"This business is all I know, really," he said.  "I've done it my entire life.  I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't selling tires and fixing cars." 

 
But it was a trial by fire in the beginning, Lightfoot said.  "The father of a friend of mine owned OK Tires in Sacramento, where I grew up," he said.  "I was looking for a job, and my buddy recommended me to his dad.

 
"They asked me if I knew how to mount tires and I said sure–which I didn't," he said.  "So before I started there, my friend and I snuck into his dad's store every night, and I learned how to mount and balance tires in a week."

Within two years, Lightfoot said he was managing the store, eventually running two OK Tire locations in the Sacramento area.

After saving a little money, he said he starting looking into purchasing a Goodyear franchise.

"I was only 18, so Goodyear was a little skeptical," he said.  "They told my partner and me that I was too young.  So, I came back a year later and this time they said OK.  We checked out a location in San Jose and liked it, and two years later I bought out my partner."

Lightfoot said he ran his first store for five years, acclimating himself to the business climate in San Jose before purchasing a second location.  He has opened new stores every few years as prime opportunities have presented themselves, he said.

Skip's Tire has five retail locations that average 9,000 square feet in size, each with eight bays; and one 35,000-square-foot wholesale warehouse, Lightfoot said.  Each of the retail locations performs all aspects of mechanical repair, including suspension, brakes, diagnostics, heavy repair, and maintenance, he said.

The company employs 98 people, consisting of 30 technicians, half of whom are ASE Master Technicians; 24 sales consultants; 20 tire service technicians; four managers; 12 administrators; and eight drivers, Lightfoot said.  Skip's does $15 million annually in sales and carries an inventory of $4.5 million in parts and tires, he said.

Lightfoot said he has seen the industry change dramatically during his 31 years as a tire store owner and has changed his business model several times to adapt.

"It's a lot more competitive, that's for sure," he said.  "The margins are a lot lower, and you have to buy right now more than ever if you want to be profitable.  We have a price-match policy, and we live by it.  If I have to go buy tires from a competitor down the street to match a price, I'll do it, even if it means losing money, because we're only as good as our word."

Carrying more types of tires has also helped the company grow, Lightfoot said.  "We expanded the scope of the tires we carry a while back, and it's helped," he said.  "Now we handle 20 different brands, so we can be all things to all people."

Lightfoot said he belongs to the Independent Tire Dealers Group (ITDG), a buying group that he's been a member of for eight years. 

 
"My association with ITDG has been invaluable," he said.  "It's allowed me to compete with the big guys like Costco or America's Tire because I can buy tires at the same price they're paying.

"In addition to ITDG, we have also formed our own workman's compensation insurance company, which allows us to pay insurance premiums to ourselves instead of to another insurance company.  This is a huge savings with the workman's comp rates being what they are today, Lightfoot said.

"We also formed our own equipment leasing company through which we can lease our shop equipment through ITDG," he said.   "These programs put a lot of money back in our pockets that would otherwise be paid to other companies.  I strongly believe that joining ITDG was probably the best business decision that I have made while being in business the past 30 years."

Lightfoot said he continually emphasizes the importance of attentive customer service to his staff.  "I will go into some retail operations, not necessarily tire stores, and I cannot believe the low level of customer service," Lightfoot said.  "I see salesmen ignoring customers or making them wait too long for service. We don't go for that around here. It's all about treating people the way you would want to be treated. It's as simple as that.  I'm constantly stressing it to my employees because it's the most important thing we do and the whole reason we're here.

"My managers and I are very hands-on," he said. "I'm in my stores all the time.  I work my stores because I want to know what's going on.  If a customer has a concern, they can always reach me.  At the bottom of all my invoices, it says, I 'If you have a problem, call me direct.'  You can't get that type of service from the big conglomerate stores."

Targeted advertising and marketing, including the use of coupons featuring menu pricing, has been an integral component of the success and growth of Skip's, Lightfoot said.  The company spends approximately $1 million a year on print, broadcast, and direct-mail advertising, he said.

"No one knows what really works when it comes to advertising," he said.  "There's no golden answer, so we try to spread our money around, in the San Jose Mercury News and on local radio and TV stations.

"Using coupons has also been very successful for us, especially when we offer package deals at special prices," Lightfoot said.  "We get a lot of them coming through here, sometimes as many as 15 per day, so we know they're working."