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Hey everyone, it's Mike Andy.
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Today we're out in Colorado and we're gonna be doing a tour of Augusta Lawn Care Locations.
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This is Joel, he's actually the owner of the year for 2024.
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Put together our entire coaching dashboard and metrics that we keep track of every month.
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He's part of a lot of people that are moving from kind of white collar engineering software and he has started now in Augusta Locations.
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This is his third year.
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And so he's just moving into profit mode on his first location, past 500,000 annual revenue.
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Let's go ahead and take a tour of his shop facility and hear from Joel from Lafayette, Colorado.
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Hey brother, how you doing?
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Hey Mike, how's doing?
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Good to see you man.
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This is like the highest point.
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Is it, you come quite a bit from where you service, like most of your service area?
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This is really our service area.
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I mean, so Eerie's are,
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I would say a third of our customers are here in Erie.
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We service snow and mowing for this HOA right here.
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But yeah, we go all the way out to Superior to the west, and then Broomfields to the south.
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Cool.
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Where that kind of beyond that ridge.
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This is pretty central then in terms of?
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For the Lafayette location, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, cool.
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And it's all from here?
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So Lafayette's in this unit.
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Okay.
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Broomfield has its own unit halfway down there.
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Okay.
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And then there's another unit for Christmas light storage.
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How long, how far is the Broomfield drive for now at least?
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Ten minutes.
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That's not too long.
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I'm into like the northern part of Broomfield, but if you go further south, it's probably six, seven miles, so...
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When we were doing Broomfield as part of Lafayette, it was difficult because Broomfield is basically, like the size of Broomfield is half of, like basically the same size as all of Lafayette location.
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And we put it all in one day, so it was a very sparse route.
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So now we split it up.
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It's easy to do like chunks each day of the week.
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So you think you'll kind of just grow there for like another year before kind of getting something over there?
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The trouble, shop space is always the trouble.
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Yeah, right.
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So for me, it's like I'd like to get out of this and do something with some office space, more so that we have some electrical and like power to charge stuff and kind of meet together.
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But this is a really nice storage facility because most don't have parking.
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So you're either like it's all parking for RV stuff or you have just storage.
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Got it.
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So it's actually not too bad to be here and go down to Broomfield because Broomfield is more developed.
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It's a little bit older.
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So yeah.
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harder to find something like this.
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Right.
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Interesting.
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Cool.
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Let's go.
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This is the move.
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It's awesome.
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So you all push mower then?
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Yep.
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Wow.
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And then ramp racks for everything?
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Yep.
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Let's go.
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Good stuff.
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And did you do Christmas night last year for the first year?
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Yep.
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Good stuff.
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Yeah, so this is what's left over from last year, and then all the actual customer boxes are in their own unit.
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Cool.
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You kind of just walked me through the first few years, then, in terms of revenue when you started this location.
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Like, year one, two, three, what was that looking like?
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Sure.
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So this is our third year.
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Year one, 2023, we did $240,000.
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Probably just negative 1,000, negative 2,000 profits to kind of break even.
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Year two, we did $420,000.
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4,000, I think.
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About 40,000 in profit.
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And then this year, we're probably on track for, depending on how Christmas lights go, because we're trying to 3x what we did last year.
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So really tail heavy.
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Right now, I think we're around 350 for the year.
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Shooting for somewhere between 5 and 550.
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And then Broomfield will do
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Hopefully 40,000 to 50,000.
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OK.
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So that was basically one route just kind of getting started over there.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah.
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So Broomfield split off.
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It's been a really weird year for leads.
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I don't know why.
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We really struggled with that in the spring.
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So Broomfield hasn't really grown at all.
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And they're at about 40 million clients.
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So it's.
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Not quite enough for the GM by himself, but we try to supplement with cleanups and other projects.
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Got it.
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Cool.
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Very cool.
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And then before you came here, you were an engineer like software side, right?
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Yep.
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So maybe kind of walk me through that, like leaving that to this.
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I know people will watch the video, but for someone that's completely outside of lawn care, what were some of the things that you thought that you kind of had to change your mind or you had to learn coming into this industry?
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The mowing and stuff you can learn on YouTube, so that wasn't too bad, especially since we just do the simple services.
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I think the biggest thing was going from the office environment, kind of white collar environment, to working with more labor force, blue collar environment, and especially learning how to train those guys, manage those guys.
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Definitely since before, I had never had a real management experience besides small teams in college.
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So that was a big learning lesson for me, of trying to figure out how to motivate guys, how to make sure they're doing good work, all that sort of thing.
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That's still a struggle with me, especially now that I'm managing managers, instead of managing team members.
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I know you had a video recently about that.
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So honestly, that was the biggest transition, that and sales a little bit, but with the simple services, it's
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Less so sales, just making sure that we're providing good service and getting back to people in a timely manner.
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Even right now, I think about a lot of that white collar, like the engineer side with everything with AI and so many layoffs.
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A lot of them are starting to think about, OK, do I make this huge transition?
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What would you say to someone like that that is considering whether it be welding or the thing about going blue collar?
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What would you say to that person in terms of just like, hey, be careful of these things?
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And also, I think sometimes being an IC versus a manager and that transition, what would you tell that three-year-old version of yourself from back then?
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I would probably say it kind of depends on where you're coming from because I know there's a lot of people who kind of come in, have a lot of cash and want to kind of be a manager immediately and go or manage a manager like I did, which is still tough because you're learning the business and trying to manage someone at the same time.
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So you're kind of being a little bit micromanager and that's not necessarily great for whoever you're leading.
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But if you're not going to go that route, or you're going to go yourself, I would say, kind of research what you're going into.
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Make sure that it's something that you at least like doing, so you don't get in a couple of months in.
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And business is hard regardless of what you're doing.
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So if you hate it, you're going to burn out, and it's not going to be fun.
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So at least make it something that you can enjoy doing, or at least be content doing day after day and working with other people.
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And I'm not a huge people person, so that's also tough for me, going from individual contributor to more of a manager leader of a team.
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And so just make sure that you are comfortable with that as well, because it is a very different space going from being at a computer and
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heads in doing your own thing, even if you are working with a team, to be more hands on face to face with people, especially with customers as well.
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So it's a different transition.
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But I would say make sure you understand what you're going into.
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It's not impossible to do.
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I'd say it's like people say, I know Cody Sanchez is often saying blue car businesses, Main Street businesses, are a great way to transition into, but it's not completely hands off.
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It's never going to be passive, no matter what you're doing.
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Even right now, I'm pretty hands off.
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But I'm still checking in on things, checking in with my managers, making sure we're doing a good job.
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And if I have to step in, I have to step in.
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So always be ready to kind of get your hands dirty.
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Working the business is kind of the main thing, as opposed to thinking, oh, I'm just going to put some money in.
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It'll be hands off.
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And I'll just be able to lay on a beach doing nothing.
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Yeah.
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You kind of ran a little bit differently.
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Even when you were getting your second location, I remember we had our meeting.
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We were like, hey, is it enough revenue yet?
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Because you weren't quite yet to the $500.
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for it to have a second location.
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So I know having them together and like you're still kind of operating as one for now before you break it off.
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But like walk me through that thought process of like like having two managers versus just being like, hey, let's just keep growing this one until it's fully at seven, 800,000 in profit mode.
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What was sort of your mentality or idea behind that?
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Yeah, looking back, I would probably not have split it off this year.
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I would have waited another year.
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And I knew that going in that probably wasn't the best idea.
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But I was expecting, again, we had quite a bit of growth.
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I'm going from 240 to 420 last year.
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So I expected to be able to continue growing.
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But for whatever reason, our lease dropped off 33% this spring compared to last year.
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And it's all in the recurring side of projects too.
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Just across the board.
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Got it.
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And so we really struggled to grow.
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And so that kind of led to problems that I didn't foresee happening.
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And always my fallback plan was we could always just move back into one location, one CRM.
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But the reason for splitting it off was, one, to kind of understand myself what it's like to have a couple of managers and being that more regional manager kind of role and kind of growing myself that way.
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But more importantly was I really wanted to triple the lights business.
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Broomfield, we didn't really have a lot of presence.
