If you are a licensed auto dealer, you’ve surely dealt with obtaining a surety bond as a requirement for your license. Hopefully you haven’t dealt with surety bond claims. However, it helps to be informed and prepared in case you do get a bond cl

“OK, it’s time for a break,” I yelled over the deafening shouts of three sibling shareholders and their spouses. “Let’s just chill for 15 minutes or so. Give yourself a break, have a cup of coffee, stretch your legs; do what

How Steve Jobs blew up the rules of branding, from Entrepreneur. Before Steve Jobs got his hands on Apple for the second time in 1997, things were far simpler. Serious business customers were different from their playful consumer counterparts. Men bo

From Brady Ware & Company: F&I fraud – is your reputation at risk? Stopping F&I fraud before it starts can save your dealership from a public relations nightmare. Not to mention your employees from serving jail time. The following a

Learning to Connect With Your Team and Your Customers for Higher Sales, Better CSI and Lower Employee Turnover Leadership is Influence. Simply put, learning to better connect with your team leads to higher unit sales, better CSI, and lower employee t

Just when you’re not expecting it, a letter arrives. Seems like a normal OEM letter, but after reading it, it is much more serious than that. It’s an Audit! Over the last two years, the manufacturers have increased their Sales Audit activities. I

This year’s NADA was a great success! Reflecting on the 2014 convention, I could not help but think how far our industry has come since 2009, the last time NADA was in New Orleans. Back then, Lehman Brothers had just failed and General Motors and C

As counsel for franchised and independent dealers across the U.S., I regularly get calls from clients about a bank “kicking” a contract back to the dealer due to default or lack of insurance. The first question the dealer always asks is “Can I

Dr. Merlot, my sometimes brash alter ego, and I were finally having a long-awaited meeting with a client, Jim, about the future of his dealerships. Over the last three or four years, Jim had been dealing with a variety of distractions (challenges) in