Convention highlights

convention highlights

CAPITAL, CAPITAL, CAPITAL!

PAGE 12

PUTTING CAPITAL TO WORK FOR YOU

PAGE 18

AUGUST 2021

A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 | I N D E P E N D E N T D EwAwwL.FEIARDA.|co1m

FIADA INVITES YOU TO ATTEND A

TOWN HALL MEETING

TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 2, 2021 9:00am - 2:00pm

AC HOTEL TALLAHASSEE UNIVERSITIES AT THE CAPITOL

801 SOUTH GADSDEN STREET, TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301

and

DEALER DAY at the Capitol

NOVEMBER 3 | TALLAHASSEE CAPITOL BUILDING

An event to lobby at the capitol, advocating for legislation relevant to used car dealers.

REGISTER ONLINE AT OR CALL 800.237.0448 FOR MORE DETAILS

AUGUST 2021 | C O N T E N T S

For members of the Florida Independent Automobile Dealers Association Reader Survey: What was your main reason for attending Convention?

MAILING ADDRESS 1840 Fiddler Court Tallahassee, FL 32308

TELEPHONE

(850) 385-2712 (800) 237-0448

FAX

(850) 385-3251

WEBSITE



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Jason March

President

Chris Ellis

Senior Vice President

Jim Winterick, Sr Chairman of the Board

Dexter Beard

Secretary

Luis Giraldo

Treasurer

Ejola Cook

Regional Vice President

John Giasullo

Regional Vice President

Brad Joel

Regional Vice President

FIADA STAFF

Lisette Mariner, CAE Executive Director

Terry Myers

Director of Development & Education

Julia Rooney

Membership Manager

Savannah Calhoun Administrative Assistant

Christy Taylor

Editorial/Advertising

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to

FIADA ? 1840 Fiddler Court Tallahassee, FL 32308

(850) 385-2712 ? Call/Text: (800) 237-0448 Fax (850) 385-3251 ?

The Independent Dealer is a publication of:

Florida Independent Automobile Dealers Association 1840 Fiddler Court Tallahassee, FL 32308

The magazine is published every month in Tallahassee and distributed to Florida new, used, wholesale and lease/retail car dealers. Advertising rates are available upon request.

The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Independent Dealer or the Association. Likewise, the appearance of advertisers, or their identification as members of FIADA, does not constitute an endorsement of the products or services featured.

33% 15% 15% 21%

Networking with other dealers. Network with exhibitors

To support FIADA

Stay up-to-date with technology Interest in session topics

To earn required CE

West Palm Beach was an attractive location

Referred by a friend

The results are in and our attendees have given great feedback on the 2021 Annual Convention! See the photos on page 15.

F E AT U R E S

12 | Capital, Capital, Capital!

18 | Putting Capital to Work for You

24 | Analyzing the Data

DEPARTMENTS

4 President's Message Jason March

6 Executive Director's Message Lisette Mariner, CAE

8 Back to Basics Terry Myers

10 Membership News

21 PAC Contributors 22 HR Advisor 26 Marketing Advice

Kenny Atcheson

28 Legal & Legislative News Eric Johnson

30 Industry News

CORRECTION: The article titled "It's Been a Wild Ride" from the July issue of Independent Dealer magazine was written by Jeremiah Johnson, a seasoned financial services professional with 17 years of experience, Jeremiah serves as the Regional Director of Operations in the Southeast at Kinetic Advantage concentrating his efforts on analyzing dealer operations and helping his clients set goals and develop solid business plans to grow their business and profits.

AUGUST 2021 | INDEPENDENT DEALER | 3

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

The Secret Is, We're All In It Together

Why building community with our competitors makes us stronger. | BY JASON MARCH

Over the course of the last year,

meeting with dealers from all over the state has helped me to realize three things:

? We all have a different technique when it comes to running a dealership.

? Mostly, the car dealership is the main income producer, but not the sole income stream.

? Car Dealers have an overwhelming amount of confidence and optimism.

This year, the FIADA changed course in order to bring town hall meetings back to small towns across the state. As our Gainesville town hall was approaching, I called a dealer to ask him to join us for the meeting. This dealer had been a long time member of the association so we began talking about the benefits of the association, how we were both second generation dealers and how our dealerships had been put to the test in 2020.

