Trucking & Taxes – March/April 2025

Do you need a business plan for your trucking business?

If you are an owner-operator – whether you choose to operate as a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company or a corporation – you are in business. So setting up your business for success is a necessity.

When you started your business, you likely took advice on business structure, registered your business name either as a doing-business-as (DBA) or an entity, received your tax ID (Employer Identification Number) and applied for any needed permits and licenses. Of course, these are all important and necessary steps to start your business.

However, a business plan is essential not only in how you start but also in how you develop and grow your business.

Five reasons you need a business plan

1. You need to set yourself up for success.

Planning helps you establish your first goals and figure out what success looks like to you and your business. It also gives you a starting point for what you are striving to achieve and when. It’s crucial to know how you will make money and support your family.  Ninety percent of small businesses fail due to lack of planning – don’t be one of them!

2. You need to set money goals.

Most businesses need funding, and you most likely will need to borrow money for a tractor, trailer and maybe even starting operations. A business plan requires you to do your homework and set goals regarding how you will make money and how you will pay your loan back or pay the lease on a tractor, trailer, etc.

3. You need a tool to secure funding.

Banks, investors and other lenders want to know your plan for success, including what steps you’ll take to get there. A business plan can be a helpful tool for persuading others that working with you or investing in your business is the right decision – thereby helping you get the funding you need.

4. You need to think clearly.

Putting thought into a business plan encourages you to take a step back and think clearly and objectively about your business. It also provides direction for making important decisions. This is essential whether you are securing funding, relying on investors or going it alone.

5. You need a roadmap.

A good business plan guides you through every stage of starting, managing and growing your business. Although it doesn’t have all the answers, it does help guide your steps toward your goals. Using your plan like you use a GPS while driving provides direction on how to move forward in business.

No wrong way to write a business plan

There are different plans and formats you can use. Pick the one that works best for you.

What’s important is that your business plan outlines your goals and finances. Most plans fall into one of two common categories: traditional or lean startup.

Traditional business plans are the most common type. They have a standard structure and encourage you to go into detail in each section of the plan. These tend to require a lot more upfront work.

Lean startup business plans are not as common. These still use a standard structure but focus on summarizing only the most important points of the key elements of your plan. They can take as little as one hour to create and are typically just one or two pages.

I recommend the traditional plan for starting your trucking business and the lean plan for updating your existing business plan with new goals and/or milestones.

Knowing where to start can be challenging, but starting is the hardest part. Find a format you like and just get going.

SBA.gov can serve as a resource. It provides tools to help you write your business plan, streamlining the process through straightforward steps you can follow. These walk you through detailing your executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product line, marketing and sales, funding and financial projections.

And remember to tell your story in your business plan. It’s one of dreams and aspirations and what you’ll do to make them come true. Maybe you’ll be the next big fleet operator in the United States, or maybe you’ll have just one truck. Whatever your goals are, they are yours – and it’s time to reach them.

Once you finish your plan, use it as a tool to monitor success. Often, business owners are amazed to see the details defined in their plan become a reality.

But even when that happens, you aren’t done. Continue expanding your goals. Dream bigger dreams, aim for higher milestones and be as successful in trucking as you want.

Here’s to making 2025 a better and more successful year. LL