Bruce Outridge

4 Things You Need to Think About When Starting a Consulting Business

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Bruce

If you are in the later years of your life or have been working in your industry for a number of years as a driver, you may be thinking that it’s time to get out of the truck and begin a new career as a consultant. This often happens to people who have been downsized and find themselves unemployed after holding an executive position. Many find that the positions available for them in the marketplace are underneath their pay grade or are junior positions. This gets most thinking that becoming a consultant may be the answer, but is it?

Starting a consultant business is no easy task and like any other business a

Bruce Outridge

business plan is suggested. Before you dive into business plans and print up business cards there are a few questions you should ask yourself. The first question is possibly the hardest, what do you want to consult in? I like to be unique in my business so unless you are planning on just becoming another safety consultant you may find you have quite a bit of competition. Your second question is whom is your target market? Who will want your services? If you don’t have clients willing to pay for your services you may find that you have a business with nothing to do. The last question is about finding the timeline to when you want to begin your new venture. You will need to do some planning and you want to make sure that you have income coming in as you plan your transition.

There are many more questions that have to be answered and a business plan is certainly the vehicle to help you answer those questions. You may need certain types of training depending on the area of expertise that you decide to follow. You will then have to think about business set up, training materials, marketing material, insurance, and more. Focusing on what you like to do and what you are good at is the first part of deciding whether a business is for you. Possibly the most important question you should ask yourself before any other question is this: are you the type of person that is willing to put in the work and struggle required to be a business owner? If so then start your homework and follow your dream. The best place to start that homework is to subscribe to The Lead Pedal Podcast with career and business information for those in the transportation industry.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is an entrepreneur and transportation consultant with over 30 years of experience. He is the author of various business books for the trucking industry and host of The Lead Pedal Podcast for professional truck drivers. To learn more about Bruce and his work visit his websites www.outridgeenterprises.ca and www.theleadpedalpodcast.com

Lessons I Learned Coaching Sports

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Bruce

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It’s amazing the lessons we learn about ourselves while helping others. The other day I was thinking of the lessons I learned while coaching my son in hockey. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back it has been a changing moment in my life. The kids were only around five or six and had the passion of people four times their age.

I remember the moment clearly that changed my way of thinking. We were mid season and the team was struggling. The kids wanted to play and tried real hard but just couldn’t seem to win. We had great skaters on the team and some kids that could really handle the puck, but we just didn’t seem to score. I tried to get them motivated and be encouraging although I was doing a couple of things wrong, overall I was a good coach. I knew that kids loved to hear their goals so after each game I tallied the goals and had a little chart going showing the leaders. What I didn’t realize at that time was that while I was trying to motivate the team I was actually demotivating the team. During a game a parent came up to me that saw how hard I was trying and said,” Why don’t you stop tracking with the goal sheet and help them operate as one?” That was the changing moment my friends. I hadn’t seen it. I stopped tracking the goals and encouraged the team as a whole. At that point our season turned around and we ended up winning as top of the league.

I look back now and can see how that lesson helped shape me today. Now that I teach and coach others it has helped me focus on the whole team instead of trying to motivate top performers with numbers. Coaching teaches you to inspire people and do it correctly so that it is fair to the whole team. It has made me a more encouraging adult and for that I am thankful. See what coaching can do for you?

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is author of various business and career books including Running By The Mile and Driven to Drive. He is the host and creator of The Lead Pedal Podcast for truck drivers. To learn more about Bruce and his work visit his website at www.outridgeenterprises.ca

Heart Felt Update from Bruce-The Lead Pedal Podcast

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Bruce

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Hey Everyone,

I wanted to send out this message and I thought today is the best day to do this. Why today? Today is the day that The Lead Pedal Podcast has hit a couple of mini milestones. First it is the day we have hit 20 launched shows. It is actually episode 21 but that is because we started numbering the shows at 000 and we launched 000,001,and 002 on the first day. Today is also our first month of broadcasting the show. This is big for me because I have been learning about pod casting as I go along. So first things first.

Thank you very much for supporting the show however you have been doing that whether by downloading, listening, or sharing with a friend. I know it is not for everyone and is focused on those driving a truck with under 5-10 years of experience, although I personally believe anyone can learn from the show at any point in their career. Thank you very much for all of your support.

I also wanted to update you on where we are now. We are currently over 500 downloads and climbing. On the top 300 podcasts under iTunes we are currently sitting at number 91. That isn’t bad considering we were at 49, went down to 173, and have now climbed back up. Again thank you for listening and your support. Please help us climb higher by rating, reviewing, and subscribing to the show through iTunes. We have four weeks to go through on New and Noteworthy and only shows gaining in popularity can get into that category.

What’s gone wrong to date? First we know there have been some production issues in this first block of shows. This is due to learning the equipment, especially in the sound category. Hopefully we have corrected this in the next block of shows as we have been trying to improve.

So thank you for sticking with us. if you have the podcast app you can review us right under our show feed. Thank you for your support and we look forward to bringing you great information through the show. Leave me a line as I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening,

Bruce

#theleadpedalpodcast

www.theleadpedalpodcast.com

The Lead Pedal Podcast is now available on SoundCloud

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Bruce

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We know that not everyone is listening to their favourite podcasts on the same platform. If you are not familiar with podcasts you may not understand how they work. Think of podcasts like radio stations on your radio. The cool thing is that you can choose the content you want and listen to it at your convenience. Think of podcast platforms like radio frequencies. You get certain stations on the AM dial, certain stations on the FM dial, and certain stations on Satellite Radio. Some devices have all the frequencies and some only have a few.

So to reach the greatest amount of users we are adding our show The Lead Pedal Podcast to numerous platforms although that takes time and work. As of this week we are happy to add Sound Cloud to family hosting our show. There is a free app for Sound Cloud should you want it on your device. . The Lead Pedal podcast at this time is available directly off the website, on iTunes, and Sound Cloud. You can also listen to the show on Facebook on The Lead Pedal Podcast page and on our Twitter account and Bruce A Outridge. Thanks for listening to the show and we would love to know what you think. Write us a review on iTunes and earn yourself a free gift. Make sure you email us when you have done so.

Thanks for listening. Check out today’s episode of The Lead Pedal Podcast here!

The Lead Pedal Podcast ranks in top 50 on iTunes

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Bruce

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Okay now I am totally stoked. I was doing a search on iTunes this morning for a certain podcast I had heard about and noticed we have hit #49 in the careers section for podcasts. That means out of the 300 podcasts listed on iTunes under “Top Charts” we are number 49. Not bad for a show two weeks old.

Thank you everyone for your support and keep on subscribing and downloading. If you would like to go one step further and write a review for the show on iTunes please send me an email when you have done so. i would like to personally thank you with a message and gift.

Thanks again,

Bruce

www.theleadpedalpodcast.com