Losing $500,000 in Limo Services

[@VegasNegus]

A very sad story indeed. Many years ago I worked for a successful limo company in L.A. The guy scoured the world looking for wrecked limos which were in side impact or rear end collisions. This was way before the Internet. He would buy them for pennies on the dollar and ship them to Mexico for repairs. Then he would bring them to L.A. and as I recall some of his top limos cost him about $8000-$10,000. This was in the 80's and he charged $35-$50 an hour for proms and fixed cost for airport runs. Do the math. He had all his money back in about 250 hours rental time and then it was all gravy. Since most people rent a limo once in a lifetime who knew the diff? Wrecked and fixed limo vs new? If it were my biz I'd follow the successful guy.

[@jojo300001]

You'd be surprised how many limo's are rented out especially for weddings, funerals, proms, ect.

[@dirtyelectro626]

a lot of insight in this video. really, thanks for sharing your experiences. i hope everyone can appreciate it as much as i have. for any aspiring entrepreneur, this information is gold

[@DoubleYouTeaPh]

Exactly that. Thank you for sharing your experience, it is very insightful.

[@727HUGHES]

Been watching your videos for a while and just wanted to say thanks. you do some great videos. your videos are very informative and great quality. thanks for taking the time to make them.

[@AussieOutlaw]

I'm usually highly critical on some of your Videos however this shows you in a different light and appreciate you offering your Story which may help others in business

[@UORadioDotCom]

Hey bud, its been a while since I've last had an opportunity to watch any of your videos but I must say I have always enjoyed your videos and was honored that I not only got to meet you in person back in January of 2007 but also got to sit inside your H1 Limo . I am sorry it didn't work out for you. Did you have to registered with DOT or get an MC# ? Have you ever thought about getting into the freight transportation industry? A lot of money to be made in moving freight which is what I do now.

[@MatteNoob]

Hi and thanks for posting these kinds of videos. I'm not into gaming, but I've got the entrepreneurial spirit and love to see and hear from other successful entrepreneurs in action. :) I love your style of being honest and thinking long term, that's a great strategy and I like your character. Hopefully you will also post some info on your best business decisions, as there are probably lessons to be learned from them too. Good luck with all your ventures.

[@smallbusinesswarlock]

Sorry for your hardship's. I've had a similar experience, but in the construction industry. When you said in the video about the 250K loss; "almost instant depression", I can relate. It comes from a triple blow: 1 - letting down the clients, 2 - failure and 3 - loss of income. And your right, these kind of things are an expensive learning tool. Best of luck with your future en-devours. Also, never trust a commercial General Contractor, worst mistake I've ever made.

[@1ch190]

I'm glad that you can share these stories with us and have a bed to retire to at the end of the night. Some people's finacial mistakes can cost them alot more than what they have in the bank with no way out.

[@mbe102]

I'm glad you're doing okay from it Markee. Thanks for sharing the experiences.

[@hayesy316]

Thanks for the story, Marcus. The key to business success is learning from your past mistakes!

[@warp10warp10]

or not to do any mistakes.

[@RMissault]

bisus make*, bad start for you as far as mistakes go.... ;)

[@TheFaustianMan]

Coulda woulda shoulda. It sounds like you ran a fair and honest business. I'm sorry to hear about the business failing. It was a great story. It's great you could keep moving forward after a setback like this.

[@DoctorStrangeFate]

Sign of a true entrepreneur! Perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds!

[@06hurdwp]

You should make more videos about your personal life. You're such an inspirational person.

[@longdeshizi]

Hi. Thanks for sharing your story. One thing you allude to near the end, but don't explicitly say is that you should have done an upfront pricing analysis of the Portland market. One way to do this is by segmenting the market by vehicle class and looking at the average price per class, and also the high/low price points.

[@andylinky]

thanks a bunch for this amazing video. losing money is difficult but having a "try try again" attitude shows how you can be successful if you can keep on trying!

[@mhn3773]

Man I have to say I really enjoyed your limo videos. I was sad when you had to close that down :(

[@lDarkfoxxl]

yea, North Carolina has lots of mountains have you heard of the smokey mountains, or mount Mitchel every time you go there in a big vehicle your brakes will over heat.

[@CatCoffe]

Respect Markee, great vid as always

[@SerChade]

Subscribed to you. You have some really great stories and important lessons! :)

[@jeffreyroe8939]

Should start an industrial services business. Hydroblasting, vacuuming, chemical cleaning and so on. Working on refineries and mines as a contractor. Most bids are time and materials. It's basically 100% profit. The only problem with starting such a company is it is very expensive to get the equipment needed to do the jobs. High pressure pumps are around 250k our chemical circulator was 350k not counting a tractor to pull it.

[@HappyHappyPanda88]

i think your videos and your stories are very inspiring to new entrepreneurs

[@ClaireHelena]

A great video, as always Markee. Just out of curiosity, are you a religious person?

[@royver123]

keep doing these videos i realy enjoy ehm you got so much experience in this business

[@grassrot]

You sir, just made me respect you again!

[@sspope]

I was once driven around in a Hummer H2 limo and it rode like shit. I poured my pants with wine.

