Jesse Stoddard: Hey, welcome to another episode of the Ride and Style podcast. Uh, I’m Jesse Stoddard, your host along with Josh Pollson. We’re excited to be here today. We’ve got an a fantastic guest. Uh Charles Bonfiglio with Tint World is here. Charles, how are you today?
Charles Bonfiglio: Great, great to be here with you guys. Uh, I’m I’m happy to be here.
Jesse Stoddard: Awesome. Thanks.
Josh Poulson: What I love is whenever like I so you know I don’t we I don’t know Charles super well. We’ve met a couple times in passing but Charles are you either from New York or Jersey?

Charles Bonfiglio: What makes you think I’m from New York?
Josh Poulson: And listen it’s not just the He’s not fresh off the boat. Okay. He grew up in either New York or New Jersey. But I love the passion that comes with the Jersey New York guys.
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah. Well, it’s actually uh Brooklyn, New York is where I’m from. Um that’s where I was born. Grew up in Long Island as a kid and then back to Brooklyn as a teenager. And at 21 years old, I two suitcases, one-way ticket to Florida and and a plane ticket and I started down here with my career.
Josh Poulson: Is there an underground passage from New York to Florida that I don’t know about? Because everybody somehow just all of a sudden ends up in Florida from New York.
Charles Bonfiglio: I don’t know. I think it starts with a spring break calling you down here when you’re a teenager and then you get a taste of the palm trees in the in the beach and you know when you’re ready to get a little older and you want to make a move, why not move out of New York and move to Florida?

Charles Bonfiglio: I mean, it seems like it’s an easy way to go.
Josh Poulson: It’s a no-brainer. So, are you in the Orlando area then or where you at?
Charles Bonfiglio: Um I’m in the Fort Lauderdale area. I’m in Boca
Josh Poulson: Oh.
Charles Bonfiglio: Raton now. Um, but
Josh Poulson: Oh.
Charles Bonfiglio: I moved down to Fort Lauderdale, then Pompo Beach, and and uh as my wife and I decided to start having children, we felt Boca Raton was a good area. Nice, clean, beautiful neighborhood.
Josh Poulson: Awesome. Awesome. I was just there last week.
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah,
Josh Poulson: Ah.
Jesse Stoddard: So, Charles, let’s go back a little bit. Tell us a little bit about how you first got into the automotive industry. If you could give us some history, we’d love it.
Charles Bonfiglio: I guess, you know, I’ll start off with as a teenager, I love cars. Um, you know, my first car was a Chevel and I customed it out with, you know, lights and and mag wheels and stuff and, you know, really cool stuff

Charles Bonfiglio: Um, but I was really big into car audio, so I would have a car audio. Back then it was Crazy Eddies. You go buy whatever you want. You could plug it all in and and I got pretty popular from that. A lot of people were asking me to help them with it. I had a friend that had a older brother that had a car stereo shop called Dr. Car uh, on McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn. And so I’d spend times on the weekends there and I learned a lot. but didn’t think it was going to be a business for me. It was something that I just liked. Um, and I learned a lot of my business skills from my family. They had a clothing factory and that’s where I grew up. Um, and then when uh when I turned about 21 years old, I was I wanted to do something different and I felt that, you know, let me let me go down to uh Florida where it’s beautiful. I could drive a, you know, a convertible, you know, palm trees, you know, who wouldn’t want to do that?

Charles Bonfiglio: So, but I wanted to go start a career and do something that I really loved. and I moved down to open up a car stereo shop. But they after being down here a little bit, you know, the banks didn’t want to lend me money. The uh the landlords didn’t want to really lease to a car stereo shop. It wasn’t like um and then I found franchising and um and franchising was something that I had a cousin that had a Miniki discount muffler shop. He told me about it. Um and then I signed up for the franchise. Next thing you know, uh I opened up my first franchise. Um, and that’s how it started.
Josh Poulson: So you started with a miniki shop.
Charles Bonfiglio: Started with a Mini Discount Muffle Shop in Hollandale Beach, Florida in the same landlord’s uh, strip center. I went back to him to try to sell him on the idea. Look, Mine approved me. Maybe you should let me do the Cario shop there. Well, we don’t want no Carereio shop.

Charles Bonfiglio: That’s kind of like not a real business, but this Miniki, if you’re a franchise, we love franchises. We’ll put give you an endcap. We’ll help you build it out. I’m like, okay. Um, so that’s how it started.
Josh Poulson: So, in your miniki shop, did you have a little radio display where you would also upgrade their uh audios?
Charles Bonfiglio: Well, you know, so here’s the story. I when I was in in New York, I I actually did really well. I had a a clothing factory because I learned the business from my dad. I wound up having a pizzeria in New York City, right around the corner from the Empire State Build. So, I did rather well as a young guy in New York. I just wanted to do something I was passionate about. So, I sold my businesses there and I I took a one-way plane ticket to Florida, just two suitcases. That’s all I had. I sold I had a Corvette, an 82 Corvette. Uh I sold it and I came down here and to conserve money, I went out and bought a 4-year-old Ford EXP just to be able to, you know, get around.

Charles Bonfiglio: Um after I got my first Miniki shop open about a year later, uh my wife was working me in the office. She was going to college down here and I said, you know, listen, once I get the store open, we’ll get married. Wasn’t too long after I opened the store, she’s like, you know, I want the ring. I’m not we’re going to get married. So, we got married and after about a year into the business, I said, “You know, Jen, you know, I I’m doing really good now. The stores are going good. I just bought a townhouse. We got the M wedding. I want to go buy a brand new Corvette.” She goes, “Charles, you know, I do the books and everything and we’re doing really well, but if you want something like that, you got to you probably want to open up another one of these.” I go, “Okay.” So, I picked up the phone, I called up Mine, I got another license, and opened up another store. And not even a year later, the second store was doing just as good as the first store.

Charles Bonfiglio: And I went back to my wife. I said, “Janette, can I buy it now?” She looked at me. She goes, “Yeah, go buy it.” I go, “All right.” So, I went out and I ordered a brand new Corvette.
Josh Poulson: What
Charles Bonfiglio: And
Josh Poulson: year
Charles Bonfiglio: I
Josh Poulson: was that?
Charles Bonfiglio: uh 1983 uh I bought a 1984 because it was a
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: year or two after I came down here. Was 1984 Corvette. Um and I actually completely customized uh a big box in the back. Um I have pictures of all this stuff. Um, so it was all I put neon in the box with loose sight, you know, uh, box with four uh, amplifiers and and and subwoofers. It was just amazing. And I used that I started to go into car shows and stuff. So, yeah, I was promoting my Miki shop, but I was really into the car audio and I got known from it. It was really good.

Josh Poulson: What was it? Red or yellow?
Charles Bonfiglio: The first one was a black one with red interior.
Josh Poulson: Okay.
Charles Bonfiglio: Um, and it had a it didn’t it wasn’t a convertible, though. It was the glass top that
Josh Poulson: Okay.
Charles Bonfiglio: came off. And so, you know, my wife and I started driving around in that thing. You know, we had two two Miki stores and eventually uh we opened up a third and I I wound up being building 10 of them. Um about halfway through when I started to get to about number four, I wanted to buy property and own the property rather than just lease it.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: And then I started buying my property and I became a general contractor. I built the buildings and then would lease them to the Miniki stores. So, I felt like, you know, one day they’ll get paid off and I’ll I’ll collect rent and and
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: I’ll have the business. So that’s what I wound up doing up until about 2001 was my last store that I built.

