My First Moving Company Failed

My first moving company failed. It was scary. I didn't know anything. And I just knew that there was money to be made in the moving business right away. I mean, they knew. They knew I didn't know what I was doing. They knew I didn't know what I was talking about. And I'm just like, sweating. I just know, like, man, they're gonna see me, they're gonna figure it out. It just felt like, am I ever gonna be able to get the respect of these guys when they know I don't know shit? And every day there was issues, Every day there was problems. Every day I was running into something that just kind of, you know, really could crush your self confidence. Movers twice your size getting in your face, like, wanting to fight. You Penske coming outside and saying, like, you need to pay us or we're not. Like, we're taking these trucks back. A move that, you know is just going so terribly wrong and you don't really even know where to begin to resolve the issue. Everything felt way over my head. I would just write down all the things I was like, I need to figure out a solution for this. There's gotta be a better way for this. There's gotta be a better way for that. Like, this. This can't be. And that. That became my. My guiding light. All right, my friend. It's Louis Massaro. Welcome to the Moving Mastery Podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to help you take your moving company to that next level by setting up proven systems and processes to increase profits, reduce stress, live a better quality of life. I got my main man Chris with me today. What's up, Chris?

Hey. Hey.

So what we're doing is in these episodes, Chris has been going through the social media feedback through our support inbox and coming up with some questions that, you know, people in the audience or customers or wherever they are, just people sending in questions from social media have about their moving business or have for me directly. And I don't know what these questions are going to be until he asks them. So it's Chris's job to make sure we've got some good starting points.

We do.

What do you got today, Chris?

This one I really like. This one comes in from a guy who I believe is a younger guy. I think he's probably just starting his business.

Okay.

And his question is, he says, I know you started your first moving company at 19 years old. How were you able to have so much success at such a young age?

I wasn't.

You weren't?

No.

What do you mean, what happened?

So, you know, initially, my, you know, my first moving company failed.

Oh, that's right. Okay.

You know that story. Yeah, but I don't. I haven't talked about it a lot. Right, let's hear about it.

I would love to hear that.

So, you know, essentially, When I was 19, I went to Las Vegas to open up my first office. Okay. I. It was the millennium. I went to Las Vegas with some family and friends for the 99 to 2000 New Year's Eve.

Yep. I was there then also.

And I. That's right. You were probably playing music or something.

I sure was. Yeah.

Yeah. And flew over, and I'm like, looking out the window, and I'm like, people live in Las Vegas. You know, I'd been there once before, and I was a little bit younger, and only people actually live here. I mean, it's not just the strip. I see houses, and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to come out here and I'm going to open a moving company out there. So went to Vegas, rented two trucks. Right at the time, it was called Rollins Truck rental. Penske bought them out later, went down there, rented two trucks. I had a fake ID at the time. Hopefully that's. It's all good now. But had a fake ID at the time, and that's the only way I was able to, with my name on it, was able to actually rent trucks at that age. And, man, it was. It was scary. I didn't know anything, and I just knew that there was money to be made in the moving business. And, you know, when partners with, you know, a friend that already had a moving company in Florida, went out to Vegas, started there, he's like, oh, I'm going to show you the way. I'm going to show you the way. And went out there and was essentially, you know, on my own to figure it out, other than the occasional phone call of like, wake up. What are you doing? Get out there. Go see some apartment complexes. Go do something. I'm like, oh, you know, I didn't know what to do. Right. I was just, you know, I had a yellow page ad. The phones are going to my. The calls were going to my cell phone. I, you know, had all the pads and dollies in my apartment that I got. And, yeah, rented two trucks. The first day I had to go rent those two trucks. I went. I had to go get moving equipment. Right. So at the time, it was. I believe it was cds moving equipment. And had to drive this stick. Stick shift truck. Right. Which is totally different, by the way, than a stick shift car. And so it's Las Vegas. It's the summer of 2000 and you know, it's hot. It's Vegas, right? So I get in the truck and I'm like, yeah, yeah, no, I know how to drive it. I know how to drive it. And I get there and I'm clink, clink, clink, clink, clink. The truck stalling, right? And I'm just like sweating. I just know, like, man, they're gonna see me. They're going to figure it out, they're going to know that I don't know what I'm doing. Trucks and it's going to be all over. Right? So the guy comes up to the truck and comes up to the window and I roll the window down and he's like, you having a little trouble? I'm like, yeah, you know, I didn't know what to say. I got it. And he's like, you know what, let me. You mind if I jump in with you? I'll give you a little. I'll kind of show you a little bit. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, he was like the head mechanic there and he took mercy on me. I mean, he saw what was happen and yeah, he jumped in and we did a few, you know, he basically taught me how to drive a manual truck right there on the spot. And you know, I forget exactly how long we drove around. And you know, he was giving me a lesson. Super cool guy. And if you're listening, by the way, I totally forget your name, but thank you so much, I appreciate that. Yeah. And I had to go to CDS and on the way out of Rollins to CDS was like an uphill. Yeah, right. And so now I'm driving the truck and I'm going uphill and it's rolling back as I'm hitting the clutch down. Right. I made it to cds, I got the equipment, I went and dropped it off the apartment, I made it back. So that was like before I even got started out there, right. So now I put an ad out, I hire some movers, I start booking some moves and I meet them all at the truck rental yard. They of course thought it was a joke. I mean, I was there in my car and, you know, 19 year old kid. And I looked young too. It wasn't like I was just 19. I looked, I don't know, probably 16 and I didn't know what I was doing. You know, I had all this equipment, I had all these pads, I had all These dollies. I was talking to the people at CDS and saying, like, you know, how many do I need on the truck? Like, how many of these should I use and how many of those should I use? What other equipment should I use? Yeah. So my movers, right away, I mean, they knew. They knew I didn't know what I was doing. They knew I didn't know what I was talking about. And luckily, I was able to learn from them how a truck should be set up. Right. How the pad should be folded, how the dolly should be put with the pads and strapped in, and how many should be on the truck and sweeping it out after the move and all that. I learned that directly from the movers. How fortunate in Vegas.

