He is One Customer Away From Losing EVERYTHING

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There's been so many times where I was like, we are done.
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Because that's really where I'm at.
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I'm like, what is the point?
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Today we're in Tennessee visiting Cameron with Erosion Masters.
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We just prevent sediment from getting where it shouldn't go.
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He's on track to make over a million dollars in revenue this year.
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I would love to get to, you know, 10 million at some point.
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But 80% of his revenue comes from just two customers.
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If we were to lose them, we're in a very bad position.
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That's kind of the breakdown.
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Whoa.
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Yeah.
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You don't have to say that loud.
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Like potentially not being busy enough to close the doors.
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It's not under contract.
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They can get rid of us anytime they want.
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He has lost all motivation for the business and his first baby is due next month.
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I want to take care of my family, but if I'm destroying myself and my mindset and my sanity in the process, then what's that worth?
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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 and HomeWorks Software.
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I travel the country fixing struggling businesses.
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Our goal is to give Cameron a strategy to turn around the company in the next six weeks.
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I would highly recommend figuring out why are you still doing this?
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Yeah.
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Otherwise, you're going to build a $3 million business and feel the same way.
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Okay, so a little bit of background.
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Cameron applied and then backed out.
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and then joined again.
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So he was a little nervous, I think, about us coming, which is understandable, so shout out to him for letting us come out.
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But they've been in business for four years, they have $760,000 in annual revenue, they do erosion and sediment control and residential street sweeping.
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Interesting.
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Basically, you know, we just prevent sediment from getting where it shouldn't go.
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There's a lot of different methods of installation, but we use a trencher because the ground in Tennessee is so hard.
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Watch out for this water meter.
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So we use this big trencher attachment.
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It's got these crazy rock teeth on it.
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See how these teeth are like thicker.
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But yeah, so since this silt fence obviously got trampled over, it looks like another machine came through here.
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For example, this trunk guy, if there's somebody parked right there or something, they'll just run right through the fence because that's the only way they'll be able to get to the, whatever they're trying to do, you know?
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Mike's just gonna go through and retrench that area so that we can put new silt fence in.
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I think of it as a good thing because it's more work for us, so.
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You know, regular silt fence with wood stakes on it.
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This stuff here.
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has a wire mesh material attached to it.
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So it makes it a little bit more sturdy.
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And then you use the metal T-post in the ground and attach it to this.
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So all that old stuff, we'll tear it out like that.
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We'll throw it in the trash.
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And then we'll put fresh new silt fence right there in that area so that all of this dirt and stuff doesn't run off onto the road when it rains this week.
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usually like eight to 12 inch trench.
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And then you put the silt fence into the ground and then backfill the silt fence.
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You know, when water hits it, sediment hits it, it captures it so that it's not going where it shouldn't go.
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If you don't got erosion control, none of these houses would be able to be built.
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We get paid to put it in the ground, we get paid to repair it, and then we get paid a lot of times to take it out and throw it out too.
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Okay.
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Let's go ahead and look at his application video.
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What's up, Mike and Augusta Nation?
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My name is Cameron French.
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I own an erosion and sediment control company here in North Nashville area.
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I've got five full-time employees, excluding myself.
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They're all great.
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I can't say anything bad about any of them really.
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But Mike has been my right-hand man.
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As far as personal issues hurting the business, I would say motivation is probably definitely a big one right now.
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In this space, there's a lot of loss leader type services that are kind of a tough pill to swallow.
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And then we're also just fighting a battle with these large private equity companies doing things that like a really, really low cost.
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Also super blessed and thankful to say that I'm having a baby girl in June.
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So my wife's doing June, but definitely want to
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start delegating some things and be present during that time because there's been certain circumstances where I You know things have happened and I wasn't able to be present in it'd be it'd be nice And I know my wife would love it for me to be able to just like completely like Step away from it for a couple of days so that we can enjoy some time together and we haven't been able to do that for three years so
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Alright, so this is one of those rare cases where when we're doing a turnaround it has nothing to do with liquidity in the 4-0 framework, which is cash on hand.
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And I think the biggest risk here is that he has huge amounts of customer concentration.
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And that is with 80% of your revenue coming from one customer, if that person leaves you have no business.
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You're laying people off, all of a sudden this debt is an issue if you have $150,000.
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And furthermore, he can't go back out in the field because of his injury in his back.
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Like there's like three discs that have just been worn to nothing.
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I joked with my wife all the time, I was like, if Mike leaves, I'm done.
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It's extremely risky, and if a business is risky, it's not worth anything.
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So you can't sell it, you can't run passively, and so that's why he likely is losing motivation.
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It's like, you have money, so there's no immediate pain to make change, but you're having a kid, you gotta delegate, but you're also afraid of the fact that one or two employees leaving, or one or two customers leaving, and my business is kaput.
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So we want to get that monkey off his back and give him systems in place that the business can run without him.
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So he can spend time with his kid and his family.
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But also that losing one customer employee is not making him lose sleep at night.
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And if your business is in that position, it's just like, it's a horrible business to run.
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Oddly enough, this is, well, I guess it's not really odd, but half of our fleet is down right now, so perfect timing.
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But, we've been having truck issues.
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So one of our trucks has been in the shop for like, coming on two weeks now.
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And then one of our other machines is just getting serviced.
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This is our little area that I rent from a realtor.
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And we just kinda check the loads in the morning.
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Make sure we've got all the material on the trucks.
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And then these guys hop in and roll out for the day.
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Thanks for being on time, buddy.
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Yeah, here's closing up.
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One day we'll be closing some big doors to a facility.
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What's up, Mike?
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What's up, man?
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Good to see you.
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Nice to meet you.
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Dude, that shop space you had is great.
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Right on the road, but kind of little rule.
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Give me a little bit of background on the business.
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I know I kind of caught up.
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I saw the monthly P&Ls.
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Yeah, yeah.
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But maybe kind of give me this origin story.
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How'd you get even into the erosion side?
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So it really just stemmed from
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me building houses for a production home builder.
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So I was in charge of several different subdivisions and basically our entire vendor base.
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All of my expertise comes from the construction side of things and managing people and timelines and budgets and all that kind of stuff.
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I just was looking at all the different vendors we used and I was like, all right, what would be something that I could make money that would be
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Easy, ha ha.
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The goal was to become a division president and they had, you know, they basically were saying like, hey, you're on that right path and all that stuff.
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And I just got to a point where I was like, I don't think I want that.
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But it's something that, you know, I could get behind and I felt like I could deliver a good service, maybe where service was lacking.
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And for whatever reason, erosion and sediment control just kind of lined up as that.
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I don't know, there's just something about it.
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And I always had this, I guess the bug to do my own thing.
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And yeah, I just kind of went out and just started this.
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And here we are three years later.
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I did not think I'd be here three years later.
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I'm not gonna lie.
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There's been so many times where I was like, we are done.
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And then right as I started mine, all these like private equity companies started coming in here and just buying people out.
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And then from that, those buyouts, some people that worked in those companies branched off and started their own.
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So then all of a sudden, like, there's all these erosion companies.
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Dang.
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So I've got some really fierce competition for sure.
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And is that competition mostly around, like, the self-fences or is it around, like, slope erosion?
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Is it the cleanup part?
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Like, what is the... All of it.
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Now, what I've tried to do to kind of...
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separate myself a little bit is we do do site cleanup which some of them do some of them don't do is the bread and butter the site cleanup or is you think it's mostly like street sweeping what's the the breakdown no the i would say the the site cleanup is just kind of like an extra
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We do street sweeping.
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Hand scrape the curbs, blow off the curbs.
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The guy in the machine will come and scrape the street, but he's getting a lot of it in that bucket so that he can dump it on the other side of some silt fence somewhere where it's off the road.
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Inlet protection.
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So this is a dandy sack.
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So if you see like a storm drain in a subdivision or along the side of the roads, on construction sites we'll put this in it and then this will still allow water to drain through it.
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Kind of works the same way as the filter sock sort of.
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Like water goes through it, but it contains the sediment in it.
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These always stay where you need them to and then you just grab the inside of the metal and take them out.
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What else did we do?
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Concrete washout services.
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I think I said construction entrances, yeah.
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These big concrete washout bags we set up so that the concrete washouts can wash out their chute.
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This is where a concrete truck will pull in, you know, clean out his chute because concrete contains a bunch of chemicals.
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So you want to try to contain that stuff.
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Stabilization services like seed and straw.
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we'll put up these perimeter controls until they do stabilize it, you know, like another lot where they put sod or seed and straw down.
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And then once it has, you know, vegetation grown, you know, no sediment really is going to run off into the streets anymore.
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It's weird, like there's a lot of services in it, but you have to kind of do them all, otherwise you're not gonna get the work.
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And those are mostly the general contractors that you're working underneath there?
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Yeah, yeah, like just all the large home builders.
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You know, like all of them.
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So the biggest ones, or is it like someone who's building three houses in a year?
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No, no, no, the big boys.
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Okay, yeah, yeah.
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Well, we find ourselves basically losing money a lot of times.
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is when we're going out to a job, we're putting one construction entrance in like 100 feet of the soap fence.
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It's like not worth it.
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Right.
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It is worth it because
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then we're making money servicing that subdivision, right?
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Doing the street sweeping and repairs and that kind of stuff.
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You know, if we were down in Florida or something, I mean, you're running thousands and thousands of feet of that a day because the ground's so soft.
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Where here, like I said, you're breaking your back literally trying to get these stakes in the ground sometimes.
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And there's some customers that we have where
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they're like hey install 5 000 feet of silt fence and 30 construction entrances and it's like sweet we're about to be here for two days and make good money right that's a two-day job 30 entrances yeah we can do it in two days yeah we're we're fishing yeah yeah
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We might charge anywhere from $2 to $3 a linear foot to put this stuff down.
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The wireback silt fence, depending on the job, we might charge anywhere from $2.50 to upwards of $4 a linear foot to put that stuff down.
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I really hadn't bid for jobs at all.
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Like all of this, this business so far has been built strictly through just relationships and word of mouth.
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I recently started doing some bids, but man, even those that have the time, I'm like, am I just giving this number to this guy so that he can throw it into a spreadsheet and have the numbers so that he can bid for the job?
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You know what I mean?
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Right, right, right.
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Is that the contractors you're calling or like HOAs being like calling you?
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No, no, no.
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It's usually the project manager on the job site.
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Got it.
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So they're like usually in charge of it.
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And, you know, so they're the ones that we coordinate with.
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Well, I coordinate with.
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Got it.
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Okay.
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All right.
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That makes sense.
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Cool, all right, well, we'll use the 4.0 framework to kind of move through it.
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The 4.0 framework explains the four reasons why every home service business stops growing.
