Exit Strategies For Moving Company Owners


[fb_button]

Summary

You can’t run your moving company forever, right? So what is your exit strategy? You basically have 3 options for the future of your business and they all start with creating a “model business”.

The 3 Exit Strategies for Moving Company Owners

  1. Duplicate and expand  – Your long-term goal may be to expand your business and open up additional locations. Whether you want to franchise your moving company or maintain ownership of your additional locations you’ll need to create a model business as a prototype to be duplicated.
  2. Pass down to family – Many people want to build a business that they can pass down to their family. Think about the day to day issues and stress that you deal with in your business, do you really want to pass that on to loved ones? Instead, focus on developing your systems and processes so that everything runs smoothly with minimal problems and consistent cash flow. Then you can pass it down.
  3. Build and sell – If your ultimate goal is to sell your moving company, then why not get top dollar for it? Create a turn-key moving company that produces a consistent profit that can run without you. Your ideal buyer wants to know that the business can run without you and most importantly without them.

Regardless of what your exit strategy is for your moving company (and it may change over time), what you need to do now is build a model moving company. Focus on establishing processes in writing and fine-tune this processes to make your business run smoother.

Not only will this open up your options in the future, it will allow your business to run smoother and more profitability today.

Watch the video above for the full episode.

[fb_button]

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

Hot News & Deals!

  1. Join the Moving CEO Challenge: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for moving company owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!
  2. Latest Instagram!
    Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your moving company to the NEXT LEVEL!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for daily tips and motivation to grow your moving company.

Full Transcript
[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey my friend. It’s Louis Massaro, CEO of Moving Mastery and founder of Moving Sales Academy. What’s the exit strategy for your moving company? You open up a company, what’s the ultimate goal? 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now, what’s the plan? If you’re gonna own a moving company, I’m challenging you not to just look at it and say, “Hey, I just wanna make some money.” Now, maybe when you first get started, that’s the goal. You’re like, “Hey, I just, I wanna make some money. I wanna make a living.” But you have to kinda think further out. Where are you taking it? Where do you wanna go? A lot of people say, “Hey, I wanna grow and I wanna get to that next level,” but where is that next level? What is that for you? It’s different for everybody else and it’s something that you really should think through, because if you plan this out, you could start taking the steps to get there. I wanna share with you the three options that you have when it comes to your exit strategy for your business, like long term, what are you gonna do with it? Because if you’re gonna succeed, you need an exit strategy. You need to know where you’re headed, otherwise, your whole goal and your whole focus is to just make a living.

And if that’s where you’ve been up till now, that’s okay, but I’m challenging you to think a little bit further. I’m challenging you to think a little bit bigger as to where you wanna go, alright? It’s different for everybody. There is no right or wrong answer. I’m gonna give you three options, and they’re all great options. It’s just what’s in line for you? What feels right for you? What feels right for your family? How much work do you really wanna put in? A lot of times we’ll say, “I just wanna grow. I just wanna make a ton of money.” What is a ton of money? How much do you really wanna make every single year? Do you know that? You might have a number in your head, but have you ever sat and thought about what it would take to live the lifestyle that you wanna live? Like really put pen to paper to see, “Hey, I wanna own this type of house and this type of car. I wanna send my kids to this type of school. I wanna have this much in retirement, be able to retire by this age. What is that gonna cost me to do?”

When you put the pen to paper, sometimes you’ll be surprised that it’s not as much as you think it might be. So as you’re building your company, it’s important to think about the end game, the end objective, and I wanna give you the three options of where you could go with that, alright? Option number one, duplicate and expand. This basically means you’re gonna take your current office, you’re gonna duplicate it, and you’re gonna open more offices. And that could be company-owned stores, that could be franchises. Either one falls into option one. And when it comes to franchising versus owning them yourself, that’s gonna be a whole another episode that I’ll do. But the idea is that, what do you wanna do? Do you wanna open multiple… Do you envision yourself with multiple offices throughout the country? Then that would be option one.

Option two, you wanna build it and pass it down to your family. Do you have children or even brothers or sisters, or nieces or nephews, somebody that you wanna eventually pass this down to and keep it in the family? Maybe this business was passed down to you by somebody in the family. That’s a very viable option. That’s something that a lot of people look to do. That’s their goal. I have a friend that he wants to pass the company down to his son to take over and run one day. So that’s your second option when it comes to your exit strategy of getting out of the business. Number three, build and sell. Maybe you have your office now. Maybe you have multiple offices now. You don’t necessarily need to open more of them, but you can build that current location with a plan to sell it, and your plan might be to sell in five years, 10, 20, whatever that might be for you. But if you’re gonna build your business to sell it, you need to make sure that things are set up in a way where somebody’s gonna want to buy it.

So you have these three options. You have duplicate and expand, pass down to your family, or build and sell. What’s the solution? What do you need to do now to prepare yourself for any and all of those options? It’s create a model business. A model business is essentially a prototype, a perfect business that if you wanted to franchise, this would be your prototype. This would be everything set up just right; the systems, the processes. Everything is exactly the way it needs to be, so that somebody would come in and be willing to pay you to buy one of your franchises. If you’re gonna open up another location that you own, or maybe you open with a partner, you want a model business to model that second business after so that that business is successful.

If you wanna pass it down to your family, do you really wanna pass down a business to your family that’s not smooth running, that doesn’t have the systems and doesn’t have the processes in place? Think about some of the stress that you might have from lack of systems and processes. I’ve been there. I know it’s a very stressful thing. Do you wanna pass that business and the stress that goes along with it down to someone in your family? Or would you rather pass them a turnkey business, something that they can come in and you have all the systems in place. You have all the processes in place in writing, where you’re not required to be there, and they can take it and run it successfully, and you can move on.

Or maybe you wanna build it and sell it. Option three. Well, I can tell you if you wanna sell your business, you’re gonna get top dollar by having a turnkey operation. Meaning someone can come in, turn the key in the door, walk in and everything runs. Your systems are in place, your processes are in place, it runs smoothly, it runs profitably, and it doesn’t require you, right? I’ll talk to companies and say… My goal is to sell. And I’ll say, “Okay, well buyer doesn’t wanna come in and hear that the magic sauce for your company is you. You might be the magic sauce right now. You might be the reason that the company runs as good as it does, but for somebody that’s coming to buy your company, that’s gonna require you to stay there and work that business. So if you wanna get top dollar, if you wanna get the people with big money, the people with big money come in and buy a business, that’s a good return on their investment. They’re not looking to buy a job for themselves, they’re saying, ‘Hey, how much can I earn in the stock market? How much can I earn in real estate? What’s the return on investment in this moving company that I could buy that everything’s setup, systems and processes, it’s already smoothly running. I could just put my money in, there’s people there in place, they could run it,’ that’s when you get the top dollar for your company, right?”

So basically what it comes down to is regardless of what your exit strategy is, you have to create a model business. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s something that you need to start shooting for. You need to first start and say, “Hey, what do I really want?” Because to grow is a very vague word. Even getting to the next level, what is that? It’s different for everybody. You don’t have to open multiple locations to be successful. You don’t have to franchise your business to be successful. You don’t have to get into long… You could have a local moving company with a few trucks and make very good money. What does the success mean to you currently, and then where do you wanna take it? Because you need to start thinking about that. Otherwise, you’ve just created a job for yourself.

That’s not what you want. That’s not why you put in the hours. That’s not why you take on the stress and the responsibility and the liability of owning a company, not to create a job for yourself, to build the future. What does that future look like to you? And whatever it is, there is no right or wrong. Everyone is gonna be different, so don’t follow someone else’s idea of success. Look at your idea of success and just know even if you want to pass it down to your family, why not pass it down with systems and processes in writing. A smooth running business that they’re not gonna have to take the burden of that stress. That’s what you really want. You wanna duplicate and expand, duplicate and expand with systems and processes in place. You create a model, that’s what you wanna start with. Create a model with the business that you have. Before you start thinking about the expansion, think about, “How could I make this just right to be able to expand it later?” So whatever you’re gonna do, build a model that’s gonna help you create the success exit strategy that you’re looking to have in your business. Until I see you next time, go out there every single day, profiting your business, thriving your life. I’ll see you later.

Think Like A Millionaire Mover

Believe You Can Get To The Next Level

Summary

Success in the moving business is part mechanics, what to do and how to do it, and part mindset. What you believe about yourself and your company will play a big role in your ability to succeed at a high level. If you feel like this business is difficult and you can’t make any money, then guess what’s going to happen. You’re probably not going to make any money. If you want to be successful in the moving business, start thinking like a millionaire mover.

When I started my first moving company at 19 years old, I knew in my head that I was a millionaire mover. I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but I knew that’s where I was headed. Yes, I worked hard. But it was the hard work mixed with that belief that allowed me to become a millionaire by 23 years old, all from the moving business. I don’t say that to impress you, I say it to show you what’s possible.

Everybody wants to grow their business, get to the next level and make more money. It’s those who believe they can do it and then take the steps necessary to get there that will make it happen.

One of the smartest things I ever did was accept the fact that I didn’t know everything. To look at each situation and say “there’s got to be a better way”, “where can I learn a better way?” Whether it was books, seminars, online course, coaches and mentors I always made sure I invested in a way to learn the skills I needed to succeed in my business.

I believe that anyone with the right mindset and the right strategy can succeed in the moving business. The questions is “do you believe?”

My advice to you: Believe. Believe you can do it. Believe you can get to the next level. Believe that you’re already a millionaire mover. Then take it one step at a time.

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for daily tips and motivation to grow your moving company.

Full Transcript
[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

“So where do you start?” That’s the question I get so many times, “Where should I be focused in my business right now?” And the first thing you need to make sure that you’re doing is providing quality service. You need to make sure you’re going out there and your customers are happy with the service you’re providing. Otherwise, everything else is just a waste of time. Once that’s on point, you need to make sure that you have consistent sales coming in, period.

