Episode 97 - You’re Not a Business, You’re a Technician With Overhead - Joshua Monge

In this episode of Cruise Control, Kevin Davis sits down with operations consultant and fractional COO Joshua Monge for a high-value conversation about building businesses that don’t depend on your sweat alone. They break down the mindset shift from technician to business owner, the importance of hiring before burnout, and how your systems (or lack thereof) are either setting you up for scale or silently killing your exit strategy. From SOPs to rebranding and even leveraging AI, this one is packed with practical insight—served up with laughs, truth bombs, and real talk.

Key Takeaways

• Most small business owners don’t own businesses—they own jobs with paperwork and stress.
• If you’re still doing every single task yourself, your business isn’t scalable—it’s fragile.
• The moment you hire someone late, you’re hiring from a place of chaos and desperation.
• Checklists and SOPs aren’t just helpful—they’re intellectual property that increases business value.
• Branding your business around yourself (your name, your identity) makes it nearly impossible to sell later.
• If you want to eventually exit, you need to start documenting and offloading NOW, not later.
• Perfection is the enemy—done and documented beats polished and stuck in your head.
• You can create systems by simply recording what you do and turning it into repeatable steps.
• Business owners often self-sabotage when things run smoothly because they feel unneeded.
• Your five-year plan to sell should start long before you actually want out.
• You can’t scale a business if it’s built entirely on your back.
• Hire for the things that drain you—because your time is better spent leading, not answering phones.

www.joshuamonge.com

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