Truck Bud now official, popular

I thought it would be scarier than this, but really, it's not. I now own a business. Meh. Time to punch in.

Heh.

It's pretty cool, though. I got my official docs from LegalZoom.com a couple of days ago, and inside there was a spiffy certificate saying that my business now exists. I still have a mind-numbing number of things to do, but this, at least, is out of the way.

Anecdotally, I believe I've tapped into something here. I can't quite put my finger on the reason why, but in the last few days I've had three (or four, if you count the lady with her friend) who have stopped me outside of my truck to ask for business cards. A few days ago it was someone on the street outside of a house I was working in. Yesterday I was waiting at the Metro station for a friend who I'm trying to recruit. I was reading David McCullough's thoroughly engrossing "1776" and didn't notice the woman talking to me through the passenger window of my pickup for about 30 seconds. After I figured it out, she re-explained that she needed to move some stuff from Manassas (VA) and was eventually moving to Seattle. I told her I'd love to help her with that (it's near my home turf, after all) but that was going to be prohibitively expensive. She then clarified--she just need to move some stuff to Capitol Hill in the interim.

Her friend asked for a handful of cards so she could pass them out to all the "young ladies" in her office who need such services. (I'm telling you, guys, I'm going to be hiring soon and this ain't a bad way to meet girls. Just no hanky panky on the job, please).

Then, this morning outside of Starbucks I was reconfiguring a load* and a woman in the car next to me asked for my card.

These three incidents aren't the first few times this has happened. I've handed out dozens of cards and have even been stopped ON THE FREAKING ROAD. Almost to a man, (or woman, usually), they express...what?...admiration? Appreciation? Whatever the case, they almost always say "That's a great idea" or "That's really easy to remember."

This is good. Very good. I don't totally understand it, but the name is catchy I guess. I have a hard time seeing it for what it is--a very small moving company--but if people buy into the schtick I'm promoting with it (a friendly, low-cost, for-hire "buddy" to help with your moves), then great!

In fact, one idea I have is to market and promote the business as "Your friendly, neighborhood urban moving assistants."

Next steps: Get truck registered as a "For Hire" vehicle and acquire all relevant permits, and get the Virginia-required amount of insurance ($750K for liability, $50K for cargo). This is going to be a real bitch and a half. Geico and Progressive both quoted me amounts that will be prohibitively expensive. I have to do some shopping. If I accepted Geico's quote, I'd have to quadruple the number of moves I do just to achieve the same level of profitability. As a nights-and-weekends mover (for now), that doesn't leave me much time for anything else. As it is, after a weekend of moves the cab of my truck is decorated with far too many fast food bags...

* Yeah, so, I was reconfiguring a load this morning because it was left over from last night. I helped out some really nice folks by taking their gigantic, heavy desk to Goodwill. As it turns out, Goodwill doesn't take gigantic, heavy desks or any office furniture, apparently. So now I've got this beast in the bed of my truck and I don't know what to do with it. I may use it in my J.O.B.'s office, but if anyone's in the D.C. area, preferably within the Beltway, and wants a new L-shaped desk in decent shape, let me know. I'll deliver it for a massively discounted rate--say $20. Any takers? PLEASE?

;-)