How to LOSE Money on Every Job

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In this video, I'm talking to a group of home service business owners and I got the lowest pricing I have ever got from a business three-man crew $75 per hour but includes the entire crew We're gonna be talking about how to raise those prices and actually build a business that can scale Instead of just adding a whole bunch of overhead expenses like an admin person and a crew manager When the business is only doing a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue
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So if you're trying to go from zero to a million dollars, this is the episode for you.
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Lock in, get ready to take some notes.
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Here we go.
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Jack, go for it.
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Hey Mike, so this is our second year of business.
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We did about 150 grand last year in top line revenue at a 17% margin.
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This year, there was another guy in our town that was, he wasn't too sure where he wanted to take his business.
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He wasn't sure how to do the backend of things.
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That's where I mostly excel and with sales.
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He agreed to a salary and he brought his one employee over a truck and then his personal knowledge
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And he is going to take over the foreman of our project crew, but he could also do mowing as well.
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Also, I have recently had a good luck with a VA come on.
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And the VA has taken over all of our administration stuff.
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My current struggle is every time I feel, every time I try to help what I think is helping them, like try to help them with their job or like step in and help for a day, I feel like I'm smothering what they're doing or I'm taking away from what their full potential is.
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So with our current revenue last year, we had a much smaller team.
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It was mostly me doing a lot of the work.
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Now going forward to this year where we have administration and then also foreman watching over the guys, where would be the best place to put myself to help the company grow the
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So last year, $100,000.
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Is that correct?
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$150,000.
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Okay.
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And what do you think is going to be this year?
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Like $300,000?
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We just signed on a $80,000 client for a maintenance deal.
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And so what do you think the revenues for 2026 is going to be?
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I'm estimating between $300,000 and $400,000.
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Okay.
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I think you're top heavy.
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You have an admin person, you have a foreman, and then you are not in the field.
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Okay.
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Yeah, I'm not.
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And so, yeah, like I, so if you look at the Copy and Paste Millionaire book, I talk about the working GM, i.e.
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the owner, being in the field until they have six to eight technicians and they're doing well over 500,000 annual revenue.
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The reason I say that is because if you take five, if you take a business this year that's gonna be 300 to $400,000 and you take out one salary, yours, and an admin person, there's no more profit.
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Especially because last year, it's 17% of profit on 150 grand.
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Adding more overhead is going to be really tough.
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Either A, there's a pricing problem or there's an efficiency problem.
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What do you charge per hour right now?
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Our hourly rate in 25 was very low.
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I think we were like 75 an hour for a three-man crew.
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I was looking to build our customer base, which I did do.
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We started the year with zero customers and we ended the year with 150 customers.
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Just to be clear, when you say $75 per hour for the three-man crew, is that $75 per person or for the whole crew at $75 an hour?
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For the whole crew.
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That's what I was charging.
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And then for labor and then materials were added on.
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Okay.
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So I would, with great prejudice, highly recommend changing pricing because right now you're, correct me if I'm wrong, if I heard this wrong, are you charging $75 for an hour and that hour includes three people showing up to their property for an hour?
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That does include that.
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Yeah.
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Like there's no way in the world that will scale.
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None whatsoever.
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I'm not guessing on this one, and I'm not saying this to be mean.
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I want you to win.
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You will lose money if you scale that.
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Because if you just look at their hourly wage and the taxes on top of it, you're losing money.
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Okay.
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So you have made sense of it in the past at 150 grand, but you were out in the field working.
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But I will say this.
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You should be charging 75 an hour per person, not for a three-man crew.
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Okay.
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And I understand it seems like, whoa, that's crazy.
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Every single day this happens.
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The reason I know this is because across 200 plus locations, less than 10 charge less than 70 bucks an hour.
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And they're all just getting started and they're trying to ramp up fast.
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Everyone else is 80 to 120 bucks an hour per person.
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Okay.
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So I would, before you scale, you got to nail it before you scale it, right?
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Like right now, I want it to be when you go send a crew member out that's getting paid, let's call it 25 bucks an hour.
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I want that to be no more than a third of what you're charging the customer per hour.
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Okay.
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So if you're going to pay them 25 bucks an hour by the time you include taxes and everything else, I got to be charging the customer 75 bucks an hour per person.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Does it make sense?
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I don't mean to be hard on you, Jack.
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I just don't want you to get in a bad spot.
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No, I definitely agree.
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When speaking with, okay, so I've spoke with Blue Collar Business Accelerators.
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They said the same thing, raise price on hourly man hour.
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What I found a struggle with is we have done that, or we've been trying to implement that through January, but our conversion rate went down a lot.
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And now- To what?
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I think we were converting 60% and now we're less than 20%.
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So the only reason that someone says no to your price is because value is not higher than price.
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And so the easiest thing to do is lower price to make the job go through.
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The harder thing to do is increase value.
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So I would focus all my time and attention on increasing value.
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And that comes in the form of better website, better reviews.
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Like how many reviews do you have on Google right now?
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46%.
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And what's your website look like?
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Greatgroundsoutdoor.com.
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We just put it live yesterday.
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Oh, there it is.
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Cool.
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Got it.
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Cool.
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This looks pretty good.
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Great job.
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This will be better than, like, I'm assuming before this, you didn't really have much of a website?
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Yeah, not much.
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Yeah.
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So this will be a big help this year for making sure that you actually can sell some services.
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And this increases the trust that a customer has before they contact you.
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This is great.
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This is like, you can't see great grounds up here.
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So I'd change your logo to be black text up top here.
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But yeah, you got good reviews.
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So this will be really helpful.
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This is a step in the right direction.
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And that is focusing on value.
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Like, see, this is kind of tough.
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I can't read any of these links.
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These are all white.
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So little stuff like that we can shore up.
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Because this is the thing.
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When someone sees this, they're like, oh, if they're sloppy on their site, they'll be sloppy in person.
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And now they're willing to accept your offer but only if you're the lowest bid.
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The only reason people do not accept your bid is because value is lower than price.
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What most people do is just lower price.
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I want you to focus on increasing value.
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Because right now you are probably in the bottom 10% of pricing.
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I'd agree with that.
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Do you think there's a ticket number on a project or anything?
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Like at what price point should we do on-site consultations?
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Okay, so over January, we were pushing for permanent LED and we can measure a roof line on Google, but it's over 5,000 on every house ticket price.
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So like, do you think over a certain number we should always be in person or what do you think on that?
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In general, one-time projects, I'm thinking about doing in person.
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If it's something I can do reoccurring though, which is like, for example, pressure washing, I can get them on an annual or a quarterly visit and do things like gutter cleaning.
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I still can do over the phone.
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The only time I really want to do in person is if I genuinely believe it's a one-time job because I need to make sure I make money on that first service.
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And yes, the bigger the one-time job, the more inclination I am to do an in-person visit because I've got to make sure I nail it.
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I got you.
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Okay.
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So the foreman's salary is $52,000.
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Okay.
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All of our guys are hourly between $15 and $17 an hour.
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The administration is $300 a week across.
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Do you think we can make that work or is that still too top heavy?
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In general, I think that is top heavy because you getting out of the field at even 300,000 in revenues is not good.
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I always recommend getting over $500,000 before you start even thinking about getting off the truck.
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So I highly recommend looking at the Copy and Paste Millionaire book and looking at where your metrics are.
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When you only have a few technicians and you have an admin and you out of the field, the business almost will never make money.
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And that assumes the pricing is correct.
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I think the biggest problem right now is your pricing is so low, you will lose money on every job you have this year if you keep the pricing the same.
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In field, should I watch over them?
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Should I let them go?
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What do you think on that?
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The reason I brought the admin in is because sending quotes and sending invoices, I wasn't doing it timely enough.
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So a lot of customers were getting upset about that.
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Some customers left because of that.
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So she's in place to make sure our invoices get sent, our quotes get sent, and people get responded to in a timely manner.
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If you read the book, you'll hear as you go into what I call a working GM that's past 250,000, that's when I say, yes, go get an admin.
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You're literally like crossing that threshold this year.
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So you get an admin.
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Great.
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But watch what I talk about in the book.
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You don't hand off operations, i.e.
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managing crew, managing the jobs, and being out in the field until you're past 750,000.
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and getting close to that number.
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So you recommend raising pricing as well as staying in the actual labor field with the guys this year to make sure.
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Yes.
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The reason is because the difference between a business that makes $150,000 in profit with $400,000 in revenue and a business that does no
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No profit on $400,000 in revenue is the difference between the owner producing the extra $150,000 of revenue in the fields.
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And so if you are saying it's a full-time job to do sales at a $300,000 or $400,000 business, then we have a really big problem around service area.
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We are serving way too far.
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We are doing all sorts of services that are taking way too long to do estimates.
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If you can't do multiple estimates like 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 a day, it's too complicated and
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I would highly recommend saying, okay, from the morning until 3 p.m., I'm doing out in the field with the crew, doing jobs every day, making money.
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Then from three till six, my admin will schedule in up to three estimates in the evening.
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That will be producing you out in the field, a hundred plus thousand in annual revenue, and that will be your profit at a $400,000 business.
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So if you don't do it, you'll basically break even or lose money.
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And then as for the salaried position, should he still... Be producing revenue like out in the field?
