How This $500K Business Ended Up With NOTHING!

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I would get called into work because we were short staffed and I had to like cancel a $10,000 job.
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Dude, I just lost like two months worth of paychecks from this place.
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Today, we're in Texas visiting TC from Home Roots Landscape.
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So like this month, we were supposed to do $110,000 projection and we're at $20,000.
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TC made over $500,000 in revenue last year.
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There's no one in St. Markets that has ability to do something like this.
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Even the company that's like 5X our size right now.
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But right now has tens of thousands of dollars worth of credit card debt and no money in the bank.
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Me and my wife have not paid ourselves in like six weeks.
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The last two payrolls have been like, skip me, alright, we're 80 bucks short.
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That's the challenging part.
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Like if we're not making $32,000 a month, we're losing money.
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Right now, in the moment, if I told him just to recurring, he'd probably go bankrupt.
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We need to double and triple the lead flow.
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Otherwise, we don't have a business.
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I'm always like optimistic, I guess.
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If everything goes right in the business, we'll make a profit.
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Not a great strategy.
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He was forced to take a $50,000 loan just to make it through the winter.
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Our mortgage is like $4,000 a month.
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You're robbing your summer and fall profitable season to get through the winter.
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He's like, please don't make us live under a bridge, but if we had to live under a bridge, we'd be totally fine.
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This is the Business Turnaround Show.
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My name is Mike Andes.
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I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care, where we have over 175 locations around the world.
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The challenging part is he has an office person.
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Big projects aren't coming in.
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Our lead flow for projects is like nothing.
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Nothing.
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As soon as you get that, you almost have to get to $800,000 in revenue just to afford it.
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It's always like we're too expensive.
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We travel the country fixing struggling businesses.
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Our goal is to give TCS a strategy to turn around the business in the next six weeks.
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T.C.
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How's it going, man?
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How you doing, man?
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Good to see you, brother.
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Good to meet you.
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This is a great little spot you got.
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Yeah, it's pretty sweet.
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My name is T.C.
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Bliss.
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I own Homework Salon and Landscape.
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We're a full service salon and landscape company that has recurring maintenance, but we also do like full landscape build-out and construction for new builds and commercial and residential.
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That's one truck.
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We have a four-door truck over there, and then I have a truck that I'm actually selling at the office that was kind of like, it's planning on using it like delivery trucks.
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So last year we ran three trucks, but the third is never like full.
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capacity.
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And this is your estimator truck.
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Yeah, I just got this little $4,000 car and a couple hundred bucks and stickers.
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This was kind of like my office manager and me and this was like our little office space.
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Which was super efficient because the rent here is like 600 bucks.
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For all of it?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Before Heather started, my wife was doing a lot of the calls and stuff.
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Once we started getting busy and we had more kids, she would basically have to let it go to voicemail and then call them back when they're like napping or something.
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So it just wasn't great.
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So when did you start the business originally?
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So in 2020, we started the business.
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I had been a firefighter for like a year and a half at that point.
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The firefighter schedules two days on, four days off.
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I was literally working like six days a week.
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So I was doing like 110 hour weeks.
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Full time both pretty much by the time I looked at hours.
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So yeah, it was like 60 hours at the fire department and like pretty much 40 hours to 50 hours a year.
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Yeah, it's a lot.
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Like most of the time if we slept, it was fine.
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But like on the nights where we happened to run all night, it was like brutal.
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I would get called into work because we were short staffed and I had to like cancel a $10,000 job.
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And then the customer would get weird and I was like, dude, I just lost like two months worth of paychecks from this place, you know?
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I had just done a bunch of research on like businesses to start while having the fire department gig because I was really just looking for like a way to make extra income.
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Within like a year, we were like at a crew rolling full time while I was at the fire department.
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Heather's salary for that first year was literally like basically on like a, you know, business line of credit.
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I want to say we were at like $200,000 probably when I quit.
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I was thinking only me and I even bought equipment for only like a one-man setup.
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If you have a full-time office person and an office, just the overhead is immediately so high, you have to grow the business.
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I think it was worth it because I was transitioning out of fire department and stressed out in my mind.
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And then the next year was like $370,000.
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But I was hoping we would hit like a quick like double and it just didn't happen.
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And then now we're at 530.
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I'm not going to go in there and go, all right, get rid of your office, lady.
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And like, we're scaling this thing back.
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Unless someone has so much financial pain and their prices is way too low.
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I don't think that's happening with them.
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And this year, what do you think you're going to do?
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Like 700?
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What do you think you're going to call?
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It's hard to tell, man.
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Our lead flow for projects is like nothing.
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This month, we were supposed to do 110,000 projection.
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And we're at 20,000.
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Last month, during the spring rush, to make $20,000 a month in revenue, you're losing money in what should be your business time.
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Do you think it's just because of the economy right now?
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I met a couple of business owners that have folded in this area, and then I know a pool company, and they said that they have had zero residential pools in the last four months.
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This is sort of the double-edged sword of one-time projects.
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When the economy is going really good and everyone wants to spend money, like we saw in 2021, 2022 even, everyone's booming.
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I saw construction companies that did one-time projects go from $2 million to $5 million to $10 million in a matter of just a few years.
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You think we're at what, like $200?
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The first five months of the year, yeah.
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Which is brutal.
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One time projects can also go away very quickly.
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Anything in business that comes fast can leave fast.
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We like crushed winter this year and I was like, we broke the system.
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We landed like a $70,000 project in December.
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Sometime before that there was like a $50,000 project when we built a pickleball court.
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Everyone loves projects because you get huge chunks of revenue.
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A $50,000 pickleball court sounds great.
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Until you build the infrastructure of the business and you have trucks and equipment and debt and office building and enough crew and trucks and everything rolling for a business that's going to do $110,000 in monthly revenue and it turns out to do $20,000.
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And that's the challenging part with one-time jobs is that there is no guarantee of that revenue coming in.
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So it floated us through winter payrolls and stuff, but then it got to the end and I had to pull like a business line of credit to like pay off the concrete guy at the very end three months later, you know, and things like that.
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When you add debt, you add risk.
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And when you add risk, you decrease the number of options you have when you get in a bad spot to be able to fix the business.
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Last year, I was doing five to ten bids a week of purely landscaping.
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And then we closed about two to three of those.
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And then last year, at peak, we had like, what, seven, eight team members?
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We had like nine at one point.
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You were kind of like hitting that in September.
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And like, okay, next year is going to be massive.
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So then they're like, okay, let's get the loan, just get through the offseason.
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We had five to ten bids last week as well.
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But then none of those people...
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This one is really just like a big Q4 collapse.
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He increased his overhead dramatically by getting a bunch of debt during the winter and had to get a $50,000 line on working capital.
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I don't think he's paying himself for quite a bit of the offseason.
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I haven't looked at our recurring numbers, which is silly, in such a long time because that's like projects kind of like my side and then Heather has just kind of like ran with that side.
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I was talking with TC kind of like, hey, like right now the big projects aren't coming in.
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The recurring side is kind of just, it just been in the background.
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You've been managing that.
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How many recurring mowing customers do we have now approximately?
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I think approximately we have like 54.
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We don't typically do any type of one-time mows.
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We have been doing some of them since we have been a little slower.
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My goal is to convert them to a recurring.
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Right now, like from a lead flow perspective, like where are those coming from?
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We do door hangers and yard signs a little bit, but not as consistently as we should.
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Obviously, when we get in a pinch, I'm like, y'all.
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go do 3,000 door hangers like this week, you know?
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So this is why contractors go in and out of business like crazy during a boom cycle.
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Everyone's rich.
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Everyone has so much money and jobs are pouring in.
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But when that drops, like where is the revenue?
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So we just got $100,000 contract for two apartments here.
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The recurring maintenance.
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Yeah, and I got a little creative with the contract after talking to a few commercial guys.
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It's like here, it's like 46 services is the common.
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There's no way you're mowing all those.
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And if we did like their price for 46 services is my price for like 26.
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So it's like hard to convince a property manager or even want to convince a property manager to try to make it work.
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But I changed the wording to where it's like we're not going to do every service at every visit.
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And so we're going to see how that goes.
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Yeah, if needed, we'll keep it within these parameters.
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And is that, so that helps a little bit during the off season because you're like eight to six, eight to 10 grand a month.
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It's like 8,700, I think something like that.
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That's going to be starting in this month in June.
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If we stripped it down just to recurring right now, do you think you're probably in that 30,000 a month range then?
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We're probably at 20.
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And that includes that new contract maybe?
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Yeah, that's probably accurate.
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And that isn't enough for us to pay the bills now.
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It's like I'm twiddling my thumbs and normally I'm supposed to be closing.
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I think the hard part right now is we've got to thread the needle of, yes, we need increased recurring revenue to make the business more sustainable, but also in the short term, we can't be having 20% of revenue expected coming in.
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We can't even pay the bills.
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I don't even know how he's making it right now.
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20 grand will not pay for this office space, three trucks.
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He's already trying to sell one of his trucks, so we'll see what happens.
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Whoa, this is nice.
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How often of the time do customers actually come in, in person?
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The goal was weekly.
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So like, yeah, not like daily or anything.
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Most of the time we set them up on like Thursdays, Fridays, and we'll do like two or three when we're busy.
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But this spring is just kind of more dead.
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First two months we had it.
