Ever felt like your trucking business was careening down an ice-covered mountain in “Georgia overdrive”? (That’s in ‘neutral’ for the younger truckers out there.) Many of us have wondered, “What was I thinking when I bought this #%&! truck?” Well, if you are sitting down and reading this blog, you’ve somehow slowed that speeding truck and brought it to a safe stop. But you’re still on the ice-covered highway, looking down the hill thinking, “Now what?”  To make it to the bottom in one piece, we’ll need to Run Smart.

For the majority of truckers and small motor carriers, this downturn has really been tough. With the mortgage and housing debacle, the price of fuel bouncing up and down like a loose basketball and the Wall Street financial meltdown, we’re wondering what catastrophe is around the next bend—and how can we plan for it?

Just like any great football coach knows when his team is behind; and the opposing team is first and goal on the 10-yard line, to turn the contest around he must return to the basics of the game. We need to do the same. Return to the basics of trucking, the basics of how to succeed in business; in short, look at your business as if you were just starting out.

You need to have a plan. If you’ve never put one together, now is the time. Look back and review what your business has done in the past, what has worked and what has caused problems. From there, start laying out your game plan: the direction your company needs to roll, over both the short term and long term.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to accomplish this:

1. The first step in your plan is to figure out what you’ll need in equipment to achieve these goals.
2. Second, you need to know how many people it’s going to take to get the job done to reach your objectives.
3. The money is third. How much in cash flow and cash reserves will it take to acquire and run the equipment, plus pay the personnel on your team for the next six months? Next year? Two years?  How many dollars will you need to set aside in your company savings to be capitalized (grow) in the next three to five years?
4. Number four: Who are your customers, how stable are their businesses? What is their growth potential or anticipated downsizing? How does this affect reaching your goals? Where can you find new customers?
5. Revenue is number five. What hauling rates do you need in order to achieve the funds necessary to pay all the expenses and meet the required amounts in savings to grow?
6. Finally, what needs to be adjusted, cut, increased, or changed to make this plan work?
7. Once you’ve finished the plan, go back and review it to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Then return to it at least once a month and again adjust, cut, increase, or change as is warranted.
8. Finally, implement the plan!

This business plan is what will get you off that ice-covered mountain in first gear and in one piece. Next week we’ll show you how to take the plan from the locker room to the playing field. Remember, a plan is just a plan, until it is put into action. Then it becomes a result.

Good loads and safe roads, everyone.

Timothy Brady
©2009