Episode 1295: The Systems That Free Business Owners with Hector Alvarado

What if the real reason your business cannot scale is not your people, your market, or your effort, but that everything still depends on you? In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Hector Alvarado, Co-Founder of Optimize Business Systems, who explains how small and mid-sized businesses can reduce founder bottlenecks by building stronger systems, clarifying roles, improving leadership, and ensuring consistent execution. He also explains why business owners must shift from day-to-day firefighting to strategic leadership if they want to build companies that can grow without being in constant emergency mode. Key Takeaways: → Owner-dependent businesses struggle to scale because too many decisions flow back to the founder. → A business is harder to sell when its value depends entirely on the owner’s day-to-day involvement. → Second-line leaders are essential to building a scalable company. → Business owners need regular time away from the weeds to see the bigger strategic picture. → Strong systems are more than SOPs; they encompass leadership, execution, accountability, and clarity. Hector Alvarado is an entrepreneur, operations executive, and business consultant with 27+ years of experience transforming companies across the logistics, transportation, construction, and home-service industries. His expertise isn’t theoretical—it’s built on decades of diagnosing operational chaos, fixing broken systems, and leading organizations through high-stakes growth. One of Hector’s most notable accomplishments was the complete turnaround of Willy’s Trucking. As VP of Operations, he led the company from a $1.3M annual loss in 2018 to a profitable sale exceeding $25M in 2021—a feat that earned him industry-wide respect. Today, he serves as VP of Operations for the largest NGL and Butane hauler in Western Canada, overseeing large fleets, operational excellence, and strategic expansion. Hector is also a Lean Black Belt, Continuous Improvement Master Trainer, and EOS implementor, bringing a rare blend of tactical expertise and strategic leadership. Beyond his corporate roles, he runs three successful businesses under Family Legacy Industries and manages a growing real estate investment portfolio, providing firsthand insight into entrepreneurship and wealth-building. Connect With Hector: Website: https://optimizebusinesssystems.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/optimize_business_systems/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Optimize-Business-Systems/61574764979478/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/optimize-business-systems/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Sharkpreneur Podcast with Kevin Harrington and Seth Green. Kevin Harrington is the inventor of the infomercial, one of the original sharks from the hit TV show Shark Tank, and has generated over $5 billion in TV and digital direct response sales. Seth Green is the world's first trusted authority on cutting-edge direct response marketing, a bestselling author, and the only three-time marketer of the year nominee. On the podcast, Kevin and Seth interview sharkpreneurs who share straight talk on what it takes to explode your business.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Forty-nine faces looked to him in triumph. Over the last 12 months, they had each taken turns and promoted his business for a week at a time, driving over $987,342 in revenue. What if you had a network of 50 centers of influence who promoted your business every week for a year? Grab your copy of the number one Amazon bestselling book, The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with a Podcast at 33% off the Amazon price by going to ultimatenpodcastbook.com. Again, that website for 33% off the Amazon price is ultimatenpodcastbook.com. Welcome to the podcast. This is your co-host Seth Green. Today, I've got the good fortune to be with Hector Alvarado from Optimize Business Systems, which helps owner-dependent businesses become more scalable, sellable, and self-managing

• 1:22Speaker 01

  with a focus on smoother operations, stronger leadership, accountability, and systems that reduce founder bottlenecks. Hector, thanks so much for joining us.

• 1:30Speaker 02

  Hey, thanks, Seth. Thanks for having us here.

• 1:32Speaker 01

  Our pleasure. Let's go back in time. How'd you get started?

• 1:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, I've been in business for over 27 years, managing and leading teams across the country. And what I noticed through all the corporate world that I had the exposure to was the small, medium-business owner struggles every single day, right? They're out there trying to make ends meet, and they just don't have the systems to get them out of their bottlenecks that they sometimes get themselves into. And so, we built OBS for that specific purpose, and it's to really give them a fully-integrated framework that is going to get them out of the stuck and that will allow them to scale the right way.

• 2:13Speaker 01

  Awesome. So, let's talk about the problems that you're helping them solve.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, the clarity, people issues, the cash flow issues. You know, we, we see these, these small, again, small to medium sized businesses, they're like one to 20 million dollars in revenue. And they, they built something, like it's there, it's legit, but they can't scale. Everything flows up to the owner and now he or she is stuck with trying to do it all. They haven't built second line leaders, they don't have internal processes. And most importantly, like this business is really worth nothing if not for the owner being in the business every day. So the problem we're solving is we're giving their time back to that business owner and developing their second line leaders, creating process and allowing this business to be scalable and sellable.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  You talk about helping owners get out of the day to day chaos. And what does that look like when you first walk in?

