Ray Ruiz was researching franchise opportunities available near his home in Aurora, Colorado. There were plenty of them, but none that sparked his passion. He was staring to feel as if his only options were fast casual or fast food franchises.
“I wanted to be my own boss, but I wasn’t inspired by the franchises I kept seeing,” Ruiz said. “Most of them were burger or sandwich operations. I like burgers and sandwiches, but I’m not passionate about them.”
After a while, the franchise broker Ruiz was working with asked him a question that changed his life.
“Do you want to make sandwiches the rest of your life?” the broker asked.
Ruiz immediately knew the answer was no. More importantly, he realized that a personal interest and emotional investment would be key ingredients in his franchise success. Not long after that, he identified Tint World® as the franchise for him and started the process that resulted in Ruiz opening Tint World® Aurora CO in 2021.
“I’ve always been a car guy, so I started focusing on automotive franchises,” he said. “As soon as I learned about Tint World® I knew it was the right fit.”
As a committed “car guy,” Ruiz is committed to connecting Tint World® with the local car community. In 2022, he and his team have maintained a heavy schedule exhibiting at a wide range of local and regional car shows. While he initially developed the store’s show schedule as a business strategy, Ruiz says they’ve turned into something more.
“There’s labor involved in setting up and breaking down, and days at the shows can be long, but it hardly seems like work,” Ruiz said. “Basically what we’re doing at these shows is talking to people who love cars as much as we do. I’d be attending many of these shows whether I owned a Tint World® franchise or not.”