$250K/Month Renting Out Things He Doesn't Own - Ep. #340

$250K a month?

$250K a month, yeah.

Wow. So you were making $7,500 a month recurring in your first 2 months?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Okay. Just from Facebook Marketplace posts?

Yeah, just from Facebook Marketplace posts. That's what enabled me to travel. That's why I've been traveling for years now because I could do everything from my phone. It's straightforward stuff. Any AI really can take you 90% of the way there.

How much money did it take to start this business in total?

I just had to pay my insurance.

By the end of this episode, if someone has no experience in the industry, will they be able to have enough knowledge to where they could start this business themselves?

Oh yeah, definitely. I had no knowledge when I was starting this business. I had no idea.

You know those big semi-trucks driving down the highway? Well, someone probably leases those trailers to them. And today that someone was Eli. In 2019, he was a real estate agent in Connecticut who'd started matching truckers with loads for about $80 a pop. Then one day his uncle asked if he could rent a trailer for his semi, and Eli didn't know anything about this business, so he found a company to lease him a 53-foot foot semi-trailer from a big company for about $350 a month, and then he rented it to his uncle for about $750 a month. After getting an insurance policy, he was in business, and that's the whole startup cost. 6 years later, he had 300 trailers and was profiting over $50,000 a month with 2 virtual employees that he'd never met in person. And he ran this whole business from his phone in Colombia. And by the end of this video, you're gonna know exactly how to copy him. Please enjoy. Okay. Well, why don't we start by you just telling me who you are and what you do?

All right, cool. So my name is Eli. I run a trucking company. Uh, basically I rent trailers to truckers. I got started in November 2019. I got into trucking. I started dispatching truckers. Basically I was looking for loads for these truckers and a lot of them were like, oh, we also need equipment. And so I found a supplier, I found someone to gimme trailers. They would give me flatbeds and they would give me drive-ins. And so I started off with a couple for me and for— I had a driver at that time. And then my uncle was like, I don't have really good credit. Are you able to rent me a trailer? And I was like, yeah, I can rent you a trailer. And from there I was like, wow, well, if I can do this with my uncle, I can do this with a whole bunch of other people too. And so I started off with one trailer. That was in November 2019. Okay.

So in 2019, you were like dispatching trucks. Is that right? Like you were trying to match loads. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.

I was matching loads to truckers. So I had a trucker which, who was available in a certain area. It was a pretty good gig too. I mean, everything was virtual. I always try to be virtual in everything that I do. So yeah, it was virtual too. I would find a trucker who would be looking for work and they would tell me, look, I'm available this day. I'm available this time. And then I would match them with loads. There's loads boards that you can get onto and you would try to, you know, give them loads.

Was there any licensing you needed to start matching loads to truckers or you just find these boards and you just start calling?

No. Yeah. You don't need a license to dispatch. You do need a license to broker loads, which means it's on the other side. You're representing the shipper and you're finding them the driver.

Okay.

On dispatching, you, you have the driver and you're finding them the load.

And anyone can just do that. What, what are some websites where you would go to find loads?

DAT load board. There's a bunch of load boards. They're called load boards.

Okay.

And shippers post their loads and sometimes they post it with the rate that they're willing to give you per mile, their requirements, what kind of load it is. You just call them, tell them, look, I have this driver. They tell you that if he's good to go or not, and then they tell you the rate and stuff like that.

How long were you doing this before your uncle asked about renting a trailer?

I was doing it only for like Maybe like 6 months. Okay.

And were you finding success with the dispatching?

With the dispatching, it's kind of like you're, you're taking a very small margin per load because the margins are already thin. I wasn't making too much money, you know what I mean?

What's an example of a load and the margin you would make from it? Like an average load?

This was like 7 years ago. Let me see. It was like maybe a load from Connecticut to upstate New York. And these rates are much different now because remember, diesel is much higher now, you know, so diesel goes into these rates too. Tolls goes into the— go into these rates. So I'm talking about rates that were 7 years ago. I would do a load from Connecticut to New York paying maybe like $800. And each load, you would think that you're going to be taking at least a margin of 10%. So that's, that's kind of what, where you're at with it.

Okay. So your uncle asked, hey, I— he was already a truck driver or he wanted to be a truck driver?

He was already a truck driver.

Okay. And he wanted— he needed a trailer. And you always say trailer, we're talking like the 42-foot, 18-wheeler semi-trailers?

We're talking about 53-foot trailers.

53-foot.

So the trailers connect to the truck.

Yeah.

