I Helped 4 Owners With Their $1M+ Home Service Businesses

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It's tough because there's no immediate pain.
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The only thing you can lean into is the fact that their contract is coming up.
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Yes, although I think I might be sabotaging him just because we also lost the tech.
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So then he's the only person available to fill in for that.
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The reason is, is because you're going to lose 200K for the first two years doing franchising.
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At least.
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Like, minimum.
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I think I lost 480,000 the first year.
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You've got to go get the 10K.
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people that are ready to go sign up.
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And the number one thing you can do is risk reversal for them because they have no confidence in your longevity.
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If you asked your guys right now, how much did you make on P4P?
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Or are you going to make it this month?
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It'd be hard for them to quantify when there's all these variables.
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Today, I'm gonna be doing private coaching with several home service millionaires
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These members are part of the Home Service Boardroom.
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This is a school community that I recently started for seven-figure home service entrepreneurs.
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So if you're interested in joining these calls, in the description there's a link.
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You can join today, and I look forward to seeing you inside the boardroom.
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This year, my business will be making a million dollars in revenue.
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I need help with selling snow removal services in August.
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Okay.
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And right now, how much are you doing in snow out of the million?
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Probably around $300,000.
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It can vary, you know, way down to two, up to four, depending on how much it snows that season.
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Okay.
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And right now, is it mostly residential or is it all commercial for the snow plowing?
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We're probably 40% commercial, 60% residential.
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Okay.
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And so I assume a lot of the commercial stuff is more secure in terms of the locking and that contracting.
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Is that correct?
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Correct.
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Okay.
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So really it's the residential is where the opportunity is.
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If we package this correctly and try to sell it, is that what you're trying to think about?
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Well, I guess what I was trying to think about is best ways to sell it in August.
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Whether I should really be focusing on commercial in August versus
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residential at more of a pain point or, you know, which route I should go and some of that.
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In your market, do most of your commercial contracts renew in December?
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No, I would say 50% of them are between August and beginning of October.
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And then the other half, the folks that are just, don't think about it ahead of time.
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October to December.
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If I was only looking at snow, I would probably be saying we just double down on actually trying to lock in more commercial.
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Because it's steady revenue.
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It's also usually going to be more from a month.
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The revenue is going to come in usually regardless of whether or not it snows as much as residential, which is like boom or bust.
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And the problem with that is it's more of a business decision.
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Like, do you even want to be doing that much commercial or is residential where you want to be going?
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Well, I want to make sure to have enough funds to cover, you know, a team of six or so guys all winter long, whether it snows a lot or not.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Then I would probably go the commercial route.
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My question, though, becomes when you have to take on other aspects of the contract, like mowing, bush maintenance, etc., does that become operationally difficult if you also... Do you have to do those other things outside of just the snow on those contracts?
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Generally not.
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Oh, really?
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So you can just get the snow contract?
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In certain ones.
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If we're talking about an apartment complex or something, that's kind of a
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a full service all the way around.
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But there's a lot of the businesses that are just looking for shows.
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Okay.
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And if you had to... Have you tried any sort of a specific offer to activate these commercial contracts during the summer?
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Or have you not tried anything in the past?
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Just cold calling in August.
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Okay.
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Hmm...
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It's tough because there's no immediate pain.
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The only thing you can lean into is the fact that their contract is coming up.
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Right.
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And so of your commercial, how many how many of those commercial are coming from a couple property managers or is it pretty distributed?
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Pretty distributed.
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OK, mostly commercial like property managers or is it individual landlords and owners of like buildings?
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Or so individual.
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Yeah.
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Really?
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Okay.
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I'd be really interested to see, like, this would be a pretty hands-on way of doing things, but either scraping a list or individually going through the county assessor's office and looking for the owners.
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Because usually, you can see the property owner's information.
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And even if it's their LLC, you'll get their mailing information.
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And it might only be like, let's just call it 200 addresses.
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But you start putting them into a mail sequence, but you're targeting specifically, like...
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likely going to be small commercial, multifamily, and you're actually going after landlords.
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And so I would be targeting their pain points, which is like, they do not want to be called in the middle of the night when it's snowing.
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They do not want insurance claims.
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So around icing, for example, like putting down salt, and you're going to target them slightly different or message them slightly different than a property manager.
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Because property managers just like what you handle everything, they, they are much more like,
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just get it done kind of thing, your owners, if they own like a 10 unit apartment complex or a small strip mall, they are gonna be gonna be more involved in this process.
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I think if you warmed them up like with a three or four mailing sequence to maybe 200 or 300 addresses, your actual cost here is not gonna be the print or the stamps, it's going to be getting the right information and the data to go after this audience.
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And what would be your suggestion on pricing in August, September versus something like October, November, December?
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Yeah.
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So like, I would say trying to activate them prior to that with either an offer or just some sort of a discount if they do buy a certain date.
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So for example, a lot of times priority is one thing you can use with commercials.
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Like, Hey, if you sign up before October 1st, you get priority on, on the route.
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And so we're going to service you before everyone else on our commercial route.
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Therefore, you're going to have better service and just sell the fact that you're going
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If, you know, worst case scenarios, you fill up your schedule.
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And now we're going into the time when most people are calling you anyways, October, November, December, and you're left with the decision of either raising prices or extending capacity by getting another plow truck.
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But I think in this case, which is unique to me is most of the time for snow, they require all the other services.
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If that's not the case, awesome.
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Also, in this case, usually when I say snow, I think that commercial changes the whole way that you do it versus residential.
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It sounds like you're doing small commercial, which is like a niche that you could potentially have two to three hundred people you're actually trying to target.
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And so it's just simply going to come down to getting that information.
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You could use AI a little bit for this, but I also think, again, it's very hand-to-hand, but you could very much go in the property assessor's office, look up for all the properties that are over a certain number of units or a certain value and are commercial, and then just hit that list of...
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three to 500 people, and the actual cost of doing that's gonna be less than $500 to print, and I would do four different types.
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So like every three weeks, I'd be sending them something else hitting a different pain point.
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So it might be insurance, like slip and falls, what the cost of an insurance claim is.
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Then it might be the fact that they're going to get priority in terms of the way you do your routing.
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And then I'd be going after the pain point of like, hey, we have 30 more days to get on the schedule.
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You'll get creative with the ways to hit them.
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But I think this is mostly, most people will not do this because getting the 500 addresses and names is a bit of a pain in the butt.
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Once you got them, you got them.
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Yeah, 100%, right?
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And you might be able to put an agent on this.
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So if you have like Claude Cowork, or if you have played with AI at all, you could open up the Accounting Assessors Office, give it access to your browser, and then just give it the parameters that you want it to search for.
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And it might take it a day or two, and you might eat up some tokens.
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But the alternative is, and I'm not against this option either, which is literally set the parameters for someone to sit down and say, hey, anything over this number of units or this property value that is commercial or is multifamily.
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So I would come up with what the conventions of your codes, like the zoning in your area, and filter by those and then property value, and then come up with that and scrape that data.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Awesome.
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Hopefully that was like directionally something you can actually take action on.
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It is going to either crush or it's going to fall flat.
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But I think if that would be what I would go after first before residential, which is going to be very difficult because residential people don't usually think about something until there's pain.
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And so until the snow flies, like they'll call you in December when it snows.
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And my hope is that we fill as you could have capacity with the commercial.
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So when they do call in December and you have to have your guys work overtime, you're charging a enormous amount of a premium to the residential customer.
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I have a residential pool service business doing about 1.2 million in sales, probably this year at about 1.1 last year.
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And my problem is keeping up quality in our business.
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full cleans division.
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We have full cleans and repairs separate as I've been sort of cycling through team leads or just ops managers sort of for that division.
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So we lost a couple of good people earlier this year.
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One quit, one got fired.
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So we've had a little bit of turnover and I'm struggling to have my team lead own the standard and make that his whole thing.
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I still get calls from his team.
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And I probably need to because quality is not good.
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I'm struggling to get him to own that.
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Has he worked with you as a technician in the past?
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Yeah, he's been a tech for three years.
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Okay.
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And did you promote him once the last person left or got fired?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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He's sort of interim filling the role.
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Okay.
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Oh, it's more of an interim position.
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Sorry, he was interimly, he was sort of filling the role, even though he was not given the title until a couple weeks ago.
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Okay.
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And is he clear that it's his job responsibility to be taking care of quality on the maintenance side?
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Yes.
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Although I think I might be sabotaging him just because we also lost the tech.
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So then he's the only person available to fill in for that.
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So I feel bad for not giving him enough time to solve the problem.
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And is it clearly defined that you are responsible for hiring?
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No, I've kept that.
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Okay.
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Oh, that's fine that you kept it.
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My point is...
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he might be thinking that you are quote unquote sabotaging him because you're not hiring enough if that's your responsibility.
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And so generally I try not to expect a manager to take full accountability or ownership of a role.
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If one of the ingredients that they need to be successful in their role depends on me doing my job.
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And so if he feels like he's understaffed, I really can't judge him if I'm the one that has to hire for the technician role.
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Okay.
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I've just hired a guy.
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Okay.
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So he's currently training the new guy.
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So the capacity problem will be done, well, should be solved in two to three weeks of training.
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I guess I just, I asked this group in the community the other day, but I struggled to communicate my expectations and hold them to it because I feel like I've not given them enough training.
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You know, how much training is enough training?
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Before it's like, it's his fault and everything that happened.
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iPhone rings, you're not doing your job.
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I struggle to like have that level of clarity until I've given them what I think is everything that they need to succeed.
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No, 100%.
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And this is very common when you have churn of any sort of manager position is the person that gets put in their place.
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They're either A, like you said, in this case, he's been on the team, he's kind of vicariously been doing these tasks before, and now he just kind of assumes that role.
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And so there's no real change in what they're doing because they kind of were doing it already.
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or the other side, which does not happen in this case, is you bring someone in really fast that's outside the organization and don't properly set them up for success because you're just in a rush to fill the role.
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And so I would be, I bet if, I wonder if you talk to him or someone else talked to him and asked him, what do you do differently now than you did six months ago?
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He might not have a great answer for that because we haven't been clear about,
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these are the things you must do and here's how you win.
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And for him, he might know he's responsible for maintenance, but does his compensation change or any of his bonuses or anything change based upon quality of the maintenance department?
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I have not, we do P for P. Okay.
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And I gave him a separate quarterly bonus in relation to being a team lead versus a tech.
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but I have not clearly defined what is the level of standard, what is the quality, which I think part of that comes from, like you said, the churn, where I'm like, at what point is it no longer the last guy's fault that these pools are all broken?
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At what point is it your fault, and it's your problem, and it's your bonus?
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I would feel bad being like, and you didn't get the bonus this quarter, although your first two months was...
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sucking the last guy's problems.
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And now it's on you, but it's been a whole quarter.
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That's great.
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So what you said to me is what you say to him.
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You say, hey, look, I know that there's quality problems because of the last hire.
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How long do you think we can, it's going to take for us to get it up to standard?
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And then starting from there, I'm going to make sure I align bonuses and compensation or their goals, which usually have something to do with making more money.
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I'm going to do a good job of making it clear between them making more money and their goals being accomplished.
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And I'm going to say, I will give you more money once these certain standards are met.
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But how long do you think it's going to take for us to get it up to standard?
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Right?
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Because if he consciously knows the pools, he knows this current standard, he knows the last person, I'm going to assume he thinks that that last person did a poor job.
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He'll be like, hey, I need a solid month.
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So like, give me till the end of August.
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And after that, I think we'll get up to standard.
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He said, great.
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Starting September 1st is when these bonuses will apply.
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And I would probably do it based on a grid system, which is like efficiency on the y-axis.
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X-axis would be the number of callbacks or percentage of callbacks.
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And so he's sort of balanced between quality and quantity.
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Okay, this may be the wrong follow-up question.
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You're fine.
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struggled to let him run meetings and also struggled to let him give me solutions.
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I ended up giving him a lot of solutions because he doesn't talk and I talk too much.
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So I'm like, I hand him a meeting.
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I'm like, all right, you're running the first half of the meeting based on quality and efficiency.
212
00:15:46.422 --> 00:15:50.705
I'm running the second half on values and general problems with equipment.
213
00:15:51.546 --> 00:15:55.008
And he'll say like seven words and then throw it back to me.
214
00:15:55.749 --> 00:15:55.909
Mm-hmm.
215
00:15:57.109 --> 00:16:00.870
I've not had one-on-ones with him yet, so I haven't exactly addressed this with him directly.
216
00:16:01.350 --> 00:16:03.151
But I'm like, all right, so what are your ideas?
217
00:16:03.171 --> 00:16:04.111
I'm not sure.
218
00:16:04.191 --> 00:16:07.212
And then I'll talk for 20 minutes and be like, okay, let's go do that.
219
00:16:07.772 --> 00:16:07.952
Yeah.
220
00:16:08.432 --> 00:16:15.955
So I'm sure, yeah, I don't know how to get him to talk more or if that's just like a genetic trait or something.
