Pub. 8 2019-2020 Issue 3

22 San Diego Dealer These are undoubtedly unprecedented times. What are you doing, as a small business, to weather the storm? The first thing is to maintain a positive attitude. Leadership is more important now than ever. Ownership means that you can’t have a bad day—at least not a public one. You have to “coach up” and inspire your staff. We chose to overcommunicate. My partner Ron Fornaca and I work our business from the ground level; we walk the four corners to the lot. We know our people. We also took this time to slow down, both in our personal lives and in our business life. There’s been a lot of turmoil, a lot of confusion and plain wrong information swirling since this thing started. To make the right decision, you have to take the time to sort things out, look at things from every level and be careful not tomake a knee-jerk reaction. This pandemic will pass. We don’t know when, but the stormwill pass. It always does. I think that’s one of the most reassuring things about having time in this business; we have the gift of perspective. We’re a family business. My brother-in-law, Ron Fornaca and I each run a store in the business. Between us, we have five children in the business. In retail, we ran with a skeleton crew; mostly, it was family. We all logged a lot of hours. Our fixed operations — parts and service — we deemed essential so that those departments could operate. Retail, of course, in the early days, not so much. We could handle customers with immediate needs. So, we spent our time focusing on more sanitation and ramping up our janitorial efforts. Those customers, and employees who still came into the dealerships, saw us wiping surfaces, cleaning, wearing masks and doing everything we could to keep us all safe. We received many compliments, which meant the world to us. I think it’s one thing to Gary Fenelli, President/General Manager at Frank Toyota Thriving During COVID-19 Q&A We have all been affected by COVID-19 in profound ways, which means that as small business owners, it’s anything but “business as usual.”These times call for anticipatory leadership. NCDA spoke with dealer Gary Fenelli about his thoughts on selling cars amid these unprecedented times and thriving during COVID-19.