Читать книгу Start Your Own Transportation Service - Cheryl Kimball - Страница 10
ОглавлениеThere is no better way to learn the ins and outs of starting any small business than to talk with business owners who have done it—either successfully or not. In fact, sometimes those who have not been successful are the ones you can learn from the most!
The following transportation businesses are still in operation. You will see that their owners are passionate about what they do. They will occasionally be mentioned and quoted in other parts of this book. Therefore it seems appropriate that you meet them near the beginning of this book so when we encounter them later you’ll already be acquainted.
(www.equine-transport.net)
Pat Thompson has had a horse or two in her backyard most of her life. When she built the house she still lives in, the barn was as important to her as the house. She boarded a few horses and got involved with showing. And she got to know a few people in the equine world.
In 1995, one of those people she met through the world of horse showing had a bad experience with an equine transporter. She asked Pat—who already had a good-sized horse trailer and truck because she herself was doing a lot of showing and had a reputation for topnotch care of her own and her boarders’ horses—if she would consider transporting her horse the next time she needed to get to a show grounds a distance away. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Pat started slowly. Her original trailer had living quarters, and she would do straight-through hauling. Now 20 years later she has abandoned that approach and does not allow her subcontractors to do it either. Because of the relationships she has built over the years drivers and horses can stay overnight at farms countrywide. She decided it was better for the horse and meant the drivers were fresher if they stopped for the night and stayed in stalls and hotels rather than on the rig. She picks places that show the quality of care that she believes in and has a nearby hotel and restaurants so they can be efficient in getting in in the evening and out the next morning.
East Coast has had subcontractors whose rigs hold more horses, but Pat has found that she can be competitive keeping her load to no more than four horses.
“The more horses you need to fit in, the harder it is to build a load,” she says, referring to the coordination that goes into getting one horse from New England to Texas, picking up a horse in Kentucky along the way that is headed to Florida, or whatever the configuration may be. Ever mindful of each horse’s well-being, Pat says that with a maximum of four horses there aren’t as many stops and side trips along the way, all four horses get to where they are going faster, and the horses aren’t being exposed to so many different horses from different parts of the country.
“The big rigs,” Pat says, “hold up to 18 horses. That’s a lot of stops.” In fact, one thing that keeps her rig on the road regularly is doing final legs of the trip for some of those big rigs that don’t want to come up into the Northeast. They might, for example, bring a horse from Colorado to Kentucky. East Coast meets the rig in Kentucky and brings the horse up to its final destination in New England.
East Coast will rent the whole trailer for a dedicated trip for just one horse. The way she sets up her pricing is that each of the four possible spaces in the trailer is rented at a fee. She can make a box stall out of two, and the horse owner can rent those two spaces. Therefore, there is no “discount” for more horses on the trailer. The horse owner pays for their slot (or two), and it’s up to Pat to build the rest of the load or determine it’s time to hit the road, depending on anyone’s timing for when the horse has to get where it’s going.
Pat has learned a lot along the way. “I don’t worry about being competitive,” she says. “The work is out there. Maybe I am just not hungry enough anymore, but I set my rate and that’s what you pay. If it’s too high and you want to use someone else, that’s OK too.”
Not only are many of the horses that are moving around the country extremely valuable animals, but people care a lot about their animals no matter what the horse is worth. Pat learned pretty quickly that communication is key in this business.
“I contact the horse owner first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening all along the way. Sometimes I think it seems like overkill but owners just love it. The communication technology we have today makes it so easy. Owners just love getting a text with a picture of their horse content in an overnight stall hundreds of miles away with a message saying all is well.”
East Coast has always relied on word of mouth. This is the kind of business where reputation is everything. The company has a Facebook page where owners of horses they have transported post comments, which work as great testimonials for the business. Comments praising East Coast’s service from people in the horse industry who have a wide reputation is the best advertising tool they could have. In over 20 years, East Coast has never done any paid advertising. Pat has never had to advertise for subcontractors, either. “They find me,” she says. With decades of experience, Pat can tell if they will fit into her program by the way their rigs are kept and the way they handle horses. “I call customers and get feedback on their experience with the subcontractor. The key is to rectify any issues very, very quickly.”
She also early on created a fairly rigid contract. “Contracts are very important,” Pat emphasizes. “People change their minds. The contract covers both sides—that we don’t get stuck with a last-minute back out and the contract assures the customer that we do a good job.”
The East Coast contract, which is available to view on their website, requires a 50 percent nonrefundable deposit. Pat felt that the nonrefundable deposit had to be enough that people would feel it if they just backed out. She also understands that these are live animals and things happen; she understands if a horse becomes too sick to travel, but in order to release the deposit she requires a statement from the veterinarian.
And while working with the horses is what attracted Pat to starting this business in the first place, she reminds anyone who might be considering getting into an animal-related transport business that ultimately your business revolves around dealing with people. If you are not OK with that, you will need to find someone to do that part of the business for you.
(seacoasthelos.com)
Bruce Cultrera has been involved in aviation his whole life. His first science project in middle school was about how the wing works. He went to the Air Force Academy. And when he got out, he bought his first plane and flew privately. He’d always been a fixed-wing kind of guy and had never really thought about helicopters.
Seven or eight years ago his wife bought him an introductory helicopter flight for a birthday present. He did the flight and when they landed Bruce was so enthralled he said, “I have been wasting my whole life.”
He had been in the corporate world, an entrepreneur who started several businesses—real estate, management consultant—none having anything to do with aviation. And then Bruce got to that point where he was thinking about his retirement years. He knew he didn’t want to be bored.