Charles Bonfiglio: And each store was bigger than the next. Uh when I opened up the last one, that was really a big one. It was an 18 bay shop. It was the first minike store that ever did over $2 million at the time.
Josh Poulson: Well,
Charles Bonfiglio: And um so I did that consecutively. Uh and we started having children. And at that point I you know I took a break from open I was open up stores every year or two maybe three tops. And then I took a break for a few years from 2001 when that store opened. And I about 2005 I told my wife, you know, I think I want to start going back in again and open more stores. And I said, but I don’t want to open up any more minikes. She said, what do you want to do? I said, I want to open up the business I always dreamed of. I said, I want to open up a custom car shop. And she says, well, okay, go ahead and do it.

Charles Bonfiglio: And we still had a bunch of minikes that we’re running, but I said, you got to keep an eye on these and and you know, for me so I can build these. And then in 2006, I um I I went to the guy who originally started Tint World. Now, he’s I didn’t start Tint World. He started Tint World in 1982. Um and over the years, he actually built about six locations. And I used to bring my car there for Tint. And I I always thought, you know, like the way I was with Minne was a muffler shop and I started expanding on the brakes and shocks and custom, you know, exhaust work and and I said, you know, but if that tent shop, if I can expand it on all these other cool stuff like car audio and accessories, I think it would be good. So rather than start from scratch, I want to buy that, but I don’t just want to own one store. I want to I think I could build a franchise and build it better.

Charles Bonfiglio: I saw what Mikey did and I was very close with all the execs there. I was one of their top dealers. So I actually just bought bought the six-story chain and converted to a franchise in 2007. We launched our first two franchises on top of the six-story chain. We
Josh Poulson: Mhm.
Charles Bonfiglio: all sat around a table when I got approved and converted all the stores to a franchise and that’s how it really began uh franchising.
Josh Poulson: So, so you took those six stores and you they became franchises
Charles Bonfiglio: Yes.
Josh Poulson: to like the the shop managers or whoever.
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah. Well, I the the guy who originally started it, he owned the six stores, but when I met him in 2006, I made him an offer to buy the company.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: And so I did and then I after I bought the company, um I let him still run those. So meaning like I bought the brand and
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: I I only had one of the stores and the other ones I let him run because he felt like if you’re going to make it a franchise, I’ll I’ll actually do better.

Charles Bonfiglio: So once I got uh the franchise approved by all 50 states and all was compliant, we actually had a ceremony where we all sat around a table and signed all the franchise agreements and I think it was the beginning of 2007 and plus the two new stores that we sold with the first two ones we added on to it and then from there it just started you know every year was a couple more and that’s how it started.
Josh Poulson: Did you did you uh did you end up selling the mining key source?
Charles Bonfiglio: I I did, but not until I sold them all off except for about two. That was my two biggest ones because they would, you know, they were giving me good income and I building a franchise, I don’t make money right away. You know, you got to focus on helping the franchisees make money, not about what you could make. So, I really wanted to keep, you know, a cash flow coming in. So the some of the properties I the business I stole sold um some of the minies I sold I had rental coming in from the rents on them and then I kept the two bigger stores um that were cash cows and I was making money from those.

Charles Bonfiglio: My wife was overseeing them. Um, but by 2014 when I started to get like 20 to 30, you know, Tip World going, franchises and we started to make some money income, that’s when I I just needed to put all my energy into Tint World and I sold uh my last two stores, but I owned the property. I signed leases with them. So, I had cash flow for coming from the leases. The properties were paid off and I just focused on building the franchise from then forward.
Jesse Stoddard: I have a question for you, Charles.
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah.
Jesse Stoddard: When did the concept of franchise first come into your mind? And was there someone that introduced you to it or pitched you on it or did you already did you pick up on it? Because franchising is not easy. It’s this is a this is a whole another animal that you’ve you’ve been a part of, right? So,
Charles Bonfiglio: It really is. Um, so again, when I started, I didn’t like when I talked to my cousin and the way it happened when I went down to Florida.

Charles Bonfiglio: I was down here, I couldn’t seem to get anybody take me seriously. The bank, I go to the bank say, “Can I get a loan?” and like, “Well, we don’t what do you want to build?” They said, “I want to open up, you know, I want to open up, you know, a custom car stereo shop.” I would have any loans for that. I’m like, “Well, how do you get started if they’re not going to give me a loan?” “Well, we just we just don’t have them.” So, that’s what and the lands was landlord was saying, “No.” So, while I was down there for a few months, my mom called me up and said, “You know, Charles, we’re having a family wedding. Why don’t you fly up for the weekend? You see your cousins?” Okay. So I went up to Brooklyn and I was at the wedding and uh my cousin Roland was there and he had just several months earlier opened up a minik discount muffler shop in New Jersey and so the way we met there and he’s telling me about my mine what’s that he goes well they do mufflers I’m like yeah but a franchise how does that work he goes well you know they give you a blueprint of how to build a business a road map of how to build it and they help you find your location and they help you get a loan I’m like oh really so he said to me goes yeah we’re doing really.

Charles Bonfiglio: Well, it’s been about a year. Him him and his brother will open up a second store in New Jersey. And he goes, you know, after the the wedding, before you go back to Florida, why don’t you come take a look and see it? I said, “Okay.” So, um, I went over to my dad who was at the wedding. I said, “Dad, take a ride with me on Monday. I want to go see Roland’s Place before I go back.” He said, “Okay.” So, my dad and I drove out to um out to uh New Jersey. Uh, it was in Eatentown, New Jersey. And we pull up and it was, you know, muffler shop, little smile. It was a three bay gas station with a muffler smiling up on the building saying mine and gravel park but nothing fancy but it was busy. Had cars going in and out and there was guys working the shop and so I walked in and I and I went start talking to technicians and that he liked this and it was kind of felt cool and it was awesome.

Charles Bonfiglio: It was kind of like that. And then we went to the office and I saw my two cousins behind the counter like you know hey sign right here cap back you know do this you know Joe cat back on the caddy you know I’m like they were just like having a good time with it. I’m like, I I can get into this. And so after being there all morning and learning a little about what he was doing, um we went out to lunch and he, you know, told me a little bit more about it, gave me the business card to to Mine. And he says, “Give him a call, see if you like it.” And so on the way on I thanked him on the way home in the car with my dad, I said, “Dad, it’s not really what I want. I mean, I really want this other thing.” He goes, “Charles, I understand you want that, but sometimes in life, you got to take the the path of least resistance. You could always do that later on.

Charles Bonfiglio: right now if if this works for you and you can make money at it and get you started. They give you the financing and get you a lease, maybe do that. I said, “Ah, I’ll think about it, Dad.” So, and my father was really cool. He’s the best dad you could have. I mean, in my book. So, we got home and I thought about it. I went back to Florida. Um, and while I’m there, I submitted all the documents to get approved to learn about it. And I got a about two weeks later I got a letter in the mail from Miniki saying you’ve been preliminary approved for my discount muffler shops. Your next step is I’m like oh my god it’s the first yes I got since I’ve been down here. So I picked up the phone. I called my dad. He goes yeah go for it. So I signed up with my uh I got my first store approved. Wasn’t and before I did that so first I got the letter and I figured ah I’m swaggy now.

