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Powersports Market

Managing Millennials

Glenice Wilder Vice President EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Glenice Wilder
Vice President
EFG Companies

“Millennials are just plain lazy.”

“How do you manage a group that doesn’t want to do any work, and expects rewards for just showing up?”

“I just won’t hire them.”

Do these statements sound familiar? Millennials have gotten a bad reputation from popular media. But, you’d be surprised at just how much of your current workforce is made up of Millennials.

The Center for Generational Kinetics defines Millennials as those born between 1977 and 1995. Those employees of yours that are in their 30s and early 40s are, in fact, Millennials. Would you apply the statements above to them? Probably not.

At 80 million strong, Millennials now represent the most influential generation in the marketplace. They are quickly making up the majority of consumers and employees. So, for those of you saying that you don’t know how to manage this new generation, I have good news for you. You already are managing them.

Contrary to popular belief, managing Millennials isn’t that different from managing other generations. It just takes understanding their key motivators.

Millennials are motivated by having a work-life balance, a clear path for advancement and growth, and recognition for achievement. They are also more motivated if they believe in the value of the work.  Does that really sound that different from Gen X, or even Boomers?

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Categories
Business Growth

Taking a Pulse on 2018

Glenice Wilder Vice President EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Glenice Wilder
Vice President
EFG Companies

It’s August and we are in the dog days of summer. Most powersports dealers and enthusiasts are between peak spring and fall seasons. So, how is your year going? Are you meeting your mid-year goals? On track for year-end sales projections?

According to the 2018 Powersports Business Market Data Book survey, 58 percent of dealers polled expected new unit sales to rise 10 percent this year. This increase follows an increase in new unit sales in 2017.

However, the surprise for me was the conflicting data around the sale of pre-owned bikes.

  • 33 percent of responding dealers stated that their expectations were unchanged for used bike sales.
  • 27 percent of dealers expected used sales to grow less than 10 percent.
  • 14 percent of dealers expect used sales to increase more than 10 percent.
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Categories
Compliance

We’ve Been Down This Path

Steve Roennau Vice President Compliance EFG Companies
Contributing Author:
Steve Roennau
Vice President
Compliance
EFG Companies

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been in the news a lot lately.

From Acting Director Mick Mulvany’s decommissioning of the Advisory Committee, to a federal district judge ruling its structure is unconstitutional, some might think that the CFPB’s days are numbered.

But history has a lesson to offer, compliments of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC was created on September 26, 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission Act into law. The regulatory agency opened its doors in 1915, with a mission to protect consumers and promote competition. The FTC building was finished in 1938, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt stating, “May this permanent home of the Federal Trade Commission stand for all time as a symbol of the purpose of the government to insist on a greater application of the golden rule to conduct the corporation and business enterprises in their relationship to the body politic.”

Currently, the FTC houses three bureaus:

  1. the Bureau of Consumer Protection
  2. the Bureau of Competition
  3. the Bureau of Economics

Each bureau has a set of mandates to guide its work. In the early 1970s, the agency became more aggressive in its prosecutions and sanctions. The business community and Congress criticized the FTC’s activism, claiming it had become too powerful, was insensitive to the needs of the public and business, and operated with little oversight from Congress or the president. During President Ronald Reagan’s first term, control of the FTC was moved under the president. Its direction was modified to become more cooperative with business interests, while continuing its consumer protective functions.

A Matter of Checks and Balances

Continue reading “We’ve Been Down This Path”