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Baker Ghanim is the President of Tire Store Service Center in Bedford, Texas. Under his leadership, Tire Store Service Center opened nine locations in its first ten years. Baker is also the Founder of oTo Solutions, where customers can easily order tires online. With his background in business management and customer service, Baker is dedicated to providing top-notch services and solutions to clients.
In this episode…
In a rapidly evolving automotive sales and service landscape, innovative management techniques can empower employees and unlock unprecedented levels of success.
According to Baker Ghanim, empowering employees by treating them as store owners fosters a strong sense of ownership and responsibility within them. Implementing performance-based pay and involving managers in decision-making processes leads to increased engagement, loyalty, and accountability among employees. This strategy not only enhances employee satisfaction, but also translates into better customer service and overall business performance, as employees are motivated to excel in ensuring the success of their respective stores.
On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge talks with Baker about fostering a sense of ownership among employees in the tire industry. They delve into empowering managers, referencing stores by their names, and the benefits of this approach. Additionally, they discuss Baker’s entrepreneurial journey, insights from Kent Coleman’s book, It’s Not About the Mangos, and the innovative solution for independent tire dealers, oTo Solutions.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Baker Ghanim learned valuable business lessons from Kent Coleman’s book, It’s Not About the Mangos
- Why Baker values employees as family and focuses on the human side of business
- How empowering managers to feel like owners fosters a sense of pride and responsibility
- Baker discusses his belief in personal incentive, aligning employee and company goals for mutual success
- How the motto “We Don’t Sell, We Service!” guides Baker’s business
- Why Baker views a sale as merely one touchpoint in a customer’s journey — all interactions matter
- How oTo Solutions streamlines the tire ordering process for independent dealers
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Baker Ghanim on LinkedIn
- Tire Store Service Center
- oTo Solutions
- It’s Not About the Mangos
- Mike Edge on LinkedIn
- Tread Partners
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts, and share their inspiring stories. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Mike:
Folks, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast. I am Mike Edge, your host. So this episode is brought to you by Tread Partners and the ReTread marketing program. I know you’re thinking, man, what is a ReTread marketing program? So I’m glad you asked. It is a customer re-engagement program using IP targeting to win back your best lost customers. It is a one-time, 120-day program that guarantees a 10 to one return on investment. And the best part about it’s guaranteed? That’s correct, a 10 to one guaranteed ROI. No tricks or gimmicks. These are customers that are in your point of sale system right now. So if you invest, for example, $4,000 today, you will see a return of investment of $40,000 within 120 days from that list of best lost customers. Tread Partners works only within this industry. They specialize in tires and auto repair. To learn more, visit treadpartners.com.
So recently, I had Walter Lybeck, CEO of Point S Tire on. I was thoroughly impressed by his leadership and the Point S organization. If you haven’t already, please check out his podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, pretty much any platform out there, or you could simply just go to gaintractionpodcast.com. So let me introduce you to our guest today. It’s funny, but I bring this guy’s name up a lot, but Sonny McDonald with Toyo Tires has done it again. He introduced me to today’s guest, Baker Ghanim. Baker is from Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas area. He owns and operates the Tire Store Service Center, which has nine retail locations. He is also founder of www.oto, that’s O-T-O.tires. I met Baker in one of his stores in Dallas recently so I’ve been looking forward to this interview. Baker, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast.
Baker:
Thank you so much for having me on.
Mike:
Yeah, I’m excited to have you. I mean, you’re like one of the perfect guests because I don’t know if I told you this when I met you, but I’ve had several people in the tire industry that are in your position. One of them, he’ll probably tune into this, but he told me this recently. He’s up in Maryland, he has seven locations, and he said, “Anytime you have a tire guy that owns other stores or multi-location operator, I tune in all the time.” He goes, “Because I always learn something that they do in their business that I may be able to apply to my business.” And he said, “So that’s fun for me,” so you’re going to have a good audience out there.
Baker:
That’s how I feel, the same way too. Every time I hear a podcast of another, especially multi-location owner or someone inspiring to grow their business, I’m always there to listen in any industry really, but especially if they’re in the tire business.
Mike:
Well, I noticed, so I’m just trying to understand your background and everything. I did a little research on you and you had a post about Kent Coleman.
