On today's episode of Gathering the Kings. As a business owner, if you're starting out, you have to think big in order to get big. And if you think that you're a mom and pop, you're gonna stay mom and pop. But you have to put that structure in your business and that mindset And, again, form that discipline of doing your board meetings, doing your minutes, setting up your company agreements and documents in a way to where you're legit.
And even though it's it's just 1 or 2 of you, it doesn't make a difference. You know? Chaz value, it gets built over time. You are listening to Gathering the Kings with Chaz Wolfe featuring fellow 78 and even 9 figure business owners who have real battle scars from business and life, but have prevailed as the king that they are designed to be. We welcome high performing entrepreneurs to the stage in order to reveal the real successful business today. Success and how you too can get there.
Through this dialogue, you will learn the value of growing your network and surrounding yourself with power players and keys like today's guest. Grab your pen and notebook because we're about to dive in. What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the king's podcast today. I've got a special queen on the king stage. Beth Rojani, how are you? Hey. Hey. Hi. How are you? I'm wonderful, and I cannot tell you how excited I am for this, this interview.
We have we were, like, hustling to get to the record button because you have given me 20 minutes already of just downloaded just great information. I gotta stop. Stop. Stop. We gotta get this on the recording. We're bonding. For this, you know, we were just talking about your alter ego. Maybe that'll pop up in the conversation. Sarah is her name. Maybe she'll pop up. We've got a long history of of, really cool things happening in your business and life right now.
So we're got we got a lot to cover. So tell us what kind of business that you have. Yeah. So, as far as My life is concerned. It's consisted of the moving industry. My mom opened up a moving company in Dallas, about year 2000 And then, I started mine in 2001, so it's been about a little over 20 years then in the moving industry here in Houston. And we, you know, throughout this development of time, gotten into the real estate business as well.
So just a little bit of, you know, entrepreneurship here and there. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have plenty to talk about. I'm sure. I gotta know, though, is it Houston, or is it Houston. It just depends. Yeah. It just depends on what part of the country that you're from. But Got it. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're histonians, H Town proud all the way. H Town. Okay. Okay. You know, I I I've we talked about this before we hit the record button.
I've never been to Houston, Been close a couple of times, been to Texas many times, but but I've always heard this, you know, back and forth of Houston or or Houston. So I had to bring it up. I wanna know in this moving industry, obviously being female, like, that's unique in itself. I wanna definitely get to Chaz. But you're clearly a queen in the business. We say king's not masculine. It's mindset. It's all these things bring, you know, just this incredible leadership to business.
You are all these things, but I wanna know my first question is, why are you gonna continue to press in. You're you got all this stuff happening in your life in the positive. What are you after? What's the bigger picture for you? Why are you still doing it after the success that you've gotten? You know, I think what drives me and allows me to continue to do what I do every day is really boils down to my core values of who I am as a person.
And I've Sure. Over the years, identified that my core values drive everything in me, whether it's personal or professional, it's something that's really inherently important for me in any of the decisions that I make. And Yeah. You know, for me to keep going, I've built something that I am proud of. I say it's kind of like, I never had kids. And so for me, it's my college student. You know?
I've I've birthed it, and it's gone through all the growing pains of you know, being a teenager and everything else there in between. And, you know, through these challenges, you you you have this drive. You have this passion of always wanting to get to the next level and how do you get to the next level? And I think ultimately it's just been something I've inherently had, as a person, that, you know, just kind of developed in me. That's I mean, I I can appreciate that.
It sounds like a well thought out answer now. Has it has it always been like that, or was that developed over the course of time or the raising through the teenage years? Like, give us the give us the backdrop. Yeah. So, you know, if if we're talking about core values, you know, I have always tried to be a good person, and believe in my instincts and believe in doing what's right. My parents have definitely been the foundation of that.
They've They're about to celebrate 50 years of being married. And, yeah, major. And to be able to see, you know, everything that They have sacrificed as parents for me to be able to give me the opportunities that I've had, is really, really important. And so now I'm at a stage in my life where I am an adult and, you know, you get to a point where you start to self assess. Right, and just figure yourself out. And for me, I've realized that, I didn't know what my core values were.