[@markeedragon]

720p is going to be the format for many of my videos in the future. Living here in Mississippi we do not have the greatest internet connections. It's a real challenge to get a full 1080p video uploaded. So I'm switching for the moment.

[@kartikm24]

thanks for sharing markee, so much to learn

[@MrFarkasOfficial]

wow you can just tell it really hurts him to tell this story... still, great vid as always

[@GrifFungin]

@markeedragon Thanks for the story Marcus... You mentioned in another video that u are no longer with Shattered Crystal so I am curious what u are up to these days... I find your career history to be quite intriguing! Why the move to MS?? Also LOVE the hat!!! Geaux Saints!!!!!

[@MachetePanda]

Sup MarkeeDragon, As I mentioned on your other video, LLC each car as its own company with its own bank account. Go bankrupt on the ones not making money. On an unrelated note... companies that start in a rescission stand to be the most successful and highest profiting. Simple reason, your starting operating budget is already optimized for the recession. So when a recession "start-up" comes out of the recession, its streamlined to out perform the ones that survived through the recession. ~MP

[@Stew510]

Man, videos like this make me wish that life had cheat codes for infinite money.

[@jaymase3735]

Heard of a town car? There is the issue. Not to be critical or anything, but in a transportation business you have to go with reliable cars first. Town car limos and staying away from fwd or SUV limos.

[@allusernamestaken123]

I'm curious... In retrospective, do you think you went into this business because of emotional reasons as well, like the fact that you used to drive a limo and that you could own fun nice cars? Just wondering if sometimes things like that cloud our judgment... In retrospective what would you have changed about that business?

[@pavelkulinich9765]

Great life stories. Thanks for sharing

[@Shaunova]

oh man dont have time to watch but cant wait to watch this tonight :D

[@GRYZZLYTRAIN]

I live in a town of about 60, 000 there are two highschools and two middle schools and 1 major church. There is arround 400kids graduate/year and over 100weddings/year 100 wedd.3 hrs rent. at 200. ~150grad. Rent at 200 no less 2hrs each + sweet 16's, roposals, b-days, special airport arrivals.~200k rev. -~120k O.P. cost = ~80, 000 prof./yr from 1 bussiness.

[@7thBOSS]

Wow...thanks for sharing these stories.

[@markeedragon]

Not forgotten. Linda was great in those but I need to use something else now. Working on making something new. :)

[@markeedragon]

I do not use any bots or automation for my videos. So I'm not sure what you are referring to.

[@MachetePanda]

LLC protection is kind of standard between states. But when your talking about a $200,000 limo... might want to LLC it so you dont need to bankrupt the whole kitten. Maybe not all cars... but hey, the big ticket ones might be good. :)

[@battlevortex]

Oh yea. Those are cute... I love when she says "I would be in 7th Heaven!" LOL she would probably cut you with it and tell you to get out of her house. If you need help with anything let me know. I have a full blown studio with a green screen now that I am just testing out. PS, That video the other day did look like a green screen but I think the rain just made it look like it wasn't real and your lighting really pulled you out of the background. Good luck on the new projects Marcus.

[@99skiller]

Is there a video of how you decided and how you started all of these companies?

[@Turboloscent]

You always have to check the competition before you start a new business. And most of all, never start a business just because you like it. Its all about the money in the end.

[@Aspartamay]

DAAAAANNNG you are really good at losing a LOT of money!

[@killakobra]

i remember hearing this story years ago i guess when you had videos on youtube for that company.

[@TheLandFerry]

In raw stock and value of companies, it's pretty easy to be a millionaire comparitively to having a million in the bank without any strings attatched is much harder, especially if you started from nothing and built your own company.

[@markeedragon]

Yes still doing it. Just working up another ending.

[@Red_Salmond]

I like your optimism :)

[@Red_Salmond]

LoL that's a bit extreme

[@bondiib4823]

Mark, do you think you did enough research before starting the Limo company?

[@smuphix]

how did you cover the losses? looks like a huge amount of money to "just lose" - the basic investment was from your own pocket or did you get a loan or something? how did you pay it back?

[@MrRoeljanssen]

it sounds a bit like "hey this looks nice, BUY BUY BUY, ok bring it in and search for any problem and fix! everything!!! now buy more and fix more!!!"

[@ashhole414]

I'm confused why this showed up in my recommended feed... Never seen your channel before and I don't invest or associate with limos... But I watched anyway... You're a pretty decent story teller, probably won't sub, but well done

[@evanms17]

i love all these stories!

[@qpae123]

Great video, sad but true ! I subed after this.

[@StalwartInflection]

Yea I agree. This is a very ill thought out investment going for a specialty niche limo market way too soon before he had built up his clientele and brand. Though you use pretty strong wording I would agree that business wise it doesn't add up.

[@OnixRose]

I'm not sure how or why you would, but do you know if those frostmourne swords are still being sold? I'm determined to get one whether it be free or 300$~ . I'm asking because I really don't want to get a non new one from ebay or something.

[@darbuka1]

needs big balls to make a video of such a story. Thanks! this is why the US businessmen rule today...

