The Barstool Fund - Special Occasion Limousine & Coach
Up next: Special Occasion Limousine & Coach (Plymouth, MA)
Special Occasion Limousine & Coach provides 24/7 car services to and from weddings, bachelor and bachelorette parties, concerts, proms and banquets, and other special events in the greater Boston, Cape Cod, South Shore Area and beyond.
Reader Email
My name is Diane Dockery and I own Special Occasion Limousine in Plymouth MA. Yes a woman owned business in a male dominated industry!
In 2009, after 22 years at my job my boss left his position which left me with no job, it was the beginning of the recession and I was having a hard time getting another job.
So, in a stroke of genius I decided to open a business… during a recession….with no experience…… that was fun.
But Plymouth is just far enough away from Boston that people don’t want to drive to the airport, so I decided a car service would be a good idea!! Plus, Plymouth Rock Studios was set to open in Plymouth also and I was the only limousine service in the town at that time so I thought I was onto something big.
Plymouth Rock Studios never came to be, but with ALOT of hard work Special Occasion Limousine grew. We went from 2 cars to 33 cars (sedans/suvs/vans/limos/mini buses). I have worked every single aspect of this company (except for mechanical work) I will get out of my bed in the middle of the night if I get an emergency call from a client and do whatever needs to be done. The first 5 years I didn’t collect a paycheck, but around 2017 my company really took off!! I have a great client base, many clients are on a first name basis with me and when they call in we play a little catch up on each other’s lives before we get to the business of the reservation.
My staff is amazing, my operations manager has worked for me for FREE since March when the pandemic hit. YES I SAID FREE. He is amazing and so wants us to survive this pandemic. My drivers are like family to me, and many of them have worked for me for years, a few from the very beginning. I have very little turn over on staff. They count on me and I count on them.
Anyway, I am down 90% in my business and I’m hanging by a thread as of now. I’ve lost over $850,000 this year compared to last year. My funds are totally depleted after a very long 10 months. The work isn’t coming in but the bills are. This past year I lost all proms, all concerts, all sporting events, all bachelor and bachelorette parties and almost all weddings. My airport work went from 50 jobs a day on average to weeks of no jobs at all, we are now at around 5 jobs a day.
My staff is on my payroll and has been. But without some help I don’t know how much longer I can stay open. Car loans, car insurance, workers comp, rent for my business location, all these things keep coming in.
I could very much use some help, its tough to ask for help when I’ve always been self sufficient all along so forgive me if this rambles.
Thanks for your time, and God bless you for doing this. Even if I don’t get picked, its awesome to watch the videos of those who do because I know exactly how they feel and seeing the relief in their faces is amazing. I am pretty sure my video is attached below…. I hope, lol.
Happy New Year.
Diane Dockery