Overcoming Adversity to Take A Family’s Legacy to the Next Level

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

It’s the dream for many – open your own auto body shop to provide a nice life for your family.

One day, when you retire, your children will take over to continue your legacy. Sounds lovely, but sometimes life has other plans. Although no father intends to burden his 22-year-old child and her new spouse with a floundering business, there’s no doubt that the late Roland O’Haran Sr. would be extremely proud of his daughter and son-in-law, Jenn and Kyle Goad, for turning a struggling shop into a success story by overcoming the odds after being unexpectedly thrown into ownership.

O’Haran, along with his father George O’Haran Jr. and brother George O’Haran III, founded G & R Collision Center (Waldorf, MD) in 2006 with an emphasis on good, old-fashioned elbow grease and values like taking care of customers. His wife, JoAnne, ran the office, while he repaired the cars, offering small-town service and generating new business by word of mouth. “Roland was an old-school bodyman, especially when it came to how he ran the business, recalls Kyle Goad.

After studying auto body refinish and performance chassis fabrication at WyoTech (Laramie, WY), Kyle graduated in 2009 and joined the team at G & R in January 2011. JoAnne O’Haran saw something more in the young painter, and in addition to advancing him to perform some office work, she introduced him to her daughter, Jenn, a high school senior who worked at the dance store around the corner. The pair spent a few months getting to know one another and began dating after Jenn graduated. When JoAnne and Roland separated in 2013, Jenn went to work in the shop alongside Kyle and her father, tending to the accounting needs of the business and other office work. 

As romance blossomed between the young couple and even led to an engagement, tragedy struck when O’Haran was diagnosed with a rare prostate cancer in 2015. “Kyle and I pretty much took over everything at that point,” Jenn shares. “There was a lot to learn when Dad got sick. Because he was old school, we saw a lot of room for improvements, but we didn’t make many changes right away because we were trying to figure it all out, plus we had a lot going on in our personal life.”

Roland mustered the strength to walk his daughter down the aisle when she became Jenn Goad on July 30, 2016, despite his failing health. The prostate cancer metastasized into bone cancer and spread to his liver, ultimately taking his life. “He passed away October 12, 2017, two weeks before my birthday,” Jenn mourns. “It really sucked because he was my absolute favorite person on this earth! I was the legit definition of a ‘Daddy’s Girl.’ He was the best father you could ask for.”

Although Roland’s battle had ended, the Goads’ journey to preserving his legacy had only begun. “The transition was rough,” Kyle admits. “We wanted to make some improvements to the business, but a few months after Jenn’s father passed away, we found out we were pregnant, and that wasn’t the only surprise we weren’t expecting!”

“We encountered some unforeseen financial burdens, which caused us to have to close the original business and start East Coast Collision LLC,” Jenn laments. “We used our personal savings to establish the beginning structure for East Coast and even received a small loan from Kyle’s father to help us through those first few months of the transition. Kyle was in the front office doing estimates and dealing with customers, and I was working on all the paperwork for the transition and everything else behind the scenes that needed to be done. It was literally just him and I in the office. We still had a body tech and a painter, but essentially Kyle ran the office and did all the estimates. We were determined to make this new business succeed.”

Fortunately, O’Haran had developed a lot of great relationships that carried over to the new shop. “We already had good relationships with the dealers that we used for parts, so that helped us out a lot. We also had good DRP relationships with several insurers, so they were willing to stay and work with us through the transition,” Kyle says, adding, “Most importantly, we received a lot of support from our families and our employees at the time.”

“It’s all about the help,” Jenn agrees. “We have some of the most amazing employees who are willing to do whatever they can for us. Kyle and I cannot thank them enough for everything they do for us day in and day out. It helps that all of them are like family.”

East Coast Collision opened its doors in 2018 with some significant advancements compared to its predecessor. “We started with some equipment upgrades and new management software,” Kyle notes. “Recently, we upgraded our paint booth, and things really took off once we switched paint lines and started using AkzoNobel in January 2022. When it came to media and advertising, Roland was extremely old school; G & R had no online presence, so that’s something we’re currently working on. We hired someone to handle our social media accounts, and they are building our website as well.” 

The Goads are also exploring the possibility of OEM certification, though they’ll first need to upgrade additional equipment and acquire some I-CAR training. Kyle has invested time into attending industry conferences as well as training classes hosted by AkzoNobel, and he’s hoping to start “a training program for entry level youth to help bring young new talent into this trade,” Jenn shares. “The idea is in its infancy for now, but he’s so passionate about finding a way to help get the younger generation interested and trained to work in this industry. He wants to make it fun and interesting so that way they go to work doing what they love and hopefully make good money out of it.”

These days, Kyle “pretty much oversees everything,” according to Jenn, who stresses, “It is a big team effort though, and everyone pitches in. We now have 17 employees, including Kyle and myself. We have an amazing team that backs us up, and if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be as successful.”

While his official role in the shop has changed since he started working for Roland in 2011, Kyle still loves to paint and has no qualms about jumping in the booth if the shop’s painter is out for a day or two. “I really love the paint side of the industry and the challenges that come with it,” he insists. “I like to do anything from painting a car to custom work.”

He also brags on his wife for juggling “the work she does for the shop and taking care of two boys at home.” Grayson was born in 2019, and Dawson followed just two years later. Although their sons are still young, the Goads dream of passing on East Coast Collision’s legacy to the next generation. “Grayson is more into video games at this point, but I think Dawson will want to work in the shop someday because he enjoys going and helping one of our body techs whenever I bring them up to the shop,” Jenn says. 

With the lessons learned through overcoming adversity these past years, it seems likely that preparations for a smoother transition will be made for the third generation’s foray into ownership!

Want more? Check out the August 2024 issue of Hammer & Dolly!