Used Car Dealership in Springdale, AR – Overcrest Motorsports
In this interview I sat down with Joe Smith, founder and owner of Overcrest Motorsports based in Springdale, AR.
Joe is a “tragic gearhead” that just can’t get enough of automobiles. He loves helping others ignite their gearhead passions. He personally owns a 1990 Land Rover Range Rover Classic, a 1999 Land Rover Range Rover Callaway, a 1989 Ford Ranger GT, and a few Merkur XR4Ti’s.
If you are in the market for a quality used vehicle, Joe can either help you directly or point you in the right direction. He prides himself in treating his customers fairly with respect and his review reputation reflects that.
We discussed the roller coaster ride of used car entrepreneurship, why risk is actually his motivation, and how to protect yourself when buying a used vehicle.
You can connect with Joe and view his inventory at his Facebook Page here.
You can also fuel your gearhead addiction by following him:
Insta: @overcrestmotorsports
Enjoy the interview!
The following is a rough transcription of the interview. Please be forgiving due to time constraints. Thank you!
Overcrest Motorsports Transcript – Springdale Gearhead Beats All Odds by Going with His Gutt
00:05 – 00:11
Brock
Welcome to 479 Spotlight where we provide free promotion to local businesses in NWA to give them more exposure, and create more trust in the community.
00:11 – 00:16
Brock
Overall, we want to provide an inside look to our local business heroes that keep NWA Running.
00:18 – 00:22
Brock
My Name is Brock Holland a Small Business owner in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and founder of 479 Spotlight.
00:22 – 00:28
Brock
And today, we have Joe Smith owner of Overcrest Motorsports located in Springdale, AR
00:28 – 00:31
Brock
Or as he says, the worldwide headquarters in Springdale, AR.
00:31 – 00:37
Brock
These interviews are broken into two parts.
00:37 – 00:47
Brock
First, we’re going to address any potential customers that Joe could serve or that his business is serving and then we’ll switch and talk more about Joe and his entrepreneurial experience – how he came to be, how he came to be Overcrest Motorsports, so Joe, you ready to go?
00:53 – 00:54
Joe
Yeah, let’s go.
00:55 – 00:55
Brock
Awesome.
00:56 – 00:58
Brock
So let’s start just in a sentence or two what do you do?
01:00 – 01:01
Brock
What is Overcast Motorsports?
01:02 – 01:09
Joe
Um, you know, it’s, it’s a little bit multi-faceted, but really boils down to me finding…
01:10 – 01:18
Joe
and securing and then selling reasonably affordable used vehicles for people here in the Northwest Arkansas area, OK, that’s basically it, a little bit more in-depth than that, depending on what people are looking for.
01:34 – 01:38
Brock
Ok, and how long have you been acquiring these assets?
01:39 – 01:50
Joe
So, I have been in business here for about eight years, but I’ve been in the car business for about 10 years.
01:52 – 01:56
Joe
So, but yeah, as Overcrest Motorsport, we’re going on eight years.
01:56 – 02:05
Brock
Eight years, OK, And so who would you say that you serve, or who would you say is your ideal customer that comes through your dealership?
02:05 – 02:08
Joe
So, I really have two different ideal customers.
02:09 – 02:14
Joe
First of all, the first customer, which is more of my bread and butter, really…
02:15 – 02:31
Joe
The person looking for a vehicle that’s clean, that is affordable and generally, is on the older side, simply because the newer stuff has gotten so expensive.
02:32 – 02:39
Joe
Generally, I like to stay around between $3,000 and $10,000, somewhere in that neighborhood.
02:39 – 02:58
Joe
That’s generally where people have the cash in their pocket, or at least go down a bank, and get a personal loan, because most of the inventory that I have, you couldn’t go down to a bank and get a normal note on it, and then the second type of customer or client that I have is actually more of a specialized.
03:07 – 03:18
Joe
There are people looking for specific, classic, uh, retro vehicles like older Land Rovers and Range Rovers.
03:19 – 03:26
Joe
Older SUVs I can do a lot of like the Lander Rovers and Range Rovers.
03:26 – 03:38
Joe
First generation, Ford Explorers, Isuzu Rodeos, kind of that old, now it’s crazy to think that we that worked to this point in time where these are all old, because they seem relatively new to me.
03:41 – 03:43
Joe
But I guess that’s the marketing side.
03:44 – 03:48
Joe
I call them retro suv’s, 4 by 4, that have kind of a good look to them.
03:50 – 04:09
Joe
And also, I have to specialize in a specific type of German imported, Ford, European Ford, from the mid to late eighties, they pulled under the brand name, Merkur, M E R K U R.
04:09 – 04:18
Joe
These were European, sports cars… It’s a real niche market.
04:18 – 04:23
Joe
So I sell Merkurs all over the country.
04:24 – 04:35
Joe
And I always sell a few of them a year, maybe 1 or 2, but there’s so few and far between that that’s kinda my niche.
04:38 – 04:39
Joe
I wish I could do that for every customer, I wish every customer was that real specialized… looking for Classic vehicles. But it just doesn’t work like that. So I end up buying just normal cars that people are looking for.
04:59 – 05:02
Joe
Trucks – But they’ve kinda hard to get right now, everybody in Arkansas wants a truck.
