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3 Ways To Make Opening A New Car Dealership More Convenient

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Opening a new car dealership can be a lucrative endeavor, but it can also be a time-consuming and frustrating experience. Here are a few things you can do to make opening your new car dealership a little more convenient overall.

Choose a Property With Flexible Lease Options

While the location of the property you choose to lease is important, so are the lease options. If you commit to a long-term lease right away, you may end up stuck in a location that ultimately doesn't work for your car dealership, and you'll have to pay a large penalty fee to get out of the lease so you can move.

But if you choose a property with flexible lease options, you can ease your way into the lease and make sure that the property and location work well for your car dealership. Start with a short-term lease with the option to extend it so you aren't stuck at the property if it doesn't work out for you. After all, the cars you stock may not fit well on the lot or the property may not accommodate short onsite test drives like you want it to. And make sure that the terms of the lease can be changed upon request when renewal time comes around.

Work With Independent Contractors

You can save your new car dealership some money as it gets off the ground by working with independent contractors instead of hiring in-house salespeople. Working with contractors will help ensure that you have the sales staff you need on the car lot at all times during business hours, but you won't have to worry about paying for things like liability insurance and Social Security.

You can also pay your contractors commission instead of an hourly salary, which means you will only be paying your workforce when your car dealership makes money. And you can always hire the contractors you really like to work directly for you when you're ready to start worrying about payroll and employee benefits.

Hire a Bond Specialist

You will have to apply for and purchase a surety bond for your car dealership before you can officially open your doors for business. Auto dealer surety bonds are used to help regulate the industry and protect customers. For instance, if your dealership commits fraud or conducts business in an unethical way, your surety bond will be used to compensate the injured parties.

And while you likely don't have any plans to defraud your customers and business contacts, having an auto dealer bond in place will help create credibility for your dealership as time goes on. Applying for a surety bond can be confusing and time-consuming, so it's a good idea to hire a bond specialist to handle the process for you.

Your bond specialist will make sure all of the paperwork is filled out properly, submitted to the correct agencies, and followed up on in a timely manner. They'll handle agency inquiries and make sure that you have all the documentation necessary to prove that your bond is in place once your application has been approved and processed.


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