Company Founder
Allan
Starkman
Biography by Larry Aylwart,
Managing Editor, Aftermarket Business magazine.
Allan Starkman
was the kid in the neighborhood with the "done-up" fancy bicycle.
He was into accessorizing at an early age.
It’s no surprise
that Starkman is now "The King" of his own tint, accessory and
detail company based in Richmond Hill, Canada, a suburb of Toronto.
He’s the originator and president of Tint King® of California,
whose stores are called Tint King® Auto World Super! Markets®.
"I’ve never
been one to mechanically fix up a car," Starkman said, "but when
it came to making it look good..."
Tint King®
of California currently has 15 stores in Canada. Starkman said
he plans on expanding to the United States by the end of the year.
In 5 years,
Starkman plans on further expansion worldwide with franchise requests
comming in on a daily basis from plases such as mexico, taiwan,
austrailia, london, jamaica, argentina, iceland, paris. In 2 years,
he wants to double the company’s sales.
"I had a vision,"
Starkman said. "There are a lot of people who make things happen
and there are a lot of people who watch things happen."
Tint King®
of California has come a long way since Starkman, then 24, started
the business in the underground parking lot of his apartment building
in 1979. After being warned the parking lot wasn't a garage, Mr.
Starkman moved to his first legitimate location in Toronto after
being warned for 6 months. He was always fascinated with tint,
even though it was used mainly on building windows in the late
70’s in Toronto.
But Starkman
had seen photos of vehicles with tinted windows. "I always wanted
to get it done," he said. "It had that mysterious, devilish look.
It just seemed to make the appearance of the car completely change."
As fate would
have it, Starkman was introduced to someone who sold solar window
tinting for buildings. Starkman purchased some tint from his acquaintance
and applied it to his ’78 Trans Am.
"I started
to get stopped everywhere I went." He said. "People were flashing
their lights and pulling me over. They’d say, 'Where did you get
that done?'".
Starkman said
one of his friends convinced him to go into the tinting business.
At the time, Starkman was a carpet salesman. "
My friend
said it was meant to be for me," Starkman said. "That sort of
gave me the push."
Starkman opened
his first shop in an 1,800 sq.-ft. unit. He said he had so many
customers that he had to keep the shop open until midnight. Although
the business has no attachment to California, Starkman tagged
the name of the state on the end of the business because it’s
"got flair to it".
"I’d have
lineups in the morning and people were coming from 500 miles around,"
Starkman claims. "We were working around the clock. We had two
shifts and 15 or 20 staff members applying tint."
At first,
Starkman said he went into the business just to make a few extra
dollars.
"But when
I opened my first shop, I started getting serious," he said. "A
friend of mine said ‘It’s a fad. You’ll be in it a few years.'
I said, there’s more to this than meets the eye.
" What’s "more"
is accessories. Starkman has added plenty to his line, including
car masks, rear wings, spoilers, rear louvres, wheel covers, bug
deflectors, headlight and taillight shades, alarms, remote control
vehicle starters, luggage and roof racks, etc.
"We used to
be strictly tint and now we have all the toys for girls and boys,"
Starkman says. That’s why we claim to be the 'king of the road’."
Starkman said
more than half of the business is devoted to tinting. He says
motorists like the way tinted vehicles look. The tint also protects
against heat and theft.
Starkman added
that people also have health reasons for having their vehicle
windows tinted.
"People are
worried about the ozone," Starkman says. "Tinting cuts out ultraviolet
rays by 99 percent."
Although Starkman
attended university, he never finished. However, he learned the
retail ropes from his father, who ran a clothing store in Canada.
"I used to
watch my father bargain with various suppliers," Starkman said.
"That really helped. The advertising and marketing experience
came from good street smarts, I guess."
Starkman said
a job peddling encyclopaedias helped him gain experience in dealing
with customers over the phone. He also learned from selling carpets.
Starkman,
44, believes that franchising is the way to go. His requirements
for a strong franchisee are simple. The person must love cars,
be a people person, have good sales ability and want to make money.
All the hard
work has been worth it. Starkman said he’s having a lot of fun.
He's the guru of auto accessories.
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