How to Build a Team That Actually Makes PROFIT

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Today we're talking to 10 home service millionaires that have scaled their business and they're trying to take it to the next level.
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And they're having some troubles and issues and there's a bunch of questions about how do I scale?
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How do I hire employees?
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How do I train the right general manager?
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There's a lot of really good information from a whole bunch of different services from the green industry.
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Tree services, lawn care, landscaping, snow plowing.
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It's packed with information.
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It's one of my favorite Q&A sessions ever.
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Let's go ahead and go.
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and run the tape.
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Ray's up.
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Hey, Mike.
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How's it going?
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Good, brother.
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How you doing?
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Not too bad.
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So I run a tree service company.
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So I'm just curious what your take is on, you talk a lot about recurring customers.
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Obviously tree service,
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If we're doing our focus is a lot on the tree care side of things.
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So tree trimming, however, the reality of it is if we're trimming your tree, we don't have to come back for about two years.
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So do you have any other guys you work with that, that you built some sort of recurring something out or not really?
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I'm assuming when you say tree care, this is more like over a house, over a power line, et cetera.
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Correct.
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Okay.
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And what's your hourly rate for your team, like technicians paying them right now?
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On average, like I know there's arborists and all this.
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On average, it'd be about 30 bucks an hour.
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Okay.
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Of the projects that you do do, how many of them do you think have other trees on the property that need to be trimmed more than once a year?
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So what we're focusing on is strictly mature trees, so not shrubs.
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So we're strictly focusing on the big trees that really don't need to be trimmed more than once every couple of years.
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So that's the challenge.
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Got it.
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So what I would recommend doing is trying to still convert them to a recurring annual trade trim.
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And the thing is, that's nice, Ray, is on your first service with them, they're paying, I would imagine, on average $1,500 to $2,000.
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Yeah.
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Like, they just paid you that.
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It's the easiest downsell to say, hey, by the way, if you just get on the schedule with us and pay for your first visit and you do this on an annual basis, you can save 30% and it's $4.99 per year.
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You pay for the first one now and we'll be back in 12 months.
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But that prevents you from doing this every two or three years for $1,500 or $2,000.
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Right.
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And more importantly, you get priority in terms of scheduling because you know how it is.
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Everyone calls you when it's windy and branches all over the place, et cetera.
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And so I would I would bake in, you know, the math better than I just did there.
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But I would figure out what's the what's the reduction of revenue you're willing to take in order to get them on an annual basis.
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And I would make sure that you're collecting at least a deposit on that first service.
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Don't be like, yeah, we'll put you on next year.
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Like, I need the money now.
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Because the whole advantage is you lock them in and you can't have that moving around.
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And then that gives you the flexibility around scheduling because you could do it whenever you don't have other jobs coming in.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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No, that's actually a good idea.
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I never really thought of it that way.
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That makes a lot of sense.
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The only downside, obviously, is if we're coming out every year.
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If we're doing a smaller prune about 30% of the time, there's a certain level of that that makes it less efficient than if we do it every two or three years.
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Right.
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But the value of the record, the known record recurring work definitely adds value for sure.
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So.
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The real value rate is that you're able to schedule that recurring service whenever you want.
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And so you would not schedule it during the period of time when you can get other jobs for 3x the price because everyone's in the service after a storm.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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Because those customers are going to call you if there's a storm.
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Now they're not because you just prune their thing, their tree two months ago and they're taken care of.
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You now increase the capacity during peak season, i.e.
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after a storm to make max dollars.
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Yeah, 100%.
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That makes sense.
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Now, just a question on your, so on my quoting, I go out and look at each individual tree, because every tree is different, right?
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So you talk about systemizing your quoting and your quick quotes.
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That's really not possible in my case, or at least in my head it isn't.
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Do you agree with that?
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I agree specifically when it comes to emergency hazard or stuff, because like literally the angle of a tree could three X the, the cost and it's high hazard.
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Right.
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So I'm a big fan of it.
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I think your pricing presentation though, could really lean into the recurring side.
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So for example, you say, Hey,
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To get this fixed, here's the solution.
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On average, this tree is going to be trimmed every two years.
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So you're looking around $3,000 every two years.
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Now, we do have this extra option.
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We come out annually.
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This reduces the work for us.
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We don't have as large limbs.
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Our cleanup is faster, and therefore the price is 33%.
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not 50%, but 33% of what it would otherwise be.
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You increase total revenue.
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You're sorry.
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You decrease total revenue, but you increase lifetime value of the customer.
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Cause right now you're just depending on them calling you back.
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A hundred percent.
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And then the other question I have is I just got onto your P4P.
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I just,
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heard about that end of the year, trying to figure out how to improve profits and so on.
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And I really think that pay for performance is an awesome concept.
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I've never heard about it before.
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So I'm trying to implement that into this coming season, starting March, trying to implement that.
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The question is, this is not recurring work as in you're doing the same every week.
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So I guess it just comes down to my quoting being extremely accurate and my
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lifetime estimate, and so on.
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Everything's custom, but there's really no way around that.
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Yeah.
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First thing I would say when it comes to the trees that we see with P4P is I would probably use simple mode on the software if you use it.
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Because then they're just getting a percentage of revenue because budget hours are not as important when it comes to your work.
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Like you're quoting revenue is very much attributed to how long the job is going to take.
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You have tree tripping, et cetera.
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And then also you just change the percentage based upon the level of the arborist or the person on the ground, et cetera.
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Because the software will do all the math on the back end.
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I apologize.
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What was your actual question?
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Just to summarize it real quick.
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Um, I was, yeah, just asking how P4P would work.
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Like basically it's, uh, it's, it's, uh, my, my quoting is all custom.
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So, so the P4P.
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Accuracy.
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My quoting just needs to be extremely accurate.
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That's basically what it comes down to.
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What you could do, Ray, like on simple mode, they're just getting a percentage of revenue, right?
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So like, yeah, there's gonna be jobs they crush.
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There's gonna be jobs that take longer.
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I would probably pad the ones that go way longer.
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Assuming, I'll ask you this question.
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Are there times jobs go like three times longer than you expect?
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There's like two of those per year.
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Like that's very rare.
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Typically, typically I'm right in the ballpark.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So then I would just probably if you really wanted to put a cap for them, like, hey, if it goes twice as long, or like, literally, it goes way and it's my fault, I'll step in.
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But I can count on one hand how many times I've ever stepped in on projects that went bad.
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And usually those are projects we should have we had no business doing, like, honestly, because if I can't accurately bid it, I shouldn't be doing the job.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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But, but that stuff goes wrong.
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And so you, you could just honestly tell them like, Hey guys, if it's an estimator problem and we're double anything above that, I'll step in and I'll like, you know, do a different percentage or something like that.
