Talk Bronx New York

 

Entrepreneur Fitz Octave does a hands-on job supervising the work at FGO Motor Services, the Bronx auto repair shop he opened last May.

Fitz Octave working hard at his shop.

Fitz Octave can’t see well enough to drive a car, but he can see to it that yours runs like it just came off the assembly line.

The auto mechanic turned entrepreneur is legally blind. Last May, he opened a shop of his own, FGO Motor Services, in the Park Stratton section of the Bronx.

He’s been fixing cars since he did after-school training at age 10 at a garage in Castries, St. Lucia, where he grew up. Now 52, he refuses to let his disability keep him from the work he loves.

“People say I’m blind, but I’ll be honest with you - I am perfect to myself,” he said.

He left the Caribbean for the Bronx in 1986 to join one of his sisters. He became a U.S. citizen, and repaired and painted cars at a number of repair shops until glaucoma left him with severely limited vision in 2003.

Octave was given a cane for walking outdoors, but refused to use it. “I felt it would set me back,” he said, figuring his best bet for continuing his career was to become his own boss.

Octave went to numerous training programs, but found the one that helped him most was for visually impaired entrepreneurs at the Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. He learned bookkeeping and marketing. He fine-tuned a business plan. To find a suitable site for a shop, he searched on foot.

“I was determined not to depend on other people,” he said.

In a notebook he carried (and using a big black marker so he’d be able to read what he wrote), he jotted down the addresses of vacant garages. If he couldn’t see a phone number on a “For Rent” sign, he asked a passerby to read it to him.

He walked all over the South Bronx, even down into Washington Heights in Manhattan. He made 100 phone calls.

Octave said the fact that David Paterson is now New York’s first blind governor proves a point about visually impaired people. “I’m very happy because it shows we can do the job,” he said.

The day he found the space he wound up renting, he walked from his apartment in Park Stratton to the Throgs Neck Bridge and back - and at the end of the trek discovered a place on Beach Ave. a few blocks from where he lives.

Octave got a $15,000 state grant for startup capital and had $30,000 in personal savings to add to it, but needed more money to open for business. He went to Chase, HSBC, Bank of America and Washington Mutual for a small business loan. They all turned him down. He recalled that, at various training programs he’d attended, he was told how credit unions are supportive of entrepreneurs. He became a member of Bethex Federal Credit Union, which is open to all city residents.

The Bronx-based institution has about 9,800 members and $14.7 million in assets, and has loaned money to small businesses since 1989. It currently has almost $1 million in small business loans on its books, made to 42 borrowers.

With few options, Octave took a credit union loan of $15,000 at 14.25%. The rate was set by the U.S. Small Business Adminstration, which guaranteed the loan.

“He had a convincing business plan - I was so impressed,” said Bethex loan officer Maria Estrella.

At Octave’s shop just off E. Tremont Ave., business is steady. He’s open six days a week, and now has six employees - three mechanics and three painters.

Octave himself handles the company paperwork on a computer with a program that enlarges the typeface with the click of a mouse. He puts on glasses with magnifying lenses when he needs to read tiny print on a business card.

He does the marketing, too, by visiting car dealerships and used-car lots in Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester asking for customer referrals.

“When you bring your car to me, one stop will take care of everything,” he tells everybody.

He’s expecting an estimated $170,000 in revenues his first year in business. FGO Motor Services isn’t profitable yet, he said, but he’s undaunted.

“Where I am sitting today is where I always wanted to sit,” he said from his chair at the computer in the shop office.

One of Octave’s customers, Garrett Lucien, started out as his business counselor at the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp.

Lucien decided to trust his candy-apple red Mercedes C230 to Octave after making a surprise visit to the shop and seeing 10 cars lined up outside, waiting for service.

Lucien said Octave’s knack for picking talented employees and hands-on supervision of their work compensate for his visual impairment.

“When I first met Fitz, I thought, ‘Wow, you can’t see,’ ” Lucien recalled. “I wondered how was he going to make it. But when I saw the work, and the craftsmanship, I knew. Seeing is believing.”

Q&A:

What would you do differently?

“Nothing. It all worked out well.”

What’s been your biggest challenge?

“To be sure I’m there to open the gates every morning, and be loyal to the customer and give them what they pay for.”

What’s been your biggest surprise?

“I didn’t know this many customers would come in - my customers are recommending us to other customers.”

Where do you want your business to be in a year?

“I want to expand the business with a branch in a used-car lot.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

Tags: blind bronx mechanic, Bronx News, Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp., Bronx People, E. Tremont, Fitz Octave, South Bronx, St. Lucia, Washington Heights, Westchester

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