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Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes.
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I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care.
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We have over 200 locations around the world.
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I'm also the founder of HomeWorks.
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We've processed over a million dollars in revenue for home service business owners every day so they can grow without breaking.
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Today, I'm going to be having a one-on-one coaching call with someone that owns a pool service and they do maintenance and they also do repairs.
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We're going to be talking about how they can do a version of pay for performance when they don't use budget hours and they want it to be really, really simple.
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This is going to be really helpful if you're trying to dip your toe in the water of paying people based upon how hard they work and not how long they work.
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Let's go ahead and roll the tape.
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My pleasure, brother.
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What can I help with?
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I went through your doc a little bit, kind of know the business a little bit, but maybe just give me a bit of background and we can jump right in.
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Yeah, sure.
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So I started the business right around 2019, kind of as a side thing with the partner, did everything wrong a few times.
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So eventually I had another business.
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I went all in on this.
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We grew very quick, but we grew with the wrong prices once we started to scale.
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And so I kind of went to that situation.
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Am I going to sell it or am I going to raise prices?
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did that and essentially what we did was, what was killing us was the chemical, we included chemicals and once the summer hit, it just, you know, your numbers flipped and we're already low to begin with.
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So what we did was we just did a service, our operational costs built in and then we did plus chemicals and make chemicals a profit, you know, instead of an expense essentially.
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We consolidated, got rid of some property managements, went back down to about, we went from 220 to about 170.
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We grew, we had a little bit more turn that year.
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because people were trying us out with the new pricing, but we recycled some new ones in.
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So we ended with about 195, but we doubled our revenue.
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But then me and my business partner split up after that.
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So I went back down to about 110.
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I rebranded, I invested a lot into the branding, websites, online,
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You know, pretty much skyrocketed right back up to about 170-ish pools.
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But again, making more revenue this year than we've ever had.
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And so now we had to retrain the new team, everything.
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And so now I'm kind of like, I'm kind of getting a better feel.
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Didn't do the best job tracking my numbers, but this year kind of cleaned it up.
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And so now I'm heading into 2026 and just had a few constraints and questions as far as strategy to get to where I want to go to, as well as, you know, changing the pay structure within my business.
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I think I'm a little insecure with what I'm paying my guys.
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And so it kind of makes me scrape to the bottom barrel type of people.
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And I kind of hold on to them a little bit longer, I think, because I know they're a little cheap.
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You know what I mean?
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So I'm like, I'll tolerate a little bit too much.
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So so what I kind of was thinking and I saw your pay for performance and I'm trying to kind of trying to figure it out in a way with pools.
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I pay per hour.
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I don't pay per pool.
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And so what I wanted to kind of do and I want to get your feedback on this is essentially.
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Yeah.
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I have a standard that I want them to meet as far as the amount of pools that I need them to do really to make it worth it.
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And so that's about 50 pools.
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And so I feel like if they hit 50 pools, they get an extra $50 per week.
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Is that 50 pools per week?
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Per week.
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Got it.
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So that's about 12.
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That's about 12 a day, four days a week.
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So I leave one day open for filter cleans.
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And so filter cleans.
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I also right now I currently give them extra $20 on top of their hourly.
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And so I wanted to kind of do a tier system of.
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If they service 50 pools, they get an extra 50 pools a week.
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If they do 60 and above, they get, you know, 80 bucks or 70 bucks.
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And then if they go to 70 plus, which is rare, then I give them even more.
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And then I would kind of balance it with callbacks and going over budgeted hours.
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Yep.
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Yeah, like I think in all with PRP, it really comes down to a matter of quality and quantity, right?
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And so the quantity is the number of pools.
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The quality becomes callbacks, right?
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And so if you're not going to use budget hours, that's fine.
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The only trouble with when you say pools is some pools take longer than others.
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Right.
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Are they generally pretty much the same though?
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Yeah, and we're kinda at that point too where it's kinda worked into the service costs where we can kinda determine this pool's gonna take a little bit longer.
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So we usually charge a little bit more anyways.
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And so I'd kinda have to get a little bit more.
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The way I schedule it now is based off of the pool.
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So I'm like, I know this one, on average it takes about 30 minutes between servicing and drive time.
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And then if it's a dramatically big pool,
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then I'll adjust accordingly.
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Or if we have weather events, I'll adjust accordingly.
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That's the only problem, in my opinion, when you say, hey, because I like the idea, like really simple, like number of pools per week.
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The problem is if they get two big pools on today's route, does that throw them under the bus?
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Right.
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And then they'll feel like you're gaming the system.
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Whereas budget hours kind of scales up and down with that.
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What you could do, Dylan, is you could just do it based on revenue.
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Like if you make X amount of revenue, you get a bonus.
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Yeah.
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Because the revenue, I would assume, correlates directly with the size of the pool.
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Usually.
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Yeah, usually.
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Usually?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Like the simplicity of number of pools, love.
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It's just as soon as you start giving them an incentive like that, you will get more pools done, but they will start grumbling about the size of the pool.
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And he's playing favorites because they got me on the route that has all the big pools.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Well, I'm already facing a little bit of that.
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Also, I'm facing like that.
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I'm also facing, you know, oh, well, you know, I have to do these many pools and he only has these many.
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And so, you know, there's no really- Which is crazy because they're getting paid by the hour right now.
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That's what I said.
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You know, I'm like, bro, you're making more money, man.
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I don't know.
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I don't get it.
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But that's what I'm kind of facing.
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And then there's a little bit of like, you know, this is what it is, man.
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You know, like this is how we pay.
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How would you how would that play out as far as based off revenue?
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How would that look as far as the way you're seeing it and describing it?
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Yeah.
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So you could take your average like what's the average pool service cost?
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About, let's just say, for a regular pool with chemicals, about $200 a month.
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Okay.
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But per service?
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That would be about $50.
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Do you charge us on a monthly basis and we come weekly?
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Is that like your most common thing?
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So $200.
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Okay, got it.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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So then in this case, you are not charging by the service.
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You are charging on like a monthly basis.
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So I like your pool idea.
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Just realize you're going to have a few customers where all of a sudden it's become an issue.
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And you could manually adjust this by saying, okay, they're a tool pool client.
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You know, like their, their service counts as two client, two pools.
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The reason I'm doing this is I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible since you don't do budgeted hours.
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And so if I was you, I would not just do 50, 60, 70.
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I would actually go lower and with smaller increments because if I'm at 40 and it's Friday afternoon, I'm like, there's no way I'm going to hit 50.
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I'm just going to coast the rest of the afternoon.
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I'm going to be chilling for the next three, three hours.
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Whereas if I'm already hit the smaller scale, I have incentive to keep going.
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Okay.
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I like that.
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That's a good way to look at it.
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Like you probably break even on their labor at something in the ballpark of 30 pools, right?
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Yeah, I would say.
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So I would start like at 35, there's a bonus.
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40, there's a bonus.
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45, 50, 55, 60.
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Because what you want is you want to make, hey boss, I want an extra couple of pools in my schedule today because I want to hit 70.
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Okay, yeah, no, you're right.
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I think that's over.
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And here's the thing.
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You've got to ask yourself too, like if you're going to be okay or not okay, but like an underperforming employee, let's say like 35 or 40 pools in a week, what would you pay to have that person double output?
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You're not going to have to pay them double when they do 70, but you're going to make double for the business.
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Right.
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So I would be very nice on my bonuses because you might be able to pay them 20% to 30% more but get twice the output.
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Right.
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Now, I mean I thought I was – and correct me if I'm wrong because I do pay per hour and I do have a schedule and I make the schedule based off of the route, what I say.
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So is that not budgeted hours?
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Yeah.
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Budgeted hours would be where every single service they go to, the price and the amount of time that they are, like their budget hours would correspond differently.
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So think said otherwise, you have this unit of pools.
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We have a unit of budgeted hours.
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That budget hour amount for a lawn service, for example, could be 0.5, it could be 0.7, it could be 1.4, it could be 3.
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because the size of the lawn difference, right?
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Right.
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It would be like me saying, hey, if you do more than 10 lawns, then you get more money today.
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Well, I could throw them a lawn that takes them five hours, and then they aren't going to get a bonus.
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So the most accurate form of P4P is when you use budgeted hours.
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But as long as the vast majority of your pools or your service units are very similar, then I think you're okay simplifying it like you have.
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Yeah.
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In my case, that would be like, if I only serviced a type of lawn that was generally within say, two and 3,000 square feet of turf, I could probably get away with number of lawns as my unit for P4P.
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Hey everyone, inside of the book, Copy and Paste Millionaire, I talk about the P4P system being so instrumental to be able to have the business run without you, where your employees are paid based upon how hard they're working.
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If this is something you're interested in, this is the perfect time of year during the offseason to figure out the software that makes this possible automatically.
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Within a matter of a minute per employee per day, you can pay your employees based on how hard they work and not based on how many hours they worked.
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So go check it out.
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P4Psoftware.com.
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The first 30 days are completely free.
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So you can make sure it's working for your business.
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Set up a call with Layel, our support system here, to be able to make sure it's implemented in your business correctly.
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But how much of a percentage or how much would you take off of the bonus based off of callbacks and going over hours usually?
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Yeah, so if you're going to use the simple system, so like we do it differently.
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With a full system of P4P, a yellow slip is you have to go back to service.
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So I'll say like for you guys, when you guys have a complaint, do you have to return to service or is it just like, hey, we're sorry, we'll do that differently next time?
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It's both.
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We get both.
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Okay.
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If I was you, I would make a yellow slip
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As simple as you remove one pool from their count tally.
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So it was like, okay, for example, you're at 60 this week.
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Great.
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You just got a yellow slip.
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You're at 59.
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So the only thing you really have to track is number of pools completed and number of yellow slips.
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I would personally probably say I would count a yellow slip like a five.
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Like five pools?
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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So you might be at 65 this week.
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You're crushing it because you're going so fast.
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You get a yellow slip on a Thursday.
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You're down to 60.
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Okay.
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I like that.
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Meaning now, if they do two or three mistakes a week, callbacks, they're probably not making a bonus.
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And furthermore, when they're crushing it, like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, they get very, very cautious because they don't want to lose one tier of bonus because of one mistake.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Makes sense.
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Now, another thing, I guess, now that we're on the space structure, because I mean, that's for pools.
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I'm kind of separating pools, filters.
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And now I have this new position kind of developing the repairs, which is usually me.
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But now I'm kind of like, kind of got a guy who I'm working into that position.
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I kind of have it as a hybrid as of right now.
