I guess round two is about to start. Will it be as bad as the first round or could it be worse? What we do know is we will have people making decisions on our business that will not be us. We already painted all the offices and cleaned all the trucks during the first quarantine. I think it’s time to concentrate on you the owner. I am in Dallas, Texas and things are starting to slow down. I am sure by the end of July we all may be back in quarantine; if so, I have decided to get healthy.
I have decided to beat my type two diabetes. I read all the Facebook cures and talked to different doctors, and they all have the solution, and they are all different. My diabetic doctor just keeps raising the dosage of my meds without giving me a cure. Here is my approach, and I want you to decide what you are going to do while our business is slow and follow the same approach. I recently talked to a friend of mine, and he was telling me about some Tony Robbins classes he was attending or viewing his videos. He told me how these classes helped him tremendously. I took these classes several years ago, and now I follow his outline in every business or project I start.
It is simple: for me, I want to cure my diabetes, so I write down 6 things I need to do to make that happen:
1. Do a cleanse. This consists of a diet of water for three days. This gives my body a chance to readjust.
2. For the next 90 days, eat nothing but meats and greens.
3. Exercise, even its just walking.
4. Keep a log of everything I eat.
5. Check my blood sugar level 3 times a day.
6. Pray to God I do not drive my wife crazy while I am doing this because I know I’m going to be grouchy and miserable.
Once I have identified the six things, I then take each one and write down 5 things I will do for each step I take. For example, I need to cleanse, so I will write down 5 things to help me with the 1st step. Then I will write down 5 things I need to do to make those five things happen. Once you have it written down, look at it every day and follow your instructions. That is the key, it is something you can look at every day, and it tells you what to do.
Apply this method to your business. Let’s say you want to improve your bottom line.
Write down 5 things you can address to do that:
1. First identify your monthly bottom line.
2. Assess whether you need more trucks or less trucks.
3. Determine whether you need to increase your staff or release people.
4. Cut all your expenses by 10%, so identify every expense you have.
5. Increase revenue. I can help you here just give me a call.
Now write 5 things for each item listed above. You will be amazed once you have it on paper and look at it. Don’t do this alone. Get your employees involved. You will be surprised how helpful they can be, and it will improve the moral of your company. You might want to offer education to your employees. Let’s identify five things we need to address:
1. What employees need education (drivers, dispatchers, others)
2. Identify what their weaknesses are.
3. Make a budget you want to spend to educate them.
4. Decide what classes you should offer to your employees.
5. Identify the benefits received from the education program.
You should have an idea of what we are doing here, so let’s move on. Since we are in different times, let’s try something different. I need 20 companies to help build a tow academy and the classes that should be taught at the academy. Our goal is to develop tow truck drivers for the future. We will divide into working groups, and each group will work on a specific project. Here is what my vision is: I see a person attending the academy that knows nothing about the tow industry. Here are a few videos they can watch to get started:
1. Educate them on them types of tows (repo, police, private-property, consumer, other)
2. Educate them on the types of trucks that are available, (light, medium, heavy, other).
3. Educate them on the use of each truck.
4. Educate them on the tools and other equipment necessary for each truck.
5. Show them how to use all the necessary equipment.
6. Hands-on training on the use of all the tools and equipment.
Then we get into specialized tows like:
1. What is required to tow an all-wheel drive vehicle.
2. What is required to tow an electric vehicle.
3. Take each truck available and show them what is required to use that truck.
4. What is required to tow high-end vehicles (Porsche, Mercedes, other).
5. What is required to tow a Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet, Other).
We will create a video of each, and then give them hands-on training for each vehicle. These
videos will be made by towers in the industry who have been doing this for years. When I get 20 tow companies that are interested, we can add to the list of things that should be taught at the academy. Once we have 20 videos created that have value to each tow company, we then give them to the state associations and let them sell them to their members. This gives the state association a new revenue stream. Hopefully the state associations will get involved with the training and the academy and provide input.
One thing we never talked about were the students attending the academy. We will work with the government and get people coming out of jail and train them on a new career. When I mention that, everyone’s first reaction is we can’t hire felons. We don’t take everyone, just the ones that qualify. We can also work with veterans and give them a new career. Once the program takes off, we will start getting funding necessary to expand our academies and create other programs. These are my thoughts. Imagine if we had 20 people working on this. If you are slow over the next few months, give me a call at 469-774-0340 or e-mail me at dan@towtrax.net. Be safe, wash your hands, and wear a mask if necessary.