Wow.

It didn't feel fortunate at the time. It was embarrassing.

It's embarrassing, I'm sure.

But. Right. And it just felt like I. I just felt like, am I ever gonna be able to get the respect of these guys?

Yeah.

When they know, I don't know.

Yeah.

Right. And so the, you know, I kind of got past that part. But now the challenge was I. When I went out there, the. The expectation was all, I'm gonna apply for a license. I'm gonna get a license. Won't be an issue. But at the. At the time, it was very, very hard to get a license in Las Vegas. It was like a good old boy network. Like, it was, you know, you had to know somebody. It wasn't. You just, you know, filled out your application and got a license.

Right.

So what I was doing was I was. I had two contracts going. I had one contract for labor. Right. So I was like, it was a labor service and another contract for truck rental.

Okay.

So I technically wasn't a moving company.

I see.

Right. And this was my workaround until I got the license. But one month goes by, two months go by, three months go by, I'm not able to get this license, and it starts looking like it's not going to happen. And, you know, for me, it was demoralizing.

Were you making money?

No, no, no, I wasn't making any money. It's a good thing because, you know, I don't know, a young guy in Vegas making money. It could have turned out bad.

Yeah.

But I wasn't making any money. I was basically making. I wasn't even making. I shouldn't even say that. Between the. Everything I was putting on my credit cards and, you know, taking a little bit of money to pay for the apartment and the truck rentals and food and stuff like that, that Was it? And what happened was I, I mean I remember being on the phone with a family member and just talking about the whole thing and just started crying, you know, it was so like laying on my couch like what am I doing out here? Like this is ridiculous. I came out here to open a moving company and I'm basically running like this half assed truck rental labor service. You know, I had this vision of my name on the trucks storage, right. A big warehouse, a big facility like that. You know, at the time I'd wanted one really good office. That was my goal. And it was never gonna be able to happen because if I'm a truck rental company, I can't put the name of the moving company on the side of the truck. Right. Couldn't do storage. So after six months I'm like, look, I can't spend any more time here with this, with these workarounds. If I can't get the license then I need to go somewhere where I can get a licen or I don't need a license. So after six months I decided to go to Denver, Colorado. At the time you didn't need a license. It seemed like a good market and I went and basically that's when for me that's when it really all started. Right there is that six months in Vegas that failed? I mean I basically shut it down. I wasn't able to make it, I never made any money, couldn't get a license. It was, you know, half ass operation. And then I go to Vegas, I'll go to Denver. Yeah, right. You've lived in Denver too, right? I love it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Grew up 90 miles north of there too.

So I get to Denver, it's now February, I land, it's nothing but snow everywhere, right. And, and at the time DIA airport was, I mean, still way out.

Oh yeah, you're on the prairie.

Yeah. There was nothing thing out there with it, right. So I landed, I get in the, in, in the rental car, I'm in the snow driving around like I'm from Florida. Like I'm not used to driving around in the snow and I go to a hotel, I, you know, it's late, I go to sleep, I wake up and I look out and all I see is snow. Yeah, right, snow. And I'm like, who am I going to move out here? Did I make another bad decision? Right? Am I just like what's happening here? Am I going to be able to actually do this?

Why, why Denver?

What happened was the guy who I was partners with at the Time was trying to open another office in Denver with somebody else, and then they backed out.

Oh, okay.

Right. And when they backed out, there was an opportunity there. There was already a yellow page ad placed. Right. So it was like, I didn't have to wait. It was either I go there or I go back to Florida, go back to the drawing board, try to figure out my next move. And I was already. I was in. Yeah, I was. You know, I already made up my mind I was going to succeed in this business, and I was in.

Even after Vegas failing?

Even after Vegas failing, it didn't have.

An effect on your. Your spirit and your. Your motivation.

It did. Mm. But I moved past it.

Yeah.

You know, it was like, what else? I didn't have, you know, family money to fall back on. I didn't have. I didn't go to college. I didn't have anything to fall back on.

Yeah.

And I told myself that I was, you know, I'm gonna go make. I'm gonna go become a millionaire in the moving business before I went to Vegas. And so for me, I was like, all right, Vegas is. The way that I have to operate here is broken. Let me go somewhere else. Right. Which, you know, could seem like a cop out. Like, why don't you just try to make it where you are? But I'm like, you know what? I'm at the beginning stages right now. Let me go somewhere where it's. It's gonna be a little more friendly for me to be able to operate.

Yeah. Better to do it now than when you're, you know, established and you've got a whole business going and you're still struggling. I mean, six months in Vegas is. Is. It's. It's enough time to know, you know, whether it's going to work or not. But, like, when you look back at it now, do you say, oh, I could have done this or I could have done that, and I. I could have made it work somehow?

No, no, no. Because, you know, I needed the license. It was either, you know, I could have. And there was. There was a ton of companies out there operating with no license, making money, getting fined, paying the fine. But that. I. That was.

You want to be that.

That's. Yeah, that's not what I wanted to do. So, you know, but now I went and just did the same exact thing, but it was as if I felt the failure of that office and carried that with me. So when I went to Denver, it was a whole different level of focus and intensity on the way that I went about the business.

This time.

This time it was not. There was no one needing to call me to tell me to get up in the morning to go, you know, see real estate offices. Like, I was. I was in.

Yeah.

