From one company to a group.

This is the path I took from one property management company to a group of businesses. Five steps, in order.

Your customers already create the work. Your company should own it.

The idea behind all of it

Five steps. In this order.

1.
Get the first company solid
It has to run without you. If it can't, a second company will break it.
How it went for us
Our property management company came first. I started it in 2010, and it manages 1,200 doors.
2.
Read your vendor bills
Look at what you pay other companies every month. That's work your customers already created.
How it went for us
We paid outside companies to do work on the properties we managed. Those bills showed us the work we could do ourselves.
3.
Pick one trade
Start with work you already manage every week. Not the most exciting one. The one that fits.
4.
Build it as a real business
Its own leader and its own numbers. Not a department of the first company.
How it went for us
That work became its own company. It has six divisions: Appliance Repair, Plumbing, Electrical, Outdoor Works, Renovations and Handyman.
5.
Make it stand alone, then repeat
It should win outside customers too. Once it can, look for the next one.

Your core company becomes the new company's first customer. Not its only one.

Pick one trade you pay for every month. Start a company that does it.

It started on the properties we managed. That was work we were already paying for.

We bought a concrete business in 2018. It did well for its first three years. Then we had staffing problems, and we chose to get out.

It taught us which trades we want to work with. A trade can make money and still be the wrong one for you.

Tell me what you're working on.