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It's either a lack of liquidity, money in the bank, it's a lack of leads, more customers, it's a lack of labor, which is your employees, or a lack of leadership.
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I think from like a liquidity perspective, there's not a problem.
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Like I know you mentioned like paying off the debt, but I don't think that's a problem at all.
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Because like based on what I'm seeing, like if there's like 350K, it's all in cash.
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There's $178,000 or something approximately of debt.
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But all that debt is the trucks and the skid steers.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, okay, cool.
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From a leads perspective, when, like right now, is it like huge customer concentration with the big contractors or is it pretty distributed between a bunch of different customers?
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Customer concentration is the big issue because yeah, like it's like a handful of our...
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customers have just like, it's like all of our work.
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So like there's really a couple of them that if they were like, hey, we're not using it anymore, we're done.
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Right.
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That's a bad position.
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Got it.
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And is that like that big contract?
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Like for example, that five year one?
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Well, so it's not.
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Or is that more like a recurring?
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It's not, it's not, it's not con, it's not under contract.
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Oh, okay.
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They can get rid of us anytime they want.
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Oh, okay.
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So they can just, they just agreed upon price and they're giving you work.
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Yep, exactly.
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But if tomorrow they wake up like, we're pinching pennies, we're gonna go get jilly billy down the street.
217
00:14:10.524 --> 00:14:11.344
Okay, all right.
218
00:14:11.404 --> 00:14:14.965
Yeah, I mean, they're just constantly, constantly beating you up on price.
219
00:14:15.605 --> 00:14:20.306
And so it almost feels like your customers are dictating your price.
220
00:14:20.766 --> 00:14:22.646
And that is a terrible place to be.
221
00:14:23.086 --> 00:14:27.207
And it's not just that one customer or even the other couple that we've gotten in with.
222
00:14:27.927 --> 00:14:28.908
I mean, it's all of them.
223
00:14:28.928 --> 00:14:33.811
I mean, it's a constant battle of like, hey, how can we get this done for free basically?
224
00:14:34.372 --> 00:14:36.854
How much of your revenue do you think comes from those one or two big players?
225
00:14:38.075 --> 00:14:38.415
A lot.
226
00:14:38.495 --> 00:14:39.576
Like literally all of it?
227
00:14:39.636 --> 00:14:42.077
Or like 80, 70, 90%?
228
00:14:42.678 --> 00:14:46.701
That's kind of the breakdown.
229
00:14:48.741 --> 00:14:49.181
Whoa.
230
00:14:49.421 --> 00:14:49.702
Yeah.
231
00:14:49.942 --> 00:14:50.982
You don't have to say that loud.
232
00:14:51.723 --> 00:14:52.944
Yeah.
233
00:14:55.485 --> 00:14:56.706
350 on top.
234
00:14:56.826 --> 00:14:58.347
Wow, so it's like 85%.
235
00:14:58.507 --> 00:14:59.527
Now, I will say this.
236
00:15:00.228 --> 00:15:02.489
This customer here, we are growing with them.
237
00:15:02.509 --> 00:15:04.050
Like, they have some stuff coming up.
238
00:15:04.550 --> 00:15:05.811
They've been awesome.
239
00:15:05.851 --> 00:15:07.952
Like, I would love to grow with them.
240
00:15:08.192 --> 00:15:08.513
They don't.
241
00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.040
you know, they're not penny pinching too much.
242
00:15:11.060 --> 00:15:12.522
Like they don't hound us too much.
243
00:15:12.542 --> 00:15:14.023
There's a really good relationship there.
244
00:15:14.503 --> 00:15:15.324
So that's gonna help.
245
00:15:15.444 --> 00:15:18.946
And then we just got our foot in the door with this customer here.
246
00:15:19.527 --> 00:15:21.248
And that was the first job we did with them.
247
00:15:21.348 --> 00:15:23.110
So that was a big job, right?
248
00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:25.852
And how did that customer four hear about you?
249
00:15:26.660 --> 00:15:27.540
I used to work with them.
250
00:15:28.021 --> 00:15:28.341
Oh, okay.
251
00:15:28.681 --> 00:15:32.642
I used to work with them in leadership at the other company I worked for years ago.
252
00:15:32.902 --> 00:15:33.343
Years ago.
253
00:15:33.423 --> 00:15:36.664
Because you're not really going after the home builder that does like a few houses.
254
00:15:36.684 --> 00:15:37.584
You're going after the guys.
255
00:15:37.624 --> 00:15:39.505
No, I've been going after the big boys.
256
00:15:39.545 --> 00:15:40.425
Yeah, okay.
257
00:15:40.665 --> 00:15:42.286
And how many more of them are there?
258
00:15:42.746 --> 00:15:43.887
Oh, there's a lot of them.
259
00:15:43.947 --> 00:15:44.788
Okay, okay.
260
00:15:44.808 --> 00:15:46.589
So realistically, could we have 20 customers?
261
00:15:46.609 --> 00:15:47.529
Like, is that even possible?
262
00:15:47.630 --> 00:15:47.990
Oh, 100%.
263
00:15:48.010 --> 00:15:48.670
Okay, all right.
264
00:15:48.690 --> 00:15:53.634
The problem I run into is like, I'll cold call these people and I'll talk to them and I'll follow up with them.
265
00:15:53.934 --> 00:15:55.855
They're just like, you got to get to this price.
266
00:15:55.875 --> 00:15:57.136
And I'm like, there's just no way.
267
00:15:57.156 --> 00:15:57.476
Okay.
268
00:15:57.516 --> 00:15:58.517
Like, I just can't do it.
269
00:15:58.657 --> 00:15:59.338
That or...
270
00:16:00.338 --> 00:16:05.501
I follow up with them so much and then they're like, oh, we ended up using so-and-so at the same price I'd bid.
271
00:16:05.521 --> 00:16:06.361
And I'm like, what the heck?
272
00:16:06.601 --> 00:16:09.442
I'm like, have I not been annoying enough?
273
00:16:09.522 --> 00:16:10.963
Like, I can be relentless.
274
00:16:11.143 --> 00:16:14.425
And it's like, I don't know, maybe I annoyed them too much.
275
00:16:14.645 --> 00:16:15.145
Yeah, yeah.
276
00:16:15.405 --> 00:16:18.006
Okay, so customer four, just because this is the new one.
277
00:16:18.186 --> 00:16:18.366
Yeah.
278
00:16:18.646 --> 00:16:21.848
What happened to this previous erosion guy where he's like, I gotta call Cameron.
279
00:16:22.088 --> 00:16:23.329
Again, same situation.
280
00:16:23.369 --> 00:16:24.869
Someone that I used to work with,
281
00:16:26.670 --> 00:16:48.255
they saw that I was actually posting stuff on LinkedIn, you know, the minimal marketing that I did do, uh, someone from LinkedIn who I used to work with, uh, saw what I was doing and, you know, they started working for this, this builder and, uh, they, they had the division president, uh, for this builder reach out to me and we just grabbed lunch and, and headed off.
282
00:16:48.295 --> 00:16:50.736
And right from the rip, he gave me, uh,
283
00:16:51.376 --> 00:16:53.158
two jobs to start servicing.
284
00:16:53.198 --> 00:16:57.642
And since then, we've just delivered a good quality job for them.
285
00:16:57.702 --> 00:17:00.144
And they're going to continue giving us more work.
286
00:17:00.184 --> 00:17:04.427
They've got, gosh, I think three in the pipeline coming up soon.
287
00:17:05.628 --> 00:17:07.250
So they've been a great partner.
288
00:17:07.470 --> 00:17:08.971
I can't say enough good things about them.
289
00:17:09.071 --> 00:17:11.534
So really, this is like a relationship business at the end of the day.
290
00:17:12.054 --> 00:17:12.994
It's like, who do you know?
291
00:17:13.235 --> 00:17:13.975
Who knows you?
292
00:17:14.355 --> 00:17:14.555
Yeah.
293
00:17:14.795 --> 00:17:16.716
And who's calling you after the storm?
294
00:17:17.336 --> 00:17:17.576
Yeah.
295
00:17:17.837 --> 00:17:20.298
And that's partly why you feel chained to your phone though.
296
00:17:20.698 --> 00:17:24.940
Cause like that's your kind of your stream of keeping in contact with these guys.
297
00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:25.840
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
298
00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:28.541
Well that and I do everything else.
299
00:17:28.581 --> 00:17:29.922
Like I take every phone call.
300
00:17:29.962 --> 00:17:32.703
Like there is no one else that does it, which you know, again, it's fine.
301
00:17:32.923 --> 00:17:34.604
I mean, I can't be there forever.
302
00:17:34.744 --> 00:17:34.984
Yeah.
303
00:17:35.324 --> 00:17:40.166
It's never been just like, oh man, we got a consistent stuff, man.
304
00:17:40.206 --> 00:17:41.287
It's like, it's always like,
305
00:17:42.248 --> 00:17:43.388
How are we gonna get all this done?
306
00:17:43.628 --> 00:17:47.010
Or man, what are we gonna do Tuesday and Wednesday this week?
307
00:17:47.050 --> 00:17:48.450
Like, I just have no idea.
308
00:17:48.470 --> 00:17:49.851
All right, we will come back to that.
309
00:17:50.051 --> 00:18:00.294
Leads right now is I think the biggest opportunity because like, having 85% of our revenue from two customers and 95% of it from four customers is just like, it's hurting my soul.
310
00:18:01.275 --> 00:18:02.055
You have no idea.
311
00:18:03.396 --> 00:18:24.735
it's just so hard maybe you've been there but it's crazy it's almost hard to want to grow because like you could double this business but if it's all from one you know two customers let's call it then you're still like always in the back of your mind if they leave I can't grow any infrastructure it's like getting an ad in person is scary if revenue could drop 90% have you have you ever built the relationship with the county inspectors
312
00:18:25.215 --> 00:18:26.236
Um, a couple of them.
313
00:18:26.597 --> 00:18:31.101
A couple of them I've talked to, and I have, like, a couple of their phone numbers and stuff.
314
00:18:31.462 --> 00:18:41.292
You need soap fence erosion to pass inspections of all these houses, so if you don't got this, this is the first thing that they do after they grade and do whatever.
315
00:18:41.392 --> 00:18:43.514
If you don't got erosion control...
316
00:18:44.255 --> 00:18:46.897
none of these houses would be able to be built.
317
00:18:47.257 --> 00:18:50.979
So I've reached out to some of those companies and I'm like, hey, this is what I'm doing.
318
00:18:51.439 --> 00:18:53.760
You know, they don't do installation or maintenance.
319
00:18:53.800 --> 00:18:55.121
They only do inspections.
320
00:18:55.821 --> 00:18:57.802
I'm like, throw me some leads.