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But...
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I guess maybe I'm struggling with because I think in the future what I would like to do, because I have a preventative maintenance inspection checklist that they go through with filter cleans that I kind of wanted, like with upsells, I give them a percentage of the sale.
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Yep.
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However, the repair guy would, you know, would probably be installing it.
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So I'm giving commission to the guy who's selling it.
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But at the same time, usually that repair person is the more expensive technician.
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And I want to incentivize him, too.
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I'm just trying to figure out how I would do that and also remain profitable and everybody kind of gets a piece.
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That make sense?
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Yeah.
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So do you install the pools, too?
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I install, we only deal with equipment.
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So only equipment related filters, pumps, heaters, automation systems, chemical feeders.
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So you're saying the person who installs like a heater is gonna be cheaper and easier to find than someone who repairs one?
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No, vice versa.
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So what I'm saying is,
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00:13:01.164 --> 00:13:07.485
The service technician, the cleaning tech can clean filters, and I have them doing a checklist.
224
00:13:07.886 --> 00:13:23.749
So we have simple seals, little upsell opportunities, and potential pumps, filters, heaters, promotions they can push when they're there, which would eventually then, if approved, would get transitioned into the repair department.
225
00:13:24.429 --> 00:13:31.011
Now, if that cleaning technician were to sell that, I would imagine he'd get a commission off of that.
226
00:13:32.457 --> 00:13:35.411
but I'm also trying to incentivize the repair technician as well.
227
00:13:36.304 --> 00:13:40.065
And so I'm, I mean, I don't know if I just, it's just as simple as just raising prices.
228
00:13:40.605 --> 00:13:41.765
Maybe it's just a different position.
229
00:13:41.785 --> 00:13:44.546
So I don't know how to incentivize as far as commission based.
230
00:13:45.486 --> 00:13:45.666
Yeah.
231
00:13:45.726 --> 00:13:51.248
Like you could, you could keep doing where you give a percentage to the pool techs or the pool cleaning guys.
232
00:13:51.948 --> 00:14:03.510
I think what you could do, if you really want to make this pool thing, like bake this into P4P, you could just tack a number of pools onto their, this week's schedule on their P4P based upon upsells.
233
00:14:03.970 --> 00:14:04.851
Hey, you got an upsell?
234
00:14:04.871 --> 00:14:05.031
Okay.
235
00:14:05.051 --> 00:14:05.911
That's five pools.
236
00:14:06.772 --> 00:14:07.313
Oh, gotcha.
237
00:14:07.433 --> 00:14:11.862
So then there's this metric that they're constantly in their mind, which is like, I produce pools all week long.
238
00:14:12.583 --> 00:14:17.874
I have minus demerit points if I make mistakes, and I can get ahead even further if I upsell a bunch.
239
00:14:19.076 --> 00:14:20.257
So you could do something like that.
240
00:14:20.317 --> 00:14:28.722
I'm not saying that's what you should do, but that'd be like an easy way for them to get compensated without worrying about, okay, what was the percentage and they get a commission and all this other stuff.
241
00:14:29.142 --> 00:14:32.684
It just be very much like if you upsell someone on a heater, you get three pools.
242
00:14:32.724 --> 00:14:37.767
If you get someone on a filtration system, you get whatever, five pools, whatever.
243
00:14:38.048 --> 00:14:41.830
And then they'd have this metric every week that gets reset for the person that's,
244
00:14:42.190 --> 00:14:51.779
going out and doing the repair or switching out the systems, I would probably be doing much more of a commission basis with a base pay.
245
00:14:52.600 --> 00:15:00.267
Because, hey, you're going to make a minimum of this amount per hour, but I'm also going to track this percentage of labor revenue that you earn.
246
00:15:01.533 --> 00:15:05.194
And you're going to make the higher of those two things at the end of every pay period.
247
00:15:05.874 --> 00:15:06.214
Okay.
248
00:15:06.514 --> 00:15:06.974
I like that.
249
00:15:07.454 --> 00:15:09.175
So it's not straight commission.
250
00:15:09.195 --> 00:15:12.155
It's not like they feel like something goes wrong.
251
00:15:12.616 --> 00:15:14.476
They give them the security of the base pay.
252
00:15:15.036 --> 00:15:16.276
So maybe it's $30 an hour.
253
00:15:16.577 --> 00:15:17.897
It's $30 an hour base pay.
254
00:15:18.217 --> 00:15:22.938
However, we're going to be giving you 30% of labor revenue, which everyone is higher at the end of the paycheck.
255
00:15:23.058 --> 00:15:23.458
You get it.
256
00:15:23.698 --> 00:15:23.938
Right.
257
00:15:24.618 --> 00:15:24.898
Okay.
258
00:15:25.079 --> 00:15:29.680
Because I was struggling with it because it's a new position wrapping my head around that.
259
00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:31.040
I like that pool.
260
00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.882
that pool concept because it's very simple and I want to make it as simple as possible.
261
00:15:36.602 --> 00:15:41.163
Now, uh, I guess another thing I kind of, maybe know the answer is funny when I'm writing it down.
262
00:15:41.203 --> 00:15:44.805
I'm kind of, I'm answering it for me for this question for you.
263
00:15:44.845 --> 00:15:45.305
But, uh,
264
00:15:46.603 --> 00:15:50.105
I would say around my location, I've done a pretty good job.
265
00:15:50.125 --> 00:15:53.407
I mean, pool guys, they're not very professional.
266
00:15:53.447 --> 00:15:55.789
So our company looks legit out there.
267
00:15:55.949 --> 00:16:00.112
So we get, and people are starting to recognize my little turtle, man, it's pretty cool.
268
00:16:01.272 --> 00:16:06.336
But I feel like I'm at the higher end as far as pricing, as far as market-wise.
269
00:16:07.136 --> 00:16:11.841
But I'm kind of at that point where I feel like I was going to start raising prices again.
270
00:16:12.361 --> 00:16:16.045
So my goal here is to get to about 250 to 300 pools.
271
00:16:16.485 --> 00:16:23.012
I think with the margin that I'm at, the job rolls and the org chart filled out, I kind of have a good feeling.
272
00:16:23.472 --> 00:16:26.275
And so I know the pricing that I have right now works well.
273
00:16:26.355 --> 00:16:26.995
I can get there.
274
00:16:27.756 --> 00:16:36.602
But but I'm I'm kind of like, you know, considering instead of going 160, because right now my price is anywhere between 160 to 200 plus chemicals.
275
00:16:37.943 --> 00:16:42.226
And so I'm just thinking about making that 180 to 220 plus chemicals.
276
00:16:43.667 --> 00:16:48.130
So I don't know if I should go aggressive once I get to where I want to go or just do it now.
277
00:16:48.943 --> 00:16:50.524
Yeah, like there's two ways you can think about it.
278
00:16:50.824 --> 00:16:53.146
One is, well, I'm at capacity.
279
00:16:53.186 --> 00:16:54.587
I can't take any more jobs on.
280
00:16:54.627 --> 00:16:58.569
I should be raising prices to existing and new customers, right?
281
00:16:59.009 --> 00:17:00.190
And that's the one I usually talk about.
282
00:17:00.550 --> 00:17:14.259
The other way to think about it is if I raise my prices and I sell more customers at that higher price, it gives me an extra $50, $40 per month per customer I sell to go put that right back into marketing and get more customers.
283
00:17:15.457 --> 00:17:26.608
So if you sold, let's just call it 10 more customers, and they're all $50 more per month compared to what you usually would be getting for the pricing, that's $500 a month.
284
00:17:26.668 --> 00:17:29.791
You go spend on ads to get even more leads in the door.
285
00:17:30.671 --> 00:17:35.876
And then in my head when I was writing it down, like $160, $180, is that a huge difference?
286
00:17:35.916 --> 00:17:37.718
$20 more a month?
287
00:17:37.758 --> 00:17:38.278
I mean, maybe.
288
00:17:38.399 --> 00:17:39.740
Are you at capacity right now, Jono?
289
00:17:40.985 --> 00:17:43.006
Well, I just fired somebody this week.
290
00:17:43.186 --> 00:17:44.767
So, yes.
291
00:17:45.668 --> 00:17:47.269
But I wasn't.
292
00:17:48.050 --> 00:17:50.191
But, I mean, I'm going to hire somebody here.
293
00:17:50.731 --> 00:17:56.695
I wanted to get this pricing or pay figured out first before I go to my next person.
294
00:17:57.416 --> 00:18:00.618
But I'm going to hire somebody and get them prepped and ready for the...
295
00:18:01.452 --> 00:18:02.553
the season essentially.
296
00:18:02.874 --> 00:18:12.365
So, um, I mean, I guess if, if I was going to fill out the work chart and I was going to hit the markers where I want to hit, essentially I need two more people, but I'm going to try to do like one at the beginning of the year, one towards the end.
297
00:18:13.046 --> 00:18:17.792
And then I think from there, I'll kind of stop the growth depending on the, um,
298
00:18:18.832 --> 00:18:19.853
success of the plan.
299
00:18:21.053 --> 00:18:25.395
So I guess that's... Do you have a sufficient cash right now to grow?
300
00:18:25.595 --> 00:18:30.538
Yeah, I would say we're probably at about $40,000, which is about... We probably do about...
301
00:18:30.758 --> 00:18:32.739
I separate the service and the repair side.
302
00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:35.560
On the service side, we probably bill about $40,000 a month.
303
00:18:36.120 --> 00:18:42.283
On the service side, it can be anywhere between money to $80,000 a month.
304
00:18:42.303 --> 00:18:44.544
Do you know what your customer acquisition cost is?
305
00:18:44.584 --> 00:18:46.185
Have you ran ads before?
306
00:18:46.824 --> 00:18:47.024
Yeah.
307
00:18:47.044 --> 00:18:51.490
So that's where I messed up this last year, because that's where I was kind of I was trying to budget for ads.
308
00:18:52.050 --> 00:18:55.374
So I spent forty thousand dollars on marketing last year.
309
00:18:55.414 --> 00:18:58.618
And then when I was doing the numbers, that was about 20 grand in wraps.
310
00:18:59.239 --> 00:19:04.405
And then it was about nine grand with a marketing agency that I have.
311
00:19:05.106 --> 00:19:06.828
And then the rest was in Google ads.
312
00:19:07.588 --> 00:19:13.534
And I didn't do a good job at separating the type of leads because we get two different types of leads, one for service, one for repair.
313
00:19:14.034 --> 00:19:17.658
So I didn't get a really good kind of time like estimate.
