Owning a car dealership is definitely on the “difficult” end of the “ease of owning a business” scale. Keeping up with current industry trends, conducting business with different brands, and managing regular business operations all contribute to a less-than-ideal workload. Another major aspect of managing a car dealership is regulating business expenses - definitely not a detail to be overlooked. You can do things like spend less by buying in bulk or cut expenses by auditing your current energy use. While it may seem almost impossible to keep within your budget at the moment, follow these 10 steps to minimize expenses and cut costs for your car dealership.

1. Use Social Media

In order to reduce the cost of traditional advertising (i.e. radio ads, TV commercials, etc.) create and utilize various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Posts about different specials the dealership has going on at the time can be used as a form of free advertising, because it’s getting the word out about your promotion to your target audience. To further enhance social media potential, encourage your employees to share posts on their profiles as well, so that all of their friends/followers can see. Social media can be a great method to cut costs for car dealerships as well as many other industries.

 2. Install LED Lighting

The best way to bring in traffic to your car dealership is to enhance your curbside appeal, or how your dealership looks from the road. To show off your cars and your dealership, you’ll need sufficient parking lot lighting, especially at dusk. If you currently have incandescent light fixtures installed in your parking lot, consider making the switch to LED lighting. Compared to traditional lighting, LED light fixtures use up to 90% less energy, reducing energy costs by at least 60% for your car dealership.

Wondering how much you can save with LED Lighting? Use our LED Lighting ROI Calculator to find your return on investment now!

Along with saving on energy bills, LED lights last a lot longer than traditional light fixtures and require less maintenance, so you’ll save money on replacement and repair bills as well. Learn about the residual effect, of How Changing to LED Lighting in Your Parking Lot Can Make Your Business More Attractive.

 3. Use Check Guarantee Services

Check payments are usually the easiest method of payment for customers, because cars are a high-ticket item. Using a check guarantee service such as CrossCheck or Payment Solutions, you’ll be able to eliminate the risk of fraudulent checks and the nuisance of check collections.

Using a check guarantee service can also help cut custs for car dealerships by allowing you to deposit checks right from the dealership, without having to make multiple trips to the bank.

4. Set up Automatic Electricity Timers

Using automatic electricity timers can significantly reduce the cost of your energy bills by automatically shutting off appliances, irrigation systems and lights off when not in use. Instead of unplugging all computers and appliances, just set a time on your automatic timer when no one is in the dealership, and have the timer automatically shut everything off, then back on in the morning before employees come in. Along with the installation of LED lighting throughout the dealership, saving money on energy usage is an easy way to cut down business expense costs.

5. Use Cloud-based Software

Instead of using traditional computer software services, consider having your management team switch to cloud-based software, such as SalesForce and OpenStack. Using cloud computing software will significantly reduce costs on purchasing rather expensive software that serves the same purpose/

6. Buy in Bulk

Although you may have learned this tip in business 101, buying in bulk an easy process to do that will save your car dealership a lot of money in the long run. Everything from printer paper to pens can be bought in bulk, and will most likely be used immediately. However, make sure you’re not overbuying. Take into consideration the number of employees at your dealership and how often they use office necessities when purchasing to get the most benefit in cutting costs as a car dealership.

7. Use Laptops

Simply put, laptops use 90% less energy than regular desktop computers. In addition to installing LED lighting to help the energy efficiency of your car dealership, providing employees with laptops instead of desktop computers will greatly reduce your monthly energy bill. If employees are in need of more visual space than a typical laptop offers, consider buying an additional monitor to hook up to the laptop for double screen space.

8. Reduce Meetings

Although employee collaboration and communication is vital to any business, reducing the amount of time spent in meetings is essential for maximizing productivity in the dealership. If your business runs weekly catch-up meetings with all employees, focus on shaving off valuable minutes that could be spent selling and promoting your cars.

After all, time is money! So the more time saveed, the more opportunities when it comes to cutting costs for car dealerships.

9. Buy Secondhand Furniture

Looking to get new furniture, but don’t want to spend the money? Keep an eye out for liquidation sales or secondhand furniture stores that sell name brand furniture for half the price. Even though you’re still spending money, the new furniture will most likely be within a reasibabke = budget, and still be the same quality as regular brand name furniture.

10. Conduct an Energy Audit

Requesting specific energy audits of your car dealership will allow you to see the specific areas that your business could be saving. For example, requesting a photometric analysis of your parking lot allows you to see the current output of your parking lot lighting fixture, along with analyzing areas of improvement. Requesting an analysis of your current parking lot lighting fixture is one of the quickest and easiest way to discover ways to make your parking lot more practical, efficient, and safer.

Interested in learning more about cutting costs for car dealerships?

Our sales team has helped countless businesses like yours to significantly reduce energy expenses, which is why we've put together an exculsive checklist to energy efficiency for car dealerships. Download it now!