The Ultimate Upsell Guide for Home Services

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Failing to upsell your existing customers means that forever you'll be addicted to spending money on Facebook, Google, and other ad platforms.
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If you wanna get out of that, you're gonna have to figure out, how do I upsell a $1,000 per year customer into a $5,000 per year customer?
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Because if you can do that, you could 5X the business without getting a single new customer.
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That's one of the topics we'll be covering today as I do a Q&A with new members from HomeWorks.
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You can go be part of this call yourself
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If you go to home.works and become a new member today.
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So I have a couple of questions.
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They're on two different ends of the spectrum.
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The first one is right now we're focusing on building extreme slides and water features into pools.
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We've exchanged some contact on Instagram once or twice.
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So it's mostly a luxury echelon of building.
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And I think that's where I need to be positioned right now because of some of the
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my colleagues, right?
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So one of the questions we have is, we're always about bonuses and incentives.
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I think the problem we have with water features is that if something goes wrong real quickly, who goes back to make the fix and how are they getting, who's paying them?
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Is that coming out of my pocket since I gave them like some incentives to maybe finish up more efficiently?
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But that sometimes could lead to, you know,
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not having all everything done properly.
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So that's one of my questions.
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So the defects that happen, are those usually happen within a week or two of installation?
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That's a good question.
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I'd have to get some thought on that to know the percentages, but I would probably lean towards, let's say 50% of that's correct.
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Cool.
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So the shorter that time frame, the better, because like what really stinks and this is why even when it comes to big projects like irrigation, we had problems with this with P4P is they do a big installation job.
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They crush budget hours.
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They get a thousand dollar bonus and then five months go by and it's like, oh, you installed the controller incorrectly.
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Very difficult and hard to explain to an employee.
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It's like, yeah, you're getting dinged for something five months ago.
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So the nice thing is when they have to go back to a property, I'm assuming most of it's just time.
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Like they have to go back and fix something.
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It's not like a lot of material costs.
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Am I correct in that?
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That's correct.
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Yeah, it's a time thing.
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But again, who pays for that?
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Who's liable so that I'm not paying a bonus and I'm not paying for extra time on the clock?
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Yeah, so as long as your bonus is a bonus, meaning you have base pay that is, you make sure you honor overtime, et cetera on, and then the bonus is based upon their performance, i.e.
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how quickly they're getting these things installed, that's all money on the table that you can take off if they're making...
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mistakes.
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The nice thing though is Jeff, if they're just going back to the property to fix something and it's just their time, you don't even have to make a manual adjustment because they're just now going to get less done this week on P4P, i.e.
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production this week.
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And it's going to, it's going to vicariously hurt them.
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You don't have to make a deduction.
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So what's nice in your
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Meaning, hey, guys, go back to the property.
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You're not producing any more revenue.
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It's going to slow you down today.
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It's going to hurt you on this month's paycheck.
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But you don't have to remove the money from them.
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The removal of the money, like the removal of the bonus happens when there's product costs, materials, equipment that's broken, and you are actually going to go buy something to replace something that was broken.
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That makes a lot of sense.
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Now I appreciate that even more so.
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Could I switch gears to another question?
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Or do you want to take someone else?
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Okay.
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Go for it.
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So over the years, I've done a lot for many customers.
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A lot is repeat customers.
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That's really a nice sweet spot for us.
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I was trying to think outside the box.
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We did this beautiful job.
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Totally finished the backyard.
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Another contractor came in, installed an audio system.
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Really put everything over the top.
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I said, there's no way that...
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I can't do this myself.
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So my son-in-law, who's an electrician, we put our minds together, we bought a brand new enclosed trailer.
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We made it a virtual, not a virtual, but we made it a real showroom with lights, speakers inside and outside.
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And it can run off the grid.
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It's fully shrink-wrapped and branded.
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Wow.
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And it's focusing on just audio and video.
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I mean, I'm sorry, lighting and audio.
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So it's really cool.
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We can actually drive down the road and have music playing outside of the trailer.
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So what my plan was is to go back to all my existing customers, right?
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Because they're not price shopping.
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And set up demo setups for them for a week at a time.
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and then take it off if they're not interested or leave it and install it.
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I was also going to put mails out to strategic demographics that could yield a little bit more disposable income.
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With that said, do you have any other insight you could give to us taking this into this new direction?
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Yeah, so basically you've added an additional add-on.
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And I think the biggest bang for your buck is gonna come from taking existing customers that are already giving you money, they're super happy.
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And you're like, hey, there's an extra, I'll make up a number, five to 10 grand.
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And you're gonna take your seven out of 10 to a 10 out of 10.
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The mobile trailer, is that built as a showroom, Jeff?
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It's a little of both.
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You can actually store material in there.
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It's all shelves, cabinetry, you know, and it's user-friendly to work out.
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There's a microwave, a refrigerator, and it could be ran off the grid with its own little power pack.
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Did you pull...
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Yeah.
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Did you pull service or just the installs?
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It's not so much in the way of maintenance, but we do have maintenance agreements for those that have our extreme features where we'll go back, we'll wax the slide, check out the waterfall, flow rate, lights, fire, all of that.
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So I do have a nice little foot in the door with those clienteles.
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And then naturally there's this new stuff that generates.
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Okay.
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How many contacts do you think you have in your database?
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Several hundred over 30 plus years.
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Yeah.
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And how much does it cost for you?
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That doesn't matter.
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I would be looking for three freebies that I can give to every one of those customers that'll hit all of them.
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So for example, waxing the slide, adjust whatever they need based upon what you've installed for them.
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I'd be giving a freebie away, but as part of the freebie, you're going to set an appointment to be with them.
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And that is going to turn from a freebie into a sales presentation.
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And you're going to show up with that trailer.
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So, hey, Mr. Jones, I'm going to be there at 3 p.m. We're going to be doing your complimentary waxing of your slide.
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And while you're there, I have something really cool I want to show you.
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I think it worked great in the backyard.
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And it's a great touch point for you just to connect with them.
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And they have great service.
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At the very least, you're getting a review.
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So when you leave that, you're at least getting a review for the fact that you just did something free for them.
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And that reciprocity, whatever the word is, reciprocity that comes with you doing the freebie, you'll get the review.
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And then while you're there, you just so happen to have this awesome trailer.
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And have you seen the fact that we now do lighting, we do audio?
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So that's, you get them in the trailer and you upsell them from there.
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So I think you can go from like, let's just say you get 50 of these people to set up appointments.
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You're giving them some for free.
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I think 25 of those get inside that trailer, 10 of them sign up for service.
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And then you've gotten, then again, you kickstarted that service arm.
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And I would just also in your sales process for your existing business, bake in when you're going to do these upsells to that other feature.
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Right.
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So like, it's like, well, they just said no before.
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That's not the end of it.
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When you do the walkthrough of the final job, you're also with the trailer right there.
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And you're going to do, Hey, by the way, we just went ahead and installed the lighting and the audio will come back in a couple of weeks to take it away.
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But wanted to give you a shot at trying it out and see how you like it.
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So like, you're going to bake that upselling in the future to new sales.