[@Geisto]

Good, because my altar is about 10% done, I just need to figure out how to keep my room temperature under 5 degrees celsius...

[@mariocerame]

Eh, they depreciate quick, which can be handy for tax purposes depending on your business model.

[@sunlitweb]

I have so many ideas I would love to pursue. Cob housing is one. It's possible in the Pacific Northwest. If I could right now I would be buying up land in Puget Sound for cob home communities. Land is cheap right now, but it won't be for long.

[@NexusCapital]

Markee I know ive seen you in Washington State you drove a tan colored H2 with that MMORPG license plate! I rolled down my window in traffic and told you my Ret Pally would own you!!

[@GrifFungin]

@UOradioDotCom Hi, I am quite interested in the freight moving business u mentioned... I live in Louisiana and was wondering if u could tell me how to get started in the business???

[@ForkyOrc]

are u still doing the Lich Kings sword cause ur arent showing it in ur videos anymore.

[@zacharyxrayjolliffe3856]

Loosing $500,000 would suck...

[@KatsuraWarface]

No... Really?

[@StalwartInflection]

Don't believe that each car constitutes its' own company. But I am from TX and am not aware of the business laws in whatever state MarkeeDragon is from.

[@Abonicz]

Dude. He looks like a very smart person? He probably did the math correctly to show the money he lost in the overall business.

[@TheReddaredevil223]

I could tell he was from Oregon based on the state of the license plate he owns in the back shelf =D

[@Lpg544]

Just wondering if you don't mind me asking, how are you financially now?

[@kjort]

For some reason I feel like this guy is secretly the real world Walter White

[@andreypeena3202]

If you have to put 20% into a used car to fix it. You're buying a lemon.

[@technomage6736]

+Andrey Peena I always thought lemons were only for new cars...

[@VilnorfHumanSlayer]

Markeedragon; awesome beard, awesome videos.

[@Tipon2424]

I am a 12 year old, and I once lost 2000 dollars in a minute because of my mom... And none was given back to me...

[@fartpants1812]

it took you all the way to the end of the video to realize you think its a waist of time. wow gj

[@NaturalProgressGames]

Being afraid to fail is being afraid to learn.

[@killerman2001]

WOW my 2 friends live in Portland, OR now!

[@jamieshelley6079]

i understand your opinion, as an eve player it's been a hot topic for many years however unlike wow eve online effectively said : thought shit it's your choice to buy accounts, as long it doesn't effect the game play of the game( e.g botting) then pffft. i see no reason against buying/selling accounts as imo it's all in the hands of the buyer/seller. their opinion as that if their original rules don't account for it then it's legal until iteration.

[@Trevor10]

at first i thought the title meant you blew $500,000 on limos lol

[@velkerithemage]

Nc is about 60% mountains >_< that is where the famous smokey mountains are. so defiantly if it was from the west side of nc it would have been up and down a ton of hills

[@NexusCapital]

You should build an apartment complex right now Markee

[@B5guy]

near NC we have a lot of mountains

[@sher854]

What camera do you use?

[@JustineBieberxoxo]

Oregon license plate. I still have my Oregonian headgear from my Oregon safaris. I went on two of them. Second time I went I got pulled over by the orthodontic police, I never want to go back into Oregon ever again.

[@bobofsirbob8263]

how do you not know what year you lost 500000 dollers

[@sainter7]

how come you been giving away this sword for half a year? how many do you have

[@Shaunova]

unfair competitions a b..ch, I'm glad you take this positively and learned from it, when exactly you gonna give that sword away it's so shiny and beautiful haha!

[@markeedragon]

I just moved from Portland to Mississippi. :)

[@Kudosive]

Are you like a million air or something?? were do you get this money??

[@Raymondstu]

How do you get so much money to do all this anyways... I would die on the spot if any of these things happened to me...

[@CarlosAvilla]

Going through the samething right now..

[@richardmorris2487]

NC has flat, hilly,and mountain areas.

[@ThCatalyst]

Don't you think you're moving away from the point?

[@MrGman1234594]

HOLD UP!Saints hat?!You cajun Markee? :O

[@sfkingalpha]

I subscribed to watch videos about games.. but this was very interesting to watch. Sucks how doing things by the book is not in your best interest.

[@Reneelawrence666]

Sexy vehicle's - I've learn a bit from this video also and i never knew that about going down hills!

[@taylorfarrugia]

Desire for more? He made the 500,000 in a life time why should he help others? Yes I understand some people need help but thats where welfare comes in but he WORKED for his money he can use it how ever he wants It's not being greedy it's having ambition and wanting to achieve more with his life

[@jaylentaylor6483]

Dude, How much money do you have?!?!?

[@kgotter]

the 250K video he only lost 20k. The 500k one he was already and established business owner.

[@Toiarc]

in cataclysm, we kill DRAGONS

[@ArkaelDren]

are you in debt yet? my parents are both unemployed and my dads on disability and we live off of maybe $1,300 a month so 13K a year... 500K dollar loss and 250K loss... that to me is unimaginable.. i'm sorry for my ignorance about money and how much a person should have but 750K losses would literally kill my whole family. how is it that your not... out of money. i don't mean to sound rude but can someone PLZ explain