#257 - How I Built This w/ Timothy Evans

You are listening to the Independent Dealer Podcast, brought to you by Buckeye Dealership Consulting. Luke this week we are going back to our How I Built this series with Mr. Timothy Evans, a guy you know.

Yeah, you know, I've met Timothy several times. I think it goes by Tim. He's up in my neck of the woods about an hour north of me, between me and Charlotte. And, you know, it's a guy that just kind of like all these people start out. Jeff it seems like they start out maybe as a curbstoner, and then they. They have several years. They're doing pretty well. And, you know, Tim's decided that he's ready to, to take it up a notch. And that's what's really neat about this episode. It talks about him going through the growing pains and he's in the midst of them. You know, he's hiring, he's. He's selling more cars. Before long, this guy's going to be, you know, he has plans to have several locations. Right now he's probably at about 30, 40 cars a month. But he's got a. He's ready, man. He's ready to go. And it should be inspiring to a.

Lot of people out there.

Yeah. Yeah. This is a great interview. Great story. I hope you guys enjoy it.

You are listening to the Independent Dealer Podcast with hosts Luke Godwin and Jeff Watson.

I grew up, obviously, in a very small town. We always drove kind of like cheap cars. If they had a problem and dad couldn't fix them kind of thing, they most likely didn't get fixed. And so I grew up with a knowledge of how to work on cars, how to fix cars, and my very first vehicle always did all the service on it. I never took it anywhere for anything. And it was a 2002 Chevy S10. And throughout my high school years, I was, I was always an entrepreneur. And basically, I guess I had several businesses growing up. I raised and sold rabbits when I was very young and got tired of changing frozen water bottles in the winter. Eventually moved on to a mobile DJ sometime around the age of 13 to about 17. And in between both of those, I kind of had another, like a vending route. And then when I graduated high school, I went to college for a semester to be a cop and made some bad decisions, got arrested, decided that probably wouldn't get hired as a cop. And so I went into a sales job for a company called Fastenal. Worked there a year and a half, and then I enjoyed the career at Fastenal. But basically I didn't feel like it was going the direction I wanted to go. So I went back to school, got my EMT and had basically quit Fastenal on my own terms. And while I was going to school to get my emt, I had started flipping a couple vehicles, basically curb stoning. And. And I did five or six of those. And I was like, hey, maybe I want to be a car dealer. I always wanted to own a business, but I never thought I had the funds or the resources or. You know, like I said, we didn't grow up with a lot, so I didn't really. There's no one in my family with money, so I didn't have anyone I could. You know, I don't have a rich uncle I could call.

Jeff, you know, I will stop you real quick, Tim. Two things. Number one, don't you wish you could produce cars like you could produce rabbits? Number one. Number two, Jeff, how many dealers have we interviewed that started as curb stoners?

Yeah, I would say a decent amount. I think you, like. You get it in your blood, right, Tim? I'm sure you probably flipped a couple cars and saw you could make as much on those two cars out of your driveway as you could working a 9 to 5 for an entire month.

Yeah.

Gets in your blood.

And I was doing salvage in the beginning just because that was so easy to get into. And we have a local salvage auction right here in. Right across the line in North Carolina. And. And you're basically getting paid on your time and the markup of the vehicle. You understand the. The game, but it was for a young guy that was. I think I was 19, maybe 18 at the time. It was very profitable. And what.

What year was this, Tim?

So I start, officially, Evans Auto Sales opened in 2013, but I was probably curbstoning around the beginning to end of 2012, all through 2012.

It's so about a year's worth. What made you want to go legit? Was it like, hey, this is becoming a bigger operation than I can handle, or did you get kind of get the. The. The police on your tail?

No, I never. I was never flipping that many cars, and I never had open titles or nothing like that. Like, I would go to the auction, buy the cars, pay the sales tax, register the vehicle in my name, and I would drive them for a couple of months. It was my primary job. Yeah. And so I. I maybe did a handful of cars over a year's time. It would take me about two months to cycle one through.

And so in your defense, I wouldn't Call that curbstoning. Right.

If you're doing it the right way. The right way.

