- Apr 8, 2018
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- First Name
- Jay
im an independent here in Phoenix.
Let see if i can help.
1. Recommendations on DMS software. I have a leaning towards cloud based software with a reputable company with integration into 3rd party offerings for future growth but open to any and all recommendations
I signed up with DealerCenter. They are a sub of Westlake Financial, which is the largest Subprime Lender in the World. I have had good luck so far. But there are other companies you can sign up with that might save you some money each month. Mainly on running credit reports etc.
i pay Dealer Center WITH my webpage around $270 a month. It goes up and down depending on how many credit reports i run as that costs around $2.50 a report. When you are HIGH volume lots of dealers use a company strickly for credit reports and use something else for DMS. Good thing about DealerCenter is if you do any deals with their main company Westlake or Western Funding, They will pay the CORE cost of the DMS for me which is like $100
2. Thoughts on purchasing on credit or floor planning? If I did this it would not be all cars but may 2-3 initially. Something I could handle w/out getting out of control. I have an 800 credit score so even w/out flooring I could secure a line of credit if I needed it. My thoughts on this it would help keep me liquid if I need to leverage it.
Flooring.... Where do i start. There Are some pros and some Cons. If you have a good relationship with your flooring company and agent it helps. I Personally when i started didnt use one. Nextgear approached me and i declined to sign up 2 times. Then the 3rd i said what the hell and signed up. Got approved but didnt use the line for atleast 3 months. Finally floored one car and it seemed pretty easy and cool. Since you said you have an 800 score, you will get easily approved,but it will be 6months in business before anyone approaches you. Nextgear is usually the first as they are the market leader in the car world. As soon as you sign up for AuctionAccess(the universal auction card owned by manehim) they will keep an eye on you and send rep to you for flooring. Personally If you got the cash ONLY to support yourself then stick to cash only Or a hybrid mix of 50/50. DO NOT DO what alot of dealers do like you. Good credit and get a $200,000 line and go out an buy $100k or more on the flooring line. You will be done real quick when curtailments come up and cant pay them. This is how alot of Dealers go out of business. Business is good for 6 monthes, you which you can sustain and go buy a bunch on flooring and then you cant pay the payments cuz business drops off etc.
3. I would be using 50k of that cash to live on the first year. I would be trying to do this w/out making major changes to my current lifestyle mainly because my wife just wants me to get a job but I'm determined to start my own business and keeping income as close to normal as possible will help with keeping my lifestyle normal until I can get things going on the business side.
Keep Atleast 6 monthes of overhead to survive. This way if you have slow months you can still stay open. Dont max out and not have enough cash to support yourself. Cars will come and go. But business will just GO and close if you cant support slow times.
4. Not really wanting to tote the note because of the type of dealership I would want to open (low visibility mostly Internet sales) but again open to thoughts on this. Nothing is set in stone.
IF you are trying to mainly do internet sales, try and get a warehouse location. Dont get a main street $6000 a month location. START SMALL AND CHEAP. When i say cheap i mean a warehouse thats like $2000 a month or less if you can Or whatever is conssidered cheap in your area. Theres dealers here who have Warehouses that hold atleast 20 cars and rent is only like $1200-1500 maybe.
Let see if i can help.
1. Recommendations on DMS software. I have a leaning towards cloud based software with a reputable company with integration into 3rd party offerings for future growth but open to any and all recommendations
I signed up with DealerCenter. They are a sub of Westlake Financial, which is the largest Subprime Lender in the World. I have had good luck so far. But there are other companies you can sign up with that might save you some money each month. Mainly on running credit reports etc.
i pay Dealer Center WITH my webpage around $270 a month. It goes up and down depending on how many credit reports i run as that costs around $2.50 a report. When you are HIGH volume lots of dealers use a company strickly for credit reports and use something else for DMS. Good thing about DealerCenter is if you do any deals with their main company Westlake or Western Funding, They will pay the CORE cost of the DMS for me which is like $100
2. Thoughts on purchasing on credit or floor planning? If I did this it would not be all cars but may 2-3 initially. Something I could handle w/out getting out of control. I have an 800 credit score so even w/out flooring I could secure a line of credit if I needed it. My thoughts on this it would help keep me liquid if I need to leverage it.
Flooring.... Where do i start. There Are some pros and some Cons. If you have a good relationship with your flooring company and agent it helps. I Personally when i started didnt use one. Nextgear approached me and i declined to sign up 2 times. Then the 3rd i said what the hell and signed up. Got approved but didnt use the line for atleast 3 months. Finally floored one car and it seemed pretty easy and cool. Since you said you have an 800 score, you will get easily approved,but it will be 6months in business before anyone approaches you. Nextgear is usually the first as they are the market leader in the car world. As soon as you sign up for AuctionAccess(the universal auction card owned by manehim) they will keep an eye on you and send rep to you for flooring. Personally If you got the cash ONLY to support yourself then stick to cash only Or a hybrid mix of 50/50. DO NOT DO what alot of dealers do like you. Good credit and get a $200,000 line and go out an buy $100k or more on the flooring line. You will be done real quick when curtailments come up and cant pay them. This is how alot of Dealers go out of business. Business is good for 6 monthes, you which you can sustain and go buy a bunch on flooring and then you cant pay the payments cuz business drops off etc.
3. I would be using 50k of that cash to live on the first year. I would be trying to do this w/out making major changes to my current lifestyle mainly because my wife just wants me to get a job but I'm determined to start my own business and keeping income as close to normal as possible will help with keeping my lifestyle normal until I can get things going on the business side.
Keep Atleast 6 monthes of overhead to survive. This way if you have slow months you can still stay open. Dont max out and not have enough cash to support yourself. Cars will come and go. But business will just GO and close if you cant support slow times.
4. Not really wanting to tote the note because of the type of dealership I would want to open (low visibility mostly Internet sales) but again open to thoughts on this. Nothing is set in stone.
IF you are trying to mainly do internet sales, try and get a warehouse location. Dont get a main street $6000 a month location. START SMALL AND CHEAP. When i say cheap i mean a warehouse thats like $2000 a month or less if you can Or whatever is conssidered cheap in your area. Theres dealers here who have Warehouses that hold atleast 20 cars and rent is only like $1200-1500 maybe.
