6 months and already in the fast lane.

Well, I took the plunge and opened the door to my first client just a little over 6 months ago.

With much encouragement from my friends and relatives I decided to start my own business to provde a better service and to overcome the disadvantages of working as a freelance driver.

It takes a lot of self belief and courage to step out of the comfort zone and go it alone but go it alone I did. Drive Arrive was in the planning 12 months before July 9th when I started trading and circumstances really gave me the shove I needed to get off my derrière and find a suitable vehicle to push my own dreams forward.

I had listened to what was important to the calibre of clients I wished to attract and I knew I needed a nice long wheelbase S Class Mercedes with reclining rear seats! I looked at several in my price bracket but they all had issues but then I found a perfect one on Autotrader......in Leeds! Deal done and the vehicle purchased, a few weeks later it was licensed and insured for private hire, and I was off!

I turned 6 months trading on January 9th and it positively flew by. Still learning about Google AdWords, SEO, Social Media and how they all meshed together while fielding the countless offers from companies promising to get me onto page 1 of Google, I stumbled across my secret weapon that brought me a lot of leads. In business one has to continually evaluate what works and what doesn't and do more of what does and less of what doesn't.....it's quite simple isn't it!

Anyway, my 'secret' ;-) has bagged me some very nice clients who thankfully return with repeat business and actually promote me to their friends too (with a little incentive scheme) which is great because word of mouth and recommendation is the best marketing ever.

So, 6 months on I have become increasingly busy, partnered with a few freelance owner drivers who are proving to be 'fantastic', am growing a nice client base, have just launched this new website and am planning phase 2 of the business development now that an infrastructure is forming to cope with increased work. As well as this blog I will in the next day or so be mailing all clients.....and the near misses with a news e-mail keeping them up to date on things.

So what for the next 6 months? With the new website I will be prospecting deeper into my target area, recruiting yet more owner drivers by treating them right and paying them the same day and most importantly showing clients that Drive Arrive is the professional, safe, on time every time business they can trust and rely on.

Colin Bennett - Owner, Drive Arrive.