Small Business Stories - Gildred Racing

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com's coverage of the SEMA Show 2008 here in Las Vegas. With me is Tyler Gildred, Tyler is with Gildred Racing. Tyler Gildred: Gildred Racing yes. Ivy Hartman: Tell us about Gildred Racing. Tyler Gildred: Well, my family has been in racing for about 50 years and we've used that legacy to start a business so that we can do two things. We do custom car restoration and also we sell lot of parts online using specialized software. Ivy Hartman: Okay, well, how has that retail component being online help grow and change the business? Tyler Gildred: Massively, buying, by selling online we've been able to make ten times as much sales as you would in a retail location. Santa Barbara is such a small community, we really don't have lot of eyes to buy the products we have. So by putting online on eBay, Zuujit other locations, we are able to get millions of people look at it. Ivy Hartman: So do you outsource then the retail stuff to some of those other retail websites or do you have a retail component on your own website? Tyler Gildred: Well, what we do at gildredracing.com you can go see it, we post multiple websites using a new software called Zuujit which allows us to simply and easily list these parts and what not on eBay and other market places. Ivy Hartman: Okay, in addition to being an online retailer, you are in restoration hot ride, you guys develop software as well? Tyler Gildred: That's actually -- my core competency is developing a software and we do Gildred Racing for two things, it's for my passion and also to give it a lot of car parts we do have, and we also do -- restore several cars and recently we just filmed a show with HERA TV, one of the episodes where one of my guys actually built a 1928 Ford in the shop, so it's kind of neat. Ivy Hartman: You have way too much fun at work, it's not a lot, of course that's what it is -- you turn as an entrepreneur -- you turned your passion in to your business. Tyler Gildred: It's not work if you love it. Ivy Hartman: It's true, well let's talk about -- is it feel like work being here at SEMA what are your objectives, what you're getting out of being at the SEMA Show? Tyler Gildred: Inspiration, I love to see what's new and exciting and also talk to people about growing - the software industry and see where that goes with the businesses today, see what they say. Ivy Hartman: Now you've mentioned hot rides and restoration -- is that really your favorite passion or what's your -- one of your favorites. Tyler Gildred: I just like to imagine and invent things and solve problems and hot rides as we all know have a lot different solutions we have to come up with at every moment and I think that's what kind of put us into the software industry as me and trying to come up with how to customize headers for my classic cars. Ivy Hartman: And with you it is always thinking ahead, I got to ask you what do you think is next or in your future? Tyler Gildred: Well, we've been really growing with the Zuujit like I was saying which is being able to sell things online using a camera phone. And we've been a test bank for that at Gildred Racing, making it so that we can list hundreds of items in a day with one person. So that's one of the things that the future has to hold, is simplifying the way people sell online. Ivy Hartman: So not only can your get your Facebook data and everything else on your cell phone, I can actually go ahead and do it all I want from whatever location I'm and sell it. Tyler Gildred: Yeah and you take a picture typing what is, and the software Zuujit actually does the rest and puts it online at the best place and sells it and then it notifies, okay it is ready to ship or someone is going to come and pick it up. Ivy Hartman: People are always looking to make their lives easier. It sounds like you're trying to do that. What are some ways that we can reach you, you mentioned gildredracing.com? Tyler Gildred: You can go to www.gildredracing.com or www.zuujit.com and I'm on both of those websites -- Ivy Hartman: Tyler it's pretty fun talking with you, I'm anxious to see what you're up to next year again. Tyler Gildred: You'll see, we'll be bringing a lot of the -- Zuujit is the biggest the main focus, like I said Gildred Racing is the long time legacy that we're able to test a lot of -- we are indeed to be able to sell things online and that's growing. It will always have the passion for building cars and Jordan and the crew is always come up with new cool projects. I have two things to play with, technology and hot rides and fast cars. Speeding up the lives of everybody is really what we are doing. Ivy Hartman: Absolutely well, we're going to take things, put things in the fast lane as we continue our coverage here at the SEMA Show 2008 on SBTV.com where small business is our only business.