221
00:16:16.175 --> 00:16:16.635
Yeah, I don't know.
222
00:16:17.255 --> 00:16:19.076
Yeah, like some people just don't like to talk.
223
00:16:19.216 --> 00:16:19.876
So that's one thing.
224
00:16:20.216 --> 00:16:22.437
Like they're just inherently more introverted.
225
00:16:22.657 --> 00:16:25.038
You put them in front of a team meeting, they kind of fall flat in their face.
226
00:16:25.638 --> 00:16:25.878
So...
227
00:16:27.028 --> 00:16:34.835
It has to be very clear as to why them talking in front of the team allows them to hit certain metrics and allows them to hit their goals.
228
00:16:35.635 --> 00:16:37.297
Right now, he doesn't really understand.
229
00:16:37.317 --> 00:16:45.604
And if there are no metrics that he's trying to hit or bonuses that he's trying to achieve, it's very hard to convince him to change behavior because he's like, look, this is working.
230
00:16:45.664 --> 00:16:47.145
I'm getting paid the same no matter what.
231
00:16:47.685 --> 00:16:49.167
I don't need to change anyone's behavior.
232
00:16:49.187 --> 00:16:49.427
Right.
233
00:16:49.907 --> 00:17:07.497
But now all of a sudden, if maintenance, that department, needs to improve their quality, and he's responsible to teach the team about quality, and his compensation is tied to that quality metric, now I can actually expect his behavior to change because there's an incentive alignment.
234
00:17:08.098 --> 00:17:08.458
Makes sense.
235
00:17:08.923 --> 00:17:12.707
And so what I would probably do is have it- Yeah, his pay has not gone up or down.
236
00:17:12.727 --> 00:17:17.251
Yeah, like that's a great place to start because in his mind now, it's like, I am taking all this extra responsibility.
237
00:17:17.271 --> 00:17:22.056
Boss wants me to all of a sudden talk in a team meeting and I haven't got a single extra penny in my compensation.
238
00:17:22.396 --> 00:17:23.097
That's not fair.
239
00:17:23.317 --> 00:17:28.603
And if he's thinking that, he's not going to deploy any discretionary effort towards any of these new tasks you're putting on his plate.
240
00:17:29.143 --> 00:17:32.206
What I would say is in your mind, you're like, well, I can't really give him-
241
00:17:33.087 --> 00:17:36.309
a fair comp because the previous person's quality is so bad.
242
00:17:36.369 --> 00:17:36.589
Great.
243
00:17:36.849 --> 00:17:40.151
Have that conversation with him and be like, I understand we're behind.
244
00:17:40.371 --> 00:17:43.212
I understand that you've been unequipped in terms of number of team members.
245
00:17:43.572 --> 00:17:46.794
I understand that there's jobs, pools that we're way behind in terms of quality.
246
00:17:46.834 --> 00:17:47.635
It's up to our standards.
247
00:17:47.975 --> 00:17:50.796
How long do you think it'll take for us to get there?
248
00:17:51.176 --> 00:17:56.079
And then when he says a date, you use that date as the time when his bonus and compensation changes.
249
00:17:56.759 --> 00:17:59.961
And if you do that, he might be like, well, I might be able to do it in the next two weeks.
250
00:18:00.948 --> 00:18:05.010
right, and get things back up to standard, because you're going to definitely change his base.
251
00:18:05.070 --> 00:18:15.253
If he's changed his role title and you're expecting him to do, I would change his base to some degree, but then definitely making sure that he has incentives around the quality of the maintenance department.
252
00:18:15.994 --> 00:18:17.954
He has incentives around the efficiency of the team.
253
00:18:18.335 --> 00:18:24.617
Otherwise, if you don't align the incentives, you are betting on this person being these unicorns that will work hard no matter what.
254
00:18:27.185 --> 00:18:30.968
Long landscaping business this year, we'll probably do just over one.
255
00:18:31.028 --> 00:18:34.250
So probably 1.1, 1.2 in revenue.
256
00:18:34.310 --> 00:18:38.974
Question being, currently have a foreman that's, when I say foreman, like he's kind of just running landscape.
257
00:18:39.454 --> 00:18:44.678
I would say I'm out of the field, but I still, I guess, coordinate some things as far as like jobs go.
258
00:18:46.026 --> 00:18:47.987
So looking to make him more of a general manager.
259
00:18:48.007 --> 00:18:50.770
So I wouldn't really say I'm doing operations.
260
00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:52.751
I guess I'm still one foot in a little bit.
261
00:18:53.392 --> 00:18:55.033
But he's just running landscape.
262
00:18:55.053 --> 00:19:02.059
So question being, as far as making him a general manager where I want him to run the majority of it, what do you think the process should be?
263
00:19:02.099 --> 00:19:06.582
Like 30, 60, 90 day, I guess, process for that?
264
00:19:06.602 --> 00:19:09.625
And the second thing would be I'm planning to start another location next
265
00:19:11.178 --> 00:19:11.819
next season.
266
00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:16.822
So where do you think I should fit in as far as what roles I need to do for that second location?
267
00:19:16.842 --> 00:19:22.025
The second location is probably only going to have one crew obviously to start out and as it grows, get a little bit bigger.
268
00:19:22.065 --> 00:19:27.849
But where do you think I should fit in and where should I fit him in the guy that I'm trying to make a general manager?
269
00:19:28.570 --> 00:19:31.712
And then what roles should each of us have so we're not stepping on toes?
270
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:34.021
whatever else, if that makes sense.
271
00:19:34.221 --> 00:19:34.522
Totally.
272
00:19:34.922 --> 00:19:42.028
So I'm going to assume that this location that you're currently at 1.2 million, you're not necessarily trying to grow that to 2 million.
273
00:19:42.048 --> 00:19:44.571
Like you, you kind of have hit a place you're putting in profit mode.
274
00:19:44.591 --> 00:19:45.031
No, no.
275
00:19:45.191 --> 00:19:46.352
You're handing it off to the GM.
276
00:19:46.953 --> 00:19:47.253
Correct.
277
00:19:47.313 --> 00:19:47.533
Yeah.
278
00:19:47.654 --> 00:19:48.394
I don't want, yeah.
279
00:19:48.434 --> 00:19:50.256
Right now it's three crews, two crews are maintenance.
280
00:19:50.416 --> 00:19:54.400
So those are kind of running like by themselves, obviously like spring and whatever else selling stuff.
281
00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:54.660
Like,
282
00:19:55.088 --> 00:19:59.271
It's hectic, but then after that, really, this guy only really has to sell, like, just the landscape.
283
00:19:59.652 --> 00:20:03.915
So two crews maintenance, one crew landscape, and I, yeah, don't want to add another crew to this location.
284
00:20:03.935 --> 00:20:07.618
Kind of, yeah, like you said, profit mode and not growing bigger, for sure.
285
00:20:08.078 --> 00:20:12.181
And right now, is he involved at all in maintenance or pretty much exclusively on the landscape side?
286
00:20:12.842 --> 00:20:15.184
Only landscape, and he's kind of just running the landscape.
287
00:20:15.324 --> 00:20:16.545
I'm kind of doing all sales.
288
00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:24.446
I don't really have anybody in admin, so I'm kind of doing admin as well, which I know you're going to tell me I need to get somebody in admin for sure.
289
00:20:26.088 --> 00:20:27.989
So he's just doing landscape maintenance.
290
00:20:28.089 --> 00:20:28.930
I'm kind of dealing with it.
291
00:20:28.950 --> 00:20:30.672
I mean, the maintenance goes like...
292
00:20:31.372 --> 00:20:32.753
There's not really much to do, obviously.
293
00:20:32.793 --> 00:20:36.897
I mean, if something breaks or whatever else, I mean, I'll go out there and see them on a mower, make sure they're good.
294
00:20:36.937 --> 00:20:38.278
But for the most part, it kind of runs itself.
295
00:20:38.699 --> 00:20:39.860
I have two foreman doing that.
296
00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:40.740
So they're kind of just...
297
00:20:40.760 --> 00:20:43.463
When I say foreman, they're kind of just running it through, is making sure everything's done right.
298
00:20:43.903 --> 00:20:44.984
But as far as like...
299
00:20:45.578 --> 00:20:54.243
it doesn't really take much for the maintenance to like oversee as far as obviously landscape is a lot more involved with materials and everything else, obviously, and just get everything scheduled.
300
00:20:54.263 --> 00:20:56.844
So he doesn't have anything to do with the maintenance crews.
301
00:20:57.164 --> 00:20:59.165
And how many technicians total do you have?
302
00:20:59.265 --> 00:21:01.447
So outside of you and him, how many technicians are there?
303
00:21:03.788 --> 00:21:04.188
Seven.
304
00:21:04.288 --> 00:21:09.531
So it's two maintenance, two maintenance, and then three on the landscape, including him.
305
00:21:09.711 --> 00:21:11.012
So then me would be,
306
00:21:12.274 --> 00:21:12.634
What is that?
307
00:21:12.934 --> 00:21:13.074
Eight.
308
00:21:13.274 --> 00:21:13.454
Yeah.
309
00:21:14.095 --> 00:21:14.655
Yeah.
310
00:21:14.735 --> 00:21:15.115
That's solid.
311
00:21:15.175 --> 00:21:15.815
Okay, cool.
312
00:21:15.835 --> 00:21:18.437
So I do believe he can run this as a GM.
313
00:21:19.257 --> 00:21:22.658
I think my biggest concern is the sales side on landscape.
314
00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:25.119
Do you think he can sell the landscape jobs?
315
00:21:25.139 --> 00:21:26.180
Yeah, which he hasn't done yet.
316
00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:26.440
Okay.
317
00:21:26.460 --> 00:21:26.640
Okay.
318
00:21:27.907 --> 00:21:28.987
I think he can, for sure.
319
00:21:29.007 --> 00:21:30.268
I think he can, yeah.
320
00:21:30.308 --> 00:21:40.532
I mean, whenever he's talking to customers about like a job or whatever else, I mean, like there's been a lot of like upsell opportunities that he's already like taken and Google reviews are obviously huge and like he's gotten a crap load of Google reviews this year.
321
00:21:40.552 --> 00:21:42.513
So I think he definitely like can talk to customers well.
322
00:21:43.073 --> 00:21:43.553
He can do it.
323
00:21:43.973 --> 00:21:45.554
And he like went out and went with Colton yet?
324
00:21:45.674 --> 00:21:47.775
No, which I'm like, I'm thinking I need to start doing.
325
00:21:48.155 --> 00:21:51.136
And obviously I don't want to just throw and be like, all right, your new job is to sell.
326
00:21:51.276 --> 00:21:52.096
Like, you know what I mean?
327
00:21:52.116 --> 00:21:53.857
That's what I'm kind of thinking like 30, 60, 90 days.
328
00:21:53.877 --> 00:21:55.838
Like what would the process be if like you were in,
329
00:21:56.567 --> 00:21:58.608
my shoes just to, you know, not just throw them out there.
330
00:21:58.668 --> 00:21:59.889
And if it works, it works.
331
00:21:59.929 --> 00:22:00.630
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
332
00:22:00.650 --> 00:22:01.390
You know what I mean?
333
00:22:01.450 --> 00:22:04.953
So he has not sold yet, but I am confident that he can, like obviously with some time.
334
00:22:05.153 --> 00:22:05.313
Yep.
335
00:22:05.633 --> 00:22:13.639
So before you even do a 30, 60, 90 for him, which is basically 30, 60, 90 is he does it with you, you do it with him and then he's on his own.
336
00:22:13.699 --> 00:22:14.979
Like that's the 30, 60, 90.
337
00:22:15.380 --> 00:22:20.944
Before you even start that though, I really want a 30, 60, 90 for the overall business to get it ready.
338
00:22:20.964 --> 00:22:21.064
Yeah.
339
00:22:21.744 --> 00:22:22.905
to actually do this.
340
00:22:23.626 --> 00:22:29.171
And so the, like, there are three levers I would be pulling before I even pull him in.
341
00:22:29.451 --> 00:22:30.993
The first is simplification.
342
00:22:31.774 --> 00:22:39.161
And that is, I want to, I want to ask yourself, which jobs when it comes to landscaping are the hardest to bid?
343
00:22:39.181 --> 00:22:45.366
The ones that, you know, every time you give him or like, you need, you're kind of going to get pulled into it, like strip those out.
344
00:22:46.027 --> 00:22:54.032
Because before I even bring him into training around sales for projects, I need to make sure I've simplified the 20% of jobs that cause 80% of the headache.
345
00:22:54.813 --> 00:22:56.634
And so I don't even want to train him on those.
346
00:22:57.254 --> 00:22:58.935
It makes the training process annoying.
347
00:22:59.175 --> 00:22:59.916
They don't like it.
348
00:23:00.156 --> 00:23:03.018
They feel like a failure because it's just a tough thing to learn.
349
00:23:03.478 --> 00:23:07.461
So I would first be looking, okay, what are the 10 services we do in landscape installs?
