RoadMapto Success

Igot into the towing business over 25 years ago. As I reflect on my career in towing, my wife and I discovered it was a pretty good life. Yes, there were ups and downs, pitfalls and success stories but over all the people we met and the success we had was worth all the pain that comes along with towing. It started with beginning a tow company. We knew nothing about towing when we started, and the towing we were doing was all private property towing.

I did not know that this type of towing existed, because I had never been towed. It was all new to me and I learned fast. Things I faced when I got started were:

1. Finding drivers

2. Finding a lot to store cars

3. What types of trucks

4. What types of dispatch software would we need

5. Identify a customer base

My mentor taught me a long time ago to take one thing and be the best at it that we could be. I had a chance to open a car lot, or a salvage lot from the cars towed. We wanted to concentrate on our towing business. I ran a business in the past, but never started a business from scratch. I bought a truck and found one driver. No accounts and I was not sure how to get customers. Using my business skills I learned from the past, I immediately built up a nice customer base. In just seven short years, I built a business of 17 trucks, 34 employees, and over 1,000 accounts, and did I mention that I had two people fighting to buy my company!

The seven years I was in business I discovered that I had great skills in business. Because of my success I was asked to start a towing association in Texas. Texas already had an association but there were tow companies that thought they were unfair. Over the course of one year, I built Southwest Tow Operators with a membership base of over 1,000 members. We brought in over one million dollars in our first year with an operating budget of over $200,000 a year. I know it’s not good to have multiple associations in one state, but we were forced to start one.

After the association got up and running, I stepped down as president, but remained on the board. Because I knew a lot of tow operators, I wanted to make sure I stayed in the business. Over the years of doing seminars at tow shows, I learned that tow companies did not like motor clubs, and motor clubs did not like tow companies. I identified a problem that needed to be fixed. I developed another company that would:

1. Be a winner for tow companies and give them tows they never had before

2. Be a winner for the motor clubs that allowed them to save money and give them better ETA’s

3. Be a winner, the consumer would not have to wait hours for tow companies

I started TowTrax, a phone application that would work like Uber and find the closest tow truck to the incident. I looked at the competition, and what they developed realizing it would take a lot of money to build my company. I developed a stock option that would allow investors to purchase stock in my company. I had a few big investors ready to invest when the pandemic hit, and they all ran away. Not knowing what to do, I reached out to the industry and asked for help. I explained what I was doing while offering them an opportunity to invest by buying stock. I had 17 tow companies invest over $1,200,000 in my company. I had complete strangers giving me a minimum of $30,000 to help get me started. I had two companies give me over $100,000 and two companies give me over $400,000.

It amazed me that I have complete strangers who had enough faith and trust in me to invest in TowTrax. This is why I love this industry.

TowTrax is now in 32 states, and 151 markets supporting five major customers. We are about to expand our business to out lines of business

BY DAN MESSINA ///

that will double our volume.

I was telling my wife that we started a tow company with one truck and no accounts and turned it into a multi-million-dollar business. We took an association with no members and built it into one of the largest associations in the U.S. with an operating budget over $200,000 annually. We built TowTrax, a third business, and turned it into a multimillion-dollar success story. All of this caused us to discover our unknown talents.

Because of our success in three different ventures, I decided to write a book. The name of the book is “The Road Map to Success.“ It

Keeping

explains, step by step, what I had to do to build success for each company. I followed the same steps and did the same things to approach each business. I also tell three stories:

1. A trip to the Super Bowl

2. A competitive softball team

3. A 50th class reunion

I used the same approach for the businesses that I did in the three stories. A good strategy can apply to just about anything you want to accomplish. The book is designed to help my fellow towers build their businesses and enjoy the success I did. The book will be going to Amazon on April 17th for publication and distribution.

I hope my information and stories in “The Road Map to Success” help others. Let me know if you have questions.

Bene ting for the families of our fallen

If each company in the industry gave just $5 when a tragedy occurs, we could generously support the families of our fallen in so many new ways.

Can you give $5 when a tower dies?

Help us support those left behind by the dangers of our profession.