Baker:
Yeah.
Mike:
I think you posted it months ago, but anyway, I noticed it was still out there, but did you listen to a podcast with Kent or did you meet him or read his book or how did you-
Baker:
I read his book now that, yes. It was the Big O Dealer out in Arizona, I think, right?
Mike:
Utah.
Baker:
Utah, yes. Yeah, I learned so much from that book. I mean, that was inspirational story. Just the amount of business you can run out of one location, and how he broke down the problems into small little departments and it made it all work. It’s beautiful.
Mike:
He was an early interviewer on this podcast, which I’m still grateful for him doing that but then I read his book as well. Yeah, I mean it’s mind-blowing about what he gets out of his locations.
Baker:
It really is. Every time you think you’ve made your base as efficient as possible, then someone comes in and says, “Oh, this could be done better,” and it just pushes us to-
Mike:
You’re like, “No, there’s no way it could.” Yeah, so I cannot, because when he was on, first of all, I love the human side of him. He really looks at his employees as part of the family. I mean, he really tries to handpick them, and he realized. Through his own lesson, I think he mentions this in the podcast, but I know he mentions it in the book, how he really messed up at first, and he came in and he was a numbers guy. He said, “And I really all went by the numbers and I got rid of people and things like that. Then I realized, holy cow, I’ve dug a hole,” and he had to get out of a hole and he went to the people side and he goes, “It’s all about people.” And he went to the extreme and to the extreme has benefited him so well, I think you even made the point on one of your posts that does he do a million a month out of one store or something?
Baker:
Yeah.
Mike:
Yeah.
Baker:
A million dollars out of one location, which is just, it’s mind-boggling. It’s beautiful. So we went back and said, “You know what? We need to do a million out of this location too.”
Mike:
All right, so that touches on something that you and I were talking about, and I always pick people’s brain and I’m pulling this. I usually ask them at the end of this podcast, you got any words of wisdom, but one of them that you said, and I prepped you for it, but might as well talk about it now, but you said that you like to make your employees feel like owners.
Baker:
Yes.
Mike:
You want to explain that a little bit?
Baker:
Yeah, of course. So even down to sometimes we call of calling our Cleburne store, we say, “Hey, is someone going to Eli’s store?” We just really let the manager own the store in the sense of its success, its problems, its growth. All is around that manager being involved and also gets credited when the store succeeds. So it’s really, really critical for us, for our managers to be fully engaged in the business.
Mike:
So you actually will refer to the store as the manager’s name?
Baker:
Yes.
Mike:
That’s cool.
Baker:
No numbers for sure. We hate numbers, we hate calling them tire store number five.
Mike:
Oh, man. Yeah, because it is sterile, right? I mean, when you just call them a number.
Baker:
Yeah, it works for organization I think. It’s nicer on a spreadsheet if you’re doing a spreadsheet, but I think it puts a little more personality if you give it the person’s name. Even the look of the building, whatever it is, just give us some personality, I think it just.
Mike:
Did you do this right out of the gate, or does this something that you transpired to? I mean, you got to it over a period of time.
Baker:
I think I learned a lot of this with time really. In the beginning, I was thinking about the numbers. I thought the numbers made a lot of sense. We go with numbers. And then with time I felt like the manager, if we empowered that manager to own the store and grow the store, there is no reason to give it a number. Let’s just call it Jason’s store or David’s store and so on, and it really takes off. It works better. And the manager almost doesn’t want to leave that store because it’s their store. It’s like they own it. And even the way they’re paid also connects with that. So it’s really, the managers are paid pretty much on performance only there. There’s no base salary at all so.
Mike:
That’s so cool.
Baker:
How an owner gets paid. An owner gets paid if customers come in and the manager paid that way as well, so it works.
Mike:
That’s awesome. Well, I mean, sometimes people refer to capitalism as a dirty word. I think of it as a very good word because I think it’s all about individual ownership and then we all know, especially you being an older, I mean, if people have personal incentive and you’ve given them full personal incentive, I mean full accountability, then it’s theirs. They can do what they want with it and really succeed. I mean, you’re giving them the limit, I’m not going to hold you back.