321
00:18:57.842 --> 00:19:00.664
I'll throw you some leads and like, let's try to help each other out.
322
00:19:00.724 --> 00:19:02.505
And the conversations were really, really good.
323
00:19:03.065 --> 00:19:03.585
No leads.
324
00:19:03.726 --> 00:19:04.586
I've thrown them leads.
325
00:19:04.746 --> 00:19:04.986
Yeah.
326
00:19:05.386 --> 00:19:07.768
What is the obstacle for you also doing site inspections?
327
00:19:08.248 --> 00:19:09.589
Price.
328
00:19:09.929 --> 00:19:11.710
Well, they're just like the bottom of the barrel.
329
00:19:12.310 --> 00:19:13.431
Yeah, it's alright.
330
00:19:13.511 --> 00:19:24.101
But I think what they're, they're kind of using that to their advantage a little bit, which I guess the integrity of me kind of, I don't know, there's something about it where they're like, they go do their own site inspections.
331
00:19:24.522 --> 00:19:28.805
And then they're just writing a laundry list of stuff so that they can get paid to go fix those things.
332
00:19:29.186 --> 00:19:30.367
They're definitely not making money doing it.
333
00:19:30.527 --> 00:19:32.488
inspections, but they're making money to do the work.
334
00:19:32.668 --> 00:19:35.309
There's a lot of things that come with inspection.
335
00:19:35.569 --> 00:19:40.591
Um, making sure that the fence is a certain amount of height under the trench.
336
00:19:41.131 --> 00:19:45.533
If it's not a certain amount of height or not covered good, it's not going to pass inspection.
337
00:19:45.813 --> 00:19:47.233
It's not going to do what it's supposed to.
338
00:19:47.293 --> 00:19:51.215
For example, keeping everything from getting onto the road, et cetera.
339
00:19:51.455 --> 00:19:54.416
T post, we got to put those every five feet.
340
00:19:54.516 --> 00:19:58.598
Cause I think inspectors like if you're going after new customers, they kind of control the lead flow.
341
00:19:59.238 --> 00:20:04.208
And to your point, that's why they're doing the loss leader is because they know they can go sell all this work behind it.
342
00:20:04.408 --> 00:20:07.294
A lot of the big companies do do it, like the bigwigs.
343
00:20:07.694 --> 00:20:08.736
I think that's an opportunity.
344
00:20:09.381 --> 00:20:10.041
The inspections?
345
00:20:10.161 --> 00:20:16.084
Yeah, and I think the reason is because I imagine that inspector can get licensed pretty easily.
346
00:20:16.285 --> 00:20:16.765
Super easy.
347
00:20:16.845 --> 00:20:19.946
Like my crew leader right now is, I got him certified.
348
00:20:20.087 --> 00:20:20.327
Yeah.
349
00:20:20.347 --> 00:20:21.907
It's literally like a four hour class.
350
00:20:21.947 --> 00:20:25.149
Yeah, I almost think though, instead of your crew leader, that becomes your admin person.
351
00:20:25.469 --> 00:20:32.473
The person rolling around all day long is able to now pay their wages using the inspections, but also take that off their plate.
352
00:20:32.913 --> 00:20:37.877
I understand that Cameron wants to avoid low margin work or loss leaders.
353
00:20:38.257 --> 00:20:41.520
And so he's been avoiding the idea of doing inspections.
354
00:20:41.760 --> 00:20:42.961
But that's the top of the funnel.
355
00:20:43.342 --> 00:20:46.824
Because the inspectors are the ones that determine what work needs to be done.
356
00:20:47.265 --> 00:20:53.630
And so if I'm trying to get the work, it might be required for me to go out and do this quote, lower margin work.
357
00:20:54.250 --> 00:21:08.580
I happen to believe it's really low barrier to entry for him to get an admin person that can do those inspections, but then keep funneling that work to him instead of him depending on inspectors to not be doing the services themselves and shoveling the work off to him.
358
00:21:08.700 --> 00:21:15.005
So it's like, hey, here's the number of inspections, like our target number of inspections, our target number of upsells, i.e.
359
00:21:15.225 --> 00:21:16.926
revenue coming to the business that is profitable.
360
00:21:17.006 --> 00:21:17.246
Yeah.
361
00:21:17.707 --> 00:21:20.529
And here is admin tasks that they can get done.
362
00:21:21.749 --> 00:21:22.409
Oh, okay.
363
00:21:22.449 --> 00:21:24.090
Because now their office becomes mobile.
364
00:21:24.350 --> 00:21:32.793
It's, hey, here's a truck, and I'm paying your wages, and you're going to get an extra commission based on anything you sell on the back end, but we've also got to complete all these inspections.
365
00:21:33.013 --> 00:21:42.476
The inspections alone could potentially get to the point down the road where it covers their wages, and then you also have a lead source of the revenue that they're selling on the back end of those inspections.
366
00:21:43.036 --> 00:21:45.497
On the website, I think all of this comes back to the website.
367
00:21:45.877 --> 00:21:46.237
Oh, wow.
368
00:21:46.517 --> 00:21:47.918
Drill me for it.
369
00:21:48.238 --> 00:21:48.738
Tell me.
370
00:21:48.918 --> 00:21:49.638
Tell me about it.
371
00:21:51.879 --> 00:21:53.640
All right, so let's see his website.
372
00:21:55.100 --> 00:21:57.101
Erosion Masters LLC.
373
00:21:57.401 --> 00:21:58.781
Oh, man, this site is brutal.
374
00:21:59.242 --> 00:22:02.463
This doesn't scream I want customers at all.
375
00:22:02.523 --> 00:22:07.324
Yeah, so like if you come here, for example, protecting our waterways and fisheries from sediment and stormwater pollutants.
376
00:22:07.724 --> 00:22:08.665
I don't know, man.
377
00:22:08.825 --> 00:22:10.185
I don't know if that's why people come here.
378
00:22:10.485 --> 00:22:12.166
I think they're like, I have a mess on my...
379
00:22:13.006 --> 00:22:35.022
on the road i need i have erosion problems so sometimes because you get cash in the bank you start doing the the basics and that keeps you from the next stage of growth and so he's comfortable he's lost motivation and it's evident on the website because the only way to contact him is the very bottom is his phone number and it's not even clickable so on a mobile device i can't even click on his phone number so all right well we'll find out tomorrow
380
00:22:35.422 --> 00:22:36.383
I know it's bad.
381
00:22:36.423 --> 00:22:37.485
I just have to have a website.
382
00:22:37.785 --> 00:22:38.005
Yeah.
383
00:22:38.927 --> 00:22:42.571
Like, I think the website becomes, hey, we do two things.
384
00:22:42.591 --> 00:22:45.094
We do inspections and we do erosion control.
385
00:22:45.214 --> 00:22:46.075
Yeah.
386
00:22:46.176 --> 00:22:49.279
Because we need new leads with the inspection site.
387
00:22:49.299 --> 00:22:50.281
We need a rank for that.
388
00:22:50.661 --> 00:22:53.705
But then we know if we get them on that, then we get them on the erosion control.
389
00:22:54.025 --> 00:23:04.692
The challenging part is like, you don't need to like, be ranking well, like you do need to rank well, but not for the local area and local homeowners and getting thousands of clicks and traffic.
390
00:23:05.012 --> 00:23:11.536
You need that when 10 people look at, in the local area for like those contractors look in this area, they find you.
391
00:23:12.116 --> 00:23:13.537
And then it's really clear what you do.
392
00:23:14.237 --> 00:23:19.721
And I would say like right now, your website is built for the inspector, it is not built for the contractor.
393
00:23:20.761 --> 00:23:24.283
If you look at your site, the first thing is it's all about environment.
394
00:23:25.064 --> 00:23:26.665
Contractors could care less about the environment.
395
00:23:26.925 --> 00:23:30.327
Yeah, it needs to be something like keep your erosion inspector off your back.
396
00:23:30.547 --> 00:23:31.668
Yeah, 100%.
397
00:23:31.988 --> 00:23:33.529
Or keep the city off your back.
398
00:23:34.269 --> 00:23:35.790
Avoid site closures.
399
00:23:36.410 --> 00:23:40.713
What's the worst thing that can happen if they don't do inspections or use you guys?
400
00:23:40.753 --> 00:23:41.714
Yeah, site closure.
401
00:23:41.734 --> 00:23:47.117
So up in White House, Tennessee, they have a really, really strict process.
402
00:23:47.357 --> 00:23:49.058
And they shut the whole city down.
403
00:23:49.333 --> 00:24:00.444
all this sediment and stuff actually goes to stream buffers and then from there it goes to like bigger rivers around the Tennessee area, which I mean, if there's like cement or random stuff going into the rivers,
404
00:24:01.672 --> 00:24:07.316
the population of the fish would be dying and all this ecosystem stuff, like it would just be going bad, you know?
405
00:24:07.657 --> 00:24:11.580
Even doing guarantees to the builder on like, hey, guarantee no site closures.
406
00:24:12.120 --> 00:24:12.621
Yeah.
407
00:24:12.641 --> 00:24:14.162
You get your money back if there's a site closure.
408
00:24:14.762 --> 00:24:15.423
Oh yeah.
409
00:24:15.563 --> 00:24:19.026
Now I need to have the inspection to be able to guarantee them that.
410
00:24:19.066 --> 00:24:24.770
If there's this constant flow of inspectors above you, there's always the chance that they do cut you out.
411
00:24:25.531 --> 00:24:27.032
Like this is also like customer retention.
412
00:24:28.207 --> 00:24:33.271
Because if inspectors are walking every single day and all of a sudden there's an inspector that's like, hey, I'll do this work for like five grand, and you're 10 grand.
413
00:24:33.712 --> 00:24:35.193
All of a sudden, they have to think about this.
414
00:24:35.413 --> 00:24:38.796
Yeah, no, I think that's a great point.
415
00:24:38.896 --> 00:24:40.257
Okay, so I'm going to put website.
416
00:24:40.437 --> 00:24:42.819
And what I want to do is speak to pain.
417
00:24:43.100 --> 00:24:44.841
Speak to pain.
418
00:24:46.122 --> 00:25:08.952
of icp so ideal customer profile so we're talking to the contractor of a large subdivision and when we're building the website we that's all we want to think about they do not care about the environment builders are like the last people in the world to think about the environment i think the business owners there might be some that do care but i mean there's other some that they just want to make money make money and
419
00:25:09.812 --> 00:25:10.252
more money.
420
00:25:10.973 --> 00:25:13.173
But I mean, it's something that's necessary also.
421
00:25:13.213 --> 00:25:18.916
Like we need places to live and there's a lot of people moving down here too, for example, from California to Texas.
