Owners value working with family and dealer lifestyle

This story originally appeared in the September edition of Powersports Business.

Father-and-daughter duo Mike Venziano and Misty Rohde own Rich’s Yamaha of Lockport, Illinois, and passionately run their dealership alongside other family members. Venziano has worked in the dealership for 40 years and was mentored by its former owner, Richard Rider.

“Rich isn’t related to us, but he’s like a father figure to my dad,” Rohde says. When Venziano was 25, his father passed away, and Rider took him under his wing.

“I spent 40 years alongside him, and he retired out,” Venziano says. “We kept going, and now what happened between me and Rich is happening between me and Misty.

“Misty is fantastic,” he continues. “I almost feel bad for myself because she does it so well. She’s a very strong woman and does very well. She’s leading the pack in the country.”

Rohde joined the dealership in 2009 and is now a part owner. She grew up in Rich’s Yamaha, and Venziano remembers when she would play with cabbage patch dolls in the dealership while he made sales. When she was old enough, she started cleaning helmets and then worked her way through the parts department. She moved to sales and marketing and is now the general manager and part owner. Rohde went to college and took CAD (Computer Aided Design), mechanical engineering, and business classes. “That gave her the background of dirty fingers and how to fix things,” Venziano says. “She can stand up against the best parts guy or even the best mechanics out there and tell them what to do. And she’s correct.”

Family operated

Venziano and Rohde manage three mechanics, four parts people, and one salesperson. Venziano’s sons, Trevor and Brandon Venziano, work at the dealership, along with his stepson, Lester Rutherford. Venziano’s other daughter is a nurse, and while she does not work at the dealership, she informs them of grammatical errors on the dealership’s social media posts. “So, she’s still involved,” Rohde laughs.

Being part of a family business is nothing new to Venziano. “When I was a child, my parents had a trucking company,” he says. “We needed to work together as a team.” He shares that he and his two younger brothers worked for the family business. “I feel very fortunate to have [my kids] close to me,” he says. “I’m highly lucky and blessed to have my family around me.”

Preparing for expansion

And Rohde plans to work with him until he retires. “My intention is to take over the dealership,” she says. “This place isn’t going anywhere. It’s going to be here for a long time… We’re a small dealership. We’ve got some inconveniences like we’re not incorporated, so we can’t make changes to our building and our parking lot, and we have to stick with what we have until we decide to make some really big changes for ourselves. We’ll do those when the time is right.”

Venziano explains that they have prepared to expand and already own the land and buildings around the dealership. “The future is going to bring her a new building,” he says. “The city is putting water down through the road and sewers, and that creates some conveniences. Misty will be able to sit in an office and look over everybody… Right now, she’s grunting, which is good… I’m no reflection of her anymore, she’s passed me up.”

“I was 23 years old when I decided to donate my life to Rich’s Yamaha,” she laughs. “Now I’m 36.” Misty is the mother of an 11−month-old son, George, and she has a girl on the way. “I want it just like my dad has it,” she says. “I’ve got my own two little guys who will be taking over for me one day. That’s what I hope. That same bond I have with my dad, I want my kids to have with me.”

Rohde says that she is very fortunate because George’s babysitter lives in the apartment complex owned by Venziano, just a few hundred feet from the dealership, so she is able to see him throughout the workday.

Sales and flooring

The owners share that customers are their number one focus. “We work hard on keeping our customers happy over ourselves… It’s a challenge trying to keep everyone happy, but the customer comes first period,” Venziano says. “We sell fun here at this store and when a happy customer thanks you and we thank him, it’s gratifying. I don’t know how else to say it.”

“You sell them a motorcycle or an ATV and the enjoyment they get out of that, how happy they are to come see you or come back again and tell us their experience, it’s a peace of mind that I’m giving these people something in life that they really enjoy,” Rohde says.

And to keep their customers on the road, the sales team began focusing on insurance sales during the summer of 2024. “F&I is becoming an integral part of our profit,” Venziano says, and the team is developing effective techniques for selling gap insurance.

The sales department is also focused on Yamaha e-bike sales. The dealership took on the e-bikes in the fall of 2023, and Rhodes says sales are going well. “We have a lot of bicycle paths around us, and it’s growing,” she says. “There are a lot of places to ride around us.” Venziano, who rides one of the e-bikes on the weekends, says Yamaha offers aggressive incentives for existing customers.

While the dealership’s team is focused on F&I sales, e-bike sales, and the final model of Yamaha snowmobile sales, Venziano is mindful about managing flooring costs. “We are working side by side with them, and they’re treating us like we’re a Capital One customer with a charge card that’s late,” he says about some OEMs. “So, paying down your own floor plan becomes a huge savings… We’ve been fortunate, we clean up our inventory pretty good.”

Rohde reflects on her father’s work ethic and the impact it has had on their family. “I love working with my dad so much,” she says. “He did so much for our family. We never struggled and he was always there for my brothers and everybody. I want him to enjoy his life, so I want to work harder so he can take it easy now.”

With their commitment to customers and each other, the future of Rich’s Yamaha is bright as the owners carry on the hard work, passion, and customer care that will take them into the next generation.