Found "a great article in USA today's ask the expert column:
By Steve Strauss for USA TODAY
Q: Do you think there is something a small business can do right now to make more money? We seem to be stuck in a rut that we can't get out of. — Sammy
A: What I would suggest is that when you go fishing, you go to an area where you are more assured of catching bigger fish.
Here is what I mean: I have a friend who sells real estate for a living. Back in the day, before the real estate market crashed, he made a great, and fairly easy, living selling small investment properties. Duplexes, four-plexes and mini malls were his specialty. He loved those sorts of properties because they were easy to sell, easy to fund, appreciated well, and offered a quick, decent commission.
But then the bottom fell out of the market and suddenly he was faced with a list of clients who were 1) stuck with properties they could not sell, and 2) not looking to expand their portfolio. As a result, his business was suddenly in real trouble.
But rather than stay stuck on a sinking ship, my friend decided to take action. He called up all of the best, most experienced real estate agents he knew and picked their brains. This was not the first down-turn in the real estate market – how had they survived similar problems in earlier times? My friend was willing to listen to all new ideas.
He received a lot of good advice, albeit some of it conflicting, but one thing an old hand in the real estate market told him made the most sense. "It takes as much effort to sell a small duplex as it does to sell a 100 unit apartment house, you know," the gentleman explained to my friend, adding, "but the large apartment complex will net you a heck of a lot more money."
Touché.
Sure deals were harder to get and close, but the point was that my friend could continue to do what he had always done and get the results he had grown accustomed to, or he could hustle for bigger deals, do just about the same amount of work, and possibly get much better results.
If he wanted to keep fishing, he needed to catch bigger fish.
And so that is what he began to do, almost immediately. He put out feelers to investors who had larger portfolios. He made presentations. He advertised in more high-end publications. And he entered into a continuing education crash course on how to sell large, multi-unit buildings.
Before long, his new ideas and hard work began to pay off. He got some new clients, and listings for two big buildings, both of which eventually sold.
My friend learned a valuable lesson – although it took a lot of time and effort to sell those buildings, it was no more than he would have spent selling two small duplexes. The essential effort was the same – getting the places ready to be shown, marketing them, showing potential buyers around, and then closing the deal. But the payoff was much, much bigger.
My friend now says he does not need to work the rest of the year, but he is going to anyway because he is so excited about the potential of his new business model.
I suggest that this is a good lesson for any small business that is struggling to make it through these tough times.
Seek out and fish for bigger fish.
Undoubtedly, there are potential customers out there in your industry who have larger budgets and bigger needs than some of your current customers. Find out who they are. Do some research, learn their needs, get some names, and prepare a presentation.
Happy fishing!
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.transportationtraining.com
www.brooketraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
P.S. While you fish for the whopper be sure and have your back end ready. I landed a big one then had to scurry to cover all the loads. A good problem but I had to take care of it soon or I'd loose the big fish quicker than I caught it.
Carrier Cash
Calling all carriers who could use some help with your cash flow. I am now offering freight factoring. 1.5% same day funding. My new division, Brooke Financial Services offers freight bill factoring. Similar to a loan from a bank, I give you the money needed today to pay your drivers, fuel and other expenses. I then wait 30 days to collect from your shipper.
Reduce the stress of money shuffling. Make your drivers happy by paying them quickly. A critical issue in any successful business is maintaining the cash flow you need to run the business efficiently while keeping all your creditors happy.
I can also teach you how to get in the freight factoring business, run a trucking company and lease you some trailers.
Give me a call and I can explain more thoroughly. I've been told I'm a funny guy, so if you need freight factoring or a good laugh give me a ring.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
214-206-1169
Reduce the stress of money shuffling. Make your drivers happy by paying them quickly. A critical issue in any successful business is maintaining the cash flow you need to run the business efficiently while keeping all your creditors happy.
I can also teach you how to get in the freight factoring business, run a trucking company and lease you some trailers.
Give me a call and I can explain more thoroughly. I've been told I'm a funny guy, so if you need freight factoring or a good laugh give me a ring.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
214-206-1169
Freight Consulting
I have learned some things along the way in the transportation industry. I continue to learn. As an educator once I learn something new I have a need to pass on to others the tips I’ve learned. So I offer consulting services.
If you own a small trucking company I can get you a great deal on freight factoring and on trailer leases. I can train you to open your own freight factoring company as well.
I also offer consulting on how to open a trucking company and
general consulting regarding the traffic industry. As you know if you follow my blog, I also have an on-line freight broker training school and a live school in five states. I work as a non-exclusive freight agent as well. I keep busy.
