From a 600 Square Foot Shack to Building Million Dollar Companies

When I asked Howard about growing up in poverty, his answer surprised me. "The funny thing is that at the time, I didn't know we were poor. I mean, you just do what you do, you know?"

Five guys sleeping in an eight by ten bedroom. A bunk bed and a twin bed with barely any space between them. Junk piled up everywhere. And yes, when it rained, they'd get out the Tupperware and pots and pans to catch the leaks.

But Howard always believed he could do more. He cut grass, sold stuff door to door. He was an entrepreneur at heart from the beginning.

The turning point came when he got kicked out of the house. He was a wild teenager and got in a fight with his stepdad. His real dad had left when he was a year old. After the fight, his stepdad said don't come back. Howard took him seriously.

He jumped on a Greyhound bus to Houston with literally 25 cents in his pocket. His real dad took him in, and Howard became a waiter at really high end restaurants. The kind where you do tableside cooking and wear a tuxedo to work.

That's where he met his wife Denise. When you marry into an Italian family, you don't get wedding presents. You get cash. Each relative showed up at the wedding with an envelope. They walked away with $3,000 in cash.

At the wedding, Howard met a friend of the family tooling around in a little red Mercedes convertible. The guy was his age, 23 years old. Howard said, "I want to know what that guy does. I want to know if it's legal."

Turns out the guy had a cleaning business. Howard thought, well, I can do that.

He got back to Houston and spent that entire $3,000 in wedding money on a carpet cleaning machine and a vacuum cleaner. He started cleaning carpet and grew that company into a multimillion dollar turnkey business.

About 27 years ago, he got his business turnkey and people wanted to know how he was doing it. So he started teaching his systems. He got mentored by Zig Ziglar, John Maxwell, all the legends. Now he works in over a hundred different industries helping business owners build companies that run without them.

What "Turnkey" Really Means

I had to ask Howard to break down what turnkey actually means. His definition was crystal clear.

"What it means is that someone could come into that business if they bought that business and they got a key to the door and it runs without their presence. What it means to you as the owner, what it means to me is that I never have to be there ever."

People can't wrap their head around that. They just can't believe it's possible.

But Howard knows exactly what's going on in his business. He's in touch with the guys who run his business. He can tell you to the penny what his numbers are right now. He can pull up QuickBooks and tell you exactly where they're at. But he has directors, managers, and a team with a great culture. He just doesn't have to go down there.

What's required for a turnkey business? Three things: systems, people, and leadership.

First, you need the right systems. Second, you need the right people. And that comes from leadership. As Howard put it, "Leadership, people and systems."

He had to learn how to build systems first. Then he had to learn how to get the right people and build the right culture. It wasn't easy. That's why some people think it's a fantasy. But Howard has proven it. He's helped a lot of people get turnkey.

His friend Michael Killen spends time with his kids instead of going to work every day. They go on vacation. He goes down to the shop maybe two times a week just because he loves his people.

The Five Secrets of a Phenomenal Business

Howard wrote a book called The Five Secrets of a Phenomenal Business, which you can get for free on his website. He calls it this because he learned from Michael Gerber that the secret of a business is the system. The secret is the system.

They created systems in five key areas: marketing, sales, operations, administration, and leadership.

Then they got better at leadership. They got better at bringing the right people on. And that's key. Howard was just thinking about this, how if they get the wrong person in, they help them get out. They keep the right people. They have a great culture where people want to work for them and it impacts their life.

Howard teaches a lot of leadership. He learned from John Maxwell, who's also a friend and Howard was his very first coach. The lesson that stuck with him? "Everything rises and falls on leadership."

Leadership is the most important thing. Business owners have three challenges.

Number one, they don't build systems. They're chained to the business because they never document how things should be done.

Second, they don't really understand how to build relationships. They don't understand the dynamic between themselves and their team members. They micromanage, they use old school command and control techniques. They never actually let go.

Third, they've never really been trained in leadership. That's what really will set you free as a business owner, understanding what leadership actually is.

