BK - Northwest Herald
Friends salvage business out of old powersport parts
Comments (No comments posted.)Childhood friends and Barrington-area natives Doug Hein and Mike Missak try not to take things too seriously.
“We just kind of roll with the punches and take it as it comes; it seems to work out in the end,” Missak said. “Doug says it best: ‘Fake it ’til you make it.’ ”
And they are making it. After years of doubling as owners and “parts department manager” or “sales manager,” they hired their first employee last month – even if he is just 16 years old.
“I can kind of see why my dad got on me when I was 16,” said Hein, now living in Crystal Lake.
But he’s learned a lot in the intervening 12 years. For example, he parlayed a business administration degree from Northern Illinois University into a successful independent business – with the help of Missak, also 28, of Fox Lake.
“I’ve never had a real job,” said Hein, looking every bit the part of a grease-stained beachcomber, dressed in a sleeveless T-shirt, flip-flops and a bandana holding back a shock of blond hair. “I don’t even know how to tie a tie.”
But he did know how to sell to list and sell items on eBay.
He also was able to sniff out bargains and resell merchandise at a profit. His dad deals in antiques and collectibles.
Missak earned a biology degree from Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., then worked seven years as a packaging engineer at PepsiCo, Inc. before he was laid off in 2005. He turned to what had been a part-time weekend venture: Buying and reselling boats and snowmobiles; spurred on by “The Secret,” an inspirational DVD that his mother made him watch. They find items listed online, as well as at garage sales, auctions and by word of mouth.
“ ‘We’re already doing this. What is stopping us from doing this full-time?’ ” Missak recalled asking Hein. “We each put in $1,000 of our own money and watched it grow from there.”
What began in the backyard of Hein’s parents’ house, Missak’s garage, and a corner of a friend’s marina in Fox Lake, consolidated into a rented business suite in April.
Shelves are chocked full of parts, surrounding a garage bay and abutting a small office.
“We do in a day now what usually took about a week,” Hein said. “On average, 15 to 20 items leave here each day. Today, maybe 40 items went out.”
They have shipped a 15-foot ski boat to Europe. Another man drove down from Canada to pick up a boat. And the remnants from this “legal chop shop?” They are sold or given away, as is, using online sites or by word of mouth. For example, two stripped-down boat hulls were donated as garbage scows for Saturday’s Swing Crew Sandbar Party on Petite Lake.
“If a voice mail message comes in, we pounce on it,” Hein said. “You don’t get a boat on the weekend. It happens on a Tuesday morning or Wednesday afternoon.”
They pride themselves on securing high-quality service in a timely fashion.
“Basically, these are boats that are sitting around,” Missak said. “They have trees growing out of them.”
Removing them frees up a $500 seasonal slip at a local marina. A buyer gets coveted boat or snowmobile part. They make money.
“Everything just fell into place,” Missak said. “Every month, we grow the business.”
Their goal in the next five years is to move into a larger building, become a recognized power sports dealer, and be the first name that people think of when they need a snowmobile part or rare part for their grandfather’s outboard motor.
The Fox Waterway Agency has granted BK salvage rights for any unclaimed watercraft in the Fox River, pending review by local police and Department of Natural Resources.
“Some of the stuff is really stuck,” said Hein, who confessed to using everything from winches to tow ropes to haul Fiberglass carcasses from the water. “We know people with contracts. ... If there’s a will, there’s a way.”
