Archive for April 26th, 2010
As an operator of a successful trucking business, I have seen my share of successes and failures. Those who do well with their trucking business often take on certain characteristics that allow them to take their truck off the lot and quickly begin to generate a profitable return on their investment. There are tons of success stories, despite the difficult economy, and many of these have a lot in common. In this article, I’ll provide the common characteristics of semi truck operators who win.
There are also a number of people who have had their commercial trucking business fall apart during this time. Some of these people were first time owner operators and others were seasoned road warriors. The circumstances of these people vary, but there are some similar factors that seem to have set this group up to be less than successful. Here I will discuss some of these common factors and the best ways to sidestep financial disaster through proper semi truck financing methods.
The first place to begin when thinking about becoming your own business owner is motivation. When I was younger, sitting in school, I didn’t have a lot of motivation to excel. In fact, I pretty much squeaked by because I had little interest and was unmotivated. Over time, I developed a real motivation for trucking and running my own business. I enjoyed the lifestyle that trucking could allow and at the same time was interested in being my own boss. Is being your own boss and having your own semi truck something that you are internally motivated to do? If not, consider a different vocation. If you are not internally motivated, then when times are difficult you’ll be hard pressed to stay focused and be successful.
Commercial truck owners who are successful at running their own business, either as a single truck or a small fleet, it isn’t sufficient to simply be a driver. In addition to driving your truck you have additional roles as President, Financial Analyst, and Mechanic. If you don’t take on these critical business roles you can’t be successful. The reality is that you need to be a jack of all trades if you wish to succeed. You’ll certainly be doing more than if you were simply a driver. To keep a semi truck running at its best and run a profitable business, you must manage every one of these jobs well.
As I mentioned earlier in my school example, it’s hard to be successful just by excelling at the jobs you like. Unfortunately in the trucking business, you can’t let certain jobs slide simply because they don’t interest you. If you’re going to be selective about which loads you haul and which you don’t, do so based on profitability not location or load type. Keep your focus on profitability and you’ll go far. Combine this with your willingness to take on multiple roles as a semi-truck business owner and you’re sure to be successful. Being a good business owner means that you’ll stay focused while wearing many hats.
Are you looking to run your own trucking business? Commercial truck leasing is a great option for owning your own rig. Our semi truck financing program is ideal for anyone who wants to sit behind their very own commercial truck.
categories: commercial truck,truck financing,truck leasing,trucking,semi truck,commercial truck,leasing,financing,hauler,truck driver
Are you considering outsourcing some of your workload? This can be a cost-effective way to take on more business, but you need to really do your homework before hiring an outside consultant or company, as their work will impact the overall quality of your project.
It may be difficult to handle certain problems with outsourced employees such as turnover, knowledge, and attitude.
One consideration is turnover, which is often a problem in business outsourcing.
For example, what is the turnover rate of the company you are considering outsourcing to? It may be higher than you realize.
You’ll likely either train the outsourced staff, or have one of your employees train the outsourced staff. If the staff does not stay, will you have to do this again with their replacement? How will this impact operations?
Not only will you have to train any replacements on the actual project, you’ll also need to train them on policies, procedures, and any other information that their predecessor had. Even unwritten rules that become second nature in an organizational culture will need to be learned.
It is not uncommon for a new employee to spend about two weeks getting settled in when they begin a job. In some roles, such as customer service, these two weeks might be two weeks in which your customers are less than satisfied.
Be sure to accept that fact that when you outsource, the employee is not your employee. They are the employee of the company who outsourced them to you. Are they temporary employees? Do they have benefits? If not, they may continue to look for other work.
A temporary employee who does not truly work for your company may not truly adapt the mission and vision of your company.
It is not entirely unrealistic to expect an outsourced employee to care less about your company than you’d like.
Before agreeing to anything, you should emphasize that you expect all outsourced employees to hold as true to your company as your actual employees do.
Refer to additional pieces of work written by this very writer about products including phone headsets and headset for computer.
categories: outsourcing,business,companies,industry,commerce,ecommerce,internet,jobs,career,entrepreneurs,management,home based,finance,marketing

