In 1992 the second generation of Kavanaugh’s, I started to work in the family business. I literally started at the bottom, taking out trash and cleaning up behind the guard dogs. Folks it doesn’t get more humbling than that. Over the years I worked in the shop with my father and with many of the great employees Kavanaugh’s has had over the years absorbing every bit of knowledge I could like a sponge. My father had me learn at least a little bit of every job in the shop. That way if a guy was out someone could fill his spot. It not only helps if we get in a spot and need another hand, but it really helps me relate to the technicians because I’ve been in their shoes before. For 3 brief years in 1999-2002 I worked for a very large dealership in Phoenix Arizona getting a taste of macro managing a large facility. My personal life changed quite a bit and then I came back and worked as a technician and an estimator for the family business. Eventually the size of the business made it to where I really couldn’t work in the shop very much anymore so now I run all the day to day activities of the shop as my father winds down towards retirement. I can remember many times my dad pointing to the sign telling me our name was on that sign and not to do anything that would tarnish that. I have always heeded that advice. It meant something to me then and every day it means so much more.
Every business has make or break moments, personally my first one I think was in 2008 as the economy was tanking and our business almost ceased to exist. I remember that day explicitly as my father said “If we don’t think of something different all of this is going to be gone.” At that point my thought was that we should start doing more mechanical work in-house and advertise that we do it instead of farming it all out and referring all of that mechanical work to others. We already did quite a bit of mechanical work during the collision process and people were always bringing cars to us that made some sort of funny noise or had something wrong that their “regular mechanic” couldn’t figure out. So at that very moment Kavanaugh’s Complete Car Care Center was born. We focused even more on training, bought some more tooling and now today we do nearly as much mechanical business as we do collision. In fact, I think it is our mechanical knowledge of cars that really solidifies our collision business. Both businesses really complement the other.
Now some of my children work in the business and now the goal is to be able to leave it all to them when I hang my hat up and know that it is in good hands. If you see the photos on the website you’ll also see generation #4 already helping out. So with your help, we plan on being here a long time to come performing repairs in a transparent and ethical manner that exceeds industry standards.
