After 41 years of ownership and around 46 total years of working at Big 8 Tyre Center in Nevada, Mick Tscherter is ready to turn over the reins of the business to his son, Scott.
To celebrate his father’s longtime leadership of the successful business, Scott is hosting a Mix N Mingle/Retirement Party for his father at the business on Friday, September 27, from 4-6 p.m. It is hoped that many former employees and longtime customers will stop in and enjoy refreshments as they visit with Mick.
“I’ve enjoyed my employee team tremendously through the years. I’ve had very good, loyal employees, and I’ve enjoyed my customers,” Mick said, as he sat behind the counter of his business last week. “I’ve enjoyed being able to come to work every day and deal with my friends, because my customers have turned out to be my friends.”
And, Nevada, he added, turned out to be his home, the place where he and his late wife and business partner, Guila (who passed away in 2010), raised their two children and were very active in the community.
Mick’s personal story starts in the northwest Iowa community of Aurelia, where he grew up the son of a construction/maintenance worker and stay-at-home housewife. He graduated from Aurelia High School in 1968. Mick has two younger sisters, one who still lives in Aurelia and the other who lives in Spencer.
After high school, he attended Westmar College in LeMars on a football scholarship, but after a year, he decided to attend AIB in Des Moines, where he met Guila.
His first job was at Motorways Inc., a small truckers’ insurance agency. He worked on the tariff side of the business for four or five years. He followed up with a stint at Texaco and eventually landed a job as the assistant manager for BF Goodrich Tires in downtown Des Moines.
“Then Jim came calling,” Mick said of Jim Gruetzmacher, owner of Big 8 Tyre Center in Nevada. Jim wanted somebody to work with him in Nevada, and Mick took the offer. He and Guila had started a family and didn’t want to raise their children in the city. “So, I came to Nevada in March of 1978 just before the big spring sale. I got thrown right into the mix.”
He worked alongside Jim for a few years. Then Jim opened another store in Marshalltown and eventually wanted to sell the Nevada store. Mick bought the Nevada store from Jim in 1983. “We worked out financing with Exchange State Bank and with Harold Brinkman who worked there,” Mick recalled.
The current building was already standing when Mick purchased Big 8 Tyre. “The business has been in this location (the corner of Lincolnway and Second Street) since the mid-1950s,” Mick said. He knew that Jim had purchased the business from a Shalley and not the same Shalley who’d been a Sheriff. “So, the business has been around a long time,” he noted.
Mick said that the business name often brings about questions and goes back to the previous owner. At one point in time, the business was called Big O Tire. But when Big O became a franchise, Jim wasn’t a member and knew he needed to change the name. “He put another circle over the O, making it an 8, and then he changed “tire” to the British spelling of the word. He felt with the ‘y’ in it would set the business apart from other tire centers,” Mick recalled.
Mick’s purchase of the business also came with an employee. “I also bought Glenn ‘Smitty’ Smith with it,” he laughed. Mick said Smitty “did everything,” and was just one of the great workers he’s enjoyed having over the years.
Mick himself used to work in the shop area in the early years of owning the business. “I worked back there in the days before cars turned into computers,” he said.
The changes in technology, both in vehicles and in store management, has been one of the biggest challenges for Mick. Scott Tscherter advises that he will move the company into a more “paperless” operation to streamline expenses and to serve customers who want the more up-to-date email/text notifications and other digital benefits.
Along with the challenge of technology, Mick had the challenge of staying competitive with the big box stores that offer services nearby. He said when he first came to the business, Big 8 was a “quick service” type of place for tires and oil changes. “We’d get them in and out as quickly as possible.” Over the years, to stay competitive, Big 8 expanded services to working under vehicles, providing engine repair, and running diagnostics. Tire sales, of course, have always been part of the business.
Loyal customers have stayed with them. “I credit my ability to stay in business for so long to my customers. My customers and my employees are my biggest assets,” he confirmed.
Guila, up until her death, worked beside her husband in the business. “She was my boss. She kept the place straight and told me when to clean things up,” he said.
Between the two, Guila and Mick were always very involved in the community. They belonged to the Indian Creek Country Club, where Guila was the Club’s first woman president. Mick spent time working with the Chamber. They were also involved with the Lincoln Highway Days committee in the days of the Huffakers and Coopers, the booster club, and local bowling leagues. Guila even coached some area bowlers.
Scott hopes to continue being involved in the community and making the employees and customers the main focus of the business. Scott likes being in his hometown, which has a great location near Ames and is not far from Des Moines. “It’s small enough, yet big enough,” he said.
Scott has come to appreciate most about his father through the years, his work ethic and how he handled the stresses of business ownership. “The thing dad did best was, even if he had a bad day, he didn’t bring work home.”
Mick said his daughter Tracy Spykerman, who works full-time for Hertz Farm Management, also spends time helping at the business. Still, Scott, who has a business degree from Buena Vista University, will be the main one taking over, and Mick sees no reason why this business can’t continue to serve the community well into the future. Handing the business over to his son, “it’s something I’ve always hoped and dreamed would happen,” he said.
Mick will still be around and likely stopping in at the business frequently. But he also plans to spend more time volunteering with the Kiwanis Club, which he’s belonged to since the early 1990s. “This will give me the opportunity to spend a little more time sorting cans and flipping pancakes (at their breakfasts),” he said.
He’ll also have more time for his five grandchildren and for some of his favorite hobbies, such as golfing, bowling, riding a motorcycle, and playing Bridge.
We wish Mick the best on his retirement and Scott the best as he takes over this longtime City of Nevada, IA business!
–Written by Marlys Barker, City of Nevada
