m: Month: January 2013

Don’t under estimate the power of Social Networking, especially Facebook. It’s not just for “hanging out” with friends or catching up with old schoolmates.

Facebook has a huge infrastructure of people, businesses and people who are looking for businesses. The tools available via Facebook to us fellow car dealers are vast and extremely useful.

How can a Facebook Business Page Help?

Easy, people talk, and what better way to promote your business than have people see it and talk about it. We at Car Dealer 5 have come up with a package where we create your Facebook Page for you, using brand-matching images for your profile and Facebook cover photo. We then link your Facebook page to your Car Dealer 5 website and vice-versa.

We also make sure that you have the tools installed on your website to share the cars in your stocklist to your new Facebook pages’ Timeline allowing everyone that knows youand “Likes” your page to see your stock and have the ability to click directly from Facebook to the actual page on your website that is advertising the car. Better still, if one of these people decide to share this car on their own Facebook timeline then the shared item is seen by all their friends and the people that “Like” them if they too have shared from another Facebook page.

It may sound complex but it’s extremely easy after you have shared and posted a few items to your timeline. We even “Like” a few dealers on your behalf including our own Facebook page for Car Dealer 5. We “Like” you back of course, it all helps with the Social Networking side of things and gets your brand and your stock out there.

Anything that we post from Car Dealer 5 then appears in your timeline. Anything you post appears on ours!

How much does it cost?

This is the good bit, you get all this for only £100 + VAT. Yes, we set your page up, link it to your website and vice-versa, then add a “Like” button to your website to accompany your sharing tools.

Give us a call today on 08456 432 110 to get your page set up and start networking!

Let’s face it, there are hundreds of solutions available on the internet to allow you to set up a car sales website. If you are reading this post, then you are most probably a small to medium sized business looking to list anything from around 5 to 100 vehicles.

Do I need to register a domain name?

No, we do it all for you. You simply choose the domain name you require (we can assist with this). If you already have a domain namewe can also help you point it to our servers or transfer it over to us, it’s your choice.

The cost of the domain and web hosting for 12 months is included in the price of £300 + VAT per year.

Do I need VRML (Vehicle Registration Mark Lookup)?

Well, that’s something you need to consider. VRML or Vehicle Registration Mark Lookup costs money. Every time you enter a registration and the details for that car are called, you pay a set fee. In short, the more vehicles you list, the more expensive it becomes.

Car Dealer 5 does not use VRML in order to keep costs down. Customers save well over £1000 + VAT per year by using our solution rather than those integrated with VRML.

Do I need to get my website built from scratch?

That’s up to you, but there’s no point reinventing the wheel. We have been putting car sales websites together for over 7 years now and have included everything you need in Car Dealer 5.

Contract length

Some companies that offer motor trader websites tie you into minimum term contracts. All we ask is you pay £300 + VAT per year. Should you decide to close shop or move your domain that you control during this 12 month period you are free to do so.

How many cars will I need to list?

Car Dealer 5 allows you to list as many vehicles as you need giving you plenty of flexibility with adding content to your website too.

I want to add videos as well as photos

Car Dealer 5 allows you to add an introduction video to the home page as well as a video per car added to the stock system. The video code is simply embed code available from your YouTube account.

Call 08456 432 110 today to speak to one of our trained staff who can get you up and running within a few hours.

It came to our attention that during 2012 the HMRC or Taxman as more commonly known had created around thirty more taskforces to catch tax evaders in the UK. One of these taskforces were apparently directly targetting the motor trader.

When the news came about we had one or two car dealers pull out of their rolling contract which they are perfectly entitled to do. Although wiping your website, pulling your stock and crossing your fingers that the HMRC won’t come knocking on your door is not an ideal solution.

How can I reduce my Tax Liability

Firstly, keep records of everything you buy as well as every car you sell. Remember that all money on items you spend related to the business can be offset against your profit such as:

• car valeting
• advertising
• your car dealer website
• search engine optimisation
• fuel expenses
• phone charges / internet connections
• insurance
• utilities (gas / electric / water / rates / rent

The above list isn’t a comprehensive list but gives you a general idea of what you should be able to offset against your motor trade business. By offsetting the above expenses against your income will certainly help get your profit margin down to help reduce your tax bill.

Important – Always set up a business account OR a separate account which enables you to put all transactions and expenses through. Using your personal account will only confuse matters and make it difficult for you to separate and explain transactions to the HMRC should you ever have a tax investigation.

How else can a motor trader reduce their tax liability?

Also remember that by partnering with your spouse on a 50/50 basis (for example they may do all the paperwork) will also double your tax allowance pre-profit and therefore reduce your end of year tax liability.

If you are considering in starting a business in the motor trade, remember to do it properly and don’t forget to give us a call on 08456 432 110 regarding your new car sales website – we won’t let you down!

Auto traders throughout the UK are having a tough time right now with the current economic climate in 2012 and 2013.

Having a website put together to list your cars by a specialist company can cost you thousands of pounds to have built, especially when you need all the features to show your stock not only to customers sat at home on their computer, but to potential customers on the move using their mobile phone.