They're not part of the truck, you know what I mean? They connect to the trucks. Yeah.

Okay. All right. So, um, what did you need to do when he asked that? Um, and first of all, I love the fact that you just took it and ran with it. 'Cause a lot of good businesses start that way. It just starts with a question that sparks a curiosity. And then it's like, huh. And so like, there's a lot to be said about being focused, right? They lock in, you're, you're doing dispatching. It's only been 6 months. Like, You gotta put in the time, right? You gotta make the connections. Like, there is logic to that, but you're like, hmm, shiny object, which is, that's how I am. You're like, let me try this. Is that accurate?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I've always been like that. And even now with AI and things like that, I'm starting to get into, into AI and it's super interesting.

Yeah.

But yeah, he was like, you know, let me, let me see what we can do with this equipment. How much will you rent it to me for? I think a big part of this type of business is how you're billing people.

Mm.

So, and how you're being billed, which I think is really important for a lot of types of businesses. For example, I'm getting billed for the first piece of equipment net 30. So I get it this month and then I pay for it at the end of next month, right? And so I start billing it right away though. I don't bill net 30. I start billing right away and I take a deposit. So I would take a deposit. And I would bill weekly, which was key because I would start cash flowing right away. Yeah.

Yeah.

And so I found these people that were able to give me the trailers and they didn't charge me a deposit. They charged me net 30. They didn't charge me per mile fee for any mechanical stuff, like repair stuff. That's something that was really critical.

Okay. So what was the first thing you did when your uncle asked that question?

So the first thing I did was, was create contracts to protect myself. And protect the business, protect the trailer. Then I got my insurance. That was kind of the biggest expense for this type of business. I got a trucker policy for the trailer, which was really like a ghost policy because really when an accident happens, your trailer is the one, whichever trailer that's connected at the time of the accident is the one that's going to be getting the claim. So I had to get that, that policy, but really no trailer was ever going to be connected to one of my trucks at the time of an accident. So I always had to get a policy from the people that were renting and I had to be additional insured.

Sorry, why wouldn't your trailer ever be attached? I don't get it.

My truck, my truck would never be attached because I'm renting it. My, I'm renting it to, I didn't have any trucks and I'm renting it to people that have trucks.

So it went to the, at the time of the accident, the claim went to the truck, the owner of the truck, not the owner of the trailer, but you still needed something just to like be Yeah, yeah, definitely.

You always wanna be safe.

Okay. What did that policy cost?

That policy cost like $4,000. The policy cost like $4,000.

A year?

A year. Yeah.

So did you have to get a separate $4,000 policy for every trailer or that $4,000 one was like an umbrella policy for your company?

It was an umbrella.

And all the trailers under it until they, they told you, hey, you gotta up your policy 'cause you got too many trailers now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's exactly what it was. That's exactly what it was.

Now, Where did, did you already own a trailer to rent to your uncle when he asked, or did you have to go find one?

No, these were all subleased. So I would lease it and then I would sublease it to him. Okay.

So how does, how does that look? Where do you find a trailer to sublease and what does that cost?

So I just went on the internet. I Googled places that were around me at that time, like in Connecticut, there was a bunch of companies and I found a company that the cost was really good, which was $350 per month. So they were charging me $350 per month. It would be net 30, which means that I could take a deposit, I could start billing, and then I would pay at the end.

Mm-hmm.

At the end of the month.

So you're cash flow positive from day 1.

So I would, I would be cash flow positive from day 1, which I think is, is something that can be applied to a lot of businesses.

So they're charging you $350 a month. And do you have to pay a deposit to the sub, to the subleasing company?

No, I don't have to pay a deposit.

Okay. So for $350, you've got a trailer. And do you need good credit to get that? Like your uncle didn't have?

I mean, I didn't have spectacular credit. I had like 650 at that time. They just told me to send them a screenshot and I sent them a screenshot. They didn't check my credit. They didn't run a check.

Yeah.

And they were a big company. It wasn't like a small company.

Now, if your uncle had known about this company, could he have leased it directly from them or no, because he didn't have good credit?

No, because he didn't have good credit. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So then how did you know what to charge your uncle? Like, did you do research or did you just come up with a number and what did you charge him?

I kind of came up with a number, honestly. And I stuck with that number probably throughout. Well, I raised it a couple of times. I think I started doing $180 per week that I was, that I was billing him.

So like $750 a month, give or take. You're like trying to double your money basically.