350
00:23:08.201 --> 00:23:32.397
cut two or three of them that you know are just always one off or maybe you do them once every three four months and so you're not even going to get one of them underneath your belt with him under in the 30 60 90 that you do with him i just want them removed and i do believe that if you actually did that like this year okay very good um like last year we were doing like some walls and drainage and everything else and like yeah i mean like you said i mean i was at every single one of those
351
00:23:32.897 --> 00:23:34.338
So we're not taking on any of that.
352
00:23:34.358 --> 00:23:35.659
So right now, I'm gonna say landscape.
353
00:23:35.719 --> 00:23:38.862
I mean, it's cleanups, it's mulch, it's like grading.
354
00:23:39.002 --> 00:23:42.625
He can do all of it and it's not anything super, super complicated.
355
00:23:43.537 --> 00:23:50.560
Yeah, so I mean, I would think the most complicated thing is we're having like a lot of new yard installs going, like new construction builds, and we're doing some of those.
356
00:23:50.580 --> 00:23:52.981
I would say that would be the only thing that's kind of like iffy.
357
00:23:53.562 --> 00:23:54.902
I mean, it's not hard.
358
00:23:54.962 --> 00:23:57.363
It's just obviously like bigger scale with creating and landscape.
359
00:23:57.403 --> 00:24:00.265
But again, I mean, it's just beds and dirt, you know what I mean?
360
00:24:00.285 --> 00:24:02.646
So it's not like, but no, I did take out everything else.
361
00:24:02.806 --> 00:24:05.447
So I would say that's like the only thing that might be on the chopping block.
362
00:24:06.008 --> 00:24:07.910
But everything else is pretty, pretty, pretty simple.
363
00:24:08.110 --> 00:24:13.494
So, um... And in terms of how far are you booked out with projects right now?
364
00:24:14.094 --> 00:24:15.075
Like six weeks, probably.
365
00:24:15.595 --> 00:24:16.296
Give or take.
366
00:24:16.616 --> 00:24:17.477
It was a little bit more.
367
00:24:17.697 --> 00:24:20.939
Summer slowed down a little bit, but... Are you spending much on marketing?
368
00:24:21.800 --> 00:24:22.621
Nothing, no.
369
00:24:22.641 --> 00:24:23.341
Just website.
370
00:24:23.682 --> 00:24:24.662
Okay, fantastic.
371
00:24:24.682 --> 00:24:24.943
So...
372
00:24:26.105 --> 00:24:30.913
After simplification, which it sounds like you've already done, that's why you've kind of like the revenue is not like skyrocketing right now.
373
00:24:30.973 --> 00:24:31.454
That's great.
374
00:24:31.995 --> 00:24:39.967
Then I'd be looking at price and I don't need you to like raise prices a ton, but I'd be seeing if I can optimize it to be able to squeeze out enough to cover admin.
375
00:24:40.822 --> 00:24:47.266
Because if you need to go get someone to work for you part-time to cover all the admin work that you're doing, because I'm trying to do two things, right?
376
00:24:47.526 --> 00:24:53.110
I'm trying to make his role easier for him to step into, and I'm trying to make sure you have enough time to go start this next location.
377
00:24:53.910 --> 00:24:55.631
And so you've done the simplification part.
378
00:24:55.911 --> 00:25:04.477
The next thing I'm trying to do is optimize price, because right now you only need to increase price by about 5% in order to be able to cover your admin person.
379
00:25:05.397 --> 00:25:20.765
If you're making $100,000, yeah, you could literally push a button, raise everything by 5%, probably not your bottom line or like at all and go hire an admin person and pay them a few thousand bucks a month to work part time doing emails, phone calls, payroll, all the rest of it.
380
00:25:21.872 --> 00:25:22.072
Yeah.
381
00:25:22.512 --> 00:25:23.493
And now, now if you do.
382
00:25:23.513 --> 00:25:24.614
Okay, that makes sense.
383
00:25:24.654 --> 00:25:26.235
And I mean, I hadn't even like, I know.
384
00:25:26.515 --> 00:25:26.756
Go ahead.
385
00:25:27.056 --> 00:25:31.999
I was gonna say, if you do those things, then, then I think you're in a really good spot.
386
00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:35.582
Cause now when you're training him, you don't worry about admin throughout the day.
387
00:25:36.142 --> 00:25:38.104
You're not worried about the price of that admin person.
388
00:25:38.144 --> 00:25:38.984
It's all been covered.
389
00:25:39.325 --> 00:25:46.290
And you can just focus on, okay, the, the, the, the simple services that we are going to do, I'm going to make sure they're really, really good at.
390
00:25:47.010 --> 00:25:48.952
And I don't have to worry about admin throughout the day.
391
00:25:49.553 --> 00:25:53.215
Then it would just be me and him basically selling, would you say?
392
00:25:53.535 --> 00:25:57.597
And making sure operations-wise, I think he's fine with that.
393
00:25:57.877 --> 00:26:00.278
But I think operations is just making sure the jobs are going smoothly.
394
00:26:00.298 --> 00:26:02.019
So Evan taking off the plate.
395
00:26:02.159 --> 00:26:04.400
So then I'm just looking at my job.
396
00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:06.321
I guess my role versus his role next year.
397
00:26:06.401 --> 00:26:07.782
Is it just me and him selling?
398
00:26:07.902 --> 00:26:11.984
And where would you see me to fit in, I guess?
399
00:26:12.284 --> 00:26:13.285
When are you trying to make this?
400
00:26:13.325 --> 00:26:14.445
I'm starting the next location.
401
00:26:14.625 --> 00:26:15.886
When do you want to start the second location?
402
00:26:15.906 --> 00:26:16.226
Next year?
403
00:26:16.246 --> 00:26:18.087
It's probably not going to be next spring.
404
00:26:18.562 --> 00:26:23.589
Okay, so my hope is that by that time, you can not be at this location.
405
00:26:24.864 --> 00:26:29.847
And to do that is going to require all these things and getting him trained up, et cetera.
406
00:26:30.428 --> 00:26:32.189
And we'll talk about his 30, 60, 90 in a second.
407
00:26:32.669 --> 00:26:36.952
But the reason is because I want you fully focused on sales when you go to that next location.
408
00:26:36.992 --> 00:26:39.653
Like you're just going to go there and just be able to scale the thing up.
409
00:26:39.833 --> 00:26:43.916
Cause finding that person that will do that for you, like start that location from zero, very hard to find.
410
00:26:43.936 --> 00:26:48.719
You're going to be that person, but in order to be able to have your time and attention over there, I need admin taking off your plate.
411
00:26:49.079 --> 00:26:53.402
I need him to know the sales process, like the back of his hand and be able to handle all of operations.
412
00:26:53.582 --> 00:26:53.722
Hmm.
413
00:26:54.002 --> 00:26:56.044
And so this is quite the load you're putting on him.
414
00:26:57.225 --> 00:27:08.096
And I think it's possible if you have admin dialed in by then, and if you have completely simplified sales for him to be able to handle it, because he's not going to be as good at sales as you are.
415
00:27:08.717 --> 00:27:08.897
Yeah.
416
00:27:09.558 --> 00:27:12.161
And so his- And I probably should even need to start that like this year.
417
00:27:12.401 --> 00:27:14.343
So we're not just like next spring, oh, here you go.
418
00:27:14.363 --> 00:27:17.286
Like now you're just saying, like, I should probably start doing something that like this
419
00:27:17.641 --> 00:27:18.742
Yeah, later summer, fall.
420
00:27:18.902 --> 00:27:23.605
So what I would do... And we can even recoup in the winter and then what went good, what went bad.
421
00:27:23.945 --> 00:27:32.890
Yeah, if we're confident the only thing that he's going to really struggle with or the new task he has to take on is sales of projects, I would just change your schedule once you've hand off admin and...
422
00:27:34.131 --> 00:27:40.519
Change your daily schedule to be where in the afternoon from two to five is when you do all your sales estimates.
423
00:27:41.059 --> 00:27:45.745
And then he needs to get off of his job sites and come be with you for those few hours.
424
00:27:46.085 --> 00:27:54.114
And so you're gonna take a little bit of a financial hit for the month or two this summer and fall when he's getting off early and just literally gonna shadow you doing the estimates.
425
00:27:54.795 --> 00:27:57.356
And then once he's confident enough, you're like, okay, great.
426
00:27:57.416 --> 00:27:58.776
We're swapping roles.
427
00:27:58.916 --> 00:27:59.817
I'm going to follow you.
428
00:28:00.117 --> 00:28:04.578
You're still going to get off at two o'clock, but now you're doing the estimate and I will just be along for the ride.
429
00:28:04.858 --> 00:28:09.060
And after each estimate, we will go over what you did well and what you didn't do so well.
430
00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:10.580
I'm going to record them.
431
00:28:10.600 --> 00:28:17.983
So you're going to get like one of those little Osmo things that stick onto your chest or even the glasses, record the estimate and then watch it back with him.
432
00:28:18.583 --> 00:28:21.004
And so you have this really, really nice thing.
433
00:28:21.024 --> 00:28:24.444
You have like eight to nine, no, like nine months before you need to be out of the business.
434
00:28:25.085 --> 00:28:26.845
And so the first thing is like delegate admin.
435
00:28:26.865 --> 00:28:27.045
Yeah.
436
00:28:27.625 --> 00:28:33.367
Then I'm going to take a very slow role of, you know, him following me, then me following him.
437
00:28:33.647 --> 00:28:42.389
And then once, once you've done this role playing stuff enough, which you're following him and you're watching the game tape, you're, you're going over what worked and what didn't work well in the sales call.
438
00:28:43.049 --> 00:28:46.030
That's when, you know, you'll be very confident in his abilities.
439
00:28:47.462 --> 00:28:50.724
When you say follow me, follow him, I know you said the recording stuff.
440
00:28:50.784 --> 00:28:54.327
I mean, in the beginning, should both of us physically go to the customer?
441
00:28:54.347 --> 00:28:57.309
Or do you think I should record everything I do and then we watch it back?
442
00:28:57.689 --> 00:28:59.971
I know two people on the job saying, oh, this is a new guy.
443
00:28:59.991 --> 00:29:00.691
I'm training him.
444
00:29:01.312 --> 00:29:03.894
From a customer's perspective, should we both physically be there?
445
00:29:03.914 --> 00:29:06.596
Or do you think we should just each record it and then we kind of work through it that way?
446
00:29:07.197 --> 00:29:09.238
Oh, you just 100% say he's my apprentice.
447
00:29:09.498 --> 00:29:10.938
We're working together on the project.
448
00:29:11.058 --> 00:29:11.258
Yeah.
449
00:29:11.338 --> 00:29:11.558
Okay.
450
00:29:11.578 --> 00:29:12.178
We just bring him apart.
451
00:29:12.238 --> 00:29:12.499
Yeah.
452
00:29:12.699 --> 00:29:13.899
Like there's nothing to replace.
453
00:29:13.919 --> 00:29:26.923
Because like, otherwise him watching your recordings or you giving instruction, like a training session for him on how do you estimates, very hard for him to feel the same nerves that it is when you're in front of a customer and they're asking you a question about a very specific thing.
454
00:29:26.943 --> 00:29:27.043
Yeah.
455
00:29:27.263 --> 00:29:27.363
Yeah.
456
00:29:27.383 --> 00:29:27.483
Okay.
457
00:29:27.503 --> 00:29:27.603
Okay.
458
00:29:27.683 --> 00:29:32.528
And then you're going to find over the course of time, when you get back in the vehicle, he's going to be picking up on things, et cetera.
459
00:29:32.768 --> 00:29:38.054
And then after 30 days, you determine, Hey, after 30 days, you're doing it and I'm going to be watching.
460
00:29:38.715 --> 00:29:40.356
And so that way he takes the training.
461
00:29:40.396 --> 00:29:41.297
And we talk about it after.
462
00:29:41.418 --> 00:29:41.818
Exactly.
463
00:29:41.838 --> 00:29:41.918
Yep.
464
00:29:42.118 --> 00:29:42.859
Okay.
465
00:29:42.879 --> 00:29:43.520
That makes sense.
466
00:29:43.540 --> 00:29:44.701
That's why I was going to make sure.
467
00:29:45.322 --> 00:29:45.422
Um,
468
00:29:46.164 --> 00:29:52.368
Okay, so I mean, yeah, for sure, starting that this year, just so, yeah, he's not getting thrown to the wolves next year, which I think is still good.
469
00:29:52.769 --> 00:29:54.730
As far as, I guess, one question.
470
00:29:54.850 --> 00:29:58.332
Obviously, I can just figure this out, but we're on, like, full P4P, like, good.
471
00:29:58.552 --> 00:30:02.415
If he's getting off early, I guess, like, I mean, I can figure it out.
472
00:30:02.435 --> 00:30:09.200
But as far as, like, the other guys go, I'm just trying to think, like, how we can, like, still make sure, like... Or no, I guess that's not a big deal.
473
00:30:09.520 --> 00:30:14.563
As far as pay goes, like, for him, obviously, like, it's not, like, budget hours or whatever else, like, during those times.
