New Business

About a year ago my buddy Jeremy Jackson started a business. He was going to school and found it very hard to find a decent job here in Chico. Due to the large amount of students and the lack of businesses their just wasn't enough jobs to go around. Jeremy always had a way of making things work; you could see it in his everyday life. He doesn't come from a family with much money so he was basically on his own. So after a few months of being unemployed and analyzing this small town Jeremy figured it out. Just about every semester he noticed the kids moved to different houses and apartments, not really sure why they didn't stay where they were at but it really didn't matter. So what was Jeremy thinking? Moving company! This wasn't only for students, but for all people in the area, kids to old people. So he started by advertising in the phone books because he knew it took more then a couple months for the new phonebooks to reach the people. Next he called all the moving companies in Northern California and got their pricing and policies and compared them. After analyzing the local moving companies he realized that their wasn't a single company that provided moving services for people only moving a small amount of belongings. Also you had to book them 4-6 weeks in advance and had to go by their schedule. This sounded like a real inconvenience to Jeremy. So low and behold Jackson's Moving Company for people that didn't have a thousand dollars to spend on moving.

So Jackson's Moving Company has been in business for just over a year now and it is very busy doing moves everyday. Jeremy started by doing the moves himself and with one other buddy. That worked great but as the business grew he didn't have the time to be moving people all day, he had to focus on management and keeping the business running smoothly. So Jeremy hired a few of his friends to do the moves. This was great now he really didn't have to lift nothing but a telephone and he was making money and so were his friends. Now the company had about five employees and everyone was happy. This company was now completely self sufficient and the best part, practically zero overhead, Jeremy didn't even own a truck, instead he had the customers rent a U-Haul. This was considerably cheaper then using another moving company that provided a truck the customers didn't seem to mind at all.

When asked what he liked most about owning his own company he simply replied, the money. He finished school and now has a full time job aside from the moving company and makes great money. It only took a few months from the idea to the first day of business and then just a few weeks to reach a positive cash flow and that was only to cover the price of advertising in the phone books. He didn't have to borrow any money to start so he knew he was safe and this venture could only be a good thing. When asked if he ever doubted if this company would work he replied "Nope, people need moving and with the high cost of other typical movers I knew people would use me". He explained the downside, and being the boss of anything requires responsibility and drive. There was always the possibility of breaking the customer's belongings or somebody getting hurt and instead of getting insurance he just made a waiver to be signed by employees and customers stating Jackson's Moving Company is not liable for any injury or anything broke, lost, or stolen.

The most important personal attribute is simply "doing it" people talk a lot and never do anything. All it takes is some balls to just say ok I'm doing it! Then everything