Sweat Equity
“Nick Huber started Storage Squad with his partner while still at Cornell. He shares his story of streamlining his business by asking employees to do less and specialize in what they do. This change brought tremendous growth,” shares Sam Thompson a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “He also has great insight into what it takes to be an entrepreneur.”
Nick Huber was a track star at Cornell when he fielded a call from a parent that would change his life. A fellow student needed to store their stuff over the summer, and Huber was offered money to pick up his classmate’s stuff and keep it until the fall. Huber realized that other students who lived out-of-state might need a similar service, and Storage Squad was born.
Along with his partner Dan Hagberg, Huber built Storage Squad to 30 locations and more than $2 million in annual sales when he decided to sell for “low seven figures” while avoiding an earn-out. Huber’s story should serve as an inspiration for anyone who wants to bootstrap a service business. This interview is jam-packed with knowledge bombs, including:
- How Huber streamlined his business by asking employees to do less.
- What to look for in a business partner.
- Why paying employees like owners is a mistake.
- The definition of an escrow.
- Why D1 athletics is the perfect analogy for entrepreneurship.
- How to find a new business idea (hint: look for an industry that still uses a fax machine).