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Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's perfect.
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Yeah.
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Then I had another question in regards to, so we do tree service from, from March through, through to Christmas.
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Then what we've, what we do in the winter is land clearing for new development, complete different set of equipment.
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However, five years ago when we got into that as winter work, it was great and the market was great.
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We did well at it.
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However, the market has completely died off.
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Just for example, two years ago, we did 1.2 million in the land clearing over the winter and 400 grand in tree service the rest of the year.
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but just 500 grand in the land clearing over the winter.
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So that market is completely tanked.
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And obviously you can imagine my equipment overhead and so on.
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It's kind of putting me in a really bad spot at the moment.
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So I'm just curious what your take is on that.
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Yeah, my take is that I never want to tie myself to new developments because that's a boom and bust cycle, right?
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So you had 2021, 2022, free money coming along.
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People are just land cleaning like crazy.
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I want to be tied to be able to serve a high net worth individual because they're going to be insulated from those events.
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And so that's where the tree care why it's been more steady because everyone needs a tree trim.
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They don't need them removed unless they're building.
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Right.
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So I would I would say the challenging part is now you have all the equipment, the assets.
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And I will also say this, Ray, I think that if you spent a year focusing on the recurring side and were able to start figuring out how do I get 30%, 40%, 50% of my one-time jobs to convert into this recurring service, you use that as a way to sell enough work to fill January and February over the course of time.
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That might take a year or two, but then you give you the confidence to pull the plug out on the land clearing.
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I, I, and that's kind of actually, I'm kind of making steps to go that direction as well as I sold out some equipment, bought another bucket truck to get a second crew going.
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So I'm projecting doing a million in tree services here versus, versus the 1.1 I did total last year, including both, which the headache of both, if I can just focus on one so much better.
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Yeah.
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And that's the part that never shows up on a P&L and that is like focus and attention.
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And I think that the part that I can't quantify for you is that if you did just rip out the cord, even without having the back end, I bet you do 1.3 million in tree servers if you didn't even think about that this year.
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And so there's this margin of cost of just attention.
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And I don't want you to do that because I know you have fixed expenses, et cetera, but I think
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I was you as I head into this season, the upcoming one, I would convince myself that I don't need to do it again next year by starting to sell the recurring services.
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And you're going to stink it at first.
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It's going to be so awkward.
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You're going to get 10% to 15% of the conversion.
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But over the course of time, I think you can get that to 30%, 40%.
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And if you do that all year, that's where you do the work, January and February.
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You do all the people that signed up for the recurring service then, and you have that confidence to pull the plug on that bad boy.
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And I think that alone will give you so much more mental – because during January and February, let's say it slows down.
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Great.
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That's when you're planning for the year.
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That's when you're doing acquisitions of equipment.
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That's when you're focusing on marketing.
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The business will do better.
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Yeah, and I shouldn't be running around like a chicken with my head chopped off trying to find land-faring work that doesn't exist.
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competitors going out of business, it's that bad.
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So 100% agree.
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I think that's the right move.
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And my focus has been on unreasonable hospitality the last couple of years, which has really grown the tree service side.
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I think the recurring work would really blend into that.
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I just never really considered that, but I think that could be a really great model if we can build that out.
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Yeah, the reason that model works so well for one time projects and most it's very common for people not to think about it is because you don't have to sell it because they just paid 2000 or 3000 dollars.
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Would you like this done again for 500?
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Like, why would you not say yes?
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They just if you sell it to people who've already said yes.
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So I will say this real quick.
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I would do it on the initial estimate.
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That's the easiest way because you're already making the estimate.
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Get really good at doing after the job is done.
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Because when they just paid you $3,000 and you tell them, wow, I just do it for $500 a year, and you say in the essence, this is a service that is required every 24 months.
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So in their brain, they're already doing the math.
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Okay, that's about, let's call it $1,500 a year.
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Oh, you can do it for significantly less.
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So I would do it in two different spots.
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And whether or not you're on the job site, I would incentivize your crew on the upsell rate if they do it.
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If you're doing all sales on the upfront, I'd push hard there though.
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I'd do both.
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I think you'll crush.
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Excellent.
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I'll have to put a lot of thought into that, how I'm going to do that, but I think that's a fantastic idea.
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Cool.
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Yeah.
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One quick thing on the estimate I would put in the line item.
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Which service, tree software do you use?
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Arbor Gold.
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Cool, yep, okay.
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So in the estimate line description, I'd get in the habit of putting how often services are required, estimating.
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So every one year, two years, three years, et cetera.
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To your point, most of the time it's two years.
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Great, that becomes part of your estimate description so that in the next line item, you have your pitch.
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Because now it becomes something like...
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Um, people, people take it as truth because everything else in that estimate is what you've stated is on their property and they know that to be true.
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So when you say all the type of the type of tree, the hazard it's causing what you're going to be doing to solve the problem.
221
00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:54.264
And then you say this service is required every 24 months for this specific situation.
222
00:12:54.724 --> 00:12:59.828
They will assume that is true and they will do the math in their head on the price that you then given the next line item.
223
00:13:00.048 --> 00:13:01.389
That's a significant discount.
224
00:13:01.629 --> 00:13:04.631
Now, just a question on that, because obviously my competition isn't doing that.
225
00:13:04.951 --> 00:13:07.252
What's a client's perception on that?
226
00:13:07.612 --> 00:13:08.172
I see that.
227
00:13:08.292 --> 00:13:08.953
I look at it.
228
00:13:09.213 --> 00:13:10.794
I know what you're saying.
229
00:13:10.814 --> 00:13:13.475
It's the same reason you go to the store, though, and it's buy two, get one free.
230
00:13:13.655 --> 00:13:15.356
Do you think the third one didn't cost them anything?
231
00:13:15.676 --> 00:13:16.177
Yeah.
232
00:13:16.277 --> 00:13:17.757
It's a volume discount, right?
233
00:13:18.017 --> 00:13:19.378
Now, I'm not going to tell the customer that.
234
00:13:19.458 --> 00:13:22.480
I'm going to tell the customer, hey, when we first come to a property,
235
00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:24.981
And leading it to unreasonable hospitality.
236
00:13:25.061 --> 00:13:25.561
Get this one.
237
00:13:25.921 --> 00:13:27.162
We take a video of the property.
238
00:13:27.642 --> 00:13:29.983
We make sure it's up to our standards.
239
00:13:30.123 --> 00:13:31.864
We do a risk analysis of the tree.
240
00:13:32.144 --> 00:13:33.905
We make sure everything is put into your account.
241
00:13:34.305 --> 00:13:36.606
That takes us a lot more time than in the future.
242
00:13:36.866 --> 00:13:38.387
We come back and we don't have to do those things.
