From $6/Hour to 9 Locations: Building Premier Oil Change with Matt Webb

Redding is a beautiful place. We have national parks in three different directions, two world-class lakes. This is a sportsman's paradise, but it's also full of wonderful people. We have business leaders, community leaders, faith-based leaders, all of them working toward a singular goal, and that's to make this a great place to live. I wanted to showcase these people, give their perception of the place they call home. This is All Redding.

Matt Webb, welcome to the All Redding podcast. Before we get started, I've got a brief introduction for you. I've had the pleasure of knowing you — I went back and looked at old baseballs — since 2014 or 2013. Hard to read little kids' handwriting, but in any event: you're married, you're a father of three, you're the founder and one of the owners of Premier Oil Change and Car Wash, which has several locations here in Shasta County as well as others in other parts of California and in Oregon. This is a business you have built from the ground up. You're actively involved in our local community through a wide number of events, including coaching youth sports. But you're not a Shasta County native, so we'll get a chance to talk about that. It's a pleasure to have you here today.

Thanks for having me. And you know what? I love those old baseball photos.

Well, I thought we'd get started because you have such a cool story. Where'd you grow up?

I grew up in Santa Rosa, California — I was born there. My dad was actually born in Santa Rosa as well. My mom was from Pennsylvania. They met right after Vietnam — they were both in Vietnam. My dad was in the Air Force, my mom was in the Army. They were introduced by some friends and ended up going back to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa was a cool place to grow up. Of course, I joined the Marine Corps right out of high school. I was 17, so I had to get my mom and dad to sign. They gave me a little bit of friction, a little bit of flack — "Why do you want to go to the Marine Corps? Why don't you do something smart?"

Yeah — so why did you choose the Marine Corps with an Air Force vet dad, an Army mom, and the Navy and Coast Guard offering opportunities too?

It's a good question. I really don't know why, except for maybe one thing looking back on it. First of all, the recruiting offices are pretty similar in most towns — you have all the recruiters in the same shopping center or building. Army, Navy, Marine Corps. Whenever you'd walk in, the Marine Corps guys would say something derogatory about the Army. And the Marines had the best videos by far. Guys jumping out of helicopters, beautiful big caliber guns, night fire. They were beautiful to watch. I was like, yeah, that's me right there.

You and I are the same age. Do you remember this ad? It was at night, and he was battling maybe in a lava field, maybe a lava monster. And then he transitions into a Marine in full dress, and he whips that sword up to his shoulder in sharp attention.

Yeah. You couldn't be a kid of the nineties and not want to be a Marine. I saw that ad. Absolutely.

So — grew up in Santa Rosa. What'd your parents do?

My dad worked in law enforcement. He retired from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. My mom was a nurse. Kind of the typical upbringing. Santa Rosa 30 years ago was a lot like Redding is today. About a hundred thousand people, had some small-town feel. It was a good place to grow up.

It seems like you've still got all your fingers, you can still see, and no felony convictions.

It's certainly different now, just like Redding is different than it was 30 years ago.

So pretty straightforward childhood, working parents. At some point you left high school, you went to the Marine Corps — take us through that part of your life.

I joined the Marine Corps when I was a junior or senior. I was 17. My dad was in the garage listening to the Giants game — like my dad on his days off, that's what he did. He'd hang out in the garage, listen to the AM feed from KNBR. The recruiter comes in the garage. "Mr. Webb, I need to get a signature." My dad made some more comments about the Marine Corps. "You sure you want to do this, son?" Yeah, I'm sure. Signed up. Joined as a reservist — a six-year commitment. Went off to MCRD in San Diego for boot camp. That was actually my first time in San Diego. Of course it was not the normal San Diego experience. I was telling my kids last time we went to San Diego — you can actually see MCRD from the airport. When you're in the airport, you can see Marine recruits jumping over obstacle courses and running. I said, "Yeah, I was over there 30-something years ago." They love San Diego — we've gone on a few family vacations. I said, "Well, that was my first vacation. It was MCRD. Little different, though." I remember getting off the airplane and they come looking for you in the airport. They're pretty nice — it's a public place, so they're not going to cause a scene. But once you get on that bus and they shut the door, it's a different world.

You mean when the public eye was gone?

Exactly. They were walking up and down, yelling, pointing in your face. It was fun. It was a great experience. I always recommend it to young people who aren't sure what they're going to do — the Marine Corps is always a good option.