Most moving companies, one of their biggest expense is marketing. If you’re spending huge amounts of money on marketing, you need to make sure that, once it comes into your business, do you have a solid sales process to run it through? There’s a big difference. Two companies could be spending the same amount of money on marketing. One company could have a solid sales process. The other company could just answer the phones, call back some leads, and just take it a little nonchalant. What do you think the difference in their revenue’s gonna be? What do you think the difference in the amount of money they spend in marketing, versus the amount of money that they bring in’s gonna be? People ask me all the time, “How did you build a company up to $20 million in book moves per year?” It’s simple. Sales. How else?

There’s no magic bullet for marketing. Everybody thinks there’s this magic bullet. That’s the question, “What do you do on marketing? Where should I be marketing?” Marketing’s important, but it’s about just as important as getting gas for your car. You need it to run, but for the most part, we all have access to the same gas. You could all go to the gas station and pick one of the three options. It’s the same thing with marketing. We all have the same access to the same leads, the same ad words, the same direct mail. It’s all the same stuff. So it’s not really the marketing, it’s what happens after the phone rings, after you receive that lead. That’s where the money’s made.

Think about it for a minute. What would increase your booking percentage by 5% do to your bottom line? If you currently are booking at 20%, meaning you get 100 leads or opportunities, and you book 20 of them, what if all of a sudden, you were booking 25 of them per day, per month, per week, whatever it is for you, what would that do to your bottom line? When you could take the same amount of marketing spend and book more moves with it? That’s how your profits go up. That’s how you take home more money. That’s what it’s all about.

You don’t wanna not spend money on marketing, because you’re scared that you’re gonna lose money. You wanna be able to spend the money on marketing, knowing confidently that it’s coming into a system that’s solid, into a system that’s built with the proper follow-up, the proper sales scripts, the proper management. Once you have that, that’s when you have the confidence to grow. For me, it wasn’t until I knew my numbers, it wasn’t until I knew my marketing report, and what each source of marketing was really bringing in, that I had the confidence to say, “You know what? Let’s ramp it up. Let’s take this to the next level.” Because I feel confident in my sales process, not in the salespeople. They were good, but the salespeople could be replaced, ’cause the process is strong. I had that. I spent the money on marketing, knowing confidently that my sales process was gonna run the way I needed it to run.

Once you have that, listen, it makes everything else easier. You’ve had times where jobs are just being booked, and it just feels like you’re getting flooded with new business. I hope you’ve experienced that. You’ve also had times where it’s not coming in. But imagine if you could have more of those times. Imagine if you could not be worried about paying the bills. (https://mirrorspectator.com/) Imagine if you could be taking home more than you really wanted to be making, initially, when you started your business. It solves a lot of problems. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it can solve problems. ‘Cause if you have a problem and you could cut a check for that problem, the problem goes away.

Everybody wants to grow their business. Everybody wants to make more money. Everybody wants to get to the next level. It’s those that are willing to take the steps, those that are willing to take the action that’s necessary to get them there, that are gonna make it happen. So many people talk about, “Yeah, I’m ready to build my business. I’m ready to do what it takes,” but you know what? They don’t wanna put the steps in place, they don’t wanna put the processes in place, they don’t wanna make that one tiny step forward in the direction of success, so they’re gonna stay where they’re at.

One of the smartest things I ever did for myself and for my business, was to accept the fact that I didn’t know everything. To go out there and learn. To get myself a coach and a mentor, and find people that can help give me perspective on things, and show me something different that I wasn’t currently seeing. That was huge for me. And this is after I was already successful in my business. But you know what? I wanted to go further. In order to go further, you can’t continue to do the same things that you’re doing. And there’s a lot of people out there with a lot of information. You don’t have to listen to me. But get yourself a new perspective. Get someone that could help shed some light on some new ways of doing things, because you know what? It might not be their way that you follow, but maybe they get you thinking about something, that causes you to think of a brilliant idea that skyrockets your business. But you have to first start with believing that you can get to that level. You have to first start by believing that you’re a millionaire mover.

When I was 19 and I started my company, in my head, I was a millionaire mover. I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but in my mind, I knew that that’s where I was headed. Every day, I knew that’s where I was headed. And within a few years, by the time I was 22, 23, I was a millionaire. I don’t say it to impress you. I say it to show you what’s possible. And I say it, because, if you’re believing that, “It’s so hard,” and, “This is so difficult,” and, “I can’t make money in this business,” that’s the results you’re gonna get. But if you know and you believe that you can do it, and you’re willing to put in the work, and put in the steps, one step at a time, you can make it happen. I wanna show you what’s possible. You can get there.

Take Your Moving Company To The Next Level

Whether You're Just Starting Or Have Been In Business Twenty Years

[fb_button]

Summary

If you’re like most people in the industry, you want to take your moving company to the next level. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for twenty years, there’s always the next level of achievement that can be reached. But what does that mean for YOU?

Why is it that some moving companies are struggling just to stay in business and others are making millions every single year? It’s because the companies that are making millions have their systems in place, they have their processes in place. They take their business seriously and put in the time to build it.

Do you want to take your moving company to the next level?

If so, start working on your systems and processes. If you want to go beyond where you’ve been able to get to so far, you need structure in your business. You’re going to need a team and that team needs to know exactly what they should be doing. How do you think McDonald’s got to be so big? The systems and processes.

Set up your systems and focus on your customer

I believe that when you’re not worried about money, when you’re not worried about whether you’re going to book enough moves to pay the bills and have money to take home every single month you can focus your time, energy and resources on providing quality service to your customers.

Set up systems to make sure the moves keep flowing in and then focus on providing quality service to your customers. Go out there every single day and create raving fans out of your customers. Provide excellent service and make their move less stressful. The only moving companies that are going to last are the ones with excellent customer service.

Profit in Business and Thrive in Life

It’s not just about profiting in business. My motto is “profit in business, thrive in life”. You need to be able to do both. What good is making millions of dollars if you don’t take the time to enjoy it? It’s all about freedom! Freedom to do what you want, when you want and with who you want.

Going beyond your comfort zone

There were many times on my journey of growing my moving company to $20 million a year where I felt like “I can’t do this, this is beyond my level of capabilities” but you know what? That’s where you grow, that’s where you become better. Everyone has doubt, it’s human nature. Just don’t let it keep you from taking action. Courage is taking action in spite of fear. vape shop online store

You have to constantly be on the edge of your comfort zone and pushing it a little further all the time. Staying in your comfort zone is a recipe for an unfulfilled life. There is a whole world waiting for you beyond that imaginary line. Go enjoy it.

Watch the video above for the full episode.

[fb_button]

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for daily tips and motivation to grow your moving company.

Full Transcript
[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

I talk to moving company owners every day, and the number one thing is, how do I get to that next level? Regardless of what their particular circumstance is, they always want to achieve more, they always want to have their business running smoother, they always wanna be making more money, they wanna be able to take time off and enjoy themselves and be able to take vacations and not be working 80 hours a week. What does it all come down to? It’s like, how do I get to that next level? They feel a sense of being stuck where they’re at and wanna break out of that. And I tell ’em that it’s possible. I did it. I started with nothing and went to $20 million a year. Now, that may be what you’re looking to do, or maybe you just wanna have a business that’s doing a few million a year and be able to bring home a couple hundred thousand a year for yourself. But either way, there’s always that next level.

So the thing that you wanna remember is that it’s possible. And there are times where you get discouraged and then times where you feel like, “You know what? This is such a hard business.” Take a step back. Look at how many companies are out there achieving at high levels. Why is it that some moving companies are struggling just to stay in business and others are making millions every single year doing the same thing? It’s because the companies that are making millions have their systems in place. They have their processes in place and you know what? They take it serious. They put in the time and they treat it like a business. I see a lot of companies out there and they say, “You know what? I’m gonna get some trucks and get some movers and throw it together and try to make some money.” And the back end isn’t there. The systems aren’t there. The processes aren’t there, and that’s what you’re gonna need if you wanna get to that next level.

So when I say the next level, I don’t mean that you need to shoot for $20 million, $100 million a year, whatever outrageous goals you might have. Maybe you just really want to make more money. Maybe right now you’re bringing home $200,000 a year and you wanna go to $400,000 year. Whatever that is, I’m sure you wanna go to that next level. What does that do for you as a company? I believe that when you’re able to not worry about money, when you’re able to not worry about if you’re gonna book enough moves to pay the bills and have money to take home every single month, you can focus your time, your energy, your resources on providing quality service. I’m doing this because I know there’s some really good people in this business. There’s some great moving company owners, they go out there every single day and put their customers’ best interests at the forefront of what they do and perform a quality move. The public needs that. The public needs to feel trust in the moving industry again and be able to know that they can go online, they could find a moving company, they could see their ratings and know that this company’s gonna come out and take care of me.

But I also know that a lot of these companies that are going out and doing a great job every day need some help when it comes to how to market their business, how to sell more jobs, how to actually perform more quality moves so that the public has a great moving company in their market. So I wanna put the tools and the resources and the information that I have in the hands of those people. I want them to go out and be a great moving company in their market. I want them to deliver amazing service to their customers, but I wanna help them get more customers. I know what it’s like to own a moving company where things are constantly changing, the technology’s constantly changing. You look to your right and you look to your left and who do you turn to for answers? I was there, I struggled with it and I went and I found my answers outside of the industry. I looked at the other industries to see how they were doing things and how I could apply that to the moving business.

