While sitting around one night after having a few drinks with some friends I decided that we needed to do a little bit better job of communicating great new things to our Insane Limos and Extreme Tan and Smoothies customers. Now with Twitter being all the craze and an excellent way to follow and communicate with celebrities, friends and more importantly business’s like Insane Limos and Extreme Tan and Smoothies. Why not use it to offer Free Limousine Rides, Free Tanning, Tanning products and more to our customers that support us. The mission was set and thanks to MS the mastermind behind the scenes of our online world, we now offer you a chance to win the very things I mentiond above. Not kidding here folks, we are going to give away some heavy duty stuff…. or better yet a FREE 3 Hour Limo ride in either our brand new Diamond Pearl White Cadillac Escalade or our new Barbie Pink Hummer, if tanning is your thing than Extreme Tan and Smoothies has you covered with an entire YEAR OF FREE TANNING!

Insane Limos Contest Info
Click here for full contest details

* Step 1: Sign up to follow @InsaneLimos on Twitter***

* Step 2: Re-Tweet the message in the box below to all your friends, followers and fellow tweeps by 12:01 am on April 20th.

* Step 3: That’s it! By clicking the “Tweet Now’ button you were instantly entered in the contest! Winners will be announced via direct message after the contest closes!

Already follow @InsaneLimos on Twitter? Not a problem! You’re actually already a step ahead of the game. Just click the ‘Tweet Now” button below to send the message to all your friends and it will instantly enter you, too!

Don’t wait! Time is running out! You must follow and retweet the message by 12:01 am on April 20th.

Don’t have a Twitter Account? Sign up and Learn How To Use Twitter
http://news.cnet.com/newbies-guide-to-twitter/

Thats really it people…. That simple… How friggin great is Twitter? Making it possible for people to win all kinds of free crap! Only in 2009 can you use 144 charcters to give away free limousine rides and free indoor tanning instantly. Good luck everyone and as always thank you for choosing Insane Limos and Extreme Tan and Smoothies.

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Pictured below is the first Limousine that we ordered from LA Custom Coach, Inc. for our Insane Limos fleet, it is a true one of a kind exotic Barbie Pink Hummer Limo. This stretch suv limo has a list of features that will stagger anyone looking to rent a limousine and the Barbie Pink color with the 5″ raised roof is more than just an attention getter.

Pink Hummer Limo

You can find detailed information about the equipment that we have stacked in our Pink H2 by clicking here, if you are looking to reserve our Pink Hummer Limo in the state of Florida please call 727-584-8888 or 888-91-LIMOS for information. I will take this week to post more pictures of what I consider to be our exotic limos, up next I will feature our one of a kind custom built Diamond Pearl White Asanti edition stretch Cadillac Escalade, we call it Oasis.

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Limousine Crash Test Photo

One of the most frustrating things of being a Limousine Company owner is dealing with Driver/Cheaffeur issues and their costly Limousine damage mistakes. Many of you are problably wondering what possible damage a Limousine driver could could be the cause of and why it is such an issue when damage to a Limousine occurs. Depending on the overall size of a stretch limousine, party bus or airport transfer car the opportunity for having some form of damage increases with the size of the vehicle.

When we started Insane Limos, Inc. we started our limo fleet out with three stretch limos that are each very unique for their specific vehicle type. With each vehicle comes a different challenge and a different learning curve for each driver that might drive those automobiles, for example our Barbie Pink H2 has a much wider and more difficult turning radius than our stretch Escalade, meanwhile Andre our Ford F-650 Limousine has the best turning radius out of any of our Limousines and it is the biggest in our fleet. Your smaller non suv limos like Chrysler 300m and Town Car limousines will have a much better turning radius than all of the limousines listed above.

To give you an example of what you should expect if you start a limousine business I figured I might as well write a post with a few of the damages to our limousines which were either due to the reduced turning radius or of course driver error. I knew that our first issue with a limousine due to driver error wouldn’t bee long after first receiving our initial limos, it seemed as if every driver constantly would smack the right rear tire off of any curb or entry way. After seeing how often the drivers were hitting the curb with the right rear tire on our Hummer Limo I knew it would not be long, before I knew it I was receiving a phone call at 11pm from one of my drivers who was stopped on a bridge…. With a flat tire. Anyone want to guess which tire had a flat? You guessed it, the right rear tire was flat and as usual the driver protested his innocence and tried to tell me on the fact that someone might have cut the tire when he was stopped. Not the case, the driver later admitted to hitting a curb which is what caused the huge gash in the tire. Total cost to have the tire changed at 11pm than have a new tire put on in the morning prior to the run it was scheduled for, just under $1,000.

