In this episode of The Hidden Hustle, Jeff Miners of Total Truck shares his journey from small startup to thriving business nearly 30 years strong. Jeff dives into diverse services that Total Truck offers. Tires, wheels, lift kits, and van upfitting, while highlighting the challenges of entrepreneurship and the value of perseverance.

He shares insights on industry trends, real estate, And offers advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. The

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So Jeff, welcome to The Hidden Hustle.

Thanks for being on the show. No problem. So can you start, just give us an overview of Total Truck and your services? Total Truck, we 

do a little bit of everything that you can hang on a truck or van, SUV, some cars, tires, wheels, lift kits, running boards. We do a lot of commercial van outfits. Ladder racks, interior shelving.

Sure. Pretty much about anything you can put on a truck. Can you explain upfitting for me? Upfitting would be like a commercial side, like people working out of them. Basically the shelving, ladder racks, we'll do the ladder racks that fold down the side of the van. So it makes it easier for loading some of the taller vans.

A lot of the commercial fits will be. Refrigerant companies. So we'll have a specialized racking and stuff. Sure. Electricians might take one specific where the commercial side, like Freon tanks, holders and stuff like that. It'd be, it'd be indifference. And yeah, there's every trade is going to have a different outfit for their van.

Sure. Or truck. 

Yeah. Are you guys prepping for a lot of snow plows for the winter here? 

It is the time, so we do a little bit of snow removal as far as outfitting trucks for it, salt spreaders and stuff. We're not heavy into it, but we do a fair bit of beak, so. Nice. 

What inspired you to start TotalTruck? 

I was always in with cars and trucks and I was an entrepreneur, so I always looked at different ways to make a buck.

Yeah. And I did a lot of side hustles with cars, selling them on the side. And I knew that was a business I wanted to get into. I did a little research and found that there was a need for the accessory side, so I went for it. Cool. Here I am. 

Yeah. So how'd you first get into entrepreneurship? What was the first entrepreneurial venture for you?

Oh 

boy. In high school, I was buying and selling cars. Yeah. So it was always something that, that I was doing, not necessarily always cars, but if I could find somewhere to hustle off a buck, I was, I was always doing it. So. 

Yeah. Flippin cars. 

Yeah. 

Facebook Marketplace. When did that come out? 

No. 

Facebook wasn't.

Craigslist? 

Craigslist wasn't even a thing. Really? So how'd you find these jerks and cars? I mean, in the paper. And I'd advertise them in the paper. So I don't even know if that's a thing anymore, that you can look in the paper and find the car, but yeah, that was way before any of that went on. It was 

a little harder to hustle them up back then.

So tell me more about your beginnings before Total Truck. What. Did you go to school? Did you work somewhere before Total Truck? 

I graduated, graduated from Kemper High School, Carroll, went to Northwest Missouri State, graduated with a marketing management degree, moved to Des Moines. I, I was a licensed stockbroker, sat behind a desk, talked on the phone, glorified telemarketer, figured out that wasn't for me.

And so. I started looking, uh, and I knew I, I always knew I wanted to do my own thing. I just didn't know what. And the car business was just always something that I wanted to be in. And I always thought I wanted to have a car lot myself, but yeah, I found this and it seemed like the thing to do. Almost 30 years later, here we are.

So it's been fun. And, and I love the business. I don't have any regrets. 

Where did you get the name? 

I don't even remember. It took a while to figure it out, but there was a franchise that I looked at, uh, at the time, and it was called, I don't even know if they're still around, it was called Pickups Plus.

And I remember we went out and looked at, at their franchise and it, the cost and stuff. I figured I can make a lot of mistakes for what it was going to cost. I didn't obviously go that direction, but shortly after I opened another pickups, somebody did do the pickups plus here in town and they lasted three or four years and maybe it might have been about two years or longer, but.

They're no longer here, but yeah, it was, there's been a lot of guys in the business, in and out over the years. So just been a lucky one. 

Yeah. If you could start over, would you do anything differently? 

Oh, for sure. I for sure would do things different. I don't know specifically what it's easy to say now that would have done things different.

But I was pretty green at the time when I opened, uh, I was, and I still am. I was big on. Not having any debt. And the first thing I did, well, shoot, I think my entire inventory was probably less than 500 with a bed liner laying in the showroom, bed liner and a few mudflaps. Yeah. I don't know. I probably, I would have definitely done a few things different, but who knows?

Yeah. 

What was the biggest risk that you took with Total Truck? 

Risk? I bought the building and in my mind, I like real estate too. When I bought the building, I always thought if it doesn't work. At least I have the building. I see, not to say it's right or wrong, but people open up and they'll go out and rent a big building.

