Your First Million In The Moving Business
Louis Massaro lays out five steps to hit $1M in the moving business: know your numbers through QuickBooks, document your sales process with scripts and upsells, master one service before expanding, adopt a million-dollar mindset, and invest in coaching.
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It's Louis Massaro. And welcome to another episode of the Moving Mastery podcast.
What's up, Facebook? Before I begin, if you're not already signed up for Moving Sales Academy live, which is March 15th through 17th, make sure you go to movingseminar.com check out the details, see all the speakers, see what you'll learn, watch the testimonial videos, and come join us March 15 through 17. But I wanted to jump in and address a question that I received in yesterday's live video, which was, you know, yesterday I was talking about how to reach your next million in the moving business, right? You know, you've already hit that million dollar mark and you want to go to that next level, right? Maybe you're at seven figures, you want to go to eight figures. So talking about that yesterday, someone left a comment. I can't remember the name right now. I'm sorry, but who said, you know, Louis, how do I get to my first million? Right? Which is typically where a lot of people are. And so I wanted to address that because I think it's really important that everyone out there in this business realizes that with the right things in place, that a million is not really that challenging to get to. Right? And I know a lot of people say, louis, I've been trying to get to a million for a long time and I'm struggling to get there. So I just want to give you five things here that'll help you get to your first million in the moving business. And this is also will help you even go past that as well, because there's certain principles that stand true no matter what level you're at, right? But in the beginning, it's a very challenging time because it's a lot of hustle, it's a lot of hard work, but you want to make sure that you're focusing on the right things because a lot of times it could feel like you're just working day and night. You're up early, dispatching trucks, you're up late clocking out crews, booking moves, you're working on the weekend, it could be overwhelming. And sometimes you're not really in a position to start thinking about what are the things that are really important. So if I had to start all over today or if I was working with a company where, you know, they had not hit that million dollar mark yet, and what are the things that I would have them focusing on to be able to, you know, reach that level, right? I want to give you those here now, by the way, if you're Just joining us, make sure you join us next month. If you can make it out to Arizona, spend three days, come to moving Sales Academy live. I won't get into it. There's a link here, just go to movingseminar.com, come and join us and let me help you get to that next million with three days of full immersion. Alright, but let's get into this. So five things that you need to do if you're trying to reach that first million in your moving business, alright? So whether you're just starting, whether you've been maybe, maybe been at that 250, 500, 750 a year mark and you're just trying to get there to that million, the first thing that I'm going to tell you is that you need to know your numbers. Okay, Sounds basic, sounds simple, all right, but you need to know your numbers. And what numbers am I talking about specifically? Alright, so the numbers that you need to know are, you know, you definitely need to have a marketing report, marketing ROI report that's going to allow you to see all of your marketing, what's working, what's not working so that you could spend that money wisely, okay? Because it's going to be very, very challenging to get past a million if you're not spending money on marketing, right? It's going to take you either, you know, it's either going to take time or it's going to take money, right? So if you want to wait, you know, 10 years to just get that, you know, repeat and referral business that just coming in, that adds up to that point, that's one way to go about it. Otherwise you need to fuel the engine with marketing, which I would recommend for anybody. No matter how much repeat and referral business you're getting, as long as it is profitable, right? So you want to make sure that you're able to see each individual lead source, what's profitable, what's not profitable. Because when you're just starting out, when you're trying to hit that million dollar mark, you need to make sure that every dollar you're spending is having an impact, right? And that's what it's all about. It's all about the money you spend and getting that return on your investment to make sure you're not just wasting money, right? Because just because you book a move doesn't mean that it's a profitable move. And that starts with the marketing dollars that you spend. The next numbers that you need to know are your operational numbers, right? You need to be able to take A look at the amount of jobs that you're doing, right? You need to be able to look at what the average move is and how you can get that average move up, how much packing you're selling, right? What your payroll percentage is in comparison to your overall move, how much of that is going to payroll. Because a lot of companies, you know, that are, that are, you know, really everywhere, but definitely under that million dollar mark that are trying to reach that million. It's, you know, it's, it's trying to figure out what's working. And, you know, maybe they feel like they need to lower their price or pay guys more or whatever the case may be. But if you don't have a good grasp on your numbers, right, on your operational numbers, especially your payroll numbers, you don't really know what it's costing you to do a move. You could be very tempted to lower your prices to compete with some of the companies out there that might be given low prices, right? And just because someone else is out there giving low prices does not mean it's the thing to do, right? Somebody new in the industry. But, oh, if they're charging that amount, maybe I should charge that amount. And what happens a lot of times I've seen it happen time and time again is that those companies will either eventually raise their rates when they realize they're losing money or, or they go out of business. Simple as that, right? So another set of reports you definitely want to be on top of is your profit and loss. All right? So get yourself QuickBooks online. Enter in all of your income in there, enter in all of your expenses in there and start keeping track of it, okay? Just at a bare minimum, start keeping track of all your income and all your expenses. There's a lot more to that. There's a lot more to your cash flow and being able to understand all of that. But it all starts with just getting in a routine of reviewing your numbers, right? Because you need to be able to set a benchmark for yourself on where you're at, right? What's your payroll percentage? Don't worry about what other people are saying that industry average is and stuff like that. See where you're at now and are you profitable at that point? And then you could start making adjustments based on that. Because you know what, it's different everywhere, right? And someone might be spending, you know, big money on a warehouse, for example. So if you ask somebody, hey, what's your percentage of, you know, what's your, you know, what percentage of your overall income do you Spend on fuel or do you spend on marketing? A lot of that could be thrown off by different factors of, you know, how much they're spending in truck payments or how much they're spending for a warehouse and things like that. So you want to just know your numbers and make sure you have that benchmark. From there you'll start to get the clarity. All right, so that's the first thing you need to do is know your numbers.
