I'm a good example of who Mike was talking about, I think. Even though my wife answers the phones, does most scheduling, and is a big asset to our social media marketing. If the Kid goes down, this thing is in real trouble.
We all have our own strengths, weaknesses, personalities, financial opportunities, etc.. It is a difficult thing to go from almost nothing to a multitruck operation without a substantial financial push from the outside (including a wife who makes good $ and has great health insurance).
Everyone's life is very different. We had Max (will be 4 next week) and decided to have Mel leave her very well paying job in sales in order to raise him the way we wanted to. This meant me working as full time "Lead Custodian" at the community college almost 67 highway miles away. It offered excellent benefits and the stability of a steady paycheck. These came in very handy when I fell off my motorcycle and broke my Tibia and Fibula and spent @ 3 months on the couch or hopping around the house on 1 leg.
I left that job almost 2 years ago. It IS STRESSFUL at times but I think I made the right choice. I greatly prefer being on the truck to setting up sales routes for myself. This probably limits our growth but I have to be who I am and grow to hopefully be a better me. I think about "What happens if I go down?" Every day. We carry high deductible health insurance but a big accident or illness would be trouble.
My business IS my retirement plan right now. I don't have a rich dad or uncle or anyone to help me do this (except my wife but she doesn't bring $ to the table). At this stage in our biz, I'm trying to set a precedent of quality and high level of service. I'm doing a fair job at that for now.
The real challenge is what's next? My vision is to have a smaller (2-3 truck) operation that won't be completely dependent on me. There will be a day when "The Kid" isn't a kid anymore and will want to get off the truck. I think I have quite a while before that happens. I couldn't believe how old Boyle was when he told me.
Saiger is the same way. Going strong way later than a lot of guys think possible.
The real challenge is moving the value from "me" to "TCM of Iowa". One day I hope to sell TCM and I won't go with it. The value has to stay with the biz or I won't get a whole lot from my hard work.
The other way this thing goes is one (or both) of my boys wants into the biz. Nothing would make me happier but they will have to be developed so I'm not on the truck when I'm 80. This is a great topic that probably deserves it's own thread. I just wanted to give my 2 cents.
It was so helpful talking to so many guys with so many different strengths (and weaknesses) at MF.
The Clean Machine
- What tolerance? I'm a freaking liberal.
Careful that's how he got me! 
