150 - Two Bays to Ownership: Alvin Lui’s Import Autowerks Journey

150 - Two Bays to Ownership: Alvin Lui’s Import Autowerks Journey September 30, 2025 - 00:45:02

 

Show Summary:

Meet Alvin Lui, owner of Import Autowerks in Quincy, MA. He started in dealerships in ’99, opened a two-bay gas-station shop in ’09, scaled to a warehouse, and surprised his team with a new, owned facility two years ago. In this episode, Alvin shares how culture, training, and smart real estate moves shaped his growth, why he’s leaning into BMW/Mercedes with an eye on Tesla/EV, and the hard-won lesson to protect time with family. If you’re an independent shop owner who wants to evolve with technology, build a team that stays, and step into ownership (of your building and your life), this one’s for you.

 

Host(s):

Jimmy Lea, VP of Business Development

 

Guest(s):

Alvin Lui, Owner of Import Autowerks

 

Show Highlights:

[00:01:13] - Fall colors and family time set the tone as Jimmy and Alvin talk about seasons in life and business.
[00:03:02] - Alvin’s origin story, from Lexus oil changes to a BMW culture that knew his name and built confidence.
[00:09:39] - Startup phase at a two-bay gas station with a four-person team and 15 cars a day that forged processes.
[00:12:16] - Leveling up to a 2,500 sq ft warehouse, installing lifts, welcoming a new baby, and managing a transition.
[00:16:27] - Lease risk turns into ownership by purchasing a former Mercedes shop and surprising the team with a blindfold reveal.
[00:19:41] - Positioning the brand on BMW and Mercedes while adding Tesla capability to serve younger EV-leaning clients.
[00:22:02] - Hydrogen to hybrids, lessons from early experiments and why infrastructure and use case matter more than hype.
[00:24:35] - Power plus practicality, the rise of 700 hp plug in hybrids and choosing drivetrains based on lifestyle, not trends.
[00:27:34] - Move smart, not just fast, real estate timing, working on the business, and leveraging a 20 Group for playbooks.
[00:30:50] - Build a life, not a prison, take at least three weeks off, invest in coaching, and protect family time because you cannot buy time back.

 

In every business journey, there are defining moments or challenges that build resilience and milestones that fuel growth. We’d love to hear about yours! What lessons, breakthroughs, or pivotal experiences have shaped your path in the automotive industry? Share your story with us at info@wearetheinstitute.com, and you might be featured in an upcoming episode.

 

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Episode Transcript Disclaimer
This transcript was generated using artificial intelligence and may contain errors. If you notice any inaccuracies, please contact us at marketing@wearetheinstitute.com.

 

Episode Transcript:

Jimmy Lea: Good morning, my friend. It's great to see you today or to be with you today. My name is Jimmy Lea. I'm with the Institute and this is the Leading Edge podcast. We talk about all things in the automotive aftermarket. About shops, the history where they are today, what's the future of where we're going?

Jimmy Lea: What do you see that future being so exciting. Can't wait to dig in deep with my guest today. My guest today is Alvin with Import Autoworks out of Massachusetts. Alvin, great to see you. How are you today, brother? I'm doing very well, Jimmy. Thanks for having me on this podcast. Oh, you're so welcome. And I love Massachusetts.

Jimmy Lea: I'm sure the colors are changing, the trees, the colors, the reds, the orange, the yellows. Are you seeing the same thing I'm seeing here in Utah?

Alvin Lui: Yes, we are getting the full chair. It's leave sign, change color. It is beautiful here in Massachusetts.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Do, have you gone around for any little road trips to look at the colors?

Jimmy Lea: Or is that just wallpaper for you?

Alvin Lui: No, we've been I think this weekend we're playing around with the kids to take up, take a trip, up to a little hiking path to kind of enjoy a little bit of nature, the fall nature.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it. Two weekends ago, we hit the peak of the fall season here in Northern Utah, and so we went up and drove the canyon.

Jimmy Lea: There were a ton of people out. Ton of people, because they broadcast it, they market it. Hey, this is the peak of the season. Come look at all the colors. So we did. We went the very next weekend, so last Saturday, they closed the freeway for the amount of traffic that was trying to go up the canyon.

Alvin Lui: Wow.

Alvin Lui: That's intense.

Jimmy Lea: That's intense. 

Alvin Lui: That's unheard of.

Jimmy Lea: It was unheard of, man. There were so many cars going up there. They closed it down. Just absolutely amazing. And these mountain roads that we're driving, I mean, they are barely a one and a half lane road and it's tight turns, tight corners. I was like, no, we're going home a different way because that was a little too tight.