243
00:13:38.567 --> 00:13:40.188
We have the video and we knock it out.
244
00:13:40.528 --> 00:13:41.728
We don't have to do a risk assessment.
245
00:13:41.928 --> 00:13:43.569
I don't have to come out and be an estimator.
246
00:13:43.929 --> 00:13:46.250
All of that is so much more cost effective for us.
247
00:13:46.751 --> 00:13:49.972
And we can send our crew out whenever instead of at a certain time when you need to be home.
248
00:13:50.192 --> 00:13:51.192
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
249
00:13:51.432 --> 00:13:52.353
No, good fun.
250
00:13:52.813 --> 00:13:53.153
Thank you.
251
00:13:53.393 --> 00:13:53.853
You got it.
252
00:13:54.093 --> 00:13:55.713
I would love to hear, Ray, how that turns out.
253
00:13:55.773 --> 00:14:01.155
I know it would be a little bumpy at the beginning to kind of figure out your processes, but I really believe you can nail that one down.
254
00:14:01.195 --> 00:14:06.036
I've seen this happen even at HVAC and electrical and what typically is seen as one-time jobs.
255
00:14:06.376 --> 00:14:07.297
They're able to figure that out.
256
00:14:07.357 --> 00:14:08.317
So good job, man.
257
00:14:08.757 --> 00:14:09.017
You did it.
258
00:14:09.217 --> 00:14:11.378
It's time to lock in before the spring rush.
259
00:14:11.638 --> 00:14:17.581
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.
260
00:14:17.921 --> 00:14:23.344
That's why at HomeWorks, we have the logo of the chain because it's the three links in every home service business.
261
00:14:23.744 --> 00:14:25.785
Sales, operations, and admin.
262
00:14:26.006 --> 00:14:36.151
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.
263
00:14:36.451 --> 00:14:37.151
Go check it out today.
264
00:14:37.191 --> 00:14:38.612
Go to home.works.
265
00:14:39.092 --> 00:14:39.733
Val is up.
266
00:14:39.853 --> 00:14:43.918
So here in the Central Valley, we don't really have a fourth quarter collapse.
267
00:14:44.239 --> 00:14:44.639
It just...
268
00:14:45.485 --> 00:14:46.385
work all year round.
269
00:14:46.406 --> 00:14:47.406
There's pros and cons.
270
00:14:47.666 --> 00:14:49.107
That's why you also have so much demand, right?
271
00:14:49.167 --> 00:14:50.288
Or so much competition.
272
00:14:50.688 --> 00:14:52.289
That's why everyone has a mower, right?
273
00:14:52.629 --> 00:14:53.589
Yeah, exactly.
274
00:14:53.989 --> 00:15:01.073
So, I mean, and that's kind of where I was heading is that, so my brother here, he, he focused on horticulture.
275
00:15:01.093 --> 00:15:02.674
He majored in horticulture plant science.
276
00:15:02.974 --> 00:15:05.956
So we were able to kind of offer more of a premium service.
277
00:15:06.296 --> 00:15:09.257
So the issue is that, you know, we have two owners.
278
00:15:09.718 --> 00:15:09.858
Um,
279
00:15:10.478 --> 00:15:13.399
And so we're trying to define our roles up to this point.
280
00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:16.601
I've been more of the sales GM more so to speak.
281
00:15:17.041 --> 00:15:19.382
And so what they used to be three of us.
282
00:15:19.982 --> 00:15:23.104
So now he's he's kind of taking more of the operations role.
283
00:15:23.284 --> 00:15:32.248
However, with his background and a couple of other trainings we've done, our market continues to pull us back in for projects.
284
00:15:32.588 --> 00:15:35.730
And because we've been doing recurring for this whole time and last year,
285
00:15:36.770 --> 00:15:39.351
due to some inefficiencies, we didn't hit our projections.
286
00:15:39.371 --> 00:15:44.694
Because we were on pace to hit about 750, 800, and we topped out at 670.
287
00:15:44.754 --> 00:15:49.517
We're trying to figure out what's the best approach for him that likes the horticulture side.
288
00:15:49.537 --> 00:15:56.660
I even watch your Max Floyd stuff, since he's kind of the same mentality about, hey, I'm a horticulturist type of deal.
289
00:15:56.680 --> 00:15:58.802
So the mentality is like, what would you suggest?
290
00:15:59.842 --> 00:16:01.843
He wants to stay in the field doing construction projects.
291
00:16:01.883 --> 00:16:07.785
We did Aquascape, you know, training, same message you do, system simplify, don't change the system.
292
00:16:09.286 --> 00:16:12.307
So it kind of goes in correlation with what, you know, we hear from you.
293
00:16:13.227 --> 00:16:24.112
But as far as like, how would you kind of do that role as far as like the stage that we're at, as far as him continuing to do operations, operation management management
294
00:16:24.652 --> 00:16:32.794
And possibly even like, but not have to worry about like the cruise out and kind of all that set up, you know, because he wants to stay out doing projects.
295
00:16:32.974 --> 00:16:38.075
Yeah, like I think that it sets up for a good full time GM size, right?
296
00:16:38.115 --> 00:16:41.736
So you can easily get to 750 to 1.5 using your model.
297
00:16:42.296 --> 00:16:47.898
And usually I don't like people in that size, but because you're both your brothers and I'm assuming you're co-owners.
298
00:16:48.238 --> 00:16:48.438
Yeah.
299
00:16:48.938 --> 00:16:51.101
Yeah, like neither of you are going anywhere.
300
00:16:51.121 --> 00:16:55.126
So that's why I'm a little okay with having someone being fully over your operations.
301
00:16:55.486 --> 00:16:58.770
And, you know, they're not going to take your team against you or do something crazy.
302
00:16:58.850 --> 00:17:01.894
What you could do is you could be sales, you could be operations.
303
00:17:02.134 --> 00:17:05.038
And then as you grow, like who's doing your admin right now?
304
00:17:05.298 --> 00:17:07.660
We actually, I've been doing it for the last few years.
305
00:17:08.340 --> 00:17:12.843
We have a college student that's going to start up in a week.
306
00:17:13.624 --> 00:17:23.651
She's going to, like, we've been doing chat GPT to create SOPs, taking what's in your book, the Mike AI and all that stuff, converging it into something we can hand over to her and then have her do that.
307
00:17:23.711 --> 00:17:31.016
And then the bookkeeping, actually, I was going to schedule a call with your firm to see if we can kind of just hand that off so that way it's not on here either.
308
00:17:31.036 --> 00:17:31.136
Yeah.
309
00:17:31.356 --> 00:17:43.286
Yeah, like I think just keep in mind, if you said you're going to be 670, I wouldn't be saying, hey, operations manager, you hopping in as sales full time and then having like an assistant person.
