As the country slowly creeps back to life. I thought I should give a rundown of what our business looks like after lockdown and what we have been up to.

A some of you may know myself, Eddie and Faith got a much-needed break at the end of July. We hired a Campervan and drove the North Coast 500 for 10 days. I was a bit apprehensive as a lot was still closed and I was not sure what the extra measures would mean, but without a doubt it was one of the most amazing experiences and would recommend it. Faith turned 5 whilst we were away and had a ball swimming at all the stunning beaches and being an explorer through all the rock pools and caves.

Other big news is that Faith Started school this month. She has settled in well, although after months of her being with us every day it is strangely quiet not having her around which I am sure a lot of you will also feel right now.

As a business I feel we have been very lucky in that we have been able to continue working through lockdown. And we have managed to return into our showroom and bring all our staff back on. As a family business it was important for us to make some small initial cuts in order to preserve our business long term, which we have managed to do. The last 6 months have been an enormous challenge for us as it has been for most others. We worked with 2 members of staff mainly from home with a crazy 4-year-old on the loose. But I hope we are starting to see things returning to a bit of normality.

We are now back in the showroom; everyone is back on board and the kids are back at school (Hallelujah!) I have loved being back in the office again. I feel so much more productive and connected to the business working from here. But with faith just starting school I may have to do a few afternoons working from home whilst Fiona covers the showroom. As I was working solely from home for such a long time we have this well organised so, there is no disruption to business.

The showroom itself received a much needed make over during lockdown thanks to Eddie’s hard work and is now looking better than ever. The biggest problem we have had over the last few months has been getting new stock in. We are now fully stocked again which makes a huge difference in the choice we have for our customers.

We have put in place new Covid Health and Safety measures within the showroom in line with government requirements. We ask that all our customers wear a mask within the showroom and sanitise their hands on entering before looking around any cars. There is hand washing facilities available and we have introduced additional cleaning within the other areas.

As we have a large showroom space we would never really be at capacity, all we ask is that only one set of customers at a time will be allowed to enter the office space to complete paperwork, although 90% of this can now be done online.

We are still offering free delivery to all our customers and the option of a contact free service from start to finish for those reluctant to visit showrooms.

We have had a great first full month back and love getting to see all our customers again. I’m not going to lie I am struggling with the masks as its making it difficult recognising customers when they come in, so please don’t be offended if we don’t know who you are straight away. I have had a few customers this week I have known for years and couldn’t recognise them behind their masks. Due to this I have just taken delivery of some visors for me and Fiona so at least you will get to see our smiling faces.

I would like to also thank all our amazing customers who we have seen over this unusual time. I know I have said it before, but I love my job and that is down to the customers we get to help. I have really missed having that face to face contact when I was working from home, so it has been lovely getting to see you all again, even from behind the masks! I have really enjoyed getting to chat to you all again not just messaging people online or over the phone. I feel getting to know our customers is a big part of our service as it helps us understand what is important to you and give you the best service, which can be harder to do over  a computer.

Looking forward, I am excited for the next few months, getting back to a routine and pushing forward. I know that we are far from back to normal yet and may never be again, but I think its important that we accept the changes we are having to make day to day and just find the best way to work with them.

Life goes on, and if we can get through the last 5 months … we can get through anything.

Theresa x

You will never find me finance.

This is the phrase we hear from our customers every day and is mainly because they are fed up trawling through different companies only to be told their finance has been declined. Whilst we can in no way guarantee finance for our customers, I will always reassure them that I hear this phrase over and over and over again day in day out and we are still selling cars.

I thought I would write a bit about this today just to explain how we differ from other garages and finance brokers. The answer is fundamentally we are all the same we have access to the same tools and companies as everyone else the difference is our approach.

For many years “subprime” customers were never sought after by main stream dealers and most smaller garages or brokers it was seen as too much work and for most of the big guys there is someone walking in behind you so if they don’t get you passed by the easy route is it worth it?

As we are a much smaller dealer we have always taken the approach of making sure we exhaust all possibilities for every customer regardless of their credit score, and yes this can mean a lot more work and can take more time for example some companies can ask for a lot of supporting documents which may take our customers a bit of time to gather. But we have always been more than happy to do this as this more than anything else is what sets us apart.