Being a Limousine Business owner for such a short period of time I would love to be able to say that the blown tire was the only issue that we have had since starting our Limousine business, only problem is that could not be any further from reality. In addition to the above the same driver that achieved the tire blow out also managed to put a 13′ (yes thirteen foot) scratch down the driver side of the Escalade a few short weeks after nailing the tire. If anyone were to ask me how this driver could have possibly put a 13′ scratch on the DRIVER side of the limousine (down to the metal) I honestly would have no answer, being as opinionated as I am my first thought is, “Moron”. That hardly ends the damage caused to limousines by limousine drivers, add in a knocked down mailbox, and a down to the paint scratch on the hatch of the H2 from nailing another mailbox, and one “unexplained” scuff on the front corner of the Cadillac Escalade and you will see it goes on and on.

I am now almost to the point where I am almost numb to the fact that there are just some Limousine Cheaffeurs that make constant and very costly mistakes in some of the most simple situations possible. Even being numb to the news when it first hits me hardly has me understanding how someone driving a limousine with a back up camera and a giant screen six inches from their face can still manage to take out a mailbox. If you choose to start a Limousine business I would suggest checking in with someone that will be able to talk you down from some of the most annoying situations possible, the small things drive me crazy and in the limo biz there are constant small things to drive you crazy. Subscribe to my RSS feed for instant updates, follow me on twitter or follow insane limos on twitter.

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After some serious thought I was determined to effectivley introduce the interiors of our Limousines to the public so they can see the entire package we offer, TV was the most effective solution I felt fit for the task. I refused to have someone film a low quality “out of trunk” commercial it had to be something that displayed our products in the highest quality available in order to not decrease the true value of our products and services. I decided on a High Definition Commercial shoot with Brighthouse Networks which was more costly than doing a general commercial, again it needed to be done right or not at all.

I finally recieved the commercials the other day and after previewing them I am very happy with the quality of the commercials since they are in high definition. I am also very happy with the overall way that Brighthouse edited and produced the commercials as I feel it delivers on displaying the product we offer. Our first commercials will air during the Ultimate Fighter premier on Spike TV on April 1st, the show starts at 10pm. The commercial will only be available in two local counties to Insane Limos, Inc. so I decided to put the video on Youtube so that anyone else that reads my blog or any other Limousine company owners would like to see. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a message on twitter and I will be more than happy to help out.

Insane Limos - “Guys Night out will never be the same” HD TV Commercial

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please show me some love an Rate the video

This is the second commercial that will air on SpikeTv during the premier of Ultimate Fighter 9 on April 1, 2009. This video features Andre our Ford F-650 and “Candy” doing some work on the stripper pole that is inside of Andre the Limo.

Insane Limos - “Candy on the stripper pole” HD TV Commercial

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please vote for this video on Youtube

I appreciate all of you taking the time to read my Limousine Owners Blog and thank you for checking out the videos of our High Definition TV Commercial. If you want to read my other blog which is a more personal blog please visit Extreme John.com

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Here is a snippet from the “About Extreme John” information page, you can click here for full page.

About Extreme John

I figured I might as well say hi to everyone in the event someone that reads this might actually care about reading the “About Me” page. I am known by my friends, family and a few 100,000 others as Extreme John thanks to my personal website, and both of my business’s that deal with servicing the general public. continue here

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I have to be completley honest when I say, “I just don’t get it.” why would anyone looking to use a service such as renting a limousine expect that business to just give out discounts upon being asked? I can name a million place that I go or have gone to and I never ask for a “Special” or a “Discount“, a few examples are going out to Dinner, going to a movie, going to a pet store and the list can go on and on. Wouldn’t a server look at you like a complete idiot if you sat down and ordered the Outback Special and said, “What kind of a discount can I get on that?” It’s not even an option and I will tell you why, when people go out to dinner they expect to pay for the dinner and the services that are being rendered to them…. Period. Operating a limousine business is not inexpensive by any means and the rates that we as well as most limousine companies charge are based on the fact that we are going to render the services that someone renting a limousine would expect to be rendered.

There is also another type of customer that rents limousines from limo rental companies such as Insane Limos and thats a “Friend” or someone that “Knows you” who automatically decides that your going to give a reduced rate because they “Know you”. Meanwhile many of these very same people have had no problem charging you full price for the services they rendered to you when you hired them. I have had people that did work on my house and charged me thousands to do so turn around and flat out ask for a special rate on renting one of our limos, it’s like “Give me a break I just paid you $6,000 and now your asking me for half off limo rental which would normally cost $600″ how friggin cheap can you be?

To the future limousine owners out there my word of advice would be to increase your level of patience when answering the Limousine phone (727-584-8888) because more potential customers than you think expect to have much of the services you render, rendered for free.

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Initially when we sponsored the Don’t Drink and Drive tag it caused a bunch of the local club owners to cry bewcause they felt Wild was double dipping on their ad’s by having Insane Limos at the end of the Don’t Drink and Drive spots. Here’s the theory behind it and what caused the issue with our initial radio advertising for our Limousine business. At the end of every single club or bar spot on the radio Wild 98.7 ends the spot with, “Don’t be stupid, Don’t drink and drive.” Wild approached us about buying the spot and changing the tag to the following, “Don’t be stupid. Use Insane Limos. Don’t drink and drive.”