Charles Bonfiglio: I got this letter approval. I’m gonna go back to the bank and show them, you know, I got approved by a franchise. You guys should be able to loan me money. So, I went back to the bank. I spoke to the same girl that told me no loan. I said, “Listen, I know you told me no on a loan, but I got good credit. Look, even my Nikki approved me for a franchise.” She goes, “Wait, that’s a franchise? Oh, yeah. Oh, well, you should have told me.” She goes, “We have a special loan package for that. An SBA loan. Well, here’s the paperwork.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but but can’t you lend me the money for the cost shop?” She goes, “No, uh, for a franchise we have a special loan program.” Like, “Oh, I didn’t know that.” So, she gave me the loan papers and I figured, okay, now I’m going to go back to the landlord and I’m going to use the loan papers and the letter and show that the bank’s lending to me.

Charles Bonfiglio: Mine will lend to me. You got to let you got to let me build this car stereo shop. I was going to use mine and the loan for leverage to get the landlord to give me the lease. You know, listen, I’m from New York. What do you expect
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: me to do? You know,
Josh Poulson: You were going to make him an offer. He couldn’t refuse.
Charles Bonfiglio: yeah, you know. So,
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: so I go in and I tell the landlord just what I said. You know, listen, I got approved from the bank for a loan. Um, and I got proof of mining key. So, I got good credit. Why don’t you let me just take this endcap? You got Lee Miles transmission. You got Jeffy Lube in the building. You got um precision tune there. I could be right in there. He goes, “No, but if you want to put the money, I’ll give you the end cap.

Josh Poulson: Ah.
Charles Bonfiglio: I’ll do build out. I’ll get you going.” I’m like I’m like, he goes, “You got to realize we buy these properties. We build the buildings for auto centers and we get loans from the bank because they know we’re going to put franchise in here. They’re successful, but cost shop they’re not going to really like that much. I’m like, “Ah, I’m starting to learn now.” So
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: I said, “Okay.” He goes, “Here, here’s a copy of the lease. If you want, go see if it can approve it.” So I left and I went home. I called my dad. I said, “Dad, I got the lease in my hand. I got the the bank paper in my hand. I didn’t even buy the franchise yet. I just had a letter of approval and the I’m getting
Josh Poulson: Were
Charles Bonfiglio: yeses.” He goes, “Charles, path of lease resistance.” I go, “All right, Dad.” Called up Mine, signed the deal, showed them location, got my first store open, and that’s how it started really.

Josh Poulson: there any there? So So Mine obviously wasn’t in that area. Was uh so they did they were there other franchises. Please.
Charles Bonfiglio: There was a few minikes in the area, uh, two or three others, and they didn’t do really well. And I was wondering why cuz my co because you, you know, my cousin in New Jersey, he was doing really big numbers. one of the top dealers up north. They were killing it. And so I didn’t think nothing of it. I bought the store. I opened up and I started doing crappy too. The first couple of, you know, months I’m like, so I’m hiring staff and I hired one guy. I remember he was working at Midas, uh, the competitor to Micki. So he comes in and I, you know, he says, I says, you know, and in the interview like he seemed like he knew what he was doing. He was younger than me. I said, but he was, he was scrappy. So I says said, listen, is Midas doing a lot of sales?

Charles Bonfiglio: Oh, yeah. They’re doing well. I said, “Because the minikes down here don’t do as well up in New York. They do great, but not down here.” I go, “And I’m starting out now, but I’m trying to get I’m beating them already, but I’m still not like my cousin in New York.” He goes, “Charles, you don’t know yet.” I go, “No, what?” He goes, “They didn’t tell you at Mine.” I says, “Tell me what?” He goes, “We don’t have any snow, any salt, any potholes down here.” So, the exhaust lasts a lot longer down here. Up in New York, they’re changing exhaust every other year. So, but down here, you know, we get some snowbirds, but really it’s not that busy. I said, “So, what are they doing at Midas? How are they doing it?” He goes, “They’re expanding their services.” I said, “Really? What are they doing?” He goes, “Well, they started doing brakes and they started doing shocks and doing uh, you know, tuneups and and air conditioning service. 

Charles Bonfiglio: Air conditioning service in the summer is great. So, they covered all the seasonal stuff down here and that’s how they’re killing it.” I said, “Really?” I said, “You know how to do that stuff?” He goes, “Yeah, I know how to do that because I work there.” I said, “Well, I need to hire an air conditioning guy. Give me the the give me the anatomy of an ad. What do I need for parts? What I got to be certified in, you know, what do I got to get? And then how do I market it? And when they call on the phone, what do I quote? And then when they come in, what do I upsell? And then he goes, okay, tuneups. Okay, I got a friend that works in position to bring them in here. I hired him, how do I do this? He gave me a whole anatomy of how do I what equipment, the whole thing. So, I built a whole repertoire of these services that I was going to add on and I was going to do what Midas did and just start built and next thing you know, I became the top store in the in the chain.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: People saying, “Oh, this kid in Florida, he’s killing it. Nobody else does like that.” But it wasn’t that I was doing anything special. I just found out that you can’t just make it on mufflers. And in Florida, so I I you know, in the summertime in Florida, you say somebody, you need air conditioning work. How
Josh Poulson: Oh
Charles Bonfiglio: much? They’ll pay you $3,000 if it’s hot.
Josh Poulson: yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: But you go into the winter, they’re like, “Nah, just fill it up a freon.” So I learned that there’s different services at different times of the year. And I just played on that. And so I became a top dealer from doing that. And I just learned from my staff and I grew and and that’s how it really happened. And um fast forward um in the uh around early 90s, I you know, started building more stores. I told you I had like the third one open now. And then one of my operations managers, which I hardly ever saw, you know, they’ve come in a visit.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: And he came in, he goes, “What’s that in your office on the floor?” I go, “Those are tires.” And what do you
Josh Poulson: Wait,
Charles Bonfiglio: got that that tuneup board on the wall? I said, “Well, I do tuneups. You know, when you do a catalytic converter, you got to do tuneups.” And he, “Well, you know, those are all unauthorized services.” I go, “What do you mean?” He goes, “Well, you’re not supposed to do that. Your franchise agreeing says you can only do exhaust and and shocks.” I’m like, “I didn’t know that.” He goes, “Well, I’m gonna have to report you.” I’m like, “Ah, s***.” So, so he basically
Josh Poulson: wait. I mean, don’t they get a cut of it?
Charles Bonfiglio: Well, yeah, that’s what I said. I’m like, I’m paying the royalties on it.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: I said, if I if I was to get rid of that services, I said,
Josh Poulson: Your checks
Charles Bonfiglio: you
 