So now I wanna be able to take all that information, take what allowed me to make my company successful and help you make your company successful, because it’s not about just profiting in your business. My motto is profit in business and thrive in life. You need to be able to do both. It’s not about having a business where you set it up and it’s like a job for yourself. You wanna be able to work on your business and not always work in your business. You wanna be able to have systems and processes and the right people in place to when you can enjoy the money you’re making. What good is making millions of dollars if you don’t take the time to enjoy it? If you don’t take the time to spend with your family and really enjoy life, that’s what it’s all about.

And I see companies out there either struggling in one or two ways. They’re struggling to get their business to that next level, wherever they’re at. That struggle could mean different things for different people, they could just be getting started and having trouble really getting some traction, or they’ve been in business for 20 years and have watched things shift and change, but have been a little nervous to jump in to the new way of doing things and adopt the new modern way of marketing and selling for their business. Either way, it takes a shift in perspective, and that’s what I hope to do. I just wanna shed some light on some things that work for me, ’cause you know what? For many years, I struggled. I did well financially, but I struggled to find the answers and the solutions and everything that I needed to make my business run the way that it did. And you know what? I can share that information with you now. I don’t wanna see somebody else have to go through that information quest to find what they need and try things, ’cause it doesn’t always work. You find some new stuff for your business and you implement it, and you have to sit and wait. And what if it fails?

I went through all that, and I’m sure you’ve went through all that. So, if I can help provide any information in any area of your business that’s gonna help you avoid those learning curves, stay ahead of the curve, make more money, be able to set up some systems and processes, and more than anything, show you what’s possible. A lot of times, when we’re in the trenches, and we’re grinding it out day-to-day in our business, we start to get a little overwhelmed and we start to feel like maybe it’s not possible, maybe I can’t do this. There was many times as I was growing my business and climbing to a $20 million a year level, where I felt like, “You know what, I can’t do this.” Like, “This is beyond my level of capabilities.” But you know what? That’s where you grow. That’s where you become better. You have to constantly be on that edge of your comfort zone and be pushing it a little further all the time, because you develop as a person, your business grows, and that’s how life becomes fun and interesting, and you just become an overall better person for it.

Again, it’s not all about making money. It’s about building something that you could, [A] be proud of, that can support you and your family, that you could possibly sell one day and not have to work again or pass it down to your kids. My goal and my promise to you is to always deliver valuable content that you could apply to your business, whether that’s videos, articles, e-books, whatever it is. I’d love to have you come join me in one of my seminars one day, or enroll in my online course, or I’d really love to work with you one on one in coaching. But if not, I’m gonna be providing tons of free, valuable information that helps you get to that next level in your business. So, if there’s anything you ever need, please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to me. I’m here. I’m here to serve. I’m here to help you and I don’t wanna see you go through the struggles I went through, so please, if you have any questions, I’m always available. Reach out to me. Until I meet you in person one day, go out there every single day and profit in your business and thrive in your life. I’ll see you soon.

Moving Sucks!

Create A Better Moving Experience For Your Customers

[fb_button]

Summary

As a moving company, it’s easy to overlook the fact that moving is not a fun event for your customers. It can be one of the most stressful things they do in their life and quite frankly, moving sucks! What can you do to make the moving experience “suck less” for your customers?

  1. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes – Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and see what you can do to create a better customer experience. This practice should be applied to all areas of your business from marketing to sales and all the way to moving-day.
  2. Make their experience suck less – I realize that you’re not going to be able to do things to make moving-day the best day of their life. But you can add a little more joy to the experience for them.
  3. Train your team on having compassion – Customers can be tough to deal with at times. Understand that they are going through a stressful time and train your team to have some compassion for that. Learn to not take it so personally when they give you an attitude.
  4. Respect their belongings – Sometimes it’s not enough to move their stuff from point A to point B without damaging anything. They want to see that you have respect for their belongings and aren’t just tossing it around. Show a little extra care when handling their belongings.
  5. Honor your customer’s trust – People buy from those they like and trust. If they reserved their move with you it’s because you earned their trust. Honor that trust and deliver on the service you promised.

As a moving company, you’re not going to change the world with the service you provide. But you can make a difference in the lives of the people you move. Knowing that moving sucks, what can you do to make it better for your customers?

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

[fb_button]

 

Follow Louis on Instagram for daily tips and motivation to grow your moving company.

Full Transcript [The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Moving sucks. Not the moving business. Moving, the process of moving, sucks. The moving business is great, but think about your customers. Think about everything that they’re going through during this whole process. Moving, statistically, is one of the most stressful things people do, behind funerals, divorce… Moving is one of the most stressful things that they do. It’s not a fun experience for them. So, as a moving company, it’s important to remember that. It’s important to remember that this customer is not really enjoying this whole process. And even though you do this every day, they don’t. And they may be going through… Who knows? They might be moving because of a funeral. They might be moving because of a divorce. They might be moving because they just got downsized. They also might be moving because they just hit the ladder and they’re moving to something bigger, but it’s still a stressful experience. Picking up everything that you own and displacing your whole family and going somewhere else, even though it might be exciting a little bit, it’s gonna be stressful for people.

I know that there’s a lot of customers that can spaz out and freak out. I remember the first time a customer freaked out because we were a half hour late because she was gonna miss the cable guy, really freaking out on us ’cause she was gonna miss the cable guy. And I’m like, “Woah.” But when you start to think about it and when you put yourself in their shoes, you start to understand that it’s not just the cable guy. There’s a lot of stuff going on, that their whole world is up in the air. So just remember that moving sucks. And I wanna give you five steps that will really help you and your company live that with your customer.

First step is, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Understand where they’re coming from. And this isn’t something that you just do once and forget about it. It’s something you need to remind yourself and your staff to do on a fairly regular basis. It’s gonna allow you to create a better culture, to create a better environment, to create a better experience for your customers, which turns into more repeat and referral customers, more five-star reviews, more business, more money. So it’s lucrative to make sure that you’re taking care of your customers and understanding what they’re going through. Put yourself in their shoes.

And then see what you could do to make their experience suck less. Moving sucks, what could you do to make it suck less? I’m not delusional. You’re not gonna make their moving day fantastic, like the best day of their life, but you can make it not as bad. You can make it a little bit better and you can definitely try to not add fuel to the fire and make it worse. Make their moving experience suck less.

Number three, train your team on having compassion. The same way that I’m talking to you about… Remember what this person is going through, they might be freaking out. They might be following you around the house and saying, “Don’t touch that. Be careful with that. That’s an antique. That was given to me by my grandpa.” Have compassion for what they’re going through. Train your team to have compassion for what they’re going through. And it’s just gonna help the whole experience, and you’ll stop taking it so personal when they’re a little… They have a little attitude and they’re a little stressed out. You’ll realize they’re going through a stressful time. If you worked at a funeral parlor, would you freak out because the customer is freaking out? The family is in there, and they’re stressing out and giving you a hard time. Moving is up there with a funeral. Moving is up there with a divorce. Just have little compassion and understand what they’re going through, and you won’t take it so personal.

Respect their belongings. Too many times, we get used to this. Our movers will go in a house and they know what they’re doing. So they’ll go in and then they’ll just grab something and put it down and start padding it and schlep it out of the house. Having a little extra respect for their belongings, even though you know what you’re doing, just to show them that you’re gonna take care of it, goes a long way. You’ve had customers… If you’ve been in this business more than a few months, you’ve had customers that will follow your movers around and every little thing that they do. If the movers showed up, and showed a little more respect for their belongings right away, right up front, and took a little extra care, those customers would start to back off a little bit. Not all of them, but there’s customers who would start to back off a little bit and let them do their thing.

And number five, you have to remember. You booked this move because they believed in you, they trusted you, you had a good sales pitch, and you earned their trust. So, honor their trust. The reason they went with you is because they trusted you. People buy from people they trust and like. So, they book their move with you, they put their trust in you to come out and handle their stuff. Honor that. Earn that trust after the fact. Don’t just do what you need to do to book the move. Earn that trust throughout the course of the move.

Just remember, it’s not just for you, this is for your team. This is for your movers. This is for your office staff. When they call in and they speak to somebody about a problem they have, and the person on the other end of the phone in your office treats them not so good or just with a little bit of an attitude, that needs to change. Respect the fact that moving sucks, your customers are going through that, and look at it as an opportunity to create a little extra joy in the experience for them. You could play a big part in how stressful this move actually is for them. Think about that.

Until I see you next time, go out there every single day, profit in your business, thrive in your life, I’ll see you later.

Respect the Struggle of the Moving Business

It's Not an Easy Business, But That's Ok

[fb_button]

There is nothing easy about the moving business. When I started my business, I worked seven days a week. Non-stop, constantly on the phone, with the office phone always forwarded to my cell phone. Every end of the month, for two to five days, I’d sleep at the office. I’d have trucks out until 2 AM. It was a grind. That’s not where you want to be, but sometimes that’s where you have to start.

Anytime you’re trying to grow in your life or in your business, you’re going to hit roadblocks. Respect that struggle for what it is. Know that it’s part of the process. The reality is, if you want to build a solid company, if you want to grow your moving company to a level that you envision, there’s gonna be some struggle along the way.

Nowadays, everyone’s looking for the quick hack or the quick fix on how to do something. There is no quick fix in the moving business, but there are processes that you can set up along the way to help make things run smoother.  There’s going to be some struggle along the way. Accept that. It’s just part of it, and it’s making you a better and stronger version of yourself.

Every time you hit a wall that you feel is stopping you, you have a choice. You either back down and become a lesser version of what you can become, or you choose to overcome that struggle, take it as a lesson, figure out what you need to learn to overcome it, and become a stronger and better leader because of it!

Keep your vision set to where you want to go. Always remember WHY you’re doing what you’re doing, and keep going!

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for daily tips and motivation to grow your moving company.

