Meet Josh Champion | Owner, Champs Family Automotive

We had the good fortune of connecting with Josh Champion and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Josh, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I have always been a risk taker. Over the years I have learned you have to take risks in order to get where you want to be in life and business. I whole heartedly agree with the theory that success is just on the other side of fear and terror. You have to be willing to jump all in and yes sometimes that means metaphorically speaking writing checks you can’t cash. It is scary YES, absolutely, I have had plenty of sleepless nights wondering how we can make things work but it always comes down to put your nose to the grind stone and do everything in your power to make it work. I have had so many people, including family, tell me I couldn’t have my own business, it just couldn’t be done. Over 10 years later now we have not 1 but 2 locations where we own the land and built our own free-standing buildings. Yes, it can be done but you literally have to be willing to risk almost everything to get there.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Growing up I always had a knack for cars, I actually started buying, repairing and selling them before I even had a license. Thinking back I laugh now because by what I know now those cars never should of run but somehow they did. My passion for working on vehicles just grew as I got older and learned more. I always tell people I was not the smartest kid in class, in fact I was considered special needs because I struggled in my reading and writing. I had teachers who believed in me and knew that maybe I wasn’t the most book smart but my talents where elsewhere. I ended up writing a essay for a scholarship opportunity to Arizona Automotive Institute (AAI) and I actually won a full ride scholarship to AAI. I remember everyone saying “how did the special needs kid get a scholarship”?

I did end up attending AAI and I was already so advanced in my training and knowledge that I graduated out of their 24-month program in 16months. After college I continued to work for different shops, building my knowledge of how to work on all kinds of different vehicles. I got fast as well and by the time I was 21 years old I was the number 1 sought-after mechanic in the area. In the years following I worked for a few shops. At one of them I was their Shop Foreman and then the owner eventually promoted me to not only Shop Foreman but Shop Manager as well. I really enjoyed learning more about the front of the shop. I worked for this company for several years and learned a lot during my time there. I learned a lot, especially what not to do, I wanted to be more, I wanted to be better. Though I managed the shop the shop owner still wanted things done a certain way. I never liked how it was run and I knew then I could do better, I would do better for myself and my family so “Your neighborhood mechanic” was born. I talked with the owner of the shop I was working for at the time and I told them, I want to own my own shop someday and that when the time came I would transition out and leave them in good hands.

As the years went on my drive to own my own shop became more and more pressing and I started working on a better name for our shop. By this time in the industry I had earned the nickname Champ. This name came from one of the shops I worked for there was myself, Josh C and a now good friend of mine Josh V. The shop messed up our hours all the time because c and v are right next to each other on the keyboard. The owner came out one day after messing up payroll again and said that’s it!! He looked at me and said you and now Champ, and it stuck! As I thought about our company name I knew I wanted the word family in it and finally after a few months of back and forth we came up with Champs Family Automotive! Our tag line for our business is a reminder of how we started “your neighborhood automotive and diesel repair specialists”. After creating our family business name it was time to jump all the way in so in 2011 I quit my Full time job as a mechanic for someone else and jumped all in with my own shop, Champs Family Automotive.

Let me tell you the early years were hard. My wife and I had 2 children when I finally decided to pursue my dreams. When we started I told everyone we work when you don’t which included weekends, nights, holidays, you name it I worked it. For about the first 2 years I lived in our garage at home, 9 time out of 10 my son, daughter and wife would bring dinner out to me and our family time was in that shop. It was hard, I missed a lot when my kids were young but I pushed hard because I was willing to sacrifice now for a greater future for myself and family. Today now that our kids are 12 and 16 years old I do think back and I really do regret missing out on so much time with them but I can’t say I would change anything. If I changed it I know we wouldn’t be where we are today, we all sacrificed yesterday for a greater tomorrow.

During the just about 2 years or so we worked out of our home our now GM, Josh Vetter started working with us Full time and by the time we were moving into our first leased location in Surprise, we had 2 Technicians working with us as well. We started modestly out of that garage because we knew we were not ready yet to take on a lease and go into a huge amount of debt. I worked on my back, I used the tools I had and only bought additional equipment when I had saved up enough cash to buy it out right. Over the years we have held fast to this philosophy and we pay cash when we need equipment because we do not believe in going into debt and having huge tool bills. We have worked hard to grow debt free over the years.

In around 2014, we moved into our first actual shop on Bell and Foxfire in Surprise, Arizona. I can honestly say that was probably one of the most terrifying times in my life! We were now responsible for rent and so much more and I remember having sleepless nights leading up to the singing and even afterwards but I just kept telling myself, success is just on the other side of fear and terror and we WILL make this work”! It was a big adjustment going from working at home to going to the shop everyday, I had to learn that I now had work hours and I needed to adjust to have business hours Mon-Fri and short hours on Sat.

As time went on we hard to build our name and reputation in the community, we didn’t have a big marketing budget or really any marketing budget at that time. We decided we would invest our time into our community. We showed up at every car show, community event and knocked on business doors, handed out flyers on car doors and by the graces of God we grew! This continues even today, we still believe that if we invest in our communities and do what is right the rest will follow. We have sponsored numerous sports teams, golf tournaments, and community events. We have and we continue to build our business organically and meeting people face to face when and where we can.