And, you know, I went. I found an apartment, and I went and found Penske there and went negotiated, you know, hey, I'm gonna rent two trucks. Can I keep them here? And, you know, work that whole thing out. And started all over again, you know, recruited some. Some movers, had them come meet me at the clubhouse of my clubhouse. It was, you know, the little apartment complex. Yeah. Like, we were the leasing office. It wasn't like, fancy like that. And had to meet me there, hired them, had them all meet me at the truck rental yard in the morning. And started all over again in Denver, you know, after six months. So, you know, to answer the question, it didn't just, like, come easy, that six months. There was a lot of schooling that went on in that six months. Yeah.

In Vegas, it was like a boot camp.

It was like a boot camp. Right. And there was a lot of pressure because I didn't know. I felt so self conscious. I didn't have the discipline. Not the discipline. I didn't have the. I didn't have the confidence to be able to speak to the customers and know what I'm talking about. I didn't know how to estimate a move. Right. Everybody, anybody. And everybody that called didn't matter what size. It could have been a studio apartment or 12,000 square foot mansion. Okay, sure, we'll send you three guys in a truck. Yeah, that was it. Everybody got the same thing. So that six months was schooling. And then when I got to Denver, it was also schooling. But it was like I graduated to a certain level. You know, I could fake it enough at that point to where my movers are like, okay, he knows what he's talking about.

Okay. Did you start making money right away?

Endeavor Denver was great. I opened up in February 2001. And, yeah, I mean, it took me, you know, the Yellow Pages was about 4 months until I could start paying them. Right. So immediately I wasn't making any money. But it was about four months until I could start paying that ad that had been out previously. Yeah, Penske, you know, almost every day was coming outside like, hey, we need some money. We need some money. I'm like, okay, here, here, I'll give you a little money here. But that first year, really, things. Things started to really take off at that point.

Okay, when. When you first were getting established in Denver, did you. Like, when did all of the. The Getting the processes in place and. And, you know, when. When did it all really start become, like a real company?

You know, not for a while.

Yeah.

Right. Because I. I had to figure out what. What those processes were. But in my mind at the time, it wasn't like, I need to figure out processes. I was just like, I need to figure out how to do this stuff. Right. And every day there was issues. Every day there was problems. Every day I was running into something that just kind of, you know, really could crush your self confidence. Right.

Yeah.

You know, you feel like you're doing something good, and there's some over, like, you know, whether it's, you know, movers twice your size getting in your face, like, wanting to fight you. Whether it's, you know, the Penske coming outside and saying, like, you need to pay us so we're not, like, we're taking these trucks back. Right. Whether it's, you know, a move that, you know, is just going so terribly wrong and you don't really even know where to begin to resolve the issue.

You got customers screaming at you.

Yeah. And. And it's to. I just had no idea, like, what I was. It just. Everything felt way over my head.

Yeah.

Right. I felt way over my head. And I just. Every day I had this. This little black book I kept in my back pocket. Like a little, like, address book.

Yeah.

Just blank.

Yeah.

And I would just write down all the things I was like, I need to figure out a solution for this. There's got to be a better way for this. There's got to be a better way for that. Like, this. This can't be. And that. That became my. My guiding light to figure out how to. To make it better. And it was almost like an obsession. Right. There's got to be a better way. Like, every time something happened, I'm like, no, no, no, no. Like, there's. There's companies out there that operate smoothly, profitably, that aren't dealing with this. Right. Whereas, like, now I see, you know, I'll hear from companies and. And it's like, man, I got this up against me, and I got that up against me in my market and the leads and the movers, and it's like, everything's against them. Right? Yeah, I'll hear that a lot.

Yeah.

It's. It's kind of like victim mentality can be. Yeah. And I didn't look at it that way. I looked at, like, there's companies out there that run smooth. There's Companies out there that run efficient, like, what can I do to make this better?

Were you reaching out to companies?

Not moving companies? Yeah, but I was talking to anybody and everybody I could. I was talking to my CPA at the time. Right. I was talking to. It was probably three or four months after I was in the truck rental yard. Maybe a little, maybe, maybe five months. I forget exactly that. I went and leased my first office space.

Wow.

And the owner was a successful businessman that now he's just invested in real estate. And I would talk to him. Right. And get advice from him. So I had all these, like, unofficial mentors, right. Where I was just getting information and they were just helping me with bits and pieces of whatever they could. I found an attorney in, in Denver to help with my contracts and stuff like that, and she would guide me and, and help me with certain things. So, you know, it was like I'd go look for the answers to them. I'd go look for books that I could read and find, you know, information on whatever I was struggling with and try to overcome it and then try to apply that the next day.

Yeah. You know, the podcast we did, I guess last week or two weeks ago was, you know, about how you built this $20 million empire. Was, was the climate different back then? Did you, did you feel like you, you like, did it feel like you could, you couldn't fail just because was with things going well, you know, in the economy and stuff like that, or, you know, how was it?

Well, you know, you just had like the dot. The dot com bubble. Right. That all happened right then and there. Right. A few months after what I'm talking about, like, like a couple of months after I moved into my office, 9, 11 happened.

Yes.

Right. So the whole world in fear and, you know, there's, there's a lot going on. Then we go to war. Right. There's a lot going on and I just didn't pay attention to it.

And it didn't affect the business.

It didn't affect the business.

Wow.

And maybe it did, but I didn't know. Maybe it did. Maybe it would have been twice as successful if that didn't happen. But, but I didn't look at it like that. And I think that that was a real advantage for me that I wasn't caught up in. Oh, the economy. Right. Oh, man. You know, what's going to happen to the market and what's going to happen, you know, if this, if this happens? What's going to happen if that happens?

Is that something that you think you should worry about or that you worried about later.