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So I really wanted mostly to get the websites, have the SEO, so that we could rank highly for Christmas lights and then going into especially next year for mowing and the lawn care side.
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Really rank really well.
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Have a presence so that we could really capitalize next year on the growth.
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What do you think you'll do in Christmas lights this year?
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Between the two?
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So we're only going to do Christmas lights for Lafayette.
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So it's basically one truck, one crew.
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Because I think you can do, based on what we did last year, targeting $100,000 in revenues.
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We did $37,000 last year.
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But we were only doing installs maybe half of
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half a week, like two, three days per week through November.
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This year we have pretty much every Friday in October lined up.
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And then if we can get every day.
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All your renewals?
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All your renewals in October?
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There's a couple new ones too.
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But yeah, mostly renewals.
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And then if we can get almost every day or every day in November lined up, we can easily hit 100 with one crew.
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Cool.
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Because that was kind of like your big money maker even last year.
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You did like $60,000 in that last month.
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Yeah, November we hit 64,000 I think.
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And so from November and December we did 37,000 Christmas lights.
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And we did, we prepaid for a lot of our materials through certified lights.
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So we didn't have a huge expenditure of lights all in November, so that kind of helped.
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It kind of hindered our preference loss through the rest of the year, but then made November and December look really good.
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What do you do in January or February here?
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Because I know you don't do snow.
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Oh, we do do snow.
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Oh, you do?
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Yeah.
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Our snowblowers are actually.
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Oh, OK.
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So all residential stuff, though.
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Yeah.
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Got it.
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And do you roll it into winter services, or is it totally separate?
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Last year, I put it all together.
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Didn't love the outcome of that.
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So this year, we're just doing snow separately.
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Were people just kind of confused by it?
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I don't know.
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So two years ago, we just did Winter Services by itself.
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We had pretty much 50% opt out straight off the rip.
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And then more kind of opt out as this crew started showing up in November.
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They're like, what are you doing here?
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We did the kind of video explanation of the emails, text messages, because last year, or two years ago, November was horrible because we had to do a ton of refunds for winter services because people didn't see our email.
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So last year I made sure we did an email, two text messages, and made sure people knew that we were doing this.
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But we still got 50% to opt out immediately, and another 20% kind of first week, top of the week of November.
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So we only had like 50 winter services plus no clients, and then a few more
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maybe 20 more snow clients only.
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Got it.
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So the goal this year is really to get as many people on snow as possible to fill up our trucks and get them on season passes.
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So that way we have similar revenue to winter services, but less labor to fulfill.
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And I think with P4P, the goal is to hit our break-even point on revenue is to get basically our P4P percentage on pay per visit versus the season pass.
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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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Last year at Augusta Lawn Care, the average location grew revenue by more than 27%.
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And we're on track to beat that this year.
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If you want to see why, go to AugustaLawnCareServices.com slash franchise and watch over 50 videos and case studies of different owners that took their independent lawn care business and turned it into Augusta Lawn Care.
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And so you think you'll be able to keep like two or three of you guys?
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Kind of is that the goal?
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I'd like to keep everybody.
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So we have three techs, two GMs right now.
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So the goal is basically it's two trucks for Lafayette, one truck for Broomfield.
229
00:13:04.033 --> 00:13:10.537
And so if we can get 50 and 100 or 150, that should be able to fulfill that with all those guys.
230
00:13:10.597 --> 00:13:14.219
And do most of those leads come pouring like right when snow is about to show up though?
231
00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:16.301
Or do people think about it a little more ahead here?
232
00:13:16.321 --> 00:13:16.441
Yeah.
233
00:13:17.174 --> 00:13:17.935
Some people think ahead.
234
00:13:18.115 --> 00:13:19.016
It's kind of like everything.
235
00:13:19.036 --> 00:13:19.716
Some people think ahead.
236
00:13:19.776 --> 00:13:20.537
Most people wait.
237
00:13:20.757 --> 00:13:21.638
Yeah.
238
00:13:22.278 --> 00:13:28.944
It was hard last year because we've had a lot of winter services customers, and since we're doing winter services plus snow, that kind of filled up our snow.
239
00:13:31.508 --> 00:13:39.696
And so I didn't actually advertise for snow, because we were basically full right in the beginning of November and couldn't take on any more clients.
240
00:13:39.716 --> 00:13:41.318
So I don't know exactly how that was going to work.
241
00:13:41.598 --> 00:13:43.440
But this year we're doing more advertising.
242
00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:47.363
We have, I think, 2,000 door hangers sitting there ready to go for snow.
243
00:13:47.403 --> 00:13:47.804
OK, cool.
244
00:13:48.725 --> 00:13:49.525
Let's go.
245
00:13:50.186 --> 00:13:51.127
Yeah, snow's all right here.
246
00:13:52.844 --> 00:13:54.306
Are you doing the instant pricing on it or not?
247
00:13:54.506 --> 00:13:54.606
Yep.
248
00:13:54.646 --> 00:13:54.907
OK, cool.
249
00:13:55.648 --> 00:13:57.029
Oh, you're doing the monthly kind of season pass thing.
250
00:13:57.049 --> 00:13:57.430
Yeah, the month.
251
00:13:57.450 --> 00:13:57.971
Yeah, season pass.
252
00:13:57.991 --> 00:13:59.693
Are you just doing like a four month thing or is it?
253
00:14:00.254 --> 00:14:03.498
So it's a six month season, November through the end of April.
254
00:14:04.319 --> 00:14:08.805
This year I'm trying pay for five months, get one month free kind of thing because.
255
00:14:08.886 --> 00:14:09.266
Up front?
256
00:14:10.047 --> 00:14:13.108
No, because, so they're going to pay November through March.
257
00:14:13.688 --> 00:14:14.149
Oh, okay.
258
00:14:14.169 --> 00:14:19.031
The reason being is that usually April, it's probably not going to get snow.
259
00:14:19.071 --> 00:14:20.571
If we do, it melts by noon.
260
00:14:20.831 --> 00:14:21.572
Got it.
261
00:14:21.712 --> 00:14:28.534
Like last year, we had two storms in November, zero in December, and then January, February, we had snow, and then no snow March, April.
262
00:14:29.074 --> 00:14:31.355
So three out of the six months, we didn't have snow.
263
00:14:34.106 --> 00:14:38.129
The season pass pricing is kind of average based on how many visits we do on average per year.
264
00:14:38.709 --> 00:14:39.970
But we just kind of spread out that price.
265
00:14:40.010 --> 00:14:43.912
And so some customers are like, well, if it doesn't snow, I'm paying for something I don't get.
266
00:14:43.952 --> 00:14:45.814
But it's like, one, it's insurance.
267
00:14:45.994 --> 00:14:51.858
And two, basically it's insurance on if we do get a lot of snow, you're covered.
268
00:14:52.018 --> 00:14:56.180
And if we don't get enough months without snow, it's kind of averaged.
269
00:14:56.260 --> 00:14:59.863
If like February we get four visits instead of two, you're still covered.
270
00:14:59.983 --> 00:15:01.824
And then you get some ease into mowing.
271
00:15:02.144 --> 00:15:02.624
Yeah.
272
00:15:02.765 --> 00:15:02.965
Cool.
273
00:15:03.865 --> 00:15:08.567
I know some people, they don't do Christmas lights because they're in markets like yours where it can snow in November or December.
274
00:15:08.967 --> 00:15:12.408
So is it here such dry snow that you can kind of just blow things off?
275
00:15:12.448 --> 00:15:16.870
Or what's the protocol if you get heavy snow in November?
276
00:15:17.230 --> 00:15:18.851
Yeah, so we actually had two last year in November.
277
00:15:18.911 --> 00:15:20.531
First week in November and then Thanksgiving week.
278
00:15:20.691 --> 00:15:22.552
And that just screwed up our entire schedule.
279
00:15:22.572 --> 00:15:22.712
Really?
280
00:15:22.732 --> 00:15:28.454
Especially for leaf cleanups and winter services is that our schedule is full in November.
281
00:15:30.295 --> 00:15:42.524
Like we were just pushing things, pushing things, because sometimes you'll get snow, and especially on the north side of buildings where it's shaded, it just won't melt for a week, and then you can't do leaf cleanups because it's covered in snow.
