Hubcap business keeps rolling into the next generation

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Hubcap business keeps rolling into the next
generation

• Hubcaps Unlimited 30 years and growing

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• Rick Dynek Sr. showed up for work Wednesday,
  mostly out of a habit he's developed over 30
  years, as the owner of Hubcaps Unlimited on S.
  Howell Ave.
• But Jan. 2 was different for Dynek Sr., who
  founded the business that carries about 20,000
  hubcaps and wheels for hundreds of different
  vehicles.
• He is now officially retired, sort of, after
  turning over the business to his son, Rick Dynek
  Jr.
• "It's kind of a hard habit to break," he said
  about coming to work anyway.
• Dynek Sr. started his family business out of his
  garage in 1982, after being laid off from a
  factory. He and his wife, Cynthia, have run it
  ever since, selling hubcaps to individuals, car
  dealers, body shops and insurance companies.
• They sell singles or sets, new or used, brand
  name or generic manufacturer. The hubcaps come
  from all over the nation, often in bulk lots of
  hundreds from wholesalers who get them from
  used-car dealerships and salvage yards.
• In his lifetime, Dynek Sr. said, he has
  hand-washed thousands of hubcaps.
• "There's always been a need for them, and people
  did not like going to salvage yards where they
  had to crawl around cars in the mud and dirt," he
  said.
• Hubcaps Unlimited has about 400,000 a year in
  sales, with 75 of the revenue coming from the
  company's website, www.hubcapnation.com
• The business has been online since 1999, said
  Dynek Jr., adding that it was a difficult step to
  take.
• "It took a lot of work and a lot of convincing
  because dad didn't want to take credit cards. We
  were a check and cash-only business, which made
  it hard to sell online," he said.
• Fickle business
• Buying hundreds of used hubcaps is a gamble
  because some gather dust on the shelves for years
  if the vehicles they graced have been
  discontinued.
• There are wheel covers at Hubcaps Unlimited that
  have, "celebrated their 15th birthday here,"
  Dynek Jr. said, while others are in constant
  demand.
• He has grown up with the business and, at age 36,
  is ready to take the wheel.
• He and his wife, Jennifer, will be the only
  employees - much as Dynek Sr. and his wife,
  Cynthia, ran the business for many years.
• They always lived within their means and never
  took out a loan, Dynek Jr. said.
• "The business is just big enough to do what it
  has to do, one step at a time," he said.
• Putting new hubcaps on your car is an inexpensive
  way to give it a new look and is something that
  car dealers routinely do when selling a used
  vehicle.

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• Dynek Jr. said he will beef up the company's
  online presence, which helps when the economy
  weakens in one area of the country but remains
  strong in other areas. He also plans to sell more
  wheels.
• Used hubcaps are a niche business, he said,
  because there's a limited supply of them.
• "You could have 50 dealers around the country
  looking for 2005 Toyota Corolla hubcaps, but
  there are only so many of them available. So
  there's no room for twice as much competition
  because it would only mean that twice as many
  people would go away empty-handed," he said.
• Changing drivers
• Since he graduated from high school, Dynek Jr.
  said, Hubcaps Unlimited has been the only place
  he has worked.
• He and his father anticipated the change in
  ownership someday, but neither was in a hurry for
  it.
• There was a flurry of planning and paperwork
  crammed into the last month.
• It was harder than they thought, Dynek Jr. said.
• Some family-owned businesses fall apart when
  making the transition from one generation to the
  next.
• One of the biggest mistakes people make is
  thinking of the transition as "an event" rather
  than a process, said Deb Houden, director of the
  Family Business Center at the University of
  Wisconsin-Madison.
• While it's important to have a date circled on
  the calendar for when the next generation will
  take over, because it signifies when they're in
  charge, some people don't realize how much
  planning is necessary beforehand, Houden said.
• Only about 33 of family-owned businesses make it
  to the second generation, 12 stay in the family
  a third generation, and 4 last four generations.
• Sometimes the business was at the end of its life
  cycle and would have died anyway. Other times the
  transition wasn't handled well, and the business
  couldn't survive it.
• Planning for the change in ownership allows the
  next generation to develop leadership skills
  while there's still a bit of a safety net.
• "It's something like passing the baton before it
  has to happen," Houden said.
• Dynek Sr. says he's ready for retirement, and
  that he will be busy restoring coin-operated
  mechanical horses that were popular in the 1950s.
• The collectible horses could turn into a
  business, too.
• "There's a market for them," Dynek Sr. says.
  "People my age are putting them in their
  recreation room for their grandkids. I look at it
  as trying to save a piece of history."
• He has a lot of good memories from the hubcaps
  business, which has had some unusual sales. A
  restaurant once purchased 50 hubcaps for use as
  hors d'oeuvre trays.

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Hubcaps Unlimited is your source for hubcaps and
wheels