And your state might have a limit. I know mine has a limit on how many you can actually title in your own name, but we have five. Yeah. I think we're similar. So if you're in that ballpark, I think you're just.

Yeah.

Doing it the right way.

I'm not going to turn you in.

Yeah. So. So when I. When I graduated EMT school, sometime around, I must say, October, November of 2012, I had already started the ball rolling on the car dealership, and I didn't have any money. I just had a credit card that I had good credit back then, and I had a credit card that had, like, a limit of $5,000.

And you say good credit back then, not now.

Come on, Tim.

No, no, I still have great credit. It's just that my mom always made sure, like, that was really driven into me.

Yeah. Smart.

The importance of good credit. And added me to a credit union loan when I was like, I don't know. I think back then the credit unions didn't frown upon adding you to a loan at, like, 16.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's legal or not, but I had a credit score prior to being 18.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

So to answer your question, I got into the car business. Basically, EMS had called me. I worked for Lancaster county ems. They called, offered me the job. And it was literally parallel. The day they offered me the job is the day we got approved to have the dealership at the location I wanted. And then the DMV asked me. They were like, we can go ahead and issue your license. It was around the end of December. And I was like, no, no, no, let's wait. I don't want to issue it until, like, November 3rd, or, I mean, January 3rd, for formality purposes. I didn't want to have it open at the end of the year, for sure.

Yeah.

And so anyways, I knew I was going to have a lot of days off in ems, and that was one of the driving factors as I was going through EMT school. We all knew you worked one shift on two shifts off, which is 24 hours on and 48 off. And I'm not the kind of person that can really. 48 hours off is just tortured in my mind.

So this is what you did in between, then? Is that what you're saying? You were working as an EMT for on shift and then selling cars on your off shift?

Yes, I did that for nine months. Full time. I was a full time EMT and also flipping cars.

And I like myself a full time emt.

What's that?

I'm constantly just putting things together. Yeah. Putting out fires, like resuscitating bad things. Yeah.

Well, so, Tim, that's an interesting concept because, you know, people try to start businesses today and they don't have money and it's hard to get going. You were able to run it parallel, so you were probably making money, good money as an EMT and being able to put. Live off that and also put some of that in the business. Is that what was going on?

So I still lived at home. I stayed at home until I was about, I guess, 23 or 24. But it, the business was, is. Was basically cannibalizing, honestly. I mean, it was everything I was making, it was taking through losses, bad buys. And then I, I stayed in one little location. There's a picture wall outside the dealership on, on the other side of my wall here. And it kind of shows our progression in pictures. And the very first location was a storage building on a little lot, and there was another building adjacent to that that the landlord that owned the lot owned. And I asked her, I was like, hey, you know, I want to move into that building since you guys don't use it anymore, you know, what would you do for me? And so she said, hey, yeah, it was an old sewing factory. She said, hey, y', all, I'll do that for you. And she knew my family really well and she knew that I would take care of the place. And basically we went in, put a, put a firewall up, split the building in half so she could still have her sewing factory because she wasn't operating at the old capacity anymore. And basically we could occupy the front. So I made it into a suite and I use my money to do it. So that's where a lot of the profits of the dealership went. I think I budgeted in my mind. I told myself I could remodel that space for like 30$500. And I spent about four times that much doing it. So that's where all my money went. But no, I was not making money. I think it was September of 2013 after the remodel and everything. I looked down and I was like, wow, I got 10 grand in the bank. This feels so good.

Hey, everybody, want to make sure you guys know about Buckeye Dealership consulting. It's the first of the year, 2023. You should have your reinsurance company set up. If you don't Already do it now?

Yes. I mean, you know, if you, if you delayed it in of last year, getting all this set up, which, you know, it might have got too late and you couldn't get it done, now it's time to get it done. There's a lot of money to be made in 2023 with reinsurance, Jeff. And there's a lot less taxes to pay if you do it the right way as well.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. I haven't done my taxes yet. You guys know this is episode probably airs in mid January, but I'm looking forward to seeing some tax savings from my reinsurance company. You know, not that I'm made it really any money in 2022, but the little bit that I did make is hopefully going to be kind of wiped out by that, that reinsurance company. So it's a great way to reduce that tax burden and cover your cars. So reinsurance. Give the guys a Buckeye a call. All right, Tim.

