Post: #26

(12-06-2015 07:57 PM)Staros Wrote:  

(10-05-2015 08:57 PM)Sourcecode Wrote:  Have you tried the mall? Or the park?

Thanks, Sourcecode. Mall, not for me. Park, sounds like a good idea! Which parks do you recommend?

Also, just came back from Szimpla Kert. Too many drunk male tourists and hard to approach there. Is there any other good place(s) that's open all days with a more local crowd? Great thread, Buda (and Pest) is certainly good for its compactness. Just need to unravel the city for my approach.

EDIT: Also, if there are good places close to Szimpla Kert, I'm all ears. Then it's easier to "make the rounds" and try to make a "swoop", if the aforementioned doesn't pan out.

(01-02-2016 10:26 AM)ColSpanker Wrote:  ^^^Sales- If you arent willing to sale you'll never make a dime you'll end up closed, shuttering doors and living in a van down by the river. Or worse you'll go back to working for the man.

No argument there. I leaned sales by going out and doing it. I also learned that it's easy to do when you have a product everyone wants and not so easy when you have to beg people to take your product. Sales does not come easy to me as I tend toward the introverted side. If you have a flamboyant personality, it might be easier.
Too many damn companies think anyone can be trained to do sales, which is why it sucks when you walk into a Big Box store and five clerks jump on your ass to sell you a TV. Yes anyone can be trained, but they often suck at it. Sales is situational. I rocked selling major brand electronics and sucked at selling jewelry to women. I sold industrial services and quit because, there wasn't enough money in it.

Its not so much about selling something that everyone wants as much it is as selling something enough people need. I went into a field that every business in the world needs, therefore I have unlimited opportunities. If youre selling something nobody wants you my friend are in the wrong business, but to back what you said 100% every business owner must be able to sale or open to learning to sale. I can take a person and make them a decent sales person but I understand the process of sales and the process of training sales people though I have years experience in sales and in multi level marketing....

(01-03-2016 01:32 PM)jamaicabound Wrote:  Scaling before your ready. I think hiring employees and finding good employees is one of the toughest parts of growing your business. It sounds corny to say but that Marcus Limonis on The Profit talks about process, process, process. If your working by yourself you can get by "whinging it" however when you bring in other people you can't have new, inexperienced people whinging it nor is it a good way to communicate amongst your team when everyone is whinging it. Until you have yoru process down you can't bring others into it.

You could not be anymore correct hiring the right people and training them correctly is a skill set that any business owner must learn. You must come up with the correct policies, and procedures as its the only way your business will survive you must be able to duplicate yourself as you will hit a point where you cannot do it all by yourself and you should cross train youre employees every chance you are given. I started my business close to 6 years ago but quit my job to do it full time 3 years ago, just me a magic jack and a desktop in my basement now we have 10 full time employess and hundreds of subs to work our many projects and with out putting the right processes, policies, and procedures in place it would be a huge cluster fuck.

Post: #27

"you must be able to duplicate yourself as you will hit a point where you cannot do it all by yourself and you should cross train youre employees every chance you are given...with out putting the right processes, policies, and procedures in place it would be a huge cluster fuck."

I'd forgotten but having a plan to develop new talent is as important as the business plan, because without it you can't expect to scale the business, and any success you do have at scale will be pure accident and chance.

It's funny how some jobs/organizations have a fixed mindset, a "you either get it or you don't" approach to their personnel, and never give thought to how They are like people who belittle the idea of game thinking that if you aren't a natural you can't possibly "learn" to be good with women.

I've fought this battle myself at some places, and successfully rolled out training/mentoring plans that take raw talent and make them good at the complicated cognitive work we do. It blows people's minds to see it work, but it's really quite simple cognitive psychology - break the role down into actions and mindsets, then coach the actions and the mindsets so people learn to do things and also learn why they are doing them. Pretty soon the average folks can do a good job, and the exceptional folks catch on quick and start exploring new avenues that benefit the organization.

Sure, some people are born salesmen or born executives, but a lot of folks gotta learn, and it doesn't do the org any good to act like it's not worth people's time to teach. I've come to think that the fixed mindset is really mostly ego protection - these people have to believe that they have some God-given talent and it would hurt them to think they can take another smart, hard-working but basically ignorant dude off the street and train him to do the same thing.

Now, your comment on the "right processes, policies, and procedures" brings to mind another conundrum - in many larger business, these policies etc really serve as brakes to control risk, especially to prevent incompetent people from fucking up. Sounds like you have procedures that actually enable the business to operate and succeed and the people to know what they have to get done, instead of hoping you can stop people from killing the biz - people you shouldn't have let into your organization to begin with.

When I hear about an organization with a lot of red-tape procedures that isn't a hospital or a nuclear submarine, I know they've got a lot of zeros working there and the MBAs have put a bunch of horseshit in the way to make it too complicated for the boobs to execute their fuckupery. That in turn prevents effective, competent people from succeeding, and they do (and should) leave the place.

Post: #28

(12-31-2015 02:21 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  

(12-31-2015 02:07 PM)dicknixon72 Wrote:  

(12-31-2015 01:37 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  Sounds familiar what town?

Holiday, FL. It was Beford Auto, where the old Plaza Dodge used to be on US19.

Hahaha that's what I thought do you know the couple? They never had inventory and GOD DAMN Holiday FL???? That's the last place you want to start any business unless selling OXYs.

The guy that owns that building is a real dick to deal with too. They didn't buy it did they?

Seeing those ads it's obvious they are cropping the shot to avoid showing a big empty lot. And the lot they do show is not even half full.

Knowing the car biz all I could do is shake my head. No way a business would succeed like that as one look and you get a bad impression no matter how nice the place is.

You always want the lot to look full. Even if you have to angle park them or space them out a bit more. No big open areas.

Hotwheels has been around the car biz one way or another for his entire life

Post: #29

Hotwheels the Dodge dealer that was there got shut down by Chrysler/Dodge but they were very good but not big enough.

Post: #30

(01-10-2016 09:33 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  Hotwheels the Dodge dealer that was there got shut down by Chrysler/Dodge but they were very good but not big enough.

Yeah, I read that earlier. A lot of them got shut down as did a number of Chevy dealers that surprised me.

Not sure how most are doing it down there now, but a lot of new car dealers have gone to a smaller new vehicle inventory to turn it faster to avoid paying so much floorplan. The holdback on GM's is good for around 120 days IIRC, so essentially it can sit there for four months with no out of pocket investment . After that the dealer starts paying forit, so obviously the faster you turn it the better.

Some dealers floorplan their used inventory as well and will turn them fast. Even without floorplan, instead owning the vehicle, you don't want to sit on the investment for long. Anymore if a unit doesn't move in a month it goes to the chute. Sometimes if it's a high end trade it never hits the lot, rather it goes straight to the auction. Occasionally, something like a Mercedes AMG something or other might get traded on a Vette. In those situations we get a Mercedes dealer on the line and they set the trade value and buy it outright. (That's what we do anyway. No market for high end used here, just new)

Basically, from what I have seen dealerships have trended smaller when it comes to inventory size. The shop/showroom has stayed the same or gotten bigger. Maybe it's different down there.

A single lot with 500+ vehicles has become unusual.