Why Every Business Owner Needs a Plan
It’s as inevitable as death and taxes: If you’re a business owner, one way or another, you’ll eventually leave your enterprise. The only question is how—and whether you’ll do so on your own terms.
Will you retire gracefully? Pass your company on to family? Opt for a management buyout? Go for a merger or acquisition? Or will unforeseen circumstances force your exit sooner than expected?
For Manufacturers, It’s the Ultimate Match
Building a brand, informing business partners and educating consumers are key factors in marketing a product successfully. And while manufacturers may be experts at innovation and development, few also possess the expertise to publicize and promote their products for optimal sales in media ranging from print to web and from brochure to billboard. That is the business of advertising agencies. Finding the right one should be every manufacturer’s ultimate promotional goal.
While the economy continues to influence the tire and wheel markets, the greatest impacts on the industry have resulted from the elimination of the tariffs on Chinese tires, the steady growth of lower rolling resistance tires, advances in technology and the proliferation of Internet research, according to knowledgeable wheel-and-tire pros and media. They shared their views for this latest look at trends in their segments of the specialty-equipment marketplace.
“Power Buyers” Reveal How They Find Products
Developing a great product is only the first step in creating a successful business. The next is to get that product into the hands of consumers. To do that, manufacturers need to forge links in the distribution chain, moving their products to the warehouse distributors, jobbers and retail outlets that eventually place the parts in the hands of end users.
A Look to the Future With SEMA Council Leaders
For its December issue each year, SEMA News puts out a call to the leaders of the association’s councils and networks to seek their views about what might be in store in the near term. These industry professionals provide responses based on what their organizations and their companies are seeing within their marketplaces. Their responses are instructive and should provide helpful insights for businesses in every segment of the marketplace.
SEMA members have come to rely on the association’s annual Market Report, a comprehensive research project summarizing economic, sales and new-vehicle trends of the past year affecting the $30 billion automotive specialty-equipment industry. Complete as that report is, however, SEMA backs it up with quarterly updates that track the latest trends and examine “Current Topics” through special sections to arm members with new research or information sources to better understand ongoing industry changes. The latest version, SEMA Market Update, Q2 2012, is now available.
Like many retailers, you may have been tightening your belt against a sluggish economy for the last few years while striving to improve your social media and Internet marketing. But in doing so, have you neglected your aftermarket business’s most important asset? Look around you. How does your retail space stack up against the competition, especially the chain auto parts or big-box superstore down the street?
How to Deliver the Goods to Online Shoppers
A recent study by comScore revealed new insights into the consumer online shopping experience. Commissioned by UPS, the comScore study polled more than 3,100 online shoppers and evaluated consumer perceptions and shopping habits ranging from pre-purchase to delivery and even the returns process.
An Industry Solution for Data Independence
As the SEMA Data Cooperative (SDC) gets up and running, its officers are getting a lot of questions and comments from participants, curious observers and skeptics. They range from those who are currently active in managing their data to folks who are just realizing that product data management is fast becoming a requirement to do business in today’s marketplace.
It’s been a long time coming, but the SEMA Data Cooperative (SDC) beta phase is up and running at full speed, with more than 80 specialty parts companies participating.
Starting life as a concept of the earliest SEMA business technology volunteers, the SDC represents the culmination of more than 10 years of effort and evolution into what is arguably the most complete and advanced product data repository ever to serve our industry. The fully operating beta phase represents a real-life “test drive” of the complete SDC production model, which will seamlessly transfer to the live production system late in 2012.