Josh Poulson: are going to go down.
Charles Bonfiglio: twothirds of my sales would go away. That means you He goes, “Yeah, but you got to be compliant.” So, but at this time, I was really involved. I mean, like from from the get-go, Miniki used to have like what’s called a franchise advisory council, which I have now. And basically there franchises in different regions that join to try to better the system and contribute. And so um in the early 90s there was no point of sale or software or anything. There was just um there was just you know writing the stuff on on the on the pads and they had you know carbon paper and then you take the carbon copy out at the end of the week you’d add them up on a form. You’d put a check in in there added up. Here’s your royalties fees. Here’s your advertising. He check put them in an envelope. put like 10 stamps on it and you ship it off to miniki you know every in the mail and so that’s the way things worked.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: So mine at one of the conventions in the early 90s, it was about ’92 or ’91. We’re at a convention and you know, I think we’re in the Bahamas and all the franchises, you know, we’re were there and Mike is up on this big deas and they go, we want to announce something and we’re looking at what they go, we have this new Radio Shack computer and it says the dot makes us print dot matrix printer and we’re getting a lot of co customer complaints that people can’t read their sloppy handwriting from the stores. So, we we’d like to be able to maybe try to, you know, use this computer to be able to, you know, print the invoices neatly and we’re looking for like a chairman of our computer committee that we can collaborate with and see what we can do to improve this. So, they said, you know, you know, who wants to be on this committee? And all the people, no, we don’t want no computers. And I’m like, I’ll do it. They go, bud, come on up here.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I’m like, all right. I run up to the deas and they go, listen, you’re going to be our computer computer committee chairman. we’re going to give you a free computer for all your stores and we want you to use the, you know, the use it and tell us what we can do to make it better. I’m like, great. So, that’s how I really
Jesse Stoddard: Are
Charles Bonfiglio: started getting to know more about franchising. So, I took it home and I I remember I created the first invention. So, I’m really nitpicky neat. So, I had on the wall the time clock. Everybody comes and punches the time clock and I always hated those ugly time clocks on the
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: wall. I thought it was messy. So I and so min when I had these computers that I had a weekly call set up with this software company. So they would say what do you want? I’m like you know the first thing I really want is there any way we can get that time clock off the wall and maybe just push the the guy’s you know maybe initials in there and prints out a report goes yeah.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: So they they coded the time clock and that was my first invention in the point of sale and it started going from there and but none of the other stores really wanted this thing. Um and I just loved it. I just embraced it. Um, so some of the things that I started to create is product lines and classes and like Mikey, what do you need that? So because I’m on this committee, there’s a marketing committee, an advertising committee, there’s a product committee for all the vendors and there’s the now the computer committee and it started to be all the stuff started funneling through the computer committee. So I got to learn everything because once it started printing the customers names and stuff, we were able to put the names in the computer and then print labels to put them on postcards before internet. Um, and so we print them, go to the go to, you know, go to the um the UPS and and send them out or USPS. And so that was one of the things we did.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: And then as the technology evolved, I started say, why do we have to send these reports up? Can’t we just electronically send them to the, you know, through the fax, you know, and and that’s so I work with the team. I created that and mine used to uh all the people on these committees they would fly them up to North Carolina at the corporate office once a quarter and we’d sit around this big boardroom table we’d collaborate with all the sea level execs and we’d tell them all the things and we’d learn um but as the time was growing like more and more I was working with the marketing department because they wanted the data and then I started working with the product committee because I’m like you know we have all these cataloges I got to look in I got to look up in this catalog for clamps what’s going to fit this car this
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: one for hanger brackets this one for mufflers, this one for tailpipe. I’m like, can’t we just put in the computer wipeer, year, make a model, and there was nothing like that.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: So, they said, “That’s really good, but you probably got to go to the manufacturers.” I started calling up the manufact IT people and they started giving me catalog data. Started sending that over to the uh I mean just went on and on. I mean I would spend my Sundays taking my wife to the mall and like that’s I go to like um Macy’s because there was really nobody that had computers at this time. So I’d say h just go shop around. I talk to the girl behind the counter. Hey is it right if I just come around the counter? I want to see what you got on that green screen back there. What was that? What does that do? What do you use this for? Does it tell you? Oh, and so I started learning like, okay, write that down. I got that. And I go back, I say, okay, I got some ideas, you know, I just any way I can do it. Then I started getting friendly with the CFO of mine, Nick, his name is Mark Street.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Coolest guy and guy’s a British guy. And I just really like spending time with him. Tell me all these war stories. Cool. But the point is that I I used to I we flew together to where the software guy was that made it. And we got stuck at the airport one day where both our planes got, you know, delayed. We sat in the airport for hours and he taught me things about finances that I never even knew. I’m a kid from Brooklyn. What do I know? Right. So, we sit there and he’s telling me, “Okay, so what do you want to know?” I said, “Well, I want to know how what’s the I want to know how many new customers come in versus how many times they come back a year.” Ah, and then I want to know what’s the average ticket. Oh, and I want to know where are these customers coming from, from what neighborhood or what zip code. and you know I want to know um you know am I selling a good mix of services and what’s my inventory?
 
Charles Bonfiglio: So I started creating inventory reports and all these things. Um then I wanted to know like what one of my mechanics are doing most of the work and which ones are just sitting in the corner. Nobody knew. So I would basically program that I would have commission reports or spiff reports or just just to know who’s doing what. And so I created all these really cool things over the years. And um and I started and then Minei said, “You know, we just can’t get everybody to want to sign it up.” So at the annual conventions, I’d be behind a desk, a table at the convention, and I’d have the computers like, “Come here, guys.” And then they put me in a room to do training on the computer. Nobody really wanted to do it, but they’d amuse me by coming to listen to the guy in the computer room. And I
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: say, “Listen, guys, I got something for you.” And they go, “What?” I’m like, “I got the video on the screen. I
 
Charles Bonfiglio: mean, the the PowerPoint, but I want to ask you something. You guys are all smart guys. You guys, what what’s your store do? 900,000. What’s your store? Where are you? Oh, in Connecticut. What does your store do? Okay. Let me ask you, how many texts you have? Okay. How what do you pay your tax? 900, 800, 1,200? Great. Out of the three texts you got, which one does the most amount of work? I don’t know. They all work together. I’m like, no, I don’t think so. I said, I want to know, does anybody know what what their texts do a week? No, we just hired them and they work. I’m like, well, let me show you how I found out. And I put the the screen up. Mike, do you know I had three texts and look at what they’re doing in weekly and monthly work on the screen.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: See that report? Oh, yeah. I says, I found out that I had three techs. I’m paying $1,000 a week each. And two techs are doing 90% of the work. The other one sitting in the corner. And you know which one that is? That’s the master tech. The big wheels, the big toolbox, every tool you want. He’s sitting in the corner. Yeah. Do this and do that. the other guys. I go to my case, if you would do would could if I was able to give you a couple of thousand dollars more a week, would you be able to do it? They go, “Yeah, do all you want.” I go to the guy in the corner and I go, “You know what? I got wheels in that toolbox.” He goes, “Why?” I say, “So, go roll that s*** the hell out of here.” I said, “You’re done.”
Josh Poulson: gone.
Charles Bonfiglio: So, I saved $1,000 a week.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I gave a little extra to the other guys and I was kicking ass. And like when I said that in this in this in this room, these guys were like, “Where do I sign up?”
Josh Poulson: Mhm.
Charles Bonfiglio: I’m like I
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: said, “Oh, you I’ll I’ll help you guys.” So I was the guy that would call me. I’d log into their computer. I’d configure it. I train them. And at the time, we had like six or 800 stores. And I just love doing it and helping them. And so that happened to the early 90s. And I tell you, I think I got a lot of the knowledge that I have today because of that. And, you know, flying back up, spending time with the uh, you know, the high level execs. Um, I learned a lot from them. And then in about 1997 go by the way let me go back to when that happened with in the uh late 80s early 90s about when the guy came down and said you can’t this is all unauorized services because I was on the computer committee I had some favorable people for me that didn’t get I didn’t get in trouble they had like they were arguing back there for a month should we should we terminate him should
 
