The Free Press
March 31, 2008 06:25 pm
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By Tim Krohn
Lynn and Darla Austin have been married 30 years and in business together for 29 years.
Lynn, a Worthington native, and Darla, from Nicollet, own Austin’s Auto Repair Center in North Mankato, but the business began on the Mankato hilltop.
Lynn, after graduating from Dunwoody, went to work for Crown Auto and then Lager’s, where he was service manager.
In 1979 they struck out on their own, leasing the former Hilltop Citgo station (where Conoco is now) on Madison Avenue.
“Don Olson owned the property. We borrowed $10,000 from my mom and Don helped us a lot, giving us our initial inventory without any up-front cost,” Lynn said.
Beside selling gas and doing auto repairs, they sold used cars — for a short while.
“I was too much of a perfectionist,” Lynn recalls. “I spent too much time on getting the cars in great shape that we couldn’t make any money on them.”
In 1986 they sought a building of their own and found it in Upper North Mankato, site of the then Bob’s Building Center.
With help from employees, the Austin’s spent a couple of months and $40,000 turning the building into a service shop.
Today they have six full-time and three part-time employees
Their son, Chris, is a CPA at Eide Bailly and their daughter, Danielle, just began a kindergarten teaching job in Gaylord.
Mankato Magazine: What are the rewards of running your own business?
Lynn Austin: It’s a lot of work but very rewarding to grow your own business.
Darla Austin: A family business is a great way to go if you can make it. The guys who work for us, they’ve been here for years and they kind of become family, too. It’s a nice atmosphere.
It’s been a good ride.
MM: What’s the good and bad about spouses working together?
DA: Watching my mom and dad work together as I was growing up on a farm was a good experience for me.
I run the front of the business, meet the customers and do the books. Lynn runs the shop. I think it’s important to not cross over into each other’s business and respect each other.
LA: The advantage is you can always trust them and you know they’ll hold up their end of things.
The bad side? She handles all the money. I don’t get a paycheck. I have to ask her for my allowance.
DA: That’s because he knows how to fix cars but not handle money.
LA: She’s got me there.
MM: What are the keys to a successful family business?
LA: I think the key is that we do the job right and we fix it no matter what it takes. I fix everything like I’d fix my mom’s car to make sure it’s safe to travel down the highway.
Now, it’s easier to make sure the cars fixed right the first time. We have a lot of databases and electronic testing equipment we pay for that gives you some direction right away on what to look for.
I think we have the best equipment and technology around. I’m an ASE Master Mechanic, certified in all eight areas.
We’re AAA certified, which is a big deal to get. And we’re one of the few shops in the country that is both a NAPA and ACDelco service center. They usually don’t allow you to be both, but we’ve worked with them a long time.
We won (The Free Press) Readers Choice Award. That was a nice feeling, knowing that our customers appreciate us.
MM: What do you do for fun?
DA: When you work together all the time, it’s important to have some outside interests. The first years, all we did was work on the business all the time.
We show Peruvian horses. We got the kids ponies and one thing led to another. Now we have 10 in our barn. We went to nationals last year and my gelding got champion amateur performance. That was neat.
We also did a lot of traveling when Chris was doing BMX. We ran the BMX track for 13 years. It was a great family time being able to travel around together.
When you have your own business you can’t take a week or two of vacation, you have to do the three-day weekends.
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