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All Feed Back NEEDED looking at potential fed ex turn key routes to purchase
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<blockquote data-quote="RALD276" data-source="post: 1550839" data-attributes="member: 57644"><p>I spent a long time looking into other businesses and franchises and didn't want to reinvent the wheel. Found the routes for sale on bizbuysell.com. It was a basket of lies after that - even the 2013 tax returns were "draft" so they could be falsified.</p><p></p><p>It's funny you ask the "again" question - or maybe not so funny...I was asked that question by another contractor. This is my 5th company I have personally owned and I know that start-ups take long days and money to get momentum, and we just bought a neighboring contractor which will either sink me or sprint us forward. It has been a roller coaster ride. We are lucky to have drivers that are receptive to our programs, and that has made it easier to keep the good ones and dismiss the bad ones. We were awarded a PSA for the supplemental we were running, but have created an additional as well as the one we just bought so have 2 supps. The trucks have been the bane of my existence. As is too often the case, the previous contractor milked the life right out of them. I would have been better off not buying the trucks, taking the money I put into fixing them and bought new. I would have had new trucks and only $1.5k in truck payments per month.</p><p></p><p>We just bought another PSA+1 so, I guess we would likely do it again. I learned from this and was much more shrewd the second time around. "BELIEVE NOTHING ANYONE TELLS YOU - ESPECIALLY THE SELLER" is my advice to all (Rule #1). I came from doing 6 digit hand shake deals on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous contractors, so buyer beware (but that is also the golden opportunity - FedEx Mgt has totally embraced our management style). I would handle the trucks as noted above. The worry and frustration of unreliable trucks is a living nightmare, that I would only wish on my seller. Luckily, I didn't finance the routes, paid cash, and glad I did. This is a cash flow business and if anyone buys on seller finance, you are running a huge risk having a cash crunch on bad weather weeks like we did in Feb. We lost 15% of our work days (read "profit") and barely made payroll this last Monday (but this was in part due to having three additional drivers on the payroll for which we had not started to receive settlements from FedEx). Each work day is like an apple waiting to rot on a shelf - once it is gone, there is no recovering it. I am now finally to the point that I am budgeting my expenses and not just bleeding. So that helps, but it took a year.</p><p></p><p>To be honest, it is a bit depressing to read this forum and all the negativity about something that I sunk a good chunk of money into.</p><p></p><p>The other contractor I referenced above has several routes in two terminals and said he and his wife haven't taken a paycheck since they bought the routes. I have at least paid myself the minimum required by the state for directors of a company, but still had a loss on 12/31/14 - but paying myself a nominal salary is a small victory. Peak was non eventful and I think with the 4 PSA's and 2 supps, we were operating at peak I netted $1000 extra over the entire month of December (including the payout I made to a home owner for a maroon temp getting stuck in their front yard - don't ask. I heard so much about people buying new trucks with cash, the new peak bonus starting early, blah, blah blah - refer to Rule #1 above. </p><p></p><p>To insulate myself from the effects of ignoring rule #1, I have poured over and over our 2014 financials and compared to my proformas as well as correct the 2015 financial models. I have 3 spreadsheets that track volume, averages, histories and predict loads, stop counts, break even stop counts for each PSA, annual gross and net incomes based on a weekly average. I am always tweaking the numbers to dial it in. I think it helps me make better business decisions, but it is not easy to keep up with all the data logging. I hope to build a custom DB that will track everything I need and then I can spend less time entering data, and more time data mining. </p><p></p><p>So for now, the answer is a tentative yes. I hope it turns into a resounding yes in a couple of years...if not, I will sell and move on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RALD276, post: 1550839, member: 57644"] I spent a long time looking into other businesses and franchises and didn't want to reinvent the wheel. Found the routes for sale on bizbuysell.com. It was a basket of lies after that - even the 2013 tax returns were "draft" so they could be falsified. It's funny you ask the "again" question - or maybe not so funny...I was asked that question by another contractor. This is my 5th company I have personally owned and I know that start-ups take long days and money to get momentum, and we just bought a neighboring contractor which will either sink me or sprint us forward. It has been a roller coaster ride. We are lucky to have drivers that are receptive to our programs, and that has made it easier to keep the good ones and dismiss the bad ones. We were awarded a PSA for the supplemental we were running, but have created an additional as well as the one we just bought so have 2 supps. The trucks have been the bane of my existence. As is too often the case, the previous contractor milked the life right out of them. I would have been better off not buying the trucks, taking the money I put into fixing them and bought new. I would have had new trucks and only $1.5k in truck payments per month. We just bought another PSA+1 so, I guess we would likely do it again. I learned from this and was much more shrewd the second time around. "BELIEVE NOTHING ANYONE TELLS YOU - ESPECIALLY THE SELLER" is my advice to all (Rule #1). I came from doing 6 digit hand shake deals on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous contractors, so buyer beware (but that is also the golden opportunity - FedEx Mgt has totally embraced our management style). I would handle the trucks as noted above. The worry and frustration of unreliable trucks is a living nightmare, that I would only wish on my seller. Luckily, I didn't finance the routes, paid cash, and glad I did. This is a cash flow business and if anyone buys on seller finance, you are running a huge risk having a cash crunch on bad weather weeks like we did in Feb. We lost 15% of our work days (read "profit") and barely made payroll this last Monday (but this was in part due to having three additional drivers on the payroll for which we had not started to receive settlements from FedEx). Each work day is like an apple waiting to rot on a shelf - once it is gone, there is no recovering it. I am now finally to the point that I am budgeting my expenses and not just bleeding. So that helps, but it took a year. To be honest, it is a bit depressing to read this forum and all the negativity about something that I sunk a good chunk of money into. The other contractor I referenced above has several routes in two terminals and said he and his wife haven't taken a paycheck since they bought the routes. I have at least paid myself the minimum required by the state for directors of a company, but still had a loss on 12/31/14 - but paying myself a nominal salary is a small victory. Peak was non eventful and I think with the 4 PSA's and 2 supps, we were operating at peak I netted $1000 extra over the entire month of December (including the payout I made to a home owner for a maroon temp getting stuck in their front yard - don't ask. I heard so much about people buying new trucks with cash, the new peak bonus starting early, blah, blah blah - refer to Rule #1 above. To insulate myself from the effects of ignoring rule #1, I have poured over and over our 2014 financials and compared to my proformas as well as correct the 2015 financial models. I have 3 spreadsheets that track volume, averages, histories and predict loads, stop counts, break even stop counts for each PSA, annual gross and net incomes based on a weekly average. I am always tweaking the numbers to dial it in. I think it helps me make better business decisions, but it is not easy to keep up with all the data logging. I hope to build a custom DB that will track everything I need and then I can spend less time entering data, and more time data mining. So for now, the answer is a tentative yes. I hope it turns into a resounding yes in a couple of years...if not, I will sell and move on. [/QUOTE]
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