And I always thought, man, if they go, they don't have anything else to fall back on. I always thought if it didn't work, I can sell it or rent it or do something else. Yeah. 

Do you have any other? Real estate properties. Yeah. 

Yeah. I've got a fair number of different, probably too many. Housing or commercial?

Mainly housing. I've got some apartments up here and I've got rental houses around the city. 20 some maybe. Not a lot, but seems like a lot sometimes. 

Yeah. How do you manage all that? In 

my spare time. It's tough. It was another thing that I just always liked. My dad was a, a contractor. Growing up, we were always building something or houses or whatever.

Yeah, I always enjoyed the real estate side of it. I knew that was something else I was going to do. Was that before or after you started Tullochar? First one was before, which I still have that property. But once I started, Making a little bit of money here. I always thought at least buy one a year and some years it's worked out.

Some years it's been one, sometimes more, but it's been all right. 

Yeah, that's cool. That's always something I've been interested in as well. 

It's a lot of work. I mean, you got to know that renters are going to trash your place. They'll make or break you. Yeah. I learned that I'd rather let a place set empty than rent it to the wrong person because of it.

I'll make your life hell, easily, so. 

Do you have any memories from the early days of business, like the first couple years of Total Truck? Definitely, I can remember 

deciding one day, the day I was opening, I didn't have the money really. Even by an open sign, I just remember printing off a, a piece of paper that said open and sticking it on the front door.

And there was, there was literally days that went by that a person wouldn't walk in the store or the phone wouldn't ring. And I don't know, I probably did everything wrong. There's probably no reason I should be here, but some reason we figured it out. And eventually it took a long time, but it paid off, but it definitely took some time and, uh, patience.

Yeah, I don't know if today's day and age, if a guy could do it that way. 

What are some significant milestones through all the years of business? We've been here 

actually almost 30 years now. Um, so milestone wise, when we, when I first opened. We were, you know, I focused on, you know, it was boat shields and running boards and bed liners.

It wasn't a whole lot of real Detailed stuff, it was easy stuff. And just slowly, I hired a tech that was good at lift. So we started going into the lift kit area. And slowly it evolved to tires and wheels. And then 4 or 5 years later, I had an opportunity. Some of the dealers, after being around the dealers, would request different things.

The commercial side was something we looked at, and that was something that I had never really thought about, but it, it worked out. But we just got to the point where we tried whatever it took to keep the doors open. 

Have there been any obstacles with growth over the years? 

Oh, for sure. There's been the economy's ups and downs, but that's one thing that, you know.

Maybe I'm, I was just stubborn. If we were slow at one thing, I'd find something else to do. Or I've got my dealer's license. So I'd buy cars that might need something. So if the shop was slow, we'd pull those in and we'd work on those. That's few and far between anymore, but it's still on occasion. If happens, I just decided that one way or another, we were going to make it.

And right. Yeah. Or Hamilton. 

Yeah. So your website mentions a pretty wide range of products, lift kits, wheels, tires, commercial band up fitting, like you said. What seems to be your bread and butter? 

Really lift kits are nice. Everybody likes the bling, but I like the commercial side of it. It seems to be a little more consistent.

It's more steady, yeah. There's always a commercial guy that needs something, whether it's a new vehicle or old vehicle. If they're putting new techs in or going into a different trade, um, there's a lot of, you see a lot of the, the guys that are now not only doing electrical, but they're doing plumbing.

We're upfitting different in plumbing packages or electrical packages. I like that side of it. It's not as blingy, but. I think it's probably a little more profitable. The staff that I've got, we've all been here a long time, and I'm here every day, every night. It's, I don't know, we have a good relationship with our customers.

If you walk in the door, if you've been in there, in the story. We're always joking with somebody. Our customers, most of them have become friends. I think that's a big deal. There's not a whole lot of turnover and, and I'm always here. So yeah, day or night you drive by and 

chances are my truck's sitting here.

A lot of experience. What are some other kinds of accessories or installations that are popular in the winter months besides snowplows? We do a lot of tires. We'll do a lot of tires 

just because of People preparing for, prepare for the winter. I would say the plows and the, and that are probably the biggest thing in the wintertime as far as the snow stuff.

But really we still, there's people still lifting trucks every, throughout the winter and putting tires and wheels on and running boards, although it does cycle through different things. It's. It seems like we're always busy doing something. Do any chains? No, around here, we really don't. A lot of the tires though, that we sell are snowflake rating.

