If you want to start a transport business then the very first thing you need to do is draft a business plan for it. In fact, a business plan is the first and most required thing to start any type of business. Many people apart from those with a management degree find it difficult to develop a business plan. If you are also one among those people, then worry not. Drafting a business plan is not as difficult as it may appear.
In order to make a good business plan for your trucking business, you need to be realistic and take many factors into consideration. Your trucking business plan should be precise and clear. It should have a clear set of financial goals, your vision, and mission etc. Here are the steps to help you draft an effective business plan for your logistic business:
Step 1: Description of your Business
In the first step, you should describe about your business idea in detail. Start by writing down a description of your business, reasons to start it, types of trucking you will be using etc. After that you should make a note about the cargo that you are planning to haul and also the companies that you are planning to work for.
Understand that there are companies, who manufacture and supply their own goods and then there are those that just supply some other company’s goods. Your business plan should mention which one you would want to choose between the two.
Step 2: Financial Costs, Profit and Returns
In the second step, you are required to do a thorough calculation of different things that would be used in the business. In this step, you should calculate the cost of buying or leasing out trucks, cost associated with hiring employees, transportation, and other miscellaneous things. You can visit www.gotruckcapital.com to understand different types of cost associated with both leasing and buying the truck.
Once you have drafted down all the costs, you should then do the calculation and find out the total turnover, return and profit/loss. This step is very crucial as you need to check beforehand if the business is going to give you profit or not.
Step 3: Marketing and Advertising Budget
In this step, you should plan the marketing and advertising of your business. This requires you to understand several methods of advertising and costs associated with each. You have option to go both online and offline modes or marketing and advertising. Choose your methods and then allocate budget for each of them. You may even want to use the charts and graphs in Microsoft Excel to help you project the results, which is very crucial part of any business plan.
Step 4: Operational and Management Details
This step requires you to write down about the operational staffs. You need to mention here about the number of drivers required for trucks, cost associated with driving on highways, charges of transportation from one city to another etc. Also, you should draft the safety regulations, employee’s duties, company’s terms and condition etc. in this step.