I just picked up a 70 truck fleet account. Woohoo! I’m excited to have regularly scheduled work that extends through the winter. I’ve got a demo for a 50 truck fleet soon and will probably pick that one up too (they were using the same guy who they weren’t happy with and the CEOs are good buddies). I plan to move from there and target a few more local trucking companies to bring my monthly total up to 200+ trucks by the end of the year. My question is this: how do I set up my business so that it can run without me? I plan on hiring at least one guy to help me, but what if I get sick? Or we both get sick? Also, as much as I enjoy the work, it’s certainly not something I see myself personally doing for 20 years but I would like my company to continue to grow. I guess in my ideal world I only have 2 employees that I pay to do fleet washing and the occasional commercial job while I handle house washes and marketing and filling in for vacation and sick days. Seems dangerous though as the whole operation could go down if I’ve got a guy on vacation and I get sick on a weekend. What do you big guys do to make sure situations like that don’t shut you down? I suppose if I was doing house washes I could reschedule but I assume most fleet managers are going to expect consistency no matter what. This is getting a bit rambly but I’d like to hear others’ methods for scaling.
Systemize everything so that anyone can walk in and do the job. That’s the way to build a Sellable business as well. Weather you want to sell it or not, if something happens to you and you can’t return back to work, you can sell it and pay some bills.
Hiring-wise, you can have two full timers, or one full and two part time, so three guys, two of them take half a week each. and you can bring them with you to other jobs to give them more work if you want/can. They can also cover for each other if needed.
You may also want to see if you can train someone else to fill in when necessary and have him on the payroll/WC, I have a barber fill in during dire necessities. My payroll comp requires him to work at least once every other month, otherwise he’ll get booted off the system.
Have a written check-list for them to follow, although after training they’ll know what to do.
Treat them kindly, pay them well, and the latest thing I read, don’t befriend them.
Read “Built to Sell” by John Warrillow. Brodie mentioned it in a post a while ago and I read it. If you figure the principles out, it can lead you to where you want to go.
Another good one is The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
Some great points.
Hey Garry…Do you know the difference between the 1st and 2nd book? Should you read the first book before reading the second or is it basically just a recap of the first?
Thanks
Hi Brian, I would prob just read the second one, he def expands on the first. The important points are covered in the 2nd.
