Jerry Lillie is quick to mention that the auto parts business is not an easy business.  Competition is fierce, and hard work makes the difference between success and failure.  Jerry’s story shows how his hard work paid off on his journey from a corporate layoff to signing that same company on as his distributor. 

For a long time, Jerry was searching for his place in the world, for satisfying employment.  He graduated from high school and started a family, but something was still missing.  Jerry decided to do more with his life, so he went back to college.  “I got an Associates Degree in Forestry,” Jerry says.  “Didn’t do anything with it.”  

After trying several different jobs, from construction to surveying, Jerry finally found a position he truly enjoyed at an auto parts warehouse.  “I thought I had finally found my niche,” Jerry recalls.  “I worked for them as a manager for one of their warehouses for about six years.”

During this time, Jerry spent long hours at the warehouse.  He would often come in at 6:30 am to prepare the warehouse for the day, letting his staff focus on sales for the rest of the day rather than small organizational problems.  “My district manager told me several times that my warehouse was one of the most efficiently run warehouses in the entire company.  We had an excellent working relationship.  And I thought things were going fine.”

But the corporate world can be cruel, as Jerry found out.  “So one day I had gotten there at 6:30 like I normally do and he showed up, I don’t know, quarter to seven, seven o’clock and told me I was done.  Really didn’t have much of an explanation why or anything else.  He just told me I was done.”

The layoff shattered Jerry’s belief in climbing the corporate ladder, and spending a year as a manager at a major auto parts retailer gave him little appreciation for the rules and regulations of a large corporation.  “You work days, you work nights, you work weekends,” Jerry says. 

Tired of these constraints on his time, Jerry found a new position at an independent parts store, where his duties included managing the website. It was during this time that Jerry heard about StoresOnline, so he took time off to go to the all-day presentation.  After Jerry learned the workshop techniques on his own time and money, his boss then asked him to use them to promote the company website.  Jerry asked for a raise, and the boss said no.  “He was one of these guys that was always wanted something for nothing,” Jerry explains, questioning his boss’ business ethics.  “I knew about a lot of the things that he had done with some of his suppliers and stuff like that, and I just wasn’t going to have it happen to me.”

So Jerry, with the help of Cathy Caputo, his business partner, started his own gas tank website.  Because he had just walked away from his job, all Jerry had to go on was food stamps and the promise of his new website.  Because Jerry is from the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, he cut hay, hauled corn stalks, and did other odd jobs to earn a little extra cash. 

But Jerry’s hard work paid off: during his first year, he experienced three-figure gross sale revenue.  Jerry’s quick to mention that running a website still requires work, but he’s also quick to mention the benefits of working for yourself.  “Flexibility is excellent.  I mean, I don’t have to ask for time off to go to the doctor’s.”

The best part of Jerry’s story is that the company that let him go is now his supplier, and they have no idea how much money he makes.  “They let me go.  It devastated me.  It turned me off on the corporate world and everything else. But now they're supplying my products…I think in the grand scheme of things, I think them letting me go was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Jerry said. 

Now that Jerry has found his niche, he’s not looking back.  “I don’t work for anybody, and I don’t ever want to work for anybody again.  And I think StoresOnline has given me that ability to do that.” 

Visit Jerry’s Sites at

http://www.tanks-to-pans.com/
http://www.yourautocoolingsource.com/

 

 

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