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06 Jun

June Issue Feature - Real World Retail: Driven Mobile Electronics

Words by Rosa Sophia

6-7-2018 Mobile Electronics -- For a while, Christopher McNulty was on his own. “It was [just] me for half of the last three years,” he said, adding that Mark Johnson was hired as installation coordinator about six months ago. They already knew each other and had worked together 15 years prior.

When Driven first opened in September of 2012, it was McNulty and one other person. “Within three months, we were too busy for it to be a two-man operation. I reached out to another former co-worker of mine who was a salesman, Christian Dold.”

After Dold joined him, within about nine months they had outgrown their space, and it took McNulty three to four months to find a new location that was almost twice as big.

Two months prior to the move, the installer who had been working with McNulty quit. It was the middle of remote start season when McNulty and Dold decided to continue together without any other help. “We’ve known each other over 20 years. January and February, in the old space, we did great just the two of us. In March, in the new space, I was the general contractor building out the new space,” McNulty said. “I was the owner, electrician, carpenter, installer—everything. Life got really chaotic.”

Dold eventually burned out. “He took a job as a teacher, his dream job, which is what his degree was in, and moved closer to his parents.”

It took time to adjust, and now McNulty feels that Driven is moving in the right direction. At their current location, roughly 15,000 vehicles drive by daily. Because the business is located in a complex, there isn’t much walking traffic.

Currently, Driven has two part-time technicians: Eddy Merino and Oscar Perla. McNulty said he also gets help from a client: Neil Orta. “Nothing changes hands [with Neil]. We help him out when he’s building his own stuff. He helps out pro bono, and we give him access to the facilities.” Orta is an IASCA and MECA competitor, electrician and hobbyist.

Soon, they hope to bring in a part-time assistant—someone young who’s looking to learn. “We 100 percent want to bring people up from the bottom and teach them the right way. Getting rid of bad habits is harder.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Last modified on Wednesday, 06 June 2018 08:59
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