422
00:25:18.956 --> 00:25:24.978
So speaking of the pain of the ICP currently, but then just having a better website will allow for the commercial to kind of start coming in.
423
00:25:25.138 --> 00:25:25.298
Yeah.
424
00:25:25.758 --> 00:25:29.900
And then that is not necessarily recurring revenue, which we love, but like it's reoccurring.
425
00:25:30.120 --> 00:25:30.300
Yeah.
426
00:25:30.340 --> 00:25:33.822
Which is like, there's always new contractors, new things, stuff being built, apartments, et cetera.
427
00:25:33.962 --> 00:25:34.202
Yeah.
428
00:25:34.582 --> 00:25:37.043
It's just tough with like such a small staff.
429
00:25:37.703 --> 00:25:41.565
even cause we've had calls before where it's like, Hey man, like we need a bunch of stuff.
430
00:25:41.625 --> 00:25:44.486
And since a big commercial job and I'm like, man, I'd love to do it.
431
00:25:44.526 --> 00:25:53.289
But if I do, these guys who are feeding us, um, something's going to lack there and we can't, we can't do it.
432
00:25:53.429 --> 00:25:54.670
What about temporary labor though?
433
00:25:55.850 --> 00:25:56.170
Yeah.
434
00:25:56.350 --> 00:25:59.171
I mean, I gotta find it.
435
00:25:59.191 --> 00:25:59.712
Okay.
436
00:26:00.232 --> 00:26:01.892
Labor's been a big thing.
437
00:26:01.912 --> 00:26:02.633
A lot of turnover.
438
00:26:02.653 --> 00:26:03.093
Right.
439
00:26:03.273 --> 00:26:03.413
Um,
440
00:26:03.863 --> 00:26:04.824
All my guys are great.
441
00:26:05.305 --> 00:26:07.187
I do like working with all of them.
442
00:26:07.567 --> 00:26:16.117
All the other people, they've either gotten fired or quit or just, yeah, mostly not showed up.
443
00:26:17.724 --> 00:26:22.448
You're either full-time with us or you're not, because it's hard enough getting full-time people.
444
00:26:22.468 --> 00:26:25.630
If this is their job to do, you need them to do sometimes.
445
00:26:25.850 --> 00:26:28.392
I think, honestly, it's just when it hits summertime, but that's the worst part.
446
00:26:28.452 --> 00:26:29.433
You know, you get darker.
447
00:26:29.773 --> 00:26:32.776
Being in the sun all day, pulling fence, hammering all day.
448
00:26:33.696 --> 00:26:36.158
And I guess, yeah, that's the hardest part.
449
00:26:36.338 --> 00:26:38.820
Oh, and you have to, like, wake up early, I guess, too.
450
00:26:38.840 --> 00:26:39.901
You got to put your part in, too.
451
00:26:39.941 --> 00:26:41.002
You know, everybody's putting their part in.
452
00:26:41.322 --> 00:26:45.685
Our guys right here, if you're used to it, like it's cake to us, you know?
453
00:26:46.045 --> 00:26:49.587
Especially for me, like I've been in this business for like four plus years, so.
454
00:26:49.747 --> 00:26:55.070
And then it's like, all right, now I'm gonna, you know, bank on a guy who's part-time, who doesn't need to show up.
455
00:26:55.230 --> 00:27:03.175
Yeah, but what if you had your core four to do like recurring work that is more stable, but then you had a whole bench of people that you had them on a WhatsApp group.
456
00:27:03.595 --> 00:27:04.936
When you're like, okay, we got a big job coming.
457
00:27:04.956 --> 00:27:06.336
Hey, who wants three days of work?
458
00:27:06.697 --> 00:27:06.897
Yeah.
459
00:27:07.457 --> 00:27:07.837
What is it?
460
00:27:07.878 --> 00:27:08.258
WhatsApp?
461
00:27:08.718 --> 00:27:09.419
You can use a WhatsApp.
462
00:27:09.439 --> 00:27:12.121
I'm just saying you get a bench of people that you put into a group.
463
00:27:12.241 --> 00:27:13.482
Yeah.
464
00:27:13.502 --> 00:27:17.205
A text group or a WhatsApp group where it's announcements only and they're not able to communicate.
465
00:27:17.485 --> 00:27:23.571
They're like, hey, you could put up job listings, which is, hey, I'm going to pay X amount, which would be significantly higher than your current rate.
466
00:27:23.771 --> 00:27:24.411
Temporary.
467
00:27:24.691 --> 00:27:25.632
This is $10.99.
468
00:27:26.113 --> 00:27:28.655
So you get some job that does junk removal, for example.
469
00:27:29.516 --> 00:27:29.676
Yeah.
470
00:27:29.796 --> 00:27:30.356
He's slow.
471
00:27:30.737 --> 00:27:32.178
Like, hey, I'll put you on the roster.
472
00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:35.562
And basically what's going to happen is when a job comes in, I will put it on the chat.
473
00:27:35.782 --> 00:27:38.305
And whoever responds first, back to me, gets the job.
474
00:27:38.545 --> 00:27:43.390
You'd have one of your guys, one of them, with like two or three temporary guys putting in the silk fence.
475
00:27:43.450 --> 00:27:46.033
Because I'm going to go on a limb and stuff like that is easy to do.
476
00:27:46.493 --> 00:27:47.995
Yeah, yeah, it's not rocket science.
477
00:27:48.435 --> 00:27:52.961
I mean, the hardest part is just knowing how to run like the equipment and the attachments.
478
00:27:53.021 --> 00:27:54.963
Right here is the wheel that spins.
479
00:27:55.584 --> 00:28:02.211
When you grease it, it basically just greases everything on the inside so it doesn't grind on itself, on metal.
480
00:28:02.712 --> 00:28:04.814
These four bolts hold the trencher in together.
481
00:28:05.975 --> 00:28:06.916
on this side too.
482
00:28:07.776 --> 00:28:16.642
And then when you're gonna grease it, tighten the chain, you gotta take these off and then we grease it from right here and that tightens the chain.
483
00:28:16.982 --> 00:28:18.403
We used to have a old trencher.
484
00:28:18.823 --> 00:28:20.364
That one was a pain in the butt too.
485
00:28:20.524 --> 00:28:22.786
The other one, the chain would always pop off.
486
00:28:23.006 --> 00:28:23.806
You're a master.
487
00:28:24.026 --> 00:28:25.867
I'd say like at least three times a week.
488
00:28:26.248 --> 00:28:29.810
Is there something that y'all use that you recommend?
489
00:28:29.970 --> 00:28:32.972
Cause like Indeed is, man, you get so many, but it's like,
490
00:28:34.470 --> 00:28:37.511
You're going through like 200 of them and you find maybe two.
491
00:28:38.011 --> 00:28:40.912
Yeah, you want to create some more friction to the process.
492
00:28:41.492 --> 00:28:46.473
And so like, we use a software called SparkHire, but you could just use like Google Forms even.
493
00:28:46.674 --> 00:28:49.494
So in Indeed, when they apply, you can set up an automation.
494
00:28:50.175 --> 00:28:55.116
And you can just have, hey, when they apply, they submit their application, set up an Indeed automation that sends them this link.
495
00:28:55.216 --> 00:28:57.817
So you'll be like, hey, thanks so much for applying, really appreciate it.
496
00:28:57.917 --> 00:28:59.717
You've advanced the next stage of the process.
497
00:28:59.857 --> 00:29:01.058
Click this link and fill it out.
498
00:29:01.398 --> 00:29:02.078
And part of that,
499
00:29:02.658 --> 00:29:04.959
Google Form or however you set it up, could just be a video.
500
00:29:05.199 --> 00:29:06.520
Like we always require video.
501
00:29:06.540 --> 00:29:10.142
So we have no in-person interview before a video is submitted.
502
00:29:10.162 --> 00:29:10.962
So you kind of get an idea.
503
00:29:11.022 --> 00:29:14.024
We cut it down from 100 applicants down to 10 real fast.
504
00:29:14.104 --> 00:29:14.544
I love that.
505
00:29:14.744 --> 00:29:17.246
That would be partly useful for even your current team.
506
00:29:17.546 --> 00:29:19.026
That sounds like there's churn at that level.
507
00:29:19.387 --> 00:29:23.149
But even fixing that churn, I think can tie into our upsell strategy.
508
00:29:23.729 --> 00:29:29.132
Like right now, I think I would give a huge bonus for them to find upsells on job sites.
509
00:29:30.573 --> 00:29:32.454
Because like right now it's strictly hourly.
510
00:29:32.954 --> 00:29:35.355
Is there any incentives for them to stay with you longer?
511
00:29:35.975 --> 00:29:36.795
Not really, man.
512
00:29:36.975 --> 00:29:41.237
I mean, in my head I have a, I'm like, if you stay here, you're gonna be this.
513
00:29:41.637 --> 00:29:42.757
If you stay here, you're gonna be this.
514
00:29:42.797 --> 00:29:47.399
And I try to, you know, give that information to them too so that they feel that motivation themselves.
515
00:29:47.679 --> 00:29:49.059
So most of them don't even last three months.
516
00:29:50.660 --> 00:29:52.200
Like the bottom, the bottom.
517
00:29:52.220 --> 00:29:54.281
There's been a few, yeah, that, yeah.
518
00:29:55.264 --> 00:29:56.544
Three months is probably pretty fair.
519
00:29:56.904 --> 00:29:58.505
And right now, do you have any comp structure?
520
00:29:58.545 --> 00:30:04.047
Is it like basically you hire them for what you need and then if they ask for a raise, we're basically giving them?
521
00:30:04.407 --> 00:30:10.508
I basically just started them out at a certain amount and then I've just kind of have paid them more as time went on.
522
00:30:10.628 --> 00:30:18.591
I need to give them some way to be able to move up inside the company, but when you make it arbitrary or like they don't really know when it's happening, to them it doesn't exist.
523
00:30:18.851 --> 00:30:19.051
Yeah.
524
00:30:19.371 --> 00:30:19.531
Right?
525
00:30:19.711 --> 00:30:24.113
They don't operate in the world of like, we're gonna grow this business and one day you're gonna become X, Y, and Z and I'll be able to pay you more.
526
00:30:24.213 --> 00:30:25.194
They don't operate in that world.
527
00:30:25.414 --> 00:30:27.075
You know, Mike understands the vision.
528
00:30:27.535 --> 00:30:31.197
Cause I know Erosion Masters is gonna be a big thing one day.
529
00:30:31.337 --> 00:30:37.640
So I know I was there from the beginning and you know, just making this company work.
530
00:30:38.015 --> 00:30:40.138
The other guys, I don't really know so much.
531
00:30:40.498 --> 00:30:42.301
You know, they might.