282
00:15:43.205 --> 00:15:43.525
Right.
283
00:15:44.486 --> 00:15:50.331
So with lights, it was kind of an issue, but again, since we weren't full to capacity with lights,
284
00:15:51.051 --> 00:15:52.973
we were able to reschedule things and move things around.
285
00:15:53.654 --> 00:15:58.679
There were a couple of customers who were upset because we had to move them two weeks just to make sure that the snow was completely gone.
286
00:15:59.540 --> 00:16:08.330
But I do remember there was one or two last year where there was still snow on the roof and we just had to work around it with the ladders and such to be safe, but still get the stuff on it.
287
00:16:08.470 --> 00:16:12.313
Do you say, hey, we're only going to do the lower ones?
288
00:16:12.333 --> 00:16:13.094
We didn't have to do that.
289
00:16:13.114 --> 00:16:13.874
Okay, cool.
290
00:16:14.195 --> 00:16:23.322
And then this year, I plan to really get into snow issues, just rent a lift, park it on their driveway, and usually lifts can get...
291
00:16:24.043 --> 00:16:26.565
The houses are small enough that you can get everywhere with one lift.
292
00:16:26.625 --> 00:16:26.885
Really?
293
00:16:27.085 --> 00:16:29.367
That's one of the ones with the arms that go out?
294
00:16:29.407 --> 00:16:29.707
Yep.
295
00:16:29.827 --> 00:16:31.268
Yeah, articulating booms.
296
00:16:31.288 --> 00:16:31.709
They have...
297
00:16:33.390 --> 00:16:36.091
a reach of like 40 feet or so, so you can get most places on the house.
298
00:16:36.111 --> 00:16:37.611
Would you only do that if there is snow then?
299
00:16:38.131 --> 00:16:39.511
Or do you think regardless?
300
00:16:39.651 --> 00:16:47.353
There are some houses that are really steep, and even with the goat, it's sketchy to get on them, even if you're harnessed in and have that.
301
00:16:48.353 --> 00:16:54.334
So if we do some of those, I'd still want to do a lift, just because it's not fun being on a really steep pitch.
302
00:16:54.374 --> 00:16:57.515
But most of our houses, like these are not bad at all to be on.
303
00:16:57.575 --> 00:16:58.235
Yeah, no, totally.
304
00:16:58.895 --> 00:17:05.177
For the two GMs, what's it kind of been like, like you said, moving from, hey, I'm the manager to now I'm managing managers.
305
00:17:05.697 --> 00:17:11.719
What's that like, especially for the location that's kind of just got started and really he's a laborer.
306
00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:17.041
But as you know, what's that been like for you and kind of being that regional manager role?
307
00:17:18.701 --> 00:17:23.623
It was really nice in May, June, because my wife and I had our first child end of May.
308
00:17:23.843 --> 00:17:26.244
So I like checked, almost checked out in June.
309
00:17:26.264 --> 00:17:27.164
You had to have June.
310
00:17:27.705 --> 00:17:28.045
Yeah.
311
00:17:28.085 --> 00:17:28.985
Cool.
312
00:17:29.005 --> 00:17:33.447
So I got lucky that they were able to take it and roll with it without a lot of input from me.
313
00:17:34.907 --> 00:17:38.509
For Lafayette, Matthew, he's my third GM here.
314
00:17:38.589 --> 00:17:43.192
So I've had one in 2023, one in 2024, and then Matthew is the latest one.
315
00:17:43.412 --> 00:17:45.313
And the only one so far that's Survive Spring Rush.
316
00:17:45.473 --> 00:17:47.174
So that's a good sign.
317
00:17:48.935 --> 00:17:55.399
And so both of them have had experience running or being involved in family lawn care business beforehand.
318
00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:57.940
So they had experience with at least the operations side of it.
319
00:17:58.120 --> 00:18:01.082
And this is kind of more the sales side and a little bit of the admin using Copilot.
320
00:18:01.102 --> 00:18:02.823
That was the learning curve.
321
00:18:03.683 --> 00:18:16.015
Um, but, um, I kind of put, had a training program for them that go over multiple weeks to kind of slowly ramp them up on tasks and responsibilities so that each week they'd kind of take on a little bit more.
322
00:18:16.816 --> 00:18:18.698
Um, and so far that seems to have worked pretty well.
323
00:18:19.639 --> 00:18:22.862
Um, I think the biggest thing is, especially for Broomfield.
324
00:18:24.023 --> 00:18:31.145
is kind of understanding what to do when you're not full with field work.
325
00:18:31.205 --> 00:18:34.366
So if you finish at 1 o'clock, what are you supposed to do?
326
00:18:34.786 --> 00:18:38.507
Do follow up on estimates, door knocking, door hangers, trying to get more business.
327
00:18:39.007 --> 00:18:45.889
And that's kind of been a struggle of trying to figure out how to make that work because we haven't had a lot of success with the door hangers this year.
328
00:18:46.310 --> 00:18:47.230
We did have some.
329
00:18:48.070 --> 00:18:56.540
So it's really trying to make sure that he understands, like, it's your job to grow the business and make sure it's successful in addition to doing all the field work.
330
00:18:57.261 --> 00:18:58.162
And then obviously that's tough.
331
00:18:58.322 --> 00:19:02.046
That can be tough if you're out in the field for a good chunk of the day.
332
00:19:02.066 --> 00:19:02.547
You're tired.
333
00:19:02.587 --> 00:19:02.947
It's hot.
334
00:19:04.128 --> 00:19:06.611
And then you have to try to figure out what to do after that.
335
00:19:07.492 --> 00:19:09.034
So that's the biggest thing for Broomfield.
336
00:19:09.218 --> 00:19:15.683
Because I guess right as Spring Rush was hitting, or to the tail of it, you were gone because you were having a kid.
337
00:19:15.703 --> 00:19:15.823
Yeah.
338
00:19:16.303 --> 00:19:18.025
And then they were in the middle of Spring Rush.
339
00:19:18.065 --> 00:19:25.070
So do you think that played in a part of not growing as much, not having you here as kind of like the sales driving force?
340
00:19:25.450 --> 00:19:33.136
Or was it just like overall that was like sidelines because you had to be gone and you let it kind of close ratio dip or whatever it might be?
341
00:19:33.662 --> 00:19:35.804
I actually don't think I'm great at sales.
342
00:19:36.124 --> 00:19:40.347
So I think Matthew's actually done better than me.
343
00:19:40.667 --> 00:19:41.928
He's the off-way at GM.
344
00:19:42.648 --> 00:19:49.913
He actually hit the max metrics for top ten on close ratio, I think in June and August, being above 70%, which I never got to in the last two years.
345
00:19:49.953 --> 00:19:51.854
So kudos to him.
346
00:19:54.296 --> 00:19:57.639
I think it's just, for whatever reason, our inbound leads in April and May.
347
00:19:57.899 --> 00:20:04.064
Literally, April was 25% lower, May was 33% lower, even though we were doing more through door hangers.
348
00:20:04.144 --> 00:20:07.207
Like, I was doing door hangers every day I could before the baby came.
349
00:20:09.509 --> 00:20:19.597
And Google Ads and Facebook Ads, I don't know what it was, if it was like tariff scare, scaring people back in the spring, or job issues, but at least it dropped off.
350
00:20:20.558 --> 00:20:23.119
They've come back last month, this month.
351
00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.000
Our lead counts back up to where we expect it to be.
352
00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:31.381
But I think it's mostly just for whatever reason, inbound wasn't as good as it was.
353
00:20:32.041 --> 00:20:33.042
And that's what led to it.
354
00:20:33.062 --> 00:20:36.783
Not so much that I was out of the field or kind of sitting back.
355
00:20:37.377 --> 00:20:46.441
Have you changed, like, because now, I guess probably this year, or coming in 2026, I guess Matthew would probably be more in profit mode in Lafayette.
356
00:20:46.481 --> 00:20:47.622
That one's still in growth mode.