Jimmy Lea: I don't wanna be there with everybody else. And it's, this Highway six is one of the most dangerous highways in the state of Utah. So yeah we try to stay off of that one. Anyways, let's get into talking about you, Alvin. Well, I'm so excited to, to talk to you and finally meet you. We've been friends on socials for a very long time.

Jimmy Lea: I see a lot of what you're posting about the Euros that come into your shop. And that's where I wanna start is where did you start? How did you get into this business?

Alvin Lui: I started the business, I started this field working for a dealership. We, I believe that goes back to about 2009, where there was about eight or nine of us working at a small old dealership building working on BMWs.

Alvin Lui: So, I got my foot landed in this business because of my father. So my father was a bartender in the, in a little town of, wakefield, Massachusetts. And what happened is he surrounded his life of a lot of car guys. I never really knew that. And usually he kind of, he would be like hanging out talking to guys that own independent shops, that own dealer shops that work in dealerships.

Alvin Lui: And one of the things how I started was you know, I just, I was young. I had. I had a passion for cars and I really liked it. I went to school for it and one of my first jobs I landed was working at a Lexus dealership, which didn't last very long. So because I kind of got bored of oil changes pretty.

Alvin Lui: So after that, the service manager brought me to BMW working for BMW. It was great. It was a really great culture. There was about eight or nine technicians back then, and what was really great about it was every day the boss would come in, he'll say hi to you, you know, it was really great.

Alvin Lui: He knew your name. Every Christmas we would get a nice package from him, you know, it was awesome. So, so that's how I got into the business. And then about. 10 to 10 to 11 years later I decided to go on my own and I decided to go on my own. And then we started off at a small gas station, two big gas station.

Alvin Lui: So that's where the name came up in, put Auto Works because I like working on the Japanese cars, but then I still kind of had more of a love with the BMWs the German car engineering. I felt that the end a really great product and

Jimmy Lea: yeah,

Alvin Lui: What really helps with, I think with the business is the service, the customer service behind it.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, it totally does.

Alvin Lui: Within, yeah within any product. Doesn't matter what it is. So, that's how I got my footwear in the business. And then after that. We moved the shop, we moved the shop two to three years later down the street. We stayed there for about, we stayed there for another, probably like another 10 years, 10, 11 years.

Alvin Lui: And then right now, two years, two years ago we had an opportunity to move one more time to invest in a property and start our own business with working on. A previous Mercedes-Benz shop, but right now we are currently working on BMWs and Mercedes.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, dude. There's so much to unpack there with what you've been through to get into the business because here you are in 2009, getting into the automotive industry.

Jimmy Lea: When the world, at that time, I don't maybe you weren't to where the world was shutting down. I was in the real estate business doing mortgages and the world had shut down. I had then opened a business doing yard care, handyman and house cleaning. And it was tough going man. Oh 9, 0 10, oh boy, it was tough.

Jimmy Lea: So you got in the industry and it's unfortunate. So that's the first thing I wanna talk about. I'm fortunate that here you are. Fresh outta school and the only thing they give you are oil changes and you've got more skills than that. So it's to the company culture that you were sequestered to.

Jimmy Lea: Oil changes only unfortunate you didn't leave them because of bad job, bad business, bad work. You love the work you left because of bad management. They weren't using you for what you could have done.

Alvin Lui: Yeah, I think culture was very culture played a very big role in where I worked at the dealership.

Alvin Lui: You know, I really missed the original culture where I originally started with back in 1999. That's when I started the car business. Oh, 99.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, 1999. 

Alvin Lui: I'm sorry. I started the business in 2009.

Alvin Lui: So that was I'm a been in the car business for about 26 years. So I went from 1999, worked at a dealership, and then I moved on my own in 2009. But one of the things that really pushed me to really start what I do was try to be, to build that culture. I think that was extremely important on. Why I wanted to do, why I wanted to do what I I am doing now and continuously 16 years later, I'm still working on it and trying to Yeah.

Alvin Lui: Perfect it. Having the right people in my team.

Jimmy Lea:  Oh, I love it. I love it. I love that you were, had a solid foundation there with the BMW. They built you up. They built you. They said hello. They built the company, they built the culture. You were more confident in your skills and your abilities to relate to others and do the work.

Jimmy Lea: So, ergo, here's your love and passion for BM BMWs.

Jimmy Lea: Yes.