532
00:30:42.541 --> 00:30:47.047
I probably haven't done a good job, you know, getting that out to them.
533
00:30:47.387 --> 00:30:50.732
I have a cousin who does concrete.
534
00:30:51.714 --> 00:30:54.176
And I just go in there and help them, but it's pretty far.
535
00:30:54.216 --> 00:30:56.837
So the money I make here, I use it on gas sometimes.
536
00:30:57.018 --> 00:30:59.960
They operate in the world of like, how much longer do I need to work here to be able to get a raise?
537
00:31:00.380 --> 00:31:00.580
Yeah.
538
00:31:01.140 --> 00:31:01.461
Right?
539
00:31:01.601 --> 00:31:02.161
Yeah.
540
00:31:02.181 --> 00:31:06.164
And like, otherwise, it's just awkward conversations when they need more money, they come to you.
541
00:31:06.604 --> 00:31:06.784
Yeah.
542
00:31:07.204 --> 00:31:08.485
And that's like really weird and awkward.
543
00:31:08.705 --> 00:31:10.126
Oh, it's so awkward.
544
00:31:10.166 --> 00:31:15.270
And what always is like the litmus test for me is like, if everyone in the business saw each other's wages, would you freak out?
545
00:31:17.331 --> 00:31:17.551
Yeah.
546
00:31:17.912 --> 00:31:18.152
Yeah.
547
00:31:18.192 --> 00:31:18.732
Yeah.
548
00:31:20.362 --> 00:31:24.026
The average of a machine operating, I'd say 23 and up.
549
00:31:24.646 --> 00:31:28.410
Not sure I wanna put how much I make out there, but.
550
00:31:28.890 --> 00:31:33.395
I've been in situations with some of our folks where I needed people so bad and I had to pay them.
551
00:31:33.415 --> 00:31:34.476
You had to pay more, yeah.
552
00:31:34.656 --> 00:31:35.837
I was like, Mike, you're not leaving.
553
00:31:35.877 --> 00:31:41.103
So I just bumped this pay up to what he was asking for and I don't regret it at all.
554
00:31:41.343 --> 00:31:43.305
It's like, man, you're getting paid really good.
555
00:31:44.691 --> 00:31:49.313
So we got to create a comp structure and I think for now, I would just build it around tenor.
556
00:31:49.753 --> 00:31:54.955
And so I would create the WhatsApp group for the whole team but then I have another one for upsell videos.
557
00:31:55.236 --> 00:32:01.738
That way it's just, hey, when we're doing chatting throughout the day, someone's equipment, flat tire, I have a problem, whatever, group chat.
558
00:32:02.339 --> 00:32:07.121
When you are over here, you're making videos of stuff you see on job sites that can be upsold.
559
00:32:07.141 --> 00:32:10.022
You send them here and then I will take those and try to sell them to the customer.
560
00:32:10.042 --> 00:32:12.203
And if they sell it, if they buy it, you get a percentage.
561
00:32:13.409 --> 00:32:17.170
Now, do you think 10 or 20%, whatever, like makes sense?
562
00:32:17.990 --> 00:32:19.411
Does it go to the whole group?
563
00:32:20.131 --> 00:32:21.992
How is there usually two or three on the job site?
564
00:32:22.452 --> 00:32:24.212
Usually four guys in a truck right now.
565
00:32:24.232 --> 00:32:24.973
Oh really?
566
00:32:25.633 --> 00:32:26.273
It's overkill.
567
00:32:26.533 --> 00:32:28.094
It just depends on how busy we are.
568
00:32:29.234 --> 00:32:31.855
You know, like a job like this, I like to have four guys.
569
00:32:32.475 --> 00:32:35.156
Because you got, you know, these guys are staying busy, right?
570
00:32:35.236 --> 00:32:38.916
It's not like someone's standing around with their, you know, hands in their pockets.
571
00:32:38.956 --> 00:32:40.016
Like Mike's on the machine.
572
00:32:40.537 --> 00:32:41.797
These guys are doing repairs.
573
00:32:41.897 --> 00:32:43.257
You know, he's throwing something away.
574
00:32:43.597 --> 00:32:44.937
It makes it more efficient.
575
00:32:45.337 --> 00:32:48.218
But there are times where it's like, hey, maybe we're coming out there just to sweep.
576
00:32:48.618 --> 00:32:53.199
And then maybe we only do send, you know, two guys in the truck and we have two guys in the other truck going to hit another job.
577
00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:54.139
This is what I would do.
578
00:32:54.239 --> 00:32:58.880
I would do whoever hits the two year marker is eligible to get the upsell bonus.
579
00:33:00.335 --> 00:33:08.460
Right, so I have, hey, entry wage, and then I have six month, 12 month at two years, you now get where you're, you should be kind of managing the crew.
580
00:33:08.821 --> 00:33:11.102
And I would also, each of those stages have a different title.
581
00:33:11.462 --> 00:33:13.844
That last one should be probably crew lead or something like that.
582
00:33:14.244 --> 00:33:21.889
Like have, so like a technician, six month at something else, 12 months, and then two years, when you become a crew lead, that's when you're eligible for the 20% bonus.
583
00:33:23.450 --> 00:33:26.752
Down the road, that upsell video likely should go to the inspector, i.e.
584
00:33:26.772 --> 00:33:28.394
your admin person, not you.
585
00:33:28.614 --> 00:33:28.814
Yeah.
586
00:33:28.994 --> 00:33:32.477
Because they should be able to look at it and get that bid to the contractor.
587
00:33:32.557 --> 00:33:32.777
Yeah.
588
00:33:33.257 --> 00:33:36.399
So we have two-year, we got crew lead.
589
00:33:38.121 --> 00:33:40.823
And then right now, entry-level, erosion tech.
590
00:33:41.363 --> 00:33:41.563
Yeah.
591
00:33:42.324 --> 00:33:42.784
I like that.
592
00:33:42.964 --> 00:33:43.685
It sounds nicer.
593
00:33:43.845 --> 00:33:44.125
Yeah.
594
00:33:44.765 --> 00:33:46.907
And then we got, we want a six-month...
595
00:33:48.418 --> 00:33:49.639
And we want a 12 month.
596
00:33:50.080 --> 00:33:51.381
Entry level, you're an erosion tech.
597
00:33:51.401 --> 00:33:52.982
You're expected to do these three things.
598
00:33:54.143 --> 00:33:57.386
Erosion specialist, you've got to be able to know these things.
599
00:33:57.606 --> 00:33:59.027
And that unlocks the wages.
600
00:33:59.047 --> 00:34:02.030
So it would be six months plus tasks.
601
00:34:02.590 --> 00:34:04.192
Twelve months plus certain tasks.
602
00:34:05.073 --> 00:34:06.254
Two years plus certain tasks.
603
00:34:06.274 --> 00:34:09.857
Like if you get someone with two years and they can't get a piece of equipment, they're not a crew formant.
604
00:34:11.143 --> 00:34:20.408
I'm not super hard on them, but I do think as we grow, I will start being a little bit more strict on certain things.
605
00:34:20.948 --> 00:34:25.931
That's only because I know that if I'm pushing them to do better, they're gonna push me to do better, right?
606
00:34:26.211 --> 00:34:29.833
Like crew foreman and project manager, what's the difference with the project manager?
607
00:34:30.153 --> 00:34:32.495
Project manager at that point is probably like leading
608
00:34:33.795 --> 00:34:35.136
Two, three, four crews.
609
00:34:35.416 --> 00:34:37.257
Okay, so multi-crew leadership.
610
00:34:37.377 --> 00:34:38.157
Multi-crew leadership, yeah.
611
00:34:38.177 --> 00:34:38.557
Okay, all right.
612
00:34:39.117 --> 00:34:47.180
So each of these levels of tenor are going to come with certain tasks and comp, base pay for each of these.
613
00:34:47.200 --> 00:34:47.501
Yeah.
614
00:34:48.001 --> 00:34:51.102
Crew foreman is going to get, let's call it 10%.
615
00:34:52.323 --> 00:34:58.185
When they do an upsell, project manager is going to get 10% of everyone underneath them.
616
00:35:00.162 --> 00:35:01.582
That way we still have 20% here.
617
00:35:01.822 --> 00:35:04.083
Because that way the project manager can really make good money.
618
00:35:04.763 --> 00:35:13.485
If he starts teaching his foreman how to do the upsells and getting the videos to your admin person, that's where he can make real money.
619
00:35:14.325 --> 00:35:16.186
You could do something though around benefits.
620
00:35:17.166 --> 00:35:17.386
Yeah.
621
00:35:18.146 --> 00:35:21.047
Right, so it's like, hey, when you hit three years, if you're a project manager you get benefits.
622
00:35:22.335 --> 00:35:27.543
And then you could theoretically just do comp increases up to here, to the two year.
623
00:35:27.703 --> 00:35:33.031
That way when they hit the third year project manager, it's like, hey, you get benefits and you now get 10% of everyone below you.
624
00:35:33.151 --> 00:35:34.373
So it's easy to get technicians.
625
00:35:34.393 --> 00:35:37.037
You explain this to them when they come into an interview.
626
00:35:37.678 --> 00:35:38.558
Here's how it's gonna roll.
627
00:35:38.778 --> 00:35:39.879
Here's the stuff you're gonna learn.
628
00:35:40.219 --> 00:35:41.420
Here's where the company's going.
629
00:35:42.200 --> 00:35:44.201
This looks really appealing for a new candidate.
630
00:35:44.481 --> 00:35:47.602
And then your current team also is like, oh, I know what's happening.
631
00:35:47.642 --> 00:35:48.783
Next year I'll make more money.
632
00:35:49.343 --> 00:35:54.005
Your two current guys that are in this level have a place where they know they're going.
633
00:35:55.298 --> 00:35:56.078
Yeah, I like that too.
634
00:35:56.418 --> 00:36:01.120
Then you know that you're going to have someone in a year, year and a half that's probably hitting this project manager side.
635
00:36:01.460 --> 00:36:04.000
And then you're going to give them a roadmap to become operations manager.
636
00:36:04.580 --> 00:36:06.141
That's when you stop showing up at the shop.
637
00:36:06.541 --> 00:36:10.302
That's when something gets broken, they're calling the operations manager.
638
00:36:11.022 --> 00:36:14.383
So I think we're probably a year and a half to two years away from that.
639
00:36:17.830 --> 00:36:19.451
I'll bet you $1,000 is a year.
640
00:36:20.291 --> 00:36:20.711
I agree.
641
00:36:20.931 --> 00:36:23.312
If you do this stuff, you will get them a year.
642
00:36:23.712 --> 00:36:24.152
I agree.
643
00:36:24.332 --> 00:36:25.172
I love it.
