PBN 2021 Business Women Awards
Achievement Honoree: Kaitlyn Szczupak, S&S Transmissions and Auto Repairs Inc.
EVEN AS A KID, Kaitlyn Szczupak loved cars and learning about what made them go. She was 20 when she and her father, Scott, began discussing her taking over his S&S Transmissions and Auto Repairs Inc. business in Portsmouth business one day.
Her brother wasn’t interested in joining the company. Szczupak, on the other hand, couldn’t imagine doing anything else. So she set about learning about the business and soaking up as much of her father’s knowledge as she could.
Juggling another part-time job, she worked at the auto shop part time and pursued a degree in business administration at Bristol Community College in Fall River. Szczupak took the multifaceted approach – though requiring a frenetic schedule – because she felt it offered both the hands-on perspective and academic base she needed.
But conversations about taking over the company were very preliminary. Szczupak’s father was only in his late 40s, after all, with retirement far off.
In what Szczupak says felt “like a strange nightmare,” the elder Szczupak died suddenly in February 2016. He was 54. Amid the shocking loss, all that she had learned in those college classes kicked in. As Szczupak grieved, she was making sure business matters were handled as well.
“If the company’s president is suddenly not here, who signs anything? Who would have the final say, legally?” Szczupak remembers worrying. “After the funeral, I said to my mother, ‘I think we all know what I have to do next.’ ”
Szczupak has excelled over the past five years. The 25-year-old graduated college, relocated S&S Transmissions from Portsmouth to Tiverton, found new customers and navigated the COVID-19 crisis.
The shop closed for two weeks in the spring of 2020 as COVID-19 cases climbed and business lagged. “Remember, we are physically in people’s cars, touching their steering wheels,” Szczupak said.
Her plan to keep employees and clients safe involved instituting a no-contact car drop-off and pickup system for service, with technicians wearing gloves, masks and sanitizing interior surfaces in addition to other measures.
Finding solutions is a skill in Szczupak’s wheelhouse. With core abilities that seem more innate than learned, she enjoys collaborating with others, being in charge and creating game plans.
In 2019, Szczupak decided to expand her market to reach those customers who were hesitant to come to Aquidneck Island for their auto repair work. It involved securing an SBA 504 loan to buy a building in Tiverton and sorting out logistics of moving heavy machinery to the new site.
