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Detective Work: Forensic Accountants Track Down Clues to Save Your Business
February 09, 2010
The tedious number crunching involved with keeping a tire dealership on track is something most dealers don’t mind passing off to an accountant – in fact, the majority are glad to have their time freed up to manage other areas of the business.
But if you assume the only times you need an accountant are for tax preparation and year-end financial statements, think again. In recent years...
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Tips to Boost Your Shop's Financial Health
February 09, 2010
Although the economy has begun to shown some signs of improvement, tire dealers and other small business owners know that in order to succeed, they must continue operating cautiously. From cutting operating expenses to protecting cash flow and tightening overall finances, there are a variety of things dealers can do to boost their bottom line.
Take a look back at some past Tire Review articles...
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Get Max Value When You Sell Your Business
November 23, 2009
What If you decided to sell your business? How would you do it? How would you price it? What would you do today to protect its value?
You just turned 63 after spending a sometimes rewarding and always challenging 30 years as the owner of your own tire dealership.
You still have that desire to serve your customers with the right tires and service for them, but don’t quite have the same...
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Consider Renting a CFO to Save Costs, Increase Profits
November 11, 2009
As businesses attempt to cut payrollexpenses, manyhave looked to outsourcing the role of a CFO.Whether the company currently has a CFO and wants to cut back or needs to add outside talent to the existing organization, many companies are turning to an outsideCFO.
Most businesses, including tire dealerships, often reach a point where they need professional financial advice, but can't afford to hire...
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Buy a New Vehicle in 2009 and Save
August 14, 2009
The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department recently announced a tax break for the purchase of new motor vehicles, making now an ideal time to look at updating your shop’s fleet of service or “loaner” vehicles.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides a deduction for state and local sales and excise taxes paid on the purchase of new cars, light...
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Credit Crunch Options
June 01, 2009
Money is tight, and the days
of “easy credit” are gone. But that doesn’t mean a tire dealer can’t get
business credit, capital needed to keep your dealership running.
There are options out there,
but it may take a little more work on your part and the terms likely won’t be
as handsome as they were in the past.
• Banks: Many large banks are strapped...
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Seven Ways to Keep Your Capital Flowing
May 01, 2009
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1. Don't panic. Get the
facts before reacting. Find out if you are facing a change in your bank's
willingness to extend credit, reflected by smaller lines of credit and/or
higher interest rates, or something else.
2. Branch out. If you are
currently with a large bank, start making friends with your...
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Creative Cost Cutting
April 01, 2009
1. Look at the less obvious.
For example: how much are you spending monthly on gas? Find out by getting a
gas card and having your staff sign out the card, return the receipts and keep
a mileage log on each company vehicle. At the end of the month, match up fuel
purchases to vehicles, miles traveled and hours worked. If it’s too much, take
action.
2. Don’t cut advertising,
but...
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Don't Let Your Cash Flow Freeze
April 01, 2009
Good times or bad, no one
likes collecting on late payments.
But tire dealers need to
proactively protect cash flow in this post-financial meltdown. Every company is
going to have customers delaying payments, and lines of credit nationwide are
going to be tighter. You may even have trouble securing short-term loans to cover
even basic operating expenses.
Here are some ways to
minimize...
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Telephone and E-mail Orders
April 01, 2009
When handling a telephone or
e-mail order from an unknown customer, take reasonable steps to verify the
identity of the person placing the order.
Ask the cardholder to fax a
copy of his or her driver’s license along with a copy of the credit card
itself. Understand that the customer is under no legal obligation to comply
with your request, nor are you obligated to accept a credit-card...
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Top-Six Financial Faux Pas
April 01, 2009
If you haven’t done a
financial gut check lately, here’s your chance. Are you guilty of one or more
of the following most common financial mistakes?
6. Taking on and keeping
debt that is either not necessary or can be refinanced at more favorable terms.
5. Not having enough cash
reserves. Ideally, a tire dealership should have enough cash reserves to pay
general expenses...
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Surviving Audits
March 01, 2009
So you did everything you could
to avoid the IRS red flags, and you still somehow managed to get audited? Don’t
fret – you can learn survival skills.
First of all, most audits
simply require that you provide additional information to the IRS. And audits
are usually done on tax returns that are a few years old.
If the letter you get from
Uncle Sam specifies a correspondence...
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Wanted: Accountant
March 01, 2009
Don’t wait until April to
start looking for an accountant! The more time you put into the search, the
better off you’ll be.
And, once you have that
special someone in mind, ask yourself the following questions:
• Does this accountant
specialize in independent tire dealerships?
• Does he or she adequately
understand the retail/wholesale tire business and...
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The Changing Landscape
February 12, 2009
Under normal circumstances, it's challenging enough to market your business to customers and keep profits moving in the right direction. But add to that the current recession economy, and today's tire dealers are facing a whole new set of challenges. Even though they may feel attacked from all sides – by faltering profits, the credit crunch and fewer customers – tire dealers can still survive...
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Accountant Alternative
February 01, 2009
While some business owners
choose to handle the books themselves, others appoint accountants. Still others
hire someone called a “daily money manager.”
The term is relatively new,
but it’s not complicated. A daily money manager simply handles all of the
day-to-day financial duties, including payables and payroll, deposits and
ledger-book balancing. Money managers can...
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Buy or Lease Equipment?
January 01, 2009
Need a new balancer, air
compressor or nitrogen generator? Where will the funds come from? Several
business advisors recommend that independent businesses such as tire
dealerships consider leasing instead of buying.
Leasing equipment can have
several advantages, they say, including:
• Leases can often be
obtained with little or no money down.
• Leases usually require
less...
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Avoiding Audits
December 01, 2008
Though the IRS randomly
selects returns for audit review, it will tag certain returns because of
“suspicious information” or deductions. To reduce your business’ risk of being
audited, avoid these common IRS red flags:
• Incomplete or inaccurate
income reports
• Unusual or above-average
deductions
• Business losses,
especially tax losses.
...
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Making Deep Cuts
December 01, 2008
Instead of reducing your
company’s overall budget by incremental amounts, try a new approach to cost
cutting, one that is more expansive in nature. Reduce the budget to an
extremely low level all at once and require all of your employees to stick to
it.
Theoretically, this will
force your staff to find creative ways to operate within a set budget. It may
even provoke them to look for...
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Buy or Lease a Location?
November 01, 2008
The decision to buy or
continue leasing your building should be based purely on business factors. And
the decision should be made only with the advice of a business consultant or
accountant who is experienced in the field.
There are numerous
advantages to owning your own physical location:
• Stability: Your mortgage,
immune to ever-changing lease prices, could be much cheaper than...
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Reduce Those Utility Bills
October 01, 2008
A careful examination of
your tire dealership’s energy-consumption practices will reveal numerous
opportunities to reduce overall utility costs. A few examples include:
• Installing programmable
thermostats
• Closing off unused areas
• Placing lighting
appropriately throughout the building and turning it on only when needed
• Sharing printers an...
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