Hi, I'm Al Anderson & I Am A Business Coach
I HELP BUSINESS OWNERS MAKE MORE MONEY & GAIN FREEDOM.
I started in the automotive field out of necessity. I was a young husband/father and knew I could make a good living fixing cars.
I immediately enrolled and graduated with a degree from what was then called Denver Auto and Diesel College, later to become Lincoln College of Technical. I took a position at a Volkswagen dealership and quickly grew from a Master ASE Technician to be the Shop Foreman and Service Manager. I figured the industry would just hold me over till I completed my desire to further my education.
It became addictive, and I never left. I managed to get three additional degrees in business, the last two being from the University of Colorado in Denver. My career at the dealership lasted for 33 years as I helped the company grow and obtain new franchises and open two independent shops. We had Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Mazda, Hyundai, and the two independents, one general repair and the other as Subaru shop. I oversaw all their Service, Parts and Collision shops and had a total of 250 employees that reported to me.
While I loved what I did, I knew I needed to find a way to not work 80 hours a week and secure assets that would help me retire. I decided to purchase an independent shop that had been in business for over 30 years. The owner wanted out because he barely made a living. He had a 12-bay shop with only two techs. I knew I had to go in and change a bunch of things or I was going to starve. The shop was originally called Japanese Specialists, but later we changed it to The Auto Station since it hadn’t been a true Japanese only shop for years. It is in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.
Even though I had lots of years in the industry, I knew getting continual education was critical to my business success. I started with a 20 Group that WorldPac sponsored and later went on to join the Service Center Scholars Group where I met Chris Cotton, Coach and Moderator, and Brent Fleischman, both mentor and coach. This helped me turn the shop into what it is today.
In the 10 years I have owned and operated The Auto Station, we grew from $300,000 a year in sales to $2,500,000. We went from a shop with two techs and an owner who could barely survive to one with six techs. As the owner, I work an average of two weeks out of every month. I have a great staff that allows me to have the time to help other shop owners and travel. After 40 years I love to help others grow and see what their future can look like in this exciting industry.