So it took you nine months to get 10,000 a bank after your, after your upfit, you would think that we'd have a little more in the bank after nine months. I mean, walk us through where it was going. Especially if you're in a retail deal, you know, buy here, pay here, you won't have any money in the bank. What I mean, was it all bad buys?

I wouldn't say it was all bad buys, but I don't think I understood my worth. Like, one of the very first vehicles I bought was a 2004 ISH5 somewhere in that range, Ford Escape. And I didn't know anything about the auction. I walked into Odessa, Charlotte, thinking it was going to be like Cherokee Auto auction in Kings Mountain. And the very first vehicle I bought, I paid 4, 500 for from an independent dealer, didn't know the difference between the independent lane and the bank lane, and paid 4, $500, drove it out the gate and the transmission was completely gone. And so immediately, you know, I didn't know what to do. Never, never had been on the mechanical side of recon, like engines, transmissions. I was always on the bodywork side of it. You know, I knew how to do brakes and repair items. But I sold that vehicle.

I.

We just turned around, drove it back to Charlotte and it sold the next week for two grand. I instantly lost twenty five hundred dollars. And, and like I said, I started it with a credit card. And so I, the. It was just, it, it was a lot really. There were losses. But then even when I was Making money out. My markup was only like five to seven hundred dollars on a car, so I could turn them really quickly because somewhere around June of 2013, I got a floor plan because I knew that I didn't have enough money to make the turns happen fast enough to sustain the business.

Do you feel like getting. Looking back, is getting the floor plan a good idea? Do you feel like that helped you or did that? Because sometimes they talk about the cost of floor planning being detrimental. Even though it might help you floor more cars. It. It is a. It is kind of a bit of a burden at times.

So. So, yeah, let me just touch on one last thing. So the. I'll say I didn't make the first sell in the business until April. So it took me until April to make that sale. So from January to April, it took me that long to, like, really understand what to do. I had the license. I had no clue what I was doing. And so I don't think the floor plan hurt me. It took me two months to realize I was either going to run out of money and not be in the business or take the chance on a floor plan. I was so young, living at home. I really had nothing to lose in my mind. But looking back, I don't think the floor plan was a bad thing, though. We would have never got this far without it. What I do wish I'd have realized early on is that floor plans are negotiable because they came to me with an offer of like, you know, 30 days for $120, plus whatever the highest possible interest rate a new dealer gets is. I have no clue. But, you know, nowadays, I don't want to throw AFC under the bus here, but I think that I have the best possible terms that I'll ever get on a floor plan at this level.

Yeah. So in looking back for all those dealers that are out there either with a floor plan or looking at getting one to grow, would you say, hey, even though you're new and small, you don't got to take the first guy that says yes to you. You can actually, like, have some faith and shop around a little bit. Or do you think you need to get in whoever will say yes to you and then build a track record and renegotiate later?

I think. I think you definitely have to build a track record. I don't think those guys are going to take that chance, especially now. It's a lot different now, but I don't. I don't think any of those guys are going to. I Don't know how it works these days, but I don't think they're going to take a chance on you. And I think you just have to do the math and figure out if it makes sense. And I think you have to work backwards into it. You have to understand exactly how quick you got to turn that vehicle and what's going to go into it. I think it has to be very calculated. I was doing it very reckless. It's even a miracle I made it.

Honestly, I think we all start doing it a little reckless, even in the value of pay here. And for some reason, if you don't get enough accounts out there. So sometimes you do have to be a little reckless when it comes to, to your underwriting early on because you've gotta, you gotta get over that hump. The problem is if you continue to be reckless, you don't make any money. Right. So, Tim, how long did it take you to understand that making 5 or 700 a car wasn't gonna work? Because you remember before, before the pandemic, Jeff, we talk about this all the time about this high turn, no profit scenario, that, that just doesn't work. How long did it take you to figure that out, Tim?