474
00:30:14.583 --> 00:30:15.684
So do you think I should just pay him, like...
475
00:30:16.306 --> 00:30:21.090
a set... What should pay be as far as the training goes?
476
00:30:21.110 --> 00:30:23.612
A set per quote, you'll get this much for training?
477
00:30:24.637 --> 00:30:25.418
How should that work?
478
00:30:25.438 --> 00:30:29.820
Because right now it's like all P for P and all we care about is like budget hours and everything else.
479
00:30:29.880 --> 00:30:32.562
But obviously that's different when we're out of the field and doing quotes.
480
00:30:32.662 --> 00:30:34.383
So how do you think pay should be structured?
481
00:30:34.503 --> 00:30:48.751
I would have the conversation with him about what you want to happen over the next nine months and just be very clear that, hey, I understand this is going to impact your P for P. What do you think is a fair hourly rate that you would be excited about that after that 2 p.m. rolls around and you're with me?
482
00:30:49.091 --> 00:30:50.092
What do you want to be paid per hour?
483
00:30:50.812 --> 00:30:53.274
And I would make sure it's on the top end of his P4P.
484
00:30:53.374 --> 00:31:02.903
So if he's been making between, let's just say 20 and 30 bucks an hour, I'm going to be trying to probably push that 27, 28 to make sure he's looking forward to that time in the afternoon and not resenting it.
485
00:31:03.763 --> 00:31:04.564
Not like, yeah.
486
00:31:05.105 --> 00:31:05.845
Oh no, here we go.
487
00:31:05.865 --> 00:31:06.766
Like I'm making no money.
488
00:31:06.786 --> 00:31:07.006
Yeah.
489
00:31:07.186 --> 00:31:07.647
Exactly.
490
00:31:09.130 --> 00:31:15.294
But you think there's hourly, obviously, because it's obviously very hard to, like one quote could take 10 minutes, another quote could be an hour.
491
00:31:15.354 --> 00:31:17.055
Like, so you think there's hourly during that time?
492
00:31:17.295 --> 00:31:22.398
Yeah, because once you set him up, once he's running a $1.2 million location as GM, he's gonna have a base salary.
493
00:31:22.978 --> 00:31:27.881
And so I need him to get out, I need to retrain his brain a little bit on like, it's not all about just getting things done.
494
00:31:28.241 --> 00:31:31.903
Now I need to be efficient with how I schedule my, my estimates at the end of the day.
495
00:31:32.303 --> 00:31:32.884
I need to be scared.
496
00:31:32.984 --> 00:31:37.928
I need to be thinking about how I set up my team so they can work the last two to three hours a day and close out the job.
497
00:31:38.268 --> 00:31:39.789
He's going to have to think about all this stuff.
498
00:31:40.210 --> 00:31:45.574
And so I would just make it hourly, make it simple, make it high enough of a base pay, use it as a manual adjustment.
499
00:31:45.754 --> 00:31:54.381
So if you work three hours and it's 28 bucks a pop, that's $54 that he's going to get added to his base pay as a payroll bonus.
500
00:31:55.102 --> 00:31:55.582
It's not white.
501
00:31:55.702 --> 00:31:56.563
It can't get removed.
502
00:31:56.583 --> 00:31:56.743
Yeah.
503
00:31:57.223 --> 00:31:59.324
And just have him opt into that.
504
00:31:59.344 --> 00:32:06.765
Like he needs to be excited about it and just have that conversation with him and be like, Hey, once, once this is all done and I've started the second location, you're taking over full time.
505
00:32:07.045 --> 00:32:08.286
Here's what your salary is going to be.
506
00:32:08.646 --> 00:32:13.027
But in the meantime, you're going to be done between jobs and learning sales with me.
507
00:32:13.467 --> 00:32:16.688
And so we need to figure out what your hourly rate's going to be when you're with me.
508
00:32:16.768 --> 00:32:17.808
I want you to be excited about it.
509
00:32:18.368 --> 00:32:18.568
Yeah.
510
00:32:18.988 --> 00:32:19.248
Yeah.
511
00:32:19.408 --> 00:32:19.628
Okay.
512
00:32:19.668 --> 00:32:20.109
That makes sense.
513
00:32:21.009 --> 00:32:21.369
That's good.
514
00:32:21.609 --> 00:32:25.810
Um, I know you're saying like 30, 60, 90 for that, I think, or, uh,
515
00:32:26.541 --> 00:32:28.002
I think we're already good with that for him.
516
00:32:28.342 --> 00:32:33.486
And then next year, just put on a full-time guy, get to second location.
517
00:32:33.546 --> 00:32:36.729
I mean, I'm thinking kind of same thing, very simple, obviously, services.
518
00:32:37.970 --> 00:32:40.311
We're just very similar location.
519
00:32:40.371 --> 00:32:43.013
My house is kind of right in the middle, the two servicers, kind of.
520
00:32:43.033 --> 00:32:46.836
So, I mean, it's not like we're going hours away or anything, very close.
521
00:32:46.856 --> 00:32:50.339
Do you think just selling that and just getting that started?
522
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:50.999
Because obviously...
523
00:32:52.694 --> 00:32:55.136
new location, like I'm going to obviously basically start with a real customer.
524
00:32:55.156 --> 00:32:59.739
So you think that's like just full time for me then next, next spring after this is kind of handed off to him.
525
00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:04.102
And the hardest part, honestly, for you is going to be not needed at the first location.
526
00:33:04.702 --> 00:33:05.603
That's the hardest part.
527
00:33:06.023 --> 00:33:13.588
Cause there's going to be this weird few weeks when you're starting the first location and you're like trying to like do marketing, you're getting like a leader to a day.
528
00:33:13.868 --> 00:33:16.050
Your first location is just crushing.
529
00:33:16.170 --> 00:33:17.090
Like it's, it's busy.
530
00:33:17.151 --> 00:33:20.032
Your guy's going to, your general manager's going to be having some problems.
531
00:33:20.213 --> 00:33:21.734
You're going to be tempted to jump back in.
532
00:33:22.394 --> 00:33:26.577
But I would just say the same way that I just talked about with the sales, I need to do the same thing with admin now.
533
00:33:26.997 --> 00:33:28.038
Then you can do it with sales.
534
00:33:28.398 --> 00:33:33.442
So that way, when you start your next location, you're going to feel a few months of like, I should be helping them.
535
00:33:33.502 --> 00:33:34.303
I should be jumping back in.
536
00:33:34.323 --> 00:33:41.108
And you're going to like avoid that because you're just going to handicap them and they won't take ownership of those roles if you're constantly jumping back in.
537
00:33:41.428 --> 00:33:45.771
And furthermore, even like early next spring, as things start to pick up, you're going to want to help.
538
00:33:45.791 --> 00:33:49.674
You're going to feel like useless for a few months before you start the new location.
539
00:33:50.014 --> 00:33:50.115
Yeah.
540
00:33:50.135 --> 00:33:50.255
Yeah.
541
00:33:50.899 --> 00:33:51.119
Okay.
542
00:33:51.199 --> 00:33:54.820
But just, yeah, stay out because obviously they're not learning if I'm just taking over everything.
543
00:33:55.241 --> 00:33:55.581
Yeah.
544
00:33:55.641 --> 00:33:58.082
They're learning, they're learning like quote unquote slower.
545
00:33:58.102 --> 00:33:58.282
Yeah.
546
00:33:58.302 --> 00:34:04.964
A hundred percent because they're going to learn that you step in every time there's a problem versus here's the training, here's the 30, 60, 90, and then you're done.
547
00:34:05.024 --> 00:34:06.865
Like you're off and we will talk once a week.
548
00:34:07.125 --> 00:34:08.025
We'll be on this cadence.
549
00:34:08.165 --> 00:34:08.926
Here's your metrics.
550
00:34:08.966 --> 00:34:09.646
Here's your bonuses.
551
00:34:09.666 --> 00:34:10.406
Here's your incentives.
552
00:34:10.706 --> 00:34:14.468
But as soon as you step back in, because you're on your perspective, you're just bored.
553
00:34:15.348 --> 00:34:20.390
But from their perspective, every time I have a problem, he steps back in and solves it like the genius.
554
00:34:22.679 --> 00:34:22.879
Yeah.
555
00:34:23.540 --> 00:34:24.340
Okay, that makes sense.
556
00:34:24.901 --> 00:34:27.724
Yeah, I think that was the main thing, I don't know.
557
00:34:27.764 --> 00:34:30.766
Do you think of anything else that'd be useful as far as like that goes?
558
00:34:30.966 --> 00:34:34.009
I mean, I think that's like the majority of it.
559
00:34:34.129 --> 00:34:37.092
The unsexy part is gonna be getting the admin off your plate, right?
560
00:34:37.532 --> 00:34:39.274
And because that part you've juggled yourself.
561
00:34:39.354 --> 00:34:41.896
And so figuring out like, what's the part-time cadence gonna be?
562
00:34:42.176 --> 00:34:43.838
What are the tasks you need them to complete?
563
00:34:44.178 --> 00:34:47.081
What are the videos you're gonna record for that admin person?
564
00:34:47.281 --> 00:34:48.422
What do you need to prioritize?
565
00:34:48.442 --> 00:34:50.404
What are the 30 things you're currently doing in admin?
566
00:34:50.704 --> 00:34:59.472
like everything from running payroll to approving automations, to checking the inbox, to sending out blast texts, whatever you're doing has got to be systematized for the admin person.
567
00:34:59.933 --> 00:35:08.221
And I would spend all of your time and discretionary effort once he's good to go, refining your admin so that he never gets dragged into admin.
568
00:35:08.241 --> 00:35:10.623
That's my concern because that's what you've done in the past.
569
00:35:10.643 --> 00:35:11.944
You've done sales and admin.
570
00:35:11.964 --> 00:35:12.545
Yeah.
571
00:35:12.685 --> 00:35:17.290
is a lot of times it's very difficult to now hand sales off because you've always done admin.
572
00:35:17.310 --> 00:35:25.578
That's why I need you to separate admin first, get it off of your plate so that you're just training him on sales because you don't want him to also have to learn admin.
573
00:35:25.978 --> 00:35:26.919
That usually falls apart.
574
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:27.660
Mm-hmm.
575
00:35:28.298 --> 00:35:30.599
I know obviously sales and admin should be kind of last question.
576
00:35:30.619 --> 00:35:30.859
You're good.
577
00:35:30.899 --> 00:35:31.939
Get out of here.
578
00:35:32.019 --> 00:35:35.521
But I know obviously sales and admin obviously keep separate.
579
00:35:35.561 --> 00:35:41.263
But as far as like landscaping jobs go, and if you're given, obviously as a sales guy, you write up the quote and everything else.
580
00:35:41.323 --> 00:35:41.983
You send it off.
581
00:35:42.163 --> 00:35:46.625
Say they have questions about that and they want to talk to, well, in that case, just say me.
582
00:35:47.105 --> 00:35:50.847
But an admin person is the one answering the phone and answering the emails.
583
00:35:50.887 --> 00:35:51.027
Like,
584
00:35:51.580 --> 00:35:53.122
how should that work?
585
00:35:53.142 --> 00:35:56.766
Because the admin person is probably not going to know every little thing about like the landscape.
586
00:35:56.806 --> 00:35:58.308
So they want to talk to the guy that they were talking to.
587
00:35:58.448 --> 00:36:01.231
Like, how should that work without like stepping on toes?
588
00:36:01.251 --> 00:36:05.256
Like, should the admin just like say, hey, like you need to answer this one email or like, how should that work?
589
00:36:05.556 --> 00:36:10.842
Yeah, this handoff forces systematization because in the past, because you did both roles, you...
590
00:36:11.653 --> 00:36:14.014
Without knowing it gets sloppy on the sales side.
591
00:36:14.394 --> 00:36:23.336
So for example, in the past, you just maybe make a shorter estimate description knowing that if they have any questions, they'll call me and I'll clarify it with them.
592
00:36:23.756 --> 00:36:27.016
Whereas now you might say, okay, it's gonna be difficult for this admin person.
593
00:36:27.036 --> 00:36:28.437
They're not gonna be able to answer your question.
594
00:36:28.557 --> 00:36:33.078
They're literally just gonna be like, okay, I'll get back to the estimator and I'll get back to you if the customer calls them.
595
00:36:34.276 --> 00:36:37.899
What you're going to want to do now is an estimator is ask yourself, how do I prevent that from happening?
596
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:44.705
And one of those things might be taking a video for the customer that is also shared with the crew when they get to the project.
597
00:36:45.006 --> 00:36:47.888
But now the customer has notes and a video for every project.
598
00:36:48.329 --> 00:36:55.054
Do you share with the other thing is like, so we share, I think video, every single quote, and then that's given to the crew automatically.
599
00:36:56.322 --> 00:36:57.482
I don't share it with the customer.
600
00:36:57.803 --> 00:37:00.364
It's just kind of like, I guess the bigger thing is like changes.
