Morris, Manitoba
True to his roots
Scott Stevenson's love of motorsports are at the heart of his business
Name: Scott Stevenson
Position/company: Owner of Scott Rod’s Ltd. in Morris, Manitoba.
Products and services: Our main focus is ATVs. We do sales and service on ATVs but we also service snowmobiles, and motorcycles, and we sell new and used parts for cars and trucks. We are a Kawasaki dealer but we do upgrades on all makes and models. We sell Kawasaki ATVs, Mules and now the Teryx.
Fun Times: Scott Stevenson checks out the obstacle course at the St. Jean ATV Derby.—photo courtesy Scott Stevenson
Past lives: I was born and raised in Morris. I was in business with my dad for about 10 years; we ran an auto recycler—that's where I get my business background. For 10 years we shared the business but even when I was eight or 10 I was there tinkering, pulling stuff apart and putting stuff back together. As a kid, my dad was big into snowmobiling and my background is really in snowmobiling. I've always had my own sled to ride since I was about eight years old. Up until I got into this business, I owned a snowmobile and now I own an ATV and I love it. I don't regret it either way and I like both summer and winter.
How did you get started? I actually started and opened up as an auto parts specialty store. That’s where the name Scott Rod’s comes from. I was supplying restoration parts for old cars and trucks and standard parts for your regular Cavalier. But a couple months in, it was a little bit slow and someone said, “There’s nobody in our area that deals with snowmobile or dirt bike parts,” and I thought “What the heck, I’ll try it.” It’s been less than three years and now 95 per cent of my business is powersports. I'm a Kawasaki dealer and I love the way my business has turned over to the powersports business—it's a lot of fun.
What's the shop like? It’s a small shop. We operate out of a pretty small building. My showroom takes up two-thirds of my building and my shop takes about one-third of it. I’ve got one full-time tech and we're busy all the time.
How would you describe your relationship with your customers? I would say it’s good. I’m in a community of 1,700 people and the majority of my customers come from within a 20-mile radius (the nature of rural Manitoba is kind of close). So I’d say I have a pretty close relationship with at least 90 per cent of my clientele. You can tell it’s different than running out of a big city shop when your customers come in and tell you “Hey, we’re going on a ride this weekend. Do you wanna come with us?” A lot of the guys that I sell to, I ride with. It’s nice.
Describe an average day: My wife and I are both self-employed and we have two young boys in school so the day starts at 7 a.m., and ends at midnight. They are long days but it’s what I want to do. It’s nice to be happy to go to work every day.
What do you like most about your job? The interaction with customers and the fact that I get to work with toys all day. I’ve always been kind of a mental case when it comes to anything powersports-related—whether it’s auto, bike or sled racing. Bigger, faster, stronger.
How often do you ride? I wish I could ride more; I probably ride a few times a month. In southern Manitoba, quad runs are really popular so I travel all over to these different runs. Just south of me is St. Jean, Manitoba, which has Canada's largest ATV derby. With something like that, I don’t even get a chance to ride—because I'm there as a vendor—but I’ll travel anywhere from three to four hours away to go to these other little town’s derbies so that we can go for a ride. The nice thing is that my tech and I both ride. So when a customer comes in, we can really give them all the details. We’re not just a salesman behind a counter trying to sell you the product on the floor, but we actually use the product that’s on the floor. If we ever have any problems with any of the aftermarket stuff, we’ve tested it, we know that, we don’t buy it and we don’t tell our customers to buy it. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re steering them towards something that’s worth more money, we’re just steering them towards something that’s better value. You can save 20 bucks on something and regret every minute of it if it doesn’t work.
Describe your community: It’s a pretty religious little town. There are 1,700 people and we have seven churches. So I don’t have to worry if my kids are waiting on the corner for the bus. It is nice being in a small town. There’s lots of advantages and there’s a few disadvantages but we’re only half an hour out of Winnipeg. And our town is just big enough that we have a nice grocery store and hardware store.