Ken and Joe are both in auto repair
They each own multiple locations but have built very different businesses.
Ken has a “diversified” model
- A 6-bay retail shop
- A heavy-duty truck shop
- A neighborhood 3-bay shop
- A fleet shop in an industrial park
Joe owns four 6-bay retail shops that are essentially the same.
It kind of looks like this:
On paper, Ken owns four locations.
In reality, he’s running four different businesses.
Every store is unique; each requires a different staffing model, pay plans, marketing, inventory, vendors, & pricing.
So when something unusual happens at one of Ken’s shops, guess who they call?
Ken's phone rings all day.
One minute he’s solving a fleet problem. The next he’s dealing with a heavy-duty truck issue.
Then the service station needs an answer that doesn’t apply anywhere else.
Nothing transfers cleanly from one location to another.
Every difference looked small when he added it.
Together, those differences created a business only Ken knows how to run.
The “diversification” that sounded smart in the beginning has become a monster.
Ken hasn’t created leverage.
He’s created four sets of exceptions and stored all the answers in his own head.
Joe’s business works differently.
They are all the same size, located in the same type of areas, with the same staffing, pay plans, marketing, vendors & inventory.
When a problem appears, Joe doesn’t just solve it at one location because of the leverage he created
Solves the problem → Updates the playbook → Trains everyone
The answer becomes part of the company instead of remaining trapped inside Joe’s head.
That makes expansion much closer to copy and paste
Joe occasionally worries that his acquisition criteria is too strict.
He finds a lot of opportunities for new shops, but none of them fit his model.
So he's patient, not wanting to make himself the bottleneck again.
“Boring” is the feature, not the bug.
Ken owns four businesses that need him every day.
Joe owns one proven business model, repeated four times.
That’s the difference between adding locations and building a multi-location company.
I just released a new YouTube video on my second channel breaking down the complete playbook for building a business that doesn’t need you:
Cheers!
Brian