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Yeah.
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I like that.
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Sometimes if I build it in, there's a lot of budget restraints.
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towards the end because like you said, you're leaving it.
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They're seeing every day that the wife comes home to a beautiful lit house.
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Now it's like, when can you do it as opposed to how much if it's built in early, sometimes there's a lot of push and pull and it,
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They may want a little bit more.
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Yeah, they're happiest with that pool and the slide and the light, all that stuff right after you do it.
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So what you do is you just leave it with the lights or the audio equipment and say, hey, I'll be back in two weeks to take this away.
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You know, in the next two weeks, they have four parties lined up ready to rock and roll.
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They're going to love it and they're not going to want it gone.
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And so you can pitch it up front and they're going to say no budgets.
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And then you just say, hey, by the way, as a thank you, we installed it for free for the next two weeks and we'll come back and get it if you don't want it.
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Totally fine.
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No pressure whatsoever.
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I like that.
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Beautiful.
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Thanks for your insight, Mike.
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You got it, brother.
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Jackson's up.
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Go for it, brother.
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Hey, so I've got two questions.
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The first one is first a little background.
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I'm 17 years old.
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I'm graduating high school in the end of April, beginning of May.
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I'm really trying to go full time.
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We just hit $115,000 in revenue last year, which was increased by 65% from 2024.
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So great growth there, but I'm really trying to grow to hopefully hit between three and 400,000 with growing full time.
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So huge goals there.
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But I do think it's completely doable.
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However, the main question is, I would love to, and I feel like I'm,
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I have an opportunity to go on a missions trip all the next school year.
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So I was thinking kind of take it as a gap year, nothing I'm going full time in.
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I'd like to keep the business going.
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What are some steps that you would take before if I went on that leaving in, say, August?
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So what would you do the first spring rush to prepare for that?
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Who would you hire?
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Or would you even try to get that growth?
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Or would you try to stay back?
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at 115,000, you know, maybe try to grow a little bit, but nothing crazy, and then really scale it up a year from now.
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Yeah, I would wait.
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I'm pretty firm on this one, Jackson, because mostly because if you're going to go on this trip, you don't want back home pulling you back every 10 seconds.
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And the likelihood of pulling you back every 10 seconds increases dramatically when you go from 100,000 to 400,000 because you now have a group of employees instead of one really solid person that you fully trust to get the work done.
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And you compensate them really well.
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So if I was you, I would go into profit mode
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Raise prices, get really solid, try to get as much off the plate of this person as possible.
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For example, like, I wouldn't even...
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I would consider not having a phone number.
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For everyone else, you can just turn me off for a second.
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I would not have a phone number.
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I'd probably have text only.
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I would probably have the only way for them to sign up is from my website, instant quotes, or some other form of pricing is done for them.
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But ultimately, you're hiring someone who's going to have to be very self-sufficient, and they have the capacity to go run a business themselves.
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So you're going to have to compensate them heavily.
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But what I would recommend you optimizing for is the trip.
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Otherwise, don't do it.
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Like, you don't want to go away and be like all the time thinking about the business.
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You're firing people.
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The customers are complaining.
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You got bad reviews.
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Just get rid of as much as possible by simplifying and standardizing everything.
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Standardize your pricing, simplifies the services.
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Like, if right now you're like, I have to go tomorrow.
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What are the three things you know would fall through the cracks?
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Get rid of them.
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Like, if it's like, well, whenever we turn on the irrigation, stuff happens.
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Wait, we're not doing irrigation.
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I would go hardcore profit mode.
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Like, if you've read the book, just do everything when I talk about profit mode.
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And then when you come back, you'll now have a little bit of a nest egg that you can deploy against growth mode.
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And everyone's afraid of raising prices.
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What if I want to grow down the road?
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Great.
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You spend more money on marketing and at the very worst, your lower prices.
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So that would be my recommendation, mostly because I want you to optimize for the trip.
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Your grit trying to grow in a year early and then bouncing on the trip and not enjoying it.
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Right, right.
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Okay.
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And then another question that's not really related to that at all, but I knew, I know that, you know, in the, I'm from the Charlotte, North Carolina area, South Park area, seeing your trucks around, you know, when you started that location in, I believe it was 2022 or something.
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What did what kind of marketing did you find was best during that?
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I know a lot of door hangers.
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We did those last year.
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It was just slow to get them out.
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Properties are half acre.
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It's just it's just hard to go house to house.
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So what kind of marketing would you focus on?
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And obviously, if we're in profit mode and we're doing that, maybe we're not spending a whole lot on marketing to begin with.
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But when that time comes, what are some things that you found were good?
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Yeah, like when I started the location, it was later in the year.
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So that's why the door hangers worked, because you don't have to rely on someone's searching us out.
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00:12:53.238 --> 00:12:55.999
Otherwise, Google is a winner in that market.
222
00:12:56.019 --> 00:12:59.420
There's a lot of demand for it during spring and then late summer.
223
00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:04.901
I was starting it in June, which is kind of between the two rushes that you see in South Park.
224
00:13:05.301 --> 00:13:08.121
So Google works good, honestly, in that market.
225
00:13:08.482 --> 00:13:10.402
Facebook ads do well if you do them correctly.
226
00:13:10.642 --> 00:13:15.703
Two months ago, they were there getting leads for $10 per on a court aeration, but only for about two weeks.
227
00:13:16.984 --> 00:13:27.138
So what we've seen really work well there is we're on leaves, correlation, and certain like very acute periods of time where people need a service, get them in the lead, get them into copay, and then upsell them other stuff later on.
228
00:13:27.618 --> 00:13:32.905
And so what's nice with the texting thing, now that you can mass text, is you just need people in your database.
229
00:13:33.466 --> 00:13:35.887
the type of person that doesn't want to do service on their property.
230
00:13:36.387 --> 00:13:45.031
And so what we do is we just adjust our offer and the service that we're pitching based upon the thing that we know we get really low cost per lead on and hopefully just break even.
231
00:13:45.091 --> 00:13:48.392
So for example, correlation, I get $10 per lead.
232
00:13:48.572 --> 00:13:51.854
Let's say one out of five because usually lower close rate on those, 20%.
233
00:13:51.874 --> 00:13:55.856
$50 cost, customer acquisition cost on a $120 service.
234
00:13:55.876 --> 00:13:56.816
We're not making a bunch of money.
235
00:13:57.116 --> 00:14:00.818
But if I know they're in my system, I can sell half of those people mowing or winter services.
236
00:14:01.921 --> 00:14:04.323
And so that's what I would focus on.
237
00:14:04.343 --> 00:14:11.727
Your offer is just basically a goal to qualify the person that is going to be inside your system that you'll upsell something else later down the road.
238
00:14:11.827 --> 00:14:12.287
Okay.
239
00:14:12.307 --> 00:14:13.147
Okay, so I have a secret.
240
00:14:13.187 --> 00:14:14.948
It's just for everyone watching this video.
241
00:14:15.409 --> 00:14:20.852
On February 17th, we're officially changing the name of Copilot CRM to Homeworks.
242
00:14:21.532 --> 00:14:24.534
So get ready because something big is about to happen.