Baker:
Not at all. I’m only going to support you. I’m only going to listen to you and see what your store needs are. Even if I have a good idea, I’ll come up and ask the manager, “Hey, what do you think about this idea for your store? Why don’t we redo the lobby? Or why don’t we add a certain service at this location?” Or something like that. I’ll always communicate with that manager for that store specifically.
Mike:
That’s awesome. Well, let me back up real quick. You live in Texas. I mean, was your family in the tire business at all? How did you get to the tire business?
Baker:
So my family, we moved to the United States in 2000. We grew up on a chicken farm back home in Palestine. We moved here, my dad wanted, there was no chicken farms around so. He had a little bit of background in mechanics and a little bit of tires as well. He went and worked at a tire shop and he was getting paid $6 an hour and he thought, this is how I’m going to start. I’m going to work here. I’m going to learn this business. And when he walked into the owners for the interview, he told him, “Hey, I’m going to be here for a few months. I have a little bit of cash that I brought here to the States. I’m only going to be here for a few months. I’m going to learn this business and I’m out.” And he just laughed, the owner of that store. He said, “No, everybody wants to have their American dream really quickly and really fast.” Yeah, my dad was serious. He opened his location about four months or five months after immigrating to the States.
Mike:
Wow. I love stories like that. I mean, that’s what it’s all about, right? And he did it.
Baker:
It really is. Capitalism, like you said, is a beautiful system, especially when it’s fair. As long as it’s fair, people will love playing this game. I mean, it’s a fun game. It gets people nice stuff, and we produce great things to society.
Mike:
Well, to me it elevates all, it’s like the tide, it elevates all boats. Everybody wins, all the employees win. Even the customer wins. Everybody wins.
Baker:
100%. That teacher that’s trying to go to school that morning and has a flat and you help her and go to school, she won. The students that are there that are learning now because you’re able to help them get to school. They grow and they give back to society and it’s just the way it is.
Mike:
Well, it’s amazing what personal incentive can do.
Baker:
It really is. Yeah, it really is. We’re naturally wired that way.
Mike:
Yes.
Baker:
I mean, the other system is the theory sounds beautiful, it’s just share all our stuff together, but now we’re getting political.
Mike:
Yeah. Hey, let’s share as long as you go out and work for it, right?
Baker:
Yeah, exactly. We’re not wired for that. I think we’re wired for.
Mike:
Yeah, I do too. Well, that’s so cool. So you had the privilege then of using your dad’s knowledge as a springboard to what you’re doing today.
Baker:
Absolutely. I learned so much from my dad. The biggest thing he taught me probably is not to copy your competitor. That’s the biggest thing.
Mike:
That’s pretty cool.
Baker:
He says just don’t try to emulate everything they’re doing, find your edge. See where you’re most efficient and where you can be more competitive, not trying to copy what they’re doing. If they bring in wheels, that doesn’t mean that you have to start doing custom wheels. That means that find what’s best for you, what works.
Mike:
I like that because I think a lot of times in our culture, our mindset is what are they doing? What are they doing? And should I be doing that? Instead of just doing what you do best. That’s so cool. My dad used to tell me this all the time, and just because it was me, it took a few years for it to finally sink in. More like 10 years probably, but he used to always say, “Play to your strengths.” Play to your strengths. He said, “Don’t worry about your weaknesses, play to your strengths because that’s where you’re going to succeed, in your strengths.” He goes, “A, because you’re good at it, but B, because you like it.” That’s exactly what I wish I could say that I responded to that easily. But I think one of the challenges when you’re younger, you’re thinking, I can overcome my weaknesses, or I can fix them or, you know what I mean? Not that you can’t, but you know what I’m saying, you spend a lot of energy in the wrong areas. Does that make sense?
Baker:
Absolutely.
Mike:
I’m a parallel in that with what you seem like you’ve done with your tire business, you play to your strengths. Is that accurate to say?
Baker:
Yes, for sure. And going back again, I’ve been with this business model for about 12 years. In the beginning, me and my dad, he was guiding me through this in the background. He would tell me, do this and do that and avoid doing this. But I would listen sometimes, and sometimes I would brush it off. He knew that and he respected that. He knew we had two different mindsets, that I’m always going to be wanting to be a little more aggressive and open more stores and buy the real estate versus trying to rent things, and put everything on the table multiple times, put all the chips on the table multiple times. My dad was a little more conservative, a little bit more controlled, and it worked great because I would listen when it became serious. When I knew I was about to make a big mistake, he would sit me down and say, “Hey, listen, you’re about to over leverage yourself. Take it easy. Slow down, boy.”