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Yeah, should he watch over projects and I should take over mowing?
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At this size, there's no real watching over projects.
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He's out on the projects.
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He's a crew leader.
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He's doing the job, though.
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Yeah, 100%.
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He has to be, the expectation is he's producing revenue 99% of his day.
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So working alongside his two other landscapers?
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100%.
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And you're going to do the same thing?
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And do you think that what I'm paying him salary justifies his job or should it be lower or higher?
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What do you think on that?
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Well, right now our pricing is so low that even if he worked full time, if he's making $25 per budget hour on a three-man crew, you will lose money on him.
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That's why we have to raise prices.
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But if I'm charging $75 an hour, does he make sense?
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Oh yeah, yeah.
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If you can charge 75 bucks an hour and he gets 50 grand a year, that's fine.
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As long as he produces, let's call him 1500 budget hours of work a year.
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If he can produce that at 75 bucks an hour, he's making 120, $130,000 for the business and you're paying him 50 grand.
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Now all of a sudden, guess what?
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That hit about the one third threshold we need.
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Okay, and then I'm more focused on maintenance while he is working with the projects.
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I'm fine with that.
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Okay.
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You got it.
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It's time to lock in before the spring rush.
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And when it comes to locking in, you want to be able to rely on something to hold your business strong, just like this chain.
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That's why at HomeWorks, we have the logo of the chain because it's the three links in every home service business.
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Sales, operations, and admin.
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So before the spring rush gets super hot and you have leads coming in like crazy, make sure you're set up inside of a software like HomeWorks that can take your business to the next level and allow you to scale this spring.
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Go check it out today.
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Go to home.com.
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dot works.
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Well, he is next up.
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Hi.
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Okay.
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We talked about, we were on the, I don't even remember what call it was last week.
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I think with you budgeted hours, I've been updating them all.
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So for aerating or like services over a thousand dollars, let's say a service is a thousand dollars.
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We want to make a hundred dollars an hour for the company.
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So aerating doesn't take 10 hours.
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Yeah.
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Yep.
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What do we do there?
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Yeah.
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So what's nice about something like mowing, for example, is most of it is just labor revenue.
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You're not actually charging materials, supplies.
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There's no rental of equipment.
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There's no dump fees.
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And so that's why it's so easy.
225
00:12:37.867 --> 00:12:39.708
Just take the dollar amount, divide it by your hourly rate.
226
00:12:40.369 --> 00:12:49.715
When it comes to treatments, whether it be chemicals, granular, aerations, I'm going to take a big chunk of that revenue and consider that not labor revenue.
227
00:12:49.995 --> 00:12:50.255
Mm-hmm.
228
00:12:50.435 --> 00:12:57.919
So, for example, on $100 or $1,000 co-aeration, that's a big mercy, that's a lot of co-aeration.
229
00:12:57.939 --> 00:13:03.061
$1,000 co-aeration, I might only assume that $300 of that is actually labor revenue.
230
00:13:03.601 --> 00:13:06.103
And so they'd have three hours for that job at $100 per hour.
231
00:13:07.192 --> 00:13:08.613
Oh, okay.
232
00:13:09.153 --> 00:13:16.116
So I would determine what percentage on treatments or aeration do you want to consider as labor revenue out of every dollar.
233
00:13:16.276 --> 00:13:18.897
So for example, we do 50% at my location.
234
00:13:19.137 --> 00:13:24.679
So it's like, hey, if you're gonna do a $100 lawn and we're charging a hundred bucks an hour, one budget hour, cool.
235
00:13:25.179 --> 00:13:26.039
If you have a $100 treatment,
236
00:13:27.660 --> 00:13:31.083
Immediately, 50% of it's gone because it's not considered labor revenue.
237
00:13:31.103 --> 00:13:33.325
It's considered chemical costs for aerators.
238
00:13:33.445 --> 00:13:35.167
It's like either rental costs or equipment.
239
00:13:35.187 --> 00:13:35.387
Great.
240
00:13:35.888 --> 00:13:38.390
You're actually making $50 of labor revenue.
241
00:13:38.850 --> 00:13:44.195
And I divide that to get 0.5 budget hours of budget hours in that case.
242
00:13:44.896 --> 00:13:45.356
Okay.
243
00:13:45.576 --> 00:13:46.137
That makes sense.
244
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Cool.
245
00:13:47.675 --> 00:13:48.015
Thank you.
246
00:13:48.755 --> 00:13:49.136
You got it.
247
00:13:49.256 --> 00:13:50.116
Eddie's up next.
248
00:13:50.496 --> 00:13:52.776
Hey Mike, I got a couple rapid fire questions for you.
249
00:13:53.157 --> 00:13:58.558
We did 300,000 in sales last year, shooting for 500,000 like we spoke about last week.
250
00:13:59.098 --> 00:14:00.978
I know you believe in open book management.
251
00:14:01.719 --> 00:14:05.740
I wanna know if I'm at a point where I think I can start profit sharing for the employees.
252
00:14:06.620 --> 00:14:07.440
And if so, how much?
253
00:14:08.259 --> 00:14:14.566
Yes, if you're going from $300,000 to $500,000, a lot of times that rapid growth will cause to not have a lot of profits.
254
00:14:15.206 --> 00:14:19.150
And so what you want to be careful of is doing profit sharing and presenting it to the team in a way.
255
00:14:19.351 --> 00:14:20.432
It's like, guys, this is great.
256
00:14:20.732 --> 00:14:22.594
And they're like, they don't see anything for 12 months.
257
00:14:22.914 --> 00:14:25.477
For a crew member, they can't think past this quarter.
258
00:14:25.497 --> 00:14:25.597
Yeah.
259
00:14:25.617 --> 00:14:26.957
You're like, we're going to do quarterly profit sharing.
260
00:14:26.977 --> 00:14:27.437
Don't worry.
261
00:14:27.557 --> 00:14:30.578
And like you get in the spring rush and you double the number of recurring clients.
262
00:14:30.598 --> 00:14:31.538
You buy a couple of trucks.
263
00:14:31.578 --> 00:14:33.279
Like immediately that money is gone.
264
00:14:33.839 --> 00:14:35.979
And so they don't, they will just think you're a scam artist.
265
00:14:36.479 --> 00:14:42.201
I would open up the books, say, hey guys, down the road, when we are profitable, we're going to offer this amount as profit sharing.
266
00:14:42.341 --> 00:14:43.681
Right now, I'm opening up the books.
267
00:14:43.701 --> 00:14:44.541
You can see the fact.
268
00:14:44.721 --> 00:14:45.521
You're not going to say this part.
269
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This is what you're thinking.
270
00:14:46.562 --> 00:14:48.602
I'm going to prove to you all that.
271
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Like I'm not making money hand over fist.
272
00:14:50.243 --> 00:14:52.183
I'm putting all the money back into the business.
273
00:14:52.343 --> 00:14:53.504
But I would still offer it.
274
00:14:53.524 --> 00:14:54.745
It's how you present it, Eddie.
275
00:14:54.765 --> 00:14:59.928
So I would make the profit sharing, but I'd make it very clear, like, hey, right now we are investing back in this business.
276
00:15:00.308 --> 00:15:01.629
There's not going to be a lot of profits.
277
00:15:01.809 --> 00:15:07.412
But I want to make sure this program is installed so that when we make more money, we're all sharing in the benefits of that.
278
00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:10.260
Yeah, and they all could hold me accountable too.
279
00:15:10.580 --> 00:15:10.720
Yeah.
280
00:15:10.740 --> 00:15:11.861
They're going to be asking for it.
281
00:15:12.061 --> 00:15:12.301
Okay.
282
00:15:12.521 --> 00:15:18.883
Would you pay out your landscapers and your lawn service workers the same, or would you scale them differently?
283
00:15:19.003 --> 00:15:21.883
The landscape projects, they make more money.
284
00:15:22.103 --> 00:15:23.924
They're higher valued projects.
285
00:15:24.244 --> 00:15:25.784
Is everybody on the same playing field?
286
00:15:25.984 --> 00:15:27.965
I'm assuming, is it way more skilled labor?
287
00:15:28.465 --> 00:15:30.066
It's harder work, I think.
288
00:15:30.286 --> 00:15:33.427
I would adjust that at the pay for performance or hourly level.
289
00:15:34.047 --> 00:15:39.449
They make more money on a wage basis because they have higher skills, they do different type of labor.
290
00:15:40.169 --> 00:15:45.511
I would not change it on the profit sharing because now you've created tiers of who's better than someone so.
291
00:15:45.531 --> 00:15:46.512
That makes sense.
292
00:15:46.812 --> 00:15:54.415
I'd make more of the daily, weekly, the monthly pay compensation based upon service if it's that much harder.
293
00:15:55.175 --> 00:15:59.041
And then I would do the profit sharing because the whole objective of profit sharing is we all think like a team.
294
00:15:59.522 --> 00:16:00.924
We all make a cut of the profits.
295
00:16:01.144 --> 00:16:06.272
I would keep that the same but then change the wages, whether it be you're doing hourly or pay for performance.
296
00:16:06.713 --> 00:16:07.654
I would adjust that.
297
00:16:08.328 --> 00:16:09.249
That's kind of how I've done it.