You know, every year I look back and, and I think, you know, when I reflect on the first year we moved into this building we're in, looking back, I don't think, you know, even though we started the business in 2013, I'll look back and say 2018, for example. I'm like, wow, I didn't know anything back then. I'll look at 2019 as we move on. Like, man, I really didn't have a concept of things this year. I think I really got it figured out until next year gets here. I'm like, man, we made so many mistakes. But I, I don't know, honestly, Luke, I don't know that I have it figured out now. I think because I just joined the 20 group and looking at everyone's financials, I probably have the worst financials of the group other than one person who has had some major capital expenses that's causing to lose money. But I don't know that I have it figured out now on the pricing strategy. But I guess it took me, I don't know, maybe a few years. I don't have a direct answer. I don't know when I really had an epiphany.

What is your, what is your average growth now, Tim?

Lot. Let's see, October, we ran 6,500 front and back. And then November we ran about 3,700 front and back.

Yeah.

I mean it's a big difference than 700, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean that's, I mean it just, it does it. That low growth never works. And that's, it's, it's interesting to.

That people thought it would.

So let's, let's fall back in your timeline here. Just hold on.

Can I touch on the 20 group thing? Tim, when you mentioned that, did you now that you say you just joined a 20 group, do you feel like joining that group has changed your trajectory of your dealership? Like getting in there and seeing other people's financials and what they're doing compared to what you're doing? Was it a wake up call to be like, hey, I was going, I'm going down the wrong road or if I continue down this road, I'm going to struggle or what kind of paradigm shifts or ideas have? Kind of. I just always wonder when the new 20 groups. I remember what it was like for me, but.

So of course it was my first meeting here in Indianapolis like a month ago. So one of the immediate things was these guys are making a lot more money than me. And I need to figure out not overall, not.

You're not looking at just like, hey, he's just a bigger dealer. You're saying, whoa, people can sell cars for more money than what I thought I could sell cars for.

Yes, that too. But we've had months where our front and back gross is as high or higher than the highest in the group.

Ah.

And actually the month I was there, our front and back gross was higher than anyone in the group.

Yeah. 65 is ridiculous.

Yeah. And when I, when I left the group, one thing one of the members, JD And Carrie Motley were talking about was inventory turn. And I've got some mentors that have told me a hundred times, hey, you, you need to, you need to liquidate this aged inventory. Like get it going, figure it out and, but you know, that doesn't really give me the plan of action to fix the problem. And, and we spent nearly half a day talking about inventory turn and what's to come with the depreciating books. And I think that woke me up and made me take a lot of skinny deals in November. And I think that's why our front and back gross is way down in November.

But you had to shed some fat. You think to kind of. But that you're thinking that okay. Put you in a better position. December or January.

Definitely January. I think December is going to still be a lot of, I think we got to make a lot of tough decisions and, and just move on. And so something, something Joe Lascoda told.

Me years ago, and this flies in the face of, of, of not taking skinny, of taking skinny deals, whatever I just talked about. But the more cars you turn, more chances you have to turn more cars. Right, and, and you, you don't have a service facility yet, correct?

We do not.

But the, the opportunity to sell more cars gives you more opportunities to retrade cars, gives you more opportunity to build service volume, which gives you more opportunity to buy the cars back at the right price to sell them again. It's just a big hamster wheel. And Jeff, you and Tim and I were talking about this before we got on about inventory and how quick it's dropping in the book and what you should do. I just think it's so important to turn that inventory. And Jeff, I think you were almost on the other side of this. Maybe not all the way on the other side of this, but Tim, I think, you know, we talked about you losing a lot of money on the most you've ever lost on one unit this past month because the book dropped so much and, and other things. But you've got to keep that inventory turning. Right. And that what you're learning from, from sitting in this 20 group session.

Yeah, I, I agree. You have to keep the inventory turning. I think, I think I got lazy or just maybe not lazy, but I think I got, I wasn't focusing on inventory turn. I wasn't repricing to make the algorithms pick the vehicle back up again to send out the emails to the people that have saved the listing. Yeah, I think it's important. I, I won't, I'm not one of those people that are going to, I'll probably be a little stubborn in the first 45 days, honestly. I, I, I don't.

And I think you might should be if you got the right unit.

Right, right. And that's how I feel. And if we don't have the right unit, we send it back. I mean, that's just who we are.