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We were setting at least a couple people a week in here and closing pretty much 100% there for the first couple months.
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You want to sit down in the water?
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Let's go.
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The 4.0 framework shares the four constraints as to why your business will stop growing.
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It's either a lack of liquidity, a lack of leads, a lack of labors, or a lack of leadership.
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I actually feel like that's a strength of yours.
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It's like the leadership side.
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Oh, thanks.
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Probably a lot of it comes from the fire academy and stuff like that.
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Like you kind of have a lot of that hardwired in, I feel.
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It's this, unfortunately, getting to 500,000 usually as sales, 500,000 and beyond is leadership.
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Assuming we still have lead fans.
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Assuming there's people that want your stuff.
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Yeah.
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You know, so like, I feel like it's tough because at 500,000, you made all the decisions last year to get to a million, like getting this office space, ramping everything up, getting the working capital.
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And then we just haven't had the lead flow.
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and we don't have the recurring to fall back on.
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For us, we really shifted towards recurring, but most of us had 60 to 70% of recurring already.
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So it's like, okay, we can at least pay the bills, and then go more aggressive on it.
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With DC, we're really focusing on liquidity and leads in the 4.0 framework.
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figure out stuff down the road but right now we need to focus on what actually is keeping the business from growing and that's leads and that's liquidity right now from liquidity perspective i know we have the a little bit of credit card debt we have the truck we have equipment and then we have the working capital loan the one i'm concerned about is most of the short-term stuff so credit card and the working capital loan that working capital loan was used in its entirety this past
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And it wasn't that long ago, like February.
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Yeah.
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Is that when you got it?
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Mm-hmm.
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Okay.
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So that's kind of held us through the last few months, really.
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Yeah.
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Like the slow spring.
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Well, yeah, it's gone now, but yeah.
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Yeah.
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Because I mean, like instantly like 30 of it went away to like contractors.
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Oh, because you were wrapping up that big project.
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And you needed that money.
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We did progress payments, but basically the initial 50% down on that floated us through some slower months.
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And so I paid for the initial startup of that job, all the contractor's deposits.
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But then once we got to the end, I was like 18 short or something.
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That 50 grand is gone.
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Mm-hmm.
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Currently, cash on hand is still around $3,000.
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Yeah, nothing.
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Okay, we don't have any cash.
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So when we look at the 4.0 framework, liquidity or cash in the bank is the number one reason why you will not grow your business.
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And right now, there's literally zero in the bank.
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Are the credit cards still around 20 grand?
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Like 25 on the credit card.
220
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And then the last two payrolls have been like close.
221
00:11:29.143 --> 00:11:34.987
All of this summer and fall, his profits are being ate away at by this working capital loan that chips away at all his revenue.
222
00:11:35.107 --> 00:11:37.468
Without liquidity, we can't continue the 4L framework.
223
00:11:37.709 --> 00:11:38.829
We cannot grow the business.
224
00:11:38.949 --> 00:11:41.992
Me and my wife have not paid ourselves in like six weeks.
225
00:11:42.052 --> 00:11:44.613
So like we're starting to follow behind on like personal bills and stuff.
226
00:11:44.933 --> 00:11:45.414
Oh, dude.
227
00:11:45.434 --> 00:11:45.574
Yeah.
228
00:11:45.594 --> 00:11:47.175
Like the last two payrolls have been like...
229
00:11:47.335 --> 00:11:48.676
Okay, skip me.
230
00:11:48.696 --> 00:11:50.677
All right, we're 80 bucks short.
231
00:11:50.937 --> 00:11:52.898
All right, let's call a couple people.
232
00:11:52.978 --> 00:11:53.538
Let's do this.
233
00:11:53.638 --> 00:11:54.819
Which, this is a first for us.
234
00:11:54.859 --> 00:11:59.942
Like, even when I first quit the fire department, we were tight, but it was never, like, shit, you know?
235
00:12:00.042 --> 00:12:01.543
How much of the 50 grand is paid off?
236
00:12:01.783 --> 00:12:02.423
Like, 20 already.
237
00:12:02.703 --> 00:12:02.963
Okay.
238
00:12:02.983 --> 00:12:03.183
Yeah.
239
00:12:03.303 --> 00:12:05.925
And is it 10% they're taking from each transaction?
240
00:12:05.945 --> 00:12:06.005
20.
241
00:12:06.465 --> 00:12:09.167
So, basically, all the profit from recurring service.
242
00:12:09.227 --> 00:12:10.927
It's only on stuff processed through Stripe, right?
243
00:12:10.967 --> 00:12:11.428
The recurring revenue.
244
00:12:11.448 --> 00:12:13.109
So, if it's processed through Stripe, then they hit you.
245
00:12:13.229 --> 00:12:13.489
Yes.
246
00:12:13.749 --> 00:12:15.190
It's hard, because, like, the project slowed.
247
00:12:15.590 --> 00:12:15.730
Right.
248
00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:22.213
And then all the profit from Moe's is gone before it ever comes in the door.
249
00:12:22.293 --> 00:12:26.856
Like off of each Moe, literally when they process like $18, $24, $19.
250
00:12:27.096 --> 00:12:29.697
As the business grows, you can keep getting higher credit card limits.
251
00:12:30.037 --> 00:12:35.500
He'll be able to get more working capital loans from Jopper because he'll pay this one off by September, October.
252
00:12:35.921 --> 00:12:37.081
And so next year he'll get $100,000.
253
00:12:39.143 --> 00:12:43.369
It can be a really an addicting thing, but ultimately the fix is the off season.
254
00:12:43.489 --> 00:12:48.177
So the goal this year, I pulled a bigger one to pay the American Express off all the way.
255
00:12:48.377 --> 00:12:48.577
Okay.
256
00:12:48.978 --> 00:12:53.886
Didn't happen because the initial early spring cash flow didn't happen.
257
00:12:54.166 --> 00:12:58.369
If we don't fix Q4, we'll just stay in the cycle of getting more debt every winter.
258
00:12:58.729 --> 00:13:00.211
The line of credit will just need to get bigger.
259
00:13:00.551 --> 00:13:03.053
The amount of credit cards, the limit will just need to get bigger.
260
00:13:03.513 --> 00:13:06.275
And unfortunately, our credit system is built that way.
261
00:13:06.375 --> 00:13:09.537
What stinks is we're gonna pay that off right by the time we hit Austin's.
262
00:13:09.577 --> 00:13:11.419
Yes, which has happened the last two years.
263
00:13:11.719 --> 00:13:12.960
Your wife's perspective on this.
264
00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:14.221
Where's she at on this?
265
00:13:14.401 --> 00:13:15.422
Dude, she's better than I am.
266
00:13:15.442 --> 00:13:15.982
She's like...
267
00:13:16.365 --> 00:13:17.747
We've always been fine before.
268
00:13:17.767 --> 00:13:18.829
We'll figure it out.
269
00:13:18.869 --> 00:13:20.451
Whatever we need to do, work weekends, whatever.
270
00:13:20.992 --> 00:13:23.496
And I'm like, we're going to freaking blow up, you know?
271
00:13:23.756 --> 00:13:24.317
Which is great.
272
00:13:24.598 --> 00:13:26.921
She knows where you're at, and she thinks you'll get through it.
273
00:13:27.182 --> 00:13:27.943
Yeah.
274
00:13:28.143 --> 00:13:30.947
She's always like, nothing's going to blow up.
275
00:13:30.967 --> 00:13:31.308
We're fine.
276
00:13:31.488 --> 00:13:36.533
Yeah, dude, she's like, please don't make us live under a bridge, but if we had to live under a bridge, we'd be totally fine.
277
00:13:36.573 --> 00:13:38.174
And I'm like, I appreciate that.
278
00:13:38.494 --> 00:13:44.840
So it is going to take a huge amount of time, but if she's supportive and believing in you, we got a huge win.
279
00:13:45.561 --> 00:13:51.066
And so I think once you have no personal pay, you start to feel the pain and the fact of the business not doing well.
280
00:13:51.386 --> 00:13:53.168
That's what's like, okay, I now feel the pain.
281
00:13:53.288 --> 00:13:53.468
Yeah.
282
00:13:53.748 --> 00:13:58.475
And like, great thing is she believes in you and is like, hey, you know, work weekends or evening, let's go.
283
00:13:58.615 --> 00:13:59.456
Let's just make it happen.
284
00:13:59.696 --> 00:14:04.183
Because I believe that she probably would rather you grow this business than going to get another job.
285
00:14:04.203 --> 00:14:05.084
A hundred percent.
286
00:14:05.264 --> 00:14:05.485
Great.
287
00:14:05.505 --> 00:14:07.447
She says I'm stupid every time I talk about it.
288
00:14:07.467 --> 00:14:08.048
Fantastic.
289
00:14:08.108 --> 00:14:08.549
I like her.
290
00:14:08.569 --> 00:14:10.772
I don't even know her name, but I think I like her.
291
00:14:10.972 --> 00:14:20.694
Yes, in the perfect world, if he had no debt, I would give him the option of tomorrow, we can just scale back to only doing $25,000 to $30,000 a month in revenue on high margin, recurring revenue.
292
00:14:20.754 --> 00:14:25.475
This contract he's gotten recently with a 12-month contract, great, helps us during the off-season, we're good to go.
293
00:14:25.535 --> 00:14:32.816
But when you have an office space and an office person and you have debt and you have credit cards, if I told him just do recurring, he'd probably go bankrupt.
