It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 …18, 19, 20?

I’m a list maker. I make endless lists of things, especially during these past couple of months with the business transition and truck restoration. I make lists because I have a weird need to see tasks accomplished by marking them off the lists. I need the visual. On the other hand, I also feel a lot of pressure from the lists when I don’t get things marked off. I may or may not have dreams of being trapped by a giant list in the cold case of Fresh Thyme, fighting my way out with a floppy stalk of celery, which is definitely not on the list. (Side note: I should probably check the date on the yogurt I eat for a bedtime snack… I’ll put that on my list of things to do.)

This is one of the reasons we got help with obtaining our authority. It is definitely a process you can complete yourself, and I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from doing it alone – more power to ya. I just know the level of anxiety I have when it comes to change, and my experience has been that it’s much less stressful to pay someone else, who does it for a living every day, to complete the process.

Whether or not you go it alone, there are a few things you should be clear on before starting the process. Drew Krupp from TurnKey Authority was kind enough to take about a hour of his time to walk me through the process, and make it a little easier to understand just what needs to happen to make this happen.

The first decision to make is what kind of trucking business you intend to run. Will it be intrastate or interstate? If you choose to be interstate, will you travel to all contiguous states, or do you have a specific route or lane you plan to stick to? There are a blue million ways to run it, and having a good idea of where your money-making abilities lie is important in making the necessary decisions.

The next step is deciding how you plan to set up your business entity. Will it be an LLC, a Sole Proprietorship or a Corporation? (See more on making this decision via Overdrive’s Partners in Business manual chapter devoted to it, excerpted here. –ed.)

Having a clear idea of both these components is half the battle of filing. If you’re getting help from someone, it gives them a solid foundation to start their process – if you’re doing it yourself, it gives you parameters in which to begin your own, so you don’t waste time and money filing for things you don’t need, or waiting for things you did need and didn’t know you needed.

Having insurance is key to continuing the process. Again, deciding what kind of company you’ll have will help decide what insurance is best – we learned there are copious amounts of ways to insure, and not all of them are beneficial, or even necessary.