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It takes an obscene amount of cash to run a car dealership. Not “a lot” in the way you might describe your cousin’s sneaker collection, but a lot in the way you’d describe Mount Everest. Cash isn’t just king here, it’s oxygen. Without it, the store wheezes, sputters, and eventually passes out. Lately, the subject of dealership cash flow seems to be coming up a lot more often when I talk with …
Continue Reading about Dealership Cash Flow: From Panic to Strategy →
Month-end in a franchise car dealership is a bit like hosting Thanksgiving dinner. You think you’ve got everything under control until you realize the turkey’s still frozen, the cranberry sauce is missing, and Aunt Linda has arrived two hours early asking why the table isn’t set. For controllers, it’s the same kind of scramble: dozens of small but vital tasks, all needing to be finished in …
Continue Reading about Month-End Checklist for Franchise Car Dealership Controllers →
Every dealership has its version of “everything’s fine.” It’s usually said just after someone asks a financial question that doesn’t have an immediate answer. The phones are ringing, the sales team is caffeinated, and the service dept has customers in the drive. On the surface, it looks like a well-oiled machine. But behind the office doors there are several months of unreconciled bank statements, …
Continue Reading about The Warning Signs of a Dealership Financial Crisis →
If you’re in the car business, you better like math. I was watching the latest Marcus Lemonis show called The Fixer. The owner of one of the businesses he was considering working with made a comment after Marcus was asking about his business' numbers: "That's why we have you here, we're not good with math." As you can imagine, that didn't go over very well. Marcus is a car guy (he's also a very …
Continue Reading about Why Dealership Leaders Must Learn to Love the Numbers →
