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The crash of household name Car Craft only highlights the fact that things are still very TOUGH out there in the motortrade despite what the MotorTrade press say! We have just survived one of the hardest quarters since we started in business 12 years ago, but against all odds April has been the best month this year. Just goes to show you can only ever try to predict sales! One of the reasons for starting up Twitter Car Dealer Forum http://twittercardealers.ning.com all those years back was to help communicate what was happening at the sharp end of the business, to help discuss those daily challenges and to help each other save money on costs and help achieve more profit. With footfall down and costs ever increasing it seems that we are never advertising in the correct places or buying stock at the right price, in fact most of the time it feels we are doing things completely wrong, however the reality is , we are all most likely doing the job right, but from time to time we need to be reminded of and encouraged to do things differently. We ALL need help at some point. There is not a week goes past that I talk to at least 2 or 3 dealers from our forum about issues they are experiencing, to run an idea past me or just for a general chat. This all helps. So if you are happy to help others just by receiving a phone call, please post your telephone number as a reply to this thread. Let's help each other :-) Kind regards Jim

Welcome on board - Probably the easiest is to go direct to the FCA website http://www.fca.org.uk/ It explains in detail exactly what is required from you to enable you to offer any finance. Hope it helps? umesh

Great sentiment there Jim, i agree we all need to support each other. We're happy to help support you in any way we can, if you need some space to get a few like minded dealers together at conference, let us know.

We still sell over 400 cars per year and we do not use AutoTrader. We felt that we received better value for money elsewhere. In fact we now sell more cars via Facebook than we ever did using Autotrader. But I do respect Sparky's comments, as no one knows their business better than themselves and you have to either DITCH Autotrader OR embrace it, there is NO in-between.............I think we have all tried that!

Well said Kate Hamer, you are right it's no longer about how many followers or likes you have, it's all about content which is interesting, social, influential and most importantly shareable. We can all spend hours on Social Media posting drivel but that just wastes precious time. You have to understand the reason behind the use of social media and have some strategy and targets. YOUR customers are all on social media so you HAVE to be there to listen to them and communicate to them. Just so you know, I'm making this post just after replying to two enquiries via FaceBook DM's online and it's 6.15pm on a Sunday evening on a bank Holiday weekend! THAT"S what makes the difference. So yes James as Kate has pointed out, don't give up on Social Media, grasp it with both hands, we do and we are very successful at it, Jim