05:04 – 05:15
Brock
So, I just went through the process of purchasing a new vehicle, and that particular
salesperson that I spoke with, and even a couple others, said that used cars are really at a premium right now.
05:15 – 05:19
Brock
Would you reflect that sentiment?
05:20 – 05:20
Joe
Absolutely.
05:21 – 05:31
Joe
My inventory, I mean, my time on the market, for each unit, has gotten smaller and smaller.
05:32 – 05:39
Joe
So now I’m selling stuff before I even list it, or it’s only listed for a few hours.
05:40 – 05:42
Joe
The problem now… I mean, that’s a great problem to have.
05:43 – 05:48
Joe
On the purchasing side, there’s no nothing out there to buy. Even if you go to the auctions.
05:53 – 05:54
Joe
That drives the prices up astronomically, everything’s 50% to 150% more on the purchasing side.
06:02 – 06:09
Joe
And so, right now, what I’m doing right now on I’ve got a whole lot of inventory that had problems.
06:10 – 06:12
Joe
You know… needed retransmission or needed something else.
06:13 – 06:16
Joe
Uh, somebody worked with this or that I find it.
06:17 – 06:19
Joe
Before six months ago.
06:19 – 06:25
Joe
I just sort of set it to the side. You know, businesses, goods or there buy some more stuff But I don’t need investment.
06:26 – 06:38
Joe
And so, right now, I’ve, I’ve turned to that stuff that I already have broken, get it fixed and get ready for market that I forgot about before, because it’s just impossible to buy anything.
06:38 – 06:47
Joe
I think that my customer the same way. I have repeat customers that call me, and they’re like, You know I need a this or that…and I’m like I need that too.
06:48 – 06:49
Joe
I can’t get it.
06:50 – 06:51
Brock
Yeah.
06:52 – 06:58
Joe
And then I sometimes I’ll happen upon something and I’ll let them know before I sell it.
06:58 – 07:00
Joe
Like I said, I tell them before I let it go.
07:01 – 07:05
Brock
Ok, well, that’s an interesting pivot that you’re having to make.
07:06 – 07:11
Brock
I plan on talking more about this when we talk more about the entrepreneur side of things, you know, in regards to COVID.
07:11 – 07:12
Brock
But we can come back to that.
07:15 – 07:24
Brock
So, someone’s looking at buying a used vehicle and they’re looking at, you know, maybe you and 2 or 3 other, you know, dealerships like you, what would you say?
07:24 – 07:27
Brock
Why would you suggest that they at least give you a try first?
07:28 – 07:30
Joe
So, I don’t really try to compete with other dealerships.
07:32 – 07:36
Joe
I’m not going to be able to.
07:37 – 07:45
Joe
It’s a strange market, it’s a strange microcosm where there are so many buy-here pay-here car lots.
07:46 – 07:49
Joe
In fact, Car Mart basically began here.
07:51 – 07:57
Joe
So, you end up with all of these people that have no idea.
07:57 – 08:00
Joe
that can go somewhere else, and they end up going to Car Mart…
08:00 – 08:07
Joe
Or Best Buy Cars or whatever the, you know, little, buy-here pay-here places.
08:07 – 08:10
Joe
Because, A, they don’t have good credit.
08:10 – 08:13
Joe
And B, they only have enough for down payment.
08:14 – 08:16
Joe
That business model is not the model I like.
08:17 – 08:20
Joe
That breeds problems.
08:21 – 08:30
Joe
You’ve got people who may have had, know, some of those customers may have just a bad time in their life.
08:30 – 08:31
Joe
They’ve got bad credit.
08:32 – 08:36
Joe
But a lot of those have bad credit for a reason.
08:38 – 08:42
Joe
And so they’re not necessarily going to pay.
08:43 – 08:47
Joe
The other thing is that those companies have to mark their cars up.
08:47 – 08:56
Joe
You know, 100% more than the market value sometimes…to pay for their notes…
08:56 – 08:58
Joe
some of them are selling their notes to Arvest or another local bank for 75% on the dollar, so, they’ve got, uh, you know, they’ve got to make money, but that’s transferred over onto the customer.
09:12 – 09:16
Joe
No, I just don’t. I’m not into that style, so I don’t even try.
09:17 – 09:28
Joe
What I try and do is a lot of my customers are repeat customers and word of mouth.
09:30 – 09:33
Joe
And they look at my Google and Facebook reviews.
09:34 – 09:40
Joe
Then, my favorite, marketplace reviews, which are all 5 star, 100% reviews.
09:40 – 09:42
Joe
And they see that I’m not somebody that’s just out to get them..
09:47 – 10:02
Joe
I try, and I try and sell cars, that aren’t going to break first. Of course that’s not really possible entirely, but when I do have a car that breaks I try and take care of my customers.
10:05 – 10:06
Brock
Nobody’s nobody’s going to do that.
10:07 – 10:16
Joe
But, but most other dealers, they send off their customers, you know, in this price range, $3,000 to $5,000, rate.
10:17 – 10:22
Joe
Suddenly, the customer out, and they don’t care. I don’t care what happens.
10:24 – 10:27
Joe
Uh, they just want their money, and they’re done.
10:27 – 10:28
Joe
To a certain extent.
10:28 – 10:30
Joe
You can kind of be like that, but.