Charles Bonfiglio: we do this no he’s a good guy he’s helping us out all right what should we do so they gave me what’s called a special addendum addendum to my franchise agreement says that I’m allowed to use to do these other services um as long as I report them and pay royalties on them and I have to put a sign on the wall that said if if you want these services done um they’re only warrantied at this location and also put on the invoice.
Josh Poulson: which is
Charles Bonfiglio: So
Josh Poulson: fine. Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: no problem. Um I didn’t have a problem at all and I had to be certified in the areas that they didn’t even know what it was but I I was. So with that I was allowed to do things that nobody else was and my stores became the highest reporting stores in the whole entire country. And as the 90s came around, you guys probably know this, you know, um around 1997, the EPA came out with new laws saying that we’re going to extend the warranty on the catalytic converters from 30,000 mile warranties to 100,000 mi warranty from the factory, and we’re going to change the exhaust from galvanized to stainless and aluminized, which is going to last three times longer.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Now, Mine was freaking out because that’s their business model.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: So in n in the middle of 1997, I got a call from um the CEO of Mini’s secretary or administrative assistant, whatever, she calls me up. She goes, “Hi, Mr. Boniglio. Um you know, Ken Walker wanted me to call you up.” That’s the CEO. And he wanted to see if he could bring his team down there to talk with you. I’m like, “What did I do wrong now?”
Josh Poulson: Yeah. You’re Oh, great. I’m on another list. I got
Charles Bonfiglio: s***.
Josh Poulson: reported again.
Charles Bonfiglio: So she go, “No, no, no. This is a good thing. This is really good.” I said, “Well, well, who’s coming?” Well, he’s got like the CEO, the CIO, the CFO, um and also
Josh Poulson: All the
Charles Bonfiglio: um
Josh Poulson: C’s and the O’s.
Charles Bonfiglio: VP VP of operations, VP of technology. I’m like, “Oh, shoot.” So, I said, “Well, what do they want?”
 
Charles Bonfiglio: “Oh, this is a good thing. I I’ll give you the itinerary later. I just want to know if you’re available.” When I said, “Okay.” And I was like a little nervous, but she was making me feel fine. So after I they booked in um she called me back and she said, “Well, listen, what they want to know is they want you to have prepared for them. Um like a little bit information about the anatomy of each service and like what kind of equipment you need, what kind of certifications, how does this work, you know, and I said, “Okay, I could do that. I like that.” So when they came down, they I just had built a new store at the time. Um and I think I built my 10 bay store. That was the first store that ever did a million dollars in the first year of their brand. They all came down to see it. And when they came in, they were like like taking pictures of everything.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: They were going to my stock rooms. They were going to the equipment. They were talking to my texts. They were just like I was like, “Oh my god, I’m I’m raided.” Um, you know, and there was like probably 30 of them. And so we after being all morning there, you know, learning and seeing, um, they took me out to a hotel in in PMPO Beach and they rented this big room with a big deas. So we all walk in and I go sit down like and you know I’m like okay what am I gonna learn now? They’re like no Mr. Baker you have to get up to the front. I’m like me like yeah we want you to get up and and onto this podium and and we got we want you to talk to us about things. I’m like you know like I I I get up in front of a thousand people no problem right now. But at that time I was like not that guy. I was I was just still
 
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: young, you know, just trying to figure it out. I said okay and this by the way bring the anatomy of the stuff that you wrote up for. I said okay. So I brought it up there. I’m standing there with all these highlevel executives and they want me to get up there and tell them a couple things. They ask me a question. Okay, well we we have a lot of franchises and that when we tell them that Pep Boys is opened up across street, they’re like, “Oh, that’s it. I’m going to close. I got no I’m going to die. They’re going to take all my business.” But when we call you and we tell you things like that, you’re like, “Screw them. I’ll crush them.” What where do you get that mindset from? I go, “Well, I know my competition.” And I says, “Peps hires all these 17-year-old kids. They’re not trained. They screw everything up. Customers bring it over to me.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I fix it. I make customers for life.” Like, “Well, how do you keep your employees so long? Everybody else is turn.” Well, I train them on all different services. I cross trainin them. So, they’re always be able to be busy any time of the year and the company’s always growing and I’m always open up a new store every couple of years so they all have room to grow. I said, and I celebrate with them like when we break a record, I take them out to roots for a steakhouse. They’re not used to that. I said, ‘I’ll have a barbecue with them. Christmas, they all get presents. I buy diecast cars with our brand on them. I give them out to everybody. They don’t get that everywhere. I said, so I I they’re like friends, you know, so they’re writing all these notes down. Then they go, “Well, talk to us about the, you know, auto services, you know, how hard is it and, you know, what does it take?”
 
Charles Bonfiglio: And so I started to go to the anatomy of a tuneup, the anatomy of air conditioning, all these different things. How about oil changes? Well, yeah. This was realize the oil change is the only one service that you’re going to get customers to come back every 90 days and you get to see them and say hello, have a cup of coffee and while the car is in there, I get to look at their car and I tell them, by the way, while it’s in there, you want to check it, make sure everything’s okay. Yeah. I go check it. I give them an inspection. Sometimes it’s fine, sometimes I, hey, listen, this is needs to be done. And that’s where I’m getting all my work. I says, “If I’m just doing a, you know, a break job or or just a, you know, you know, a muffler job, they ever going to come back to me?” No, I’m a transactional guy now. They don’t get the relationship with me. I tell them, “Stop in every quarter. You
 