Howard explained it like this: "The first person to lead is ourselves. So everything rises and falls on leadership. The first person to lead is ourselves. So we have to start with personal development."

That's why his relationship with Zig Ziglar was so important. Zig was all about personal development. Positive self image, positive thinking, building winning relationships, setting goals, staying focused and moving forward every day.

You build yourself first, then you build people, and those people run your company for you.

The Lessons from Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar was the number one motivational speaker in the world for many years. Even though he passed away on November 28th, 2012, he's probably still one of the most quoted speakers on earth.

Howard shared two of Zig's most important quotes with me.

The first one: "You can have everything in life you want if you'll just help enough other people get what it is that they want."

Howard broke this down. Zig said that everybody wants the same nine things out of life. We all want to be happy. We all want to be healthy. We want to be reasonably prosperous. We want to have friends and peace of mind. We want good family relationships. We want to feel secure. We want hope for the future. And we want to love and be loved.

A lot of business owners think that's soft or whatever, but it's not. If you help other people get those things, all that stuff will come back to you.

The second big quote from Zig: "You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind."

What you put into your mind every day, especially about yourself and your own self image, matters tremendously. Most people have a poor self image.

The other thing Howard learned from Zig is that you'll treat people how you see people. If we don't see people as being able to change, we'll never help them change.

But Howard is a person who changed. He knows that a person can learn the systems, can learn how to build relationships, can learn to be a leader. And that's why he tells people, "If I can do it, being an uneducated, barely got out of high school, throwaway welfare kid, so can you."

The beauty about a home service company like pest control, cleaning, HVAC, or plumbing is that anybody can do it. You don't have to go to school and get a degree. You don't have to pass a CPA exam or be an attorney or an architect. Howard got a machine and went out there and started helping people.

The other thing that helped him was being a waiter in a really high end restaurant. He learned about the high end customer service experience and brought that straight to his business.

Why Most Businesses Never Hit a Million Dollars

I asked Howard why he thinks most businesses struggle to pass that million dollar threshold. The stats vary, but most people agree that around four to seven percent of businesses across the US are below a million dollars a year.

His answer was simple: mindset.

Howard learned from Zig that the secret ingredient of success is desire. "So what happens is people daydream a little bit. They think they maybe they dream about having a bigger company or maybe they dream about being able to sit on the beach while their business runs or whatever. You know, they might be daydreams, but is that what you really want? And do you really want it?"

The challenge is people don't have a true desire because they don't really have a vision. Desire comes from a vision, and a vision comes from belief.

Howard wrote a book called FTI where he explains how this works. They don't believe. Either it's a subconscious self image issue they've had all their life, or they're listening to other people saying you can't have a multi-truck operation, you can't do this, you can't do that.

The truth is it's tough. If you don't have a high level of desire, if you don't have a compelling vision, if you don't believe you can get there, then you're not going to do the things that need to be done. You're going to fail to implement.

The reason is that people have become convinced for one reason or another that it's not possible for them, or they're not willing to do the work required even if they know it's possible.

Howard thinks what really happens is that unfortunately in this country, we're taught from an early age, not necessarily taught but just caught, that rich people are bad and that success is somehow compromising your values. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

"Money doesn't make the man, it reveals the man. So if you're a bad person, guess what? Everybody's going to see it."

He thinks that's probably what people are afraid of. Like maybe if they shine a light on themselves, people will find out what they're really like. But the question is, do you want to be a better person?

There's a lot of this stinking thinking, as Zig used to say, going around.

If you want to have a multi-truck company, if you want to be turnkey, you need to understand why. Howard got turnkey because when he got kicked out of the house, he got taken away from his favorite beach in the whole world. He was stuck in Houston with traffic and cars and concrete. He thought, well, if I get my business turnkey, then I can just go to the beach anytime I want to.

Which became true. Then people wanted to know how he was doing it, and he started training. Now he basically lives his life for his coaching clients and his team. But he has a couple beautiful dream homes at the beach. He gets to go a lot.

