving primarily ranchers and farmers with all of their cake feeder, cattle guard, flatbed, truck and trailer needs. It was the natural next step to expand to meet the demand of both regular and steadily growing new clientele. You can now find Jones and his crew working out of four large bays in building over ten times the size of where they began next to the old Dyers on Highway 60.
“We’re gonna do mechanic work, tires, tire repair, accessories and we’ll have a quick lube,” said Jones. “We’ll have a service truck, as well.”
The dramatic increase from their humble roots is allowing Jones to offer a broader range of products and services for residents of the panhandle, along with continuing to provide services and equipment for local ranchers and farmers.
One of his best sources of advertising are the top-of-the-line cake feeders and flatbeds that sit out front of the shop, keeping Jones’ phone ringing with inquiries. The bright red and white feeders are easy to spot by passersby on the busy highway.
A service unique to the mechanic industry as a whole that Western Auto will have as an option for its customers is a financing plan to pay for services and repairs through Snap loans. Snap offers financing plans for people who have bad or no credit. it should help when those unexpected yet much-needed car repairs pop up for people who can’t always afford the full bill upfront.
“What we’ve talked about from the beginning is making sure that we make it a family-like environment here,” said Rebekah Wheeler. “People love our service and love how we treat them and want to come back because of that.”
As the new office manager helping to run the scaled-up business, her’s is the first face you can expect to see when you walk in the front door.
Jones and Wheeler are currently looking to expand their work family to keep up with demand in the new larger shop and are taking applications for another mechanic.
In the meantime, the coffee pot is always on at Western Auto Solutions LLC.
