Hoss Abadi: Crafting visions into Actionable plans
“Live every day like it’s the last day of your life. Work hard and play hard, never say no to
opportunities, and do your best to make the most of your limited time on Earth.”
Hoss Abadi, founder and CEO of the Pars Moto Collision Center in North York, Toronto,
believes that success is all about the energy you bring into your interactions with people. Prestige
Auto Repair Services (P.A.R.S) has been offering exceptional service to high-end vehicles since
February 2012.
The founder emphasizes friendly, courteous service to build long-lasting relationships with each
one of the valued customers. Hoss has been a fan of moving vehicles all his life. He knew
exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up and had built a three-story car showroom in the
imagination when none existed in the real world. As a young teenager, he bought ordinary bikes,
took them apart, cleaned and tuned them up, put them back together, and sold them at a profit.
Hoss merely loved playing around with moving vehicles, a game that he was truly good at.
As the years passed, he set his goal to one day own his own company filled with all the exotic
cars he loved as a child. In Iran, at the time, they didn’t allow the import of cars because the
government was in control of everything, and they only had access to vehicles made in Iran or
China.
In 1993, he got married to the girl who he had been in love with for many years. After 6 months
of their marriage, they decided to move from Iran and start the journey of making their dream
come true. They left Iran in December 1993 and landed in London. The couple had prior
experience in hairdressing so they started working at a barber shop full time.
Hoss was performing so well that the owner suggested that he should rent the shop. He had never
been scared of taking risks so he accepted this offer.
After 1 year, he saved up enough money to expand the barber shop to a bigger location. He
worked very hard to make his dreams come true until he had saved up enough money to invest in
opening up a car dealership.
In the meantime, he was buying used cars, fixing them up, and selling them at a higher price,
making a profit off the sales. In the UK, it’s perfectly allowable for an individual to trade up to
three cars each year but he was selling and buying more than 10 cars for which he needed a
trading licence so he applied for the trading licence. He found a garage listed at the steep price of
€220,000. This was a huge investment for him at the time and required him to make a very
conscious choice.
Buying the garage meant a huge financial risk that felt so scary to him. However, he thought the
style of his agent was to make an offer for £200k, planning to secure a bank loan for the remaining
balance. The seller accepted his offer, and he started Part Motors in the UK in 2002. His wife
took over the hair salon business, and he devoted himself fully to the dealership. Part Motors
turned out to be a fantastic business that made him a fortune over the following years. Each year
they did better than the previous, until the 2008 recession hit England.
His agent is to make an offer for £200k, planning to secure a bank loan for the remaining balance.
The seller accepted his offer, and he started Part Motors in the UK in 2002. His wife took over
the hair salon business, and he devoted himself fully to the dealership. Part Motors turned out to
be a fantastic business that made him a fortune over the following years. Each year they did
better than the previous, until the 2008 recession hit England.
At first, the most enticing idea was to move to L.A. and continue the car business in the U.S.
However, one of the guys who worked in Hoss’s garage and had become like a family member
immigrated to Canada.
He persuaded Hoss to consider doing the same as a serious alternative. He traveled to Toronto in
2009 for the first time. The whole family finally moved to Canada in February 2010. The first
year in their new home was extremely difficult. Hoss connected with someone who owned a
successful body shop and bought 70% of his shares at $300,000. He spent a lot of time and
energy rebranding that business (Enzo, they called it) and growing it over the next two years.
In 2014, the Canadian government suddenly decided to end all entrepreneur visa applications,
dealing a major blow to his business and family life. He found a solution by changing his visa to
a work permit, but it only lasted three years.
In the past couple of years, he has been working on a new initiative to host training workshops.
Professional bodymen and painters are in short supply these days. Young people do not choose
these types of jobs anymore. To combat this, Hoss has started an apprenticeship program under a
government entrepreneurship plan so that young people could train to become professional
bodymen and painters.
The success of Girl Mechanic Workshops has been so great that it has attracted the attention of
the media. A plan of Hoss is to establish a college where he could train young boys and girls in
such a way that will both meet the needs of dealerships in the coming years and prepare those
trainees for prosperous, successful careers. Hoss also plans to establish a sister business for Pars
Moto in L.A.
Hoss only believes in one motto which is “You can be anybody you want as long as you believe
in yourself.”