Gary Byrd is the owner of Byrd’s Auto Sales in Marion, NC, and is a man who genuinely loves his job. “If you’re doing a job you don’t like, you won’t stay with it,” he states. This is similar to the quote by Confucius, who once said “choose a job you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.” In that sense, Gary hasn’t really worked since 1986. When asked why he decided to go into car sales, he said that he just enjoyed selling cars. “Bill Gates has computers, I have cars,” he joked.
About starting your own business, Byrd states that depending on how hard you want to work, you can get as much money as you want. Other places, you could ask for a raise, but may or may not get it. The personal freedom is a major advantage to being an entrepreneur. However, there are several difficulties on the way. The hardest part in his case was the money to get set up, to get a building, pave a lot and fill it with cars. Once set up though, the place became a well-known car dealership in the area.
The company primarily uses word-of-mouth as its biggest asset to get new customers. Being around for twenty-five years, everyone in the town knows who they are. However, the business has recently started using the internet as a marketing tool, which changed a lot of things. Instead of just competing with local dealers in the county, they are competing nationwide. Byrd just says “it’s still all about making wise decisions to compete.”
Looking back, Gary has no regrets about the business. There are lots of ways to do car business, but he just likes to keep it simple. “I go to auctions and try to get the cars cheap, then try to sell ‘em and make some money,” he says, “that’s how I keep it.”