• 3:11Speaker 02

  Oh man, we, we've seen it all. You know, we, we've seen owners that are on, on the bridge of bankruptcy, right? On, on just, just ready to give up. And we've got internal teams that are bickering and, you know, just processes that are broken, a complete chaos. And, and I'm not talking about this for like the 20 million, I'm talking about the little guys. The guys between one to 15 million, right? Where they think they have something, but it's not there. And sometimes the owner is just blind to it. And, and so what we find, it's hard to get the owner to see it through because there's a sense of pride. So when we come in, we have to be strategic, we have to be able to understand the, the broader pictures, the broader issues.

• 3:55Speaker 02

  And then bring it to that leadership team and start to provide role clarity, give them the structure that they need. And then, and then we let them go to work and, and really just be there to support them through the journey.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  Was there a moment in your own journey, in your own career, when you realized the systems are what separate a successful business and a scalable business from a stressful one?

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. You know, I was, I was working with Willy's Trucking at the time and I was fortunate to be their Vice President of Operations and I joined this team, great organization, you know, doing $20 million in revenue and losing millions on the other end. And, and it was like, the light went off. I'm like, you know what? This is, this can't be it. Like, the people here are working their butts off. But we don't have the structure. We don't have the processes. So collectively with the ownership team and the leadership team, we went to town, really focused on doing those things, having our core values be the lead, the leading indicators of how we fire, how we hire, putting internal processes to really fix some of the clarity issues that we had.

• 5:03Speaker 02

  And then you saw the turnaround. It was, it was slow at first, but once it got going, man, it was amazing to see and we were able to exit this business with, with a really good multiplier.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  What do you think most business owners misunderstand about working on the business as opposed to working in the business?

• 5:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, most business owners just don't understand the priority behind and the strategy, I should say, behind taking that clarity break, stepping away and really giving it enough thought and time to look strategically at the gaps. When you're in the weeds, when you're in the business every single day, your, your time goes into firefighting and you're, you're putting out those live fires. Versus when you take a step back and you look at it from an elevated view, now you get to see it. Now you get to see operations is breaking over here because X, Y, Z, they're understaffed, they don't understand the process. Or we've entered relationships that sales sold that didn't set us up internally for success, right?

• 6:07Speaker 02

  But you have to be able to take a step back and look at the entire board to understand where you're going to position your chess pieces. Otherwise, you're just in it and, and you're missing so much of the activity. So for me, it's important that they have that structure, that they, that they prioritize, taking a step back and making it a routine of every three months, 90 days, we look to just, look at what's happening on the business and we go work on that.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  How can a founder or an owner or CEO tell if they're the bottleneck in their own company?

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Oh man, it's easy. It's easy. When you're, when you're living work every single day, 20 plus hours a day, you are the bottleneck. You have not developed people in your organization to take that off you. You've not delegated. You've not created the right structure and the right second line leaders.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  Why do successful owners, why do we struggle to let go even when we know we need to?

• 7:08Speaker 02

  Ego. It's 100% ego stuff. You know, you built the company. You go in and it's your baby. I get it. I get it. It's pride, right? It's, it's, it's what connects you, gives you identity. And so when you have to start letting go of the vine and you start having to delegate and you, and you appear to lose control, it's that check-in that happens and most owners struggle with that because they believe that the business will go away from them. And what we teach them is that that's, that's the opposite. In fact, the business will grow. You've hired managers for a reason. You've hired supervisors, not stupid advisors, right? And so you need to be able to let them do what you've hired them to do. And if you've

• 7:51Speaker 02

  made the right hires, then these are by, you know, by nature, pretty straightforward. You just have to let people run and do their jobs.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  Absolutely. How do you help a founder move from being the hero of the business to being the architect?

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's providing that structural clarity and saying, look, your business is doing this. You've got this many goals. Realize that your skillset, your passion, your value is now transitioning from doing to strategy work because this is where you add more value. You've got the framework now. Now let's go to work on the strategic approach.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  When you say business systems, um, what do you mean beyond software or SOPs?

• 8:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're talking about the real stuff. We're talking about how do you develop your leaders? How do you create execution internally? How do you provide clarity so that all of these systems become consistent? And they're not just an SOP or a check the box. These become real in your DNA of your company. So that again, they're built for the long, the long term. Whether you have people coming and turning, the system stays. The system is the consistent factor.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  You talk, there are, you mentioned there are three systems every growing business needs to start with and needs to build. What are those?

