We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Iman and Daniel Ikeda-Bibi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Iman and Daniel, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
Danny and I are both hard workers who continue to push each other to show up each day better than the day before. It’s an amazing team dynamic that keeps us growing!
I am a child of immigrants who came to this country with basically a pocket full of change and dreams. They engrained the value of hard work within my soul from when I was a child. I saw them work their fingers to the bone and still nothing stopped them.
Danny also had parents who motivated him to become the hard working individual he is today. His father supported the family on his own once his mom fell ill in his youth years. Both his parents ensured their son would work hard by requiring him to do chores and work for things he wanted as a kid.
Early on, Danny and I knew we wanted a different lifestyle, a lifestyle that would require more means than making ends meet. We knew especially in California if we wanted fancy things, we were going to have to work as hard as our parents and some. So here we are, taking on the challenge, continuously looking for new avenues to help us reach our dreams.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Danny and I are co-owners of Gear Up Tires, located in Huntington Beach, California. This dream came into fruition about 2.5 years ago when we were both fed up with where we were in our careers. The idea of running our own business and pumping our hearts into our own pipe dreams was something we longed for. When Covid took the world by a scare, we decided it was time to overpower our fears and make some changes.
We built this company in hopes that someday it would be self-sufficient and could fuel our bigger dreams. It’s been quite the journey, filled with more obstacles and celebrations than we could have ever imagined! The dream lies much further than this venture. Gear Up Tires is a stepping stone in what we hope to build and accomplish. We hope to start our next business venture soon!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think quality number one that played a pivotal role for Danny and I was our hunger & curiosity. It helped us grow within each role we worked in the past and ultimately pushed us to the breaking point of wanting to go out on our own. As long as that never dies, I think we’ll always want more and be driven to reach for the stars.
Something that I think has helped us do well for being the underdogs is our ability to identify the pain points consumers in our industry were experiencing. As long as you can do that, you can create a solution to the problem, a service people NEED. Living in a state where the majority of adults are drivers gave us a huge audience. Our next step was identifying what the common experience was for drivers who take their vehicles in for automotive work and creating an experience that surpassed that.
Lastly, because of the industry we are in, which is customer-facing, it was important that we be friendly. In fact, we had to be more than friendly, we had to knock customer service out of the park. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback in the couple of years that we’ve had this business and I think the number one reason people have come back is that they connected with us.
Our advice for those early in their journeys is to find something you’re passionate about. It will make it easy to wake up in the morning and put in late hours as you get started. It will also reflect in your demeanor. People will see that you are genuine and trying to create a product or service that benefits them. Step # 1: find what makes your heart beat loud. Step #2: Talk to people, those who are interested will listen to someone who loves what they do. You’ll do great!
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
We’re super grateful for the strides we’ve made but we realize we’re at a place where we need to do something big to take our business to the next level. We have been open for 2.5 years now and we’re seeing bigger numbers, but it’s not enough. We have some details working against us, for example we are difficult to find because our location isn’t a store front. In order for us to reach more customers, we need to either relocate or do some grand marketing campaign that will really catch people’s attention. The issue with option 2 is even if we get the number of leads we want, we don’t have the space to grow to the number we’re reaching for. This brings us back to solution one…needing to relocate.
Relocating is never easy, from locating a new shop to the details of moving heavy equipment. We know it’s something we are going to have to do but it’s definitely something we are dragging our feet with, especially since a move is a huge expense in itself. To overcome and combat this challenge, Danny and I have agreed to extend our lease at our current location for one more year and in the mean time work on an additional source of income that will help us relocate the following year. As long as we have a clear plan in place, we will make it happen. It’s important to not let challenges keep you stagnant. Danny and I are super fortunate to have each other to stay accountable with and to make sure we keep our eyes on the dream without getting caught up in just the day-to-day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gearuptires.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gearuptires/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gearuptires
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gear-up-tires-huntington-beach
