Published: November 13, 2009 11:13 am      

Camfield sees great opportunities in used car sales

 

Pat Camfield may not have foreseen himself becoming a small business owner, but the recent opportunity to sell cars from his own office on his own lot is an chance he has relished and a new path he is excited to take.

After opening Camfield’s Car Lot, located in Riverside on Highway 19, just two weeks ago, Camfield is discovering the joys and challenges of small business ownership, from grueling state licensing procedures to the opportunity to provide a customer will a deal they can’t find anywhere else.

Camfield decided to locate his business outside of Huntsville, where he had gained so much experience already, in order to escape the plethora of vehicle sales businesses already located in the city.

When the initial plans for the business began to come together in August, Camfield saw Riverside and Highway 19 as the perfect place to take his first shot at small-business ownership.

“Location is everything – you want to have a place where you have traffic and believe it or not, Highway 19 has a lot of traffic,” Camfield said. “I didn’t want to build a building so I had to find a place that was already existing and I didn’t want to be the eighth car lot in Huntsville.”

Before he could open his doors to customers, however, Camfield had to meet the state requirements for obtaining a license, which meant more work and more time before the car selling could commence.

“Before you get your license you have to have a facility, which means you have to be paying for something,” Camfield said. “You have to have offices with furniture, which means you have to have already purchased it.

“You have to take a picture of the building from across the street, showing that there is a street in front of you.”

After getting all of the red tape out of the way, Camfield’s Car Lot is open for business and the proud owner of the facility is working hard to ensure his customers are satisfied with their purchase and the price they pay.

Where some businesses may focus more on new cars and spend less time and attention on the quality of their used vehicles, Camfield said he is going to focus entirely on used cars and work hard to ensure each vehicle is safe and reliable before putting it on his lot.

“I’m going to attempt to always put mechanically sound, well-checked out, inexpensive vehicles on my lot,” Camfield said. “I’m going to concentrate on a little different business model than the franchise stores.

“I’m going to concentrate on $7,000-$10,000 retail cars, mostly,” he added. “I’ll have more expensive vehicles, but the majority of them will be in that price range. We are not a new car lot.”

Despite the hard work that small-business ownership requires, Camfield said he is looking forward to the freedom of being his own boss, especially the reduced hours and opportunity to devote more time and attention to loved ones.

“I’ll be able to spend more time with my family,” Camfield said. “We open up at 9 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.”

When it comes to the bottom line, however, Camfield said he believes customers will choose to buy from him and will return for future purchases based on his reputation as an honest businessman and his determination to offer the best deal at the best price.

“A lot of folks know who I am and what I’m about and what I have been about ever since I got here,” Camfield said. “(I’m) easy to do business with, and we have low overhead, obviously, since I don’t have a huge franchise store here. (I) try to make it fun buying a car – we don’t try to make it hard.”

For more information about Camfield’s Car Lot, contact Pat Camfield at 936-594-1250.