Stay Cash Strong in Your Offseason
Cash flow becomes your strength in the offseason when it allows you to stay in control of your decisions instead of constantly reacting. When unit sales slow but fixed expenses continue to mount, it can feel like you’re caught in a vise. Cutting costs may seem like the obvious move, but the wrong or too aggressive cuts can do more harm than good.
As the offseason overlaps with peak boat show activity, now is the time to make smart, deliberate decisions around inventory, staffing, service work and forecasting. Protecting liquidity today ensures your team is ready to respond when spring arrives and consumer demand returns. Stay cash strong and flexible using these insights, tactics and resources below.
BLOGS
BLOG
Turn Slow Months into Strategic Wins for Your Dealership
When the offseason slows sales, your dealership still faces steady expenses. That can strain your cash flow and flexibility. Brenda Cline-Kereakes, COO at Line\5 gives you a clear plan: forecast with precision, leverage service and parts revenue, optimize F&I opportunities and manage inventory strategically. By acting now, you’ll strengthen your financial position, deepen customer relationships and enter spring more prepared to capture demand with confidence.
BLOG
Manage Cash Flow in Marine Dealerships
Cash flow is the lifeblood of your dealership. However, winter slowdowns and high inventory costs can make it seem as if you’re scrambling. Without real-time visibility, it’s easy to feel stuck and reactive. A powerful dealer management system (DMS) gives you clarity, actionable insights and control so your dealership can monitor cash flow, manage inventory more wisely and make confident decisions year-round. DMS-expert Ryan Kloppe shares with you insights to help you improve your DMS strategy in 2026?
BLOG
Master Dealership Financials: Cash Flow, Profitability and Forecasting for 2026
Accurate financials are the foundation of your dealership’s cash flow and profitability. Sadly, some dealers treat financial statements as a lender requirement instead of a true tool for making smart business decisions.
Industry expert Russell Baqir of Northpoint Commercial Finance says reviewing your numbers regularly and aligning them with a clear budget makes your team accountable and keeps your business on course. Click below to read the full blog and start planning smarter.
BLOG
The Contextual Challenge: Navigate the ‘Dark Funnel’
January may feel slow in your showroom, but your digital traffic is booming — and most of those shoppers leave without a trace. AI-powered lead engagement tools help your dealership identify high-intent buyers, track their behavior and activate marketing before they disappear.
By taking this proactive approach, you can convert your anonymous website visitors into real sales opportunities and ensure your spring delivery schedule is full. Michele Howard of Pin-Up Marketing shares tips to help you unlock the hidden 98% (the dark funnel) and own your digital storefront.
BLOG
Cash Flow Plateau
Feeling stuck because cash flow has plateaued at your dealership? When money stops moving, it can feel like growth is out of reach and expenses keep piling up. The MRAA’s Bernie DeGraw shares with you some proven tactics — including Dave Newell’s “7 Levers to Boost Efficiency and Margins” — to help you take bold, intentional action and convert your dealership’s cash flow from a trickle into a powerful stream.
Note: Dave Newell’s course is currently only available as part of Dealer Week Online. Click “Read Blog” to learn how you can watch the course.
RESOURCES
RESOURCE
Net Cash Conditions Worksheet
While net profitability is important, cash flow is crucial during slower periods for your dealership. Use the sample Net Cash Condition worksheet from Parker Business Planning to track your cash flow status at all times.
MRAA Members Only!
RESOURCE
Normalized Cash Flow Spreadsheet
The single most important controllable factor that affects the price you get for your dealership when you exit, no matter how you exit, is the Net Cash Flow. It is essential to start managing your business to reach your target cash flow now. Your target should be 10 to 14 percent of revenue as Pre–Tax Normalized Cash Flow. Download this spreadsheet from Carrie Stacey of Carrie Stacey International to test your Normalized Cash Flow and monitor it as you work to reach that target bottom line.
MRAA Members Only!
RESOURCE
Cash Basis P&L and Forecasting Model For Boat Dealerships
Capone & Associates, an MRAA Standard Partner, offers a you a basic Cash Basis P&L and Forecasting Model to help you streamline your finances on a regular basis. A template like this can help you and your team understand your true cash position, create realistic sales forecasts — which especially important with boat shows and a new selling season just ahead — make monthly projections, monitor performance and more. Ultimately, it puts you in control of key decisions.
RESOURCE
It’s Time for a Health Check
Is your dealership ready for the year ahead? When doing a health check of your delaership, of course you need to know about your operations, but knowing your cash standing and strength is vital. This guide, produced by John Spader of NCM Associates, gives you practical tips to protect cash flow, improve liquidity and align inventory with your financial capacity. When you start the year with clarity and confidence, you set your dealership up to thrive.
MRAA Members Only!
EDUCATION
EDUCATION & TRAINING
From Forecast to Flourish: Master Budgeting in Service
You didn’t get into this business to guess your way through service and parts budgeting. Without forecasting, that’s the pathway you’re on. Guesswork drains cash flow, crushes margins and keeps you reacting instead of leading.
Bernie DeGraw’s Dealer Week Online educational course shares with you how to turn chaos into clarity with a proactive budgeting process tied to real-world forecasting. You’ll learn how to build predictable, profitable service and parts departments. Yes, even when staffing is tight. It’s time to stop chasing numbers and start driving them.
Learning Objectives:
- Discover how to build a budget for your service department that ties together labor, parts, warranty and overhead with clear profit targets
- Understand how to forecast technician hours and capacity using historical trends, seasonality and resource planning
- Identify and track KPIs that matter most for service profitability and learn how to use them for monthly adjustments
- Learn how to align service forecasting with dealership-wide goals for cash flow, margins and growth
- Gain insight into communication habits that make budgeting a team sport, not a solo spreadsheet project
Have questions or want access to this course and others from Dealer Week 2025? Contact Sherri Cuvala, MRAA Director of Membership.
Need more financial tactics, try these: