Small Business Week: Our Story

This week we recognize small businesses all around the nation. The President of the United States, over 50 years ago, brought this to our attention so we can honor those who work for and own small businesses. During this week, we wanted to celebrate our shop's history and talk about how we came to be.

Becoming a business owner was always a thought in my dad’s mind; especially one that had to deal with cars, as he is an automotive enthusiast. And on March 1, 1987, that thought became a reality.

The company started out as being called Jerry Noonan’s Half Acre Mobile and was at a different location than where it is today. It consisted of a Mobile gas station with two bays and an office. His first employees were family members that did the bookkeeping, office work and gas pumping. He did all the repairs.

As the business grew, he hired other mechanics and people to work at the pumps. At one point my dad realized that his business was out growing the location so he needed to start looking for a bigger facility and came across the property of where we are today.

During the process of changing locations there was also a name change for the company. The “Half Acre Mobile” part of the name became “Auto Center” as the gas station wording was no longer relevant. And by 1996 the business became incorporated.

The new location housed one building that consisted of two lifts and an office. It really wasn’t much bigger than where he was previously but because he owned the property this time, my dad knew he could make changes.

He decided to add a building that would hold enough bays to meet the needs of the customers and also provide a section to do auto body. This meant hiring more technicians and administrative people.

So here we are today in 2019 a 14 bay shop consisting of auto body and mechanical repair. We have 5 people up front in the offices, including myself and my dad, 4 people in the mechanical side, and 5 people in the auto body side, including my brother. My mom does the bookkeeping and administrative work usually at home, but she is still a part of this family business.

We all work there now and helped bring my dad’s dream into a reality. In a short lesson, do not give up on your dreams. They may be hard to achieve but if you put your mind to it, anything can be accomplished. This year we celebrate 32 years of business and we would not be where we are today without my dad’s hard work,our employees, and our customers.

*Picture: Drawing by my brother Michael, 29 years ago, at age 5.