I knew what I believed in. I just didn't know how to articulate it. Yeah. And in 2012, actually, there was a, a person that asked me, what are your core values? And what is your passion? And I just kinda sat there, like, what are they? Like, how do I express them? And it became something that I went on a search for. And so from 2012 on, I searched, and I ended up doing an EOS system.
It's an entrepreneurial, operating system where one of the exercises was the figure out what your core values were. And that was 2018 when I figured out how to articulate my core values. And, you know, number 1 is accountability. And then number 2 is integrity. So those 2 drive me, and I think I've always been inherently something that I've carried I was I I would always paddle on my brother. I was like, the teacher's pet.
My brother, you know, he would be doing the genius things, and I would always be the one that's like, you know, telling my mom, you know, and That's right. You know, it yeah. So it was just one of those things where I was like, accountability queen growing up. And I think I still am to this day because I'm so responsible for so many people and so many things when you are an entrepreneur that you wanna make sure you're making the right decisions.
And, again, those core values come into play when I do make those decisions on a day to day basis. Yeah. I think that if you were to define accountability, I think that everybody listening would agree. Like, oh, yeah. I I desire Chaz, or I wanna be that, or I wanna emulate that, or I wanna tray that to my clients or my team or whatever. Right? But what we, as entrepreneurs, often find is that we we fall short in that area because we we don't close loops very well or our personality.
Kinda, you mentioned clearly your either the firstborn or at least the firstborn daughter, because my firstborn daughter is just like that. Though, the reality of it is is that whether it's whether you're we're talking firstborn or secondborn or baby or we're talking the personality profile, there is something inside of you that innately, to your point, from being a kid is a cert you're a certain your cake is baked in a certain way.
So for the person listening that hears this, then maybe they're not like this naturally. Accountability is still huge. It's number 1 for you. Maybe it's not one number 1 for them, but I I guarantee it's on the list. What would you recommend as being the accountability queen for someone who maybe doesn't come to it as naturally? What would they what should they do? What should they focus on? Can you give him a little tidbit?
Yeah. You know, a lot of it deals with mindset and a lot of it deals with the ability to be able to stay disciplined, stay focused. And so you have to find particular tools that help you do that. So for me, for example, if there is a commitment that I have made, I will make sure that I fulfill that commitment. If I have given somebody my word, giving somebody your word and making sure that you uphold what it is that you tell them, It's so important. I'll call you on Monday at 9 o'clock.
Well, Monday at 9 o'clock, you need to call that person. And if anything, call them at 8 59. Don't call them at 901 because those types of characteristics display that integrity, display the fact that you are willing to take on that responsibility. So important for me for my team member.
Whenever I sit there and I tell them I'm gonna do something as a leader, I have to lead by example And if I don't lead by example, how do I expect them to follow my lead and tomorrow, you know, be that that that leader that I expect them to be? So you know, a lot of it is your own personal characteristics and defining those personal characteristics and, you know, just being accountable for what it is that you put your mind to and finding those tools.
I have checklists, if there's an email that I need to send that I need to respond to, it stays in my inbox until that's done, and then it gets filed away. And so while it's in my face, I'm thinking about it, and it's always something that's, you know, there's two sides, you know, like talking to you all the time time. You know, you're just, like, listening and trying to balance it out because Yeah. To also be accountable. It's time consuming. It's making sure that Yeah.
You know, you fulfill those admit. And, again, identifying, you know, your weaknesses will allow you to be able to enhance those areas that you need to enhance. And it I think I mean, starting out with your word and how you do it, improve it, because that's one of my life's models. Do it, improve it. If somebody comes and tells me, oh, I am so good at doing this. And, you know, I have the ability to sell, you know, this is the, you know, Wolfe, whoever okay. We'll do it and prove it.
And let me see it because through that, through actions, develops trust. Over time. And so having the ability to do that in whatever it is, I think ultimately, build your character and defines that you are over responsible dependable person who can ultimately be accountable. Yeah. You said you said two things that I just really wanna head home for the listener. You identified accountability immediately with your word.