I think you just need to focus on having your business so on point that you're just in the best position that you could be in for whatever happens. You know what I mean? Storms are going to come. You need to be able to weather those storms. Yeah, but I think a lot of people, you know, look at what's going on and, you know, listen, you watch the news. It just breeds fear in people. Right. So it's like, if you're it, it's good to be in tune. It's good to know what's happening. But don't, like, you know, not follow your dreams in your business and don't, you know, sit there and go, you know, the economy's messed up, you know, because if that's all you're hearing all day, that's what you're gonna believe.

Yeah.

And for me, it was like I just had my head down. I didn't look at competition other than to check their prices.

Yeah.

I just had my head down and just focused on booking as many moves as I could possibly book and then figuring out how to service them.

Yeah. Yeah. In. You started in the dead of winter in Denver.

Yeah.

In February.

Yeah.

I guess, like, if you. If you are in that situation, that's when you start, like, you don't know any different.

Right.

You don't. Did you know that there was going to be a moving season? Did you know that you were going to have, you know, money falling out of the sky during the summer or.

No. I mean, I had an idea.

Yeah.

But, you know, it's. It's actually not. I was gonna say it's a funny story. It's not a funny story, but that first year, I think I did approximately, from February to the end of the year, I think I did about 600,000 gross.

Okay.

In revenue. And, you know, got. And didn't feel any slowdown, right? Didn't feel any slowdown because, like, the trajectory of where I was going up. Right. I mean, I was. I was selling. Like, that was my. My big thing. Like, I was. Sales was what got me there, period. So I'm selling and I'm selling, and I come out of summer and I go into winter, and I'm still doing well. I'm still making money. Yeah. I come back around, you know, into the new year. So what is that now? 2002, I come into the new year and hit summer again. And now it's like. Right. Like, really crushed it that summer. And so now I'm not prepared for winter because I'm like, you know, no big deal.

Yeah.

That's when I learned the hard way, like that summer, you know, I bought a. I bought a house. Yeah, right. Got myself a nice car, and life was good. Life was good. But then that winter came, and I wasn't prepared for it because I kept going up the winter before because I had so much momentum, and this time I felt it, and it was tight. Cash flow was tight. Money was tight because, you know, I was young, you know, I started spending it. You know, I mean, I. You know, I set up. You know, I was conscious enough to set up, like, an investment account, but. But still, I wasn't prepared to weather the storm of that first. That second winter where it really impacted me, and it hurt. And it was a lot of juggling to get out of it and then make my way back to the summer and then say, like, never again. Right. It goes back to, there's got to be a better way. There's got to be a better way. So it's like, how can I make sure I've got consistent moves all year? Okay.

Yeah.

And how do I make sure I've got money next year so that when things do slow down, I'm okay and I'm not stressing all winter long? Right. And that's when I started to create a separate account and put money to the side during the summer months when it was, like, raining money.

Yeah.

To be able to, you know, handle that and survive the winter if I needed it. If I didn't need it, then I knew by springtime I could do what I wanted to do with the money.

That's kind of nice. Yeah. Now, how. How efficiently was the business running at that point?

It was starting, you know, it was like I had the screwdriver and starting to, you know, tighten a little bit. Yeah. And just everything. I just wanted everything to be on point, you know, and even back then, like, if something was. Was sloppy or something was out of order. Right. It, like, everything had to be, you know, in order. Everything had to be neat and on point, and I didn't. It had to be done the same way every time. Like, we used to have the movers fill out when they came back. They had to fill out a time card for their hours, plus a sheet for every single one of the moves that they had to staple to the back of the contract before they gave it to us with the money. Little thing. But it was like it had to happen every single time. And so, you know, by putting these Little things into place. It doesn't sound like a big deal, however, when you put it in place and then you make sure it stays in place. Now, you could build on that, and now you can stack on that. And that little thing is a little process. Hey, guys, when you come in, you know, and we used to literally take long sheets of paper, print out these things. Get the slicer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I bought a little. Yeah. Slicer at Home Depot. It was pretty fun to, like, slice all the paper and put them out for the movers with a pen. And it was just a little thing. But all those little things, when you start to do them. Well.

Yeah.

And you start to not accept when a guy comes in and just doesn't do it that day. Like, that's. That's the thing when you start to put processes in place. Like, that was a process.

Yeah.

It wasn't in writing. It wasn't a standard operating procedure. It wasn't official, but it was like, hey, we need to do this. And I know, you know, where. Where people can struggle is. Is, you know, one guy doesn't do it.

Yeah.

Then the next day another guy doesn't do it. And then they're like, you know what? It's not that important that we have the sheets, whatever. And they let that go. So, you know, it was running pretty efficient. But it was, you know, me and, you know, one other guy at first, you know, my best friend who came, you know, just to just hang for the summer, like, come work with me for the summer. I could use the help. It'll be fun. And then he ended up staying with me for six years.

Yeah.

When we hired some other people after that, but, yeah, I guess it was a natural desire for order.

Unnecessary.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, it was. It was. I. I recognized early on when. When things weren't in order. Right. When there was chaos, it was either their structure and order or there's chaos. And the chaos didn't feel good, you know, gave you a lot of anxiety. And you saw mistake. You saw bad stuff happen in the business because of it. You saw the ball get dropped because of it. So it's just like, you know, everything's got to be on point. Right. Everything across the board in the business. It was just everything from, you know, if I. If I had to. We started doing direct mail, you know, and we got the labels, and we put the labels on these little ugly postcards that we had at the beginning and then the stamps. So when I got somebody to do that in the office, it was just Very meticulous. I look, here's exactly how you need to do it. Like if there was a label put on that was crooked. No, like you need to do that again.

Yeah.