601
00:37:00.404 --> 00:37:02.184
Like say, hey, we're going to install this bed.
602
00:37:02.284 --> 00:37:05.386
And then now, like this is exactly what we do.
603
00:37:05.426 --> 00:37:08.867
And then obviously, you know, customers like, obviously, oh, I only want three shrubs instead of this.
604
00:37:08.887 --> 00:37:14.209
So not like, it's just changes in the estimate, not like a whole new whatever, you know what I'm saying?
605
00:37:14.229 --> 00:37:15.049
Like how would that go?
606
00:37:15.249 --> 00:37:17.830
Yeah, so do you use HomeWorks or what software are you using?
607
00:37:18.431 --> 00:37:19.151
Yeah, HomeWorks, yep.
608
00:37:19.411 --> 00:37:20.731
So we just do it as a to-do.
609
00:37:21.232 --> 00:37:24.133
And that to-do is going to trigger a text message to the estimator.
610
00:37:25.124 --> 00:37:31.807
And so the admin person just knows if there's a work order change, they do WOC, and they say, this customer is wanting this change.
611
00:37:31.967 --> 00:37:33.427
They can assign that to do to a customer.
612
00:37:33.668 --> 00:37:38.209
So then I just get a text message as the salesperson saying, oh, so-and-so needs a work order change.
613
00:37:38.229 --> 00:37:39.010
Here's what they need.
614
00:37:39.410 --> 00:37:46.073
You can bring the merge tag of the notes in directly and immediately get back to the admin person who would then convey that to the customer.
615
00:37:46.833 --> 00:37:48.115
Now that is an extra step.
616
00:37:48.676 --> 00:37:50.838
And so you're always looking for how do I prevent those steps?
617
00:37:51.199 --> 00:37:55.584
And a lot of times that like a video or better explanations at the estimate can prevent those.
618
00:37:55.784 --> 00:37:58.348
But to your point, work order changes are going to happen no matter what.
619
00:37:58.448 --> 00:38:00.791
It doesn't matter how much they like, they're going to change their mind and stuff.
620
00:38:00.831 --> 00:38:01.051
Right.
621
00:38:01.411 --> 00:38:04.715
And so I would just make it, okay, if you get a call or an email,
622
00:38:05.216 --> 00:38:05.696
Here's what you do.
623
00:38:05.716 --> 00:38:10.540
You create a do, you assign it to the estimator, and then I have an automation that's gonna fire that off to the estimator.
624
00:38:10.560 --> 00:38:11.561
They're gonna know what they need.
625
00:38:11.721 --> 00:38:25.633
It's gonna go on their dispatch board, and they can either make notes back to the admin under dispatch notes, or they can record a video that gets sent to the customer, or they can say, hey, yes, change that, take $1,000 off, add four bushes, whatever it might be.
626
00:38:25.873 --> 00:38:31.118
If you have a home service business and you're doing over $1 million in annual revenue or $80,000 per month,
627
00:38:32.759 --> 00:38:35.160
I would like to invite you to join Home Service Boardroom.
628
00:38:35.540 --> 00:38:41.421
That's where all these callers are coming from, and that's just one part of what is valuable inside of the community.
629
00:38:41.922 --> 00:38:43.342
We also have a monthly course.
630
00:38:43.882 --> 00:38:45.243
We have a monthly Q&A.
631
00:38:45.703 --> 00:38:52.945
You're able to be part of a community of other home service businesses that are already doing over a million dollars in annual revenue and trying to get to $10 million.
632
00:38:53.785 --> 00:39:00.089
The thing that gets you to a million dollars is working hard, figure out how to advertise, figure out how to hire your first few employees.
633
00:39:00.489 --> 00:39:08.714
But what gets you to $10 million is going to be the skill of leadership, how to be able to manage, how to be able to attract great talent, how to be able to lead your team.
634
00:39:09.194 --> 00:39:13.056
That's what gets you to 10 million, and that's our focus inside of Home Server's boardroom.
635
00:39:13.397 --> 00:39:18.079
So if that's of interest to you, click the link down in the description, and you can apply today to join.
636
00:39:18.660 --> 00:39:20.061
And we have 12 months.
637
00:39:20.781 --> 00:39:24.044
every single month has a challenge and we tackle one topic.
638
00:39:24.364 --> 00:39:30.509
And then we hold each other accountable to making sure we actually deliver and execute on that specific topic.
639
00:39:30.549 --> 00:39:33.071
So if that's of interest to you, click the link in the description.
640
00:39:33.211 --> 00:39:35.193
I look forward to seeing you inside the boardroom.
641
00:39:36.658 --> 00:39:41.661
We'll be right around the million dollar mark this year and we need help with franchising.
642
00:39:42.462 --> 00:39:44.924
I really like the first caller and how it went down.
643
00:39:45.924 --> 00:39:47.766
You know, talking about getting the first location going.
644
00:39:47.786 --> 00:39:49.347
We only have one location right now.
645
00:39:49.927 --> 00:39:53.109
I'm wondering how many locations you get established before you franchise.
646
00:39:53.530 --> 00:40:00.494
You mentioned in some prior talks about needing to, you know, justify the fees and whatnot.
647
00:40:00.534 --> 00:40:01.275
I wasn't sure.
648
00:40:01.595 --> 00:40:23.972
a little bit more in detail what all that entails and trying to get the ball rolling with franchising some of the steps that were taken along the way and um for you to have success in opening i think it's 200 plus locations now yeah totally so what's your goal in franchising just so i can clearly articulate the strategy yeah great question yeah so our goal is um for 50 locations um
649
00:40:24.590 --> 00:40:35.819
So it's, yeah, we want to start there, but I think it's the first step is to start with getting the first location right, getting the GM implemented, you know, stepping away from sales and all those things that were talked about on the first call.
650
00:40:35.839 --> 00:40:38.541
So I don't want to waste your time to go back over all those things.
651
00:40:38.841 --> 00:40:43.265
But, you know, next steps after you get the GM, you know, you get that one location going, you maybe start.
652
00:40:43.565 --> 00:40:45.645
a second or third location.
653
00:40:46.025 --> 00:40:49.526
What are the further steps along the way that you took?
654
00:40:49.666 --> 00:40:51.006
How do you scale it?
655
00:40:51.466 --> 00:40:56.187
Maybe some insights on some of the different steps you took to succeed in getting to 200.
656
00:40:56.227 --> 00:40:59.768
Obviously our goal is only 50, but right.
657
00:41:00.388 --> 00:41:10.390
So the first thing I would say is, what I did is I would recommend to everyone else, and that is I would not franchise until I was pretty confident I could get eight to 10 locations.
658
00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:13.443
Because I see so many people franchise.
659
00:41:13.463 --> 00:41:21.914
They get like one location the first year, another two or three the next year, one the next year, and then it just fizzles out because you have no momentum.
660
00:41:22.435 --> 00:41:27.441
And because let's just say you're taking 5% of revenue from a new location,
661
00:41:28.342 --> 00:41:35.705
If you get 10 locations, you're still only making 50% of revenue compared to your $1 million location.
662
00:41:36.265 --> 00:41:54.193
And so it's very, very hard to focus on something when you have one, two locations that literally are going to be $50,000 to $100,000 of annual revenue, and yet they will still demand or require the same attention and support that they will expect at 100 locations.
663
00:41:55.492 --> 00:42:02.795
And so I would highly recommend, and this is like kind of the 2.0 part of your question before we jump into the ABCs.
664
00:42:03.295 --> 00:42:12.998
Like I would highly recommend building a following, a community, a social media group to where you would kind of know you have 10 people that are interested in joining franchises.
665
00:42:13.018 --> 00:42:18.560
Now, you cannot advertise that you are franchising and say, hey, who wants to buy my franchise if I franchise?
666
00:42:18.580 --> 00:42:19.920
You actually can't say that.
667
00:42:20.521 --> 00:42:23.762
But what you can do is like, hey, I have considered franchising.
668
00:42:24.542 --> 00:42:26.505
And I'm just, there's a survey.
669
00:42:26.545 --> 00:42:27.967
Would you be interested in joining the brand?
670
00:42:28.928 --> 00:42:31.912
That would be like more of just like a casual survey.
671
00:42:32.473 --> 00:42:37.299
Obviously survey versus actually signing a franchise agreement and going through all the legal loopholes, very different.
672
00:42:37.319 --> 00:42:39.542
So I would not be like, ah, 10 people said they're going to.
673
00:42:40.203 --> 00:42:45.266
I would maybe look for 20 or 30 people that said, yes, I would be interested in joining this brand if you were to franchise.
674
00:42:45.666 --> 00:42:51.489
Just be very careful because from a legal perspective, you cannot advertise a franchise until you have finished all the legal documents.
675
00:42:51.769 --> 00:42:53.810
I would just not worry about the franchise.
676
00:42:53.870 --> 00:42:59.273
Everyone gets hung up on the legal documents and getting the franchise agreement and the operations manual and the FDD.
677
00:42:59.794 --> 00:43:03.816
That is literally a problem that can be solved with $100,000 in six to eight weeks.
678
00:43:04.016 --> 00:43:04.336
Okay.
679
00:43:04.476 --> 00:43:05.397
I wouldn't worry about that.
680
00:43:05.557 --> 00:43:15.209
I would be worrying about what can I do to provide value to somebody that has an existing or a new business that is going to be hard for them to replicate or do on their own.
681
00:43:16.560 --> 00:43:26.083
And whether that be building a website, marketing collateral, getting them leads, running ads for them, coaching, there has to be a value proposition.
682
00:43:26.163 --> 00:43:32.125
And for those first 10 locations, they're the hardest ones to convince because you have no track record and they don't have anyone to talk to.
683
00:43:32.705 --> 00:43:33.125
Got it.
684
00:43:33.465 --> 00:43:34.045
That was great.
685
00:43:34.385 --> 00:43:35.846
Appreciate you answering that in a nutshell.
686
00:43:35.866 --> 00:43:36.886
That was awesome.
687
00:43:37.146 --> 00:43:46.129
Like a lot of times people will think that if you get your FDD, your franchise disclosure documents, your operations manual, and your franchise agreement, that like people are gonna be lining up.
688
00:43:46.309 --> 00:43:48.450
But it doesn't happen that way.
689
00:43:48.710 --> 00:43:55.953
Like very, very few franchises ever get past 20 locations, let alone 100 locations where most of the time that's where they become profitable.
690
00:43:56.613 --> 00:44:01.476
And so I would just have a very, very clear path to at least 10 locations before I launch.
691
00:44:02.137 --> 00:44:20.610
And to do that, you're probably going to want to create content, create a community, share what you're doing, share all the secrets, all the secret sauce, how you do your pricing, how you get leads, all of that, that they would be getting as... Because the reason a franchisee is going to join you is because they see that what you're doing is working and they're like, oh...
692
00:44:20.930 --> 00:44:22.571
I could definitely build this myself.
693
00:44:22.611 --> 00:44:23.611
He's giving me the roadmap.
694
00:44:24.052 --> 00:44:27.293
I would rather just pay him and get the execution done.
695
00:44:27.333 --> 00:44:27.994
It's done for me.
696
00:44:28.414 --> 00:44:29.735
I can save myself time.
697
00:44:30.055 --> 00:44:38.900
That's what a franchisee is buying ultimately is this could, I could do this in five years or I could just buy a part of the system and save myself three or four of those years and jump forward.
698
00:44:39.380 --> 00:44:44.803
And so you're basically giving them a ticket to jump a bunch of steps that otherwise they would have to figure out on their own.
699
00:44:45.427 --> 00:44:47.948
Now, when I'm trying to notice that that all makes sense.
700
00:44:47.968 --> 00:44:48.328
You're fine.
701
00:44:48.888 --> 00:44:54.531
When I say all of that, because that's kind of like more heady, for you specifically, where does your head go?
702
00:44:54.811 --> 00:45:00.513
How can I make sure like, if your goal is to get the first 10, where's your first few questions once I say that?
703
00:45:01.094 --> 00:45:02.814
That's a, that was a good question.
704
00:45:02.874 --> 00:45:04.475
Hmm.
705
00:45:05.244 --> 00:45:06.245
I need to think about it.
706
00:45:06.265 --> 00:45:09.087
I don't want to hold you up on silent, but... You're good.
707
00:45:09.107 --> 00:45:10.709
Yeah, that's a really good question.
708
00:45:10.729 --> 00:45:12.250
Yeah, how to get the first tenant.
709
00:45:12.270 --> 00:45:14.251
It sounds like you gave them away.
710
00:45:14.412 --> 00:45:18.555
You know, you kind of, you know, you definitely practiced way-draft case.
711
00:45:18.575 --> 00:45:19.696
You gave the first tenant away.
712
00:45:20.056 --> 00:45:24.740
You gained recognition, credibility in the community, and...
713
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.302
you know, in the, in your area and, you know, franchising, and then you kind of scaled from there.
714
00:45:29.322 --> 00:45:31.383
Do you recommend the same game plan?