314
00:19:17.718 --> 00:19:24.324
So in my mind, I'm like, all right, I spent about 20 grand and I got about 70 service clients.
315
00:19:24.825 --> 00:19:28.108
That's how I'm kind of thinking about it because I didn't organize it well enough.
316
00:19:29.008 --> 00:19:29.189
Yeah.
317
00:19:29.309 --> 00:19:30.350
Which we're fixing this year.
318
00:19:31.263 --> 00:19:31.463
Yeah.
319
00:19:31.804 --> 00:19:37.671
Well, the thing is this, if you, let's just say it's $300 cost customer acquisition cost, which is quite a lot.
320
00:19:38.091 --> 00:19:39.653
And a lot of that's going to your agency.
321
00:19:39.693 --> 00:19:41.475
It sounds like let's assume it's 300 bucks.
322
00:19:42.096 --> 00:19:45.820
Um, that's, I get that from 70 new customers and $20,000 spent.
323
00:19:47.482 --> 00:19:49.543
So I think we could probably make that more efficient.
324
00:19:49.563 --> 00:19:55.104
That's my first, you know, we can definitely, I think you could probably run some ads yourself without having to pay them nine grand.
325
00:19:55.584 --> 00:19:59.245
But let's assume for a moment it's 300 bucks, like just short of $300.
326
00:19:59.625 --> 00:20:04.986
If you spent 10 grand on marketing, you would get 30 more customers and get to the capacity.
327
00:20:05.006 --> 00:20:10.228
Like you'd get, you'd hire what other person, you get 30 more customers, you'd be kind of like, I have to raise prices.
328
00:20:10.588 --> 00:20:14.269
The reason I say that is because if you raise prices, let's say by 15 to 20%,
329
00:20:16.329 --> 00:20:22.613
you would then be making about $8,000 a month in extra profit.
330
00:20:23.894 --> 00:20:24.174
Right.
331
00:20:25.195 --> 00:20:35.341
So this is where it's like, do you go spend $10,000, $12,000 in marketing, immediately get to capacity, then raise prices and make $8,000 to $10,000 a month?
332
00:20:35.361 --> 00:20:37.183
Right.
333
00:20:37.203 --> 00:20:37.423
Right.
334
00:20:38.470 --> 00:20:42.613
Well, see, and that was my, that's the decision that I'm, I guess I'm contemplating.
335
00:20:42.653 --> 00:20:46.417
Like, do I just raise prices for the new clients coming in and then just start there?
336
00:20:46.437 --> 00:20:50.000
Or do I just get them at what the prices that I know work and then raise them?
337
00:20:50.100 --> 00:20:53.362
I feel like there's... Yeah, there's always, there's always like a balance.
338
00:20:53.382 --> 00:20:54.563
That's why I asked how much cash you have.
339
00:20:54.603 --> 00:20:57.826
If you were like, hey, I have, like, I have 15 grand in the bank.
340
00:20:58.347 --> 00:21:03.071
I'd probably be like, okay, let's go ahead and raise prices now and make sure we're profitable.
341
00:21:03.091 --> 00:21:03.631
Yeah.
342
00:21:03.711 --> 00:21:08.577
But I also know that if you have a, like, even at $300, the math kind of makes sense.
343
00:21:09.298 --> 00:21:13.203
And that is go get 30 to 40 more customers, i.e.
344
00:21:13.243 --> 00:21:16.487
to capacity where you're like, I have to raise prices because I need to lose some people.
345
00:21:16.707 --> 00:21:20.913
And now all of a sudden you make $8,000 more a month if you raise prices by 20% across the board.
346
00:21:21.302 --> 00:21:23.184
Well, I was actually going to raise, well, am I existing?
347
00:21:23.244 --> 00:21:26.327
Either way I go, I'm going to raise certain prices.
348
00:21:26.367 --> 00:21:29.751
Anyway, I was going to, I got some 150, so I'm going to go to 160.
349
00:21:29.811 --> 00:21:38.119
And then, you know, now that I charge per chemicals, I kind of have a little bit more of ways to increase prices in ways, you know, subtly.
350
00:21:38.499 --> 00:21:41.883
And I like chlorine costs, acid, you know.
351
00:21:42.483 --> 00:21:43.124
little different ways.
352
00:21:43.924 --> 00:21:53.950
So, um, but see if you were at capacity, like if you, if you actually gassed it, you got an extra 40 customers and you're like, I have to get rid of some people or I have to turn off new ad, new leads.
353
00:21:54.891 --> 00:21:59.253
Then you would go raise prices a whole lot more than $10 a cert, like $10 a month.
354
00:21:59.393 --> 00:22:02.035
You'd go like, okay, it's going to go for 160 to 185.
355
00:22:02.515 --> 00:22:04.836
And you're like, I sure hope I lose at least 10 or 15 customers.
356
00:22:04.876 --> 00:22:05.937
Cause I have my capacity.
357
00:22:05.957 --> 00:22:07.118
I can't take anyone new on.
358
00:22:07.718 --> 00:22:10.721
And so determining what that number is is probably what I would be doing if I was you.
359
00:22:11.302 --> 00:22:12.783
Like, is it 220?
360
00:22:12.843 --> 00:22:13.764
Is it 230?
361
00:22:14.044 --> 00:22:21.491
How many customers can you serve giving your current trucks and the amount of employees you can put in those before you're like, I will be tapped out?
362
00:22:21.792 --> 00:22:28.298
Because if you can sprint to that and then raise prices on all your customers, that's where you immediately make the business much more profitable.
363
00:22:29.223 --> 00:22:29.523
Okay.
364
00:22:30.004 --> 00:22:31.165
You have way more confidence.
365
00:22:31.185 --> 00:22:35.969
You have way more confidence to raise the prices more than $10 if you are at capacity.
366
00:22:36.590 --> 00:22:45.378
See, I guess maybe the way I was thinking about it was like I got my safe part of the business there that kind of works, and then everybody else coming in.
367
00:22:45.859 --> 00:22:46.639
Is that a high price?
368
00:22:46.659 --> 00:22:47.620
And if I get them, I get them.
369
00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:48.361
If I don't, I don't.
370
00:22:48.381 --> 00:22:49.602
I got my safety still there.
371
00:22:49.622 --> 00:22:50.103
You know what I mean?
372
00:22:50.783 --> 00:22:53.684
I would say that I would do that if you were like cash constrained.
373
00:22:54.264 --> 00:22:54.524
Right.
374
00:22:55.065 --> 00:22:57.966
But because I think it's much more like you're pro growth.
375
00:22:58.046 --> 00:23:01.207
I know that because of the amount you spend on wraps, like you wanted to grow the business.
376
00:23:01.787 --> 00:23:06.169
So like and you have enough capital to like and you have a customer accruing cost that isn't great.
377
00:23:06.189 --> 00:23:07.369
But like we know what it is.
378
00:23:07.729 --> 00:23:11.991
You could technically just sprint to capacity and then raise prices on everyone.
379
00:23:12.748 --> 00:23:14.770
I think that's a that's something to think about.
380
00:23:14.810 --> 00:23:15.891
Maybe it's just you know what it is.
381
00:23:15.911 --> 00:23:21.615
The fear of like just the the confrontation of raising prices dramatically once you get to that capacity.
382
00:23:22.096 --> 00:23:23.077
I think that's what it is.
383
00:23:23.777 --> 00:23:24.698
But that's a good plan.
384
00:23:25.078 --> 00:23:25.759
That's a good plan.
385
00:23:27.600 --> 00:23:31.744
I mean, you've probably done this a few times where you raise prices, maybe even dramatically.
386
00:23:32.204 --> 00:23:34.186
Do you usually get any bad reviews when you do that?
387
00:23:35.527 --> 00:23:38.189
If you do, they're the best bad reviews to have.
388
00:23:38.849 --> 00:23:44.472
If someone says that you're too high of price, they're not saying anything bad about your service.
389
00:23:45.632 --> 00:23:50.675
And so what that does, the only type of person that's going to be scared off by that is a hire kicker and a low-priced person.
390
00:23:51.948 --> 00:23:58.012
Like if I went to a restaurant, like I do this quite often when I look at reviews, like I'm price insensitive for my food.
391
00:23:58.172 --> 00:23:59.093
I'm going to buy good food.
392
00:23:59.373 --> 00:24:00.194
I have it in my budget.
393
00:24:00.574 --> 00:24:01.414
I don't care about the price.
394
00:24:02.155 --> 00:24:06.338
When I look at reviews of a restaurant, all they're saying is like, oh, it's too expensive.
395
00:24:06.518 --> 00:24:07.559
That is like right over my head.
396
00:24:07.579 --> 00:24:08.199
I'm like, I don't care.
397
00:24:08.419 --> 00:24:09.900
I'm price insensitive when it comes to food.
398
00:24:10.921 --> 00:24:11.101
Right?
399
00:24:11.281 --> 00:24:13.302
So your best customers aren't put off by that.
400
00:24:13.402 --> 00:24:17.205
The worst customers that you don't want when they see, oh, this person is so high priced.
401
00:24:17.225 --> 00:24:17.825
They raised my price.
402
00:24:18.306 --> 00:24:18.546
Great.
403
00:24:18.706 --> 00:24:19.306
Get out of here.
404
00:24:19.567 --> 00:24:21.228
You're wasting my time anyways, you know?
405
00:24:21.967 --> 00:24:22.168
Right.
406
00:24:22.828 --> 00:24:29.576
Hey, by the way, just because I watch your show, have you seen very too many profitable pool service companies out there?
407
00:24:30.177 --> 00:24:30.457
Oh, yeah.
408
00:24:30.597 --> 00:24:36.304
I really like pool service and specifically down like the southern states like pool service is my favorite.
409
00:24:37.005 --> 00:24:38.186
Not gonna lie, yeah.
410
00:24:38.886 --> 00:24:40.767
Pool service is right there because it's recurring.
411
00:24:41.787 --> 00:24:45.769
It is somewhat mechanical in terms of like you have the upsells and the repairs.
412
00:24:46.709 --> 00:24:53.892
And if people don't, the reason I like it, if people don't take care of their pool and it goes green or something crazy, the price goes through the roof.
413
00:24:54.712 --> 00:24:57.353
So that you have this risk thing that they have.
414
00:24:57.774 --> 00:24:58.554
It's kind of like lawns.
415
00:24:58.574 --> 00:25:01.295
Like if you don't cut your lawn, HOA is gonna call you.
416
00:25:01.315 --> 00:25:03.556
Like there's a penalty if you don't use my services.
