Hello, dears!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic end to the summer, with or without the help of our good old British weather!
Whatever the case, though, I'm sure most of you will be making plans of some sort by now. I don't know what it is about September that makes people want to move on from where they are and make a fresh start - maybe it's because the children are starting a new year in school. I don't know. Whatever it is, though, this time of year seems to make people think about where they are in life and what they want to achieve going forward.
Expansion on the Horizon
This year, one of those people is my nephew Stevie. A couple of weeks ago, he started talking about moving on from the independent courier jobs he takes on now and starting up a proper courier business. He's even spoken to some of the lads he knows from previous jobs to see if they wanted in, to just try and work out if the whole thing could be done. He really is serious about it!
Of course, being his favourite Auntie Gertie, I felt like I had to do my bit for him. So I got online and started looking for tips and tricks for people wanting to grow their business from just odd courier jobs to a 'real' company - without spending too much money, of course. My Stevie's on a budget!
That's when I found the article I'm sharing with you today. It's written by a fellow called Andy Littlewood and – having set up his own courier company – he certainly seems to know what he is talking about.
A Case Study for Couriers
So what does Andy tell us about starting your own courier business? Well, you should really read the article to find out – but if you're short on time or patience, here's the short version. Andy uses the leading courier networking platform, Courier Exchange, to find sub-contractors to run courier jobs for his company, while also subcontracting his own fleet to larger companies! Isn't that clever? It's almost like he has two businesses – one where he and his people are at the bottom of the chain, and another where he's the boss of a whole other set of people.
Of course, Courier Exchange is really useful in this whole process, because – according to Andy himself – it helps him find trustworthy people for the bigger or more important courier jobs, the ones that carry a lot of responsibility. That way, he can make sure he doesn't sub-contract those to untrustworthy drivers and risk something going wrong along the way. Actually, that's exactly how I go about it when I hire temporary people for my cafe, as well – I ask for recommendations. It seems Andy and I are birds of a feather...!
All joking aside, though, the story of Andy and his company is well worth reading if you're thinking of expanding your courier business into something larger. The fact that it has worked for him is really inspiring, and I'm sure after you read the article many of you will agree with me. Which is why I will leave you to it, and simply say...
...ta-ra!
- Gertie
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