John Thomas on Freight Brokering

Freight Brokering: Is It for You? Can You Succeed?

These are two fundamental questions you need to deal with before you venture into freight brokering (or any other business).

Your background experience and current skills may be very helpful but you need to address some basic questions as well. For example, here is a reply I recently made to a person currently in trucking. He is concerned about learning the salesmanship among other things:

"Yes, you will be in sales, but you don't have to "sell yourself" in the
traditional sense. You have to think in terms of starting a business.
Do you have what it takes? (ask yourself this, don't tell me). Are
you open to taking instruction from someone who has been there,
done that? Do you really want to succeed in your own business
and give it 1-2 years' effort instead of giving up after 3-4 months?

Freight brokering is tough, it's competitive and you may not see solid,
"consistent" progress for months. Can you plough ahead even
when things go slowly?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself. There is a lot
of money to be made in brokering, but it doesn't come easy even
though the concept is very easy".

So, from this reply, you can see that I do NOT always sugar coat the business. You will get realistic and upfront opinions based upon my 25+ years in the business arena.

Freight Broker Training: How to Get Started

I know a number of people are getting ready to sign up for training and it is quite simple. A few ask me, How do I sign up? or How do I get started? Here is what to do and what to expect:

You may sign up for either the Home Study Course or the One-on-One Telephone Training with unlimited support by one of two ways:

1. Go to the bottom of the web site and click on Order Now. You will be taken to PayPal where you can use your credit/debit card. OR,

2. You can phone in your order by calling me direct at 915-613-1500 and using your credit/debit card.

Either way, if I'm in the office, you should have your materials in about 20 minutes after we process your order.

You will receive an email which has a download link, a user name, a password and some instructions.

It's first come, first serve and you tell me when you prefer to meet for the one-on-one training - days or evenings. For the one hour support on the Home Study Course, you can meet with me either before, during or after you have gone through the materials. You do have about 3 hours of audio mp3s on the Home Study so you will have plenty of information from which to draw your questions.

There are actually two other ways to order as well. You can fax in your order to 915-875-1921 by printing out the order form or you can mail in the form with your check to the address on the order form.

Once you get your email with the link, user name and password, you will register the eBook and from there you have access to the training manual, the handouts, the videos and for the Home Study, the mp3s.

That's all there is to it. Let me know if you have further questions. Call me at 1888-526-ATEX (2839)

What Does This Story Below Tell You? .....

I read on the Internet this morning how a real estate guru in Boston put up 10 homes on auction in a 50-unit condo complex. They all sold in 25 minutes. About 20 million dollars in real estate exchanged hands.

One might think, so what? Things happen all the time.

But here is what is really important.

These people behind the auction took on a huge risk. If things would have flopped, it could have harmed the complex's future sales and lowered the prices elsewhere in similar buildings. A dismal result would have involved more than just a shrug and a few words of disappointment. Real money could have been lost and a lot of it.

So, these people who put on the auction were entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs, the outcome is not always easily known. The future is murky and unclear and there are no signs that scream out "Go down this path" or "Do this" or Do that". There is just no certainty for entrepreneurs.

The lessons here perhaps can be applied to you. You may be waiting for a real clear path. You may want to guarantee certainty even before you lift a finger. In my opinion, you will probably be waiting til the cows come home - and then longer.

Decide for yourself - are you an entrepreneur or not? Then act accordingly using the best judgment possible.

Freight Broker Training: Go It Alone? Or Get A Coach?

It's true, the freight brokering concept is quite simple: you normally first find shippers who want to move their cargo; then you find a truck who can move the cargo. And you collect a commission.

It all sounds so nice and easy. I have stated this many times.

You CAN learn this business on your own. In a way, I did to some extent even after taking some very expensive training. You might even find a person who will take you into their brokerage and show you everything you need to know.

But, going it alone is very costly. Let me tell you, if you think you can figure it out yourself, you can. But you will pay a price without learning from someone who has been there and done that.

And working for someone else who will train you is most likely a pipe dream. Why would they want to train a potential competitor for nothing?

Let me tell you, telephone and online training in MANY businesses is taking the country by storm. In many cases, it's very powerful and effective.

If you have been thinking about going it alone, you owe it yourself to consider my Home Study program. There is no more powerful training than this for the price. Check it out here: http://atexfrei.ipower.com/AtexFBTrngMiniCourse.html

Are You a Broker Agent?

Some people choose to work as a Broker Agent under the authority of a freight broker. And there is nothing wrong with this. Some agents are prospering more so than freight brokers, I would imagine.

But you need to be careful.

Most freight brokers will have a contract. I suppose many broker agents just sign the contract because they feel that's what they have to do. Well, maybe you DO have to sign it in order to work for the freight broker. But it is absolutely necessary to READ and UNDERSTAND everything that is in the contract.

For starters, the contract will be slanted in favor of the freight broker. That's okay as long as it is "fair". What's fair and what's not fair are in the eyes of the beholder.