The Marine Corps has the longest of all the boot camps, right?

Yeah, I believe it still does. At that time it was 12 or 13 weeks. Then you go another two weeks to Camp Pendleton for additional combat training — more land nav, door-to-door combat in these make-believe cities built out in the fields. You handled live grenades, things like that.

How long was your active service before you got to the reserve part, and what was your job?

As a reservist, you're generally limited to whatever jobs are available at the reserve unit where you reside. In Northern California, my unit was headquarters company, based out of San Rafael — which eventually moved to San Bruno near the San Francisco airport. You take the ASVAB proficiency test, and your score opens up a list of available jobs. There were two or three available at my unit: supply, infantry, or mechanic. I thought — I can go work at Walmart doing supply. So I trained as a 3521, which is basically a Humvee mechanic. We also worked on the bigger five-ton trucks.

Did you have a mechanical background before the Marines?

I did. As a young person, I was one of those kids who tinkered on vehicles. I really enjoyed fixing things. I actually bought and sold about five tractors. I worked at a dairy, and the dairy would use and abuse their equipment, then put a tractor out to pasture when they bought a new one. I went to the owner and asked, "What are you going to do with this tractor?" "We just kind of use it as a spare." "Would you sell it?" "Yeah, three hundred bucks." So I bought my first tractor for $300, did some cosmetic and mechanical work, and sold it for $1,400. That was my first business venture. Did that a few times. In high school I actually wanted to go into agribusiness. Through FFA — those are great vocational programs. Doing a project, taking it to the fair, budgeting. It's basically a small business. But when the Marine Corps came along, mechanics sounded fun. They had a good school in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. About four or five months. I stayed a few more months and then came back to the reserve unit.

So your training was close to a year long. And then you got back to Santa Rosa and — if I remember right — enrolled in college.

I did. My mom and dad — like every good parent — hoped I'd get an education. So I settled on the junior college route. Enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College in a handful of classes. At the same time, I started looking for work. Since I had a certificate that said I was a mechanic, I opened the newspaper — this was when job listings were still in the newspaper, not even Craigslist — and saw an oil change technician job. Around $6 an hour. Minimum wage was probably $4.75 or $5, so $6 was pretty balling. I dropped off my application at 4:30. The owner called my house at 7:30 the next morning.

Were you awake?

I was awake. I had just done 35 sit-ups and run two miles. I was 19, 20, feeling pretty good. Answered the kitchen phone — the one on the wall with the long cord. He said, "Matt, what are you doing this morning?" "Sitting here waiting for your call." "Can you come down for an interview?" "I can be there in 15 minutes." I was already dressed. I show up at eight. Go into his office. Behind him on the bookshelf are photos of animals he had purchased at the fair. One of them was mine — a reserve grand champion pig. He had partnered with another local business owner to buy it years earlier when I was in high school. I said, "Hey, that's my pig up there." He looked back — "Oh, wow." Pretty much hired me that morning. That's how I started in the business. Saturday was a great day, really busy. Just washed windows and checked tires. Monday I had to go to class. English 1A, psychology, the core classes. I'm sitting there thinking, "This is fine, but I really enjoyed working." Making money. And there was this girl I really liked in one of the classes — I stuck around a couple weeks and found out where she worked. Safeway. She was bagging groceries. I specifically got in her line.

I told a story on the last podcast — or maybe after we stopped recording — where I used that exact phrase. It resulted in me marrying my wife of nearly a quarter century. Whenever we have to say "I wasn't stalking," we were probably stalking. It just worked out for us.

She didn't give me the time of day. That was the end of my college career. I did my two weeks and never went back. Just went to work full time. Really loved what I was doing.

I know your backstory, but it's important because we're going to get to Premier today — and Premier in the future. You go from "we're not going to let you touch the cars for real, you have to make sure the air pressure is right and wash the windows" — and you were with that company a long time. Really progressed.

I worked for the company 10 or 12 years. Started checking tires and washing windows. Eventually they let you change wiper blades — same way we train people today. We don't let a new person touch a critical component. After about six months I became a team leader. Learned the positions. At 21, I became a manager. Worked through the ranks — managed a store, then the highest-volume store they had in Santa Rosa, then became a district manager over five or six locations. Then the company started franchising. First franchise we sold was in San Antonio, Texas. So what I did for the next couple years — after each franchisee did their training at our headquarters — I'd go help set up their stores and do their training. I was on the road a lot. Did 52 round trips in the year 2000. That's my claim to fame on Southwest Airlines. Challenging time — hard on my family being gone every day.