You need to understand your purpose. You need to understand your potential. You need to have a compelling picture. Once you have all that, then you can start building the people, the processes, and your plan.

Everywhere you look, there's evidence. What do these other successful people really have that you don't have? Knowledge, experience, connections. You can make those connections. You can find the people to help you.

Money, Profits, and Understanding Your Numbers

I asked Howard if aiming for money is enough, or if it has to be about what the money is used for, like providing for your family or the trips or whatever.

He said it'll work if you just want to be rich and have a lot of money. But your life will just be shallow. There's plenty of people who have built businesses because of the love of money. But as scripture says, they've been pierced with many a pain.

If you get caught up in money, you're leaving more important stuff behind. But Howard's here to tell people you can have both.

He wanted to be a millionaire. On his goal list, it said be a millionaire by 45 because he got a late start. It's hard for him to believe what his net worth is now, especially since at one time he got his business in a lot of debt. He wasn't charging enough. He was putting stuff on credit.

When he got his money mindset right, everything changed. He just finished a book with Brian Tracy called How to Make Phenomenal Profits in Your Business that comes out in May.

You have to have the right money mindset. Understand that money is a tool. Howard heard a guy one time say it's like a rope. You can use it to help somebody out of a ditch or you can use it to hang yourself.

The other thing he learned from Zig is the wheel of life: spiritual, family, career, financial, and personal. He puts them in that order because of importance and priority.

Money is a tool and it's required, especially if you're going to build a big business, because you're going to get some surprises. You start making money, you get hit with a big tax bill. You start hiring employees, your overhead goes up, your labor rate goes up, and you're trying to figure it all out.

Howard teaches that healthy profits overcome business evils. If you have to shut down because of weather, you had COVID, maybe an employee steals from you or steals a big account, a big account quits, somebody didn't pay you, somebody sues you. There's all kinds of things that can happen in a business.

He thinks that's also a reason people don't get bigger. They've seen these nightmares and they don't want to go through that. But as Howard put it, "If you live your life to avoid pain, you'll never experience great gain."

It's that simple. Yeah, you're going to have to overcome some stuff. But the beauty is every single thing builds your character. John Maxwell wrote a book called Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. Howard hates some of the stuff he had to go through and doesn't want to go through it again, but it builds your character. You know how to handle those things and you can share that with other people.

It's not going to be easy, but it's worth it. You can build a business from scratch that makes you a multimillionaire and people run the business for you. How much greater could it get than that?

Why Serving People Isn't Evil

I wanted to push on the lesson that money isn't evil, business isn't evil, capitalism isn't evil. When you think about it, it's you providing a service. It's you trying to help people. If you have a local pest control company or local HVAC company, you're trying to help people in the area with that service.

Especially with home services, it's a very real need. People actually need these services. There's nothing wrong or evil about it. Making a lot of money from it is just the beauty of helping other people.

Howard unpacked this even more. "Not only do people need the service, but every one of us have what I call unethical competitors. So you're saving someone from getting ripped off by someone that doesn't care about people."

If you really care about people more than money, then make sure you serve those people and take care of your business. Because if your business isn't profitable and you end up going out of business because you didn't charge enough, because you had some things happen that you weren't able to absorb because you didn't have cash, because you weren't successful financially, your favorite customers aren't going to send you money.

They'll use your service, but they're not going to say you're struggling, let me give you some money. No.

You need to charge what you're worth. You need to charge enough to make a profit.

The way Howard got out of his debt mess was he hired a consultant by the name of Ellen Rohr. She helped him get out of debt and now they coach her clients together. In fact, they're doing a very high level financial mastermind at one of his homes in Florida.

If you go to her website, you can download her books. How Much Should I Charge is number one. Where Did the Money Go is number two. Getting financially literate is critical because most small business owners don't know their numbers. And the reason they don't know their numbers is because they're afraid of the numbers. It seems too complicated.

It's not. It's actually very simple and it will help you reach your goals.