Alvin Lui: Does that sound about right? And today I still love it. Yeah. I still love it. You know, still a great product. You know, one of the nice things is just to build it, is to build it with a great service. Really take care of people. That's what it's paramount. A business is about.

Jimmy Lea: It's paramount. Absolutely paramount. So when you started your own shop in oh nine and you were in the two bay at the gas station, how long were you there before you expanded or are you still in the gas station?

Alvin Lui: I'm still, I'm not in the gas station anymore. We were in the gas station for about two, I'll say no more than two years.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's awesome. Two years at the gas station. Okay. And so it, when you went into the gas station, was it just you or did you have employees with you? What did that look like for you? Yes, ma'am.

Alvin Lui: Oh yeah, I, when I started the, when I started the business I didn't go in alone. I had a family friend that went in with me.

Alvin Lui: He's no longer with us, but it was my wife. We had a technician I went to school with, and it was one, two, it was four of us. So my wife would just pick up the phone. She was like, info auto works. All she would is just take a message, say, Hey, this guy called you. Need this done. When can you get it done?

Alvin Lui: I said, sure, just bring it in. We would like load the place up with cars.

Jimmy Lea: My gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

Alvin Lui: So I'm imagining this gas

Jimmy Lea: station with like 15, 20 cars on the side. You've got two bays to get 'em all in and out of. Its a lot of pushing.

Alvin Lui: Yeah. I was young back then. I don't know how, if I were to do it again, I wouldn't know how I would do it.

Alvin Lui: I think back in the days we were. Probably cranking between two guys, maybe about 15 cars a day. Oh yeah. And it was insane. Dude. You were full flying. You were flying, dude. Oh my gosh. And yeah, it was young, full of energy. So it was it was it was a moment we always remembered. So

Jimmy Lea: yes.

Jimmy Lea: Yes. And you remember it fondly. Okay, good. Congrats. That's super awesome. And bless your wife for answering the phones for you and taking the messages. That's so cool. So two years, two and a half years, you're at the gas station. Now you move to a different location. What does that look like?

Alvin Lui: Yeah, so we had an opportunity to move over to a industrial warehouse. It was about. It was about 20, I believe it was about 2000, 2,500 square feet. And what the nice part was, it was a warehouse we could probably fit about. We were able to fit about 30 plus cars.

Jimmy Lea: Inside.

Alvin Lui: Yeah, outside.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, outside. Okay.

Jimmy Lea: Okay. Now, this industrial warehouse outside, did you have to convert the warehouse? Did you have to install lifts in the bays? Did you have to create all that?

Alvin Lui: Yes we did. We had to it was a, it was an old limo business that the guy retired and we were able to take it over and we ended up putting investing lifts in there, putting new lifts.

Alvin Lui: I think during that time, at the same time, my wife was pregnant as well, and our first son was arriving, so we were running, I was running two shops, building it. In the hospital? Yeah. With my son, my first son being born and opening up all at the same time. Oh my gosh.

Jimmy Lea: Talk about multitasking, dude. You were burning the candle from every angle.

Jimmy Lea: Oh and how's, so your son, how old is your son now? He is, I believe he's 14 years old

Alvin Lui: now. He's in high school. He just started high school this year.

Jimmy Lea: Congratulations. That's wonderful. Okay, so you're, you said you were running two shops. Did you keep the gas station and go into the warehouse at the same time?

Alvin Lui: No, we were running the gas station, so we had one technician at the gas station. Just finishing up all the cars as slowly, we started to progress into the other shop where I was at the hospital on a laptop, dispatching all the work. While the techs were fixing it, and then we just had a secretary up front just kind of closing the bills.

Jimmy Lea: Sure.

Alvin Lui: It was a big blur. Big, it was a very big blur. So, yeah, it was a very, it was a very memorable and also a very

Jimmy Lea: intense moment for me. Oh, big time. And let's talk about this limo business. Did you take over the limo business or did you shut that down?

Alvin Lui: No I the limo business was another entity.

Alvin Lui: They did, they left. They okay. We, they used to be there. Yeah. And then we just took over the, we took over the shop that they were in,

Jimmy Lea: and they didn't have any lifts or no scissor lifts or anything like that. They probably maintained their own vehicles in house. I'm guessing that's why they had a warehouse.

Jimmy Lea: Is it, is that right? Or? What were they doing?

Alvin Lui: Yeah. The limo business, all they had was flow jacks. That's how they were, that's how that guy, that poor guy used to work on his cars.