I'm trying to double. You're always trying to double, at least double. If you can triple, because you have to think about taxes and insurance fees and things like that. So a third is, you know, for, for paying whatever you need to pay. A third is your expenses, which is, you know, the taxes, whatever payroll you have, and then another third for your profit.

So first trailer, you're like break even. On the insurance, right? Yeah. Okay.

Very cool.

Did your uncle push back on that price at all?

No, he didn't. He just needed a trailer because these people, you know, I mean, the truckers, they need the trailers to work, to get to work.

Yeah. Okay. So he was happy with it and you're, you're off to the races.

Okay. So I was like, wow, how can I replicate this? How can I do this 100 times? And so I asked my vendor if they would be willing to give me more trailers? And they said, yeah. And so it was at that point that I really created the company, created the LLC. You always have to test your ideas before, before creating the LLC, creating a bank account and things like that. See if it will make money. And if it will make money, at least something, at least one client, in my opinion.

Yeah.

I started doing all that stuff. I started getting everything together and then The thing that was really game-changing for me was Facebook Marketplace. And I would do like the boost posts.

Boost. Yeah.

And so, you know, people would hit me up on Facebook. I would get back to them. I would tell them, look, this is what I have available. Even if I didn't know that, I would basically be matching them inventory, matching inventory to the driver wherever they would need it. And then I would— yeah. So that's kind of the premise behind everything. Eventually it got up to Multiple states. We started doing it in up to Florida. We did Florida, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, PA.

Okay, sweet. So what did you do with Facebook Marketplace exactly? What did you post and what did those posts look like?

Yeah, so they were super basic. I would post a picture of a trailer inside, I mean, outside of the trailer and some inside pics, some, some pics of the tires. I would say 53-foot drive-in for rent, were flexible with new companies because a lot of trailer rental companies were not flexible with new companies. They wouldn't allow new companies. They wouldn't want to rent to new companies. And so I would say that, I would say the year of the trailer, the make of the trailer, where the trailer was located. It was really simple information, basic information. And I would put that on Facebook Marketplace. I would post multiple posts in different areas because they were able to give me trailers. Yeah, they were, they were able to give me trailers in different areas.

So what, what happened when you started posting these? You got a ton of inquiries?

I got a ton of inquiries. Yep. Right off the bat, I started boosting the post, like I told you right off the bat too. And that was in November, December of 2019. And then I kept working January, February. People were interested in both dry vans and the flatbeds, which is the, you know, platforms, 48-foot. And so The need for equipment also doubled or tripled during that time. People are always going to need equipment.

So, yeah. So what did your numbers look like? Like first, after your uncle, how long did it take you to rent out, you know, your first 5 or 10 trailers?

5 or 10 trailers. It probably took like 2 months, but then from there—

Just from Facebook Marketplace posts?

Yeah, just from Facebook Marketplace posts.

And was that 5 or 10? How many in your first 2 months?

That was probably, that was probably 10. Yeah. Cause I was doing probably like 2 a week.

Okay. And were you using the same company for all of these?

I was using the same company for all of them. Yep.

Do you have any examples of like company, other companies or any companies that people could use to find these trailers?

Yeah. Penske, Ryder, Premier Leasing. What else? Yeah. Companies like that. Companies like that. There's, there's also small companies that do renting and you can get into different types of equipment too. It doesn't have have to be drive-in, it doesn't have to be flatbed. You could get into specialized equipment, you can get into like hazmat type of equipment. And now with AI and with GrokBot, like I tried to set up like a completely new company with GrokBot, like just to see if it was able to set it up in terms of contracts, inventory sourcing, ad management.

Mm-hmm.

Which was something that came, came up later because it was on my personal Facebook page. So it wasn't something that I could really scale or have someone else take over. So I did a business Facebook page and then I started running ads and doing ad campaigns, which is much different from Facebook Marketplace. So in GrokBot, I would tell them, you know, do like, I want to do ad management with Facebook and Instagram and stand up all of these bots for me. And I was just seeing what it would do, how it would Source the inventory because it's straightforward things. It's just, you got to kind of put them together in the right way. And Rockbot would definitely be able to help. It would probably, if I had it in the first year, it would have probably saved me like 2 years.

Okay. So first 2 months you had about 10 trailers. Were you charging $750 a month for all of these, or what was your average price on the first 10?

I was charging weekly $180. And that was really an advantage to me, I think, because people really liked that weekly charging thing. They wouldn't really notice it. They wouldn't really notice it. And they had the asset, they had the trailer that was working well. And so they were happy to pay the $180.

