Start Your Own Transportation Service. Cheryl Kimball

for specific merchandise. If you are an expert scheduler and coordinator, perhaps this is the business for you. But, like air transport, be prepared for a lot of research, planning, and need for significant startup resources.

      warning

      According to the SBA (www.sba.gov), “the nature of any transportation business means there will generally be a special requirement for a license or permit.” Check with your state department of health and human services to see if there is a permit to become an approved provider of even the most basic medical transport services.

Medical Transport

      Medical transport is an important business in the transportation arena. There are several ways to focus this business. Some require no more than a regular vehicle, driver’s license, and a solid driving record. You could focus on transporting seniors to medical appointments locally, or, if you live in an area that is a distance from a city, you could focus on driving people long distances to specialist appointments at world-class hospitals. If you have an EMT license, other medical credentials, or are willing to get them, you could start a business that contracts with hospitals to drive admitted patients to other medical facilities for specialized treatment; this would also require some specialty equipment like oxygen delivery and perhaps a vehicle that can transport a patient in a wheelchair.

      Air transport is even a subset of medical transport. Even some of the smallest hospitals in more rural areas have a helipad for rapid transport of patients to larger facilities for specialized care.

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.

       CHAPTER 2

       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.

Test Yourself

      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:

      

Do the typical hours mesh with your preferred lifestyle? If you are interested in starting a limousine service, do you need to be up late at night when being a night owl isn’t your usual style? Even if you aren’t doing the driving, if you are the boss you will need to be accessible in the event of a late-night call from a driver you employ.

      

If you have always been accustomed to taking off on a trip whenever the spirit moves you, you need to think about a business that will allow you to build it but not run the day-to-day operations.

      

Someone with a gregarious personality might not want to open a one-person business where you are by yourself all the time. Someone who is not fond of spontaneous interactions with strangers probably is not a good candidate to drive a taxi.

      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.