Exit Strategies for Moving Company Owners

Hey, my friend. It's Luis Massaro, CEO Moving Mastery and founder of Moving Sales Academy. What's the exit strategy for your moving company? What's, you know, you open up a company, what's the ultimate goal, right? 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now? What's the plan? You know, if you're going to own a moving company, I'm challenging you not to just look at it and say, hey, I just want to make some money, right? You, you know, maybe when you first get started, that's the goal. You're like, hey, I want to make some money. I want to make a living, right? But you have to kind of think further out, right? Where are you taking it? Where do you want to go? You know, a lot of people say, hey, I want to grow, and I want to get to that next level. But where is that next level? You know, what is that for you? You know, it's different for everybody else and something that you really should think through, because if you plan this out, you could start taking the steps to get there, right? So I want to 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 going to do with it, right? Because if you're going to succeed, you need an exit strategy, right? You need to know where you're headed. Otherwise, your whole goal and your whole focus is to just make a living, right? 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 want to go. All right? So it's different for everybody. There's no right or wrong answer. I'm going to 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? What you know, how much work do you really want to put in? A lot of times we, you know, we'll say, I just want to grow. I just want to make a ton of money. What is a ton of money? How much do you really want to make every single year? Do you know that? Right? 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 want to live? Like, really put pen to paper to see, hey, I want to own this type of house and this type of car. I want to send my kids to this type of school. I want to have this much in retirement, be able to retire by this age, what is that going to cost me to do? Right. When you put the pen to paper, sometimes you'll be surprised that it's not as much as you think it might be. Right. So as you're building your company, it's important to think about the end game, the end objective. And I want to give you the three options of where you could go with that. All right? Option number one, duplicate and expand. So this basically means you're going to take your current office, right? You're going to duplicate it and you're going to open more offices. And that could be company owned stores, that could be franchises. Either one falls into option one. Right. So, you know, and when it comes to franchising versus owning them yourself, that that's going to be a whole other episode that I'll do. All right, but the idea is that, you know, what do you want to do? Do you want to open multiple, do you envision yourself with multiple offices throughout the country? Then that would be option one. Okay. Option two, you want to build it and pass it down to your family, right. Do you have children or even, you know, brothers or sisters or nieces or nephews, somebody that you want to eventually pass this down to and keep it in the family? You know, maybe this business was passed down to you by somebody in the family, right? So that's a very viable option. That's something that a lot of people look to do. That's their goal. I mean, I have a friend that, you know, he wants to pass the company down to his son to take over and run one day, right? So that's your second option when it comes to your exit strategy of getting out of the business. Number three, build and sell. Right? 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 it in five years, 10, 20, whatever that might be for you. Okay? But if you're going to build your business to sell it, you need to make sure that things are set up in a way where somebody's going to want to buy it, right? So you have these three options. You have duplicate and expand, pass down to your family, or build and sell. So what's the solution? What do you need to do now to prepare yourself for any and all of those options? Let'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, you know, 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. Right. If you're going to 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. Right? If you want to pass it down to your family, do you really want to 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. And I've been there, I know it's a very stressful thing. Do you want to 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 want to build it and sell it. Option three. Well, I can tell you if you want to sell your business, you're going to 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, say, my goal is to sell. I'll say, okay, well, a buyer doesn't want to 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 going to require you to stay there and work that business. So if you want to get top dollar, okay, if you want to 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, okay? 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 set up 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, you know, shooting for, right? You need to first start and say, hey, what do I really want? Right? Because to grow is a very like, vague word. Even getting to the next level, like, what is that? It's different for everybody, right? 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. So what does the success mean to you currently? And then where do you want to 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 a future. Well, what does that future look like to you? And whatever it is, there's no right or wrong. Everyone's going to 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, right? A smooth running business that they're not going to have to take the burden of that stress. That's what you really want. You want to duplicate and expand. Duplicate and expand. With systems and processes in place, you create a model. That's what you want to start with. Create a model with the business that you have. Before you start thinking about the expansion, think about how can I make this just right to be able to expand it later? All right? So whatever you're going to do, build a model that's going to 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. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. I'll see you later. Hey, my friend, it's Louis.

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