As we continued to talk, I learned his business had been around for a very long time. They sold more than most of the franchise dealers in town and had a better reputation. This dealer and his dealership were long time members of the community and the repeat and referral business that was generated from their tenure was impressive. Towards the end of the conversation, I made another attempt to

JASON MARCH invite this dealer to the town hall meeting. FIADA PRESIDENT This dealership did not join us for that town

hall meeting, or any other engagement over the last year, but this dealer used an old poker phrase in our conversation that I will not forget, "we like to keep that information close to the chest."

It's funny how we can get caught up in these thoughts. I have often thought of our dealership as being unique and withstanding the test of time. Once your business is 10, 15, then 20 years old, it is customary to think that "we are doing something

special and our surrounding competitors would steal our customers IF they only knew what we were doing and how we were doing it." I am not immune to this thinking. As our dealership makes its way into its 24th year in business, our name recognition in town and amongst our peers is nice. The repeat and referral business that we enjoy each month is not because we have a big sign or a flashy vehicle sitting on the front line, but it is a testament of conducting fair business consistently, offering service after the sale and providing a quality product to our community for over two decades. Keeping secrets from our competitors about the way we do business is silly when you sit and think about it. We all are advertising our vehicles, our financing and our locations. If you call most car lots, the employee will tell you exactly how much a car costs, what the "Why Buy From Us" advantages are, and what types of inventory are in stock. Our business is so transparent today, thanks to the internet, we do not have many secrets to keep any more.

As dealers, we are also tuned in when we hear "good advice." So many of us have a separate revenue stream besides the dealership. My wife and I have a rental home, one dealer in Ocala has a large storage warehouse, another dealer in Central Florida has a separate service shop, another has a Pawn Shop and another is the Mayor of the small town of Welaka, just northwest of Daytona. As the dealers who came before us bought the commercial dealership properties in our towns along the main streets and roads, the current generation of dealers are resourceful and looking where they can diversify their investments and not be reliant solely on the dealership for income. While this is not unique to auto dealers, it is understood that many small business owners have multiple revenue streams, but the income that a small dealership can provide is often sufficient for a dealer to diversify their holdings and make investments outside of the car business. This is a question you may be facing, do

4 | INDEPENDENT DEALER |AUGUST 2021

we keep investing in the dealership or do we look into other businesses? Should we grow or should we diversify? With this uncertain economy, many of us have had to take another look at our long term strategy and re-evaluate our position.

March 2020 will be a time everyone remembers, similar to 9/11. When we look back at the last 18 months since the pandemic began, we have seen our industry go through quite the roller coaster. The phone calls and meetings I have had this past year with other dealers have been optimistic overall. Even with wholesale prices increasing, car lots around the nation have experienced record sales. Talking with a dealer from South Florida, his words were "it's like you can't make a mistake right now."

Confidence within our dealer community is at an all time high. Dealers and car lots around the country are experiencing record sales this year. While some operators have decreased their inventory levels due to lack of supply, other dealers have tapped into more capital, increased inventory levels and have experienced higher unit sales due to those decisions. We have seen Franchise dealers with record low inventories, we have seen manufacturers close production facilities, lay off workers and scrounge

for assistance with a semiconductor shortage. We have also seen franchise dealers change their inventory models to take advantage of higher mileage and older trade in units that previously would have been sent to the auction. We have seen record low numbers of repossessions, fleet sales and rental car company liquidations. Where there has always been surplus in the used car market, we find ourselves in an environment of shortages. We have been witness to an incredible time in our lives, a time that we will tell stories about to generations to come.

As a member of the FIADA, I thank you for your support over the past year, serving as your President. As a final request, I would like to ask you to participate in this upcoming year's FIADA events. We can accomplish some things alone, but together, we can move mountains. With recall legislation and dealer fees being debated and ruled over at the state and national level, it will take all of us to bond together and fight to keep our industry unencumbered by more laws, rules or regulations. At the end of the day, we are resilient, we are confident and we can weather the storm.

Signing Off, Jason A. March

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AUGUST 2021 | INDEPENDENT DEALER | 5

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