All right, Jeff, another new advertiser. We talked about this great supporter of our industry, a supporter of the podcast Prominent. It's not a product that you and.

I use, but I can tell you.

There are a lot of dealers out there that need access to money and need the backing like a primal M. Right, yeah, yeah.

It's a great place to go and talk to guys that know what it's like. Right. I Mean, they've always. They shoot everyone straight. You see them at every convention, every get together. They're always there, and they give you unbiased advice. That's what I like about these guys. I've never heard bad information. You know, I've never heard someone talk bad about them like they got stuck or got had or had some clause that wasn't explained. Like, these guys shoot you straight.

They do. And I tell you, we did an episode a while back where their CFO talked about the pitfalls where people can. Can get out of business. And, Jeff, you probably don't know what episode number that is right off top of your head.

No, do not.

But you should go back, find it. It was very enlightening. And I think what they do to help the dealer out is more than just lend them money. They actually get them on the right path and get all their books straight.

Right. Yep. All right, back to the episode.

Jeff, let's. Let's hop back in this timeline. Tim, you were first. You were in a storage unit. Then you move next door, and you did a little remodel. Where are you now? Did you move more times?

So we moved a total of three times. The first three locations were all rented. The location we're in now I purchased in 2018. It was an old hardware store. It was built in the mid-80s, but. So the first location was the storage building. The second location was an old sewing factory that we kind of sweeted up and made our home there for a year. And within a year, I had outgrown it. And we. We were looking for another place and looked at a couple places, didn't succeed, and then finally settled on a place in Hickory Grove, South Carolina, which is my hometown. And we were there for four years until I purchased this building.

Did you have issues? Did you have issues moving? Do you feel like you lost your customer base, or did they follow you? Did you have to rebuild every time?

No, I don't. We definitely didn't lose anything. And in fact, it was really scary because once again, I thought the remodel. I had budgeted about $75,000 for the remodel. We spent 150,000. Like, I don't know that you could have double it.

Always double it.

Yeah. Yeah. So I've learned that now. But no, because if you. If you look at a map. So there's a. There's Hickory Grove, Sharon, Smyrna, and a couple little cluster of small towns that kind of make up the community, if you will. And everyone travels to York, which is Where I'm at now to basically do any kind of day to day shopping. We don't have malls in York, but we have your necessities, pharmacies, Lowe's, home improvement, that sort of thing. So those people already have to come to where I'm at anyways. And I think it makes for a good story really. I mean everyone remembers. Hey, you guys are the ones that came from Hickory Grove.

Yeah. On a side note to that also, if you are remodeling, get two bids. If not three bids. I'm in the middle of some work right now. I am blown away by the difference between the bids. Almost half.

Like.

Yeah, but I have like half on these. Man, it's insane what is going on out there right now.

I did everything myself. So they're really. I mean with the exception to like the roof and some electrical and things like that. I did mostly everything myself of course.

Because we're car dealers.

Best.

It's best for us to be out there.

So Tim, what, what year did you move to this location?

2018. It was. We purchased it in July of 2018 and then we formally moved in here. November 15th of 2018.

How. And, and I'm. I've changed. I moved locations before. So I, I understand. We only moved right down the street. So not like what you're talking about. What type of increase in car sales did you see immediately from moving into your new facility?

So the one thing I hated in our old facility is we had no walk in traffic whatsoever. It was all Internet based. And we're, we're an hour from Charlotte in the old location and you know, an hour and a half from Lexington, Columbia, hour and a half from Greenville, Spartanburg. So it wasn't close to anything. We are, we're not on a major road. So the first November December was off the charts. In fact, I was scared I was going to go bankrupt because of how much money I had to spend on the remodel and I didn't have it. So November, December was very pitiful. I mean it just replenished my bank.

Account.

And half of the business was walk in traffic. And that instantly sold me like hey, this was the right decision. That was the, you know, the, I guess the reassurance or clarification that assured me that I made the right decision.

That's, that's interesting. I think everybody. The move we did is same way. I mean not that sales doubled, but they almost doubled. The, the first or first and second month were here and it reassured that you know, spending that 3 4, $500,000, whatever it is you gotta spend makes sense.

Yeah.