That helps with chains around here. We really don't, you don't see a whole lot of, 

what should customers or businesses consider when adding snowplow setups to their fleet? First 

of all, make sure that their vehicle can actually handle what they're wanting. We see that a lot of the guy come in with a.

truck and they'll want a plow that's for a three quarter ton and they all have weights. So we need to make sure the vehicle is going to be safe for the plow they want. We do a lot of half ton stuff. We still do a lot of three quarter commercial stuff, but a lot of our business is guys that Might own an apartment, two or three apartment complexes and they're, or they're plowing a longer driveway and they're doing their own stuff.

So 

that's a lot of our snow plow side. What are the different types of snow plows that you can get? 

Straight blade, V blade, there's, we sell snow way. So the R series, which has the folding wings allows you to move more snow than like even a V plow. But. They're all going to have their own specifics. You do.

So a B plow might be more, if you're out of the country, trying to bust through bigger drifts. Right. Parking lots and stuff with our R series, you can move a lot of snow and SnowAway actually is the only manufacturer that has down pressure. So works good for back dragging or pack down snow. Yeah. 

Do you ever have any issues with those motors icing over during a storm?

Yeah. The, oh, 

on the plows? 

Yeah. 

Oh, not too bad. As long as they're maintained right and have the right oil in it. They're, they're pretty 

bulletproof as far as that goes. I used to plow up in Waterloo and the company I worked for, there, there was this one truck that always had issues with, the blade would lock up in one direction.

Oh, really? For some reason it iced over. 

It's 

always one of the 

guys three o'clock in the morning when he has a problem. Yeah, the snowplow business can be challenging because guys, when they break down, they want backup right away. So it's definitely can be a challenge, but, um, we do our best to, we'll come in early or stay late just to try to accommodate some of those guys.

Sure. 

Do you have any special maintenance tips for snowplows? Like he said, oil and keeping the 

oil clean, changing the oil every year is a good idea, just because a lot of times, a lot of guys storm outside, so they'll collect moisture in the oil. Just going over everything, making sure the connections, your wire connections, and And hoses aren't frayed or anything.

That would probably be the biggest thing. Sure. 

Do you have any industry insights or have you seen any trends or changes recently in the automotive accessory industry? 

Trend wise, there, obviously the internet's always a challenge, but. They, there's always problems as far as, we'll get, which we'll do, customers will call and want us to install something they bought online, and I would say 50 percent of the time it's, They've, they received the wrong product.

So, internet wise, it can be challenging for us to try to explain to customers that hey, it's not the same and we're, we're right here so if there is a problem you can stand in front of us and tell us what's going on. But that's probably, it's probably one of the bigger ones. 

For those looking to build out their vehicles.

Do you have any advice for where to start? 

Really? Budget's a big thing and just what they want. Do they want functioning or do they want looks? So do they want both? How they're going to use the vehicles? Most guys, it's common for somebody to buy a truck. They're going. A common thing is a level. It's a pretty reasonable level of truck and tires and wheels, or just a lot of bigger tire anymore.

A lot of the manufacturers, some of those, the trucks come with a pretty decent looking wheel. So you can change it a lot for just by adding a level kit. Some tires, but you know, if guys are working out of it, then here's, that's a whole new ball game. Just depends on how they're using it, whether they're wanting a toolbox or tonneau cover, bed liner.

There's tons of choices when it comes to any of that stuff. Yeah. 

Yeah. I saw a video of you on your guys's, what was it, your Facebook or your website of the man card. And that was funny. I 

thought 

that was really 

good. That's uh, that's an old commercial. Really old. Yeah, one of our old reps, he would, he always was good at finding, coming up with some crazy ideas.

Honestly, we don't hardly, I can't remember the last time I advertised, so we don't, we don't get into that a whole lot. 

Yep. Get your man card back. Upgrade your track. Yep. Yeah, that was a good one. For any business owners out there, someone thinking about starting a business, what tips do you have to be successful?

The biggest thing is patience and willing to put in the, I see it all the time where somebody opens up and they're expecting instant gratification. They go out and they buy a brand new vehicle, and they just, new house, new vehicle, just expect everything, and it, it just doesn't happen that easy. If it does for some, great, but it sure didn't for me.

Uh, it took a lot of years and a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hours and, which I still put in a ton of hours, but, uh, it's not as easy as it looks and everybody thinks, oh, you own your own business, you can do whatever you want, to an extent, yes, that's true, but if you want to be successful, you can't. You can't, you got to put in the hours and you.

There's a hidden household there. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. There's one key lesson you've learned from your 

experience with Total Truck. What would it be? I guess one of the lessons is cause I was probably one of those people. I thought it was going to be easy to, I thought I could do what I wanted.

