It’s a People Business: Women in Buy Here-Pay Here

Many buy here-pay here dealers were raised on a car lot or started a career as a sales person in a franchised store. Lots of them worked in a franchised dealership’s F&I office and then management, eventually opening up their own buy here-pay here store and getting an opportunity to earn some real money. It’s a common story in our industry, but little less common for — women.

Darla Booher, owner of Deal Depot Inc. in Greer, S.C., and Beth Melemad, owner of two J.D. Byrider buy here-pay here franchises in Pennsylvania are two such women. They not only shrug-off the challenges associated with being a woman in the traditionally all-male auto world, but point to many benefits.

Booher has been in the auto business since 1988. She started out selling new cars for Causley Chrysler in Covington, La., before moving to South Carolina and joining the Bradshaw Automotive Group. She worked in sales, F&I and finally was the sales manager for the Chevrolet store. She has owned and operated Deal Depot for five years.

William Bradshaw, the current National Automobile Dealers Association chairman, and owner of her former group, was Booher’s mentor. She later worked at Credit Cars Inc. in Greer, S.C. with Ray Lyle Jr., 2005 National Independent Automobile Dealers Association Quality Dealer of the Year, before he opened Nice Cars Inc. in Tennessee and Georgia. He was comptroller at the store.

Melemad has worked in the automobile business off and on, mostly on, since she was 16. She is a second-generation owner. In 1956, her father, Herman Pogachefsky, founded Goldbrand Motors, a small used car lot and service station in Bristol, Pa. In 1975, he established Admiral Nissan in Pleasantville, N.J.

She “traveled around” for a while, but always sold cars. She eventually returned to the family business.

“We dabbled in buy here-pay here, but never to the extent we are involved today,” Melemad said.

Melemad and two partners own Byrider stores in Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pa. The Philly lot holds about 65-70 vehicles on the lot and sells about 65 a month. The smaller Lancaster store moves about 45 vehicles a month. Both boast a 30-day turn. Melemad’s operations earned the 2005 J.D. Byrider Franchisee of the Year Award.

“They look at your gross, net and customer service,” Melemad said. “Byrider is very big on customer service. They have a customer satisfaction index like the franchise stores. Calls are made to every customer for both sales and service.

“One of the main things with Byrider is changing the way the industry treats customers who are credit-impaired,” Melemad said.

Steeped in the business since she was a child, Melemad said rarely got any grief from men in the business.

“When I started selling cars in the 1970s, it was really a plus for me being a woman,” Melemad said. “Often customers gravitated to me because they felt I was more trustworthy. At the very least they remembered me when they came back. Today, I don’t even think about it anymore.”

Booher had a similar story. She said she learned from some of the best people in the business that knew how to take care of the customer and did things right.

As for being a woman in this business, Booher said she agrees with Melemad.

“Being a woman has been in asset in dealing with the public,” Booher said. “They see you as being more honest. I do all my own TV commercials and they see me as believable.”

Booher said, in general, women tend to be more detail-oriented, at least she is, and that is real plus when it comes to maintaining records and paper work. Over the years, in the buy here-pay here business being a woman has helped with both sales and collections.

Because of the success she has had, Booher finds it a good idea to have plenty of women on staff. She has both a female collection’s manager and a sales manager.

Both Melemad and Booher are sharp when it comes to the buy here-pay here industry.

“We have about 2,000 accounts out there with both stores,” Melemad said. “Our stores have been very successful and delinquencies are very low. Byrider gives us all the tools we need. They have a system, and if you follow that system you can succeed.”

She said Byrider is has a very service-oriented culture. She said with many special finance and buy here-pay here stores when a customer buys a car it comes as-is and the customer is on his own.

“We have in-store service and offer service contracts and warranties,” Melemad said. “It helps us and it helps the customer.

With Byrider they have a proven system, and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

In fact, she looked at several buy here-pay here business opportunities before she settled on Byrider.

Having the Nissan store in the family helps a lot. She gets a lot of inventory from the franchise store’s trades, but still must get to the nearby auctions regularly.

“We go to the Manheim auctions and up to Harrisburg,” she said. “Really, we’ll go anywhere. We need more than 1,200 cars a year and we have to get them at the right price, so we go where the cars are.”