Before coming to work in the family business I worked in subprime finance as an underwriter for nearly 10 years so have a good understanding of what is required when dealing with customers whose credit score is low. We love how we work here and there is nothing better than finding finance for someone who has used that phrase.

I hope this helps give you a better understanding of what we do that’s different here and as always if you have any questions about this or anything else please get in touch.

Theresa

It’s been a little more than 2 years since I’ve blogged on this site, partly due to how busy we have been but also due to how hard it was going to be to write this particular entry.

I felt it was important to start again in the hope that sharing some of my experiences as a woman and a mum in a very male-orientated business might help someone else in the same position as me.

Let me start again by telling you what has led to me being one of the few females in Glasgow running a second-hand car showroom.

As many of you already know I began working for my father’s business ten years ago and love what I do.

I worked closely alongside my father for many years and helped to build our family business. For those who knew my dad they will tell you this business was everything to him and he had installed this value and drive in me.

Our business was an extension of our family. However, things changed when on Christmas Day 2017 my dad passed away suddenly from a heart attack.

It was the most surreal and terrifying thing to have ever happened to my family.

The man who myself, my mum and brother relied on for so many things had gone. I felt our safety net had been ripped from us.

In that moment I felt that was it, with him the business would go and how could I possibly do this without him?

But as soon as I had thought this something else took over and I went to a sort of auto-pilot. Each day brought more problems to overcome within the business.

I did this one by one, I decided to make this a success, as I couldn’t let his life’s work go with him.

Also, it was to support our family as I knew my dad would want me to make sure mum would always be ok.

If someone would have asked me a few years back if I would be strong enough to do what I have done over the past nineteen months, I would have said most definitely not.

But I have come to know over the years – and without realising – that my dad had taught me everything I needed to know.

My other major driving force is my four-year-old daughter.

I think if it wasn’t for her, I would not have had the same determination – not just for financial security but also to be the best example I can be for her and show her anything is possible if you work hard and have a positive attitude.

Well, what a nineteen months it has been.

Let me explain – when dad passed, he was a sole trader, so legally the business went with him.

This meant that mum and I would have to start a whole new business from scratch. How we manged this just days after losing my dad I will never know – but as I have said before something else just took over, at work I would get on with things with a drive I had never had before.

Then I’d go home and grieve.

It took around three months of hard work and overcoming daily problems before we had the new business up and running properly again and aside from my daughter this is probably the thing I am most proud of in my life so far.

However, we would never had gotten through without the help and support of some amazing friends and colleagues who I will never be able to thank enough.

While this blog so far has been about the hard times with all of this has came the most amazing year our business has had to date.

Around December last year we made the decision to expand and extend our premises to hold double the amount of stock. With this came another set of new challenges. However, I now have a new outlook when it comes to work and believe that the hardest thing to ever happen to me already has, so anything else is easy by comparison.

We took on the unit next to us and started to knock down the walls in a freezing December – and, at the same time, began to increase our stock levels.

There was so much to do with taking on the new building and my husband took on most of the responsibility for the physical work involved with the move despite working full time in his own job.

It was always dad’s plan to take on the extra unit and I am so pleased we have managed to do this within the year, and it has really paid off as we are the busiest we have ever been.

So much so we have had to take on another member of staff to manage our now-huge showroom. As you know we pride ourselves on being a family business so, of course, the job went to my husband.

I sit here now in our nice new office which even has windows!

And I hope that dad is happy with the direction we have taken his business as it meant the world to him.

But I am also thinking about what makes us different and successful as a business:

One of the biggest things I have learned through all of this is what makes a business is the people within it – and I am so proud of our team that I have the honour of working with and that’s what makes our business unique.

The other part is our customers without whom we wouldn’t have a business.

I often feel that within the sub-prime car sales market customers can be treated unfairly and often looked down upon. I have met some of the most amazing people working

here over the years and love getting to know all of our customers and strongly feel whether you are buying a car at £5000 of £50000 you should be given the same level of service, I always ask my self would I be happy if I was given this level of service.

I can’t wait to start blogging a bit more again as I feel our business is unique for many reasons and I want to share more experiences, that will hopefully help others trying to either grow their small business or just juggle running a business with being a mum.