Are you thinking of building a new office or expanding your existing one? Lisa Rossmeyer Wade, O.D., has a few words of advice for you: “Jump off a bridge.”
What she means is, “Just do it. If you have a dream, you need to follow it.”
She knows what she’s talking about. Before she opened up her Harley-Davidson dealership near Memphis, she was vice president for institutional advancement at Southern College of Optometry. (Dr. Wade no longer practices, but she keeps her license active.)
“I’m a firm believer that if you have a dream, you need to pursue it. You can’t spend your life ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda.’”
Dr. Wade’s current Harley dealership is 15,000 square feet. In February, she’s opening a brand new, top-of-the-line location of 54,000 square feet. Her current investment makes the average O.D.’s debts look like chicken feed. “We’re approaching $13 million,” she says.
“For someone looking to build a building, right now is a great time. The cost of construction is the lowest it’s been in years,” she says. And, “if you have good credit, money is cheap and available to borrow.”
How can she keep afloat selling high-end motorcycles in the current economic climate? “We’re not participating in the recession,” she says.
Not a bad business plan. Revenues at her dealership are up this year over last year.
Motorcycles are almost literally in her blood. She’s been riding since she was eight, and then she married into the Rossmeyer family, a sales dynasty that claims the world’s largest Harley dealership business. When Dr. Wade rides, she usually opts for a touring bike like a Harley Streetglide.
Interestingly, some of the lessons Dr. Wade learned as an optometrist have helped her as a motorcycle dealer.
“When you’re in a practice, you have to develop that relationship to your patients. Getting to know them, making them feel that you are there to take care of their needs in the best way possible,” she says. “[The] Harley [philosophy] is very much like that. Most of my customers are in my store on a monthly, weekly, and even a daily basis. This is their lifestyle, it’s not just a mode of transportation. We play together as well as do business together. So, it’s important for us to develop those strong customer relationships.”
Another thing she learned that she applies today: “I don’t discount my product at all,” she says. “One of the biggest lessons I learned as an optometrist is that if you try to compete on price, someone can always sell a dollar cheaper. You have to compete on service.”