Senior Services
America is aging at a fast pace. As older citizens relinquish their driver’s licenses, there is a business to be had for driving the senior set to places they can no longer take themselves. Focusing a transportation business on the senior set could keep you plenty busy. Beyond medical appointments, you could drive seniors to the grocery store or to outings at the mall. If you are in an area where seniors tend to be low-income (and all but the wealthiest seniors are likely on a “fixed income” of Social Security and whatever retirement income they managed to collect while working), you could even consider setting up as a nonprofit business and getting grant support to help seniors in your region be more mobile. Grant funders, corporate sponsors, and the federal government are often looking to utilize their funds for human service programs coming to the aid of the most vulnerable citizens.
Is Transportation the Right Business for You?
It is likely that you drive a car. You probably have moved yourself or a friend using a large U-Haul truck or driven friends or elderly family members to doctor’s appointments. But does that translate into any of those things being the right way for you to make a living?
Deciding whether or not the transportation business is the right business for you is critical to your success once you do get into it. A lot of time and likely considerable expense goes into creating a thriving business of any magnitude. There may be a little bit of luck too, but if anyone tells you a lot of it is luck, don’t listen. A lot of the success in the transportation industry is from excellent, detailed planning and good old-fashioned hard work taking your plan from a concept on paper to a reality.
fun fact
Limousine drivers have great stories—and many of them can be found on the internet. Check out Lisa’s Limousine Stories (www.aclimos.ca). At www.thoughcatalog.com you can find “17 Limo Drivers Dish Out Their Best-Of, Craziest, Most Ridiculous Stories While on the Job.” Thirteen more stories can be found at www.mandatory.com. Apparently if you start a limo business you will never lack stories to tell! But don’t forget to keep names to yourself . . . Want quick info on getting started? Check out www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/limousine-service.
One of the best ways to find out if a business fits your personality and lifestyle is to work in it for a while before plunging in and setting up your own shop. That may be harder if you already have a full-time job, but there are possibilities for part-time work. It can be insightful just to take a part-time temporary position during a particularly busy season for the segment of the industry you are interested in—driving limousines during prom season, for example—or pull a few weekend shifts in the scheduling office. Or use your free time to take passengers to their destination with a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft, using your own car. Plus you can earn a little extra cash while you are at it to add to the business startup piggy bank!
When you work in a similar job, or as you get started in planning your business, think about the following:
This is not to suggest that every possible aspect of the transportation business can be self-selected around your personal idiosyncrasies. But don’t set yourself up to get into a business type that is just going to make you regret your decision, dread going to work, or not feel like putting a 110 percent effort into your new business. That is a recipe for failure before you even begin.
Of course, all of this is moot if you have a business that can afford to hire employees to do everything you don’t particularly enjoy doing. But that is atypical of a startup business of any kind, which is more typically “all hands on deck”—including the owner’s—for a certain period of time.
warning
Don’t get a job to test the waters within the same market you plan to set up in. You don’t want an inside job spying on your potential competitors. While you will want to glean information about your competitors in your market research, your intention here is to get the inside experience to evaluate your interest in that aspect of the industry.
Small-Business Personality Traits
There are six traits that are conducive to small-business success according to a study by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. These six traits are:
1. Being collaborative. Knowing when and how to delegate and motivate others on staff.
2. Curiosity. Having an interest in scouring the world for ways to improve their business.
3. Focusing on the future. Business owners that planned cash flow and succession planning did better.
4. Self-fulfilled. Those who would rather be in control of their own destiny than feeling secure in a corporate environment.
5. Tech-savvy. It’s here, it’s the world, use it to your advantage and make your business more efficient.
6. Action-oriented. Adversity actually makes strong business leaders work harder and motivates them.
One group (RingCentral) reporting on this study in a blog post actually pulled “desire to delegate” from the “being