It's got to be on point. It's got to be straight. Right. And same thing, same thing with the paperwork. Movers came back missing signatures, you know, there was consequences for that.

Yeah.

You can't just come back, miss. Like, everything's got to be on point.

You're setting a standard.

Exactly.

For everything. Now for, for like a guy like this guy in this situation, I assume he's, he's kind of just getting started. What do you, like, do you remember your first process or what would you tell him to kind of get in place?

You know, first the moving parts. Yeah, right. I mean, so, you know, like, to me, morning dispatch was the biggest event. Mm. 6:30 in the morning, we got to the office, movers were all there waiting outside. Right. We let the drivers inside the building.

But the movers had to stay out.

The, the helpers had to stay out. I mean, if there was a blizzard, you know, squeeze them all in. But like, other than that, I, you know, because otherwise it's too much. It's.

It's chaos.

Yeah, it's chaos. Right. We needed order. But just the way that, you know, I think if I don't remember exactly what the first process was. Right. But you know, getting those, the time sheets and the, and the job description stapled to the contract, that was big. Making sure that I had the moves written up on contracts the night before by 3 o', clock, that was a, that was a process that I did for me. Right. I'm like, I've got to create order for me, otherwise I'm going to be here all night, I'm not going to know. There's always reaction. There's always something you could be doing.

Yeah.

If you don't take the things that must get done and say, I'm going to do them by this time in this particular way, you're just gonna have chaos. So the contracts had to be done by 3 o' clock for the next day, which meant the confirmation calls to the customer had to be done, then the contract had to be written up. Then. You know, back then There was no GPS. Okay. There was, you know, I think MapQuest or something. Just remember before that it was just, we had map books.

Yeah.

So you would go to the back to the index, look up the address, flip to the page where it was. Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Make a copy of that page and Then highlight the route for the driver, like off the highway to get there.

Even that.

Staple that to the back of the contract. Wow. So you know why? Because I can't have guys getting lost.

Yeah.

And that stemmed from guys getting lost. I don't know where I'm going. All right, well, now that's not happening anymore. You're going to know exactly where you're going. I'm going to make sure you know exactly where you're going. I don't push. I didn't push that off on them. And say you guys figured out you guys. No, we made the copy the night before, highlighted the route. They knew exactly where they needed to go. So you know the whole. And they knew that the minute I had the Nextel walkie talkies at the time where it was like, yeah, yeah. And they all got one of those when they went out. And they had to. First of all, they had to be gone out of the office by 7 o'. Clock. So it was like 6:30. We dispatch. Okay. You had to be gone by 7, meaning 7 o'. Clock. I was out in the yard. Now I'm kind of thinking now once I'm in my office. Right. I had a lot more time in the office than I did in the truck rental yard. I'd come out, what's up? What's going on? Let's go. What else do you guys need? Do you need some boxes? You need tape? You need directions? All right, come on, let's go, let's go. Like get them out of the yard. Okay. Because start times are 8 o'. Clock.

Yeah, Right.

You get to the job by 8 o'. Clock. So 8 o' clock comes, here's, you know, another little process. Right. These are just like little things that. If you could just make these little things on point.

Yeah.

Keep them on point and just keep stacking more of them. Right. That's when you start to have a great business. But 8 o' clock, by 8:05, if I didn't hear from them. Cheap chirp. Where are you guys at?

Mm.

Oh, we're here. Okay, what's your start time then? Oh, we've been here since 8. Okay, great, thanks. Like, I made sure that I got to start time from each and every one of them. Yeah, Right. I want to know when you're loading. Right. I want to know when you're 30 minutes to an hour before unloading. So there was. There was really a process for everything because for me it was the only. I don't know how I knew to do that. But it was the only way I knew how to keep everything from just feeling like it was overwhelming and chaotic. I had to kind of pin it down and make it more predictable.

When. When you found something that wasn't working before you were. You were able to create a process or get a handle on it, did you feel like a failure? Did you feel like you weren't, you know, running your business the way you should be? And how did you deal with that, just personally as the owner? Were people looking at you going, he doesn't know what he's doing? Like, that kind of stuff?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, like, there was times where, you know, we had. You know, when I did the office, I had, like, the dispatch office. I got this first office. There was no carpet in the whole thing. Right. But what I did was I first worked out of the front room. Then I moved into a different room and cut a window out so that the movers would come into, like, the lobby and come up to the window. Kind of like a bank teller. Right. And I would deal with them through the window and pass contracts and money and all that through the window. But, you know, there was times where, you know, something would happen and they're all standing there just, like, staring at you.

Yeah.

You know, and you know that they're. You know, they're thinking, oh, this guy doesn't know what he's doing. This and that. It was stressful, man. It was stressful. I mean, and at the time, like, I was. I mean, I was eating fast food three times a day. I wasn't taking care of myself. I was working seven days a week. You know, Sunday was my, like, you know, kind of off day. But we ran jobs on Sundays. I booked moves on Sundays. I just basically forwarded the phones to my cell phone and, like, went and, you know.

Yeah. Did whatever.

Like, nothing.

Worked from a different location. Yeah.

Yeah. Went to lunch and went to the mall and bought some new sneakers. Like, that was the extent of my fun and excitement.

Yeah.

So, no, I mean, there was. I mean, I remember a time vividly. It was the end of the month. It was, you know, super busy, and I was there by myself. Like, my friend didn't come yet. Right. So it was. It was with. Within the first six months of being in business, I'm in the office, on the floor in a ball, waiting for trucks with such excruciating pain in my stomach where it felt like there was a knife. Somebody was stabbing me in my stomach, and I'm on the floor, like, all right. What's your finish time? Whoa. More. Have any packing? Like, just trying to hold it together. And it was so bad. I never experienced anything like that and found out it was an ulcer. Wow. You know, from. From the food. The stress that, you know, it was just combined. And so, you know, I needed to deal with that, which at first was through medicine and then, you know, just kind of changing some of my. Some of my habits. But I think the stress was mostly, like, probably like, I'm not good enough. Right? Like, can I do this? Am I fooling myself? Like, can I really run a bit? Like, I was. I was pushing to grow it, while at the same time, like, I believed I could do it, but I also doubted I could do it.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Voice in the back of your head.

