Quick sponsorship before I give you some homework:

I switched my property and casualty insurance to Titan Risk. They are my new insurance brokers who helped me save $80k annually on the insurance premiums across my portfolio of 63 self storage facilites.

I highly recommend setting up a call with Titan if you own real estate. They do everything from multifamily to short term rentals to industrial and storage.

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The actual key to building a scalable business:

We hear the advice from top business people all the time:

“The key to building a great business is hiring amazing people”

Steve Jobs has said it. Musk has attributed it to his success. Zuckerberg has said those words on numerous occasions.

So we all spend our time looking for amazing people. People who care about our business like we do. Make great decisions. Solve problems with ease. Work and think about business around the clock.

This is bad advice and it isn’t true.

These people are unicorns. They do not exist. And if they do they sure as heck aren’t going to walk in the door begging us to hire them next time we post a job online.

The key to building a business where normal people can come in and thrive.

How to find employees the scrappy way:

I always keep a business card in my pocket. Not to network and solicit customers or business connections, but to recruit.

See the interesting thing about the workforce is that only about 10% of the people are actively looking for a new job or unemployed.

10% are at the other end of the spectrum and are in career Nirvana. They are completely happy with their jobs and would not consider another opportunity.

80% of the workforce is somewhere in the middle. They don’t have a job they love completely but they aren’t actively applying or looking elsewhere.

These are the folks you need to find and convince to come to work for you in creative ways. And scrappy, low cost ways when you start out.

In 2015 I was running a student storage business and I was in Ithaca NY leading up to the busy season.

I was at the Walmart at around 8pm and saw a worker collecting carts in the parking lot. He was about 25 and clean cut with his shirt tucked in under his Walmart Vest.

Instead of just walking slow and not caring this employee was on another level. He was basically RUNNING around the parking lot pushing them together and hustling them back to the front.

I walked up to him and said “you’re really moving!”

He replied “Yeah we’re basically out of shopping carts in the front so I’m trying to get them replaced before we’re totally out!”

He was in a hurry and even talking fast. But I was shocked because he actually cared. Here he was at Walmart running around taking personal responsibility for the cart shortage. He could have easily just shrugged it off and piddled around. He was getting paid by the hour after all.

I immediately pulled the card out of my pocket and handed it to him. I said “I run a moving and storage company in town. If you know anybody looking for work, we pay $20 an hour (I knew he was making about $11) and we have a flexible schedule. Here is my card for you to pass it along!”

He called me a few hours later and I hired him.

He turned out to be one of the most phenomenal workers we hired that year at the Ithaca location and we traveled him down to DC to do a lot of work the next year.

This strategy works all over town. The bartenders who you can tell have great awareness and demeanor. The waiter or busser you see hustling. The receptionist. Anybody.

Always ask “if you know somebody” to take the pressure off (even though you are absolutely targeting them).

It works like a charm and I’ve hired 20+ people like this in my life.

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Quick note:

Link building is paying off at my storage company. The domain authority has increased from 32 to 41 in 5 months. We’re ranking 1st in nearly every one of our markets.

I highly recommend Bold SEO.

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How to earn more money at your job:

A counterintuitive thing about working for somebody:

People think delegating tasks and dishing off critical work to subordinates reduces their job security.

“If somebody else does my job, why would my company keep me?”

They work like hell on busy tasks, make sure they’re the first one in the office and the last to leave, and never achieve the leverage that comes with work being completed by other people while you focus elsewhere.

In reality this all works the opposite.

If you can make other people good at their job, you can become so valuable within an organization they can’t afford NOT to keep you.

Here is the truth:

You can earn excellent money if you are good at your job.

You can earn unlimited money if you can make other people good at their jobs.

So how do you earn more money and become invaluable at your job?

Learn to manage and delegate to other people. Scale your effectiveness.

Lead a team and manage the problems for a group of people and watch your earning potential explode.

Onward and upward,

Nick Huber

P.S.

I’ve hired 30 employees outside of the USA with the help of Shepherd and it has been an absolute game changer for my business.

Underwriters in Colombia for $1,500 per month full time. Customer service reps with perfect english in the Philippines for $1,100 per month. Executive assistants for my construction team for $1,000 per month.

If you haven’t hired an employee abroad, doing so will change your business and your life. I recommend setting up a call with Shepherd and getting the process started.