Discovering her inner entrepreneur came easy to Joyce Schwob. She grew up in a family business and witnessed firsthand the challenges her parents faced - and the rewards they
reaped - running their company. “I love the energy and the excitement of competition,” she says. "Building a business is very satisfying to me.”

These days, Schwob’s ambitions are being tested to the max. As president of JIT Toyota-Lift in Frewsburg, NY, she’s competing in an intensely competitive market for industrial equipment - and she’s winning. Despite a prolonged downturn in the local manufacturing economy in western New York, JIT is growing, profitable and expanding, Schwob says. “We’ve spent the last five years investing very significantly in upgrading our equipment and training our people,” she says. “We’ve positioned this company to be the leading supplier
in our market.” JIT is a Toyota dealer that supplies forklifts and other equipment to customers in Western New York. Bud and Mary Short, her parents, launched the company in 1983, which were boom years for industrial equipment in the region. (Until last year, the company was called Jamestown Industrial Trucks.)

Schwob started working for the family company in the 1980s, handling billing and equipment rental. Working under her father was a challenge in the early years. “We knocked the rough edges off each other,” she recalls with a laugh. “He was very strong-willed about doing things his way.” Schwob looked for opportunities to show her father that her expertise could be an asset to the family business. For instance, she introduced software systems to make operations more efficient, a gutsy move that required a significant investment in technology. Little by little, she proved her mettle in an industry largely dominated by men.

By 1997, she was general manager of the company and within a few years, she was named president. In 2004, Jitney won the prestigious Toyota Silver Circle Award for excellence in operations That was a very significant award for JIT,” Schwob says. “Toyota has very high standards of performance for its dealers and it was an honor to be recognized for having met them.”

JIT is still a family business. Dan Schwob, her husband, is the sales manager. Julie Sadowski, her sister, manages human resources and payroll. Scott Sadowski, Schwob’s brother-in-law, is the service manager. Together, they’ve faced the challenge of a regional market that had been in decline throughout the 1990s. “Business is picking up again and our sales are double what they were 10 years ago,” Schwob says. “Still, we have to be very aggressive about going after every opportunity.”

In a major expansion, JIT recently bought an industrial building at West Seneca, located near Buffalo, which will enable it to grow more aggressively in that market. The company had been renting space in the area since 1992, but decided recently to “put down roots”, Schwob says. JIT’s new building is in a high-traffic location, which should boost its visibility among industrial companies in that market. JIT also invested in five fuel-efficient mobile repair vans, which will allow the company to provide more on-site repairs and maintenance for its customers. The trucks were a costly investment for the company; each one cost $34,000. Still, Schwob believes the investment will pay off. “Our success
is based in part on our commitment to the highest quality service in the forklift business,” she says. “That means a lot to our customers who also face intense competitive pressures to move and ship their products on time.”

For more information on Schwob and JIT Toyota, check out the company’s website at www.jitny.com