Corporate Work

Can a business survive without doing corporate work? Just want your opinions..thanks..

> Can a business survive without doing corporate work?

Vic, Allow me to rephrase your questions and let me know if I am on target:

Can a business survive without targeting corporate sedan work?

Am I on target? because after all you are not going to refuse to do limousine work just because a corporation calls up right?

In my opinion I do not believe you have to target corporate customers and airport work to have a successful business. If you want to simply run stretch limousine (10 packs preferably) I think there is plenty of opportunity out there. Of course your geographic location will determine how much work there is (population, median income, and so forth) This does not mean you can just put an ad in the yellow pages and think your marketing is over . There are many opportunities and marketing to do even if you are not targeting the corporate crowd. In fact you have to try much harder if you do not have a reliable source of corporate work to fall back on.

Some examples:
Funeral Work will keep black cars busy on the weekdays and weekends - get in with local directors/homes.
Travel agency referrals - do you have a port in your area, cruise ship customers usually take a limo.
School reunion planning companies - try and be the preferred source for limousines when they plan one. You may take the planning committee or be a shuttle from the hotel to the party location
Weddings of course, plenty of opportunity there. - get in with local planners
Fund raising companies - many times offer limousine service to go out to lunch for the highest selling kids at a school - good day time work (usually cannot get your full fare)
Charity - Do you have a local symphony? Offer to bring any guest conductors from the airport to the hotel, hotel to concert, concert to hotel, hotel to airport in exchange for an ad in the symphony program for the year as a contributor to the symphony, Lots of symphony goers have the money to rent limousines.


Now this being said if you are good enough at what you do and you gain a reputation as a reliable source of transportation you will see that those corporate customers will start calling you anyway, after all most of your weekend limo customers are pretty well paid members of corporations (it's how they can afford limos on the weekend ;-)) You will hear things like "I used your service this weekend and really liked your driver and service, do you offer airport transportation, our current company really sucks" Now how you answer this will tell you what direction your company is headed in, you could say these things:

1. "I am sorry we mainly specialize in special events and are not set up to provide a mass volume of airport transportation in sedans, here is a recommendation of another reliable company" (You may loose all work to the other company though, limo and sedan).

2. Sure we provide any type of service for any kind of customer. (then farm out all the sedan work and hope for the best)

3. Sure we provide any type of service for any kind of customer. (then go out and buy a sedan) and now you have just changed the direction of your company. For the good or for the bad depends on how you handle the new business.

So in general I would say no you do not have to target corporate work but it just may target you eventually, so be ready to do it or bow out gracefully.

Good Luck!!
Steve Walker
Steve@capriceshop.com

Steve W
I love your car at caprice shop (http://www.capriceshop.com)
Have you ever thought of putting your car crafting skill into a limo. E.g stretch limo with shaved door handles, HUGE billet wheels, lowered etc....
Keep up the trick work!!

Steve B
Top Class Limousines & Tours, Australia (http://www.topclasslimos.com.au) http://limos.infopop.cc/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

Vic,
Steve had some great ideas for you which we have used. I wanted to expand some information in some key areas for you.
Funeral Work: I am sure your area has a local funeral directors association that meets once a month or quarter. Call and ask to attend this meeting to provide the MEMBERS of this association with "special pricing". You can go 10% off normal rates, $10 off per hour or whatever you feel you can afford. But, remember, these will become some of your most regular clients. I serve 4 local funeral homes with an average of 3 cars per month booked for each one. 12 runs a month will more than cover a car payment. Give each one at the meeting a brochure and a "special price list" that is printed on your letterhead to say "Special Rates for Any County Funeral Directors Association". Provide rates for sedans, six packs, supers, airport p/up or delivery and out of town rates for vans (if you have them) to bring people in from other areas of your state.
Travel Agents: Make sure you offer them a 10% commission, stock them up with your brochures and stop by to visit once a month. Offer large agencies transportation for a special occassion lunch on a comp basis. THEY WILL REMEMBER YOU.
Fundraisers - Kids love winning a limo-lunch. Call your schools and ask who they use for fundraising events. Usually you will need to talk to the PTA president for this info. There are many and a school one mile north of you may use someone different than a school one mile south of you. Suggest to the PTA president that a limo-lunch as a prize would be a great idea. The fundraising company will pay you. Remember to give them a "preferred rate" as well as they may use you as many as ten times a month.
Charity work: Go one better than a ride to/from the airport. If you can spare a car for an evening at the symphony, encourage the symphony to provide discounted tickets, a free Pepsi or some other benefit to anyone who brings a canned good or dry non-perishable good to stuff in the limo. The goal is to fill the limousine with food and then you and the symphony jointly provide this "donation" to the local food bank or homeless shelter. You will have more media coverage than you can imagine and position your company as a good neighbor to your community.
Good luck to you!

> I love your car at capriceshop.com
Thanks!!!

> Have you ever thought of putting your car
> crafting skill into a limo. E.g stretch limo
> with shaved door handles, HUGE billet wheels
> lowered etc....
If I ever get a garage big enough to hold it I will. I would probably want to chop the top and put flames on it, not very good for corporate work ;-)

For now there is an impala limo out there, think it is the mid west somewhere, check it out:
http://www.impala.net/Websites/ComfortZoneLimo


Limo Scene,
Good detail on those marketing oppertunities, I think that could be a messsage topic in it's self "off beat marketing oppertunities"

LimoScene:

Thanks. I was getting deja vu when I was reading that. I think that was also posted on LCTMAG's chat forum also. Great ideas!

Steve: I'm going to take your advise and wait and see what happens.


I'll only be using a 10pass white stretch lincoln. No sedans. Allthough I would like to purchase a sedan if there is demand for it. I'm sure I'll have to turn away business sometimes due to the lack of a fleet of vehicles or certain times I'll already be booked. I'm pretty confident the marketing of the business, I'm just trying to anticipate on average the number of reservations I will receive on a monthly basis from a one man limo operator using one stretch and operating in a city with over 4,000,000 in population and a very good target market. There is some competition but competition is everywhere. Thanks

Vic,

I think it is possible albeit difficult. The limo industry is a $6 billion dollar industry and most of those dollars are corporate.

If you think about it, most Sunday-Thursday type work is usually corporate/airport related. You may be hard-pressed making hefty limo & insurance payments surviving soley on Friday and Saturday "retail" jobs.

Of course, you can do corporate work in a white stretch as it all depends on the client's preference. Also, corporate work provides the most repeat clientele; versus retail clients who may only book once per year.

Hope this helps!
Michael

http://www.limos.com/limoforumgraphics/bbtitle_small.gif

Michael,

Thanks for the reply. I am getting mixed opinions on this topic of requiring corporate work or not. I understand that most of the week and most of the repeat clientele are corporate, but I'm sure there are people out there running a part time 'retail' only biz and are successful. (are there?)

I figure fri, sat and sun would be the busiest days. I thought that would be enough to succeed in the beginning. What I'm trying to get at is that starting out part time with only 1 limo (like most people who start out) it's difficult to cater to corporate work right off the bat. That is why I wanted to concentrate mostly retail. Of course I wouldn't turn down a corporate customer if they needed my service. Mabye the answer to all of this is to simply hire another driver. I just wanted to see if this was possible with me doing most of the driving in the beginning when I start the business. Thanks.