Joyride Auto Styling owner Leejibb Baring with his cousin Anthony Ignacio and his modified Toyota Vios at the shop.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON
Car enthusiast ditches med school to pursue car-modification shop
There was nary a trace of regret when Leejibb Baring talked about why he decided not to pursue a medical course that could have given him a lucrative career.
“I was in my second year in medical school when I decided to stop,” Baring shared.
Quitting medical studies, to the chagrin of his parents, was a big gamble but Baring would prove he made the right decision when he ventured into something that has been his interest since his teenage years.
“I’m a car enthusiast. I used to join drag races, including the illegal ones. There were no legal drag races in our time, so we held our races at the Marcelo Fernan Bridge when it was still being built,” said the 37-year-old Baring.
Leejibb Baring shows the awards his shop has won.
It was this interest on cars that drove Baring to put up the Joyride Auto Styling, a shop that specializes in body kits customization located along M.V. Patalinghug Avenue in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.
The car-modification shop is one of the more known shops not only in Cebu but also in the region.
“We have clients not only from Cebu but also from other places like Dumaguete, Tacloban and Bohol,” said Baring.
Joyride started as a carwash and car-detailing shop when it opened in April 2005. When Baring met a friend in Manila who was into car customization in 2009, he decided to convert Joyride into a car modification shop.
“I took a two-year Business Information Technology course to help me learn how to make various designs for car customization,” said Baring.
Judging from the plaques and trophies that crowd the living room of Baring’s home, Joyride has definitely gone a long way.
One of his employees works on a bodykit.
“Joining car show competitions is part of our marketing. We don’t always aspire to win top honors, we don’t mind winning runner-up trophies because it is already a form of acknowledgment for us. These trophies are our tools to earn our clients’ trust,” said Baring.
Like family
As his way of ensuring that Joyride offers top quality service, Baring makes it a point to attend seminars that can help improve his business further.
“In this business, every day is a learning process,” he said.
Baring said one secret of keeping the shop afloat throughout the years is taking care of his personnel.
“My workers have been there for a long time. I treat them as family, I don’t act like I am their boss. I attend to their needs because the success of the business heavily relies on them,” he said.
Having the customer-is-always-right approach is also a must to last in the business, said Baring.
“There are times that your patience is tested by unhappy customers but you just have to understand them. You have to satisfy your customers and it takes a lot of patience to do that,” Baring said.
And patience is one thing Baring has a lot. And it is, in fact, patience allows him to sleep peacefully at night knowing that he made the right decision in choosing his passion over a lucrative career.
