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April 16th-18th, 2012
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas, NV
Leedom Group 18th Annual Buy Here Pay Here National Convention
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February 13th, 2012
Atlanta, GA
Buy Here - Pay Here Sales Training Academy
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February 14th, 2012
Atlanta, GA
Buy Here - Pay Here Managers Boot Camp
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February 15th, 2012
Atlanta, GA
Buy Here - Pay Here Collections Boot Camp
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March 15th, 2012
Sarasota, FL
Buy Here - Pay Here Leasing Academy
Special Events
Buy Here - Pay Here Events
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Twenty Group Moderator/Consultant - Retail
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Twenty Group Moderator/Consultant - Buy Here-Pay Here
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Training Leader/Consultant
Leedom Management Group, LLC Available Positions
Editor Blog
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Fri Sep 17th, 2010 3:02PM
Dale Pollak's Confirmation on vAuto Sale
AutoTrader.com Acquires vAuto
Top Rated Articles
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- 15 ratingsSurfing the BHPH Internet Wave
Michael Jackson - January 2011 - page 20
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- 9 ratings
BHPH: A Capital Idea
Chuck Bonanno - February 2010 - page 12
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- 9 ratings
World’s Greatest – Popcorn?
Jim Jackson - September 2010 - page 8
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- 8 ratings
The Three R’s
Chuck Bonanno - July 2010 - page 6
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- 8 ratings
GWC Warranty Offers Up ‘No Worries, Just Drive’
Industry Releases - April 2011 - Web Exclusive!
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- 8 ratings
Bonanno’s Top Ten List
Chuck Bonanno - June 2011 - page 4
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- 8 ratings
Get on the Bandwagon
Chris Leedom - August 2010 - page 4
Top Rated Author
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Chuck Bonanno
Leedom - Sarasota, FL
chuck@twentygroups.com
800.966.8733
Most Viewed Articles
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Viewed 14585 times.
Franchise and Buy Here-Pay Here: Franchise Dealers Like the Results
Peter Salinas - September 2006 - page 10
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Viewed 8150 times.
Focus On the ‘Pay Here’ of Buy Here-Pay Here
Emily Beck - September 2006 - page 40
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Viewed 8115 times.
Is Buy Here-Pay Here The Right Fit for You?
Chuck Bonanno - March 2008 - page 12
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Viewed 7623 times.
The Truth About Reposessions
Chuck Bonanno - June 2007 - page 6
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Viewed 7494 times.
Great Debate
Peter Salinas - August 2006 - page 10
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$100,000 Challenge
Sponsored by Leedom and Associates, LLC
We’ve chosen the 2008 Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealer! We will now enroll Southern Trust Auto Outlets from Fort Meyers, FL in the right Twenty Group for them — free of charge for one year. During that time we will help them prepare their monthly composites, provide intensive consulting and training services, plus they will receive all the benefits of a Leedom and Associates Twenty Group member. We will guarantee Southern Trust Auto Outlets will benefit from the program by seeing at least a $100,000 improvement in their personal net profit. Watch this space as the entire thing unfolds right here on the Dealer Business Journal web site!
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Welcome to the 17th Annual BHPH Convention - Featured
Chris Leedom - page 4
Many of you will be first reading this issue at the Leedom Group 17th Annual BHPH National Convention. Welcome once again to Las Vegas and it is great to have you here with us. This event is the premier event of the year in our industry and we look forward to a great convention.
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- 4 ratings
Don’t Stop Believing: Improving Your Subprime Business in 2011 - Featured
A.J. Ager - page 18
While listening to Steve Perry sing while enjoying Journey’s greatest hits, I am thinking about the many dealers I have talked to in the past few months. I started working with a dealer on opening up their ability to sell cars to non prime customers and brought them a dealer agreement. The controller looked at me and said, “I thought all of the bad credit banks went out of business a couple of years ago.” I talked to one dealer who believed that “there was no way to make money off of bad credit customers.” I heard one tell me that “all the bad credit banks want to do is kick contracts” and one who told me he “would like to get back into Special Finance, but anybody who knew anything about it was a liar and a kink and a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
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- 4 ratings
Underwriting: What to Do? - Must Read
Chuck Bonanno - page 6
Every time dealers run into a rough collection patch, they tell me their solution is to “tighten up underwriting.” If that’s all it takes for better loan performance, I say why not tighten up all the time. If it were really that easy and simple, wouldn’t everybody “tighten up?”