357
00:20:47.882 --> 00:20:54.965
Have you already kind of determined the difference in how you're compensating or bonusing those two different GMs, or are you kind of using the same model for both?
358
00:20:55.385 --> 00:20:58.707
I'm using the model you came up with a year or two ago.
359
00:20:59.327 --> 00:21:05.390
So for Lafayette, it's since third year, so it's distribution sharing.
360
00:21:06.290 --> 00:21:08.331
We had our first distribution for Q2.
361
00:21:08.431 --> 00:21:09.151
It was a small one.
362
00:21:09.692 --> 00:21:13.473
I think the total distribution between him and myself was just under $2,000.
363
00:21:13.493 --> 00:21:16.195
So not a lot, but at least it shows that
364
00:21:17.756 --> 00:21:20.139
there is profit in the business and kind of show him what it looks like.
365
00:21:20.560 --> 00:21:23.143
And I expect Q3, Q4 to be really where the profit is.
366
00:21:23.724 --> 00:21:27.129
Q3, I expect another distribution, a little bit bigger than that one.
367
00:21:28.611 --> 00:21:33.197
And then Q4, I expect it to be substantial, especially with the lights and snow.
368
00:21:34.999 --> 00:21:39.222
And then Broomfield is based off of growth mode, so it's revenue targets.
369
00:21:39.402 --> 00:21:44.145
Again, since we haven't been able to grow, we haven't hit those targets yet, but it's basically 20,000 to 40,000.
370
00:21:44.186 --> 00:21:48.769
There's a bonus each month that we hit that, 40 to 60, 60 plus.
371
00:21:48.809 --> 00:21:50.550
And that will continue for the first two years at least.
372
00:21:50.810 --> 00:21:51.011
Got it.
373
00:21:51.271 --> 00:21:52.592
And Matthew, how long has he been with you?
374
00:21:53.224 --> 00:21:54.185
Since February.
375
00:21:54.525 --> 00:21:55.025
Okay.
376
00:21:55.045 --> 00:21:55.826
So it's still this year.
377
00:21:55.846 --> 00:21:56.166
Yeah.
378
00:21:56.186 --> 00:21:56.467
Got it.
379
00:21:56.707 --> 00:21:59.569
And so he went through Spring Rush right off the rip.
380
00:21:59.689 --> 00:21:59.849
Yep.
381
00:22:00.029 --> 00:22:00.349
Got it.
382
00:22:00.489 --> 00:22:00.950
Let's go.
383
00:22:02.291 --> 00:22:03.332
Got to get through Spring Rush.
384
00:22:03.532 --> 00:22:04.052
I know we're late.
385
00:22:04.072 --> 00:22:04.312
Sorry.
386
00:22:04.572 --> 00:22:04.753
No.
387
00:22:04.893 --> 00:22:05.273
You're good.
388
00:22:05.433 --> 00:22:05.873
Yeah, yeah.
389
00:22:05.973 --> 00:22:07.495
But should we go ahead of coaching?
390
00:22:07.575 --> 00:22:08.615
Probably pretty soon here.
391
00:22:08.896 --> 00:22:09.296
Yeah.
392
00:22:09.416 --> 00:22:10.437
Do you want to check the other?
393
00:22:11.277 --> 00:22:11.397
Sure.
394
00:22:11.417 --> 00:22:12.318
Is it the same thing basically?
395
00:22:12.338 --> 00:22:13.119
Yeah, it's basically the same thing.
396
00:22:13.139 --> 00:22:13.479
It was smaller.
397
00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:13.979
That's cool.
398
00:22:13.999 --> 00:22:16.141
How much do you have to pay for these?
399
00:22:18.185 --> 00:22:23.372
Between the three units, the four parking spaces, we spend $1,200 to $1,300.
400
00:22:23.533 --> 00:22:24.935
That's not too bad right here.
401
00:22:25.696 --> 00:22:27.098
No, because office space, like...
402
00:22:28.650 --> 00:22:33.792
Classy warehouse space or whatever, starting at $2,600, I think was the cheapest I've ever seen.
403
00:22:33.972 --> 00:22:38.953
And even if they have space then for the trucks and allow you to have fuel and all the rest of it, too.
404
00:22:38.993 --> 00:22:39.273
Yeah.
405
00:22:39.293 --> 00:22:39.893
That's the challenge.
406
00:22:41.174 --> 00:22:43.515
So that unit, I don't know if you want to see it, it's boxes.
407
00:22:43.755 --> 00:22:44.155
Same thing?
408
00:22:44.715 --> 00:22:46.215
No, it's Christmas light storage.
409
00:22:46.275 --> 00:22:46.676
Oh, really?
410
00:22:46.776 --> 00:22:47.496
Yeah.
411
00:22:47.616 --> 00:22:49.216
So you had 37 last year.
412
00:22:49.236 --> 00:22:53.037
Do you pre-order a bunch more for this year, or just as you sell them?
413
00:22:53.098 --> 00:22:56.519
Yeah, I pre-ordered basically 50 houses worth of lights.
414
00:22:59.885 --> 00:23:06.309
So to do 100, so our average last year was $1,000.
415
00:23:07.230 --> 00:23:13.214
So with the lights I have on hand, we could probably do 70 to 80 clients.
416
00:23:13.414 --> 00:23:21.940
And so if I need to, we had a lot of extra inventory last year just because what customers wanted for different lights.
417
00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:26.003
But we should be able to do at least 80 customers.
418
00:23:27.371 --> 00:23:28.231
But yeah, this is Broomfield.
419
00:23:28.251 --> 00:23:34.114
We actually had unit two before, over was Lafayette's original one.
420
00:23:34.234 --> 00:23:35.095
So 10 by 20.
421
00:23:35.775 --> 00:23:37.095
That one's a 10 by 30.
422
00:23:38.276 --> 00:23:40.597
And this is kind of like what it looks like.
423
00:23:40.917 --> 00:23:41.117
Cool.
424
00:23:41.397 --> 00:23:44.499
And so it's really just the one GM working for that one now.
425
00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:47.120
Do you think next year he'll get one employee kind of thing?
426
00:23:47.260 --> 00:23:51.885
Yeah, I wanted to get, I projected to have one employee for here.
427
00:23:51.945 --> 00:24:06.401
We just didn't get the lead growth, but next year definitely fill up that one truck, get it, just get capacity with those two so that we can save up, get another truck if we need to and continue growing.
428
00:24:06.861 --> 00:24:08.663
I started with two trucks right off the rip.
429
00:24:11.760 --> 00:24:12.780
That was fine.
430
00:24:12.820 --> 00:24:15.122
That worked out well for the 240.
431
00:24:15.162 --> 00:24:19.483
I think we got the third truck early last year.
432
00:24:19.804 --> 00:24:22.725
So, yeah, we went all of 2020 through with two trucks, and that worked out well.
433
00:24:22.925 --> 00:24:23.865
Got it.
434
00:24:23.885 --> 00:24:27.127
So that location maybe grew, what, like 15% this year then?
435
00:24:27.427 --> 00:24:27.907
Lafayette?
436
00:24:28.127 --> 00:24:28.327
15%?
437
00:24:28.367 --> 00:24:28.788
Or do what?
438
00:24:28.888 --> 00:24:30.468
In terms of growth this year?
439
00:24:30.649 --> 00:24:31.349
Oh.
440
00:24:32.329 --> 00:24:33.790
Because it went from like 420 to 550?
441
00:24:34.310 --> 00:24:37.292
Yeah, it'll probably be 20 to 30.
442
00:24:37.312 --> 00:24:38.112
Okay.
443
00:24:38.432 --> 00:24:39.813
In the spring, we were at...
444
00:24:41.534 --> 00:24:56.992
Q1 our growth was around 30% before things dipped off in the spring and so overall in the year I think we're still at 10-20% and then hopefully in the last part of the year we'll keep going that's awesome man, good stuff
1
00:00:00.291 --> 00:00:01.112
Hey everyone, it's Mike Andy.
2
00:00:01.152 --> 00:00:06.136
Today we're out in Colorado and we're gonna be doing a tour of Augusta Lawn Care Locations.
3
00:00:06.156 --> 00:00:09.658
This is Joel, he's actually the owner of the year for 2024.
