With the spring selling season gaining momentum, now is the time to be thinking about how to get your share of sales in the months ahead. Economic forecasts look promising in many areas, meaning we could be looking at some strong signs of normalcy coming to the marketplace after a seven-year drought! With that positive swing, however, will come more aggressive competition than ever. Businesses that have struggled to keep inventory available will be filling the shelves, and competitors will regain market position and confidence as their business kicks in.

So how do you stake your claim early and keep that competitive edge? It’s back to the basics, with strong inventory availability, great customer service, multifaceted marketing and a competitive position on price.

Actually, the photo you see here represents the dawn of several eras. The picture was taken at the very first SEMA Show, which was known in 1967 as the High Performance & Custom Trade Show and was held in January of that year at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The car in the booth is a Camaro, Chevrolet’s answer to Ford’s wildly popular Mustang.

After letting Ford own the personal sporty-car market for more than two years, Chevrolet finally introduced its entry into the pony-car segment just a few months prior to the trade show. For musclecar enthusiasts, the booth represents a watershed moment—the very first Chevrolet dealer, Nickey Chicago, to offer a big-block conversion for the Camaro, developed by Nickey and race car builder Bill Thomas.

2015 SRT Challenger and Mercedes AMG GT.

KGP Photography caught this thinly covered prototype of the upcoming Mercedes AMG GT on film in the snow.

The pros at KGP Photography snapped these shots of the ’15 SRT Challenger, revealing an interior overhaul that includes a new dash, switchgear, instrumentation and a quality level.

Breaking news from SEMA members, including Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT), Royal Purple, Motul USA, ProMedia LLC, Painless Performance and more.

The Inaugural O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Machine and Muscle Car Nationals presented by Lucas Oil will donate half of the net proceeds generated by the event to the Alex Xydias Center for Automotive Arts (AXC)—an automotive learning center for high-school students. AXC is part of the Career and Technical Education Center at Fairplex in Pomona, California, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing high-school students and community members with vocational training, including a two-year automotive industry certification program. For the first time ever, the Street Machine and Muscle Car Nationals will take place March 22–23 at Fairplex in Pomona.

Pursuing a pro-growth manufacturing and job-creation agenda, creating access to small-business loans and credit, finding affordable health-insurance options for employees, countering burdensome vehicle equipment regulations, preventing higher ethanol content in gasoline and combating counterfeit products. Those are just a few of the political issues facing SEMA members during this critical election year.

Find Profit With Performance Parts From the 2013 SEMA Show

For buyers that specialize in high-performance accessories, the 2013 SEMA Show was “the place” to discover new trends, and potential profit centers. Hundreds of exhibitors dedicated to power and performance were on hand, offering the latest in turbochargers, superchargers, exhausts, headers and much, much more. Racing and Performance exhibitors also submitted a wide variety of products into the Show’s annual New Products Showcase. Page through this special section and enjoy identifying the products that belong either on your store’s shelves or in your personal garage. Also, take time to review journalist Steve Campbell’s interviews with industry executives, offering their thoughts about the trends they perceive and some words of advice about what might lie ahead.