10:31 – 10:40
Joe
I don’t, I try not to do it like that, and that’s the reason why I have five star reviews across the board, because if somebody has a problem, they’re welcome to call me!
10:41 – 10:44
Joe
I help with diagnosing problems.
10:47 – 10:53
Joe
Know how to… I know how to wrench on cars. I have an idea of what might be wrong with the car.
10:53 – 11:00
Joe
Sometimes very rarely, but sometimes I’ll even do the work myself.
11:00 – 11:11
Joe
Not charge labor or discharge for the part I just try and accommodate. And my customers know that. I have people who have bought 10 cars from me.
11:12 – 11:16
Brock
Hmm hmm, OK, so we’re on the same lines.
11:16 – 11:17
Brock
This is a question I’d like to ask so you know, what tips or advice then when you have to someone who’s looking for a car in this market $3k to $10k range?
11:26 – 11:28
Brock
What would you tell them?
11:28 – 11:29
Brock
What, what advice would you give?
11:29 – 11:33
Brock
Whether, if you’re selling cars are not like, you know, kinda unbiased advice, What would you say?
11:34 – 11:34
Joe
I would say, wait.
11:36 – 11:38
Brock
Ok, All right.
11:39 – 11:40
Brock
This is, this is, listen…
11:40 – 11:41
Brock
Whoever’s listening, right now, you gotta know, this guy’s honest because he’s trying to sell you a car, but he’s telling you to wait.
11:47 – 11:51
Joe
Well, and I want to sell them a car right? I want to sell everyone a car.
11:53 – 11:53
Brock
Right.
11:57 – 12:02
Joe
To quote song from a band I like “all the world is mad”, right?
12:03 – 12:05
Joe
There’s no rhyme or reason.
12:05 – 12:14
Joe
There’s artificial inflation running rampant. House values are, I mean, doubled in value.
12:17 – 12:21
Brock
Yeah, I’m in the market looking, and I did want to throw up like every other day.
12:21 – 12:25
Joe
I mean, it’s great for home owners.
12:25 – 12:27
Joe
But you can’t buy a car.
12:27 – 12:28
Joe
You can’t buy a house.
12:29 – 12:33
Joe
You can’t buy wood lumber, the lumber market…
12:33 – 12:35
Joe
We’re building a house right now, on the lumber market.
12:37 – 12:43
Joe
Is 300%…in price increase in like four months or five months.
12:44 – 12:45
Brock
Yeah, a sheet of plywood goes from an average of $10 to $72.
12:51 – 12:56
Joe
It’s like I said, I mean, I hate to say it, but but if you, if, you need a car, then I’ll get to that.
12:58 – 13:03
Joe
But like, you’re just like, oh, it would be nice to get a car…
13:03 – 13:04
Joe
I would wait. I really would.
13:06 – 13:07
Joe
Maybe til the end of the year.
13:08 – 13:14
Joe
Til more people have the vaccine.
13:14 – 13:26
Joe
Whatever society is going to say, OK, that’s done now, all right, wait, until then, maybe you can buy a house, or, or to buy a car.
13:26 – 13:28
Joe
But if you need a car now, and there are lots of people that do.
13:30 – 13:51
Joe
I would say, best advice that I have is, to, it’s take somebody with you who knows what they’re looking at. Because, whether you’re buying from a dealer or private party, if you don’t know what you’re looking at, you can really get taken.
13:52 – 13:59
Joe
I have a friend, who bought a car…just as an example.
14:02 – 14:03
Joe
Friend from high school.
14:04 – 14:09
Joe
And she bought a car that isn’t known for its reliability.
14:10 – 14:14
Joe
And she got into an accident. So it didn’t break, necessarily…
14:14 – 14:19
Joe
She got into an accident, she’s asking me, OK, what should I buy now?
14:27 – 14:28
Joe
She says, Ok, I really like this car.
14:28 – 14:29
Joe
I want to go buy it tomorrow.
14:33 – 14:37
Joe
It’s a GMC terrain and no offense to anybody who owns a GMC Terrain.
14:38 – 14:40
Joe
But they’re awful cars.
14:43 – 14:48
Joe
They have terrible reviews on edmunds dot com and on KBB dot com
14:48 – 14:51
Joe
I mean, I’m talking about 2.5 star review.
14:51 – 14:52
Joe
Right.
14:52 – 14:53
Joe
From owners.
14:56 – 14:59
Joe
They’re terrible, they’re terribly unreliable.
15:01 – 15:03
Joe
You know, it’s whatever it is a newer looking car.
15:03 – 15:08
Joe
So that’s what people like, and I, she only liked it because it looked good.
15:09 – 15:17
Joe
You know, and she had previously had a GMC vehicle, or a General Motors’ vehicle, And she thought, you no, I like that car…so this one must be great.
15:19 – 15:29
Joe
And if I hadn’t said something she would have gotten into it, and it may not have necessarily broken down immediately, or even within three years or two years, probably not.
15:30 – 15:32
Joe
She would have been stuck with a car that down the road…
15:34 – 15:36
Joe
it’s prone to major mechanical failure.
15:37 – 15:37
Joe
Right?
15:38 – 15:42
Joe
If you don’t know that, then find somebody who does.
