He Rented Out 300 Trailers and Didn't Own a Single One Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 250k a month. 250k a month. Yeah. Wow. So you were  making 7,500 a month recurring in your first two months. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Just from Facebook  Marketplace posts. Yeah. Just from Facebook marketplace posts. That's what enabled me to  travel. That's why I've been traveling for years now because I [music] could do everything from my  phone. It's straightforward stuff.

00:15 Any AI really can take you 90% of the way there. How [music]  much money did it take to start this business in total? I just had to pay my insurance. By the  end of this episode, if someone has no experience in the industry, will they be able to have enough  knowledge to where they could start [music] this business themselves? Oh, yeah. Definitely. I had  no knowledge when I was starting this business.

00:39 I had no idea. You know those big semi-truckss  driving on the highway? Well, someone probably leases those trailers to them. And today, that  someone was Eli. In 2019, [music] he was a real estate agent in Connecticut who'd started matching  truckers with loads for about 80 bucks a pop. Then one day, his uncle asked if he could rent a  trailer for his semi.

00:53 And Eli [music] didn't know anything about this business. So he found  a company to lease him a 53 ft semi-tra from a [music] big company for about 350 bucks a month.  And then he rented it to his uncle for about 750 bucks a month. After getting an insurance policy,  he was in business. [music] And that's the whole startup cost. Six years later, he had 300  trailers and was [music] profiting over $50,000 a month with two virtual employees that  he'd never met in person.

01:20 And he ran this whole business from his phone in Colombia. And by the  end of this video, you're going to know exactly how to copy him. Please enjoy. Okay. Well, why  don't we start by you just telling me who you are and what you do. All right. Cool. So, my name is  Eli. I run a trucking company. Basically, I rent trailers to truckers. I got started in November  2019.

01:41 I got into trucking. I started dispatching truckers. Basically, I was looking for loads for  these truckers. And a lot of them was were like, "Oh, we also need equipment." And so I found a  supplier. I found someone to give me trailers. They would give me flatbeds and they would give  me dry vans. And so I started off with a couple for me and for I had a driver at that time.

02:05 And  then my uncle was like, "I don't have really good credit. Are you able to rent me a a trailer?" And  I was like, "Yeah, I can rent you a trailer." And from there, I was like, "Wow, well, if I can do  this with my uncle, I can do this with a whole bunch of other people, too." And so I started off  with one trailer. That was in November 2019. Okay.

02:30 So in 2019, you were like dispatching trucks. Is  that right? Like you were trying to match loads. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. I was matching loads  to truckers. So I had a trucker which who was available in a certain area. It was a pretty good  gig too. I mean everything was virtual. I always try to be virtual in everything that I do. So  yeah, it was virtual too.

02:46 You know, I would find a trucker who would be looking for work. They  would tell me, "Look, I'm available this day. I'm available this time." And then I would match  them with loads. There's load boards that you can get on to. And you would try to, you know, give  them loads. Was there any licensing you needed to start matching loads to truckers or you just find  these boards and you just start calling?

03:07 No. Yeah, you don't need a license to dispatch. You do need  a license to broker loads, which means it's on the other side. You're representing the shipper and  you're finding them the driver. On dispatching, you you have the driver and you're finding them  the load. And anyone can just do that. What What are some websites where you would go to find  loads?

03:29 DAT, Loadboard. There's a bunch of load boards. They're called load boards, okay? And  shippers post their loads. And sometimes they post it with the rate that they're willing to give  you per mile, their requirements, what kind of load it is. You just call them, tell them, look,  you know, I have this driver. They tell you that if he's good to go or not, and then they tell you  the rate and stuff like that.

03:50 How long were you doing this before your uncle asked about renting  a trailer? I was doing it only for like 6 months. Okay. Yeah. And were you finding success with the  dispatching? Yeah, with the dispatching it's kind of like you're you're taking a very small margin  per load because the margins are already thin. I wasn't making too much money. What's an example of  a load and the margin you would make from it?