310
00:17:43.506 --> 00:17:46.088
That gets very unprofitable very, very fast.
311
00:17:46.388 --> 00:17:48.930
However, you are setting yourself up to get past a million.
312
00:17:49.231 --> 00:17:51.713
And so I would just set the expectation for both of you to...
313
00:17:52.173 --> 00:17:57.839
Hey, for a season, like maybe the first three to six months of this year, we are still out in the field and we're doing labor revenue.
314
00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:04.647
But the goal is that over the course of time, we've delineated what sales is, what operations is, and what admin is.
315
00:18:05.247 --> 00:18:08.291
I would focus a lot of your time right now, and this is an hour.
316
00:18:08.571 --> 00:18:11.714
What are the tasks that both of you are doing right now that are sales?
317
00:18:12.335 --> 00:18:23.478
operations and admin and the eventual goal, it might be a year away from now is that Val only does sales, brother only does operations and then admin we've delegated all of that.
318
00:18:23.718 --> 00:18:27.179
And it's going to take you a bit of a time time Val cause you're not ready for that like tomorrow.
319
00:18:27.439 --> 00:18:27.659
Yeah.
320
00:18:27.879 --> 00:18:29.560
But as long as you know, that's the direction.
321
00:18:29.660 --> 00:18:34.901
And then what you can do is you could just put like, if you put it on a whiteboard, you can put your name next to the things that you guys are doing.
322
00:18:35.121 --> 00:18:38.062
Cause right now I guarantee you it's kind of, you're doing everything right.
323
00:18:38.242 --> 00:18:41.404
Sometimes you do sales, and you are up in an operation doing equipment.
324
00:18:41.804 --> 00:18:48.708
But you want to list off every single thing, like training the team, hiring, interviewing, moving equipment, moving materials, ordering materials.
325
00:18:48.728 --> 00:18:50.068
Like, that's all operations.
326
00:18:50.329 --> 00:18:50.669
Boom.
327
00:18:50.909 --> 00:18:58.633
Right now, you're doing some of those tasks, but the goal is to eventually get it to where there's more clarity, like, Val, Val, Val, Val, Val, under sales, right?
328
00:18:58.693 --> 00:19:00.474
Under operations, brother, brother, brother, brother, brother.
329
00:19:00.714 --> 00:19:02.235
Like, that's eventually the goal.
330
00:19:02.595 --> 00:19:07.438
But for now, you can just delineate what those tasks are, and then move in that direction.
331
00:19:07.658 --> 00:19:07.898
Okay.
332
00:19:08.298 --> 00:19:08.438
Yeah.
333
00:19:08.458 --> 00:19:11.659
Cause right now, like we're both out in the field still, we still do the recurring stuff.
334
00:19:11.779 --> 00:19:20.262
And, and so the other, the other thing too, is that like, we kind of took your model as far as like doing a recurring, um, in a small town of 10,000 people.
335
00:19:20.482 --> 00:19:22.323
That's been our kind of bread and butter.
336
00:19:22.903 --> 00:19:31.305
However, this is where it becomes the other thing too, is that we work with property management companies that pull us about maybe about 20 miles away from where our location's at.
337
00:19:31.565 --> 00:19:36.726
That's where like in the grand scheme of things, we're kind of thinking like, would it make sense to have satellite locations?
338
00:19:36.766 --> 00:19:42.767
Kind of like you explained, just because there are markets for us there because we know what the competition is there.
339
00:19:43.767 --> 00:19:48.828
We know what's here, but that's kind of been the challenge is that sometimes we're like, like we had one customer that...
340
00:19:49.368 --> 00:19:51.249
They didn't take no for an answer.
341
00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:59.192
We like drove up the price, you know, the commercial site and we ended up charging about 40 percent of what we would typically charge for here because of the drive time.
342
00:19:59.232 --> 00:20:01.433
And and so so we know there's a market.
343
00:20:01.633 --> 00:20:04.374
But the thing is that we kind of appreciate what the fact that you're saying that.
344
00:20:04.914 --> 00:20:06.555
you can't like jump the gun and skip steps.
345
00:20:06.595 --> 00:20:09.835
We kind of want to make sure that this is viable for us to copy here.
346
00:20:10.035 --> 00:20:16.657
You know, so right now that's the, that's the goal is to for us to try to figure out how, if in the long run, is it worth it?
347
00:20:16.717 --> 00:20:25.420
Cause now we're at like, you're honestly, you answered all our questions right now because of the, like a real estate he's looking into buying a three acre lot, you know, where he's going to build a house.
348
00:20:25.460 --> 00:20:29.101
And so we figured we can have a hub instead of our little central location here.
349
00:20:29.141 --> 00:20:31.161
And so it, a lot of stuff made sense.
350
00:20:31.321 --> 00:20:31.942
Quick question.
351
00:20:31.982 --> 00:20:33.302
How much of your revenues recurring?
352
00:20:33.522 --> 00:20:35.523
Right now, probably 95%.
353
00:20:35.723 --> 00:20:36.123
Oh, cool.
354
00:20:36.403 --> 00:20:49.006
Because the alternative, based upon your market, you could technically make him a working GM at your current location, throw the thing into profit mode, and maybe next year it does $750,000 or $780,000.
355
00:20:49.406 --> 00:20:50.327
But you don't buy more trucks.
356
00:20:50.347 --> 00:20:51.307
You don't hire more people.
357
00:20:51.387 --> 00:20:52.827
You just throw that thing into profit mode.
358
00:20:53.048 --> 00:20:57.789
And then you go start another location 30 minutes, 40 minutes away because you're the sales guy.
359
00:20:58.429 --> 00:20:59.249
That's alternative.
360
00:20:59.329 --> 00:21:03.151
And I happen to believe that many times that will make more profit.
361
00:21:03.411 --> 00:21:05.272
Then you'd be like, okay, I'm gonna be full-time sales.
362
00:21:05.532 --> 00:21:07.172
He's gonna be full-time operations manager.
363
00:21:07.212 --> 00:21:10.193
I'm gonna go get a big admin person and we're gonna go to 1.5.
364
00:21:10.454 --> 00:21:10.734
Right?
365
00:21:11.054 --> 00:21:12.054
Like, do I think that's possible?
366
00:21:12.194 --> 00:21:12.494
Yes.
367
00:21:12.834 --> 00:21:16.616
And I told you that originally, cause it's, it's gonna be in a way easier.
368
00:21:16.676 --> 00:21:17.516
Cause you're both together.
369
00:21:17.816 --> 00:21:25.859
I will also say next year you would make more profit if you just said, Hey, you're throwing this thing into profit mode and we're raising prices on 95% of our revenue by 20%.
370
00:21:25.899 --> 00:21:26.279
Right.