15:47 – 15:49
Joe
I don’t know about backhoes very well.
15:49 – 15:59
Joe
So if I was looking for a backhoe, I would call my friend Jack Tidy, who owns Tidy Excavation, and I’d say, Hey, Jack, can you help me with this backhoe?
15:59 – 16:01
Joe
I’m looking at it, what’s wrong with it?
16:02 – 16:10
Joe
So, find a buddy who knows about the thing that you’re looking at, and do your research on it.
16:10 – 16:13
Joe
This girl had never been to edmunds dot com.
16:14 – 16:22
Joe
Consumer reports, as much I don’t like consumer reports, they do actually offer some good information about normal cars, or KBB dot com…
16:23 – 16:24
Joe
or any of these places.
16:25 – 16:27
Joe
Do your research, don’t buy a car because it looks good or has good tires, or the AC works.
16:31 – 16:37
Joe
Do some esearch because you’re going to be stuck with this thing, and it’s the second largest purchase that a person.
16:39 – 16:39
Joe
Right?
16:39 – 16:43
Joe
So you wouldn’t, You wouldn’t go and look at a house…
16:44 – 16:48
Joe
And just buy the first one that you looked at, Well, I guess, I don’t know maybe in this market.
16:51 – 16:52
Joe
Because that’s kind of the way it is.
16:52 – 17:00
Joe
But, you know, you shop around, you look you, you’d get an inspection, you know, you always get inspected before you make a purchase.
17:01 – 17:01
Brock
Right.
17:01 – 17:01
Brock
And so.
17:01 – 17:05
Joe
Take somebody to the thing, take somebody who knows.
17:05 – 17:14
Joe
And that segways into, occasionally, I do actually offer consultantations for people.
17:14 – 17:18
Joe
So, if it’s something that I don’t carry, I’m not gonna carry something that’s $45,000. I don’t want to have $300,000 or $400,000 towards inventory just hanging out there.
17:25 – 17:26
Joe
I don’t have the money.
17:26 – 17:27
Joe
Or the floor plan.
17:28 – 17:33
Joe
So, if somebody wants a newer car, I offer, you know, a service that’s going to just check the car out. It’s very affordable.
17:39 – 17:44
Joe
It’s much, much easier to stomach doing that then buying the wrong car.
17:45 – 17:46
Brock
All right.
17:46 – 17:50
Brock
Well, then, how can someone buy a car from you or find you?
17:51 – 18:04
Joe
So, Um, the best way to find me is on Facebook. My Facebook page, Facebook dot com slash Overcrest Motorsports. I’m also on Instagram, at Overcrest Motorsports.
18:04 – 18:08
Joe
I do have a website, but I am in-between posting right now.
18:09 – 18:10
Joe
I’m having a new website built.
18:12 – 18:18
Joe
And all of my cars are also listed on Craigslist.
18:19 – 18:21
Joe
And Facebook marketplace.
18:24 – 18:26
Joe
That’s really it, I mean, everything’s on Facebook Marketplace now.
18:28 – 18:32
Joe
That’s where 95% of my business comes from.
18:33 – 18:38
Joe
And so you can literally search my name Joe Smith, I’ll pop up.
18:39 – 18:44
Joe
But if you want to go face-to-face as well, it’s all inventory will be on there.
18:44 – 18:45
Brock
Perfect.
18:46 – 18:46
Brock
So there you go.
18:47 – 18:49
Brock
Well, let’s shift gears then.
18:49 – 18:49
Brock
Let’s talk more about you.
18:52 – 18:57
Brock
Eight years ago you start the business.
18:57 – 19:00
Brock
What made you want to start the business?
19:01 – 19:05
Joe
Um, so, I’ll try to give you a brief overview of my story. I was in college.
19:07 – 19:12
Joe
Um, and I was, I always wanted to be a car designer.
19:12 – 19:14
Joe
I wanted to build bars on what that looked like.
19:15 – 19:19
Joe
Unfortunately, that, in order to go to a good school, I mean $250,000 go to it because you know a good school, like Academy Of Art data or even in Italy.
19:28 – 19:28
Joe
Those schools… It just wasn’t on the cards.
19:32 – 19:35
Joe
And so, I then started going college.
19:38 – 19:40
Joe
Or I was going to do something that was somewhat similar.
19:45 – 19:50
Joe
I just figured.. Well, there’s the graphic design program here.
19:50 – 19:53
Joe
So I’ll go ahead and I went through and I did about a year of that.
19:54 – 19:56
Joe
Then I had a friend.
19:56 – 20:00
Joe
You may know Adam Bertrand.
20:03 – 20:08
Joe
He was a little younger than me, but he was already in the car business because his brother was, Eric Bertrand.
20:09 – 20:15
Joe
And we went to church together and I knew that he sold cars.
20:15 – 20:21
Joe
And I think it was just out of the blue he said, hey, why don’t you come down and see how it is, see if, you know, it’s something you want to do.
20:27 – 20:32
Joe
And so I went down and I talked with the General Manager.
20:33 – 20:36
Joe
We had just finished school that semester.
20:36 – 20:42
Joe
And I talked to the GM, at Everett Chevrolet.
20:43 – 20:48
Joe
I’m not I’m not a huge fan of Chevrolet cars but I thought maybe just give it a try.
