In this 6‑question, 7‑minute interview on the Winning at Business and Life podcast, host Professor Pete Alexander talks with Travis Crabtree, president of Swift Filings, an online incorporation service. Crabtree shares his background as an 18‑year lawyer turned entrepreneur, highlights the scale of Swift Filings—over 100,000 businesses incorporated in five years—and reflects on the ripple effect of helping new companies launch. He emphasizes that keeping employees happy is the key to happy customers and sustainable growth. Crabtree discusses the difficulty of delegation, explaining how learning to let go and train others is essential for scaling. He recommends fellow business leader David Underwood of Top Spot Internet Marketing as a guest. The conversation ends with a personal anecdote about his first job cleaning gas stations, which motivated him to pursue education and entrepreneurship, and provides contact information for Swift Filings across social platforms.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hi there, my name is Travis Crabtree. I'm the president of Swift Filings. We're an online incorporation service. I practiced law for 18 years before getting involved with Swift, but it's a better way to incorporate and help a lot of people get their business off the road, off the, uh, to get started, uh, and do it in a more efficient way as opposed to the traditional practice of law.
Travis, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
The best thing about working with Swift Filings and in our industry is doing the high volume that we do. We're celebrating 5 years now and we've done over 100,000 businesses. So yes, you know, we get involved in the daily grind and it's a lot of work and we're busy, but a lot of times we have to step back and think about what kind of impact we've had in doing all our small part in helping start 100,000 businesses has an impact on the community. Has an impact on those 100,000 people's families, and then they start hiring people, and it just becomes an exponential amount of impact and goodness for the community and the world when we help them start their business.
Oh, it's great. I mean, yeah, I love it. It's just like that big ripple effect that we talk about with the pebble that goes with the, with the waves. It's, it's an awesome business model. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Yeah, so for, in our view, it's keeping your customers— I mean, sorry, keeping your employees happy, right? And most people say the customer is always right, and there's a lot of truth to that, but it's really important to stick with your customer, stick with your employees, keep them happy, keep them engaged, because if they're engaged and they believe in your vision and your mission, they're going to provide the good service, and you're going to have happy customers. And it's sort of a, it's a, you know, rinse, repeat, and recycle impact because Happy employees relate with happy customers, and you're not going to get the pushback from your customers making it more stressful for your employees. So really, it is taking care of those employees, which will make a huge impact on your business.
Very insightful. Thank you. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
The hardest part that I had to learn was delegation. You know, at first I wanted to do it all. I wanted to make sure it was done under my standards, it was done my way. But without that, you can't grow. And so you have to learn to let go of some of that, train somebody to do it right. Again, get your good people. And once you can do that, you can then move on, move on and focus on bigger picture stuff and let them take care of that. And then they train another person and everybody gets to grow. But it's hard to let go sometimes, but you just got to do it if you're going to scale and grow your business.
Yeah, it's very insightful that you mentioned that because as a business leader, if you don't delegate, I'm assuming you just can't focus on the most important stuff that needs your time if you're bogged down in the weeds too much. Am I reading it right?
Yeah, you'll just get stuck and you'll be doing the same thing every day with that and you'll be wondering, why can't I grow? Why can't I grow? Is because you're not able to focus on those things that will allow the growth because you're just, you know, you're the one putting the stamp on the envelope for the invoice going out the door. You should not be doing that. You need to focus on growth.
Exactly. Very insightful. Thank you. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast? Sure.
One is David Underwood here in Houston, Texas. He started an internet marketing company, but the interesting thing about Top Spot Internet Marketing and David is they started it at the very beginning, and they actually did a transition into the digital marketing from more traditional. And so he's been at it for 15 years, he's really grown the business, and they've been able to innovate with every iteration and every new thing that comes into digital marketing.
Great. Well, I'll reach out to him. Thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6: please tell me about your first job.
Sure. My first job was working at some gas stations, helping clean them up. A family friend owned a few, and operated a few gas stations. And so we were in 8th grade, got picked up by mom to get dropped off. And you know, we'd squeeze the cleaner on the gas pumps and sweep up the driveways and things like that. But one time we had to clean out the dumpster. It had gotten too full that the trash company wouldn't even get it out. And so there were some dead animals and some other things in there, and it was pretty nasty. And you know, not that it was really ever in doubt, but I made sure from that day on I was going to get my education and I was going to better myself and make sure that I had some job opportunities that were beyond just that type of work.
Great story, and, and the benefit of getting an education, not having to clean dumpsters. I love it. So Travis, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Sure, the company is Swift Filings. It's just one trick, it's S-W-Y-F-T. The company is on Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram. I am too, but, uh, you know, most of my efforts are focused on promoting the company more than myself. And so check out those social channels. There's a lot of good resources for people thinking about starting a business, people who have just started, and people who have been in business for a while.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
