Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/730410
70 • October 3, 2016 • Powersports Business MOTORCYCLE www.PowersportsBusiness.com Flagship Powersports prepares young entrepreneurs for success BY LIZ KEENER MANAGING EDITOR Over the past few years, the industry has focused a lot of discussion on bringing younger customers into powersports, as the current demographic ages. However, rarely mentioned is the aging of dealership owners, GMs and department managers. Justin Jackrel thinks we should all pay more attention to dealers' ages. "Our average dealer age is probably between 55 and 65 for the ownership. And it's getting kind of scary," he said. "You've seen a lot of guys retire — great dealers that are retiring, or unfor- tunately, dying — and no one new coming in to replace them." Jackrel is president of Bintelli, a scooter line he imports from China. In the four-plus years that he's been in the scooter business, Jackrel has worked with fewer than five dealership owners under age 30, and in the past two years, three or four of his dealers have retired, and two have passed away. As Jackrel began expressing concern about the aging dealer principal trend, his colleagues were noticing the same thing. Jackson Haskell, who joined Bintelli as a dealer support specialist in late 2015, says in nearly 100 dealership visits, he's noticed a large number of owners and man- agers in their 50s, 60s and 70s. "The industry is getting old. We think it needs fresh blood," Haskell told Powersports Business. "There aren't a whole lot of entrants because maybe it's not as flashy or as sexy as some other industries, but with a little bit of hard work, we know this industry can be very successful, very profitable." Of course, no one at Bintelli thinks there's anything wrong with dealers who are 50-plus years old. Their concern, however, is what will happen to the industry when those dealers retire and don't have successors to take over their businesses. "We have retail customers just constantly calling us up and saying, 'Hey, your dealer here was great. He just retired. Where do I go to get my product serviced, or where do I buy more?' And there's no one else to send them to," Jack- rel explained. For years, he and his team at Bintelli have been considering how they can help younger entrepreneurs enter the powersports market. First, they considered opening their own flagship stores but decided it wasn't the right route for them. Next, the team at Bintelli looked at offering franchises, like McDonald's does, for example. However, with varying franchise laws in each state, the investment would cost a dealer $20,000-$40,000 just to start, on top of 15-20 percent in franchise fees. That was also a no-go. But after two dealers retired right after one another late last year, another concept came to light. Jackrel decided to launch a new com- pany that offers young entrepreneurs dealer- ship operating agreements. In exchange for their commitment to the scooter business and 5 percent of their revenue, Jackrel's new Flag- ship Powersports company offers new dealers accepted into the program the assistance they need to launch successful dealerships. FLAGSHIP POWERSPORTS IS BORN Flagship Powersports is based on Jackrel's and his team's combined decades of experience. Jackrel has been working in retail, wholesale and distribution for 16 years. Though Haskell is new to Bintelli, he previously owned an elec- tric bicycle franchise. Jason Perske, a dealer support specialist for Flagship Powersports, has been with Bintelli for eight years, and many of the other staff dealers work with are also quite experienced. "We've got all of this knowledge here that is allowing these kids and all the future guys to just come in and just take the guesswork out," Jackrel explained. The Flagship Powersports operating agreement offers young entrepreneurs the chance to launch their own powersports deal- ership, while rely- ing on the Flagship Powersports staff for assistance and advice. All Flagship Powersports deal- ers will undergo headquarters train- i n g a t B i n t e l l i ' s facility in Charles- ton, South Caro- lina. They'll also be visited by their coach and will have access to the 100- plus page "Book of Knowledge" that the Flagship Powersports staff wrote. They'll be given forms that will help them run their businesses with ease, and a private YouTube channel provides videos that answer fre- quently answered questions. The Flagship staff will offer advice on obtaining funding, marketing, employee man- agement, merchandising, upselling, budgeting and forecasting and a host of other topics. A coach will also be assigned to help the dealer- ship with a range of issues, and a dealer support specialist will assist with technical support and questions about their Bintelli orders. Bintelli will floor any of its Bintelli or Adly brand scoot- ers for the dealers. "We're required every year — we're con- tractually obligated — to increase their rev- enue every year. We help them with their fundraising; we floor all of their inventory at no cost to them. They have a coach that's available to them pretty much 16-18 hours per day," Jackrel reported. As owner of Flagship Powersports, he will also be involved in each dealership that opens. As of the launch of the program, participat- ing dealers will have to give Flagship Power- sports 5 percent of their revenue and show a willingness to learn and use what the Flagship staff is teaching them. Flagship Powersports has no equity in their dealers' businesses. "The way that we approach it with people is, if we can make you $100,000 more than you can make on your own, would you give us $5,000 for that?" Jackrel said. "Every per- son that we've ever asked that question to has said yes, and that's when we decided let's do this program." FIRST DEALERSHIP OPENS It didn't take long for Flagship Powersports to find its first dealer partners. While the Flagship Powersports program was still being finalized, Jonathan Kerr and Collin Basinger, students at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, contacted Bintelli. T h e p a i r h a d b e e n researching the scooter market in Fayetteville, where there was only one scooter dealership. An opportunity to open their own store existed, they thought, so they called Bin- telli, looking to secure the Bintelli and Adly territory for Fayetteville. However, Kerr and Bas- inger had only $500 to invest into the dealership. The Flagship Powers- ports staff thought the duo might be ideal candidates for their pilot flagship dealership. Communication between both groups began, and within a few weeks, Jackrel and the team at Flagship decided Kerr and Basinger would be the perfect fit for the program. Haskell was assigned as their coach, and Perske became their dealer support specialist. "Jon and Collin, one attribute that made me excited to work with these guys is they had a fire in their belly, and it's just not something that you can give to somebody; you can't cul- tivate it; I don't believe that," Haskell said. "So when we ran into these two kids that were just hungry to do something exciting and interest- ing in their stomping grounds in Arkansas, that's what attracted me to them because I knew they were going to work hard because it's going to take years of hard work to build some- thing incredible, but they were into it." Breathing new life into dealership ownership From left, Jonathan Kerr, Jackson Haskell and Collin Basinger pose outside ScootTribe. Haskell, a Flagship Pow- ersports coach, says the Fayetteville, Arkansas, store is in the top five he's seen as far as aesthetics go. See Flagship, Page 73 "Our average dealer age is probably between 55 and 65 for the ownership. And it's getting kind of scary." Justin Jackrel, founder, Flagship Powersports