We Protected Our Business, Even When Money Was on the Table

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]Should we tell them >> if it's going to be opportunities or things that you have put us in situations where we should have said no [laughter] from the beginning? Of course, tell them cuz I want I want us to be honest.

[00:00:12]>> That you talk about all the time.

[00:00:15]>> Let's see. Yeah.

[00:00:16]>> Yeah.

[00:00:16]>> Okay. So I I'll tell them [music] >> [music] >> Hey, I'm Jazz and that's Mo and we're your NMT business coaches and we're here today to give you the information that you need so that you can start and scale your NMT business. For those of you that don't know who we are, we are NMT business owners. We're the owners of MJ Reliable Transportation and today we are going to talk about some of the things that we said no to within our NEMT business because let's face it, we couldn't say yes to everything. We had to set boundaries.

[00:01:06]>> Yeah, we did. But you know, here's the thing. When we were saying no to certain things, people were like, "You guys are crazy. You're leaving money on the table." And we weren't. We just knew that there were certain things we had to say no to and we had to walk away from.

[00:01:23]Like everything just didn't fit our business model. So, we had to say no.

[00:01:30]>> You know what I think about?

[00:01:32]>> I already know. You should. If you if you're not thinking about it, you should.

[00:01:35]>> Should we tell them? If it's going to be opportunities or things that you have put us in situations where we should have said no from [laughter] beginning, of course. Tell them because I want I want us to be honest.

[00:01:47]>> Thing that you talk about all the time.

[00:01:50]>> Let's see. Yeah.

[00:01:51]>> Yeah.

[00:01:52]>> Okay. So, I'll I'll tell them. So, we got this call and I mean we had just started out of business. We got this call and they wanted us to transport well pick up a patient from the airport.

[00:02:04]not just the airport, the runway on the airport. And there are certain things that you need and that you should have in place in order to do those type of transport. So, Jasmine is calling me.

[00:02:18]She's explaining to me like what the requirements are. This is what we need.

[00:02:22]And I'm like, Jasmine, there's no way.

[00:02:24]>> And as I'm explaining, I'm literally ordering everything on Amazon, like the reflector vest. Like [laughter] I was like, "Jacine, we cannot accommodate this trip. We have absolutely no idea what we're doing." And she's like, "We can do it. We have to at least try.

[00:02:40]Like, you never know. This could be a niche for us." And she's trying to say, but I'm like, "Absolutely not. I am not doing it." So, >> I say all that to say, >> know when to say no. If you don't know what you're doing, >> yeah, >> say no.

[00:02:55]>> Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad we didn't do it.

[00:02:57][laughter] But anyways, there's so many more things that we said no to in our business and >> luckily that was [laughter] >> definitely one. Um, but let's talk about money.

[00:03:11]>> Yeah.

[00:03:11]>> Like from the very beginning we said our drivers will not accept cash.

[00:03:19]>> So when our clients call and ask can they pay the driver at the time of pickup? Absolutely not ma'am.

[00:03:25]>> Absolutely not.

[00:03:26]>> I know. But I don't understand, you know, we still get people still ask that question to this day, like how do you collect payment? Do you wait the same day? Do you collect beforehand? Do you re allow your drivers to collect? And I'm like, absolutely not. Like, your driver should not be dealing with anything when it comes to the finance part of your business. Can you imagine how screwed up our, you know, our county would be if we were just out here letting drivers collect >> cash? No. You just, you can't do it. So, yeah. So, when you're right, we have to say when people ask, "Can we pay the same day? Can we pay the driver?"

[00:04:08]Absolutely not. Nope.

[00:04:10]>> You cannot pay for the trip beforehand.

[00:04:12]Unfortunately, we cannot.

[00:04:13]>> And what's our favorite line? Ma'am, your trip is not confirmed [clears throat] until we receive payment. So, how are you going to schedule? Like, we don't do >> Yeah. No, we're just not doing it. And so, if you guys are curious about what platforms, payment platforms we're utilizing in our business, we actually have a YouTube video about it, definitely go check it out. But moving on to number two would be >> I I say long distance trips.

[00:04:38]>> Oh, that's a good one.

[00:04:39]>> So, when we initially started on two, that was not in our business model to do a lot of long distance trips. Um, and there's a couple things you want to think about. You want to think about your fleet size. Can you accommodate it?

[00:04:51]Can you afford to have a vehicle that's solely committed to just long distance trips or a driver that that's the only thing that that driver is doing that's just long distance trips.

[00:05:02]>> Now, there are some NMT providers.

[00:05:05]That's their focus. That is their niche and it's nothing wrong with that. But you also want to think about does it make financial sense for your business for you to say travel from here California to Las Vegas or from California to to Texas? Like how much will that really financially cost your business to accommodate a trip like that? So like how much profit are you truly making? And then think about if you were to keep that vehicle locally, could you make that same amount of money if not more? Um, so initially when we first started out, longdistance trips were absolutely no.

