Meet the NATM Dealer Committee Members: A Conversation with Shane Ehrsam

NATM Dealer Affiliate Committee - Interview with Shane Ehrsam 

In July 2024, NATM staff members Andrea Boetticher and Izabella Chesney began a new series of interviews to learn more about the members of the 2024-2025 NATM Dealer Committee. We are excited to be continuing this exciting series of giving you an inside view of who represents our Dealer Affiliates. We got the opportunity to speak with Shane Ehrsam who is based in Texas and owns North Texas Trailers.

Tell us about yourself and how you came to the industry? 

I did not grow up in the industry, unlike a lot of my peers. I really didn’t know the first thing about trailers up until just a few years ago. However, I did grow up in an entrepreneurial family.  

I always knew I wanted to be a business owner, even though I didn’t know exactly what that would look like. After an 11-year career in business management and running large teams and overseeing multi-location operations in a B2B service business, I was laid off. At that point, I had the freedom and ability to pursue something new and I thought this would be a great opportunity to figure out how to become a business owner.  

I initially started looking at franchises. I didn’t think of myself as an innovator or inventor of any kind. I wasn’t going to build the next great social media app or mouse trap, but I figured I could take an existing system, operate it well and ultimately grow and scale it. I started to learn about the whole idea of buying existing small businesses, buying a cash flowing business, and at the same time helping this whole wave of entrepreneurs and business owners that are baby boomers who are trying to figure out what retirement and business succession looks like for them.  

I began to search for businesses in the Dallas Fort Worth area where I live and that’s what brought me to North Texas Trailers. I looked at a number of businesses and many other types of industries. I certainly did notset out necessarily to find a trailer business or a dealership. But the more I looked at this business, the more it made sense to me, for a number of reasons.  

In June of 2022, I was able to work out a deal with the folks who founded North Texas Trailers and give them the retirement and exit opportunity that they were looking for and then gain my entry into business ownership like I was looking for.  

What are some things you have learned about the industry?

I think it's safe to say that the industry itself is a bit behind the times and antiquated. But I think that also means there’s a lot of room for opportunity. There’s a lot of room for growth and I think that it's exciting to be in this industry now because I do think that we’re going to experience a wave of sophistication and modernizing of these businesses. I’m not some tech guru but there’s ways that we can accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish - giving customers a great quality product at a good price with great service and doing it in a more 21st century way.  

The industry is primarily made up of small independent dealers that are mostly Mom and Pop, family-owned stores, which I love. I love networking and meeting other dealers and hearing all the different stories. Hearing from people who started their businesses or started as a technician or an entry-level employee and have worked their way up to GM or owner and are now running a very successful business and creating the American dream. I think that’s really cool.  

On the flip side, I see the challenges in the business. Things got a little crazy during Covid with supply chain constraints and inflation. On the price side, you know everyone was happy there for a couple years and now things seem to be right-sizing, making it more challenging. 

What is the most rewarding thing about what you do versus your career before North Texas Trailers? 

Overall, I love what I do. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to having a so-called normal job working for somebody else. I think I’ll always want to be a business owner. I very much enjoy leading my team and working on projects to help make North Texas Trailers the best possible business it can be.  

Being a business owner, you’re just so much closer. I have much more of an immediate and direct impact on my employees lives than I did in a big corporation. I also have so much more autonomy to do things the way I want to do them in the way I think is right. That was a big frustration coming from the corporate land where we made a lot of decisions based on next month’s quarterly earnings and the pressures that come with that.  

Obviously, there is a lot of financial pressure to make sure my business is successful, but I also get to make decisions that impact my employees lives that is best for them and best for the company. I get to create the culture of the business in a much more direct way and that is really rewarding. We have folks who have been with us for a long time and I’ve implemented a lot of things to make their jobs better, more pay, benefits, hopefully making their job a little bit more efficient and satisfying, and its been great to see.  

Regarding the changes you’ve made for your team, is there anything in particular that stands out as being particularly impactful?  

On the benefits side, we expanded our bonus opportunities in a significant way. We added health benefits and a 401k program with a company match. Teaching my employees about what a 401k can do for them and having them think beyond just their next paycheck has been very impactful.  

Another significant change has been to give my team more autonomy by loosening the guardrails around their decision making more than they experienced in the past. And what I am finding is that people are taking advantage of that in a great way and thinking of ways that they can produce more for the company because they have been given that autonomy and ability to do that.  

My philosophy is that if you focus on your employees, you are actually making things a lot better for your customers. Because if you have an engaged employee workforce that really enjoy what they do and has the autonomy to make things as good as possible for the customers, that there’s a natural buy-in there to ultimately help and serve the customers in the way that’s best for them. You know the old adage is “Customer is King” and all the focus for years has always been to focus on what the customers needs are, sometimes sacrificing the needs of the company or employees. I like flipping that on its head and focusing on the employees first. There is a level of trust involved, but the right team and the right employees embrace that mentality and work hard.  

We are excited to see all the great things Shane Ehrsam will be doing on the committee! We are also looking forward to sharing more insights with our members and dealer affiliates on who is representing our dealer affiliates and assisting in growing the Dealer Affiliate Benefit Program. Keep an eye out for our next conversation with one of our Dealer Committee Members!