Building Sustainable Growth with Broking’s Transport in Grand Rapids

Located on Highway 2 on the edge of Grand Rapids is Broking's Transport, a family-owned cargo and freight company that was started by owner Bob Broking and his father in 1990. The company employs 45 people, operates about 40 trucks, and is now positioned to continue to grow due to a long-lasting partnership with the Entrepreneur Fund.

In 2011, Bob connected with the Entrepreneur Fund for help with the acquisition of a competing business. After the companies had merged, Bob began to experience challenges associated with the sudden growth. In 2018, he started to work with the Mike Korte, a senior business loan officer and adviser at the Entrepreneur Fund who is based in Grand Rapids to stabilize the company.

Over these past few years Brokings Transport has been able to make significant strides. Right away Mike worked with Bob to refinance a loan that resulted in over $17,000 savings per month in their cash flow. Since then they have worked together on additional financing to purchase newer trucks and trailers which means less time in the shop and more time on the road. Bob has a saying. “If we’re not moving, we aren’t making money.” They are currently working together on Bob’s sales plan to grow his customer base, increase trip efficiency and generate revenues in excess of $500,000/year.

Bob continues to regularly meet with the Entrepreneur Fund to discuss progress and future goals. The goal over the next 5 years is to grow to a 100-truck operation. With that goal in mind he has started to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to prepare for adding mid and upper management positions, so that he can provide a great place to work and dedicate more of his time to working on his business rather than in it.

Bob credits the Entrepreneur Fund for helping him get the company back on track to continue to grow successfully. He also appreciates the teamwork involved, “The Entrepreneur Fund meets with me, understanding my goals ahead of time. If in six months I want to grow my company by six trucks, they work with me the whole time to help meet that goal. They are not your average bankers. I really can’t thank them enough.”