[00:05:46]>> Um, and again, you want to think about the mileage. So when I say long distance, I'm thinking about anything over 200, 300 miles, right? That's a long distance trip. Um, that's just wasn't in our business model.

[00:05:59]>> Yeah. And then you have to think about what you're starting with, too. Like if you're starting with an older vehicle that has, you know, a bunch of miles on it, then long distance should not be a consideration.

[00:06:10]>> Um, also what your drivers are more comfortable with. Your drivers may not be comfortable, you know, doing long distance trips. Maybe they want to stay locally. So really, you have to assess what you have and how you're operating your business to really see if that would fit you. And for us, it just >> Yeah, >> it just didn't. It just didn't. Um, moving on to number three, I would have to say on demand.

[00:06:34]>> Oh, >> on demand same day um trips. Now, when we first started doing broker rides, we had a lot of same [snorts] day.

[00:06:43]>> Mhm.

[00:06:44]And we didn't like it because we felt like our quality of the service that we were providing was going downhill because like they would literally send us 900 a.m. pickups at like 8:45 and it's like we got 15 minutes. Well, it's going to take us about 15 minutes to get there.

[00:07:05]>> It was it was just it was a disruption of your business.

[00:07:09]>> It really was. you had to make so many changes, so many add-ons.

[00:07:14]>> Like it just didn't flow.

[00:07:16]>> Yeah.

[00:07:16]>> You know, like you knew >> the day before your schedule >> and then like and then of course you felt bad because of course the brokers would make it sounds like it's so urgent like this person really need to get to this medical appointment or this diialysis. So you like, "Oh my god, I really want to help." But it really was a disruption of your business. So, we really had to stop and say no >> to some of those same days.

[00:07:43]>> Well, >> unless we could have unless we had >> Unless we unless we got a override. So, let's be honest.

[00:07:50]>> Or not only override, but unless >> cuz that's going to cost you. You want me You want me to get there in 15 minutes? I mean, >> it's going to cost you.

[00:07:58]>> Well, we did overrides same if you calling same day, it's automatically an override. Like, first of all, >> but we knew we didn't want that with our private pay clients. Yes. And we understand like sometimes you get your hospital discharge. And so when we say no, same day, we still take those hospital discharge, but we set the expectation >> and we set that expectation of okay, we can accommodate this trip, but it's going to be between this [clears throat] window, right?

[00:08:26]>> So, um, >> and not allowing them to tell us you need to be there in 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Like yes, we still would do it, but like you said, we set the expectation so we don't feel rushed. But initially, we took on all the pressure.

[00:08:40]Like we would do it and just like >> we got to be there in 15 minutes, which we knew.

[00:08:44]>> So much anxiety.

[00:08:45]>> I know. We knew that that couldn't happen. It just wasn't going to happen that way until we changed and started setting our own expectations. So yeah.

[00:08:52]>> Yep. So moving right along. I would have to say number actually this should have been number one on our list.

[00:08:58]>> Oh, okay.

[00:08:59]>> Journey Transports. Oh, hold on.

[00:09:02]>> We actually just did a video about [clears throat] why we don't do gurnie or offer gurnie services within our business. If you have not seen it yet, definitely go over check it out.

[00:09:14]>> We explain it more in detail. Um, but yeah, >> so doing Gurnie transports, we just didn't feel confident in the very beginning of offering that type of service. And you know now with innovation um yeah >> we are able to offer the traversa [laughter] transport wheelchair which is a gurnie alternative and we're able to now take on some of those trips that we used to turn away in the very beginning.

[00:09:43]>> So what you're saying is we no longer saying no >> to all Gurnie trips.

[00:09:50]>> We just asking the right questions.

[00:09:52]>> Okay. Okay. So, we're able to accommodate some of those gurnie transport.

[00:09:57]>> Yeah.

[00:09:58]>> Okay. I like that.

[00:09:59]>> Yeah. And if you guys haven't checked out the Traversa, we talk about it all the time on our platform. So, definitely go and check it out. As a matter of fact, let's insert a photo somewhere right here cuz I love it. [laughter] But yes. Um, okay. So, what else? I will also I would also say to um Medicaid trips >> that just had really really low unsustainable rates that we just could not accommodate.

[00:10:28]>> Yeah.

[00:10:29]>> So there were, you know, first of all, let's talk about that a little bit.

[00:10:33]>> Mhm.

[00:10:33]>> Cuz people always talk about like I want to work with the state Medicaid. I want to work with our state Medicaid program.

