A record-breaking day for me.
I was going to continue my series about the development of my relationship with The Blaze Baseball Team that I started last week. But I have much bigger news to share. It might even seem like bragging but I really don’t care.
After what we have all been through in the past four years, good news should be welcomed by all. On Monday, we had a phenomenal day. We put in 90 new orders and had sales of just under $20,000 in a single day.
My biggest problem in all of this was finding a company in Saginaw, Mich. to handle a sedan order for me. The NLA directory has one single listing and their only vehicle is a 12-passenger van. That was not acceptable for my business client. I turned to the limos.com forum and asked my fellow operators for a recommendation. They pretty much laughed at me, although there were a handful of serious recommendations that failed to pan out. Finally, I found a company through a friend of a friend of a friend and was stunned to obtain a quote of $45 in a GMC Denali. Could you imagine charging that rate? Excuse my terminology here, but we all know that is what is commonly called “whoring a car.” Apparently in Saginaw that is the most they can command for a rate. When I could not find a vehicle there, I seriously started thinking about opening my next branch of Limousine Scene in Saginaw. With those prices, I will just endure another blistering summer in Bakersfield.
Sales are steadily increasing. Although it is not even close to where we were in 2007, all signs are pointing to an improved economy with more revenue. I wish that I could tell you the retail sales were great in Bakersfield. They are just “okay.” But my clients are spending money and traveling abroad. In addition to the Saginaw saga, I had orders in Russia, Singapore, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia from my petroleum industry clients. I didn’t even know they had oil in Switzerland. Maybe they are going skiing. I don’t really care. I am just happy to have the little crumbs of money they are dropping to get from one place to another.
Our geographic location makes such orders lucrative for us. It is a two-and-a-half hour drive from Bakersfield to LAX. This means I get five hours to take them to the airport, five hours when they come back from their trip, and a slice of the pie at their arrival destination on the transfer from the airport to the hotel and back again when they depart for their destination city.
Things are looking up!
— Jim Luff, LCT contributing editor
Print | posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 2:00 PM