371
00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:31.823
And because, yeah, because we actually just raised our prices about a month ago.
372
00:21:32.304 --> 00:21:33.985
So we just did like, yeah, we did that.
373
00:21:34.085 --> 00:21:35.346
And so that was the goal.
374
00:21:35.426 --> 00:21:36.327
How much did you raise it by?
375
00:21:36.367 --> 00:21:36.968
10%?
376
00:21:37.128 --> 00:21:38.269
10% across the board.
377
00:21:38.789 --> 00:21:39.270
It just.
378
00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:40.290
We could have done more.
379
00:21:40.310 --> 00:21:41.952
We could have done more, my friend.
380
00:21:41.972 --> 00:21:42.372
You know what?
381
00:21:42.712 --> 00:21:43.853
We didn't have any pushback.
382
00:21:43.893 --> 00:21:44.474
So that's the thing.
383
00:21:44.874 --> 00:21:45.895
I'm telling you.
384
00:21:46.335 --> 00:21:49.578
Well, you know, what's funny, though, is that like from our dad.
385
00:21:49.618 --> 00:21:53.161
So we have the brand here that's been around for almost 40 years.
386
00:21:53.341 --> 00:21:54.302
So my dad got sick.
387
00:21:54.322 --> 00:21:55.183
We took over for him.
388
00:21:55.923 --> 00:22:01.188
And the issue is that, you know, like stubborn, older Mexican people like they don't like change.
389
00:22:01.268 --> 00:22:06.973
And so to kind of pull him out or push him away and not hurt his feelings, like he kind of still had some say.
390
00:22:07.033 --> 00:22:07.353
And so.
391
00:22:07.633 --> 00:22:23.023
We had never really started raising prices until maybe a couple of years ago, but now it's kind of getting to the point where like, yeah, we've just kind of put a standard on our contracts to like raising our price yearly, like no ifs, but, but the percentage is kind of like where we're trying to figure out what we can get away with and whatnot.
392
00:22:23.263 --> 00:22:23.843
More is better.
393
00:22:24.243 --> 00:22:24.824
More is better.
394
00:22:24.844 --> 00:22:25.184
My friend.
395
00:22:27.517 --> 00:22:28.118
You know what's funny?
396
00:22:28.218 --> 00:22:29.621
So I just left this turnaround, right?
397
00:22:29.821 --> 00:22:32.045
And they just raised prices last month too by 10%.
398
00:22:32.085 --> 00:22:33.607
So you know what I had them do?
399
00:22:34.168 --> 00:22:35.290
We made a video together.
400
00:22:35.531 --> 00:22:37.694
They raised the prices again by another 10%.
401
00:22:37.714 --> 00:22:39.598
Sent it to all their customers.
402
00:22:41.883 --> 00:22:46.764
Well, you know what the thing is that following you, the thing that we've learned is the math doesn't lie.
403
00:22:47.265 --> 00:22:49.025
Like, that's kind of been like the thing that's blown my mind.
404
00:22:49.045 --> 00:22:53.607
It's kind of like, you know, like when you're close minded to, oh, man, you know, I'm going to lose customers or whatever.
405
00:22:54.147 --> 00:22:57.648
Our commercial stuff, because they're a little bit more price sensitive, you know, we try to be a little more careful.
406
00:22:58.508 --> 00:23:04.490
Honestly, like here in our area, the cost of living is pretty comparable to you guys up in Pacific Northwest.
407
00:23:04.550 --> 00:23:05.791
Yeah, there's hardly any pushback.
408
00:23:05.811 --> 00:23:08.792
You know, like I kind of send a notice saying, hey, we're effective immediately.
409
00:23:09.212 --> 00:23:11.392
The QuickBooks thing, like, hey, we're going, we're raising our prices.
410
00:23:11.793 --> 00:23:12.673
I didn't give an explanation.
411
00:23:12.693 --> 00:23:13.373
This is what it is.
412
00:23:13.633 --> 00:23:14.854
And they all like accepted it.
413
00:23:14.934 --> 00:23:22.776
And they're like, all right, you know, like we understand, you know, like our, our, our general, oh no, our auto insurance just went 200 times up like percent.
414
00:23:23.057 --> 00:23:27.018
And so like, so I'm like, so, so I kind of explained to them like afterwards, like, yeah, like.
415
00:23:27.498 --> 00:23:28.999
It's this cost of living in California.
416
00:23:29.019 --> 00:23:30.680
Like, you know, we're getting priced out of being here.
417
00:23:30.801 --> 00:23:31.061
Yeah.
418
00:23:31.081 --> 00:23:36.625
So I kind of figured that we'll probably have to look into raising prices in the near future also, like just to kind of push it.
419
00:23:37.166 --> 00:23:45.909
Yeah, if you can raise prices by 15% twice over the next few years, that business will do $900,000 in annual revenue without buying more truck or having more equipment.
420
00:23:46.629 --> 00:23:46.809
Right?
421
00:23:46.829 --> 00:23:57.553
So that's why I talk so much about doing the multiple locations because, Val, you staying at that location in a way pushes it past that size of business because you're a salesperson.
422
00:23:57.853 --> 00:24:02.475
So you staying there and focusing exclusively on sales, you will need to go into the GM plus size.
423
00:24:02.895 --> 00:24:03.075
Okay.
424
00:24:03.315 --> 00:24:07.217
And that will keep many people from raising prices because you're just funneling more revenue.
425
00:24:07.458 --> 00:24:08.018
You buy more trucks.
426
00:24:08.038 --> 00:24:08.598
You hire more people.
427
00:24:08.618 --> 00:24:09.799
And you stay in this growth engine.
428
00:24:10.139 --> 00:24:12.561
So regardless of whether you do multiple locations, I don't care.
429
00:24:13.101 --> 00:24:14.562
Just raise your prices and make more money.
430
00:24:15.182 --> 00:24:19.445
And it's easier to do that when you're not also trying to grow the business.
431
00:24:19.545 --> 00:24:22.607
That's why everyone says, like, oh, I'm trying to grow and I'm trying to raise prices.
432
00:24:22.627 --> 00:24:23.267
Like, no, no, no.
433
00:24:23.547 --> 00:24:30.832
You're either raising prices in a profit mode and you're bringing down your close ratio or you're optimizing for more closes, higher close rates.
434
00:24:31.372 --> 00:24:35.235
by not raising your prices and buying more trucks and getting more equipment.
435
00:24:35.476 --> 00:24:35.756
Yeah.
436
00:24:36.016 --> 00:24:47.166
Well, and then the last thing just, um, so just so I, so we, we understand is that, so like, um, you know, and that's, we actually just had a conversation yesterday about like defining our roles a little bit more and trying to kind of have that.
