Despite being the owner’s daughter, Tiffany Boyte West got no special treatment at her father’s car dealership.
“My dad was always the type of person to throw you into the deep end, and as long as he could still see your head bobbing, you were on your own to learn things for yourself,” recalls Boyte, now the dealer manager at the family business, Bob Boyte Honda. “He was tough on his girls, but he knew it would serve us well in a male-dominated business world.”
Bob Boyte entered the car business in 1983 after eloping to Baton Rouge with West’s mom, Tandy. His dream of owning his own dealership, over two decades in the making, was realized when he launched his business in Brandon, Mississippi, in 2005.
Today, Bob Boyte Honda remains a family affair — with West, her aunt, her sister and her husband, Andrew, working alongside her dad. In 2021, a new location in Moss Point opened its doors.
As a child, West loved watching her father help others achieve the dream of buying a car — whether for themselves or a loved one.
“My dad would walk through fire for his customers, and we saw that growing up,” she says. “We also saw him make mistakes and make things right for people. After all, his name is on the dealership.
“But the car business is not for the faint of heart. It requires very long hours and time away from family at times.”
West’s earliest memories involve working in virtually every department at the dealership, starting with cleaning and detailing cars, but her aspirations led her to pursue a journalism degree at Ole Miss. Once “painfully shy,” she gained confidence by competing in pageants, including the Miss Mississippi contest, and was on her way to becoming a sports reporter at ESPN after graduation.
“That career track ultimately didn’t work out, so I came home to regroup,” she recalls. “But my dad never pushed me to be in the business. It had to be my decision because he knew how much hard work it was going to be for me.”
Rising to the challenge, West became the first female general manager at the Brandon store – and one of only 24 in the whole Honda family. A Japanese American, she’s also the first minority female general manager of her age in the country to run a dealership, as well as become vice president of the National Minority Association of Dealers, and the only female general manager who has toured all of Honda’s U.S. and Japanese plants.
“I saw the potential to run our store,” West says. After lots of training and being nationally certified, dad gave me the space to learn.”
Not one to sit on the sidelines, West says those closest to her would describe her as a spitfire
“I am very proud of the work I have done to keep our customers and team members satisfied, but it is a very demanding business,” she says. “My greatest rewards at the end of a long day or week are watching a customer leave in a new car, whether it’s a single mom who didn’t think she could afford it, a teen with a new license or a family upgrading due to a new addition on the way. The stories, and the roles that we get to play in their lives, are magical and make each day worthwhile.”
The Internet may have changed the car-purchasing process, but West has found that most buyers, especially Honda customers, still want personal service. She’s also learned the value of collaboration in an extremely competitive industry.
“I find that as a female, I love networking with my peers in the business; I have contacts and friends across the country who I can go to and bounce ideas off of,” she says. “I think that this type of dialogue simply creates more opportunities, not fewer.”
Outside of the dealership, West has showcased her communication skills on her blog, Her Paper Bird, since 2015 — where she posts about fashion, lifestyle, travel, beauty and breaking the glass ceiling. Winding down can be hard for West, as her brain is constantly churning with ways to improve customers’ experience and build clientele.
“We’ve never wanted to be a huge dealership; each buyer is too important to us,” she says. “Sales is the ultimate legacy business, and we try never to forget that.”