Yeah, it was. There was kind of that.

Yeah.

You know, one on each shoulder. Go get it. You can't do this. Go get it. You can't do this.

Oh, man. Now, if. Would you say that failure is necessary? It's a crucial part of it, or is it possible to. I mean, now I know it is because of what we do. It's. You know, there's a way to avoid a lot of these mistakes. But do you recommend that, you know, people, especially when they're first starting out, did. Do they accept a failure, get used to failure, or, like, how do you deal with the failure in the beginning as opposed to how you dealt with it 10 years into it?

You know, the failure sucks. Right. And it can happen on a daily basis. You know, you might fail to book a move. You might book a move and then fail to service the move because somebody doesn't show up. You know, it's like, your company could fail. You could fail. You could fail to pay your bills that month. Yeah, right. So because you have had failures doesn't make you a failure. Like, you've had failures. Right? And you'll continue to have failures, but it doesn't define you as a failure.

And did you always believe that?

Apparently, yeah. I mean, I kept going in my mind. I had this vid. In my mind. I'm like, I know I'm gonna make money. I'm gonna make a million dollars in this business. I'm gonna become a millionaire. Like, I'm gonna get this type of house. I'm gonna have these type of cars. I'm gonna live this type of life. Like, that was in my mind. And everything else was kind of an obstacle in the way that just needed to be overcome. And it started to become Game. It started to become, you know, a sport, if you will, that, you know, you get beat down and you're not good at it at first. You know, if you first, you know, if you're like a little skinny kid and you try to start playing tackle football, you're gonna get beat down pretty hard. And, like, that's how it was at the beginning. But as you keep going, you know, you build strength, you learn techniques, you start to understand the rules of the game, right. Then you start to see exactly what it's going to take to win the game. And even though, you know, okay, I need to do this, this, this and this, you can't physically get it all done right away. Right. So a lot of my stress came from, you know, I could see where I wanted to go. Right. But then it was like, there's this. All this shit in my way.

Yeah.

That I need to deal with, and you can only. So it was like learning how to deal with that and learning how to manage yourself, you know, became the biggest ticket to moving on. And again, I really believe that having everything in order, structured processes. I mean, they were processes, right. I mean, they weren't in writing yet. I didn't call them standard operating procedures yet. I mean, I didn't make up that term. And that's. That's what they're called.

Yeah.

Um, and I didn't formalize it, but there was still structure. There was still a way that things needed to be handled, and I made sure of that.

Yeah, yeah. Our guy, his question was about, you know, how were you able to have so much success at such a young age for. For someone in his position, what's the. What's the advice you would give them as far as, like, you know, where they should start? Should it. Should they start creating processes? Should they, you know, work on their personal, you know, organization and attitude and stuff like that? Like, where do they begin to find the success?

Well, it really is a mindset first, Right. And so for me, you know, now I call, I say the millionaire. You know, I had a millionaire mover mindset.

Yeah.

I. I wasn't necessarily calling it the millionaire mover mindset. I've kind of labeled that sense after looking at, like, what was the mindset that I had? And I got that from looking at it and seeing people making millions of dollars in this business and believing that if they could do it, I could do it. So you've got to be able to believe that it's possible. Right. And so, like, if you're listening to this if you're watching this, it's possible, right? I mean, the moving business is a great business. It's possible to make that money. You just have to believe it, and then you have to do what it takes. And, like, now there's. I mean, just listen. Somebody just listening to this podcast could take, you know, going back and listening to all the episodes could take so much away from it. Yeah, right. Somebody going to, you know, one of our seminars twice a year. I mean, like, there's. There's tools to not have to go through it all again. Yeah, Right. But you first have to believe it, because if you don't believe it and you don't have this, like, vision beyond the obstacles, some reason for doing what you're doing, and it doesn't really matter what that reason is. You don't have to have some big purpose like, you know, I'm doing this to save the world, or what your reason could be like, hey, I want to drive nice cars and impress some girls. You know what I mean? I want a nice house. Right. Whatever it is, you've got to see, like, why you're doing it so that you can move past all the obstacles in the way. That's. That's the first step. Right. Okay. The next step is you've got to just, you know, you've got to have a certain level of standard that things have to be right. And realize that if you are the owner of the company and you're the boss, you have to be that person that sets that tone, that keeps that rigidy that says, you know, this is. You know, it's got to be this way where everyone's gonna want to fight you. Every. All your employees are gonna want to, like, resist. Yeah, they want to resist. They don't want to do it like that. They want to do it their way. They want to do it their way. But if you have a bunch of people doing everything their way, even if they have the best intentions.

Yeah.

They're all still going in different directions.

Yeah.

Right. The best way to go is everybody in line going the same way. So, you know, other than that, how do you.

How do you get everybody to fall in line?

Well, let me just hit on this point. Yeah. Because he was asking what it takes, you know, how to be successful.

Yeah.

The other thing is, you've got to realize the critical components that go into running a moving company, and you have to get good at them.

Yeah.

Lead generation starts there. You've got to be able to have the phone ring or people request an estimate or you don't have any business. Right? Yeah. So you've got to get good at that. You can't say, I just want to run a moving company. I don't want to deal with, you know, marketing. I don't want to learn marketing. But the truth is, like, you've got to learn marketing.

Yeah.

