On the right track

Jim and Nicole Frans found themselves at a crossroads in 2001, just seven months after moving to Reno from Detroit, where Jim had worked as a suspension engineer for Jeep. The job that Jim took here did not work out, and the two found themselves unemployed and with limited options.

Jim's engineering skills were in little demand outside of Detroit, but rather than give up the dreamy 12.5-acre parcel they had recently purchased in the Virginia City Highlands, the couple instead formed a company specializing in custom Jeep parts, Nth Degree Mobility.

Today, the Frans employ 12 Jeep enthusiasts at a 6,000-square-foot facility in Mound House, and after more than four years of mounting bills and financial pressures, the 38-year-old entrepreneurs say they are finally positioned to enjoy their decision to stay in northern Nevada.

"We are so close," says Jim from the small office he shares with his wife and two dogs. "We see black months, and we see red months. There is a bit of an undulation to our month-by-month sales, and currently they cross that magic line periodically."

Adds Nicole with a wry laugh, "We wouldn't have started had we known how much money it was really going to take. We started with a little bit of money and a large dose of naivete. We gave ourselves eight months to make a profit. Every single year we start off saying, 'This is the year we are going to make a profit.' I think this year we really are."

Nth Degree made its first sale in January of 2003 to an Italian customer who found the store's Web site.

"You know that first dollar on the wall? Ours has to be a Lira," says Jim. "The power of the Internet was so strong that a company no one knew existed had its first sale all the way in Italy."

Nth Degree finished '03 with a meager $90,000 in gross revenue. In 2004 sales jumped to $380,000, in 2005 they broke $900,000, and 2006 revenue topped $1.5 million. The owners recently hired their first outside salesman, Jason Tyler, and they hope to double revenue with this first proactive sales effort.

"We see light at the end of a bleak financial tunnel," Nicole says. "We ramped ourselves up to $1.5 million just by answering the phone. Everything up to this point has been because people come to us and say, 'We want your stuff.'"

Nth Degree Mobility makes specially engineered, extra-durable parts to beef up a Jeep's suspension products such as long- and short-arm lift kits, skid plates, specialty brackets that re-position shock absorbers as well as fabricated sheet metal body parts that give the vehicle's suspension more clearance.

To test the products, Jim uses a network of trails between his work and home.

He decided to form the company because he found most off-road suspension systems were primitive.

"Plenty of suspension systems worked fine off-road, but they made your vehicle undriveable or unsafe on-road," he says.

Initially, Nth Degree designed smaller products it could afford to develop as it built a reputation. Last year the company began offering full suspension systems that replace almost everything below the frame rails except the axles. Package costs start at about $3,800 and typically exceed $5,000. Jim says one customer recently spent $14,000 on parts that will be shipped to England. About 5 percent of Nth Degree's business is overseas.

The firm relies on northern Nevada machinists to supply nearly all their inventory. B&J Machine in Sparks is their biggest supplier.

Nth Degree markets through articles and ads in four-wheel enthusiast magazines, as well as through an ever-growing network of dealers, some as far away as Australia, Germany, Chile.

"We are to the point now that we are a major player in the market," Nicole says. "Everyone knows us. What we didn't plan on was that our stuff would be the most expensive in the market, but it is."

In coming months, the couple hopes to stabilize the flow of materials and cash, as well as expand physically by adding another identical 6,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to their current site.

"We want to hire all of Jim's friends who want to get out of Detroit," Nicole says.

Adds her husband, "We could create the fabled 'Jeep West' we have all dreamed about.'"