[00:10:40]um how do I bill for transportation services for NMT services within our business and honestly yes it is a great opportunity to have within your business if you're able to do that within your state >> and we can show you how to do it we can show you how to apply we can show you how to build >> but >> the reimbursement rates >> what you think >> no >> just just give it to >> I'm just going to be honest no >> like the time, the commitment, the investment, the training because it's all of that behind it. Like you have to learn how to do it. You have to invest time for the training. Um there's a lot you have to get approved for. Like there's a lot you have to do and honestly it's not worth it to be honest with like the reimbursement.

[00:11:30]>> Well, it works for some providers. It works for some providers if you can figure out how to make it work. For instance, one of our students who's transporting methadone clients, she's picking up a bunch of people in one area >> because the volume though, right?

[00:11:43]>> The volume and she's multi-loading.

[00:11:46]She's multi-loading her vehicles, right?

[00:11:48]And she's going to one destination. And so, you're right. So if you have like a larger vehicle where you can multi-load um when you can do those things and you are able to build a state yeah you may see a profit that may work for your your business structure but for us we had to say no to those opportunities as well.

[00:12:09]So I I say all of that to say that you want to make sure that you look into all state requirements when you're on boarding. So look at the rates, look at the reimbursement rates, um look at the criteria to make sure that it also makes sense for your business structure before you go that route.

[00:12:26]>> Mhm.

[00:12:27]>> Yeah. So what's another one? Uh, >> we talked about long >> Oh, not taking not taking shortcuts when um hiring our drivers, making sure we take them through the complete full compliance process and not >> Mickey Mouseing it because it's a it's a big thing, right?

[00:12:47]>> And you don't have to worry about that with MJ. But you're absolutely right.

[00:12:50]Mhm.

[00:12:51]>> You want to make sure that you're on boarding all of your drivers, making sure that you do that background check, making sure that you're teaching and training them how to properly secure a wheelchair. Um, making sure that they have everything that they need in order to thrive in your business. Because I can tell you now, >> when you on board them, you don't train them properly, you're just making it so harder for yourself cuz you're going to constantly be getting calls like this happened. What do I do? They don't feel comfortable. They don't know how to, you know, troubleshoot or problem solve. Um, and guess who get those calls, right?

[00:13:31]And so if you are properly training and onboarding them and really doing everything the right way, it will eliminate a lot of extra headache for you within the business. So >> yeah, and really it's a long-term protection for your business >> because if you don't do it right in the very beginning, you're going to have to go back and go through all those processes over again, and it's a headache. So, >> you know, just do it right the first time around.

[00:13:54]>> You know, I'm always big about having an employee file. Make sure you have an employee file. I got her and her employee. [laughter] [gasps] >> Um, that was a good one though. What else? We We done said no to >> I know that was quite a bit already. I'm like, dang, I didn't realize that till we actually really sit down and >> when you think about it >> think about it. Thank you guys for like these questions and stuff that you give us because it's really making us reflect on what the last six years has >> and it really makes you think about your business and your business structure and and you know like you like you like to talk about innovations a lot and how you have how we have evolved over the last six years from >> where we started from. like it really it really make you think about things that you had to put in place in order to to evolve. So I do like these questions as well.

[00:14:47]>> And I mean just thinking about everything that we mentioned, it really boils down to not every dollar is worth the risk. So like I said in the very beginning, you cannot say yes to everything. You have to don't chase that dollar.

[00:14:59]>> Stand firm. I mean shoot >> you can't chase the dollar.

[00:15:03]>> Oh yeah. No, >> you can't. It's going to come. The money will come.

[00:15:07]>> That's true.

[00:15:08]>> That's true. the money will come.

[00:15:10]>> That's how we've been so blessed. Like, think about it.

[00:15:13]>> Yeah.

[00:15:14]>> You Yeah. We We made some changes within our business, but >> our primary focus was it wasn't on the dollar. It was on surviving and making sure our business didn't go under, but the money eventually >> thinking outside the box >> and doing what we needed to do to grow our business. If actually tell us what have you said no to in your business >> that when you look back, you know, maybe a year ahead, two years ahead, wherever you're at currently in your business, >> you think to yourself, I'm glad I said no in the very beginning.

[00:15:56]>> Mhm.

[00:15:56]>> Even to this day.

[00:15:57]>> Yeah.

[00:15:58]>> Cuz we just shared with you some things that >> Yeah. I said no to.

[00:16:04]>> Yeah. And I still stand firm on it.

[00:16:05]>> Yeah. That's what I was gonna say. We We still stand firm.

[00:16:08]>> We want to hear from you.

[00:16:09]>> Yeah.

[00:16:10]>> All right.

[00:16:11]>> Thanks for this question, guys.

[00:16:13]>> Bye.

[00:16:15][music] >> [music]