At just 19 years old, Tiam Behdarvandan began building his moving and storage company empire. Although he had no industry experience, Behdarvandan saw an opportunity and launched his company from scratch with just two movers and one truck. Through trial and error, he was able to expand his company, Let’s Get Moving, to a franchise that provides moving services throughout the U.S. and Canada — and it’s now worth millions of dollars.
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GOBankingRates spoke with Behdarvandan about the steps he took to scale his business, the lessons he learned from his mistakes and the advice he would give to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Behdarvandan’s company began with a small office at a Jiffy Store.
“It was me, my fiancé and a sales agent in a room booking jobs and advertising,” he said. “That small operation has now expanded to 10 corporate-owned locations in Canada and the U.S.”
Behdarvandan credits his ability to scale to the mentorship he received from leaders and experts in various industries.
“Everyone should be ready to learn new ways of doing things,” he said. “Do not be afraid of changes — they are inevitable. Learn from the experts and apply what you learned into the business.”
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Behdarvandan learned that the first step in scaling any business is building a strong foundation of systems and processes that can be replicated easily. In his case, Behdarvandan was able to create a streamlined workflow and system by using a centralized call center, bringing in the right software and documenting all processes and policies. Still, having the right processes isn’t a surefire formula for success.
“Before deciding to expand the business, you have to make sure you are ready for expansion,” Behdarvandan said. “If you are not able to provide a service or product that your customers love and cherish, even with the foundation and processes you develop, you will not have happy customers, resulting in an unhappy business.”
Another key to scaling up was investing in marketing to help spread awareness and gain new customers.
“We invested heavily in digital marketing, particularly Google Ads and SEO,” he said. “Google Ads provided us with quality leads and SEO made sure we were showing up organically. Learning about how everything works and how to optimize them is very important in building a strong business.”
Eventually, Behdarvandan was able to turn Let’s Get Moving into a franchise model.
“By empowering local franchisees with the right tools, training and support, we were able to expand quickly into new territories and countries, both in Canada and the U.S., without losing control over quality and customer satisfaction,” he said.
Lastly, Behdarvandan leveraged community involvement and media exposure to grow the business even more.
“We became a part of the Canadian Association of Movers,” he said. “We helped people who got scammed by shady moving companies and helped to return the stolen items to its original owners. This helped us in brand reputation and trust. This helped drive more growth.”
Along the way from a single location to a network of franchises, Behdarvandan has learned many invaluable lessons.
“The biggest lesson that I learned at Let’s Get Moving is the importance of setting the right expectations — not just with the customers, but also internally with your employees,” he said. “I had miscommunications, broken telephones that caused a lot of staffing issues, scheduling issues, misunderstandings around billings and inconsistent service quality. I was quick to realize that standardizing our training, pricing structure and communication protocols was key to the business.”
Another mistake he made was growing too fast.
“I did not have the right operational support,” Behdarvandan said. “Even getting the infrastructure, I had gotten warehouses that were way bigger than I needed. The rent from one warehouse was the sum of my other warehouse rents in the area combined. These incidents taught me the importance of scaling up in phases.”
He also made the mistake of ignoring reputation management.
“A handful of negative reviews, even if they were not entirely fair, can seriously impact the lead flow and online reputation,” Behdarvandan said. “This also aligns with the quality of service you provide. This pushed us into developing a training program for our movers and prioritizing getting good reviews after each job.”
Lastly, he learned that not everyone is fit to own a franchisee.
“You have to keep your emotions [out of it] when choosing the right candidate,” Behdarvandan said. “Keep family and business separate. Culture fit, coachability and alignment with our values are just as important as financial investments.”
Behdarvandan shared his advice for other entrepreneurs who may just be starting out in their journeys.
“My advice is to focus on building a business that can run without you,” he said. “You have to develop repeatable and scalable systems, automate processes wherever and whenever you can, and allow your team to make decisions. You have to remove the bottlenecks.”
Behdarvandan also said it’s worth it to invest in marketing.
“At Let’s Get Moving, a huge part of our growth came from mastering Google Ads, SEO and partnerships,” he said. “You will need to engineer your lead flow. Know the market and align your marketing strategies according to the market you are in. One strategy will not work all over the country.”
Another important piece of advice is to make decisions that are driven by data, not emotions.
“Track your [key performance indicators] (KPIs),” Behdarvandan said. “Listen to customer feedback and listen to your team. For us, using AI to analyze sales calls and customer interactions helped us improve our services.”
Lastly, protect your reputation.
“In service-based industries,” Behdarvandan said, “reviews can make or break your business.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I Built a Multimillion-Dollar Moving Franchise at 19: 4 Lessons I Learned Along the Way