To reach past that million dollar mark. The next thing is.
You need to switch the order of these here, let's see. Develop a sales process. And this is crucial. I mean, this is what allowed me to go from working out of a truck rental yard, $0 income to, to $20 million a year over time and build several locations around the US Is the fact that I treated this like a business and created a sales process behind it and didn't just say, you know what, I'm generating calls, I'll book moves. Which is what I did at first, right. But then I said, you know what, there needs to be a solid process behind this in order for me to guarantee that I'm continuously booking moves all year long without having to worry about what's happening. Because if you're spending money on marketing, you know what, no matter how you're generating leads, even if all your stuff is repeat and referral business, if that's coming into your company and you don't have a solid sales process, let me give you an idea what a sales process looks like. So first of all, it all starts with being able to take care of lead management. Meaning every phone call and every lead that comes in, you're able to kind of take that through a system from start to finish, knowing that you did everything along the way to give it the best shot to get that move book. Then once you handle the lead management, then you need to get some foundations in place. I call it your sales framework. And that's really setting up your sales scripts, setting up your policies to know, hey, when do we send out an on site estimator? When do we do it over the phone? Right? How do we handle certain things like follow up after we give an estimate, which is where a lot of companies are just losing a lot of money, or I should say leaving a lot of money on the table for somebody else to get, not having that process set up. Right. Then training your staff and your sales team to actually how to sell, understanding the psychology of sales and how to sell each move and what the customer's looking for and how to Take them and lead them to the sale, right? Not being pushy, but leading them to the sale by educating them through the process and having a strong sales script to do that. Then you have to have your hiring processes for how you hire strong salespeople, how you train them, right? To be able to not only book moves properly, right? Give accurate estimates, but close the deal also, right? Get that move on the schedule and you know, after that you have to be able to know how to manage that whole sales process, right? What to be doing on a daily basis to make sure you and your team are doing what you're supposed to do. Because to cross that million dollar mark, you know you're going to need a team, right? You're going to need to, you know, because I would imagine you don't want to just barely cross the million dollar mark, right? You want to surpass that mark, right? And typically once you could do that, then you could really start focusing on different things that will get you to your next million.
And then the final part of the sales process is the move multiplier. How do you take the same moves that you get now, the same moves that you book and be able to add additional services to those to where you make more money per move? Alright, so you definitely need to have a sales process in place from as soon as you get in the business, period. If you want to learn how to do this, come join us at Moving Sales Academy for three days. I promise when you leave, you will have this whole thing mapped out. You'll know exactly what you need to do. Just go to moving seminar.com. but to cross that first million, you've got to have that sales process in place. The next thing that you need to do to get to your first million, focus on one thing at a time. All right? This is something that I see so many people fail or if they don't fail, they don't achieve what they could in the amount of time that in other words, they could get it done a lot quicker had they really focused in on one thing. And what I mean by this is when I got into the business, I did local moving, all right? I did local moving and I did storage. And for seven years that's what I focused on. Okay? 100%. Local moves, local moves, local moves. We were getting a lot of phone calls. People wanted to move long distance, I turned them away, right? We would just refer them out to, you know, a van line in the, in the area and say, you know, call them. We're only a local moving company too Many people, instead of saying, you know what, let me dial in and know my numbers so where I know where the money's going and let me get my sales process on point. They're like, hey, you know, I opened, I bought some leads, you know, we're booking moves, but we're stuck at this, you know, 250 a year mark. I don't know how to get past this. Maybe the answer is I need to start doing long distance moving. Maybe the answer is I need to get in the commercial moving. Maybe I need to, you know, talk to this person I know and open up another location somewhere else. The answer is you've got to focus on one thing. So if what you're doing now is local moving, stay focused on local moving. Just do it with excellence, okay? Just learn what you need to learn to up the game. Know your numbers so that you can make tweaks and adjustments, right? It's not all about what comes in in the top either. You know, we're talking about being a million dollar company. I don't want you to be a million dollar company that's netting $50,000 a year, right? Or even a hundred thousand dollars, you know, I want you to be a million dollar company that's, you know, you're able to bring home $200,000 for yourself, right? So you know, focus, focus is key. You know, you can only do one thing at a time, right? You can only do one thing at a time. Focus on what you do well and just do it really well