417
00:25:04.471 --> 00:25:05.132
Yeah, I know you're right.
418
00:25:05.532 --> 00:25:06.073
That's what I say.
419
00:25:06.393 --> 00:25:12.681
I say, well, usually I say, they'll get rid of the gardener first and then they'll get rid of us.
420
00:25:13.282 --> 00:25:17.026
I'm like, because the city's gonna come with the pool's green, you know?
421
00:25:18.548 --> 00:25:21.051
I'm like, I've had long grass my whole life, so it's all good.
422
00:25:23.190 --> 00:25:23.810
All right, man.
423
00:25:24.030 --> 00:25:24.410
All right.
424
00:25:24.510 --> 00:25:27.151
I think that's I mean, essentially, I think that's pretty much it.
425
00:25:27.171 --> 00:25:28.432
Let me look at my notes here.
426
00:25:28.472 --> 00:25:29.712
What's your turnaround usually?
427
00:25:29.732 --> 00:25:39.335
I mean, I guess it's a different business, but on getting somebody out in the field after training, usually is what you try to kind of work it towards.
428
00:25:40.114 --> 00:25:43.498
We did two weeks for entry-level folks.
429
00:25:43.678 --> 00:25:50.086
But what we're trying to do is in those 10 days, like five days per week, we have a checklist of what they need to be learning, right?
430
00:25:50.106 --> 00:25:55.992
So like the very first day they get in the field, they're not for us going to like hop on a zero-turn mower or drive a trailer.
431
00:25:56.573 --> 00:25:56.753
Right.
432
00:25:56.793 --> 00:25:59.315
Like day one is you're going to use a blower and that's it.
433
00:25:59.715 --> 00:26:01.936
Day two, you're going to use the string trimmer and that's it.
434
00:26:02.257 --> 00:26:09.221
And so we slowly roll them into all the things that they'll need to get done to be able to go solo.
435
00:26:09.701 --> 00:26:10.141
Right.
436
00:26:10.161 --> 00:26:15.085
Does most of the landscapers, do they run solo or do they usually go on cruise?
437
00:26:15.205 --> 00:26:16.285
It just depends on services.
438
00:26:16.605 --> 00:26:22.309
We do a lot of solo, but more so it's like they have the capability of being solo.
439
00:26:22.569 --> 00:26:23.930
Like they know how to do everything.
440
00:26:24.250 --> 00:26:25.191
That's the main focus.
441
00:26:26.585 --> 00:26:27.505
I think that's pretty much it.
442
00:26:28.046 --> 00:26:33.948
Is your softwares that you use just based pretty much in landscape?
443
00:26:34.988 --> 00:26:39.190
No, about half the members are outside of landscape.
444
00:26:39.730 --> 00:26:42.251
I know that, like what service, what software are you using now?
445
00:26:42.552 --> 00:26:45.853
So I use Housecall Pro and then I also use Pay the Pool Man.
446
00:26:46.672 --> 00:26:46.932
Okay.
447
00:26:47.252 --> 00:26:50.573
Pay the pool man is probably like very specialized to what you guys do.
448
00:26:51.193 --> 00:26:53.353
And so I don't know that one very well.
449
00:26:53.813 --> 00:26:59.374
House, House, House, go pro and like homeworks are very similar in terms of like what we're doing, but I would stick with it until there's pain.
450
00:26:59.915 --> 00:27:05.336
Just like, it's not worth switching softwares unless you're like, there's a pain point I'm hitting and I, I need to grow.
451
00:27:05.356 --> 00:27:08.036
Um, but if it's working for you, just keep doing that.
452
00:27:08.156 --> 00:27:08.296
Yeah.
453
00:27:08.356 --> 00:27:10.357
I just, because I have two softwares and that's never funny.
454
00:27:10.377 --> 00:27:11.217
I just want to, yeah, I know.
455
00:27:11.997 --> 00:27:12.577
Yeah.
456
00:27:13.257 --> 00:27:17.584
It is expensive.
457
00:27:17.844 --> 00:27:18.685
I know we're ending early.
458
00:27:18.725 --> 00:27:21.890
So when, once you kind of do the pay stuff, email me back.
459
00:27:21.910 --> 00:27:23.412
Cause I'll email you the recording for today.
460
00:27:23.813 --> 00:27:24.955
Just be like, Hey, this worked.
461
00:27:24.975 --> 00:27:32.706
I had a couple of issues with this or any other questions you have, put them in the email and I'll shoot you a loom video real quick and just try to give you as value as possible.
462
00:27:33.667 --> 00:27:34.088
Awesome, man.
463
00:27:34.108 --> 00:27:35.070
I would appreciate that, man.
464
00:27:35.170 --> 00:27:35.530
Thank you.
465
00:27:35.690 --> 00:27:36.532
Thank you, Mike, for your time.
466
00:27:36.552 --> 00:27:37.493
You got it, brother.
467
00:27:37.533 --> 00:27:38.394
You have a great rest of your weekend.
468
00:27:39.115 --> 00:27:39.736
Are you as well, bro.
469
00:27:39.796 --> 00:27:40.117
Thank you.
470
00:27:40.137 --> 00:27:40.477
Take care.
471
00:27:40.518 --> 00:27:40.778
Bye-bye.
1
00:00:00.091 --> 00:00:01.232
Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes.
2
00:00:01.272 --> 00:00:02.933
I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care.
3
00:00:02.973 --> 00:00:04.653
We have over 200 locations around the world.
4
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I'm also the founder of HomeWorks.
5
00:00:06.795 --> 00:00:13.338
We've processed over a million dollars in revenue for home service business owners every day so they can grow without breaking.
6
00:00:13.958 --> 00:00:21.122
Today, I'm going to be having a one-on-one coaching call with someone that owns a pool service and they do maintenance and they also do repairs.
7
00:00:21.562 --> 00:00:28.526
We're going to be talking about how they can do a version of pay for performance when they don't use budget hours and they want it to be really, really simple.
8
00:00:28.966 --> 00:00:36.370
This is going to be really helpful if you're trying to dip your toe in the water of paying people based upon how hard they work and not how long they work.
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00:00:36.730 --> 00:00:38.170
Let's go ahead and roll the tape.
10
00:00:38.631 --> 00:00:39.351
My pleasure, brother.
11
00:00:39.531 --> 00:00:40.231
What can I help with?
12
00:00:40.291 --> 00:00:45.274
I went through your doc a little bit, kind of know the business a little bit, but maybe just give me a bit of background and we can jump right in.
13
00:00:46.327 --> 00:00:46.747
Yeah, sure.
14
00:00:46.767 --> 00:00:54.410
So I started the business right around 2019, kind of as a side thing with the partner, did everything wrong a few times.
15
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So eventually I had another business.
16
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I went all in on this.
17
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We grew very quick, but we grew with the wrong prices once we started to scale.
18
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And so I kind of went to that situation.
19
00:01:07.034 --> 00:01:08.955
Am I going to sell it or am I going to raise prices?
20
00:01:09.863 --> 00:01:21.814
did that and essentially what we did was, what was killing us was the chemical, we included chemicals and once the summer hit, it just, you know, your numbers flipped and we're already low to begin with.
21
00:01:22.454 --> 00:01:33.824
So what we did was we just did a service, our operational costs built in and then we did plus chemicals and make chemicals a profit, you know, instead of an expense essentially.
22
00:01:34.986 --> 00:01:41.334
We consolidated, got rid of some property managements, went back down to about, we went from 220 to about 170.
23
00:01:42.276 --> 00:01:44.319
We grew, we had a little bit more turn that year.
24
00:01:45.398 --> 00:01:49.320
because people were trying us out with the new pricing, but we recycled some new ones in.
25
00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:54.363
So we ended with about 195, but we doubled our revenue.
26
00:01:55.244 --> 00:01:58.385
But then me and my business partner split up after that.
27
00:01:58.866 --> 00:02:01.988
So I went back down to about 110.
28
00:02:02.028 --> 00:02:07.431
I rebranded, I invested a lot into the branding, websites, online,
29
00:02:08.051 --> 00:02:12.132
You know, pretty much skyrocketed right back up to about 170-ish pools.
30
00:02:12.193 --> 00:02:15.614
But again, making more revenue this year than we've ever had.
31
00:02:15.894 --> 00:02:19.895
And so now we had to retrain the new team, everything.
32
00:02:20.295 --> 00:02:22.576
And so now I'm kind of like, I'm kind of getting a better feel.
33
00:02:22.616 --> 00:02:26.898
Didn't do the best job tracking my numbers, but this year kind of cleaned it up.
34
00:02:27.598 --> 00:02:41.383
And so now I'm heading into 2026 and just had a few constraints and questions as far as strategy to get to where I want to go to, as well as, you know, changing the pay structure within my business.
35
00:02:42.163 --> 00:02:45.104
I think I'm a little insecure with what I'm paying my guys.
36
00:02:45.584 --> 00:02:50.146
And so it kind of makes me scrape to the bottom barrel type of people.
37
00:02:50.926 --> 00:02:54.667
And I kind of hold on to them a little bit longer, I think, because I know they're a little cheap.
38
00:02:54.787 --> 00:02:55.347
You know what I mean?
39
00:02:55.367 --> 00:02:57.267
So I'm like, I'll tolerate a little bit too much.
40
00:02:57.728 --> 00:03:07.210
So so what I kind of was thinking and I saw your pay for performance and I'm trying to kind of trying to figure it out in a way with pools.
41
00:03:07.630 --> 00:03:08.550
I pay per hour.
42
00:03:09.430 --> 00:03:10.371
I don't pay per pool.
43
00:03:10.731 --> 00:03:15.852
And so what I wanted to kind of do and I want to get your feedback on this is essentially.
44
00:03:15.872 --> 00:03:16.032
Yeah.
45
00:03:17.045 --> 00:03:22.812
I have a standard that I want them to meet as far as the amount of pools that I need them to do really to make it worth it.
46
00:03:23.353 --> 00:03:24.835
And so that's about 50 pools.
47
00:03:25.956 --> 00:03:30.282
And so I feel like if they hit 50 pools, they get an extra $50 per week.
48
00:03:31.003 --> 00:03:32.545
Is that 50 pools per week?
49
00:03:33.297 --> 00:03:33.737
Per week.
50
00:03:34.258 --> 00:03:34.518
Got it.
51
00:03:35.139 --> 00:03:36.060
So that's about 12.
52
00:03:36.220 --> 00:03:38.242
That's about 12 a day, four days a week.