294
00:14:32.996 --> 00:14:39.218
Because he wouldn't be able to make any profit after paying that and all the other fixed debt that he has on the business.
295
00:14:41.078 --> 00:14:44.101
$1,200 here, we have $600 over the other space.
296
00:14:44.742 --> 00:14:46.023
We have- Plus $100 for the parking.
297
00:14:46.383 --> 00:14:49.386
Okay, so $600, okay, $18, let's call it $1,900.
298
00:14:49.726 --> 00:14:54.971
So, all right, we got $1,900 for shop space slash office.
299
00:14:55.452 --> 00:14:57.533
Realistically, you need to pull what in front of the business?
300
00:14:57.834 --> 00:14:59.675
Our mortgage is like $4,000 a month, which sucks.
301
00:14:59.695 --> 00:15:01.317
Okay, let's just assume $7,000.
302
00:15:01.757 --> 00:15:06.302
Probably have another $4,000, $5,000 to cover office wages.
303
00:15:06.862 --> 00:15:08.803
Yeah, Heather's probably like $3,500 a month, $4,000.
304
00:15:08.823 --> 00:15:10.704
So let's just call it $4,000.
305
00:15:10.724 --> 00:15:18.369
So essentially we have 11, let's just call it for the sake of easy numbers, $13,000 in overhead.
306
00:15:18.909 --> 00:15:19.849
Does that sound right?
307
00:15:19.949 --> 00:15:21.771
Not counting like insurance and stuff like that.
308
00:15:21.931 --> 00:15:22.291
Correct.
309
00:15:22.531 --> 00:15:22.891
Right.
310
00:15:22.911 --> 00:15:25.132
So then we have fixed expenses of insurance.
311
00:15:25.152 --> 00:15:26.273
We also have the loan payments.
312
00:15:26.633 --> 00:15:27.874
Bobcat's $1,000.
313
00:15:28.775 --> 00:15:29.335
Truck payment.
314
00:15:29.395 --> 00:15:30.796
Truck is like $300.
315
00:15:31.740 --> 00:15:32.101
Okay.
316
00:15:32.421 --> 00:15:36.726
Insurance is like 1100, and that's our liability and stuff too.
317
00:15:36.766 --> 00:15:38.649
Internet and all that.
318
00:15:38.709 --> 00:15:39.269
Utilities.
319
00:15:39.350 --> 00:15:40.571
Probably the 300 to 400.
320
00:15:40.591 --> 00:15:42.494
The utilities for this place.
321
00:15:42.594 --> 00:15:43.315
And both, yeah.
322
00:15:43.335 --> 00:15:43.535
Yeah.
323
00:15:43.595 --> 00:15:44.196
It's not too bad.
324
00:15:44.376 --> 00:15:45.517
Yeah, the loan payments.
325
00:15:45.537 --> 00:15:47.400
Yeah, they took like 14 grand and lost like
326
00:15:48.392 --> 00:15:49.413
through two or three months.
327
00:15:49.753 --> 00:16:05.365
The level of pain that he's gone through has massively escalated in the past six to eight weeks because he went from like, okay, this is not good, but we're coming in the busy season and we will be fine to we are in the busy season, I am making less money now than I was during the off season and we have a big problem.
328
00:16:05.725 --> 00:16:06.966
That's the challenging part.
329
00:16:07.106 --> 00:16:10.930
We still have 30 grand on the Stripe loan.
330
00:16:11.230 --> 00:16:13.852
We still have 25 on the credit card.
331
00:16:14.453 --> 00:16:18.576
If you actually take this, it's a lot more because we've got to pay the credit card down.
332
00:16:18.857 --> 00:16:25.222
I'm being very conservative when we say, okay, maybe this is 17, let's call it 16 grand.
333
00:16:25.622 --> 00:16:30.827
Well, if we're at 50% cost of goods sold, if we're not making $32,000 a month, we're losing money.
334
00:16:32.148 --> 00:16:34.610
And so when we have a spring, obviously it's been rough.
335
00:16:34.710 --> 00:16:37.072
Like when it's $20,000 or $30,000, that's why we're losing money.
336
00:16:37.332 --> 00:16:40.274
And then during the off-season, we're also losing money, right?
337
00:16:40.294 --> 00:16:42.056
Which this year we didn't.
338
00:16:42.196 --> 00:16:43.797
Because you had the big projects, right?
339
00:16:43.817 --> 00:16:44.878
A couple big projects.
340
00:16:45.178 --> 00:16:46.980
So it's been saving our bacon.
341
00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:48.921
We need to solve the cash crunch.
342
00:16:49.341 --> 00:16:53.765
And there's no way we can do that with $20,000 to $30,000 a month in recurring revenue.
343
00:16:53.805 --> 00:16:54.005
No.
344
00:16:54.145 --> 00:16:55.666
We can't just switch to full recurring.
345
00:16:55.706 --> 00:16:55.906
No.
346
00:16:56.067 --> 00:16:57.588
Even if you went all in on it.
347
00:16:58.348 --> 00:17:02.811
maybe we get to 40 or 50,000 this year because we missed the spring rush.
348
00:17:03.131 --> 00:17:07.474
So like if we went all in, but at 40, 50 grand, we'd still be losing money.
349
00:17:07.854 --> 00:17:09.715
And so we actually have to kind of
350
00:17:10.512 --> 00:17:12.093
which I hate split our attention here.
351
00:17:12.113 --> 00:17:14.854
And that's like, we have new projects and we've got to focus on the recurrence.
352
00:17:14.894 --> 00:17:18.555
Now throughout the off season, they have a massive drop off in the amount of leads that are coming in.
353
00:17:18.996 --> 00:17:21.957
And typically in the past couple of months that should have been picking up.
354
00:17:22.317 --> 00:17:27.379
But last month it dropped off even as bad as, if not worse than during the off season.
355
00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:36.563
This massive unexpected drop in leads during what otherwise would be the busiest time of year has left home roots in a really bad and vulnerable position financially.
356
00:17:36.763 --> 00:17:39.084
We want recurring long-term, we want to keep growing that.
357
00:17:39.104 --> 00:17:42.946
I think there's ways we can improve that, but we need these projects to start printing.
358
00:17:42.966 --> 00:17:44.087
Okay, so there's two ways we can go here.
359
00:17:44.547 --> 00:17:50.930
One is we focus a bunch on improving the sales process for projects, because I think there's a lot of meat on that bone.
360
00:17:51.411 --> 00:18:03.077
Or we say, okay, we're gonna get in the field, we're gonna do more mowing, we're gonna increase more passive lead flow, all driving to the office, and she's gonna sell people over the phone for mowing and for chemicals.
361
00:18:03.937 --> 00:18:05.438
And more smaller recurring stuff.
362
00:18:05.739 --> 00:18:06.399
But she's great at that.
363
00:18:06.419 --> 00:18:09.022
She knows that better than ID as far as how we're doing that.
364
00:18:09.782 --> 00:18:10.643
Like, it just depends.
365
00:18:10.663 --> 00:18:16.048
Like, if you're going recurring, he could cut out the office space, office person, a lot of things.
366
00:18:16.468 --> 00:18:25.136
But if you're going to go project route, I actually think it is relatively cheap to pay $1,200 a month for an office and $3,500 for an office person.
367
00:18:25.316 --> 00:18:28.018
Like, that $4,000, let's call it, what, $45,000?
368
00:18:28.058 --> 00:18:30.060
Let's call it $5,000 a month extra cost.
369
00:18:30.260 --> 00:18:36.145
If that allows you to sell $100,000 worth of projects a month at 30% margin, I'm okay with it.
370
00:18:36.325 --> 00:18:42.050
Now I've turned six grand in expenses or five grand in expenses into $30,000, positive.
371
00:18:42.290 --> 00:18:49.777
But if we're only going to sell $20,000 of revenue a month, we cannot afford $6,000 a month in office and wages.
372
00:18:50.017 --> 00:18:54.080
And right now that lead flows what, like maybe one or two times a week you're getting that?
373
00:18:54.120 --> 00:18:54.761
What do you think, Heather?
374
00:18:55.121 --> 00:18:56.963
How many times a week do you think we get recurring people?
375
00:18:57.395 --> 00:18:59.415
Like, that are accepting or just that are calling in?
376
00:18:59.435 --> 00:18:59.956
Just calling in.
377
00:19:00.156 --> 00:19:01.416
I'd say about 10 calling in.
378
00:19:01.956 --> 00:19:02.136
Yeah.
379
00:19:02.416 --> 00:19:05.117
If we had 10, do you think, like, two or three of them accept?
380
00:19:05.397 --> 00:19:05.617
Yeah.
381
00:19:06.217 --> 00:19:08.518
What's usually their reason for not accepting?
382
00:19:08.538 --> 00:19:09.038
Too high.
383
00:19:09.238 --> 00:19:09.978
Will they tell you that?
384
00:19:10.018 --> 00:19:10.118
Yeah.
385
00:19:10.138 --> 00:19:10.998
Or do they just say, like, I'll call you?
386
00:19:11.018 --> 00:19:11.678
Oh, yeah, they'll tell me.
387
00:19:11.698 --> 00:19:16.639
They'll say, oh, well, the person I had a month ago was charging me 50 bucks less than that.
388
00:19:16.739 --> 00:19:19.120
Like, it's always, like, we're too expensive.
