2021 State of the Moving Industry

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. 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 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 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 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, you know, give estimates virtually, you know, 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. You know, 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, right? 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, you know, people that don't want to work. Number one, they're getting, you know, handouts or they have an easier job driving for Uber or driving for Amazon prime, making deliver. 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? And I know you're going to 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. 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 is 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 can 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 nother 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 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 cre 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. Talk to you later. Hey my friend, before you go, you've got to hurry and watch these next few videos over here. They will absolutely help you take your moving company to the next level. Go watch them now and I'll see you over there.