Besides Fuel and Drivers, I can supply almost anything to the carrier. They will get a great deal working with the top companies in the business.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
If you own a small trucking company I can get you a great deal on freight factoring and on trailer leases. I can train you to open your own freight factoring company as well.
I also offer consulting on how to open a trucking company and
general consulting regarding the traffic industry. As you know if you follow my blog, I also have an on-line freight broker training school and a live school in five states. I work as a non-exclusive freight agent as well. I keep busy.
Besides Fuel and Drivers, I can supply almost anything to the carrier. They will get a great deal working with the top companies in the business.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
Learn from Home
Interested in learning a new skill or start a new business? Pajama learning may be just the ticket for the information you need. We have thousands of courses from which to choose. To take an online course you often need to go through a university or community college but not with Pajama Learning. Years back I convinced the coordinators of these online courses to let me offer them direct from my website. Many of the courses can earn you credit for a degree. Many of the courses are career training…similar to going to a trade school but you can do all your work online. Compared to the cost of a college education these career-training courses are very affordable.
Most courses are written by the facilitator of that course. My wife Janis Roach wrote the course on freight brokering. We are the instructors. So as you take the course if you need to contact the instructor, you’d be calling us. We not only facilitate the course we are in the business. We know first hand what you do as a freight broker or freight broker agent. We have probably encountered any snag possible in the business.
We recognize freight brokering may not be the right business for everyone so we decided to offer other online courses as well. New classes are added often so check back and see what else is available.
Dream a little, learn something new, stretch yourself and you will feel empowered. Success is yours for the taking.
Learn on,
Jeff Roach
www.pajamalearning.biz
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
Most courses are written by the facilitator of that course. My wife Janis Roach wrote the course on freight brokering. We are the instructors. So as you take the course if you need to contact the instructor, you’d be calling us. We not only facilitate the course we are in the business. We know first hand what you do as a freight broker or freight broker agent. We have probably encountered any snag possible in the business.
We recognize freight brokering may not be the right business for everyone so we decided to offer other online courses as well. New classes are added often so check back and see what else is available.
Dream a little, learn something new, stretch yourself and you will feel empowered. Success is yours for the taking.
Learn on,
Jeff Roach
www.pajamalearning.biz
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
I am a Salesman
I sell freight brokerage services and I sell education. Both are services in high demand. After years of being in the transportation industry I had the idea to start a freight broker and freight broker agent training program. I had been very successful and wanted to pay it forward by teaching others how to be successful in this industry. Along the way I met Gatlin, the online education Guru. I first asked him if he would work with me to turn our live course into an online course to be marketed through his system. He said yes and we wrote the online course (actually my wife spent a year of her life writing the online version of our course). His courses are all marketed through universities across the country. I asked if I could have a website to market all his courses directly to interested students. He said yes again. Our online freight broker courses is one of his top sellers along with medical billing. Thus the birth of PajamaLearning.biz – the elearning center.
A few years ago Ed2Go bought Gatlin and built on their excellent system and reputation.
ed2go is the industry leader in online learning for adults. They provide the highest-quality online continuing education courses that are affordable and easy to use through a network of over 1,800 top colleges and universities and at Pajamalearning .biz.
The variety of courses is impressive. Some courses get you credit toward a higher degree and some (like mine) are direct career training. Anyone can take a course through pajama learning whether you are working on a degree, want a new career, want to learn something to further your career or you simply want to learn something new. Most courses are taught by the guy that wrote the course. The instructors are available for questions and discussion. I enjoy conversing with our students. Learners have the most creative minds. Learning is never wasted. Peruse our courses and see what you’d enjoy learning.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.justintimefreight.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
A few years ago Ed2Go bought Gatlin and built on their excellent system and reputation.
ed2go is the industry leader in online learning for adults. They provide the highest-quality online continuing education courses that are affordable and easy to use through a network of over 1,800 top colleges and universities and at Pajamalearning .biz.