4
00:00:09.698 --> 00:00:13.661
Put together our entire coaching dashboard and metrics that we keep track of every month.
5
00:00:13.802 --> 00:00:20.647
He's part of a lot of people that are moving from kind of white collar engineering software and he has started now in Augusta Locations.
6
00:00:20.667 --> 00:00:21.568
This is his third year.
7
00:00:22.068 --> 00:00:26.091
And so he's just moving into profit mode on his first location, past 500,000 annual revenue.
8
00:00:27.392 --> 00:00:32.514
Let's go ahead and take a tour of his shop facility and hear from Joel from Lafayette, Colorado.
9
00:00:32.534 --> 00:00:33.274
Hey brother, how you doing?
10
00:00:33.314 --> 00:00:33.954
Hey Mike, how's doing?
11
00:00:33.974 --> 00:00:34.634
Good to see you man.
12
00:00:35.135 --> 00:00:36.935
This is like the highest point.
13
00:00:37.035 --> 00:00:40.616
Is it, you come quite a bit from where you service, like most of your service area?
14
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This is really our service area.
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I mean, so Eerie's are,
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I would say a third of our customers are here in Erie.
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We service snow and mowing for this HOA right here.
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But yeah, we go all the way out to Superior to the west, and then Broomfields to the south.
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Cool.
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Where that kind of beyond that ridge.
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This is pretty central then in terms of?
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For the Lafayette location, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, cool.
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And it's all from here?
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So Lafayette's in this unit.
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Okay.
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Broomfield has its own unit halfway down there.
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Okay.
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And then there's another unit for Christmas light storage.
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How long, how far is the Broomfield drive for now at least?
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Ten minutes.
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That's not too long.
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I'm into like the northern part of Broomfield, but if you go further south, it's probably six, seven miles, so...
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When we were doing Broomfield as part of Lafayette, it was difficult because Broomfield is basically, like the size of Broomfield is half of, like basically the same size as all of Lafayette location.
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And we put it all in one day, so it was a very sparse route.
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So now we split it up.
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It's easy to do like chunks each day of the week.
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So you think you'll kind of just grow there for like another year before kind of getting something over there?
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The trouble, shop space is always the trouble.
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Yeah, right.
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So for me, it's like I'd like to get out of this and do something with some office space, more so that we have some electrical and like power to charge stuff and kind of meet together.
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But this is a really nice storage facility because most don't have parking.
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So you're either like it's all parking for RV stuff or you have just storage.
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Got it.
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So it's actually not too bad to be here and go down to Broomfield because Broomfield is more developed.
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It's a little bit older.
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So yeah.
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harder to find something like this.
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Right.
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Interesting.
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Cool.
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Let's go.
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This is the move.
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It's awesome.
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So you all push mower then?
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Yep.
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Wow.
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And then ramp racks for everything?
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Yep.
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Let's go.
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Good stuff.
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And did you do Christmas night last year for the first year?
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Yep.
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Good stuff.
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Yeah, so this is what's left over from last year, and then all the actual customer boxes are in their own unit.
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Cool.
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You kind of just walked me through the first few years, then, in terms of revenue when you started this location.
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Like, year one, two, three, what was that looking like?
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Sure.
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So this is our third year.
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Year one, 2023, we did $240,000.
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Probably just negative 1,000, negative 2,000 profits to kind of break even.
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Year two, we did $420,000.
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4,000, I think.
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About 40,000 in profit.
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And then this year, we're probably on track for, depending on how Christmas lights go, because we're trying to 3x what we did last year.
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So really tail heavy.
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Right now, I think we're around 350 for the year.
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Shooting for somewhere between 5 and 550.
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And then Broomfield will do
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Hopefully 40,000 to 50,000.
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OK.
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So that was basically one route just kind of getting started over there.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah.
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So Broomfield split off.
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It's been a really weird year for leads.
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I don't know why.
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We really struggled with that in the spring.
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So Broomfield hasn't really grown at all.
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And they're at about 40 million clients.
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So it's.
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Not quite enough for the GM by himself, but we try to supplement with cleanups and other projects.
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Got it.
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Cool.
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Very cool.
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And then before you came here, you were an engineer like software side, right?
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Yep.
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So maybe kind of walk me through that, like leaving that to this.
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I know people will watch the video, but for someone that's completely outside of lawn care, what were some of the things that you thought that you kind of had to change your mind or you had to learn coming into this industry?
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The mowing and stuff you can learn on YouTube, so that wasn't too bad, especially since we just do the simple services.
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I think the biggest thing was going from the office environment, kind of white collar environment, to working with more labor force, blue collar environment, and especially learning how to train those guys, manage those guys.
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Definitely since before, I had never had a real management experience besides small teams in college.
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So that was a big learning lesson for me, of trying to figure out how to motivate guys, how to make sure they're doing good work, all that sort of thing.
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That's still a struggle with me, especially now that I'm managing managers, instead of managing team members.
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I know you had a video recently about that.
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So honestly, that was the biggest transition, that and sales a little bit, but with the simple services, it's
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Less so sales, just making sure that we're providing good service and getting back to people in a timely manner.
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Even right now, I think about a lot of that white collar, like the engineer side with everything with AI and so many layoffs.
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A lot of them are starting to think about, OK, do I make this huge transition?
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What would you say to someone like that that is considering whether it be welding or the thing about going blue collar?
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What would you say to that person in terms of just like, hey, be careful of these things?
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And also, I think sometimes being an IC versus a manager and that transition, what would you tell that three-year-old version of yourself from back then?
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I would probably say it kind of depends on where you're coming from because I know there's a lot of people who kind of come in, have a lot of cash and want to kind of be a manager immediately and go or manage a manager like I did, which is still tough because you're learning the business and trying to manage someone at the same time.
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So you're kind of being a little bit micromanager and that's not necessarily great for whoever you're leading.
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But if you're not going to go that route, or you're going to go yourself, I would say, kind of research what you're going into.
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Make sure that it's something that you at least like doing, so you don't get in a couple of months in.
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And business is hard regardless of what you're doing.
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So if you hate it, you're going to burn out, and it's not going to be fun.
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So at least make it something that you can enjoy doing, or at least be content doing day after day and working with other people.
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And I'm not a huge people person, so that's also tough for me, going from individual contributor to more of a manager leader of a team.
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And so just make sure that you are comfortable with that as well, because it is a very different space going from being at a computer and
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heads in doing your own thing, even if you are working with a team, to be more hands on face to face with people, especially with customers as well.
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So it's a different transition.
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But I would say make sure you understand what you're going into.
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It's not impossible to do.
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I'd say it's like people say, I know Cody Sanchez is often saying blue car businesses, Main Street businesses, are a great way to transition into, but it's not completely hands off.
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It's never going to be passive, no matter what you're doing.
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Even right now, I'm pretty hands off.
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But I'm still checking in on things, checking in with my managers, making sure we're doing a good job.
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And if I have to step in, I have to step in.
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So always be ready to kind of get your hands dirty.
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Working the business is kind of the main thing, as opposed to thinking, oh, I'm just going to put some money in.
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It'll be hands off.
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And I'll just be able to lay on a beach doing nothing.
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Yeah.
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You kind of ran a little bit differently.
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Even when you were getting your second location, I remember we had our meeting.
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We were like, hey, is it enough revenue yet?
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Because you weren't quite yet to the $500.
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for it to have a second location.
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So I know having them together and like you're still kind of operating as one for now before you break it off.
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But like walk me through that thought process of like like having two managers versus just being like, hey, let's just keep growing this one until it's fully at seven, 800,000 in profit mode.
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What was sort of your mentality or idea behind that?
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Yeah, looking back, I would probably not have split it off this year.
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I would have waited another year.
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And I knew that going in that probably wasn't the best idea.
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But I was expecting, again, we had quite a bit of growth.
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I'm going from 240 to 420 last year.
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So I expected to be able to continue growing.
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But for whatever reason, our lease dropped off 33% this spring compared to last year.
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And it's all in the recurring side of projects too.
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Just across the board.
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Got it.
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And so we really struggled to grow.
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And so that kind of led to problems that I didn't foresee happening.
