Financial Necesseties For Any Small Car Dealership

If you’ve got a fervent passion for cars, and you’ve always wanted to start a business, then you may have been playing around with the idea of dropping your nine-to-five, and opening your own dealership. For those with a bit of knowledge and competency, opening a dealership is a very attainable way to start your own business and do something you love. In this post, I thought I’d touch on some of the big financial necessities you’ll need for your dealership.

While we all see the same image when someone says “car dealership”, the massive lot and showroom really aren’t that necessary. It’s 2016 now, meaning that all you really need to call yourself a car dealer, is the initial capital to buy a car wholesale, and the internet connection to advertise it. Of course, you’re going to need a little more space than your driveway if you want to have more than one car on sale at a time! Once you’ve secured enough capital, there are many good places to source your vehicles from. Online auction brokers, such as ADESA, have become steadily more popular in recent years, but obviously you may not be happy with the idea of paying for something you’ve never seen. You’ll still be able to find various traditional auto auctions, which don’t require a dealership license or other qualifications.

All business owners need to make sure they’re getting all the right insurance, and this is especially true for auto dealers. After all, you’re not exactly running a micro-bakery! After a little research, you’ll be able to find many companies offering building and contents insurance, as well as services protecting you from public liability and various other risk factors which come with running a business. If you want to show your customers that you’ll go even further for them, then you may want to consider purchasing some gap insurance as well. Sure, you may not have a lot of capital to throw around in that first opening period of your business. Still, failing to have certain kinds of cover can really come back to bite you. Make sure that once you’re insured you’re keeping to strict record-keeping standards as well. You may need this in the event of a claim.

Record keeping, and good organization in general, is essential if you want your car dealership to really take off. While not all of it is going to be necessary, keeping accurate and detailed records of all your past transactions will give you a greater understanding of how your business is growing, and the areas where it needs the most work. Aside from that, keeping a meticulously organized diary can be a huge help further down the line. You may be looking ahead at various regular tasks which may seem trivial to you now, but can end up being a massive drain on your valuable time. You’ll try a few systems before getting it right, so start today!

I hope this has been some help with organizing the finances for your car dealership. Like many business models, when you have your finances meticulously organized, everything else falls into place.