You went from the bagger girl to now you have a family. There's got to be some part of that story.

I got married in 1996. It'll be 30 years next week or the week after.

Congratulations.

Met her, got married pretty quickly — within a year of meeting. Waited a couple years, then had our first child. At that point I was VP of Operations for the company. And I had this itch — I want to do my own thing. I want my own store. My own business. A couple of us were reading Robert Kiyosaki — Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrant. Still good books. I recommend them. I thought, "Yeah, I need to be in the B quadrant. The business owner and investor quadrant." That was 20 years ago — as of March this year, we've been in business 20 years. Backing up a little — during that same period, I started another business while I was still employed. It was a wine tour business. They were building a big new resort near where I lived in Windsor. My friend and I were outside on Thanksgiving because our power went out and we needed to cook the turkey on the Weber. He said, "We should start a wine tour business. Let's get some Land Rover Defenders." Cool vehicles. All aluminum, mid-nineties. They look cool, don't run great — they're high maintenance. But we made these things really cool safari-looking. Bright yellow, logo, open air. We just showed up at the resort and said, "Yeah, we do mixed wine tours, 80 bucks a head, jump in." The resort loved us. They would just book people — 12 people showing up on a Saturday morning. We expanded to two vehicles, then five at our peak. I was doing that on weekends while still working 60 hours a week. That's how I'm wired. Not necessarily how I'd recommend it, but I think I've matured somewhat — maybe a little bit. Would Mrs. Webb agree? We'll have to ask her.

We'll disable the comments on the video.

So I had the wine tour business going. Then an opportunity opened up in Eureka to buy a three-bay oil change center that had been there since 1984. The owner was ready to retire — he'd already retired from another career. Great family, great clientele. They were doing about 40 cars a day. We made an offer, and they took it. At the same time, I was still working the corporate job. I went in and had a meeting with my boss — the owner of the company — the controller, and a few key people. Small company at the time, about 60 or 70 employees. They asked, "What's your plan?" I said, "Well, I found this store. I'm going to buy it." They said, "Really?" Long story short, we came to the conclusion it was probably good for me to leave. I left on mostly good terms. I went from making a hundred thousand dollars in 2005 as an operations manager to doing wine tours on the weekends and starting a business — with a mortgage, one child who was two or three, a house payment, a car payment. All the things you have once you get a job and start making some money. But it was exciting. Times where I learned a lot about myself.

Say more about that. I know that was challenging and you leaned into your faith.

When you're growing up, you always hear, "God has a plan for you." You think, "Yeah, I always believed that." I could see God's hand guiding me — the job I got, even leaving college. All these things I can see now were ordained by God. I got really focused on money in my late twenties. That led to working crazy hours. There are seasons where you have to do that — you're starting a new business — but you can't sustain it forever. I went from making all this money to now making about half. It put me in a position where I really needed to rely on my faith and make good decisions. I was taking money out of my house — this was back when you could walk into a mortgage office and they'd loan you money on no documentation. I tapped the equity to start both businesses — the wine tour and the oil change. The Eureka store went well. I sold my half of the wine tour business in 2007 because I was focused on the oil change side. That's when I moved to the Redding area.

There's part of that story I know from our past conversations — where your bride and your child had to give you up for months when you first started the Eureka store.

It's even more extreme than that. Chrissy got pregnant in 2006. Right when we opened the store. So I told my pregnant wife, "Hey — by the way, I need to move to Eureka. I'll be there five or six days a week and come home maybe once a week." She didn't want to move to Eureka, and it wasn't practical — her mom was close, we had friends and family. So I rented an apartment in Eureka. Worked up there three or four months to start the business. Another sacrifice. But every time I had one of those sacrifices, I just knew it would work out. And I knew at the end — or further down the road — it would make sense. And it did. My wife would ask, "When are you going to come home? When are we going to take a family vacation?" Eventually, eventually, eventually. We were living in Windsor. Another opportunity came up — an oil change business for sale in Yreka. Most people get confused between Eureka and Yreka. One's on the coast, one's over here. I was on my way to Medford to look at that business when I got off I-5 at the Anderson outlets. Instead of getting back on I-5, I went straight down Deschutes. I got to Palo Cedro and couldn't believe how nice it was. February. 72 degrees, green grass, light breeze. Reminded me of Santa Rosa growing up. I got to Medford, did my meeting, came back, stopped at the Raley's on Hartnell — closed a couple years later — picked up the real estate magazine at the front. Called four realtors. First one who answered, I said, "Hey, I want to look at some houses." Came up, looked at some houses. That same night I got home, I was taking out the garbage cans and my neighbor — a Santa Rosa PD officer — was out front on the lawn with his buddy having a beer. He said, "If you ever want to sell your house, would you consider calling me first?" I said, "That's weird — I just drove through this place called Palo Cedro. I think I want to move there."

