Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/575161
62 • October 5, 2015 • Powersports Business POWER 50 www.PowersportsBusiness.com employed between the two stores, and increas- ing the staff is a top priority. "When there's only 15 team members inside the building, there's only so many people you can help on a busy Saturday, so if you've got 30 or 40 team members spread across the deal- ership, you can help a heck of a lot more folks at an event on a Saturday," he said. If the dealerships immediately started launching events, which are important in Adam Smith's Calculated Risk Group's culture, they wouldn't be able to serve everyone com- ing in the door at the current staffing levels, Smith explained. "You can only sell so many motorcycles in one Saturday, one person, so if you have two sales guys, there's only so much they can do in a day. There's only so much they can do in a week and a month and a year," he added. It will only be after the staff numbers have increased and everyone is trained that Adam Smith's Roughneck Harley-Davidson and Adam Smith's Lumberjack Harley-Davidson will begin launching full marketing efforts and hosting a barrage of events. "It wouldn't do any good if we brought in customers within the next 90 days because they're not going to get the right show, and they're not going to get what we're about. They're going to get some blend of the way it used to be and the way it's going to be, and it's just not going to come off right, so I'm not expecting us to really twist the throttle back until … somewhere around November we should be turning the corner, so in March we're ready to go," Smith explained. Adam Smith's Roughneck Harley-Davidson is also set for a move within the next two years, as the Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group plans to build a new facility for the Longview dealer- ship. The current facility is nice, clean and in a good location, Smith said, but it's too small. Smith is currently looking for some land on which to build a new building, which will total around 30,000 square feet. He plans to nail down the location soon, so it can be operational within about 24 months of the acquisition. Smith says his approach to carefully staffing up and training before launching big marketing efforts is the slow way, but he believes it sets his dealerships up for the long term. He took the same approach with the Waco store, which, after its January acquisition, began to blossom this summer. "It's really starting to throttle up, and I'm really proud of our crew," he said. "I can't take any credit for it, but it's setting up the build- ing blocks the right way from the beginning because we've already done what I told you we're going to do in East Texas. We did the steps, and it's starting to pay off now, and it will pay off in 2016 and '17 and '18 and '19 because the folks we're building on are going to be there for that period of time, so we're really, really happy. Each month is a new sales record, but we're still not where we're able to be." Smith added, "That market was a lot like East Texas, where they were doing fine, but they weren't capturing all that could be cap- tured with enough floor coverage and events and the right marketing message." With three new dealerships added within about seven months, the Calculated Risk Motorcycle Group has a lot of work to do over the next 12-18 months, but Smith said his team, including Neil Noble, Jason Bremer and the employees at all of his stores, is up for the challenge. "If you put together the right team with the right players on the team, and you give a crap about them, and you give them the opportunity to do the things they haven't been able to do elsewhere, then they're going to stick around, and if they do that, everybody can really suc- ceed," Smith said. He added that he's smart enough to know when to bring in people to help him and to give up some ownership, con- trol and money for the betterment of the team and the company. So, is Adam Smith done making acquisi- tions? Don't count him out yet. He said as an entrepreneur, he may never be done, but he knows he has to have the right staff to help him build any new dealerships. "If we don't have the right people lined up, we're not making an acquisition, so if it's five for the rest of my life, fine. If it's more in the future, fine," he said. "I can't answer that ques- tion directly, but I know me, and something's going to come up. If we do a good job at our stores, talented people will come calling, email- ing, or knocking on our door, and when they do, we're going to find them a store." PSB SMITH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 61 Adam Smith is already considering a new location for Roughneck Harley-Davidson.