People in Muenster and area are hard-pressed to find something that Daniel Hinz cannot do at his shop, Danwheels Limited.
With detailing, maintenance, transportation services, vehicle sourcing, and more already on the list of their services, the list keeps on growing as Hinz continues to look into more and more automobile services and opportunities to bring customers to the area.
“There's never a dull moment. People ask for different things; hunting sleighs and fishing sleighs and ice shacks, stuff like that. Once they're here and they see everything that we do, [it became] ‘well, can you get this, can you get that?’”
Hinz started doing a little bit of everything four years ago from his acreage. While he had plenty of space to work at the time, Hinz was off the beaten path a couple of miles off the highway, he says, and was a tricky man to find. By mid-March 2019, his business was expanding, and he needed even more space.
“We were getting busier and busier with what we're doing, we were just growing and growing and growing. We needed a bigger shop, a garage just didn't fit it anymore, we needed a shop.”
By December 2019, Hinz was ready to move to his newly built shop on highway 5 on the edge of Muenster, but January and February are tough months when you are a car dealership, he says.
“You hit March and you are like, ‘Yes, we did it. We pushed through the two worst months you can even have.’ Lo and behold, you turn the next page and we've got COVID so then everything just shut down.”
But with an excellent team, including office manager, Stephanie; Darrell, who specializes in small engine repair; two junior mechanics, and a host of drivers, Danwheels Limited survived the beginning of the pandemic and wants to continue to grow that crew and support the community.
“My goal is to create jobs for local people in the community. That was my biggest goal. And even if we had a couple of people—and we're well over a couple—...it's a little bit more money in somebody else's pocket at the end of the day.”
Hinz’s genuineness has been the secret to his success, he says. Every customer not only gets great service no matter what their needs are but also hellos and how-you-doings as soon as they walk through the door. It doesn’t take a lot out of his busy day to genuinely care about the people coming into his shop, he says. Along with having amazing staff and clients, Hinz’s secret to success is not much of a secret and is pretty straightforward.
“Without good people and great clients, we never would have done it. But it was definitely a lot of sleepless nights.”
For other people who want to start their own business, finding the right people with the right attitude is vital to their own success.
Sagehill Community Futures has been an important part of Hinz’s team, he says, helping him market his passion, providing learning opportunities that apply to every kind of business, and providing the expertise, knowledge, and resources to help Hinz bounce ideas around or get questions answered.
The help is always there, he says.
Putting their own passion to work is also part of starting your own business, says Hinz. As long as new business owners are dedicated to their vision, they’ll get back what they put into it.
“To the new people, you definitely want to have the passion to do what you're going to do. And I definitely have had the passion for all this grease, gas, oil burnin’ stuff since I've been little. So, stay focused, cool, and calm.”