243
00:14:25.074 --> 00:14:26.675
Hannah and Nick, go ahead.
244
00:14:26.915 --> 00:14:28.556
Hey, we have a couple questions.
245
00:14:28.596 --> 00:14:30.757
We're trying to push for a lot of growth this year.
246
00:14:31.297 --> 00:14:34.599
Last year, we're at like 605, I think.
247
00:14:35.059 --> 00:14:37.420
Obviously, we're just finishing up our taxes.
248
00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:42.783
Well, most of them don't say 605, so you're probably pretty accurate here.
249
00:14:43.443 --> 00:14:44.164
We're pretty close.
250
00:14:45.385 --> 00:14:50.629
So we're trying to push for growth because we wound up moving out.
251
00:14:50.649 --> 00:14:53.231
So we're on the border state.
252
00:14:53.271 --> 00:14:54.672
So Washington is right next to us.
253
00:14:54.712 --> 00:14:55.713
We're in Idaho.
254
00:14:56.314 --> 00:15:00.217
And we moved out of Washington because we wound up losing a large customer there.
255
00:15:00.277 --> 00:15:01.538
We don't want to deal with taxes.
256
00:15:01.738 --> 00:15:02.118
And so-
257
00:15:02.899 --> 00:15:04.700
I was just going to see if you were going to say the truth.
258
00:15:04.800 --> 00:15:05.040
Okay.
259
00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:05.361
All right.
260
00:15:05.381 --> 00:15:05.721
Thank you.
261
00:15:07.142 --> 00:15:09.623
Taxes and men, the customer, the customer was a huge pain.
262
00:15:09.663 --> 00:15:14.486
And then it just, they, they decided to go with person they were with previously because they were way cheaper.
263
00:15:15.547 --> 00:15:16.768
Um, so anyways, um,
264
00:15:17.830 --> 00:15:19.611
We moved out of Washington.
265
00:15:20.251 --> 00:15:21.491
It's not worth it anymore.
266
00:15:21.991 --> 00:15:27.813
We're trying to push for growth to overcome that loss that we had because that was probably about... A quarter of a million?
267
00:15:28.533 --> 00:15:33.875
Yeah, about half, almost half of our revenue for the year was mostly because of snow.
268
00:15:33.915 --> 00:15:37.456
Because we lost money all summer on them, but we made it back on the snow season.
269
00:15:37.476 --> 00:15:38.776
It was very profitable in that way.
270
00:15:39.917 --> 00:15:43.480
So we're trying to hit capacity as fast as possible.
271
00:15:43.640 --> 00:15:47.563
So what recommendations do you have in order to do that as far as price point?
272
00:15:47.943 --> 00:15:51.806
Obviously, we're going to be restructuring our website to have 30 pages like you recommended.
273
00:15:52.167 --> 00:15:53.728
I looked at some of your marketing videos.
274
00:15:54.148 --> 00:15:55.629
So we're going to be doing a lot of that stuff.
275
00:15:55.650 --> 00:16:05.638
But if you were to say the biggest, I don't know, one, two, three things, whatever it is, in order to hit capacity, we're also in a slightly more expensive area than average.
276
00:16:05.678 --> 00:16:05.958
So...
277
00:16:06.952 --> 00:16:07.592
Cool.
278
00:16:07.632 --> 00:16:08.392
What city are you in?
279
00:16:08.933 --> 00:16:09.573
Coeur d'Alene.
280
00:16:09.853 --> 00:16:11.953
We live in Hayden, but Coeur d'Alene.
281
00:16:12.374 --> 00:16:13.934
Coeur d'Alene, Hayden, Post Falls, yeah.
282
00:16:14.294 --> 00:16:14.774
Cool.
283
00:16:14.834 --> 00:16:17.955
And how far away is that from where you were serving in Washington?
284
00:16:18.875 --> 00:16:20.556
Like 45, 50 minutes.
285
00:16:20.576 --> 00:16:21.496
We had a big row.
286
00:16:21.576 --> 00:16:23.897
It was not just... About four hours on the row.
287
00:16:24.423 --> 00:16:28.605
Are you abandoning all those customers in Washington or was it just the one?
288
00:16:28.665 --> 00:16:29.125
Okay, good.
289
00:16:29.205 --> 00:16:30.386
Okay, cool.
290
00:16:31.646 --> 00:16:31.967
All right.
291
00:16:32.207 --> 00:16:35.949
And then second thing is that was a commercial contract you lost.
292
00:16:35.989 --> 00:16:36.509
Is that correct?
293
00:16:36.649 --> 00:16:36.849
Yeah.
294
00:16:37.409 --> 00:16:40.871
And are you residential otherwise or you do commercial kind of only?
295
00:16:41.391 --> 00:16:44.873
We have commercial for snow, mostly residential for maintenance.
296
00:16:44.893 --> 00:16:45.013
Yeah.
297
00:16:45.835 --> 00:16:46.135
Got it.
298
00:16:46.476 --> 00:16:46.936
And okay.
299
00:16:46.956 --> 00:16:48.117
All right.
300
00:16:49.338 --> 00:16:52.300
Like I'd be first looking at website, first looking at like new reviews.
301
00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:54.442
I'd be setting up an automation to get reviews.
302
00:16:54.462 --> 00:16:58.305
Like, by the way, like this time of year is the best time to ask all your customers for review.
303
00:16:58.445 --> 00:16:59.806
I would send for everyone listening.
304
00:17:00.086 --> 00:17:04.670
I would send a text message to every single customer from Coba asking for review from you personally.
305
00:17:04.890 --> 00:17:13.497
You will get like, we we've put in something around like 5,000 Google reviews in the past few days across Augusta, just being like, Hey, thank you so much for your, you know,
306
00:17:13.777 --> 00:17:15.219
uh, support in 2025.
307
00:17:15.679 --> 00:17:18.703
It would love to, if you get a review, like it's, it just crushes this time of year.
308
00:17:18.723 --> 00:17:21.986
I don't know why Christmas to new year is a great time to ask for reviews.
309
00:17:22.567 --> 00:17:28.894
Um, but doing that and then making sure your website is optimized for Coeur d'Alene, it would be the highest leverage.
310
00:17:29.595 --> 00:17:32.458
Um, and, and like right now, how many Google reviews do you have, Hannah?
311
00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:33.700
Uh, like six.
312
00:17:34.323 --> 00:17:41.306
Yeah, so that needs to be over 30 in that market, specifically probably more like 50, because I know that area pretty well.
313
00:17:42.526 --> 00:17:48.108
To start showing up, you will double or triple the number of leads if you can get to 30 plus reviews.
314
00:17:48.368 --> 00:17:51.350
You'll get double or triple the amount of leads from Google.
315
00:17:51.790 --> 00:17:57.032
So I would focus 100% of my time and attention on website, Google reviews, Google reviews.
316
00:17:57.772 --> 00:18:04.199
When I say website, I'm talking like headers and page, like you were mentioning, having service pages, et cetera.
317
00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:07.322
But make sure it's very, very customized to Coeur d'Alene.