And I just think just in today's age, you know, and your parents and my parents and our grandparents' time frame, it was it was a lot of the only thing that they had because there weren't maybe contracts, and it was more of a handshake and a word. But today, you know, it it doesn't mean as much. And so I'm even teaching my children about how much more it actually means because it doesn't mean that much regularly. It's become it's become tossed away.
And so I think actually now the value of it is just that much more. And so I just wanna hit that home from my perspective. And then the last thing you said, It all dials down to trust. If you're if you're accountable, then people can trust you.
If people trust you, Chaz opens up the gate to basically almost everything that you want because you can offer your service to them, or you can repeat service, or you can refer, or you can be friends, or you Chaz, what, whatever the scenario is in this, this relationship, but trust is the baseline of a lot of it and being accountable, doing what you say you're gonna do, builds a history so that someone eventually says Chaz person I can trust. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.
And it's challenging in some cases because, you know, Chaz business owners, you get burned so many times that That's right. There are people who exemplify those characters, but you're still questioning them. And so Chaz a business owner, you really have to you know, let your guard down at times and let go of the vine. And that was something that I learned and traction because as a business owner, I'm constantly holding on and wanting to make sure that I have control over everything.
And I'm now getting to the point where I'm able to you know, let go of that vine and fall wherever I need to fall and see where it lands me because if I don't trust them, then I can't grow the business. I can't grow people. I can't, you know, get it to the point where, you know, it it allows me to be able to improve and bring value. Yeah. Yeah. You're a 100% right. Even when we've been burned was was the point that you're making, which is so impactful.
I really hope the listener is paying attention because most likely the listener hasn't been able to scale to 7 or 8 figures. And a huge part of that, which is obviously a big part of what traction is about, is being able to, not only build a team, but build a team in an organized fashion so that the business can grow. And and the listener probably has tried to hire a person or 2 or 3, and and it probably hasn't worked out.
They probably didn't do a very good job of finding the role and didn't do a good job of putting the right people in the right seat based on personality and skill set and all the extra thought and ten functionality that you've learned But looking back, it's like, man, the person listening right now, it's worth it. Even though it has burned you in the past, it's worth it.
And so I think that the the the the what you just delivered them is hope, really, is like, even though you've been burned, it's okay. You can still let go. Oh, yeah. And I'll tell you. I mean, COVID was my biggest moment where I had to find hope because as a business owner, you go through so many challenges and so many obstacles that you're confronted with and you pick up and you keep carrying on and you pick up and you keep carrying on.
And then all of a sudden, you have something like COVID hit. And now Yeah. You are trying to navigate through this, you know, time of uncertainty. And I was in the shower, and I was I dropped the soap and I looked at all my job. And the thought came to my head because I was thinking about all this stuff, And the only word I remember at that time, and this was maybe around 2 2020, was resiliency. You know, as a business owner, you have to have the resiliency.
And however many times you go through any challenge or any obstacle or you get burned, you have to pick right back up and keep carrying on. And, you know, for the longest time, I would say I'm like a horse with blinders on because there's so many distractions that come your way. Whether it's economical, whether it's internal, external, whatever the case is, that as a business owner, you're confronted with Chaz you can't get distracted by all of it. You have to maintain your focus.
Where do I okay. I might not be able to get there in 1 year or 3 years or 5 years. It's gonna get pushed a couple of years, but still have that direction of Right. Where you wanna go. Ultimately, regardless of, you know, whatever challenges come your way. Yeah. That's right. Well, I hope you guys are paying attention taking notes because, girls on fire. We're gonna keep moving on. I wanna hear your story Chaz far as how started. How did you get into the business world? Was this the first one?
I know it's been your baby for a long time. Was there a story before that? Give us give us a little bit of the beginnings of entrepreneurialism. Yeah. So, I was a communication journal Chaz a major. If you can tell, I like to talk a little bit. But, You know, for me, just language is so important, and it is something that, you know, I'm a 1st generation Iranian American. So I came to the United States when I was seven years old. It was in 1984. My parents left everything. They left their home.