And to that point, Luke, so people who have been in their established location for, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 years, and you don't plan on moving or you can't move because. Because I get like the new shiny thing gets the attention, right? Like, if you're a new dealer Plopp neighborhood, all of a sudden people notice you. Maybe they see your cars and then after a few years, they kind of go eye blind to your. To even driving by daily. So, you know, I would argue that's. That's the argument for having more capital improvements, you know, and putting money aside to say, hey, I need to resurface my parking lot. I need to redo my lighting, I need to redo my landscaping. I need to paint the building. You know, I think it's catchers.

I think it's capacity too. Jeff. What we saw is when we moved, we got more square footage and so we can hire. Hire more people to, to press. To press the issue. And Tim, you know, I've. I'm friends with you on Facebook, and I noticed that you've been on a hiring, you know, frenzy.

We're in the middle of another one right now.

Yeah, I mean, lead us through how that happened and, and how you've kind of grown to where you are now.

So. So a little bit of backstory here. So November of 2019 or October, somewhere around the last quarter, Sean Bradley invites me to Houston to an event. And at that time, I had one salesperson, one detailer and myself. And neither are with me anymore. We're still friends, but they've moved on to do better things or bigger things in their lives.

And that's not. And that's not a weird setup for an independent dealer, right? I mean, that's pretty typical.

Not at all. And in fact, you can be very profitable like that with not a lot of problems, but you're also very vulnerable to sickness and family issues. And, you know, I don't like it. I'll never do it again, I can tell you that. Well, I don't want to say never, but if I have anything to do with it, it won't be that way. So anyways, when I went to Sean Bradley's event in Houston, that really opened my eyes to a lot of things. And then covet hit. And when covet hit, I had different staff than I had when I went to Sean Bradley's event. And I think I was on a growth. A growth scale. And I was going to a place that the people that were with me at the time weren't ready to go. And not, not anything bad about them. I just don't think it was the fit for them. But I did make a couple more hires that didn't work out leading into Covid. When Covid first came, I didn't have any staff. Everyone had quit, got let go or whatever. And I worked all alone for the first four months of COVID It was really scary. And so my sales and finance manager, who is with me now, has been with me since the middle of COVID hired her. And it was, I want to say, August of 2021. I had been, I had been hearing Troy Spring and Tracy Myers. Like people kept saying, hey, you need to meet these guys. You need to meet these guys. So long story short, get down to Ciada. They put me on the hot seat, dissect every problem about the business and, and what they thought that I needed to do to fix it. And through the hot seat session, I met a lot of people who wanted to mentor me for nothing, for free basically. And, and one of the people that I walked away with kind of in my corner was Andy Buck from automax. And the overwhelming feedback to me was that you need to hire people. You're just, you don't have enough people. And it wasn't a money issue. We had the money. I don't know why, just no one ever told me, you know, I didn't know that I needed to hire people. I didn't know I needed to hire more people. I didn't know we were ready for it. So it took another year. The, the follow up to the hot seat session this past August, me and Andy had lost contact. And when I seen him again in August, I said, well, I'm ready, I need your help. We, we're ready to hire some people. So we built three new workstations for salespeople, new computers, monitors, the whole thing.

And.

We instantly hired, using automax and Andy and redesigning our hiring process. We hired four people. And Andy said, hey, you know, be prepared. Two of the four are only going to stay, so be prepared to repeat the scenario in about 90 days. And they, they taught me a really neat process. And now that I've, as Troy Spring says, I've flexed that muscle to understand what we can tolerate on payroll, which as we doubled it. And I think now that I've seen, I've seen what, what it's like to have that many people working for me, we'll never go back, we'll never Go back.

So.

So how many.

How many employees are you at now? And where are you trying to.

Where.

Where do you want to go?

So we're sitting at six right now. And.

How many sales?

Just two. We had a total of five. But of course, we knew through the process, we knew some weren't going to stay. Yeah, we overdid it. And if they did stay, that's great. I mean, we were. We were prepared.

And are they on a straight commission plan or do they get a base that are guaranteed?

Or.

It's. It's 100 commission, but they get a weekly draw.

Okay.

