Franchisee Voices: Tim Johnson of Christian Brothers Automotive

Tim and Cheree Johnson have always been an integral part of their local community. Tim has served as a chaplain in the Dallas County Jail system, a precinct chairman and an election judge in the past while his wife, Cheree, has been teaching in the area while serving in a local ministry for marriage enrichment as a mentor for single mothers. Now, Tim and Cheree are moving to a brand new area, Rio Rancho, N.M., to open their very own Christian Brothers Automotive. Uprooting themselves will be difficult, but they intend to keep up their selfless lifestyle all while running their full-service auto repair shop.

1851 had a chance to speak with Tim to learn more about how he got involved with Christian Brothers Automotive and his plans for his business.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I’m a native Texan and I’m currently working as a region manager at Questar. I’ve been there for about 10 years and before that I worked at 3M for 16 years in sales and marketing. I’ve moved around a bit – I’ve lived in Texas, Virginia and Minnesota. My wife, Cheree, and I have been married for 35 years and we currently reside in Roanoke, Texas, but we’ll be moving out to Rio Rancho on Jan. 4 to begin working at Christian Brothers full-time. We have two sons who will also be helping out with our shop eventually.

I earned my BBA in financial management and MBA in marketing from the University of North Texas. I’m active in my community; I served as a precinct chairman for three years and an election judge for two years. I served eight years as a volunteer chaplain in the Dallas County Jail system. I also served in the U.S. Army and the Texas National Guard. Now, I’m the outreach leader for the Coaches Outreach program and that’s headquartered in Dallas.

Why did you choose to become a franchisee with Christian Brothers? How did you learn about the brand?

We recently became interested in owning our own business so we looked around but were always drawn to the Christian Brothers model. We wanted to limit our risk and Christian Brothers offered the highest probability for success. The faith-based business really appealed to us, too.

Do you provide any interesting services or work with any other local businesses, organizations, or prominent individuals in the community?

I have already gotten together with the local chamber of commerce and they’ll be holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening. The move to Rio Rancho was made easier when we discovered we could get involved with some local ministries and help orphanages in the area. That was important to us.

What’s next for you and your business? Do you have any development or expansion plans with the brand?

We do hope to have the opportunity to expand but it will be at least a couple of years down the road. We’re eventually going to turn it into a family business, too. Our son, Caleb, is helping us with our online marketing and our daughter-in-law Caitlyn is handling our social media.