What would you do?

The company i work for is looking for new business ideas. Given the budget you would need to do it ,what business would you start? Keep in mind you have a national network of wharehouse space both small and large. You have a large fleet of vehicles ranging from small box trucks to tractor trailers.

Again,what would you do?

I am considering manufacturing custom tow dollies with a feature that every car guy who is stuck with a tow dolly needs.

I had a dream once of building automated storage facilities for PODs systems.

For low startup cost, it sounds like you could do the moving & storage gig pretty quickly. If you could setup a self-store/store-n-lock too, those always seem to fill up quickly.

Do your trucks have lift-gates? I have another idea in mind too...

Storage and distribution of illegal commodities. Bootlegged liquor, dope, illegal aliens-people will always pay for a "deal". When dealing with the illegal aliens, you could collect on both ends!

petegossett wrote: For low startup cost, it sounds like you could do the moving & storage gig pretty quickly. If you could setup a self-store/store-n-lock too, those always seem to fill up quickly. Do your trucks have lift-gates? I have another idea in mind too...

Some do.

How many trucks in the Fleet?

How large is the Company?

A bunch. Very large. I don't want to give too much information. I feel that more info might put too many walls up. Want some creative ideas.

Large Warehouse + freight containers + electricity + water = apartment complex?

The 2 primary resources you have named both have issues. The country is covered with empty warehousing and other dead Real Estate, and rolling stock is sitting idle everywhere with the down-turn in the economy.

Can you offer any more clues?

For example: If you also have a large staff of people experienced in difficult shipping scenarios, develop an international freight component. If you have large capacity in a particular region, focus on the manufacturing and warehousing needs of the industries in that region. Look at the big growth industries and try to add value to what they are doing. Medical- specialty equipment shipping? Pharmaceutical handling? Energy- manufacturing of alternative energy systems? International HazMat shipping? Government contracts- Healthcare call center processing?

I like any idea that helps other companies downsize. For example: A small scale machine shop could specialize in ONLY subcontracted CNC work, and sell the service to larger companies who have their own CNC department. This would give the bigger company the opportunity to downsize and eliminate the costs associated with this part of their business, while the smaller company could be leaner and meaner and therefore provide the parts at a lower rate than the bigger company could do themselves. Win-win.

You've got to have resources you can focus on other than trucks and warehouses, and then you will need to be creative and specialize while offering added-value to other companies so they can save money.

self-store, product distribution, auto storage clubs, sell advertising space on the side of the trucks, express routes for heavier stuff (like a ups for more than 75 lb packages)

One note on business development.

The most common mistake in the world is to do something you think is a good idea then look for the market to sell it to. Fail.

Look for a market, and sell what people want to buy.

In other words, don't ask general questions about good ideas for warehouses. Look SPECIFICALLY at the regions you have a presence in, identify a need, and address it.

For example: I work for a small scale chemical manufacturer. Large scale companies abound on the Gulf coast. The problem is that recently, weather patterns in the Gulf have meant that hurricanes are a big risk in the Fall. It takes several days to shut down a large chemical company, and weeks to re-start it. But the risk of damage in a large chemical company is enormous if hit by a hurricane. So when weather patterns look POTENTIALLY bad, they shut down. Recent years have meant that several large companies therefore shutdown for extended periods in the Fall. They are looking for relationships with smaller companies who are not on the Gulf Coast with whom they can develop off-site storage or minimal production capacity during these extended shutdowns, so they can sell stuff. Our ASSET is that we ARE NOT on the Gulf Coast, and that we are close enough to facilitate their needs. FWIW, we just received national recognition from the US Chamber of Commerce as one of the top small businesses of the year, so some of our business ideas work.

Look for the market, then meet the need.

Delivery. of, um. Stuff.

sorry with I was more creative.

Well... how many hookers fit in a small box truck and how large is the population of your area?

Hookers and liftgates. Hmmm.

The reason that I asked is that I market Used Fleet equipment. Over the past couple of years I've seen a number of Customer's go out of business.

Without knowing what is hauled (container?-flat bed?-refrigerated?), or LTL/Regional/Nation wide...I can't give you any "ideas".