So I pay 20 front and back, currently less the pack and dot fee.

That's a.

That.

That's a traditional. That's a traditional pay plan, I think is what we should say. Yeah, and it's, you know, Jeff, something I came up with last year, and I'm gonna let you finish here in a second, Tim. I. I read a book, and they were talking about hiring, and it's about quantity, because you have to hire quantity to get the quality right. And that's kind of what Andy. And then we're telling you, I'm sure.

Yes. And I guess I just. I was on this roller coaster of hiring. You know, hire one person, hope it works, move on back to daily operations. They don't work. Hire one person, move on back to daily operations. And that just. That doesn't work. It doesn't work.

Yeah, you were just kind of dipping your toe in. You weren't. You weren't jumping full in, committed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't work. Andy. Andy and Troy and Matt Kelly both. I give those three guys a lot of credit for where we're at now. And one thing is, you know, Troy was like, listen, dude, you're gonna have to dedicate an entire week or two, dedicate this time to hiring the people you need, and it will change your life. And one thing he said to me over and over and over, he's like, tim, what happens if you get sick? What happens to the business? What happens if you have to be in the hospital for a month? And I was like, close the door. I don't know. I don't know what happens. I mean, I have money in the bank, but that doesn't. That doesn't. I mean, that doesn't help keep selling cars. You know, I never thought about it until he said it about a year ago, and he said, you got to build this business to where it can run itself. And so that's what I've been focused on is breaking the task out. So one person's not doing three specialized tasks. I just hired a used car manager about three months ago. Some people have told me it's way too early for that, but I can't possibly manage the reconditioning and building auction list and sending people to do CRS and managing the cars when they come in. I can't do all that anymore. So I wish I had broke it out much sooner, honestly.

And how many, how many employees do you want to get to?

So I don't, I don't think there's a limit, Luke. I just, I have this. Don't hate me, but I have this whole regional goal in mind. I would really like to have dealerships, at least at this point in my life. I think I want a few and I think I want them spread out throughout the Carolinas and maybe Georgia. I feel like it's possible. It takes a pile of money to get there and that's, that's where I'm at today. Ask me next year. I might have a goal.

Yeah, Luke, he's. He's bright eyed, bushy tailed. He's got a full hair and it's all the right color. So he's.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Hey, man, don't roll. If you want to come to Columbia, knock yourself out. I, I never, I never worry about competition. I think.

Yeah, I know a little mom and pop dealership that might be for sale in the next couple.

Yeah, you want to be in some buy here, pay here?

No, I did buy here, pay here in the very, very beginning years. And when I finally got out of it, I said, I'll never go back.

Oh, come on, Tim. So give us maybe to wrap this up for the last couple minutes we have with you. Any other words of wisdom for dealers that are in your place or that are maybe struggling to make the hop from the single owner operator, you know, because, because to that defense, there are a lot of dealers out there that are doing just fine. Them and their wife, them and their buddy. They sell 10 to 20 cars a month or 30 or 40, who knows? And they do just fine. But then there's guys like you that, that say, hey, you know what? I don't want to have to shut this place down when I go on vacation or if I get sick or if I just want a day off. Any advice for dealers that might want to be more like you?

Yeah, I think so. I think you said it. Great. They have to first decide where they want to be because, you know, a lot of people look at me and say, I want to be there. Without understanding what, what that really means. I don't think shutting your business down and going on vacation is such a bad thing because when you're gone, you know that it's, it's gonna be just the way you left it, you know, unless someone burns the place down or something. But, you know, it, if, if you want to be where I'm at, you know, I think, well, you, you have to have, you know, your mindset's got to be there. But I, I don't do this. You know, of course we all do this for the money. The money is a piece of it. But in the last four or five years, I've had a very large paradigm shift and to realize this is bigger than me and it's, and it's like I just now want to touch as many experience as possible. There's so many bad dealers in the town that I'm in that don't do things right that, that take people's money. They won't stand behind the cards, they won't walk beside the customer through problems. And, and I just feel like the more people that I can touch, the more people that will have a good experience, both employees and customers alike. And that is, that's more the mission now. It's really not about the money. I'm not very flashy, and most days I come to work in a T shirt and work pants. But, you know, if you want to be here, you got to have, you definitely got to build a team. I wish I'd have built a team sooner. I don't know that I was mature enough financially ready. There's so many things that go into building a team. You have to have, you got to have the finances and you got to be mature enough to handle people that may be better than you and I. I don't know that two years ago I was even ready for that. I think that comes with some maturity. And I'm still a young guy. I'm only 30. And so everything I know in business is kind of self taught or in the last couple years picked up from mentors.