04:09 Like an average load. Uh this was like 7 years ago. Let  me see. It was like maybe a load from Connecticut to upstate New York. And these rates are much  different now because remember diesel is much higher now. So diesel goes into these rates too.  Tolls go into these rates. So I'm talking about rates that were 7 years ago. I would do a load  from Connecticut to New York paying maybe like $800 and each load you would think that you're  going to be taking at least a margin of 10%.

04:36 Okay, that's kind of what where you're at with it. Okay,  so your uncle asked, "Hey, I he was already a truck driver or he wanted to be a truck driver."  He was already a truck driver. Okay. And he wanted he he needed a trailer. And we say trailer, we're  talking like the 42 FFT 18-wheeler semi-trailers. We're talking about 53 foot trailers. So,  the trailers connect to the truck.

05:00 They're not part of the truck. You know what I mean? They  connect to the truck. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, what did you need to do when he asked that? And  first of all, I love the fact that you just took it and ran with it cuz a lot of good businesses  start that way. It just starts with a question that sparks a curiosity and then it's like, huh?  And so, like, there's a lot to be said about being focused, right?

05:21 They lock in. You're you're doing  dispatching. It's only been six months. Like, you got to put in the time, right? You got to  make the connections. Like there is logic to that, but you're like, hm, shiny object, which is  that's how I am. You're like, let me try this. Is that accurate? Oh, yeah. I've always been like  that. And even now with AI and things like that, I'm starting to get into into AI and it's  super interesting.

05:38 Yeah. But he was like, you know, let me see what we can do with this  equipment. How much will you rent it to me for? I think a big part of this type of business is how  you're billing people and how you're being build, which I think is really important for a  lot of types of businesses. For example, I'm getting build for the first piece of equipment  net30.

06:02 So, I get it this month and then I pay for it at the end of next month, right? And so, I  start building it right away though. I don't bill net 30. I start billing right away and I  take a deposit. So I would take a deposit and I would bill weekly which was key because I would  start cash flowing right away. Yeah. Yeah. And so I found these people that were able to give me the  trailers.

06:28 They didn't charge me a deposit. They charged me 30. They didn't charge me per mile fee  for any mechanical stuff like repair stuff. That's something that was really critical. Okay. So what  was the first thing you did when your uncle asked that question? So the first thing I did was create  contracts to protect myself and protect, you know, the business, protect the trailer.

06:52 Then I got my  insurance. That was kind of the biggest expense for this type of business. I got a trucker policy  for the trailer, which was really like a ghost policy because really when an accident happens,  your trailer is the one and whichever trailer that's connected at the time of the accident is  the one that's going to be getting the claim. So, I had to get that policy, but really no trailer  was ever going to be connected to one of my trucks at the time of an accident.

07:21 So, I always had to  get a policy from the people that were renting and I had to be additional insured. Sorry. Why  wouldn't your trailer ever be attached? I don't get it. My truck would never be attached because  I'm renting it to I didn't have any trucks and I'm renting it to people that have trucks and so  at the time of an accident, the claim went to the truck, the owner of the truck, not the owner of  the trailer.

07:40 But you still needed something just to like be extra safe. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.  You always want to be safe. What did that policy cost? That policy cost like 4,000 a year. A year?  Yeah. So, did you have to get a separate $4,000 policy for every trailer or that $4,000 one was  like an umbrella policy for your company and all the trailers under it until they they told you,  "Hey, you got to up your policy cuz you got too many trailers now."

08:05 Yeah, that's exactly what it  was. That's exactly what it was. Hey, if you're liking this episode, please just hit the subscribe  button. Did you already own a trailer to rent to your uncle when he asked or did you have to go  find one? No, these were all subleasased. So, I would lease it and then I would subleasase  it to him. Okay. How does that look?

08:18 Where do you find a trailer or sub lease and what does  that cost? So, I just went on the internet. I googled places that were around me at that  time. Like in Connecticut, there was a bunch of companies and I found a company that the cost  was really good, which was $350 per month. So, they were charging me 350 per month. It would be  net30, which means that I could take a deposit, I could start billing, and then I would pay at the  end at the end of the You're cash flow positive from day one.

