After retiring and moving to Big Sandy, Ron Baumann opened a small engine repair business, bringing along 44 years of experience to serve our community. "The average farm has 10 to 12 pieces of equipment on it that's related to this. A lot of people don't know how, or don't have the patience or the time to work on them. I love what I do. I treat everything that comes in here like it's mine," Ron explained regarding the local market for 2 and 4 cycle engine repair.
Ron brings a lifetime of experience in the field. He also points out: "I'm an authorized warranty service and can work on basically any two or four cycle engine. The only thing I am limited on right now is motorcycles. I am certified in motorcycles, but I am not allowed to work on them in Montana because of some strange regulation they have here."
Ron's shop is filled with a variety of equipment and vehicles. When I visited to interview him, he even had several construction jumping jacks that he had taken in for service. As a small engine repair shop, he services and repairs weed eaters, chainsaws, four wheelers, mowers, and all sorts of other equipment. He is also an Interstate Battery dealer and has begun to stock oil and parts for his repair work. He explains the advantage of so many years of experience in the field: "I can access any parts of any type throughout the world. I have contacts all over the United States and overseas. If I cannot get the part, I'll just tell you I can't get it, or it's obsolete, or sometimes older parts are expensive." His business has done a lot of work with locals looking for repairs to their ATVs and side by sides. "Everybody has got one. I have access to all those parts. I can do it for a lot less because I don't have the overhead that a lot of businesses have."
Ron also sells refurbished machinery, just like he did in 1977 when he opened his first repair shop. He explains his approach to refurbishing: "If I can get ahold of it, I'll rebuild it and sell it."
The idea for getting into the small engine repair business began when a neighbor offered him $500 for a collection of broken lawnmowers he had collected in the course of maintaining his property in Miller, Missouri. Rather than sell them, Mr. Baumann enrolled in a correspondence course through the Belsaw Institute in Kansas City for $649. In the deal, he received tools, a brand new motor, manuals, diagrams, and other materials. He worked through the lesson material at his own pace and received a certification as a small engine repairman. Afterword, Ron began refurbishing, repairing, and repainting his collection of mowers. The renewed mowers sold as quickly as he could complete them, prompting a friend to urge him to put out a shingle and start a business. Ron did just that. "I literally took a shingle off a building and wrote on the black side: 'Ron's Small Engine Repair, Miller, Missouri.' That's all I did. I thought there wasn't anything that was gonna end up happening. This went on, and meanwhile I was still tearing lawn mowers apart and redoing them." After 2 weeks in business, Ron invested in becoming a Partner chainsaw dealership. The dealership started slow, but when it took off he sold 16 chainsaws in a month. By the time he sold the business in 1990, Ron's shop had expanded to a 100 by 24 foot building. "It had a big display area; we sold riding lawn mowers, weed eaters, parts, the whole nine yards. I was a full fledged dealer, but I did it all myself."
Afterward, he went to work for several businesses, including working for Briggs as a salesman, working with dealers, a stint at Koehler as a virtual representative, a job with a Massey Ferguson dealership selling Case IH, Massey Ferguson, and International. After getting married and moving to Dallas, Mr. Baumann worked for John Deere as a parts manager. During his time with John Deere, he grew a $100,000 business to over $1 million.
Ron's business has experienced success in Big Sandy, allowing him to invest in improving his shop. He still plans to invest more in improving his facility and expanding his stock. The pandemic has presented some challenges for his business: "One of the things that has hurt this year more than anything else is Covid. It's slowed down parts orders. It used to take me 3 or 4 days to get parts, now it's a week, 2 weeks, maybe 3. It's just a matter of sitting and waiting. I try to increase it all the time. I try to stock more parts. I look to see what is fast moving."
So far Ron has enjoyed his time in Big Sandy: "I don't see any other place in the world where you could live at such a small, slow moving pace and not cost so much. It's less costly here. It's surprising what all is here. Once you dig and look under the leaves, there's more here than meets the eye."
Ron's shop is located on 3rd Street, a block from the Medical Center. He can be reached at 406-390-3637.