So that's, I mean, that's building a team is so important. It took me years to realize that too, Tim. So I think you're, you're ahead of me on that one. So we're leading into the new year here. What's your sales goal for next year? For the month? For each month?

You know, I'm very guilty of not writing down goals and saying, hey, this is where I really want to be, I told myself when we went into this round of hiring back in August, I said, I want to be at 30 by October because we had never touched 30 before. And I want to be at 40 for November and 50 for December. And I knew that was a strong, strong goal to get to. It takes, it's more than just sales people. You know, it's got to happen on the buying side. You got to have the money to recondition all those cars. I mean, it's, there's, it's multifaceted, but I mean, as both of you guys know. But I think we need to get to 50 units with where the dealership is set up right now. We have a total of four workstations for sales. We just completed a sales and finance office that is totally shut off from, you know, customer conversations and employee conversations. And I, I wish we'd have done it a long time ago, but I don't know that we had the money to do it a long time ago. So the way it's set up now, I think we need to get to 50 cars a month. And I think that sets us up for the next phase really well.

Well, that's, I mean, that's a great goal, Jeff. I know that's my goal has always been 40. And it seems like pushing from 30 to 40 has been always the, some of the hardest thing to things to do. And I think most of it's because of recon. Jeff, you kind of the same boat, right?

Yeah. But I think to put a pin in it for Tim is, you know, he went to these conventions, these conferences, and he met with some dealers that just helped shift his whole paradigm, right?

Yep.

Tim was like, oh, I'm a single man operator. I'm going to hire one guy to maybe do some of the stuff I don't want to do. But now it sounds like Tim saying, hey, here are my goals. I want to be a 50 car car lot. I've got the footprint for it. I've got the sales desks, I've got the shop, I've got the size a lot. I've got the money to do it. Now that I've got a game plan, I'm going to take the drastic steps to just shift my paradigm. Like I can be a 50 car a month car lot. I don't have to be a 20. I'm gonna get there. And this is the steps I'm taking to make that happen.

He built the capacity and now the capacity is waiting on the come. And I, Tim you're gonna make it, buddy. I. I'm gonna come in there and visit you here soon.

Yeah, stop on in. But, you know, if I have to point to one thing, I got a younger friend who used to be an employee of mine down in Chester, South Carolina, running a small little dealership, and he's, you know, having all the challenges that I had coming up, and I tell him all the time, like, the man, the one thing you got, Alex, that I don't. That I didn't have. It took me seven years to find someone that was willing to mentor me or tell me you need to go to a conference or do something. I. I wish I had found conferences in year one. I wish I had known about the CIADA in year one. I didn't know about. I didn't know who the CIADA was until year eight.

Yeah.

Maybe I heard the name, but the. The. It wasn't. The message wasn't reaching me about what they do and how they help us.

Yeah.

That exposed me to a lot of other things.

Yep. I totally agree with that.

So true. Get involved. Get involved. Reach out. Find a mentor. They're out there, that's for sure.

And they. And for me, it's not for me. I love to help. It's just for me as. I just want to give back. I want other people to experience what I've experienced. And. And so I'm willing to mentor the right people who are willing to listen.

Yeah. Tim, we appreciate your time. This has been fun. It's great to hear that story and we really look forward. We're definitely gonna have to check in again, I think, at the end of 2023, 2024, and see how you're doing. So it's exciting.

Yeah. Yeah. I hope we'll be building a brand new dealership by then. That's the goal we got. We're broke up right now. We need a service facility. I think that has to come on site. That. That has to be part of the process. Right now we're subbing a lot of workout. Well, we're subbing everything out and it's very expensive.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, thanks, Tim. We appreciate it.

Yeah, Guys, thank you.

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