(Gabriel and Rebecca Christian | Photos Courtesy of Gabriel Christian)
Sometimes, a person finds his or her calling early on in life. This was the case with Gabriel Christian, owner of Import Performance auto repair in Bend. “I was very mechanical, even in middle school. I fixed everyone’s bikes in the neighborhood,” says Christian. “In high school, I spent many of my days in the auto shop program. After high school, I went straight to a technical school in San Jose, California. By 19 years old, I was an ASE master technician and even held my California smog license, which is not an easily passable test. I was a professional technician for ten years before opening my own shop in Bend.”
Since opening Import Performance here in 2002, the business has grown to 11 employees, including his wife, Rebecca, who is office manager and oversees all the accounting, QuickBooks and payroll, and his 17-year-old son, Gavin. “My son is a shop hand and works part time after school. This way, he can buy auto parts himself for his Subaru gravel blaster.”
The shop, located at 20680 Empire Avenue, services about 65 cars per week (of all types, not just imports), but Christian says that in the beginning, business was lean. “Small businesses are tough! We had some years where the money was very thin,” he says. “My wife did the books as a necessity, while I worked many 12-hour days. We had young children when the shop was young, so that was a double whammy. Things are more in order now and much more enjoyable. Having a family member do the accounting keeps things safe and secure.”
As part of his business philosophy, Import Performance is a green shop: Christian and his staff recycle everything, and use environmentally safe products around the facility. He is also an avid believer of team building. During non-pandemic times, the staff members spend time together after work and at special events such as the rodeo, at barbeques or bowling.
As with most business owners, Christian says the past year has been challenging. “COVID brought lots of uncertainty and stress to the shop and to me,” he says. “How does an owner manage this? What if one my employees gets COVID and gets everyone else sick? Will we have to shut down? These are some scary scenarios that kept me up at night. We had a few scares, but so far so good.” He adds, “Fortunately, in a large shop like we have, everyone can stay separated. We wash keys and hands like crazy. Our front doors have been locked for almost four months.” As part of the COVID protocol, Christian says customers are instructed to drop off their keys in a key drop, and the staff takes it from there. “This has not negatively affected our business at all. We had a great year; we were even up from last year, not by a huge amount, but I’m not complaining. I’m super happy with how we handled everything, and how successful we were in 2020.”
Christian says he believes it is rare for a business to be kept within a family these days, and that in doing so, there is a delicate balance in separating family life from business life. “You don’t want to damage one or the other,” he says. “On the plus side, it’s easier to keep the business ideals intact when its family. Everyone in the family wants it to succeed, but more importantly, we want it to stay intact with its humble beginnings. This shop started out with just me working on all our friends’ cars. Our friend group expanded, and so did the shop. We like to think of it like this.” He adds, “We love this community!”
importperformanceusa.com • 541-382-9599