389
00:19:19.540 --> 00:19:25.406
And when people are coming in now from a lead perspective, where are they usually coming from?
390
00:19:25.426 --> 00:19:26.287
Google or referral.
391
00:19:26.547 --> 00:19:32.253
My thing I'm going to go with TC is kind of like, how do we, one, make sure that off season we have better lead flow?
392
00:19:32.774 --> 00:19:39.621
But then also too, like right now, obviously we've had this big drop off in new construction and one-time jobs.
393
00:19:39.921 --> 00:19:41.303
How do we focus on the recurring side?
394
00:19:41.583 --> 00:19:42.103
Right, yes.
395
00:19:42.284 --> 00:19:44.565
Because if we could get the recurring site up, that would be huge.
396
00:19:44.665 --> 00:19:44.925
Yeah.
397
00:19:45.005 --> 00:19:47.847
We're getting a lot of people from Google, from all the reviews.
398
00:19:48.168 --> 00:19:53.491
My sort of struggle right now is, when they go to your website, I don't feel like that's an accurate depiction of the current brand.
399
00:19:53.612 --> 00:19:57.134
There's a lot of opportunities I currently see in their website.
400
00:19:57.174 --> 00:19:58.055
Their website's trash.
401
00:19:59.085 --> 00:19:59.626
Say how it is.
402
00:19:59.866 --> 00:20:01.247
Is that something you built?
403
00:20:01.427 --> 00:20:03.128
Is that, okay, so you built that?
404
00:20:03.268 --> 00:20:04.869
Pretty good, honestly, if you built that yourself.
405
00:20:04.929 --> 00:20:08.672
I redid what the current version is in like a day, or like three hours.
406
00:20:08.732 --> 00:20:09.793
You did that in three hours?
407
00:20:09.933 --> 00:20:10.153
Yeah.
408
00:20:10.313 --> 00:20:11.394
I think that could be improved.
409
00:20:11.414 --> 00:20:13.535
He doesn't wrap his trucks or have decals on there.
410
00:20:13.675 --> 00:20:15.477
So that could also help with getting more leads in.
411
00:20:15.597 --> 00:20:23.002
But the only reason I want to get so many leads, I want to get so many leads he needs to raise his prices as fast as possible, because that's the actual fix to the current pain.
412
00:20:23.202 --> 00:20:25.964
But most people won't do that in the face of wanting to grow.
413
00:20:26.084 --> 00:20:29.705
Okay, so we spent three days instead of three hours, and that site will look 10 times better.
414
00:20:30.026 --> 00:20:34.087
The fact that the form is on a different page, it's covered up by something else right now too, by the way.
415
00:20:34.107 --> 00:20:36.468
Like that sidebar is covering up the job or form.
416
00:20:36.548 --> 00:20:38.429
So on desktop, it's overlapped.
417
00:20:38.449 --> 00:20:39.470
On mobile, it's decent.
418
00:20:39.690 --> 00:20:41.450
But on desktop, I can't see one side of the form.
419
00:20:41.590 --> 00:20:47.713
If you actually take out the lawn and landscape and this word, this could be a construction company.
420
00:20:47.973 --> 00:20:54.999
And so I want this to speak this as Home Roots Law and Landscaping by showing a picture of your truck and your car and next to a form collecting information.
421
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.661
Because the only reason I want them on this website is to get their contact.
422
00:20:57.801 --> 00:20:59.242
I just need contact info, so lead.
423
00:20:59.543 --> 00:21:01.544
Then I'm going to set them, you go and visit them.
424
00:21:01.564 --> 00:21:03.366
Then I'm going to close them here in person.
425
00:21:03.506 --> 00:21:07.229
But I do want your, like, the whole reason they show up to the website, I want them to get an ass.
426
00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:07.449
Yeah.
427
00:21:07.729 --> 00:21:10.172
It's honestly, like, always the easiest way is, like,
428
00:21:10.792 --> 00:21:14.854
I'm just going to help them grow really fast so that they're like, I want to have so many customers, I've got to raise prices.
429
00:21:15.015 --> 00:21:20.158
The challenging part is, first off, he doesn't have the money to go wrap his trucks or make a great website.
430
00:21:20.358 --> 00:21:23.239
Redesigning the website, it'll improve the number of leads.
431
00:21:23.259 --> 00:21:24.000
That's conversion.
432
00:21:24.040 --> 00:21:25.261
I think it'll double your conversion.
433
00:21:25.481 --> 00:21:30.584
And I know that number almost at least 30% because I know that's a drop off when we've tested this.
434
00:21:30.604 --> 00:21:33.486
We split tested moving from contact page to front of page.
435
00:21:33.566 --> 00:21:35.907
You have a 30% increase in leads just by doing that.
436
00:21:36.347 --> 00:21:45.453
And also, will someone actually raise prices or will they go buy another truck, another piece of equipment, stay in growth mode and continue in more debt?
437
00:21:45.693 --> 00:21:49.216
I think that's an easy 3x, honestly, in terms of lead flow.
438
00:21:49.296 --> 00:21:52.778
So whether it be on mobile or on desktop, I want them seeing that right at the top.
439
00:21:53.158 --> 00:21:57.161
As small as possible, usually half a page on the left or the right.
440
00:21:57.501 --> 00:22:03.225
And then sometimes what you could do is just where you currently have your slogan, just bring that down and make that a banner.
441
00:22:03.650 --> 00:22:09.234
Typically, I don't like slogans that are airy-fairy and talk about anything besides what I'm doing for the customer.
442
00:22:09.435 --> 00:22:12.517
I actually originally didn't like your tagline, but now I like it.
443
00:22:13.891 --> 00:22:16.872
It's like the first people, second landscaping thing.
444
00:22:16.892 --> 00:22:18.293
The people first landscaping thing.
445
00:22:18.393 --> 00:22:22.674
The customer doesn't come to you because they want to solve world hunger or have world peace.
446
00:22:23.034 --> 00:22:24.775
They just want their landscaping done.
447
00:22:24.915 --> 00:22:28.256
Usually I'm just like, no, they're not coming here for the people.
448
00:22:28.276 --> 00:22:29.597
They're coming for landscaping.
449
00:22:29.617 --> 00:22:30.937
But it kind of grew on me.
450
00:22:30.957 --> 00:22:33.518
I don't need them to see that the very first thing they see.
451
00:22:33.678 --> 00:22:34.198
I don't mind it.
452
00:22:34.239 --> 00:22:35.339
I like the branding aspect.
453
00:22:35.619 --> 00:22:38.220
But just put it as a banner, like full length across the bottom.
454
00:22:38.360 --> 00:22:40.561
I'm interested to see if the conversion rate goes up.
455
00:22:40.621 --> 00:22:45.284
I've had the form in the past on the front page, and it's not currently, and our lead flow is lower.
456
00:22:45.404 --> 00:22:49.086
So it could be a chance, or it could be adding to it for sure.
457
00:22:49.166 --> 00:22:51.687
I know you have enough design skills to do this, so I can actually put it on there.
458
00:22:51.727 --> 00:22:52.707
I really have done this.
459
00:22:52.928 --> 00:22:53.648
Make a product book.
460
00:22:53.948 --> 00:22:55.069
So you're going to do a binder.
461
00:22:55.309 --> 00:22:58.231
You could get it with a spiral on it if you want to make it look more professional.
462
00:22:58.431 --> 00:23:06.976
And what you're going to do is take projects you've done in the past, or you can take them from your suppliers' pictures, and you're going to take the three or four type of wall block that you want to install.
463
00:23:07.036 --> 00:23:07.697
Because this is the problem.
464
00:23:07.717 --> 00:23:12.680
When you put Facebook on social media, it's like the project that you hated putting and you lost money on.
465
00:23:13.280 --> 00:23:15.581
The client gave you a one star review, they didn't pay you.
466
00:23:15.841 --> 00:23:16.342
It looks great!
467
00:23:16.382 --> 00:23:17.962
And they're like, yeah, I want that one.
468
00:23:18.242 --> 00:23:18.863
Sick!
469
00:23:19.463 --> 00:23:26.286
We got it to where once we were still doing projects and pavers at one point, like retaining walls and paper pallets, we wouldn't install this.
470
00:23:26.506 --> 00:23:29.188
But we only did one color, one design, one style.
471
00:23:29.328 --> 00:23:29.988
That's it.
472
00:23:30.168 --> 00:23:31.549
That's all they saw on our social media.
473
00:23:31.569 --> 00:23:32.871
So like it was gray.
474
00:23:33.431 --> 00:23:34.672
It was middle budget.
475
00:23:35.233 --> 00:23:37.294
I can train all of our guys in one day.
476
00:23:37.455 --> 00:23:37.955
One pattern.
477
00:23:38.075 --> 00:23:38.636
Yeah, one pattern.
478
00:23:39.296 --> 00:23:40.257
And it looked really good.
479
00:23:40.277 --> 00:23:41.258
It was a complex pattern.
480
00:23:41.278 --> 00:23:42.539
But if you learned it, you're good.
481
00:23:42.899 --> 00:23:44.861
And if the guys had like two or three of these, they were solid.
482
00:23:44.881 --> 00:23:50.126
Like I didn't have to go back on the job sites because we only installed this one type of block and this one type of paper.
483
00:23:50.146 --> 00:23:50.726
That's it.