Mike:
Yeah.
Baker:
Slow down.
Mike:
That’s awesome.
Baker:
It’s great.
Mike:
Well, what’s this quote that you guys live by? What was on your LinkedIn page? I’ll go back to it again. We don’t sell, we service?
Baker:
That’s right, yes. So our business name is Tire Store Service Center, and we don’t sell, we service just ties it all together. Before, we didn’t have or values for about first eight years of our business, and that was just a one statement that would ring in our minds when we were making a tough decision, dealing with a customer’s issue or something like that. Or if there was an opportunity to sell something that they knew was at the edge of used car mentality. That motto just held us back and said, “No, we’re not here to do that.” We’re here to treat our customers with honesty and give them only what they need and not pressure them at all into any single purchase.
Mike:
And when I hear that slogan, what I like about it is it takes me away from thinking of something, a relationship with you guys as transactional. You’re not worried about the transaction just today, you’re worried about how can I fix your problem?
Baker:
Absolutely. 100% actually. Sorry, I’m going to talk about my lessons that I’ve learned through the last 12 years, but I also learned that the moment you take the money, we think of that as a sale, but really that’s just one touchpoint in that sale. Having the tires in stock, having the right tires in stock, having the correct employees, servicing the customer correctly, the time prior to the service, even if they were referred from a customer. All these little things that we’re doing make that sale happen. That credit card swipe is minimal part of the sale.
Mike:
Oh man, Baker, I got to tell you, I really like the way you compartmentalize it. It’s just one part of it, right? It’s not, yeah.
Baker:
But we think of it as the most important part. Really, that’s the part that just happens because you’ve done all the other 99 things correctly. You know what I mean?
Mike:
Yeah, yes. No, that’s really strong. That’s strong. Well, before we run out time, I want to talk about oto.tires.
Baker:
Sure, yeah.
Mike:
Talk to us a little bit about that and tell the audience what oto.tires is.
Baker:
I think as independent tire dealers, we have some amazing tools, digital tools I should say, especially with the marketing tools you mentioned in the beginning of the podcast, the Tread Partners and things like that. But at the counter, I feel like we are at a disadvantage compared to the big boys. In Texas, we have Discount Tires, right? I feel like the independent tire dealer is still a disadvantage when a customer walks into the store and says, “Hey, I have brand new,” for example, “F-250 out there and I damage one tire or two tires. Can you please help me find the same exact tires?” I feel like we don’t have the right tools today to find those tires as quickly as possible for that client just yet. We’re having to go to multiple distributors pages and scan through their portals to find the right tire and what we’ve done with oto.tires-
Mike:
What you mean by that is literally logging in to different distributors’ portals, one at a time.
Baker:
Yes. And then remembering if they have it, if they don’t, and how much it is. It’s a lot of information. And see, the thing is if you’ve worked the counter for 5, 6, 7 years, you think it becomes second nature and it starts becoming a little easier, but it’s still a five-minute process, and that’s because you’ve done it six or seven years. But for a person that you’re just putting on the counter that’s new to the business, it might take them 10, 15 minutes and still not come back with the correct results, right?
Mike:
Yeah.
Baker:
So what we’ve done with oto.tires is we’ve put all our tire suppliers on one page. There is no tabs at all, no logging into six or seven different suppliers. And then once you put in the tire size, you could search by brand, or even down the cost if that’s what the customer’s looking for. And it really helps the counter manager find the tires as fast as possible and get the best deal for our customer and get them taken care of.
Mike:
And you get to see price immediately.
Baker:
You could see price availability at each one of those suppliers, and you get to order it all from our page. There’s no clicking out or doing anything, it’s all on one page.
Mike:
Oh, gosh. That’s a game changer it sounds like, Baker.
Baker:
No, it’s beautiful. The shops that’ve used it have really loved it. We are about to launch nationwide deals, you’ll start seeing us on LinkedIn a little bit more and through some trade magazines and things.
