How I went to Thailand while managing $387k of work

In 2017, things were chaotic. You could say I was a lot more reactive.

I co-owned a service business but I was more focused (or distracted) on finding the next big opportunity than actually growing the business I already had.

These opportunities came in the form of natural disasters.

People’s homes were affected creating an unusually high demand for restoration services. That’s where we came in.

We connected homeowners with local contractors and managed the work.

That year, we tackled two disasters only a few months apart.

Hurricane Harvey in Houston and wildfires in California.

We were helping homeowners, and that felt good. But the work was far from fun. Quite stressful actually.

We had to learn about restoration within days, create ads, find local contractors we could trust, and manage communication between all parties (homeowner, insurance, & vendors).

Near the end of 2017, I was managing $387k worth of contracts and extremely busy when my business partner said…

“Let’s go to Thailand”.

He had gone and knew I wanted to as well. But he picked the worst time.

I was taking calls left and right, fighting with insurance, reviewing work completed by contractors, and Thailand was 11 hours ahead on the other side of the world.

I thought the idea was absolutely crazy. But he was absolutely serious. So, I thought it through.

I started by making a list of all of the things that would need to be true to make it possible:

- A super tight CRM with correct data

- Train a team member to help manage contracts

- Create an online system for contractors to upload photos of their work for review

- Limit the number of calls and create clear expectations for clients and their insurance

And, I did all of those things. We made the idea a reality. We went to Thailand for a few weeks and nothing was missed. Things only got more systemized.

If you feel like you can’t take time off your business, it means you need better systems.

Entrepreneurship was meant to increase opportunity and freedom, not enslave you.

I hope this is your trigger to start systemizing so your business starts to support your goals. With the right systems, you’ll be surprised at what’s possible.

If I did it during these chaotic times, you can too.

See you all next Thursday 👋

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