08:51 I would be cash flow positive from  day one, which I think is is something that can be applied to a lot of businesses. So, they're  charging you 350 a month. Yeah. And do you have to pay a deposit to the sub to the subleasasing  company? No, I don't have to pay a deposit. Okay. So, for 350 bucks, you've got a trailer. Mhm.  And do you need good credit to get that like your uncle didn't have?

09:10 I mean, I didn't have  spectacular credit. I had like 650 at that time. They just told me to send them a screenshot and I  still send them a screenshot. They didn't check my They didn't run a a check. Yeah. And they were a  big company. It wasn't like a small company. Now, if your uncle had had known about this company,  could he have leased it directly from them or No, because he didn't have good credit.

09:30 No, because  he didn't have good credit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, then how did you know what to charge your uncle?  Like, did you do research or did you just come up with a number? And what did you charge him? I kind  of came up with a number honestly and I stuck with that number probably throughout. I raised it a  couple of times. I think I started doing 180 per week that I was billing him.

09:51 So like 750 a month  give or take. You're like trying to double your money basically. I'm trying to double. You're  always trying to double at least double if you can triple because you know you have to think  about taxes and insurance fees and things like that. So a third is for paying whatever you need  to pay. A third is your expenses, which is taxes, whatever payroll you have, and then another third  for your profit.

10:17 So, first trailer, you're like break even on these. Break even. Yeah. Yeah. Break  even. Okay. Very cool. Did your uncle push back on that price at all? No, he didn't. He just needed  a trailer. The truckers, they need the trailers to work to get to work. Yeah. So, he was happy with  it. And you're you're off to the races. Mhm. Okay. So, I was like, "Wow, how can I replicate this?

10:37 how can I do this 100 times? I asked my vendor if they would be willing to give me more trailers and  they said yeah. And so it was at that point that I really, you know, created the company, created the  LLC. You know, you always have to test your ideas before creating the LLC, creating a bank account  and things like that. See if it will make money.

11:02 And if it will make money, at least something, at  least one client. I started doing all that stuff. I started getting everything together and then  the thing that was really gamechanging for me was Facebook marketplace and I would do like the  boost post boost. Yeah. People would hit me up on Facebook. I would get back to them. I would tell  them look this is what I have available even if I didn't know that I I would basically be matching  them matching inventory to the driver wherever they would need it.

11:29 Yeah. So that's kind of the  premise behind everything. Eventually it got up to multiple states. We started doing up to  Florida. We did Florida, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, PA. Okay, sweet. So, what did you  do with Facebook Marketplace exactly? What did you post and what did those posts look like? Yeah,  so they were super basic. I would post a picture of a trailer outside of the trailer and some  inside pigs, some some pics of the tires, 53 ft drivein for rent.

11:59 Were flexible with new companies  because a lot of trailer rental companies were not flexible with new companies. They wouldn't allow  new companies. They wouldn't want to rent to new companies. The year of the trailer, the make of  the trailer, where the trailer was located. It was really simple information, basic information.  I would put that on Facebook Marketplace.

12:14 I would post multiple posts in different areas because  they were able to give me trailers. What happened when you started posting these? You got a ton of  inquiries. I got a ton of inquiries. Yep. Right off the bat, I started boosting the post like  I told you. Right off the bat, too. That was in November, December of 2019. And then, you know,  I kept working January, February.

12:34 People were interested in both drive-ins and the flatbeds,  which is the, you know, platforms 48T. And so, the need for equipment also double or or tripled  during that time. People are always going to need equipment. Yeah. So, what did your numbers look  like? Like first after your uncle, how long did it take you to rent out, you know, your first five or  10 trailers?

13:01 It probably took like 2 months. Wow. Just from Facebook Marketplace posts. Yeah, just  from Facebook Marketplace posts. And was that five or 10? How many in your first two months? That  was probably 10. Yeah, cuz I was doing probably like two a week. Okay. And were you using the  same company for all of these? I was using the same company for all of them.