So, so you were making $7,500 a month recurring in your first 2 months?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Okay. After that, so that's like, that gets you through 2019. What does growth look like in 2020? How many trailers are you adding every month? And do you increase your prices or are you staying at $180 a week?

I stuck with the prices because I figured that I could raise the prices later. But I wanted to get the people in the door first because when, when you have an asset like that, when you have a piece of equipment like that, it's kind of difficult to get out of it and then get into a new one. So it's very like sticky, as they say.

Gotcha. Okay. What, what like headaches did you encounter? Unexpected, like, you know, horror stories that first full year?

The main learning curve that was tough was probably the GPS on the trailers. Like in the first year, I didn't even think about putting GPS on the trailers. Which is something that I should have done from the first, first trailer. And it was a mess because, you know, they would go missing and I would have no idea, you know, how to get them back. They would eventually turn up or some would eventually turn up. You know, I think over the years, over the 6 years, I probably had like 10 or 15 that never came back out of 300 trailers.

Out of how many? Out of 300? All right. So like 3 to 5%. Just disappeared. Yeah. What happens when that happens? Do you have an insurance claim? Like, do you have to pay up to the, the subleasing company?

I had to pay up to the subleasing company. Yes. Were able to do an insurance claim. So that was another learning curve, how to structure these contracts and how to structure what you ask from people in terms of additional insured so that when something happens, you're actually covered, not theoretically covered. So that was a big learning curve. Just kind of getting people in place for repairs when repairs happen.

And do they care that you're renting it out?

I didn't tell them in the beginning. I didn't tell them in the beginning. I just kind of grew the company. I didn't think to tell them really, but eventually I did and they were cool with it. Yeah. Okay.

And for those, you know, 10 to 15 that went missing, what did those costs when you had to replace them?

They would cost, I mean, it would range anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000. Okay.

Geez.

Some were, some were covered by insurance claims. I mean, not all of them were stolen. Not all of them were missing though.

Yeah. So at the end of 2020, you've got 100-ish rented out, $75K a month. Is that what you're making?

Yep. Yep.

Yep. And how much of that was profit? Like net profit?

Probably like $10,000, $15,000, thereabouts.

$10,000 a month of the 75K a month. Okay. So like 15% net margin profit, net profit margin. Yeah. Okay. And then you said you, you got it from, at the end of 2020 it was 75, and then up until you sold it, you got it to 250K a month.

250K a month.

Yeah. Wow. Okay. So how many is that? It was like 300 rented out? Give or take?

That was 300 trailers. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. And what was your net profit per month at that scale?

At that scale, it was like $40,000, $50,000.

Wow. Did you have employees at that point?

I had 2 virtual employees. Yeah.

Okay.

And they had to be bilingual cuz a lot of my clients were Spanish speaking. So then they, you know, they were, they were overseas. So what I paid them, it was less than what I would pay someone over here, but for them it was a lot of money. You know, I had one for, from Venezuela and one from Brazil.

Where did you find them? Like Upwork or?

Upwork. Yeah. I used Upwork and then I moved them off of Upwork.

Okay. Yeah. And then what, what were their job titles? What were they doing for you?

So I had one employee that was running Facebook ads and she was running the ads and also closing the client. So she would run the ads, people would respond to the ad, she would call and follow up with these people and see if they wanted to rent. And if they did want to rent, she would send them the documents. She would coordinate, you know, the billing, and then she would coordinate the pickup and then move on to the next person. So that was something that, you know, took a lot off my plate because that was basically what I was doing day to day.

How were you billing? Like what tools, what software? Could they pay by credit card, QuickBooks, Stripe? What were you doing?

I was using a Payment processor called PaySimple, which was super, super great. I don't, I don't really like Stripe because in the beginning Stripe, I had Stripe, but they would like, they would freeze my funds over no reason. So I was like, you know, I'm not, yeah, I'm not using Stripe anymore. PaySimple never ever did that to me, even when I was like billing, like I said, $250,000 per month. Imagine if your Billing $250,000 per month with Stripe, and then they freeze your funds for no reason. And then having to like go through this process, lengthy process, not quick, in order to unfreeze your funds. And it's for no reason. So it's like, what, you know, what am I, what are we doing? So PaySimple was super, super good. And I was running everything from my phone too. Wow. So I had PaySimple, I had the payment processor, Like that, that, that's what enabled me to travel. That's why I've been traveling to Colombia for, you know, for years now, because I could do everything from my phone. And I think with like an AI too, it would have enabled me even further.