644
00:36:25.272 --> 00:36:38.957
Cameron says he might have me doing a little more of doing the schedules for the guys, running errands, buying silt worms, for example, and then dropping it off at job sites, checking job sites, et cetera.
645
00:36:38.997 --> 00:36:41.057
Not too long ago, I got my inspection card, too.
646
00:36:41.217 --> 00:36:43.238
He might have me doing inspections also.
647
00:36:43.518 --> 00:36:44.578
I love being out here.
648
00:36:44.638 --> 00:36:46.019
Like, I told Cameron, like,
649
00:36:47.290 --> 00:36:50.711
If I could be out here, like I would be here all the time, you know?
650
00:36:50.891 --> 00:36:54.172
The thing though that's bottlenecking now, you're doing really low leverage tasks.
651
00:36:54.512 --> 00:36:56.752
You are not thinking about this stuff in the shower.
652
00:36:57.172 --> 00:36:58.673
You're thinking about, I need to go do billing.
653
00:36:59.313 --> 00:37:00.433
That could be all handed off to someone.
654
00:37:00.453 --> 00:37:00.553
Yeah.
655
00:37:00.693 --> 00:37:02.193
You're going to have to find the right person.
656
00:37:02.213 --> 00:37:03.454
You're going to have to go through three of them.
657
00:37:03.474 --> 00:37:04.514
It's going to be a pain in the butt.
658
00:37:04.534 --> 00:37:09.195
You're going to have to figure out all the systems that are currently going through your head to figure out scheduling has got to be put in a system.
659
00:37:09.295 --> 00:37:09.455
Yeah.
660
00:37:09.715 --> 00:37:16.957
To do that, you're going to pull up a screen recording like Loom while you're doing the billing and figure out where they're there and look in the... Just record it all.
661
00:37:17.217 --> 00:37:17.357
Yeah.
662
00:37:17.938 --> 00:37:19.459
And then that's going to be their SOP.
663
00:37:19.499 --> 00:37:20.700
That's going to be a standard operating procedure.
664
00:37:20.720 --> 00:37:21.280
Here's your training.
665
00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:21.540
Yeah.
666
00:37:21.740 --> 00:37:22.561
Here's how we do billing.
667
00:37:22.701 --> 00:37:32.008
There's four videos in there of me going through different types of jobs we've done where I had to figure out where they were at and the billing per rate or, you know, the flat rate stuff and the hourly stuff.
668
00:37:32.208 --> 00:37:32.989
I figured it all in there.
669
00:37:33.029 --> 00:37:34.010
Watch those four videos.
670
00:37:36.650 --> 00:37:38.310
So that's the first thing that's like tomorrow.
671
00:37:38.811 --> 00:37:41.271
This is also where like your wife says, amen.
672
00:37:41.851 --> 00:37:44.012
And hallelujah, right?
673
00:37:44.872 --> 00:37:45.993
Yeah, she'll say it for sure.
674
00:37:46.913 --> 00:37:54.995
The biggest part of like whenever I hear someone say they lost motivation is like you changing that one thing unlocks everything else in the business.
675
00:37:55.515 --> 00:37:58.876
As soon as the entrepreneur is looking at other industries.
676
00:37:59.257 --> 00:38:02.958
I don't even know if this is really the industry I want to stay in.
677
00:38:03.038 --> 00:38:04.519
Is bogged down.
678
00:38:04.899 --> 00:38:07.080
I'll never be satisfied, unfortunately.
679
00:38:07.220 --> 00:38:08.460
Doesn't love the work.
680
00:38:08.841 --> 00:38:09.621
It's tough work.
681
00:38:09.961 --> 00:38:10.881
Is constantly afraid.
682
00:38:11.041 --> 00:38:12.762
Like fear is the most debilitating thing ever.
683
00:38:12.902 --> 00:38:16.444
It stinks because you know 98% of what you worry about never happens.
684
00:38:16.684 --> 00:38:18.685
You stop scaling and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
685
00:38:19.025 --> 00:38:21.906
If you fixate on certain things, it seems like it does happen.
686
00:38:22.206 --> 00:38:25.507
Because you'll cap out at 1.2, you can't handle the stress, someone leaves.
687
00:38:25.888 --> 00:38:28.009
It's just like this horrible.
688
00:38:28.409 --> 00:38:29.949
Oh, well, we've been there so many times.
689
00:38:30.150 --> 00:38:35.292
Like I was telling your wife that, yeah, there's been so many times where it's like, yeah, we're done.
690
00:38:35.452 --> 00:38:43.215
Well, and when you're handling low leverage tasks like this and literally your thought process is like, you're not listening to your wife, she's in it, man.
691
00:38:44.516 --> 00:38:45.456
She wants you to quit too.
692
00:38:45.736 --> 00:38:49.318
Yeah, there's certain times where she's like, what's the point of all this?
693
00:38:49.518 --> 00:39:11.055
right what role does your marriage play in your business oh gosh man you can't tell me things like that I'll get emotional um it's it's awesome because she wants me to push through the hard times and she helps me do it I don't want to she's been she's been the best
694
00:39:13.948 --> 00:39:18.191
But at the same time, she's okay if it doesn't work out.
695
00:39:18.831 --> 00:39:20.432
Like she's proud of me no matter what.
696
00:39:20.932 --> 00:39:22.793
And what more could he ask for?
697
00:39:23.354 --> 00:39:23.934
I'll leave it at that.
698
00:39:29.117 --> 00:39:31.078
You're gonna get the clicks.
699
00:39:31.819 --> 00:39:33.179
You're gonna get the clicks.
700
00:39:33.620 --> 00:39:37.242
I think part of it is like you have actually done everything you hope to do.
701
00:39:38.515 --> 00:39:40.517
You create financial freedom and you provide for your family.
702
00:39:41.018 --> 00:39:41.198
Yeah.
703
00:39:41.659 --> 00:39:43.681
And so I think clarity on what the next step is important.
704
00:39:44.121 --> 00:39:44.302
Yeah.
705
00:39:44.722 --> 00:39:46.104
Cause that's why you've lost your motivation too.
706
00:39:46.124 --> 00:39:49.067
It's cause like everything you actually set out to do with this business you've done.
707
00:39:49.187 --> 00:39:50.108
Like that's why you quit your job.
708
00:39:51.009 --> 00:39:51.229
Right.
709
00:39:51.430 --> 00:39:53.532
And you got, was the accident at work?
710
00:39:54.153 --> 00:39:56.415
The previous, did you get back in the room?
711
00:39:57.036 --> 00:39:58.157
I was afraid you would ask that.
712
00:40:00.529 --> 00:40:15.901
When you're literally working like 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. getting a business started and you're spending, you know, eight to 12 hours of that, you know, however long that day is, just doing all the grunt work yourself.
713
00:40:16.361 --> 00:40:19.204
Yeah, it was literally the straw that broke the camel's back.
714
00:40:19.224 --> 00:40:23.987
But I had a day where I felt good and I was like, man, that was like the best I ever had.
715
00:40:24.208 --> 00:40:25.869
I was like, man, my back trail is really loose.
716
00:40:25.949 --> 00:40:26.730
Like, this is great.
717
00:40:27.350 --> 00:40:34.312
And then I went to a mixed martial arts class and it wasn't even doing anything crazy and it just went out.
718
00:40:34.752 --> 00:40:40.213
If he could, I know he would be out here with us banging these steaks in and doing all this stuff.
719
00:40:42.334 --> 00:40:42.934
Yeah, I know.
720
00:40:42.954 --> 00:40:43.714
And he's still out here.
721
00:40:43.754 --> 00:40:45.194
I'm like, man, you got to catch a break.
722
00:40:45.214 --> 00:40:48.375
You got to go home and stay home, man.
723
00:40:48.935 --> 00:40:51.456
I would highly recommend figuring out why are you still doing this.
724
00:40:52.481 --> 00:40:54.562
Otherwise you're gonna build a $3 million business and feel the same way.
725
00:40:55.122 --> 00:40:56.243
You're like, okay, so now what?
726
00:40:56.563 --> 00:40:59.224
That's my fear, is like I'm gonna go and- Oh, it will happen.
727
00:40:59.304 --> 00:41:00.905
It's not a matter of fear, it will happen.
728
00:41:01.245 --> 00:41:03.727
So getting clear on that is super valuable.
729
00:41:03.767 --> 00:41:03.947
Yeah.
730
00:41:04.607 --> 00:41:07.869
And here's the, I'll put an asterisk now because I have this background information.
731
00:41:07.889 --> 00:41:08.849
You're having a kid next month.
732
00:41:08.869 --> 00:41:09.990
I know.
733
00:41:10.170 --> 00:41:10.790
A baby girl.
734
00:41:11.591 --> 00:41:11.711
Uh.
735
00:41:12.771 --> 00:41:15.832
They say middle of June, but who knows?
736
00:41:15.852 --> 00:41:18.892
I mean, I should probably have my phone on ring just in case.
737
00:41:18.952 --> 00:41:20.833
I mean, you literally never know.
738
00:41:21.253 --> 00:41:22.633
So like that can become your why?
739
00:41:23.373 --> 00:41:24.453
Yeah, I think it is.
740
00:41:25.254 --> 00:41:29.954
That's obviously going to change my life, but I hate that I'm going through that situation.
741
00:41:30.014 --> 00:41:36.296
I'm blessed and so happy that we are, but I hate that we're going through it in a time where I'm still so involved in this.
742
00:41:36.476 --> 00:41:36.956
You know what I mean?
743
00:41:37.236 --> 00:41:40.817
I know the why with it is it's my family.
744
00:41:40.857 --> 00:41:42.417
Like I want to take care of my family.
745
00:41:42.677 --> 00:41:45.719
you know, sometimes I wonder what the trade-off is, right?
746
00:41:45.839 --> 00:41:55.106
So it's like, I want to take care of my family, but if I'm destroying myself and my mindset and my sanity in the process, then what's that worth?
747
00:41:55.907 --> 00:41:57.028
Like, I will be present.
748
00:41:57.488 --> 00:42:00.050
Like, I don't care if I've got to shut my phone off for that day.
749
00:42:00.570 --> 00:42:01.311
Like, I will.
750
00:42:02.732 --> 00:42:03.432
It'll be fine.
751
00:42:04.593 --> 00:42:04.934
It will.
752
00:42:05.054 --> 00:42:06.034
Like, it's only one day.
753
00:42:06.255 --> 00:42:07.876
I know I'm going to be in that hospital room.
754
00:42:09.993 --> 00:42:13.215
Have you played out with the worst case scenarios if you unplug?
755
00:42:13.435 --> 00:42:17.557
Oh, I probably get too much into the worst scenarios.
756
00:42:17.777 --> 00:42:20.539
But sometimes it's important to play it out because it's not a big deal.