While growing up in the seacoast New Hampshire area in the ’60s and ’70s, the small coastal town of Portsmouth had not yet become chic and trendy. After living in many other places around the country, Bruce came back for a visit and noticed Portsmouth seemed up and coming with a huge influx of summer tourists and a revitalized downtown.
“I woke up one day and was done with corporate America. But the day I woke up with no income was terrifying,” he admitted.
Bruce’s wife mentioned “why not something aviation-related” when he spoke of a retirement business, and he started to put some things together. Why not a helicopter business in Portsmouth? Pease Air Force Base had been shuttered and transformed to Pease International Tradeport. The former air base was home to the largest runway in New England and was still serving for military training and attracted some commercial aviation. It seemed a natural site to locate Seacoast Helicopters.
After a year of planning, Bruce bought a little training helicopter. He did flight training and took photographers up along the seacoast. Then he bought a four-seater. The next year his business doubled. Then it quadrupled. He still has a couple of fixed-wing planes in the hangar.
The business does scenic helicopter flights to the tourist sector. They fly corporate clients from seacoast New Hampshire to Manhattan for business meetings; there are numerous helipads all around New York City where the customer is dropped off, the helicopter goes out to New Jersey and hangs out waiting for the call to come in and pick the client up, and back to New Hampshire they go.
After having started several other businesses, Bruce says this is the most complex business he has ever started. “Regulations make it very complex. I am sure I would have failed without all that previous experience.”
One complex aspect to his helicopter business that was helped by his previous experience is putting together proposals for federal contracts. It can be pretty daunting, Bruce says, when the 300-plus-page RFP is dropped on your desk.
Seacoast Helicopters has worked with Great Bay Community College, located on the Pease International Tradeport just down the street from his office, to create a helicopter pilot training program which took 18 months to put together. The business also offers private flight training, in the summer does the scenic tours business, and brings maintenance personnel to remote locations where government-owned towers are often located.
Besides Bruce and his wife, Karen, who is the company’s VP of marketing and strategy, Seacoast Helicopters employs four pilots on the “rotary side” and two fixed-wing pilots. Two of his pilots are ex-military certified mechanics and do the basic maintenance on the equipment. All heavier maintenance is done by Port City Air, also located just down the street on the Tradeport. After every 100 hours of flight, a helicopter needs to be basically torn apart and inspected.
Bruce feels diversity is the key to success in a business like this. “My strategy is to cast a wide net and then eliminate the things that don’t work.” Clearly he has found some things that work!
Bruce’s advice to anyone thinking about an aviation transportation business? “Spend a lot of time in the planning phase,” he says. “Most businesses fail because they did not plan enough.”
He admits to being surprised by the amount of regulation in the aviation industry.
And his favorite part of the business? “No doubt, it is flying,” which, of course, he doesn’t do nearly as much as he would like.
(orcasislantaxi.com)
Orcas Island, a 57-square-mile horseshoe-shaped island in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State, is a tourist’s paradise in summer. Kayaking, whale watching, and hiking, biking, or horseback riding through Moran State Park are just a few of the things that attract visitors to the island. The island has an airport and a ferry terminal and can also be reached by floatplane and via small marinas. Once you land, you need to get to where you are staying. And that’s where Orcas Island Taxi comes in.
Owner Charles “Eric” Whitehead’s grandparents owned cabins on the island many years ago, which have long since been sold. But he had fond memories of visiting Orcas Island so when he was living in Delaware and got a call from a relative to come out for a construction job, he was enticed to go back.
But by the time he got there, there was no construction job. He did land a different job and while he was doing that he found out that the guy who owned the phone number 376-TAXI was looking to sell the number. Eric had done a cab service before in Delaware, and he felt the island needed a reliable taxi service. So Eric bought the number for $2,000 and bought a vehicle.
The most challenging part about cab service, Eric says, is the insurance. “Right now insurance on one cab runs $30,000,” he says, a figure that has doubled in the six years since he started Orcas Island Taxi. The other difficult part about cab service in a place like Orcas Island is the winters. Even though Orcas is the biggest of the San Juan Islands, it is very seasonal.
“In my first winter,” Eric says, “I would go three or four days without a fare.” You need to get creative about a business like this, and Eric did. He has since contracted with a local private school to transport students from home to school in the morning and back in the afternoon.
Another thing about the island is that it is hilly, and although there is little snow, all his cabs need to be four-wheel drive to be able to maneuver the gravel roads, steep driveways, and houses located on cliffs.
The summers, on the other hand, are crazy busy. Eric runs three cabs nonstop in the summer. “I basically have three months to make my money.” In the winter, one of those cabs is permanently garaged, and the other is used just for pre-paid reservations. Although his business is located centrally on the island, which helps a lot with having less time on the road with no fare, the cell service on the island is spotty, making it difficult for him to get in touch with drivers while they are on the road.
And he has diversified that summer income in a couple ways. “I rent scooters to people.” On this hilly island, scooters are desirable. He figures he gets a 98 percent return on his investment.
The other revenue-generator is advertising. Businesses advertise on his cabs; not only does he get ad revenue, but his contract with the advertiser requires that they call him first for cab service for their customers.
Orcas Island Taxi service is subject to all of the regulations of a passenger transport service, and Eric recommends anyone thinking of starting a taxi service check very carefully into the local, state, and federal regulations. However, his location means there are no territorial concerns like there would be in a big city like Chicago or Boston.
And, like all successful small-business owners, Eric concurs with the importance of planning, especially for a startup period where you are not going to make much income and what you do make is likely to be put right back into the business.
“It took me three months to make any money,” he says. Other advice Eric offers is to do lots of research, find reliable workers, and, for a taxi service, use GPS so you aren’t wasting time and money (gasoline being the second highest cost of taxi businesses next to insurance) trying to find places.
