Limberg said the previous owner was only doing brake and alignment work, which led to a lot of business being turned away.

"I had to struggle to build it back up, and it took three to five years," he said. "They say it takes five years to build a business back up, and it did; that is no lie."

After he acquired the shop, he said he not only offered customers a full line of automotive repair services, but also collision repair work.

Limberg, whose background is in collision repair, said he still offers that service to his customers but that 85 percent of his business is mechanical repair.

"I don't promote the collision side like I used to," he said. "I just got burnt out on it because I had done it for so long."

 
Limberg said that eight years ago, he decided to purchase the building after leasing it since 1989. He said he has made a number of renovations to the building including a waiting area for customers, an office section, and automatic garage door openers for some of the bays for easier access and to keep the heat in during winter, he said.

 
The 6,300-square-foot shop is equipped with 15 bays, five lifts, a frame machine, paint booth, and Hunter alignment machine. A mezzanine above the offices is used for storage and parts inventory, including filters, brake pads, wipers, and belts, he said.
Most of Limberg's time is spent service writing while his three technicians work in the shop and his daughter Erica Limberg and wife Naomi Limberg help out in the office, he said.

Limberg said he has built a large customer base in the Blue Springs area, including some fleet accounts from nearby businesses. "Swim Things has 20 vans and pickups we work on, Accu Plumbing has 10 to 12 trucks, Fixture Gallery has six vehicles, and we also do a lot of inspections for the small car dealers in the area," he said. "They give us work year round."

He said business has been steady for the last seven to eight years, with about 30 to 40 repair orders a week, leading to about $500,000 in sales each year. "It is not huge numbers, but it is profitable," he said.

Limberg added that he is also in a location that is seeing an increase in traffic volume.

 
"When I bought the business, I would stand outside during lunch and count the cars that drove by for one minute, and it was always between 13 and 16 cars," he said. "Now it is 20 to 24 cars a minute."

Limberg's shop is a NAPA AutoCare Center, and he said he is also a member of the KC Metro Select group. The group includes 20 other NAPA AutoCare Centers in the Kansas City area, and for $200 a month it offers features such as advertising, training, a Web site, and an answering service, just to name a few, he said.

"The KC Metro Select group has helped as far as advertising because I am lax on doing advertising," he said. "I have done some promotions with coupons and direct mail in the past, and all you seem to get from it is the cheap customers. They get that one thing done and you never see them again. Word of mouth is so much better--do a good job and you will stay in business."

Limberg said he uses NAPA Prolink to order his parts and that 90 percent of his parts come from NAPA.

"They get my first call, but if they don't have it, I go elsewhere, I am not married to anybody," he said.

For OEM parts, he said he turns to local dealers such as Blue Springs Ford, Molle Chevrolet, McCarthy Nissan, and Crawford Jeep.

Keeping a good rapport with people in the industry is important to Limberg, who said he doesn't look at other repair shops as competitors.

"Everybody says we are in competition, but if you look at gas stations, they are not in competition, if the price of gas goes up, they all go up," he said. "If the repair shop next door needs to borrow a tool, that is no problem--you have to be there to help each other out."

Limberg said owning an automotive business today is not what it used to be, especially with the technological advances in the automotive industry. For someone looking to own a shop today, he said he would advise good equipment, strong technicians, and knowledge of electronics, adding, "You have to be prepared to give it 100 percent for five years and give it all you got and don't take much out," he said. "You can make a good living, but you have to pay your dues--it is called delayed gratification."