The variety of courses is impressive. Some courses get you credit toward a higher degree and some (like mine) are direct career training. Anyone can take a course through pajama learning whether you are working on a degree, want a new career, want to learn something to further your career or you simply want to learn something new. Most courses are taught by the guy that wrote the course. The instructors are available for questions and discussion. I enjoy conversing with our students. Learners have the most creative minds. Learning is never wasted. Peruse our courses and see what you’d enjoy learning.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.justintimefreight.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
Website Musts
Used to be, I thought producing a website for my business was a once in a while thing. Kind of like a brochure. You spend a lot of time producing a brochure, print a million copies and pass those puppies out to everyone. You make a new brochure when you run out of the old one. I looked at my website in the old days as an online brochure of my services. Now I see my website as a continually changing thing, linked to lots of other helpful information. We make changes to our website many times a month. That is one of the beauties of being online, it is much more dynamic than the printed world. So I continually look for information on how to keep my website and social media at the top of the game. I recently read this blog that talks about must features. Since many of my graduates go on to start their own freight brokerage they are going to need a website. Read through these tips from ten golden rules blog and refer to this blog for more ideas.
After you have your brilliant idea and are bringing it to the web, there are some critical factors that your website must feature to help you, the search engines and the visitors.
1) Analytics Tracking – It doesn’t matter if you have Google Analytics, Omniture or any other tracking tool. You want to understand where your visitors are coming from, and what actions they are taking when they are on your website.
2) HTML Site Map – This is an HTML page that simply lists all the pages on your website. This helps the search engines know about all of the pages on your site including the URLs that may not be discovered when the bots spider your site.
3) Keyword Research – Make sure you are adding the words people are searching for on the correct pages of your website. Keyword research will help you understand what search phrases are likely to bring the visitors who will take action on your website.
4) Test multiple browsers – Not all visitors will be using one browser. Make sure your website is seen how you want it to in all browsers possible.
5) Monitor errors – Run spider simulators on your website. This will tell you what information is wrong, what links are broken, and notify you of any issues the search engines may have.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
After you have your brilliant idea and are bringing it to the web, there are some critical factors that your website must feature to help you, the search engines and the visitors.
1) Analytics Tracking – It doesn’t matter if you have Google Analytics, Omniture or any other tracking tool. You want to understand where your visitors are coming from, and what actions they are taking when they are on your website.
2) HTML Site Map – This is an HTML page that simply lists all the pages on your website. This helps the search engines know about all of the pages on your site including the URLs that may not be discovered when the bots spider your site.
3) Keyword Research – Make sure you are adding the words people are searching for on the correct pages of your website. Keyword research will help you understand what search phrases are likely to bring the visitors who will take action on your website.
4) Test multiple browsers – Not all visitors will be using one browser. Make sure your website is seen how you want it to in all browsers possible.
5) Monitor errors – Run spider simulators on your website. This will tell you what information is wrong, what links are broken, and notify you of any issues the search engines may have.
Moving forward,
Jeff Roach
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
Slow Down
We live in a rushed world. Quickly learned is quickly forgotten. Learn to be a freight broker in a classroom in a week…or take your time learning on line. Sounds quick but the key is to taking the time to really internalize the teaching. We stick with our students way after the course to support them in the set up of their new venture. All our courses teach you all you need to know to be a freight broker but as in anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it. And the sooner you start practicing what you learn the better you’ll succeed. It is like swimming. My niece is an incredible swimmer. One summer when she was about 7 I challenged her to a race across the pool. I thought, “I’m twice as long as this skinny little girl, I’ll beat her easily… yeah right, she beat me easily. Well she learned to swim in swimming lessons…but she became a champ on swim team by doing what she learned for hours every day and honing her strokes. Same with freight brokering. Learn how to do it in class then get out there, hone your skills and keep at it… you will succeed.
I see too many come into this wanting to find the short cut. I tell all my students to save 6 months worth of living expenses before you embark on this career. Give yourself time to build the business before you start making good money.
When you dig down into just about any “get rich story” you’ll find that the rich guy put in a lot of time finding his niche, building his empire and growing a support team before they found wealth.
I recently received an email from a student rushing through our online course. He didn’t think he was rushing but he was, he was anxious to become a broker. Here is my advice to him:
John (not his real name),
My goal is to get you working as a successful freight broker agent.
I will tell you the truth, based on my experiences both good and bad. I will do what is best for you. (You Are My Customer).
That's how you treat your customers. You have to find a way to give more than you take.
Before you can succeed you have to know all you can inside and out about this business. Have you memorized all of the procedures of accounts payable, claims, accounts receivable, collections, sales, advertising, computers and phone systems, carrier relations, dispatching, prospect development, IT, Home office, legal entities, and creative marketing? Do you know how to work in the information age?
My girls tell me Artist are the Smartest and Readers are Leaders. I agree. Slow Down.
To get you working with a company as a Freight Broker Agent, you have to know your stuff.
You, as my student, have to get after it or these big brokers will not recruit from me anymore. LOL. Memorize that course on-line and do your part my friend.