484
00:23:51.227 --> 00:23:55.030
And what's cool is you get a product book and you just show like two or three different projects.
485
00:23:55.390 --> 00:23:57.252
Like, oh, yeah, it looks great.
486
00:23:57.352 --> 00:24:01.035
I've been wanting to add more pictures and things like that and like all the job photos are on my phone.
487
00:24:01.215 --> 00:24:05.138
And so it's always like I have to like scroll back and it's just like a really time consuming thing.
488
00:24:05.158 --> 00:24:09.821
So like getting the people who need the pictures, the pictures has always been like a kind of hiccup.
489
00:24:09.841 --> 00:24:14.505
So I probably need to clean that up and spend the weekend digging photos out from the last three years.
490
00:24:14.785 --> 00:24:16.026
They're like, yeah, do you have a before photo?
491
00:24:16.046 --> 00:24:17.147
And I'm like, yeah.
492
00:24:17.647 --> 00:24:22.853
I have to go to the maps setting on my phone and scroll because it's from however long ago.
493
00:24:23.234 --> 00:24:26.497
When you go to an in-person console, you're not giving the price in person.
494
00:24:26.697 --> 00:24:28.259
You're like, hey, we'll get back to you.
495
00:24:28.359 --> 00:24:31.623
And I'm assuming within a few days, Heather's putting together sending that out.
496
00:24:31.923 --> 00:24:33.225
I've been shooting from the hip more.
497
00:24:33.986 --> 00:24:34.526
In person?
498
00:24:34.586 --> 00:24:35.127
In person.
499
00:24:35.968 --> 00:24:36.508
Since we've been
500
00:24:37.683 --> 00:25:00.242
like so slow so slow so you're like i've been like hey i'll be my truck i'll be back in yes i've been like this is typically like 10 to 15 and they'll be like they verbally agree on the spot handshake they're like we really trust you really appreciate all the work we've had two people that were like literally told me their budget i said i don't know if i'll be able to make that happen and then i'll like call and be like good news we got everything that you asked for in the budget and then they're like sick we're so excited like and then
501
00:25:01.705 --> 00:25:03.286
no-shows their in-person consult.
502
00:25:03.526 --> 00:25:04.847
That happened twice in one day.
503
00:25:05.107 --> 00:25:12.933
It's rare for home service businesses to have in-person office spaces they can bring customers into and do consultations or sales.
504
00:25:13.453 --> 00:25:24.041
And most of the time it's not needed, especially if you're doing smaller ticket items like mowing or cleaning, smaller ticket items being under $500 or $1,000 that you can sell from your website or you can sell over the phone.
505
00:25:24.301 --> 00:25:27.902
I would consider, instead of even giving a ballpark, because ballparks are going to kill you.
506
00:25:28.182 --> 00:25:30.263
Like, A, it'll anchor them.
507
00:25:30.503 --> 00:25:31.843
So if you need to go above, you're tough.
508
00:25:31.903 --> 00:25:32.384
It's tough.
509
00:25:32.744 --> 00:25:38.445
And then secondly, is if it's out of their budget, like immediately they're just not going to show up.
510
00:25:38.465 --> 00:25:39.166
They're not going to do anything.
511
00:25:39.186 --> 00:25:42.127
Like, I would try to do more like a book a meeting from a meeting.
512
00:25:42.147 --> 00:25:42.807
It's called BAMFAM.
513
00:25:42.847 --> 00:25:46.488
So book a meeting from a meeting is what we do for landscape.
514
00:25:47.168 --> 00:25:54.433
But they have the unique option here at Home Roots to be able to actually bring customers into their office space and give a presentation.
515
00:25:54.833 --> 00:26:00.697
And this can be helpful for projects that are $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 for a customer's property.
516
00:26:00.997 --> 00:26:08.802
We actually bring them in and walk them through some sort of process to the final outcome to be that they're a paying customer and they pay a deposit on the spot.
517
00:26:08.902 --> 00:26:11.104
Like the challenging part is that when you look at your close ratio,
518
00:26:11.904 --> 00:26:15.925
And it's like, okay, well I did 10 estimates last week and one or two got back to me.
519
00:26:15.945 --> 00:26:19.426
Like that's where I'm like, okay, we can improve this process, right?
520
00:26:19.747 --> 00:26:24.068
And I think you're doing an excellent job of setting, but you're doing a horrible job of closing.
521
00:26:24.188 --> 00:26:25.148
You're excellent in person.
522
00:26:25.748 --> 00:26:28.949
And I just want you to be a setter when you meet them in person.
523
00:26:29.249 --> 00:26:31.930
Then when you get here, you have the proposal, everything's dialed in.
524
00:26:31.950 --> 00:26:35.611
Because right now the reason I think the closing isn't working is because you're doing this ballpark thing.
525
00:26:36.012 --> 00:26:37.012
You're trying to like feel them out.
526
00:26:37.452 --> 00:26:40.113
You're probably moving the price up and down based upon their reaction.
527
00:26:40.743 --> 00:26:41.523
A little bit, yeah, maybe.
528
00:26:41.543 --> 00:26:44.884
Also based upon how far you're booked out, like, okay, we need this job next week.
529
00:26:44.904 --> 00:26:46.084
Okay, I'm just going to go a little lower.
530
00:26:46.765 --> 00:26:51.386
There's too much variability because you were the guy building a rapport and now you're kind of close in front of them.
531
00:26:51.686 --> 00:26:52.866
I would just separate the two.
532
00:26:52.886 --> 00:27:02.088
These can build up a lot of trust in the sales process, but also allow them to increase their close ratio instead of just blindly hoping that customers respond back to their estimates once they've sent them.
533
00:27:02.289 --> 00:27:04.889
You're going to set up the normal, set up the time.
534
00:27:04.949 --> 00:27:05.789
You can go visit them.
535
00:27:05.949 --> 00:27:07.250
I'm assuming there's a pretty good show rate.
536
00:27:07.270 --> 00:27:07.830
They're usually there.
537
00:27:08.110 --> 00:27:08.670
Yeah.
538
00:27:08.831 --> 00:27:09.331
Great.
539
00:27:09.731 --> 00:27:11.953
Build a rapport, do not give away numbers.
540
00:27:12.533 --> 00:27:16.096
You are the estimator of this business and that's all they need now.
541
00:27:16.236 --> 00:27:18.818
The only reason you show up at their property is to get them in this office.
542
00:27:19.238 --> 00:27:23.141
Because if you told people, hey, you have to show up at our office for an estimate, you would have a very low close.
543
00:27:23.441 --> 00:27:24.742
Like people wouldn't want to show up.
544
00:27:25.143 --> 00:27:29.326
But if you go meet them, build the rapport, all you're trying to do is sell them on another meeting.
545
00:27:30.646 --> 00:27:34.987
The reason you do the in-person meeting at their property is to get the in-person meeting here.
546
00:27:35.067 --> 00:27:38.727
If I just say, hey, you know, the office will contact you and we'll schedule another meeting.
547
00:27:39.188 --> 00:27:41.828
I have a huge drop off, because now I've got to get them on the phone.
548
00:27:41.868 --> 00:27:42.448
Additional step.
549
00:27:42.528 --> 00:27:43.768
I've got to make sure that they're counted.
550
00:27:44.008 --> 00:27:49.689
I just, you're in front of them, and the whole reason that right now you're trying to get some sort of commitment around price, let's leave that alone.
551
00:27:49.789 --> 00:27:49.969
Yeah.
552
00:27:50.169 --> 00:27:53.290
Let's go after, let's get commitment for them to show up tomorrow.
553
00:27:53.490 --> 00:27:58.971
And it's gonna be harder for them to not show up if they said to you in-person face-to-face, yeah, I'll do their remark for you there.
554
00:27:59.511 --> 00:28:05.377
When they tell her who they haven't met on the phone or via email, yeah, we'll be there at 3.30 tomorrow, they might not show up.
555
00:28:05.417 --> 00:28:06.258
The professional guilt.
556
00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:08.361
Yeah, because it seems like people appreciate it.
557
00:28:08.841 --> 00:28:09.862
It's like, oh, this is everything.
558
00:28:09.882 --> 00:28:11.304
And he's like, are they even signing this?
559
00:28:11.324 --> 00:28:13.406
And he's like, oh, I guess not.
560
00:28:13.646 --> 00:28:17.110
I need to work in some more built-in, naturally structured guilt.
561
00:28:17.210 --> 00:28:18.712
They only have met you so far, right?
562
00:28:19.012 --> 00:28:21.555
And so I would just... More than 50% of our reviews are...
563
00:28:22.095 --> 00:28:23.076
I don't know how those names.
564
00:28:23.136 --> 00:28:23.356
100%.
565
00:28:23.416 --> 00:28:23.596
Yeah.
566
00:28:23.777 --> 00:28:24.677
You have this asset.
567
00:28:24.697 --> 00:28:25.418
You pay for it.
568
00:28:25.838 --> 00:28:28.080
I think everyone that walks in this door, you can close.
569
00:28:28.560 --> 00:28:33.204
And then we create a sales system that is, okay, we go up, we get the lead.
570
00:28:33.224 --> 00:28:33.484
Great.
571
00:28:33.725 --> 00:28:35.026
We talk and build the rapport.
572
00:28:35.426 --> 00:28:36.627
We schedule the appointment.