757
00:42:20.679 --> 00:42:22.100
It's really not.
758
00:42:22.220 --> 00:42:24.761
The reason part of it is that you're afraid you're going to lose that one customer.
759
00:42:25.361 --> 00:42:33.926
Well, any of those, this one or this one too, because we're growing with them and that helps us diversify, that puts us in a bad position.
760
00:42:33.966 --> 00:42:35.907
Right, so not answering their phone call if they get mad at you.
761
00:42:37.447 --> 00:42:39.792
Yeah, and it's like, they'll be fine.
762
00:42:40.093 --> 00:42:42.318
Well, more importantly, you can just hire someone to answer the phone.
763
00:42:42.438 --> 00:42:43.060
You can afford it.
764
00:42:43.160 --> 00:42:45.626
If you had to spend, if you had to burn 40 grand,
765
00:42:47.001 --> 00:42:49.123
Getting this admin person that's like, they're not super efficient.
766
00:42:49.223 --> 00:42:50.124
They're not great at everything.
767
00:42:50.144 --> 00:42:51.304
They're kind of, that's fine.
768
00:42:51.465 --> 00:42:58.350
If you can start hiring someone for admin right away, get them up, get them started in two weeks, two weeks after that, they should be able to take calls.
769
00:42:58.370 --> 00:43:00.131
They should be able to do like the billing stuff.
770
00:43:00.692 --> 00:43:06.937
And then I would recommend where it's like, Hey, at the end of your shift, you list the five things I need to be brought into and you send them a message.
771
00:43:07.377 --> 00:43:13.362
That way you're going to ask for 10 minutes while your wife's giving birth, you're going to go and you're gonna answer five questions and that's it.
772
00:43:13.782 --> 00:43:18.246
But then you're not going to have this, because I also don't want you to be there with the phone off and not present.
773
00:43:18.546 --> 00:43:18.926
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
774
00:43:19.186 --> 00:43:25.731
And so the goal is that you take the reactive nature of a phone call and email, I've got to get a billing done tonight, off your plate.
775
00:43:25.931 --> 00:43:27.633
But there's still going to be things you have to address.
776
00:43:28.113 --> 00:43:31.376
But you know it comes at 5 p.m. And then you address them at 5.
777
00:43:31.416 --> 00:43:31.516
Yeah.
778
00:43:32.437 --> 00:43:32.637
Cool.
779
00:43:32.737 --> 00:43:35.479
So from a leadership perspective, delegate admin...
780
00:43:36.982 --> 00:43:42.383
And then this is the part I think I would recommend pulling your wife in together, figure out the why.
781
00:43:43.423 --> 00:43:51.725
You'll also get more buy-in as you do make some of these hard transitions of like, now your ad person doesn't show up and the phone calls are coming to you.
782
00:43:52.445 --> 00:43:54.946
She needs to understand you're in this transition part.
783
00:43:55.106 --> 00:43:55.966
You know what I'm saying?
784
00:43:57.206 --> 00:44:00.287
And not buy into the pipe and be like, oh, if we just grow the business, it'll be fun better.
785
00:44:00.987 --> 00:44:01.447
Because it won't.
786
00:44:01.487 --> 00:44:06.128
If you just keep growing the way you are now and you do two million next year and you're still answering that phone, it'll just get worse on a personal side.
787
00:44:07.080 --> 00:44:08.621
And then you got a kid screaming in the middle of the night.
788
00:44:08.661 --> 00:44:10.022
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
789
00:44:10.162 --> 00:44:11.883
Like, it all gets bad, you know?
790
00:44:12.043 --> 00:44:18.467
Oh, listen, I'm no... You know, it's really just trying to find out the why and stay on that path.
791
00:44:18.788 --> 00:44:23.131
I'm going to get reminded of it, you know, a hundred times a day, especially whenever...
792
00:44:23.491 --> 00:44:24.311
Her name's Faye.
793
00:44:24.852 --> 00:44:25.672
Once Faye's born.
794
00:44:25.852 --> 00:44:35.539
The only reason I feel like, and I hate even thinking of it this way sometimes, is like, sometimes I'm like, well, if this doesn't work, I know I can go get a job somewhere because I have...
795
00:44:36.199 --> 00:44:37.079
you know, the experience.
796
00:44:37.300 --> 00:44:40.601
Like I can go get a VP job, but it's not a big deal.
797
00:44:40.641 --> 00:44:42.622
But I'm like, man, I cannot fall back into that.
798
00:44:43.403 --> 00:44:46.844
The why has always been that, but sometimes I lose track of it.
799
00:44:47.284 --> 00:44:52.887
And there's times where I go, well, do I take it the easy route and just go get another job working for someone?
800
00:44:52.927 --> 00:44:54.888
But then you got to think about that too.
801
00:44:54.928 --> 00:44:56.669
It's like, are you going to be happy doing that?
802
00:44:56.829 --> 00:44:58.450
Dude, you are so beyond that.
803
00:44:58.470 --> 00:44:59.470
You're so beyond that.
804
00:44:59.490 --> 00:45:00.551
You have a million dollar business.
805
00:45:00.831 --> 00:45:02.052
You have very profitable.
806
00:45:02.312 --> 00:45:02.552
Yeah.
807
00:45:03.296 --> 00:45:08.460
And do you only think that because you think you have concentration risk and you have a key man risk?
808
00:45:08.740 --> 00:45:10.501
You grow the business and both of those things get solved.
809
00:45:11.001 --> 00:45:12.782
As a man, sometimes you hold things in.
810
00:45:13.463 --> 00:45:19.567
And, you know, a mentor is kind of like a therapist in a weird way, sort of, right?
811
00:45:19.627 --> 00:45:23.269
Like they're going to give you life advice inside of your business.
812
00:45:24.270 --> 00:45:29.454
You have to be a little vulnerable and talk to somebody, especially someone that's been there and has done it.
813
00:45:29.634 --> 00:45:30.915
You know, just like Mike.
814
00:45:31.795 --> 00:45:36.519
For you and what you've built so far, what's been your why behind it?
815
00:45:36.579 --> 00:45:41.163
Because I'm sure you've gone through so many roller coasters, right?
816
00:45:41.664 --> 00:45:43.505
How long have you been in business now for yourself?
817
00:45:43.725 --> 00:45:43.866
19.
818
00:45:44.742 --> 00:45:46.022
That's a long time, right?
819
00:45:46.423 --> 00:45:51.204
You can't tell me that there's been times where you haven't been motivated or you're like, dude, I'm done with this.
820
00:45:51.224 --> 00:45:54.565
Like I'm gonna go do something else or I'm gonna get a job or you know.
821
00:45:55.565 --> 00:45:58.886
If you said you didn't, I'd be like, okay, that's crazy.
822
00:45:59.307 --> 00:46:03.168
Like what's kind of been your motivation and kind of kept you going through it?
823
00:46:03.668 --> 00:46:09.390
I think a lot of times you can derive a lot of purpose from trying to solve the problems that you went through for other people.
824
00:46:10.308 --> 00:46:17.412
And so like, I had to, when I left medical school, there was a lot of pressure from like professors, and like, what are you doing, mowing grass?
825
00:46:18.072 --> 00:46:19.973
You were gonna become like this young doctor guy.
826
00:46:20.635 --> 00:46:28.038
So I feel for the person that has a lot of pressure on them because I didn't have it for my family, but I know there's a lot of people that do when they don't want to be doing some industry.
827
00:46:28.058 --> 00:46:29.458
They're just like pigeonholed into this thing.
828
00:46:29.998 --> 00:46:34.220
And I want to give them the opportunity like you can go do something else and if you want to work with their hands, there's opportunity.
829
00:46:34.720 --> 00:46:37.241
That's the first person that was when I was 18.
830
00:46:37.261 --> 00:46:40.762
But the 21 year old version of myself is why I really focus on it.
831
00:46:40.782 --> 00:46:47.945
Because I had almost a million dollar business, got in an accident, and basically if I would have had family or kids, I would have been bankrupt.
832
00:46:48.705 --> 00:46:53.846
and I had no systems, I'm on the hospital bed, FaceTiming my crew, trying to figure out the next job.
833
00:46:54.526 --> 00:46:58.187
So I'm just trying to prevent as many people as possible from getting to that spot.
834
00:46:58.387 --> 00:47:01.087
Because I know that pain, I can feel it a ton.
835
00:47:01.267 --> 00:47:04.708
Like it kinda like if someone says they have back pain and they really do, you know what they feel like.
836
00:47:04.728 --> 00:47:07.188
And you're like, dude, I know exactly what you're going through.
837
00:47:07.688 --> 00:47:10.209
So that's the way I feel for business owners.
838
00:47:10.549 --> 00:47:17.230
And then the one part I can't really relate with is going through that experience with family, and dependents, and a kid.
839
00:47:18.151 --> 00:47:19.892
That's where I get very passionate about it.
840
00:47:19.972 --> 00:47:27.358
Like I could care less about the cameras, I'd be the same way because like I feel everything you're feeling the same way you would feel someone's back pain if they're like, yeah, it's out.
841
00:47:28.560 --> 00:47:32.163
And so like, as you approach your why, yes, you can do it for like my family, my kid.
842
00:47:32.183 --> 00:47:33.023
Like those are important things.
843
00:47:33.043 --> 00:47:33.784
Those are intrinsic things.
844
00:47:34.144 --> 00:47:35.325
That's what's gotten you where you're at now.
845
00:47:35.746 --> 00:47:39.349
But as soon as you can revert that to like, how can I do this for someone else?
846
00:47:40.069 --> 00:47:43.592
Like that's when it unlocks a different level of effort and discretionary effort.
847
00:47:44.662 --> 00:47:51.549
I do want to make good money, but not solely for the purpose of, you know, myself and my family.
848
00:47:51.829 --> 00:48:05.242
I know how awful it is to get a business just off of the ground from like zero and to help someone out else with that and help alleviate some of that pain in the future someday would be super, super cool to do.
849
00:48:05.302 --> 00:48:07.624
It's like there's a certain point in every airplane's journey.
850
00:48:07.644 --> 00:48:11.486
It's like, okay, if something bad happens, we actually have to still get to the destination.
851
00:48:11.586 --> 00:48:11.786
Yeah.
852
00:48:11.826 --> 00:48:12.747
We're not turning back.
853
00:48:12.767 --> 00:48:13.267
Right.
854
00:48:13.427 --> 00:48:15.889
And so I would just like, that's the point of no return.
855
00:48:16.109 --> 00:48:20.072
It's like you get past this point where you're like, oh, there's no, let's go back to Seattle.
856
00:48:20.152 --> 00:48:20.392
Right.
857
00:48:20.412 --> 00:48:22.013
It's like we got to go all the way to Portland.