318
00:18:07.342 --> 00:18:11.387
But the reviews will probably do the biggest thing for you, to be honest.
319
00:18:12.244 --> 00:18:12.464
Okay.
320
00:18:12.684 --> 00:18:14.306
So just really focusing on reviews.
321
00:18:14.846 --> 00:18:18.189
We were potentially going to buy guys, we're out that's retiring.
322
00:18:18.209 --> 00:18:22.032
And then there's an Airbnb company that just acquired 180 Airbnbs.
323
00:18:22.112 --> 00:18:24.954
And they don't, as far as I know, they just have like a maintenance guy.
324
00:18:24.974 --> 00:18:27.176
So we're looking at hopefully picking those up.
325
00:18:27.816 --> 00:18:33.901
But then my next question was revenue goals per employee.
326
00:18:33.961 --> 00:18:35.902
You have like 125 to 150, right?
327
00:18:35.922 --> 00:18:36.623
Was your revenue goal.
328
00:18:36.643 --> 00:18:38.184
Is that per like most season?
329
00:18:38.224 --> 00:18:39.185
Is that for the whole year?
330
00:18:40.149 --> 00:18:42.673
it's very dependent on your market as well as the services you're offering.
331
00:18:42.713 --> 00:18:45.837
If you have snow mixed in there, that number should be significantly higher.
332
00:18:46.138 --> 00:18:51.145
If you're just doing maintenance only, it's gonna be significantly, not significantly, but can be lower than 125.
333
00:18:51.626 --> 00:18:54.170
So I'm tracking that number mostly,
334
00:18:55.251 --> 00:18:58.472
for the internal sake to be able to make sure like we're training the right direction.
335
00:18:58.972 --> 00:19:04.834
I'm not necessarily using it as a benchmark against anyone else because as soon as you add snow, you bump that by 30, 40%.
336
00:19:05.014 --> 00:19:09.095
As soon as you, um, do commercial reduce it by 20 or 30%.
337
00:19:09.435 --> 00:19:13.396
So I would just benchmark yourself year to year using that number.
338
00:19:13.956 --> 00:19:17.857
Um, and I would be much more inclined to be tracking your efficiency score and
339
00:19:18.717 --> 00:19:43.717
in terms of labor because that actually is the determining factor of efficiency not how much revenue because like you just throw material cost you just throw a bunch of product on a job and all of a sudden you're making more revenue so i would be much more looking at budget hours versus actual hours and that's why like on the calendar on the dispatch board everything inside copa is budget hours like all over the place create a new visit there's efficiency score there like everything is there for budget hours because um
340
00:19:45.518 --> 00:19:47.899
If you don't know your efficiency score, you don't know how efficient you are.
341
00:19:48.520 --> 00:19:52.722
And revenue per employee can mask massive problems in the business.
342
00:19:52.942 --> 00:20:01.087
So then my next question is, we have a lot of, like I said, it's more expensive than average because there's so many like really wealthy communities in our area.
343
00:20:01.427 --> 00:20:02.328
Would you be trying to get in?
344
00:20:02.368 --> 00:20:16.659
Because we have some customers that are down in some of those communities and they do they do revenue really well, like per customer, because we every time we send out a quote, we send out all the services that we provide for maintenance and they can select what they want.
345
00:20:16.679 --> 00:20:19.742
And then we split that up between seven, eight or nine months, depending on.
346
00:20:20.462 --> 00:20:20.982
what it is.
347
00:20:23.803 --> 00:20:26.763
But they're picky, you know?
348
00:20:26.843 --> 00:20:29.204
So it is like a time issue.
349
00:20:29.244 --> 00:20:31.384
And then they also, obviously they're wealthy for a reason.
350
00:20:31.944 --> 00:20:34.865
So sometimes they can be very price sensitive, surprisingly.
351
00:20:35.305 --> 00:20:39.606
So would you be trying to go after like one-off just bunch of mow trim blows?
352
00:20:39.706 --> 00:20:46.267
Or would you be trying to get those full service customers that do aeration, do dethatch, we're doing their turn on, we're doing their blowout, we're doing their backflow?
353
00:20:47.397 --> 00:20:51.803
Yeah, like, so first off, people that are wealthy like to negotiate.
354
00:20:52.284 --> 00:20:52.864
I'm one of them.
355
00:20:53.445 --> 00:20:54.687
Am I price sensitive?
356
00:20:54.747 --> 00:20:54.967
No.
357
00:20:55.067 --> 00:20:56.149
But will I push back on price?
358
00:20:56.169 --> 00:20:56.449
Yes.
359
00:20:57.531 --> 00:21:02.597
What I mean by that is I am willing to pay two to three times more if someone just does not bother me and this gets the job done.
360
00:21:03.438 --> 00:21:10.501
Um, and so when you're going after that market, that target demographic, it's easy to say they're price sensitive because they will push back on price.
361
00:21:10.521 --> 00:21:11.482
They'll try to negotiate with you.
362
00:21:11.742 --> 00:21:18.465
But once you get them as a customer, they don't price shop you because they, their time is worth so much more than someone making a hundred grand a year.
363
00:21:18.525 --> 00:21:26.208
Like they, they, they're like, their time is if they have to meet with you one time a year, that's worth more than all the billing that you'll do for the whole year for them.
364
00:21:26.808 --> 00:21:31.333
And so I would really lean into saving the thing that's most valuable to them, which is time.
365
00:21:31.733 --> 00:21:38.680
If you do that, their price sensitivity goes out the window because now they're not comparing your $45 versus someone else's $40.
366
00:21:38.961 --> 00:21:44.006
They're comparing spending three hours trying to get bids from someone else versus going to your website and signing up today.
367
00:21:45.220 --> 00:21:51.385
And so I would be pushing 100% of your time on focusing on saving them time because that's the thing they value most.
368
00:21:51.785 --> 00:21:57.910
And especially if they're an older audience, like time is really valuable to them because it's literally like a shot clock.
369
00:21:58.350 --> 00:22:05.976
And so I would lean heavily into saving them time, whether it be instant quotes, whether it be speed to lead, whether it be answering the phone.
370
00:22:06.216 --> 00:22:10.500
These are all the little intangibles that if you do them, all of a sudden they don't question price.
371
00:22:11.761 --> 00:22:14.462
And so we were able to track like what percentage of people will negotiate price.
372
00:22:14.843 --> 00:22:17.545
And we have that down to less than 1% at Augusta.
373
00:22:17.825 --> 00:22:21.187
And it's mostly because like you can't compare me against someone else who doesn't answer the phone.
374
00:22:21.448 --> 00:22:27.052
You can't compare me against someone else where when I get your card information on my website, like you don't, like, and people know.
375
00:22:27.572 --> 00:22:32.196
And so the type of customer showing up starts to self-select themselves for a premium service.
376
00:22:32.856 --> 00:22:38.580
So then since you're familiar with the area, are there any services that you'd recommend?
377
00:22:39.661 --> 00:22:40.782
Sorry, our kid just called it.
