2021 State of the Moving Industry

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Hey, my friend, it's Luis Massaro.

And welcome to the Moving Mastery Podcast.

Before we get started today, I just.

Want to take a minute and shout.

Out all of our moving CEOs out.

There, members of our moving CEO business program that have been absolutely, absolutely crushing it. I'm just really excited for you guys.

And the results that I've been hearing about.

And if you're not already a member of our Moving CEO Business program, you.

Definitely need to go check it out.

It's called Moving CEO Business Program and you can find out more@movingceo.com this is the program where I go live every single month, training moving company owners on.

My latest strategies and what's working today.

In the moving industry and coach you to be at your very best each and every month, depending on the level that you join at. There's also additional courses and trainings I'm sure you've heard about my Moving CEO Blueprint or Moving Sales Academy or Movers Marketing accelerator. Those are all part of the Moving CEO Business program. And if you're not already in there, you've got to join us for our next monthly live training. In these sessions, we get to network with moving company owners from around the world and be able to share ideas on what's working. And you know, what, what? You know, what new innovations people are applying to their business to get results. We're building an amazing community. If you're not already part of it, make sure you go to movingceo.com and check that out. And without further ado, let's jump into today's episode.

2020 has changed the game in the moving industry. And in 2021, things are going to continue to change. Things are going to continue to change to this new way of moving where the old way of doing things is not going to work. You know, we've got this major opportunity in front of us like this summer. I don't know that there's going to be enough moving companies to service all of the moves that are going to be happening, you know, and if you're prepared for that, if you're in a position where you think about it like this big tidal wave that's coming in and you learn to ride that wave, you're going to ride that wave all the way to the bank. But if you don't learn to ride that wave, that wave is going to come crashing down on your head. And I can tell you this from, you know, over the past year, with the hundreds of moving company owners that we work with and not to mention my private clients that I work with real, you know, closely. I'm looking at their financials, I'm reviewing their processes, I'm helping them scale, I'm helping them grow, I'm helping them franchise. I'm helping them see what works today and, you know, kind of sitting there as they make the decisions in their business and helping them guide them. Well, we see what's working, we see what's not working, and we see that there's a pivot that needs to change. And if we don't do this, I'm concerned that a lot of companies are just going to end up in a really bad position. You know, last year, I think a lot of companies had moves just falling on their laps. You know, I call it the COVID gift to moving companies like Covid hit. It was like, oh, shit, what do we do? We're going to go out of business. And then all of a sudden, most companies had the busiest summer they ever had. And although a lot of them may have put in processes and a lot of them may have done a lot to ramp that up, a lot of it was a gift. A lot of it fell on your lap. You know, I think you could agree on that. And I don't want you to take that for granted and think that that's something that's just going to happen and that that's even healthy for your business, because not all business is good business. We need to make sure it's profitable business. We need to make sure you're doing a good job for your customers so that you continue to get raving reviews, you continue to get repeat and referral customers. And you might be thinking, louis, if it's going to be so busy, what do I need to change? What do I need to do? And I just want to give you three things that are going to help you in 2021 to really pivot to this new way of thinking, this new way of operating within the moving business. And there's really so much that needs to be adjusted. It needs to be.

Changed. But I want to give you three things today that I think will really help you to not only thrive this year, but set yourself up for this new world of moving that we're in. The first one is you've got to make sure that your virtual sales game is on point. What do I mean by that? Not only do you need to be able to give estimates virtually whether that's over the phone or whether that's a video estimate, you've also got to be Able to look at this great opportunity that we have in front of us to hire remote salespeople. A lot of my private clients this year, I had them hiring teams of remote people in different parts of the country that a lot of times they could get for a lot cheaper than they can in their own city. They could have more coverage at different hours, and they could run the entire thing virtually. Meet with them, manage them, make sure that, you know, everything is used in a central database in a CRM. I know most of the moving industry now is on smart moving company that I co founded. But whatever CRM you're using, you've got the tools. You know, we've got zoom, we've got the CRM. We've got the ability to monitor their phone calls, to see what's going on and to be able to adjust and pivot. We've got to think differently than I need salespeople in my office. We need to think differently than I need an estimator to go out and do the estimate. In the home, those things are still good. But what's going to really help you adapt is stepping up your virtual sales game. Okay, number two, mover hiring. You're going to say, louis, that's nothing new. That's something that's been around forever. We've always struggled and needed to hire movers. But now more than ever, you've got to make this a priority. Not just put an ad once in a while when you need some people have a continuous process where you're constantly recruiting, constantly hiring, constantly training, and you've got somebody managing this process. You know, there's a shortage of movers. So we've got this demand for people moving, right? We saw it all 2020, this huge demand. Everybody's moving to a new home, they want more space. They want to get out of big cities. There's a lot happening.

And then we've got people that don't want to work. Number one, they're getting handouts or they have an easier job driving for Uber or driving for Amazon prime, making deliveries. So we've got this demand. But in order to fulfill the demand, we need the movers. The companies that I'm working with that are setting up their mover hiring process and running that as if it's as important as their sales process are the ones that are winning. And that's what you're going to need to do to win. You know, you can't say, well, Louis, nobody wants to work. Louis, it's so hard to find movers. Louis, you know I can't find good help in my city. My city's different. You don't understand. I hear you with all those excuses. But if you want to succeed and you don't want that wave crashing down on your head, it's time to step up that mover hiring process and be diligent about it. There's no simple way about it, right? Keep those ads running, keep those interviews going, get your hiring process, get your training process dialed in, or you're just not going to be able to ride that wave of opportunity all the way to the bank, right? You've got to be able to sell the moves and you've got to make sure you're selling them at a price that is profitable for you. And then you've got to make sure you've got good quality movers going out.