Full Transcript
[The following is a full transcript of this episode]

Hey, my friend. It’s Louis Massaro, CEO of Moving Mastery and founder of Moving Sales Academy. Recently, I got a few messages on Facebook, and there was a few things that they were talking about, but it really boiled down to them saying, “This business isn’t easy. The moving business is tough.” One of them thought about giving up. And I just wanna say, I might talk a lot about setting up smooth processes and having everything run really smooth, but this business is a struggle. Anything that you want to achieve, any goal that you’re after, there’s gonna be struggle along the way, but you have to respect that struggle. That’s part of the process. If you don’t have any struggle, you’re not gonna grow, you’re not gonna develop. The struggle is pointing out the areas that you need to overcome, the areas that you need to improve. And the problem is, nowadays, everyone’s looking for the quick fix. Everyone’s looking to go online and look for the quick hack or the quick fix on how to do something. And the reality is, if you wanna build a solid company, if you wanna grow your moving company to a level that you envision, there’s gonna be struggle along the way. Accept that. It’s part of it.

People say to me all the time when they see what I’m doing now, they’re like, “Why don’t you do some videos of… ” People wanna hear three easy tips on this or three easy ways to do that. And I don’t want you to misunderstand anything that I say. There’s nothing easy about the moving business. You can make it easier, you could set up processes to where your business will run much smoother than when you don’t have them. But anytime you’re trying to grow in your life or in your business, you’re gonna hit roadblocks, you’re gonna hit struggle. You just respect that struggle for what it is. There might be times where you get overwhelmed. All right. So what? You go for a walk, you take a few deep breaths. You go to sleep, and the next day you start over fresh. There’s gonna be struggle.

Listen, when I started my business, I worked seven days a week, non-stop, constantly on the phone, phone always forwarded to my cell phones. Every end of the month, for two to five days, I’d sleep at the office non-stop. I’d have trucks out till 2:00 in the morning. It was a grind and that’s not where you wanna be, but sometimes that’s where you have to start. And you keep your vision on where you wanna go, you keep your vision on having a smooth-running process. You keep your vision on having people that work for you so that you don’t have to be there all the time doing it. You have your vision on large profits coming in that just makes the struggle easier and more enjoyable. But never think that the struggle is gonna go away, because the minute the struggle goes away, it means you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. It means you’re not trying to get to another level. Because any time you try to go up, whatever level you’re at now, I’m sure there was a struggle to get there.

Well, if you wanna go to another level, a lot of people will back down. A lot of people get to a certain level, and they back down and don’t choose to continue to go because it was such a struggle to get to where they were at. So they just wanna stay there, they’re like, “I’m comfortable now. I’m good here.” And if that’s… Listen, if that’s true for you and you’re comfortable where you’re at, and you don’t wanna push yourself and you don’t wanna grow, that’s fine. You’re still gonna have some struggles here and there, still gonna be some things that are gonna happen. Just have to respect that it’s part of the process, part of being in business, and part of trying to just be a better person and grow a bigger business. Ask yourself, what roadblocks have you run into? What struggles have you run into that maybe you’ve backed off of a little bit or that cause you to question your intention to grow or made you feel like you wanted to give up altogether? It’s just struggle, that’s all it is. We all go through it. It’s not something that anyone avoids. You might see somebody doing something, and it looks like it’s really easy for them, but that’s because they’ve set up their own set of disciplines, their own routines, their own hard work, their own way of doing things that it seems easier.

But you know what? Everybody hits the struggles. It’s just how you deal with the struggle, how you overcome the struggle. The first thing you need to do, respect the struggle. Respect that it’s gonna happen, know that it’s part of the process, know that it’s making you better. ‘Cause every time you hit a struggle, every time you hit a wall that you feel is stopping you, you have a choice. There’s a fork in the road, okay. You either back down and become a lesser version of what you can become or you choose to overcome that struggle, take it as a lesson, figure out what you need to learn to overcome it, and become a stronger, better leader because of it, alright? It gets hard. Respect the struggle, go out there every single day, profit in your business, thrive in your life, respect the struggle. I’ll see you next week.

 

How To Deal With Stress Of The Moving Business

5 Ways To Manage The Stress Of Your Business

Business can be stressful. You don’t have to let the stress of the moving business run your life. With so much responsibility of owning a moving company, it’s easy to allow yourself to get stressed out and overwhelmed. What is that stress costing you and your business? You already know stress isn’t good for your health, but it’s also bad for your business. When you’re stressed out, you’re not as effective of a leader as you could and should be.

It’s a long road to alleviate stress completely, but you can learn to manage it and not let it run your life and business.

5 Ways To Deal With Stress of The Moving Business

  1. Decide not to be a stress case – It all starts with a decision. If you want to start running your business without the stress, you have to decide you don’t want to be a stress case. After that, you’ll find better ways of relating to your business and ways to deal with your stress when it comes up.
  2. Get organized – If you’re unorganized, you’re going to be stressed out. You’re going to feel overwhelmed. You’re going to feel like there is not enough time in the day. Getting organized is one of the best things you can do to alleviate stress. When you are organized, you can be proactive and not reactive. You can focus and execute around your priorities and accomplish the things that are really going to help you move forward in your business. You want to be able to run your day and not have your day run you.
  3. Own your role as a leader – When you make a decision to become a business owner, you’ve got to take the good with the bad. If you want to reap the rewards, you also need to take on the responsibility of everything else that happens in your business. Good or bad, own your role and don’t stress out about it.
  4. Accept that things will go wrong – This is a fact that you need to face. When things go wrong, it’s the situation itself that will cause stress but your reaction to it. It’s not effective to stress out about it. Deal with the situation and ask yourself “how can we prevent this from happening again?”
  5. Release the stress when it happens – Stress won’t go away completely, but you can get rid of it quicker. When situations occur that cause the stress, learn to let it go as quick as possible. Every moment you’re stressed out, you’re not making good decisions as a leader. Take some deep breaths, go for a walk, whatever you need to do to let it go.

I realize stress can’t be solved in five steps. If you decide today that you no longer want to run your business as a stress case, you’re taking a step in the right direction. Don’t get discouraged if you try and fall down. Just commit yourself to not being a stress case, and like any new skill, you’ll get better at it over time and with practice.

Let the stress go, my friend.

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for daily tips and motivation to grow your moving company.

Full Transcript
[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey my friend, it’s Louis Massaro CEO of Moving Mastery and founder of Moving Sales Academy. Have you ever been totally stressed out or overwhelmed with work, with your business. Do you feel that way maybe everyday? Is it something that continues to be a problem for you? It’s a stressful business, any business is stressful but the moving business is definitely a stressful business. I know that, I’ve been there, I used to… When I started I was so stressed out, I had ulcers, I was sick to my stomach. I allowed myself to just be stressed all the time. I allowed every circumstance that would happened and every problem that would pop up to affect me. I decided to change that, because it’s a decision. When you stress out, when you get overwhelmed, you may not realize it but you’re making a decision at that point to allow yourself to get stressed out, and to allow yourself to get overwhelmed. As entrepreneurs, as business owners, we talk about I’m stressed, I got everything, all this stuff to deal with, I got all these employees and trucks and it’s stressful. And in reality stress is just a code word for fear. If you really break down stress. If you really take a look at what stress is, it’s all fear.

If we don’t cover all these jobs what’s gonna happen? Customers are gonna be upset. So you’re fearful the customer is going to be upset. You’re not gonna make the money that you wanna make for that day. What’s gonna happen if movers don’t show up on a busy day? We’re not gonna cover the work. You get stressed out. You’re fearful of what’s gonna happen? So it’s important to first take a step back and look at what it is, and realize that you know what that doesn’t have to be you. Maybe you’re stressed out because that’s the way you learned, whether you did it consciously or unconsciously, to run your business. Maybe you as a kid you saw somebody running a business and they’re always yelling and screaming and then they were stressed out and just came home and were pissed off. Or you saw it in a movie or a TV show and just that was the stigma of how businessman should be or a business woman should be. But it doesn’t have to be that way and it’s not effective to be that way. If you wanna be effective leader, you can’t be stressed out all the time. The general of an army isn’t stressed out throwing fits and getting pissed off at people. You gotta keep your composure and if you’re stressed out your decisions aren’t gonna be as good as they could be and should be.

Listen, I know it’s tough and there’s no magic bullet to deal with stress but I wanna give you five things, that you can do to help manage the stress of running your businesses. So the first thing is… And this is how it all started for me was; decide not to be a stress case. Make the decision right now that, “You know what? I don’t wanna run my business as a stress case.” And a lot of people will fight me on this. A lot of people watching this are gonna say, “Yeah, but you know what Louis? You don’t know my circumstance. You don’t know what I have to deal with in my business. You don’t know that it’s only me and the employees I have, they don’t do what they’re supposed to do and I barely have enough money to pay the bills every month.” Listen I’ve been there, and I know it and someone who wants to argue for this and say that you don’t know my circumstance. They’re gonna keep looking for drama, they’re gonna keep looking for something to be stressed out about and if you keep looking for something to be stressed out about, you’re going to be stressed out. So first thing is just decide right now in this moment, you don’t wanna be a stress case anymore. You wanna lead your business with a clear head and a clear focus and be there when you get home for your family and not be all stressed out. It’s a better quality of life and you don’t have to be a business owner. You don’t have to go in and run your business and let stress dictate how you do things.

Number two, this will alleviate a lot of stress for you, get organized. I’ve talked to a lot moving company owners and I talk to them about, talk to me about your time management talk to me about how you organize things. I ask them certain questions that lead to me finding out if they’re organized or not, because if you’re unorganized you’re gonna be stressed out. You’re gonna be overwhelmed. You’re gonna feel like there’s not enough time in the day. There is plenty of time in the day. There’s plenty of time in the week. There’s plenty of time in the month. There’s plenty of time in the year. But when you’re not organized, you’re acting in a reactive state. You’re not being proactive. You don’t have stuff on your calendar, laid out in order of priority of what needs to get done and what needs to get accomplished.

