The broadly held definition of the difference between small business ownership and entrepreneurism boils down to a single word: “growth.” Increasing sales is not, by itself, growth.

Tags: Business Insight, Dealership Growth, Global Tire Expo, Roger McManus

The numbers don’t lie. The 2011 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show was a huge success. A record 132,000 people attended the event, according to the Tire Industry Association (TIA), which sponsored the show’s Global Tire Expo section. There also were 61,000 buyers, also a record and close to 19% higher than last year.

Tags: ASA, CIMS, Cooper, Falken, Hercules, Landsail, Nexen, Nitto, Pirelli, R.L. Polk & Co., Schrader, SEMA Show, SEMA Show 2011, TIA, Vee Rubber

Any NASCAR fan knows. What’s the official tire of NASCAR? Goodyear. And it will remain that way at least for the next five years. In October 2011, Goodyear and NASCAR signed an extended agreement for Goodyear to continue as the exclusive tire used in NASCAR’s top three racing series for the next five years.

Tags: Goodyear, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., NASCAR, Racing

It would be a gross exaggeration to say I’m an avid reader of anything outside the sports pages on the Web. For me to pick up a book and read it from cover to cover says a lot about the book, not to mention my interest on the subject.

Tags: Branding, Customer service, Kevin Rohlwing

Larry Brandt is a man who believes in education. As a college student, Brandt unloaded tires at a Minnesota warehouse on his summer break. He broke into the tire business full time in 1979 as a wholesale tire and antifreeze broker. In 1985 he merged that company with Tires Plus and he became the vice president of wholesale for the five-store company.

Tags: Larry Brandt, TIA, Tire Industry Association

Mobile tagging is the process of providing data read from tags for display on mobile devices (source: Wikipedia). These are commonly encoded in a two-dimensional barcode and use the camera of a cell phone as the reader device. The content of the tag code is usually a URL for information that is addressed and accessible through the Internet.

Tags: Barcodes, Mobile barcodes, mobile tagging, QR-Codes, Wayne Croswell

Light trucks, sport-utility vehicles (SUV) and crossover utility vehicles (CUV) are on the move in more ways than one. As they shift from traditional body-on-frame construction to passenger car chassis derivatives, there is increasing demand for them — and tires that offer ride quality, durability and fuel economy.

Tags: CUV Tires, Light truck tires, SUV Tires

There are hundreds of reasons to automate your point-of-sale counters. Counting down from 10 to one, here are my all-time favorites.

Tags: Computer Software, POS, Wayne Croswell

You’re sitting on top of the world. Your shop is booked solid for the full day and business has been great. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Right?

Tags: comebacks, Customer relations, Customer service, MTD survey

They’re becoming a greater fact of life for tire dealers. Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) have been required on all new vehicles under 10,000 pounds since 2007. But the technology was first required on 10% of vehicles in 2001. Now, some of those older sensors are reaching the end of their service life.

Tags: Tire pressure monitoring systems, TPMS