Name: Emerson
Business Name: BIM Auto Repair, 223 Whalley Avenue, New Haven.
Year Business was started in New Haven: 2015
Why did you start your own business?
I opened Bim Auto Repair as a tribute to where we were from. Bim is the name used for Barbados, where we grew up with a single parent raising five boys on her own in a government house.
Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?
We moved to New Haven in 2015 in an abandoned building that had been vacant for over 15 years.
What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?
We struggled the first 4 years because we were in an area in Hamden where our landlord was not allowing us to grow. We couldn’t do bodywork or sell cars because he sold cars next door to us in his own business, so we lost a lot of money paying bills and maintaining our business.
We started from scratch, bought all the equipment, put in 2 car lifts, bought a paint booth and everything else to run our business.