378
00:22:42.515 --> 00:22:47.430
We're out working on snow stuff And since it's just the two of us She was out with us too So she's sleeping in
379
00:22:48.567 --> 00:22:54.031
Um, what services would you recommend to extend your maintenance season so that our employees can stay on?
380
00:22:54.051 --> 00:22:56.813
Cause like with the snow, we, we, it's like feast or famine.
381
00:22:56.833 --> 00:23:00.736
So sometimes you're working like 40 hours straight and you wind up having a lot of fall off on your employees.
382
00:23:00.756 --> 00:23:14.547
Cause even though we pay about 25 to 50% more per hour for snow, it's still just a lot, you know, you're like, so what, so what would you recommend to like try and extend our regular maintenance season to make their schedules a little bit more stable?
383
00:23:14.567 --> 00:23:14.687
Yeah.
384
00:23:15.347 --> 00:23:16.168
Yeah, three things.
385
00:23:16.549 --> 00:23:19.353
So first off, in fall, I'm trying to push off demand.
386
00:23:19.934 --> 00:23:21.817
In spring, I'm trying to pull it forward.
387
00:23:22.438 --> 00:23:25.283
And then I'm going to try to figure out something to do when there's not snow on the ground.
388
00:23:26.271 --> 00:23:28.353
And so when I'm, I'll break all three down.
389
00:23:28.373 --> 00:23:37.260
So for example, in the fall, I am trying to make sure that all my existing customers, I serve them after all the people who are coming in because the leaves are on the ground.
390
00:23:37.300 --> 00:23:38.061
I need you to properly clear.
391
00:23:38.241 --> 00:23:40.743
Like I'm trying to push my customers off after that.
392
00:23:40.783 --> 00:23:46.207
So I schedule them in advance for a few weeks later so I can push my demand out a little bit.
393
00:23:46.528 --> 00:23:47.548
Same thing is true in the spring.
394
00:23:47.568 --> 00:23:53.053
I'm going to try to get them to all do it as soon as the snow is melted or ideally like even with snow.
395
00:23:53.113 --> 00:23:55.116
like before that, like as fast as possible.
396
00:23:55.136 --> 00:23:58.700
So that when, when the rush comes, I can actually capitalize on the leads coming in.
397
00:23:59.281 --> 00:24:04.167
And then the big, the big unlock, if you, Hannah, have you had a chance to read the off season book by chance?
398
00:24:04.870 --> 00:24:05.530
I haven't yet.
399
00:24:05.570 --> 00:24:06.150
I will be.
400
00:24:06.210 --> 00:24:08.871
I have about six books that are on my list.
401
00:24:08.951 --> 00:24:09.211
I know.
402
00:24:09.251 --> 00:24:09.451
I know.
403
00:24:09.471 --> 00:24:10.391
Don't worry about it.
404
00:24:10.551 --> 00:24:11.652
So two things.
405
00:24:11.972 --> 00:24:16.993
One, if you're more on the YouTube side, there is a free course on it.
406
00:24:17.033 --> 00:24:18.353
So just go to mikeandies.com.
407
00:24:18.373 --> 00:24:23.114
There's a free workshop if you want to watch in the background if you can't read the book.
408
00:24:23.514 --> 00:24:30.436
But in there, cure four of the five is for the off season when it comes to winter services.
409
00:24:30.896 --> 00:24:32.176
In your market, winter services does
410
00:24:34.997 --> 00:24:37.718
Now you guys don't do residential snow, I'm assuming, right?
411
00:24:38.778 --> 00:24:40.779
No, we were thinking about it.
412
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:43.539
Uh, I think we'll probably do a big push for it next year.
413
00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:51.601
It's just that the, uh, for us, because the snow is not, de-ice is where you make money in my opinion.
414
00:24:51.621 --> 00:24:51.781
Yes.
415
00:24:51.861 --> 00:24:57.543
And that's what I think I would, if I was in winter services, I would bundle in de-ice into winter services.
416
00:24:57.583 --> 00:24:58.363
Don't do the plowing.
417
00:24:58.723 --> 00:25:09.666
That way your plow guys can go out and do commercial and then your winter service crew stays on residential and they just do de-icing and maybe shoveling off like the walkways, for example.
418
00:25:10.466 --> 00:25:14.067
I mean, most people around here buy like one bag of de-ice for the year.
419
00:25:14.647 --> 00:25:18.668
Like, because people are very – the biggest thing I come up against is, is it going to mess with the concrete.
420
00:25:19.208 --> 00:25:44.780
right it's like obviously we know that that's like it can but it's also based on how the concrete was put in if it was a crap install it's going to flake off because you got that slurry on top so um i just the de-ice is kind of where we come up against an issue with the resident because that's what we were we were calling around our friends and family and anybody that we knew and asking like hey would you pay this much for de-ice you know because we we have an option for delivery but
421
00:25:45.632 --> 00:25:47.794
Yeah, we tried to roll out a de-ice delivery service.
422
00:25:48.135 --> 00:25:51.498
It's hitting pretty well with commercial, but not residential.
423
00:25:51.518 --> 00:25:54.902
So we have like a bin that just goes there with a shaker and we keep it full.
424
00:25:55.493 --> 00:25:58.756
residential people don't think about snow until it's on the ground and they can't get out of their driveway.
425
00:25:59.156 --> 00:26:06.702
So what you want to sell is a thing that they do know they have paint around, which is in the fall, I'm going to sell them a spring cleanup or a fall cleanup.
426
00:26:07.022 --> 00:26:09.724
Then I'm going to say, hey, by the way, would you like it to come every two weeks?
427
00:26:09.764 --> 00:26:11.426
Keep your property looking good all year round.
428
00:26:11.626 --> 00:26:15.168
And if there's snow on the ground when we show up, we'll just give you de-icer and we'll put it next to your door.
429
00:26:15.529 --> 00:26:17.770
So that way, if there's snow on the ground, you still have something to do.
430
00:26:18.631 --> 00:26:21.714
And then if there's not snow on the ground, you still have something to do, which is trim bushes.
431
00:26:22.635 --> 00:26:25.258
You're able to clean out the gutters, check the downspouts.
432
00:26:25.518 --> 00:26:27.280
Like there's a look, look at the book.
433
00:26:27.300 --> 00:26:31.464
Like I give you like 50 things you can do still during the off season, provide a whole bunch of value.
434
00:26:31.484 --> 00:26:35.948
But what you're doing is taking every single fall cleanup and trying to convert that into winter services.
435
00:26:36.249 --> 00:26:38.811
And then you compare the price of what you they just paid you.
436
00:26:38.871 --> 00:26:39.672
Hey, you just paid us 500 bucks.
437
00:26:39.692 --> 00:26:39.792
Yeah.
438
00:26:40.913 --> 00:26:48.096
Why don't you just pay us $350 over the next four months and we'll keep your property good so we don't have to do another $600 cleanup in the spring?
439
00:26:48.876 --> 00:26:50.917
So it becomes like a price savings game.
440
00:26:51.177 --> 00:26:55.639
It keeps your crew busy and you can build it in a way where if there's snow, you still have something to do.
441
00:26:55.859 --> 00:26:57.740
And if there's no snow, you have plenty to do as well.
