Where are they now?

Derek Edwards is a Weber State University graduate, class of 2004. He earned a degree in engineering, but after working in the field for a while, his life changed directions as he started an innovative new business, Leroy Mobile Lube.
The Signpost (SP): What is your past experience with Weber State University, and how did you use your degree?
Derek Edwards (DE): My experience at Weber State was really nice, especially for the money, considering the University of Utah and BYU were like five million times more expensive. I was a really good student, took my four years, got my degree and got out of there. I meant business; I got in and out of there as quickly as possible. I did the engineering degree, and about the time I got my associate’s degree I was hired on by a company called Lifetime Products. Afterwards, I graduated with my four-year degree and had a couple other engineering jobs after that. They were all great jobs, (but) I just couldn’t stand sitting in front of a computer all day. So I decided to start a business working on cars — mainly because that’s what I did while I was in school. I worked on cars for a living. Even though I’m not an engineer now, I’m very well using many portions of my degree every day. With running a business designing the vans, marketing, all of them come into play at some point in time — the math, from the engineering of the vans to the marketing and business structure; there was a lot in there with the support classes that I thought I would never use but actually ended up taking quite a bit from.
SP: Did you enjoy the Weber State engineering program?
DE: I liked it a lot. I liked it so much that I wish that I was still doing stuff like that. The problem was it wasn’t quite the same as the real world was. My engineering degree was really focused on concepts and design drawing, the things that really attracted me to engineering in the first place. Engineering in the real world was a little bit more numbers; it wasn’t as much imagination as I thought it would be. I also didn’t care much for the office politics, either. As far as Weber’s program and the professors up there, I really enjoyed it. I think my schooling got off to a slower start with the general requirements because you don’t have as much interest in them, but with engineering, it was definitely right down my alley. They taught very well, there was a lot of information there; it just wasn’t the same as the real world.
SP: Once your degree was finished, what career path did you follow?
DE: I was dissatisfied with where my career was going. I felt like it was pretty boring at the time. I was discussing with my wife on the way back from a dune trip back in 2006 that I would like to start working on cars again. We discussed starting a shop, but when we researched that, we found that it would cost a lot of money to start a shop; having to buy the land, the building, the equipment, you could easily go half a million dollars in debt on a pretty modest shop. As I was researching on the Internet, I found that there were mobile lube businesses in the eastern states that were actually doing quite well. I did the math, and you could actually build these mobile service vans for pretty cheap compared to a shop. So that gave me the motivation to get that started, and I found that there really is not a lot of competition out here in the West, so why not get it started?
SP: What was the hardest part to starting this business?
DE: I think, just like with any business, the hardest part is getting customers. Marketing is always tough because it requires a lot of money, it’s very competitive, and there is a lot of trial and error you have to do with marketing. Any business starting from the ground up doesn’t start out very big. For about two years I was moonlighting, where I worked during the day, and started building a business at night. There towards the end it became more part-time engineer, part-time business owner, and then in summer of 2008, I finally decided to go full boar with the business because it was starting to generate enough to live on. Engineers make good money, but when you are unhappy with the work, it makes it almost not worth it. I was a lot happier making nine bucks an hour at an old auto shop than making good money as an engineer. Money is not everything.
SP: Where does your business operate?
DE: We have accounts clear from Provo to Ogden right now. We are looking to add another contractor up north, in the Layton, Davis, Weber County area, and we are expanding in Salt Lake, hopefully adding another guy down there so that we can push another route more prominently into the Utah County area.
SP: What is a mobile lube shop?
DE: It is basically a ‘bring it to me’ service, like, if you need your drain cleaned you call a plumbing company, and they come to you. You don’t go to them and bring your sink; it just doesn’t make any sense. It’s the same thing with a car; they basically pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, I need an oil change on my car’ or ‘I need a new set of brakes on my car,’ and instead of towing it or driving it to the shop, they can just make a phone call and we come to them. We have been on college campuses, businesses, homes, on job sites – we do a lot of companies where some of their vehicles are on site for a couple of hours. People call from their homes, their work, school, pretty much anywhere. It just makes more sense to go to the customer and make it more convenient to them.
SP: As a veteran of WSU, what advice do you have for current students?
DE: Well, even if you are unsure of exactly what you want to do with your future, finish school and get your degree. Even though I don’t use my engineering degree to the extent that maybe I should, I still have that to fall back on if I ever need to. Stick with it and get it done, and if it doesn’t work out, don’t stress out about it, because you can always go back to school, or have a degree under your belt. I would also recommend getting a motorcycle for parking. We all know parking is always not so much fun up there. I had a motorcycle at the time, and boy, was that nice.