13:22 Yep. Do you have  any examples of like company other companies or any companies that people could use to find these  trailers? Yeah, Penske, Ryder, Premier Leasing, companies like that. There's there's also small  companies that do renting and you can get into different types of equipment, too. It doesn't have  to be drive-in. It doesn't have to be flatbed.

13:39 You can get into specialized equipment. You can get  into like hazmat type of equipment. And now with AI and with Grockbot, I tried to set up completely  new company with Grockbot like just to see if it was able to set it up in terms of contracts,  inventory sourcing, ad management, which was something that came up later because it was on my  personal Facebook page.

14:02 So, it wasn't something that I could really scale or have someone else  take over. So I did a business Facebook page and then I started running ads and doing ad campaigns  which is much different from Facebook marketplace. Yeah. So in Grockbot I want to do ad management  with Facebook and Instagram and stand up all of these bots for me and I was just seeing what  it would do you know how it would source the inventory.

14:32 It's straightforward things. It's just  you know you got to kind of put them together in the right way. and Grobot. It would probably,  if I had it in the first year, it would have probably saved me like two years. Okay. So, first  two months you had about 10 trailers. Were you charging 750 a month for all of these or what was  your average price on the first 10?

14:47 I was charging weekly $180. And that was really an advantage  to me, I think, because people really liked that weekly charging thing. They wouldn't really  notice it. They wouldn't really notice it. And they had the asset. They had the trailer that was  working well. So they were happy to pay the 180. So you were making 7500 a month recurring in your  first two months.

15:11 Mhm. Yeah. Okay. I want you to do something right now. Open your bank statement  and add up every single software subscription that you're paying for. Your CRM, your email marketing  tool, text message platform, calendar booking app, funnel builder, review management, even a separate  form builder or automation tool. I've talked to business owners paying $500 to $3,000 a month  across eight or 10 different tools and half of them don't even talk to each other.

15:36 So then they  go pay for Zapier on top of that just to make things connect. High Level replaces all of it.  CRM, email, SMS, funnels, websites, calendars, automations, reputation management, invoicing,  one login, one dashboard, one bill starting at 97 bucks a month. A guy in my community was paying  3.47 47 just for ClickFunnels, 99 for Mailchimp, 25 for Kellanly, 79 for review tool, and 49 bucks  for Zapier just to glue it all together.

15:58 That's 600 a month if you're not counting. He moved  everything to high level and cut his software cost by over 80%. But the best part isn't even the  savings. It's that everything just works together natively. A lead fills out a form on your funnel  that creates a contact in your CRM, which triggers a text and email sequence, books an appointment on  your calendar, and then asks for a review when the job's done.

16:22 one workflow, zero duct tape, and then  you can white label the whole platform to resell it to other businesses as your own software.  Charge them two to 500 bucks a month. Check out gohighlevel.com/tko pod. They'll give you a 30-day  free trial to see what I mean. So, that's like that gets you through 2019. What does growth look  like in 2020? How many trailers are you adding every month?

16:43 And do you increase your prices or  are you st staying at 180 a week? I stuck with the prices because I figured that I could raise the  prices later, but I wanted to get the people in the door first because when when you have an asset  like that, when you have a piece of equipment like that, it's kind of difficult to get out of it  and then get into a new one.

16:57 So, it's very like sticky as they say. Mhm. Gotcha. Okay. What like  headaches did you encounter? Unexpected like you know horror stories that first full year. The main  learning curve that was tough was probably the GPS on the trailers. Like in the first year, I didn't  even think about putting GPS on the trailers, which is something that I should have done from  the first first trailer.

17:23 And it was a mess because they would go missing and I would have no idea  how to get them back. They would eventually turn up or some would eventually turn up. I think  over the years, over the six years, I probably had like 10 or 15 that never came back out of 300  trailers. Out of 300. All right. So, like 3 to 5% just disappeared. What happens when that happens?

17:47 Do you have an insurance claim? Like, do you have to pay up to the the subleasasing company? I  had to pay up to the subleasasing company. Yes, we're able to do an insurance claim. So that was  another learning curve, how to structure these contracts and how to structure what you ask from  people in terms of additional insured so that when something happens, you're actually covered, not  theoretically covered.