I have to know how that conversation went with your wife.

I came in with the book. "Hey — look, there's this great place called Palo Cedro." "Palo Cedro? Where's that?" "Oh, it's up by Redding." "Redding? Like the place we stop when we go to Oregon?" "There's a Costco there. It'll be fine. You'll be fine."

That was your strong sales pitch. "There's a Costco."

It was a good move for us. Again, I see the Lord's hand in that. My wife and I moved with nobody. We had just purchased the Yreka store — actually, I think we were still negotiating that deal. So my wife and I, with no friends, had to become good friends. That was pivotal for our marriage. I'm a slow learner. It took me 10 years to figure out how to halfway be a husband. I'm still learning — 30 years in.

She's a teacher by trade. That's probably true.

That's right. It was a really good move for us. We strengthened our marriage. Met a lot of great people we still know today. And I wanted to raise my kids in a place like where I grew up — where they had a little bit of space. Couldn't do that in Santa Rosa affordably. Here I could. We got a couple acres. I always wanted to own an oil change and car wash on the same property. Nobody was doing both here. Moved here in 2007. Bought the Lake Boulevard property in 2012. Didn't open until 2016.

Long, slow cook.

Slow cook. Part of it was capital. We were still pretty new. Running a business and growing a business are two different professions. I remember taking my business plan to what was then North Valley Bank — our first real loan. They looked at it and said, "We like this. We'll loan you the money." I was scared I was going to get a big no. They called the next day. "Yeah, we'd love to loan on this project." I tried to act not surprised. I was trying to borrow like $3 million. Great start for the business. At the time there were enterprise zone hiring credits that really helped us catapult. Those went away.

What were enterprise zones?

Yreka and Eureka were also enterprise zones. There were hiring credits designed for job creation and economic development in more rural parts of California with higher unemployment. I'm a firm believer in those programs. Tax incentives for business growth work — they did for us. We doubled our business as a result. It was a kickstart, a bump start.

Sounds like a public-private partnership that worked. Not the public taking from the private business — partnering, for the betterment of both.

Absolutely.

So at this point you have the Eureka store, the Yreka store, and you're building out the Lake Boulevard store.

We bought the Palo Cedro store in 2011 — that was number three. Then a wide gap of three or four years just figuring out how to run multiple stores and develop systems. We had a business partner we bought out in 2014. He was terrified of the Lake Boulevard project. To his defense, he was a few years older than me — his appetite for risk was less than mine. If that project didn't go well, it could have buried us. He said, "I want you guys to buy me out." So we did. He was very gracious — 10-year payment plan. Our company was small at the time so the value wasn't insane. When we opened Lake Boulevard, that was our fourth location. Actually — Palo Cedro was three, Lake Boulevard was four, but the computer system labels Lake Boulevard as number four and there's a store five that actually opened before it. We never changed it. An opportunity came up in Grants Pass, Oregon. Our contractor called — there was an oil change facility rented by a franchisee of a national brand who stopped paying rent, was behind a significant amount. They asked if we'd come take it over. We told them no — we're too busy building Lake Boulevard. Called us back three or four months later. "I'm still struggling to get a tenant. Can you come look at it?" We looked. Ended up saying yes. Grants Pass opened October 2015. Lake Boulevard opened Valentine's weekend 2016.

Has it really been 10 years?

Yeah. Wow.

No wonder we look different in the pictures. I can't keep track of time. So — we've talked about Premier's history, and you mentioned this idea that running a business and growing a business are two separate tasks. Couple questions. First: risk aversion. As I hear you tell the story from your wife's perspective, you can hear the risk — "We're going to mortgage our house to the hilt on a garbage loan to take a risk, and I'm going to surrender the secure paycheck." From your perspective it sounds like, "We're just going forward." Was it personal makeup, faith, answer to prayer? What made you less risk-averse? And is there a lesson for a young person listening who's thinking about a business?

