In September 2012, Jason and Kristin Meredith opened Meredith Motors as a family business based on Jason's auto-repair experience and Kristin's knowledge of accounting and marketing.
More than a year later, the Leander Drive shop is slowly growing and gaining new customers, Kristin said.
"There are times when [Jason] cannot go fast enough, then there are times when you have plenty of time," Kristin said. "In the beginning I was worried that he would have tons of people [say], 'I need my car today,' and then people would go somewhere else."
But business kept steady, with one job arriving just as Jason finished another project, she said. Jason said he finds auto repair more fulfilling than other tasks, even if he works alone in a quiet shop.
"It's just a sense of accomplishment whenever I fix anything taking a problem and thinking through the actual mechanics of how a motor works or how a system works to figure out exactly what's causing the problem," Jason said. "I've never been one to sit at a desk."
Kristin said her husband's skills attract admiration from other garages.
"We've had other shops call us and say, 'We have messed this up,'" Kristin said. "Or, 'We don't know how to fix this. Can we bring that over to you?'"
After getting married, Kristin began marketing work, and Jason began selling cars. The job, plus Jason's college engineering experience and training from Kristin's father, improved his auto-repair ability, she said.
After auto sales, Jason did repair work at an auto dealer for six years, and he and Kristin began planning to open their own repair shop.
"I started researching locations and equipment," Kristin said. "We wanted to be in Leander because we knew this market was such a growing market. It just jumped off the map."
Kristin teaches part-time at Fortis Academy and home-schools their children, Avery and Mason. The younger Merediths' efforts proved helpful for marketing the shop—having two small children go door-to-door distributing fliers is surprisingly effective, Kristin said.
The younger Merediths could someday work at the shop, Jason said, but Kristin said she hopes for more employees first.
"I originally wanted [Jason] in [the office] and just technicians out there [in the shop]," Kristin said. "He wants to be back and forth. But it would be nice to be so busy that [he] could work out there when [he] really wanted to."
Meredith Motors, 1309 Leander Drive, Ste. 203, Leander, 512-528-8555,
www.meredithmotorsinc.com