Her Story
About Stephanie
I've been in the towing field for about a year full-time, though this industry is all I've lived in since my dad established the business back in 2002 when I was young. After high school, I worked with him for about 2 years in the office, dispatching and getting to know the business, before deciding to finish school at Cal State Long Beach where I graduated in 2022 with my Bachelor's in business management. About 2 years ago, my dad asked me about taking over since he's thinking of retiring. As the oldest of four girls, I was the natural choice. At first, I was skeptical about entering such a male-dominated industry, but I started working full-time and realized I really love building relationships with our property managers and owners. We're a Private Property Impound company, so we work with commercial buildings and apartment complexes. My typical day involves meeting with property managers from 9 to 2, making sure everything's okay with the accounts, checking if our signage is good, and seeing if they need anything from me. I also focus on getting new accounts by networking, talking to the right people, and even going to job sites where new apartment buildings are being built. One of my biggest focuses has been changing the negative perception of towing companies by helping the community. For Mother's Day, I organized an event with a lower-income city and donated the mariachi. I want to show Van Nuys that we're here to help the community, not just tow cars. I also work with police officers to see if they need any support.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Stephanie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to helping the community and changing the negative perception of towing companies. Towing companies have a lot of negative outlook from the community, but I've been really strongly pushing to show that we're not just out there getting cars. For Mother's Day, I organized an event with a lower-income city and donated the mariachi. Being able to do things like that shows our community and our city, Van Nuys, that we're not trying to put a negative picture on us. I'm here trying to reach out and help the community any way I can, whether that's getting with police officers to see if they need any kind of support. That's been really important for me recently.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would just say not to be afraid. Take it day by day. When I was going into this, I actually moved from San Gabriel Valley to the Valley as my dad was retiring, and I had to start from the ground up. I didn't know the businesses around or how this was gonna go, but little by little, everything comes together. Just make sure you believe in yourself. People are like, what, you're taking over? You're gonna get those funny faces and they're probably gonna judge you when you feel like you're being judged, but as long as you believe in yourself and you have that support system with your family, and you find a mentor, which is very important, you can strive to be successful anywhere.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
One thing I tell my drivers and in my personal life as well is just doing the right thing. When they call and say, hey, I don't know, is this the right process, or do we get this car? I'm like, are we doing the right thing? Do we feel comfortable? Is our signage up? We want to make sure everything's good. Just doing the right thing and making sure everyone feels right about what we're doing. That's my biggest value right now with the company.
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