Keep at it for six months. You are going too fast. I have that same problem myself. I get going fast, I want quick turn around from every one and everything.
Go get em! This is going to be a good year. Anyone working with me, please realize I have refused to take part in the recession. We have a choice; I have chosen not to
participate with the economic crybabies. I choose to use my abilities. God says if he gives talents to you and you don't use them then shame on you. We all got em. I promise.
Believe me, If I can do this, so can you. I am a little crazy, have ADHD and didn't graduate from high school. I own an on-line school and a live school and a freight broker agency.... GO FIGURE?
I did graduate from Abilene Christian University a few years later. I am telling you it weren't easy, I kept taking the same old algebra class until I memorized it. It took four times. If I'm lying, I'm dying. That's how I met my bride, Janis. She was my beautiful tutor in college. No wonder it took me seven years to get out. She was a great tutor but her looks were a bit distracting. LOL
Anyway, you are going to be fine. I appreciate your awesome attitude. So will the brokers I introduce to you.
Between your experience and our course – you’re going to be great in this industry. You will also learn about dispatching, how to run the back office of a brokerage,
Claims management, Legal issues. I assure you we only allow the best brokers to recruit agents from Brooke Transportation Training courses. I swear to them that I am going to give them serious agents. So my job is to make sure each one of my customers/students are really ready to succeed, make me proud and be an incredible addition to the freight brokerages that bring them on board.
I’m an agent for a large trucking company myself. I know what it takes because I live it every day.
God Bless you and your family.
Best Regards,
JR
Follow me on Facebook, twitter and MySpace
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
I see too many come into this wanting to find the short cut. I tell all my students to save 6 months worth of living expenses before you embark on this career. Give yourself time to build the business before you start making good money.
When you dig down into just about any “get rich story” you’ll find that the rich guy put in a lot of time finding his niche, building his empire and growing a support team before they found wealth.
I recently received an email from a student rushing through our online course. He didn’t think he was rushing but he was, he was anxious to become a broker. Here is my advice to him:
John (not his real name),
My goal is to get you working as a successful freight broker agent.
I will tell you the truth, based on my experiences both good and bad. I will do what is best for you. (You Are My Customer).
That's how you treat your customers. You have to find a way to give more than you take.
Before you can succeed you have to know all you can inside and out about this business. Have you memorized all of the procedures of accounts payable, claims, accounts receivable, collections, sales, advertising, computers and phone systems, carrier relations, dispatching, prospect development, IT, Home office, legal entities, and creative marketing? Do you know how to work in the information age?
My girls tell me Artist are the Smartest and Readers are Leaders. I agree. Slow Down.
To get you working with a company as a Freight Broker Agent, you have to know your stuff.
You, as my student, have to get after it or these big brokers will not recruit from me anymore. LOL. Memorize that course on-line and do your part my friend.
Keep at it for six months. You are going too fast. I have that same problem myself. I get going fast, I want quick turn around from every one and everything.
Go get em! This is going to be a good year. Anyone working with me, please realize I have refused to take part in the recession. We have a choice; I have chosen not to
participate with the economic crybabies. I choose to use my abilities. God says if he gives talents to you and you don't use them then shame on you. We all got em. I promise.
Believe me, If I can do this, so can you. I am a little crazy, have ADHD and didn't graduate from high school. I own an on-line school and a live school and a freight broker agency.... GO FIGURE?
I did graduate from Abilene Christian University a few years later. I am telling you it weren't easy, I kept taking the same old algebra class until I memorized it. It took four times. If I'm lying, I'm dying. That's how I met my bride, Janis. She was my beautiful tutor in college. No wonder it took me seven years to get out. She was a great tutor but her looks were a bit distracting. LOL
Anyway, you are going to be fine. I appreciate your awesome attitude. So will the brokers I introduce to you.
Between your experience and our course – you’re going to be great in this industry. You will also learn about dispatching, how to run the back office of a brokerage,
Claims management, Legal issues. I assure you we only allow the best brokers to recruit agents from Brooke Transportation Training courses. I swear to them that I am going to give them serious agents. So my job is to make sure each one of my customers/students are really ready to succeed, make me proud and be an incredible addition to the freight brokerages that bring them on board.
I’m an agent for a large trucking company myself. I know what it takes because I live it every day.
God Bless you and your family.
Best Regards,
JR
Follow me on Facebook, twitter and MySpace
www.brooketraining.com
www.transportationtraining.com
www.pajamalearning.biz
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