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- 7 ratingsIf a Twenty Group Dealer Were President - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 8
By now most of you have seen the series of Nextel ads where they ask the question, “What if loggers, overnight delivery guys or firemen, ran the courts, schools and government?” I believe the ads are fairly effective, but I should point out that I had to buzz a co-worker to ask what company was actually doing the advertising.
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- 4 ratings
Potts Meets DBJ $100,000 Challenge; Plans to Build on Solid Foundation - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
As 2008 winds up, our Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge Dealer Rick Potts, owner of Southern Trust Auto Outlet in Port Charlotte, Fla. said this has been a very challenging year for his dealership, but as a result of the help he’s gotten from Leedom Group and DBJ, he’s met the challenge for 2008 and is set to fire on all cylinders as 2009 fast approaches.
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- 3 ratings
Potts Attends Leedom Conference, Comes Back Challenging His Management Team - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 21
As October was winding down, Rick Potts, owner of Southern Trust Auto Outlet in Port Charlotte, Fla., experienced many of the same challenges dealers across the country faced slow sales and difficulty in getting customers financed.
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- 4 ratingsSeptember Sales See Up Tick, Intense Focus Returns to Southern Trust - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
September, so far, has been pretty good. That’s the word from Rick Potts, owner of Southern Trust Auto Outlets in Fort Myers, Fla., the second Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealer.
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- 7 ratingsErtle Brothers Earns Colorado IADA Quality Dealer Honor - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 44
Brothers Ron and Bob Ertle, owners of Ertle Brothers Discount Auto in Sterling, Colo., have been named the 2008 Colorado IADA Quality Dealer of the Year.
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Potts Ends Partnership, Takes Sole Ownership of Port Charlotte Store - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
Likely one of the most difficult things to do in the automotive retail business is ending a long-term partnership. In fact, it can be an all-consuming chore to make sure all parties are satisfied, the business remains a viable enterprise, employees are kept informed and the lawyers, real estate agents and accountants are paid upfront and on time.
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- 4 ratings
Economic Concerns, Lackluster Sales Only Emboldens Team Southern Trust - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 22
Rick Potts and the team from Southern Trust Auto Sales had plans to move 30-35 units during a two-day off-site Tent Sale on a piece of property he owns north of his two Fort Myers, Fla.-area locations.
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- 8 ratings
Fill Your Showroom This Summer - Featured
Cathy Nuccio - page 34
It was standing room only in the car dealer’s showroom. Last Tuesday night was hot, humid with cloudy skies and the threat of an epic downpour. The crowd size was no less than 200 in the small, not-so-modern showroom of a suburban auto dealer. This small storefront does not resemble the phenomenal stores that are springing up everywhere.
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- 4 ratings
Economic Conditions Slow Sales; New Marketing, Offsite Sale Raise Hopes - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 23
Sales in April started out strong, but as fuel prices continued to rise and housing woes continued to worsen throughout Florida, Southern Trust Auto Sales in Fort Myers, Fla., slowed considerably and continued to be lackluster through the middle of May.
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Ertle Brothers Surpasses 2007 Net Profit Results In First Months of 2008 - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 25
The 2007 Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealership, Ertle Brothers Discount Autos in Sterling, Colo., has surpassed last year’s net profit of more than $100,000 in the first 150 days of 2008.
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- 3 ratings
Southern Trust Turns Profit in March, Looks at Moving 90 Units in April - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 22
Rick Potts, owner of Southern Trust Auto Sales in Port Charlotte and Fort Myers, Fla., said he returned from the March Leedom and Associates Used Vehicle Academy pumped up and ready to sell some vehicles.
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- 5 ratings
Southern Trust Takes it On the Chin In February, Sales Jump in Early March - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
“We took a major butt-kickin’ in February.” That was the opening statement from this year’s Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge Dealer Rick Potts, owner of Southern Trust Auto Sales in Port Charlotte, Fla., during an interview in early March.
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- 4 ratings
Is it an Economic Slowdown, Or Have Ad Budget Cuts Hurt Traffic? - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
Eliminating $50,000 a month in expenses has been challenging for the 2008 Dealer Business Journal Challenge dealership, but now Rick Potts and the team at Southern Trust Auto Outlet must contend with a dramatic decrease in showroom traffic.
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- 7 ratings
Southern Trust’s Job No. 1: Eliminate $50,000 in Monthly Expenses - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 20
If you were faced with having to remove nearly 28 percent from your monthly expenses, what would you choose to do? Would you reduce the number of employees at your dealership? Would you optimize pay plans? Does cutting your advertising budget sound like an option?