In 2017 things were humming along with business but I knew my dream was not finished yet. I wanted to own my own land and build the shop I had always dreamt about. We did finally find some land on Dysart just North of Bell Rd. I remember going through all the red tape, the city public notice, the meetings etc… I remember sitting with my wife, kids and General Contractor(GC) at the city meeting where we were going to find out if they were going to approve our project. I remember the plans being discussed and laid out and I had a chance to speak. I told them this is my dream, I have worked hard, WE have worked hard and been an active community business in Surprise for several years now. I told them, I’m not stopping, we have come to far, we have sacrificed to much to stop now. If they did not approve our site that night than we would be back, we will find a way to work with the city and the community because we are not going anywhere, we love the community and the community has continued to show an out pour of love for us as well. When the time came for the vote it was unanimous YES, we were approved! Then the real work began!

After our city counsel approval we went back and forth with our GC, architect and the city to get everything going and the I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It took about 9 months for our build. I can tell you I walked that property almost every day, I can tell you even now where every underground pipe is. It was cereal when the shop was finished. I have never taken much of a breath to take it all in because there is always more to do. I knew business had to push forward, we had to make sure we did everything we could to make our dreams now a success. The fear never stops, I don’t believe though it ever should. The moment you stop worrying about things, that, that moments is when you loose sight of what really matters. I let fear push me into being better everyday and never giving up. When we opened our doors in December 2019 at our Flag ship shop for the first 2 weeks we had all kinds of customers and community members coming by to wish us well and tour the shop, they were almost more excited than we were as they had all watched us grow over the years. I was very happy to finally see what I had envisioned as a child was now a reality. After being open at our new Surprise shop for a few years my wife and I and our GM started thinking well, what’s next? In that thought our Goodyear location was founded.

We started Goodyear a little differently than our original Surprise location. We didn’t have the option to start out of our home garage so we leased a spaced on Litchfield and Auto Drive in Goodyear. We grew the same way though as we had always done, we did every community event and school event we could find, parades, festivals, car shows, you name it we were out at them. This was a great way to help us build our brand in the Southwest Valley. My wife, Heather and GM Josh took over our Goodyear location and day to day operations and I worked with our GM’s wife, Gretchen in our Surprise location. I wasn’t sure how Goodyear would go, that location had some very hard years when they first entered into the Goodyear market. Heather and Josh pushed through it though. They were able to get the business through those rough times so much so that Heather wanted to buy land and build Goodyear as we did Surprise. I cannot thank our Goodyear team enough for all their support and for sticking with us during some hard times. It hasn’t always been easy but they always came to work with a smile on their face and always did right by our customers and community. In 2020 even through the pandemic we started looking for land to build on. We worked with a customer of ours who was a commercial real-estate agent to find the land we needed. Heather actually started driving around and she finally found the plot we call home in Goodyear today. We stared working with the city of Goodyear in 2022 to build our own free standing building. Just like every city there was a bunch of red tape but we told them as we did in Surprise WE”RE not stopping and we will get through this, we’re not going anywhere. Through some intense phone calls and meetings we were finally able to complete our project about build our Goodyear shop which was just completed in May 2023.

We believe what sets us apart from other shops is that we have built our business on trust, honesty, integrity and building strong relationships between our customers and staff. We believe in educating our customers about their vehicles and not only explaining what repairs are recommended but showing them the parts on their vehicle that are broken and why they should be replaced. Our job is to help our customer make an educated decision about their vehicle and decide what they believe is the best for them and their vehicle. We never sell anything in fact if a vehicle comes in and a customer would like for instance the brakes looked at for squeaking and we find the brakes are still good but there’s just some brake dust we’ll let the customer know your brakes actually look pretty good. There’s still plenty of life left on them if you can deal with a little squeaking. Our customers greatly appreciate our honesty. Honesty is always the best policy.

The story of how we came to be is not an easy one, it never has been. We have all made sacrifices and continue to even today. Being a business owner isn’t easy, there’s no one with endless pockets standing behind you, there’s no one who can make the tough decisions for you, your it, you are the top of the hill. It’s hard and I can tell you this, you aren’t perfect, you’ll make mistakes but it’s what you learn from them and how you correct them that will define not only the person you are but the business you are. Everyone says oh the first year is the hardest, no, I believe every year is hard. there will be different challenges along the way that you’ll face. Surround yourself though with like minded people and people you want to be more like, always stay true to who you are and never compromise that. Remember to do right by people and the rest will come, your life nor business should never ever revolve around the almighty dollar.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

There is no I in team and without the love and support of my wife who was literally a single mom while we were starting a business we would not be where we are today. Our GM, Josh Vetter has also been an intracell part of our business and success. When we first started Champs Family Automotive Josh would work for someone else during the day then work with us in the evenings and weekends. He, just like us, wanted something better, something more for his family. Without him we would not be where we are today. My thanks goes out to all our team members who work with us because they are just as important to our business, along with our valued customers and communities we serve. Without each and every one of them we would not be where we are today, they are all extremely valuable members of our CFA family and we couldn’t do it without them.

I have had many people tell me over the years I couldn’t do it, that I couldn’t have my own own shop which I have always used as fuel to continue to lite my fire and push harder to get what I want. Yes, the dream started with me but as we have grown over the years the dream has become a reality because WE all believe in the same foundation of building relationships with our valued customers, team members and community built on mutual trust, honesty and integrity. Family is in our name because FAMILY is what we are!

Website: https://champsfamilyautomotive.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChampsFamilyAutomotive

Image Credits
These images were all taken by Champs Family Automotive