298
00:16:09.309 --> 00:16:09.969
So that's good to hear.
299
00:16:10.129 --> 00:16:13.231
I know someone who doesn't charge for a weekly cut.
300
00:16:13.351 --> 00:16:15.252
He charges a monthly price to the customer.
301
00:16:15.952 --> 00:16:19.574
And even in the summertime, if it's hot and dry, doesn't need to be cut.
302
00:16:20.014 --> 00:16:23.076
He still gets paid for that because he charges monthly rather than per cut.
303
00:16:23.196 --> 00:16:25.357
Do you like that model or would you stick per cut?
304
00:16:26.229 --> 00:16:29.491
I always think of being growth mode or profit mode.
305
00:16:29.972 --> 00:16:37.077
And that decision for most markets is a profit mode strategy because it helps you.
306
00:16:37.397 --> 00:16:38.558
It helps your cash flow.
307
00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:41.621
Most of the time, most markets aren't used to that pricing.
308
00:16:41.681 --> 00:16:47.205
And so you're going to create friction on the upfront sales process when you add that as a requirement.
309
00:16:47.585 --> 00:16:47.845
Yeah.
310
00:16:48.245 --> 00:16:49.766
And so there's two ways to tackle this.
311
00:16:49.986 --> 00:16:54.088
One is some people will get people in at a per cut price and then convert them, i.e.
312
00:16:54.188 --> 00:17:00.511
upsell them into a recurring model and say, hey, look, you save money or you get this extra service if you do this subscription-based thing.
313
00:17:01.111 --> 00:17:06.253
And look at more as an upsell so that way they reduce the friction on the upfront, but then they still can get the cash flow benefits.
314
00:17:06.874 --> 00:17:14.257
Other people, and this is the easiest, most growth-prone strategy, is you sell them what they're wanting, which is per cut because that's what's common.
315
00:17:14.697 --> 00:17:15.618
It's easy and low friction.
316
00:17:16.458 --> 00:17:17.919
And you do it over the phone or instant quotes.
317
00:17:18.439 --> 00:17:24.923
And then I just upsell them a whole bunch of other stuff periodically throughout the year and increase their annual customer value.
318
00:17:25.244 --> 00:17:30.687
The thing you want to be careful of with the subscription model is, yes, you are going to make more money when you're doing less services.
319
00:17:30.727 --> 00:17:33.329
You're also going to lose more money when you're doing more services.
320
00:17:33.789 --> 00:17:43.215
And so sometimes this can actually really hurt your cash flow because when you need the money the most, which is in the spring rush, and you're getting leads pouring in, is actually when you're making no, if not negative, profit.
321
00:17:43.735 --> 00:17:45.216
according across the whole year.
322
00:17:45.516 --> 00:17:47.136
So sometimes people are like, it's good for cash.
323
00:17:47.156 --> 00:17:48.697
I was like, no, you just move the money.
324
00:17:48.717 --> 00:17:49.837
You didn't make any more money.
325
00:17:50.217 --> 00:17:52.838
You just moved it to the time of the year when you make less.
326
00:17:53.158 --> 00:17:56.579
But the time that you would usually be making more, you're also making less.
327
00:17:57.079 --> 00:17:57.519
Understood.
328
00:17:57.940 --> 00:17:59.200
Any tips for finding a new employee?
329
00:17:59.602 --> 00:18:08.891
Right now, it is, in my opinion, especially with the labor market, the way it's going, I think it's going to be pretty easy to find technicians in terms of volume of candidates.
330
00:18:08.951 --> 00:18:13.876
It's going to be more a matter who can screen them down and find the best ones without going through 50 interviews.
331
00:18:14.677 --> 00:18:19.099
And so I am a huge proponent of what I talk about in the book, and that is video applications.
332
00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:22.461
So you get them in through Indeed, you get 50 people.
333
00:18:22.981 --> 00:18:28.544
In Indeed, you can create automations, or you can even connect it up to homeworks if you wanted.
334
00:18:28.564 --> 00:18:30.625
But technically, you can just do it in Indeed.
335
00:18:30.945 --> 00:18:35.047
When someone applies, they get a text message, and that text message is going to push them to...
336
00:18:35.967 --> 00:18:36.948
do a video application.
337
00:18:37.428 --> 00:18:44.554
So that way, instead of 50 applicants that you're screening through, looking through their resumes, calling 20 of them, setting up interviews, three of them show up.
338
00:18:45.375 --> 00:18:50.419
I'm trying to get it to where I get to those three people, just immediately, I only interview the three people.
339
00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:51.580
Got it, okay.
340
00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:53.481
All right, thank you, Mike, I will hold you up.
341
00:18:53.561 --> 00:18:54.002
You got it.
342
00:18:54.162 --> 00:18:56.564
Next up is Ferez, I'm gonna guess it's Ferez.
343
00:18:56.704 --> 00:18:57.124
Ferez.
344
00:18:57.725 --> 00:18:58.926
Ferez, okay, very good.
345
00:18:59.406 --> 00:19:01.328
So I just signed on with Copilot.
346
00:19:01.928 --> 00:19:03.790
I haven't even done my onboarding yet, but
347
00:19:04.190 --> 00:19:06.171
But I'm very, very small.
348
00:19:06.831 --> 00:19:08.852
But I have a decent size on the lawn base.
349
00:19:08.872 --> 00:19:10.553
That's why I signed up with Co-Pilot.
350
00:19:11.313 --> 00:19:15.215
And maybe one or two guys throughout the year that helped me take care of all that.
351
00:19:15.315 --> 00:19:24.800
But I want to try to land more of a little bit bigger jobs, more landscaping jobs, while also growing the lawns, but maybe having one or two guys take care of them completely.
352
00:19:25.600 --> 00:19:29.162
And I want to try to stay on the bigger jobs with another guy or two.
353
00:19:29.302 --> 00:19:32.003
And that's part of the reason I signed with Co-Pilot.
354
00:19:32.043 --> 00:19:33.584
But I'm not sure...
355
00:19:34.402 --> 00:19:37.444
what the best way to grow from
356
00:19:37.868 --> 00:19:48.910
something as little as 105 or 120 and land some of these bigger jobs and stay consistent with work and be able to give enough work for everybody while also growing.
357
00:19:49.710 --> 00:19:51.751
So I don't know what your opinion on that would be.
358
00:19:51.971 --> 00:19:56.131
So ultimately when we look at the constraints of growth in a business, there's only four things.
359
00:19:56.692 --> 00:19:59.332
You see liquidity, leads, labor, or leadership.
360
00:19:59.612 --> 00:20:02.593
Based on what I'm hearing, you believe you have a leads constraint.
361
00:20:02.673 --> 00:20:04.093
In other words, I need more customers.
362
00:20:04.773 --> 00:20:10.175
Now you're also adjusting one qualifier and that is you want different types of leads.
363
00:20:10.235 --> 00:20:11.536
You want bigger projects.
364
00:20:11.836 --> 00:20:12.776
Those are two different problems.
365
00:20:13.097 --> 00:20:14.257
Number one, how do we get more leads?
366
00:20:14.477 --> 00:20:15.918
Number two, how do I get the leads I want?
367
00:20:16.378 --> 00:20:17.599
So let's just check the second one.
368
00:20:17.979 --> 00:20:20.280
If you want to change the type of leads you get, you change your brand.
369
00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:23.561
So on your website, you show projects on your marketing.
370
00:20:23.581 --> 00:20:24.361
You show projects.
371
00:20:24.381 --> 00:20:26.122
When you do advertising, you show projects.
372
00:20:26.662 --> 00:20:29.864
I was talking to a business owner we were doing a turnaround for, and he does like.
373
00:20:30.524 --> 00:20:34.625
huge commercial projects and he does residential, high-end, very luxury out in Dallas.
374
00:20:34.885 --> 00:20:38.906
He wants to go more to the residential side so he can get more of the recurring maintenance after the project.
375
00:20:39.306 --> 00:20:45.227
But the problem is when you go to his website, you see these huge commercial buildings and projects that looks everything to do with commercial.
376
00:20:45.747 --> 00:20:49.128
I asked him, how many leads have you ever got for a commercial job through your website?
377
00:20:49.148 --> 00:20:49.828
He said, zero.
378
00:20:50.508 --> 00:20:50.709
Why?
379
00:20:50.729 --> 00:20:53.909
Because they all just contractors that are coming to him no matter what, they have a cell phone number.
380
00:20:54.489 --> 00:20:56.770
I said, the only reason your website exists is for the consumer.
381
00:20:57.470 --> 00:21:01.233
And so you've got to change it to where you see a house and you see someone's backyard.
382
00:21:01.734 --> 00:21:03.976
Then they will assimilate the fact that that is for them.
383
00:21:04.556 --> 00:21:07.219
And so if you want to change the type of leads, you have to change your branding.
384
00:21:07.779 --> 00:21:13.344
And then if you want more leads, you just either A, do more of what you're currently doing because you're getting leads somehow.
385
00:21:13.364 --> 00:21:16.587
Or you've got to figure out a channel in order to be able to advertise to bring those leads in.
386
00:21:16.967 --> 00:21:18.489
So which of those two is the biggest problem?
387
00:21:18.509 --> 00:21:20.731
The type of leads you're getting or getting more of them?