715
00:45:31.403 --> 00:45:35.905
I suppose like you're kind of giving the first time away, or do you have a way to be profitable getting those first 10?
716
00:45:36.205 --> 00:45:37.085
If that'd be my question.
717
00:45:37.726 --> 00:45:40.547
Like most franchises have private equity.
718
00:45:40.567 --> 00:45:42.168
They're going to spend a lot of money on brokers.
719
00:45:42.808 --> 00:45:52.439
So brokers are typically companies that are, you know, I'm interested in starting a business, I go to a broker, and then they're gonna tell me, here's the five franchises that we recommend for you.
720
00:45:52.779 --> 00:46:00.347
The broker usually gets between 10 and $30,000 to broker the deal between prospective franchisee and the franchisor.
721
00:46:00.928 --> 00:46:06.731
That being said, the franchisee is usually not going to sign up for a franchisor that's completely brand new if they're going through a broker.
722
00:46:07.151 --> 00:46:14.175
Usually they're going to a broker because they want to have established brands that they know have a predictable financial return.
723
00:46:14.735 --> 00:46:24.420
And so usually brokers won't even take you, or if they do, they're going to sell you on the dream of what they can do for you and then make you pay them outside of a commission.
724
00:46:25.101 --> 00:46:26.341
So I would never go that route.
725
00:46:26.541 --> 00:46:28.442
We have never sold via brokers.
726
00:46:29.163 --> 00:46:29.323
Um...
727
00:46:30.203 --> 00:46:34.087
But to get over that, you're still going to have to sell and that's going to come from your content.
728
00:46:34.827 --> 00:46:41.793
And I would be very careful to think that any consultant that pitches you that they're going to get you leads, I would not listen to them at all.
729
00:46:42.754 --> 00:46:43.835
I went down that route at the beginning.
730
00:46:43.935 --> 00:46:45.176
It's the trash leads.
731
00:46:45.496 --> 00:46:48.519
We have not sold up a single one from them ever.
732
00:46:49.620 --> 00:46:52.162
And don't worry about getting your legal docs.
733
00:46:52.703 --> 00:46:55.125
Getting legal docs is not going to get you leads.
734
00:46:55.485 --> 00:46:55.625
Right?
735
00:46:56.087 --> 00:47:04.188
you need the leads and you know people who wanna join your franchise, then you'll get the legal docs and you'll have more confidence to spend extra and make sure the legal documents are solid.
736
00:47:04.609 --> 00:47:11.590
Like the person that's gonna do it for 40 grand or 50 grand and go through some like random templatized documents, you don't wanna be doing that anyways.
737
00:47:11.950 --> 00:47:23.532
So go get the confidence that you're gonna get 10 or 15 locations opened up pretty quick and then go spend 100 grand plus, get the right consultants, the right legal team, I can hook you up with my attorney group and like that's easy, that's the easy part.
738
00:47:24.152 --> 00:47:26.813
Anyone will take your $100,000 and create franchise agreements for you.
739
00:47:27.573 --> 00:47:30.713
You've got to go get the 10 people that are ready to go sign up.
740
00:47:31.254 --> 00:47:36.555
And the number one thing you can do is risk reversal for them because they have no confidence in your longevity.
741
00:47:36.975 --> 00:47:41.536
So my first 10 locations and every location afterwards, they can leave at any time.
742
00:47:42.436 --> 00:47:46.477
And so for these first 10 locations, their risk to joining was $5,000 to $10,000.
743
00:47:48.078 --> 00:47:55.804
Because if they gave me my actual fee and then all of a sudden they didn't like me or they didn't like it, they didn't think I was doing a good job, they could leave with their customers.
744
00:47:56.505 --> 00:47:57.926
And so think about risk reversal.
745
00:47:58.907 --> 00:48:04.471
And we also allowed like six to 12 months of free, like no monthly fees for the first 10 locations.
746
00:48:04.992 --> 00:48:11.477
It was literally $5,000 to $10,000 of risk capital because they could leave at any time and they didn't have any monthly fees for the first 10 months.
747
00:48:11.557 --> 00:48:11.697
Right.
748
00:48:11.877 --> 00:48:19.514
Now, I was in a very great position where my first location was spending off $300,000 to $400,000 in distributions so I could float this boat.
749
00:48:20.546 --> 00:48:26.368
And that's where it comes back to what you said before, which is like, I'm glad you acknowledged like, hey, I'm still optimizing this thing and making it really profitable.
750
00:48:26.848 --> 00:48:32.871
Because if you do that well, then you can survive the couple first year or two where you're not making much money.
751
00:48:32.891 --> 00:48:36.452
Like our first year in franchising, I think we made $80,000 of revenue.
752
00:48:37.012 --> 00:48:38.633
So like, that stinks.
753
00:48:39.513 --> 00:48:47.636
And it took three and a half, almost four years for the franchise to make more money than the one location that I had.
754
00:48:53.010 --> 00:48:53.230
Wow.
755
00:48:53.950 --> 00:48:56.032
So I would just, to your point- Was it worth it?
756
00:48:56.052 --> 00:48:56.972
Would you do it over again?
757
00:48:57.432 --> 00:49:01.494
Well, it was worth it because my goal is I need the scale.
758
00:49:01.654 --> 00:49:02.635
I need a thousand locations.
759
00:49:02.695 --> 00:49:10.239
If I did one by one by one by myself, I might be at 20 or 30 right now, but we're only at 200 because we've been able to do franchising.
760
00:49:10.519 --> 00:49:16.002
And I need that level of number of locations to have the impact that I want to have on the industry.
761
00:49:16.342 --> 00:49:17.483
If that's not of interest to you,
762
00:49:18.223 --> 00:49:29.569
Then I would say, optimize what you currently have, do it once, twice, three times, and then you're like, okay, now I wanna pass this along to someone else, I've refined the systems more, then you can go franchise.
763
00:49:30.109 --> 00:49:37.493
But until this location can spit off so much cash that you literally are doing franchising for a tax perspective, I would not touch it.
764
00:49:38.293 --> 00:49:39.754
I would optimize this first location,
765
00:49:40.702 --> 00:50:01.236
whether that be getting up to 3 million and making it $400,000 or $500,000 of annual profit, that's closer to what I did for my first location, or start a second and a third location that all do a million, that again, spit off a bunch of cash, and instead of spending that money on real estate or trying to divest or do investments in the stock market, just take that $400,000 or $500,000 of free cash flow
766
00:50:02.757 --> 00:50:06.099
and float the first year or two of losses at the franchise.
767
00:50:06.359 --> 00:50:16.904
Because that will happen if you're allowing risk reversal, you've brought the initial fee way down, so you're eating all legal costs, and then you're going to have to front the amount of money that is required to support the owners.
768
00:50:16.924 --> 00:50:26.148
You're going to have to go get someone to do coaching, you're going to have to get someone to build out website, you're going to have to pay someone to do SEO, and you're going to have to pay for all of that as if you had 100 locations, but you only got 10.
769
00:50:26.868 --> 00:50:36.279
But if you make that first location super profitable or get two or three of them being really profitable, then you can float the franchise for the first two to three years, which is going to be required.
770
00:50:37.741 --> 00:50:40.183
Unless you get private equity or a big loan.
771
00:50:42.326 --> 00:50:43.487
That was super valuable.
772
00:50:43.507 --> 00:50:46.571
I really appreciate you going in detail and explaining how that means a lot.
773
00:50:47.268 --> 00:50:47.608
Yeah, man.
774
00:50:48.029 --> 00:50:52.933
Well, hey, as you as you're I know, like right now, you've acknowledged, hey, I need to optimize the current thing.
775
00:50:53.754 --> 00:50:56.256
I'll give you an exact target to hit for now.
776
00:50:56.276 --> 00:50:57.257
It's like step one.
777
00:50:57.657 --> 00:51:04.403
Step one is I want a quarter million to two hundred fifty thousand dollars of net free cash flow coming out of this location.
778
00:51:05.024 --> 00:51:07.927
Whether that be this one location, just optimizing it, you could definitely get that.
779
00:51:07.947 --> 00:51:11.290
It's twenty five percent margin or starting a second location.
780
00:51:12.269 --> 00:51:17.553
that does a million, and spending a year or two building that up to be able to get $250,000 in net free cash flow.
781
00:51:17.834 --> 00:51:24.079
The reason is, is because you're going to lose 200K for the first two years doing franchising.
782
00:51:24.139 --> 00:51:24.539
At least.
783
00:51:24.599 --> 00:51:25.981
Like, minimum.
784
00:51:28.242 --> 00:51:29.203
I think I lost $480,000 the first year.
785
00:51:29.223 --> 00:51:29.423
$480,000.
786
00:51:32.607 --> 00:51:38.350
Is that why most people don't take that route then due to the risk and not knowing that stuff and you don't have enough cash.
787
00:51:38.370 --> 00:51:47.475
So you're saying, you know, get the first location in, you know, maybe get the three, three to 4 million 250 K net before you even entertain this idea of franchising.
788
00:51:47.515 --> 00:51:50.316
And, you know, it's, you know, there's a beast in itself.
789
00:51:50.656 --> 00:51:51.457
There's a lot of learning.
790
00:51:51.477 --> 00:51:52.797
There's a lot of money that's going to be involved.
791
00:51:52.817 --> 00:52:00.101
Don't worry about the documentation, you know, get the 10 people that, you know, you think are going to possibly buy, you know, by, you know,
792
00:52:00.501 --> 00:52:07.923
invest in your brand, but get that cash plug on before you entertain it.
793
00:52:08.363 --> 00:52:08.803
Exactly.
794
00:52:08.863 --> 00:52:12.364
It sounds like that's super wise, otherwise you could probably go bankrupt.
795
00:52:12.564 --> 00:52:13.384
Yeah, oh yeah.
796
00:52:13.484 --> 00:52:16.444
Like the legal documents is kind of like equipment, right?
797
00:52:16.545 --> 00:52:19.505
It's like your franchise agreement, it's kind of like going and buying a truck.
798
00:52:19.525 --> 00:52:22.066
If you wanna go buy a truck, you can go down the street right now and buy one.
799
00:52:22.106 --> 00:52:23.746
No, there's no competitive advantage.
800
00:52:24.326 --> 00:52:25.506
What's hard is get customers.
801
00:52:25.987 --> 00:52:27.227
The same thing as trend franchising.
802
00:52:27.987 --> 00:52:29.228
franchisees are hard to get.
803
00:52:29.428 --> 00:52:35.214
Like winning their trust, showing your value, showing that there's less risk with you than doing it themselves.
804
00:52:35.494 --> 00:52:38.277
That's way harder than going out and getting legal docs.
805
00:52:38.317 --> 00:52:43.562
When you need your legal docs done, Derek, you give me a call, I'll give you my attorney's name and he will do it.
806
00:52:43.602 --> 00:52:44.583
Like he's phenomenal.
807
00:52:44.763 --> 00:52:45.123
He's great.
808
00:52:45.443 --> 00:52:46.765
The best attorney we've ever had.
809
00:52:47.425 --> 00:52:49.466
And that is not the hard part though.
810
00:52:49.506 --> 00:52:59.009
The hard part is finding the franchisees, building up the brand, building the value proposition for them, making it clearly identifiable as to why joining your brand is better than doing it themselves.
811
00:52:59.709 --> 00:53:15.655
And the thing that we saw as we went through franchising is we started off with a whole bunch of people that wanted to get started with lawn care to where now the value proposition is strong enough to where a lot of it is actually people that have their existing business, but they realize the value of swapping their brand.
812
00:53:16.682 --> 00:53:22.348
But at the beginning, you're probably gonna be speaking more to the entry-level person that's just getting started, and that's why you have to go so cheap.
813
00:53:22.928 --> 00:53:24.189
Now, to your point...
814
00:53:25.160 --> 00:53:30.841
Yes, you could do this one way, which is the cash flow way, which in my opinion is the most, is the best way.
815
00:53:31.702 --> 00:53:35.123
The alternative, which some people do is they'll go out and get private equity involved.
816
00:53:35.423 --> 00:53:43.405
But usually you're going to require connections or collateral of some sort or experience in the industry to where they would actually back you.
817
00:53:44.085 --> 00:53:52.687
Because this sunk cost in those first couple of years is either coming out of your pocket, the business's distributions, or private equity.
818
00:53:53.267 --> 00:53:53.487
Perfect.
819
00:53:53.527 --> 00:54:00.113
And it sounds like you recommend trying to do it yourself, have the cash flow behind you rather than getting the private equity then.
820
00:54:00.554 --> 00:54:08.041
I do that mostly because I care about this industry and I don't want to see anyone else bring private equity into franchising because I see what it's done to the franchisees.
821
00:54:09.202 --> 00:54:13.286
But if you can convince someone private equity to give you money, awesome.
822
00:54:13.886 --> 00:54:17.227
Uh, they didn't start knocking on my door until I had 50 locations.
823
00:54:17.588 --> 00:54:22.230
Once I got 50, that's when all of a sudden they, you have proof of concept and yeah, they were ready to start giving money.