Good question. Probably a combination of all those things. It's the idea of being comfortable being uncomfortable. As humans, we like to be comfortable. It's nice when you save a little money — if the washer breaks, if the car breaks down, you have a cushion. Every time I had a cushion, I found a way to get rid of it and use it to fund another business. The first couple times it's scary. But once you're comfortable being uncomfortable — and you're praying about these things and seeking wise counsel — I've been really fortunate to have a lot of people in my life who've done what I was trying to do. I wish I would have figured this out 20 years ago. Find people who've done what you're trying to do. Ask them questions. Most of them are more than accommodating. I was able to seek out people who were good business people in my industry and in other industries. I asked them for advice and built relationships. I always thought I could be a Lone Ranger and just build this business myself. You really can't. Took me a long time to figure that out. One of our core values at Premier is relationships. It's huge. For young people — take the time to create relationships without an expectation of getting something out of it. A lot of people have an agenda. Just create a relationship and serve someone. That gives you the confidence when people tell you, "Yeah, this will work. Try this." I probably figured that out 10 years ago.

A guest I had on the podcast a couple weeks ago said the same thing. Started a business from scratch, didn't come from a business family, wasn't handed to him. He noted how blessed he'd been to have people come alongside him — how willing they were to share without expectation. They wanted to help another young person. Great perspective because they'd been through it 20 years ahead.

Most of us have an ego. We think, "The guy doesn't know anything, why would I ask him?" Or, "I can figure this out on my own." I love mentoring and helping people, especially in our business. My team especially — they get calls all the time from other operators. We have an open line. Nothing's a secret. It's not the recipe to Coca-Cola. When they ask how we do something or what our policy is, we just share it. We'd do it for our competition. If everybody's better, we'll all rise. A rising tide lifts all boats. The other thing — there are really good peer groups out there. I've been part of one for 10 years. Three times a year we meet in different markets of members in the group. We dissect all our financial and operational data, compare notes, share best practices. Tight group of about 13, maximum of 20 allowed, all in the same business. Significant experience. There's a guy who's bought and sold three businesses. Another guy who owns Bundt cake franchises and has a finance background — that's the guy I call when I'm talking to the bank about borrowing $5 million. "What do I ask for?" Instead of going in and asking the bank what they want to give me, now I have that knowledge base I can call about anything.

So — scaling. From "we were all throwing a Hail Mary pass taking equity out of our houses" to where you're at now. What have you learned about scaling?

It's very difficult. Almost like dropping your kindergartner off for the first day — you're crying, they're crying, and then you realize it was a good thing. Scaling is like that. When you're starting the business, even with two or three locations, you can still be there a lot. When I was in Eureka, I was there every day for the first three months. Same when I opened Redding — my office was there, people would come up and want to talk. It's nice to be able to do that. But you can't run your business forever like a mom-and-pop from a guest-facing standpoint or an employee-facing standpoint. We got away with about five locations without a lot of written processes. Once you get to about 50 employees, you have to start taking the business seriously — documenting processes. Having processes documented is the backbone of scaling. We always thought, "I can train another guy — I have the knowledge right here, and he has the knowledge too." What happens when he leaves? When you have nothing documented and no training procedures — it's like Jenga. You keep stacking on top and it becomes shakier without the foundation. Boil it down to a couple things: business systems. Great accounting systems. Start as early as possible, even if you're only bringing in $10 a day. Have a good system where you know where your money's going. I've bought businesses where I ask the owner for last year's P&Ls and he says, "I don't really do one. I look at the bank account, and if there's this much in there I figure we're okay." Terrible way to run your business. When young people come to me for advice about starting a business, I tell them — figure out the accounting side. It's the boring side, at least for me. There are great business people with atrocious back-end support who can never take it over a certain point. Second: systems. Training, documentation. Right now there are great tools — apps that are inexpensive, a couple hundred bucks a month for a hundred employees. We have about 110 employees. You dispense training material through an app. That's how younger people relate. We used pen and paper, Google Drive, Excel spreadsheets for a long time. That stuff works. But after 50 employees, when you're not there every day, you have to have good systems and good people.

You have to slow down and stop doing the business of business in order to make the business sturdy for growth.

Absolutely. When you find people who are good, pay them well and put a lot of responsibility on them. That gives you the opportunity to keep pushing the ball forward. Building a team is the third thing. You have to have people who are proficient — that's half of it. The other 30 or 40 percent is people in alignment with your vision and mission.