388
00:21:22.210 --> 00:21:29.055
Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both, but maybe mostly just getting leads, because I have tried some things like pay for leads.
389
00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:35.363
But I've always been stuck in a little bit of a middle spot because I never did a lot of advertising.
390
00:21:35.403 --> 00:21:40.548
I was still used to working almost working every day, but not that many hours because I was in school.
391
00:21:40.628 --> 00:21:43.850
So I don't have a lot of like a like a big website.
392
00:21:43.870 --> 00:21:45.952
I don't I need to set up something like a website.
393
00:21:46.012 --> 00:21:49.535
I did some of the pay for leads through Angie and and things like that.
394
00:21:49.615 --> 00:21:56.741
But but for the most part, I had gotten all my work through word to mouth until now where I'd like to be even more busy.
395
00:21:56.901 --> 00:22:07.764
Ultimately, as people talk to each other less, it'll become more and more important to make sure that you show up when they ask Google or ChatGPT who's the lawn service or the service that you provide in their area.
396
00:22:07.904 --> 00:22:15.705
Before you spend a dollar on marketing, I'm going to make sure your website's solid so it increases the conversion rate and the percentage of people that show up to that website actually become leads.
397
00:22:16.266 --> 00:22:17.886
So it's the first place I would spend money.
398
00:22:18.166 --> 00:22:21.127
But before you do that, I would go make sure the free things are done.
399
00:22:21.427 --> 00:22:25.468
For example, I would assume your Google business listing, do you have an address verified or not?
400
00:22:25.568 --> 00:22:26.328
Just a service area.
401
00:22:27.088 --> 00:22:28.550
No, no, just the service area.
402
00:22:28.990 --> 00:22:30.311
So I'd be verifying the address.
403
00:22:30.331 --> 00:22:36.938
I don't care if you got to go do service for free for someone to verify a commercial address, park your truck in front of there, put a sign out front, whatever you got to do.
404
00:22:37.518 --> 00:22:39.400
Then I'd get at least 30 Google reviews.
405
00:22:40.041 --> 00:22:43.904
If you did that, you would double the amount of leads you get just by doing those two things.
406
00:22:44.805 --> 00:22:49.347
I would also make sure I'm posting at least once a week to that Google business listing with pictures and video.
407
00:22:49.607 --> 00:23:06.195
I would answer every question it has about your business, and I would make sure I respond to every review by going to ChattoBT or Gemini and pasting the review in and asking it, please give me an AEO, it's Answer Engine Optimization, and SEO, Search Engine Optimization, response for this review.
408
00:23:06.915 --> 00:23:11.580
Copy that, put it into your review response, and give that to every single review that comes in.
409
00:23:11.600 --> 00:23:15.464
I don't care if it's friends, family, people who have done service for in the past, you need at least 30.
410
00:23:15.804 --> 00:23:19.087
If you did all of those things, you would double the amount of leads you get easily.
411
00:23:19.748 --> 00:23:21.690
And then you go to something more paid.
412
00:23:21.870 --> 00:23:29.738
But before you spend a single dollar on Angie, you're gonna make sure your website's solid so that when leads show up at your doorstep from Google, they actually convert to something.
413
00:23:30.365 --> 00:23:30.685
Thank you.
414
00:23:30.705 --> 00:23:31.306
I appreciate it.
415
00:23:31.546 --> 00:23:31.926
You got it.
416
00:23:32.086 --> 00:23:39.491
I'm just questioning the meaning of money because I have so many new leads and making so much money from my new website from Home Service Web Design.
417
00:23:39.872 --> 00:23:40.272
That's right.
418
00:23:40.632 --> 00:23:48.938
The average customer that joins Home Service Web Design or Lawn Care Web Design increases the amount of leads they get by 80% within the first year.
419
00:23:49.318 --> 00:23:50.219
So go check it out today.
420
00:23:50.499 --> 00:23:59.544
You can also book a call with our team for free and get 15 minutes of consultation about your website and how you can improve it by going to homeservicewebdesign.com slash call.
421
00:23:59.825 --> 00:24:00.325
We'll see you there.
422
00:24:00.505 --> 00:24:01.406
Carter's next up.
423
00:24:01.526 --> 00:24:01.926
Perfect.
424
00:24:02.146 --> 00:24:13.733
I did about 100,000-ish in revenue by myself last season, and we'll be looking to add another full-time employee with me this year and then probably a helper as school gets out.
425
00:24:14.453 --> 00:24:16.575
My first question is just about payroll.
426
00:24:17.435 --> 00:24:22.296
And what I mean, I have QuickBooks, I'm integrated with Copilot and everything like that.
427
00:24:22.336 --> 00:24:24.277
But is QuickBooks a good way to run payroll?
428
00:24:24.577 --> 00:24:26.497
Or do you guys use something else?
429
00:24:26.737 --> 00:24:29.898
Or is there something else that you would recommend to run payroll for those employees?
430
00:24:30.098 --> 00:24:37.560
QuickBooks is great, mostly because that way, when you're doing bookkeeping, it already breaks out the taxes and any deductions for their paycheck.
431
00:24:37.840 --> 00:24:40.501
It's all in one spot and already knows which employee it's coming from.
432
00:24:40.881 --> 00:24:41.861
That makes it a little easier.
433
00:24:42.241 --> 00:24:47.864
Gusto is probably the easiest in terms of user experience, in my opinion, and both of them are relatively the same cost.
434
00:24:48.644 --> 00:24:54.687
But I think if you're used to QuickBooks, you're doing your bookkeeping there, I would just go ahead and just run QuickBooks payroll through there.
435
00:24:55.047 --> 00:24:55.447
Sounds good.
436
00:24:55.467 --> 00:24:58.809
And I figured that was the answer you had, but I figured I'd ask.
437
00:24:58.849 --> 00:25:01.550
The other question I had is I have.
438
00:25:02.030 --> 00:25:07.634
30-ish Google reviews on my Google business page, and all of them are five stars.
439
00:25:07.934 --> 00:25:14.819
I had one guy last year who basically dropped me a one-star review without even contacting me about it.
440
00:25:15.439 --> 00:25:20.243
And I didn't know if there was a way that, you know, you would recommend handling that or anything.
441
00:25:20.303 --> 00:25:27.408
Like I left him a response, but there's not really, I don't know if I just have to live with that, or is there a way that you would recommend trying to tackle that?
442
00:25:27.808 --> 00:25:31.570
Yeah, one-star is the best because they're the things that people actually read, right?
443
00:25:31.610 --> 00:25:31.790
Yeah.
444
00:25:32.251 --> 00:25:37.314
So what you want to do is make sure that your response has nothing to do with him.
445
00:25:37.434 --> 00:25:39.895
It has everything that the people are going to look at that review.
446
00:25:40.536 --> 00:25:47.340
And so the best one-star reviews are when people say you're too expensive or some crazy thing and you've never done service for them.
447
00:25:47.700 --> 00:25:55.003
Because then every high value client that sees that one star reviews like, oh, disqualify that because they never even did service for them.
448
00:25:55.123 --> 00:25:57.124
I'm not price sensitive, so I don't care about price.
449
00:25:57.765 --> 00:26:00.046
Oh, and by the way, they respond in a really professional manner.
450
00:26:00.326 --> 00:26:00.546
Yeah.
451
00:26:00.566 --> 00:26:14.112
So I guess if I wanted to go dive more deep into it, basically he claimed that I did damage to his property and refused to pay for it, which the damage was, in my opinion, and other professionals in my area, normal wear and tear on the property for having
452
00:26:14.650 --> 00:26:25.118
a lawn service there and he wasn't having it and basically wanted me to pay thousands of dollars to replace his whatever basketball hoop and fence and siding and things like that.
453
00:26:25.318 --> 00:26:30.943
So there was definitely things that we could have worked out with.
454
00:26:31.383 --> 00:26:35.468
as of me replacing stuff like that, but he decided to just leave it on my page.
455
00:26:35.848 --> 00:26:40.953
So I didn't know if there's a way that I guess I could respond better.
456
00:26:41.414 --> 00:26:43.135
What's the name of your business?
457
00:26:43.176 --> 00:26:44.697
Take Down Lawn Care LLC.
458
00:26:45.258 --> 00:26:45.458
In?
459
00:26:46.159 --> 00:26:47.100
Fargo, North Dakota.
460
00:26:47.340 --> 00:26:47.660
All right.
461
00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:50.183
Take Down Lawn Care LLC.
462
00:26:50.523 --> 00:26:51.924
There it is, Mr. Brad.
463
00:26:52.685 --> 00:26:53.646
My best buddy, Brad.
464
00:26:54.006 --> 00:26:55.428
I'm going to question how I wear my mask.
465
00:26:55.468 --> 00:26:57.670
Okay, so this one you're going out for a personal attack.
466
00:26:57.710 --> 00:26:58.791
I would leave that alone.
467
00:26:59.351 --> 00:27:00.092
Correct, yep.
468
00:27:00.472 --> 00:27:01.313
Okay, yeah, okay.
469
00:27:01.713 --> 00:27:03.055
Yeah, you're getting personal here.
470
00:27:03.515 --> 00:27:05.857
Again, this has nothing to do with the customer.