Charles Bonfiglio: have a free bagels over here. You have, you know, I’m just treating them like family.” And I learned this from my dad. My dad ran a business with women that were all from the local neighborhood. And, you know, he gives turkeys for the, you know, Thanksgiving. You know, you do these things. And so, I’m a simple I guy. just followed them all and
Josh Poulson: And
Charles Bonfiglio: I
Josh Poulson: was
Charles Bonfiglio: treated
Josh Poulson: this
Charles Bonfiglio: my
Josh Poulson: this before the the9 the9 the9 the9 the9 the9 the9 the9 the9 the9 the 999 oil changes that popped
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah.
Josh Poulson: up everywhere
Charles Bonfiglio: Well, my you know, we were we started with 1999 oil changes
Josh Poulson: 1999 yeah
Charles Bonfiglio: in in about after me. I was I was already
Josh Poulson: I was
Charles Bonfiglio: doing
Josh Poulson: going to say you were doing it First
Charles Bonfiglio: right. So when they start the moaning and groaning that our franchises had, they were going to So again, I learned how to deal with franchises and I I studied them.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I’m like, why are the top 20% making so much money and doing well? Why are the bottom ones always going out and having a tough time and everybody else is in the middle? Why can’t the middle get to the top? And and like and I would literally take my wife on vacation. I say, “You know what? I saw a new store that was opening up in Virginia. Let’s go on vacation to Virginia and you go to the mall for the day. I’ll go ahead and spend with these guys a nice new shop they opened.” I’d go in there. I’ I’d train them. I’d helped them. I coached them. I’d say, “What’s the most you ever did in this store so far?” Oh, well, we did a really big day, but we’re never going to do that. I said, if I do this, we’re going to buy all these guys lunch today. I go to guys, guys, you with me? And I I team build.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I get the whole thing going. So, I do all these really cool things, but you know what? No matter how well I was or how good I got, I learned someone something from everybody. I don’t care if it’s the lowest bottom loser store, I learned one thing from that store and go back, you know, that’s a good idea. Just because somebody’s not good at everything doesn’t mean they’re good at nothing.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: So, um, I learned a lot and I trained a lot and the be the more you train and coach, the more you actually reinforce what you do know and learn from other people what they know. And I did a lot of that. So, I shared that with the people at Mini at this at this table and they’re like, “Okay, well, um, we going to have a problem with a lot of franchises wanting to do these things because now we’re losing these services and we want to go back and write addendums to what services are going to be good because we got three bay gas.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: We had three bay stores in Brooklyn. They can’t expand. There’s no more nowhere to go. So, when they’re losing, we don’t want to shove everything in there because we’ll lose our main core of business. So, what could we add in?” So we we dialed in like okay if they’re losing some business and they got a small store we can add this one or two services if you know if they’re have a bigger store and you know maybe they got five bays or four bays. So we started doing that. So that was in 1997. Um by 1998 Miki was sending me the legal documents for the addendums to review to make sure they were accurate with equipment and training and whatever. And like yeah this I I just I love doing this stuff. So they went back and they started rolling out these service addendums and it really helped save their company. By the time we got to 2000, Mine changed the name to Mine Care Center. All
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: the signs were changed and we became a full car care center and um and that’s how I helped Mine evolved to what they are and I just really loved the ride. I learned it. So when I bought Tint World naturally I said how do I expand these services you know and I said okay we so I basically did the same thing but aftermarket
Josh Poulson: So, how one question on percentage, then I’ll let Jesse ask a question. How much do you I mean, you’ve you’ve been on both sides. You’ve been a franchisee, you’ve been a franchiser, and you’ve been you’ve been a lot in the middle. So, how much percentage-wise would you say success of the franchise depends on the owner of the franchise versus the maybe the the the mothership? I mean, is it like a is it a is it a true 5050 or is it more Ionus on the owner to embrace? What would you say? And I know every franchise could be different, but you know, for Tit World, let’s say,
Charles Bonfiglio: Well, you know, I I’ll start by saying that not all franchises are equal.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I mean some franch I mean so number one you can open up a cookie franchise and it can knock it out of the park because there’s a good cookie a good name and
Josh Poulson: sure.
Charles Bonfiglio: it’s a trend and in four years the thing is like just not there
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: you know so and then also you could have a franchise that opens up and they seem to get it going but they don’t really invest into the business and the growth and this and you know everything so it’s not all there um what I I loved is how do we make it better every day how do I make it better so number one if you have a good franchise company that’s always innovating and growing especially if you have a good se I mean automotive we’re not going anywhere you
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: know I it was great so I know it’s good and you’re always going to work on it and how do you outdo and so that was that’s a big part of it so if you have a good franchiseor all you’re doing is getting more and more quality tools in your
 
Josh Poulson: Heat.
Charles Bonfiglio: toolbox it’s like saying you know what’s more important having a really good technician that knows a lot and certified or having someone that’s scrappy and pretty good but one guy has a toolbox with everything in it and the other guy’s working with a wrench. Like that’s what franchising is. I’m giving them a toolbox with everything in it. All the tools. Now, are there good are there people with a good toolbox, but they’re not a good operator? They don’t know how to really use the tools. They don’t train. They’re sloppy. Yes. So, it’s it’s a balance of both. Number one, and I really tell franchises, and I I just really recently we were talking to our new CMO, and she says, “You know what? When you go and buy a franchise, you got to be a business owner first and a franchisee second. Because if you go in it saying, “I’m gonna be a franchisee and they’re going to do everything for me.”
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: That’s not going to make you a great franchisee. You got to go, you’re buying a franchise to streamline the business. I’ve already got the software, the talent, the tools, the marketing, the systems. I have other franchises that we share the same voice and we can grow this thing. And so you can leverage that brand to grow. going it alone is really difficult. I mean, just building a website today could cost you over $100,000 just to get started. And then you’re talking about, you know, all the, you know, you can’t get the buying power, the negotiating, the different things. And by being part of a brand, you can grow. I I truly believe in franchising. And I am not saying there’s not a place for an independent business. That’s how things incubate and grow. But not everybody’s going to be doing that. I mean, do you want to try to figure out how to build a business and and reinvent it, or do you want to go buy a business model that’s proven and leverage it to open up one, two, three, four, five stores and then buy property and then put them in the property and that’s me.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: That’s what I love to do. I want to leverage a system for growth and I want to gauge myself for can I be at the top of that system in the top 10, top 20, top 10%. I want to be there and that’s really what I focused on and I always want to get better. Um, to me that’s a lot more fun and you could focus on your business. And if you really are someone who’s an entrepreneur that wants to create stuff, you join the committee and you work with them. Everything doesn’t always have to be about money and building it for me. I
Josh Poulson: No,
Charles Bonfiglio: could make my money by enjoying and you can automate your business a lot better rather than always think about what do I do? What do I got to I got to create a brochure. I got to create a new this or a new that and what’s the best equipment? Oh, I got to negotiate something. If you got a system that’s a really good quality system, a lot of these things are done and you really can leverage that and grow a lot quicker.
 
Jesse Stoddard: I love it. Good answer. Um, I would like to ask a question about one more about you though. What would you tell your younger self if you knew what you knew now? What would you tell your younger self?
Charles Bonfiglio: That’s you know a lot of people ask me that and I’m a guy that pretty much does as much as I can do every day. So there’s not a lot of different things. Um um you know I could tell you one thing it may not be anything fashion but I I one of the things I didn’t want to open up a car stereo shop in New York for two reasons. I wanted to move to Sunshine and two I felt you know what and this is no joke at that point in New York you open up a business you’re going to have Tony Montana coming in your door knocking and saying pay me a VIC on
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: protection and I figured I’m not doing that I’m going to go to Florida I’m going to have an area where I don’t have that crap and I came down here and I signed the branch agreement and I’m paying that vig every single week
 
Josh Poulson: He just was in a different He was
Charles Bonfiglio: I
Josh Poulson: in a
Charles Bonfiglio: just
Josh Poulson: corporate
Charles Bonfiglio: don’t get my
Josh Poulson: suit.
Charles Bonfiglio: knees broken or something but
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: but no
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: but you know what would I tell myself I I I I I um I’m just very lucky and fortunate. I don’t really have a lot of things that I can say that I might have done better or different. Um I really tried hard. I really worked hard. But I would say if if the one thing you would do is stay focused on what you’re doing because a lot of people today, they go and they start doing something good, they get good at it, and then they see somebody else. Oh, I’m gonna go do that. And distracts them from what they you the long game. You know, if you if you’re gonna do something like I did, if you’re gonna do something different or you want to grow more, I didn’t grow outside of my business.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: I just would buy the property. That was another investment. It
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: supported my business growth. And not only that, you’d go to the bank and I go, they love to lend you money for a business as a franchise. Now, the property even better. Longerterm loan, lower rates, secured on the business. So, you know, I just would probably want to go faster. Um, I didn’t make a lot of mistakes. I don’t really think in any mistake it was only because it was a learning curve. We all make mistakes. Um but I don’t really I’ve really been blessed to be able to follow a good road and um and just stay with positive people. That’s another thing you know negative people will drag you down. Positive people will grow you and so you want to be around collaborative people. Um and uh just build you know build a team you know build a team and the team will help you build your business.
Josh Poulson: and h Go ahead, Jesse.
 
