Make sure you know the start up costs.
Underestimating the costs of setting up is something many of us established operators fell foul of. The problem is that it’s easy to become so set on your goal of going into business, you simply don’t want to hear anything negative that might dampen that dream. Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, so my advice looking back would be you have to be realistic – your livelihood and future financial security absolutely depends on it and getting it wrong can cause years of repercussions and hardship.
Whilst most potential start-up’s will do a lot of research into the purchase price of the vehicle they want, (well that’s the exciting bit isn’t it), the same thought doesn’t always go into the more mundane set-up costs and this is where nasty shocks can occur. I remember feeling utterly deflated after getting my first insurance quote, because I simply hadn’t considered it could be that much, and it almost led me to knocking my plans on the head.
I know many colleagues had the same sense of shock when it came to insurance and it probably has put a lot of people off setting up altogether. Needless to say you have to get a lot of quotes and if you need to put your dreams on hold for a while as a result of what you really didn’t want to hear, do so because you may live to regret it otherwise.
Licensing is another money-consuming process that can be a bit of a kick in the butt to the uninitiated, so avoid temptation and don’t even think about buying a vehicle until you’ve researched the cost of getting both yourself and the car licensed. Neither is it a one-off financial hit, with most local authorities there’s biannual fleet inspections, MoT’s and the list goes on. If things build as you hope they will, services and tyre changes come around, what seems like once a fortnight so just be very aware cars eat money and the more miles you do, the more funds they’ll consume.
Keep your feet on the ground, don’t be getting corporate umbrellas printed before you’ve thought about the all important website and be content with being a small fish in a very big sea before you consider calling yourself a ‘supplier of executive lifestyle choices’ or some such fancy title! Just add up every pound and every penny so you leave nothing to chance, go into it with your eyes as open as they possibly can be and get advice from every available person or place, whether it means from a business professional or informally from operators with plenty of experience under their belt. Already established chauffeur businesses are, in my view, the best source of advice and potential work because they’ve most definitely been there and have several tee shirts. It’s all very well someone telling you how much work there is in June and July, you also need to know how much work there isn’t in August and January!
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