53
00:03:38.262 --> 00:03:40.404
So I leave one day open for filter cleans.
54
00:03:41.045 --> 00:03:42.106
And so filter cleans.
55
00:03:42.547 --> 00:03:47.231
I also right now I currently give them extra $20 on top of their hourly.
56
00:03:47.552 --> 00:03:50.074
And so I wanted to kind of do a tier system of.
57
00:03:51.195 --> 00:03:54.757
If they service 50 pools, they get an extra 50 pools a week.
58
00:03:55.257 --> 00:03:59.159
If they do 60 and above, they get, you know, 80 bucks or 70 bucks.
59
00:03:59.820 --> 00:04:07.244
And then if they go to 70 plus, which is rare, then I give them even more.
60
00:04:08.004 --> 00:04:12.546
And then I would kind of balance it with callbacks and going over budgeted hours.
61
00:04:13.127 --> 00:04:13.347
Yep.
62
00:04:13.807 --> 00:04:20.175
Yeah, like I think in all with PRP, it really comes down to a matter of quality and quantity, right?
63
00:04:20.555 --> 00:04:22.658
And so the quantity is the number of pools.
64
00:04:22.978 --> 00:04:25.401
The quality becomes callbacks, right?
65
00:04:25.882 --> 00:04:27.824
And so if you're not going to use budget hours, that's fine.
66
00:04:28.545 --> 00:04:32.070
The only trouble with when you say pools is some pools take longer than others.
67
00:04:32.931 --> 00:04:33.151
Right.
68
00:04:33.724 --> 00:04:35.945
Are they generally pretty much the same though?
69
00:04:36.345 --> 00:04:43.108
Yeah, and we're kinda at that point too where it's kinda worked into the service costs where we can kinda determine this pool's gonna take a little bit longer.
70
00:04:43.468 --> 00:04:45.329
So we usually charge a little bit more anyways.
71
00:04:45.829 --> 00:04:47.830
And so I'd kinda have to get a little bit more.
72
00:04:48.350 --> 00:04:51.252
The way I schedule it now is based off of the pool.
73
00:04:51.292 --> 00:04:55.554
So I'm like, I know this one, on average it takes about 30 minutes between servicing and drive time.
74
00:04:56.074 --> 00:04:58.255
And then if it's a dramatically big pool,
75
00:04:59.035 --> 00:05:00.619
then I'll adjust accordingly.
76
00:05:00.659 --> 00:05:03.908
Or if we have weather events, I'll adjust accordingly.
77
00:05:04.768 --> 00:05:10.613
That's the only problem, in my opinion, when you say, hey, because I like the idea, like really simple, like number of pools per week.
78
00:05:11.053 --> 00:05:16.217
The problem is if they get two big pools on today's route, does that throw them under the bus?
79
00:05:16.777 --> 00:05:17.057
Right.
80
00:05:17.498 --> 00:05:19.199
And then they'll feel like you're gaming the system.
81
00:05:19.659 --> 00:05:22.441
Whereas budget hours kind of scales up and down with that.
82
00:05:22.642 --> 00:05:26.985
What you could do, Dylan, is you could just do it based on revenue.
83
00:05:27.365 --> 00:05:29.327
Like if you make X amount of revenue, you get a bonus.
84
00:05:29.347 --> 00:05:29.447
Yeah.
85
00:05:30.067 --> 00:05:33.428
Because the revenue, I would assume, correlates directly with the size of the pool.
86
00:05:33.988 --> 00:05:34.348
Usually.
87
00:05:34.508 --> 00:05:35.128
Yeah, usually.
88
00:05:35.488 --> 00:05:36.008
Usually?
89
00:05:37.288 --> 00:05:37.568
Yeah.
90
00:05:37.788 --> 00:05:38.909
Yeah.
91
00:05:39.049 --> 00:05:43.069
Like the simplicity of number of pools, love.
92
00:05:43.950 --> 00:05:51.631
It's just as soon as you start giving them an incentive like that, you will get more pools done, but they will start grumbling about the size of the pool.
93
00:05:52.011 --> 00:05:55.532
And he's playing favorites because they got me on the route that has all the big pools.
94
00:05:56.752 --> 00:05:56.992
Right.
95
00:05:57.012 --> 00:05:57.432
Yeah.
96
00:05:58.459 --> 00:05:59.620
Well, I'm already facing a little bit of that.
97
00:05:59.940 --> 00:06:01.261
Also, I'm facing like that.
98
00:06:01.581 --> 00:06:07.384
I'm also facing, you know, oh, well, you know, I have to do these many pools and he only has these many.
99
00:06:07.824 --> 00:06:11.446
And so, you know, there's no really- Which is crazy because they're getting paid by the hour right now.
100
00:06:11.666 --> 00:06:12.567
That's what I said.
101
00:06:12.587 --> 00:06:14.588
You know, I'm like, bro, you're making more money, man.
102
00:06:15.228 --> 00:06:15.588
I don't know.
103
00:06:15.668 --> 00:06:16.129
I don't get it.
104
00:06:16.809 --> 00:06:18.690
But that's what I'm kind of facing.
105
00:06:18.730 --> 00:06:21.771
And then there's a little bit of like, you know, this is what it is, man.
106
00:06:21.791 --> 00:06:23.752
You know, like this is how we pay.
107
00:06:23.853 --> 00:06:27.134
How would you how would that play out as far as based off revenue?
108
00:06:27.174 --> 00:06:29.896
How would that look as far as the way you're seeing it and describing it?
109
00:06:29.916 --> 00:06:30.096
Yeah.
110
00:06:30.256 --> 00:06:34.358
So you could take your average like what's the average pool service cost?
111
00:06:35.078 --> 00:06:39.564
About, let's just say, for a regular pool with chemicals, about $200 a month.
112
00:06:40.104 --> 00:06:40.325
Okay.
113
00:06:40.525 --> 00:06:41.306
But per service?
114
00:06:41.927 --> 00:06:45.271
That would be about $50.
115
00:06:45.311 --> 00:06:47.453
Do you charge us on a monthly basis and we come weekly?
116
00:06:47.473 --> 00:06:48.835
Is that like your most common thing?
117
00:06:48.855 --> 00:06:49.095
So $200.
118
00:06:49.155 --> 00:06:49.696
Okay, got it.
119
00:06:49.756 --> 00:06:49.936
Okay.
120
00:06:49.997 --> 00:06:50.177
Okay.
121
00:06:50.537 --> 00:06:53.099
So then in this case, you are not charging by the service.
122
00:06:53.119 --> 00:06:55.001
You are charging on like a monthly basis.
123
00:06:55.281 --> 00:06:56.662
So I like your pool idea.
124
00:06:57.182 --> 00:07:00.485
Just realize you're going to have a few customers where all of a sudden it's become an issue.
125
00:07:00.625 --> 00:07:05.509
And you could manually adjust this by saying, okay, they're a tool pool client.
126
00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:09.772
You know, like their, their service counts as two client, two pools.
127
00:07:10.152 --> 00:07:13.815
The reason I'm doing this is I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible since you don't do budgeted hours.
128
00:07:14.415 --> 00:07:17.377
And so if I was you, I would not just do 50, 60, 70.
129
00:07:17.918 --> 00:07:26.383
I would actually go lower and with smaller increments because if I'm at 40 and it's Friday afternoon, I'm like, there's no way I'm going to hit 50.
130
00:07:26.463 --> 00:07:28.345
I'm just going to coast the rest of the afternoon.
131
00:07:28.805 --> 00:07:31.167
I'm going to be chilling for the next three, three hours.
132
00:07:32.321 --> 00:07:37.343
Whereas if I'm already hit the smaller scale, I have incentive to keep going.
133
00:07:37.604 --> 00:07:37.864
Okay.
134
00:07:38.024 --> 00:07:38.464
I like that.
135
00:07:38.964 --> 00:07:39.845
That's a good way to look at it.
136
00:07:40.585 --> 00:07:46.448
Like you probably break even on their labor at something in the ballpark of 30 pools, right?
137
00:07:47.289 --> 00:07:48.290
Yeah, I would say.
138
00:07:48.710 --> 00:07:51.392
So I would start like at 35, there's a bonus.
139
00:07:51.653 --> 00:07:52.513
40, there's a bonus.
140
00:07:52.553 --> 00:07:54.115
45, 50, 55, 60.
141
00:07:54.255 --> 00:08:01.501
Because what you want is you want to make, hey boss, I want an extra couple of pools in my schedule today because I want to hit 70.
142
00:08:01.681 --> 00:08:02.662
Okay, yeah, no, you're right.
143
00:08:02.682 --> 00:08:03.302
I think that's over.
144
00:08:03.322 --> 00:08:03.863
And here's the thing.
145
00:08:04.583 --> 00:08:14.972
You've got to ask yourself too, like if you're going to be okay or not okay, but like an underperforming employee, let's say like 35 or 40 pools in a week, what would you pay to have that person double output?
146
00:08:15.707 --> 00:08:19.770
You're not going to have to pay them double when they do 70, but you're going to make double for the business.
147
00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:20.510
Right.
148
00:08:21.091 --> 00:08:28.536
So I would be very nice on my bonuses because you might be able to pay them 20% to 30% more but get twice the output.
149
00:08:28.996 --> 00:08:29.296
Right.
150
00:08:29.956 --> 00:08:39.203
Now, I mean I thought I was – and correct me if I'm wrong because I do pay per hour and I do have a schedule and I make the schedule based off of the route, what I say.
151
00:08:39.723 --> 00:08:40.964
So is that not budgeted hours?
152
00:08:40.984 --> 00:08:41.384
Yeah.
153
00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:51.525
Budgeted hours would be where every single service they go to, the price and the amount of time that they are, like their budget hours would correspond differently.
154
00:08:51.545 --> 00:08:55.867
So think said otherwise, you have this unit of pools.
155
00:08:56.648 --> 00:08:58.489
We have a unit of budgeted hours.
156
00:08:58.769 --> 00:09:04.192
That budget hour amount for a lawn service, for example, could be 0.5, it could be 0.7, it could be 1.4, it could be 3.
157
00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.061
because the size of the lawn difference, right?
158
00:09:09.181 --> 00:09:09.361
Right.
159
00:09:10.162 --> 00:09:14.405
It would be like me saying, hey, if you do more than 10 lawns, then you get more money today.
160
00:09:14.825 --> 00:09:19.228
Well, I could throw them a lawn that takes them five hours, and then they aren't going to get a bonus.
161
00:09:19.928 --> 00:09:23.470
So the most accurate form of P4P is when you use budgeted hours.
