"I Could Do This, Too": R+W All-Star Runner-Up Michelle Tansey

There’s no limit to the different career paths that can lead into the automotive repair field. From technical ability to business prowess and people skills, there are many transferrable skills. Despite this, many struggle to believe they belong in the industry.

Michelle Tansey saw herself in law enforcement when her husband, a professional technician, became dissatisfied with dealership work. They worked together to open a shop and make a new business, yet it would be years before Tansey saw the tremendous value she offered to not just their shop, but the auto repair industry as a whole.

Now the CEO and co-founder of Euro Clinic in Santa Clara, California, and serving on the board of Women in Auto Care, Tansey has earned the title of Ratchet+Wrench All-Star Award Runner-Up for her journey in starting, and eventually transforming, her and her husband’s European specialist shop.

Searching for Something Better

While putting herself through school to gain a degree in law enforcement, Tansey took on a part-time job at the local Volkswagen dealership as a receptionist, where she would meet her husband, Bernard.

However, as her husband worked for more dealers, he began to see cracks in the foundation, and was being put on a career path he wasn't interested in. That’s when Tansey asked a simple question.

“One day at dinner, I just told him, ‘Why don't you start your own shop?’”

Tansey’s husband scoffed at the idea. But after a week or so, Tansey took it upon herself to do research and show her husband what it would cost to start a business and launch a side gig, and eventually convinced him to give it a shot.

And so it began, with Tansey’s spouse working on cars underneath a carport outside their first apartment together. He had no trouble acquiring jobs, and Tansey became more convinced that shop ownership would be the move when she saw how good the money was.

He took it further, renting out a lift from a local BMW aftermarket shop. Within a year, he was doing more work on that one lift than the shop was doing with its three lifts and three techs.

That was the breaking point—the point where Tansey and her husband decided to say ‘screw it,’ and pursue owning a shop. It was undoubtedly a risk, but no matter what happened, Tansey knew they had the resources to bounce back. Why let fear of potential failure keep them from trying at something they believed in?

A New Chapter—For Them Both

With no banks willing to lend them a loan, they had to rely on what they had in savings to afford their first shop facility, which they moved into in 2016.

Up to this point, Tansey still felt like her husband was mainly the face of the brand, and struggled to see what she could bring to the table. That was until 2018, when she started to see that there’s a lot more to the auto repair business than just technical know-how.

“When I went to the Ratchet+Wrench Management Conference in 2018 and sat in round tables with all these shop owners … that was a big switch for me, where I said, ‘Hey, I could make this into my career, versus what I went to school for.”

Tansey realized that she could excel in many other areas of the business, such as managing finances. Additionally, having training in law enforcement equipped her to effectively handle people in professional settings.

"We had zero experience on what it took to run a business. It's a different beast," says Tansey. "I was big on people, and being in law enforcement, I had a lot of leadership skills that I wasn't aware of, that I could implement into knowing people.”

Spreading Her Wings and Learning to Fly

Tansey fully embraced taking a dominant role in the business, solidified with a rebranding campaign led by her. When the shop first started, it focused mainly on working with Volkswagen models, but Tansey thought it would be a better idea to broaden their scope to work with all European vehicles.

Throughout this process, Tansey had the help of a coach, who taught her how to best navigate a rebranding effort without losing customers.

“He and I had intense conversations on how to do this,” shares Tansey. “He said, ‘This has to be done correctly. You have to advertise to make sure that it's going to be effective and that customers don’t think you changed ownership.'”

Tansey imagined making the shop a luxurious, customer-focused experience—what she calls ‘the Ritz Carlton of auto repair.’ In the area they’re in, surrounded by high-net-risk professionals, Tansey hoped they would better appeal to the clients in her area with the rebrand.

An avid San Francisco Giants fan, Tansey went with her favorite color, orange, for the shop’s rebranding. They also implemented new, streamlined services, such as drop-off/pickup, updated communication methods, and hired new technicians to support the upgrade.

The remodel has been a huge success for the business, attracting many more professionals to the area. The shop’s customer demographic now includes many more professional working women in the area, with it shifting from a 70/30 majority of men to women now accounting for 60% of their clientele. Tansey credits this shift to the emphasis they have placed on speed of service and transparency.

Though Tansey initially didn’t see herself in auto repair, it was ultimately a self-imposed barrier that kept her from realizing the vast array of skills she had to thrive in the industry. Once she went ahead with the rebranding of the shop, she began to see that the business wasn’t just her husband’s, but hers, as well. She just had to permit herself to shine.

“That’s when I kind of fell in love with the business, because I felt like I could put my little touches onto it. Not just in the background—running the business financials and all that stuff—I was able to be in the front line.”