- Safe: Travel by yourself, with loved ones or business associates
in a large choice of vehicles.
- Dependable: Excel's vehicles are well maintained. Our chauffeurs are fully trained and
have complete background checks and WTLC permits.
- Affordable: Our rates per vehicle are less than current rail or air costs.
Here is what Fran Tarkenton had to say about Excel
Transportation CEO Rich Guberti in his latest book "What Losing Taught Me About Winning."
Let me tell you about my friend Rich Guberti.
About 12 years ago, I was standing in LaGuardia Airport outside New York City
screaming into a telephone at the limousine service that had failed to pick me up.
(This was before I became the kinder, gentler, small-business entrepreneur I am today.)
As I was reading the limo service the riot act, a scraggly looking guy in
a T-shirt hung up the telephone next to me and appeared to be listening.
When I finished, Rich introduced himself. "I am not dressed properly right now because
I'm off-duty and just picking up my own plane tickets, but I have a limousine service,
Mr. Tarkenton, and if you need a ride into the city I'll give you one at no charge."
Rich was the right guy in the wrong clothes but in the right place at the right time.
"Let's go," I told him, and we headed off to his limousine, so that I could get
to my appointment on time. I jumped in the front seat with Rich, because, in spite
of his appearance, he seemed like a sharp young businessman and, since he was
doing me a favor, I wanted to talk to him. On the way into the city, we talked about
his plans for his start-up limousine service and about his background.
Unlike most limo-service operators, he didn't start out as a driver.
He learned about limousines as a passenger. For five years, he was the road manager
for the rock band Aerosmith, traveling all over the country with them.
When the group had some major personnel changes and inner turmoil in the mid-1980's,
Rich went looking for a more stable job. A friend owned a limousine and he invited
Rich to join him in business, thinking that Rich could use his contacts in
the entertainment industry to build up the clientele.
When he found me stranded at LaGuardia, Rich had just left the partnership
because he wanted to make the business bigger and his partner wasn't interested
in putting additional money into it. Rich already had added three cars, but
he was in that difficult period that so many small-business entrepreneurs hit,
that point at which you have attained some success but you have to make some
big moves to ensure long-term growth. We talked about that and I encouraged
him to go after what he wanted, which was to own the biggest limousine company
in the nation. Today, when he speaks to business groups around the country,
Rich often cites our talk that night, and the many we have had since,
as key factors in the success of his Excel Transportation Service Inc., which
operates over 50 vehicles, has licensing arrangements with other
limousine services nationwide, and sales of more than $6 million annually.
Here is what Rich has to say about the value of sharing ideas for small
business entrepreneurs: "If Fran hadn't said a word on the first trip to New York City,
I would have been happy because I was driving a guy I had watched play football
for many years, but he talked to me about business I hadn't realized how successful
he had been in business and he asked me questions and he was so positive and
uplifting it motivated me to keep going.
There are days when you are starting your business when you wonder why you
are doing it, but Fran really charged me up. He turned me on to motivational
materials and self-improvement and business books and told me to read management
materials so that I could learn from professionals. From that point, I never looked back."
ALL OF MY HEROES ARE ENTREPRENEURS
Rich has become a devoted entrepreneur and I understand why.
When you are an entrepreneur, you never go to work.
You may be at the office, but it's never work.
Instead, it's fun, it's exciting, it's challenging, it's your life.
Let me tell you about my friend Rich Guberti.