Monaco Ford

4 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 MONACO FORD as a top-level Ford Dealership in New England. His children, Chrissy and Mike, literally grew up in the dealership, learning from their Dad how to run the business, how to treat customers, and how to make a positive impact on the community. Today, as co-owners of Monaco Ford, the siblings share their passion for the family biz – working closely together for the benefit of everyone they befriend and do business with. Chrissy shares, “We grew up at the dealership in different capacities. Mike was always ‘the worker bee’, even from a very young age. I would come here and hang out and wasn’t positive I wanted to be involved until the last 10 to 15 years. My father became President of the company when Mike was four and I was two, so this is all we know. Obviously, we’ve seen tremendous change in the business over the years, especially in the last five. The car business seems to be changing every day and the challenges are so far out of our control that we have to focus on continuing to grow the aspects that are within our control.” Mike agrees, noting, “We’ve definitely ridden the rollercoaster in the last 20 years. I got home out of the Marine Corps in 2007, when the car business was pretty poor. We got to see that things will change if you keep pushing and try to be a bit above your peers and competitors and that there is opportunity out there.” Chrissy and Mike worked their way through most departments in the store, learning from the professionals. Being extremely close as siblings made it easy. Currently, Chrissy handles much of the back end of the business – the day-to-day logistics. Mike is more at home on the sales floor, being super active in the community, specifically with veterans. He adds, “I’m also pretty involved with our truck business. We have a lot of construction guys, landscapers, arborists and that sort, so we’re trying to stay engaged with our customer base.” Monaco Ford is being creative and proactive