College sports is big business with a fan base just as big. The NCAA says it generated nearly $900 million in revenues during the 2011-12 season (the most recent figures released). Farm equipment manufacturers like Kioti and Mahindra are tapping into this trend to reach new customers.

There is no typical rural lifestyler, but it seems many choose life in the country for one or all of these three main reasons: To have more space, to get closer to the land or to raise animals, especially horses.

Start making mistakes and start succeeding. Inc. magazine columnist Carey Smith warns against seeking business expert advice without factoring in what you can learn from making mistakes.

Rural Lifestyle Dealer recently announced our new partnership with Bob Clements, who is recognized as the premier management consultant for outdoor power equipment, agriculture and power sports dealerships. We’re teaming up with Bob and his company, Bob Clements Intl., to provide real world and “must do” strategies for making your dealership more profitable.

Jackie Curé is a land broker in Asheville, N.C. She opened her business, Landcrazy.com, in 2006, survived the recession and is now seeing an influx of homesteaders and “microfarmers” in western North Carolina.

The automotive market is a good one to watch for trends that might impact the rural lifestyle equipment market. Automotive dealers' wide customer base leads them to adopt marketing practices and technology earlier than equipment dealers. Consumers overall are spending an increasing amount of time online, so what's the auto industry doing to evolve its online strategies?

The selling season is here. Have you “stocked” your sales floor with top-notch salespeople to meet the increased traffic? Based on your responses to our 2015 Dealer Business Trends & Outlook survey, many of you say finding good employees is the issue you’re most concerned about. What steps are you taking to attract and retain good people?

What if you could talk to a customer about purchasing new equipment and not ever mention price? Unfortunately, that will probably never happen, but there are lots of ways to make price secondary, says Jan Johnson of the Landmark Performance Group.

There are so many customer surveys being released these days that it's easy to become indifferent to them. What do researchers really know about customer satisfaction? After all, they're not face-to-face with customers, they're not backed up in the shop and they're not battling for every last sale.