This story originally appeared in the September issue of Powersports Business.
Father and daughter duo Mike Venziano and Misty Rohdes own Yamaha Rich of Lockport, Illinois, and run their dealership with passion along with other family members. Venziano has worked at the dealership for 40 years and was mentored by former owner Richard Rider.
“Rich’s not related to us, but he’s like a father figure to my dad,” says Rohdes. When Venziano was 25, his father died, and Rider took him under his wing.
“I spent 40 years with him, and he quit,” says Venziano. “We kept going, and now what happened between me and Rich is happening between me and Misty.
“Misty is amazing,” he continues. “I almost feel bad because she does it so well. She is a very strong woman and very successful. She is leading the pack in the country.”
Rohdes joined the dealership in 2009 and is now part owner. She grew up in Yamaha Rich, and Venziano remembers playing with a cabbage patch doll in the dealership while he was doing sales. When she was old enough, she started cleaning helmets and then worked her way through the parts department. She moved to sales and marketing and is now the general manager and part owner. Rohdes went to college and took CAD (Computer Aided Design), mechanical engineering, and business classes. “That gave her the background of dirty fingers and how to fix things,” says Venziano. “She can stand up to the best guy or even the best mechanics out there and tell them what to do. And she’s right.”
Working families
Venziano and Rohdes manage three mechanics, four people parts, and one salesman. Venziano’s sons, Trevor and Brandon Venziano, work at the dealership, along with his stepson, Lester Rutherford. Venziano’s other daughter is a nurse, and although she doesn’t work at the dealership, she points out grammatical errors on the dealership’s social media posts. “So, she’s still involved,” Rohdes says.
Being part of a family business is nothing new for Venziano. “When I was a kid, my parents owned a trucking company,” he says. “We had to work together as a team.” He says he and his two younger brothers worked for the family business. “I feel really lucky [my kids] close to me,” he says. “I’m very lucky and blessed to have my family around me.”
Preparing for expansion
And Rohdes plans to work with him until he retires. “I intend to take over the dealership,” she says. “This place is going nowhere. It will be here for a long time… We are a small dealership. We have some inconveniences because we are not incorporated, so we can’t make changes to our building and parking, and we have to stick with what we have until we decide to make some big changes ourselves. We will do those when the time is right.”
Venziano explains that they are prepared to expand and already own the land and buildings around the dealership. “It will be given a new building in the future,” he says. “The city is sending water down through the road and the sewers, and that creates some facilities. Misty will be able to sit in an office and watch everyone… Right now, she’s grunting, which is good… I’m not thinking about her anymore, she’s gone over my head.”
“I was 23 years old when I decided to dedicate my life to Rich’s Yamaha,” she laughs. “I’m 36 now.” Misty is the mother of an 11-month-old son, George, and has a baby girl on the way. “I want it just like my father,” she says. “I have my own two little boys who are going to take over for me one day. That’s what I hope. That same connection I have with my father, I want my children to have with me.”
Misty says she’s lucky because the caretaker George lives in the apartment complex owned by Venziano, just a few hundred feet from the dealership, so she can see him throughout the workday.
Sales and flooring
The owners believe that the customers are their main focus. “We work hard to keep our customers happy with ourselves… It’s a challenge to keep everyone happy, but the customer comes first,” says Venziano. “We sell fun here at this store and when a happy customer thanks you and we say thank you, it’s very satisfying. I don’t know how else to say it.”
“You sell them a motorcycle or an ATV and the enjoyment they get from that, how happy they are to come and see or come back again and tell us about their experience, it’s a peace of mind that I’m giving something to the these people. a life they really enjoy,” says Rohdes.
And to keep their customers on track, the sales team started focusing on insurance sales during the summer of 2024. “F&I is becoming an integral part of our profit,” says Venziano, and the team is developing effective techniques to sell gap insurance.
The sales department is also focused on sales of Yamaha e-bikes. The dealership took on the e-bikes in the fall of 2023, and Rhodes says sales are going well. “There are a lot of bike paths around us, and it’s growing,” she says. “There are lots of places to ride around us.” Venziano, who rides one of the e-bikes at the weekend, says Yamaha offers aggressive incentives to existing customers.
While the dealership’s staff is focused on R&D sales, e-bike sales, and end-model Yamaha snowmobile sales, Venziano is focused on managing floor costs. “We’re working side by side with them, and they’re treating us like we’re a Capital One customer with a late charge card,” he says of some OEMs. “So paying for your own floor plan is a huge savings… We’ve been lucky, we clear our inventory pretty well.”
Misty reflects on her father’s work ethic and the impact he had on her family. “I really love working with my dad,” she says. “He did so much for our family. We never struggled and he was always there for my brothers and everyone. I want him to enjoy his life, so I want to work harder so he can make it easier now.”
With their commitment to customers and each other, the future is bright for Rich’s Yamaha as the owners continue the hard work, passion and customer care that will bring them into the next generation.
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