Entrepreneurship and motorcycles are two things that are synonymous with freedom. What’s freer than cruising across the country on two wheels and setting your hours and wages? The only thing that’s more liberating than doing one or the other is doing them both! Owning your own motorcycle business is an excellent way to marry the freedom of owning your own business and hogging the road on two wheels.
Being a motorcycle enthusiast only partially qualifies you to run your dealership. A lot of motorheads get into the industry only to find out that it takes more than a love of motorcycles to build a successful business around them. Keep reading to learn how to ride your motorcycle dealership to financial freedom without crashing.
Handling The Business
If you’re thinking about starting a motorcycle dealership, then you likely already know a lot about motorcycles. They’re not like cars where everybody needs one, so everyone knows a little about them. They’re a particular interest. But, knowing about bikes will only get so far—you need to be business savvy as well.
The first thing you need to do is get your business registered with the state. Registration is just a declaration of your business’s conception. Then you need to hire an accountant to manage your finances and ensure that you properly pay your taxes. Once you’ve hired an accountant, it’s time to find a location and then get your business licensed.
Getting your business licensed is different than registering it. Remember, when you registered your company, all you did was declare that it now exists. Getting a license for your dealership gives it the right to operate.
The easiest way to license your business is as a limited liability company—also known as an LLC. LLCs differ from corporations in that only one person—or a few—owns them whereas corporations have multiple shareholders. In addition, LLCs don’t pay any federal taxes, but the government taxes the income of the members of the LLC.
Having an accountant who knows the financial ins and outs of owning a dealership is crucial, but you need to educate yourself as well. You’re going to have to deal with financing, banks, applicants, and title payments. You shouldn’t rely on anyone else to take care of all of your revenue for you—get to know the financial side of running your business for yourself.
Handling Your Supply
A motorcycle dealership is just a concrete desert without any motorcycles, right? One of your primary concerns before opening your dealership is developing a supply line. You want to stock your lot and showroom with the bikes that everyone is longing for at the moment.
Even if you plan to focus primarily on new motorcycles, you can get some nice used ones at a motorcycle auction. Selling used bikes alongside your new ones is a great way to catch customers who can’t afford a new bike. Give your customers the best of both worlds.
Handling Customer Service
Your business will rise or fall, depending on your ability to attract new customers and keep current customers. The only way to be sure that you do both of those things is to have excellent customer service. If someone asks you about a bike, they need to hear more than just automotive and diesel certifications talking. They need to know that they’ve brought their issue to someone who understands their problem and cares.
As your business grows, the inquiries into your products and services will increase. They’ll even have questions during the hours when your dealership closes. It’s important to remember that missed calls are missed opportunities, and you want to limit those to zero. The best way to do that is with business process outsourcing software, also known as a BPO call center.
BPO call centers are ideal for small businesses or businesses that are just getting started because they’re inexpensive. It’s call center software that manages the data necessary to keeping track of current customers and providing them with excellent service.
Running your own motorcycle business will be one of the wildest rides of your life. Hold on tight—the road to making your dealership successful can be long and bumpy.