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- 7 ratings
Southern Trust Auto Outlets Chosen As 2008 DBJ $100,000 Challenge Dealership - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
Every business has its good times and some not-so-good times. There are periods when it doesn’t seem like losing money is possible, then there are those times when black ink seems like a distant memory. It’s knowing that there are ways to solve problems and ways to correct what’s wrong that makes the not-so-good times bearable.
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- 7 ratings
Team Ertle Looks Back at 2007 - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
As 2007 winds down we asked the team at Ertle Brothers Discount Auto in Sterling, Colo., to give us their personal thoughts on what the past year as the Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge Dealer has meant to them.
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- 3 ratings
Ertle Bros. Debuts New Offices with Party - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 22
100,000 Challenge, and the team at Ertle Brothers Discount Auto was using the most of its time to add on to it’s already impressive $110,000 improvement to its net profit for 2007.
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- 8 ratings
Ertle Brothers Reaches $100,000 Goal; Earns ‘Best Used Car Store’ Recognition - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
When it rains it pours. Fortunately for Ertle Brothers Discount Auto in Sterling, Colo., it stopped literally snowing and raining in late spring, and allowed the dealership get sales up and running in full swing.
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- 5 ratings
Ertle Brothers Closes in on DBJ Challenge Goal! - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 20
Sales slowed down significantly for Ertle Brothers Discount Auto in August, but record sales during July inched the dealership ever closer to its goal. As of mid-August the rural northeast Colorado store was within $11,000 of its achieving its goal of a $100,000 improvement in its net profit.
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- 3 ratings
Record July Boosts Spirits; Team Attends Second Twenty Group Meeting - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
At nearly the close of seven full months as the Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealership was short-staffed. Only two key players, co-owner Bob Ertle and his step-son Wes Plank were at work at the Sterling, Colo., store. The rest of the team, Ron and Alexes Ertle and their son Alex, was basking in the eastern Caribbean on the Island of Nevis. Perhaps “basking” isn’t the right word, since three key players on the Ertle Brothers Discount Auto team were attending their second Leedom and Associates Twenty Group meeting on the tiny St. Kitts Island.
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- 3 ratings
Finance Companies in Place; Aged Inventory in Check — It’s Time to Rock - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 24
It’s taken a while, but the team at Ertle Brothers Discount Auto now feels it has a strong enough lender base to meet the needs of most of the customers it sees throughout the year.
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- 5 ratings
Sales are down, but Gross Profit Continues to Rise - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 24
It’s been an up and down month at Ertle Brothers Discount Autos in Sterling, Colo. Sales were down 3 percent, but gross profit climbed an impressive 97 percent.
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- 2 ratings
Ertle Brothers Nets Best First Quarter in its History; Tackles Aged Inventory - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 22
Robust improvements in both front and back end grosses have propelled Ertle Brothers Discount Auto to its best first quarter during its seven-year history, but nagging issues surrounding aged inventory have kept them focused on improving operations and moving the aged inventory to make room for fresh vehicles.
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- 1 rating
Ertle Brothers Attends First Twenty Group Meeting; Posts Large February Net Profit - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 24
Huge increases in front-end and back-end grosses in the month of February were responsible for an impressive 177 percent increase in net profit over February 2006 and a 90 percent increase year to date for Ertle Brothers Discount Auto, the Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealership.
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- 4 ratings
The Engine Starts Humming as Ertle Brothers Secures Relationships - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 20
Ertle Brothers Discount Auto, the Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealership, has taken advice it’s gathered from a variety of sources in the past month and has run with it, meeting the expectations of both the consultants they are working with and from the team itself.
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- 5 ratings
Ertle Brothers Focues on Fundamentals; Attend First Training Seminar - Must Read
Peter Salinas - page 20
The Ertle Brothers Discount Auto Team in Sterling, Colo., has been using the first few weeks of the new year gearing up for the new year as the Dealer Business Journal $100,000 Challenge dealer.
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- 8 ratings
Ertle Brothers Discount Auto, LLC Becomes First $100,000 Challenge Dealer - Must Read - Featured
Peter Salinas - page 20
Tucked away in the northeast corner of Colorado near the Nebraska and Wyoming borders is the small, predominantly agricultural community of Sterling. With a population of about 12,000, it is located about 100 miles east of Greeley and 130 miles northeast of Aurora.
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