They left their business, their families. My dad was the youngest of fourteen. Wow. And yeah. And, they made the sacrifice because in Iran at that time, the government changing, and it was 1st grade. I came home with a note that said, your daughter's gonna have start wearing a hijab coming to school from now on and has to come covered up. And my mom was like, no way. This is not happening. My daughter is not gonna be brought up.
In a society where she's gonna have any restrictions, and she's not gonna have her freedom and independence. And so, I had my younger brother. He 2 years younger than me, that they picked up couple of suitcases. I remember going to the air port at, like, 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and couldn't really understand what was going on. One, one moment. I remember my aunt she was a seamstress growing up, and she always sowed little dresses for me.
And there was this, skirt that she had zone, and I was sitting outside of our house on the ledge, just walk watching people and cars go by, and my mom came and grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. And said, you can't go outside anymore like that. And I couldn't understand Chaz a seven year old, what was happening? Why I couldn't do that? And now you know, as an adult, being able to see that the government was changing and the world was changing, it now makes perfect sense.
And to go through the airport and see the, you know, military with the guns as as a kid. I couldn't understand, but in any case, when we did come into the United States and walk through the airport at, DFW, the first song I ever heard was Stevie Wenders. I just called say I love you. And I couldn't even speak English, but that melody just stuck with me forever. You know? And then Wow. I came and I started 1st grade.
My parents held me back because they thought it would be easier for me to learn English. So was also the first person I got to drive in high school, which was, like, I was, like, in 8th grade, and I was, like, a full kid, you know, and all the other kids wanted to get in my car and drive with me. That's right. That's right. Yeah. There was, like, perks to it. And so it was something that I started in ESL. English is a second language. Learn how to speak English.
And so language kind of became, something for me that, you know, I remember my dad holding up little index cards with the word jump, and I could not say it. I could not figure out how to say the words jump. And now it's like, Yeah. Nuts. But in any case, those types of experiences built me as who I am. My parents' 1st generation they had to start life over. My dad started at a laundry mat.
My mom at an ice cream parlor And then she went to do a little bit of retail in the mall, became a bookkeeper. And then while I was in high school, she studied her way through and became a registered nurse and got her nursing degree. My dad eventually bought the laundry mat So that was kind of, you know, the the first stages of understanding that my dad was an entrepreneur, although in Iran, He and all of his brothers owned a corporation together, so he was an entrepreneur in Iran as well.
And so just kind of, seeing them and what they did in life really allowed me to be able to see what it meant to be an entrepreneur, the hard work. My dad would bring, like, buckets of quarters home from the laundry machines, and my brother and I would have to, like, roll them, you know, so he could, you know, make the deposits and stuff. And Then shortly thereafter, he we got into he got into the oriental rug business. So he started importing Persian rugs.
And so right next to the laundry mat, he opened up his rug dealers. Yeah. You know? And so he just kind of I I always saw that in them, which was something that, again, for me, was, you know, I I never expected to be an owner of a company. For me, I was a communication or journalism major. So when I moved from Dallas to Houston in 2000, I ended up getting a job while I was in college at the Fox affiliate here, and I had actually done my internship at the Fox affiliate in Dallas.
And I had displayed my my characteristic to my news director. Even though I was doing an internship, He saw my work ethic, and he saw my qualities. So although I didn't have a college degree when I moved to Houston, I simply just Chaz to pick up the phone and call him and say, hey. There's 2 positions here in Houston. One is at the NBS NDC affiliate. The other one is at the Fox affiliate? Which one should I go for? And that's when I learned the power of a referral because he said Oh, yeah.
Call Fox, talk to this person, let them know I referred you, and you should be good. That was on a Tuesday. I went to my interview on a Thursday, and I was the new assignments editor at Fox. On Monday, you know, with no college degree, nothing, but just who I displayed as Yeah. A person to build that trust in him to know that if he was to give that referral, then it would be worn positively. And, I quickly picked up.
And then, you know, my mom had opened up the moving company in Dallas, she decided after 10 years of being a registered nurse, she wanted to be an entrepreneur. And so, her brother actually owned a moving company in Dallas for 30 years And Wow. He helped her open her business, and then she helped me open my location. It was a means to earn money for books and tuition, but gradually started to build it. And, now, you know, unexpectedly, here we are. 20 plus years later.