You've got to be the best marketer in your company. Right. You can't. I'm gonna get a marketing company to do this and do that. No, you've got to learn it yourself. Right. Then once you generate the leads, you need to book moves. Right. It's a whole different ball game now than it was when I first started. Okay. So there's, there's, you know, there's some pros and cons for each. When I first started putting ad in yellow pages and I sat back and answered the phone and just booked moves, I didn't ask anybody for their information. I didn't follow up with anybody. But there was just a lot of calls coming in. Now it's different. You get a lead from your website, you get a lead from a lead provider. They're going and they're talking to, you know, five different companies. You've got to have your sales process down. Like, that's. So my sales process at the beginning, when I first started, when I'm driving around, no office at the beginning, Right. I would dispatch the trucks in the morning. Right. Then I would drive around from apartment complex to apartment complex, just walking in at first with a company sweatshirt and an ugly ass business card, talking to them, giving it to them. Hey, you know, if we send you some, if you send me some moves, you know, I'll give you this or give you that. Right. I refined it later on, but at first it was very basic. In between driving around, my phone would ring. You know, I'd pick up, somebody would want to quote for a move. Sure. I'd pull over to the side. I had my little three ring binder where I had my script in there that I wrote out for myself.

Wow.

And kept, you know, like, I would fine tune the script. I would find myself going off the script because I'm reading it. But like, I kind of felt like there was something better to say right there. And I would fine tune that script, which I did for years until I finally came up with, you know, the script now that we have in our moving sales academy program. And I had all, you know, I started to write down all the objections that customers would have, all the reasons that they said they wouldn't book with me now, I started to write those down and then I would write down what I'm gonna say next time. All right, Next time they say that I'm gonna say this, right? And I'm like, wow, they're booking with me. So my sales always was strong right from the beginning. Right. You cannot build a successful moving company unless you've got a strong sales process. Period. Yeah, period. You know, people say, Louis, why? You know, you came out with moving sales academy, you know, like, why not operation stuff? Why not, you know, all the other stuff that you now have? I said, because the number one thing that would impact moving companies the most is setting up their sales process up front.

Yeah.

Because otherwise the lead generation that you do, it's a total waste if it comes in. And you don't have, you know, your follow up in order, you don't have your script in order, you don't have your rebuttals in order, you don't have, you know, the way that you're going to manage all of that lined up, you're just gonna be losing money.

Yeah. Down the drain.

And then after that, it's servicing moves. Right. So these are, these are the fundamentals. I mean, there's really five fundamental areas of the business. You've got lead generation, booking moves, servicing moves. So the ability to hire and get movers at your office, to be able to put them on a truck, to get them to the customer's house. I know it sounds basic, but this is just a critical component at the beginning. Then in this modern day, you've got the next step is create raving fans. Okay. Because if you don't start, if you don't have five star reviews, if you don't have a great online presence in 2020, you're done. Yeah, you're done. You know, you're spending a lot of money on marketing to get leads that are converting lower because when they check you out, you don't have a good reputation. And the fifth step is accounting and reporting. So, you know, for someone that is like, hey, I'm anybody, I don't care. What I've realized in the few years of doing this and working with companies is that everybody at every level has areas that they can improve. Yeah, right. We've got areas we could improve in the business. We're not immune to it. I mean, everybody and I always had areas I can improve in the moving company too. But if you take a look at just the five fundamentals of lead generation, Booking moves, servicing moves, creating raving fans, and then your accounting and reporting piece and just say, okay, how could I. How can I just tighten that up? How could I get that all in order and on point? You'll start to see your profits go up at whatever level you're at in the business. And you just keep repeating that. You'll get the success you're looking for.

That's great. That's awesome. Well, yeah, I think we sort of answered this question. I mean, we got to it in.

A roundabout way, but did we not answer? What's the question again?

No, I guess he said, you know, how did. How did you have so much success at such a young age? I think maybe that's where I was.

Just young when I started. Yeah, that's it. I mean, it's not. It's. It's.

But I mean, maybe he's asking, like, maybe he was. Maybe he's 19 right now. Maybe he's, you know, starting to rent a couple trucks or whatever. Is it. Is it an age thing? I mean, can anybody at any age, you know, become successful in the business? Or is there something special you did at 19 that you can't do at 35?

I mean, look, I didn't have a. I didn't have a family, meaning I didn't have, like, a wife and kids. Yeah, right. Like I do now. You know, I don't know that I could have put in those hours. Like, I, you know, like, you know, like, the way I work then and the way I work now is completely different. Yeah, but if I didn't have the tools and have learned. Learn the lessons that I learned between 19 and now I'm 39, like. And I'm in a place where I'm very happy with my work life situation because I've cultivated that over the years.

Yeah.

But if I didn't have those tools and I was 39 and I had a wife and a young baby and I needed to go make it happen. Yeah, I would go make it happen.

Yeah.

Again, period. Because you need to do what you need to do. So it's like I could look at and go, I got to work hard because I didn't have anybody at home. Right. Okay, well, you know what? Even if I had somebody at home, then the first year and a half to two years that I really went hard, built momentum for a long time that lasted. And I'm just. I'm not a believer. Everybody. I'm too old. I'm too young. I come from this community. I come from this background. I come from this country. I like Everybody can have an excuse. I could have had an excuse. I was too young. Right. I was too skinny. Right. Like, I think if we look at our, our, our, you know, perceived shortcomings, we could always find an excuse why not to start. Yeah, right. But, but unless you're, you know, 13 years old or you're 85 years old. Right. It might be challenging at those two extremes to start. Yeah, but if you're in your working years, I mean, you could start. I mean, and not even start. It's more about, go further, you know, like so. And right now I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about him. Let's, let's assume he's 19. Think next time. Let's ask. Let's get some more, like, data next time. Yeah, they ask the questions, just responds, hey, this is Chris.