Booher has been in the buy here-pay here business for 11 years, but opened up her own store five years ago.

“We opened up just after Sept. 11, 2001,” she said.

Booher’s background was in collections, leasing and skip tracing. She owned her own recovery agency for a while. She had the finance, collections and credit approval experience, and decided buy here-pay here was a natural for her.

“We have one store and we’re selling about 30 a month, and we keep 60-70 units on the lot,” she sad. “In five years our portfolio has grown to more than $3 million.”

Booher said getting financing has been a challenge.

“Ray (Lyle) told me that with buy here-pay here if you have $50,000 in the bank, you’re broke after the first day,” Booher said. “He was right. We have to be creative when it comes to capital. We have found some commercial lenders, sold some notes and we have found some private investors too.”

Booher said if you can get long-term financing in this business, that’s the way to go.

“Then you can concentrate on what you need to do — sell cars and collect money,” she said. “One of my goals is to not need to borrow any capital. I won’t expand to a second lot until I maximize what we’re doing at the first lot. If I do open a second lot, I’m thinking about special finance.”

Capital was a little easier for Melemad to come by since she had the family relationship with the Nissan store and the banking relationships that came with it. She and her partners were well-capitalized when the got into the business, and notes that is a must for buy here-pay here.

“We were cautious though,” she said. “We waited one full cycle — 36 months — before opening the second store. We have one in an urban setting and one in a rural setting now.”

While there are differences, she said the models are basically the same. You just have to get to a critical mass then manage the operation well. She noted that Byrider’s computer system is a key advantage in the marketplace.

“I believe we have the best computer system for this end of the business,” Melemad said. “It helps with underwriting, collections, sales and cost controls and they are constantly upgrading it. If you have suggestions, they are very open to listening to them. In fact, they look to us to help them solve problems.”

Malamed said the Nissan store is a member of a Twenty Group and Byrider has a similar program for franchisees. Both the franchise operation and the Byrider stores have benefited enormously from the Twenty Group programs.

She noted that Byrider’s relationships with national companies like P.E.P. Boys and AutoZone as well as professionally developed TV, radio and print ads has benefited her operations tremendously.

Booher joined a Leedom and Associates Twenty Group shortly after she opened her own store.

“I knew Ray (Lyle) was a member and so were some other people I knew,” she said. “When you don’t have a franchise behind you, I feel it is a necessity to be a member of a Twenty Group.”

Booher said she likes the freedom not being associated with a franchise.

“If you are with a manufacturer then they are calling all the shots,” Booher said. “They tell you how much you can make and even what to sell. As an independent, you can sell anything you want as long as you are making money.”

Booher said she knew what Twenty Groups were about, but was still surprised at the benefits joining has provided.

“It really opened my eyes,” she said. “You bring one good idea, and you get all kinds of great ideas in return. Now I can measure my success, and see if what I’m doing is working for me, and then I can compare that with what my other group members and the national benchmarks.”

Booher said she is the only female in her Twenty Group, but the male members don’t treat her differently.

“My group members are very open-minded,” she said. “Every one is very professional and wants to learn from each other.”

Melemad said she is proud to be a buy here-pay here dealer.

“If there was one mistake we made it was not having the right inventory,” Malamed said. “It is so important to have good quality vehicles that last the length of the loan and longer. We make sure every vehicle is reconditioned properly.”

Melemad said that some people look at the buy here-pay here business as taking advantage of customers who are already in a bad situation.

“Really, you have to look at it as who else is going to provide them with a loan so they can have reliable transportation?” she said. “I really do love this business. I love cars and people. This is definitely a people business.”

Byrider, she said is very conscientious about reporting good credit to the bureaus for their customers.

“I am genuinely happy to see someone who can get a retail loan as a result of making payments with us on time,” she said. “I had one customers come over and hugged everybody on their way out after making their last payment. You have helped them to be able to get a better job, get their kids to school. You really are playing an important role in society.”

Booher agrees. She said if you not a people person, buy here-pay here isn’t for you.

“I like to know that we’re doing something to help people,” Booher said. “When everything is clicking, this can be a very fun and rewarding business.”