Josh Poulson: Sorry.
Jesse Stoddard: No, go ahead, Josh.
Josh Poulson: What? How many locations do you guys have now?
Charles Bonfiglio: Ah, we just have about just I think 149 open right now and about 100 in development.
Josh Poulson: 140. Okay. So, you know, where where do you see what do you tell people like the future of this industry and you know, maybe your franchises, you know, that that especially ones coming in maybe out of the automotive, you know, what do you tell them? They’re like, well, cars are getting so hard to work on and this that I mean, we’re not putting in radios as much anymore, Charles. So, it’s I’m glad you, you know, got into a business and started something where there’s not as much radio bit uh swap outs, but
Jesse Stoddard: Okay.
Josh Poulson: um what what what do you where do you see the future next five 10 years?
Charles Bonfiglio: Well, I see that um there’s there’s always going to be an evolution in the automotive industry. And you know, when when I was, let’s say, I shouldn’t say younger, but I would say in the 70s or 80s, I even got sold on the fact that, well, there’s not going to be any aftermarket soon because the new cars are coming out with all the stuff, right?
 
Charles Bonfiglio: But then when you really start getting, you know, really start looking at it and dialing it in, the new cars is a small smidgen of adding into what’s on the road. So, and every time they come out with a new technology, there’s 10 year old cars that want that technology to some degree. So, you’re going to have to always look how many aftermarket manufacturers there are. They could just go out of business. Yeah, maybe segments are going to change, but it’s always going to be reinventing to the cars that are already made to add on some of these things onto the car. So, but with repair, I was thinking there was going to be repair is always going to be here. It’s never going to change. Aftermarket accessories are going to fade out. So, I started to think that way like everybody did. But then I started to see that minik came from mufflers and then I helped expand them to all these other repair maintenance services. Those maintenance service started to slow down and get less profitable.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Um, you know, more cost, higher cost of products. They, you know, brakes are lasting longer. You know, things come with lifetime warranties. And so I saw that that’s all draining. So now we’re shifting from repair to maintenance. And maintenance is good because you got to change the oil. You got to change now you got synthetics coming out and they’re lasting longer. Oh, okay. Well, now that maintenance is slowing down. It’s less profitable because it’s going to the dealer. They’re doing packages. Okay, we could do tires. Well, tires, you know, you don’t really make a lot of money in tires. Tires is like the lowest amount of profit you’re going to make. And you got big fat inventory. So, like, I don’t really love that. So, where is this is this going? It’s not really going in a higher profit. It’s going a lower profit. So, I when I was doing 800,000 in the store, I would make $200,000 $300,000 in profit.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Then as it migrated, as the time went on, he was selling more maintenance and more tires. I’d have to make a hund million two just to make the same profit. And I saw that happening. And my last store I opened up in 2001 was an 18 bay store. And I saw my exhaust went down to almost nothing. Not even 10% of my business. It
Josh Poulson: What?
Charles Bonfiglio: was everything else. And as the tire started migrating, I just got less fun. And I also realized that I didn’t really like working around. I didn’t like my employees that came into me as a tire changer making $10 an hour. I just felt I don’t really want to be that guy. So, I trained them how to how do you do, you know, do this other stuff, but you always had to have the low-end guys. And I didn’t like seeing it. And I I I just felt bad about, you know, not getting these people to grow.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: And I saw the industry changing. And that’s when I said, you know what, I might have made a mistake. I was thinking that that the aftermarket was going to die and repair would go on. And I think it’s different. I think it’s time. I think the aftermarket people always want something sexy and new and nice. They want to have, you know, something that’s different, something styled their ride, you know, and I basically, and you know, SEMA had something called, you know, restyling. And I’m like, well, it’s not really restyling. Do you go to the, you know, the hair salon and say, I’m going to get my hair restyled. No, you’re going to get styled. So, I came up with Tint World Automotive Styling Center because we’re going to style your ride just like your podcast says. And so, I lived it. I breathe it and I trademarked the name and um and so yeah, Tint is really good and it’s fun and it’s profitable, but it’s a little bit seasonal.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Not completely, you know, but it does slow down. Um and I wanted to add all these other things that I added to automotive to subsidize. And there was really no other brand out there that was franchising in the aftermarket. They had great mom and pop stores and bad mom and pop stores. And all of them did one or two segments of a wheel shop, a stereo shop, a tint shop, you know, there’s all different detail shop. There’s nobody that’s doing like where do you go to your salon? You know, I want to get it all. Well, to World Auto Styling Center, we can get these categories and do them all and really start whether it’s leather interiors or whatever it is, you can come to us and we’re going to have that segment for you. And in different parts of the, you know, the US and Canada, you know, different things are going to be more popular. Um, so we we started to really do that. I really wanted to build that fullervice aftermarket afterare system.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: And so that’s what I really focused on. It’s it’s a mission. I wanted to do it. Nobody ever done it. And I was I came down here at 21. I wish they had it because I was going to do it. But it’s a good thing they didn’t have it because it gave me the chance to build it myself.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Jesse Stoddard: That’s awesome, Charles. Just for time, we might end up having to do a part two at some point. This has been very interesting. What an awesome story you have and really good background. I love all of the insights and the wisdom you added. We probably could talk for several hours and compare all these different ideas and um but for for today if you could maybe just to wrap up um let let me know two things like how can we help you? What are you looking for maybe in a good franchisee? And then how do people get a hold of you of you if they’re interested?
 
