Selling cars is not perceived as the most desirable job today’s youth can think of, probably for a good reason. Selling cars is associated with low income, cheap suits, rejection, long hours, and nagging customers. Now, this may all be true, but here’s the good news – lots of money can be made by selling cars. Yes, lots of money.
Selling cars can be a fascinating job for those just entering the job market. And with moderate success, a newbie can earn good pay, learn about sales, and develop key selling skills they can apply in the future.
Today, each sold car pays about $500-$1000 depending on the price, model, dealership, incentive, or bonus plan. It’s safe to say there’s definitely money to be made with cars these days if you take the time to find a business model that works for you. You do not have to pony up the cash to open up your own dealership (though it is an option), and there are a variety of ways to get started, even if you are on a tight budget.
Can You Really Make Money Selling Cars?
As it turns out, you can. There are several ways you can do it too!
The most traditional way to make money selling cars is to work for a car sales associate. That’s right, a job.
Read more: TOP 5 AUTOMOBILE BUSINESS IDEAS FOR YOU
Working at a Dealership
Established car salesman set their own hours; demand the highest commissions, and many of them can work for several dealerships simultaneously.
In a lot of ways, they are like freelancers.
Unfortunately, the stigma of being a “Car Salesman” scares a lot of folks away. As a car salesman, you should be well educated in cars, tech-savvy and transparent. You would most likely operate like individual businesses inside the dealership, with your own clients and employees.
I’m not saying it’s the best option, but if you have the entrepreneurial spirit of a freelancer, you like cars, and you need benefits — may be working at a dealership is a good option for you. It’s a nice balance of being able to use the infrastructure and established brand of the larger company but still, be able to be an independent businessman and enjoy some of those freedoms.
What Is an Average Salary of a Car Salesman?
Despite being paid the minimum hourly wage, a car sales associate can make over $20,000 per year, depending on the commission. Expect to work long hours, six or seven days a week, and most holidays, though.
Certainly, top-earning salespeople earn above this range, but this is a tough, competitive industry.
As an employee of the dealership, car salespeople generally also receive various benefits like health insurance and other normal employee benefits. The benefits, and the cost of those benefits to the employee, will vary from dealership to dealership, just as they would among various companies across the employer landscape.
Car Auctions
Buying cars from auctions is one of the best ways to make money selling cars, in my opinion. In fact, that’s how the big dealerships buy their used cars.
Going to auctions can put you on a level playing field with big dealerships because you are all looking at and bidding over the same inventory.
Sure, they may have bigger pockets than you, but everyone has to start somewhere. And as with any industry, the little guys are often more flexible with what they can buy and how they can profit from it. If you are smart and creative, you can always find deals that big dealers wouldn’t even consider jumping on.
If you can get into a good auction, you can find pristine cars at wholesale prices. That’s the whole point. Buy low, sell high. That’s how you find yourself in the profit.
However, some nuances come along with trying to buy cars from the auctions. For starters, the best auctions require you to have a dealer’s license. These are the dealer auctions.
Without a dealer’s license, you will be legally limited in what you can sell anyway.
Read more: SELLING AND IMPORTING CARS, HERE IS HOW THE CAR BUSINESS WORKS
Leveraging the Internet
If you’re serious about trying to make money selling cars, then the internet is going to be a valuable tool for you. In fact, it will be a necessity.
Even, as I said, car salespeople working for the dealerships are using the internet these days.
Without a dealer’s license, the internet could help you replace the big auctions by giving you the tools necessary to search through loads of potential car purchases.
Deals are found all the time online. If you know what to look for, you can find great cars with minor problems and turn them into big profits.
Recycling Old Cars
Another method you could try is recycling.
Have you ever seen those signs around that say “Will buy your car for $$$”?
Most times, those guys aren’t looking for cars to fix up. Instead, they are looking for cars to recycle.
You call them; they pick up the car from you, usually for a couple of hundred bucks. Then they take it directly to a scrap yard. For the fuel cost, they can make several hundred dollars in profit, depending on the make, model, and size of the vehicle.
You can start doing this right now if you have the means to haul cars around. There’s no licensing needed to buy junk cars for scrap.
At this point, you’re technically not selling the car, and you’re making money recycling the car.
If this option sounds good, another way to maximize profits would be to strip down the car and sell it for parts.
Used car parts are a pretty big industry. Most people don’t need or want a brand new part when an old one wears out. So no mechanics shops and even some big dealerships buy used parts every day. This is especially true for parts from hard-to-find vehicles.
You will get much more money parting out a vehicle than you would recycle it and probably even selling it outright.
Read more: BUSINESS E-COMMERCE BUSINESS, WHAT IT IS, WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED
Final Thought
There are definitely ways to make money selling cars. However, I’m sure there are many other ways that I didn’t even think of mentioning in this post.
If you want to start a business selling cars, you can increase your chances of success faster with a professional website and some very basic online marketing skills. Even if you are just buying and flipping a few cars out of your garage, a website that documents and shares the repair process, lists your inventory, and lets customers find you is a huge advantage.
If you are thinking of getting a dealer’s license or working for a dealer, building a personal brand is even more important.
