As an entrepreneur you are likely good at winging it and multi tasking. Early on this could allow your business to grow and thrive. You will hit a point though where that winging it begins to hold you back. Creating routine is the key to furthering your business once you have left the infancy stage.
Hey guys, Lee Godbold here, co-founder of Junk Removal Authority and Junk Doctors, Junk Removal and Hauling, checking in this morning. I wanted to talk about routine. One of the things that has allowed Junk Doctors and Junk Removal Authority to have great success has been us establishing a routine. It’s something I used to not do early on in business. We were much more haphazard in the things we did. We kind of winged it and made it up as we went. We had some success with that from time to time, but as you go, you can’t grow. You can’t expand that. You can’t teach people how to wing it. There has to be systems in place. There has to be routines in place in order to grow in business.
Whereas you, as an entrepreneur, you might be able to balance multiple things at a time. You might be able to wing it and work out great. As you grow and expand, you have to be able to teach others to do what you do. There’s no way they’re going to be able to wing it as good as you can for the most part. You’re going to have to systematize it. You’d have to create routines. You’re going to have to create systems to make sure things are getting done correctly. You’re going to have to enforce those routines because when you have a routine and your people aren’t following it then it’s going to fail.
You’d have routines in both your personal life as well as with your business. So, for example, first thing in the morning when I wake up. I’ll wake up about the same time every day. I’m not an extremely early riser. I normally get up about 7:00 AM. Back when I first started the junk removal business, I’d be up about 5:30 or 6:00. Since I’ve moved away from the day to day running of the Junk Doctor’s business and I’m now a Junk Removal Authority, which is more of an office and consulting type role. Websites, web development, SEO, AdWords management and all that kind of stuff is more of your traditional office hours. Since I’ve moved to that, I wake up about 7:00 AM, about every single morning and I do that Monday through Sunday. So, I might sleep in a little bit on a Sunday, but for the most part, Monday through Sunday, I’m up 7:00. On Sunday, it’s not much after seven.
You’ve got that routine established. You’ve got your body in a rhythm and that type of rhythm and that predictability brings balance into your life. When your balanced, you can make a really good rational decisions and that’s going to be huge for the long-term success of your business. I wake up seven in the morning and the first thing I do, I will get my phone out. I kind of read through a few emails. I’ll check the news, see what’s going on in the world, and then I’ll generally lay down for about 10 minutes and just think about are what I got to do today. I’ve already planned out the night before what I have to do, but I touched on what I have to do. I just kind of just think how to do it. First, I wake up at seven. I lay in bed till about 7:30 doing those tasks. Then I take a shower, get ready for work, and all that kind of stuff. Come into the office. I get out my planner. I’ve got a daily planner right here and every single day I fill this planner out the night before. Then on this side it’s a journal as well. On that side I write down my goals at the beginning of every day.
I’m writing them every morning and evening. I do that every time as soon as first thing in the office every day. After I say hello to everybody, I go ahead. I go through that planner and write my goals out. Then I get started on my task. I roll through my task. I got my entire day documented all the way from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. Now in the middle, all those tasks that are completed and what I might have going on my employment times and all like that. That’s going to vary from day to day. But that’s the general layout of what you’ve got. I got consistency right there in the morning and then in the evening, I’m going to grab something to eat. Spend some time with my wife, run my dog with my neighbor and then I’m going to do some reading.
I’m going to do my planner again. I’m writing those goals out and planning out my next day and then I’m going sleep. That’s how pretty much every single one of my days progresses. I enjoy it. It’s fun. I enjoy life. I enjoy everything. Not everything that I do, but I enjoy the overall life that I have. There’re some tasks I’d rather not do in between, but you’re going to have a lot of stuff you don’t enjoy doing. Plan it out and get a routine. You’re going to be much more focused and successful in what you’re doing. Now the same needs to be done. You need to run your business and set your business up the exact same way. Your crews every morning, as soon as they come in. Generally, try to have them come in all at the same time when they’re only in at 7:00 AM. At 7:00 AM, they have a checklist.
They go through with the exact same task every single day. So, they come in, and they get their truck assignments. They go out. They get their truck, wash their truck and they make sure all the tools are in the trunk that should be there. They do a quick check around the tires and walk around the truck to make sure it’s in good shape. They come back up to the office. We have a meeting every morning where we cover the daily schedule and anything else that needs to get covered and then they head out. The jobs are carried out the exact same way. They’re supposed to make a courtesy call when they’re on the way. When they get there, the passengers get out and guide the driver back into the person’s driveway. They put on boot covers or they take the shoes off. They ring the customer’s doorbell, and they quote the job.
That entire process is the same. Now, the details of the job details might be different. What they’re doing might be different. There’s a structure to how they’re doing it. The start that job is supposed to go the exact same way, every single job. Any variation and you begin to lose. You can lose quality and things can be forgotten. There must be a routine. If you have a routine, you’re much less likely to forget stuff. At the end of the day, they come back and they make sure all their paperwork and all their indoor or other electronic invoices are completed and filled out correctly. Any truck issues that came up throughout the day, they document it.
They vacuum the trucks out at the very end of the day. Every single day we’re vacuuming the trucks whether they need it or not. You don’t want to have that variation. You don’t want to wing it every single day. If it’s important, have them do it every single day. So, they vacuum the trucks out then they do another tool check to make sure all the tools they started the day with are still there now. Any inventory trash bags that they use throughout the day is put back in. Trash bags, gloves, paper towels, or hand sanitizer, all that stuff is placed back in the truck. We clean the dashboard. All the interior gets detailed in the morning and the exterior gets cleaned. All the interior gets done in the afternoon while all the exterior gets done in the morning. They take the truck back then they park it in the parking spot. Both of them go down there to the bargain spot. The passenger gets out and guides the driver back.
They make sure they align the trucks up nice and straight and then they head on back, they clock out and then their day is done. There’s routine in everything. We try and put routine in everything we do to make it correct. If it’s worth, for the most part, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing every day. You can have a weekly routine as well. Like for example, once a week on Monday for JRA at noon, we have a conference call with all of our developers, SEO, and AdWords people. Everybody comes together, our bookkeeper, secretary, and call center representatives. We all come together. Best as we can, we still have to be able to take phone calls and operate because customers are not going to call between 12 and 1. Every day or every Monday we have a one-hour conference call.
We cover everything. All the tasks that we’d set out to complete from the prior week, we made sure were done. If they weren’t completed, we figured out why and everybody assigns responsibilities that they’re to take out by the next Monday. That’s routine every single week. You’ll find that if you start putting routine in your life and business. Your success is going to increase. The amount of work you get done is going to increase and your business begin to run more like a business. Less dependent on you than when you’re out there and just winging it. Hey guys, check us out at Junkra.com. You can always call us at 919-617-1975. Subscribe to our YouTube channel below. We’ll be back before you know it. Thanks guys!