Yeah. With with the, as you said, a, a a college student for a business. Absolutely. Your twenty year twenty year old child. Right? Absolutely. Well, I I I love the story. I mean, first off, wow, on just family and and where you come from and and just the pedigree of figure it out. I mean, it it it is no no shock that, that you have the work ethic that you do. I mean, you get see it firsthand. I just think that it's so incredible. What do you think in that 1st year or 2 or 3, in business?
Chaz was a really good decision that you made, practically speaking, that the listener can take a note of real quick and go apply it in their business like today. So for me, one of the first, there was actually 2 instrumental moments for me. One of them was you know, we started the business operating out of Excel spreadsheets because as a business owner, You don't know how to manage the finances.
Everything just kinda goes into a shoebox, and you just take that shoebox to your CPA and say figure it out. And If if that even is a step. Which is an important step, but in 80 days, or an essential step. But That's right. In any case, yeah. So you don't really Chaz a, you know, when I started my business, I was in my early twenties, and I never got my college degree because I got into the communication world, and I felt that the real world was conflicting with what I was learning in school.
So I'm like, let me just save this money. And I had started my moving company and just kind of life took its course and nobody ever gave me a business degree or gave me a road map or a plan of how to run a business anything that I've ever done has been as a result of experiences. And Right. So, yeah, I mean, those first 4, 5, even 7 years. It's like a marriage. You know, they say the 7 year itch.
You know, it's like once you get over that 7 year hump, I think with a business, you have the ability to say, Okay. Now I have my systems in place. My process is in place because as a as a business center, you don't really understand all of the fundamentals.
I mean, even down to the simplest things of HR and confidentiality, non solicitation agreements, or employment agreements, or, you know, policies and procedures So, you know, a lot of my policies and procedures were developed along the way as things organically happen, and I felt the need that I had to write it down and communicate it. But, again, I didn't go anywhere and buy, you know, template of a policy procedure handbook at definitely had to be something that got developed.
And throughout the years, you know, it was something that I would say if you are a 6 figure and you're looking into leveling up, you have to know what your finances are, and you have to have control over your finances. I implemented QuickBooks very early on. That was somewhere around, you know, started in 2001, somewhere around 2004.
I implemented QuickBooks because QuickBooks gave me leverage for me to be able to go to my bank and give them some sort of document that was legitimate for them to look at to be able to see what it was. It wasn't some and it was real time.
It wasn't something that I had to go and ask my to put together, and I could start seeing the analytics and and all aspects of it, whether it was marketing, whether it was expenses or you know, it just it gives you this visual of how your business is performing and what you need to do, where you need to cut your expenses, or what you need to invest in in order to be able to grow. And so that was a learning curve because nobody ever taught me how to use quick books So Right.
Right. Thankfully, at that time, Google was out and YouTube had started kinda putting some training videos and you start watching them and teaching yourself. And so definitely getting, if you are wanting to level up, getting into some sort of software that does allow you to be able maintain those metrics for you to have that visibility, and that control. And then secondly, the second instance was somewhere around 2076.
I had a competitor of mine who, back then, you know, we advertising in the yellow pages was the thing to do because, you know, the internet was just kind of like the new thing around. And, My competitors would have 2 ads. You open the book, and it would say, boom. Boom. The same moving company. But when somebody who was the consumer looked at it, that meant authority, right, because you have that authority in that book. We ended up naming our company, text.
So alphabetically, we could fall in the very front of that yellow pages. Right. And so when people went and searched, oh, a, okay. But we couldn't afford the ads. And so our business model was set up on a referral program where we would pay leasing agents at apartment complexes, $10 for every referral. And we had established our little group that was constantly referring us. And it turned out to where the competitor asked, a mutual person that we both knew, how does Ameritex do it?
