Being self-employed is attractive to many people, particularly if you have an entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy being in charge of your time and career, rather than having someone else calling the shots. While not everyone is ready or willing to leap into self-employment, those who do can often find much success and happiness. You can also work freelance in various industries, perhaps eventually creating a company with employees to work alongside you and build an industrious empire.
One field of work where you can move into freelancing from being employed by another business is hauling goods from supplier to customer. If you are currently working as a truck driver for a company but would like to take charge of your career path, here are some tips to help you move into self-employment.
Consider Your Financial Position
Before you decide to hand in your notice for your current role, first, you need to consider your current financial position. Becoming a freelancer is a risk, and it will take some time for you to be earning a steady income if you haven’t already secured several clients who are going to provide you with regular work. You need to know that you have enough money saved to live off for six months to a year so that you can cover your living expenses while you’re trying to build a client list. If you need to take out a loan from the bank to help support your freelancing endeavor, make sure you have a great credit score and can afford to make those payments each month.
Create a Professional Website
You should also create a professional website to help advertise yourself as a truck driver that people can rely on for all of their delivery needs. Invest in trucking website design by The Whit Group to start picking the attention of the audience and possible clients. Whether it’s just you or you’re starting a small business with a few other truck drivers joining you as your employees, people need to discover you, and the majority of people use the internet to find services like this. You should also utilize social media as, again, a lot of people use these platforms to find products and services. It’s also a great way to directly engage with your client base and answer question from current and potential clients. You can also take bookings for jobs and receive payment via your website, provided it has eCommerce tools embedded. You can easily create a website via a website builder such as Squarespace or Wix, both of which are very affordable.
Use Other Sites to Find Clients
As well as having a business website, you should use other sites that are dedicated to matching truck drivers with clients. Hot shot trucking can be very competitive, so you need to branch out and use a site for finding loads to give yourself the best chance of securing jobs. Always leave your business cards with clients on delivery as if they are happy with your services, they can come directly to you next time.
Insurance
You should also make sure that you have the right insurance to operate as a freelance truck driver. For example, ensuring your trucks and any drivers that you might have working for your company. In addition, if you are going to use an office space or warehouse to work from, you’ll also need to make sure that that building is insured, as well as any other equipment such as computers and laptops are covered as well. Moreover, experts at Simplex Group suggest freelance drivers also comply with DOT safety standards for the overall growth of their business.
If you are interested in taking charge of your career as a truck driver and want to move into freelance work, consider the tips above and how they can help you make this a reality.
James Daniels is a freelance writer, business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.
