With the rise and success of companies like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Wal-Mart and many others, the global freight market has been seeing a growth like never before especially in last few years. More and more companies are buying and selling products across the border. It is the new global economy of the 21st century.
Not to mention due the rise of Amazon FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) business, there are little over 300,000 new businesses opened up just in last 3 years to supply products to Amazon. These new businesses only buy products from various Asian countries and ship them to Amazon warehouses in the western world. Amazon then sell these products on the seller's behalf, which is essentially what Amazon FBA business model is. Due to the huge popularity of this new business, suddenly now another 300,000 new customers are looking to hire a Freight broker to handle their shipments and to make sure their products get routed to the proper Amazon warehouses.
My name is George A. Stewart, I am 43 years old, I worked 12 years as a store manager for Burger King, a truly dead end job. Just like most jobs in the market today I used to put in plenty of hours that unfortunately, did not translate into money. My turning point was the day I met a certain customer in my restaurant who seemed to be doing very well despite the hard economic times the whole country was going through. After a little chitchat, I found out he was a freight broker and that he was earning a decent living while working a few hours.
At that point I did not know anything about freight brokerage or that a profession like that even existed. I therefore decided to do some research about it and the more I learned the more my interest grew and within a matter of weeks I was completely hooked up. Before I knew it, I took time off work to begin my training in freight brokerage.
After my training, I decided to quit my job at burger king and took up a job as a freight agent working under an established freight broker. My job included looking for new clients, taking orders and matching shippers with carriers. In one year or so I felt that I had enough experience and contacts to start my own firm. I then applied for the required licenses at FMCSA and started small.
Starting my own firm was definitely not easy but I found it much better than working at Burger King. My first client was a contact I had made from working as a freight agent. After a lot of hard work I finally started getting more clients, and in 6 months I could finally relax because my business had finally taken off. I was earning around $120,000 every year, which, I must confess, was really good for starters.
After Reading This Guide You Will Learn:
- What is a Freight Broker/ Logistics Broker
- What is a Freight Brokerage Business
- How does the industry work
- How to Get Started in This Business
- What is a life cycle of a load
- Requirements to become a Freight Broker
- How to write a Business Plan
- How to set up your Freight Brokerage Business
- How to choose the Right Target Market
- How to pick the Right Carrier
- What Freight Brokerage Software to use
- How much Money you can make
- How to Rate any Freight
- How to Build a Customer and Carrier base
- How to Sell a Freight to a Carrier
- All types of legal matters
And more
"This is truly a complete guidebook for anyone looking to get started in freight brokerage business. I am in the process of getting my business setup, after working as a dispatch in a trucking company, I knew the demand was growing for a freight brokerage. Thanks to George's book, I was motivated to get started, wish I did it sooner." - R. Segrest