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Last month we held Logistic Dynamics’ 12th Annual Golf Tournament. Agents from all over the country flew in to Buffalo, NY to spend three fun-filled and educational days with the LDi family at our brand new HQ, the Chevrolet Golf Dome, and the Buffalo Tournament Club where the actual tournament was held. Each year we have a handful of notable presenters from Logistic Dynamics, as well presenters from external companies, share knowledge and discuss opportunities for growth with our agents. I want to be the best I can be” – Dexter, talking about how to get his whole team onboard with being enthusiastic and showing initiative at work.

There are a lot of adjustments to transitioning from a freight broker to a freight broker agent, but one that doesn’t get talked about enough is adapting to the life of a home business owner. Partnering with a company like LDI means doing all of that while still having a major infrastructure supporting you, taking away a major risk factor in starting a business and allowing you to focus on sales and customer service. Not only are you facing the challenge of your family potentially distracting you from work, it’s important not to let work distract you from your family. The great thing about starting a Freight Broker Agency is how much of the work you’ve already done if you’re in the freight industry, and how much is already done for you if you join a company like LDI.

That makes this an important read for brokers, because that makes this either the single biggest mistake you’re making or the single biggest reason someone would stop doing business with another broker and work with you instead. The problem is, as hard as it is to tell a customer their shipment isn’t going to arrive on time, that conversation gets a lot harder if the problem can’t be fixed and they end up calling you wanting to know where their shipment is. There’s nothing wrong with making an effort to confirm or correct any issues that come up, but once you realize there’s an issue that has a good chance of affecting your customer, it’s time to talk to them. A conversation ahead of time about what to expect from you when something goes wrong is a great way to get ahead of potential problems, and a great chance to demonstrate why they need you.

One of the points that we tried to make was that every business is different, your business is different, and judging your business based on what others did wasn’t the way to do it. While many businesses set goals at or near the beginning of each year, goals set in January 2020 were probably not even useful benchmarks by the time March rolled around. Relevant: your goals, and the goals of any employees you may have, need to be based on what makes your business more successful. If you have employees, they should have formal goals and expectations, but the goals for your business should be exactly what you want them to be.