Safe Driving
Norman and Marietha Timmerman own Safe Drive Non-Emergency Transportation, LLC, or Safe Drive NEMT. They first opened their business in January of 2020 and began transporting patients the last week of February. They are located in Jonesboro, AR, and serve Craighead County and the surrounding area. They intend to expand their services areas as they can add more vehicles. They currently have two vehicles but would like to add 5 or 6 more over the next two years. Norman wanted to start a non-emergency medical transportation service for several reasons. He said, “I have always had a passion for community service,” and this was an area he could meet a need with quality customer service.
His mother used a non-emergency medical transportation service when she fell very ill. The service provider was frequently late to pick her up for her appointments, and she would have to wait for 45 minutes or longer to be picked from her appointments. He had driven for a similar company for six years and knew he could provide a quality service for people in a similar situation to his mother’s. Norman and Marietha worked after opening to be approved as a sub-contractor for 2 Arkansas vendors. They were approved. Then they had to shut down the business entirely because of COVID-19.
After two months of being closed, they re-opened on May 4th. In their 2nd week, they were hit with another stroke of bad luck one of their two vehicles had to go into the shop for repairs so they could only operate at half capacity. They hadn’t generated any revenue in 2 months, and now they could only make half with the added expense of repairs. They were unable to cover overhead costs, including rent and insurance. They turned to Communities Unlimited and applied for a Reboot Loan to get their business moving again. They also started working with CU management consultants on financial planning.
The Timmerman’s are developing a 3-year financial statement projection. They have been given a cash flow and budgeting tool so they can understand how money flows through their business to better plan for future expenses. This tool will also help them in identifying where they may be able to cut costs. They are also working on forecasting revenue, variable costs and overhead. They are also receiving QuickBooks training. While they may have had a rough start, they have started moving forward to build a solid foundation to build their growing business.