How to Scale to Multiple Cities Without Being There

Justin was at a Halloween party in Nashville. Absolutely terrified.

He had five events running back home that weekend. And for the first time ever, he wasn’t there.

Years later? He launched an entire warehouse in a new city with just one overnight visit.

The secret? Three specific roles.

The three-role framework for multi-city scale

Before you even think about expansion, you need to answer one question: can you take a two-week vacation to Europe?

If not, you don’t have a business. You have a job.

Justin built Goodhart Coffee to six cities by getting crystal clear on what roles actually mattered:

Every city needs three people:

• Event planner (brings in the bookings and sales)
• Operations manager (handles staff, equipment, product ordering)
• Warehouse manager (the only boots-on-ground role)

Here’s what surprises people: most of the team works remotely. Event planners and operations managers don’t even live in the cities they manage.

Only the warehouse manager needs to be local.

That changes everything about expansion economics.

The delegation sequence (one event at a time)

Justin didn’t go from doing everything to doing nothing overnight.

He followed a specific progression:

First: Have your event staff run the service without you. You do setup and breakdown.

Then: Let them do service and breakdown. (Once service is done, there’s no time pressure anymore.)

Finally: Let them do the full event. Setup, service, breakdown, restock.

I asked Justin when he knew he was ready to scale. His answer:

“When you basically never have to go into your headquarters at your current city. That’s when you’re ready.”

The forcing function for him? Choosing that Halloween party with friends over staying home to micromanage five events.

He was terrified. But his team crushed it.

If you’re booking 25%+ of quotes, it’s time to raise prices

Here’s the controversial metric we track in Flashquotes: booking rate.

Average across most event businesses? 15%.

If your booking rate is way higher, like 25%+, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

I know that feels counterintuitive. A high booking rate should be good, right?

But here’s what the data shows: when you’re booking too many quotes, you’re either responding faster than competitors (great!) or pricing too low (not great).

Use your booking rate as a governor. Above 20%? Raise prices 10-15% and watch what happens.

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
— Oprah