According to many studies on the subject, you’ve got fewer than 30 seconds to make an impression on someone. In business, this can mean the difference between losing, landing or keeping a customer. So, ask yourself, “What would impress me?” If the initial contact is by phone, then that impression is determined by the manner in which you handle the phone call.

- Do you answer the phone in a professional, business-like manner?

- Do you speak clearly and slowly enough so the listener has time to understand what you are saying?

There are no guarantees when it comes to making money as an entrepreneur. It’s a learning process that continues every time you pick up a new skill or knowledge. Each enterprise develops a life of its own, equally as true in trucking as in any other small business. The hardest lesson to learn is that it takes years to grow a start-up to the point where it’s generating a sustainable profit and enough revenue to cover costs.

The day will come when you realize that the multiple tasks required to operate and grow your small trucking company require more time and energy than one person can muster. In other words, it’s time to start building a sales team. So, how do you find the person who will represent your company, forge strong professional bonds, and help maintain, sustain and grow your company?

Many micro and small carriers fail because they focus too much on the rate they’re paid per mile rather than on the total revenue they need to generate monthly and quarterly.

Those who focus on the per-mile rate look at a single, static rate as income per load. The problem with this approach is that a carrier’s cost per mile is influenced by multiple factors:

- Total distance traveled from destination to destination.

- Total elapsed time from destination to destination.

- Cost of fuel.

With the tremendous focus the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has put on fatigue, sleep deprivation, and sleep apnea involving truckers, certain questions arise. Add in the creation of rules and regulations to address these issues and it’s likely that if you weren’t sleep-deprived before, you are now. What about the rest and sleep habits of owners, managers, dispatchers, and the rest of your office staff? Are you addressing what the lack of sleep among these employees might be doing to your productivity and how they manage your truckers?

Trucking and farming businesses have a lot in common. They’re both risky because they’re affected by weather, fuel costs, and huge maintenance requirements for their equipment. Both have similar objectives. On the farm, the plan is to prepare the ground for planting by tilling and fertilizing, creating a fertile place to plant the seeds. Next comes nurturing and care through proper watering, keeping weeds from infiltrating the planted areas, and keeping insects from eating or destroying the crops.

With all the turmoil in the world, it’s time to have a definitive fuel cost-to-revenue strategy to deal with the day-to-day price volatility in diesel prices. The one thing that will put a small trucking company out of business quickest is getting behind the fuel eight-ball. You don’t want to be charging hauling rates that are based on last week’s, or even last month’s, price of fuel at the pump.