How to Build Your Business for Profit & Freedom

Unless you want to stay stuck in the daily grind of the hamster wheel of just grinding it out and doing the same stuff, right? When you started this business, I can't imagine that you just wanted to create a job for yourself, right? Most people, they start the business, they're like, I want to get some freedom, I want to get some money. And end up with more hours, less money, more stress, more liability, more responsibility. It's all on you. Less sleep, all of that stuff. We've got to make the transition right? As the operator of the business, right? That's. I mean, I started there, right? You've got to start as the operator. You're running the business, right? So whether you're on the trucks or you're dispatching crews or you're answering the phones, if you're part of the business, meaning if you're removed from the business and the business no longer runs, you're an operator, you're operating the business right from that place. And if that's you, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But we got to make the transition, right? We got to make the jump. And that's why we started with a little bit of mindset stuff. Because if we're not thinking about it in the right way, we're like, oh, that seems like a lot of work, right? To transition. I'm stuck here, right? I see people 47 years, 45 years, 20 years in the industry, and I've talked to many of you, and it was like, you know, wow, we've been doing it this way for so long, and it just doesn't seem to be working anymore. And those of you that I know that make the shift, it's like, it's just a game changer. So what does it mean to go from operator to business builder, right? That's the first leap. Well, operator and then business builder. What is building a business, right? People talk about it all the time, building a business, build a business, build a business. But what is it, right? Nobody really tells you what building a business is. It's not just going in, doing a good job, hustle and grind, and hoping that you grow, right? And it's also not just putting more money into marketing and trying to get more sales and trying to force your way to growth. Being a builder, a business builder means you're actively working on developing and implementing an operating system into your business. Let me say that again. You're actively working on and developing, implementing an operating system into your business. You know, here's the thing. Who feels like the business has just completely consumed you, right? It's just, let me see a show of hands. Who feels like it's either now or at some point you felt that whole business just completely consume you, right? That's what happens when it's a people driven business. We want to create a process driven business. We want the business to be an operating system that operates without us, right? We're not part of the system. We're not the dispatcher, we're not the salesperson, we're not the mover anymore, right? Doesn't happen overnight. It's a transition. So what is building a business? What is that all about? All about your systems and your team, right? You want the systems to run the business and you want the team to run those systems with a set of processes that right there changes everything. Changes everything, right? So what you want is there's really three components to what we call the moving CEO operating system, right? Which is move acquisition, right? Getting moves. You're marketing your sales, getting more moves, your reputation, right? You've got move execution, doing the moves, right? Hiring the movers, training the movers, doing the moves. Customer service, right? Even, even, you know, your trucks and the maintenance and all that falls under there and then business management, right? The team, hr, the numbers, the processes, insurance, things like that. So you basically have move acquisition, go get customers, move execution, go do a great job for them and then managing the business. And that's it, right? That's it. And I'm not trying to oversimplify this, but when we start to remove ourselves from, right, we remove ourselves from this place of like, it's all on me, I've got to do this. What we do is we self sabotage. Because any talk of growth, any talk of expansion, I don't know about you, but who's had the little, the little voice pop up in your mind like, wow, it's going to be a lot more work on me, right? And so what we do is we keep ourselves stuck where we're at. So what you want to be doing if you're an operator is you want to make sure that you're actively focused over the next 12 months. You want to master being a business builder, right? So what does that mean? That means you're maximizing the business you have today while you're building the business you're becoming. You're maximizing the business you have today while you're building the business that you're becoming. Our goal here is to create what I call a model business. You don't want to duplicate something that's already a problem, Right. If your current business is causing issues, your current business is headaches and problems. Well, what happens when you expand that? So many people try to expand and grow, thinking that's going to solve their money problems. But what you need to do is focus on the outcome of. Let's build a model. The model means the operating systems in place. It runs. We could watch it. And now what do we do? You basically, like, you're taking a document you copy paste, right? You want to open a new location, Great. You take the model and you duplicate the model somewhere else. And so the goal of the model is, once you get to that place, you could do whatever you want. Because some of you might. That's. You're like, I don't want to open more offices. I don't want to. I just want to make some more money, have a little bit more freedom and enjoy my life. Right? That's cool. Like, everybody has a different desire and. And whatever that is. The model business solves that. Why? Because let's say you're like, hey, Louis, I just want to be able to work a few days a week, spend time doing things I love with the people I love. Great. Step away. The business is running, right? Or you want to sell the business, right. When you get top dollar for your business is when you have a turnkey operation. Somebody can come in, right? You could sell your business if it's not a model, but you're not going to get top dollar for it. You're generally going to get someone who's going to come in, and they're essentially buying themselves a job. They're an owner operator. They're going to come. They're like, yeah, this is a business I could buy instead of starting myself. And. Right. But if you want somebody to come in and give you top dollar, right? A sophisticated investor that looks at it and says, all right, how much money can I make, you know, out in the market? Or how much money can I make out in real estate? Well, let's look at this moving company. Wow. Like, this thing is dialed in, right? They've got the systems, they've got the processes, they got the team. And guess what? Even if I don't like the team, I could get rid of the team. And I've got the blueprint and the systems and the processes to replace the team and keep it running. That's turnkey, right? That's an operation. They look at that as. That's return on my investment. That's how you get top dollar to sell or you want to pass it down to your kids or somebody in the family. Look, you know, I know early stages of my business, I wouldn't have wanted to pass that down to my kids. That mess, the stress, the headaches, the problems, like to pass that down and bring them into it. Let's get it to be a model first and then we could do that. So the point is, you get to that place, then from there you could really do whatever you want. And the cool part about it is when you get there, you've got the model, the operating systems in place, the team's running the operating system, you start to think bigger, right? Because it's no longer this, this burdensome thing, this business you've got to deal with. It's like, oh, no, this is this beautiful, you know, orchestrated, you know, predictable, money making machine that I created, right? You get to kind of decide what's next. So we went from operator to business builder. Now you go to CEO. So as you're thinking about the transition, you go into business builder phase, right? And I believe that in 12 months you could build a model business, right? If that's your focus, I would put that down right now. 12 month goal, build model business, circle it, put a star by it, Whatever you need to do, if that's your focus, versus, let me just get by, oh, let's get through the busy, let's get the slow season, get the busy season. Let's focus in on what we need to do. The model business is built. You're kind of setting it up to then step into that CEO role. As the CEO, Right now you run your business off of reports and meetings. You know, I have clients that said to me, louis, I want to be able to move to Europe and live in Europe or go there for a few months and operate my business. Okay, right. Let's get the model dialed in. Let's get you to reports, let's get you the meetings that you need to have over zoom with your team to keep things going and go, right? And they've gone and they've lived there. Over. Got a client. I saw our face a minute ago. I think year and a half already overseas running the business, local business, right? So we've got a transition operator, business builder, CEO. And sometimes you're wearing all three hats, right? Sometimes you're wearing all three hats at once. But it's really helpful when you feel overwhelmed, right? Which, which just basically causes us to stop, right? Or freeze or not take on more or make bad decisions or miss opportunities. When you feel that overwhelm, sometimes you just got to say, alright, what do I need from the operator in me? What do I that hat, what do I need from the business builder and what do I need the CEO to do? And if you just separate in and understand that you need to be all three, it helps break down and then you can schedule yourself accordingly. Alright, so we've got to transition over the next 12 months from operator to business builder at a minimum. Like you could do that. That's, that's a mind mindset shift, right? And then it's about implementing the processes and doing the things that are going to get you there. 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.