There and doing the job.

Alright. I know you're gonna say, louis, this is nothing new, this is nothing special, but it is.

It's a matter of how much attention you're putting to these things, how much focus you're putting on them. The stuff that we used to take for granted can no longer be taken for granted.

Hey, my friend, it's Louis. And I'm just hopping in really quick to remind you to go get your free demo of smart moving software. Smart Moving software is a company that I co founded that is quickly becoming the leading moving software in the moving industry. And I'm super excited for you to check it out. So go get your free demo today. Just go to smartmoving.com that's smartmoving.com and sign up for your free demo and check it out today.

Which brings me to my third point, which is build for the future. You know, we talk about building our business. I'm building my business. I'm building my business the way you build a business. You build your processes, you build your SOPs. That's building a business that gives you something, that you're building something, a set of systems, a set of processes that run your business consistently, predictably, without you, right? If you don't have that, you're not building a business, you're just spinning on the hamster wheel. So as you are building your new virtual sales process, as you're building your mover hiring and training process, document those processes, build for the future, have your playbook for your business so that you know this is how we do things. Because if you don't have that, your people aren't going to know what to do. You're not going to be able to pivot and change quickly. The companies that I work with, they've got their processes, they've got them dialed in, or at least they do once we, you know, work together for a little while. And when a change needs to happen, like many changes needed to happen last year in order to adjust, in order to pivot, you go to the process, you go to the playbook, you see what's there, you make the adjustment, you train the team, you let everybody know this is the new way that we do it and you move forward. You gotta be agile, you've gotta be able to make shifts and pivots quickly. And if you don't already have everybody on the same page in alignment with how things need to be done, it's very hard to do that right when you've got the processes in place that's building a business for the future. Right now, you know, we're also facing the possibility of a recession coming, right? So it's like, look, we've got this major opportunity right now in 2021, and I don't know when it's gonna happen. I'm not claiming to be an economist, but I could tell you that I lived through the 2008 recession and it was not fun. You know, I had five, six offices at the time and it was not fun. Just opened my long distance division. You know, there was a point there where I, you know, thought, man, am I going to go out of business? Why was that? It was because I had built my business to run.

In a good economy. It wasn't prepared for the bad economy. Luckily, I was able to adapt and adjust and pivot and make the adjustments that I needed right away to not only get things back on track, but then take it to a whole other level. I want you to be prepared. I want to make sure that whatever comes, we don't know. We didn't know coronavirus was going to come. We had no idea.

We don't know what's coming next. But you need to be prepared and you need to have your business set up to thrive in a great economy. You need to have your business set up to thrive in a bad economy. Because the moving business is as close to a recession proof business as you could get. And as we've seen it, it withstanded the pandemic pretty well too. But it's not a matter of surviving, it's a matter of thriving. It's not a matter of just making a few bucks over the summer. It's about consistent profits all year long while you keep your sanity While you lower your stress, while you enjoy your life, this business should be your vehicle to financial freedom. An opportunity to provide a great service to your community, to bring up your team, to bring up your, you know, your crew and help guide everybody to that next level in your business, in your life. Now's the time. Take these three steps. Start there and continuously be thinking about how you need to improve to get.

To that next level, my friend, until.

I see you next time, go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. Make sure you're prepared for the opportunity that's in front of us in 2021. I'll talk to you later.

If you really want to take your.

Business to that next level, then I want to invite you to join us in our Moving CEO business program. This is the program where I go live every single month training you on new strategies to implement into your moving business. All new strategies that you could apply to your business to quickly seeing results. This is the program that we have moving companies from all over the world that join us every single month for live training. Plus they get additional courses, they get tickets to my live events. This is the program that basically keeps our moving CEOs on their toes, keeps them fired up, keeps them working on the things that actually matter in their business so that they have a place to come to every month. Maintain and keep that free. Focus on what they're really working on, what they're really after and what matters today so that they're working on the right stuff. You know, this is where I train on all my latest strategies. The things in marketing, sales, operations, finance, you know, how to manage your team and leadership. It's all in the Moving CEO business program. And head over to movingceo.com and check out all the different membership options there.

We've got, you know, companies that might just be starting out.

We've got companies that have been in business 10 years. We've got, you know, nationwide multi location franchises that are members that come every single month so that they can make.

Sure that they're on top. Their A game, right?

We're all, you know, wherever we're at in our business, we need to make sure that we're constantly getting that zap of energy, that zap of new ideas that we can implement.

So we're working on the right stuff.

We want to work on what matters so that we could profit in our business and thrive in our life, right? It's all about setting up a better quality of life. And once you've got your systems in place. Once you've got your processes in place, once you've got your people in place, you're able to manage them and lead them in the right direction. Then you're able to take a step back and start to really enjoy the fruits of your labor and the business that you've created. So this program where I teach all of this, it's called Moving CEO Business Program and you can check it out today@movingceo.com so head over there, check out your options and I look forward to seeing you on our next live monthly training where I also answer questions and take feedback and help you reach that next level in your business. It's called Moving CEO Business Program. Check it out@movingceo.com thank you so much for joining us on the Moving Mastery Podcast and being a part of this amazing community. And until we talk next time, go out there every single day. Profit in your business and thrive in your life. I'll talk to you soon, my friend.