471
00:27:05.877 --> 00:27:09.881
It has everything to do with the response of other people.
472
00:27:10.421 --> 00:27:14.005
So, for example, is this a cover around this, like a mailbox?
473
00:27:14.445 --> 00:27:16.447
It's around his basketball hoop.
474
00:27:16.867 --> 00:27:17.327
Okay.
475
00:27:17.828 --> 00:27:18.288
Oh, mercy.
476
00:27:18.368 --> 00:27:18.688
Okay.
477
00:27:19.188 --> 00:27:19.649
Oh, mercy.
478
00:27:19.729 --> 00:27:19.949
Okay.
479
00:27:19.969 --> 00:27:20.269
Yeah.
480
00:27:20.309 --> 00:27:20.489
Yeah.
481
00:27:20.509 --> 00:27:22.050
Like I think anyone, what's that?
482
00:27:22.530 --> 00:27:25.332
It's a down, that's a crop up for a downspout.
483
00:27:25.372 --> 00:27:27.173
Basically it's a little plastic thing.
484
00:27:27.593 --> 00:27:28.154
Cool.
485
00:27:28.174 --> 00:27:29.154
We'll get a new one of those.
486
00:27:29.794 --> 00:27:30.075
Yeah.
487
00:27:30.335 --> 00:27:32.556
On all of these things, like that wasn't me.
488
00:27:33.977 --> 00:27:34.817
This is two months ago.
489
00:27:34.837 --> 00:27:38.379
Like I'm assuming this person, like he's, this is irreconcilable.
490
00:27:38.399 --> 00:27:39.580
Like you're not even in contact with him.
491
00:27:39.600 --> 00:27:39.900
Yeah.
492
00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:42.682
Like it was, I was offered to say, okay, well,
493
00:27:43.167 --> 00:27:45.649
Like not even those tire marks on the fence weren't me.
494
00:27:45.769 --> 00:27:50.173
I had only services property a handful of times before this had happened.
495
00:27:50.333 --> 00:27:54.376
And 99% of all this damage was from the previous company that he had out there.
496
00:27:54.656 --> 00:27:54.937
Yeah.
497
00:27:55.237 --> 00:27:56.798
Again, like customer, I don't care.
498
00:27:56.818 --> 00:27:58.640
This customer is never going to hire you again.
499
00:27:59.120 --> 00:28:00.282
This is about the people in the future.
500
00:28:00.362 --> 00:28:03.666
I would go get a gallon or get a quart of white paint.
501
00:28:04.126 --> 00:28:07.210
I would get a that little plastic fixture thing.
502
00:28:07.290 --> 00:28:09.813
You're going to spend 20 bucks and 30 minutes to go over there.
503
00:28:10.074 --> 00:28:12.196
You're going to paint the white on the fence.
504
00:28:12.256 --> 00:28:17.463
You're going to replace the downspout and then you change your review to be like, hey, I came back and painted the fence.
505
00:28:17.863 --> 00:28:21.044
I replaced the thing that we broke or someone broke on the thing.
506
00:28:21.765 --> 00:28:23.926
And the other stuff looks like could be washed off.
507
00:28:24.026 --> 00:28:25.886
Please reach out to us if you need help with this.
508
00:28:26.387 --> 00:28:29.688
We do think it might have been from the service before us because I do have documentation of it.
509
00:28:29.908 --> 00:28:31.529
However, I want to make sure you're satisfied.
510
00:28:31.909 --> 00:28:34.570
Like that will be the response you want to have for that review.
511
00:28:34.810 --> 00:28:36.111
Okay, gotcha.
512
00:28:36.211 --> 00:28:36.771
I'll change that.
513
00:28:36.791 --> 00:28:37.651
And I appreciate that.
514
00:28:37.671 --> 00:28:43.293
And that was the thing I mostly wanted to ask you about on here is just how to try and be professional.
515
00:28:43.653 --> 00:28:44.334
Yeah, cool.
516
00:28:44.354 --> 00:28:45.474
Perfect, thank you.
517
00:28:45.574 --> 00:28:46.655
Help me with this too.
518
00:28:46.695 --> 00:28:47.995
Yeah, I'm sure.
519
00:28:48.015 --> 00:28:49.396
Mr. Kosher, let's go.
520
00:28:49.696 --> 00:28:49.896
Cool.
521
00:28:50.096 --> 00:28:50.376
All right.
522
00:28:50.496 --> 00:28:51.576
Swift Edge Lawn Care.
523
00:28:51.676 --> 00:28:52.057
Hey, Mike.
524
00:28:52.097 --> 00:28:52.797
Sebastian here.
525
00:28:52.817 --> 00:28:54.477
And I have just a couple of questions for you.
526
00:28:54.537 --> 00:29:00.959
Really just want to kind of get your thoughts on hiring before or after I have the workload.
527
00:29:01.059 --> 00:29:06.540
I'm confident that I can get the leads, but I'm concerned that I'm going to hire too soon.
528
00:29:06.560 --> 00:29:10.901
Then I'm concerned that I'm going to wait too long when the busy season gets here.
529
00:29:10.941 --> 00:29:12.602
So I just want to kind of get your thoughts on that, man.
530
00:29:12.622 --> 00:29:13.122
What do you think?
531
00:29:13.162 --> 00:29:16.883
Hiring before or after we have the work to actually support the employee?
532
00:29:17.223 --> 00:29:20.626
Well, it really comes down to knowing how many customers you can drive using your marketing budget.
533
00:29:20.986 --> 00:29:26.510
When you say, hey, I anticipate all this demand, it's like, should I go get labor so that when the demand comes, I can serve them?
534
00:29:26.990 --> 00:29:30.733
Or do I wait for the leads to come in and the customers to sign up, and then I go get the labor?
535
00:29:31.253 --> 00:29:36.517
So there's two things that are the hinges on, your confidence level in hiring laborers or your confidence level in getting the leads.
536
00:29:36.837 --> 00:29:40.500
Which right now do you feel like if tomorrow I need to go get more leads, is that easier?
537
00:29:40.660 --> 00:29:44.023
Or if I need to get customers or employees tomorrow, which one's easier?
538
00:29:44.043 --> 00:29:44.323
Yeah.
539
00:29:44.423 --> 00:29:49.467
Yeah, it's easier for me to get leads, I feel like, than it is for me to get an employee in my mind.
540
00:29:49.487 --> 00:29:50.948
Okay, in your mind.
541
00:29:50.968 --> 00:29:52.209
That's a personal thing, right?
542
00:29:52.549 --> 00:29:53.189
Okay.
543
00:29:53.289 --> 00:29:55.771
From a numbers perspective, do you know what your customer acquisition cost is?
544
00:29:56.171 --> 00:29:56.652
I do not.
545
00:29:56.732 --> 00:29:59.094
We have a lot of word of mouth at this time.
546
00:29:59.914 --> 00:30:07.019
We have a list of emails that I blast when we want to acquire more work.
547
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:11.963
And so that's why I feel confident that I can get the workload, at least while we get additional new customers,
548
00:30:12.803 --> 00:30:13.764
on a recurring basis.
549
00:30:13.824 --> 00:30:15.125
All of our stuff is lawn maintenance.
550
00:30:15.586 --> 00:30:19.890
So hiring people before you need them, in other words, creates excess capacity.
551
00:30:20.410 --> 00:30:22.252
Have you read the book, Sebastian?
552
00:30:22.652 --> 00:30:23.093
I have not.
553
00:30:23.193 --> 00:30:24.053
Okay.
554
00:30:24.093 --> 00:30:25.675
So in there, we talk about capacity.
555
00:30:25.695 --> 00:30:26.996
So there's labor capacity.
556
00:30:27.396 --> 00:30:29.098
There is asset capacity.
557
00:30:29.478 --> 00:30:32.621
Asset capacity being how much revenue you can do with the trucks that you have.
558
00:30:33.082 --> 00:30:36.685
Labor capacity is how much revenue you can produce with the employees that you have.
559
00:30:37.085 --> 00:30:48.222
If you go hire more laborers without increasing your revenue by a bunch today, you're increasing your labor capacity and you're creating excess capacity between what you're doing in revenue and what you could be doing with your current employees.
560
00:30:48.742 --> 00:30:51.486
Excess capacity eats your profits margins for lunch.
561
00:30:52.007 --> 00:30:59.456
Now, if you're telling me I'm confident I can increase my workflow, though, because I can get these leads, then it becomes your confidence level in doing that.
562
00:30:59.656 --> 00:31:01.058
Word of mouth, you can't control.
563
00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:03.581
You can't go turn on the gasket of word of mouth.
564
00:31:03.861 --> 00:31:10.069
Yes, you can get upsells, big fan, but are you going to be able to double or triple your amount of revenue based on upsells?
565
00:31:10.289 --> 00:31:10.830
Maybe not.
566
00:31:11.250 --> 00:31:23.442
And so I would really try to, before I ever create excess capacity, I'd have to be very, very confident that I can go spend money to buy customers as fast as possible to reduce the excess capacity, i.e.
567
00:31:23.702 --> 00:31:24.523
get more customers.
568
00:31:25.004 --> 00:31:31.610
And so if you don't know your cost per lead, your customer acquisition cost, and your retention, I'm never going to create excess capacity for the sheer fun of it.