20:48 – 20:55
Joe
And I interviewed, I wasn’t even really prepared to interview, but they said, you know, we want, we want you to come sell cars.
20:57 – 21:09
Joe
I thought, well, OK, let me give it some thought, I’ve always been the type to sort of look for opportunities that pop up, that aren’t necessarily in your plan.
21:09 – 21:11
Joe
Someone… I don’t remember who said it…
21:11 – 21:14
Joe
But someone said, life is what happens when your plans fail…or something like that.
21:19 – 21:26
Joe
So, you know, my ethos is give it a try.
21:27 – 21:32
Joe
So I tried it, and I enjoyed it for a while.
21:33 – 21:36
Joe
I said, I’ll just take a break from school and give it a try.
21:38 – 21:38
Joe
Take a break…
21:38 – 21:40
Joe
And you know how that goes…10 year later…
21:42 – 21:43
Joe
And I didn’t go back.
21:43 – 21:52
Joe
I didn’t go back to school, but what happened was, I didn’t really, particularly like the, like, the hours of the new car sales.
21:53 – 21:56
Joe
Yeah, You have to work 60 hours a week.
21:57 – 22:03
Joe
And you have to do a lot of cold calling…what’s called an up.
22:03 – 22:09
Joe
So if you’re, you’re standing on a lot, somebody walks on or drives on, you call it an up.
22:09 – 22:15
Joe
It’s not the most comfortable thing in the world.
22:16 – 22:17
Joe
You as a customer are uncomfortable.
22:20 – 22:24
Joe
But I guarantee you that your salesman is just as uncomfortable as you are.
22:26 – 22:28
Joe
And it’s their job!
22:29 – 22:41
Joe
It’s their job to know in a few sentences what you need and who you are, and how much money you can spend, and all the personal information.
22:41 – 22:42
Joe
And they’re just as uncomfortable.
22:43 – 22:44
Brock
Alright.
22:44 – 22:46
Joe
So I thought I really don’t like this anymore
.
22:47 – 22:56
Joe
So, I had another friend who had to, I had recently met through some other friends, the dealership who owned an independent lot, small, independent lot.
23:04 – 23:06
Joe
In Rogers called T and T Automotive Group.
23:07 – 23:15
Joe
And they specialized in cool cars…like sports cars and super cars.
23:16 – 23:19
Joe
Full SUV, sport bikes.
23:19 – 23:35
Joe
Um, and he needed, he had just had somebody come and bring him up market… so before, he had been selling, like, used cars to people with bad credit, and he had somebody come in from Ohio.
23:35 – 23:49
Joe
I don’t know how he met this guy, brought them up market. They bought a bunch of Supercars and things, you know, a million dollars on the floor plan, and then he jetted, you just jet.
23:50 – 23:57
Joe
When the going got rough left, and, uh, this other friend he said, you know, would you consider to coming in, and helping me run the store and do finance.
24:03 – 24:05
Joe
And I said, yeah because I don’t really like this anymore.
24:06 – 24:13
Joe
So I went to T&T Automotive Group, and I ran that store for about, gosh, another 6 or 8 months.
24:15 – 24:25
Joe
Then it just, it, we had started on the back foot, but, and there was, I saw, after a few months, there’s one very much way to save it in the current iteration of how he was doing it, he decided to close.
24:32 – 24:35
Joe
So I was kind of left, wondering what to do.
24:37 – 24:40
Joe
But he had sort of shown me the ropes of how to use…and he was also younger than me as well…interesting that I was learning a lot from younger people…
24:41 – 24:49
Joe
but it showed me, you know, OK, this is how you get your business license.
24:49 – 24:57
Joe
This is what you need, this is how you get on with the floor plan, which finance company for a cargo ship.
24:58 – 24:58
Joe
Yeah.
24:59 – 25:04
Joe
Our inventory is ours, but we don’t have to have hundreds of dollars of borrowed capital.
25:06 – 25:14
Joe
Then, he said, well, I’m gonna get a, I’m gonna get a warehouse, and I’m going to build, sell cars, but I’m not going to do it like that.
25:15 – 25:18
Joe
And so, we did share a warehouse for about six months.
25:19 – 25:21
Joe
And that he helped me get my life, everything.
25:22 – 25:25
Joe
And then he went and started doing also, for somebody else.
25:26 – 25:29
Joe
And so I stayed, And that was it.
25:29 – 25:31
Joe
That was the beginning of the process.
25:32 – 25:39
Joe
And I remember the first car I bought at auction and sold it, no, I bought the car.
25:39 – 25:46
Joe
I cleaned it up, I fixed what it needed, and then I listed it, took pictures and sold it.
25:46 – 25:50
Joe
And I remember the first part was a Ford Focus, an older Ford Focus.
25:51 – 26:01
Joe
And I saw the whole process, and I had seen most of it through my two years of being in the business, but I had done everything myself, all the way through.
26:01 – 26:04
Joe
And I made, I don’t know how much I made on that unit.
26:04 – 26:08
Joe
Probably thousand dollars or something like that, and I thought, this is great.
26:08 – 26:12
Joe
If I were at a new car store, I’d get 30% of that thousand dollars.
26:13 – 26:14
Brock
Right.
