Bill Walker doesn’t just wear many hats, up until about a year ago, he wore all of the hats at Walker’s Garage in Brewer, Maine. You called to set up an appointment? Walker answered the phone. Parts needed ordering? Walker again. Your repair order? Written by Bill. Walker’s Garage was truly a one-man operation. Oh, have we mentioned he also does collision repair?
About a year ago, Walker brought his wife, Kaylin, to do marketing, most of the scheduling, social media and other front-of-the-house tasks, which has helped ease much of the burden for Walker, but when it comes to the 62 car count monthly average, that work falls solely on his shoulders.
Walker says banging out 15-20 hours of work as a technician in a day is no problem for him; it’s the other tasks that slow him down. Walker always has his phone in his pocket so clients can reach him whenever they need to. He describes a typical day of working on a vehicle, having to stop and take his gloves off to answer the phone and then having to go into the office to check on an estimate or call the insurance company or order parts and then calling the client back before heading back to the vehicle to finish what he started. That’s just during the day. After hours is when he has to take care of all of the owner responsibilities, such as analyzing P&L sheets.
“Having to switch all these hats during the day can be exhausting,” Kaylin says of her husband’s workload. “But he succeeds because he’s done every job.”
Walker has worked in parts, detail, body and mechanical repairs. He’s also completed Dupont’s refinishing program, has his State of Maine Inspection License and has even worked as an estimator so he understands the claims process inside and out.
“Having the client-facing skills in his previous jobs, he can relate (to them), “Kaylin adds. “His soft skills have made him able to navigate every scenario that he’s been given.”
A lifelong resident of the area, Walker has been able to build a trusting and loyal customer base and fulfill a lifelong dream of opening his own shop.
Turning a Dream into Reality
When Walker told people who he’d known for 15-20 years that he was opening his own business, they were all thrilled that he was fulfilling one of his goals. Walker laughs and says he had no idea he had been talking about it for so long but that COVID was a wake-up call for him and Kaylin.
When COVID hit, Walker started working on vehicles at his home as a side hustle and he began to wonder if he could do it full-time. He looked into it and he wouldn’t be able to do it from his own garage as his home was a residential-only zone, but he began to look at properties and when the perfect fit came along, he and his wife took the leap and went after his self-described “pipe dream.”
“We didn’t want to get to the end of our life and say we wish we would have tried,” Kaylin says of starting the business.
Walker’s Garage opened in October of 2021.
Making it Work
“What’s a sick day?” Walker laughs when asked what he does when he feels under the weather.
It takes a lot to run any business, but when you and your wife are the only employees, it makes it even more so. Walker says on days that he isn’t feeling well, he powers through, for the most part, unless he’s contagious. There have been a few situations, including a family vacation and a trip to VISION, where the shop needed to shut down. In these situations, Kaylin explains that they give customers plenty of notice and schedule a few cushion days on either side in case of travel delays. The few times Walker has been too sick to work, he’s called and explained the situation to his customers and because of the relationship that he’s built, they’ve been extremely understanding.
“People are a lot more flexible than I would have thought,” Walker says.
Another very important task that Walker has as owner is payroll. How exactly do you handle that when you and your wife are the only employees? In the beginning, Walker says he didn’t pay himself and would just take an owner’s draw for the bills that he needed to pay. When Kaylin started, he put her on the payroll and has since added himself as well. He explains that they know what they need to get by and if they need more, they can kick that in with an owner’s draw.
Maintaining a Work/Life Balance
“I love that I get to work with my best friend,” Kaylin says.
Speaking with them, it’s easy to tell that they’re still crazy about each other and that they’ve figured out a way to maintain a successful personal and professional relationship. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Before Kaylin came to work at the shop, they had many conversations about how they were going to make it work. Clearly defined boundaries have been key. They each have a “lane” in the business and try as much as they can to stay in it.
“I had to kick her out of the shop because she was vacuuming all of the dirt out of the cracks on the floor,” Walker says of the early days of working together.
“In the beginning, I was trying to understand everything about the industry and it was overwhelming and that was where a lot of frustration for me came,” Kaylin says. “Bill has that knowledge. It’s not realistic for me to understand the technical stuff, my job is to relate to the customers. Bill knows what he’s doing out there.”
They’ve also created a boundary between home life and work. Work talk, for the most part, stays in the shop and during work hours, they try not to discuss their dinner plans or personal matters.
What do the kids think of their parents' shop?
“They love it,” Kaylin says.
She says that their daughter hands out the shop’s business cards and pens at school to her friends and that they often wear their company t-shirts while out and about. Walker often has to work until late at night but Kaylin and the kids will bring him dinner or dessert at the office so they still get a chance to spend time together as a family.
The Walkers have found true success both personally and professionally and should be an inspiration to others to follow their dreams.