It’s a whole different ball game when you have everything in your mind and you know all these things you need to do. I’m sure you have a ton of stuff you need to get done and a lot that you’re responsible for, I know this believe me I’ve been there. But when you have it organized. When you know what your priorities are and then you put them on your calendar, and let’s say you have something that you know needs to get done and now it’s on the calendar for two days from now or two weeks from now, whatever it is, whatever it lies within your priorities. You can be focused and calm and in the moment and deal with what’s in front of you, instead of worrying about all the stuff that you can’t get it all done right now. So get organized put it on the calendar and do it order of priority, organize and execute around priorities, always.

Number three, own your role as a leader. You’ve chosen to be a business owner for better or for worse. There’s a lot of good things that come with it, and there’s also things that can be looked at as bad things that come with it. Or stressful things or overwhelm or responsibility. If this is what you’re choosing, if you wanna own a business, you need to own that role and understand that things are gonna happen. (https://fmcg-viet.com) Understand that people are gonna disappoint you. Somebody’s not gonna do their job correctly, you’re gonna have a customer that just is difficult to deal with. Things are gonna happen and that’s your responsibility. If you wanna take home the big bucks, if you wanna be the one that’s not punching the clock, that’s not working for an hourly wage for somebody else, and you wanna own your own business, then own that role and know that there’s gonna be some things that could cause stress that go with that. Not stress, things that could cause stress if you let them cause stress. Own the role… Listen, it’s a penalty of leadership. It’s not all good. There’s other stuff that comes with it. Own it.

Next, accept that things are gonna go wrong. Accept this fact. This was one of the best things I ever did. Because you know what? I had offices in cities throughout the country. So everyday, something was happening. Whether a truck flipped over, whether a mover was injured on a job and then wanted to sue for workers comp. All these things if they happen to you, guess what? Chances are they’ll have happen again. Chances are something worse could happen that hasn’t already happened. And if you allow that to throw you off completely, if you allow that to completely ruin your day, your week, your year, whatever, you’re not gonna be in a centered place to be able to run your business as a leader.

Accept that things are gonna happen and when they happen, just say, “You know what? That’s just part of being in business.” You could then ask yourself, “What could we do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” “What could I do to fix this?” But don’t get… Whatever it is, think of the worst case scenario. Think of the worst case scenario. Whatever it is, it could happen. But it’s not the end of the world. And if you think about every moment you’re stressed out, every moment you’re overwhelmed, you’re not making good decisions as a leader. So you need to get away from that as quick as possible. Doesn’t matter what happens, it doesn’t matter. It could be the worst thing, you need to allow yourself to process it, deal with the situation at hand like a leader and then move on. Don’t be a victim and say, “Oh, this happened to me. Everything was going smooth and then the truck got blown with wind off the highway.” That happened me before, totally tipped over the whole box of the truck, with the customer shipment in it, and many other things. Well, they’re gonna happen. Accept that.

Last one is release the stress when it happens. I’m not under some false conception here that stress is gonna go away based on what I’m sharing with you today. But what I do know is that you can manage that stress better. What I do know is that when these things happen, when that whatever it is happens, that customer calls and yells, that mover that was your lead guy quits and goes and works for somebody else, whatever it is, that pisses you off, that stresses you out, if you sit at your computer and you’re going through emails and all the sudden you just feel totally overwhelmed, like, “I have so much to do and I can’t get to it all.” Take a step back and tell yourself, “You know what? In this state of mind, I can’t be a leader. I can’t steer the ship of this company in the right direction if I’m stressed out and overwhelmed and frazzled.” So release it right away.

Do whatever you need to do to release that stress, whether that’s sit in your office, close the door and breathe, take some deep breaths, go for a walk, go for 20 minute walk. Just literally walk outside your office, and just go for a stroll and tell yourself, “You know what? I’m in no position to be a leader right now. I need to go and get my mind right because my mind controls everything that happens in my business. And if my mind’s not right, my business isn’t gonna be right.” So the quicker that you can take care of that and release it, the more productive you’re gonna be. Listen, we’ve all had those days where you’re just stressed out and you’re overwhelmed and you let something that happens early in the day ruin your whole day. Think about how much time you wasted that day. Think about all the productive things you could have been doing to move your business forward with that time but you couldn’t because you were so stressed and overwhelmed with that situation. Release it quick. Listen, I know it’s tough, I know it’s a stressful business but if you decide that, “You know what? I don’t wanna be a stress case. I’m gonna start taking steps and taking action that is gonna allow me to alleviate stress, you’ll find your own ways to do that. Alright? I hope this was helpful. Don’t stress about not being stressed. I’ll see you next week. Go out there, profit in business. Thrive in life. I’ll see you later.

 

Prepare Yourself for Moving Season

Make Money and Avoid Burn Out

[fb_button]

As a moving company owner, we wait all year long for moving season to come around. Regardless of what you do to keep your business busy in the winter months, there’s always a natural increase of business in spring and summer. To maximize your summers it’s important to prepare yourself for moving season.

I’m not just talking about preparing your equipment and manpower, I’m talking about preparing yourself mentally. Getting yourself in the right frame of mind as you come into moving season is crucial to avoid overwhelm and burn out. You want to make sure that you and your team are prepared for the extra work that is ahead.

It’s exciting when it first starts getting busy. But what happens in the middle of the summer? What happens when you and everyone in our company have been putting in those extra hours, dealing with that extra stress?

As a leader, it’s your job to remind your team that moving season is everyone’s time to make money.

I used to have movers that in the off-season they would come to me and my dispatchers begging for more hours. Then in the summer time, those same movers were asking for days off. It’s up to you as the owner or manager of your business to encourage them to work the extra hours in the summer, to put in the over time and to stash some of that money away for the off-season.

Say to your team… “For the next few months in moving season, this is when we are all going to be able to make our money. For the business, this is when we are going to be able to make all of our money, for the movers this is when you are going to be able to get all of the hours. Remember a few months ago when you were begging me for hours? Well, now is the time!”

Give yourself and your team mental breaks.

In moving season, you and your employee’s normal schedule gets thrown out the window. The weekends are slammed, the end of the month is slammed! You might need to readjust some schedules and give days off based on when it slows down. You might have to give someone a Tuesday and Wednesday off at the beginning of the month to make up for all the hours they have been putting in.

Make sure you do the same for yourself. Although the money is flowing in, moving season can feel long and tiresome if you’re not giving yourself some days off and mental breaks.

Strike while the iron is hot!

Make sure you take on as much work as you can. Hire some more movers, rent trucks if you need to and capitalize on how busy it will be! A good summer can set you up financially for the rest of the year!

It’s time, go get it!

[fb_button]

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

 

Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey, my friend. It’s Louis Massaro, CEO of Moving Mastery and founder of Moving Sales Academy. Listen, I really hope that you’ve experienced a summer that you’re just slammed. Moves just back to back, more business than you can handle. If you’ve been there, you know that you wait for it all year. All off season you can’t wait for season. It’s slow, things are a little bit tight, maybe the money’s not coming in like it is in season and once it comes it’s great. Business starts picking up, but what happens in the middle of summer when you just start to feel like this is too much? I’m working too many hours, I’m here too late, I’m working every weekend, your staff is starting to complain ’cause they’re working so much over time. You have to mentally prepare yourself for moving season. The same way you mentally prepare yourself for coming out of moving season, you have to mentally prepare yourself for going into moving season.

There’s things that you need to do for your business as well, you need to definitely start staffing up before moving season starts. You need to start hiring and finding some good movers because if you try to wait until season, chances are, they’re already gonna be hired by somebody else. There’s things like that that you need to do for your business. Making sure that you have access to additional rental trucks if you need them, making sure you have all the equipment you need. But I wanna talk about mentally preparing for it, for you and your staff. I’m sure you have movers that work for you and in the off season it might be a little slow, and it’s tough, and they come to you, and they’re like, “Listen, I need more hours. I need to make more money.” That was always something that really bothered me when it slowed down a little bit and we didn’t have enough work for everybody coming out of moving season. You try to rotate, you try to make sure everybody gets the hours, but it’s tough because you don’t have the amount of work that you once had a few months prior in season.

Well, then what happens is season comes and those same movers who said that they needed additional hours are now telling you that it’s too much work, they’re working too many hours. And I can understand that. I get it. It’s hard work. Going out there everyday moving furniture, that’s one of the toughest jobs out there, period. But you have to, as the leader of your company, stay strong in these times and you have to remind everybody that now is our time. These next few months in moving season is our time to make our money. For me as the company, it’s our time to make our money. For you as movers, this is when you’re gonna be able to get all the hours. Remember in December when you were talking to me or in January you’re talking to me about how you needed more hours? This is just how it works. It’s gonna be slow sometimes and it’s gonna be busy other times. Work as much as you can now. Put that money away so that when it slows down a little bit, you’ll be able to make up for the hours that you’re not getting. This is what you’re saying to your movers.

Not only do you have to mentally prepare yourself, you need to mentally prepare your team, get them ready. Your sales team, maybe in the off season, maybe you don’t have your sales department open on Sundays for example, but maybe in the summer you might wanna open your sales up in the summer on a Sunday to pick up that extra work. So everybody’s gonna be working extra hard, your dispatcher, if you have one or multiple, they’re gonna be working extra hard. That’s gonna be a tough, tough position. You have to be able to let everyone know, this is our time. The off season’s the off season, but now it’s go time. This is when we need to make it happen.