26:14 – 26:18
Joe
And I hadn’t really worked any more than I normally would.
26:19 – 26:22
Joe
Yeah, and so I got a 100% value.
26:22 – 26:25
Joe
I thought, this is it, this is the way to do it.
26:27 – 26:31
Joe
You know, you, I can make my own hours, I don’t want to work 60 hours a week.
26:32 – 26:32
Joe
Right.
26:33 – 26:34
Joe
Be my own boss.
26:34 – 26:40
Joe
I don’t have to worry about meeting some quota other than, well, other than I don’t have money this month.
26:40 – 26:41
Joe
Right.
26:41 – 26:41
Brock
Right, right.
26:42 – 26:47
Joe
I just, I loved it, was infectious.
26:49 – 26:53
Joe
I don’t know how many people you’ve talked to yet. But with a lot of entrepreneurs…
26:53 – 26:57
Joe
We have, I at least, get an endorphin.
26:57 – 27:09
Joe
Uh, the, I don’t know, injection, when I, when I, risk, when I take risks, I love it. It’s a strange thing…
27:09 – 27:24
Joe
But when I buy a car, I don’t know for sure how much money I’m gonna make, or if I’m going to make money, get this weird high adrenaline rush and then to be able to work at trying to, trying to make something out of it.
27:25 – 27:26
Joe
I really love it.
27:26 – 27:29
Joe
And so that’s really how it happened.
27:29 – 27:31
Joe
And then now, eight years later, it’s been up and down.
27:32 – 27:33
Joe
Very up and down.
27:35 – 27:36
Joe
But yeah, so let me.
27:36 – 27:36
Brock
Let me ask you this.
27:36 – 27:38
Brock
So like you got started, you know?
27:38 – 27:43
Brock
What was the toughest thing that, you know you went through either while you were getting started?
27:43 – 27:46
Brock
Besides just, you know, learning the ropes, you you buy that first car.
27:46 – 27:47
Brock
You saw that you made a thousand dollars.
27:47 – 27:50
Brock
What was the toughest challenge you face once you know?
27:50 – 27:51
Brock
Kinda started doing that?
27:52 – 27:59
Joe
Though, the toughest challenge is really not having a steady income.
28:00 – 28:00
Brock
Mm.
28:01 – 28:01
Brock
I don’t know, I don’t know how it is for you or for…
28:05 – 28:08
Brock
The way I would word it is a fixed income.
28:09 – 28:15
Brock
You, know, you don’t know for sure either one if the check is coming and then how much that check is going to be.
28:15 – 28:15
Brock
Yeah.
28:17 – 28:17
Joe
You have no idea.
28:17 – 28:20
Joe
I mean, sometime, some months, I might.
28:21 – 28:25
Joe
I don’t think I’ve ever been in the red for a whole month.
28:25 – 28:28
Joe
But you know, you lose money on cars sometimes.
28:29 – 28:29
Joe
Yeah.
28:30 – 28:34
Joe
No, I would say 3 or 4, maybe five cars a year, I’ll lose money on.
28:35 – 28:43
Joe
And if that, if a couple of them are in the same month, I might only gross one thousand bucks for the whole month, right?
28:43 – 28:44
Joe
And then for, you know, for a normal person…
28:44 – 28:48
Joe
They’ve got everything planned out to the tee.
28:49 – 28:54
Joe
And most of the time they’re spending in our world now, they’re spending…
28:56 – 29:00
Joe
absolutely every penny or…over.
29:00 – 29:13
Joe
So, if a normal person, if a normal person’s check is a quarter or a fifth of what it normally is a month, I mean, that’s like horrifying for most people..
29:14 – 29:14
Brock
Right.
29:16 – 29:28
Joe
And at first it was, know, you make, OK, you make a thousand dollars on one car, and then make whatever you say, you make $4k or $5000, your first couple of months, come to a bad month.
29:30 – 29:41
Joe
And you’re used to spending four or $5000 on whatever, going out to eat, you bought a new car, or whatever, then you get to a month where you make $500.
29:42 – 29:42
Joe
Right.
29:43 – 29:44
Joe
What have I done?
29:45 – 29:46
Brock
Right, right.
29:47 – 29:51
Joe
But, we got used to it. Me and my wife. We got used to it fairly quickly.
29:51 – 29:58
Joe
She still doesn’t like it that much, but I’ve gotten…Bless her heart, she a saint.
30:00 – 30:03
Joe
She’s starting her own business now.
30:06 – 30:15
Joe
You know, it doesn’t bother me anymore, because I’ve gotten to a point where I know within 500 bucks, maybe one thousand dollars…
30:15 – 30:17
Joe
I know exactly how much I’m going to make.
30:17 – 30:18
Brock
Right.
30:18 – 30:19
Joe
If have a bad month…
30:20 – 30:29
Joe
If you’re in this type of business, you have to have savings, or some sort of, uh, just some extra money.
30:32 – 30:34
Joe
You gotta learn how to adapt. You adapt to what you do.
30:36 – 30:41
Brock
Yeah, but it’s definitely like you’re talking about as far as risk is concerned…
30:41 – 30:42
Brock
It’s an entrepreneur mindset.
30:42 – 30:48
Brock
You just know… there’s this X amount of risk that I’m willing to take on, and not only that, but like, you know, I’m willing to adapt like you said, to the situation, because it’s going to be different every month.
