The Limos.com Forum Has Moved!!!

I decided to chronice my entire process from start to finish of starting my Limo Service in California. I will add a post for each day that I complete tasks. Hopefully - this thread will wind up being helpful for new start-ups everywhere.

So here we go...

Michael-John Wolfe
www.mjwolfe.com

quote:

Originally posted by limogal:
if they have pictures in front of the white limo they're going to look all washed out but the black limo makes their wedding dress really stand out. Now I have more calls for a black than a white for weddings!

Now that's marketing! Sell what ya' got!

I have a white and black (120" Lincolns; one a DaBryan the other a Royal) and brides usually wanted the white but when I started pushing the black too and since I'm a woman (and once a bride) I started pointing out to the brides that if they have pictures in front of the white limo they're going to look all washed out but the black limo makes their wedding dress really stand out. Now I have more calls for a black than a white for weddings!

quote:

This is the limousine business. Lies are the fuel that powers our industry.

I was going to take that angle Dave but did not want to burst his bubble to early about this industry! LOL

He will find out soon enough!

quote:

I have another question for you guys. When I sign up for limos.com and I have to list my fleet. I really dont want to put just one car - wont I look very small time? But then again, I surely cant lie.

This is the limousine business. Lies are the fuel that powers our industry.

Now that you've purchased your first car, tell everyone you have two. When people ask "how's business?", you can tell them - I've grown 200% this month.

Dave

quote:

I have another question for you guys. When I sign up for limos.com and I have to list my fleet. I really dont want to put just one car - wont I look very small time? But then again, I surely cant lie. BUT can I find another company that is willing to let me farm out my second car business to them and at least put two cars in my fleet? Or is this wrong?

Depends on if you want to do a lot of farming out right away. I would suggest really getting to know your competition very well before you accept reservations on thier behalf. You will have to do enough farming just from double booking your own limo.

On listing more vehicles than you have I am unsure what Limos.com policy is on that. I would think one thing you can do if you gat a 120" Limo is list it as a 8 passenger and a 6 passenger. So it will look like you have two vehicles. Get a little less for the 6 passenger on a run but at least you will be competing with other companies that offer a 6 passenger if that is all the people want. Most of the time people dont know the diffrence between a 6 and 8 pack. If they inquire just tell them they got upgraded. Hell you could even say you have a sedan and send the limo for a sedan run as well but many corporate customers who ored a sedan never want to see a limo so that one could get touchy.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve W.:

quote:

will I lose out on a lot of weddings with a black car? Are'nt brides going to demand white?

Yes you will lose out on some weddings and even some funeral homes have white hearses now for the asian community so may lose out there as well. It's an age old question for sure. All depends on what you want to target and what path you want to take. We still do plenty of weddings with black cars. black for the guys white for the girls. Will have to farm one of them anyway at first

Squires brings up a good point about being diffrent but you cant be TOO diffrent! If insurance was only 500 a year I would say yea add a pink one to your fleet cant hurt. But when you got a large nut to make and you wanna grow you gotta keep it utilized doing something 7 days a week. Save the pink one for the 15th car you add to the fleet.

I have another question for you guys. When I sign up for limos.com and I have to list my fleet. I really dont want to put just one car - wont I look very small time? But then again, I surely cant lie. BUT can I find another company that is willing to let me farm out my second car business to them and at least put two cars in my fleet? Or is this wrong?

Dare to be different ... You will be competing with established companies from the off, why not set the trend from the word go and have them following you... best advertising tool you will ever have is your vehicle

quote:

will I lose out on a lot of weddings with a black car? Are'nt brides going to demand white?

