I always thought that if you wanted to make money you had to have money.
If you have to borrow the money, then that decreases your chances of
making money because you have to service the debt which means others
are making money from your investment.
I think that many business's have an optimum size that they can operate
at or they are either so large that management loses control or so small
that they can't compete. I'm not sure what the optimum size for a
trucking business is but it probably depends on your market area. Mabey
the inefficiency of having employees is what is sucking you dry. What
about having ONE truck and One driver? (you)
Yours is a capital intensive business and a service business. You have
to have a lot of overhead just to provide the service which after being
performed, you get paid for only once. Compare that to say, a writer,
who writes his book, finds a publisher, and then collects royalties for
years...if he is lucky...even though he doesn't have to keep doing the
work. His only overhead is a computer. Or how about a salesman that once
he has sold an account, gets a percentage every time there is a
recurring sale.
Boat designers (and everything gets related to boats on this NG, doesn't
it?) try to cash in on this concept by designing boats and then charging
people everytime a plan is sold. Sure there are ongoing printing and
advertising and mabey consulting costs, but the major work is done. If
you have a design that everyone likes and you can charge enough for it,
it might be a good business. But like anything else it takes hard work,
talent, skill and luck.
One thing you could do is hire a manager to analyse your business and
implement changes. Have him work on a percentage basis. If he performs,
he makes more money, if he fails he is fired. He has to earn his keep as
do all employees. You will be freed to pursue other options because you
won't need to be watching everything all the time but many owners are
unable to let go and delegate things and so wind up miserable
and broke when they could have been miserable, broke, and building
boats.

The new guy wrote:
I have a trucking company and everyone that i talk to that is in this line
of bussines is not happy. We have to deal with a ton of rules and
regulations (DOT, MTO, 48 States, 10 Provinces each one with their own
rules), stupid overpaid drivers (making $13-15 hundreed per week in their
pocket), wrecking your equipment, frying loads or tipping over trailer,
insurance companies ripping our shirts off (I pay about 15'000.00 per truck
per year, that's like 12-13 hundreed per month! and if you have a claim you
get kicked out! I'm a small company (5 trucks), the company is worth about
$600'000.00, with this kind of dough invested i make enough to pay all the
leaches out there (ripoff repairs-last year an engine cost me 22'000.00$;
tires at 300-600$ a pop; loans; insurance $6300.00 per month;
drivers-$24'000.00) so every month i make what? like $90'000.00, this is
ninety thousand dollars per month!!!, Now, I don't drink, I don't do drugs,
I don't drive a fancy car, I have 6 other people helping me with the
operations of the company, they don't steal from me (I know for sure as I
get paid with cheques and the accounting is independent-ha! another gi a
month! f....ing leach!).
My credit cards are maxed out all the time (I have an outstanding credit,
but f...ing stressfull), my bank account is constantly dry: 90 in 90 out...
What is that I am doing wrong?
I have my own mechanic (it saves me around 10 gis a month in road repairs as
oposed to previous years, and I have a good maintenace program)
Got my own warehouse (pays for itself) but I lease (can't come up with the
fricking down payment!)
I fired 4 employees last year to cut on salaries (now, the ones that are
left have more to do, so they have a full 8 hr days, so what?!, pay them
more...still saves me couple of gi's a week)
So why I can't get out of debt ( $400'000.00 and counting)?
If I sell my equipment I will pay off only part of what I owe and probably
end up with a debt of 50-60 grand (because the equipment is already
depreciated), at least now I have some cash flow...
Does anybody know what is there to do? Any good busines ideas, I don't
know...like a restaurant or a massage parlour...anything, just something.

The New Guy