A New Home for Ceres

Written by Jack Collins

Starting a web-based business can be a daunting task, especially if you want to deliver great content, great accessories and the highest quality parts, and outstanding service. There are a ton of things to prepare, consider, and maintain to keep your site relevant. Developing content is really time consuming. Simply keeping a website fresh becomes a full-time job.

We may have been web-based, but the reality is, you still need physical space to support all the digital activity. You need to have storage for all the parts, apparel, and other swag. You need a garage to store vehicles, test fit things, road test parts, and take photographs for the site and instructions. You need a shipping and receiving area as well as a small office to do all the necessary accounting and bookkeeping. 

In addition, we found ourselves doing more and more work on other people’s cars and that activity displaced a lot of our other work. The fact was, we outgrew our workshop and were also occupying several storage facilities that housed cars and parts. It wasn’t very cost effective or efficient. 

Over the past year, we had been planning to open a garage with the space needed to do all those things above. Our search for a shop took us all over Central Florida. Aside from space and price, we had some specific criteria that were must haves:

• We wanted a place that was clean. So many of the places zoned for automotive use are in very dirty industrial parks with a ton of traffic. A lot of them had limited parking and many already had small auto repair shops and parking lots littered with broken cars. Some had nice spaces, but the other tenants had dozens of work vehicles all over the spaces. 
• We needed comfortable office and customer spaces. Many of the industrial spots only had minimal office space, so we would have had to pay for a build-out. Most only came with a single restroom that was usually out in the center of the shop floor. Not the nicest place for your visitors.
• Neighbors - most industrial parks have industrial tenants. They typically run loud, dirty, and sometimes intense businesses with lots of vehicles. Great for them but not the best for us. We also didn’t want to get right next door to a low-rent car repair shop, either. We didn’t want any confusion about what we do or leave the impression that their junk was part of our operation.
• It needed to be accessible. Central Florida is a tough place to drive around in a Little British Car sometimes. We wanted someplace easily found and easily driven. ​

After looking at so many potential locations that I lost track, we found what we think is the ideal place for us. This spot hits all the right marks. We have 5000 sq/ft in a working neighborhood at the end of a quiet cul-du-sac. We have great parking for us and our visitors. We have a nice office, kitchen, and visitor reception area with clean restrooms. Our location in Oviedo, FL is not too difficult for most folks living in the region.

Our landlord is local, a helluva nice guy, and very supportive. The next-door neighbors are car guys who build Porsche racecars and work on some other interesting things. They’re excited for us and have offered to lend a hand anytime we need it. In fact, they brought over the racecar scales and weighed our Ford Zetec powered MGB for us when we moved in (2060 lbs, BTW).

So, this is it. We are now in a beautiful shop where we are able run this business without space constraints.  We’ll be able to continue our previous work as well as take in cars to repair. Thanks to the support of our family, friends, and all of you, 640 Kane Court, Oviedo, FL 32765 is our new headquarters and home base for Ceres Motorsports!  ​