“I’m from the government and I am here to help you.”
These are the words that can strike terror in the hearts of most Americans, especially those in business for themselves. The words, “I’m from the government and I am here to help you,” came to mind this week when I read a newspaper article, “Government watchdog criticizes handling of car dealers,” written by Ken Thomas, an Associated Press writer.
The article referred to the government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler and how the Treasury Department told both companies to quickly shut down many dealerships. This has made no sense to me whatsoever. I cannot think of any valid reason for the government to insist that GM and Chrysler cancel several thousand dealers who bought, sold and serviced the cars and trucks that they built. Continue reading “I’m from the government and I am here to help you.”
Picture this… in a major recession two dealers in a prime boating market independently pondered how to deal with it when the bottom started to fall out of the economy. Dealer A said, “A recession is hitting me hard. Business is getting to be really bad. So I had better pull back almost all of my advertising and promotion and cut other expenses wherever I can.” He did just that and sure enough, his prophecy was spot on… business was really bad.
I have preached this sermon for many years in my columns. I have been pleased to see that several boat builders have announced their intentions to introduce 2011 models this fall instead of during the summer. What triggered me to write about this subject again was an article in one of the trade magazines recent enews where the author stated that, “To be fair, you should know that boat manufacturers started introducing new boats in the middle of summer at the request of the dealers.” Huh? He must have heard this from some boat manufacturers! He sure didn’t hear this from any of the countless dealers I have talked to over the years about summer new model intros. They have opposed it from the git-go.