Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
The long journey to success for brothers Mitch and Khaled Abdelhady started in Jerusalem, and has taken them to owning a bright, shiny new building for their business, Unique Sounds.
"This is what I call the American dream," Mitch Abdelhady said. "If you want to have something, and you dream of something and you want to make it happen, I believe that you can.
"You just have to put your heart in it, and don't come up with any excuses that you can't make it, you can't do it. Just keep pushing."
The Abdelhady brothers' love of fixing up cars started on the streets of Jerusalem. At their father's insistence, they came to U.S., where they spent five years in the Phoenix area, learning about powerful sound systems and custom wheels.
"When I went to high school, at lunch break we would go to the parking lot and crank up our systems, or work on stereos in the parking lot," Mitch said. "That's how we learned the business."
In 1996, the brothers, then in their early 20s, moved to Carson City and started Unique Sounds on Highway 50 in an older strip mall. They built up the business, catering to the same crowd they hung around with in school, selling and installing sound systems and custom wheels.
"We liked Carson because it was a small community, small-town life, not a lot of crime," Mitch said. "We have glass windows with no metal bars on them, like you would see in Phoenix and big cities."
Several years ago, they began to feel cramped, so the Abdelhady brothers started looking for a new place. The old Hitchin' Post western wear store was on the market.
"Never in our dreams did we ever think we would have a corner like this," Mitch said of the property at 3080 Highway 50 East and Airport Road.
But buying the property was the easy part. Mitch had a vision in his mind for what he wanted it to be, but making that vision happen forced them to jump through a lot of hoops, dealing with Carson City and Nevada Department of Transportation officials.
"A couple of times when we were building this place, it was like, I didn't know it was going to be this much hassle, this much money, which we didn't have a lot of," Mitch said. "But no matter what, we were going to make it happen."
Making the building energy efficient was a major consideration, Mitch said. There are skylights throughout the shop areas so there is little need for lights during daytime hours. The large south-facing showroom windows are energy efficient, allowing the sun to heat much of the inside during the winter months.
The new location has brought them new customers.
"Even though we're just down the street for all those years, when we moved here, people thought we were new," Khaled said. "We have a lot of customers, but we were surprised how many people didn't know about us."
Mitch said the business has been changing with the technology over the years.
"A lot of people aren't into this big boom-boom stuff like they used to be," Mitch said. "It's starting to grow toward more moderate stuff, like navigation systems, rear-seat entertainment systems for the kids, hands-free Bluetooth technology. Everyone has the gadgets now, the iPhones, iPods, MP3 players, and they are starting to integrate all of this stuff with your car stereo."
But what hasn't changed are the lessons they were taught from their father about how to be successful in business.
"If you do one good job, two people will know about it. If you do one bad job, maybe six people or 10 people will find out about it," Mitch said. "Word of mouth travels real quick."