So, listen, as you go through, you might require people to work weekends. You might require people to work overtime. Pay attention to the schedules that you’re having people work and be open to giving them off a Tuesday at the beginning of the month, or a Wednesday or start giving days off that you normally wouldn’t give off so that people could get rest, people could catch up on sleep, on personal errands, on time. If they’re working a ton of hours, I know normally maybe their schedule’s Monday through Saturday and they normally have Sunday off or Monday through Friday and they have Saturday and Sunday off, you’re gonna need to change that up a little bit in season, and you might have to do it based on your calender. If you’re slow, give somebody the day off. And that includes yourself. You have to take some mental breaks and step away.

Moving season… Listen, I always try to capitalize as much as I could on moving season. I hired as many guys as I could right before season started. We rented trucks, we bought extra equipment, and we took on as much work as we could possibly take on. It’s exhausting. There were times when I first started my business, in my first few years in business in the summer, at the end of the month, I slept there for three, four, five nights in a row. Didn’t leave. I had a shower installed and everything. I wanted all the work. I wanna make sure that we did everything we could to take advantage of that time so that in the off season it wasn’t such a big deal that it wasn’t so busy.

So just remember, now’s your time, you gotta strike while the iron’s hot. Season is when the iron’s hot. You just have to make sure that you and your team and your troops are ready to go and that you’re giving yourself the mental breaks along the way and you’re constantly being the point of encouragement for your staff. I hope this was helpful. I’ll see you next week. Make sure you go out, profit in business, thrive in life, be ready for moving season, make sure you make the biggest impact you can, make the most money you can this season. I’ll see you next week.

Moving Company Owner’s Best Investment

Invest In Yourself and Accelerate Your Business's Growth.

[fb_button]

As a business owner, you are your business and your business is you. Your business’s success is a direct result of your desire, work ethic, and skill set. Hard work and hustle can only get you so far. If you have the desire to get to the next level, you have to develop the skill sets you need to get there. As a moving company owner, your best investment is in yourself.

Think about what you want to accomplish in your business and life. Now think about what’s stopping you from getting there. Are there certain skills, that if you developed would help you achieve your goals? If you want to continue to grow your enterprise, you have to continue learning and growing.

Although I never went to college, I have committed myself to being a lifelong student. I have always spent a lot of energy, time, and money on learning new skills and increasing my knowledge. Whether it was books, seminars, coaching, mentors, online courses, you name it!

Whatever I needed to help me grow my business, grow as a person and grow as a leader, I went out there and acquired the knowledge and the tools. It’s something I will never stop doing.

As a moving company owner, I studied everything I could from business process development, accounting, sales, marketing, customer service, estimating moves, internet marketing, management, leadership, time management, stress reduction, goal setting, self-development and everything in between.

I’ve been fortunate to have long-term success in the moving industry, but I’ve also had setbacks. But it never slowed me down, because I knew I had the skills to bounce right back.

Once you’ve developed your skills and knowledge, you have the ultimate control over your destiny. Right now you can be one skill, habit, lesson, mentor or book away from making the shift you need to elevate your business and life to the next level.

As an entrepreneur and moving company owner, you must stay sharp and acquire the tools, skills, and knowledge you need to stay ahead of the competition. Have you ever thought to yourself “I need to hire someone that knows how to do…[fill in the blank]”? What if you learned how to do whatever that is and developed that skill? Then you can hire someone and delegate that job to them, but you would always have those abilities. No one can take that away from you.

If you want to figure out how to get your company to the next level, then look at the areas that you are struggling with. Look at the areas that you are not 100% confident with. That will point you to what knowledge you need to gain or skills you need to develop. Once you figure that out, dive in and start learning! Investing in yourself is the real secret to becoming a highly successful moving company owner.

[fb_button]

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for tons of great quotes.

Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey my friend, it’s Louis Massaro, author of 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery. Listen, if you’ve been with me for the last 10 weeks, you know that we’ve been talking about the 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company, which is my new e-book. If you haven’t already downloaded it, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Go over to my website, it’s free, you’ll download it instantly. And today, we’re gonna talk about the 10th and final rule and that’s invest in yourself. This is something that is so important and something that really allowed me to go from where I was, 19 years old, I didn’t go to college. I started off with two rental trucks, working out of a truck rental yard and grew it into a multi-million dollar, multi-location company. I mean, we were doing over $20 million a year in business. I was able to sell my companies. And it’s all because of everything I learned along the way.

In the last video, I talked to you about the little black book that I used to keep. And every time I had a problem or an obstacle, I would write it down in the little black book. I do that today still, except I put it in my phone. But I’d write it down in a little black book and I used to keep it in my pocket. Then I would go find books and different ways to find the answers to that. So, that’s what I mean by invest in yourself. When you invest in yourself, once you gain knowledge and once you gain information, nobody could take that from you. So whether you’re in the moving business or you get into another business, you’ll always have that knowledge. So you should really use any areas that you need improvement, any areas that you struggle with, that you know what? You look and you say, “I could achieve this if I knew how to do that.” Go learn how to do that. Develop skills. You don’t just get into business and have all the skills that you need.

Even people that come out with MBAs in business, they went to college and they went and got their MBA. There’s a lot that you learn in that, I’m not taking anything away, but the best education is going through it. The best education is learning and making the mistakes, but then recovering from those mistakes, and learning, and finding ways to overcome the real-life obstacles in business. So when I say invest in yourself, I mean, I still to this day, I read a ton of books, I go to seminars, I take online courses, I have a coach, a mentor. It’s something that’s so important to me because it accelerates my growth. I can only learn so much from sitting on a couch and watching TV, and then going and doing my business every day and just trying to struggle to figure things out. No, I wanna go straight to the source, I wanna find out if there’s something that I need to learn, I’m going and figuring out who’s the best person to teach it to me and I’m gonna learn from them. And that’s what I’ve done, and that’s what I’m gonna continue to do my whole life.

Whatever I needed to learn, whether it was a business process. I remember, that was a big thing for me. When I had all my locations and it was a lot of work to manage and just be on top of everything, I’ll say, “Wow, I need every single thing to be in documented process.” So I learned that. I read books, I took an online course, I hired a consultant and I learned it. And then it was just something that was part of… And still to this day, that’s something that I have, that I could implement into business, sales, marketing, online marketing.

Back in 2008 period, if you’ve watched the other videos, you’ve heard me talk about how I was heavily invested in Yellow Pages and then they weren’t quite working as well as everybody started to move to Internet marketing, going online to find movers. Well, I dove into that, head first. I wanted to learn everything I could about online marketing. I didn’t really wanna have a web marketing company telling me what I needed and me just looking at it like it was all Greek, like I didn’t know what they were talking about. And that happened at first. When I first went and wanted to figure out, “Alright, how do I get my web presence? How do I get my SEO and my pay-per-click, and how do I get leads to be coming in all the time?” And when I met with a company, and you know what? I didn’t wanna be at their mercy, so I took the time and I learned. I went to the seminars again. I took courses, I hired consultants. And I learned the Internet marketing inside and out to where I knew it.

Later on I hired… My company was at its biggest, I had seven people in the web development department that basically were just working on internet marketing for my companies. And I knew almost everything that they were doing, but they were doing it. I didn’t necessarily have to do it, but they weren’t gonna be able to tell me, “Hey, this is gonna cost you $30,000 to do this to your website,” or whatever the case may be, because I knew it. So the point I’m trying to make, it’s not about how much I know. The point I’m trying to make is that you need to invest in yourself. If you’re a business owner and you wanna take it to the next level, you have to invest in what your knowledge base is.

If you’re an athlete, you have to invest in your body and you have to invest in your endurance. That’s what you do. If you wanna be a high class, high level athlete, you work on your body. If you wanna be a high level business person, you gotta work on your mind, you gotta work on the skills and the knowledge that you need to go to that next level. Now, I don’t know what that is for you, but I could tell you where to find it. It’s wherever you’re struggling, whatever areas that you feel you’re hitting a road block. And it’s, it just seems tough and it just frustrates you. So maybe you avoid that or maybe you try to work around it or… Those are the areas that you need to develop some more skills.

And you may have built a very successful business on pure will, desire, hustle, hard work. That’s how I built mine and then I realized, you know what? I’m not gonna get any further with the hustle and the hard work. It can only get you so far. And it’s exhausting. But when you know better ways of doing it, when you learn systems and processes and you go and learn from people that’ve been there before and done it before, then you start to take it to the next level. I knew that, you know what? I knew where I wanted to take my business and there was nobody out there to provide me with that information for moving. So I went and looked at other industries and then I applied it to my industry. You have to invest in yourself. It’s so important. I’m not saying this to try to get you to be in one of my programs or to hire me as a mentor or a coach, it’s not what this is about, alright? As you know, these are free videos that I put out.

I’m giving you advice for your business. I’m not promoting anything. I’m just telling you that if you wanna get to that next level, there’s probably certain skills that if you develop those skills, you would get there. Maybe you’re not confident in a certain area. Maybe your marketing you’re not so confident in. Or maybe your sales you’re not so confident in, or your accounting. We talked about in rule number one, know your numbers. Maybe you’re not good with numbers. But you know what? You can become good. I don’t like to hear people say, “I’m just not good at that. I’m just not good at that.” You’re not good at that because you haven’t developed the skill for that. But you could develop any skill that you wanna develop. So, my suggestion to you is figure out what’s holding you back. Get out a pen and paper. Figure out what’s holding you back, what areas of knowledge that if you learn them could propel you to that next level.

