{"id":5632,"date":"2025-02-26T10:51:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T16:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/?p=5632"},"modified":"2025-02-26T10:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T16:51:19","slug":"dealer-spotlight-sharing-new-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/dealer-spotlight-sharing-new-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealer spotlight: Sharing New Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the February issue of UCD<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In explaining terms and going over payments, Ryan Jones leans on his experience from his previous career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before opening Ace Auto Sales in Fyffe, Alabama, Jones and his wife, Meg, were teachers. Ryan taught history, government and economics. Meg led business and marketing classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou do get to help educate a few people every now and then,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Meg who introduced Ryan to the car business. She grew up in the industry. Her father Rick Terrell had his own dealership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the car girl. I love cars,\u201d Meg explained. \u201cI\u2019ve always been in the car business. I was in sales and marketing before I started teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long into their teaching careers, the Joneses started eying an opportunity to move into a new business. Meg credits her father with helping them get their start, including taking Ryan to auctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe started selling some cars on the side to have some extra income and it just over time built and built,\u201d said Meg, pointing out the need to supplement their teaching salaries. \u201cIt definitely surpassed what we ever thought it would when we first started it as a side income for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even while still in the classroom, they started the retail side of their business. When Ryan had enough years in to retire from teaching, they started adding buy-here pay-here to their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in business for 10 years and been doing BHPH for six,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cWe ran the dealership remotely and had employees. Once we started getting busier just as a retail dealership that\u2019s when we decided, and I had enough years in to retire, so I got out of education and started doing the business full time. That\u2019s when we shifted to BHPH.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BHPH is now the primary part of their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, they moved from being the teachers to students of a new business. One of the biggest lessons they learned is the need to be flexible and change to the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be scared to change your own rules to fit with trends,\u201d Meg said. \u201cOnce you do something and you implement a rule, it doesn\u2019t mean that it is always going to work out like you planned. Be flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan added that it\u2019s never \u201cone-size-fits-all,\u201d especially working with customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes in your own dealership you\u2019ll do some things for people that maybe it\u2019s not what you would normally do because you want to help people and see them succeed,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing I like about BHPH. Typically the people that come to see us can\u2019t get a car in a traditional setting. We are helping people get their lives back on track. That\u2019s the thing I enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working together has not been an issue for the Joneses. They enjoy the opportunity to continually bounce ideas off each other. In building a new office, they are looking to share an office space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know some people are like, \u2018I could never work with my spouse,\u2019\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThat\u2019s not us. We work well together\u2026I know it\u2019s clich\u00e9, but we really do finish each other\u2019s sentences. We\u2019re really one mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meg added they share a love for business and are always constantly looking to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really do feel like we have a lot of fun in the business because we are so like-minded and love business,\u201d Meg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They admit the job doesn\u2019t stay at the dealership, but they do try to prioritize family time with their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very intentional about not neglecting our children,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cBut we do take business home. We share so many ideas that it doesn\u2019t feel like work when we\u2019re at home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though relatively new to the business, Ryan and Meg have immersed themselves in the industry, learning and also passing on lessons to others. Both were heavily involved in the BHPH Dealer Forum in New Orleans being chosen by their roundtables for sharing the best ideas. Meg explained how to sign up with insurance providers to receive digital notices of customers canceling coverage. Ryan presented his text prompts to increase responses from customers who are behind on payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meg will be part of a panel at the NIADA Convention and Expo on the best ideas from the Dealer Forum.
\u201cIn the last few years, we\u2019ve been getting more involved in conventions. They\u2019ve been beneficial to us and at the same time, we\u2019ve tried to turn that around and be as useful and helpful to others as we can,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIn our business, no one is reinventing the wheel. It\u2019s important to share the information that you\u2019ve learned with others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meg said it\u2019s another opportunity to give back and do what they do best \u2013 teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do enjoy teaching and with us enjoying what we do, it\u2019s something that comes with a passion, helping others,\u201d Meg said. \u201cThere\u2019s so many people that need cars that I never see it as a competition. A local dealer and I were talking this morning and just trying to help each other. We can always learn from each other instead of everyone having to go through the same mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the February issue of UCD In explaining terms and going over payments, Ryan Jones leans on his…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-industry","8":"cs-entry","9":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}