Champ RawlsAll Articles
Buying or Selling Your Dealership: 5 Things You Must Consider
Dealership profits continue to soar, and dealership valuations are at record-high levels. This is creating a surge of activity in automotive retail buy-sell. All this activity is creating wonder around buying or selling, prompting many dealers to revisit their succession plans. Champ Rawls, a Succession Planner with The Rawls Group, and Alan Haig, President of Haig Partners, the leading buy-sell advisory firm to retail dealers, share their thoughts for those dealers looking to buy or sell. Dealers Interested in Growing: Our very own succession planner Champ Rawls answers the following questions: Q: What are the advantages of getting bigger? [...]
Four Strategies for Successful Sibling Partnerships
What do the Olsen twins, the Williams sisters, the Warner brothers, and the Wright brothers all have in common? They are all siblings able to succeed in creating a business together. Fundamentally, the success of any partnership, let alone a family business partnership, is ongoing work towards maintaining harmony inside the business relationship by finding the balance within the family relationships. From a family business and sibling partnership perspective, many potential relationship landmines lie around because of your shared common memories and history. These memories have the power to aid the success of a business or undermine it. For [...]
Balancing Seasonal and Political Uncertainties in the Energy Business
Seasonality, inflation, politics, people, and technology are a few headwinds impacting fuel dealers, wholesalers, and service contractors in the energy space. We are often asked, "How can we create predictable revenues in an industry influenced by so many outside "threats?" In this episode, Doug Woosnam, a Consultant with Cetane Associates, Clayton Latiolais, a succession planner with The Rawls Group, Marty Kirshner, Partner with Gray, Gray & Gray, and our very own succession planner Champ Rawls discusses strategies to take control of the ebbs and flows of your business, which include: Strategic Planning The strategic planning [...]
Next Gen: Empire Builders Vs. Caretakers
Successfully integrating family into the business, whether as an employee, manager, or one-day successor, requires having a plan. Next-Gen business owners may need to invest their entire net-worth back into the business to compete with the larger consolidators. This means being less a caretaker of the business as generations past, and more focused on building an empire. Therefore, planning is critical to ensuring you have the right individual or team to carry the business forward. In this episode, Pete Theil with Haig Partners and The Rawls Group's succession planner Champ Rawls discuss what it will [...]
Maintaining Control Of Your Business While Delegating
Operating a store is hard work, but it is rewarding. A common question we hear is what are the options to keep the dealership(s) as a family asset if no family is interested or capable of filling the shoes as Dealer/Operator. The good news is that the world is your oyster regarding how to structure ownership and management. There are a variety of strategies successful owners have implemented to delegate day-to-day responsibilities. The key and critical ingredients are good talent and trust, especially if you are looking to recruit an operator or key leader to [...]
How to Compete With National Brands and Consolidators
The competitive landscape for automotive retail requires dealers to think even more about competition and growth. Some think they need to get bigger or get out; however, the bigger question is, what will it take to corner your market and fulfill your strategic vision? In Houston, for example, it will require much more than in small-town America. From Haig's perspective, Pete Theil shares that if the goal is to compete in competitive markets, 10 locations with a diversity of brands will provide you critical mass to be a one-stop shop for customers as a transportation [...]
