Chase Two Rabbits, Catch None — Why I Just Buy More of the Same Boring Business | 357

Download my FREE 8-Figure Playbook

This playbook walks through the exact process I used to build from $0 in 2016 to $50M+/year today across multiple franchise brands

Grab it here: https://brianbeers.kit.com/b79cf77012

Let's connect:

Find me on X
Instagram
LinkedIn
YouTube

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Business of Beers Podcast, your daily dose of strategies, tools, and tips to help you build an eight-figure business. Today's episode is a clip from one of my YouTube lives. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, there's a link below in the description. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

When I've thought about doing like mobile autorepair many times, I've I looked at buying a uh another company that was doing that that was 100% fleet. So the model was like he had a bunch of you know outfitted vans. He would then go and he would sign up fleet companies, he would go to their site, you know, after hours on nights, weekends, like when they're not running, he would, you know, he would change the oil, he'd have you know preventative mainten stuff to change, um, you know, change the brakes, change the the wipers, the filters. Like he'd have a bunch of stuff stocked on his truck because he like he he would go there knowing what he needed. But but if they found anything otherwise, you know, belts cracking or something else, and they wanted to get it done, like it would it would have to come the next time, and it was like somewhat of like a logistics heavy business. Uh, I I know there's also issues of like I don't know, stuff happens, right? Like, like, like, like threat, like, like lug nuts get threaded on, studs break, things seize, like, you know, there's a lot of stuff that happens, you know, in in a shop that like you know, we have all the tools necessary to to fix it. But if it's like mobile-based, it could be a problem. Um I know that every time, yeah, there's not a ton of listings here. I know that um I know that every major brand has tried it. So Firestone has tried mobile tires. Uh, Goodyear tried this like roll by Goodyear is called, where they like mobile tire install. Uh, I had one by me. They failed, closed up shop. Firestone tried it, didn't work. Uh, I'm sure Pepboys tried it. I don't know if anybody in Midas has has tried it, but it's like every major player who's tried it to do it at scale has failed at it. And so I think there's just like a lot of complications with it. Uh, I think for a smaller, very hands-on owner, I think, you know, I think you could do it. Like if if, you know, if if you own a shop or you're you're you're handy and like you're gonna be the one going and you're gonna oversee the teams. I I think it's I I think you could, you know, you could probably do okay with it. But like, I mean, I'm not gonna do it. I I I think it's too, I think it's logistically, there's too many moving parts. I think it's really challenging. It's it's well, it's challenging enough to find mechanics who are like, you know, really good and can fix, you know, show up every day. But now we also need them to like basically kind of do sales, like be the friendly person, communicate with the customer, like be the face of it, build the build the estimates, like just do all the things. Um, and then you know, I mean, I'm in the northeast, right? I'm in Philly, so like it gets like really cold for like a couple months, and so our you know, we are like it's like 11 degrees out, and the guy's gonna be changing oil and stuff, like they're not gonna want to do that. Um, or it's raining, or it's like a hundred freaking degrees out. So anyway, um I like I mean it's great, it's a great idea because people pay for convenience, right? People want people want it. Everyone loves the concept of it, but from an from an execution standpoint, at more than just like you know, an owner operator, it is a hard um, it's it's a hard game to it's a hard one to play. So I I don't know, I would just I would go for I would try something something easier. I mean my my whole thing is like can we get better at the things we're already doing? Like it's it's the the idea of new businesses are always fun, right? Alex Remozzi talks about like, what's it more, better, new. But that the first thing we should always look to do is like figure out can we just do more of what we're already doing. So if like I own auto repair shops, can I just buy more auto repair shops? Like that is the easiest thing for me to do uh before, like max out, can I buy everyone more, more, more, or can we get more customers? Can we do more marketing? Can we sell you know more per job? Can we do more things? Is like the easiest route to go to make more money. Where, you know, and then once you feel like, all right, we've we're we're doing like we've done as much as we can do, then it's can we get better, right? Can we improve our sales process? Can we improve our marketing rather than just like doing more marketing, right? Can we improve our ability to hire people? Can we improve this and that? And then it's the new, right? Then it's like, all right, how do we add, you know, add towing, add mobile, uh, add, you know, another business, add this other thing. Like, that's all the fun stuff fun stuff to like look at look at new things. But um, you're satisfying like a different like need of of novelty and like