By Chris Kourtakis, Owner, H20 Limos Marine Service — As the marine dealership community enters a new decade, it will be looking back on the worst year of business in at least the last 50. Looking forward, dealers and OEMs need to share more information so they can do more with less. Read more >>
Tags: Guest Blog, Marine Dealers
Gary B. Druckenmiller, Jr., TheOpenSea.com — Forget the introduction. No more hand-holding. There are default steps you should be taking right now to either dive-in or prep for the onslaught of social marketing in the months and years to come. Many of you are trying to avoid it. You can’t. It’s time to join the party. Here’s a quick hit-list … from start to finish. Read more >>
By Terry Grapentine, Principal at Grapentine Company LLC — In a recent Sunday New York Times’ column (“The Inflection Is Near?” March 8), Pulitzer prize winning author and journalist Thomas L. Friedman suggests that the U.S. economy has finally reached an inflection point in its ability to sustain growth. We have reached a point where we can no longer support the growth that our economy has experienced over the past 50 years at the expense of increased environmental waste, insufficient financial market oversight, and indiscriminate credit lending. “We simply can’t do it anymore,” Friedman says. Read more >>
Tags: Economy, Guest Blog, Marine Dealers
By Peter Granata, President, Granata Design and the Marine Design Resource Alliance — There’s a new bandwagon pulling into town, and if you’re too busy ducking bullets you may not notice it. If you hang around the boating industry long enough, you’re bound to experience a cyclical downturn. This most recent version has to be the worst since 1980, and many agree that this one is the worst, period. Nonetheless, the point is that it is cyclical. The industry will come back, although it’s probably going to look different than it was. Read more >>
By Chris Kourtakis, Owner, H20 Limos Marine Service — With the recent announcements of Chrysler closing up to 800 dealers and GM a possible 1,500 dealerships, will this hurt of help the marine industry? More people keep focusing on the negative, but as we all know there is a silver lining to everything. Read more >>
By Mike Hoffman, owner, Marine Center of Indiana — I used to be in the medical business, and back then, I told people that “I sell something that none of my clients really want, but they all need.” Now I own a dealership and I enjoy telling people that, “We sell something that everybody wants, but nobody needs.” So as I begin this rant, please, let’s not forget that a boat is nothing more than a toy. We, as one industry, cannot control the economy. We cannot control the banks. We cannot control who gets to or wants to buy a boat. But we can control the way we operate our businesses, and through that, we can certainly deliver to each and every precious customer the experience that they deserve through boating. Read more >>
Tags: Guest Blog, Marine Dealers