Howard had to make the decision that he was going to understand his numbers. Doesn't mean you have to always be the one crunching the numbers, but you do need to understand your profit and loss. You need to understand your balance sheet. All it is is a statement that says what you own and what you owe. That would be kind of nice, right? Know what you own and what you owe.

All of Business and All of Life Is About Relationships

I brought up a quote from a TED talk Howard did that I thought was really powerful: "All of business and all of life is about relationships."

Howard has another book coming out this year on his birthday, September 15th. He has two books coming out this year. This one is with Donald Miller and his imprint is publishing it. The working title right now is Referrals Made Simple.

Howard built his companies through referrals. He knows we do SEO and digital, which is very necessary today, but he built his companies through relationships.

There's an old saying that your network equals your net worth. It's not what you know, it's who you know. And by the way, it's not who you know, but it's what you know about who you know. And by the way, it's not who you know and what you know about who you know, but it's who knows you. It's not who knows you, but it's what they know about you.

Going back to Zig's quote, you can have everything in life you want if you'll just help enough other people get what it is that they want.

You focus on serving people. People do business with those that they know, like, and trust. All business, all life is about relationships because everybody wants those nine things in life. If you help them to be happier, healthier, more prosperous and so on, if you give to them, you help them, you serve them, they're going to want to give that back to you.

One of the things Howard has done to build his business is identify referral sources. Identify people who already have your target market clients in their audience, on their list, or in their customer base. Then build a relationship. How do you build a relationship? You help people, you give to them, help them.

Howard's been doing this for so long that now it's just how he lives. "I'm always looking for people, looking for how I can help people, because I know that if I plant that seed, somehow that will come back to me."

It may not come back right now today. It might not come back in the same way. But Howard entertains strangers because you never know. He's gotten employees that way. He's got connections that way. Everywhere he goes, he makes people feel good and asks them what their story is.

If it's a person who has his clients in their circle of influence, then obviously he wants to add as much value to them as he can.

Unfortunately, people think too much in the transactional. Like I help you, you help me. Or I pay for this ad and I get a return. It's more transactional. They don't want to have a relationship. And they're missing out. They're missing out on the fullness of a phenomenal life.

I totally agree with that. I've been pushing relationship building super hard myself. I see this podcast as part of that. It's almost like systemized networking or relationship building where I can make sure that all the people I want to talk to, well, now there's almost an excuse to talk to them.

As Howard said, "Now we're friends, right? Relationship."

Exactly.

Howard's Message to Home Service Owners

I asked Howard what his message is to the home service owners or even agency owners out there. What do people need to know?

His answer was powerful: "I want them to know that you can be who you want to be. You can do what you want to do and you can have what you want to have. But you have to do that in such a way that adds value to other people."

Unfortunately, some people want to be somebody today that causes everybody else to have to twist and turn and change their whole deal to be a part. No. You want to serve people.

You can reach your goals. You reach your goals by helping other people reach their goals.

My Main Takeaway

This conversation with Howard completely reinforced something I've been learning over and over: business success isn't about manipulating systems or finding shortcuts. It's about building something real.

Systems, people, and leadership. In that order.

You need to document how things work so you're not chained to your business. You need to learn how to build real relationships and develop people. And you need to invest in yourself first through personal development and leadership training.

But underneath all of that is mindset. Believing it's actually possible. Having a compelling vision. Developing true desire, not just daydreams.

And understanding that serving people, making money, and building wealth isn't evil. It's how you create the freedom to live the life you actually want while helping more people along the way.

If Howard can do it, starting with 25 cents in his pocket after getting kicked out of his house, you can do it too.

Thanks for reading, and if you found this valuable, make sure to check out the full podcast episode below. Howard goes even deeper on these topics, and you can feel the passion and authenticity in everything he shares.

Head over to howardpartridge.com to get his book The Five Secrets of a Phenomenal Business for free, plus free business building tips. His other must-read books include FTI and How to Build a Phenomenal Dream Team. You can find them all on Amazon or wherever you buy books.