How much do you think a mover profits? 5%? 10%? 20%? More?
Believe it or not, owning a moving company is not all that lucrative when you look at the true numbers.
Most moving companies only profit about 10% when everything’s said a done. Some are higher and some are lower obviously. But 10% is right about average for profit.
If you’re really good and you do everything that I mention below, you could see your profit reach close to 20%…
At my highest with my moving company, I did a little over 20% one year. And that is the year that I nearly made 7 figures.
Want to learn how to do the same…?
Concentrate on what Works
Whatever the reason you got into the moving business, as an owner, or even a manager, you have all sorts of ideas and schemes you want to try…
Stop it!
Why are you trying to reinvent the wheel when it’s already been invented. It’s been perfected and proven to work just the way it is…
Most of you came off the trucks and know how to pack and wrap furniture like nobody’s business…And you think you know everything…
You don’t know half of what you need.
You’re a technician.
You’re not a manager. You’re not an accountant. You’re not a marketer. You’re not a salesperson…
You come into the business with all these ideas…Great ideas. Often they are unrealistic.
Not saying having ideas is bad…not at all. In fact, you should have them, but you also need to slow your roll and learn a few things first…
Then maybe, just maybe, you can start to implement some of those fantastic ideas that you have and change things up a bit.
But…
Before you do that.
Don’t go changing anything. Do what works and has worked for hundreds if not thousands of movers before you.
Focus on what works. Learn from the best…first!
How do you Increase Profit?
It’s not rocket science on how to increase profits…but it does take a little bit of education, and of course, application.
Below, I am going to give you the basic 5 step process in increasing profits as a moving business owner or manager.
They may seem contrite and banal.
Just bare with me…
Get Organized
This has to be the first step.
Without organization you’ll never be able to improve efficiency or productivity.
It’s hard to do anything when you’re a disorganized mess…
The only thing you get from this is stress for days, an upset stomach and balding…trust me. I speak from experience. You can read my article on how to handle stress...You’re welcome.
Getting organized will do several things for you:
- Save you time and money
- Increase productivity and efficiency
- Increase and help to close more sales
- Follow up with customers
- And keep accounting and payroll
Fear not my fellow movers and shakers…there is an awesome tool that can help you:
Customer Relationship Management Software
I won’t lie…I’m biased.
Movegistics is the best software system on the market today IMHO. it’s so feature-rich and tremendously so far ahead of the rest of the CRMs in terms of development that you can only imagine.
Most of the CRMs out there are only now catching up to where Movegistics was a year ago…Night and day, I say.
But you’re going to want to get the best CRM for your moving company…Movegistics is not for everyone…none of them are. And there are some good software on the market.
Here are the top ones that you may wish to investigate besides Movegistics:
- SmartMove
- Move-It-Pro
- Elromco
- Granot
- Compumove
Some are more developed than others so make sure that you do your homework. Contact them and get a demo.
Figure out and Know your Numbers
I’m like a broken record saying this…you have to be getting tired of me repeating it all day every day how you have to know your numbers.
Watch the SharkTank…they are constantly hitting people because they don’t know their numbers.
Know your profit and loss, you’re KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators), know your marketing spend, How much you’re bringing in versus what you are sending out.
Next to getting organized this is the most important thing that you can do to help you create more profit in your business. Period!
It’s that important.
Find and get a bookkeeper and accountant if you can’t or don’t have the time to manage the books.
You should know your numbers like you know your name.
Set up Real Doable Financial and Sales Goals
Targets and goals are essential to making a profit. When you set goals to hit financially you can then work backward and create the strategies and tactics necessary to be more profitable.
But it takes more than just setting goals and targets, you have to also let your crew and salespeople, and yes, even the office people, know what those targets and goals are, and how you’re going to achieve them…
This puts everyone on the same page so everyone is not just going around banging into walls and doing their own thing.
When no one is in charge and there are no definable goals then everyone will have their own agenda and that is chaos. Chaos is confusion and nothing ever gets done in confusion.
Set real doable goals. Create workable strategies to hit those targets, and communicate those targets and tactics to everyone in the company…
Curb Spending
Now let’s be smart here. I am not saying not to spend any more money because you’re going to have to do that. You still have bills, taxes, and payroll to cover.
What I am saying is to stop all the unplanned spending. Get your accounting in and use a purchase order system so that you can save the money you need to get those things that you will need now and in the future…
I’ve already written about this in my article about the Make-Break Point. Go check it out here for more details.
Pump up Advertising
If you know your numbers like I mentioned above in Step 2 then you would know where you best ROI is coming in as far as advertising.
Using that data its time to beef up your advertising campaigns. Spend more money where the advertising is working and cut back or even eliminate where advertising is giving you a positive ROI.
I most successful advertising model was postcards. That’s where I got the most bang for the buck in my company (you can see that video here and here). I don’t know what it is for your company, but if you know your numbers you’d know this stone cold.
This is also the step where you want to start bringing in some hot shot killer salespeople to increase your sales and networking.
A good salesperson worth their weight should easily 5X your income in a short few weeks. Offer them a great commission structure with maybe a small guaranteed pay every month.
Words of advice don’t hired “sales” people that are unemployed. I mean, how good can they be if they can’t even sell themselves to get a job. Now…use your noggin’ here…if someone is just newly out of a sales job you may consider taking a chance on them…Look at the circumstances around their departure…that’ll give you the story.
Wrapping it all up
By no means is the end-all-be-all comprehensive guide on increasing profits. There is so much to learn and apply. Too much to put all in this one simple article.
What I do recommend is that you study and learn everything you can as fast as you can to profit as much as you can. There are two books that I recommend that you get and read: the Interstate Moving Consumer Protection and Legal Compliance Guide by Michael A. Garcia, and the 60 Minute CFO; The Fast track to Understanding Finance for Movers by David A. Duryee.
What I have written above is a good start to get you on the right track.
Get organized and pretty much the remaining steps will fall into place quickly and easily. And if you decide to use Movegistics then I would be forever humbled…but if you find it’s not for you, I highly suggest you get a CRM sooner rather than later.
Go and do something great today!
