Back to our history. Before the economy tanked we were on our way to growing our Limousine business. We now had 2 10 passenger Lincoln Limo a 20 passenger Excursion Limo and a black Lincoln sedan. Oh I think I forgot to tell the story of how we got the Excursion. We had only been up and running for a little over a year. We were about to loose our house thanks to a mortgage problem and rising insurance rates. So I mentioned to my wife that if we are ever going to get an SUV Limo we need to do it before we loose the house. While we still had perfect credit we started shopping. We didn't even have a market for an SUV limo. But we figured it's all or nothing. Hey no guts no glory right. We figured if we book it great if not we give it back to the bank. Our credit would be shot from the house any way. So First I found an Escalade in N.Y. thank god that didn't happen. Then I found the Excursion. It was in Ca. A 1 owner 2005 20 passenger with only 32,000 miles. Only $53,000. But we had no cash to put down and the fact that we were a new company didn't help. Did we get the loan ?? Oh we got it and it came with a tube of lube !! The day I got the green light on the SUV I called my wife and said ( there will be a 36foot limo in the driveway next week)
The delivery of our Excursion was far from smooth. We had already started taking bookings for it and we didn't even have it yet. Our first client would be for the Daytona 500. Well about 2 days after the deal was done I called the dealer to see how they were making out with shipping the Limo to us from Ca. When the man on the phone said ( when are you coming to get it ? ) I wanted to reach through the phone and beat him. The deal was it would be shipped at the dealers expense. After 2 more days of BS they finally stuck a driver in it and sent him on the 3,500 mile trip to FL. The Excursion arrived on a Thursday. With NO PLATES !!! This was a lease to own and they were supposed to get our plates. Keep in mind this Limo was booked for the race coming up on Sunday. I called the dealer and they assured me that there office in Miami was taking care of it and we would have our plates by Friday. Friday came and went and no plates !!! I called the dealer and demanded the phone # to the Miami office. The lady said the lease company will have the plates out today. I told her I'm not playing games give me the # to the lease company now !!! Good thing I did they were still waiting for a check to pay for the plates. WTF !!! I gave then a check by phone and paid extra to have the plates FEDX next day. Aah we got the plates just in time.
Now that we had our fleet we needed a place to keep them. Our current place was outside storage. The problem with that is you are constantly washing the cars. So I started looking for a building that was in our budget. I found a nice 5,000 sq ft building on US1 in Bunnell only 10 minutes from home. We made a deal and took a short term lease to give it a shot. I will fill you in on some more later. Thank you for reading my blog about owning a limo business.
Elegant Limousines of Palm Coast Inc.
If you need limo service in any city in Florida click on the links below.
Orlando Limo Service
Daytona Beach Limo Service
Daytona Beach Limousines
Jacksonville Limo Service
Daytona Beach Weddings by Elegant Weddings and Mrs. Marlo.
