Why I Became a Moving Business Mentor

Hey, my friend. It's Louis Massaro, author of 10 Rules of a Profitable Moving Company and founder of Moving Mastery. I want to welcome you to the first video in a series that I'm putting together on the moving business where I'm going to be sending out weekly content on how to help moving company owners. Just like you. Profit in business and thrive in life. You see, I started my first moving company when I was 19 years old. I was a little 19 year old kid. I had no money. You know, I rented two trucks that I kept parked in the truck rental yard. I drive there every morning to dispatch my crews. You know, half the guys that I tried to hire thought it was a joke. Here I was, this young kid working out of a truck rental yard, you know, and I was interviewing them in my car, trying to, you know, hire great guys to come work for me. And, you know, it was tough. It's a tough business to be in and to get it started with, you know, know, really with nothing, with two rental trucks, some advertising and, you know, answering and booking all the moves from my cell phone as I drove around and, you know, went to apartment complex and apartment complex, trying to, you know, round up business and build a little referral network, you know, I. It was a struggle, you know, but eventually I built a little system. You know, I was able to move into an office and, you know, buy some of my own trucks. And within a couple years I had a nice system that I had perfected around local moving and I started to expand and open up offices nationwide. And, you know, before long we had, you know, quite a business going. And you know, I say this because I want to put it in perspective of what's possible. And that's a lot of what these episodes are going to be about. How to grow your business, how to expand, how to make more money. Right. But at the same time, I also want to help you avoid problems because that's a really big thing for me. Because as I grew and as I went through the 2008 recession, and at that point I had offices all around the country and the recession came and it was tough and I stumbled, you know, and it was a big setback. I almost went bankrupt. I mean, we had trucks, I mean, 60 trucks and advertising and warehouses and employees. And it was, it was tough when that time came and it was something that took me a year or so to bounce back from. But when I did, I bounced back stronger than ever and decided that I was going to start brokering moves, I was going to sell my Long distance trucks and broker moves. I thought it was a great plan at the time. I figured if all I have to do is focus on selling and I can find someone else to service these moves, it'll be great. So I did that. I sold my long distance trucks, I started brokering moves. And what I realized before long is that it wasn't the same as when we used to, you know, service our own moves with our own trucks. And now we're relying on other people, and not all of them were, you know, had the same values that we had. And they didn't treat the customer, you know, with the respect and integrity that we did when we did our moves. And, you know, we had a move that shipper got in a dispute with the carrier, carrier wouldn't unload their stuff. That move turned into an investigation, you know, and four years later, you know, as we were doing 12,000 moves a year, I ended up pleading guilty to felony charges for running a brokerage business. And, you know, even though all of our paperwork was right, it just, you know, it just led to that. And, you know, at the time I saw it and I looked at, you know, how many complaints we had versus how many moves we did, and I just thought that it was such a low amount, and I didn't understand why, you know, I was involved in this, you know, legal situation now. And, you know, as I went through that and as it's, you know, now behind me, and I came out of it and my local companies were still good, and I realized that it was based on just poor decisions that I made and a decision to try to take the easy way by brokering moves and not having a control over it. And I looked back at that and it was a mistake. I don't want to see anybody else make that mistake. As I went through this whole process, it dawned on me. I'm like, you know what? I want to help as many people as I possibly can. Because when I came up in this industry, I was 19 years old. I started my business in 2000, and I had nobody to turn to. You know, I read a ton of books, I had some mentors, but nobody that had really ever been there in this business to kind of guide me and help me make the right choices and the right decisions with my business. You know, I learned so much from trial and error and making mistakes and, you know, coming back from those mistakes. And it was time consuming and it was stressful, and, you know, if I could help you not make some of the same mistakes that I made and I could share all of the success that I had and all of the sales and marketing and operations, you know, strategies and processes and procedures. That's what I want to do. Because you know what? I look back and I look at when I was starting in the business, and if I had someone to kind of share how they did it with me, I might have not have done it exactly how they did it, but it would have, like, shed some light on certain ways that things could be done. And that's what I hope to do for you. So that's what these videos every week are going to be about. It's going to be about, you know, me sharing some information and you taking what you want from it, using it or not. You know, it's not that my way is the right way, and I'm not sharing this information to prove how much I know. It's not about that. It's more about how can I help? How can I serve and help you create a better business? Because you know what? This is a tough business. The moving business is tough. I mean, you know, everything from your employees to the customers. I mean, you're dealing with people in one of their most stressful times, and, you know, you have to deal with who's showing up for work or trucks breaking down. Do you have enough money for marketing? I mean, it's tough, and I've been there and I know what it's like. If I could help somebody kind of get to that next level, to where it's not as stressful and there's more money coming in. Because I believe that you can't just profit in your business. My motto is profit in business and thrive in life. You need to have systems in place, processes in place, checks and balances and ways to make sure that. That you could have a profitable business, but you're not there 80 hours a week. You know, to where you could work on your business and not always be in your business, Right? To where you could take some time away and enjoy your life, you know, and in this business, if you're going to own a moving company, if you're going to be in the moving business, there's a lot of responsibility, there's a lot of liability, and it's a lot of work. You deserve to make a lot of money. You know, if you do a good job and you go out there every day and you service the customers the right way and you create raving fans, you need to make a lot of money in this business or it's not worth it. You know, it's tough. It's a tough business. So, you know, that's really my mission. I know that there's good movers out there. I, as a broker, I dealt with a lot of companies across the country and I know there's some really, really good hearted people out there that really want to do the right thing. And I know that some of them struggle with some of their sales processes and their marketing processes and just structuring their business. But I know that if they had those processes in their hands and they had some of the sales and marketing strategies, that the public would receive better service because, you know, they would get more moves. And I know there's a lot of good movers out there and I know there's some bad movers out there too. And I know there's some people that, you know, customer service might not be their top priority, but it might not be because they're bad people. They might just not know, you know, a better way of doing it. Right? So listen, I've run, you know, moving companies all across the country. You know, I started a brokerage division which, you know, I wish I hadn't done. But you know what? It led me to this. And I want to be of service to you. I want to help you build your business, grow your business. I'm going to be doing weekly videos just like this, but we're going to talk about specific things that you can implement in your company to help you grow, to help you get to that next level. Because, you know, if you're just in this to make a living, I challenge you to set your sights a little higher because you can make a lot of money in the moving business and that's what you should want to do. Because again, it's tough. So if you can create a company that you could pass down to your kids, or create a company that you could sell at some point and not have to work anymore, that's what you should be shooting for. So I don't care if you're just starting out, I don't care if you have 10 locations already. There's always that next level for somebody, right? So if I could share some information to help inspire you to get to that next level. Right? That's what I want to do. So if there's anything, any videos, any topics, anything you need help with, leave comments, let me know, I'll do a video on it. I'll be more than happy to help you. All right? If you're not signed up for my blog, head over to LouisMassaro.com Sign up for my blog. I'm going to be sending out weekly videos, information on the moving business, information on business in general, on mindset, right, how to get yourself in the right mindset to get to that next level. You know, how to think like a millionaire mover and not just, you know, create a job for yourself, but create a business that makes money for you. So, you know, sign up for my blog. I'm going to be on social media, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. If there's anything I could help you with, please leave me a comment, let me know. I'm going to be sending out these videos for free. And listen, I'm honored to be able to help and I'm here to serve. So let me know what I can do, let me know what you need help with and I'm going to be more than happy to do a video and help you out. All right, so thanks for checking this out. Go out there. Profit in business, thrive in life. I hope to see you soon.