HARD WORK KEEPS UP DEALERSHIP

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992                   TAG: 9201270199
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: JUDY SCHWAB
DATELINE: PEMBROKE                                LENGTH: Medium
HARD WORK KEEPS UP DEALERSHIP
George Atkins is manager, salesman, shop manager and floor sweeper at Atkins Equipment Inc.
Atkins, 31, owns 20 percent of the farm equipment business and his 61-year-old mother, Rachel Atkins, owns the rest.
While the recession has not affected his salary and health benefits, Atkins said, sales are definitely off. Farmers are buying used equipment and having old tractors repaired instead of buying new.
Atkins' parents started their John Deere tractor distributorship in 1958. His father, Byron "Buster" Atkins, died last year.
Despite lagging sales, the business "has never run in the red," Atkins said. His mother revealed the secret of their financial stability: "Long hours and hard work."
Atkins has worked full time at the family business for 12 years. He had worked part time "since I was big as he is," he said, nodding toward his 11-year-old son, Jeffrey.
The business pays Atkins a salary of $350 a week plus a sales commission of 1 percent.
His mother maintains that if she had to pay him by the hour she couldn't afford him. Atkins said he puts in an average of 65 hours a week.
Smaller farms are what keep the Atkinses' business going. Fifty cows or less is how Atkins defines a small farm.
"I've seen a lot of these weekend farmers go by the wayside," Atkins said.
Atkins said farmers will get new equipment about every five to seven years, "when it's either worn out or depreciated out. Farmers will drive 100 miles to save $100," he added.
Service is the backbone of the Atkins business and service work has increased as farmers try to make their equipment go another season.
Atkins said he likes his job, especially dealing with people and helping them. He gets to help a lot in the summer. When equipment breaks down, Atkins or his mechanics have to fix it, wherever it is, whenever it is.
"If you don't furnish what they need when they want it, they'll go get it somewhere else."
The only drawbacks to Atkins' job are those long hours. "Sometimes it gets to you," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB