Truckin’ Towards Success: 7 Tips to Start Your Own Successful Tow Truck Company
Do you like helping people? Do you want to make it your living?
Starting a tow truck company requires a few key elements. Yes, you need a tow truck, but there are other things that will help your business run efficiently.
Especially when you’re starting out, it’ll be hard to rise above the better-known tow truck companies in your area. You’ll need to get creative to get your name out there. We’re here to help.
Here are 7 tips for starting your tow truck company.
1) What Are You?
Are you a roadside assistance driver? Or are you towing impounded vehicles? You’ll need to decide which kind of tow truck company you want to start before you can get on with buying your materials.
Presumably, you’ve thought about this a little bit. If not, it’s good to look into what types of tow truck companies are in your area. If you’re not overly-inclined in any one direction, choose based on how much competition you’ll face.
2) Buy Your Tow Truck
Tow trucks can cost a good amount of money. The class that you’re looking for will depend on what kind of business you decided to start. Basically, the low end for a new tow truck is around $60,000, but they can go all the way up to $500,000 and more for higher class trucks.
You may want to consider a small business loan from the bank to supplement the startup cost of buying a truck. Unless you have a few hundred thousand dollars saved up.
3) Make Sure Your License & Insurance Are Good
To drive a tow truck, you need an upgraded license. A commercial driver’s license (CDL) should be enough to drive a tow truck. You get your license based on the class of vehicle you’ll drive and how much weight it carries.
Check your state’s department of permits to get an idea of what you’re supposed to do.
Also, see an insurance broker in order to determine what kind of insurance you’ll need. You’ll have to get yourself, your truck, and your clients covered under your plan. Check out this website for truck insurance quotes.
4) You’re Ready to Tow
Now that you’ve got all of the supplies and your insurance in order, you’re ready to get the commercial side of things going.
Come up with a good name and logo for your business and have the logo painted on the side of your tow truck. You’re now in the business of self-promotion so you need to get a website and create social media accounts for your business.
5) SEO
Search engine optimization is a good way to get potential clients to your website. Most of your clients will probably be using their smartphones to google “tow truck companies,” so you should familiarize yourself with SEO practices and optimize your website.
Having people visit your site will generate more business, so this is an extremely valuable practice.
6) PPC
Pay per click advertising is another way to get clients to your page. Instead of SEO, where you use analytics and keywords to boost your website’s visibility, PPC ads are displayed on relevant websites and search engines as clickable advertisements.
You only pay when the ad is clicked on, so you want to maximize what you get out of each click. Show your rates, where you are and have your phone number easily displayed so you don’t waste clicks.
7) Physical Advertising
Physical ads are still a viable option in 2019. Have business cards made and drop them in mailboxes or post them around bulletins in your town. Promotional flyers and radio/telephone advertising also work well, but they cost a lot more than online advertisements.
Your Tow Truck Company is Ready
Now that you know the basics of getting your company off the ground and doing the initial promotional campaign, you’re ready to start your own tow truck company.
Getting off the ground is hard, but once you starting towing, you’ll make back all that money you spent starting up.
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