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When he was a teenager, Jeff Neilson helped a man in Flint transform his national muffler dealership into his own franchise with a brand-new name--Tuffy Muffler. As the old sign came down, and the new one went up, young Neilson held his future in his hands.
Now, more than two decades later, Neilson is not only the owner of three Tuffy Auto Service Centers in the Greater Lansing area, but serves Tuffy headquarters as a consultant, when needed, for its franchisees. "Tuffy originated in Flint, and I helped with the physical labor when three Midas dealers decided to start their own franchise," he recalled. "Six semi trucks took the old product out, and then brought the new product in."
Before becoming his own boss, the Grand Blanc native had been working for the Buick Motor Division in Flint in the mid-1970s. His brother, Darrell, who owned a Tuffy franchise in Saginaw, contacted Neilson to see if he also wanted to get into business. "I had the resources to do so," he said, and the decision came down to that or purchasing a convenience store franchise. But auto repair was something he'd been doing since he was 15.
Tuffy headquarters in Toledo gave him a choice of three locations: Cincinnati, Winter Park, Fla., or Canton, Ohio. He chose the latter for two reasons: It was under construction and due to open in three months (the other sites hadn't been developed), and--thanks to snow, ice, road salt--it promised the best volume of potential repairs. While in Canton, Neilson's franchise won awards from Tuffy headquarters. "We had the largest volume increase from one year to the next, and met a whole host of objectives, including...