162
00:09:24.071 --> 00:09:34.718
But as long as the vast majority of your pools or your service units are very similar, then I think you're okay simplifying it like you have.
163
00:09:34.738 --> 00:09:35.418
Yeah.
164
00:09:35.578 --> 00:09:45.126
In my case, that would be like, if I only serviced a type of lawn that was generally within say, two and 3,000 square feet of turf, I could probably get away with number of lawns as my unit for P4P.
165
00:09:45.166 --> 00:09:56.296
Hey everyone, inside of the book, Copy and Paste Millionaire, I talk about the P4P system being so instrumental to be able to have the business run without you, where your employees are paid based upon how hard they're working.
166
00:09:56.796 --> 00:10:05.179
If this is something you're interested in, this is the perfect time of year during the offseason to figure out the software that makes this possible automatically.
167
00:10:05.499 --> 00:10:13.261
Within a matter of a minute per employee per day, you can pay your employees based on how hard they work and not based on how many hours they worked.
168
00:10:13.942 --> 00:10:14.502
So go check it out.
169
00:10:14.582 --> 00:10:15.682
P4Psoftware.com.
170
00:10:15.702 --> 00:10:17.103
The first 30 days are completely free.
171
00:10:17.543 --> 00:10:19.343
So you can make sure it's working for your business.
172
00:10:19.503 --> 00:10:24.345
Set up a call with Layel, our support system here, to be able to make sure it's implemented in your business correctly.
173
00:10:24.949 --> 00:10:31.556
But how much of a percentage or how much would you take off of the bonus based off of callbacks and going over hours usually?
174
00:10:32.090 --> 00:10:34.552
Yeah, so if you're going to use the simple system, so like we do it differently.
175
00:10:35.072 --> 00:10:41.317
With a full system of P4P, a yellow slip is you have to go back to service.
176
00:10:41.757 --> 00:10:50.263
So I'll say like for you guys, when you guys have a complaint, do you have to return to service or is it just like, hey, we're sorry, we'll do that differently next time?
177
00:10:50.684 --> 00:10:51.164
It's both.
178
00:10:51.304 --> 00:10:51.764
We get both.
179
00:10:52.044 --> 00:10:52.285
Okay.
180
00:10:52.785 --> 00:10:54.867
If I was you, I would make a yellow slip
181
00:10:55.687 --> 00:11:00.249
As simple as you remove one pool from their count tally.
182
00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:03.851
So it was like, okay, for example, you're at 60 this week.
183
00:11:03.931 --> 00:11:04.272
Great.
184
00:11:04.712 --> 00:11:05.652
You just got a yellow slip.
185
00:11:05.672 --> 00:11:06.413
You're at 59.
186
00:11:06.733 --> 00:11:10.075
So the only thing you really have to track is number of pools completed and number of yellow slips.
187
00:11:10.415 --> 00:11:13.516
I would personally probably say I would count a yellow slip like a five.
188
00:11:14.097 --> 00:11:14.817
Like five pools?
189
00:11:15.217 --> 00:11:15.498
Yes.
190
00:11:15.758 --> 00:11:15.978
Yeah.
191
00:11:16.158 --> 00:11:17.639
So you might be at 65 this week.
192
00:11:17.999 --> 00:11:19.720
You're crushing it because you're going so fast.
193
00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:21.741
You get a yellow slip on a Thursday.
194
00:11:22.621 --> 00:11:23.322
You're down to 60.
195
00:11:23.742 --> 00:11:23.982
Okay.
196
00:11:25.661 --> 00:11:26.002
I like that.
197
00:11:26.022 --> 00:11:31.028
Meaning now, if they do two or three mistakes a week, callbacks, they're probably not making a bonus.
198
00:11:31.368 --> 00:11:40.839
And furthermore, when they're crushing it, like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, they get very, very cautious because they don't want to lose one tier of bonus because of one mistake.
199
00:11:40.859 --> 00:11:41.500
Okay.
200
00:11:41.580 --> 00:11:42.141
All right.
201
00:11:42.301 --> 00:11:42.802
Makes sense.
202
00:11:43.512 --> 00:11:48.793
Now, another thing, I guess, now that we're on the space structure, because I mean, that's for pools.
203
00:11:48.833 --> 00:11:50.354
I'm kind of separating pools, filters.
204
00:11:50.734 --> 00:11:54.875
And now I have this new position kind of developing the repairs, which is usually me.
205
00:11:55.395 --> 00:12:01.076
But now I'm kind of like, kind of got a guy who I'm working into that position.
206
00:12:01.516 --> 00:12:03.497
I kind of have it as a hybrid as of right now.
207
00:12:03.557 --> 00:12:03.777
But...
208
00:12:04.197 --> 00:12:17.011
I guess maybe I'm struggling with because I think in the future what I would like to do, because I have a preventative maintenance inspection checklist that they go through with filter cleans that I kind of wanted, like with upsells, I give them a percentage of the sale.
209
00:12:17.612 --> 00:12:17.772
Yep.
210
00:12:18.417 --> 00:12:22.720
However, the repair guy would, you know, would probably be installing it.
211
00:12:23.061 --> 00:12:25.022
So I'm giving commission to the guy who's selling it.
212
00:12:25.483 --> 00:12:29.806
But at the same time, usually that repair person is the more expensive technician.
213
00:12:30.226 --> 00:12:31.928
And I want to incentivize him, too.
214
00:12:32.628 --> 00:12:37.252
I'm just trying to figure out how I would do that and also remain profitable and everybody kind of gets a piece.
215
00:12:38.073 --> 00:12:38.653
That make sense?
216
00:12:39.414 --> 00:12:39.614
Yeah.
217
00:12:39.634 --> 00:12:41.996
So do you install the pools, too?
218
00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:45.041
I install, we only deal with equipment.
219
00:12:45.301 --> 00:12:50.423
So only equipment related filters, pumps, heaters, automation systems, chemical feeders.
220
00:12:50.683 --> 00:12:56.566
So you're saying the person who installs like a heater is gonna be cheaper and easier to find than someone who repairs one?
221
00:12:57.206 --> 00:12:58.067
No, vice versa.
222
00:12:58.087 --> 00:13:00.268
So what I'm saying is,
223
00:13:01.164 --> 00:13:07.485
The service technician, the cleaning tech can clean filters, and I have them doing a checklist.
224
00:13:07.886 --> 00:13:23.749
So we have simple seals, little upsell opportunities, and potential pumps, filters, heaters, promotions they can push when they're there, which would eventually then, if approved, would get transitioned into the repair department.
225
00:13:24.429 --> 00:13:31.011
Now, if that cleaning technician were to sell that, I would imagine he'd get a commission off of that.
226
00:13:32.457 --> 00:13:35.411
but I'm also trying to incentivize the repair technician as well.
227
00:13:36.304 --> 00:13:40.065
And so I'm, I mean, I don't know if I just, it's just as simple as just raising prices.
228
00:13:40.605 --> 00:13:41.765
Maybe it's just a different position.
229
00:13:41.785 --> 00:13:44.546
So I don't know how to incentivize as far as commission based.
230
00:13:45.486 --> 00:13:45.666
Yeah.
231
00:13:45.726 --> 00:13:51.248
Like you could, you could keep doing where you give a percentage to the pool techs or the pool cleaning guys.
232
00:13:51.948 --> 00:14:03.510
I think what you could do, if you really want to make this pool thing, like bake this into P4P, you could just tack a number of pools onto their, this week's schedule on their P4P based upon upsells.
233
00:14:03.970 --> 00:14:04.851
Hey, you got an upsell?
234
00:14:04.871 --> 00:14:05.031
Okay.
235
00:14:05.051 --> 00:14:05.911
That's five pools.
236
00:14:06.772 --> 00:14:07.313
Oh, gotcha.
237
00:14:07.433 --> 00:14:11.862
So then there's this metric that they're constantly in their mind, which is like, I produce pools all week long.
238
00:14:12.583 --> 00:14:17.874
I have minus demerit points if I make mistakes, and I can get ahead even further if I upsell a bunch.
239
00:14:19.076 --> 00:14:20.257
So you could do something like that.
240
00:14:20.317 --> 00:14:28.722
I'm not saying that's what you should do, but that'd be like an easy way for them to get compensated without worrying about, okay, what was the percentage and they get a commission and all this other stuff.
241
00:14:29.142 --> 00:14:32.684
It just be very much like if you upsell someone on a heater, you get three pools.
242
00:14:32.724 --> 00:14:37.767
If you get someone on a filtration system, you get whatever, five pools, whatever.
243
00:14:38.048 --> 00:14:41.830
And then they'd have this metric every week that gets reset for the person that's,
244
00:14:42.190 --> 00:14:51.779
going out and doing the repair or switching out the systems, I would probably be doing much more of a commission basis with a base pay.
245
00:14:52.600 --> 00:15:00.267
Because, hey, you're going to make a minimum of this amount per hour, but I'm also going to track this percentage of labor revenue that you earn.
246
00:15:01.533 --> 00:15:05.194
And you're going to make the higher of those two things at the end of every pay period.
247
00:15:05.874 --> 00:15:06.214
Okay.
248
00:15:06.514 --> 00:15:06.974
I like that.
249
00:15:07.454 --> 00:15:09.175
So it's not straight commission.
250
00:15:09.195 --> 00:15:12.155
It's not like they feel like something goes wrong.
251
00:15:12.616 --> 00:15:14.476
They give them the security of the base pay.
252
00:15:15.036 --> 00:15:16.276
So maybe it's $30 an hour.
253
00:15:16.577 --> 00:15:17.897
It's $30 an hour base pay.
254
00:15:18.217 --> 00:15:22.938
However, we're going to be giving you 30% of labor revenue, which everyone is higher at the end of the paycheck.
255
00:15:23.058 --> 00:15:23.458
You get it.
256
00:15:23.698 --> 00:15:23.938
Right.
257
00:15:24.618 --> 00:15:24.898
Okay.
258
00:15:25.079 --> 00:15:29.680
Because I was struggling with it because it's a new position wrapping my head around that.
259
00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:31.040
I like that pool.
260
00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.882
that pool concept because it's very simple and I want to make it as simple as possible.
261
00:15:36.602 --> 00:15:41.163
Now, uh, I guess another thing I kind of, maybe know the answer is funny when I'm writing it down.
262
00:15:41.203 --> 00:15:44.805
I'm kind of, I'm answering it for me for this question for you.