442
00:26:59.261 --> 00:26:59.461
Okay.
443
00:26:59.801 --> 00:27:00.261
Sounds good.
444
00:27:00.281 --> 00:27:04.043
So cure four in the book is if you just want one chapter, read that one.
445
00:27:04.263 --> 00:27:04.463
Okay.
446
00:27:04.683 --> 00:27:05.783
I mean, we'll read the whole book.
447
00:27:05.823 --> 00:27:06.984
I think, did you already read it?
448
00:27:07.424 --> 00:27:08.624
No, I'm in the middle.
449
00:27:08.644 --> 00:27:09.885
Oh, he's not finished with it, but...
450
00:27:10.632 --> 00:27:11.093
It's all good.
451
00:27:11.574 --> 00:27:11.995
Yeah, it works.
452
00:27:12.296 --> 00:27:12.536
Thanks.
453
00:27:12.577 --> 00:27:12.917
Let's go.
454
00:27:13.158 --> 00:27:13.519
Good stuff.
455
00:27:13.539 --> 00:27:13.880
You got it.
456
00:27:14.321 --> 00:27:15.203
All right, last one.
457
00:27:15.283 --> 00:27:16.225
Brandon, go for it.
458
00:27:16.385 --> 00:27:17.267
Actually, wait, John.
459
00:27:17.528 --> 00:27:18.971
Brandon, then John, and then we'll call it a day.
460
00:27:19.792 --> 00:27:20.232
All right, thanks.
461
00:27:20.272 --> 00:27:21.033
I got a quick one in here.
462
00:27:21.353 --> 00:27:22.534
Just kind of following up from before.
463
00:27:22.554 --> 00:27:35.183
So pushing for the sales goals and growth goals for this year, trying to focus on more commercial properties, property managers, and continuing with our kind of success we've had with the residential property management groups.
464
00:27:35.424 --> 00:27:42.229
What's kind of your advice for reaching out and, I guess, attracting those customers outside of SEO searches and that sort of thing?
465
00:27:42.669 --> 00:27:44.910
We spent a lot of money and time into that this last year.
466
00:27:45.411 --> 00:27:46.412
I'm kind of happy where that's at.
467
00:27:50.776 --> 00:27:51.918
with those customers?
468
00:27:51.938 --> 00:27:54.583
You know, how are you kind of seeing them?
469
00:27:54.603 --> 00:27:57.869
Like, what value should we be signing them immediately on?
470
00:27:57.889 --> 00:27:59.512
You know, like cost savings, this sort of thing.
471
00:27:59.532 --> 00:27:59.853
I don't know.
472
00:28:00.654 --> 00:28:01.876
Yeah, property managers...
473
00:28:03.190 --> 00:28:09.834
Everyone thinks they're cost-sensitive because they usually are handling commercial, but they don't get any more money if they save their owner money.
474
00:28:10.434 --> 00:28:19.079
So when it comes to a property manager, they're looking at you as a time expense to them to manage the property, but they're usually getting a percentage of rents.
475
00:28:19.999 --> 00:28:25.421
And so either a percentage of rents or almost always percentage of rents as a property manager.
476
00:28:25.661 --> 00:28:27.722
So the thing that you can do to stand out is save them time.
477
00:28:28.022 --> 00:28:31.483
So what we would do in our property management accounts is we'd make a video after every property.
478
00:28:31.703 --> 00:28:34.004
We put inside the customer portal, inside Copilot.
479
00:28:34.424 --> 00:28:36.845
And now it's through the app.
480
00:28:36.865 --> 00:28:37.425
You can just do it.
481
00:28:37.865 --> 00:28:42.267
The reason is because now it saves them a trip to the property every week to do like a site walk.
482
00:28:43.214 --> 00:28:58.104
And so if there was trash lying around, if we saw a vehicle that was broken down and on blocks, if we saw any sort of activity, a strange needles in the back force, we would always make a video, attach it to the profile and send a note to the property manager.
483
00:28:58.624 --> 00:29:02.787
Once you do that for them, they'll never leave because that's where the you save them money.
484
00:29:03.247 --> 00:29:05.269
And they're the ones that hold the keys of the contract.
485
00:29:05.609 --> 00:29:09.252
But they ultimately don't care about the price.
486
00:29:10.217 --> 00:29:13.819
And so when it comes to property management, it's a relationships game.
487
00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:18.441
That's why a lot of times it takes a long time because if you do build that real loyal relationship, they will not leave.
488
00:29:19.081 --> 00:29:22.382
And so we told property managers up front, like, hey, we are not the cheapest.
489
00:29:23.042 --> 00:29:30.185
And so that would scare 90% of them away because they are supposed to be in the best interest of their owners looking for cheapest price, best bid kind of thing.
490
00:29:31.186 --> 00:29:35.528
But once they got in with us and we save them 50% of their time because we make videos of...
491
00:29:36.248 --> 00:29:42.352
overflowing cash trash cans, they would never leave because they don't really actually care about the bottom line of that property.
492
00:29:42.933 --> 00:29:43.533
Yeah, makes sense.
493
00:29:43.553 --> 00:29:46.155
They're often trying to deal with the least amount of complaints in time as possible.
494
00:29:46.755 --> 00:29:47.015
Thank you.
495
00:29:47.195 --> 00:29:48.396
So it's a long term game.
496
00:29:48.416 --> 00:29:56.262
You know, a lot of it comes down to like account managers that their big game is like, you know, wheeling and dealing with the property managers many times and just building that relationship.
497
00:29:56.342 --> 00:30:00.825
But what you can really do to cement them is save them time, prevent them having to go visit the property.
498
00:30:01.602 --> 00:30:09.448
Okay, and I guess that first contact too, outside of SEO and searches and trying to call them directly, do you recommend maybe going to an office, that sort of thing?
499
00:30:09.468 --> 00:30:11.049
Or like, how about that first approach?
500
00:30:11.616 --> 00:30:15.758
Yeah, we did gifts during the holidays for their office.
501
00:30:15.778 --> 00:30:16.578
We just take them in.
502
00:30:17.779 --> 00:30:24.041
The bigger opportunity, though, is when you do that, just saying, if you ever have anything come up for bid, just let us know.
503
00:30:24.402 --> 00:30:25.222
You drop them a card.
504
00:30:25.442 --> 00:30:26.563
Again, it's a long-term game.
505
00:30:27.383 --> 00:30:31.785
And if you can get one, you can usually get all their properties if you just do it correctly.
506
00:30:31.805 --> 00:30:32.925
And you do a great job.
507
00:30:32.945 --> 00:30:34.146
You take stuff off their plate.
508
00:30:34.686 --> 00:30:35.626
Another thing you can do is...
509
00:30:36.987 --> 00:30:42.974
If you are ever a lot of times they'll hire someone for like a one time project and then you can get the maintenance contract by just over delivering.
510
00:30:43.695 --> 00:30:46.859
And also, if he is really contract, I did this a couple of times.
511
00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:48.641
I want that strip mall.
512
00:30:48.761 --> 00:30:49.162
OK, great.