You mentioned relationships is one of your core values. What are your core values as a business?

We probably have more than you're supposed to have — you're supposed to have three to five. We took the word Premier and made an acronym. P is proficiency. R is respect. E is excellence. M is meaning — that's the hardest one to explain. I is integrity. The other E is enthusiasm. R is relationships.

Talk to me about meaning.

I knew that was a good core value when we started, just didn't know how to explain it until recently. We want what we're doing to have meaning. We want to make an impact on the community, make a difference in people's lives — not only our guests but our staff. Every interaction should be meaningful. All the way down to the products we offer. We want products that make a difference on your car. We're strict about that. People come in every day trying to sell us different products — "Try this, put this on there." Like blinker fluid. We haven't added a service in the last 10 years except headlight restoration. People started asking, "Do you guys do that headlight stuff?" And we're like, "Nah, we're an oil change place." Then we realized it's a meaningful service — a safety issue. If you've ever driven with bad headlights — I had a Honda minivan and the headlights were terrible. Once we got it done, driving at night was a whole new car. People call the next day: "I did the headlight thing yesterday, driving last night was like a whole new car." Meaning is creating an atmosphere where when people come to work, it's for a reason — not just to pay bills. Are we accomplishing it? I think so. We can do better. It's a weird core value. I've never seen anybody else use it. We debated it.

You made yourself something to live up to. Set a goal that's always going to be just a little ahead of where you are.

Core values are another thing you should establish early on. We didn't. Took us 10 years. I thought, "Yeah, we don't need core values. We just go set the example." Now we have them on shirts, on the wall. We want staff thinking about them, managers remembering them every day. Not just on a wall. You can walk into most big businesses and ask, "What are your core values?" and be hard-pressed to find someone who knows. In the beginning we rolled ours out — "Let's make sure everybody knows these." People memorized them but didn't really know what they meant. So it took another three years to systematically teach them. Onboarding is one of the most important times. An employee decides in 30 or 40 days whether they like the place they work and whether they're going to stay. Doing a great job of onboarding gives them a chance to be successful.

Take us quickly through stores six, seven, eight, nine. Then talk to me about the future.

Six was Anderson — bought that store from a local family. Great people, did the deal right in their kitchen. They still come in. Store seven was Central Point, Oregon. Looks exactly like Lake Boulevard — same buildings, same layout. Big lot, two acres. Great spot near the Medford airport. Store eight was Yuba City. Exciting because — in the spirit of meaning and relationships — we started letting employees with over five years at Premier buy into the real estate side of that business. The rent is based on the revenue of the sales of the business. If revenue increases, rent increases — it's a percentage factor. People who put money in are getting checks every quarter. Now they have an asset creating value.

Some of your employees are charging you rent.

We set up a separate LLC to hold the property. Even more exciting — we're going to do the same thing in Red Bluff. As of Monday or Tuesday, we'll own the Denny's on Antelope Boulevard. Denny's closed about a month ago — they're closing locations all over the country. We like Red Bluff. Great spot right by the freeway. Setting it up for the ownership group of about 10 employees.

So these employees have an opportunity to not just earn a paycheck through their labor, but also to have ownership and long-term equity.

An investment. They're getting an ROI. They had to put a little money in. Some couldn't. We're trying to create opportunities to help others participate in the future. It's not something we're giving — they had to make a sacrifice. Some had money in savings. Everybody in that entity has already gotten back the money they put in.

In four years?

Three years actually.

From an investment standpoint — to double your money in four years is a great rate. If you could do that in the stock market, everybody would want you as their advisor.

Store nine is the beautiful store down the street here on Cypress. Just opened in February, right before the 20-year anniversary. Store 10 will be Red Bluff — assuming things go well on Monday and Tuesday. We have to build that store. There's another opportunity we're working on in between — a takeover of a store in Susanville.

I'll have my wife, who's from Susanville, skip this part of the podcast — although she might acknowledge it.

People joke about Yreka and places like that, but we love those little towns. They're great places. They catch a lot of jokes, but those towns have a lot of good people. A lot of heart. In Yreka, we were the only oil change place. We got a call from the mayor one day — she just said, "I love the service you guys do for the community. I stopped in there with a low tire, wasn't spending any money. I'd had my oil changed three months ago. Your guys aired up my tire and offered to do other stuff I didn't ask for." She was like, "What a great asset to the community." I said, "Thank you — but thank you for creating a great community." Definitely don't want to write those places off.

