Freight Brokerage Business. The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
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of the biggest challenges of working from home, especially if you’ve never done this before, is time management. You need to learn how to avoid distractions and focus on work during your work day, as opposed to taking frequent breaks to do things around the house, like watching television, cleaning, gardening, doing laundry, or playing with your dog. This requires discipline.
You’ll also need to adjust to the lack of in-person social interaction with coworkers and clients. Your main communication with other people will be via email and telephone. You can’t simply walk to the next cubicle or office and strike up a conversation with a coworker when working from home. If you’ve worked in a traditional office environment, the lack of in-person social interaction that results in working from home will require some getting used to.
If you’re planning to hire administrative help, your office needs to be large enough to provide them with adequate workspace, and you need available parking. Plus, there are additional insurance requirements associated with having employees work from your home.
tip
To learn more about shared office space options in your community using any internet search engine, enter the search phrase, “shared office space,” followed by a comma, and then add your city and state. For example, type “shared office space, Boston, Massachusetts.”
By contrast, starting in a commercial location requires more initial cash than starting from home. If you decide on this, your range of options is fairly broad, and your choice should be guided largely by the goals you’ve set for your business in terms of market and growth. Consider office buildings, light-industrial parks, and executive suites.
In many cities and communities, there are also fully furnished, shared office suites that can be rented on a month-to-month basis from companies like Regus (www.regus.com) that include a receptionist, shared conference room(s), and private offices. One benefit to this option is that there’s no long-term lease to sign, but the monthly fee will be slightly higher than a traditional commercial office space.
Unless you have an extremely large home, you’ll find that a commercial location allows you to create a setup that is more efficient than what you might be able to do in a spare bedroom or home office. Just be careful when shopping for a space. Rental rates and leasing terms vary, so make sure you comparison shop.
Whether your goal is a solo homebased operation, a small family business, or a transportation empire, you will need to start with a written business plan. This helps you think through what you’re doing, see your strengths and weaknesses, and figure out ways to overcome challenges on paper before you have to face them in real life. Writing a business plan is not just a necessary chore; it creates the foundation and sets the vision for your company.
Your business plan should include worst-case scenarios. You’ll benefit from thinking ahead about what you’ll do if things don’t go as you want them to. Think about things such as equipment breakdowns, employees who don’t show up (even for valid reasons), uncollectible invoices, and other challenges that are part of doing business today.
Some brokers may opt to use agents to develop a wider scope of operations. In this context, agents are independent contractors who represent your company in a given area. This enables you to offer a local presence when you may not have the volume to justify opening your own office.
tip
Anytime you register a company domain name, always choose the dot-com (.com) extension. While hundreds of other domain name extensions are available, and you can register some of those as well, most people are accustomed to typing dot-com after a website address they want to visit and will do this automatically. If your domain name ends with .info, .net, or .co, for example, you could wind up losing business.
Plan on spending less than $25 per year for each domain name you register. You’ll then most likely need to pay to have your company website created and hosted on your behalf. In today’s business world, having a company website, in addition to a presence on social media (particularly Facebook and LinkedIn), is essential.
Along these lines, you may want to consider starting out as an agent rather than a broker. Chuck Andrews’s brokerage company is based in Indianapolis, but he has agents in Texas, Florida, Georgia, West Virginia, and Indiana. Because his agents are not running independent brokerage companies, and because they are homebased, their startup materials are minimal and typically consist of an internet-connected computer, printer, telephone, fax machine, and some file cabinets. The agent’s work is very similar to what a broker does, but the agent functions under auspices of the broker and the broker is responsible for issues, such as paying carriers and maintaining the required surety bonds.
Again, if you opt to start off as an agent working for another company, as opposed to launching your own freight brokerage business, the initial financial responsibilities are much lower, and you can begin gaining real-world experience almost immediately. If you opt to pursue this approach, consider participating in a freight brokerage training program and then applying for an agent job with established brokers.
Your company name is an important marketing tool. A well-chosen name works very hard for you; choosing an ineffective name means you have to work much harder at marketing your company and letting people know what you have to offer.
Your company name should clearly identify what you do in a way that appeals to your target market. It should be short, catchy, and memorable. It should also be easy to pronounce and spell—people who can’t say your company name may use you, but they won’t refer anyone else to you.
When choosing a company name, also make sure the website domain name for it is available. To do this, go to any internet domain name registrar, such as GoDaddy.com (www.godaddy.com), and within the Find Your Perfect Domain Name field that’s displayed on the main page, enter your desired company name. If it’s available, register that domain name.
Cathy Davis gave serious thought to several names before deciding to use her initials. Chuck Andrews chose his company’s name—Midwest Freight Brokers, Inc.—based on its location and the service the company provides. “We’re located in the Midwest, freight is what we do, and brokers are what we are,” he says. Ron Williamson used a combination of his and his wife’s initials to come up with RJW Logistics, Inc., because he wanted a name no one else was using.
Take a systematic approach to naming your company. For descriptive purposes, incorporate the words “Freight Brokers,” “Freight Broker,” or “Logistics” into the name whenever possible. Once you’ve decided on two or three possibilities, take the following steps:
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When naming your company, consider creating a word that doesn’t exist. This is what companies like Exxon, and Kodak did. Just be sure the syllables blend to make an ear-appealing sound, and that the name is simple