• 9:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, the three systems that are critical for you in any company is understanding your vision. Number one, where are you going? What is your long-term vision? Where, where is your company going to go? What is it going to achieve? The second system that's super critical is role clarity. And I'm not talking about an org structure. An org structure is boring, outdated, no good. What I'm talking about is actual role clarity. Understanding what you're accountable for. What does that role need to look like so that I can be successful? And then the third one, which is critical, is how do you tackle and resolve issues? Most people just have issues that frustrate the crap out of them and they never solve them.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  So they go into spinning wheels all the time, right? But they don't actually have a process in a real system to discuss to it. First identify them, then discuss them, and then go solve them.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  How do you know whether a business needs more people, better processes, or clearer leadership?

• 10:15Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh man, that's a tough one because it could be almost all of them. But what I can tell you is that most business problems are like greatly seen to be found in system, broken systems versus people issues. And what happens in, in, in most of my experience that I've seen is you have good people. They have good intentions. But they don't understand their role. They don't understand the clear vision of where the company's going. So they they just pull on their own direction. And because they do that, then all of a sudden you're you're drifting away from where your original goals were intended to be. So the answer really is focus on your systems and process first.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  As you do that, you'll tackle the people issues. You'll tackle all of the other broken parts of the business.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  That makes a lot of sense. How can leaders design the business so the team is not constantly operating in emergency mode?

• 11:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, it and it's about again forward planning and working on the business as regularly as you can. And we we like to have a cadence of of every ninety days. We teach business owners and leaders that every ninety days you have to get into the room. You have to review what you did. What did you accomplish the last ninety days? And where are you going? Is it still in line with the goals that you set out back in January or December? Or whenever you do your annual planning? And then be strategic about achieving those through the next ninety days and resetting the right rocks and the right, you know, goals for this upcoming quarter.

• 11:49Speaker 01

  You've helped so many businesses. What's your biggest challenge now?

• 11:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, and that's really scaling OBS. You know, we we we we see this vision for taking OBS to the small, medium business owners and second line leaders out there and in helping them, you know, become successful and and and watching that that grow is really this the challenge that we see as the partners and I and we're we're excited for for that that upcoming challenge.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  Awesome. OBS talks about using AI to free owners up for higher value decisions. Where should small businesses start with AI now?

• 12:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, a great one. I love this one. So for me, AI is all about getting your time back and understanding what's the ROI that you can get from getting your time back, right? And so start playing with the AI tools that are out there. Don't be shy. Don't be scared of them. These are going to be the next thing. This is Not a fad, right? This is not like something that's gonna come and go. Think of this as when the internet first came out. It's it's not gonna go away. So you might as well jump in there, start playing with it, start becoming comfortable with it. Because every week, every month, these AI tools are evolving. And you just don't know what you may be missing out on from a learning, cost savings perspective.

• 13:12Speaker 02

  And and overall, just business strategy that they could help out.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Your passion is obvious. What do you like best about what you're doing?

• 13:20Speaker 02

  I love helping people like that. That for me is my passion. Seth, like I. I have a hard time saying no, you know, I we we I take on a lot. Um, and it's because I am I'm encouraged and really moved by watching people be successful. And so. You know, if if we can help another business owner get out of the rut, get some clarity, start winning again, like that for me. It is a is a success and and leaves, you know, that that that fulfillment, you know, for me.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  Who is an ideal client for you?

• 13:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, great question. Yeah, for me, an ideal client is that business owner that, you know, has gotten sort of. Off the off the ground, they're in that one to twenty million dollar range. They understand what their value proposition is, but they can't scale. They just don't know why they can't scale. So we come in and again, our systems and processes allow them for that scalability.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  And for our folks watching or listening, where is the best place for them to go to learn more?

• 14:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, definitely. And optimizebusinesssystems.com. Find us there, find us on LinkedIn or your socials, Instagram, YouTube. We have a weekly podcast, the Inner Circle, uh, podcast, and that is downloadable on Apple Music, on Spotify. And YouTube, so you can certainly find us there and we'd be we're looking forward to connecting.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  All right. This has been Seth Green with Hector Alvarado from Optimized Business Systems. Hector, thanks again for joining us.

• 14:48Speaker 02

  Hey, thanks. I appreciate it.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  Thanks, everybody for watching or listening. We will talk to you or see you next time.

• 14:55Speaker 03

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