The Chicken or the Egg?

Creating a new business is a wonderful and fulfilling experience. New hurdles and obstables challenge me daily as to how to dance the dance of new customers, finances, remodeling, employees, and family. It's a game that I love and it keeps me going on days where I wonder just what I've got myself into.. again. I have been faced with one new challenge that most customer service businesses face, I'll call it the chicken and the egg.

So which came first? The chicken or the egg? In the car business I'll call it the inventory or the buyer. Which comes first? As a new auto auction the buyers want to see a huge selection of good low mileage used cars in which to purchase so they can update their inventory and sell them to eager buyers off their websites or car lots. They need fresh inventory because their trade-ins don't feed enough of their business. The new car dealers, which supply the bulk of the inventory for the used car dealers, want to see a big crowd before they commit a lot of cars to you. New dealers want a huge crowd of buyers before they commit and buyers want a lot of new car trade ins before they commit to coming on a regular basis... the chicken and the egg or better yet the buyer and the seller.

In the auction business I have to be patient for the day that all of this comes together in that perfect storm of business. The day when a new car dealer sees something that they like and commit to a "small guy" like me for a certain amount of time so I can build up the buyers to draw other new car dealers in. I need that chicken to lay the egg or maybe the egg to hatch the chicken.

Then good news is for all of my current chickens and eggs is that I'm here for the long haul. I've been doing auctions my whole life and I understand good times and bad times and tough weeks and easy weeks. I've learned that the toughest thing a business owner can do is weather the tough times. They will pass if you are patient enough, they always do. I have two other auction companies and I've watched both of them ebb and flow. Fortunately they are both flowing incredibly well right now and business is at a three year high for us. This just tells me that the car auction business with come around. It always does.

I love auctions and I love cars so I'm happy as a clam doing my auction each week and meeting great new customers on a weekly basis. I appreciate the chickens and the eggs that have already put faith in me and my business. All I need is a few more chickens and eggs to get this thing rolling...

See you soon on every Tuesday at 9:00a.m.

Thomas Blackmon Jr.