Mike:
Okay, so you’re in Texas, but somebody in Florida, California, or New York, or that matter, North Dakota, they could use you guys shortly?
Baker:
Right now, yeah, you can go to www.oto.tires, create an account, add your suppliers, and you’re good to go.
Mike:
That’s amazing. And it doesn’t cost them anything right now either, does it?
Baker:
It’s free of charge. It’s always going to be free of charge for the tire dealers.
Mike:
Okay, that’s awesome.
Baker:
Yes, thank you.
Mike:
Yeah, I like that. From what I know about these guys, I mean, it will streamline their life in a lot of ways and make things a lot simpler, especially like you said, you get that unique situation and you just need to find a result. Let’s say you don’t have that experienced CSR at the counter, then he’s fumbling around for 15 minutes frustrated. The customer’s frustrated, he’s trying to find him an answer. Well, this does that all, I mean really, it sounds like it could happen all in less than 60 seconds.
Baker:
Absolutely. Usually can have a tire ordered within less than 60 seconds for sure.
Mike:
That’s fantastic. Well, are you guys, I mean as a company is your go to, I’m going back to the stores, but are you guys going to grow your stores more? Are you in the Dallas-Fort Worth area? Are you planning on growing outside of that area? What’s your growth plans?
Baker:
We’re now focused on Dallas-Fort Worth area. Our goal from the beginning, I don’t want to say from the beginning, but maybe two, three years into the business, our goal was to reach 10 stores. We’re at nine now, we’re going to reach 10 stores. After the 10th store, we’re going to restructure our company in the sense of adding the correct people in place to manage growth possibly to go to 50 locations. That’s going to be our next.
Mike:
5-0 location?
Baker:
5-0, yes.
Mike:
All right, yeah.
Baker:
5-0, yes, that’s our goal. We are going to stick it easy, nice and slow growth, controlled growth. Have the right people around. Another book that I really like is Good to Great. I feel like in that book, just people, people, people are always the essential part to growth. And I also heard something that said companies that fail while growing, they either fail for adding too many people on their team when they’re growing, or not having enough people to handle the growth so it’s just finding that right mix and hopefully we’ll work on that. That’s our next goal is to add just the right amount of people to get to 50 locations.
Mike:
It’s funny you brought that book up. Yesterday, I was in a conversation with Steve Ferrante. He’s just somebody we know that in the industry, but he’s a solid guy and has a lot of clients in the industry but he talks about that book and anyway, it’s interesting when I get it back to back like I’m talking to you right now.
Baker:
Such a good book, so basic. Just three or four points, we’ll just help your business grow and over time.
Mike:
You’ve got a lot of wisdom, Baker, I’ve enjoyed talking with you. Well, on a personal note, what’s your favorite movie?
Baker:
It’s an old movie, The Hangover. I love The Hangover.
Mike:
So you like slapstick comedies then?
Baker:
Yes. I watched it a few times and I like movies that I get to watch a few times.
Mike:
Well, sometimes the comedies to me, I grew up in watching all the 1980s comedies, when it was Chevy Chase, Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, all those guys. But sometimes you have to watch them a couple of times to catch all the humor, because the first time you watch it, you missed it. Or you might’ve been laughing too hard at something else and then you realize, oh my gosh, there’s another funny part in there that’s funny. I remember the one, I don’t know why, I just love the part where they meet Mike Tyson.
Baker:
That’s hilarious. They got the tiger and everything. Part of it’s true, the guy that really did have a tiger.
Mike:
He did. I got a story for you one of these days that I’ll tell you when my friend, one of my best friends from high school, he met Mike Tyson face to face one time, and it was a very awkward moment, but I’ll tell you about it another time, that, remind me. But anyway, it’s been a pleasure having you on here. I really appreciate you being our guest.
Baker:
Mike, I enjoyed it so much. Thank you. Thank you for sharing this wisdom between all of us.
Mike:
Absolutely. To all our listeners out there, thank you for being part of our podcast as usual. We couldn’t do it without you. You’ve actually made us extremely successful so I extend a big thank you to our listeners and regular audience out there. If you would like to recommend a guest to us, please email me at [email protected]. Until next time, be safe and have a great day.
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