Once you become a business owner its up to you to take personal responsibility to seek out the tools and information to ensure your success. No longer can you enjoy the luxuries of being an employee and just showing up to exchange your time for dollars. Now EVERYTHING depends on you. Business and war are often compared due to the exotic strategies and tactics that are employed in both.
Everyday ambitious truckers grab the bull by the horns and take the plunge into becoming a owner operator. It does not matter if you are completely independent running your own authority, a owner operator leased onto a company, or a lease purchase driver many end up being gored by the very horns they grabbed onto. Too often people in Trucking treat their business more like a hobby and that is a recipe for disaster. Most of the time the culprit to the demise of so many people in Trucking is due to that hobby approach to doing business.
I get it… the mundane task of keeping up with all those numbers and figuring out what goes where and staying organized is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Tracking your numbers is the nerd part its not sexy. It challenges us to really focus and be accountable. No one is going to save you from yourself but you. You are now in business for yourself and at the end of the day you need to know where you are financially. If you do not know how can you prepare to grow,expand,and adjust to changing markets conditions?
Knowing your cost of operation will make or break your business. Do you understand what it takes to make those tires turn and what it really cost you? If you do not know your fixed and variable cost for your operation you may already be in the ditch before you get going. You must take the time to get intimately familiar with these cost and look for ways to reduce them to maximize your profits. If you really do not know your numbers you can never quote your rates properly or understand how much money you are truly netting on your gross receivables. Below are some resources to help you tame the bull and show you the money!
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/45342
https://mygauges.com/truck-accounting
http://www.ooida.com/EducationTools/Tools/costpermile.asp