Chux Trux Owner Seth Gortenburg on the other hand, is doing just the opposite -- he is remodeling all four stores, adding inventory, people, programs, and redoing his Web site, Ripper said.

"Investing in the company in a down time is a unique position to be in," said Sean Kacsir, chief operating officer. "We are not a Wal-Mart, where you have billions of dollars in funds behind you--we are a privately owned company where the investor is the only person who owns the company, and he has foresight to invest during a time when most are stopping all their programs."

While many similar truck accessory businesses are cutting back on inventory and instead ordering only on customer request, Ripper said he is going to be in the place that has the product in stock when the customer gets to the store.

"When the market turns around, we are going to be in a remarkably strong position," he said.

Along with remodeling, and the adding of inventory, Ripper said attention has been given to training.

He said he noticed that money spent on marketing and promotions was bringing in more traffic and generating more phone calls, but it was not affecting sales.

"We had the interest, they were willing to spend the money, but we were not closing the deals," he said. "So, we decided that the smart thing to do was to have a new emphasis on training."

The first step involved taking a portion of the marketing budget and developing a new position -- training manager. The position, filled internally by a top employee, requires training on all levels from sales associates to installers, he said.

"It didn't make sense to spend money on advertising to bring customers in here and us not taking care of them or being good enough to close the sale," Ripper said. 

 
Part of the initial sales training included a two-day workshop that focused on inside sales through role play. The sales associates were asked to sell anything from a baby doll to a lift kit. The point of the training, Ripper said, was to show the sales associates that you don't have to know everything about a product to make a sale; you just have to understand the proper sale techniques. 

 
"It was one of the best things we have done in 10 years," he said. "There is not a lot of training out there, and I think this new position is critical to us maintaining a presence in the industry."

Seeing a need to also focus on employee retention, Chux Trux hired Kacsir as chief operating officer, a new position to focus on that problem.  Spending money on training is counterproductive if you cannot keep your staff, Ripper said.

"Since we hired Sean, our turnover rate has gone down by a large margin," he said. "I wish I could say that there is one silver bullet that fixed it all, but it is really a whole lot of little stuff."

One of the first things that Kacsir started was the Rising Star Program, Ripper said, which evaluates employees every six months to find out who the rising stars are at Chux Trux. It is designed to help with retention and promotion from within, he said.

"We know that (it costs) at least double a guy's salary to lose a guy and get somebody else back up to his speed," he said. "Maybe in California you can find an experienced guy who can get up to speed in 30 days, but that doesn't happen in the Midwest."

To help with retention and generate a team atmosphere, store managers at Chux Trux are required to take their team out once a quarter to have fun and build teamwork, Ripper said. The company pays for the event, and teams from each store engage in activities such as paintball, pool, and bowling.  

 
Although gas prices have been on the rise, Ripper said business at Chux Trux has stayed steady. In fact, he said he has tried to use the rising prices to the shop's advantage. 

"Every third call is a customer asking how they can get more miles per gallon out of their truck, and we have the answer -- air intakes, computer chips, bed covers, custom exhaust, and lowering kits," he said.

"A lot of guys want this stuff anyway," he said "They just need a good excuse to convince their spouse. So now it is not about performance, it is about increasing gas mileage."

Ripper said he is also preloading those accessories on a lot of vehicles directly from the dealerships, which represents 20 percent of the business at Chux Trux -- a market he is looking to increase.

"With a lot of dealerships, there is still a misconception that the aftermarket quality is not good," he said. "They have a mental block from 15 years ago when there were some struggles with aftermarket quality versus factory quality, but that is not true today."

Ripper said he offers all dealerships a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty on all accessories, and many have lifetime warranties.

Most parts are ordered through Arrow Speed Warehouse, Keystone, and Meyer Distributing, he said.