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And always my fallback plan was we could always just move back into one location, one CRM.
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But the reason for splitting it off was, one, to kind of understand myself what it's like to have a couple of managers and being that more regional manager kind of role and kind of growing myself that way.
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But more importantly was I really wanted to triple the lights business.
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Broomfield, we didn't really have a lot of presence.
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So I really wanted mostly to get the websites, have the SEO, so that we could rank highly for Christmas lights and then going into especially next year for mowing and the lawn care side.
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Really rank really well.
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Have a presence so that we could really capitalize next year on the growth.
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What do you think you'll do in Christmas lights this year?
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Between the two?
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So we're only going to do Christmas lights for Lafayette.
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So it's basically one truck, one crew.
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Because I think you can do, based on what we did last year, targeting $100,000 in revenues.
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We did $37,000 last year.
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But we were only doing installs maybe half of
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half a week, like two, three days per week through November.
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This year we have pretty much every Friday in October lined up.
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And then if we can get every day.
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All your renewals?
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All your renewals in October?
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There's a couple new ones too.
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But yeah, mostly renewals.
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And then if we can get almost every day or every day in November lined up, we can easily hit 100 with one crew.
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Cool.
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Because that was kind of like your big money maker even last year.
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You did like $60,000 in that last month.
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Yeah, November we hit 64,000 I think.
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And so from November and December we did 37,000 Christmas lights.
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And we did, we prepaid for a lot of our materials through certified lights.
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So we didn't have a huge expenditure of lights all in November, so that kind of helped.
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It kind of hindered our preference loss through the rest of the year, but then made November and December look really good.
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What do you do in January or February here?
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Because I know you don't do snow.
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Oh, we do do snow.
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Oh, you do?
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Yeah.
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Our snowblowers are actually.
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Oh, OK.
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So all residential stuff, though.
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Yeah.
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Got it.
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00:10:55.771 --> 00:10:59.553
And do you roll it into winter services, or is it totally separate?
199
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Last year, I put it all together.
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Didn't love the outcome of that.
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So this year, we're just doing snow separately.
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Were people just kind of confused by it?
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I don't know.
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00:11:11.865 --> 00:11:14.567
So two years ago, we just did Winter Services by itself.
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We had pretty much 50% opt out straight off the rip.
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And then more kind of opt out as this crew started showing up in November.
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They're like, what are you doing here?
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00:11:25.934 --> 00:11:36.518
We did the kind of video explanation of the emails, text messages, because last year, or two years ago, November was horrible because we had to do a ton of refunds for winter services because people didn't see our email.
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So last year I made sure we did an email, two text messages, and made sure people knew that we were doing this.
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But we still got 50% to opt out immediately, and another 20% kind of first week, top of the week of November.
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So we only had like 50 winter services plus no clients, and then a few more
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maybe 20 more snow clients only.
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Got it.
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00:11:58.287 --> 00:12:04.891
So the goal this year is really to get as many people on snow as possible to fill up our trucks and get them on season passes.
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So that way we have similar revenue to winter services, but less labor to fulfill.
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And I think with P4P, the goal is to hit our break-even point on revenue is to get basically our P4P percentage on pay per visit versus the season pass.
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Got it.
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00:12:26.032 --> 00:12:26.272
Okay.
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00:12:26.292 --> 00:12:26.573
All right.
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00:12:26.613 --> 00:12:27.053
That makes sense.
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Last year at Augusta Lawn Care, the average location grew revenue by more than 27%.
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And we're on track to beat that this year.
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If you want to see why, go to AugustaLawnCareServices.com slash franchise and watch over 50 videos and case studies of different owners that took their independent lawn care business and turned it into Augusta Lawn Care.
224
00:12:47.543 --> 00:12:50.045
And so you think you'll be able to keep like two or three of you guys?
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Kind of is that the goal?
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I'd like to keep everybody.
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So we have three techs, two GMs right now.
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So the goal is basically it's two trucks for Lafayette, one truck for Broomfield.
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And so if we can get 50 and 100 or 150, that should be able to fulfill that with all those guys.
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And do most of those leads come pouring like right when snow is about to show up though?
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Or do people think about it a little more ahead here?
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Yeah.
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Some people think ahead.
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It's kind of like everything.
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Some people think ahead.
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Most people wait.
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00:13:20.757 --> 00:13:21.638
Yeah.
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00:13:22.278 --> 00:13:28.944
It was hard last year because we've had a lot of winter services customers, and since we're doing winter services plus snow, that kind of filled up our snow.
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00:13:31.508 --> 00:13:39.696
And so I didn't actually advertise for snow, because we were basically full right in the beginning of November and couldn't take on any more clients.
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So I don't know exactly how that was going to work.
241
00:13:41.598 --> 00:13:43.440
But this year we're doing more advertising.
242
00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:47.363
We have, I think, 2,000 door hangers sitting there ready to go for snow.
243
00:13:47.403 --> 00:13:47.804
OK, cool.
244
00:13:48.725 --> 00:13:49.525
Let's go.
245
00:13:50.186 --> 00:13:51.127
Yeah, snow's all right here.
246
00:13:52.844 --> 00:13:54.306
Are you doing the instant pricing on it or not?
247
00:13:54.506 --> 00:13:54.606
Yep.
248
00:13:54.646 --> 00:13:54.907
OK, cool.
249
00:13:55.648 --> 00:13:57.029
Oh, you're doing the monthly kind of season pass thing.
250
00:13:57.049 --> 00:13:57.430
Yeah, the month.
251
00:13:57.450 --> 00:13:57.971
Yeah, season pass.
252
00:13:57.991 --> 00:13:59.693
Are you just doing like a four month thing or is it?
253
00:14:00.254 --> 00:14:03.498
So it's a six month season, November through the end of April.
254
00:14:04.319 --> 00:14:08.805
This year I'm trying pay for five months, get one month free kind of thing because.
255
00:14:08.886 --> 00:14:09.266
Up front?
256
00:14:10.047 --> 00:14:13.108
No, because, so they're going to pay November through March.
257
00:14:13.688 --> 00:14:14.149
Oh, okay.
258
00:14:14.169 --> 00:14:19.031
The reason being is that usually April, it's probably not going to get snow.
259
00:14:19.071 --> 00:14:20.571
If we do, it melts by noon.
260
00:14:20.831 --> 00:14:21.572
Got it.
261
00:14:21.712 --> 00:14:28.534
Like last year, we had two storms in November, zero in December, and then January, February, we had snow, and then no snow March, April.
262
00:14:29.074 --> 00:14:31.355
So three out of the six months, we didn't have snow.
263
00:14:34.106 --> 00:14:38.129
The season pass pricing is kind of average based on how many visits we do on average per year.
264
00:14:38.709 --> 00:14:39.970
But we just kind of spread out that price.
265
00:14:40.010 --> 00:14:43.912
And so some customers are like, well, if it doesn't snow, I'm paying for something I don't get.
266
00:14:43.952 --> 00:14:45.814
But it's like, one, it's insurance.
267
00:14:45.994 --> 00:14:51.858
And two, basically it's insurance on if we do get a lot of snow, you're covered.
268
00:14:52.018 --> 00:14:56.180
And if we don't get enough months without snow, it's kind of averaged.
269
00:14:56.260 --> 00:14:59.863
If like February we get four visits instead of two, you're still covered.
270
00:14:59.983 --> 00:15:01.824
And then you get some ease into mowing.
271
00:15:02.144 --> 00:15:02.624
Yeah.
272
00:15:02.765 --> 00:15:02.965
Cool.
273
00:15:03.865 --> 00:15:08.567
I know some people, they don't do Christmas lights because they're in markets like yours where it can snow in November or December.
274
00:15:08.967 --> 00:15:12.408
So is it here such dry snow that you can kind of just blow things off?
275
00:15:12.448 --> 00:15:16.870
Or what's the protocol if you get heavy snow in November?
276
00:15:17.230 --> 00:15:18.851
Yeah, so we actually had two last year in November.
277
00:15:18.911 --> 00:15:20.531
First week in November and then Thanksgiving week.
278
00:15:20.691 --> 00:15:22.552
And that just screwed up our entire schedule.