Now your probably wondering why local clubs and bars would get upset about the spot, well the truth is that there are a few clubs in the area (I wont mention them) that have their own Limousines. Make sense now? The truth is that the bars and clubs wanted to protect their assets and keep their Limos as options for their customers, can’t blame them with that but it still won’t stop us from putting something on the radio and in reality our Limos can only add to their business never take away from it.

All of the DJ’s at Wild 98.7 colaborated to put this Don’t Drink and Drive spot together for Insane Limos and we love the response as well as the message it sends.

Insane Limos Dont Drink and Drive Commercial

Click above link to listen to the first version of the Insane Limos radio spot.

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The Superbowl was something we took very seriously even though we really havent had the exposure needed to be able to make a huge splash at the Superbowl, so we turned that thought around a little bit and used the Superbowl to create awarness of our existence, why not it was a great area to get exposure. That theory ended up working out well for us at Insane Limos because we recieved a few additional Superbowl bookings we didn’t have and we were able to book at least three weddings and a couple of Bachelorette parties due to the exposure in and around the Superbowl.

I have a good friend of mine who is in Phoenix Arizona and he owns Arizona Limo Rides, he has been in business a couple of years longer than we have. When I spoke to Joey in regards to the Limousine business around the Superbowl he told me some great stories about what you can expect and how much money your going to make, etc. I also spoke with someone else who was a Cheaffeur for another Limousine company that I use to use in the past and he went on to talk about the rags to riches that the Superbowl brings along with it. I will say now that the Superbowl is over we learned a lot, we probably could have done a lot more things to create more pre-superbowl sales, and we could have done a few things different in regards to how we secured the Limousine reservations so we didn’t end up screwed by a few celebrities…. Which we did, but that again is a growing experience and we move forward.

Insane Limos didn’t make the huge dollars that my friend Joey’s Limo service did in Arizona last year nor did we hit the tremendous personal goal I set a couple of months ago. None of the above really has me bent or pissed off, it is what it is and in reality I believe you get out of whatever you put into Business. As a whole we didn’t do huge things to pre-sell or even sell ourselves for the Superbowl, we were scheduled perfectly for the Superbowl and had the excellent staff in place but at the end of the day promotional wise we could have done more to gaurantee that the Limos were booked up for the entire week. For now I look at it like…. Hey we had the biggest moving advertisments in and around the Superbowl and we still did make a substantial profit, hey we could have lost money and we didn’t.

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I have always been a car buff for as long as I can remember, everything from little sports cars to huge comfort cozy cars and SUV’s. Limousines are no different, I have a love for Limousines as well. How are they designed? What special features would customers using a Limousine service want in their Limousine? What can I put in a limousine that makes it stand out from the rest of the limousines that are out there now? I told you I can go on and on about cars and especially Limousines in general, they are like art to me.

To answer the questions of why I started a Limousine Business, especially in an economy like today’s here is why I started a Limo Business. Through the years I have used all kinds of Limousine service companies like the amazing Mammoth Transportation in Las Vegas Nevada, owned by a guy named Dan Mammoth always provided me with excellent service any time I have ever been to Vegas, not to mention his Limos were always party limos. Locally I have used the same Limo owner and driver for about 8 years, all though I haven’t heard from that Limousine company owner except for right in the early stages when he offered to sell me his Limousine business at some insane ammount. This Limo company always provided me with excellent service, the biggest issue I had with the service was that I felt I was constantly being overcharged on my credit card which always annoyed me because I used this Limousine for many years and numerous times per week.

Another big reason behind doing our own Limousine service was after being in the Limousines that Mammoth Transportation uses in Las Vegas it constantly left me wanting more from the Limos in my area. The biggest problem in this area even though Tampa is a large city there are really no Big City Limos here, no amazing sound systems, no Tv’s that actually work, No Sirius satellite radio or iPod docking stations. Just being honest here, none of that stuff exists in this area and if it does my 8 year search was long enough. We wanted cars that WE would use and that we would enjoy, packed with features we thought all of our customers would enjoy and use.

I guess to answer everyone’s question behind why we would start a limousine business it’s simple, we wanted to change the way Limousine Business was done in our area. Offer honest pricing and Insane Limos that are packed with all kinds of features, features I will use when I go to Miami or the Port at Port Canaviral in Florida. Wireless internet access and Direct TV act as excellent time killers when doing a long trip in a limousine, not to mention we made sure our seating was comfortable…. There is nothing worse than beign ripped off, having a lack of equipment and being uncomfortable on a long Limousine ride.

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I am not sure that I will write this blog daily or not at this point but I do intend to write on every topid that has something to do with whatever went on with Insane Limos, it can be the Limousine Software we use, the GPS tracking we use, stories about our Limousines or stories about day to day operations for a Limousine Company owner.

I hope that you will bookmark the Insane John blog and continue to come back as Im sure I will have some excellent pictures and some stories in regards to owning a limousine business. I will put up the typical “About Me” section and I will have plenty of information on here for people looking to Start a Limousine Business.

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