Summer unofficially ended over the weekend with the passing of Labor Day. For weeks during the heat of summer, Ignite Consulting Partners said the firm’s experts have heard plenty of reasons why dealerships aren’t keeping resources in place to maintain compliance.

“It’s been a slow summer,” one dealer told Ignite, while another said, “The interest I’m having to pay is killing me. I need to cut back.”

“I need my people focused on things that make money,” another operator insisted to Ignite while yet another mentioned, “We’re just too busy right now.”

Ignite experts listened to those explanations and offered this response in a blog post.

“Any of these excuses sound familiar? We’ve heard all of them just in the past month,” Ignite said. “Folks definitely lose concentration in the summer and momentum on ‘getting the ship in order’ takes a hit. Let’s face it, there are a lot more fun things to do than deal jacket reviews, updating policies, and all of the other things that need to be done to keep one step ahead of the regulators and lawyers.

“Let me ask you this, though: Do you think the regulators give a darn? How do you think your state examiner’s going to react when you explain that you were just too busy to audit your paperwork? Do you think that lawsuit is going to take it easy on you? Guess again. The folks that you have to answer to don’t want to hear your excuses. They want to see demonstrable compliance,” Ignite continued.

And if the thoughts of what could unfold with regulators and lawsuits weren’t enough, Ignite also shared that operators’ finance sources also are being questioned because of compliance.

“Also, in just the past month, we’ve seen a client get its capital renewal held up because the lender wasn’t satisfied with their safeguards efforts (expect to see more of this as a result of the CDK breach),” Ignite said. “We heard from a dealer going through a state audit that there wasn’t enough attention to detail on policy content.”

Even though summer doesn’t officially end until Sept. 23, Ignite shared some suggestions to get back on the compliance track.

“What are you doing to make sure your risk goes down between now and Halloween? Check your compliance management system and come up with a game plan,” Ignite said.

“Ask key personnel what they are doing to make sure you are not a ripe target for a regulatory issue or a lawsuit. If you need ideas, reach out to Ignite, we’ve got lots of experience helping companies of all shapes and sizes. One size doesn’t fit all, we’ll help you come up with an efficient plan that will make an impact,” the firm went on to say.

If your dealership needs more assistance, Ignite can be reached at Info@Ignitecp.com.