Yes you will lose out on some weddings and even some funeral homes have white hearses now for the asian community so may lose out there as well. It's an age old question for sure. All depends on what you want to target and what path you want to take. We still do plenty of weddings with black cars. black for the guys white for the girls. Will have to farm one of them anyway at first

Squires brings up a good point about being diffrent but you cant be TOO diffrent! If insurance was only 500 a year I would say yea add a pink one to your fleet cant hurt. But when you got a large nut to make and you wanna grow you gotta keep it utilized doing something 7 days a week. Save the pink one for the 15th car you add to the fleet.

quote:

Originally posted by sevenswild:
only if you sold your butt off for Mary Kay-pink really sells by you?

Yep they are very popular!! girls love them of all ages, not sure what the situation is with you guys stateside, but in the main its the ladies that book Limos over here in the UK

quote:

Originally posted by Squires Limos:
Have you decided what colour Limousine you are getting yet? why not go totally different than black or white, there must be hundreds of them already where you reside....... Isn't being different the key to success?

We only do Pearlescent Pink, very popular vehicles, i am sure they would go down a storm in the states too

Maybe I would consider thinking "outside the box" for a second vehicle. But my first vehicle is going to be the one paying the bills - so I can't get too crazy. Pink is a little too drastic for me - maybe I will go cheetah print. Haha!

only if you sold your butt off for Mary Kay-pink really sells by you?

Have you decided what colour Limousine you are getting yet? why not go totally different than black or white, there must be hundreds of them already where you reside....... Isn't being different the key to success?

We only do Pearlescent Pink, very popular vehicles, i am sure they would go down a storm in the states too

Thanks Steve! Thank you both for the tips!

Okay - I may be changing my mind about the color of my car. I planned on getting a white stretch 120" to do special occasions, etc. When I told my wife she said "White is so 1990's" - I figured she was wrong. I just talked to the guy at coachwest and he was very nice - he told me that since I am in LA and so many entertainment companies use BLACK limos that I may want to consider black. My question is - will I lose out on a lot of weddings with a black car? Are'nt brides going to demand white?

I've reading about people looking at using Word, Excel, etc. and I agree that the Wolfe-ster will need something, but these days there are some really GREAT options out there and NONE cost a dime to use and are typically way better than MS-Works.

Check these out and think about whch best suits your use -

• OpenOffice - a complete suite of tools that runs on your computer locally; huge download
  
• Zoho - a complete suite of tools that runs over the web; nothing on your computer. Use the CRM quite a bit.
  
• Google DocsGoogle Docs - Word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool over the web; very nice - I use it quite a bit and then can share stuff in about a second
  

I imagine eventually you'll use Word and Excel, if you want to upgrade to '07 (W and E) you can buy the small business version (which isn't much more-if you already have some version of Word on your computer you can get 'upgrade' version which is less money). That comes with software called business accounting-it has invoices, etc. and keeps track of it all in database for you, all your clients, what they owe, what they've spent, expenses, etc. You can do online checking and I believe it is compatible with Quickbooks (still have to look into that), and also have setup for Paypal so you can take CC's. I know that there is great limo software out there, but with '07 getting more popular and you just starting out, this might be an option to look into.

quote:

I don't know how to and cut and paste my MS works form but - you are right, I should save my customer data, but I am not a pro with Works or Excel. I don't want to spend a fortune on limo software.

If you would like to email it to me as an attachment I can get it up.

On your data since you are already using yahoo for your mail just use their contact manager to store all your customer data. Look for (contacts tab in mail program) There is a field for just about everything and also an area for notes so you can detail what types of preferences they have or any specific reservations info like gate codes, rate quoted etc. Best part is once you get busy and need a limo software program you can export all the data into it and eliminate a lot of data entry. Also even before that you can export and do mailing lists if you have a special you want to advertise to your customers.

quote:

Originally posted by InTheLeftLane:
Just listed your blog on InTheLeftLaneOnline.com

THANKS STEVE! I appreciate it!

MJ

I dont know how to and cut and paste my MS works form but - you are right, I should save my customer data, but I am not a pro with Works or Excel. I dont want to spend a fortune on limo software.



Refferred By: