If you have decided to begin working as an independent freight agent, you may be extremely excited about your new career path. One of the best elements about this role is that you work for yourself, and you no longer have a boss, set work schedule, and a capped income potential. This gives you more control over your day, over your income, and over what you do throughout the day. However, you do have to work hard, and you need to continue to grow to constantly keep earning money. Here are some tips that can help you to advance your freight agent career.
Treat Your Business Like an Actual Business
One of the most important tips to keep in mind to truly help you advance as an independent freight agent is to treat your business like an actual business. If you’ve never owned a business before or worked as an independent contractor, it can be a balancing act at the beginning of balancing your work life and your home life. It can be exciting to think that you can sleep in or that you can work on your own schedule. But, many people are not disciplined, and they don’t invest as much time as they should in your business. You need to set aside working hours and ensure you give your business a chance to grow and thrive.
Partner With a Reputable Freight Broker
A freight agent does many of the things that a freight broker does. However, a freight broker completes other tasks as well, and they are often overwhelmed. As such, many will work with independent freight agents to help lessen their load, and to allow them to focus on the specific tasks that they can do that a freight agent cannot. When you’re just starting, either shadowing a freight broker or partnering with one and taking on some of their tasks can be a great way to learn tips and tricks of the trade, while also starting to interact with customers and clients.
Join a Freight Agent Network
Another tip that can help you advance your career as a freight agent is to join a freight agent network. Many of these networks solicit clients and then send the clients your way. In return, you either pay a monthly or yearly fee, or you pay a percentage of the commission to the network agent. In addition to helping you find new clients, these networks also allow you to interact with other freight agents. You can ask them questions, or you may even decide to partner up with a couple of different agents, providing services to their clients if the agent goes on vacation, has a family emergency, or even changes careers.
Network Yourself
In order to advance your business as a freight agent, you need to be constantly networking yourself. Never miss an opportunity to visit various tradeshows and events where you may be able to interact with businesses that need goods transported and transportation companies that need to transport goods. This is a great way to advertise your services and find clients on both sides of the industry.
Advertise Your Business and Services
The final tip that can help you to advance as an independent freight agent is to continually take steps to advertise your business and services. While you may have some routine clients, others may only need things transported once or twice. As such, you need to regularly advertise to bring in new clients. There are many advertising strategies you can use, but regardless of what you do, ensure you are always advertising your business in some way.
Working as an independent freight agent gives you a lot more control over your life and your income-earning potential. However, it is important to treat this as a business, rather than just an employment opportunity. You need to be constantly working to advertise yourself and the services you offer, because without new clients, your business, and the money it brings in, can quickly dry up. Following the above tips can help you to advance your freight agent career and be successful with it.