Jesse Stoddard: What websites do you want them to go to and that kind of thing?
Charles Bonfiglio: Well, I mean, if it if it listen, uh, this couple areas. Number one, if if somebody’s interested in franchising, I don’t really put I’m I don’t consider myself a salesman. I just an information giver. You know, if somebody really wants a business, maybe just want to know about franchising and they like something different. I don’t know. But I don’t mind talking to people about franchising and how it works. But if they are interested in Tint World, I’m I’m loving the fact that if they if they’re capable and they want to do that, I love it’s a fun business. It’s a sexy business. It’s I go into every day if you like it and you want to do something that you love. But you also have to make sure whatever it is that you do, you don’t just love it. You want to be good at it. you know, something that you could be good at so you could be successful and enjoy your work every day.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Um, so that’s about franchising. I love helping people with that. Um, I work with all manufacturers, distributors. I work with regular people. I have kids coming in at 21 years old opening stores. I have people coming in at 61 opening stores. It doesn’t really matter. People have a lifelong dream. Whatever it is, they can do it. I have a system and a blueprint that’ll let them grow. Um, but it’s not just going to come in and turn a key and you’re not going to do anything. You’re going to go and work it just like any other business. Um, so about franchise I’m passionate about. Um, as far as, you know, customers, if we have a really I mean, I don’t think of it as like a custom car shop. I think about whether it’s the the the 16-year-old girl gets her first car and she wants a windows tinted or cleaned. Um, or whether it’s, you know, the super dad that’s got like, you know, the Ferrari or the Mercedes or the, you know, or the Porsche.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: They want to come get their paint protection filmed so they can keep that car like brand new. Um, we do all those things and we have a welcoming, uh, facility. It’s retail environment. You come in, we have a showroom next, you know, second to none. It’s like I kind of compare it to like the iPhone store for car accessories and we’re not just part accessories like we do install everything we do. So, we’re service, you know, facility. Um, and it’s all done really nice and clever where they can feel comfortable. Um, and so that’s how our retail customers if they’re interested. Um, but where do you get me? If if you want to contact TintWorld as a customer, go to tintworld.com. You can find over 150 locations nationwide. We have stores in Canada. We have stores in Dubai. We have stores in Saudi Arabia. And we’re getting ready to open up a master license in Brazil and some other countries. We also um and then if you’re a business owner and you on if you go to tentworld.com, there’s a button on there where you can get franch information and go to a franchise site, learn about some of the things that we do.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Download a franchise kit. There’s no obligation. Nobody’s going to push you. If you want information, we talk. If you don’t want to look, if you want to look around, you do it. We’re very um we’re just regular people. Um and if you want to get me and you want to connect me, if you’re really big on LinkedIn, I have a big following on LinkedIn. I’m connected with everybody you guys, you know, um I like posting things about my franchises and about things that I do. And I’m just I’m not like a typical CEO. I’m just a car guy that loves to do nice things and show off cool things. We’re building our new corporate center that’s going to be opening up. It’s going to have a cars cafe in it with um all kinds of really cool things. It’s I’m I’m putting about $8 million into this building. On the first floor, it’s a complete custom car shop and on the second floor, it’s going to have our corporate headquarters.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Um, so I really want to have fun with whatever I do and I’ve lived a strong life to be able to build myself to do that. So that’s how you get a hold of me if you want
Jesse Stoddard: That’s awesome. Josh, any last questions or
Josh Poulson: No,
Jesse Stoddard: comments?
Josh Poulson: thank you very much, Charles. Not thank you for uh, you know, just helping us in the industry, too. Being a leader in our industry. Um, you know, I think there’s definitely some things that people can learn from. I love how you’re open book and you’re willing to help people. You know, that definitely comes across. You did in your mine days and stuff like that. But it, you know, we are just a small industry and we’re all we’re all we got to help each other and, you know, we never want the we never want the right to, you know, modify cars to go away. So, we kind of are in this together. So, thank you.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Oh, thank you. And I appreciate that. I’m happy to do it. And it’s I do what I love.
Jesse Stoddard: Are
Josh Poulson: Awesome.
Jesse Stoddard: you got going to SEMA by any chance this year? Are
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah.
Jesse Stoddard: you guys representation there?
Charles Bonfiglio: Yeah. We We go there. I My team goes there every year. I go there almost every year. Um, I was there this past year for sure. Um, and you know, we know everybody there. We walk as a pack. You know, everybody knows us. We, you know, we really have a good time with them. Um, yeah. So, Sim’s
Josh Poulson: Do you
Charles Bonfiglio: definitely
Josh Poulson: uh
Charles Bonfiglio: been a part of our life.
Josh Poulson: do you do you ever um did you ever get involved with SEMA Pro or talk with SEMA Pro and and those guys wear the tinting and the ppf and those guys? Because just so you know and I don’t know what you know but um you know Colby actually right now is the chairman of SEMA Pro.
 
Josh Poulson: Um, but you know, we’re tapping into I mean, SEMA’s got a ton of money. And by the way, we’ll end this and he’ll edit all this recording. So, this is just us talking
Jesse Stoddard: Thanks
Josh Poulson: now.
Jesse Stoddard: for being on. That’s it.
Josh Poulson: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but no, uh, SEMA’s got a ton of money and I’m looking I’ve been working with them and, you know, so does SEMA Pro. We all are working together as volunteers to tap into that money to drive more towards our part of the industry instead of the hot rod and the muscle cars and the trucks and stuff like that. So, you know, if if any of your team or yourself ever want to, you know, help out and be like a sounding board, kind of like, you know, like you did with Mighty Key and the boards and stuff like that, you know, um it would be good for you guys as a company, but also what you guys offer the industry to be involved with SEMA Pro because we’re constantly pounding on uh getting those dollars to, you know, kind of help our part of the industry.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: you know, and I I I I’m
Josh Poulson: Sure.
Charles Bonfiglio: sort of involved with them, but I’m not really directly involved. I’m not like a member I’m a member of the the seamer, but not like a member of any of these boards. Um, it’s just it’s a time restraint, but I don’t mind having these meetings and collaborating. Um, like right now, like the love that I had for car audio, I just don’t want to see it die. But, you know, head units are dying. Um, and what’s going it’s changing to OEM integration.
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: And I have pressure from some of my colleagues in my company saying, nah, maybe we should just get rid of it. I’m like, I don’t really want to get rid of it. There’s still people that want good sound in their car. So,
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: we’re actually now working. I I actually just tapped in. I have some Facebook groups that are in heavy car rodeo people. Um, and then some of them are really smart.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: They’re creating some really good uh you know software that allows you to choose year make a model and it tells you what size speakers subwoofers this and it’s not like it used to be when we were younger it was like our older generation was like I want I want a Kenwood head unit
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: I want a Rockford Fosate amp I want JL sub it was all mix and match whatever you want today’s world people just want to go I want a good system I like this brand and they want to get it all and it’s easier because it all plugs and plays
Josh Poulson: Yes.
Charles Bonfiglio: So, we’re really focusing on trying to now automate our car audio to be a um uh just an OEM integration. It’s uh here’s what it is. And not even have to stock everything in our stores. Like they’ll come in, they’ll consult with us and we’ll show them and we have sound, you know, system, but we’ll be able to like literally get it, order it, schedule it, and plug
Josh Poulson: Yeah.

Charles Bonfiglio: it in and literally go with a whole system what whatever brand that they want. And so, we’re working with manufacturers like that. manufacturers talk to these people in the mom and pops and they still want to keep doing it the way they’re doing. I’m
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: trying to innovate and say, “How do we do it this way? How do we do what people want, not what just we love, but are used to? How do we upgrade it? How do we take this into the future?” Um, and you know, and and work deals with the manufacturers to where when they want the aftermarket, which is going to eventually, they can never make it perfect the first time around. It’s always going to evolve. How do we get them to come in and plug and play where it doesn’t have to be so hard, so complicated, so much noise and wiring and stock? Just if we can do that, I think that would help the industry move forward with a good opportunity to grow that that aftermarket.
 
Charles Bonfiglio: Um, and I’m doing that with certain segments that I feel that they’re going to go away if you keep running them the way they are. People don’t they’re not it’s too confusing to buy. It’s too hard to install and it’s not we have to make it simplified. And that’s really what I focus on doing is trying to automate, simplify the market so I can franchise and have people do it a lot easier and quicker.
Josh Poulson: Yeah. No, I love it. I love it. Well, thank you again for taking the time for us. We know you’re a busy guy and uh I’m sure we’ll either talk at SEMA or before and I’ll hit you up on LinkedIn and stuff like that,
Charles Bonfiglio: Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Jesse. I appreciate the time here today.
Jesse Stoddard: Yeah, Charles,
Josh Poulson: right?
Jesse Stoddard: we’ll
Josh Poulson: Right.
Jesse Stoddard: I’ll be uh finishing things up and you’ll get an email eventually again with all the links and all that in in case that helps you guys. We’ll be promoting Tint World as much as we can, too. So, hopefully we’ll send some good marketing your way.
Charles Bonfiglio: Thank
Josh Poulson: Yeah.
Charles Bonfiglio: you for Austin. Thank you for my franchisees.
Josh Poulson: Yeah,
Jesse Stoddard: All
Josh Poulson: you
Jesse Stoddard: right, awesome.
Josh Poulson: got it,
Charles Bonfiglio: Back.
Josh Poulson: buddy. We’ll talk.
Charles Bonfiglio: Okay.
Jesse Stoddard: Bye.