How do they not yell advertising the yellow pages, but still produce business. And they disclosed our marketing methods. And so the competitor went and said, to all of these leasing agents. Okay. Ameritex offers you $10? I'm gonna offer you $20. Ameritex pays you monthly. I'm gonna pay you weekly. Ameritex pays you with a check, I'm gonna pay you cash. And literally overnight, our business changed. It was something to where people that I would see coming in on a weekly basis just disappeared.
And when I would call them and ask them, they would say, oh, we're just slow right now. Things are just slow. To the point where after 3rd or 4th week, I said, like, come on, man, like, reason with me. You've known me long enough to not have to beat around the bush and tell me the truth and got the truth out of them. And they said, you know, now there's somebody else, and we're giving our customers both options instead of just you as the option. And so I'm like, okay.
How am I gonna combat this because it impacted me negatively. And so I decided the power of networking and expanding myself to people that were key decision makers, not people that were on the front line, but how could I get myself to the decision makers to then have me trickle down to the properties. And so I became involved in an organization. It is the large trade organization, actually, in the nation, the Houston Apartment Association, and that was in 2006, the end of it.
And I became active in everything. I started getting on committees and doing everything I needed to do to display who I am as a person. And when I first became involved, Chaz, I would go in and I would shake their hand and I would say, hi. My name is Beth, and I'm with Ameritex Movers. Oh, movers. We don't want movers. Because movers, we don't want people moving out our residents. And it's like, no. No. No. No. Wait. Not what about the the people moving into your properties?
What are the problem people that you for from one unit. What about the fires, the floods, the hurricanes?
And I had to bring my value to that customer and tell them that I'm on their site more frequently than their landscapers are, and don't they wanna protect their assets by teaming up with someone who's credible, accountable, reliable, reliable, and, you know, put everything out there for them to wear over time They identified my character and built that trust to know that I could be a vendor who supported them.
And, I mean, there have been There have been members that have probably served in that organization for 30 plus years and have never been afforded the opportunities that I was so blessed to because within 3 years of my involvement, I was asked to serve on their board of directors. I got on their board of directors in 2009. It was a 6 year commitment. And as a business owner, that was pretty much one of the first times that I learned what a profit and loss statement was.
I actually sat in one of their board meetings, and they're, like, spitting out all these, like, big words, and I'm just like, okay. I'm here. I'm just here taking notes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, fake it till you make it. Totally. Like, I know exactly what you're thinking about. And Yeah. I got home, and I googled it, and I figured it out.
And I would go home, and I would tell my parents, like, you know, we have to have board meetings, and we have to talk, like, and they're like, no. We're just a small business. We're just mom and pop. That's right. And you can't think like that. As a business owner, if you're starting out, you have to think big in order to get big.
And if you think that you're a mom and pop, you're gonna stay mom and pop. But you have to put that structure in your business and that mindset and, again, form that discipline of doing your board meetings, doing your minutes, setting up your company agreements and documents in a way to where you're legit. And even though it's just 1 or 2 of you, it doesn't make a difference. You know? Chaz value, it gets built over time. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So I'm gonna I'm gonna pull out 3 things.
You just gave so much value. I hope that the listener is paying close attention. They're gonna have to go back and listen to this one a couple times. The 3 things. So first off, there's 4 basics in a business. Marketing, sales, client experience, and finance. You hit on 2 of them. Finance and marketing.
You're gonna have to get creative in marketing, whether that's through networking, whether that's through, referral programs, watching out for competitors, all of that she just gave to you, you have to figure out a way to get business in the door repeatedly. Yep. You need you need a funnel of people coming through and you need to have it always full. That's the only way to get to 7 figures and beyond. The second thing Chaz she had on was finance. You gotta know your numbers. I know. I know.
I know. Know you're saying right now to yourself, I'm not a numbers guy. I'm not a numbers girl. It doesn't matter. You can't take the shoebox. First off, you need the CPA to take the shoebox too, but don't take the shoebox. Get the QuickBooks, get the software, like Beth is talking about, spend the time it's necessary. If you don't get the finance piece right, it's very, very difficult to scale because you have you have your understanding has to be there first financially.