279
00:15:22.572 --> 00:15:22.712
Really?
280
00:15:22.732 --> 00:15:28.454
Especially for leaf cleanups and winter services is that our schedule is full in November.
281
00:15:30.295 --> 00:15:42.524
Like we were just pushing things, pushing things, because sometimes you'll get snow, and especially on the north side of buildings where it's shaded, it just won't melt for a week, and then you can't do leaf cleanups because it's covered in snow.
282
00:15:43.205 --> 00:15:43.525
Right.
283
00:15:44.486 --> 00:15:50.331
So with lights, it was kind of an issue, but again, since we weren't full to capacity with lights,
284
00:15:51.051 --> 00:15:52.973
we were able to reschedule things and move things around.
285
00:15:53.654 --> 00:15:58.679
There were a couple of customers who were upset because we had to move them two weeks just to make sure that the snow was completely gone.
286
00:15:59.540 --> 00:16:08.330
But I do remember there was one or two last year where there was still snow on the roof and we just had to work around it with the ladders and such to be safe, but still get the stuff on it.
287
00:16:08.470 --> 00:16:12.313
Do you say, hey, we're only going to do the lower ones?
288
00:16:12.333 --> 00:16:13.094
We didn't have to do that.
289
00:16:13.114 --> 00:16:13.874
Okay, cool.
290
00:16:14.195 --> 00:16:23.322
And then this year, I plan to really get into snow issues, just rent a lift, park it on their driveway, and usually lifts can get...
291
00:16:24.043 --> 00:16:26.565
The houses are small enough that you can get everywhere with one lift.
292
00:16:26.625 --> 00:16:26.885
Really?
293
00:16:27.085 --> 00:16:29.367
That's one of the ones with the arms that go out?
294
00:16:29.407 --> 00:16:29.707
Yep.
295
00:16:29.827 --> 00:16:31.268
Yeah, articulating booms.
296
00:16:31.288 --> 00:16:31.709
They have...
297
00:16:33.390 --> 00:16:36.091
a reach of like 40 feet or so, so you can get most places on the house.
298
00:16:36.111 --> 00:16:37.611
Would you only do that if there is snow then?
299
00:16:38.131 --> 00:16:39.511
Or do you think regardless?
300
00:16:39.651 --> 00:16:47.353
There are some houses that are really steep, and even with the goat, it's sketchy to get on them, even if you're harnessed in and have that.
301
00:16:48.353 --> 00:16:54.334
So if we do some of those, I'd still want to do a lift, just because it's not fun being on a really steep pitch.
302
00:16:54.374 --> 00:16:57.515
But most of our houses, like these are not bad at all to be on.
303
00:16:57.575 --> 00:16:58.235
Yeah, no, totally.
304
00:16:58.895 --> 00:17:05.177
For the two GMs, what's it kind of been like, like you said, moving from, hey, I'm the manager to now I'm managing managers.
305
00:17:05.697 --> 00:17:11.719
What's that like, especially for the location that's kind of just got started and really he's a laborer.
306
00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:17.041
But as you know, what's that been like for you and kind of being that regional manager role?
307
00:17:18.701 --> 00:17:23.623
It was really nice in May, June, because my wife and I had our first child end of May.
308
00:17:23.843 --> 00:17:26.244
So I like checked, almost checked out in June.
309
00:17:26.264 --> 00:17:27.164
You had to have June.
310
00:17:27.705 --> 00:17:28.045
Yeah.
311
00:17:28.085 --> 00:17:28.985
Cool.
312
00:17:29.005 --> 00:17:33.447
So I got lucky that they were able to take it and roll with it without a lot of input from me.
313
00:17:34.907 --> 00:17:38.509
For Lafayette, Matthew, he's my third GM here.
314
00:17:38.589 --> 00:17:43.192
So I've had one in 2023, one in 2024, and then Matthew is the latest one.
315
00:17:43.412 --> 00:17:45.313
And the only one so far that's Survive Spring Rush.
316
00:17:45.473 --> 00:17:47.174
So that's a good sign.
317
00:17:48.935 --> 00:17:55.399
And so both of them have had experience running or being involved in family lawn care business beforehand.
318
00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:57.940
So they had experience with at least the operations side of it.
319
00:17:58.120 --> 00:18:01.082
And this is kind of more the sales side and a little bit of the admin using Copilot.
320
00:18:01.102 --> 00:18:02.823
That was the learning curve.
321
00:18:03.683 --> 00:18:16.015
Um, but, um, I kind of put, had a training program for them that go over multiple weeks to kind of slowly ramp them up on tasks and responsibilities so that each week they'd kind of take on a little bit more.
322
00:18:16.816 --> 00:18:18.698
Um, and so far that seems to have worked pretty well.
323
00:18:19.639 --> 00:18:22.862
Um, I think the biggest thing is, especially for Broomfield.
324
00:18:24.023 --> 00:18:31.145
is kind of understanding what to do when you're not full with field work.
325
00:18:31.205 --> 00:18:34.366
So if you finish at 1 o'clock, what are you supposed to do?
326
00:18:34.786 --> 00:18:38.507
Do follow up on estimates, door knocking, door hangers, trying to get more business.
327
00:18:39.007 --> 00:18:45.889
And that's kind of been a struggle of trying to figure out how to make that work because we haven't had a lot of success with the door hangers this year.
328
00:18:46.310 --> 00:18:47.230
We did have some.
329
00:18:48.070 --> 00:18:56.540
So it's really trying to make sure that he understands, like, it's your job to grow the business and make sure it's successful in addition to doing all the field work.
330
00:18:57.261 --> 00:18:58.162
And then obviously that's tough.
331
00:18:58.322 --> 00:19:02.046
That can be tough if you're out in the field for a good chunk of the day.
332
00:19:02.066 --> 00:19:02.547
You're tired.
333
00:19:02.587 --> 00:19:02.947
It's hot.
334
00:19:04.128 --> 00:19:06.611
And then you have to try to figure out what to do after that.
335
00:19:07.492 --> 00:19:09.034
So that's the biggest thing for Broomfield.
336
00:19:09.218 --> 00:19:15.683
Because I guess right as Spring Rush was hitting, or to the tail of it, you were gone because you were having a kid.
337
00:19:15.703 --> 00:19:15.823
Yeah.
338
00:19:16.303 --> 00:19:18.025
And then they were in the middle of Spring Rush.
339
00:19:18.065 --> 00:19:25.070
So do you think that played in a part of not growing as much, not having you here as kind of like the sales driving force?
340
00:19:25.450 --> 00:19:33.136
Or was it just like overall that was like sidelines because you had to be gone and you let it kind of close ratio dip or whatever it might be?
341
00:19:33.662 --> 00:19:35.804
I actually don't think I'm great at sales.
342
00:19:36.124 --> 00:19:40.347
So I think Matthew's actually done better than me.
343
00:19:40.667 --> 00:19:41.928
He's the off-way at GM.
344
00:19:42.648 --> 00:19:49.913
He actually hit the max metrics for top ten on close ratio, I think in June and August, being above 70%, which I never got to in the last two years.
345
00:19:49.953 --> 00:19:51.854
So kudos to him.
346
00:19:54.296 --> 00:19:57.639
I think it's just, for whatever reason, our inbound leads in April and May.
347
00:19:57.899 --> 00:20:04.064
Literally, April was 25% lower, May was 33% lower, even though we were doing more through door hangers.
348
00:20:04.144 --> 00:20:07.207
Like, I was doing door hangers every day I could before the baby came.
349
00:20:09.509 --> 00:20:19.597
And Google Ads and Facebook Ads, I don't know what it was, if it was like tariff scare, scaring people back in the spring, or job issues, but at least it dropped off.
350
00:20:20.558 --> 00:20:23.119
They've come back last month, this month.
351
00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.000
Our lead counts back up to where we expect it to be.
352
00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:31.381
But I think it's mostly just for whatever reason, inbound wasn't as good as it was.
353
00:20:32.041 --> 00:20:33.042
And that's what led to it.
354
00:20:33.062 --> 00:20:36.783
Not so much that I was out of the field or kind of sitting back.
