Limousine Business Advice For New Operators

First get your yellow page add up and running. That the most important thing you can do. Run the same size add in your telephone book as the respected company's do. Otherwise you'll deal with tire kickers. Make sure you can get your phone answered 24 hours a day, that's important. People want to talk with live employees when they call. Find a good respected answering service one which will give quotes and book trips for your company. Someday you'll get a call at 2AM for an 8 hour night out, while your sleeping. This one trip will pay for the whole months service fees, so don't look at it as an expense. It will only help you grow your company.

Only Buy a 8-10 Passenger white limousine. When was the last time you saw a 5 person wedding party?? The bride takes up 2 spots, so your 6 passenger won't cut it for most jobs. If you can, try to become friends with other company owners. This alone is over looked by most of us. I believe it helps in the long run. If you try to build good relations. Your company will grow beyond believe.

Hire only respectable drivers. They must be clean cut, well dressed, and have good social skills. This accounts for 95% of how people portray you company. Answer your phone with a smile. Don't answer your phone "XYZ LIMO". Say "XYZ LIMOUSINE SERVICE THIS IS RON SPEAKING HOW MAY I HELP YOU" This sounds much more professional. Always ask if there interested in booking today. Don't just hang up the phone...

It took me along time and lots of money to figure these key elements out, so put them to use. I wish someone would have told me these sorts of things when i first started in the business. Remember the car isn't really that important, as long as its not a boxy style.. you'll do just fine. Make sure its clean ... and OnTime. Get places 15 minutes early, just because.. People will remember these sorts of things and, you'll company will grow naturally.

Add newspapers and bottled water for airport trips. I have yet to recieve under a $10 tip doing these sorts of things.

Hope I helped some of you out..

Good Luck,
Keith

This is excellent advice -- especially the phone answering part: How many times have you called a company and they answered, "LIMOS?", or you get a garbly answering machine that sounds like it was washed up on the beach and put back into use.

In another post someone said, "get with the times - dump the answering machine and get voice mail".

I'm in need of desperate help! I am into my second year in the business. I'm at a point now that I think I'm about to crack. I have the yellow page ad, Limos.com ad, I'm a member of the local areas conventions and visitors bureau, member of local and national limousine associations, clean new model limousine, profesional looking and acting drivers. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!! My clients tell me all the time that my service is the best they have used. What good does it do me if they only use me once. I have professional looking business cards by create a card what more is there for me to do. How do I get those weekly runs. No offense to limos.com but I'm always getting undercut by people who slash their rates dramatically. I even get involved with legislative issues that can have a negative impact on our industry. Is there someone out there who will be willing to help point me in the right direction. I read all the trade magazines and try to learn new and inventive ways to get business but it is hard when you have limited funds. For example I would love to go to the limo show in vegas to learn new things but I simply can't afford it. I applied for the LCT to pay for my visit to the show but I haven't heard anything from them so I'm assuming I didn't make the cut. But that's not really important. I just want to know what I'm doing wrong. I just hope that there is someone out there who will take the time to help someone like me out.

[This message was edited by nkokas on January 09, 2001 at 04:29 PM.]

Hey don't crack yet. Give me a call at 225-928-5466 during the day and ill try to help you out. I need more info in order to help you.

Wade Randolph

Nicholas,

It doesn't help either when the economy is in a "recessionary" type mode -- consumers are on the defensive and limo companys could suffer in these times because limousine service is deemed a luxury item.

The pure gravy in the limo business is corporate work because they are repeat users. Weddings and nights-out types of work are usually infrequent, if not, one-time deals.

So the question we should ask is how can limo companies (and Limos.com) increase the number of corporate clients?

Any long-time industry peoples, like Wade Randolph, will tell you the same -- corporate corporate corporate.

You don't want your limos sitting idle Sunday-Thursday.

Michael