You have to know where the numbers are. And then the 3rd piece that I heard her say she said, you show up with value by serving over a period of time. When she joined the network, of of this Houston Association, an apartment association. It wasn't just, hey. Here's my card. We can help you on your next move. It was I'm gonna show up and serve in this committee. I'm gonna show up and serve in this committee.
I'm gonna bring value through explaining how my company can value you, not just to get another job or to get another project, it's to show up over the course of time, bring value by serving. Do you wanna you wanna cap us off with anything before we move to the speed round, Beth? Absolutely. And the the servitude part of it is something that, again, builds trust and builds that ability for people to not only use you one time, but become repeat customers.
So for me, now what I initially formed as partnerships are lifelong friendships. These are things that I will take with me. And, you know, it's interesting because one of the things that we talk about during one of our supplier education programs in this organization is It doesn't matter who you're with. You can be with this carpet company or that carpet company. They're gonna follow you. Once they get to know you, they're gonna follow you.
And, you know, in my case, I'm hoping to not go to another moving company, but, you know, as far as following you, they are gonna commit to you. They are gonna be that person that is gonna trust you. And Right. At at some point, you know, the the the price doesn't necessarily become the the focus, whereas they know, hey. I can pick up the phone, and this person is gonna take care of this for me regardless.
Yeah. Yeah. You're talking about building sustainability of relationship, which then is the foundation for continued business. The whole the whole works. So super great. In the speed round here, Beth, I'm gonna ask you first about the most important trackable KPI. What is that one thing that you would track forever and ever inside your business? Yeah. So profit and loss. K. And what does that mean to you from a rest of the business perspective?
If you know that number, How does that help you run the business? For me to be able to see the profit and loss statements, it essentially tells me the whole story of what I'm spending and what I'm bringing in. I understand, you know, a lot of people may focus on generating sales, but at the end, you can spend it faster Chaz you can bring it in, in some cases.
I mean, especially now with the economy, inflation, the prices of everything going Chaz a business owner, if you are not mindful of how you how you balance your expenses, then there's not gonna profit at the end. And so, ultimately, being able to evaluate and shave off what you don't need I, right now, I hear all the time the subscriptions for these apps that track your subscriptions. And you can go in and you can clear up your subscriptions and, you know, kind of reduce your expenses.
Okay. Well, that's pretty much quick books and your your profit and loss because it's showing you what you're spending line item wise and how you can reduce that. Or be able to just eliminate it if it's not needed, and it's just an unnecessary expense. So, you know, and then we can also track discounts So, you know, what are we spending on discounts? What are we spending on charge backs and be able to identify what's our claims to be able to identify our claim ratio.
We can break it even down further to be able to see, you know, what the customer base is and identify by, you know, where those sources are. So, you know, all of that information eventually helps with marketing, eventually helps with, you know, just operating the business as a whole. Yeah. Love it. What book would you recommend, Beth, for a 6 figure business owner? Okay. So, I am not a book reader and have never ever ever been a book reader. If anything, I'm learning the cliffs notes version.
Just let me read the sidebar and get the idea. Summarize, please. So for me, I am a podcast listener, and I would say your podcast, but in any case, for me, it's If I had to say a book, I would say quickbooks. Sure. Okay? Yeah. You have to be able to read your quickbooks and analyze your reports and your analytics. And be able to understand your company's finances backwards and forward. So if it's a book, I would say QuickBooks. QuickBooks.
But in all reality, if it is something that you're gonna you know, gain additional value from. For me, I am a marketing queen, and I love to be up to speed with what's going on. So I listen to the social media marketer with Michael Seltzer. And he keeps me up to speed on trend with what's going on with Facebook, Google, all these algorithms, Instagram, and you know, it's constantly changing and as a business owner, especially during COVID, because COVID disconnected us.
Right, as human to human contact. And we had to evolve to the next stage of doing zoom like meetings or being able to do things like socialize. And so through that experience, you know, social media became more important than ever because people got to see you. People to keep up with you. People know what you're doing, where you're at, and how you're doing. And so and there's so often that I'll tell my friends who might not talk all the time, but I see you posting on Facebook.
