Jim and Mike Ring are an amazing success story from the heart of America. The youngest of seven kids, the brothers grew up in the small town of Plain, Wisconsin, with a population of just over 600 people. From an early age, the duo was highly interested in cars, tinkering with anything with an engine way before either could legally drive. After graduating from high school and working in construction, Jim bought an old car dealership in Spring Green, Wisconsin, to turn into a paint and body shop. Mike would join Jim at the business after a stint in the U.S. Navy.
That small-town collision repair shop eventually morphed into Ringbrothers, a leader in the construction of high-end and extremely bespoke custom cars. Its legendary creations, like Enyo, Tusk, Strode and others, are rolling award-winning showcases of the incredible talent of Mike, Jim and the Ringbrothers team. The thousands of hours of craftsmanship, innovation, and meticulous build quality of each Ringbrothers' creation have transformed a small-town shop into a globally recognized brand and leader in the custom car space.
Bootstrapping their way from a humble to an iconic brand taught the brothers a lot about building a business. On this episode of the “Only The Strong Survive” podcast, Mike and Jim Ring discuss with host Dan Kahn what it took to become one of the premier custom car builders in the world. It is a must-watch episode for anyone wanting to develop their brand or into cars.
Click on the icon above to give it a watch, and here are our top five takeaways:
Respect is a huge part of building any brand.
Using your own products often is key to success.
Hire the right people and learn from them.
The drive for constant improvement is something you must possess.
Believing in yourself early can lead to great things.
Treat Everyone with Respect
Treating customers and everyone with respect is a strong part of how Mike and Jim built Ringbrothers and continue to operate it. That solid advice might sound like common sense, but it is surprising how often it is forgotten. Even as their brand grew into a global phenomenon, they remained humble and treated people with the same respect as when they first opened.
“Growing up in a town with just over 600 people, it is just mind-boggling to me the people we have met over a car,” said Jim. “If there is any advice for anybody else, and I made this mistake early, it is that you have to treat everybody with respect. It is very important that you always do what you say you are going to do. Sometimes that becomes really hard.”
Develop and Use Your Own Products
Beyond custom car construction, Ringbrothers sells high-quality billet and carbon-fiber parts via its e-commerce platform. A key to the success of those products is that they are developed, built and used all in-house. This allows for deep product knowledge and constant improvement that copying someone else’s product or overseas manufacturing could never offer.
“A lot of our products were developed over the years on different builds we’ve done. One thing about our products is that we use them and know how they work. I really feel we give good customer service because of that,” said Mike. “We are not just making something out of billet or copying somebody else’s product and putting it out there. We use our products every day.”
Always Make it Better
What shows in every radical Ringbrothers build is the constant push for improvement. The drive to always make something better isn’t just part of the vehicle builds, but also the business. Without that drive from within, brands can often stagnate and fall to competitors.
“You know you are never satisfied. You never think that, oh, we nailed it. We have never looked at one (a vehicle build) and thought that it’s the end-all,” said Mike. “I think that is what keeps you young and wanting to do the next one. It is to just make it better. “
Learn From Your Employees
While the vehicles Ringbrothers builds might be old-school, the technology used to create them is extremely modern. CAD/CAM, 3D printing and high-tech machinery all play roles in their creation. Mike and Jim admit to not being “techy,” but the key was to hire the right people who understand the technology and learn from them.
“Mike and I are blessed to have younger guys who understand that stuff, who want to come here and be a part of this, and want to build cars and parts,” said Jim. “The technology is not coming from Mike and me. It is coming from the people we have here that we have been blessed to have work with us. It is crazy. A month ago, we just bought two new 3D printers because we wore our other ones out.”
Believe in Yourself
Being an entrepreneur is always a tricky balance between taking risks and being cautious. For Mike, reflecting on how far Ringbrothers has come, one mistake was not believing in themselves earlier. While he is completely happy with their tremendous success, that early confidence could have led to things happening quicker.
“For me, it is probably not believing in ourselves, so we didn’t invest faster or go bigger earlier. Not for monetary reasons, but just to think that we didn’t have the confidence and to look back and ask why we didn’t have confidence in ourselves then,” said Mike. “You always wonder what if. I am proud of what we did, but if I look back, I would have said that I wish we had just blown it up (earlier).”
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