But some contracts are just not fair. The freight broker will try to push some of the collection liability off onto the broker agent. Yet, most freight brokers should, and will, run a credit check on each customer before transacting business.

And it seems to me that the freight broker should assume responsibility for collections. If the broker agent is to assume liability for collections - which is "above and beyond the call of duty" - it seems they should be compensated "above and beyond the call of duty".

What would be next? Would a freight broker require the agent to pay the rent if the freight broker is short of funds? I think not.

Don't be afraid to contest whatever parts of the contract you don't agree with. And if you can't live with the contract for whatever reason, do NOT bother working with this freight broker. There are others that don't have requirements that are "outside the norm".

I Wanted Some Time Off!

Plus, it was my birthday. We went to Ruidoso, NM for a good, old fashioned October Fest, one of my favorite past times. Sorry if this does not have anything to do with freight brokering - but I wanted some time off.

Do You Know What a "Chart of Accounts" Is?

Most freight brokers understand that they will have to get involved to some extent with the bookkeeping and accounting requirements of their business. The first place to start is a Chart of Accounts.

This Chart is a listing of all the potential accounting transactions that a freight broker might be dealing with. The Chart starts with the Assets like Cash in Bank, Accts Receivable, and then it goes into the liabilities like Accts Payable, and then on into the Income and Expense accounts like Revenue from Shippers, Reimbursement for Unloading Fees, and for Expenses, Loading Board Fees, Telephone Expense, Office Supplies, and so on.

When I was providing accounting services many years ago, I created a Chart of Accounts for each client and each account had a number. The 100s were the Assets, the 200s were the Liabilities, the 300s were the Income accounts, the 400s were the Cost of Sales and the 500s were the Expenses.

So at the end of each month, the client would bring in their check register and they would have each check coded based upon the Chart of Accounts. For example, Telephone expense was coded 520, Office Supplies, 511 and so on. The income would be coded like Revenue from Shippers, 301, payments to the truck would be 401 and so on.

What you are doing is assigning a code number to each and every transaction that you incur. From there, the accountant can plug these into the accounting software and generate your financial statements.

And, yes, a good accountant should review your codings to see if maybe their should be some revisions. For example, a loan payment would be made with one check, but the payment may include a  payment on a liability AND the interest portion. The accountant can help you with some of the more complicated transactions.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have comments.

Trucks on the Move - What a Beautiful Scene

When you set out to become either a freight broker or a broker agent, your efforts are rewarded with a certificate of completion.

We do not certify those taking the Home Study program. But you will receive a certificate of completion once you complete the formal, one-on-one telephone & Internet training.

If you are still undecided about getting into this industry or this training, you may take advantage of our free or low-cost informational products. Go here to learn more about what we offer:

http://atexfrei.ipower.com/inanutshell.shtml

Essentially, networking is starting and maintaining personal contact (including email, snail mail, etc) with a small select number of individuals. These individuals may be a small group or scattered and unknown to each other.

Now, networking can be powerful. It begins like a seed and can turn into an oak tree, so to speak.

In my past, I did a lot of consulting, "trouble shooting", and small projects. I loved it because I knew I could always go on and look for another "Goliath" to kill. Each completion brought a sense of satisfaction.

Yet, each completion, as time went on, also created a bit of anxiety. The "unknown" both intrigued me and perplexed me.

What was going to be my next project, where would I be going, what would I be doing? Yes, these were intriging. But at the same time, I wondered why I couldn't be "normal" and just settle down with a "normal" job with a steady set of expectations, steady paycheck and so on and so forth.

So, one of my favorite past times was to - you guessed it - network!

In Part II, I'll give you some examples of concrete situations that you might be able to identify with and apply as well.

Wanna Get Certified?

When you set out to become either a freight broker or a broker agent, your efforts are rewarded with a certificate of completion.

We do not certify those taking the Home Study program. But you will receive a certificate of completion once you complete the formal, one-on-one telephone & Internet training.

If you are still undecided about getting into this industry or this training, you may take advantage of our free or low-cost informational products. Go here to learn more about what we offer:

http://atexfrei.ipower.com/inanutshell.shtml

Part I - Networking: Do You Know What This Can Do for You?

Essentially, networking is starting and maintaining personal contact (including email, snail mail, etc) with a small select number of individuals. These individuals may be a small group or scattered and unknown to each other.

Now, networking can be powerful. It begins like a seed and can turn into an oak tree, so to speak.

In my past, I did a lot of consulting, "trouble shooting", and small projects. I loved it because I knew I could always go on and look for another "Goliath" to kill. Each completion brought a sense of satisfaction.

Yet, each completion, as time went on, also created a bit of anxiety. The "unknown" both intrigued me and perplexed me.

What was going to be my next project, where would I be going, what would I be doing? Yes, these were intriging. But at the same time, I wondered why I couldn't be "normal" and just settle down with a "normal" job with a steady set of expectations, steady paycheck and so on and so forth.

So, one of my favorite past times was to - you guessed it - network!

In Part II, I'll give you some examples of concrete situations that you might be able to identify with and apply as well.