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Getting Started: Lynn grew up in a car-loving household - "my father and my brother rebuilt old cars when I was young," she says - and she inherited much of their love for the automobile. (Her brother, in fact, had an auto body shop, and when a nearby space became available, encouraged her to enter the field and set up shop there). In May of 1989, after working for a few years in an advertising firm, Lynn and her then husband, an auto mechanic, decided to open a shop of their own.
"We rented a little bitty three-bay shop. It was really muddy - it was hard to get into and out of," she laughs. But with a small start-up crew - Lynn running the office while her husband and another mechanic fixed up the cars - they grew the business one step at a time.
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Education: While she holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas, Lynn says most of her automotive knowledge came from observing her father and brother, and later teaching herself.
"I think my car experience came in college, when I was always driving old cars. They wouldn't run unless I worked on them! So it was out of necessity, really."
Greatest Professional Accomplishment: Beckwith's Auto has won several awards for outstanding service in the years since they started. "We had all those banks telling us no," she recalls, "and then two years later we were named as one of the 100 fastest-growing companies in the Houston Metropolitan area … and the following year we were selected as the #1 shop in the entire nation." They were presented with the Carquest Excellence Award - chosen from 4800 applicants - at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami.
This award, in particular, makes Lynn proud because "it's all about customer service and things that really matter," she says
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Barriers: Starting any business is an uphill climb - and as a woman in the automotive field you may face a much steeper incline, at first. "I think it was harder to get a loan, as a female in the automotive business," Lynn says. Back in 1991, when the shop was looking for additional space, she says, "we went to 16 banks before we could get a loan for a new building." She credits the Small Business Development Center at NHMCCD and their staff with critical advice and encouragement.
"It would have been really easy to give up after three or four banks," she admits - but the Small Business Development Center at NHMCCD insisted that she and her company were ready to grow, so Lynn persisted, and eventually scored.
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Working with Men: "Even now there are not many women in the automotive field," she says. For Lynn, maintaining a positive and consistently professional attitude is the best way to handle any negative feelings. "It's one of those things where I think, no matter what industry it is, it could be harder if you would let it be. It's really a matter of just ignoring the little comments and moving on."
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Advice for Women: Regardless of what you're pursuing, rule number one, according to Lynn, is "follow your heart."
"Don't let anybody talk you out if it. Because if you're bucking tradition, someone somewhere - even if it's your great-aunt Sadie - is going to try to talk you out of it," she says.
"And as you start out, work for a good company," she insists, "even if it means sacrificing a dollar or two. Get with someone who's decent and honest and involved in the community. Don't go to work for somebody just because they pay you a bunch of money and then they don't teach you. You want to find someone who will teach you the whole picture."
In the auto business, Lynn says, "I talk a lot about a mechanic's heart. I think that whether you're a service writer or a mechanic, you have to have a mechanic's heart. You have to just absolutely love cars to be successful in the automotive industry."
"The industry as a whole is changing. Being a mechanic is a much more lucrative and promising career choice than it was years ago. There are so few good technicians."
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Typical Workday/Environment: As the owner of Beckwith's, her job includes "a little bit of everything." True to her roots, Lynn says she's still primarily involved with the company's marketing efforts. "I have some help with the bookkeeping, which is wonderful," she says. Along with handling the overall administrative work, Lynn remains the public face of her company, representing Beckwith's in "a lot of the community service and community involvement type things. They say I always have a phone to my ear."
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Career Ladder: Lynn says she's seeing more and more women enter the automotive field as service writers, where a combination of technical knowledge and communication skills can make for a promising career. "They explain to the customer what's wrong with the car; greet them as they come in, find out what's wrong; find out the customer's symptoms… you get a woman with a little bit of technical knowledge and put her on the counter helping customers with their cars and it works out really well."
Service Writers - who write the service contracts, deal with customers face to face - can expect to start at $20-25,000 a year. With some experience, she says, "they average around $50,000 … you can get into some pretty high paying service writing positions, but a good job in a good shop with reasonable hours, you're going to be around $50-65,000 a year."
While women mechanics are still far outnumbered by men, Lynn says this, too, is beginning to change. "The industry as a whole is changing. Being a mechanic is a much more lucrative and promising career choice than it was years ago. There are so few good technicians."
Good technicians, she says, "typically have at least a two-year degree or trade school equivalent. They're very intelligent … and many women are finding they can do it as well. If they have that mechanical aptitude in high school, you know, good with their hands and like cars."
These days mechanics can gain valuable experience and get paid while they're in school. "While they're in trade school there are some wonderful co-op programs, and while they're in school they're going to make $20,000. And when they come out of school they can start at $25-30,000," she says. From then on, the possibilities for advancement and earning are great, depending on how quickly you learn. "A good tech - which may take five years, may take ten years - will be hitting $50 -100,000 a year," she says.
"The technology in cars is what's brought about the need for more technicians and higher pay for the technicians, Lynn says. "It's more a field that a woman would be interested in right now, because it's not as dirty as it once was … although it can still get pretty dirty," she laughs.
"I wish there were a way to communicate to people exactly what these technicians know and how incredible they are," Lynn says.
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Hobbies: "My children - three teenagers - they would be first," she says. She also enjoys road bicycling, photography. She's very active in her church and in the Humble community. "You can just get me on a soapbox in no time about community involvement," she says. "No matter what you do, whether you open your own business or whatever … if anybody, but especially if a woman wants to get ahead in any field they've got to get out there and meet people."
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