513
00:30:49.282 --> 00:30:53.747
Go to the strip mall, make a video of all the things that need to get done and just tell him and give him a quote.
514
00:30:54.208 --> 00:30:55.549
This is only when you're really slow.
515
00:30:55.889 --> 00:30:57.090
Like during the off season, I would do this.
516
00:30:57.611 --> 00:30:58.832
But it basically does two things.
517
00:30:59.012 --> 00:31:03.315
One, without throwing anyone under the bus, you show that their property maintenance that they're currently getting is subpar.
518
00:31:03.856 --> 00:31:08.079
And then two, without them having to get five quotes, you just said, hey, do you want to solve this problem?
519
00:31:08.940 --> 00:31:12.483
And so if you go and show that, hey, broken sprinkler heads, there's this leak here.
520
00:31:12.763 --> 00:31:14.664
Oh, by the way, the garbage is overflowing on the left side.
521
00:31:15.105 --> 00:31:18.467
You immediately show your value to them because that's saving them time.
522
00:31:18.908 --> 00:31:21.350
And then they expect down the road, that's the type of thing you'll do.
523
00:31:22.548 --> 00:31:23.309
Yeah, makes sense.
524
00:31:23.469 --> 00:31:24.409
Thank you.
525
00:31:24.429 --> 00:31:29.333
So I would use and abuse the Fieldforce mobile app with the video into the customer portal.
526
00:31:29.733 --> 00:31:36.538
I just make it part of the process for your crew to make a video at the end of every single property visit.
527
00:31:36.638 --> 00:31:38.419
They just have to do a quick walk around video.
528
00:31:38.499 --> 00:31:39.640
It goes into the customer portal.
529
00:31:39.900 --> 00:31:42.662
Property managers love them because that means they don't have to go to the property.
530
00:31:42.962 --> 00:31:44.883
That was their eyes on the property for the week.
531
00:31:44.903 --> 00:31:45.644
Yeah, makes sense.
532
00:31:46.024 --> 00:31:46.344
You got it.
533
00:31:46.364 --> 00:31:47.486
All right, last one of the day.
534
00:31:47.566 --> 00:31:48.206
John, you're up.
535
00:31:48.407 --> 00:31:52.952
I know your philosophy on messaging when it comes to billing, right?
536
00:31:53.052 --> 00:31:59.458
Like, so you don't want, especially in the off season, no more emails, like, or just don't do them from the beginning.
537
00:31:59.499 --> 00:32:03.443
Make them check the customer portal just because the, you know, it's,
538
00:32:03.863 --> 00:32:06.786
increased risk of cancellations and things like that, the more they're reminded.
539
00:32:07.346 --> 00:32:09.728
I want to know what you think about visit notifications.
540
00:32:09.849 --> 00:32:19.597
Because what I've noticed, like when they get a text for visits, dude, 20% of the customers, like the 20% that cause all the problems, it's when those go out.
541
00:32:20.278 --> 00:32:22.039
So that's my first question.
542
00:32:22.620 --> 00:32:23.341
Post or before?
543
00:32:23.361 --> 00:32:23.601
Sorry.
544
00:32:23.741 --> 00:32:27.845
Are you talking about post job or prior to the job?
545
00:32:28.425 --> 00:32:29.086
Prior to the job.
546
00:32:29.126 --> 00:32:31.107
So the weekly notifications are bi-weekly.
547
00:32:31.488 --> 00:32:36.892
So the, so to do the notifications or not to do the notifications is kind of what I'm asking you.
548
00:32:37.032 --> 00:32:49.282
Like, um, yeah, so we don't, if the customer specifically requests that we would, um, cause we can set that up and, and very shortly here inside field force mobile app, you'll be able to just tap a button and you'll send them a text that you're on your way.
549
00:32:50.042 --> 00:32:50.823
Um, so that's coming.
550
00:32:51.443 --> 00:32:55.426
Uh, that being said, I will not use that feature because of what you just said.
551
00:32:56.027 --> 00:33:05.193
The more times you remind a customer about a service, the more often they are, the more, the higher likelihood they are to complain and the higher likelihood they are to, uh, change billing.
552
00:33:06.034 --> 00:33:08.175
And so I cancel.
553
00:33:08.616 --> 00:33:13.059
Uh, so I would not do it unless they had a gate I needed unlocked pets.
554
00:33:13.099 --> 00:33:18.543
I need put away, or for some reason I needed them to know I was coming for me to do my job.
555
00:33:18.783 --> 00:33:19.083
Deal.
556
00:33:19.383 --> 00:33:19.663
Okay.
557
00:33:20.284 --> 00:33:20.484
All right.
558
00:33:20.504 --> 00:33:20.844
You got it.
559
00:33:20.864 --> 00:33:21.124
That's the...
560
00:33:21.164 --> 00:33:21.364
Okay.
561
00:33:21.384 --> 00:33:22.405
Can I run the next one by you?
562
00:33:22.765 --> 00:33:23.185
Yeah, go ahead.
563
00:33:23.245 --> 00:33:23.885
I'll make it fast.
564
00:33:24.005 --> 00:33:24.245
Okay.
565
00:33:24.686 --> 00:33:27.587
So this one, I'll try to make it as simple as possible.
566
00:33:27.647 --> 00:33:31.308
So I do flat rate billing.
567
00:33:31.669 --> 00:33:33.890
And I do it on the first of the month.
568
00:33:34.150 --> 00:33:35.110
Helps with cash flow.
569
00:33:36.211 --> 00:33:39.112
Where it becomes a problem is with biweekly customers.
570
00:33:39.412 --> 00:33:42.673
So you have those months where you might have five Mondays.
571
00:33:43.274 --> 00:33:48.156
Now they either get a free cut or you have to remember to go in and charge a one-off.
572
00:33:49.557 --> 00:33:58.846
So what I do now as a policy is two different routes, either the first and third week of the month or the second and fourth week of the month.
573
00:33:59.466 --> 00:34:05.972
So far, that's worked pretty well, but there aren't a lot of CRMs that have that capability for the...
574
00:34:07.314 --> 00:34:07.835
scheduling.
575
00:34:08.376 --> 00:34:23.557
So what I would like to ask you is, should I even be thinking that, should I ditch that as a policy and just go per-cut billing, just to avoid complexity, to avoid customer confusion, and then just automate it further?
576
00:34:24.761 --> 00:34:31.047
Yeah, so let's assume for a moment that every CRM can do that, and it's really easy to schedule like that.
577
00:34:31.448 --> 00:34:32.369
I would still not do it.
578
00:34:32.529 --> 00:34:35.192
The reason for that is not – it has everything to do with admin.
579
00:34:35.672 --> 00:34:42.118
You're going to get calls so many – we would double our call volume if we did like second, fourth, and first and third week.
580
00:34:42.899 --> 00:34:46.962
Um, you, you just want to say biweekly, like every other week or every week.
581
00:34:47.363 --> 00:34:51.106
And then look at the, cause you're charging the flat rate every month.
582
00:34:51.506 --> 00:34:55.789
Just take how many visits is that going to be in the, in the year, divide that out and change your monthly rate.
