Sisters turn struggling RNR tire shop into success

PUYALLUP, Wash. — Sisters Courtney Condor and Cassandra White took over their father's struggling RNR Tire Express franchise in Puyallup eight years ago and have turned it into a thriving business geared to female customers.

The turnaround was so extraordinary, RNR CEO Larry Sutton named the store the "Most Improved RNR Tire Express in 2014."

"We were not giving up without a solid fight on the company," Ms. Condor said. "It was dying on the vine, but we knew it just needed a little tender loving care, and we could bring it back."

So the sisters fixed the profitability and cash flow of the business and made changes to the staff, the pricing structure, the appearance — and they geared the operation to attract female customers.

When women shop and are more comfortable, they will keep coming back, the sisters said. They'll bring their friends; they'll bring their family.

A lot of the franchisees' customer base are single mothers who are on a budget but need to make sure their families are safe.

"We really, really geared ourselves towards that," Ms. Condor said.

That included eliminating tall stands on the showroom floor for a better view of the area, repainting the interior, cleaning the store, etc.

"We get more compliments on how clean our store is and how clean our bathrooms are. We definitely geared it toward women clientele. …" Ms. Condor said.

"We had to make a point that not only were we female owners, female-run, but that we respected the female's opinion and that she wasn't a second-rate customer. She was our first customer."

Experience

The sisters, who are only 17 months apart in age, worked for years in their parents' franchise businesses.

Ms. White, a car buff, served as the RNR store manager for a while before moving to home-office manager duties, while Ms. Condor was involved in the behind-the-scenes of their father's traditional rent-to-own business.

While Ms. White already had the tire shop knowledge, she and her sister had to update their know-how on the latest technology when their father retired and gave them the RNR franchise to run.

The sisters see themselves as a yin-and-yang team when it comes to their skills and business acumen, but they share a similar management philosophy.

The sisters said they are close, but of course there are times when they disagree.

"We both excel at different things," Ms. White said, noting that she's involved in the day-to-day activities of the shop, including payroll and accounting, while her sister is involved in handling inventory, purchasing and advertising.

Ms. Condor said she didn't have much interest in cars and how they work but eventually she said she realized, "If you don't understand how to sell tires and how they function, the rest of the financial side doesn't matter."

"You have to understand your business and know how to be a salesperson in your business. If you can't sell it, you can't make money. So I had to change my frame of thought," she said.

The sisters said developing a successful business takes patience and compassion.

"You have to know what your expectations for yourself are first and then be willing to express your expectations to your people second. But ultimately it's the person I look at in the mirror that's the most important. If I'm unwilling to give the effort, I can't expect my people to give the effort," Ms. Condor said.

"Our employees bought into us and then bought into the business. If you can't sell your dream to somebody else, it's never going to come to fruition. You have to get people to surround you and everybody lift each other up," Ms. White added.

Challenges

Despite their years of experience, including eight years running the tire dealership, the sisters still experience some gender challenges.

"The biggest challenge is, in my experience — and I even experienced it yesterday — having to reassure older men and some younger guys that we know what we're talking about. That they can trust us. And that we're not just flying by the seat of our pants. That we're actually educated in this exact thing, that we're not just a pretty face for the camera," Ms. White said, noting that they take such interactions with "a grain of salt, instead of taking it as degrading or disrespectful, because this is an industry that hasn't had a lot of women in it. I think that has been our biggest hurdle."

"As a salesperson, and as a business person, ultimately, it's all about relationships," Ms. Condor added, "and if I can cultivate a relationship and get someone to trust me, no matter the person across the table. ...

"The point is, as long as I am honest with myself and I'm honest with the person across the table, ultimately I've done my job. Whether or not they trust me, that's their choice, and I can't take that personally. That is just how it is in life. It's be yourself."

But there also are advantages to being a woman in the tire business.

"A woman has a tendency to be able to explain the look (of a custom wheel) and how something is going to look as it's driving down the road. Honestly, there are a lot of men out there that are looking for a 'look' just as much as a woman is," Ms. White said.

"And sometimes a male salesman, and it's not anything against them, there's a lack of descriptive words to describe something to get that person to see their vision actually come to fruition."

Women also tend to be astute listeners when customers discuss their concerns, she said.

"You have the tendency of being able to listen, and when you listen, you can answer more clearly."

There are men who are great listeners, she said, "but I feel like, as women, we have the tendency to be a little bit more intuitive to that situation and especially when you have someone across from you that is concerned about price or is concerned of whether or not a specific tire that is the price they want is genuinely going to give them the benefits that they need. So sometimes I feel that, as women, we can kind of hit the buttons a little bit differently."

The knack for being good listeners extends to the sisters' management style, where, in addition to being bosses, they sometimes serve as counselors to their employees.

"We know the mental health of our employees is first and foremost. If they're brain is not there that day, they're not going to do their job correctly either," Ms. White said.

"They look to us as a sounding board outside their homes since they can't do that with each other, because men just don't do that well. So I think we can be 'one of the guys' as the next person, but at the same time we hold a different spot in their hearts as well."

Ms. White said the sisters share in handling all the jobs they would expect employees to handle.

"As a business owner, you have to be willing to take the word 'boss' out of your vocabulary altogether. We don't bark orders. We lead our people," Ms. White said.

"There isn't a time that you won't see us cleaning a bathroom, taking out the garbage, sweeping the floor, moving product around. If you're going to have a successful business, your people have to know their worth, they have to know their work is not beneath you.

"In our store, we definitely believe that (nothing) is above or below our pay grade. We don't departmentalize, either. Everyone does everything together."

As if working in a male-dominated industry wasn't enough, both sisters also deal with male-dominated households — Ms. Condor has three young sons and Ms. White has two.

Being mothers of school-aged children while also running a business is another challenge, but the sisters said they are fortunate to be able to work part-time at the store and have husbands and parents available to tend to the children, if needed, during the day.

When the sisters are not in the shop, their employees know the sisters are just a call, and a short drive, away.

As for future plans, the sisters would like eventually to develop their store into a superstore offering more services. But that will entail moving into a larger location, they said, noting they would rather have a larger single location before they would open additional stores.