573
00:28:36.807 --> 00:28:40.730
Make sure, is there any reason why you can't show up tomorrow at 3.30 p.m. at the office?
574
00:28:41.090 --> 00:28:44.813
And so from that initial consult, it's like, hey, great, I've got pictures.
575
00:28:44.834 --> 00:28:45.674
I'm going to make a video.
576
00:28:46.014 --> 00:28:48.096
Tomorrow afternoon, I'll have the design done.
577
00:28:48.196 --> 00:28:51.399
Let's go ahead and book your time to meet me at the office, and we'll go over everything.
578
00:28:51.739 --> 00:28:59.142
Because I have a feeling like I would use this asset, whether it be the office or the trucks or the equipment or your team, there are assets to a business.
579
00:28:59.162 --> 00:28:59.882
There are positives.
580
00:28:59.902 --> 00:29:01.603
And I don't think I mean assets like possessions.
581
00:29:01.903 --> 00:29:04.984
I mean assets in terms like these are a net positive for the business.
582
00:29:05.024 --> 00:29:05.945
I look at that as an asset.
583
00:29:06.185 --> 00:29:07.685
How can I use that better?
584
00:29:07.965 --> 00:29:09.346
How can I use that truck every day?
585
00:29:09.446 --> 00:29:11.427
How can I use this office space to sell more customers?
586
00:29:11.667 --> 00:29:19.030
How can I use my office and admin instead of just being straight overhead and just taking things off my plate, they actually become a sales advocate and growing the business.
587
00:29:19.930 --> 00:29:43.566
asset utilization my goal is that when you're at the customer's property they get a full understanding of what is going to happen in terms of like oh like here's a here's a before and after of another product uh another rip out that we did similar to yours and especially because a lot of yours are like new construction stuff you can show that like here what it looks like and they're like oh yeah that's right that's exactly the one and then there's no design work in the
588
00:29:43.886 --> 00:29:44.987
Because like, oh, you like this?
589
00:29:45.527 --> 00:29:45.808
Great.
590
00:29:46.008 --> 00:29:47.169
No need to spend 20 minutes.
591
00:29:47.429 --> 00:29:49.390
Let's go ahead and book a meeting at the office.
592
00:29:49.451 --> 00:29:51.012
I'll have a full design ready to go.
593
00:29:51.272 --> 00:29:53.954
And you have like the two or three templates that you're just moving around.
594
00:29:54.254 --> 00:30:00.699
So you have a $5,000 package, a $10,000 package, and a $20,000 package based upon what you know what works in this area.
595
00:30:00.780 --> 00:30:02.341
And I want to use that in the sales process.
596
00:30:02.361 --> 00:30:04.783
There's no one in St. Marcus that has like a...
597
00:30:05.363 --> 00:30:07.066
ability to do something like this.
598
00:30:07.166 --> 00:30:13.096
Even the company that's like 5X our size right now, that's like our only one above us on Google, they don't have anything like this.
599
00:30:13.116 --> 00:30:18.164
They're just in like 8 of those warehouse buildings, you know, and they have like a tiny little finished out space, so it's like...
600
00:30:18.963 --> 00:30:21.444
I feel like it's an asset and it was beneficial the first two months.
601
00:30:21.484 --> 00:30:22.825
I just have had a hard time.
602
00:30:23.105 --> 00:30:24.806
It's like we made the investment to get in here.
603
00:30:24.846 --> 00:30:25.206
I get it.
604
00:30:25.226 --> 00:30:29.508
When you don't have any leads coming in and you get one in front of you, you're like, I guess I've got to get them now.
605
00:30:30.029 --> 00:30:31.209
And so I'm going to give them a range.
606
00:30:31.309 --> 00:30:32.810
I want some sort of verbal commitment.
607
00:30:33.070 --> 00:30:35.411
So then I can go spend my time actually making the estimate.
608
00:30:35.791 --> 00:30:40.754
So I understand that part, but I think we lean into, okay, what's the actual sales process for home?
609
00:30:41.534 --> 00:30:43.595
It is for construction jobs.
610
00:30:43.635 --> 00:30:48.358
We are going to leverage the asset of this office space and the fact that no one else has that to compare me to.
611
00:30:48.858 --> 00:30:55.087
And so I go out, I'm there to do one thing, build a board, and get them to book a meeting from a meeting.
612
00:30:55.127 --> 00:30:55.888
It's BanFam.
613
00:30:55.908 --> 00:31:03.960
Most time it's like, they come in, like our logo's up on the screen, it immediately goes to like their before picture, then an after picture of the design of what I wanna do.
614
00:31:04.140 --> 00:31:04.560
And then,
615
00:31:05.886 --> 00:31:07.547
I'll hand them this little thing here.
616
00:31:07.567 --> 00:31:09.369
I just literally slide it like this.
617
00:31:09.689 --> 00:31:11.050
It's got satisfaction guaranteed.
618
00:31:11.130 --> 00:31:13.511
And then three pages of reviews that I hand them.
619
00:31:13.772 --> 00:31:15.633
And then our warranty agreement.
620
00:31:15.773 --> 00:31:17.855
And then they're dead.
621
00:31:18.795 --> 00:31:21.037
Okay, folks, this is fun.
622
00:31:21.257 --> 00:31:22.138
All right, all right, all right.
623
00:31:22.438 --> 00:31:23.999
As a customer, I'm overwhelmed.
624
00:31:24.299 --> 00:31:27.822
I think this is like, if we really try to boil it down, the customer is trying to pay.
625
00:31:28.462 --> 00:31:29.623
to transform their landscape.
626
00:31:29.903 --> 00:31:39.391
And by showing them photos of jobs that you've done in the past that are close to what they are asking for, you are actually proving to them over and over, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.
627
00:31:39.531 --> 00:31:40.912
I don't need to tell you my customers.
628
00:31:41.152 --> 00:31:43.334
This is Mr. Jones over in Buddha.
629
00:31:43.754 --> 00:31:45.996
We did his project here, this was last summer.
630
00:31:46.416 --> 00:31:48.778
Here's what the before and after was, here's the total project cost.
631
00:31:48.858 --> 00:31:49.499
All right, next slide.
632
00:31:49.519 --> 00:31:51.941
All right, this one looks a little more closer to yours, a little cheaper.
633
00:31:52.721 --> 00:31:54.163
You can also anchor these prices.
634
00:31:54.603 --> 00:31:57.607
So if you show the price of another project, they're already gauging.
635
00:31:57.847 --> 00:31:58.568
Oh, that's 30 grand.
636
00:31:58.648 --> 00:32:01.431
Okay, this is not going to be a $15,000 job, right?
637
00:32:01.471 --> 00:32:04.675
So you could use that to your advantage, but this is the thing.
638
00:32:04.895 --> 00:32:07.678
The customer doesn't want to do that.
639
00:32:07.698 --> 00:32:08.499
They don't want to deal with this.
640
00:32:08.839 --> 00:32:10.261
They just want their property looking different.
641
00:32:11.108 --> 00:32:15.629
Yeah, like this really comes down to me writing the books and talking with Dr. Cash.
642
00:32:15.669 --> 00:32:19.110
And he's like, if it is not needed with words, you remove it.
643
00:32:19.631 --> 00:32:25.392
And I genuinely believe that three sentences would cover the 10 or 15 pages of text that he gave me.
644
00:32:25.712 --> 00:32:27.533
And most people don't want to read text.
645
00:32:27.693 --> 00:32:29.634
They want to solve their landscaping problem.
646
00:32:29.674 --> 00:32:32.054
Like if I was to say, what's your 100% satisfaction guarantee?
647
00:32:32.194 --> 00:32:33.775
What would you say?
648
00:32:33.855 --> 00:32:40.957
I'd summarize it as basically saying as long as it's within the scope of work of what you agreed on and what's in your bid, then we're going to do everything to make it.
649
00:32:42.113 --> 00:32:43.578
Yeah, so that's what this should say.
650
00:32:44.460 --> 00:32:47.610
Just bigger font, picture of you and your family.
651
00:32:47.630 --> 00:32:48.373
You will be happy.
652
00:32:50.307 --> 00:32:51.148
Guaranteed.
653
00:32:51.288 --> 00:32:53.589
No, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, it works.
654
00:32:53.629 --> 00:32:53.909
It works.
655
00:32:53.929 --> 00:32:57.191
So like, I'll use software for an example, for Copi.
656
00:32:57.291 --> 00:33:02.374
I'm like, okay, great, we're gonna make an offer, if you don't grow your business by 10%, we'll make it more profitable in one year, I'll just give you your money back.
657
00:33:02.394 --> 00:33:03.394
Make it really, really easy.
658
00:33:03.414 --> 00:33:07.997
It's like, hey, if we do what's on here, and you're not happy, the job's not over until this is done.
659
00:33:08.157 --> 00:33:08.757
Oh, that makes sense.
660
00:33:08.917 --> 00:33:10.038
Okay, so scrap that.
661
00:33:10.378 --> 00:33:15.901
That could literally be a one pager with you, the satisfaction guarantee, picture of you, and one sentence.
662
00:33:16.581 --> 00:33:17.542
We're not happy until you are.
663
00:33:19.030 --> 00:33:21.011
A picture of me and them photoshopped together with thumbs up.
664
00:33:21.291 --> 00:33:22.472
Yeah, like 100%.
665
00:33:22.712 --> 00:33:23.512
Yeah, exactly.