824
00:54:22.250 --> 00:54:25.331
And I already saw the path to a hundred where we could actually be profitable.
825
00:54:26.031 --> 00:54:30.613
And that's when we started being profitable to our 100 locations, but it's because we have the flat fee model.
826
00:54:31.133 --> 00:54:32.974
Everyone told me not to do it and they did it.
827
00:54:33.034 --> 00:54:37.496
They told me that because they knew I wouldn't be profitable until I got a hundred locations and they were right.
828
00:54:38.196 --> 00:54:39.938
And it stunk for the first few years.
829
00:54:40.478 --> 00:54:46.684
And so you just got to ask yourself, like, okay, if you're only doing 50 locations, a flat fee model is probably not going to work, you're going to have to take a royalty.
830
00:54:47.344 --> 00:54:53.630
And then you're going to have to have certain requirements on how much they have to spend on advertising, so that you can make sure that they have enough revenue.
831
00:54:54.692 --> 00:55:01.954
And so that's a perverse incentive that you're gonna have to be very open with them about, but you've gotta show the value that you offer for that.
832
00:55:01.994 --> 00:55:13.197
For example, if you can get a lead for 30 bucks and they can't get a lead for under 100 bucks, then all of a sudden paying you 5% or 6% doesn't sound so bad.
833
00:55:13.937 --> 00:55:20.819
And if you're talking to the smaller operators just getting started at the very beginning, their 5% of 100 grand is not very much.
834
00:55:21.867 --> 00:55:27.909
And so it's pretty easy to say like, hey, I will give you this secret sauce that I've showed how to do it, but I will do it for you now.
835
00:55:28.429 --> 00:55:31.430
I will do the execution part if you join the franchise.
836
00:55:35.752 --> 00:55:36.632
There you go, that makes sense.
837
00:55:37.274 --> 00:55:39.597
So yeah, if I was you, I would use some follow up questions.
838
00:55:39.617 --> 00:55:40.098
Yeah, go ahead.
839
00:55:40.318 --> 00:55:40.639
Go ahead.
840
00:55:40.859 --> 00:55:42.441
Yeah, we got, we got, we got nine more minutes.
841
00:55:42.501 --> 00:55:44.383
I might send some follow up questions in the chat.
842
00:55:44.784 --> 00:55:46.747
I don't want to, uh, to hold you up.
843
00:55:46.767 --> 00:55:50.512
So I might send some more in the chat, but if you have more info, I'd love to keep your in-depth.
844
00:55:50.872 --> 00:55:51.533
Yeah, go ahead.
845
00:55:51.693 --> 00:55:53.095
We got nine more minutes and you're the last caller.
846
00:55:53.115 --> 00:55:53.616
So go for it.
847
00:55:54.200 --> 00:55:55.302
No, you're good.
848
00:55:55.362 --> 00:56:03.212
But yeah, so you were mentioning, I think you said some along the lines of justifying 10 to 20K fee.
849
00:56:03.232 --> 00:56:05.055
This was from like a few days ago.
850
00:56:05.075 --> 00:56:06.877
You mentioned how you need to be able to justify the fee.
851
00:56:06.917 --> 00:56:10.201
Were you referring to the 10 to 20K fee?
852
00:56:12.388 --> 00:56:36.796
what's called that that it takes to you know start the location or the franchise that you're talking about and you need to say hey here's the value by joining us you know it's 10 to 20k fee and you need to explain or share enough value that justifies them spending that 10 to 20k is yeah like anytime you have an initial franchise fee you've got to show that you are making up for that in training and then
853
00:56:38.185 --> 00:56:47.299
Brand value, so for example, if they join your franchise and go to the first page of Google in two months instead of two years, that's valuable, they're buying time.
854
00:56:48.237 --> 00:56:53.238
Anytime you join a franchise, like for example, Anytime Fitness, it's like $40,000 or $50,000 now.
855
00:56:53.538 --> 00:56:56.979
It's because when you join the franchise, they tell you what color to paint everything.
856
00:56:57.199 --> 00:56:58.839
They tell you all the equipment you should buy.
857
00:56:59.099 --> 00:57:05.801
They give you preferred vendor relationships where you save more than $40,000 when you've got to buy $300,000 worth of equipment because they're preferred vendors.
858
00:57:06.121 --> 00:57:10.662
So if you start hooking things up to where you can make sense of asking for 10 grand, 20 grand, 30 grand...
859
00:57:12.262 --> 00:57:14.243
that's when you can actually start selling with confidence.
860
00:57:14.344 --> 00:57:28.353
If you can't, and you don't have the preferred vendors, you don't have the systems, you don't have the website, the brand awareness, you don't have the marketing collateral, and you're expecting them to sign a 10-year agreement that literally unless they die, they're gonna have to keep paying you, that's hard to sell.
861
00:57:29.034 --> 00:57:35.038
And so just giving them as much risk reversal as possible is going to be your advantage at the beginning.
862
00:57:35.178 --> 00:57:37.700
And that's why we just said, hey, look, you can leave at any time.
863
00:57:38.639 --> 00:57:42.561
And then we reduce the initial fees for the first six months and then 12 months.
864
00:57:43.061 --> 00:57:46.963
Because our goal is that by the time they hit, we're actually paying their full monthly fees.
865
00:57:47.503 --> 00:57:51.825
It's already like, oh, this is mind-blowingly above the value of the monthly fee.
866
00:57:51.945 --> 00:57:52.566
I got to stay in.
867
00:57:52.866 --> 00:58:01.830
Now it's my job to make sure that in that year, year and a half, I am juicing their support and making sure that they've grown their business to the point where they're like, it would be crazy to leave.
868
00:58:05.572 --> 00:58:05.712
Okay.
869
00:58:05.732 --> 00:58:05.932
Okay.
870
00:58:07.248 --> 00:58:08.369
Thanks for writing that down.
871
00:58:08.669 --> 00:58:19.015
I guess to pivot to a couple other questions, if you're down, is P4P is something that's been really big throughout multiple industries, something that people have implemented.
872
00:58:19.315 --> 00:58:20.876
What has been your best way of implementing that?
873
00:58:20.896 --> 00:58:21.916
Do you have a software?
874
00:58:22.357 --> 00:58:23.417
How do you break things down?
875
00:58:23.437 --> 00:58:29.381
What's maybe a good way to dumb it down for something that's not super familiar with P4P?
876
00:58:29.401 --> 00:58:35.364
Yeah, is this for your technicians not understanding it, or have you just not really explored it too much?
877
00:58:36.453 --> 00:58:41.975
Yeah, so we've implemented pay-for-performance in a minor way.
878
00:58:42.435 --> 00:58:47.538
We do once-a-month evals with each guy on the team.
879
00:58:47.898 --> 00:58:50.639
If they score an A, then they get their full incentive.
880
00:58:50.979 --> 00:58:57.982
If they had some issues where they had a callback or they showed up late or they weren't uniformed and they're at a B, then it'll impact their performance.
881
00:58:58.042 --> 00:58:58.242
So there's
882
00:58:58.682 --> 00:59:06.927
It's scaled on like, I have to look back at there's like safety, performance, efficiency, professionalism, and a bunch of these different things that it's all weighed in.
883
00:59:06.967 --> 00:59:14.471
And so depending how they do in safety and all those different things, and depending on their score, you know, they may or may not get their full incentive that month.
884
00:59:14.852 --> 00:59:17.133
And our goal is to, you know, for everybody to get their full incentive.
885
00:59:17.193 --> 00:59:18.914
And if they're not, then we need to sit down and say, hey.
886
00:59:19.254 --> 00:59:22.918
are they really the right fit for this, you know, our company, their 9A player, their B.
887
00:59:23.338 --> 00:59:33.069
You might have a B that's, you know, an apprentice that's first starting off, but if they don't work their way up 10As, then, you know, maybe a couple months, you know, then maybe they're not the right fit for the company.
888
00:59:33.469 --> 00:59:35.531
But we've done some minor, you know,
889
00:59:36.132 --> 00:59:41.096
pay for performance type things, but really looking to dial that in, get more strategic with it.
890
00:59:41.116 --> 00:59:46.820
I think it might require maybe a software that tracks the numbers, the metrics, analytics, you name it.
891
00:59:47.001 --> 00:59:53.245
And wasn't sure how we walk before we run on the pay for performance stuff.
892
00:59:53.325 --> 01:00:02.693
It seems a little bit complex in how it's done and wasn't sure how do we better introduce it outside of just doing the one month eval.
893
01:00:03.233 --> 01:00:03.413
Yeah.
894
01:00:03.793 --> 01:00:07.014
It's like the way you're doing it right now is theoretically pay for performance.
895
01:00:07.394 --> 01:00:12.836
The performances you've just layered in other elements of quality, professionalism, uniforms, attendance.
896
01:00:13.156 --> 01:00:15.856
You've kind of bundled a lot of things into what performance is.
897
01:00:16.456 --> 01:00:22.178
P4P in how we do it and like p4psoftware.com is strictly looking at their efficiency.
898
01:00:23.258 --> 01:00:27.783
Meaning if you did good work and you did it fast and the customer's happy, you make more money.
899
01:00:27.983 --> 01:00:33.508
Now there's yellow slips, but yellow slips inherently mean they're going and fixing the job without getting paid for it.
900
01:00:33.528 --> 01:00:35.731
So it brings their dollars they earn down.
901
01:00:36.692 --> 01:00:43.559
But what you're doing right now, the reason I did not use this path when I wanted to do P4P, the way you do it is it's too...
902
01:00:45.563 --> 01:00:51.367
If you asked your guys right now, how much did you make on P4P or how much did you make on pay for performance last month?
903
01:00:51.627 --> 01:00:53.648
Or are you going to make it this month?
904
01:00:54.349 --> 01:00:56.650
It'd be hard for them to quantify when there's all these variables.
905
01:00:57.350 --> 01:01:01.673
And it's hard for them to change behavior because there's so many things that are impacting it.
906
01:01:01.773 --> 01:01:05.856
My attendance, my uniform, my professionalism, my safety, all of these things.
907
01:01:05.976 --> 01:01:07.157
And those things are all important.
908
01:01:08.092 --> 01:01:14.094
The thing is, when you make it one number and one thing they're getting tracked on, it's easier for them to wrap their head around.
909
01:01:14.254 --> 01:01:25.237
For example, when I say you get 30% of every dollar you make for the business, and they know that today they made $1,000, they know today they made $300 of base pay.
910
01:01:25.437 --> 01:01:26.517
I'm sorry, $300 on P4P.
911
01:01:26.997 --> 01:01:31.259
And they know that their base pay would usually be, let's just call it 20 bucks an hour, $200.
912
01:01:31.439 --> 01:01:35.360
So they made an extra $100 today because they worked their butt off.
913
01:01:36.354 --> 01:01:49.984
And usually the closer you can get compensation to performance and the reward to performance, the faster that feedback loop is, the more reinforcing of the behavior.
914
01:01:50.624 --> 01:01:58.190
And so if you're waiting a whole month to dock someone for a tardy that happened 25 days ago, they forgot about them being late.
915
01:01:58.210 --> 01:01:59.511
They forgot about that safety breach.
916
01:01:59.531 --> 01:02:00.652
They forgot about that customer.
917
01:02:00.672 --> 01:02:00.732
Oh.
918
01:02:01.072 --> 01:02:08.258
Whereas when every single day they get a report of how much they made on base pay versus P2P and what that difference was, that starts to really motivate them.
919
01:02:08.998 --> 01:02:18.906
And so the only way, the only real difference is we only look at efficiency score and the quality element is brought into with yellow slips.
920
01:02:19.886 --> 01:02:20.547
That's a callback.
921
01:02:21.127 --> 01:02:24.430
As well as the fact that eventually if you get enough yellow slips, you get kicked off the team.
922
01:02:25.848 --> 01:02:42.852
And so it's more quantifiable and more measurable for them versus more of an ambiguity around quality and all these other factors that might tie into this grade that again, feels very arbitrary if I'm an employee versus I know that today that because I worked hard, I made an extra 80 bucks.
923
01:02:43.352 --> 01:02:46.613
This week I made an extra 650 bucks because I kicked butt.
924
01:02:46.933 --> 01:02:54.275
Okay, I hit base pay last week because I had a yellow slip, I had to go back and fix the job for half the day, ruin my base pay, ruin my P4P for the week.
925
01:02:54.815 --> 01:03:01.921
Like that close pipe feedback loop is the advantage of using it and in a more singular way around efficiency.
926
01:03:02.522 --> 01:03:03.382
That was awesome.
927
01:03:03.402 --> 01:03:06.625
So yeah, it sounds like, yeah, we might be doing 10 things.
928
01:03:06.985 --> 01:03:18.896
You guys focused it on one thing and you said like, you know, example, 30% of $1 and you guys are just, you guys are strictly focusing on efficiency and with, you know, with the exception of some quality with the yellow slips.
929
01:03:19.576 --> 01:03:20.917
And that's all you guys track.