Jimmy Lea: Oh my

Alvin Lui: God. So it was all flow jacks. He had like nothing. It was that and a little craftsman compressor, so,

Jimmy Lea: oh my word.

Alvin Lui: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: So, okay. So he moves out. You move in 22,000, 2,500 square feet. How many lifts were you able to get inside of this warehouse space?

Alvin Lui: We had, we have about three lifts. We had about three lifts in there, and also like one, kind of like a standup bay, just kind of a blank bay. Yep. And then we, yeah, so we had also like a upstairs level that kind of, the warehouse had very high ceilings, so it happened, and it just had stairs that go up to like a

Jimmy Lea: mezzanine, think it was

Alvin Lui: like over three, three or 400 square feet office.

Alvin Lui: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. So, so now at this time, how many techs, how many. Service advisors who's working on the vehicles what does that makeup look like?

Alvin Lui: Back then we had, back then we had about four technicians. We had four technicians and two, two service advisors. I was part of that service advisor.

Jimmy Lea: Okay.

Alvin Lui: So, yeah. And then we had the tech for about. Most of the techs are still with us. We have, we had those techs for about at least five to six years. Nice. So most of the techs did stay with us.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. And is that where you still are today or did you move on from the warehouse?

Alvin Lui: We moved out of warehouse two years ago back in June of 2023.

Alvin Lui: The warehouse that we were work were at was up for sale and they wouldn't renew the lease. And thanks to my wife, she's probably gonna listen to this. She was on the laptop looking for real estate and then what happened is, the place we're at now, the guy that used to service Mercedes-Benz, he decide to retire.

Alvin Lui: And we approached him, sir, would you like to sell this property to us? And he said, yes. And then that's where everything just pretty much came together all at the same time. And we were able, we were very fortunate to be able to purchase this property. And one of the, and then that was two years ago, and.

Alvin Lui: We never told the employees about this. They knew that this, they knew that

Jimmy Lea: the warehouse was going away. The warehouse,

Alvin Lui: They knew the warehouse. They were trying to sell the place, but they didn't know what was going on. So, but in the background, me and my wife was searching for property, and then one day I sat down with the employees.

Alvin Lui: Hey you guys, I got something to tell you guys, right? You guys. You guys gotta be, you guys have to, I got surprised for you guys, but you guys have to meet up. So one day we took two cars and I said, but the thing is, I need to blindfold you. Yeah. All right. Because you guys can't tell anybody. So I took the whole crew, we blindfolded them and we drove across town.

Alvin Lui: 15 minutes, I think we almost got arrested. Everybody was looking. Everybody was looking at us. Everybody was looking at us because they looked like a kidnap pipe. There was two, right? Two cars, yeah, two cars back to back with adults blindfolded. Oh my gosh. Adults blindfolded.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. You're looking like the mobs taking some blindfolded people out to give them some cement boots.

Alvin Lui: Yeah, it was it was all pretty. It was pretty exciting. And then and what we did, we sat them down and then we just took 'em open, had to open up, and I said, Hey guys, this is your new home. Surprise. They were shocked.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I bet they were so excited. I bet they were. So yeah,

Alvin Lui: they were, they was.

Alvin Lui: Yeah. So that's how we ended up here. The shop here right now is about close to four square feet. Not as much parking space, but it's a very, it's a very nice upscale, upscale shop. And what we do now is BMWs Mercedes. And because we're in the town of Quincy, Massachusetts now we are starting to tackle a bit of the Tesla markets Nice.

Alvin Lui: Of the future of auto automobile business because this world is turning gasoline and ev. So, and this is the future of the car business and I think it is one of the things I really like is to keep up with technology as an independent shop, to not fall behind and to always stay up to date with technology nowadays because this is where we are, especially with.

Alvin Lui: Of the younger clientele that we have. Yep. That's, I believe that's some of the direction we are moving forward with the automotive business.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. So how you stay on top of that, Alvin, how do you stay on top of the new technology that's coming out, the new information? What do you do?

Alvin Lui: I, because obviously you know that we're like a PAC client.

Alvin Lui: I definitely stay on top of a lot of training. And a lot of stuff, especially being part of the institute we see the changes that go on monthly, every day. I read up a lot of I read up, I like to read up a lot of articles on how BMWs changing things. Mercedes changing things. And what's the difference between a plugin hybrid?

Alvin Lui: What's the difference between now with these newer generation cars and it's so many, there's so many alternative fields out there right now. It's, I mean, not all of 'em are here to stay, but a, I think a big majority of the key players like Toyota is gonna be staying. BMW is definitely gonna be staying.