263
00:15:44.845 --> 00:15:45.305
But, uh,
264
00:15:46.603 --> 00:15:50.105
I would say around my location, I've done a pretty good job.
265
00:15:50.125 --> 00:15:53.407
I mean, pool guys, they're not very professional.
266
00:15:53.447 --> 00:15:55.789
So our company looks legit out there.
267
00:15:55.949 --> 00:16:00.112
So we get, and people are starting to recognize my little turtle, man, it's pretty cool.
268
00:16:01.272 --> 00:16:06.336
But I feel like I'm at the higher end as far as pricing, as far as market-wise.
269
00:16:07.136 --> 00:16:11.841
But I'm kind of at that point where I feel like I was going to start raising prices again.
270
00:16:12.361 --> 00:16:16.045
So my goal here is to get to about 250 to 300 pools.
271
00:16:16.485 --> 00:16:23.012
I think with the margin that I'm at, the job rolls and the org chart filled out, I kind of have a good feeling.
272
00:16:23.472 --> 00:16:26.275
And so I know the pricing that I have right now works well.
273
00:16:26.355 --> 00:16:26.995
I can get there.
274
00:16:27.756 --> 00:16:36.602
But but I'm I'm kind of like, you know, considering instead of going 160, because right now my price is anywhere between 160 to 200 plus chemicals.
275
00:16:37.943 --> 00:16:42.226
And so I'm just thinking about making that 180 to 220 plus chemicals.
276
00:16:43.667 --> 00:16:48.130
So I don't know if I should go aggressive once I get to where I want to go or just do it now.
277
00:16:48.943 --> 00:16:50.524
Yeah, like there's two ways you can think about it.
278
00:16:50.824 --> 00:16:53.146
One is, well, I'm at capacity.
279
00:16:53.186 --> 00:16:54.587
I can't take any more jobs on.
280
00:16:54.627 --> 00:16:58.569
I should be raising prices to existing and new customers, right?
281
00:16:59.009 --> 00:17:00.190
And that's the one I usually talk about.
282
00:17:00.550 --> 00:17:14.259
The other way to think about it is if I raise my prices and I sell more customers at that higher price, it gives me an extra $50, $40 per month per customer I sell to go put that right back into marketing and get more customers.
283
00:17:15.457 --> 00:17:26.608
So if you sold, let's just call it 10 more customers, and they're all $50 more per month compared to what you usually would be getting for the pricing, that's $500 a month.
284
00:17:26.668 --> 00:17:29.791
You go spend on ads to get even more leads in the door.
285
00:17:30.671 --> 00:17:35.876
And then in my head when I was writing it down, like $160, $180, is that a huge difference?
286
00:17:35.916 --> 00:17:37.718
$20 more a month?
287
00:17:37.758 --> 00:17:38.278
I mean, maybe.
288
00:17:38.399 --> 00:17:39.740
Are you at capacity right now, Jono?
289
00:17:40.985 --> 00:17:43.006
Well, I just fired somebody this week.
290
00:17:43.186 --> 00:17:44.767
So, yes.
291
00:17:45.668 --> 00:17:47.269
But I wasn't.
292
00:17:48.050 --> 00:17:50.191
But, I mean, I'm going to hire somebody here.
293
00:17:50.731 --> 00:17:56.695
I wanted to get this pricing or pay figured out first before I go to my next person.
294
00:17:57.416 --> 00:18:00.618
But I'm going to hire somebody and get them prepped and ready for the...
295
00:18:01.452 --> 00:18:02.553
the season essentially.
296
00:18:02.874 --> 00:18:12.365
So, um, I mean, I guess if, if I was going to fill out the work chart and I was going to hit the markers where I want to hit, essentially I need two more people, but I'm going to try to do like one at the beginning of the year, one towards the end.
297
00:18:13.046 --> 00:18:17.792
And then I think from there, I'll kind of stop the growth depending on the, um,
298
00:18:18.832 --> 00:18:19.853
success of the plan.
299
00:18:21.053 --> 00:18:25.395
So I guess that's... Do you have a sufficient cash right now to grow?
300
00:18:25.595 --> 00:18:30.538
Yeah, I would say we're probably at about $40,000, which is about... We probably do about...
301
00:18:30.758 --> 00:18:32.739
I separate the service and the repair side.
302
00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:35.560
On the service side, we probably bill about $40,000 a month.
303
00:18:36.120 --> 00:18:42.283
On the service side, it can be anywhere between money to $80,000 a month.
304
00:18:42.303 --> 00:18:44.544
Do you know what your customer acquisition cost is?
305
00:18:44.584 --> 00:18:46.185
Have you ran ads before?
306
00:18:46.824 --> 00:18:47.024
Yeah.
307
00:18:47.044 --> 00:18:51.490
So that's where I messed up this last year, because that's where I was kind of I was trying to budget for ads.
308
00:18:52.050 --> 00:18:55.374
So I spent forty thousand dollars on marketing last year.
309
00:18:55.414 --> 00:18:58.618
And then when I was doing the numbers, that was about 20 grand in wraps.
310
00:18:59.239 --> 00:19:04.405
And then it was about nine grand with a marketing agency that I have.
311
00:19:05.106 --> 00:19:06.828
And then the rest was in Google ads.
312
00:19:07.588 --> 00:19:13.534
And I didn't do a good job at separating the type of leads because we get two different types of leads, one for service, one for repair.
313
00:19:14.034 --> 00:19:17.658
So I didn't get a really good kind of time like estimate.
314
00:19:17.718 --> 00:19:24.324
So in my mind, I'm like, all right, I spent about 20 grand and I got about 70 service clients.
315
00:19:24.825 --> 00:19:28.108
That's how I'm kind of thinking about it because I didn't organize it well enough.
316
00:19:29.008 --> 00:19:29.189
Yeah.
317
00:19:29.309 --> 00:19:30.350
Which we're fixing this year.
318
00:19:31.263 --> 00:19:31.463
Yeah.
319
00:19:31.804 --> 00:19:37.671
Well, the thing is this, if you, let's just say it's $300 cost customer acquisition cost, which is quite a lot.
320
00:19:38.091 --> 00:19:39.653
And a lot of that's going to your agency.
321
00:19:39.693 --> 00:19:41.475
It sounds like let's assume it's 300 bucks.
322
00:19:42.096 --> 00:19:45.820
Um, that's, I get that from 70 new customers and $20,000 spent.
323
00:19:47.482 --> 00:19:49.543
So I think we could probably make that more efficient.
324
00:19:49.563 --> 00:19:55.104
That's my first, you know, we can definitely, I think you could probably run some ads yourself without having to pay them nine grand.
325
00:19:55.584 --> 00:19:59.245
But let's assume for a moment it's 300 bucks, like just short of $300.
326
00:19:59.625 --> 00:20:04.986
If you spent 10 grand on marketing, you would get 30 more customers and get to the capacity.
327
00:20:05.006 --> 00:20:10.228
Like you'd get, you'd hire what other person, you get 30 more customers, you'd be kind of like, I have to raise prices.
328
00:20:10.588 --> 00:20:14.269
The reason I say that is because if you raise prices, let's say by 15 to 20%,
329
00:20:16.329 --> 00:20:22.613
you would then be making about $8,000 a month in extra profit.
330
00:20:23.894 --> 00:20:24.174
Right.
331
00:20:25.195 --> 00:20:35.341
So this is where it's like, do you go spend $10,000, $12,000 in marketing, immediately get to capacity, then raise prices and make $8,000 to $10,000 a month?
332
00:20:35.361 --> 00:20:37.183
Right.
333
00:20:37.203 --> 00:20:37.423
Right.
334
00:20:38.470 --> 00:20:42.613
Well, see, and that was my, that's the decision that I'm, I guess I'm contemplating.
335
00:20:42.653 --> 00:20:46.417
Like, do I just raise prices for the new clients coming in and then just start there?
336
00:20:46.437 --> 00:20:50.000
Or do I just get them at what the prices that I know work and then raise them?
337
00:20:50.100 --> 00:20:53.362
I feel like there's... Yeah, there's always, there's always like a balance.
338
00:20:53.382 --> 00:20:54.563
That's why I asked how much cash you have.
339
00:20:54.603 --> 00:20:57.826
If you were like, hey, I have, like, I have 15 grand in the bank.
340
00:20:58.347 --> 00:21:03.071
I'd probably be like, okay, let's go ahead and raise prices now and make sure we're profitable.
341
00:21:03.091 --> 00:21:03.631
Yeah.
342
00:21:03.711 --> 00:21:08.577
But I also know that if you have a, like, even at $300, the math kind of makes sense.
343
00:21:09.298 --> 00:21:13.203
And that is go get 30 to 40 more customers, i.e.
344
00:21:13.243 --> 00:21:16.487
to capacity where you're like, I have to raise prices because I need to lose some people.
345
00:21:16.707 --> 00:21:20.913
And now all of a sudden you make $8,000 more a month if you raise prices by 20% across the board.
346
00:21:21.302 --> 00:21:23.184
Well, I was actually going to raise, well, am I existing?
347
00:21:23.244 --> 00:21:26.327
Either way I go, I'm going to raise certain prices.
348
00:21:26.367 --> 00:21:29.751
Anyway, I was going to, I got some 150, so I'm going to go to 160.
349
00:21:29.811 --> 00:21:38.119
And then, you know, now that I charge per chemicals, I kind of have a little bit more of ways to increase prices in ways, you know, subtly.
350
00:21:38.499 --> 00:21:41.883
And I like chlorine costs, acid, you know.
351
00:21:42.483 --> 00:21:43.124
little different ways.
352
00:21:43.924 --> 00:21:53.950
So, um, but see if you were at capacity, like if you, if you actually gassed it, you got an extra 40 customers and you're like, I have to get rid of some people or I have to turn off new ad, new leads.
353
00:21:54.891 --> 00:21:59.253
Then you would go raise prices a whole lot more than $10 a cert, like $10 a month.
354
00:21:59.393 --> 00:22:02.035
You'd go like, okay, it's going to go for 160 to 185.
355
00:22:02.515 --> 00:22:04.836
And you're like, I sure hope I lose at least 10 or 15 customers.
356
00:22:04.876 --> 00:22:05.937
Cause I have my capacity.
357
00:22:05.957 --> 00:22:07.118
I can't take anyone new on.
358
00:22:07.718 --> 00:22:10.721
And so determining what that number is is probably what I would be doing if I was you.
359
00:22:11.302 --> 00:22:12.783
Like, is it 220?
360
00:22:12.843 --> 00:22:13.764
Is it 230?