437
00:24:47.246 --> 00:24:54.232
But I know that like, because we've invested in the construction aspect, we've, I mean, we went to Chicago last year just to do the aquascape training.
438
00:24:54.332 --> 00:24:56.094
I'm not as passionate about that as he is.
439
00:24:56.574 --> 00:24:59.676
And so I know that that's his kind of forte and that's what he wants to do.
440
00:25:00.096 --> 00:25:03.558
So we're both on the field, but he wants to stay in the field doing the construction part of it.
441
00:25:03.978 --> 00:25:06.260
We'll have to get like a GM though, at some point, right?
442
00:25:06.280 --> 00:25:10.802
When we're ready to kind of take over the, am I understanding that right?
443
00:25:10.822 --> 00:25:11.803
What you kind of suggested?
444
00:25:12.844 --> 00:25:17.768
The model I pitch is that the working GM is the only person that is managing.
445
00:25:18.108 --> 00:25:23.873
There's not like a secondary person unless you go higher, which is the GM plus or the full-time GM route.
446
00:25:24.273 --> 00:25:24.973
I will say this.
447
00:25:25.494 --> 00:25:27.275
95% of your revenue is recurring.
448
00:25:27.415 --> 00:25:27.596
Yeah.
449
00:25:28.156 --> 00:25:30.457
So this is a new thing you're doing, realistically.
450
00:25:30.537 --> 00:25:33.497
We've been contractors, licensed contractors for years.
451
00:25:34.037 --> 00:25:45.140
We've done projects before, but when we kind of started understanding the fact that the recurring was safer, especially with all the recession stuff and all that, we kind of doubled down on that and grew all of our recurring stuff.
452
00:25:45.380 --> 00:25:51.962
We would do on and off projects for our commercial customers, you know, so we always had stuff like that that they would call us in, doing upsells and doing all that stuff.
453
00:25:52.142 --> 00:25:57.403
But we've never really marketed into the construction part of it, but it is something that, you know, like I said,
454
00:25:58.363 --> 00:25:59.563
This is a brand new business.
455
00:25:59.863 --> 00:26:00.264
Pretty much.
456
00:26:00.604 --> 00:26:01.884
So I'm okay with doing that.
457
00:26:01.904 --> 00:26:03.424
But like, hey, I just want to enjoy life.
458
00:26:03.604 --> 00:26:06.985
And I want to scratch the itch of doing projects and aquascapes.
459
00:26:07.145 --> 00:26:07.405
Cool.
460
00:26:07.505 --> 00:26:08.605
I am not going to stand the way of that.
461
00:26:09.046 --> 00:26:10.066
But let me be very clear.
462
00:26:10.166 --> 00:26:11.266
You will make less money.
463
00:26:11.846 --> 00:26:12.926
And so I'm okay with that.
464
00:26:13.267 --> 00:26:20.408
As long as you know you are sacrificing money by taking something that's working, that's 95% of your revenue.
465
00:26:20.748 --> 00:26:23.449
And you're going to go focus on where 5% of your revenue is at.
466
00:26:23.489 --> 00:26:25.369
Actually, 0% of your revenue is from.
467
00:26:25.709 --> 00:26:26.810
You're building a new business.
468
00:26:26.970 --> 00:26:27.270
Okay.
469
00:26:27.290 --> 00:26:27.850
That makes sense.
470
00:26:28.410 --> 00:26:29.671
And I'm not against it, right?
471
00:26:29.711 --> 00:26:30.873
I want to be very clear.
472
00:26:31.033 --> 00:26:33.075
I'm just trying to think about the financial side.
473
00:26:33.095 --> 00:26:43.424
And if you have plenty of cash set aside and you feel very protected and you're like, hey, we're going to raise price on all the recurring, and then we're also going to do the project side separately because we really love it, awesome.
474
00:26:43.584 --> 00:26:45.605
There's no one that's going to build aquascapes like you.
475
00:26:45.925 --> 00:26:51.268
And finding general managers for like that down the road or replacing you in the business is going to be very, very difficult.
476
00:26:51.648 --> 00:26:58.611
And I see a lot of people build the three, four, $5 million business doing things like that and then realizing it's the golden handcuffs because no one else can replace them.
477
00:26:58.791 --> 00:27:03.513
Whereas right now, I can almost guarantee you, if you guys bailed for the weekend, your crew could probably run the maintenance.
478
00:27:03.834 --> 00:27:04.734
Pretty easily.
479
00:27:05.174 --> 00:27:09.876
And so you just raised prices by 10% of that on all your customers and no one left.
480
00:27:10.057 --> 00:27:10.717
Right, yeah.
481
00:27:11.518 --> 00:27:11.838
I know.
482
00:27:11.858 --> 00:27:13.400
We have people that say, like, we're waiting for that.
483
00:27:13.420 --> 00:27:14.762
You just pushed a button.
484
00:27:14.982 --> 00:27:17.084
You just pushed a button and you made $60,000.
485
00:27:17.444 --> 00:27:19.286
You can't do that with projects, right?
486
00:27:19.467 --> 00:27:27.014
So I would only do it if you're like, hey, I love this and I want to build this for me and for what I enjoy doing.
487
00:27:27.415 --> 00:27:30.358
And if that's the case, what I would say is let's not make it a business.
488
00:27:30.398 --> 00:27:34.002
Let's actually keep it a passion by only doing it during the offseason.
489
00:27:34.102 --> 00:27:37.285
Now, you don't have much of an off-season, but there's certainly months where it gets slower.
490
00:27:37.526 --> 00:27:42.771
And so I would give you permission to keep your crew busy using projects that organically come your way.
491
00:27:42.892 --> 00:27:44.393
So you're not spending much money on marketing.
492
00:27:44.533 --> 00:27:45.675
You're not building a new website.
493
00:27:45.855 --> 00:27:47.336
You're not retraining your team.
494
00:27:47.697 --> 00:27:51.261
You're just going to do those type of jobs when you're slow.
495
00:27:51.501 --> 00:27:51.761
Okay.
496
00:27:51.962 --> 00:27:52.462
That makes sense.
497
00:27:52.582 --> 00:27:52.762
Yeah.
498
00:27:52.923 --> 00:27:53.583
Well, that's why we're here.
499
00:27:54.004 --> 00:27:54.404
Let's go.
500
00:27:55.245 --> 00:27:55.725
Good job, man.
501
00:27:55.945 --> 00:27:56.285
Crush it.
502
00:27:56.445 --> 00:28:01.447
Real quick, before we continue with the episode, I want to introduce you to home service web design.
503
00:28:01.787 --> 00:28:10.149
If you are a home service business owner and trying to get more leads and drive more traffic to your website with great search and optimization, you'll definitely want to check it out.
