If you only use load boards how do you get paid?

After I quit my job and before starting running under my numbers, I got hit with unexpected personal bills as well as the truck I bought had some hidden problems, which my mechanic found. I had to fuel with my credit card for the first couple of days and factoring did help a lot.
Later, when I already had the second truck for a couple of months, both of them went down. Total down time was almost 4 months and over 20k in repair bills. Without factoring I would be done already

 

I will factor when I need to for comfort and plan on Foley for that not knowing any better at this moment. There are many and any input on Foley is welcome in addition to other recommendations.

 

That is exactly what put me behind the eight-ball when I started with my own numbers. I had a decent cash reserve on the day that I started rolling. At the end of my first month, I had some unbelievably bad "luck" happen within a few days. My wife had accidentally paid almost $4000 of someone else's fuel bill on a house account, and I had just sent in my quarterly 941 taxes, add in some repairs on my new-to-me truck, hadn't been paid for most of my hauling yet, and being a total rookie to the spot market......I caught up and survived until my C13 decided it'd had enough. It took about 10 months for that local truck stop to credit my account for paying for the other guy's fuel.
Once started, a person has a chance of making it on little cash reserve, but absolutely nothing can go wrong, or that person will crash and burn.