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The movement of commerce |
The movement of Currency |
Over the years, I’ve tried to learn about various business operations in order to understand their
Business model.Often, I have gleaned ideas in which I was able to adopt into my own business. These ideas have come from diverse businesses such as coffee, food service and retail. It goes without saying that I pay articular attention to other trucking company’s success and failures as well. In addition, one should look to other modes of transportation such as air freight, railroads, pipe lines, barges and ships.
Recently, it came to my mind that there is another type of business that had more parallels to the transportation industry than any other that I previously thought of. This business is “banking.” You might be thinking…how are these two entities similar? First, we can say that neither of these industries actually produce or manufacturer goods of any kind. Banks make their money from actual money passing through their system. Transportation makes money from the movement of commerce. Banks come in all sizes and shapes. There are commercial banks, credit unions, saving and loans and community banks. Transportation is a bit more diverse with various modes which include land, air and sea. When we look at banking and transportation, there are many other sub categories within them. Some of these in transportation are truckload, refrigerated, flatbed, tanker and so on. Banking is much the same as they offer checking, money transfers and ATM services. Of course, let’s not forget there are mega/small banks and mega/small transportation companies. Both of these industries boom when our conomy is doing well. On the other hand, they both struggle when times are tough. If they become too heavily vested in risky business, they can be the hero or zero nearly overnight. You can learn who the best of the best are by who survives in a bear market and you will see many overnight success stories in a bull market.
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Ready to make a commerce transfer. |
As we can see, banks and transportation have many similarities. I couldn’t help but think about each of these institutions and how they both play an important role in our world economy. I find it interesting when thinking about the comparison of these two business entities as banking controls the world’s money and transportation controls the movement of commerce. The biggest difference is that you can’t wire a shipment like you can wire a money transaction.