30:51 – 31:02
Brock
And in some cases, every week, you know, in other cases. Was there any, you know, one person, product or service that made a huge positive shift in, you know, getting up and running.
31:05 – 31:06
Brock
Besides your wife?
31:06 – 31:07
Brock
Yeah.
31:07 – 31:10
Joe
I mean, my wife is the first person who really comes to mind.
31:11 – 31:12
Joe
I mean, I’ve had help.
31:14 – 31:22
Joe
Dealers are, there are some bad dealers out there, but the majority of them, we’re kind of a fraternity…kind of a brotherhood.
31:22 – 31:23
Joe
We don’t really…we don’t compete against each other…small dealerships don’t.
31:30 – 31:32
Joe
We’d like to see each other succeed.
31:32 – 31:41
Joe
I mean, I’ve had a lot of people along the way that are fellow dealers who helped me, especially in the early days.
31:43 – 31:47
Joe
To get moving and get going, show me the ropes and all that.
31:52 – 32:01
Brock
So then let’s go back to COVID, I just need to touch on this, because this is a big part of everybody’s life, so COVID comes around, how did you survive 2020?
32:05 – 32:12
Joe
It was pretty hard. I had to survive with the Small Business Association loan.
32:13 – 32:15
Brock
That’s, that’s, that’s a great answer.
32:15 – 32:16
Brock
That’s perfectly fine.
32:16 – 32:25
Joe
Or, I mean, really, really, seriously, all kidding aside, yeah, know, and I’m not a, I’m not a big government person.
32:25 – 32:28
Joe
I like a smaller government, but government is there…
32:29 – 32:31
Joe
to, you know, to help…
32:32 – 32:34
Joe
At least…They say they are.
32:35 – 32:37
Joe
And in that case, it really did help.
32:38 – 32:40
Joe
It would have been better to not have COVID.
32:42 – 32:49
Joe
And not needed that help but… also I did see a huge drop. Initially, I did… because the auction closed.
32:54 – 32:55
Brock
oh, right.
32:55 – 32:57
Joe
Then nobody had inventory.
32:58 – 33:07
Joe
Right, that point I saw a drop, but once the auction opened back up and I was able to sell before still buying cars, it was…It was definitely not as high yield I think than previously, but it wasn’t as big of a drop in some other place like these poor restaurants.
33:23 – 33:24
Joe
I just went away.
33:26 – 33:27
Joe
So, many places had to close.
33:28 – 33:36
Joe
We wanted to take my kids to the Fun City in Springdale… the pizza place, you know, it’s gone.
33:37 – 33:48
Brock
Well, I did that, I took my daughter as a daddy daughter date and we literally drove all the way up there and got to the parking lot and I looked and I said, oh, gosh, I did not even think to look at that.
33:48 – 33:49
Brock
Gone.
33:50 – 33:51
Joe
Like, how sad.
33:53 – 34:05
Joe
So, I’ve really, I’ve been lucky with, with the small… and I didn’t get much of the government assistance, because I’m just, one employee and it’s based on how many employees
34:05 – 34:05
Joe
Yeah.
34:07 – 34:10
Joe
Really, it was only enough to help for a couple months, but…
34:11 – 34:15
Joe
Other than that, you know, just, we were lucky…
34:16 – 34:19
Joe
to not be affected quite so much.
34:19 – 34:24
Brock
So then, where do you see yourself the next six months to a year with the business?
34:25 – 34:27
Joe
Months to a year… I like slow growth.
34:28 – 34:31
Joe
Brock, I don’t like, you know, I’ve seen a lot of dealers…
34:31 – 34:40
Joe
I’ve had friends who have been dealers, and they, they get, you know, 250 thousand, a quarter million dollars worth of inventory.
34:40 – 34:43
Joe
They start selling, they get set up with a bank.
34:45 – 34:47
Joe
It’s great for the first couple of months…
34:47 – 34:52
Joe
Then their curtailments start running in on a quarter million dollars.
34:52 – 34:57
Joe
Interest on a quarter million dollars plus fees on each vehicle for your floor plan.
34:58 – 35:01
Joe
And they, you know, pretty soon, they’re in the red and they’re closing up shop.
35:03 – 35:03
Joe
You know?
35:04 – 35:07
Joe
And I don’t, I don’t like that.
35:08 – 35:09
Joe
Maybe that’s to my detriment.
35:10 – 35:19
Joe
For the last eight years I’ve only increased sales by few percent per year, maybe 10% per year, even.
35:20 – 35:24
Joe
And I’m fine with that, have never been somebody…
35:24 – 35:30
Joe
Sure, I have ambitions and I have things I want to buy, things I want to do, places I want to go.
35:31 – 35:34
Joe
But, as long as I’m taken care of, and my family is taken care of…
35:35 – 35:38
Joe
And I’m doing business, honestly.
35:39 – 35:42
Joe
And trying to help people.
35:42 – 35:43
Joe
I’m fine.
35:43 – 35:43
Joe
I don’t need 6 million dollars a year.
35:45 – 35:46
Joe
That’s perfect.
35:49 – 35:52
Brock
Gotcha. So then this is along the same lines…
35:52 – 35:53
Brock
Here’s my one hardball question.
