Car Dealer, Car Services, Financial Model, Retail, Service Businesses, Shipping, Transport

5-year Financial Projections, Break-Even, Business Plans, Business Valuation, Cash Flow Projections, Dashboard, Debt Amortization, Debt Schedule, Debt Service Coverage, Excel, Financial Feasibility, Financial Model, Financial Modeling, Financial Planning, Financial Projections, Financing, Forecasting, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), Loans, Mergers and Acquisitions Model, Payback Period, Pro-Forma, Profitability Analysis, Revenue Projections, Scenario Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis, Uses and Sources of Funds

Underwrite a boat / marine dealership acquisition the way it really works — not as one revenue blob. A dealership is four businesses under one roof, and the iron is not where the money is. This is a lender-ready, 5-year model for buying a single-store boat dealership with an SBA 7(a) loan, built around the two lines no existing template models: the boat floorplan interest and the fixed-ops absorption ratio.

The engine. Revenue and gross are built bottom-up by department — new boats, used boats, F&I (per deal × finance penetration) and parts & service — each at its own margin, so Gross Profit falls out of the mix. In the base case the new and used iron make ~79% of the revenue while the F&I and service departments make ~48% of the gross profit. The revenue split tracks the public marine consolidators (OneWater FY2025: new 62% / used 19% / service+parts 16% / F&I 3%).

The floorplan, modelled explicitly. Boat inventory is financed on a revolving floorplan line (Wells Fargo CDF, Northpoint — ~100% of invoice at ~5–8%), kept separate from the acquisition loan. Floorplan interest = average inventory at cost × advance rate × floorplan rate, where average inventory = unit cost × days-in-stock ÷ 365. Days-in-stock and the floorplan rate are stressable drivers — the carrying cost that explodes when rates rise and boats stop moving.

The honest headline: the down-cycle. The base-case DSCR looks comfortable at 1.55x — because the acquisition loan is small versus cash flow; the inventory risk lives in the floorplan, not the loan. So the model runs the test the seller’s good-year P&L never will: a normal marine unit down-cycle (−20% volumes — boat sales fell ~20% in 2009) through the fixed overhead, which cuts SDE by ~30% and drops DSCR to 0.89x. The bankable story is fixed-ops absorption + floorplan discipline + the down-cycle, not a leverage-amplified cash-on-cash.

What you get: an 11-sheet Excel workbook (works in Google Sheets — no macros, no add-ins, no external links), a PDF user guide, a 3-way profile toggle (outboard & pontoon / full-line & cruiser / used & fixed-ops heavy), an SBA 7(a) capital stack with the 10% injection and $5M-cap checks, a real amortisation schedule, the fixed-ops absorption ratio, the floorplan interest coverage, a DSCR stress grid across days-in-stock × floorplan rate, and a conservative 5-year exit with the equity multiple. Every formula is recomputed by three independent engines (67/67 checks pass). Honest by design: SDE margin ~5% (boat dealers run thin); units-per-store and the split are industry-representative estimates from OneWater / MarineMax filings; the cash-on-cash and equity multiple are stated as leverage-amplified and cyclical; there is deliberately no IRR. Educational planning tool — not financial, investment, tax or lending advice.

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