Alvin Lui: Tesla, obviously they have their own little market share with the robo taxis. You know, it's, there's so much going on and we have, as a shop, we need to evolve into this kind of, we need to evolve into this, you know, we need to be there for our customers.

Jimmy Lea: Totally. I totally agree. I totally agree. So, with alternative fuels, where do you see things going?

Jimmy Lea: Do you see a future in hydrogen?

Alvin Lui: The hydrogen. That's a little tricky one because as long as there's the infrastructure. When I was training at BMW back in the early two thousands, they did introduce the hydrogen car. Yeah. They did talk about it.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Alvin Lui: And I believe that hydrogen car traveled around the world.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, drove all the way around the world.

Alvin Lui: Yeah. It's been tested. It's been around for, I mean, hydrogen has been around for. A long time. You know, I built a hydrogen car myself too, when I was back at the dealership.

Jimmy Lea: Dude, you're such a nerd. Yeah.

Alvin Lui: That is awesome. Yeah. Such a nerd.

Alvin Lui: Yeah, but I just wasn't ever stable, so,

Jimmy Lea: but nothing like driving a little hydrogen bomb around everywhere. What are you thinking, man?

Alvin Lui: Yeah, it was a very cool experiment. It was a really cool experiment. I think I built the, I built a little Toyota that did like 50, about 50 plus miles per gallon,

Jimmy Lea: you know?

Jimmy Lea: Whoa.

Alvin Lui: Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. It's pretty cool. That is very cool. So you got 50 miles to the gallon on fuel or on the hydrogen, both. Right, because you need the gas to get it up to temperature, then you can turn on the hydrogen. Correct.

Jimmy Lea: Yes.

Alvin Lui: You need to, like, you need to tone down, you need to tone down the fuel trim, add the hydrogen.

Alvin Lui: It was some like crazy mess. There's a lot of trial and error with that. But yeah, I mean, if I think the future of cars, definitely there's gonna be many alternatives. Gasoline is definitely, I feel like gasoline is definitely gonna stay. Electric cars are definitely here to hang out.

Alvin Lui: It really depends on. I think it really depends on how customers drive the preference. Yes. If you're a city driver, electric cars are great.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love the Tesla for the city. I love love, love it for the city. Anything less than 200 miles. I am. I am in. I'll go. It's easy. Over 200 miles. Forget it.

Jimmy Lea: You gotta charge three, four times.

Alvin Lui: Yeah. Yeah. We have customers who say, oh, try go electric car. I was like, well, you know what? It really depends on your lifestyle. If you're a soccer mom running around with kids driving an electric car, yeah. That's not gonna happen. You know, it's, I think absolute is good for you.

Alvin Lui: We just talked about, we just talked about an hour ago with a service advisor talking about these newer cars with with electric motors. With these 700 horsepower cars out there that's coming out now, and the service lines, how'd it come out like that? And I say, well, you know what, now the Germans got it, man.

Alvin Lui: They got it. They take the VA motor, now they add the electric motor, and now you put a 75 mile range. Now you got like a 700 horsepower monster. And it's still, and you could drive it all around. So it's a little bit of gasoline, electric, you know, combined. And it's great.

Jimmy Lea: Wow. Wow. They're selling race cars out of the dealerships now with 700 horsepower.

Jimmy Lea: Holy cow.

Alvin Lui: Oh yeah. It's what people want. Everybody wants a fast car nowadays, and then they also have to be like, good on gas too.

Jimmy Lea: Dude, this is like, it's like the resurrection of the late sixties, early seventies when the muscle cars became popular. It is like a resurgence of those times.

Jimmy Lea: That's pretty cool.

Alvin Lui: Yes, it is. It's it's very interesting technology. It's definitely a lot to learn about right now, nowadays. There's so much changes. I think this is definitely the year to kind of see what's gonna happen.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Alvin Lui: The automotive market itself, I mean, it's, there's a lot of good things coming up.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, sure. Lot and

Alvin Lui: more choices of,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. Sure is that's exciting. Hey, now Alvin you've moved a few times now I'm counting that you were at the dealership Lexus and then BBMW. You were at the gas station, you were at the warehouse and you're at your current location. What advice would you give to people about making the choice to move?

Jimmy Lea: When do you say, okay, now is the time

Alvin Lui: when it's the time. It's about planning out. It's about real estate. It really, I guess it really depends where you are. I mean, it's really about, to me I feel like it's really learning about how to really work on the business, rather in the business. I'm kind of in the 50 50 stage now, but you know, you have to have, you have to have a lot of.

