Let me preface my business plan by saying I have no expedited trucking experience at all. I have read all the message boards and gained a HUGE amount of knowledge about trucking from nice people, in the business, willing to share info.
I feel I can make a rough estimate as to how much money can be made. It seems to me the real money is to be made on a team operation, where I own the truck and the team drives it for me. This setup requires very little real work on my part, just a cash outlay for capital equipment and training. As a secondary business I can become a headhunter for all the truck owners and companies in the country and charge them a finders fee of around $500 a team. Maybe even set up some kind of organization to make this an easier process. I can use this money to invest into more trucks. I’ll need to work out a deal with some CDL B training schools to get reduced rates on training. Maybe get to a point where I can get it worked out like the OTR companies do it. If I pay for your training you owe me one year of indentured servitude or you owe me $5000, take your pick. I could have perspective teams out on the road in a week.
On to the plan……
My target demographic:
I need to capitalize on baby boomers and displaced manufacturing workers. We all know millions of baby boomers have not properly prepared for their retirement and will need retirement income after retiring or being forced out prematurely. There is a couple million or so factory workers facing a very uncertain future.
My marketing plan:
What I plan to do is this….
Phase 1: I see no way to avoid having to actually drive the truck for at least a year or so in order to gain some creditability and some experience on the business side of things. I’ll set up a web page with anecdotal stories about this experience and paint a rosy picture of being a “paid tourist”. I’ll register the site with all the search engines and figure out how to get it show up on the first page of search results. I’ll advertise with EO to increase web traffic. Maybe throw in some pictures of the great tourist sites I’ve seen. This “paid tourist” concept appeals to a huge amount of older couples who don’t have the funds to buy their own RV. So, why not drive mine for free and get paid to do it, what a great setup. I’ll leave out the 22 hours a day of driving you’ll be doing, everyday, or your fired, owing me $5000. The RV business is a multi billion dollar a year industry, this “paid tourist” idea has to appeal to millions. This internet strategy reaches only a small part of my demographic. Most older couples aren’t out surfing the net looking for trucking jobs and displaced factory workers can’t afford a computer. But, it will give me a good pool of a couple hundred or so recruits to get started with.
Phase 2: Like I said, the internet only reaches a very small portion of my demographic. I need a secondary way to recruit. How about …… a really cool truck all done up like an RV, with a full size shower and toilet, plasma TV, all kinds of electronic gadgets, shiny wheels, like that Lil’ Duece Coupe truck, with a 16’ box on the back, you know as some kind of afterthought. I can probably get the truck companies to do some special work for me, after all I’ll be buying a bunch of trucks from them in the future. Now, with this truck I can do an infomercial (this TV time is cheaper than most of you think) and run it late at night or early in the morning and really start raking in the recruits. I can visually show everyone the great RV they’ll be driving for free, in fact they’ll be making $100,000 a year doing it. What the heck, $150,000 a year it’s an infomercial right..? I’ll be like the guy who sells everybody 3 cassette tapes and a book for $250 on how to buy $10,000,000 worth of real estate with nothing but your good looks. Wonder how he’s making his real money….. Can you picture this……..???? OK, maybe not an infomercial but at the very least I could put the pictures on the website.
If this all fails, how much of MY money did I lose. How much money did I MAKE. All my assets are easily liquefied, I can run the business from a rented office space or my kitchen table, for that matter, and close up shop on the drop of a dime and bankrupt the company. I haven’t done anything wrong, other than capitalize on peoples fears, laziness and deep rooted desire to make a fortune without having to WORK for it.
It's the American way, right...?????......Sucker born every minute....
This is a brief summary of my plan….. What do you think…????
I feel I can make a rough estimate as to how much money can be made. It seems to me the real money is to be made on a team operation, where I own the truck and the team drives it for me. This setup requires very little real work on my part, just a cash outlay for capital equipment and training. As a secondary business I can become a headhunter for all the truck owners and companies in the country and charge them a finders fee of around $500 a team. Maybe even set up some kind of organization to make this an easier process. I can use this money to invest into more trucks. I’ll need to work out a deal with some CDL B training schools to get reduced rates on training. Maybe get to a point where I can get it worked out like the OTR companies do it. If I pay for your training you owe me one year of indentured servitude or you owe me $5000, take your pick. I could have perspective teams out on the road in a week.
On to the plan……
My target demographic:
I need to capitalize on baby boomers and displaced manufacturing workers. We all know millions of baby boomers have not properly prepared for their retirement and will need retirement income after retiring or being forced out prematurely. There is a couple million or so factory workers facing a very uncertain future.
My marketing plan:
What I plan to do is this….
Phase 1: I see no way to avoid having to actually drive the truck for at least a year or so in order to gain some creditability and some experience on the business side of things. I’ll set up a web page with anecdotal stories about this experience and paint a rosy picture of being a “paid tourist”. I’ll register the site with all the search engines and figure out how to get it show up on the first page of search results. I’ll advertise with EO to increase web traffic. Maybe throw in some pictures of the great tourist sites I’ve seen. This “paid tourist” concept appeals to a huge amount of older couples who don’t have the funds to buy their own RV. So, why not drive mine for free and get paid to do it, what a great setup. I’ll leave out the 22 hours a day of driving you’ll be doing, everyday, or your fired, owing me $5000. The RV business is a multi billion dollar a year industry, this “paid tourist” idea has to appeal to millions. This internet strategy reaches only a small part of my demographic. Most older couples aren’t out surfing the net looking for trucking jobs and displaced factory workers can’t afford a computer. But, it will give me a good pool of a couple hundred or so recruits to get started with.
Phase 2: Like I said, the internet only reaches a very small portion of my demographic. I need a secondary way to recruit. How about …… a really cool truck all done up like an RV, with a full size shower and toilet, plasma TV, all kinds of electronic gadgets, shiny wheels, like that Lil’ Duece Coupe truck, with a 16’ box on the back, you know as some kind of afterthought. I can probably get the truck companies to do some special work for me, after all I’ll be buying a bunch of trucks from them in the future. Now, with this truck I can do an infomercial (this TV time is cheaper than most of you think) and run it late at night or early in the morning and really start raking in the recruits. I can visually show everyone the great RV they’ll be driving for free, in fact they’ll be making $100,000 a year doing it. What the heck, $150,000 a year it’s an infomercial right..? I’ll be like the guy who sells everybody 3 cassette tapes and a book for $250 on how to buy $10,000,000 worth of real estate with nothing but your good looks. Wonder how he’s making his real money….. Can you picture this……..???? OK, maybe not an infomercial but at the very least I could put the pictures on the website.
If this all fails, how much of MY money did I lose. How much money did I MAKE. All my assets are easily liquefied, I can run the business from a rented office space or my kitchen table, for that matter, and close up shop on the drop of a dime and bankrupt the company. I haven’t done anything wrong, other than capitalize on peoples fears, laziness and deep rooted desire to make a fortune without having to WORK for it.
It's the American way, right...?????......Sucker born every minute....
This is a brief summary of my plan….. What do you think…????
