Separate Lanes, Shared Vision: How Buddy and Morgan Isles Went from Partners to Profitable
Buddy Isles Jr. grew up in the automotive and racing worlds, watching his father run Buddy Isles Tire and Automotive, a six-bay shop off the beaten path in Littleton, North Carolina. After graduating high school and doing a stint with NASCAR as a fabricator, Buddy Isles Jr. returned with a bold dream for the business: upgrading from a small, out-of-the-way shop to a 55,000-square-foot warehouse in town.
He’d only just started dating his future wife, Morgan, when he told her about the warehouse. She pushed him to weigh all the implications of his choice, and when he confirmed his commitment, she stepped up as his business partner. Even with zero automotive experience, she was with Buddy every step of the way.
“I did it to support his dreams, regardless of what it meant for our personal schedule,” she says. “That’s just how we have built everything: on the absolute certainty that this is truly what he wants, and whatever it takes to get there is what we will do.”
Making the Dream Work
While Buddy respected the “old school” methods he grew up around, he and Morgan wanted to build a modern business. The turning point came when they attended an introductory training session with the Automotive Training Institute, which filled the gaps in their operational knowledge. Shortly after, they joined 20 Groups—a step Buddy considers vital for any expanding shop.
“We have a motto: if you're the smartest person in the room, you need to find a new room,” Morgan says. “I think Buddy hit the nail on the head with finding resources that can strengthen you as an individual.”
With his technical background, Buddy focused on getting the job done correctly, regardless of what equipment or tools needed to be bought. Morgan leveraged her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and quickly learned the basics—like figuring out what a shop needed versus what a technician wanted.
“When I say he is not a budgeter, put that in bold print!” Morgan jokes. “That is not his strong suit. If he sees it and we need it, he is going to try his darndest to convince me that we have to have it today.”
A Continuous Process
Since taking over in 2017, the couple has aggressively scaled, adding B&M Parts, Buddy Isles Collision, and Buddy Isles Speed World, a high-performance tuning center named after his father’s original 1960s business venture. While they share an identical vision, their distinct operational styles fuel their success.
“We both possess very different skill sets. What I'm good at, he absolutely sucks at, and vice versa,” Morgan says. “Because of that, we have our own lanes and we stay in them. What I'm good at, I handle; what he's good at, he handles. There is a lot of natural overlap, clearly, but developing a work-life balance is a continuous process.”
“A lot of it comes down to the fact that she is incredibly good at building processes and communicating them effectively to people,” Buddy says. “My teaching skills are very different. I just want to execute. Morgan handles the training, processes, people skills, communication, and all the backend infrastructure like accounting.”
Though they maintain the separate lanes approach for most aspects of the business, they’re united when it comes to their priorities.
“I take our culture deeply personally,” Morgan says. “These employees truly become part of my family, and I mean that regardless of work, home life, personal struggles, or medical backgrounds. I get involved to help in any way I can. To me, that is the defining factor that separates us from anywhere else. You will never find an ownership team that cares to the absolute core the way we do."
"We have roughly 20 to 22 employees, and I have to take care of them first," Buddy says. "My employees come first, because without them, we can't accomplish anything. Next, we take care of the customer. Once those two things are fully secure, then we look at ourselves as owners. You have to prioritize them in that order. Morgan operates the exact same way. We take care of the team and the customers first, and after all that is settled, we make a living as owners."
About the Author
Griffin Matis
A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Griffin Matis writes for Ratchet+Wrench magazine. Previously, he wrote and edited digital content relating to health, entertainment, pop culture, and breaking news.