What to Do When Your Business Plans Fail (The Brutal Truth) | No Strings Attached #43

Roger Magalhaes: there are things in life that we plan as humans. That's how most of us function. We plan things. Plan grow up, we plan to go to college, we plan to open a business, we plan to have a family, we plan to retire, we plan travel all over. Sometimes the plans work, we plan a lot of things. Sometimes they happen, sometimes they don't. But don't be upset about it. Don't be mad about Sometimes there's a reason. Sometimes there is a better plan waiting for you, Sometimes that door closes because another one is going to Hello, hello. Welcome to another show of No Shrings Attached. My name is Roger McGallis and I am your host. If this is your first time here, welcome to the show. And if you have been here before, welcome back. This show is about small business, about things that don't go right, things about has to be changed before you know it. Because let's be honest, everything you see on Facebook and Instagram is only five percent of your day. Most of the time things don't go as pretty as it looks. So this podcast is about that. It's also about things on my industry, window treatment, window coverings, but it's also for business owners of any kind of industry, because The universal pain, the universal language, the universal needs are pretty much the same. So I'm just completed 20 years in business, and for that I wrote Nobody Told Me That, where I share things that went well, things that didn't work well, pivot moments that made me kind of rethink. How I would go about my business and also lessons about my life. And that is exactly what I'm gonna talk about today. So I came to the US thinking that I was going to be here for only three years. And then my original plan was to go home, live my life over there, life goes on. But obviously. I didn't go back with three years. the house that I was living caught fire and that pretty much changed my original plan. So I stayed and then I decided to live my life like everybody else and have a plan to, you know, buy a house and build a career. But my career was as a truck driver. Which was the job that I already have. And life went on, everything is good. And then I ended up buying a condo and I remodeled the whole thing on the weekends and nighttime. And pretty much life was good. I invite my cousin over for a cookout when the the whole project was done. And then his phone was ringing off the hook. I said, dude. What are you doing? Selling drugs or something? You say, No, I'm hanging shades. And I already sure shared this story a few times before. And I said, interesting. I could, you know, do a little part-time doing that because I really enjoy doing my construction thing. So I thought it was gonna be a part-time. what happened is he introduced me to his company. I worked there for six weeks, then I got fired because I was doing. Too much of a good job, and the audience stallers got jealous. So I did not expect to be fired. So something totally unexpected happened and I had to deal with it. So I got home and my wife, what happened? And I said, I got fired because, you know, I was doing a great job. And the odd installers got jealous. And my wife said, Go to another company. And I said, No, I'm gonna stick to the truck. And then she said, You look pretty happy doing shades. So why don't you try another company? And I went. And I went to another company. And I said that I have very little experience, but I was very willing to do my work. And they said, Do you need do you have training? Do you have certifications? And I said, No, who needs certifications to hang shades? Little did I know. And that it's another thing that I didn't plan. I didn't plan to stay in this business. I didn't plan to make a career out of but I ended up pursuing the industry. So I started going to trainings, get better at doing my job, and eventually doing an installation. so a neighbor saw my van my truck. And ask if I could get them shades. And I said, Well, I don't sell shades, I'm just an installer. But I saw a possibility. So I contacted a couple people they already knew. And next thing I know, I'm selling shades, which I didn't plan on it. But then I realized that I'm pretty bad at selling it because I don't have I didn't have what it takes to be on a sales side. So I went to a training to a seminar, and then I learned that you don't really force a sale, especially on the products that we offer, which is winter treatments. The idea is more of make a friend first before you kind of really push hard on a sale. So through that and Through other things, through other connections, I decided to start writing emails to my clients to kinda just be top of mind with them. Nothing really planned ahead, not really thinking I'm gonna grow this into a business multi, you know, jobs a a week or anything like that. But ended up being like that. And then my emails start getting replies, and people liked the way I wrote, and I started making friends, and I started making nice sales, and I started getting referrals. So nothing of those were planned. Then came 18 years later, and I decided to move to Florida. And we just Decided to go to Tampa without ever being to Tampa in my life. And we said, me and my wife, we're just going to replicate what we did. And then we moved to Florida. Took us a year to figure out what was the best place to live. We bought a house, we moved in, and a week later we got hit by the hurricanes. So three feet of water, everything got damaged. Pretty much put the house upside down. Nothing was planned like that. Also, when we decided to move to to Florida, my plan was to sell my place in Boston and just concentrate in Florida. I couldn't find anyone to buy it because my business was pretty much me, myself, and I. So everyone that came across was a kind of scared that They couldn't take on because I had too much information in my brain and I was not going to stay to pass it on all the information. For that reason, I could not sell it. I didn't have anything to sell. I have a glorified job. But because I had good jobs, good accounts, good contracts, I kept it. But then something totally unplanned happened. I had to learn to delegate because I couldn't be in Tampa and I couldn't be in Boston at the same time. So I had an installer and I started learning how to trust, how to let other people do their work. And then I have someone in my office that I never had before to help me with this transition, with this. creation of a system because I do not have one. Then when things start working more or less like a normal company, I start finding a little time to write a book because I always wanted to share stories, and I get a lot of good feedback from my newsletters that I had enough stories to share. And then I wrote a book. And I said, I'm gonna make these. a celebration for my twenty years in business and I'm gonna launch these at the anniversary of my company. And then my mom got sick. And I have to fly to Brazil right on the week that my book was supposed to launch. So I didn't focus on launching my my book. I was focusing on stay with my mom to her last days. And my mom died the day before my birthday. So the reason I'm sharing all of these, it's because there are things in life that we plan as humans. That's how most of us function. We plan things. Plan to grow up, we plan to go to college, we plan to open a business, we plan to have a family, we plan to retire, we plan to travel all over. Sometimes the plans work, sometimes they don't. I didn't plan to stay in the US. I plan to go back in three years. The fire made me stay. I got fired doing the work that wasn't planned, but that forced me to try a different route, to f force me to run my own company, to create my own way to make my money. Then I planned to move to Florida. I didn't plan to have hurricanes. I didn't plan to have my house upside down for two years. I planned to sell my business in Boston. I didn't plan to keep it. I plan to launch my business. I mean to launch my book. I didn't plan for my mom to die the week of. The point with this show today is we plan a lot of things. Sometimes they happen, sometimes they don't. But don't be upset about it. Don't be mad about it. Sometimes there's a reason. For that. Sometimes there is a better plan waiting for you, you just don't know. Sometimes that door closes because another one is going to open. I have a friend in the in the in the industry. She was a one woman show workroom working out of her basement. She was fine with that. And then she hired a helper. Because she was getting too busy. This helper knew a girl that had a workroom. She was selling it. My friend bought it. Today my friend does over five million dollars a year in sales. It wasn't planned, but she took the lead and she went with it. I have another friend in the industry. He started out as an installer. He grew a little business, but then he was tired of his location. Not too much business, too cold. He said, I'm gonna move. I'm just gonna work by myself and I'll be happy with it. He has 16 people working for him right now. His plan was to be all by himself. Things changed. So Don't be upset if things don't go as planned. Because perhaps the plan is on the details, is on the detours on the things that you didn't plan. And that's the plan. So I hope you learned something out of these. Don't be upset if things don't go right. Maybe it's the universe telling you. Your plan is not the right one. Take a detour to the left. Go up the hill. Go through some rough terrain. Your rainbow is on the other end. Have a great day. Let me know what you think. I always listen and I always read every comment. I'll see you next time. Take care.