What level of success you trying to get to in your business? What’s preventing you? If you thought about it and said, “Hey, I wish I had a person that I could hire that was this or that, or knew this or knew that.” You know what? Become that person, because that’ll always be with you. So the skills that you wanna look to somebody else, to hire somebody else to bring into your company, learn them first. Then you can bring them in and then you know everything that they’re doing, you’re on top of it. Invest in yourself. Read some books. Take some courses. Learn from people that have done it before. Hire a coach. Whatever you need to do, you’re the most important part of your business. Your business is you. You are your business. Don’t forget that. Everything that’s involved in your business, everything that is what it is today, is all because you dreamt it up and you put it in place.

So do yourself a favor. Invest in yourself. Make yourself stronger. Make yourself more knowledgeable and that’s what’s gonna really propel your business to the next level. Thanks so much for sticking with me through the 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company over the last 10 weeks. Again, if you haven’t already downloaded the e-book, go to my website. Download the e-book. There’s a ton of great stuff in there. I’ll see you next week. Go out and profit in business and thrive in life. I’ll see you later.

Build a Successful Moving Company One Step At a Time

Envision It, Believe You Can Do It, & Make It Happen!

[fb_button]

Business is an emotional game. It can become frustrating and overwhelming, and there will be times you feel like giving up. You just have to remember that everyone that built a successful moving company, did it one step at a time. Each day is a new opportunity to ask yourself: “What steps do I need to take?” and then start executing to build a successful moving company one step at a time.

When I opened my first moving company at 19 years old, I was making mistakes every day. I kept a little black notebook in my pocket where I would write down all the mistakes I was making or challenges I was having. Then I went on a mission to find ways of doing it better so that I would not make that same mistake. I would read books and talk to successful business owners to see how they handled things. I was able to build a highly successful moving company by embracing the everyday challenges of business and using them as opportunities to improve and find better ways of doing things.

I’m sure that you didn’t start your moving company just to create a job for yourself, right? You had a vision and a dream to create a great business that made you a lot of money, right?

Whatever level your company is at now, it’s important to have a vision of where you want your company to be in the future. You can build a very successful and highly profitable moving company in just a couple of years! But you first need to have the vision; then you need to believe that you can do it, then you need to go make it happen.

What does owning a successful moving company look like to you?

  • How many trucks would you have?
  • How many people would be working in your office?
  • How many moves would you be doing every month?
  • How much money would you be taking home?
  • What kind of house would you be living in?
  • What kind of car would you be driving?
  • What would you do with your time off?
  • What kind of vacations would you take?

Take some time and really think about these questions. Sometimes we get caught up in the day to day details and forget to think about where we are headed. When you have a clear vision of where you want to go, it makes getting there easier and more fun!

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You won’t create the successful moving company of your dreams in a day. But every day is an opportunity to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving towards that dream. Keep going!

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

[fb_button]

 

Follow Louis on Instagram for tons of great quotes.

Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey, my friend, it’s Louis Massaro, author of 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery. We’ve been going now for… This is the ninth week, we’ve been talking about the 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company. It’s a free e-book that if you don’t already have it, if you haven’t already downloaded it, go to my site, louismassaro.com, or I’m sure there’s a link on this page, you could download it and get it instantly, it’s free. And today, we’re gonna talk about rule number nine, which is one step at a time. I put one step at a time in there because in business, it’s an emotional game, too. It’s not just do this, do that, do this, do that. It can get frustrating, it can get overwhelming. There could be times where you feel like giving up. And you just have to remember that you just have to go one step at a time.

So you may look at another company and be like, “Wow, they’re at this level and I really wanna get to that level, I’m never going to get there.” You have to realize that everybody that built their companies, built it one step at a time. Maybe somebody had it handed to them, maybe somebody had it given to them and it was already built, which is okay. But somebody before them, they built it one step at a time. When I started my company, I didn’t have anything. I rented two trucks, I drove and worked out of a truck rental yard. Every day, I dispatched the trucks from there and that’s how I started my business. And I took it one step at a time. And you know what? Along the way, I made a lot of mistakes. I fell on my face, I had made just a ton of mistakes that cost me money, that just looking back at it, it’s like, you could say, “I wish those things didn’t happen,” but no. I don’t wish any of the mistakes I made didn’t happen because I learned from them.

And if you’re taking it one step at a time and you’re making mistakes, and every time you make a mistake, you learn from it, you’re on the right path. You’re on your way to build a business that you are envisioning, that you are dreaming. That when you started your company, you had a goal. You didn’t just say, “You know what? I’m gonna start a moving company so that I could create a job for myself and go to work and just have something to do.” No, you were excited, you had a dream, you had a vision of a company that you were gonna build. Whether that was two trucks so that you could support your family and have a nice living, or whether you wanted to open 50 locations, or whether you wanted to be the next big van line. Whatever it may be, you had that dream and you had that vision. But you know what? There’s a lot of steps along the way. And it gets frustrating. And it’s gonna test you.

Business is gonna test you, it’s gonna test your character, your nerve, your ability to push through it. But you just really have to remember that if it wasn’t hard, there wouldn’t be the reward at the end. If it wasn’t hard, if there was no struggle, you wouldn’t get that reward. So just remember, take it one step at a time. I know that we’ve gone over a lot of stuff, I’ve been putting out information every week. The people that I’m working with, they know this, they know that it’s all about one step at a time. It’s all about laying out a plan of what we’re gonna do first, what we’re gonna do second and how we’re gonna get there and laying that out. Lay it out for yourself. You have to look at it like, “What steps do I need to take?” and then just execute on them every day.

Listen, Rome wasn’t build in a day. You’ve all heard that. Successful businesses were not built in a day. But if you take the right steps, you can build a pretty successful business in two years, three years. That time comes. If you look back and you think about what were you doing two, three years ago, seems like yesterday, right? So if you start putting the right steps in place, the right processes in place, you take some of these 10 rules that we’ve been talking about and you start implementing them into your business on a consistent basis and other ideas that you have, these are only 10 rules. These aren’t all the answers to everything that you need to run a profitable company. You know what you need to do, it’s just a matter of doing it.

And the only thing that’s gonna get in your way is your mind. You could be your own worst enemy because you start getting frustrated, and you start feeling like you can’t do it, and you start… Just getting discouraged and your mind starts going like, “I gotta do all this stuff, it’s so much, it’s so overwhelming.” You know what? One step at a time. That’s it, that’s all you can do. You could just put one foot in front of the other and continue to move forward. And if you do that every day, and you put some practices in place, and you put some principles in place, and you take these 10 rules, and you start to really develop a plan of where you’re headed, you’re gonna get there. And when you get there, there’ll be a whole new set of challenges.

I mean, when I started, I had a vision for where I wanted to get to and then I got there, and I was like, “You know what? I wanna go a little further.” And I got there and each step along the way has its own challenges. That’s business, there’s gonna be challenges. You can go work a regular job and get a paycheck. And show up to work, work your hours, get your paycheck, punch the clock, go home. As long as you don’t get fired, everything’s all good, the challenges are minimal. But when you’re in business, there’s challenges, but with those challenges come the reward. And as the owner of the business, you reap that reward. So embrace the challenges. Make sure you’re learning from all your mistakes. Make sure you’re learning from all your failures.

If you haven’t heard my story, I used to keep a little black book with me. When I first started, I was 19 years old, and every problem that I ran into, every situation that I didn’t know how to handle, I literally wrote in the little black book, put it back in my pocket. That night or over the weekend or whenever, I would search for solutions. I would go to the bookstore. I would read books. I would try to talk to anybody that I knew that was successful and try to figure out a way. So I’m sharing all this information with you to try to help you avoid some of that, but you’re gonna hit your own challenges. You’re gonna get your own set of unique circumstances that you’re gonna run into, and you just have to remember, it’s all part of the game. It’s like, you can’t play football and not get hit, not get tackled. You can’t be in business and not have challenges. You just need to remind yourself to take it one step at a time and you’re gonna get to where you wanna go. And more importantly than that, you have to stay focused on where you’re going. You have to envision where you’re going.

When this video is over, here’s what I want you to do. Close your eyes, envision your company two years from now. Envision two years from now how everything could be, the company that you could build, if you just focused on what’s in front of you, took it one step at a time and start to implement. Envision what that would look like. What would it look like for you? How many trucks would you have? How much storage would you have? Would you be doing long distance? Would you have multiple locations? Would you have a call center full of people working for you, an assistant that handles everything that you need handled? How much money would you be making? Literally, how much money would you be taking home every single month? You have to stay focused on that. You have to envision that. When we get off, when this video’s over, take a few minutes, take five minutes by yourself, close your eyes, envision that, imagine what that looks like, imagine what that feels like. You have to see it, then you have to believe it, then you have to go make it happen. And you’re only gonna make it happen one step at a time. Don’t get discouraged. You can do this. It’s a tough, tough business, the moving business, but it’s a great business. You can make a lot of money, a lot of money.

If you’re not already a millionaire in the business, you can become a millionaire in the business. You just have to take it one step at a time. You can’t go from A to L or to M, you have to go A, B, C, D, one, two, three, four. You have to go in order, one step at a time. Do this exercise, I’m telling you. Stay focused on the business that you wanna build. Take it one step at a time, continue to profit in business, because that’s what it’s all about. Continue to thrive in life because you know what? If you’re just profiting in business and you’re not thriving in your life, it’s not complete. So keep it complete. Envision that too. When you’re envisioning your business, envision the life, envision you driving home from your office. However you’re envisioning that office, envision you driving home. What car are you driving? What does your house look like?

Let me tell you something. I started my business at 19; by 23, I was a millionaire. I don’t say this to brag. I don’t even like to talk about it, but it’s something that I just want you to know, because it’s possible. And I know there’s a lot of people in business, moving… Any business. They get discouraged. And it beats you down and it just feels tough. You know what? Every day is a new day. Every day is an opportunity to take another step forward. So again, profit in business, thrive in life. Thanks for tuning in. I really hope this was helpful. Do that exercise, envision your future, and then go and make it happen.

