Fairmont entrepreneur aims to fill a void in small engine repair

Dec. 19—FAIRMONT — In the past five months, Joe Beafore has learned there is no perfect time to start a business.

"Originally, I was a union [drill rig] operator out of Local 132 and then, when the COVID hit, everything dried up and there wasn't much work, so I had to do something to provide for the family," he said.

Within weeks of his layoff, Beafore took a job at a small engine repair shop in Morgantown, but left because he did not agree with the way the owner treated his customers.

"That didn't go well," he said.

So, in June 2021, Beafore decided to go it alone and formed Mountain Top Small Engine Repair LLC out of his home off Bunner Ridge. He didn't know it at the time, but Beafore is one of more than 150,000 U.S. entrepreneurs who decided to start their own business that month, according to U.S. Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics.

Census data shows that in the first nine months of 2021, there were 1,396,800 applications filed to form new businesses, a 41% jump over the same period in 2019.

Having repaired small engines since he was a teenager, Beafore felt the timing and the opportunity just simply clicked. (The first engine he rebuilt was his own DT250 Yamaha dirt bike.)

"I've worked on this stuff pretty much all my life," Beafore said. "My dad was into that stuff. He helped me build engines and stuff when I was a kid.

"He helped me build my first engine for my first vehicle because I wanted something that I could build and work on and that's what I did," he continued.

Another aspect that played into Beafore's decision to start his own business was last year's closure of Frederick's Small Engine Repair in Fairmont.

"When they shut down, there was nowhere for anybody to go," Beafore said. "Everybody had to go to Clarksburg or Morgantown and I thought about me doing what I'm doing, I'm opening up to the community to help the community so they don't have to travel so far."

Beafore said he got his first customer using social media and then he told his girlfriend.

"Actually, her family were my first customers," he said. "Ah, it's been slow here in the last month, of course, it's that time of year, but through the summer, I was pretty steady all summer," he said.

And, so far, Beafore has been building solid relationships with his customers.

Jesse Shroyer, of Fairmont, only lives a few miles from Beafore's shop at 206 Tom Moran Lane. One day, Shroyer saw Beafore's business sign and gave him a call. To date, Beafore has repaired at least six pieces of equipment for Shroyer.

"I keep finding stuff to take to him and I keep telling people about him," Shroyer said. "His price is reasonable and his work is good and it comes back cleaner than it was when I took it to him. I would recommend him to anybody."

Beafore said he will quote a potential customer the cost of repairing their mower or other two-stroke or four-stroke engine with original equipment manufacturer parts and after-market parts. His goal, he said, is to give the customer the best price possible.

According to Dave Carpenter, of Fairmont, his repair job was even a lot more complex than finding OEM parts. He said Beafore called "all around the country" trying to find the right part for Carpenter's Gravely tractor.

"He went way above and beyond," said Carpenter admitting that Beafore is filling a void in Fairmont. "I'm a return customer."

According to Census Bureau data, the number of small businesses being formed has slowed since June 2021, but the good news, officials said, is that the startup trend is exciting because it signals that this economic recovery will be more robust than the recovery after 2008's Great Recession.

In the coming months, Beafore is looking to expand and open a shop in Fairmont to offer more convenience for customers "and have a storefront and stock parts and inventory and be a dealer of some sort."

Reach Eric Cravey at 304-367-2523.