Classic and Vintage Car Workshop

(Post: English)
"After spending nearly a decade working in New York - two years on Wall Street and seven at an auto-parts dot.com - Jason Wenig and his wife, Kim, looked around the country for a place to start a business of their own."

They settled in Dania Beach, Fla., spent two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars fixing up a rundown building, and opened a classic-car restoration outfit.

Their Creative Workshop is no ordinary garage. Restorations cost from $100,000 to $250,000, while a custom-designed roadster can go for $1 million.

In four years in business, the shop has done work for customers from Seattle to Costa Rica to Germany.

The staff is up to 14 mechanics, plus Kim, 39, who does the bookkeeping.

The collapse of the Florida real estate market and the overall economy are troubling Wenig, 38, who says his backlog has shrunk.

But, he says, "I kind of like this environment. It makes you less of a prima donna and a bit more hungry for business."

Besides, he adds, "what better way to distance yourself from a miserable day of watching the market than by talking about a 1957 Lancia?"

Source: BusinessWeek