Alvin Lui: Like learning experience with this. You know, many shop owners are different. They, every shop owner goes through many challenges in their lives. I myself went through many challenges as well. The advice is definitely a lot of training, you know, especially joining a, my, my biggest advice is join a 2020 club.

Alvin Lui: That's why I would definitely. Say it's the best advice because there's a lot you can pick up on these things. You can, there's a lot of stuff you can learn from your peers, and you get to talk to people that owns property and say, Hey how did you know, how did you ever like get, how did you ever acquire property like that?

Alvin Lui: You know, it's insane amount of money, you know. You know, and they'll tell you their experiences. You get to learn, you know, like one of 'em, when I first joined the institute especially you know, I met some guy Jim, which I'm sure you know Jim. Oh, yeah, Jim. Oh, in New York?

Alvin Lui: Yeah. Island. So, you know, he expands the thing. He has opportunity. He had a great opportunity. Yes. He said, well, you know what, we just got a nice loan out there and I was able to acquire a property and many years after, this is how it is. So, and he owns it. Those are the one of the first members I met and really great guy and this, and also there's a lot of great shop owners out there.

Alvin Lui: So I would say one of my biggest advice is as a shop owner definitely invest and.

Jimmy Lea: Training. Yeah, you, not just technical training because that's what you're talking about, not just technical training. You need management training and communication skills and ownership skills and how to run a business, how to be a good leader.

Jimmy Lea: There's a lot of different training that can go in for what you're talking about.

Alvin Lui: Correct. There's a lot of pieces to that pie that you, you won't know until you kind of. Dive, get their feet wet, dive in there and experience.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, so true.

Alvin Lui: Just, yes. You know, just some people will say, oh yeah, it's too expensive.

Alvin Lui: It's not worth my time. But when you able to make that time, when you're able to, you know, dial in certain numbers when you're able to do certain things and you, you get to fall upon a lot of these things and. I've met many shop owners that been in the business for 20 years. It's like, Hey, I can't, I get a week's vacation.

Alvin Lui: I was like, yes, you can. You know? He's like, I'm always in the shop. I was like, no, you don't have to be in the shop. You just have to, you know, you have to just kind of step out a little bit and, you know, just try to invest in some of the training and you'll start seeing some of these advantages.

Jimmy Lea: Certainly is.

Jimmy Lea: And with the institute, what group are you with? With the institute? I am with Group six. Group six with Jennifer. Oh, nice. And big shout out to Jennifer. She does a phenomenal job in facilitating group.

Alvin Lui: Yeah, she does. She holds it accountable.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, that's good. Only

Alvin Lui: very accountable for a lot of things.

Jimmy Lea: So how many weeks per year do you feel like a shop owner should take a week off and go vacation and get away from the biz?

Alvin Lui: How many weeks per year? Oh, at least three weeks.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Alvin Lui: Yep. At least that's you have to, you, you built this business not to be, you built this business not to be always there.

Alvin Lui: You built this business to take care of your family.

Jimmy Lea: Exactly. You built

Alvin Lui: this business, make fine for your family.

Jimmy Lea: Yep.

Alvin Lui: Yep. So, and it's extremely. That what we are doing has a purpose.

Jimmy Lea: It does. It does that. It does.

Alvin Lui: Yes. It's the, one of the main purposes in life is to have a really great balance.

Alvin Lui: Yep. And especially also to lead, you know, I always push my, even with my employee, I push on, Hey, you guys gotta take a vacation, man. You know, car's always gonna be here, but you know, your kids are gonna grow. Don't miss opportunity.

Jimmy Lea: Yep. Yeah. Oh, I totally agree. Totally agree there. There's so much opportunity.

Jimmy Lea: There's so much that can be done. And I love your idea of three weeks a year, you, as an owner should be taking your family and go do a vacation. You started the business to work in the business. And the balance, I, I say that there's seasons because when you started Alvin, you had to go crazy fast.

Jimmy Lea: You had to really put your pedal to the metal and. Put it all out. You had to do that because that's what prepared you for where you are today. Somebody who is starting today could not step into the position you are immediately. They need time, they need training. They need time in the saddle. They need time to be able to develop their own process procedures to have a successful business.

Jimmy Lea: And so this is where you are able to give advice for those new owners to say. Definitely do this and definitely get into a group with training accountability as quickly as possible.

