Another 6 months blows by, and no further advancement on book has happened. All on me!
Been awhile again since I have been on my site. Sad as that is. Because that means no attention to my book has been done. Continued growth of my business needing my full attention has been required. Good problem on that side, with record business happening. Reached 1027 unit sales in 2022 which was a record breaker and the first time selling over 1000 units! We were also Yamaha's #1 Motorcycle Sales dealer in the Carolinas for the 2nd year in a row in 2022. On top of that we were in our first full year with Kawasaki which we added in Oct 2021 and Suzuki in Jan 2022 officially. Kawasaki in just our first year netted us 177 unit sales, but Suzuki stumbled with very few units supplied causing sales to only be at the 39 mark for 2022. Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Honda are all ramping up going into 2023 already, with only Suzuki still showing soft production issues ongoing. Honda is still far behind Kawasaki and Yamaha for supply, but I expect them to start catching up shortly.
Some troubled departments have garnered my focus to a greater degree in 2022 and going into 2023, and have been a learning curve for me as a relatively new GM, having been a SM (Sales Manager), GSM (General Sales Manager), and NBM (National Brand Manager) over all my years in the business. So despite all my years, I am still green in some cases and learn along the way. Like they say, we are always learning! Just got back from an industry show AIME (American International Motorcycle Expo) last week in Vegas, as well as attended my Dealer 20 Group where dealers analize their stores departments against their peers, other dealers who are of similar size or dollars produced. Despite my challenges, I still expect 2023 to be a whopper of a year! With more sales expected as inventories have improved, which means more opportunities for all the departments. Now taking advantage of those opportunities and maximizing profits is the key.
I wish I could say we are leveling off (well not really in the sense I always want more business!) so my business life could settle down a bit, and then be able to get back into my writting, but that doesn't look like it is happening anytime soon with several more brands in the works to be added to the fold. So I will continue to keep this personal author site floating along with the occasional status updates, but being honest, I an still in limbo on this side for right now. Now we do have some traveling plans coming soon which will help me maybe have some relaxing and inspirational time (Going south of Playa Del Carmen into Xcaret, Mexico) which is only 3 weeks away. Looking forward to that. Has been now about 7 years since we have done any large, week plus long vacation! Way over due! We use to try to do a big one every 2 years, but when finances collapsed in 2016-2018, and Covid struck, it blocked any of our ideas to enjoy ourselves. We are taking our girls with us, who are now 20 & 24 years old, so compared to when they were only like 1 & 5, they will love it. We all need a refresher, especially our youngest as she is heavily into her last semester of college as she attempts to graduate one year early as a Zoology Major. Very cool and proud of her just like my oldest who graduated almost 4 years ago from UNCW as a Studio Arts Major. Couldn't be more proud!
Nuff blab for now. Stay tuned.
