When Success Isn't Enough and the Drive Never Dies
When Success Isn't Enough and the Drive Never Dies
What motivates you to continue building your businesses?
I'm a builder. I genuinely believe God created me to build, and I love building businesses. As challenging as it may be, I also love building people. When I interview someone who's hungry and passionate about wanting to work here, I can work with that. I enjoy mentoring a young person in their 20s or 30s who wants to do something great, guiding them through that process. Building is what drives me; it's my "why."
I grew up very poor. My mom worked at Piggly Wiggly, and we lived in a small 700-800 square foot house in Macon, Georgia. Since I was 18 or 19, I've worked hard to achieve one goal: to make enough money so I wasn't bound by debt. Then, in 2001, something dramatic happened. My girlfriend at the time was brutally attacked and nearly died. That shifted my focus from wanting financial security to having a passion for people and helping the world. My "why" has shifted quite a few times throughout my life. As we mature and gain wisdom, I think it needs to. I'm also a man of faith and try to spread the good word as well.
Why is letting go of control crucial for long-term business growth?
My main goal was to hire myself out of key roles and not try to control everything. This was the single biggest decision I made, and it was scary.
At first, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. I wanted to be the sales guy because I had more experience than anyone else, but I hired someone for that. I wanted to be the face of the company, working in the garage and helping customers because it was my baby, and I wanted my stamp on it. But I realized I couldn't be in ten garages at once. To scale the business, I had to hire someone to take on that role.
I even thought I was the best person to handle the phones, but it was hard to give that up, too. Eventually, I hired someone for that as well. I quickly realized that no matter how good I am, if I'm handling all these roles at once, I'm not effective. If I'm running at 25-50% efficiency in all those areas, it's better to hire someone who's 60-70% as good as me but is fully focused on that one role.
Hiring myself out of those jobs was the best decision I made. I now have a general manager running day-to-day operations, making the business less dependent on me. I focus more on vision—planning where we want to be in the next few years. For example, my GM and I just spent three days at Lake Hartwell with big sticky notes, working on processes, breakdowns, and scalability. He's the integrator who makes my vision a reality, which allows me to focus on what I do best.
How can business owners develop the mindset needed to delegate tasks?
The main thing that motivated me to step away from being the operator in my business was knowing I wanted to do other things. When you realize your business isn’t your only "baby," there’s a huge sense of relief. It feels good to have multiple income streams and a team running things for you. The stress relief from that is significant. Often, we get so attached to the idea of "this is my business, and I need to grow it myself" that we create unrealistic boundaries and don’t trust others. This mindset stifles growth.
When I started Aaron Overhead Doors, my vision was to have five lines of revenue in five years. It took me seven, but achieving that goal was important. It also meant that my business wasn't my only focus. I tell a lot of the guys in my group: if you think about your business as an investment, it shifts your mindset completely compared to seeing it just as a job or something you do for work.
What role does goal setting play in driving business success?
Map out the steps. If you don’t have a strategy, a goal, and a plan for what it will take to get there, you’ll just be spinning your wheels. I'm a big believer in planning for 1, 3, 5, and 10 years out. Even if you fall short, dream big. I’ve probably failed at every single one of my 1, 3, 5, and 10-year goals, but they’re so big that people still say, "Wow, you're killing it." I don’t always feel that way compared to what I want to achieve, but it keeps me humble.
I also know it takes a team—multiple teams in my case—to accomplish our goals. Now, I’m completely dependent on these teams and my other investments. The great thing is, I’ve built good teams that care and want to excel. I’ve reached a point where if one venture were to fail (which I doubt), I’d still be okay. There have been times when I’ve had to pull back income from one source but increase it from another, allowing me to keep my overall income steady. Managing multiple businesses this way also comes with significant tax benefits.
How can entrepreneurs effectively manage cash flow during periods of growth?
I'm a big risk-taker. Probably the worst decision I made when starting my door company was trying to grow it like a tech startup. I aimed for $5 million in annual revenue within five years. Every dollar went straight back into the business. This approach works well in tech because margins are great, and you can easily find talent online. You can just use LinkedIn to find the people you need.
When I started Aaron Overhead Doors, I did $700,000 in my first year almost on my own. I hired an installer and an office person—it was just the three of us. I was doing service and sales, the installer handled installs, and the office person answered phones and managed the books.
By 2017, we were going full speed, but the market slowed down a bit, and I wasn’t ready for it. I needed more people, and I had trouble finding them. When you're growing fast, any slowdown hurts financially. For the first and only time, I took out a line of credit—thanks to Synovus Bank—to make payroll. I couldn't get a truck loan either because it was too early for the business. Wells Fargo would only give me an equipment loan, so I used $10,000 of that $50,000 line of credit to buy a truck, make payroll, and create a small cushion for myself.
That was probably the worst decision I made—trying to scale the company like a tech startup and moving too quickly. My cash flow dried up at the start of 2017.
What are the benefits of joining niche masterminds?
I love masterminds, especially because they're so niche for us. We have garage door business owners meeting with other garage door owners, discussing their challenges, and helping each other view problems differently. Through these discussions, we learn from each other and share solutions.
I was telling someone the other day that I dropped out of high school. But I’d still pay $10,000 to someone with the information I need—it's still hundreds of thousands cheaper than college. No offense to college, it’s great, but back then, I didn't know how to learn or what I wanted to learn. Now, as a business owner, I know what information I need, and I'm willing to pay for it.
A lot of people are realizing this too. If you can spend a few thousand a month to learn from other business owners who are at your level or ahead of you, it's totally worth it. That’s why I started this—to make learning from others affordable for all levels of businesses and contribute back. You might have a $5 million business owner alongside a $1 million one. The person with a $1 million business might offer a different perspective that can help the $5 million owner. That diversity is what makes it special, and it’s why I really enjoy masterminds.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.*