instead of searching out different things to do, all right? Once you've hit that million dollar mark and you say, you know what, okay, it's time for me to go to that next million, right? Watch the video on getting to your next million where I talk about that. But stay focused. Too many people lose focus and they start chasing down shiny objects in hopes that that's going to be the answer to their financial issues. It's not. All right? Focus, discipline, determination, perseverance on that one thing. That's what's going to help you, alright? Next thing to get to that your first million in the business is you've got to have a million dollar mindset, okay? If you don't see yourself and envision yourself as someone who can have a million dollar company, you're never gonna get there. So for me, you know, I started my company, I was 19 years old, I didn't have any money, okay? Started out of a truck rental yard and worked my way up. In my mind, I knew then not only was I going to become a million dollar company. I was going to become a millionaire, right? And not only did I become a million dollar company, I became a millionaire right early only because I had that mindset and I knew where I was going. And every issue and every problem and every obstacle that popped up, I dealt with it, but I looked past it. In other words, I wasn't caught up in, oh my God, this problem stopping me. No, let's resolve this issue because I've got somewhere to go. I've got some. And that's the million dollar mindset. You've got to have that because if you don't see it, it's not going to happen. All right? There's truth in the words. If you see it and you believe it, you know, and you put in the work, you could achieve it, but you first have to see it and believe it and put in the work. So get yourself that million dollar mindset and focus on where you want to go, not just, you know, what little things do I need to do on a day to day basis and believe that you're going to reach that destination. The last thing you need to do is invest in yourself. Alright? The reason, if you've been doing this long enough, okay, and I know this might sting for some of you to hear, but if you're not just like brand new in the business and you've been struggling to pass that million dollar mark, but and it's somewhere you want to be, it's because there's something missing in the way things are being executed. All right? And so for me, I'm a lifelong student, I read every single morning for 30 minutes. I go to seminars, I take classes, I do what I need to do, coaches, mentors, to be able to make myself better, to be able to get to those next levels where I want to be. So, you know, spend the time, read books you need to read, get in courses. If you're in the moving business and you're not in, you know, my monthly program, if you're not in, you know, moving sales academy online course and you're trying to figure out how to, you know, break past that million dollar mark and the tools and the answers are there for you.
You know, chances are you don't have a million dollar mindset because you, you wouldn't say, you know what Louis, let me, you know, there's, let me kind of, you know, just look at the free stuff and let me not invest in myself because you know, it's not worth it. If you believe in yourself and you believe in the fact that if you have some tools and information like me, I'm like, hey, if I could find out what it is that I don't know and get somebody to teach me what I don't know so that I can then progress, I'm going and I'm getting that and I'm investing in myself, right? So whatever it may be, and it doesn't have to be with me, this isn't about, you know, this is for you to reach your next million. So if there's stuff out there that can help you get there, if you need to learn how to, you know, for example, if you need to set up your QuickBooks and you don't know how to do it, buy a book, learn how to do it. Buy an online course, learn how to do it. You know, if you really want to invest in yourself and you want to learn how to do all of this and you really are serious about taking your company to the next level, go to moving seminar.com, come spend three days with me. It will be life transforming for you. It will transform your business, everything you do and everywhere you go from here on in. Otherwise the people that don't invest in themselves, it's just, you know, it's continuing to do the same thing over and over and over and, or try to make these adjustments that, you know, why, why not get the shortcut? Why not, you know, allow yourself the opportunity to go further and go faster, right? So let me give you these again. So basically you've got just a recap, right? Make sure you know your numbers. All right? Again, if you come to Moving Sales Academy, we teach you all of this. Develop a sales process, all right?
Focus on one thing at a time, become a master at that one thing, then move on. Don't get distracted by different shiny objects.
Believe that you're going to be a million dollar company. Believe that you're going to be a millionaire or whatever it is you want. Maybe you want to be a thousandaire, maybe you just want to say, hey Louis, I just want to make 100,000 bucks a year for myself. Cool. There's no right or wrong. Whatever's right for you, you've got to be able to get that mindset. And, and lastly, invest in yourself. Alright, So I hope that was helpful. That was a follow up to our video of how to get to your next million in the moving business. I had people asking, alright, Louis, how do I get to my first million? So this is how you do it. Make sure you go out there every single day. Profit in your business. Thrive in your life too. Don't forget that. Make it a great day. Go to movingseminar.com, come join me next month and we'll have three days that will transform your business. I'll talk to you later.
Sam.