Yeah, I'll follow up, maybe get a.

Little detail, get some more details, because I'd love to, you know, find out and be able to help them directly. But, you know, I think about somebody that's, that's 19, and I think about somebody that's maybe like 55 that owns a moving company that's just kind of, you know, they're like, man, I'm just gonna coast. You know, I've had this company for 30 years and, you know, things are so different now, and things are so, so, so challenging now, and I'm just gonna coast. All it takes is a few good years to get yourself on track to significantly make more money, reduce your stress, create yourself a model business that if you're at that, you know, that later stage of your career, like, it's time to set that shit up.

Yeah.

Like, don't wait until you're in a position where you just can't work anymore and you have a business now that's worth nothing. Right. Tell yourself, I'm going to spend the next three to five years getting this thing so in order that when I'm done, I could sell it.

Yeah.

And I could walk away, you know, and if you're. There's no excuse. There's no excuse. It's. It's all we get. Our own worst enemy is us. If you want to know your. Your own worst enemy, just look in the mirror. Right. It's all perceived things that we, we tell ourselves. I can't do this. What about that? It's all, it's all fear. And, you know, learning how to overcome that is something that. Everybody should be on that journey too. You know, don't just master your business, master your mind. Right, Right. Which Again, mastery is not. It's a journey. Right. Like, it's. I haven't mastered my business, I haven't mastered my mind, but I'm a lot further than I was if I didn't make that decision to do so. Right. So, like, wherever he's at, you've got it. You've got to take the steps. Right. Like people. People want the success, but they don't want to do the work.

Yeah.

They don't want to do the work. Or they want the shortcut. Right. The shortcut is finding out information of someone that's been there before, has done it, and be able to, you know, at least have the. The map of where to go. But you've still got to do the miles. You still got to put in the work.

Yeah.

No matter what.

Yeah.

So. And there will be times where it's challenging. There will be times where you want to quit. There will be times where it doesn't seem like you're going to get out of whatever predicament you're in, and you've just got to believe that you will. Right. And just keep going.

Yeah. You have that. That same unstoppable drive that whether you're 19 or you're 55, like you said, that's it.

That's it. Every. Every problem is a solvable problem.

Yeah.

You know, every obstacle can be overcome. And it's, you know, it's, it's. It's that I think what trips a lot of people up is they, you know, they want it to be a certain way and they want it to be perfect. And when it's not perfect, or when the employee doesn't do it exactly how they want to do it, or when the move goes not as planned, or the customer's a pain in the ass or whatever, it's like, you just got to know that stuff's gonna happen. Like, every time something bad happened in my company and somebody would freak out, and this was, this was first me having a tell myself this. It's like it's going to happen again. You know, truck blows over on the highway, ruins the whole shipment. I'm like, you know what? Probably happen again someday. So let me not be surprised. Yeah, right. You know, you just gotta. There's things that are going to happen in business, they're not going to always be good. Right. And you just got to move past them. That's it. Fix it and move on. Yeah. Yeah.

Fail forward.

Yeah.

Yeah. Awesome. Good. Well, I hope that helps. You know, young guys out there. That's how you do it.

And old guys and young ladies and old ladies and everybody in between.

That's right. That's great. Well, thanks for filling us in on that. I mean, I feel like there's. There's so much to learn, you know, about the moving business and about the processes and everything that you. You've. The journey you've been on, but in the end, you end up learning about yourself.

I think this is the best business for that.

Yeah.

I think if you, you know, like, I know just coming up in the business, right? Like, just people that I knew that had other companies or partners, like, I'm going to get out of this business someday. I'm going to do something else great. Like, this will prepare you for something else. Everybody's always looking for that, you know, glamorous thing to do. Right. And moving business isn't glamorous. There's nothing glamorous about it.

Yeah.

Okay. But it's a way for you to provide a service to the community and make money. What's wrong with that? And if it's something that you have a, you know, you want to go be a. An architect one day or you want to open up a bar, you want to be a musician or whatever, and something else that you have, but this is what's in front of you right now. Go make money with this. Set up a model business and sell it. Right. I mean, that, like, give yourself that head start. Spend the next three years, five years, just really putting it in, really dialing it in. And then sell the thing, cash out, and go do whatever it is you want to do.

Yeah.

You know, but don't. Don't waste the precious time that's in front of you with something that you know is essentially such a great business. Because no matter what happens, people always need to move.

Move. Yeah. Right? It's part of life. It's part of life, and we're happy to help them out.

Yep.

Good. Anything else you'd like to add?

That's it. So we will. We'll see you on the next episode. Listen, do me a favor. If you like this, this. This podcast, if you like this particular episode, go to iTunes. ITunes, podcast. Give me a rating on there. Give me a comment. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you like about it. If you didn't like something about it, let me know as well. And go find me on Instagram. It's Ouismasaro. That's L O U I S M A S S A R O. Take a screenshot of you listening to this. Take a picture of you watching the video, send it to me. If you've got questions that you want us to feature on the podcast, just DM me in Instagram and we'll try to get it in as soon as possible. My goal is to help each and every person in this business get away from the struggle, be able to scale their business without the uncertainty, without the stress, be able to make more money, have a smoother running business, and live a better quality of life. So I hope that I was able to do that for you in this episode, my friend. Chris, thanks for being here and we will see you guys next time. Go out there every single day. Profit in your business and thrive in your life. Hey, my friend, I hope you enjoyed that video. Make sure you subscribe to this channel, and if you're really ready to take your moving company to that next level, watch that video right there. And until I see you in the next one, go out there every single day. Profit in your business and thrive in your life.