{"id":7808,"date":"2020-10-16T11:58:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/?p=7808"},"modified":"2020-10-16T11:58:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:58:48","slug":"how-to-open-a-car-dealership-in-5-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/how-to-open-a-car-dealership-in-5-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Open a Car Dealership in 5 Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States is one of the biggest car markets<\/a> in the world, boasting billions of dollars in auto sales every year. While 2020 is likely to be a down year for auto sales, even during these times of adversity, people are still making car purchases which should prove validating for you as someone that’s contemplating starting a dealership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you open a car dealership, you open a world opportunity for yourself. You also open a lot of questions you’ll have to answer in order to get off the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we share pragmatic steps that will guide you through your dealership’s inception and opening. Keep reading to get your automotive business off the ground!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

1. Do Your Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even if an opportunity feels like a slam-dunk or has worked in other places, there are no guarantees you’ll enjoy the results you’re craving. The best way to predict whether or not the cost to open a car dealership will prove to be a good investment is to do market research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyze how many dealerships are already in the area. Assess people’s need for cars in your community. Figure out the average profit you’d make on each car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only through extensive planning can you safeguard yourself against serious losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Decide If You’re Going to Be Branded<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the first questions you’ll need to answer when you open a car dealership is whether or not you’ll be branded. Branded dealerships carry the logo of a car brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, “Greg Smith Toyota<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Branding brings your dealership instant recognition. It also requires that you pay franchise fees to the brand you’re using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Find Your Floor Space<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To sell cars, you’re going to need a lot. Finding that lot may prove tricky depending on where you live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, even as a franchise, you’ll be expected to pay your own land\/lot fees which can easily prove to be one of your most expensive monthly liabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick your lot carefully as the location of your dealership can have a big impact on the amount of foot traffic your receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Work Through Regulatory Issues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most areas will require that you obtain certain business licenses before opening your dealership. You may even need special documentation to start selling cars, particularly used ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk to your local chamber of commerce representative to get a full understanding of what will be required of you to start operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Market and Sell<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With all of your ducks in a row, all that’s left to do with your dealership is to let people know you’re open and to start selling cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re a franchised dealership, your brand’s HQ will manage national advertising for you. If you’re not franchised, you’ll need to generate awareness on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as selling goes, you can visit automotivetrainingnetwork.com<\/a> or other local dealership resource organizations to get trained on sales alongside other integral aspects of your operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When You Open a Car Dealership You Open a Time-Tested Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of business ventures entrepreneurs can jump into. When you open a car dealership though, you open a business that has been time tested to weather adversity, changing consumer tastes, and other factors that routinely destroy industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s a powerful truth and one that should embolden you to follow through on your dealership ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you liked this post and would like additional how to open a car dealership business advice, browse the newest posts on our blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States is one of the biggest car markets in the world, boasting billions of dollars in auto sales every year. While 2020 is likely to be a down year for auto sales, even during these times of adversity, people are still making car purchases which should prove validating for you as someone that’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7810,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7808\/revisions\/7810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}