You grew up in Santa Rosa when it was still a little town. I grew up around here when it was smaller than it is now. Even Redding is podunk to people from San Francisco or LA. A couple of friends of mine — both LA guys — talk about Redding as a podunk little place. So — Premier has had its 20-year anniversary. It's making opportunities for employees to own. We talked about future growth. I want to end on a positive note, but I have to ask — what's it like running a highly regulated business? All businesses are regulated, particularly in California. There's employment, then cars, oil, all of it.

Certainly a full-time job just keeping up with the regulations. They change all the time. A few years ago we got a new tax on oil. Regulations end up being taxes, but they're obscure — most people wouldn't vote for a tax. We have a million state agencies in California. All of a sudden the Department of Toxic Substances says, "We're going to start taxing used oil." That raises the price for an oil change. It's one of those things I've come to expect as a business owner. I was talking to a new business owner in Redding — she hired a couple employees and got fined over something she didn't know. There are so many regulations, and new ones every year. We have a full-time person on staff who does compliance and some HR. Even a company as small as ours.

But you've been able to navigate them.

Yeah. It's not the most exciting part of the job. I'm on a government affairs committee for our industry. I was in Washington, D.C. back in May lobbying for right-to-repair legislation. I'm also on a state committee — representing our association at the Bureau of Automotive Repair's advisory group. As a regulatory agency, they've done a good job listening. But as a business owner, it can be scary. You don't even know the rules because they're not required to inform you. As a business we're required to have all these disclosures — if you get a mortgage or work with a realtor, gazillion disclosures. But the state can make a new regulation and isn't required to inform you. The responsibility is on you to figure it out. California has become pretty hostile toward driving. They're floating a mileage tax now. That probably won't help our industry. They don't want people to drive.

I'd heard the mileage tax was a replacement for declining gas tax revenue from EVs.

That's certainly part of it. Oregon is doing the same thing — taxing EVs. I think it's a flat tax, not mileage-based yet. We pay the highest gas taxes. That's been in the news with higher fuel prices. In California we need to figure out how to get some common sense — whatever side of the aisle you're on, people need to live and work here. Our part of the state is really different than other parts. We rely on our cars. We have to drive. People who live in Burney work in Redding — not uncommon. To tax mileage on top of everything else is going to be tough. Lots of hurdles for automotive businesses. They floated a new tax this legislative session that just ended — they want to tax packaging. Certain packaging like oil comes in — cardboard boxes, shrink wrap. At the producer level — so Chevron would pay the tax. We're a Chevron dealer, so they'd pass it to us, and we'd pass it to the consumer. All these little things add to the cost of doing business in California.

What are they doing — sitting around at two in the morning thinking, "What can we tax?"

July 1st they're taxing software. Ten percent tax on all the software we use, like Microsoft. I don't fully understand it — don't want to misspeak — but there's a tax on software as of last week. Every time I turn around there's a tax here, a tax there. The crazy part with the oil tax — there was not a lot of education on it. If you didn't pay and didn't submit the forms, it's a 300 percent penalty. It's not by the gallon — by the ton. So we have to convert. Every 600 or 700 gallons we collect, we pay about $80. Our first year in California, this tax was about $35,000. And it was retroactive — going back on oil already collected. So we didn't even have the opportunity to collect it from clients. We had to raise prices. We've done a pretty good job keeping prices reasonable. I was in Iowa three weeks ago visiting a fellow operator. He's charging more than we are. I said, "How are you doing this in the middle of Iowa when gas is three bucks a gallon?" This guy's in Des Moines. His oil change is $6 more than ours. I said, "We're in California, we have way more regulation, way more taxes, higher wages." He said, "No, it's the going rate." I said, "Well, we're undercharging then." We've tried to keep it affordable for people who need to maintain their cars.

I'm fully embracing my curmudgeon stage, even though I'm not old enough to be a curmudgeon. But as we come toward the end of our time — what are some of the life-changing opportunities and success stories you've gotten to see as a business owner with your team over the last several years?

