May 12, 2022
There are a few business ideas I’ve found really interesting:
- Moving service
- Junk removal
- Courier service
Why?
Because the margins are typically great (maybe not for the courier service), they are super simple, and they’re always in demand.
Additionally, these are service-based businesses, which I have experience with (I used to help launch businesses right after natural disasters, overnight).
The 90 Day Launch Process:
1. Identify The Offering 🎯
I got clear on the offering — A moving service.
If you need help getting business ideas, read this post.
2. Learn From Competitors 🌐
The next step was to learn from local moving companies.
This step is crucial but often skipped — It’s what allows you to test your assumptions, learn what competitors are charging, and how they’re operating.
If you’d like to learn more about this process, here’s a video where I actually show you how I contacted local moving companies and organized the data:
During this step, I discovered that there was an opportunity to significantly improve the customer experience, and that the moving industry was VERY behind. Dealing with moving companies is anything BUT simple... Just getting a quote requires back-and-forth, photos, and sometimes even site visits.
I knew I needed to radically simplify the experience of acquiring a moving quote, so I decided to do something bold — I decided that my quoting process would be solely based off of square footage, nothing else.
Once I knew what other moving companies were charging for their services, I built a basic financial model of what I anticipated my costs would be, and what I predicted that I’d be able to charge.
Creating a financial model should be prioritized prior to creating a brand because it can save you a lot of money and time, allowing you to either cancel the project or pivot early on. Here’s a video where I actually walk through the financial model I had built for my moving company:
3. Create The Brand 💫
Now that I was confident that my business idea would be profitable, I was ready to work on creating the brand.
I had been brainstorming, searching, and making notes of available domains via GoDaddy, and I became obsessed with the domain MoveSimply .com. Particularly because the name would lend itself to offer the three services listed at the top of this post, should I choose to in the future.
Unfortunately the domain was taken, but still for sale. This resulted in paying more than I originally wanted for a domain. But... The vision for the brand was great enough that I didn’t care. I then went on to acquire the handle @MoveSimplycom on all of the platforms, not yet knowing which I would leverage.
I began to list out all the pages that I would need for the website, taking inspiration from competitors which I gathered during the competitor research phase. Whimsical was a great place to create a mind map of the web pages I would need:
Once the web pages and customer journey were clarified, I hired someone to create the copy for each page.
While I started to work on a logo concept (I did this myself with the help of a friend), I created an Upwork post to find a Squarespace web designer and developer. I was looking to execute quickly and keep things simple, so I decided to proceed with Squarespace for the website.
The brand is very much inspired by some of my favourite companies, including Stripe and Airtable:
4. Establish Operations ⚙️
My plan for fulfilling the service was to leverage local companies for the actual work. I knew that, although my margins would be lower per job, my upfront cost to launch the business would be much lower as I wouldn’t require my own trucks or employees.
I sent an email to ~18 competitors letting them know who we were, that we had more jobs than we could handle, and that we could use their help... But I only got a single reply...
At first I was frustrated. But then I realized... This is probably a great sign! This likely means everyone is too busy to help. So, I decided to look for local contractors on classified websites. This worked much better.
The second thing I needed to do was to finalize and automate the back-end operations of the business:
- Connect my website forms to a Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool
- Zapier + Squarespace + Airtable (CRM)
- Automated email follow ups for new leads
- Automate online booking
- Add leads to my newsletter
- Create a company phone number for text support only
Text support only — That’s right. I’m going to try to only communicate via email and text with prospects and clients.
Insurance? Definitely needed in my particular case. I spoke to an insurance broker who advised me on the type of plan I would need for a moving service.
An entity/corporation? I already owned an operating company which I use to hold my shares in other companies and operate other businesses out of.
5. Launch Time 🚀
What’s left? Launch some ads! Google Ads was the obvious choice given that people search on Google for moving services, every day.
The Good News: I started to get leads right away via my online pricing calculator —> MoveSimply.com/pricing.
The Bad News: I didn’t actually sell any jobs... Until 1 week later, when I acquired my first job valued at $3.8k.
Nothing like the first sale or deposit for a fresh business 😌:
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Turns out most people inquire about moving services at least one month in advance (the average may actually be greater than this)... Makes sense!
I managed to get 30 leads in 1 week, at $11.69/lead. I’m budgeting for up to $100 per job.
Assuming these numbers are consistent... This means I only have to close ~12% of leads to meet my budget. I think doable!
See you all next Thursday 👋
PS. Whenever you're ready... Here are three more ways I can help you become your most productive self:
- Access my Free Notion Task Manager → Get Access
- Get my Notion Personal OS to manage your business & personal life → Learn More
- If you need help mapping, creating & optimizing your systems → Work With Me
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