504
00:28:10.489 --> 00:28:17.651
It's flat monthly fee will allow you to grow your business and most of our clients within 12 months, double the amount of lead they get from their website.
505
00:28:17.831 --> 00:28:18.231
All right.
506
00:28:18.431 --> 00:28:19.892
Next up is Bo Gowling.
507
00:28:20.712 --> 00:28:21.433
Go ahead and unmute yourself.
508
00:28:21.453 --> 00:28:22.033
There you go.
509
00:28:22.073 --> 00:28:22.934
Yeah, sounds good.
510
00:28:22.974 --> 00:28:23.754
Hey, how's it going, Mike?
511
00:28:23.814 --> 00:28:25.435
I love watching your videos.
512
00:28:25.475 --> 00:28:30.059
Unfortunately, you're my one, 2 a.m. in the morning bedtime guy, so don't take it the wrong way.
513
00:28:30.099 --> 00:28:32.000
But my mind doesn't stop.
514
00:28:32.080 --> 00:28:33.101
It's just never ends.
515
00:28:33.141 --> 00:28:35.443
I think everybody here knows what I'm talking about.
516
00:28:37.007 --> 00:28:41.948
But yeah, so my biggest thing is I've got unique situations like we all do.
517
00:28:42.008 --> 00:28:42.208
Right.
518
00:28:42.408 --> 00:28:45.269
My problem that I have a bottleneck is I have three steps.
519
00:28:45.329 --> 00:28:47.970
I need to figure out how do you transition to the next step?
520
00:28:48.150 --> 00:28:50.630
Because my father just retired, you know, air quotation.
521
00:28:50.670 --> 00:28:56.171
He wants to retire with, you know, dealing with the same thing that Val was talking about old ways versus new ways.
522
00:28:56.232 --> 00:28:58.052
So we've got, I think most of that squashed.
523
00:28:58.492 --> 00:29:05.714
My problem is, is that we're right at that stage in the last five years or so that we've grown from essentially 90,000, 80, 90,000 a year.
524
00:29:07.334 --> 00:29:10.155
to 1.4 and we're just like stuck right there.
525
00:29:10.535 --> 00:29:13.617
And the primary problem behind it is it's just two.
526
00:29:13.897 --> 00:29:15.998
It's me and Ray, my dad.
527
00:29:16.278 --> 00:29:17.918
And with the two of us, we're able to do it.
528
00:29:17.938 --> 00:29:20.419
But if I'm losing one, how am I gonna keep that momentum?
529
00:29:20.439 --> 00:29:21.840
How am I gonna keep that steam going?
530
00:29:21.900 --> 00:29:23.981
The reality is is that labor pools suck.
531
00:29:24.461 --> 00:29:26.922
And so the best way to deal with that is benefits
532
00:29:27.362 --> 00:29:30.244
things you can offer, whatever it is you can attract people to come in.
533
00:29:30.284 --> 00:29:35.887
But I mean, it's 2150 is the average in Washington state for a tech to come in.
534
00:29:36.147 --> 00:29:38.248
My problem is I say, okay, I need to bring people in.
535
00:29:38.368 --> 00:29:42.590
I need to bring them in at 1850 till I get them to 2150 worth of production.
536
00:29:42.730 --> 00:29:47.413
My margins are so thin and they're not so thin that I can't weather higher wages.
537
00:29:47.613 --> 00:29:52.856
I just have to worry about bucking the current people I have and somebody else coming in at their wage or higher.
538
00:29:53.236 --> 00:29:54.657
And now they're going to be like, well, wait a second.
539
00:29:54.677 --> 00:29:55.397
Why aren't we getting that?
540
00:29:55.577 --> 00:29:58.538
I've tried to do a multitude of facet of things.
541
00:29:58.678 --> 00:30:00.738
And how do I attract the right talent?
542
00:30:00.998 --> 00:30:02.019
How do I get the right people?
543
00:30:02.059 --> 00:30:07.560
There just isn't a age range between 25 and 40 of people that really just want to actually work.
544
00:30:07.860 --> 00:30:09.381
I'm not able to get new talent in.
545
00:30:09.401 --> 00:30:10.901
I'm not able to get people retained.
546
00:30:11.121 --> 00:30:12.461
I've wanted to offer 401k.
547
00:30:12.682 --> 00:30:14.542
I figured out how to get my system to do that.
548
00:30:14.722 --> 00:30:15.622
I'm just one person.
549
00:30:16.022 --> 00:30:18.143
And I feel like just being one person, being able to do like
550
00:30:18.483 --> 00:30:23.770
I feel like six or seven people's job isn't enough anymore to keep up the business and keep up with it.
551
00:30:24.271 --> 00:30:30.759
So I almost feel like I naturally need to contract, find some new people and then try and reintegrate back into what I'm doing.
552
00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:33.643
But I don't want to lose my 95 percent of my recurring income.
553
00:30:34.083 --> 00:30:35.204
that I have on contract.
554
00:30:35.324 --> 00:30:39.486
So if I shake the tree too hard, I can't produce the quality I've been producing.
555
00:30:39.506 --> 00:30:41.487
I'll start losing my recurring revenue.
556
00:30:41.887 --> 00:30:45.169
And if I don't shake the tree hard enough, I can't get to the next level.
557
00:30:45.189 --> 00:30:48.051
I can't get to where I'm trying to get, which I'm doing the systemizing.
558
00:30:48.111 --> 00:30:51.993
I'm doing the automating, trying to simplify and do just specific services.
559
00:30:52.013 --> 00:30:54.214
I'm trying to put parameters and frame it down.
560
00:30:54.554 --> 00:30:56.115
I'm really looking for some sort of guidance.
561
00:30:56.415 --> 00:30:58.196
But that's just one half of the business, right?
562
00:30:58.476 --> 00:30:59.696
And that's the business side I'm running.
563
00:31:00.236 --> 00:31:03.157
So the other story at the end of it is the construction side.
564
00:31:03.177 --> 00:31:06.158
We have a construction side that makes up the other part of the 1.3 mil.
565
00:31:06.458 --> 00:31:09.279
And then while there's projects going, that's doing a great job.
566
00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:15.641
But when there aren't projects going, the grounds care side is literally footing the bill to handle those jobs, get those jobs started.
567
00:31:16.021 --> 00:31:21.563
And they're in that vicious 90 to 180 cycle of payment, you know, because of prevailing wage and all these other things.
568
00:31:21.583 --> 00:31:21.803
Right.
569
00:31:22.063 --> 00:31:22.843
So I'm really in like
570
00:31:23.303 --> 00:31:25.504
Three vortex is spiraling each other.
571
00:31:25.744 --> 00:31:28.045
Which one's going to take us down the hole first, right?
572
00:31:28.285 --> 00:31:29.105
Prices there.