18:09 So that was a big learning curve, just kind of getting people in place for  repairs when repairs happen. And do they care that you're renting it out? I didn't tell them in  the beginning. I just kind of grew the company. I didn't think to tell them really, but eventually  I did and they were cool with it. Yeah. For those, you know, 10 to 15 that went missing, what did  those cost when you had to replace them?

18:31 It would range anywhere from 15,000 to 25,000. Okay. Jeez.  Some were covered by insurance claims. I mean, not all of them were stolen. Not all of them  were missing. Yeah. So, at the end of 2020, you've got a hundredish rented out, 75K a month.  Is that what you're making? Yep. Yep. Yep. And how much of that was profit? like net profit probably  like 10,000 15,000 u 10,000 months of the 7 75k month.

19:02 Okay. So like 15% net margin profit net  profit margin. Yeah. Okay. And then you said you you got it from at the end of 2020 it was 75 and  then up until you sold it you got it to 250k a month. 250k a month. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So how many  is that? Like 300 rented out. 300 trailers. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And what was your net profit per month  at that scale?

19:22 At that scale was like 40 50,000. Wow. By Did you have employees at that point? I  had two virtual employees. Yeah. And they had to be bilingual cuz a lot of my clients were Spanish  speaking. They were overseas. So what I paid them it was less than what I would pay someone over  here. But for them it was a lot of money. I had one for from Venezuela and one from Brazil.

19:45 Where  did you find them? Like Upwork or Upwork? Yeah, I used Upwork and then I moved them off of  Upwork. What were their job titles? What were they doing for you? So, I had one employee  that was running Facebook ads and she was running the ads and also closing the client. She would  run the ads, people would respond to the ads, she would call and follow up with these people  and uh see if they wanted to rent.

20:08 And if they did want to rent, she would send them the  documents. She would coordinate, you know, the billing and then she would coordinate the  pickup and then move on to the next person. So that was something that, you know, took a lot off  my plate cuz that was basically what I was doing dayto-day. How were you billing? Like what tools,  what software could they pay by credit card, Quickbooks, Stripe?

20:31 What were you doing? I  was using payment processor called Pay Simple, which was super super great. I don't really  like Stripe because in the beginning I had Stripe but they would freeze my funds over no  reason. So I was like, you know, I'm not Yeah, I'm not using Stripe anymore. Pay Simple never  ever did that to me. Even when I was like billing, like I said, 250,000 per month.

20:57 Imagine if you're  billing 250,000 per month with Stripe and then they freeze your funds for no reason and then  having to like go through this process lengthy process not quick in order to unfreeze your funds  and it's for no reason. So it's like what are we doing? So Pay Simple was super super good and I  was I was running everything from my phone too.

21:22 So I had PayP I had the payment processor that's  what enabled me to travel. That's why I've been traveling to Colombia for years now because I  could do everything from my phone and I think with like an AI too, it would have enabled  me even further. At what point did Facebook Marketplace become less effective and does it  still work today at all? Facebook Marketplace definitely works today.

21:41 It's just another kind of  channel that you can advertise on to. a big kind of thing that I think people don't really know  about or maybe people that are just beginning, you know, putting money into paid ads is for me at  least was critical. Yeah. Like every time I said, "Wow, I want to move more inventory. I want to get  more clients. What do I do?"

22:02 The answer for me was putting more money into paid ads. That was always  the answer. It was never like anything else. It was never anything else really. What worked  for you on paid ads? Like us only. Did you let Facebook choose the audience? Did you choose the  audience? Were you doing video still image? Yeah, it was still images. It was throughout the United  States because truckers, we learned after a while that truckers, if they see a good deal, they will  travel to get to the deal.

22:35 I had people traveling sometimes from Florida to New Jersey in order to  get a trailer of mine. They would travel sometimes from Chicago to New Jersey, Chicago to PA. So  that enabled us to do ads nationwide. Please, I need you. I need you to send me your stories. If  you or someone you know made thousands of dollars in a short period of time with a business, a side  hustle, a growth hack, I don't care what it is.

