Guest Opinion: Mark Smith’s take on blood for oil

We have all heard the idea that businesses exist to make a profit. I get that.  But as the owner of four Midas Auto Service Centers in Central Virginia, it’s not the first thing I think about – even when I’m wearing my business owner hat and studying our margins.

I make a profit so my business can exist.

There is a profound difference in the two concepts. And people might be surprised by the business I think I am in.

You will find me in the stores six, sometimes seven days a week. I am very active in them and take a great deal of pride in how each of my employees does what they do. We have done well with them. In fact, our Short Pump store was the largest volume Midas Service Center in North America in 2008, an achievement we are trying to repeat in 2009.

The Midas stores, however, are not what really motivate me. Each is an entity, a business and a piece of real estate that I have acquired and will one day sell. Ideally, in time, these stores will transition to a few of my people, but that is a topic for another article.

What turns me on is the impact that having these businesses allows me to have in the community my wife and I live in. Each of us can make a difference, if we choose to, in something we are passionate about.

So at Midas, I’ve chosen to spend considerable time using my business for more than just stowing away profits. All sorts of worthwhile causes approach me, but I’ve chosen two: the food bank and the blood bank.

Once you have chosen your passion, each and every one of you can do the same. If you are at a party this weekend, what are you going to get turned on talking about – the revenue you generated Friday or your participation is rolling out a new performing arts program in Richmond?

Our efforts are about creating enough profit to sponsor five blood drives a year with the Virginia Blood Service. We offer anyone who donates at these drives a free oil change. For those who donate more than once in a calendar year, we offer even more free car care. We have underwritten these drives since 2002. Since the rollout of this effort, we have collected more than 7,500 pints of blood and given away that many more oil changes. One pint of blood saves three lives, and that’s the sort of return I like to see in anything I do.

We also use every resource we have to help the Central Virginia Foodbank, Meals on Wheels and the Community Kitchen – collectively known as FeedMore – to fight hunger in Central Virginia. Up to 25,000 Central Virginia children might not get a hot meal today, and I personally have a real issue with that.  Thus we have made the choice to make Midas of Richmond become a part of the solution to that very issue.

We are also trying to help parents to better care for their kids. Midas of Richmond is testing a program at an elementary school on the south side in which we offer a free oil change to parents who get involved in their local PTA.

And we have a green plan to take our stores off the power grid.  Solar panels and alternative energy sources can easily generate power from cells on the top of each of my buildings.  These same cells would ultimately generate far more energy than the stores use, allowing the excess to be credited back to the food bank or some other compelling entity.  The long-term result: more dollars donated to FeedMore are used to feed kids, deliver meals or support our other programs, instead of paying utility bills.

We use every resource I have access to to support and promote issues I care about in our community as time, circumstance and funding permit. This funding comes from the profit the Midas stores generate. So we make a profit to be in business, with our business being getting every resource we can possibly give to sustainable, transferable community action programs.

I create a pricing system and a financial model that includes the funding of each activity we pursue with any community program we support. In factoring those items in, I can quantify making a profit to support the community in any and every way we choose.

If I stopped all of these various activities, could I offer lower prices? Absolutely. Would I ever consider doing so?  No way. When I get price complaints, and I do get a few, my response is simple — if price is your primary decision variable, you might want to consider getting service elsewhere. I am not willing to compromise the business I believe in and am committed to and, as such, will not compromise on the pricing strategy I have set up.

The only unique feature of a community is the people who are in it.  Finding your passion, feeding your passion and getting others involved in finding their own is not a bad business to be in.  It is also the only business model that will result in long-term, committed, sustainable community development.