35:54 – 36:00
Joe
Along the same lines, just where I see myself is a little bit, you know, a little bit better than I am today.
36:01 – 36:01
Brock
Right.
36:02 – 36:12
Joe
You know, I was, I was able to purchase my my lot, three years ago. So really, my goal is to pay down the lot.
36:14 – 36:16
Joe
And I’m building another building soon. And I may…
36:22 – 36:23
Joe
I may add service at some point. I thought about hiring an on-site mechanic that can both fix my cars so I don’t have to mess with it…
36:37 – 36:44
Joe
And can, you know, I can take on, I can take people on, because where I’m at I’m right on 412…
36:44 – 36:54
Joe
I have three or four people a week stop and say, hey, how much to fix this on my car? And I say, yeah, I don’t.
36:55 – 36:55
Brock
Yeah.
36:56 – 37:06
Joe
Insurance, I don’t wanna, I don’t want to mess with your car. But if I had an onsite mechanic, if I could move…
37:07 – 37:11
Joe
most of my inventory, at least my nice stuff to an indoor place.
37:12 – 37:13
Brock
That’s.
37:13 – 37:19
Joe
I’m building another 3000 square foot building, where I can just store my nice cars.
37:20 – 37:29
Joe
That way, and I don’t know, uh, that will, ended up helping me clear up my building now to be able to maybe add service.
37:37 – 37:38
Brock
Ok.
37:38 – 37:39
Joe
Looking forward to that.
37:40 – 37:43
Joe
Not a have to thing, but it… we’ll see how that works.
37:44 – 37:45
Brock
All right.
37:46 – 37:49
Brock
So, we’ll end on one hardball question which is your why? What, what gets you up in the morning to do this besides the adrenalin rush?
37:56 – 38:02
Joe
Well, I’m an absolute tragic gear head.
38:02 – 38:06
Joe
Hi, live, breathe, sleep, car.
38:07 – 38:12
Joe
It’s basically, you know, my faith and God, my family…cars
38:19 – 38:20
Joe
There is something about cars.
38:22 – 38:30
Joe
It is, it is, they transcend the mechanical, they transcend… they’re like personified for me.
38:30 – 38:37
Joe
I really do feel like they have, certain cars, have a soul, and I love, I love that.
38:37 – 38:38
Joe
I just love that.
38:38 – 38:40
Joe
I love what they give me.
38:40 – 38:45
Joe
I love to drive, I love to go exploring in my Range Rover.
38:45 – 38:47
Joe
I love to drive my sports cars that I have.
38:48 – 38:49
Joe
Because they give me an emotional reaction.
38:53 – 38:55
Brock
Yeah, an experience that you just can’t get…
38:55 – 38:57
Joe
That I just can not get anywhere else.
38:57 – 39:02
Joe
I can’t get that sitting on a couch watching the Super Bowl.
39:02 – 39:05
Joe
It doesn’t, It does not do it for me.
39:07 – 39:17
Joe
You know, anything with an engine and wheels, that’s really what does it for me and then also, no, I spoke with, uh, with an entrepreneur class with you at the UofA, I spoke to two classes.
39:21 – 39:32
Joe
And, and my final word to them was, what do you want, what do you want to do, to impact people around you.
39:32 – 39:34
Joe
Like, what do you want to be known for?
39:36 – 39:37
Joe
I don’t want to be known for selling toiletries or medical equipment, or you know, it doesn’t interest me.
39:44 – 39:45
Joe
I want to be known and I want to change people’s live, even in a small way, of giving them the happiness that comes, that I get, from, from being in these cars. That’s why I do it.
40:03 – 40:03
Brock
Awesome.
40:04 – 40:05
Brock
All right, well, let’s wrap up.
40:05 – 40:12
Brock
Here, let’s do one more shameless plug.. best way for someone to buy a vehicle from you or to find you?
40:12 – 40:17
Joe
You can find me on Facebook at facebook dot com slash Overcrest Motorsport.
40:17 – 40:22
Joe
You can find me on Instagram at Overcrest Motorsports.
40:23 – 40:29
Joe
You’ll also be able to find me sometime soon on my website, which is Overcrest Motorsports dot com.
40:30 – 40:35
Joe
And you can find me if you search for my name, Joe Smith on, on the Facebook marketplace.
40:35 – 40:36
Joe
You find all the inventory there as well.
40:37 – 40:37
Brock
Perfect.
40:38 – 40:39
Brock
Thank you so much, Joe.
40:39 – 40:47
Brock
Again, for 479 Spotlight’s mission is to provide free promotion to local businesses and give them more exposure and create more trust in the community.
40:47 – 40:49
Brock
To get notified of new interviews, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube by searching 479 Spotlight, or by going to 479 Spotlight dot com.
40:56 – 41:01
Brock
If you are a business owner and would like to be featured, just schedule your interview on 479 Spotlight dot com.
41:02 – 41:03
Brock
Thank you for joining us today. Keep having fun in NWA.
41:03 – 41:06
Brock
Joe, got any last words?
41:08 – 41:12
Joe
Oh, just get out there and drive.
41:13 – 41:13
Brock
Nice.
41:14 – 41:15
Brock
Thank you so much, Joe.
41:15 – 41:15
Brock
All right.