Ten years used to feel like a lifetime, these days it seems like the blink of an eye. (except for April 2020, it felt like a lifetime—but I digress.)

My ten-year ownership of Sport and Specialty has been equal parts fun, aggravation, gratification, and education. With all of this new awareness of the role of small business in the news today, it has really had me thinking about how much goes into making a small business successful. There are few mom-and-pop grocery stores and drug stores left, as most lost the struggle to compete against the chain stores and their corporate marketing, finance, IT and HR support.

In a previous life, I once had those resources available to help my corporate business compete and grow in the marketplace. As a small business owner you need to know how to advertise, budget, use technology and manage people, among other things, to simply keep the doors open. I soon learned that while I had some skills, many others either had to be learned, or sourced to others that are either smarter, or more talented than I am. No shame here.

Fortunately I have been blessed with some amazing and talented friends that have helped Sport and Specialty by providing an extremely professional look and feel that I certainly couldn’t have done alone.

Web site manager Bill Oakes and graphic artist Mark Atkinson

Our internet and web presence had been provided by Bill Oakes, a long time racing partner and friend. His expertise and creativity are why our website looks so polished and professional. He and I collaborated in designing the site some years ago, but Bill has been the point-man in keeping it fresh and technically up-to-date. Something many small businesses fail to do once their sites are launched.

My other friend that brings unique talent and professionalism to our party is Mark Atkinson. Mark is another racing friend and my one time driving student who is a graphic artist living in the Minneapolis area. Mark designed the Sport and Specialty logo, as well as manages all of our ad work. He too keeps things fresh, bright and looking polished.

While I’m calling out these two guys, I would be remiss in not mentioning that virtually everyone I know has contributed something to my small business. Heartfelt thanks to my work family and team, my wife and family, the many Facebook supporters, and my industry peers, all too many to name here.

So thanks to all of you for providing the motivation, guidance and emotional support to keep the wheels moving ever forward at Sport and Specialty. Our growth and success as a small business is certainly not all my doing, I got a lot of help from my great friends.

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As “the web guy,” part of the fun is seeing the progress of the cars in the shop, even when I’m not there. While it’s great making pictures at the shop – and hanging out with the guys – to see updated images of projects is truly fascinating. What was a stripped-down empty shell of a car suddenly shows up in stunning pictures and videos of finished work.

So much has happened over the last few years in which I’ve been managing the website that it’s time again to change up how we present the finished projects.

You can still see some hand-picked favorites in the Concours Showcase, and you can follow along the progress of the cars In The Shop, but the On The Road category just got too hard to keep up with in the old format.

So now, you can scroll through the dozens of cars that have passed through the doors at Sport and Specialty as thumbnail images, then click on that car to get its “story” of how it made it back to the road.

At the top of the page, you can now trim down that list to view by car marque. Have a soft spot for Jaguars? Alfa’s? Healey’s? it’s there for you. For real fun, click on the “Other” category. Sometimes things just don’t fit in a category.

Another addition to the homepage is our new YouTube channel. You may have seen John’s two recent videos by The Envision Media team – if you haven’t, read up on John’s blog. Those videos, and more, will live on the YouTube channel. As they say, stay tuned.

Keep your eyes on the site, Facebook, Instagram, and now YouTube to follow along with the fun!

Enjoy.

Bill Oakes
Web Guy

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