LGT's Profit Sense

Like all businesses, improving financial performance is a top priority for dealerships.  One way to maximize dealership performance is for owners to obtain CPA-prepared financial statements.  These financial statements can help identify financial and operational deficiencies and discover areas to cut costs and generate sales.  To reap these benefits, dealers must learn how to identify the information that will be most valuable to their business. 

As we become more conscious of our impact on the planet, businesses in many industries are adopting more environmentally friendly practices. This includes proactive auto dealerships that use more efficient renewable energy sources and reduce overall energy and water consumption.

Obtaining appropriate insurance coverage may be the first and only step dealerships take when it comes to their company's insurance policy.  As policies expire, deleting or shredding the old policy may be practice out of habit, and the dealership may never think of that policy timeframe or documentation again until it may be too late.  This article addresses the importance of retaining expired policies and the types of situations that dealerships would need to produce the expired policy if an unfortunate circumstance was ever to arise.

With the national unemployment rate dropping to the lowest levels in more than a decade, many dealerships are looking for new ways to attract and retain talented employees. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) may offer such an opportunity through the introduction of a new tax credit. By voluntarily offering paid family and medical leave to employees, this tax break could provide benefits that, in turn, could make it easier to hire and retain employees in a competitive hiring market.

In the past, comparison has been described as the thief of joy, this article intends to defend "comparison" as more than just a thief, but rather a source of knowledge than can help a dealership gauge their performance through the use of benchmarking tactics. These benchmarks are put in place to identify strengths and weaknesses across departments and also across other dealerships. The article will dive into a variety of different metrics along with tips on how to give context and relevance to the numbers by identifying a basis of comparison for the data.

"Blue skies smiling at me"

The term “artificial intelligence” or “AI” may conjure up sci-fi images of robots and futuristic machines. But many businesses today are using AI to obtain more accurate data and help owners and managers make better decisions.

Many elements form the nucleus of a successful auto dealership, including exceptional customer service, a healthy work environment, an outstanding product line, and efficient inventory management. But many dealerships often hamstring themselves when overlooking a key element: leadership training and development.