Excellent question. When I was an employee making $6 an hour, I went from $6 an hour to $100,000 in the company. I want to create the same kind of opportunities. When you can hire someone who's not sure exactly what they're going to do — a young person in their twenties who really embraces the culture — and that person can grow up through the system. Watching a guy buy his first house. Even his first car. Watching somebody get married. That's exciting. We want to create as many of those opportunities as possible. In addition to the real estate ownership opportunities I mentioned — leadership training. We finally got serious about that a couple years ago. We do quarterly leadership meetings with managers and assistant managers on separate days. We just did one this Tuesday. Doing another next Tuesday. Teaching leadership is underrated. We use John Maxwell's 21 Laws of Leadership as our platform. We dissect each law. Took us a year and a half — we do a couple laws a quarter. Almost two years. Watching someone grow in their leadership ability is exciting. I've been going through that material for 20 years, used it at my old employer. Learn something every single time.

Have you had somebody start out filling tires and washing windows and gone on to become an assistant manager, manager, bought a house, bought a first car, had a kid?

Two really cool success stories — they're brothers. One is Jake. Very well known in the area for football coaching. He was with me 15 or 16 years. Around year 12 he said, "Someday I want to have my own business." I said, "I'm not going to discourage that." He left our company a few years ago, opened his own business up east of Portland. Done a great job. That's exciting to watch. People say, "Aren't you mad at him for leaving?" No — look at this guy. Now he's providing for his family, providing jobs, trying to create the same opportunities we're creating. His brother Justin took his spot — general manager of the company, VP of Operations. A guy who was living on his brother's couch in Eureka. Managed our Eureka store, then our Lake Boulevard store. Does an excellent job. He's a partner in building the business. Just celebrated his 13th anniversary with us last week.

His anniversary with the company is as long as his anniversary with his wife. You guys are building lifetime relationships — one of the R's in Premier. What's your hope for the future?

Keep growing. Would love to see my kids come into the business someday. Lots of opportunities to sell — private equity is roaming the car wash industry. In Redding, there are new car washes going up. My hope is we keep growing and keep it a family business. That people maintain love for their cars. I love cars. I'm not a car guy — people ask what kind of cars I have and it's nothing crazy exotic. I probably should — that would be my sales pitch to my wife. The heart and soul of America is partly the car.

I think that's true in a sociologically verifiable way. We're such a big country, it's a huge industry, we've exported the car and the road around the world.

Think of the day you got your driver's license. First day you got in whoever's car — your mom's, even — and just went somewhere. Went to the bowling alley to meet your friends. You need cars to do that. Electric cars — that's a whole other hour conversation. Can they have the heart and soul? Yeah, baby, but it's not the same. We'll figure out how to service those. Premier probably will — we'll need to. But keep cars cool. My other hope for the business is we don't get over-regulated to where it's impossible to breathe. Enough regulation already. I'd like to grow to other states — increase our footprint. Working on stuff in Arizona. Two active projects there. Another project in Oregon plus a couple in California. Our vision is 30 locations.

So you're about a third of the way. As your friend — and as a member of the community — I hope you get to 30. You said 110 employees. That's 110 jobs. Some are a kid's first job — washing windows, learning to show up on time, learning to take correction. Others are meaningful jobs buying diapers, groceries, cleats for sports practice. I want to see your business grow to 30. I hope one day we're having this conversation and 30 is like, "Wow, I can't believe when we only wanted 30 and now we're 40" — because that means 500 people got gas for their first car, or got cleats for their kids.

I hope we can stay in Redding as our headquarters. All these companies moving out of California, in and out. Dutch Bros moved to Phoenix — they were in Oregon, but still. We love Redding. My family does too. We raised our kids here. I'd love to see my kids raise their kids here. There's a lot of pressure with taxes. I hope we can stay. I love California — that's where I grew up — and you hate to see it try to run off the income earners who create jobs. If the top two percent of earners are paying 60 or 80 percent of the taxes, we need to keep those people here.

And that's a real number, what you just shared.

It is a real number. I don't even know where I stand in there, but I know I'm not in that top group. But we need to keep these people here, whether they're billionaires or whatever. We need to do what we can as a community and as voters to keep California exciting for people who want to start and grow businesses.

You and I have had a lot of conversations about what's the next day, where are we going. I look around — honestly, the same view you have from your house, looking east to Lassen. It's home. Love it here. Love this place, brother. Thank you so much for taking such a long part of your afternoon. I hope people listening are as encouraged as I am by the fact that God does have a plan, and He'll honor those plans even if you don't see them when you're living through them. I hope we can have a part two of this podcast in a few years and catch up with how things have grown. Thank you very much.

Thank you for having me. And congratulations on the Red Bluff location.

Oh yes — thank you. It's exciting. Matt Webb has been on the All Redding podcast. Thanks for your time today.