Entrepreneurship and its Affect on Market

A high school friend worked for entrepreneur Michael Hinderliter for about 2 years. My friend's job was to prepare and serve bubble tea for the Chill Bubble Tea franchise, but he came into contact with the owner because they shared a common interest: custom car parts. The entrepreneur also ran a car parts importing business. He started by importing crates of the parts he wanted for his car and selling off the parts he did not need on the internet and eventually became the sole US importer for an international suspension manufacturer (1).


It is not easy to enter the auto manufacturing industry; the barriers to entry are very high (1). Tesla Motors is one example of a successful auto manufacturing business, but they are the minority: Their electric car sector has countless examples of failed start-ups. The affect their success has had on the auto market is also very limited: they expect to sale only 20,000 by 2013 worldwide (2).


Opportunities to enter the auto manufacturing business are therefore severely limited. Despite this, there are opportunities for entrepreneurship within this industry. There are opportunities for new firms manufacturing and importing after-market performance parts, like in the case of Hinderliter. Often these new parts will fill different niche markets in the aftermarket parts sector.


There are also opportunities for entrepreneurs to enter the auto industry by participating in its distribution chain. Most auto manufacturers sell new cars exclusively through franchised dealerships (4). Because cars are among the few products still only available through a physical retail location, entrepreneurs can affect regional markets dramatically by bringing new manufacturers to an area. Because car prices are often negotiated at the dealer, the price for a new car can change dramatically if there are more dealers in an area selling cars in the same segment or even of the same model.


Sources
(1) Michael Hinderliter, personal communication (2011)
(2) http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=384
(3) http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/21/autos/tesla_roadster_selling_out/index.htm
(4) http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.24.3.233
(image) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Lexus_Car_dealership_%28setagaya_tokyo%29.JPG/800px-Lexus_Car_dealership_%28setagaya_tokyo%29.JPG

Posted in: auto industry,Dan Pungello,entreprenurship,market,workings of the auto industry