Alvin Lui: Yes, definitely. There's definitely no doubt about it. Even like, I think, I believe I've been with the group for about five years now, and when I first met, I remember when I first met the big man Cecil.

Alvin Lui: He is like, what was that book? I just have it on a tip of my tongue. How business run automatic, automated by themselves, you know? And I was like, yeah, I think I got this. I know what, I know everything. I know it, I know how to run it. You know, I can just like maybe read books. Maybe I can just like watch videos on how to do it.

Alvin Lui: But no, I didn't have it. I definitely didn't have it. As I, as time grew by and as I, you know, just like every business owner, you know, run into roadblocks. You know, like these groups, they help you out. Say, Hey, this is what happens when this happens. You know, what should I do? You know how to prevent certain things from happening so you don't kill yourself in a business.

Alvin Lui: And I've seen many small shops they just they just run themselves to death. And I don't wanna do that. That's not the purpose. That's.

Jimmy Lea: Nice.

Alvin Lui: You know, we're, yeah, we're in 2025 now. You know, we have all the tools, we have all the training, we have the, you know, we have Zoom calls with you.

Alvin Lui: You know, we can just connect across the world. We can, you know, there's so many million things.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. Million

Alvin Lui: things that can, and just, you know, push us light speed ahead of everybody. I love it. You know, we have to take advantage of it.

Jimmy Lea: Yes. Oh, I totally agree. And you know, I feel like we learned more from our failures than we learned from our successes.

Jimmy Lea: Have you had any sort of a failure that turned into a very strong learning point for you?

Alvin Lui: Have I had any failures that I learned from us? Yeah. Try not to work so much. Yeah. You know? Yeah. You know, just, you know, just one of the things is

Alvin Lui: As I grew up, you know, my father was always working. I never got to see my father much. I mean, I'm pretty sure it was very normal during those days. And, you know, all he did was, you know, just work and provide, you know, but that, that, that failure led to, you know, my father getting, you know, my father had Parkinson's because of that, because he just kept working.

Alvin Lui: All he cared about it was just providing for the family. So that is something I learned. That is something I learned from, you know, my father left, you know, he is about 66 when he passed away. That was a big change in my life. Those are one of my biggest things I saw that I did not want to repeat.

Alvin Lui: So that's why I constantly do, try to continue to do what I do. Constantly try to improve on what we try to do here. Yeah. Not only myself, I also try to teach, try to pass this on to make sure my staff does the same. They see the positive side of this.

Jimmy Lea: Nice. That's beautiful. It sounds to me like you, you learned how to spell the word love.

Jimmy Lea: LOVE. You spell it? TIME. And if you could give anything you would have, give anything to have a few more minutes with dad. You would love to have that time with dad. And Dad taught you some very valuable lessons. One is hard work, provide for the family, but also dad, let's balance this with time.

Jimmy Lea: We want you, we need you, we need some time together.

Alvin Lui: That's right. You can't buy time. So that's one of the, one of the things my wife always reminds me, Hey, you know, it's time to go home, you know, we'll fix it. Figure it out tomorrow. Guess what? We can't buy time. So,

Jimmy Lea: yeah. I

Alvin Lui: didn't

Jimmy Lea: come home because it'll still be here tomorrow.

Jimmy Lea: We still can attack this tomorrow, but right now it's time to go home.

Alvin Lui: Correct. So, so in the business, we just have to work smarter. You know, we have all the technology now to work on these cars, you know, and you know, we just, we still continue to do what we do. Good job. Provide for our customers, provide for our employees, provide for our family.

Alvin Lui: You know, that's what it's all about.

Jimmy Lea: So true. Thanks for sharing with me about your dad by pops. Yeah, that's cool. I appreciate that. Yeah. My, my dad taught us how to work hard as well. There was a summer that I shoveled two and a half tons of asphalt in about two and a half days.

Jimmy Lea: Teaches you hard work. This is an industry that's really hard work. Yeah. Yeah. That was really hard work. We were resurfacing an entire gas station, a circle K, putting down the asphalt for the, over the tanks. My dad was a general contractor specializing in fuel systems, so he would build almost all the gas stations in Las Vegas.

Jimmy Lea: My dad probably built

Alvin Lui: Oh, wow.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah. 28 years. He was in that business and we as kids, we grew up in it. That was. Well, we did. Yeah. We learned the value of hard labor and which is one of the reasons I love this automotive industry so much, is because this is an industry that knows how to work hard.

Jimmy Lea: They know how

Alvin Lui: yes we do.

