Hi everyone! My friend and I have been talking seriously about starting our own towing company. He has been towing full time for 2 years and I towed for the same company part time for 8 months. We know for a fact we can take most of the accounts with us because of how the owner treats everybody he deals with, but we don't know much about getting started on our own.
We're going to need a business loan, so I'm going to have to figure out how to write up a business plan and try to find a lender. Anybody have an advice in that department?
Does anybody here know anything about getting a towing license in Wisconsin? Any recommendations for insurance companies?
Thanks in advance for the help, and I apologize if I asked any questions that may have already been answered elsewhere. I couldn't find much of anything using the search engine.
are you going to become a towing company as in applying to be on rotation with your local police? Recoveries? or just transporting? Salvage?
You can always look most of that information up at your states Business Licensing website. Same with your states towing laws.
Can't say I know anything about Wisconsin, but I've written many business plans during and after college.
Remember that a business plan is just a formal statement of you businesses goals, why you think they are attainable, and your plan for reaching them.
Your lendor will be primarily concerned with the financial goals, so your business plan should concentrate on that also.
Your plan should contain at least these five things, but may include much more:
1. Background information
2. A sales or marketing plan
3. A day to day operational plan
4. A fiscal plan
5. Outline of company decision making process
Good luck! 
We don't plan on doing any recoveries, just basic towing and also getting on the city/county rotation. The rotations require a light duty wrecker and a rollback flatbed, so that's what we will start with. Recoveries are something we'd like to get into down the road, but not until the business is established and we are financially secure enough to move into the equipment needed to do that.
Bill, can you recommend any good resources (preferably free) for business plans? I've never actually seen one before and I'd just like to familiarize myself with how they're laid out and how a good one should be written.
Some great sites for Business plans and for more helpful info on starting a small business, getting loans and everything you may need to know can be found at the following site.
http://www.sba.gov
It has some sample business plans, what type of business structure you want to be running (IE sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, llc. etc and more) Alot of great information from that site.
For what you describe (You and your friend) You may want to start with a partnership then develop into either a corporation or limited liabilty corporation (llc) So then you or your friend are not financially responsible for any damages and only your business is.
Alot of information is on that site. And it will help you decide how you want to start off. If you decide on starting out as a corporation check your local and state laws on them as they very from state to state and locality to locality.