It takes courage and faith to up and move your family – and your business – about 1,500 miles across the country and start from scratch. But that’s just what independent tool dealer Geoff Beveridge, owner of Beveridge Tools, did.
“My wife wanted me to move [to Texas] for God and country,” he recalls. “I told her, ‘God is here, too.’” (Here, meaning California).
To which she replied, “Yeah, but He’s bigger in Texas.”
“She might be right, because he’s blessed us many times over,” Beveridge adds.
Beveridge was turning wrenches as a diesel mechanic in a Long Beach, California, oil field when he got the notion to try out tool sales.
“My wife told me I should go and be a Snap-on dealer,” Beveridge says. “She said, ‘You always talk about it,’ … I didn’t even realize I’d been telling her that. Keep in mind I had a brand new baby, house and car payments. But since she believed in me I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’ They said I’d be eating rice and beans the first year. Well, I only ate rice and beans when I was at a nice restaurant and they came on the side.”
Beveridge soon found this was where he was meant to be. The California transplant took a job as a mobile tool dealer with Snap-on, then Cornwell. He was successful from day one. After a time he went independent and formed Beveridge Tools, Inc. Now he’s set up shops in the South Dallas area of Texas, and to say he feels ‘at home’ is an understatement. This top tool man has not only settled in, but is looking to spread out.