361
00:22:14.044 --> 00:22:21.491
How many customers can you serve giving your current trucks and the amount of employees you can put in those before you're like, I will be tapped out?
362
00:22:21.792 --> 00:22:28.298
Because if you can sprint to that and then raise prices on all your customers, that's where you immediately make the business much more profitable.
363
00:22:29.223 --> 00:22:29.523
Okay.
364
00:22:30.004 --> 00:22:31.165
You have way more confidence.
365
00:22:31.185 --> 00:22:35.969
You have way more confidence to raise the prices more than $10 if you are at capacity.
366
00:22:36.590 --> 00:22:45.378
See, I guess maybe the way I was thinking about it was like I got my safe part of the business there that kind of works, and then everybody else coming in.
367
00:22:45.859 --> 00:22:46.639
Is that a high price?
368
00:22:46.659 --> 00:22:47.620
And if I get them, I get them.
369
00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:48.361
If I don't, I don't.
370
00:22:48.381 --> 00:22:49.602
I got my safety still there.
371
00:22:49.622 --> 00:22:50.103
You know what I mean?
372
00:22:50.783 --> 00:22:53.684
I would say that I would do that if you were like cash constrained.
373
00:22:54.264 --> 00:22:54.524
Right.
374
00:22:55.065 --> 00:22:57.966
But because I think it's much more like you're pro growth.
375
00:22:58.046 --> 00:23:01.207
I know that because of the amount you spend on wraps, like you wanted to grow the business.
376
00:23:01.787 --> 00:23:06.169
So like and you have enough capital to like and you have a customer accruing cost that isn't great.
377
00:23:06.189 --> 00:23:07.369
But like we know what it is.
378
00:23:07.729 --> 00:23:11.991
You could technically just sprint to capacity and then raise prices on everyone.
379
00:23:12.748 --> 00:23:14.770
I think that's a that's something to think about.
380
00:23:14.810 --> 00:23:15.891
Maybe it's just you know what it is.
381
00:23:15.911 --> 00:23:21.615
The fear of like just the the confrontation of raising prices dramatically once you get to that capacity.
382
00:23:22.096 --> 00:23:23.077
I think that's what it is.
383
00:23:23.777 --> 00:23:24.698
But that's a good plan.
384
00:23:25.078 --> 00:23:25.759
That's a good plan.
385
00:23:27.600 --> 00:23:31.744
I mean, you've probably done this a few times where you raise prices, maybe even dramatically.
386
00:23:32.204 --> 00:23:34.186
Do you usually get any bad reviews when you do that?
387
00:23:35.527 --> 00:23:38.189
If you do, they're the best bad reviews to have.
388
00:23:38.849 --> 00:23:44.472
If someone says that you're too high of price, they're not saying anything bad about your service.
389
00:23:45.632 --> 00:23:50.675
And so what that does, the only type of person that's going to be scared off by that is a hire kicker and a low-priced person.
390
00:23:51.948 --> 00:23:58.012
Like if I went to a restaurant, like I do this quite often when I look at reviews, like I'm price insensitive for my food.
391
00:23:58.172 --> 00:23:59.093
I'm going to buy good food.
392
00:23:59.373 --> 00:24:00.194
I have it in my budget.
393
00:24:00.574 --> 00:24:01.414
I don't care about the price.
394
00:24:02.155 --> 00:24:06.338
When I look at reviews of a restaurant, all they're saying is like, oh, it's too expensive.
395
00:24:06.518 --> 00:24:07.559
That is like right over my head.
396
00:24:07.579 --> 00:24:08.199
I'm like, I don't care.
397
00:24:08.419 --> 00:24:09.900
I'm price insensitive when it comes to food.
398
00:24:10.921 --> 00:24:11.101
Right?
399
00:24:11.281 --> 00:24:13.302
So your best customers aren't put off by that.
400
00:24:13.402 --> 00:24:17.205
The worst customers that you don't want when they see, oh, this person is so high priced.
401
00:24:17.225 --> 00:24:17.825
They raised my price.
402
00:24:18.306 --> 00:24:18.546
Great.
403
00:24:18.706 --> 00:24:19.306
Get out of here.
404
00:24:19.567 --> 00:24:21.228
You're wasting my time anyways, you know?
405
00:24:21.967 --> 00:24:22.168
Right.
406
00:24:22.828 --> 00:24:29.576
Hey, by the way, just because I watch your show, have you seen very too many profitable pool service companies out there?
407
00:24:30.177 --> 00:24:30.457
Oh, yeah.
408
00:24:30.597 --> 00:24:36.304
I really like pool service and specifically down like the southern states like pool service is my favorite.
409
00:24:37.005 --> 00:24:38.186
Not gonna lie, yeah.
410
00:24:38.886 --> 00:24:40.767
Pool service is right there because it's recurring.
411
00:24:41.787 --> 00:24:45.769
It is somewhat mechanical in terms of like you have the upsells and the repairs.
412
00:24:46.709 --> 00:24:53.892
And if people don't, the reason I like it, if people don't take care of their pool and it goes green or something crazy, the price goes through the roof.
413
00:24:54.712 --> 00:24:57.353
So that you have this risk thing that they have.
414
00:24:57.774 --> 00:24:58.554
It's kind of like lawns.
415
00:24:58.574 --> 00:25:01.295
Like if you don't cut your lawn, HOA is gonna call you.
416
00:25:01.315 --> 00:25:03.556
Like there's a penalty if you don't use my services.
417
00:25:04.471 --> 00:25:05.132
Yeah, I know you're right.
418
00:25:05.532 --> 00:25:06.073
That's what I say.
419
00:25:06.393 --> 00:25:12.681
I say, well, usually I say, they'll get rid of the gardener first and then they'll get rid of us.
420
00:25:13.282 --> 00:25:17.026
I'm like, because the city's gonna come with the pool's green, you know?
421
00:25:18.548 --> 00:25:21.051
I'm like, I've had long grass my whole life, so it's all good.
422
00:25:23.190 --> 00:25:23.810
All right, man.
423
00:25:24.030 --> 00:25:24.410
All right.
424
00:25:24.510 --> 00:25:27.151
I think that's I mean, essentially, I think that's pretty much it.
425
00:25:27.171 --> 00:25:28.432
Let me look at my notes here.
426
00:25:28.472 --> 00:25:29.712
What's your turnaround usually?
427
00:25:29.732 --> 00:25:39.335
I mean, I guess it's a different business, but on getting somebody out in the field after training, usually is what you try to kind of work it towards.
428
00:25:40.114 --> 00:25:43.498
We did two weeks for entry-level folks.
429
00:25:43.678 --> 00:25:50.086
But what we're trying to do is in those 10 days, like five days per week, we have a checklist of what they need to be learning, right?
430
00:25:50.106 --> 00:25:55.992
So like the very first day they get in the field, they're not for us going to like hop on a zero-turn mower or drive a trailer.
431
00:25:56.573 --> 00:25:56.753
Right.
432
00:25:56.793 --> 00:25:59.315
Like day one is you're going to use a blower and that's it.
433
00:25:59.715 --> 00:26:01.936
Day two, you're going to use the string trimmer and that's it.
434
00:26:02.257 --> 00:26:09.221
And so we slowly roll them into all the things that they'll need to get done to be able to go solo.
435
00:26:09.701 --> 00:26:10.141
Right.
436
00:26:10.161 --> 00:26:15.085
Does most of the landscapers, do they run solo or do they usually go on cruise?
437
00:26:15.205 --> 00:26:16.285
It just depends on services.
438
00:26:16.605 --> 00:26:22.309
We do a lot of solo, but more so it's like they have the capability of being solo.
439
00:26:22.569 --> 00:26:23.930
Like they know how to do everything.
440
00:26:24.250 --> 00:26:25.191
That's the main focus.
441
00:26:26.585 --> 00:26:27.505
I think that's pretty much it.
442
00:26:28.046 --> 00:26:33.948
Is your softwares that you use just based pretty much in landscape?
443
00:26:34.988 --> 00:26:39.190
No, about half the members are outside of landscape.
444
00:26:39.730 --> 00:26:42.251
I know that, like what service, what software are you using now?
445
00:26:42.552 --> 00:26:45.853
So I use Housecall Pro and then I also use Pay the Pool Man.
446
00:26:46.672 --> 00:26:46.932
Okay.
447
00:26:47.252 --> 00:26:50.573
Pay the pool man is probably like very specialized to what you guys do.
448
00:26:51.193 --> 00:26:53.353
And so I don't know that one very well.
449
00:26:53.813 --> 00:26:59.374
House, House, House, go pro and like homeworks are very similar in terms of like what we're doing, but I would stick with it until there's pain.
450
00:26:59.915 --> 00:27:05.336
Just like, it's not worth switching softwares unless you're like, there's a pain point I'm hitting and I, I need to grow.
451
00:27:05.356 --> 00:27:08.036
Um, but if it's working for you, just keep doing that.
452
00:27:08.156 --> 00:27:08.296
Yeah.
453
00:27:08.356 --> 00:27:10.357
I just, because I have two softwares and that's never funny.
454
00:27:10.377 --> 00:27:11.217
I just want to, yeah, I know.
455
00:27:11.997 --> 00:27:12.577
Yeah.
456
00:27:13.257 --> 00:27:17.584
It is expensive.
457
00:27:17.844 --> 00:27:18.685
I know we're ending early.
458
00:27:18.725 --> 00:27:21.890
So when, once you kind of do the pay stuff, email me back.
459
00:27:21.910 --> 00:27:23.412
Cause I'll email you the recording for today.
460
00:27:23.813 --> 00:27:24.955
Just be like, Hey, this worked.
461
00:27:24.975 --> 00:27:32.706
I had a couple of issues with this or any other questions you have, put them in the email and I'll shoot you a loom video real quick and just try to give you as value as possible.
462
00:27:33.667 --> 00:27:34.088
Awesome, man.
463
00:27:34.108 --> 00:27:35.070
I would appreciate that, man.
464
00:27:35.170 --> 00:27:35.530
Thank you.
465
00:27:35.690 --> 00:27:36.532
Thank you, Mike, for your time.
466
00:27:36.552 --> 00:27:37.493
You got it, brother.
467
00:27:37.533 --> 00:27:38.394
You have a great rest of your weekend.
468
00:27:39.115 --> 00:27:39.736
Are you as well, bro.
469
00:27:39.796 --> 00:27:40.117
Thank you.
470
00:27:40.137 --> 00:27:40.477
Take care.
471
00:27:40.518 --> 00:27:40.778
Bye-bye.
