Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie “JC” Hopkins.
Jamie “JC”, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Failure often breeds success. We learn the most from our mistakes, and one day I got tired of failing. I was punching a time clock as a CNC programmer making the same pay for over a decade, and I said enough is enough – I can create a way on my own. My wonderful and beautiful fiance casi and I had an opportunity to open JC Auto and we did. It was a dream we shared that took off far quicker than we ever would have imagined. She believed in me and she invested in us and we have never looked back. Casi and I put everything we had into our dealership. We have put an enormous amount of blood, sweat, and tears into our small space. We pulled all nighters that turned hopes and dreams into realities. Most importantly, we put all of our faith into Jesus Christ in everything we did and continue to do! We knew that we could provide a buying experience in Laurens that no other dealership has ever been able to offer, providing top notch customer service along with a service & repair side that can fix just about anything.
We are much different than your average family owned dealership. We are extremely picky about the inventory we carry. Most vehicle makes and models we will NOT sell. There are very few brands that we deem reliable and that is what we strive to sell. Beyond that, our prices are generally unmatched. We have customers in over half the states in the US. These customers came to JC Auto because the price on whatever vehicle they were seeking was truly that phenomenonal and was clearly more than worth the ride.
Another principle that sets us apart from your average dealership is honesty. We are honest to a fault at JC Auto. We never pull the wool over customers eyes. If a vehicle has any known issues we either fix it or the customer knows about it 100%. There are so many car dealers out there that will take advantage of innocent customers. For example alot of car dealers will sell a customer a car with a bad head gasket knowing that as soon as they get down the road within 10-20 minutes the vehicle will be running hot. We DO NOT operate that way at JC Auto. We have to be able to sleep at night, so there is no way we could ever take advantage of anyone. Another thing that sets us apart is we are not a pushy car lot at all. We want you to be 100% happy with your purchase and we want you to get exactly what you want – therefore if we aren’t able to provide that then we would rather NOT sell you a car that you won’t be happy with. We can’t be perfect of course, but our recipe has been pretty successful. We just treat people fairly, provide quality inventory that is highly reliable, and our prices are almost impossible to beat in most cases. We have been successful only due to the principals we live by, as well as our close relationship with Jesus Christ!
Casi and I have a mixed family of 4 wonderful children, one of them being our biological son Carter who will soon be 3 years old. Carter will take over JC Auto one day.
A fun FACT you might not know about JC Auto is – JC Auto was named after our son James Carter Hopkins who goes by Carter. At first we didn’t realize it, but later we also discovered that the acronym “JC” also stands for “Jamie & Casi” Auto as well.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No absolutely not. Everybody wants to own their own business but most people have no idea what it takes behind the scenes. It’s never ending, it is a constant grind, and the reality is, it is impossible to please absolutely everyone – however, we do come pretty close. All successful businesses are going to have a few customers that will never be happy no matter what, that is just the nature of the world we live in. But 99.9% of our customers drive away in a vehicle they didn’t think they could get into with less of a down and monthly payment than they were anticipating. Also most of these cars have great warranties on them as well.
But it is the behind the scenes work that makes small businesses go round. My fiance casi, my children, and the rest of our wonderful family and employees have been supportive every step of the way and a good support system is vital. More importantly, we have stayed close to God throughout everything and have always remained humbled. God has prepared me my whole life for the role I have now I believe.
I want everybody to know that this is America – The land of opportunity. We all have a choice every single day to make something of ourselves. What you do with your your free time is on you – better yourself, dont make excuses because No one is stopping you. Go out and conquer your dreams and break the cycle and be the change! YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a go getter. I don’t take no for an answer. I have always been able to communicate well with others. There isnt much mechanically that I cannot do. I have held cnc machinist roles, cnc programmer roles, engineering roles, and even management roles. In a way I have always been blessed with abilities as a jack of all trades. If I don’t know how to do something I will learn until I conquer it. Once you are able to create a way for your family on your own, there is nothing quite like it. You will never want to work for the “man” again if you can provide a way without relying on anybody but yourself!
What sets us apart at JC Auto is the experience that you are going to get with me and my staff. We do things a little different than normal while providing unparalleled pricing at the same time. Our customers love us and if you can just give us the opportunity I am certain we will earn your business.
In 2.5 short years we are creeping up on almost 200 5 star Google reviews. We treat all our customers like family, and most importantly we care and we want to help this community! The Prices of goods coupled with inflation is almost more than anyone can bare. We understand at JC Auto that you CANNOT go broke when buying or fixing a car – that is one of the many areas where we shine so brightly!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I am blessed to have some great employees and young men that I enjoy working with everyday. We are family.
My service manager Cam Tisdale is the best mechanic and man you will ever meet in your life. He is a great father, brother, and employee. There is absolutely nothing that this man cannot fix. Cam is always working to care for his family but he lives for this industry just like I do. Cam and I come together daily and we are dangerously good with the system we have in place.
Jackson Walker is my fiances nephew and he is an apprentice that is currently a helping hand in all areas. Jackson has become like a son to me and is learning so much so very quickly and he has some very big opportunities coming his way as we continue to grow exponentially in the Auto industry.
I am very proud of my boys!
We are going to be getting into much more service and repair work very soon. We are also going to be opening a tire and alignment shop as well as a towing business in the very near future. We already have all of these things in place now, we are just finalizing everything and taking all of this one day at a time.
I always refer to my fiance Casi as our “inventory queen” because she is phenomenal at finding great deals on quality vehicles. Alot of people would never know it but some of our best and most popular vehicles she has found. We have grown so much since inception here at JC Auto. We have grown 4x in size and revenue in the last year alone, we will continue to grow and provide you with legendary service in just about all things automotive.
However, please rest assured that we will be applying these same principles that made us a successful car dealership to all of these new up and coming businesses as well.
Currently we have a very small staff, however, I always tell everyone that our small staff out performs 12 people at your average dealership.
We hope the JC Auto name and brand will continue penetrate the automotive industry in Laurens as well as the upstate of SC from here on out.
Typically our prices undercut our competition anywhere from 25%-50%
We definitely have The ability to save you alot of money in all things automotive! We want to earn your business! We will not let you down!
Come stop by and see us or call or text us anytime!
JC Auto LLC
444 Church St. Laurens, SC 29360
864-981-7547
WWW.JCAUTOLLC.NET
Jcautollc23@gmail.com
Pricing:
- Cheapest price on reliable vehicles across the board with great financing options
- Cheapest automotive service work
- Cheapest automotive repair work
- Cheapest oil change
- Cheapest alignments
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.jcautollc.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DFGZ6imnf/