569
00:31:32.010 --> 00:31:34.493
Now, what's really crazy when people say, I'm going to go buy a truck,
570
00:31:34.873 --> 00:31:35.855
Because I'm going to have more work.
571
00:31:36.075 --> 00:31:38.378
Because you go buy a truck tomorrow, right?
572
00:31:38.999 --> 00:31:44.827
What this really comes down to, what I would focus on, Sebastian, is your level of confidence in getting more employees up to speed.
573
00:31:45.047 --> 00:31:50.595
Because if you know you can do that reliably, you won't have to go get them months in advance of having the customers.
574
00:31:51.056 --> 00:31:51.396
I hear you.
575
00:31:51.917 --> 00:31:58.145
So I would actually create a system for hiring, onboarding, and training that you can reliably get someone up to speed within one or two weeks.
576
00:31:58.625 --> 00:32:04.512
Have a bench of people that you already have interviewed that are great candidates that you know if you needed them, you could contact them and get them up.
577
00:32:04.893 --> 00:32:07.176
One out of three of them will accept a job offer.
578
00:32:07.196 --> 00:32:07.897
That's another thing.
579
00:32:08.017 --> 00:32:09.739
You don't have to go away above capacity.
580
00:32:09.899 --> 00:32:10.840
Tell me more about that.
581
00:32:10.940 --> 00:32:21.130
When you are creating a list of potential hires, you know, and you don't need them for another month, 60 days down the road, what makes you think that it's okay to have or contact those again?
582
00:32:21.150 --> 00:32:22.231
What if they already got a job?
583
00:32:22.251 --> 00:32:24.753
And see, this is my lack of confidence, right?
584
00:32:24.773 --> 00:32:26.175
And this is why I'm asking these questions.
585
00:32:26.575 --> 00:32:27.035
You're totally good.
586
00:32:27.055 --> 00:32:27.215
Yeah.
587
00:32:27.235 --> 00:32:30.956
So like the higher compensated person, the longer they're willing to wait.
588
00:32:31.356 --> 00:32:34.517
So for example, we just did a national campaign at Augusta.
589
00:32:34.797 --> 00:32:40.359
We got almost 2000 applications and we narrowed that down to 50 top candidates across the country.
590
00:32:40.619 --> 00:32:45.200
Most of those people will be hired over the next 12 to 24 months, but they're general managers.
591
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:51.682
Now, when it comes to technicians, a great technician is likely going to get a job within 7 to 14 days in most markets.
592
00:32:52.682 --> 00:33:02.231
That being said, if you're able to compensate them very well using something like paper performance, you have open book management, you have better benefits, they will leave another job also for $3, $4, $5 more per hour.
593
00:33:02.672 --> 00:33:10.319
And so this is why the business model and being profitable is so important because if you're profitable, you can make sure you make the $3 or $4 or $5 more per hour for them.
594
00:33:10.919 --> 00:33:14.240
be able to compensate them better so they will leave the job and come back to you.
595
00:33:14.641 --> 00:33:25.005
And just making sure that your job ad, the posting is very clear that, hey, we don't have a job in the immediate future, but within the next six to eight weeks, we expect to be able to have two open positions.
596
00:33:25.325 --> 00:33:27.886
And if you'd like to apply for that, there it is.
597
00:33:28.346 --> 00:33:32.588
And then that way you can interview them, you can make sure they're good, but you say, hey, just so we're clear,
598
00:33:33.148 --> 00:33:36.110
April 1st is when we're thinking we'll be needing a person.
599
00:33:36.450 --> 00:33:37.670
And some people will drop out.
600
00:33:37.690 --> 00:33:38.291
They're like, sorry.
601
00:33:38.791 --> 00:33:40.652
Other people, they're like, oh, that's perfect.
602
00:33:41.092 --> 00:33:42.453
My other job ends end of March.
603
00:33:42.673 --> 00:33:43.953
That'd be fantastic.
604
00:33:44.234 --> 00:33:46.435
And if I got to wait one or two weeks into April, that's okay.
605
00:33:46.835 --> 00:33:47.115
Awesome.
606
00:33:47.555 --> 00:33:47.735
Yep.
607
00:33:48.135 --> 00:33:48.996
So start there.
608
00:33:49.496 --> 00:33:49.816
Perfect.
609
00:33:49.836 --> 00:33:49.956
Yeah.
610
00:33:50.136 --> 00:33:58.761
You won't have to worry about, oh, I've got to hire people way in advance because then you're going to burn through all of your cash while having them doing nothing, burning time, being inefficient.
611
00:33:58.881 --> 00:33:59.161
Go ahead.
612
00:33:59.521 --> 00:33:59.742
Right.
613
00:33:59.762 --> 00:34:01.584
I don't want them just cleaning the shop, basically.
614
00:34:02.025 --> 00:34:06.651
Big goal for us this year is farming neighborhoods that we're already fairly established in.
615
00:34:07.172 --> 00:34:11.538
Any ideas on how to tackle that first step, second step?
616
00:34:11.638 --> 00:34:14.582
If you don't mind sharing some ideas on that, please.
617
00:34:14.822 --> 00:34:17.346
Are you allowed to door knock in that market or not?
618
00:34:17.673 --> 00:34:19.356
Yes, a couple of neighborhoods.
619
00:34:19.396 --> 00:34:22.360
There are no HOAs established, just nice neighborhoods.
620
00:34:22.700 --> 00:34:27.387
When you boil the puddle, it's easy from a budget perspective to boil the puddle, right?
621
00:34:27.427 --> 00:34:33.937
So if there's a couple thousand houses, you could literally do something as inefficient and horrible as every door direct mail, which I don't recommend.
622
00:34:34.477 --> 00:34:35.918
For getting new customers.
623
00:34:36.199 --> 00:34:43.125
But when you take 2,000 people, houses, for example, that means that for 1,000 bucks, you can hit all those houses.
624
00:34:43.665 --> 00:34:46.387
So if I spent two grand, I'd get two mailers inside their mailbox.
625
00:34:46.908 --> 00:34:48.409
I'd then put door hangers on all their doors.
626
00:34:48.689 --> 00:34:51.652
I'd put yard signs at every single four-way stop around that area.
627
00:34:51.912 --> 00:34:53.073
And all of a sudden, you boil the puddle.
628
00:34:53.353 --> 00:34:53.593
Right.
629
00:34:53.953 --> 00:34:55.053
So that's what I'd be focused on.
630
00:34:55.213 --> 00:35:01.295
I think for under five or 10 grand, you can hit those all those customers many, many times and get extreme round density.
631
00:35:01.315 --> 00:35:02.115
That's like for Augusta.
632
00:35:02.315 --> 00:35:04.276
We have five mile radiuses for our territories.
633
00:35:04.316 --> 00:35:14.678
And when they come to train, we say, focus on your one mile radius because you can boil that puddle and get way better density and get to profitability much faster and then use that profit to expand outside of that if you want.
634
00:35:15.078 --> 00:35:15.278
Right.
635
00:35:15.659 --> 00:35:15.919
Okay.
636
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:18.082
So just hit them with different sources.
637
00:35:18.483 --> 00:35:19.104
Gotcha.
638
00:35:19.244 --> 00:35:19.985
Boil the pot, baby.
639
00:35:20.085 --> 00:35:20.466
Let's go.
640
00:35:20.806 --> 00:35:21.187
Beautiful.
641
00:35:21.307 --> 00:35:21.708
Thanks, Mike.
642
00:35:21.928 --> 00:35:22.328
You got it.
643
00:35:22.509 --> 00:35:23.630
Malia's next up.
644
00:35:23.730 --> 00:35:28.397
For websites, we have a website through OnCare Media.
645
00:35:28.657 --> 00:35:31.621
How often do we update or should we just leave it how it is?
646
00:35:32.801 --> 00:35:33.981
Yeah, like great question.
647
00:35:34.021 --> 00:35:35.122
So I would say this.
648
00:35:35.842 --> 00:35:40.824
I usually recommend at least once a year change it, mostly off-season and like your on-season.
649
00:35:40.984 --> 00:35:48.026
And so don't be having a picture or video of you mowing in the middle of winter when you're doing only cleanups or snow, right?
650
00:35:48.246 --> 00:35:54.928
I would just have it where like on a reminder on your calendar, you say, hey, here's some updated photos for snow plowing, property cleanups, whatever.
651
00:35:55.129 --> 00:35:57.569
Just make sure the picture and the video look like the current season.
652
00:35:57.950 --> 00:35:59.170
I would do it at least once a year.
653
00:35:59.470 --> 00:35:59.790
Okay.
654
00:35:59.971 --> 00:36:00.251
Yes.
655
00:36:00.791 --> 00:36:03.193
We do Christmas lights in the off season pretty much.
656
00:36:03.373 --> 00:36:04.194
I was talking to Tori.
657
00:36:04.274 --> 00:36:04.855
I think that's his name.
658
00:36:04.955 --> 00:36:05.215
Yep.
659
00:36:05.575 --> 00:36:07.897
Of actually getting another website for a holiday lighting.
660
00:36:07.937 --> 00:36:14.663
So that could, cause I know if we had like its own separate thing, we would rank higher in like Google and cause it's already, it's one separate thing.