666
00:33:23.572 --> 00:33:24.432
That's great.
667
00:33:24.452 --> 00:33:26.253
And most people don't want to read text.
668
00:33:26.413 --> 00:33:28.374
They want to solve their landscaping problem.
669
00:33:28.734 --> 00:33:29.755
And you're giving them homework.
670
00:33:29.775 --> 00:33:33.136
They're not necessarily going to get either of you what you want.
671
00:33:33.436 --> 00:33:34.557
They want their landscaping change.
672
00:33:34.757 --> 00:33:35.377
You want money.
673
00:33:35.657 --> 00:33:42.920
Let's just focus on that instead of let's read 10 pages of documents that now you can use as ammunition to tell me that you gotta go think about it.
674
00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:45.723
Because yeah, there's not been many people that like close at the spot.
675
00:33:45.803 --> 00:33:47.245
They'll like call like the next day or something.
676
00:33:47.285 --> 00:33:50.188
Because I'm structuring it essentially as take this home.
677
00:33:50.528 --> 00:33:51.830
Yeah, that's the point.
678
00:33:52.310 --> 00:33:56.115
I thought I was being cute and like affirming by having more forms.
679
00:33:56.275 --> 00:34:02.562
It makes so much sense when I'm explaining it to someone else and like I have like 10 pieces of paper on the desk that it's like, I need to go home.
680
00:34:02.802 --> 00:34:03.803
Reduce, reduce, reduce.
681
00:34:03.823 --> 00:34:07.387
Like when I'm writing the book, every single sentence, every single word needs to have a purpose.
682
00:34:07.427 --> 00:34:08.248
If it doesn't, you cut it.
683
00:34:08.688 --> 00:34:10.770
And that will reduce the amount of words you have.
684
00:34:11.231 --> 00:34:16.676
We will also increase the likelihood that someone will read it and will actually take action on what they're reading.
685
00:34:16.736 --> 00:34:17.997
And the same thing is true with the customer.
686
00:34:18.278 --> 00:34:22.061
If I tell them when the job is completed, you will be happy, guaranteed.
687
00:34:22.342 --> 00:34:25.124
As it states in our mission, people first, landscape, and second.
688
00:34:25.285 --> 00:34:26.426
And the reason we have you come in here
689
00:34:26.866 --> 00:34:29.988
And the reason you say this is because they haven't gone to anyone else's office.
690
00:34:30.389 --> 00:34:33.351
The reason we have you come in is because we actually care about you and your property.
691
00:34:33.711 --> 00:34:40.176
Like, if I'm walking into some place where I'm kind of anxious and nervous, I want someone to come out and be like, Hey, welcome, thank you, here's all the steps of the process.
692
00:34:40.356 --> 00:34:49.062
So meet me at the car, shake my hand, pat me on the back, walk me into the office so I don't feel weird walking into this building that I've never been before.
693
00:34:49.342 --> 00:34:51.644
And then introduce the person sitting at the desk.
694
00:34:51.864 --> 00:34:53.105
And then show them the room.
695
00:34:53.365 --> 00:34:54.687
And then look at what's on the wall.
696
00:34:54.727 --> 00:34:55.587
Here's our award.
697
00:34:55.787 --> 00:34:56.688
Here's a little about me.
698
00:34:56.968 --> 00:34:58.089
Make them feel comfortable.
699
00:34:58.510 --> 00:34:59.170
Share with them.
700
00:34:59.310 --> 00:35:01.913
Be personable and a friend of them.
701
00:35:02.413 --> 00:35:04.235
Good chances you'll sell more things to them.
702
00:35:04.555 --> 00:35:07.838
That speaks a whole lot better to me than reading this.
703
00:35:08.078 --> 00:35:08.258
Sure.
704
00:35:08.683 --> 00:35:14.085
that is going to be consumed 100% of the time versus three pages of documents explaining exactly what that means.
705
00:35:14.345 --> 00:35:18.767
I don't want to give them, whoa, one, two, three pages about my payment terms.
706
00:35:19.347 --> 00:35:20.788
This is confusing.
707
00:35:21.288 --> 00:35:23.769
Look, we require 50% to get on the schedule.
708
00:35:24.089 --> 00:35:26.430
Once you're happy with the job, we'll collect the rest of the end.
709
00:35:26.450 --> 00:35:27.111
So where do you put that?
710
00:35:27.131 --> 00:35:28.431
Just in like one DocuSign?
711
00:35:29.532 --> 00:35:29.892
On the estimate.
712
00:35:31.198 --> 00:35:32.798
We have a little section right at the end.
713
00:35:32.838 --> 00:35:33.559
The client bars.
714
00:35:34.019 --> 00:35:34.339
Right here.
715
00:35:34.799 --> 00:35:36.859
So you already have a deposit required to begin.
716
00:35:37.099 --> 00:35:39.040
So we could scrap the deposit from here.
717
00:35:39.640 --> 00:35:44.421
One more line that says, upon the final walkthrough, the remainder is due.
718
00:35:45.741 --> 00:35:47.942
So when you do the final walkthrough, you're actually asking for a check.
719
00:35:48.662 --> 00:35:50.942
Because right now, the way this looks, I do have to go home.
720
00:35:51.542 --> 00:35:52.062
That makes sense.
721
00:35:52.142 --> 00:35:54.623
I'm like setting them up with homework instead of just like,
722
00:35:55.650 --> 00:35:56.791
you know, let's move forward.
723
00:35:57.091 --> 00:35:58.551
I have to go home and I have to think about this.
724
00:35:58.731 --> 00:36:00.152
Because I need to read your testimonials.
725
00:36:00.772 --> 00:36:04.814
And I actually, as a client, you're giving me all these tools to be able to delay.
726
00:36:05.255 --> 00:36:09.957
The challenging part is we as business owners and home services talk about our services all day long.
727
00:36:10.317 --> 00:36:14.319
So we know all the ins and outs and the measurements and the lingo and the terminology.
728
00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:17.520
And your customers have no idea what you're talking about.
729
00:36:17.881 --> 00:36:20.182
They just have a problem that they want fixed.
730
00:36:20.362 --> 00:36:21.622
I'm just trying to reduce all of this.
731
00:36:21.642 --> 00:36:22.503
Like even this stuff,
732
00:36:23.323 --> 00:36:26.485
So payment and scheduling, we already have payment here, right?
733
00:36:26.605 --> 00:36:28.227
Warranties and guarantees, we have that.
734
00:36:28.307 --> 00:36:30.028
There's a lot of duplication here.
735
00:36:30.068 --> 00:36:32.109
I would just try to reduce, reduce, reduce.
736
00:36:32.449 --> 00:36:38.814
Like weed growth, you know, how do I just say like, hey, we are guaranteeing that when we do the log thing, you're happy.
737
00:36:39.014 --> 00:36:43.899
Make it easy for someone to understand that doesn't have any context about your department and your industry.
738
00:36:44.119 --> 00:36:47.383
And if you did that, you'd sell to more people because most people don't know your lingo.
739
00:36:47.603 --> 00:36:48.804
People means three things to us.
740
00:36:48.905 --> 00:36:52.168
It means my family, our team, and your property.
741
00:36:52.628 --> 00:36:55.752
And that's what together we are going to make your landscaping look great.
742
00:36:56.032 --> 00:36:57.834
And we're going to go over the details and the price and all that.
743
00:36:58.094 --> 00:36:59.836
But I just want you to know like people come first here.
744
00:37:00.312 --> 00:37:00.833
You say that?
745
00:37:00.853 --> 00:37:02.775
Who cares about the price?
746
00:37:02.895 --> 00:37:03.816
I'm taking your offer.
747
00:37:03.876 --> 00:37:08.000
It works, dude, because people are like, man, we had five other bids, but man, Heather's been great.
748
00:37:08.040 --> 00:37:08.620
You've been great.
749
00:37:08.661 --> 00:37:09.561
We just trust you guys.
750
00:37:09.762 --> 00:37:10.442
So lean into it.
751
00:37:10.482 --> 00:37:14.286
Get them in this year and then make them have the decision here because as soon as they leave here, they get cold feet.
752
00:37:14.326 --> 00:37:17.429
I think price becomes irrelevant once you've built that sales process.
753
00:37:17.449 --> 00:37:17.650
Sure.
754
00:37:18.250 --> 00:37:20.932
And especially if I'm trying to get them signed in the office, they're not really reading that.
755
00:37:21.292 --> 00:37:21.932
Yeah.
756
00:37:22.033 --> 00:37:26.395
You got to remember that when a customer is coming and visiting you or you're meeting the customer, they also are nervous.
757
00:37:26.555 --> 00:37:32.359
They also might have a little bit of anxiety about meeting strangers or walking in a new building or meeting someone they've never talked to before.
758
00:37:32.839 --> 00:37:38.183
And so how do we actually just step in the mind of the customer and ease their anxiety, ease their stress?
759
00:37:38.583 --> 00:37:43.166
And the golden rule, like doing others what you would have them do to you, works really well when it comes to sales.
760
00:37:43.186 --> 00:37:43.746
Here's the price.
761
00:37:44.006 --> 00:37:44.947
Here's what it's going to look like.
762
00:37:44.967 --> 00:37:45.907
You already said you liked it.
763
00:37:45.927 --> 00:37:46.908
You already looked at the product book.
