Hello everyone. I appreciate this opportunity to talk with you about a variety of topics important to all of us in the trucking industry. At ATBS, we believe that knowledge is power and so we make education an important part of everything we do. In my posts, I hope to call on many of my colleagues to help me out. They represent years of experience in the trucking industry and have specialized knowledge about topics that are critical to the success of a trucking business such as setting goals, time management, choosing the right loads, the importance of preventive maintenance, improving fuel economy and important tax and accounting advice to name a few.

Why is this information so important to your business? In order to answer that, we need to look at why owner-operator businesses fail. Many owner-operators live settlement to settlement with no goals and no thoughts about the future. Although they are experts at driving a truck, they often have little or no business management expertise. Cash is limited and when surprises happen, they are often unprepared. Repairs are done to the truck only when it breaks down, business taxes are misunderstood and at times health issues prevent a driver from earning revenue. Anything that prevents the truck from running takes money out of the driver's pocket. When business is bad, there's tendency to look for someone else to blame, instead of taking responsibility and making the necessary changes to ensure success.

Running a successful trucking business is not something you can learn through experience alone. By the time you understand the lesson it can be too late. Education can help prevent the common pitfalls that cause many businesses to fail, especially if you learn before you buy your truck or before problems with your business become too overwhelming to correct. In order to make education work, we need to get rid of the phrase, "I already know it all."

As soon as you start to think you know everything, you close your mind to the things you don't know. You limit your possibilities and hold back your chances for success. Owner-operators are faced with making decisions every day. Things can change fast in your world and if you don't adapt your business to new situations quickly, you're setting yourself up for failure. Education will help you make better decisions. And it's the quality of your decisions that will be the difference between your success or failure.

We've all heard the saying, "Knowledge is power." Through education, you will gain the knowledge needed to make better choices. When you run a business, knowledge truly is power.

In my next blog, I'll talk about the importance of creating a budget for your business, so you know where you're going and how to get there.