Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Highsmith.
Hi Doug, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Doug Highsmith. My brother Mike and I are ownership partners in Prestige Golf Cars. With wisdom from of our father, we started Prestige Golf Cars back in 1997. Seems so long ago, I was 23 years old, and Mike was 21, just kids right out of Jr college. Right off the bat, we both knew we wanted to run our own business, and our motivation was that we wanted to make our own schedule and be our own boss. Looking back, we were clueless, just immature and inexperienced for sure. What we did have was work ethic which is what got us going and kept us going through the early years.
We picked the golf cart industry because, really it was all we knew. Our parents moved us from Orange County to this community out in the middle of nowhere called Canyon Lake; at least, it felt like that compared to Orange County. The selling point to my brother and I about moving to Canyon Lake was if you were 12 years old, you could drive a golf cart around the community. Well, I had just turned 12 so we or I was good to go. My parents bought us an old beat-up E-Z-GO gas-powered cart to get around. We quickly learned that it was ugly and loud. We needed something newer and cooler, so we fixed it up and sold it, made enough money to get a little newer one. It was better, but we really wanted the Yamaha golf cart. It had more power, and that was all that mattered to us. So, after fixing a couple more carts up and selling them we had enough money to get a Yamaha. Our neighbors were starting to notice, we stated helping them with carts as well, and that is how it all started for us.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In 1997 we took the huge step for us and moved out of the garage into a 1500 square ft shop/showroom in our local town center. I was the technician, working with my hands, and Mike was the work-with-customers office type. The two of us worked on it for about a year or so till we brought on our first employee. Again, this was a huge step for us; with virtually no capital to start with having to pay $1200 of rent and now having an employee to pay for was stressful. For years we made only enough money to pay our bills, and that was it, along with 12–14-hour days and 6 days a week. It was a struggle for sure, but I attribute the work ethic and our local competition for bad-mouthing us to the point people wanted to see for themselves. We used to say he was our best salesman, and he wasn’t even on our payroll. Fast forward many years, we added employees and bigger stores. We currently have 34 employees and operate out of our own buildings in Murrieta and Las Vegas. I am currently 49yrs old and could write a book on everything I have learned and what I would have done differently along the way. Keep in mind neither my brother nor I were business graduates, so what we have learned is what we learned by doing.
Two lessons I have learned along the way that stick out to me are, first we were too conservative along the way, and what I mean about that is that we would cut hours and employees as needed when there were slowdowns. Turns out the slowdowns did not last long, and if we had kept employees and hours, we would have gotten further ahead and done it faster. The second is that I’m thankful we converted to technology early on. We added software to control all aspects and kept up with it along the way, and I think that has been a tremendous help for us, making all our processes much more efficient.
As you know, we’re big fans of Prestige Golf Cars. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
We have expanded into every aspect of the golf cart industry; we are a multi-line dealer, including E-Z-GO, Club Car, and Yamaha. These are the big three in our industry and have since added Cushman, Western, Aetric, and Madjax X Series. We provide consumer sales, commercial sales, parts department, online parts website, in-house service, mobile service, and rentals. Being diversified in all aspects of the business is needed to weather all the difficulties that occur over years of being in business. When one side of the business slows down, other departments pick up.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I would say the most interesting couple of years are dealing with the Covid time. Covid has made huge changes to our industry. It has opened the door for dozens and dozens of import cart manufacturers to break into the marketplace. With the high demand for products and the injured supply chain, these many low-quality cheap golf carts have entered the market. This has been hard to deal with, but I think in time, they will dwindle and disappear. I think people still prefer quality products, even at a cost.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://prestigegolfcars.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/prestigegolfcars_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrestigeGolfCars
- Other: https://gcartparts.com/
Image Credits
Reginaldo Diaz
Doug Highsmith