583
00:34:56.730 --> 00:35:01.494
Um, because it's impossible to convince customers that they do not remember.
584
00:35:02.014 --> 00:35:07.839
And if you don't show up for two, you know, three weeks instead of two, you're going to get a call every single time.
585
00:35:07.899 --> 00:35:09.240
Cause it's going to happen twice a year.
586
00:35:10.020 --> 00:35:14.104
And depending on what marketing is, it's going to happen two times a year and they're going to call every single time.
587
00:35:14.384 --> 00:35:18.948
So if you have, as you begin to scale, this becomes an absolute scheduling nightmare and an admin nightmare.
588
00:35:19.929 --> 00:35:21.971
Also, when you have a fifth week, it becomes empty.
589
00:35:23.172 --> 00:35:29.598
So like now you have to actually start looking out for fifth weeks of the month to fill up with projects because otherwise your crew won't have anything to do.
590
00:35:30.678 --> 00:35:42.632
And so I would stick to a weekly or bi-weekly schedule and I would do the math on how many visits that's going to be in a year based upon your growing season and then split that out for your monthly to still stay the same on level billing.
591
00:35:42.752 --> 00:35:44.214
Deal, okay, thank you so much.
592
00:35:44.254 --> 00:35:47.498
I've been flipping through the book because I wanted to ask you about something in the book, man.
593
00:35:48.718 --> 00:35:50.219
So there's one part on here.
594
00:35:50.259 --> 00:35:53.540
It's under the better tools or marketing part of the solo operator side.
595
00:35:54.460 --> 00:36:01.783
You closed it with if you want to be a solo operator for the long haul, invest in your professional appearance, better equipment, better apparel, stronger branding.
596
00:36:03.128 --> 00:36:04.730
I was a little confused by that.
597
00:36:04.770 --> 00:36:11.074
Does that mean if you want to stay stuck, invest too much in tools instead of marketing?
598
00:36:11.255 --> 00:36:12.495
Or where's the balance?
599
00:36:12.515 --> 00:36:18.580
Because the reason I ask is, I've actually probably gone a little too minimal on appearance when it comes to branding.
600
00:36:18.780 --> 00:36:20.502
Mostly on marketing is what I spend on.
601
00:36:22.563 --> 00:36:28.169
should probably, you know, get the trucks wrapped, get, uh, you know, get uniforms and all that.
602
00:36:28.229 --> 00:36:29.870
But I just have been neglecting that.
603
00:36:30.191 --> 00:36:32.913
Where's, where's the balance that, that just threw me off a little bit.
604
00:36:32.933 --> 00:36:34.535
I was just curious what, what that meant.
605
00:36:34.655 --> 00:36:34.795
Yeah.
606
00:36:34.815 --> 00:36:41.922
So like when you're a solo operator, it's the one time where sometimes having redundancy and not increasing asset utilization is okay.
607
00:36:42.342 --> 00:36:44.224
Because if you only have, let's just call it a mower.
608
00:36:44.524 --> 00:36:47.167
If you have one mower and you're a solo operator, if that thing goes down,
609
00:36:47.727 --> 00:36:48.848
you're out of business, essentially.
610
00:36:48.868 --> 00:36:49.869
Like, you can't get any work done.
611
00:36:50.289 --> 00:36:53.711
And so, do I like the fact that you have two mowers and one person, i.e.
612
00:36:53.811 --> 00:36:54.111
you?
613
00:36:54.432 --> 00:36:58.794
No, because that means that you, at max, have 50% asset utilization.
614
00:36:59.215 --> 00:37:05.499
However, you'll need to do that somewhat inefficient decision in order to make sure you can stay doing the service.
615
00:37:05.919 --> 00:37:15.244
So sometimes having more equipment, also nicer equipment, cause you're utilizing it and it's a physical wear and tear on your body, not an employee that's gonna work for you for six to 12 months as a frontline team member.
616
00:37:15.484 --> 00:37:18.846
If you're gonna do this for the next 20 years, I want you to make sure you take care of your body.
617
00:37:19.467 --> 00:37:21.027
And so you might get the nicer equipment.
618
00:37:21.047 --> 00:37:23.689
You might get nice springs on the stand on mower.
619
00:37:23.949 --> 00:37:30.753
You might increase the size of the truck a little bit just so you're comfortable and you enjoy being inside the cab and you get leather seats so it's a little bit nicer for you.
620
00:37:30.993 --> 00:37:38.616
So when you're solo operator for a very long period of time, I'm optimizing for the fact that you're gonna be a labor in the field for 10, 15, 20 years.
621
00:37:39.296 --> 00:37:43.838
And so I therefore know that the stress your body is going to encounter is physical stress.
622
00:37:43.898 --> 00:37:50.201
It's not financial stress, it's not gonna be psychological stress that comes with a larger business, it's going to be physical stress.
623
00:37:50.641 --> 00:37:57.687
And so because of that, to keep you in the game, my objective is get the nicer stuff so that you don't wear out and you don't rust out.
624
00:37:58.007 --> 00:38:00.970
Or sorry, if you don't like, your body doesn't physically break down.
625
00:38:01.450 --> 00:38:06.835
And that's why I'm okay with investing a little bit more in equipment, tools, redundant trucks and equipment, et cetera.
626
00:38:08.525 --> 00:38:09.065
Roger that.
627
00:38:09.105 --> 00:38:09.505
Thank you.
628
00:38:09.585 --> 00:38:09.885
Okay.
629
00:38:09.925 --> 00:38:11.566
So stay the course, juice the ads.
630
00:38:11.646 --> 00:38:14.306
If that's not going to be the, if that's not the long haul plan.
631
00:38:14.486 --> 00:38:14.666
Okay.
632
00:38:15.206 --> 00:38:15.967
Absolute legend.
633
00:38:16.127 --> 00:38:16.667
Thank you.
634
00:38:17.087 --> 00:38:22.788
I think the thing that I would say is wrapping the trucks is a, is a growth strategy.
635
00:38:23.088 --> 00:38:29.609
And so I assume when someone says, I'm going to be solo forever, that they're going to fill their schedule pretty quickly and they're not going to need tons of leads.
636
00:38:30.270 --> 00:38:31.750
And so that's when I would say, okay,
637
00:38:32.250 --> 00:38:38.342
Like the bottom line, if you're staying solo forever is get to capacity as fast as possible so you can start raising your prices every time you hit it.
638
00:38:38.944 --> 00:38:43.012
And then once you've done that and you have cash available, you're not going to go spend it on growth, i.e.
639
00:38:43.834 --> 00:38:44.856
ads, et cetera.
640
00:38:45.036 --> 00:38:51.650
You're going to go buy better equipment and trucks to make sure that the longevity of your body sticks around for the 10 or 20 years you're trying to do it.
641
00:38:51.810 --> 00:38:52.211
Roger that.
642
00:38:52.271 --> 00:38:52.812
Thank you, sir.
643
00:38:52.992 --> 00:38:53.954
Appreciate it all tremendously.
644
00:38:54.175 --> 00:38:54.936
Have a great weekend.
645
00:38:55.097 --> 00:38:55.758
And we'll stay in touch.