930
01:03:20.957 --> 01:03:27.699
And so how do you guys track it and, you know, get all those numbers together on a daily basis through a software then?
931
01:03:28.140 --> 01:03:30.200
Yeah, homework syncs up with P4P software.
932
01:03:30.220 --> 01:03:34.042
So it brings in their revenue, brings in their hourly rate, their clock in times.
933
01:03:34.502 --> 01:03:39.084
They can see live while they're completing their jobs throughout the day on a thermometer of like,
934
01:03:39.344 --> 01:03:42.267
as they complete jobs, it fills in how much they're making per hour.
935
01:03:42.627 --> 01:03:46.391
So they start to notice, oh, like I complete my first few jobs of the day.
936
01:03:46.431 --> 01:03:48.132
I'm making like, okay money.
937
01:03:48.453 --> 01:03:55.819
But it's when I'm completing jobs at the end of the day, my hourly rate starts jumping up because I've been way more efficient with less drive time.
938
01:03:56.520 --> 01:03:58.943
And so they start thinking more like a business owner.
939
01:03:59.283 --> 01:04:04.308
They start getting into their truck and like, oh man, I only have to do these six jobs and then I'm going to make X amount today.
940
01:04:04.368 --> 01:04:04.828
Fantastic.
941
01:04:04.848 --> 01:04:05.249
Let's go.
942
01:04:05.389 --> 01:04:08.272
Like it just gets more of a mindset of an owner.
943
01:04:08.292 --> 01:04:15.439
And that is when you get in a truck, you know exactly how many jobs, you know how much revenue you're going to make, you know, which job you make more money on.
944
01:04:15.979 --> 01:04:18.341
You're constantly looking for areas to improve.
945
01:04:18.982 --> 01:04:22.888
the route, you're looking for areas to upsell the customer, get reviews.
946
01:04:23.168 --> 01:04:25.712
And so you bake those things into P4P.
947
01:04:25.912 --> 01:04:31.941
So for example, if they get an upsell, 50 bucks, if they get a Google review, 50 bucks, you start just baking that into P4P.
948
01:04:32.242 --> 01:04:34.665
So it's like, hey, number one, you got to be efficient.
949
01:04:35.346 --> 01:04:38.669
And then we're going to make sure that you are absolutely doing a good quality job.
950
01:04:38.709 --> 01:04:44.313
If you don't get docked and or you're going to lose your job after X amount of yellow slips per month.
951
01:04:44.333 --> 01:04:45.193
All right.
952
01:04:45.213 --> 01:04:52.218
So if you have a threshold of number of mistakes or damage cases that happen, you can just like that person you want out of the team.
953
01:04:52.258 --> 01:04:56.622
And honestly, your team will not want that person around because it's impacting their paycheck.
954
01:04:57.302 --> 01:05:11.505
that what you're currently doing is very individualized, which is like, if you show up on time, if you get your uniform, and so what this can cause is low performers to fly under the radar, but because they're doing all these other things that you've baked into the system, they kind of skate by.
955
01:05:11.965 --> 01:05:16.946
When you just say, hey, you guys gotta be efficient, and now, guess what?
956
01:05:17.266 --> 01:05:19.767
My paycheck is affected by someone else's performance.
957
01:05:20.527 --> 01:05:26.728
So I'm gonna very quickly rat out and smoke out low performers if it's affecting my paycheck because you're slacking off all day long.
958
01:05:27.248 --> 01:05:27.869
That makes sense.
959
01:05:27.949 --> 01:05:29.771
And what's the P4P software?
960
01:05:29.791 --> 01:05:30.551
Is there a name for it?
961
01:05:30.571 --> 01:05:31.032
Is that all?
962
01:05:31.232 --> 01:05:32.774
Yeah, just P4Psoftware.com.
963
01:05:32.994 --> 01:05:36.397
And then on there, there's a free course and you can try it out for a month for free.
964
01:05:36.778 --> 01:05:39.300
So you could just like watch the course.
965
01:05:39.340 --> 01:05:42.303
It'll answer a lot of little questions like what about shop time?
966
01:05:42.343 --> 01:05:43.184
What about maintenance?
967
01:05:43.204 --> 01:05:45.727
What about if someone else has to go back and fix someone's mistake?
968
01:05:46.187 --> 01:05:47.868
All that gets answered in the course, it's free.
969
01:05:48.408 --> 01:05:50.689
And then you get a free month of using the software.
970
01:05:50.709 --> 01:05:57.492
And I do, even if you don't implement it right away, just use that month to run the numbers and see what's going on in the business.
971
01:05:57.512 --> 01:06:03.894
Because you'll really quickly understand that like, oh, so-and-so is getting paid the same amount as someone else, but making twice as much money for the business.
972
01:06:04.494 --> 01:06:10.917
And so just running the numbers in P4P, a lot of times we'll start showing a lot of really cool stuff around efficiencies of the crew.
973
01:06:11.588 --> 01:06:15.650
And do your franchise use HomeWorks or are they required to?
974
01:06:15.670 --> 01:06:16.530
Do all of them use it?
975
01:06:16.570 --> 01:06:17.650
How does that work?
976
01:06:17.670 --> 01:06:20.011
HomeWorks with the P4P software.
977
01:06:20.231 --> 01:06:25.853
They're not required to use HomeWorks, but Command Center only uses HomeWorks because we have to have one system.
978
01:06:26.194 --> 01:06:27.674
And so pretty much all of them use it.
979
01:06:28.734 --> 01:06:32.456
But P4P software, that was actually built originally for Augusta.
980
01:06:32.776 --> 01:06:34.917
And so they get all access to that for free.
981
01:06:35.537 --> 01:06:37.337
But again, you get the first month free.
982
01:06:37.597 --> 01:06:39.378
I would try it out, see if it's even working.
983
01:06:39.398 --> 01:06:45.779
A lot of times, if you have really simple services, you can just take principles of P4P and probably make it inside an Excel spreadsheet.
984
01:06:46.319 --> 01:06:54.140
It's where it gets complicated is when you have like three people on a crew, one person left halfway throughout the day and started a one-time project.
985
01:06:54.500 --> 01:07:01.021
And then like that's when having the sync with HomeWorks is really nice because it just knows where the employees are at, how much revenue they made.
986
01:07:01.041 --> 01:07:03.442
It starts to just pull that data in.
987
01:07:04.042 --> 01:07:12.008
But if you're really simple and you keep your crews completely on the same route all the time, there's no mixing and matching, you might be able to get away with just doing spreadsheets.
988
01:07:12.068 --> 01:07:13.169
And I talk about that in the course.
989
01:07:13.890 --> 01:07:14.090
Mm-hmm.
990
01:07:15.143 --> 01:07:37.728
um so i guess the reason why i'm asking these questions is we're currently using jobber um i don't know if jobber thinks with p4p software initially we talked about hey one large location at 10 mil but if the if the franchise you know steps to get to the target of 50 locations is hey you need to get to a three million location if homeworks can get us to three million you know maybe it does make sense to implement homeworks with
991
01:07:38.188 --> 01:07:43.451
P4P software to get us to, you know, the 3 million and then, you know, build locations from them.
992
01:07:43.471 --> 01:07:51.977
So that's kind of trying to discern, you know, what's the best software to have to implement the P4P and to, you know, create the foundation ultimately grow off of.
993
01:07:52.037 --> 01:07:57.100
And so, yeah, that's why I was asking, you know, what are the different franchises that are they using the homeworks, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
994
01:07:57.850 --> 01:08:04.172
Yeah, and I wouldn't switch over my CRM, which is, I think, the most important software for the business.
995
01:08:04.492 --> 01:08:06.713
I wouldn't switch that over just one thing.
996
01:08:07.413 --> 01:08:21.277
But if you did P4P, and then you'd be able to calculate, okay, how much time am I spending every day looking through my budget hours, which I think in Jobber you have to use custom fields to be able to put your budget hours, then just add those up at the end of each day.
997
01:08:21.737 --> 01:08:26.379
There's a manual test, but honestly, it's going to take you maybe one minute per day per employee.
998
01:08:27.432 --> 01:08:29.673
And so is that really worth switching software?
999
01:08:29.754 --> 01:08:34.897
I don't think at the beginning, but as you begin to scale, maybe it does, but I wouldn't switch over just that one thing.
1000
01:08:35.017 --> 01:08:37.859
Like there should be other reasons as to why you're switching a CRM.
1001
01:08:37.879 --> 01:08:39.940
It's just so important for the business.
1002
01:08:40.560 --> 01:08:42.121
I really appreciate your honesty with that.
1003
01:08:42.321 --> 01:08:48.265
I definitely would love to hear more about that and, you know, homeworks and maybe how you built that at a later date.
1004
01:08:48.285 --> 01:08:53.028
There's a basic question that came to mind with checks and credit cards.
1005
01:08:53.088 --> 01:08:54.469
Obviously credit cards is ideal.
1006
01:08:54.489 --> 01:08:55.490
You know, it automatically...
1007
01:08:55.930 --> 01:08:56.710
enters into the system.
1008
01:08:56.730 --> 01:08:57.951
You don't have to have someone enter it.
1009
01:08:57.971 --> 01:09:02.632
You get payment quickly, but you have to pay that processing fee of maybe 3%.
1010
01:09:02.952 --> 01:09:05.533
And sometimes for larger jobs, that can be a turnoff for people.
1011
01:09:05.553 --> 01:09:13.095
And I wasn't sure if you guys completely nixed the idea of checks and cash and you guys only do ACH and card.
1012
01:09:13.756 --> 01:09:16.056
I wasn't sure how you guys handled processing.
1013
01:09:16.096 --> 01:09:18.057
And if you have any recommendations on...
1014
01:09:18.437 --> 01:09:19.817
hey, get rid of checks or keep them.
1015
01:09:20.177 --> 01:09:22.958
Because that hasn't been a thing for sales in the past.
1016
01:09:22.998 --> 01:09:27.979
Like, hey, here's what our price is, but hey, and we default to card.
1017
01:09:28.459 --> 01:09:39.121
We're like, hey, if someone's really trying to push us or hey, we got a competitor, this and that, our way of being able to work with them is, hey, what if we take out a process and see if you pay by check, save you X amount of dollars?
1018
01:09:39.461 --> 01:09:42.102
And they're like, I appreciate that they're trying to work for me, let's do that.
1019
01:09:42.722 --> 01:09:46.283
And so then we've been defaulting to check and I'm not a big fan of the check.
1020
01:09:46.303 --> 01:09:47.003
I wasn't sure your thoughts.
1021
01:09:47.822 --> 01:09:51.044
I'm not a huge fan of check either because it puts more stress on my admin team.
1022
01:09:51.444 --> 01:09:55.247
And I have to create a whole system around taking things to the bank and like getting the mail.
1023
01:09:55.627 --> 01:09:57.608
I also take way longer to get my money.
1024
01:09:58.008 --> 01:10:02.351
So instead of two days, it takes me two weeks, three weeks, like cashflow starts getting hurt.
1025
01:10:02.371 --> 01:10:05.553
So like personally, I only want credit cards.
1026
01:10:06.293 --> 01:10:10.656
In terms of the hit, you can check a box and pass that fee along if you want to to the customer.
1027
01:10:11.917 --> 01:10:12.717
I don't do that.
1028
01:10:13.258 --> 01:10:14.799
Other owners do and they have no problem.
1029
01:10:14.819 --> 01:10:16.580
They have literally no one bats an eye.
1030
01:10:17.588 --> 01:10:20.709
I just personally look at it as a more of a long-term brand play.
1031
01:10:20.749 --> 01:10:23.529
I don't want that little mark against me.
1032
01:10:23.609 --> 01:10:24.970
I just want to cover it.
1033
01:10:24.990 --> 01:10:27.490
I'm like, it's the easiest possible for people to give me money.
1034
01:10:28.350 --> 01:10:35.692
And so I eat the fee and I'd rather raise my prices by 5% or 10% on the next increase than trying to get 2% or 3%.
1035
01:10:35.852 --> 01:10:42.093
But I know a lot of owners check that box in HomeWorks and get no cancellations and people just roll with it.
1036
01:10:42.393 --> 01:10:44.534
So it's a matter of just like, it's more of a brand play.
1037
01:10:45.294 --> 01:10:47.956
It's like, are you going to charge fuel surcharges?
1038
01:10:48.136 --> 01:10:50.137
Are you going to charge credit card processing fees?
1039
01:10:50.518 --> 01:10:56.081
Are you going to start nickel and diming the customer or just have a premium product that makes it really easy for them to check out?
1040
01:10:56.321 --> 01:10:58.823
You put a card on file, you never think about it again.
1041
01:10:58.843 --> 01:11:06.388
And personally, that's the way I've gone, but it's not like there are hundreds, if not thousands of owners inside HomeWorks that check one box.
1042
01:11:06.768 --> 01:11:10.190
And as soon as someone puts a card on file, it's charging 2.9%.
1043
01:11:10.651 --> 01:11:12.332
And if you want to do that, that's fine.