661
00:36:14.683 --> 00:36:17.025
We just kind of combine it a little.
662
00:36:17.566 --> 00:36:20.148
What percentage of revenue is Christmas lights for the whole company?
663
00:36:21.109 --> 00:36:23.711
It did 84,000 this year, almost 85.
664
00:36:24.111 --> 00:36:25.092
And what's total revenue?
665
00:36:25.433 --> 00:36:26.213
For everything.
666
00:36:26.293 --> 00:36:26.794
It was like,
667
00:36:27.186 --> 00:36:29.787
Whatever 164 plus whatever number you just said was.
668
00:36:30.247 --> 00:36:30.487
Okay.
669
00:36:30.647 --> 00:36:31.287
So about a third.
670
00:36:31.587 --> 00:36:34.348
So about a third of revenue is coming from the Christmas lights.
671
00:36:34.528 --> 00:36:37.109
In terms of cost, I would probably just keep it as one for now.
672
00:36:37.809 --> 00:36:38.970
I would make a different page.
673
00:36:39.270 --> 00:36:43.031
So like yourservice.com slash Christmas lights, for example.
674
00:36:43.051 --> 00:36:45.192
Do you have a different service page for it right now?
675
00:36:45.692 --> 00:36:46.793
Like a Google page or?
676
00:36:47.053 --> 00:36:48.113
No, on your website.
677
00:36:48.353 --> 00:36:49.094
No, it's just a tab.
678
00:36:49.134 --> 00:36:49.614
I'm pretty sure.
679
00:36:49.714 --> 00:36:52.115
Like it's under, it's on the home screen.
680
00:36:52.295 --> 00:36:53.336
It's two separate business.
681
00:36:53.356 --> 00:36:55.177
We've separated the businesses because we target.
682
00:36:55.197 --> 00:36:55.797
Oh, you have?
683
00:36:56.177 --> 00:36:56.478
Yeah.
684
00:36:56.578 --> 00:36:58.499
Because we don't target Clarksville.
685
00:36:58.519 --> 00:36:59.819
We target more of Nashville.
686
00:37:00.740 --> 00:37:02.380
Ah, so you have different service areas.
687
00:37:03.161 --> 00:37:03.281
Yeah.
688
00:37:03.301 --> 00:37:03.481
Okay.
689
00:37:03.501 --> 00:37:05.002
In that case, you might want to.
690
00:37:06.095 --> 00:37:06.976
Yeah.
691
00:37:06.996 --> 00:37:08.837
Our service area for Christmas lights is a lot bigger.
692
00:37:09.197 --> 00:37:09.537
Got it.
693
00:37:09.858 --> 00:37:19.804
What you could do though, is you could just keep it, keep your current Google listing and then change your service areas for when it gets to the Christmas light season and then change it back.
694
00:37:19.884 --> 00:37:22.466
Once you hit spring, you'd also change the name of the business.
695
00:37:22.506 --> 00:37:28.830
As long as it's in your LLC name, like you have a DBA with the Christmas light thing, you could change it in your Google listing to like whatever, whatever.
696
00:37:28.970 --> 00:37:29.731
And Christmas lights.
697
00:37:30.311 --> 00:37:31.411
So Augusta will do this a lot.
698
00:37:32.051 --> 00:37:34.512
We don't want to have, some of our owners don't want to manage two accounts.
699
00:37:35.172 --> 00:37:45.174
And so what they'll do is Augusta Lawn Care of Athens during most of the season and Augusta Lawn Care and Lights of Athens like during the holiday season, right?
700
00:37:45.775 --> 00:37:50.876
Just know whenever you change your address, service area or your name of your business on Google, you'll probably have to re-verify.
701
00:37:51.336 --> 00:37:54.057
But as long as you have a solid address to re-verify, it's not a big deal.
702
00:37:54.397 --> 00:38:00.018
But it's going to be the simplest because if you're going to create two Google listings, two websites, you're going to have to maintain them.
703
00:38:00.378 --> 00:38:02.400
Otherwise, they just become like useless.
704
00:38:02.861 --> 00:38:03.221
Yeah.
705
00:38:03.521 --> 00:38:04.262
Yeah, that is true.
706
00:38:04.683 --> 00:38:05.023
Yeah.
707
00:38:05.443 --> 00:38:07.145
I mean, we do already have two.
708
00:38:07.766 --> 00:38:08.166
This things?
709
00:38:08.627 --> 00:38:09.207
Two websites.
710
00:38:09.227 --> 00:38:09.548
Yeah.
711
00:38:09.588 --> 00:38:14.052
Two Google profiles, two websites, two of everything pretty much.
712
00:38:14.333 --> 00:38:14.473
Yeah.
713
00:38:14.493 --> 00:38:18.076
Like I'm just concerned about doing the 80 grand for a whole new website, right?
714
00:38:18.377 --> 00:38:20.239
Whole new website, all this other separation.
715
00:38:20.259 --> 00:38:21.120
It's 80 grand.
716
00:38:21.520 --> 00:38:21.760
right?
717
00:38:21.940 --> 00:38:28.545
I would rather just focus, let's grow the top line revenue of this whole company to 500,000 plus by everything being separate for 80 grand.
718
00:38:28.565 --> 00:38:29.666
Like I wouldn't do that.
719
00:38:29.866 --> 00:38:30.667
It's just too small.
720
00:38:31.067 --> 00:38:31.947
Is it a third of the business?
721
00:38:31.987 --> 00:38:32.228
Yes.
722
00:38:32.268 --> 00:38:35.670
But like, are you going to build a million dollar business that also has 500,000 of lights?
723
00:38:35.770 --> 00:38:36.611
Probably not.
724
00:38:37.171 --> 00:38:38.852
The other side is probably going to scale faster.
725
00:38:39.333 --> 00:38:42.355
And so I would probably, for the sake of simplicity and focus, probably keep it one.
726
00:38:42.755 --> 00:38:45.057
But if you're saying, Hey, it's completely different service areas.
727
00:38:45.577 --> 00:38:48.139
And do you have different names for the companies right now?
728
00:38:48.219 --> 00:38:49.280
What's the name of your lawn care business?
729
00:38:49.640 --> 00:38:50.221
AG mowing.
730
00:38:50.381 --> 00:38:51.703
And then it's AG holiday lighting.
731
00:38:52.144 --> 00:38:52.665
Oh, no.
732
00:38:52.685 --> 00:38:52.865
Yeah.
733
00:38:52.885 --> 00:38:53.626
Just do one site.
734
00:38:54.067 --> 00:38:58.153
That way you can do AG lawn care and holiday lighting on your Google listing.
735
00:38:58.593 --> 00:39:03.821
And then aglawncare.com slash holiday lighting would be a service page inside that website.
736
00:39:04.542 --> 00:39:06.223
You save money on the website.
737
00:39:06.403 --> 00:39:09.164
You save less hassle with doing two different Google listings.
738
00:39:09.544 --> 00:39:15.467
And you can always change your service area in the name of the business come season, like, you know, September, October, if you want on Google.
739
00:39:15.887 --> 00:39:16.247
Okay.
740
00:39:16.367 --> 00:39:18.488
That way, too, all your reviews are going in one spot.
741
00:39:18.788 --> 00:39:20.429
It'd be different if you're doing $500,000.
742
00:39:20.469 --> 00:39:24.351
If you're doing $500,000 on Christmas, like, it's its own business.
743
00:39:24.491 --> 00:39:25.231
That's the goal.
744
00:39:25.251 --> 00:39:26.932
But I feel like that's going to be very doable.
745
00:39:27.252 --> 00:39:27.512
Okay.
746
00:39:27.652 --> 00:39:27.913
Yeah.
747
00:39:28.213 --> 00:39:28.873
Hey, then that's fine.
748
00:39:28.893 --> 00:39:36.099
Just know that right now you're probably spending five to 10 grand extra a year by having them separated, which is a big cost on 80 grand.
749
00:39:36.319 --> 00:39:37.580
If you're like, no, we're going to five exit.
750
00:39:37.660 --> 00:39:43.344
Then yes, you're paying cost right now of having a different website, maintaining a different Google listing.
751
00:39:43.384 --> 00:39:47.628
And I'm okay with that, but you're going to have to grow that sector of the business to make it worth it.
752
00:39:48.078 --> 00:39:48.999
Okay.
753
00:39:49.139 --> 00:39:56.984
For the address that we have for our mowing company, it's pretty much in an area we don't target, but we do get leads from there.
754
00:39:57.344 --> 00:39:58.384
Do we just keep that?
755
00:39:58.444 --> 00:40:02.507
We pretty much put the address there to have an address on our Google page.
756
00:40:02.847 --> 00:40:04.408
But our crew doesn't go there.
757
00:40:04.468 --> 00:40:05.649
None of the equipment is there.
758
00:40:05.669 --> 00:40:06.970
It's just an office space.
759
00:40:07.110 --> 00:40:10.572
We only have it on Google to have it.
760
00:40:10.692 --> 00:40:13.374
Is it central to your market, your service area?
761
00:40:13.934 --> 00:40:14.094
No.
762
00:40:14.334 --> 00:40:18.517
So like, I'm always trying to get my address verified inside of my service area.
763
00:40:18.657 --> 00:40:22.059
And ideally inside the same city that like is in my name.
