It’s not every day that you meet two women who’ve been involved in the automotive repair business for the majority of their lives. But then, it’s not every day that you meet two women like Anne Hope and Becki Lohone—period.

The story of how they came to own and operate Capital City Automotive in 2005 after spending a combined 45+ years in the business boils down to what they saw  as an opportunity to benefit the region by changing the culture of what has traditionally been a male-dominated, buyer-beware business.

As Hope says, “I see what the women go through on the other side. We’re a family of women and we know how we get taken advantage of out there. We wanted to change that.” But early on, they discovered that many men had had similar experiences. Just because a guy doesn’t know what goes on under the hood of his car, “that doesn’t make [him] stupid,” Hope continues. But it can mean that a wily mechanic can “take advantage of you. He’s just going to soak you and you’re going to stand there and say, ‘yep, yep,’—you’re going to agree because you don’t want him to know that you don’t know anything.”

For these reasons and many more, CCA offers customers a 360-degree tour of their car with the person who’s going to be working on it, loaner cars, free candy, and … “You need a massage? Go sit up front and you’ll get a massage,” Lohone adds with a chuckle. But seriously, what, specifically, does CCA do? Frame work, body work, brakes, engines, transmissions, air-conditioning and electric problems. “If it has a motor [sometimes even if it doesn’t], we fix it,” Lohone says.

Not surprisingly, they also do a great deal of charity work and choose to support the local firefighters, Special Olympics, the high schools and others.

As a result, through several years of tough economic times, “we’ve held our own,” says Hope. “But the automotive industry has taken such a hard hit. A lot of big people have gone out of business. We’ve done extremely well all things considered.” CCA employs six mechanics, including one of Hope’s sons and a master mechanic with over 30 years of experience.

One final tidbit from Hope: “Women are the hardest ones to deal with, because they have been taken advantage of … and are … scared that they’re getting taken advantage of. They feel like ‘Oh, OK, you think that just because I’m a woman and you’re a woman, you’re going to take care of me?’ It comes with the territory. So that’s why we’re big on showing you around. I want to educate you. I want to explain … why it’s not working, and what we need to do to get it working. That’s how we get people to relax.”

It’s also how they get customers from as far away as St. Johns, Grand Rapids and Traverse City coming in for service. Because let’s face it: There’s no such thing as stress-free care repair, either for your psyche or your wallet. But spend a little time in the company of these two remarkable women, their bulldogs and mechanics, and you may just find yourself driving away with a smile on your face. Or at least a grin.

Dible Glasser Landscaping

Kim Dible graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in landscape horticulture. After working at Horrocks Farm Market, she opened a flower shop and landscape business in 1985. In 1997, she sold the flower business to her two partners, and she and her husband, Dave, went into the landscaping business full time. Having grown trees on their 30-acre nursery since 1985, their business hit the ground running.

Dible said that her duties include all the customer contacts, and design and estimating work—along with anything having to do with the office. Dave runs the crew, which consists of three full-time employees who Dible calls “our biggest asset,” and who concentrate on one project at a time. This is an intentional strategy, she says, because, “we want to keep our hand on every project,” even though it means keeping their business small.

With the new home construction sector of the economy still struggling, Dible said that the majority of their work is business from clients who have used them many times over the years. “Generally, people have a problem that they need fixed,” she says. Or, they’re looking for ways to make their lives easier … to simplify things. At the same time, Dible strives to find solutions that are “unique to their situation.”

She adds that because the majority of their customers are women (that is to say, it’s the woman who has the final say), as a woman, she finds it easy to relate to them.

“A lot of it is esthetics [and] beauty. I try to talk color and texture—paint the picture.” This strategy works well with residential customers, who represent most of their business. She says she prefers residential because “it’s not just about money. They want to take pride in it. The commercial end of it is a lot more figures and schedule and getting the job done. They don’t really care.”

Another reality: About 90 percent of commercial jobs are male-run. And that’s one of the only circumstances under which Dible feels a little bit like a fish out of water. “As long as I know what I’m talking about, I don’t have a problem at all,” she says. “If I don’t, I know that’s not really where I should be.”