23:05 I want you on this podcast to give you free  publicity and to help grow my podcast. So, if that's you, go to tko yes.com, fill out the form.  If it's a friend of yours, send them tko.com. Have them enter your name and I'll give you a,000 bucks  for the referral. That's tko yes.com. Okay. Now, what did your Facebook ad numbers look like? How  much were you spending?

23:23 What was your return on ad spend? Well, I was spending towards the end 5,000  a month on Facebook ads, which is not a lot. And I was getting probably 25 new clients per month from  Facebook ads. That's not from my referrals because by the end people were referring other truckers to  me because I had been doing this for a long time. Uhhuh. So we were getting like 25 new clients.

23:47 So 25 times, you know, I would say the deposit of 750* 25. But I mean, you're spending 5,000 to  get 25 new clients. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So, you were spending $5,000 to get to make $18,750  a month. Yeah. Yeah. And that's just new clients. That's just new clients. Yeah. That's not the  clients that I got from last month that are still here, right, from last month.

24:15 And then  how long doesn't a client stay on average? How many years or months? I had a minimum time that  they needed to stay with me, which was 3 months. They needed to stay with me 3 months or else they  would lose their deposit and I would charge them sometimes a penalty. How much was their deposit?  And how long did they end up staying? On average, their deposit was 750.

24:33 And like I said, they use  these units to work. And so if they have it and they're good with the price and they're working  and they're making money, they would often stay longer. So 750* 3, you're making like 21,00 bucks  on average per client. And so let's say 21,00,000 in Facebook ads to make $52,000. Yeah. Give or  take. So 10x return on ad spend.

24:56 Mhm. Facebook was really good. That's crazy. And just a still image  that said, "Hey, we'll like rent truck from us." Like just very simple. Yeah, it was very simple.  We have this trailer. Look, brand new trailer, 53 ft trailer, drive van, food grade because they  would need it food grade, no leaks, DOT inspected because we would DOT inspect them, which is a, you  know, Department of Transportation inspection that these trailers need yearly.

25:27 So it would come  already inspected people like that and then we would say inventory available you know things like  that you know simple things. How much money did it take to start this business in total? I just  had to pay for my my insurance which was 4,000. What was your solution to the the GPS problem?  Like what company did you use to provide those or whatever?

25:49 My subleasasing company did provide  GPS's. They were willing to install GPS's, but I just never took advantage of that. You just got  to ask, right? Just ask. Yeah. I just had to ask. I just had to ask. And And that's a really good  lesson for people that may be starting out. Ask them really what can they do for you? What are the  terms? Can you do net30?

26:08 You you want something called triple net, which is that you take care  of the maintenance so that your cost on a monthly basis is the lowest possible and when it's  the lowest possible you can start cash flowing immediately. You mentioned other equipment. If  in a hypothetical scenario, someone could not do trailers for whatever reason, what other equipment  out there do you think has a lot of opportunity to rent out?

26:40 You can do smaller trailers. you know,  the types of trailers that um people use to move like a motorcycle or things. You you know what  I'm talking about? Like the smaller the 20 foot trailers, 15 ft trailers. You can do this with  that type of equipment. Those are super popular, too. You can do this with storage with storage  equipment as well. You can lease mobile storage equipment for if people need it for home projects  or if people need it for any other thing.

27:03 You could lease that and then subleasase it to client.  The way that you make ads and the way that you test a market. I wasn't able to test the market  or you know see data. Yeah. To see data into a market. And that's something that you can do now  for what like how much does it cost? Like $20 a month or $40 a month you know for whatever AI. Eli  this has been amazing.

27:29 If people have questions, where can they find you or reach out if they want  to reach out? My email is eliarsa33@yahoo.com. You know, if people have questions and things, I'm not selling any sort of course or anything  like that. So, okay, perfect. Thank you, Eli. All right. All right. Thank you, Chris. If  you like this content, please share with a friend, hit a like or a comment below, and  we'll see you next time on the Kerner