764
00:40:22.439 --> 00:40:29.443
So for example, like if you when we do Augusta, like in like slash Athens, I want the verified address inside of Athens, right?
765
00:40:29.904 --> 00:40:33.246
I would do whatever I could to try to get that more central to your service area.
766
00:40:33.466 --> 00:40:37.108
Because if it's even 10 miles out, like how far away from you center of your service area, you think?
767
00:40:37.488 --> 00:40:39.269
Like five, right outside of it.
768
00:40:39.429 --> 00:40:43.432
When you search your service area name and like lawn care, do you show up on the map or not?
769
00:40:43.832 --> 00:40:44.152
We do.
770
00:40:44.192 --> 00:40:45.513
I mean, it's still in Clarksville.
771
00:40:45.993 --> 00:40:46.253
Okay.
772
00:40:46.753 --> 00:40:47.314
Clarksville.
773
00:40:47.614 --> 00:40:48.014
Still big.
774
00:40:48.054 --> 00:40:49.215
Tennessee.
775
00:40:49.355 --> 00:40:50.915
Tennessee lawn care.
776
00:40:51.316 --> 00:40:52.136
Oh, AG Mowing.
777
00:40:52.236 --> 00:40:52.756
Let's go.
778
00:40:52.776 --> 00:40:54.617
Wow, it's way out there, though.
779
00:40:54.637 --> 00:40:55.357
Wow, you're right.
780
00:40:55.978 --> 00:40:56.978
You're right up against Kentucky.
781
00:40:57.018 --> 00:40:57.438
Let's go.
782
00:40:57.458 --> 00:41:03.021
Yeah, we want to target like the Sango because that's like the nice homes and Adams.
783
00:41:03.401 --> 00:41:04.061
So I'll say this.
784
00:41:04.081 --> 00:41:05.942
Like, what's your URL right now?
785
00:41:06.462 --> 00:41:07.343
Oh, agmowing.com.
786
00:41:07.363 --> 00:41:07.703
There it is.
787
00:41:08.423 --> 00:41:08.764
Got it.
788
00:41:09.184 --> 00:41:10.364
When did we build the site for you?
789
00:41:10.384 --> 00:41:10.684
Do you know?
790
00:41:10.885 --> 00:41:11.785
A year and a half ago.
791
00:41:12.225 --> 00:41:12.445
Okay.
792
00:41:12.786 --> 00:41:14.468
How many reviews do you have?
793
00:41:14.488 --> 00:41:14.548
78.
794
00:41:15.068 --> 00:41:16.790
Oh, yeah.
795
00:41:16.930 --> 00:41:18.412
140, 137, 174.
796
00:41:18.912 --> 00:41:20.814
Yeah, man, if you get that a little closer.
797
00:41:21.054 --> 00:41:25.719
If you could get an address verified closer to Clarksville, it would help.
798
00:41:26.059 --> 00:41:28.322
But I wouldn't bend over backwards to get a long-term lease.
799
00:41:28.542 --> 00:41:34.288
But if you get a commercial customer, hey, can we verify your address and be more towards, I don't know,
800
00:41:34.768 --> 00:41:37.869
I don't know, just just five miles closer to the center there.
801
00:41:38.310 --> 00:41:45.853
You probably it would probably improve your ranking because there's really no reason outside of that why you can't beat some of these other players.
802
00:41:45.873 --> 00:41:51.616
Like, for example, Mullins Law Enforcement doesn't have his HTTPS, which is like his SSL on his website.
803
00:41:51.996 --> 00:41:55.918
That should be an easy one to knock off as well as MarksLawnservice.net.
804
00:41:56.258 --> 00:41:57.919
Like it's a .net for crying out loud.
805
00:41:58.619 --> 00:42:01.041
Um, but the thing is they're right close downtown.
806
00:42:01.422 --> 00:42:03.423
It's like they're ranking better because of that.
807
00:42:03.844 --> 00:42:09.669
So just if you, if you can get, if you can give someone free service for the month and be like, Hey, can we just verify your address?
808
00:42:09.989 --> 00:42:11.670
Like I would try to do it if you can.
809
00:42:11.971 --> 00:42:17.475
So you're saying we should go to like downtown Clarksville, whatever is closest to the center of Clarksville.
810
00:42:17.495 --> 00:42:17.676
Yeah.
811
00:42:18.056 --> 00:42:18.396
Okay.
812
00:42:18.416 --> 00:42:22.660
Cause we try to go not your service areas more North.
813
00:42:23.105 --> 00:42:24.006
No, it's more south.
814
00:42:24.026 --> 00:42:24.606
Towards the inner state.
815
00:42:24.626 --> 00:42:24.886
Oh, really?
816
00:42:25.107 --> 00:42:26.828
And not downtown Clarksville.
817
00:42:26.968 --> 00:42:28.629
Yeah, it's closer to the interstate.
818
00:42:28.969 --> 00:42:29.309
Got it.
819
00:42:29.450 --> 00:42:33.332
So somewhere between downtown and there is probably where I'd be trying to verify, right?
820
00:42:33.432 --> 00:42:36.674
Because to Google, like Clarksville is that city.
821
00:42:37.015 --> 00:42:37.315
Yeah.
822
00:42:37.375 --> 00:42:39.997
And so I just want to show Google I'm the top for Clarksville.
823
00:42:40.437 --> 00:42:42.418
If it so happens that you're on the south side, great.
824
00:42:42.739 --> 00:42:46.381
But like, we're definitely going to be better than where we're at now because you're on the most north side.
825
00:42:46.401 --> 00:42:47.302
You're almost in Kentucky.
826
00:42:47.662 --> 00:42:48.042
Right.
827
00:42:48.402 --> 00:42:49.162
So I would try to do that.
828
00:42:49.202 --> 00:42:54.404
But are you guys on Google local service or LSA right now, like local services ads?
829
00:42:54.744 --> 00:42:55.524
Not currently.
830
00:42:55.564 --> 00:42:55.844
No.
831
00:42:56.184 --> 00:42:56.444
Cool.
832
00:42:56.644 --> 00:43:00.125
So go ahead and get verified for that.
833
00:43:00.145 --> 00:43:02.325
You don't even have to put a budget, put like 10 bucks a week to it.
834
00:43:02.345 --> 00:43:02.726
I don't care.
835
00:43:03.186 --> 00:43:07.767
Just get verified because that alone gives confidence to Google that you're actually legit.
836
00:43:08.147 --> 00:43:12.828
And that will help you vicariously on search and on the Google listings.
837
00:43:12.848 --> 00:43:13.128
Right.
838
00:43:13.308 --> 00:43:15.289
Good job putting photos on AG mowing.
839
00:43:15.329 --> 00:43:15.829
That's good.
840
00:43:16.249 --> 00:43:17.570
You're not responding to reviews.
841
00:43:18.070 --> 00:43:19.190
Oh, you are a year ago.
842
00:43:19.570 --> 00:43:21.391
Do you all usually respond to your reviews?
843
00:43:21.911 --> 00:43:22.171
Yeah.
844
00:43:22.651 --> 00:43:24.332
Yeah, so I would do those two things.
845
00:43:24.532 --> 00:43:30.094
I would just make sure that I get closer to Clarksville on the south side or somewhere close there.
846
00:43:31.095 --> 00:43:31.915
It's going to help a lot.
847
00:43:32.375 --> 00:43:36.396
And then I'd get verified on local services ads, LSA.
848
00:43:36.836 --> 00:43:37.936
That alone will help a lot.
849
00:43:38.276 --> 00:43:42.537
Just because like you think about Google as a business, it's like if you use their products and services, they want to promote you.
850
00:43:43.138 --> 00:43:49.239
And the guys in front of you on search right now are pretty easy to knock off because their sites stink.
851
00:43:49.459 --> 00:43:52.700
But they've been around a long time and they're closer to Clarksville.
852
00:43:53.140 --> 00:43:53.440
Yeah.
853
00:43:53.821 --> 00:44:01.047
So when you say get verified with local service ads, like we've done them before, we just currently don't have it like active.
854
00:44:01.407 --> 00:44:03.489
Yeah, just turn on really low budget.
855
00:44:03.509 --> 00:44:10.714
So that way it's actually you're running LSA, but it's mostly a matter of them knowing that you're, it's like pay to play, honestly.
856
00:44:10.995 --> 00:44:13.156
And I don't even need the ads from LSA.
857
00:44:13.277 --> 00:44:19.622
I want the validation to Google that like you have verified accounts, you have insurance, you have everything set up correctly.
858
00:44:20.043 --> 00:44:20.384
Okay.
859
00:44:20.665 --> 00:44:22.331
Should we just keep it running like forever?
860
00:44:23.937 --> 00:44:24.177
I would.
861
00:44:24.278 --> 00:44:24.960
Yep.
862
00:44:25.462 --> 00:44:25.743
Good stuff.
863
00:44:25.763 --> 00:44:26.767
Well, thank you all for being here.
864
00:44:26.887 --> 00:44:27.650
I really appreciate it.
865
00:44:27.891 --> 00:44:28.272
Love you all.
866
00:44:28.433 --> 00:44:29.557
Hope you have a fantastic weekend.
867
00:44:29.597 --> 00:44:30.038
We'll see you guys.