Why I Became a Moving Business Mentor

Advice on growing your moving company

[fb_button]

I want to welcome you to the first episode of a series of videos where I will be sharing all of the strategies, ideas, processes, and experience on running a highly profitable and successful moving company. I will also explain why I decided to become the moving business mentor.

I started my first moving company at 19 years old. I started with nothing and built it into a nationwide multi-million dollar moving empire. And now I want to share all of my success strategies with you as well as my failures and mistakes to help you in your business.

When I started my first moving company I had no one to turn to for the answers that I needed to run and build my business. Because of that, I had a lot of costly and stressful trial and error. I eventually was able to create a system for starting, running and growing successful moving companies.

I opened local moving companies throughout the country, hauled our own long distance moves from those locations and even opened a moving broker division for a couple of years.

I know there are some really good people in the moving business. Men and women with good hearts that want to do the right thing by their customers and provide a great service. For those of you out there, allow me to be your moving business mentor. Allow me to help put powerful processes and strategies in your hands so you can book more moves and become more profitable in your business.

To help you grow your companies will only give the public better options when choosing a moving company and they will receive the quality moving service they deserve. I believe it’s those of you out there focused on your customers that will help rebuild the reputation of our industry. That is my mission as a moving business mentor.

From my brief time as a moving broker, I met some really great moving company owners that were focused on providing a quality service. I also came across some moving company owners that were not really concerned about customer service at all. I hope to share with them the importance of customer service and the realization that the only way to build a real business that will thrive is to focus on your customer. (In this episode I share the legal trouble that I experienced from becoming a moving broker).

What I will be sharing as your moving business mentor:

  • Marketing strategies for your moving company.
  • How to book more moves for you moving company.
  • How to become more profitable in your moving company.
  • How to hire amazing employees.
  • Ways to improve the quality of your service for your customers.
  • How to spend more time working ON your business and not IN your business.
  • How to work fewer hours, while reducing stress and increasing profits.

Basically, I will be sharing everything I did to start my first moving company with 2 rental trucks and grow my moving businesses to $20 million a year in moves.

Whether you are just starting out or you have a very successful moving company with multiple locations, there is always that next level for everybody!

Watch the video above for the full episode.

Like this episode? Please share it! My blog and videos are ad-free ONLY because you share my work!

How can I help? What challenges are you facing in your business? What areas could you use some tips in?

Leave me a comment below and I will be more than happy to get back to you or post a video on the topic.

Follow Louis on Instagram for tons of great quotes.

quote-card-2

quote-card-3

quote-card-1

 

Full Transcript 

[The following is the full transcript of this episode.]

Hey, my friend, it’s Louis Massaro, author of Ten Rules of a Profitable Moving Company, and founder of Moving Mastery. I wanna welcome you to the first video in a series that I’m putting together on the moving business, where I’m gonna be sending out weekly content on how to help moving company owners just like you profit in business and thrive in life.

You see, I started my first moving company when I was 19 years old. I was a little 19-year-old kid. I had no money. I rented two trucks that I kept parked in the truck rental yard. I’d drive there every morning to dispatch my crews. Half the guys that I tried to hire thought I was a joke. Here I was, this young kid working out of a truck rental yard, and I was interviewing ’em in my car, trying to hire great guys to come work for me. And it was tough. It’s a tough business to be in, and to get it started with, really with nothing, with two rental trucks, some advertising, and answering and booking all the moves from my cell phone as I drove around and went to apartment complex and apartment complex, trying to round up business and build a little referral network, it was a struggle. But eventually I built a little system. I was able to move into an office and buy some of my own trucks, and within a couple of years, I had a nice system that I had perfected around local moving. And I started to expand, and open up offices nationwide. And before long, we had quite a business going.

And I say this because I wanna put it in perspective of what’s possible, and that’s a lot of what these episodes are gonna be about: How to grow your business, how to expand, how to make more money. But at the same time, I also wanna help you avoid problems, because that’s a really big thing for me, because as I grew, and as I went through the 2008 recession, and at that point I had offices all around the country, and the recession came, and it was tough, and I stumbled, and it was a big setback. I almost went bankrupt. We had trucks, 60 trucks, and advertising, and warehouses, and employees, and it was tough when that time came. And it was something that took me a year or so to bounce back from, but when I did, I bounced back stronger than ever, and decided that I was gonna start brokering moves. I was gonna sell my long-distance trucks, and broker moves. I thought it was a great plan at the time. I figured if all I have to do is focus on selling, and I could find someone else to service these moves, it’ll be great.

So I did that. I sold my long-distance trucks, I started brokering moves, and what I realized before long is that it wasn’t the same as when we used to service our own moves with our own trucks, and now we’re relying on other people, and not all of them had the same values that we had, and they didn’t treat the customer with the respect and integrity that we did when we did our moves. And we had a move that a shipper got into a dispute with the carrier, the carrier wouldn’t unload their stuff, that move turned into an , and four years later, as we were doing 12,000 moves a year, I ended up to charges for running a brokerage business. And even though all of our paperwork was right, it just led to that. And at the time, I saw it and I looked at how many complaints we had versus how many moves we did, and I just thought that it was such a low amount, and I didn’t understand why I was involved in this legal situation now.

And as I went through that, and as it’s now behind me, and I came out of it, and my local companies were still good, I realized that it was based on just poor decisions that I made, and a decision to try to take the easy way by brokering moves, and not having the control over it. And I look back at that, and it was a mistake. And I don’t wanna see anybody else make that mistake, so as I went through this whole process, it dawned on me. I’m like, “You know what? I wanna help as many people as I possibly can.” Because when I came up in this industry, I was 19 years old. I started my business in 2000 and I had nobody to turn to. I read a ton of books, I had some mentors, but nobody that had really ever been there in this business to guide me and help me make the right choices and the right decisions with my business. I learned so much from trial and error, and making mistakes, and coming back from those mistakes, and it was time-consuming and it was stressful.

And if I could help you not make some of the same mistakes that I made, and I could share all of the success that I had, and all of the sales and marketing and operations, strategies and processes and procedures, that’s what I wanna do because, you know what, I look back and I look at when I was starting in the business, and if I had someone to share how they did it with me, I might have not have done it exactly how they did it, but it would have shed some light on certain ways that things could be done. And that’s what I hope to do for you.

So that’s what these videos every week are gonna be about. It’s gonna be about me be sharing some information, and you taking what you want from it, using it or not. It’s not that my way is the right way, and I’m not sharing this information to prove how much I know. It’s not about that. It’s more about, how can I help? How can I serve and help you create a better business? ‘Cause you know what? This is a tough business. The moving business is tough, everything, from your employees to the customers. You’re dealing with people in one of their most stressful times, and you have to deal with who’s showing up for work, or trucks breaking down, do you have enough money for marketing. It’s tough, and I’ve been there, and I know what’s like. And if I could help somebody get to that next level, to where it’s not as stressful, and there’s more money coming in. Because I believe that you can’t just profit in your business. My motto is profit in business and thrive in life. You need to have systems in place, processes in place, checks and balances, and ways to make sure that you could have a profitable business but you’re not there 80 hours a week. To where you could work on your business and not always be in your business, to where you could take some time away and enjoy your life.

And in this business, if you’re gonna own a moving company, if you’re gonna be in the moving business, there’s a lot of responsibility, there’s a lot of liability, and it’s a lot of work. You deserve to make a lot of money. If you do a good job, and you go out there every day, and you service the customers the right way, and you create raving fans, you need to make a lot of money in this business, or it’s not worth it. It’s tough, it’s a tough business. So that’s really my mission. I know that there’s good movers out there. As a broker, I dealt with a lot of companies across the country, and I know there’s some really, really good-hearted people out there that really wanna do the right thing. And I know that some of them struggle with some of their sales processes, and their marketing processes, and just structuring their business, but I know that if they had those processes in their hands, and they had some of the sales and marketing strategies, that the public would receive better service because they would get more moves.

And I know there’s a lot of good movers out there, and I know there’s some bad movers out there, too. And I know there are some people that customer service might not be their top priority, but it might not be because they’re bad people. They might just not know a better way of doing it. So listen, I’ve run moving companies all across the country. I started a brokerage division, which I wish I hadn’t done, but you know what, it led me to this. And I wanna be of service to you, I wanna help you build your business, grow your business. I’m gonna be doing weekly videos just like this, but we’re gonna talk about specific things that you could implement in your company to help you grow, to help you get to that next level. Because if you’re just in this to make a living, I challenge you to set your sights a little higher, because you can make a lot of money in the moving business, and that’s what you should wanna do, because again, it’s tough. So if you can create a company that you could pass down to your kids, or create a company that you could sell at some point and not have to work anymore, that’s what you should be shooting for.

So I don’t care if you’re just starting out. I don’t care if you have 10 locations already. There’s always that next level for somebody. So if I could share some information to help inspire you to get to that next level, that’s what I wanna do. So if there’s anything, any videos, any topics, anything you need help with, leave comments, let me know, I’ll do a video on it. I’ll be more than happy to help you. If you’re not signed up for my blog, head over to louismassaro.com, sign up for my blog. I’m gonna be sending out weekly videos, information on the moving business, information on business in general, on mindset, how to get yourself in the right mindset to get to that next level, how to think like a millionaire mover, and not just create a job for yourself, but create a business that makes money for you.

So sign up for my blog. I’m gonna be on social media, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. If there’s anything I could help you with, please leave me a comment, let me know. I’m gonna be sending out these videos for free, and, listen, I’m honored to be able to help, and I’m here to serve, so let me know what I can do, let me know what you need help with, and I’m gonna be more than happy to do a video and help you out. So thanks for checking this out, go out there, profit in business, thrive in life. I hope to see you soon.