355
00:20:37.377 --> 00:20:46.441
Have you changed, like, because now, I guess probably this year, or coming in 2026, I guess Matthew would probably be more in profit mode in Lafayette.
356
00:20:46.481 --> 00:20:47.622
That one's still in growth mode.
357
00:20:47.882 --> 00:20:54.965
Have you already kind of determined the difference in how you're compensating or bonusing those two different GMs, or are you kind of using the same model for both?
358
00:20:55.385 --> 00:20:58.707
I'm using the model you came up with a year or two ago.
359
00:20:59.327 --> 00:21:05.390
So for Lafayette, it's since third year, so it's distribution sharing.
360
00:21:06.290 --> 00:21:08.331
We had our first distribution for Q2.
361
00:21:08.431 --> 00:21:09.151
It was a small one.
362
00:21:09.692 --> 00:21:13.473
I think the total distribution between him and myself was just under $2,000.
363
00:21:13.493 --> 00:21:16.195
So not a lot, but at least it shows that
364
00:21:17.756 --> 00:21:20.139
there is profit in the business and kind of show him what it looks like.
365
00:21:20.560 --> 00:21:23.143
And I expect Q3, Q4 to be really where the profit is.
366
00:21:23.724 --> 00:21:27.129
Q3, I expect another distribution, a little bit bigger than that one.
367
00:21:28.611 --> 00:21:33.197
And then Q4, I expect it to be substantial, especially with the lights and snow.
368
00:21:34.999 --> 00:21:39.222
And then Broomfield is based off of growth mode, so it's revenue targets.
369
00:21:39.402 --> 00:21:44.145
Again, since we haven't been able to grow, we haven't hit those targets yet, but it's basically 20,000 to 40,000.
370
00:21:44.186 --> 00:21:48.769
There's a bonus each month that we hit that, 40 to 60, 60 plus.
371
00:21:48.809 --> 00:21:50.550
And that will continue for the first two years at least.
372
00:21:50.810 --> 00:21:51.011
Got it.
373
00:21:51.271 --> 00:21:52.592
And Matthew, how long has he been with you?
374
00:21:53.224 --> 00:21:54.185
Since February.
375
00:21:54.525 --> 00:21:55.025
Okay.
376
00:21:55.045 --> 00:21:55.826
So it's still this year.
377
00:21:55.846 --> 00:21:56.166
Yeah.
378
00:21:56.186 --> 00:21:56.467
Got it.
379
00:21:56.707 --> 00:21:59.569
And so he went through Spring Rush right off the rip.
380
00:21:59.689 --> 00:21:59.849
Yep.
381
00:22:00.029 --> 00:22:00.349
Got it.
382
00:22:00.489 --> 00:22:00.950
Let's go.
383
00:22:02.291 --> 00:22:03.332
Got to get through Spring Rush.
384
00:22:03.532 --> 00:22:04.052
I know we're late.
385
00:22:04.072 --> 00:22:04.312
Sorry.
386
00:22:04.572 --> 00:22:04.753
No.
387
00:22:04.893 --> 00:22:05.273
You're good.
388
00:22:05.433 --> 00:22:05.873
Yeah, yeah.
389
00:22:05.973 --> 00:22:07.495
But should we go ahead of coaching?
390
00:22:07.575 --> 00:22:08.615
Probably pretty soon here.
391
00:22:08.896 --> 00:22:09.296
Yeah.
392
00:22:09.416 --> 00:22:10.437
Do you want to check the other?
393
00:22:11.277 --> 00:22:11.397
Sure.
394
00:22:11.417 --> 00:22:12.318
Is it the same thing basically?
395
00:22:12.338 --> 00:22:13.119
Yeah, it's basically the same thing.
396
00:22:13.139 --> 00:22:13.479
It was smaller.
397
00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:13.979
That's cool.
398
00:22:13.999 --> 00:22:16.141
How much do you have to pay for these?
399
00:22:18.185 --> 00:22:23.372
Between the three units, the four parking spaces, we spend $1,200 to $1,300.
400
00:22:23.533 --> 00:22:24.935
That's not too bad right here.
401
00:22:25.696 --> 00:22:27.098
No, because office space, like...
402
00:22:28.650 --> 00:22:33.792
Classy warehouse space or whatever, starting at $2,600, I think was the cheapest I've ever seen.
403
00:22:33.972 --> 00:22:38.953
And even if they have space then for the trucks and allow you to have fuel and all the rest of it, too.
404
00:22:38.993 --> 00:22:39.273
Yeah.
405
00:22:39.293 --> 00:22:39.893
That's the challenge.
406
00:22:41.174 --> 00:22:43.515
So that unit, I don't know if you want to see it, it's boxes.
407
00:22:43.755 --> 00:22:44.155
Same thing?
408
00:22:44.715 --> 00:22:46.215
No, it's Christmas light storage.
409
00:22:46.275 --> 00:22:46.676
Oh, really?
410
00:22:46.776 --> 00:22:47.496
Yeah.
411
00:22:47.616 --> 00:22:49.216
So you had 37 last year.
412
00:22:49.236 --> 00:22:53.037
Do you pre-order a bunch more for this year, or just as you sell them?
413
00:22:53.098 --> 00:22:56.519
Yeah, I pre-ordered basically 50 houses worth of lights.
414
00:22:59.885 --> 00:23:06.309
So to do 100, so our average last year was $1,000.
415
00:23:07.230 --> 00:23:13.214
So with the lights I have on hand, we could probably do 70 to 80 clients.
416
00:23:13.414 --> 00:23:21.940
And so if I need to, we had a lot of extra inventory last year just because what customers wanted for different lights.
417
00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:26.003
But we should be able to do at least 80 customers.
418
00:23:27.371 --> 00:23:28.231
But yeah, this is Broomfield.
419
00:23:28.251 --> 00:23:34.114
We actually had unit two before, over was Lafayette's original one.
420
00:23:34.234 --> 00:23:35.095
So 10 by 20.
421
00:23:35.775 --> 00:23:37.095
That one's a 10 by 30.
422
00:23:38.276 --> 00:23:40.597
And this is kind of like what it looks like.
423
00:23:40.917 --> 00:23:41.117
Cool.
424
00:23:41.397 --> 00:23:44.499
And so it's really just the one GM working for that one now.
425
00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:47.120
Do you think next year he'll get one employee kind of thing?
426
00:23:47.260 --> 00:23:51.885
Yeah, I wanted to get, I projected to have one employee for here.
427
00:23:51.945 --> 00:24:06.401
We just didn't get the lead growth, but next year definitely fill up that one truck, get it, just get capacity with those two so that we can save up, get another truck if we need to and continue growing.
428
00:24:06.861 --> 00:24:08.663
I started with two trucks right off the rip.
429
00:24:11.760 --> 00:24:12.780
That was fine.
430
00:24:12.820 --> 00:24:15.122
That worked out well for the 240.
431
00:24:15.162 --> 00:24:19.483
I think we got the third truck early last year.
432
00:24:19.804 --> 00:24:22.725
So, yeah, we went all of 2020 through with two trucks, and that worked out well.
433
00:24:22.925 --> 00:24:23.865
Got it.
434
00:24:23.885 --> 00:24:27.127
So that location maybe grew, what, like 15% this year then?
435
00:24:27.427 --> 00:24:27.907
Lafayette?
436
00:24:28.127 --> 00:24:28.327
15%?
437
00:24:28.367 --> 00:24:28.788
Or do what?
438
00:24:28.888 --> 00:24:30.468
In terms of growth this year?
439
00:24:30.649 --> 00:24:31.349
Oh.
440
00:24:32.329 --> 00:24:33.790
Because it went from like 420 to 550?
441
00:24:34.310 --> 00:24:37.292
Yeah, it'll probably be 20 to 30.
442
00:24:37.312 --> 00:24:38.112
Okay.
443
00:24:38.432 --> 00:24:39.813
In the spring, we were at...
444
00:24:41.534 --> 00:24:56.992
Q1 our growth was around 30% before things dipped off in the spring and so overall in the year I think we're still at 10-20% and then hopefully in the last part of the year we'll keep going that's awesome man, good stuff