858
00:48:22.033 --> 00:48:22.793
We're almost there.
859
00:48:22.874 --> 00:48:23.254
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
860
00:48:23.554 --> 00:48:30.939
And so I would just say you got to have definition around your destination though because a lot of people, they take off and they don't really know where they're going and then something bad happens.
861
00:48:30.959 --> 00:48:32.240
So what they would do is turn around and go back.
862
00:48:32.260 --> 00:48:32.360
Yeah.
863
00:48:32.900 --> 00:48:35.164
versus being like, oh, no, my destination's right here.
864
00:48:35.224 --> 00:48:38.169
And for you, I would say you've already hit a lot of the goals you have.
865
00:48:38.790 --> 00:48:46.442
So it's time to change what is the next destination, get clarity around it, so that you can pass the point of no return and just go all in on it.
866
00:48:51.886 --> 00:48:56.909
To be completely honest, a lot of this stuff is kind of still in the works.
867
00:48:57.349 --> 00:49:00.371
Didn't really get implemented as soon as I'd liked it to.
868
00:49:00.732 --> 00:49:03.994
One, with the baby coming early, that threw a huge curveball.
869
00:49:04.474 --> 00:49:08.336
But then also, we've had like the wettest months that we've ever had.
870
00:49:10.177 --> 00:49:13.159
which makes our job just super crazy.
871
00:49:13.399 --> 00:49:23.184
The good news of that is with that crazy came a little bit of a diversification with some of our current customer base, which was obviously our biggest issue.
872
00:49:23.945 --> 00:49:26.106
So that's kind of helped a little bit.
873
00:49:26.586 --> 00:49:31.009
Definitely hasn't solved the problem, but has definitely helped alleviate that pain a little bit.
874
00:49:31.149 --> 00:49:34.591
As far as admin goes, still working on that.
875
00:49:35.231 --> 00:49:38.833
What me and Mike talked about was having maybe a part-time admin and
876
00:49:39.612 --> 00:49:42.053
We had someone in mind and it just didn't work out.
877
00:49:42.393 --> 00:49:45.873
And, you know, we knew that was going to be part of the process anyway.
878
00:49:46.053 --> 00:49:48.394
We just hadn't found that quite yet.
879
00:49:48.754 --> 00:49:54.415
Do have another person in mind for it, but there's a little bit of a time constraint there with that person.
880
00:49:54.595 --> 00:50:03.897
More so recently, I have noticed, you know, probably a good like hour or two of my day just getting sucked because of, you know, billing and, you know,
881
00:50:04.097 --> 00:50:06.518
you know, certain things with insurance and stuff like that.
882
00:50:06.658 --> 00:50:14.061
So I do think that we need to hire that person like ASAP, just with, you know, some of those different things that happened.
883
00:50:14.081 --> 00:50:16.101
It just hasn't happened yet, unfortunately.
884
00:50:16.742 --> 00:50:25.545
Also, the curveball that kind of got thrown at us with with hiring an admin was, you know, Mike had talked about maybe having them doing some site inspections for us.
885
00:50:26.245 --> 00:50:37.195
And the current customer base that we have, the one that I thought we might be able to get our foot in the door and do those inspections with because they're currently doing it with a third party.
886
00:50:37.355 --> 00:50:42.420
The person that was in charge of it kind of pushed away, so to speak, you know.
887
00:50:43.396 --> 00:50:44.857
They got fired in short.
888
00:50:45.017 --> 00:50:50.599
So now there's someone else that's running it and they're like, man, that's like not even at the top of my priority list right now.
889
00:50:50.979 --> 00:50:55.982
And he's like, but once this other person gets in the door, like it might be something to conversate with them about.
890
00:50:56.042 --> 00:50:57.502
So it's kind of on the back burner.
891
00:50:57.522 --> 00:51:00.203
Unfortunately, I do still have plans to do that.
892
00:51:00.564 --> 00:51:08.127
One thing that we, you know, I did jump on right away that actually should be going live this week is our website.
893
00:51:08.267 --> 00:51:09.808
Kind of the same thing with the website.
894
00:51:09.848 --> 00:51:13.630
We went through a couple of different people that just weren't really doing a good job.
895
00:51:13.650 --> 00:51:16.572
I was like, man, I can't win here.
896
00:51:17.432 --> 00:51:23.976
But finally found someone that has been really responsive and we're like pretty much 99% done with it.
897
00:51:24.577 --> 00:51:29.960
Just has to add a couple of testimonials to it, which Mike suggested we get.
898
00:51:29.980 --> 00:51:33.382
Hoping that really starts to get the phone ringing a little bit more.
899
00:51:33.662 --> 00:51:37.486
You know, kept the theme the same because I did like the theme of it.
900
00:51:37.646 --> 00:51:44.132
And but we, you know, we we we branded it more to where, you know, I created like a new logo.
901
00:51:44.973 --> 00:51:48.816
So we ditched the LLC at the end, like Mike was talking about.
902
00:51:50.184 --> 00:52:04.007
I'm going to do instead of erosionmastersllc.com, it's going to be something along the lines of, I think, I think we came to the conclusion it has to be erosion-masters.com because erosionmasters.com was taken.
903
00:52:04.647 --> 00:52:05.827
So we did that.
904
00:52:05.927 --> 00:52:14.489
So as soon as you get onto the website, you know, it kind of screams more of, Hey, we do residential and commercial erosion control services.
905
00:52:15.009 --> 00:52:20.032
Rather than kind of like Mike was saying, hey, nobody really cares about the environment.
906
00:52:20.312 --> 00:52:22.973
Not nobody, but a lot of contractors don't.
907
00:52:23.234 --> 00:52:27.416
And you're targeting that right from the get on the homepage.
908
00:52:28.038 --> 00:52:30.161
And then same thing kind of with the truck wraps.
909
00:52:30.181 --> 00:52:32.904
That was another thing on here for the six week plan.
910
00:52:33.184 --> 00:52:39.592
One of the trucks that wasn't here whenever you guys came to visit, we finally got back four weeks after your visit.
911
00:52:40.913 --> 00:52:44.998
So, you know, just another one of those things where the shop had it for a long time.
912
00:52:45.018 --> 00:52:46.680
I feel like I'm making a lot of excuses right now.
913
00:52:47.261 --> 00:52:49.304
But these are all like legit things.
914
00:52:49.944 --> 00:52:50.645
I wouldn't lie to you.
915
00:52:50.806 --> 00:52:52.708
I have a design that I've put together.
916
00:52:52.788 --> 00:52:58.036
I've gotten pricing, all that kind of stuff for the new logo on the sides of the trucks.
917
00:52:58.857 --> 00:53:02.902
But I'm still kind of shopping around to figure out exactly what trucks I wanna buy.
918
00:53:03.672 --> 00:53:03.892
use.
919
00:53:04.213 --> 00:53:13.761
Something that really wasn't on the six week plan, but was on, you know, the, the 4L framework was a temp labor, uh, have implemented that a little bit.
920
00:53:14.461 --> 00:53:15.562
That's been a huge help.
921
00:53:16.143 --> 00:53:26.832
Um, you know, we've had just kind of word of mouth, uh, even guys that know people that, you know, are, you know, might do roofing or something, but, you know, they have a day where, you know,
922
00:53:28.673 --> 00:53:35.656
You know, they don't have work and, you know, if we've got a big job coming up, we've utilized them on that and we've paid them a little bit extra.
923
00:53:36.136 --> 00:53:37.716
And that really saved us last week.
924
00:53:37.796 --> 00:53:45.779
Actually, we had a pretty big job that kind of got thrown at us last minute, which tends to be the name of the game in this industry.
925
00:53:46.159 --> 00:53:49.120
The one thing that's definitely helped the biggest was the WhatsApp.
926
00:53:51.621 --> 00:53:54.022
I still feel like an idiot for not knowing what that is.
927
00:53:54.062 --> 00:53:56.343
All my guys were like, yeah, we got it.
928
00:53:56.463 --> 00:53:57.603
And I was like, are you serious?
929
00:53:59.124 --> 00:54:05.646
And the one guy with the Android was saying, yeah, I haven't been able to see all these pictures and videos I've been looking at the other guys' phones.
930
00:54:05.706 --> 00:54:09.007
And I was like, man, I wish y'all would have suggested this to me earlier.
931
00:54:09.407 --> 00:54:18.590
We've slowly started to transition again, just with so busy as we've been, to transition into doing some of the
932
00:54:19.610 --> 00:54:20.731
upselling type stuff.
933
00:54:21.732 --> 00:54:30.278
So we haven't fully implemented it, but we've definitely talked to my crew leaders like, hey, this is kind of what we're thinking about in the future.
934
00:54:30.938 --> 00:54:34.721
Right now, we're just so busy that they're getting great hours and they love it.
935
00:54:35.201 --> 00:54:36.182
I've already noticed it.
936
00:54:36.402 --> 00:54:38.003
We haven't even implemented it yet.
937
00:54:38.243 --> 00:54:40.885
And I've noticed them sending me stuff.
938
00:54:41.810 --> 00:54:47.574
Which is great, but it's like, hey, love that you're sending me this, but we already have way too much we have to do today.
939
00:54:48.175 --> 00:54:54.219
So we just need to get a little bit more consistent with the workflow and then really start to utilize that.
940
00:54:54.259 --> 00:54:56.080
But I do think that's going to be a big game changer.
941
00:54:56.120 --> 00:55:02.945
And you could tell that just them knowing that that could be coming in the near future, it's motivated them.
942
00:55:03.385 --> 00:55:07.009
It was definitely way different than I anticipated it being.
943
00:55:07.270 --> 00:55:08.872
In a good way, though, for sure.
944
00:55:10.073 --> 00:55:12.856
It was a little bit more in-depth than I thought it would be.
945
00:55:13.177 --> 00:55:15.700
And then, you know, the time with Mike was really good.
946
00:55:15.720 --> 00:55:16.581
I appreciated that.
947
00:55:17.502 --> 00:55:19.124
But even the time just with...
948
00:55:19.985 --> 00:55:25.809
the cameraman Terrell was it, but even afterwards, like he was telling me, he's like, man, your team really likes working for you.
949
00:55:25.929 --> 00:55:27.450
And they're like super motivated.
950
00:55:27.530 --> 00:55:30.292
And like, you can tell that you have their respect sort of thing.
951
00:55:30.372 --> 00:55:33.575
So it was cool to just, you know, hear that from an outside source.
952
00:55:34.535 --> 00:55:40.179
You know, sometimes you kind of get lost in the weeds of things and you, you don't tend to see those kinds of, kinds of things.
953
00:55:40.219 --> 00:55:44.142
So it was, it was nice to have that, you know, brought to my attention.