764
00:37:46.928 --> 00:37:49.609
You literally have the product book here, and then you have the proposal here.
765
00:37:50.130 --> 00:37:52.811
And at the end of this visit, the goal is to have a check, right?
766
00:37:53.131 --> 00:37:55.753
So you could even prep them in your setting appointment, like,
767
00:37:55.993 --> 00:37:59.074
Hey, and we are booked out, it is the spring, we're getting pretty busy.
768
00:37:59.474 --> 00:38:05.357
If you go ahead and bring your checkbook and if you'd like to move forward, we can go ahead and get on the schedule tomorrow when you're at the office.
769
00:38:05.577 --> 00:38:07.578
So you're prepping them for getting started.
770
00:38:07.638 --> 00:38:09.379
And you don't have to get pricing.
771
00:38:09.439 --> 00:38:10.539
It's like, well, what about a ballpark?
772
00:38:10.559 --> 00:38:11.739
Hey, I'm gonna put these numbers together.
773
00:38:11.759 --> 00:38:13.000
We put together custom quotes.
774
00:38:13.380 --> 00:38:14.981
So it's exactly for your property.
775
00:38:15.001 --> 00:38:18.842
I don't wanna put you off by having a number that's way too high or too low.
776
00:38:19.042 --> 00:38:19.983
So let's just meet tomorrow.
777
00:38:20.203 --> 00:38:21.003
I want you to meet Heather.
778
00:38:21.083 --> 00:38:22.084
She's great in the office.
779
00:38:22.104 --> 00:38:23.544
You might have talked to her on the phone already.
780
00:38:23.744 --> 00:38:25.145
Like you just walk them through this.
781
00:38:25.405 --> 00:38:26.525
I think Heather's really strong.
782
00:38:26.545 --> 00:38:27.866
She's been with the business for a few years.
783
00:38:27.906 --> 00:38:29.126
She knows all the ins and outs.
784
00:38:29.346 --> 00:38:33.648
I also get like a very just good vibe from her that she could sell on the phone.
785
00:38:33.908 --> 00:38:34.829
She cares about the business.
786
00:38:34.849 --> 00:38:35.809
She cares about the team.
787
00:38:36.069 --> 00:38:37.410
She has a lot of inherent knowledge.
788
00:38:37.810 --> 00:38:44.012
And so I think that is actually a huge addition or pro to the business and he can leverage that asset better.
789
00:38:44.152 --> 00:38:46.713
I think if you're in person and you book the meeting for tomorrow, that will show up.
790
00:38:47.313 --> 00:38:52.876
Also, when you're in person, a lot of times you're meeting with one of the spouse, and you just say, hey, tomorrow, when can you both come in?
791
00:38:53.016 --> 00:38:54.557
Because then you have both decision makers.
792
00:38:54.777 --> 00:38:55.878
It's always a variable, dude.
793
00:38:55.978 --> 00:39:00.840
You sit them down here, both of them, and you're like, great, I have both decision makers, there's no reason they can't make a decision today.
794
00:39:01.501 --> 00:39:03.962
I feel like once I got one, like, yeah, let's do it.
795
00:39:04.322 --> 00:39:06.744
like on the spot, like hands, heather their money.
796
00:39:07.024 --> 00:39:08.505
That will be extremely motivating.
797
00:39:08.745 --> 00:39:17.491
I also think if you have a great picture of you, the truck, the car out here next to the office, in front of the office, like showing you have an actual physical space, also has a huge credibility.
798
00:39:17.531 --> 00:39:19.012
Might be a 50% increase in leads.
799
00:39:19.192 --> 00:39:20.753
You're setting up the set, right?
800
00:39:20.793 --> 00:39:23.335
And then the set, you set up the clothes, right?
801
00:39:23.355 --> 00:39:24.936
And the clothes, you set up Heather to go get the...
802
00:39:25.736 --> 00:39:27.437
So that's the sales system redesign.
803
00:39:27.677 --> 00:39:29.858
But you do those four things, I think we're in a decent spot.
804
00:39:29.918 --> 00:39:32.900
Some people, what I just said here, this will take them a year to do.
805
00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:33.700
That will be done in a week.
806
00:39:33.920 --> 00:39:35.781
If you can do that in a week, we have a shot.
807
00:39:35.861 --> 00:39:37.042
But it has to be done in a week.
808
00:39:37.062 --> 00:39:43.865
The likelihood of him taking action and being violent with the recommendations is high because he actually has six weeks of not taking a paycheck.
809
00:39:44.065 --> 00:39:45.986
We need jobs like on the schedule.
810
00:39:46.006 --> 00:39:47.767
We need deposits paid today.
811
00:39:48.267 --> 00:39:54.129
I believe that TC within a matter of three to six days will actually do most of the things we talked about and the six week plan.
812
00:39:54.369 --> 00:40:03.291
Also what is different than most of our turnarounds is they could very well in four weeks have a few really big projects they close and be in a good spot.
813
00:40:03.471 --> 00:40:12.674
If you tonight can do the redesign, if this weekend you need the picture done and the product book done and go print it off and laminate everything and make it look beautiful and set up the process to make this cleaner.
814
00:40:13.374 --> 00:40:14.416
You can do this in one week.
815
00:40:14.597 --> 00:40:20.047
He and the next few days could sell two or three $20,000, $30,000 projects, and we're on the right path.
816
00:40:20.448 --> 00:40:21.370
Hopefully that happens.
817
00:40:23.772 --> 00:40:27.153
It was aggressively getting worse when you guys were here.
818
00:40:27.393 --> 00:40:30.154
And so that was like, you know, trying to deal with that stuff.
819
00:40:30.194 --> 00:40:32.255
But I would say it's like light at the end of the tunnel now.
820
00:40:32.295 --> 00:40:33.775
Like, and I'm glad you guys came out.
821
00:40:33.975 --> 00:40:40.918
I've still been doing the web design thing because I'm transferring our website to that platform anyways.
822
00:40:41.118 --> 00:40:46.540
So I'm kind of using our website as like the guinea pig to like learn the design on that platform.
823
00:40:46.760 --> 00:40:48.540
I'm rebuilding the site completely.
824
00:40:48.700 --> 00:40:50.681
I did like edit the form and like,
825
00:40:50.881 --> 00:40:52.582
put a little goofy animation on there.
826
00:40:52.742 --> 00:41:00.946
Yeah, we've had good, I think we were converting like one in 30 before you guys came, but since the forum, I think we're at like one in 20 something.
827
00:41:00.966 --> 00:41:01.666
So it did go up.
828
00:41:01.766 --> 00:41:02.366
So that's good.
829
00:41:02.406 --> 00:41:07.449
Yeah, it's definitely been, that has actually been super fruitful so far, mainly with mowing.
830
00:41:07.509 --> 00:41:09.830
So it's no big project, like changes that are big.
831
00:41:09.890 --> 00:41:20.155
I've been like paying so much attention to like, all the like product booklets, like at like the mower dealerships and like at the material supply places, cause they have like a bunch of different brands.
832
00:41:20.475 --> 00:41:21.636
And they're all just stapled.
833
00:41:21.736 --> 00:41:28.801
I always thought they were fancier than that, but it's literally just like a crease and a staple in the crease to make those product books.
834
00:41:28.821 --> 00:41:32.584
I was like, oh, dude, I'm definitely not going to spend like 50 bucks a booklet on these.
835
00:41:32.604 --> 00:41:37.828
So yes, I've been like chopping that out and like I started to do it.
836
00:41:37.968 --> 00:41:39.610
So I kind of just need like a template.
837
00:41:39.710 --> 00:41:41.231
And I found one like last week.
838
00:41:41.291 --> 00:41:42.552
So I've been editing that and
839
00:41:42.952 --> 00:41:43.913
and getting that going.
840
00:41:44.094 --> 00:41:49.039
So I did have to pay like 150 bucks for the template, which is stupid, but it's a good template.
841
00:41:49.059 --> 00:41:52.042
So swap pictures and change some burbage and stuff.
842
00:41:52.062 --> 00:41:53.164
So I think it'll be worth it.
843
00:41:53.344 --> 00:41:55.166
But yeah, I'm excited we're getting it going.
844
00:41:55.246 --> 00:41:59.070
So we'll probably, I'll probably always try to sell the same couple things anyways, yeah.
845
00:42:00.152 --> 00:42:03.095
Like pergolas and stuff, especially once I get the product book, I'm just gonna,
846
00:42:03.511 --> 00:42:10.235
Most people like the same two designs anyways, like kind of like Mike was saying, it's like you just show them kind of what looks good and they're like, yeah, that looks good.
847
00:42:10.535 --> 00:42:15.177
Most of the time as we're moving forward, I think just more recurring and more contract based stuff.
848
00:42:15.397 --> 00:42:23.922
I will say we have had like two meetings and I've been going out to the car, which I thought was a weird idea, but I've been like going out to the car to say hi to the people.
849
00:42:24.342 --> 00:42:29.068
And it seems to like make it more lighthearted as opposed to waiting till they come in.
850
00:42:29.128 --> 00:42:35.936
We've been doing the book a meeting from a meeting thing, but honestly, it's only been relevant on like two projects, but they're both converting.
851
00:42:36.296 --> 00:42:37.778
So they are both going to convert.
852
00:42:37.838 --> 00:42:38.359
So that's good.
853
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:41.603
It's been a breath of fresh air, at least just like having revenue back.