Jimmy Lea: They know how to put down the head, put down your head and go to work. You got stuff that needs to be done. We gotta do it. This is what needs to be done. Let's go. I have yet to see anybody in this automotive industry ever throw up their hands and say, Nope, it's just too hard. I can't do it.

Jimmy Lea: Yes you can, especially Alvin with what you're talking about, getting into a 20 group, getting into a group of like-minded shop owners where we can share ideas and come up with the best result because we as shop owners, when we work together. We get the best results. You may have a mountain, you're facing a mountainous problem, a huge problem.

Jimmy Lea: You bring it to the group and the group says, oh, Alvin, dude we solved that last month. Here's the solution. Here's what my shop did. Here's what my shop did. Here's what my shop did. Now you've got three different solutions to this mountainous problem that you think you have. And very quickly that mountain becomes a mole hill and you step right over it and you just keep on trucking.

Alvin Lui: Yes, that, that's definitely spot on, Jeremy. You know, I think like a lot of shop owners do run this and stuff like this and it's all about learning. It's about taking time to learn about it. I mean, even with cars, you know, we run definitely the car business is it's extremely difficult. It is very high technology, but difficult and it's constantly changing.

Alvin Lui: It's only changing and it's only difficult is because you don't understand it.

Jimmy Lea: Yeah.

Alvin Lui: Just like aliens. I just, that's what I tell people. It's just like aliens, you don't understand it. You're not gonna, you're not, you'll never will. You have to learn about it. This is how at least eng the engineers with all these European cars.

Alvin Lui: They say, Hey, this is how we built it. This is why we built it. And that's it. And once you take the time to learn it, like anything in life or. It processes, it's, it becomes easier and that mountain, you know, becomes a little small mojo. You just walk right over it.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, I love it. I love it, man.

Jimmy Lea: Alright, I have a question for you. Final question. I, if you were to start your business today and you were your 21-year-old self again, and you were starting your business today, what advice would you give yourself today in starting your business?

Alvin Lui: Oh, I, a lot of advice. I'll be smacking myself many times on this one.

Jimmy Lea: Don't do this then don't do this, then don't do this and don't do that. I know you won't, but no, that's not what you want do. Okay?

Alvin Lui: One of advice is learn to make time. Definitely learn to make time. Make that time. I put it into high priority and coaching, coaching classes.

Alvin Lui: Definitely learn from the experts and become an expert yourself because you know that's one of the definite advice I would give myself, you know. We time goes by just really fast for everybody.

Jimmy Lea: It

Alvin Lui: does. And just like myself, I've been in this business for about 16 years and I've seen I've seen many outside struggles.

Alvin Lui: I have my struggles myself. Definitely biggest thing is I would say education. Doesn't matter what it is, education. I've always loved it. I'm very I really like the education with the cars. I love the technology. I would, if I was going back again first thing I would do, I would probably start the business classes.

Alvin Lui: That's why I would definitely start,

Jimmy Lea: you start the what? The business classes?

Alvin Lui:  Like the bus, like business classes, like coaching classes. I think that's the first thing. I would start first because I wouldn't make. So many of those common shop owner mistakes. That's what the first thing, that's the thing I would not do.

Jimmy Lea: Oh, Alan, that's beautiful, man. Yeah. 'cause there are easy mistakes that we're making all the time and there's other shop owners that have been there, done that they can help guide you through it. So get a coach. Get on the right path. That's right. Oh, that's beautiful. Alvin, appreciate you, brother.

Jimmy Lea: Appreciate your experience, your knowledge, your the path that you have traveled, the knowledge you have gained, the time that you make as a priority now for your family, for now and forever in the future. That's one thing I try to do as well, is anytime a kid's got a game, a concert a proposal, a presentation at school, talent show, whatever it might be, you be there, be present.

Alvin Lui: That's right. And it's really important because, you know, that's where all the memories are. Yeah. And by you can't memory. Yeah.

Jimmy Lea: That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Alvin, thank you so much brother. Appreciate you joining me today on the Leading Edge podcast. My name is Jimmy Lee. I'm with the Institute, and if you've got a few more minutes, head on over to we are the institute.com.

Jimmy Lea: We'd love to work with you. We'd love to lock arms with you to make sure that you don't get left behind. So if you're like Alvin and you are looking for that season and you're looking for that time to be able to spend with your family, come work with the institute, we're gonna help you build a better life, a better business, and a better industry.

Jimmy Lea: 'cause together we can do this. Thank you, Alvin. Appreciate you brother. Thank you very much. Shimmy. Thanks for.