At what point did Facebook Marketplace become less effective and does it still work today at all?

Facebook Marketplace definitely works today. Um, it's just another kind of channel that you can advertise onto a big Kind of thing that I think people don't really know about, or maybe people that are just beginning, you know, putting money into paid ads is, for me at least, was critical. Like every time I said, wow, I want to move more inventory, I want to get more clients, what do I do? The answer for me was putting more money into paid ads. That was always the answer. It was never like anything else. It was never anything else really.

Yeah. What worked for you on paid ads? Like US only? Did you let Facebook choose the audience? Did you choose the audience? Were you doing video, still image?

Yeah, it was still images. It was throughout the United States because truckers, we learned after a while that truckers, if they, if they see a good deal, they will travel to get to the deal. I had people traveling sometimes from Florida to New Jersey in order to get a trailer of mine. They would travel sometimes from Chicago to New Jersey, Chicago to PA ads. So that enabled us to do ads nationwide.

Okay. Now, what did your Facebook ad numbers look like? How much were you spending? What was your return on ad spend?

Well, I was spending towards the end, $5,000 a month on Facebook ads, which is not a lot. And I was getting probably 25 new clients per month on Facebook for, from Facebook ads. That's not from my referrals because by the end people were referring other truckers to me because I had been doing this for a long time. So We were getting like 25 new clients. So 25 times, you know, I would say the deposit of $750 times 25.

I mean, you're spending $5,000 to get 25 new clients. Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, you were spending $5,000 to get to make $18,750 a month.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's just new clients. That's just new clients. Yeah. That's right. I mean, even if you're spending— I got from last month that are still here from last month.

And then how long does a client stay on average? How many years or months?

They would stay. I had a minimum time that they needed to stay with me, which was 3 months. They needed to stay with me 3 months or else they would lose their deposit and I would charge them sometimes a penalty.

How much was their deposit and how long did they end up staying on average?

Their deposit was $750. And like I said, they use these units to work. And so if they have it and they're good with the price and they're working and they're making money, they would often stay longer.

Okay. So $750 times 3, you're making like $2,100 on average per client. And so let's say $2,100 times 25. So you're spending $5,000 in Facebook ads to make $52,000, give or take. Yeah. So 10x return on ad spend. Facebook was really good. That's crazy.

Facebook was really good.

And just a still image that said, hey, we'll like rent truck, From us?

Like, just— Yeah, it would say, you know, we have the— yeah, it was very simple. We have this trailer, look, brand new trailer, 53-foot trailer, drive-in, food grade, because they would need it food grade, no leaks, DOT inspected, because we would DOT inspect them, which is, you know, Department of Transportation inspection that these trailers need yearly, you know, so it would come already inspected. Uh, people like that. And then, you know, we would say inventory available. You know, things like that, you know, simple things.

How much, how much money did it take to start this business in total?

I just had to pay for my, my insurance, which was $4,000.

What was your solution to the GPS problem? Like what company did you use to provide those or whatever?

My subleasing company did provide GPSs. They were, they were willing to install GPSs, but I just never took advantage of that.

You just gotta ask. Right. Just ask.

Yeah, I just had to ask. I just had to ask. And, and that's a really good lesson for people that may be starting out. Ask them really, what can they do for you? What are the terms? Can you do net 30? You, you want something called triple net, which is that you take care of the maintenance so that your cost on a monthly basis is the lowest possible. And when it's the lowest possible, you can start cash flowing immediately.

You mentioned other equipment. If in a hypothetical scenario, if someone could not do trailers for whatever reason, what other equipment out there do you think has a lot of opportunity to rent out?

They, you can do smaller trailers, you know, the types of trailers that people use to move like a motorcycle or things, you know what I'm talking about? Like the smaller, the 20-foot trailers, 15-foot trailers. You can do this with that type of equipment. And that, those are super popular too. You can do this with storage, with storage equipment as well. You can lease mobile storage equipment for if people need it for home projects or if people need it for any other thing. You can lease that and then sublease it to a client. It just, you really, I think that the way that you make ads and the way that you test a market, I wasn't able to test the market or see data. Yeah. To see data into a market. And that's something that you can do now for what, like How much does it cost? Like $20 a month or $40 a month, you know, for whatever AI.

Eli, this has been amazing. If people have questions, where can they find you or reach out if they want to reach out?

I don't know. My email, my email is eligalarza33@yahoo.com. You know, if people have questions and things, I'm not selling any sort of course or anything like that. So.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you, Eli. All right. All right. Thank you, Chris.

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