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At 20 years outdated, Voyo Popovic, now the founder and CEO of Piece of Cake Moving & Storage, immigrated to the U.S. from Montenegro and took a job at a McDonald’s to make ends meet.
Nevertheless, just some months in, Popovic was already on the lookout for his subsequent alternative, one that may permit him to work longer hours, have extra management and earn more money. However he was nonetheless enhancing his English and had “no particular skill set” on the time, so his choices had been restricted, he says — till a pal and fellow countryman instructed him shifting corporations had been all the time in want of additional assist.
So Popovic started working as a mover in New York Metropolis. “I fell in love with the job immediately,” Popovic tells Entrepreneur. “It was simply so energetic, and from the angle of a mover, you may see all these completely different existence in New York Metropolis, which for somebody coming from overseas, and I feel for anybody actually, is fascinating.”
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After a 12 months on the job, Popovic grew to become a driver and crew chief; he loved caring for his group and the place general. However, ultimately, he grew “too comfy” and wished one other problem. So Popovic moved into the corporate’s sales division. He learn books, watched YouTube movies and labored on his English to reach the position, which he additionally loved.
“I beloved the truth that I used to be in a position to actually push myself. There was no restrict.”
“I beloved the truth that I used to be in a position to actually push myself,” Popovic says. “There was no limit. There have been no particular hours. It wasn’t like an eight-hour shift, and also you’re carried out. Just about it was such as you work so long as you want, and also you’re chargeable for outcomes.”
Nonetheless, after a few years in gross sales, Popovic felt a well-recognized restlessness; it was time to set one other objective. By that time, Popovic’s years of expertise within the shifting trade had given him an inside look into a few of its inefficiencies. He knew he may do it higher. “The trade was very outdated, from communication to emails, customer service experience, operations — every little thing,” Popovic explains. “There was a lot room for enchancment. I noticed my likelihood there.”
So in 2018, at 24 years outdated, Popovic purchased a single shifting truck for $20,000 and set to work creating a model that may stand out from the competitors — in additional methods than one. That started with the corporate’s identify and branding: “Piece of Cake” alongside sizzling pink and purple. The identify “was in contrast to anything out there on the time,” Popovic recollects, and the intense colours would make sure the enterprise’s vans captured consideration “in a line of 100 vans.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Piece of Cake Transferring & Storage
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“Having each single buyer pleased has all the time been on the core of our enterprise.”
Popovic was additionally dedicated to doing issues in a different way when it got here to customer support, properly conscious that pleased shoppers had been key to word-of-mouth referrals and new enterprise. “So each contact level is thoughtfully carried out,” Popovic says, “from the primary time a shopper calls to the e-mail correspondence, to the shifting day, to the precise follow-up after the transfer, having each single buyer pleased has all the time been on the core of our enterprise.”
Piece of Cake additionally leverages knowledge, like customer feedback, to enhance its operations and assist with decision-making. For instance, if prospects report extra broken TVs than common, Piece of Cake schedules additional coaching for crew members. Moreover, the corporate pays shut consideration to which zip codes see probably the most shoppers, analyzing why some may need decrease numbers so it could tackle the discrepancy.
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The innovative method has paid off. At the moment, Piece of Cake is a quickly rising firm with headquarters in New York and hubs in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas. The corporate does greater than 100,000 strikes yearly throughout all 50 states and boasts 800 workers and 350 vans — and it nonetheless hasn’t taken any exterior funding.
“Seeing that one thing that we began so small with one truck and few workers 1718352478 dwelling and supporting lots of and seeing that model that we sketched in a pocket book in each main metropolis of the U.S. — that is undoubtedly one thing that excites me and evokes me to get up each day and to serve the corporate one of the best I can,” Popovic says.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Piece of Cake Transferring & Storage
“How do we’ve got sufficient information to deal with the following part of the corporate?”
Nevertheless, Piece of Cake’s flourishing success hasn’t been with out some challenges, Popovic says, particularly, discovering sufficient workers to assist its enlargement and fast-tracking their progress throughout the firm, as most leaders within the trade work their manner into senior roles from the bottom up. “How will we velocity up the method?” Popovic says. “How do we’ve got sufficient information to deal with the following part of the corporate? Together with me, how do I study and develop to have the ability to do my place of CEO one of the best I can?”
The bottom line is to give people plenty of opportunities to study and degree up, Popovic says — and to verify they’ve these possibilities early on.
“So not not ready till somebody says, ‘Hey, I have been on this place. I really feel caught. I am on the lookout for enchancment,'” Popovic explains. “We method the particular person and say, ‘Hey, you are doing a extremely good job. Why do not we deal with one other problem?’ [We’re] always pushing individuals out of their comfort zone, and folks [are] proving us proper.”
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Repeatedly getting out of his personal comfort zone is what allowed Popovic to remodel his dream right into a actuality — and he suggests all aspiring entrepreneurs do the identical.
“Think big and do not put any limitations in your dream as a result of it is potential you probably have a very good product and a very good service,” Popovic says. “When you have some worth that you just’re offering to customers, it is [just] a matter of time [before] it is going to choose up. It’ll get to the appropriate individuals, after which when all of it will get rolling, it could change into actually huge. So assume huge. Dream huge.”
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