So as long as I know you're pa posting on Facebook, I know everything is good. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, I just wanna make sure that the that the listeners are fully in the know, about your nerd alert earlier with the QuickBooks reference, you know, I love it. I love I love that you love numbers. So Believe it or not, I never did. I was terrible in math. I was the girl that, like, I got my first check book at 18 from Bank of America.
And I was like, I'm gonna go and write postdated checks for this 1 year tanning membership. And then I never, like, could put the money in the bank account, and so my mom would have to go bail me out for all these hot checks, you know, that I'm, like, writing around town. And go pay the tanning memberships off. And, you know, and then even, like, when I took my tests in school, I was always so fearful of math I had to take my task test 6 times before I passed it by one point.
And so, again, communication, speaking, language, all of that was, like, what I Seldon in school. And when I became a business owner, It's the language of business. I mean, it come completely transformed, but then again, having the right tools because it was a struggle working out of a spreadsheet and being able to see it. And when I had it, system and a process in place that was transparent for me, then essentially the computer's doing the work for me.
It's not necessarily that I'm going in and you know, figuring and adding it together. It's just a data entry source where I'm inputting information and Doing my day to day, I was explaining to my new accounting leader that I just hired Chaz when you are entering in your day to day transactions, whether you're paying your vendors or you're doing payroll or you're paying bills, it's automatically getting recorded in there for you.
So you know, although it might seem slow, and some people tend to call it slow books. Ultimately, when you're running those reports, it is quick. And I'm not a spokesperson for quick books. No. I I feel like I'm, like, advertising. Well, it was your book recommendation. So, it's all good.
I think that's super relatable because I think that a lot of entrepreneurs feel the way that you do about numbers, math, in general, And so it's super, relatable that that you have been able to get where you are, and that is your book recommendation after all of this, even though that was your history. Think it makes it super, positive for the listener to be able to go, okay. This is something that you can do. It's something that you need to do, but it is something that you can do also.
Beth, I have one last question for you. Okay. If you could whisper in the younger Beth's ear, What would you say? Balance Find the opportunity to balance. You know, my full focus has been on my career. And building this business. And I have, at this stage of my life, realized that there are things in my life that I've neglected.
Whether it was me personally or it was my family or my friends, Chaz balance is super, super important because you get sucked in as an entrepreneur, and you are dealing with the day to day, and you are sometimes trying to keep your head above water and you have all of these challenges coming at you left and right and still finding that time August 25th, I ended up bearing my friend of 38 years. She was my very first friend.
We met an ESL when I was seven years old, she had come from El Salvador, and I had come from Iran. And neither one of us knew how to speak English, but we had this common bond. And we grew up throughout all these years together. And even though at some point, life kinda took us in different directions, There was still that, like, every birthday you would text each other and just say hello.
And, I was her first friend, and she was the last person that got a text from, right before she passed away. And she was 45, and I'm 45. And it was a huge reality check for me because it can happen at any time. Your life is so precious. And when you become so blinded by, you know, the day to day and don't focus on balancing everything that you have in your life. It Yeah. Sometimes becomes a regret, and I'm at an point in my life where I don't wanna have regrets.
And so I'm realizing that and understanding the importance of that to be able to do it now. But if you are the younger Beth and you have the chance to be able to make that change, in your journey to where you are gonna become the older Beth, then I would say just don't take that time. So aggressively and so seriously and find that balance. Yeah. So good. Beth, how can the listener connect with you whether they're in the Houston area and they need to have, their their belongings moved.
How can they find you? How can they connect with you even if they just wanna pick your brain? Where can they find you? Yeah. So we are going to be on, a show that is called Designing Spaces. It's gonna be the local Houston show. And for us, it's stress free move.com. That's the website. And then our phone number is 71348 for Move, M OVE, which is 6683, but in any case, Google us, Ameritex Houston movers, or stress free move.com. I love it. You've been sensational.
You've dropped so much value here today. We wish you nothing but blessing. On your family, your business, all that you put your hands to. Thank you so much, Beth. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself doing it all on your own, carrying the way all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries and now interviewing literally over 2 or 300. Other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the king's lit actually exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe. That in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.