And you expect the business is going to be there and you've got some freedom. And that wasn't the case. If I wasn't so stubborn, I'd probably wouldn't have made it, but I just, I just made up my mind nobody was going to outwork me. I just put in the hours and, and made it happen, but yeah, that was a lesson that if you don't put in the time, you're not going to make it.

Looking ahead, what are your goals for 

Total Truck? 

Finding the right employee can be challenging and I'm not willing to sacrifice our quality of work by just adding anybody I've been looking for different people for a long time. And I could have, and I have hired people and then regretted it because it's, they don't maybe have the same outlook that I do.

I don't know. Your people are your investment. You're putting a lot of. Correct. And, and we will, we want to have a good product and we want to have a good reputation. And so just having anybody work on your vehicle, I'm not willing to do that. We're definitely outgrowing our space, but. We make do with what we, what we have.

Yeah. 

How many employees do you have? There's, uh, six or seven of us right now. So. Nice. Are there any upcoming plans for expansions into new services? 

No real services. We do. I've got some plans to get us a little more space. Um, but we're, we're staying where we're at. Um, I'm working on that. We'll see what the elections do today.

That's going to, that's going to have a lot to do with it. And a lot of Maya. Friends that are in business too, they're, uh, right now it's a waiting game. So we'll see what happens. And yeah, and that will definitely make a difference how we move forward. Definitely. 

Yeah. My first guest on the show, AJ, his goal was also to expand into a bigger building.

And a week after his episode, I was talking to him on the phone and he said that they had just put an offer on a larger building. No, really? Yeah. It was just so crazy. Cause he was just talking about, this is my goal for 2025. And then the right thing came along. So maybe you're next. Yeah. Yeah. I never know.

Is there anything you'd like to share with aspiring entrepreneurs? You mentioned patience. That's 

probably the biggest. Patience. Just don't lose focus. Some sometimes get frustrated if the business isn't there right away, but it does come around. If you're, you have to be involved, all this on the internet, this, all this about passive income, I don't believe in it.

Yeah, some of the stuff, but you're not going to open a business and expect somebody else to run it because nobody's going to run it the way you're going to run it. And nobody's going to care the way you're going to care. Yeah, I don't, I, I just, patience and just being willing to put in the hours. So it, it does, it, it, the sacrifice you got to make is tough sometimes.

Definitely. 

Are there any products that you'd recommend for customers out there preparing for this winter? Just like a ton, like 

a cover, tonneau cover, topper, mudflaps. To me, if you've got a, if you've got a truck and it's outside, which I mean, you're going to have it outside, whether you garage it or not, it's going to be out in the elements collecting snow.

So I think a tonneau cover or a topper, some kind of cover for the bed is important. It just, nobody wants to have a mudflap. Bed full of snow, and then mud flaps, and keep some of the slop off the side of the truck, but those are probably just, those are probably basic things that most people put on trucks, and it's probably one of our better sellers.

Any specific tires that you've found that perform the best? Our 

best seller right now is the Falcon AT4W. I mean, it's AT3 was the old one, which was an awesome tire and snowflake rated tire, and now the new AT4's hands down our best selling tire. What's the biggest difference between the three and the four?

There's, I think it's all probably a lot of marketing. It seems like they're, as far as performance, we have them on. We have one of each on our, a couple of our shop trucks, and they seem to perform exactly the same. They just have a little different look. The AT 4 looks a little more aggressive on the sidewall.

And it also has a two side. If you don't want the aggressive side, we can turn it around and give you more of a street look, but, you know, the shred's the same, so. It's not directional. No. 

How can listeners connect with Total Truck or learn more about your services? 

Easiest way is just call the store. But you can get on the website and email us.

To talk to one of us is usually the easiest way. We can answer your questions. Tell me what you've got going on and, and what you want. And if you want a quote or something and you know what you want. That's, that's great, but sometimes guys don't know what they want being in needy. It's just easier to just give us a call or stop in the store.

Yeah. 

What's your guys phone number? 515 243 6677. I had a very good experience with Ted. I came in, actually, because I didn't know what I wanted. I knew I needed tires. I didn't know what I wanted. But I had those aftermarket wheels and I knew I couldn't just get anything. I needed a specific tire. So he flipped through the catalog with me and we picked out those Dalkins.

I 

couldn't ask for a better salesman because he knows his stuff and he's. Easy to talk to. And he's just an all around good guy. 

Jeff, thank you for coming on the show today and shout out to Total Truck for the quality work you do here in Des Moines. Uh, for our listeners who want to learn more, be sure to check out the show notes below for more contact information with Jeff over at Total Truck.

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Until next time, keep hustling.