satisfaction, but really to like make money, doing more of what already works is by far the the biggest opportunity that that that you can do. Well, so we didn't want to get into food. Now, the cool thing about food, like I said, I'm not in food. I like the idea of it because when you look at some of the largest franchisees in the system or in the in the country, they're food guys. And then once they get one food concept concept down, so say they have like whatever, 100 Burger Kings or 50 Burger Kings, then like then they'll have dominoes or they'll have not dominoes, but like maybe Papa John's, Duncan, Arby's, like it a lot of the skill sets transfer because it's like people in process. How do we hire good people? How do we get them trained up? How do we like get them to do our process on a consistent basis? But that's like a skill set that you develop over time, and that you know, if if you're already, if you're operating in the same markets and you're looking for real estate and and you you owned a portfolio of brands that said, all right, I could put one of my Burger Kings here and all and that's a great location, we know our customers love it, and like there's an opportunity to put a Duncan across the street, like then you know, you already know you have a good spot. If it's potentially you have the same customer base, you you you could like you could kill two birds with one stone, right? Like, because you you have your system for hiring people, you have your system for promoting people, you've got like your ability to to do real estate and and do all the back office, and like and maybe you max out what you can do in a single brand, but now instead of having to expand across the country and say, hey, well now we need to go from Philly to Florida to Texas, etc., you could just keep going in Philly, but now use all your skill sets and apply it to something else. But that is almost identical except for the final product is different, right? You're making burgers instead of pizzas or wings or like whatever. Our challenge is like, you know, in Midas, like we're not allowed to own another automotive brand. So like I can't own a QuickLube business, I can't own a big O Tire shop because those are competitors of now the the parent cover in Mavis. And so like the skills that we have are less transferable. Like we still know how to hire people, we still know process, but like if you're in the food business, the the process is going to be very similar in terms of like how you train people, how you hire, how you onboard, how you develop um, you know, how you develop talent from within. And so anyway, that's what's appealing about me is like if you if you can develop the skill sets and and build a leadership team and all that, then you have a you have a more scalable um opportunity. Um do I plan on buying another business? I mean, I we're I'm always looking at them. My model now though is is through partnerships. So I mean, I don't have the time or attention to personally do it. Like I need somebody who eats, sleeps, and breathes the business. Uh, you know, obviously we've got the we have the money behind it, we have our systems, we know how to like find deals and make them work. But the but what what really like I need and what what the the real skill is is having the person who can go out and and really build it and like knows all the ins and outs and like goes to the franchise, you know, is the franchisee essentially or is the operating partner. Um and it's really you know, we're we're we're we're equity partners and they're the ones who are eat, sleep, and breathing to figure out what the heck we got to do to like get these things turned around. And uh, you know, we're we're we're coming with the money and and the sh and the strategy and you know, kind of like like looking ahead because we've already done this before. Um so that is gonna be the the only way I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna personally be the guy like driving it forward because I don't because again, it's like attention is split, and the more things that you get involved in, the more you you split your attention and the less progress you're able to make in anything that you do. And so even for us, like I have a full-time you know CEO that that runs our auto repair you know business now, and that's the only thing that he's focused on, is is that, and he's very good. And the only way that it makes sense for us, or for me, is like more is to do the same thing, but with another guy at similar caliber uh in something else that we can go and we can just like go full full force. So that is the problem with the franchise, right? It's like you you are you are legally bound to these contracts, and so you have to really uh you know know what you're getting into and what it looks like. And you know, for me, I just want to keep making my same business bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So like I really don't care about it. Um it's it's actually like better for me to just like get better at the same thing I do. Like I would rather have 50 stores and doing two million each and do a hundred mil, right? That would be like a way better business than all right, now I now have a glass business, now I have like a couple big O's, now I have this, now I have that. It'd be so split. It'd be I it'd be way easier to make more money doing just the same thing over and over again at at higher and higher volumes.