573
00:31:29.506 --> 00:31:32.607
I'm making 35% bare minimum on everything I do.
574
00:31:32.627 --> 00:31:33.527
That's my margin.
575
00:31:33.547 --> 00:31:34.988
I don't try and target 10, 20, 30.
576
00:31:35.508 --> 00:31:38.029
I do 35% on everything I buy and I supply.
577
00:31:38.049 --> 00:31:44.572
I try to make sure that all of my wages that I make, I'm making three and a half times, whatever my wage cost is for every job I do.
578
00:31:44.972 --> 00:31:46.753
So that's my parameters and I try to run on.
579
00:31:46.793 --> 00:31:50.695
So if it costs me $40 in labor, then it's 40 times 3.5.
580
00:31:50.715 --> 00:31:52.415
That's what my pricing is on the job is right.
581
00:31:52.435 --> 00:32:03.740
And so that gives for, you know, the one for paying the person not out of my pocket, one for going in my pocket for profit and the other for fudge factor issues, problems have to give a discount because something gets damaged, whatever.
582
00:32:04.081 --> 00:32:06.702
It's all factored into the math, you know, because the math doesn't lie.
583
00:32:07.542 --> 00:32:07.722
Cool.
584
00:32:08.182 --> 00:32:15.546
So first off, I think just by the way, if you wanted me to drop by, feel free to reach out for a turnaround show because I think we're going to be in your area next month.
585
00:32:15.766 --> 00:32:16.407
I will say this.
586
00:32:16.687 --> 00:32:19.709
You have a very inefficient labor source right now.
587
00:32:20.109 --> 00:32:31.675
The reason I know that is because the amount of revenue you're producing minus materials is probably about $70,000 to $80,000 per year per employee once you take out materials and you just look at direct labor.
588
00:32:31.955 --> 00:32:40.846
And so I don't think it's a pricing problem because you said you're charging essentially about 25% to 30% of every dollar you make is going to direct labor.
589
00:32:41.086 --> 00:32:48.195
But that can get completely skewed if only 50% of their day is actually producing revenue.
590
00:32:48.215 --> 00:32:48.336
Right.
591
00:32:49.436 --> 00:32:56.561
And so I would be looking very heavily at your budget hours versus your actual hours and tracking that.
592
00:32:56.581 --> 00:32:57.782
Do you track budget hours right now?
593
00:32:57.802 --> 00:32:59.203
I know commercial is more difficult.
594
00:32:59.363 --> 00:33:01.585
Budget hours, we are targeting that and doing that.
595
00:33:01.665 --> 00:33:09.010
I actually started using a software called Connect Team to try to help us track that, the clocking in and clocking out and getting people used to that here recently.
596
00:33:09.410 --> 00:33:11.572
Do you know what your efficiency score is by chance, Bo?
597
00:33:12.292 --> 00:33:14.694
So I don't have the efficiency score set up.
598
00:33:14.754 --> 00:33:16.215
I do have your book here, actually.
599
00:33:16.235 --> 00:33:16.796
You're good.
600
00:33:16.816 --> 00:33:17.016
Yeah.
601
00:33:18.159 --> 00:33:20.406
I got all of your books here, actually.
602
00:33:20.426 --> 00:33:20.828
So...
603
00:33:21.790 --> 00:33:22.030
Yeah.
604
00:33:22.110 --> 00:33:24.231
The thing that I would be tracking is efficiency score.
605
00:33:24.271 --> 00:33:34.335
The reason for that is because just based upon the math, if you're charging that per hour and you have that many employees, we should be doing more revenue, especially because you have materials on the construction side.
606
00:33:34.596 --> 00:33:37.877
I would imagine you have about 55 to 60% efficiency score.
607
00:33:38.057 --> 00:33:41.799
If I had to just quickly do the math in my brain, I would imagine that's what you're at.
608
00:33:42.339 --> 00:33:48.422
And for doing commercial maintenance, I see those companies being over 90 pretty frequently because you're not stopping 20
609
00:33:51.803 --> 00:33:52.043
Right.
610
00:33:52.283 --> 00:33:54.264
And so I would first track that.
611
00:33:54.704 --> 00:33:55.705
And then I would the second.
612
00:33:55.745 --> 00:34:01.587
So I'll asterisk this second, more important thing is the stance on the team.
613
00:34:01.827 --> 00:34:07.009
I do believe the way we talk about the team and we say words mean something.
614
00:34:07.609 --> 00:34:08.809
And I agree.
615
00:34:09.049 --> 00:34:11.230
It can seem like there's no one out there.
616
00:34:11.550 --> 00:34:12.731
The fact is there are.
617
00:34:13.251 --> 00:34:14.612
It's just a matter of they're not coming to you.
618
00:34:14.752 --> 00:34:20.156
So the question becomes, so we can control this, what do we need to do to become the place they want to work?
619
00:34:20.336 --> 00:34:23.298
And so the immediate thing that all of us think of is money.
620
00:34:23.678 --> 00:34:24.799
And yes, that's the easy thing.
621
00:34:24.819 --> 00:34:27.180
It's not kind of like money when it comes to price for the customers.
622
00:34:27.200 --> 00:34:29.401
Like, yes, if you move price, it's going to adjust.
623
00:34:29.622 --> 00:34:36.366
If you move how much you pay the team, it is going to change the type and the quality of person you're attracting.
624
00:34:36.726 --> 00:34:48.350
So if we could somehow fix magically the efficiency and the profitability of the business, yes, we would be able to afford now $24 or $25 an hour and probably attract a different candidate in the labor pool.
625
00:34:48.890 --> 00:34:52.751
The other side of it is even if you offered $24 or $25 an hour, would people want to work there?
626
00:34:55.092 --> 00:35:03.998
And this is the intangible part that becomes very difficult to detach from all of us personally is do people want to work for you?
627
00:35:04.399 --> 00:35:14.206
Now, we will always clam onto the people that have worked for us for 10, 15 years, myself included, and we'll say, oh, because those people stuck with me, therefore I have the skill of a leader.
628
00:35:14.906 --> 00:35:25.556
When in reality, that person might stick with you because they like it the way it's always been and they somehow jive with you, but they're not like 95% of other people that might not.
629
00:35:25.736 --> 00:35:40.310
And so sometimes it does mean adjusting our skill set as a leader and our temperament, the way that we are with the team and the way that we communicate with them to be able to attract a new, quote unquote, new generation of workers that we have to adjust to.
630
00:35:40.570 --> 00:35:48.593
I will say, once you figure out budget hours and efficiency score, that's where the money side gets solved, because you can now incentivize higher efficiency.
631
00:35:48.813 --> 00:35:59.256
Whether you do pay for performance, as I call it, or you simply just say, we are tracking budget hours versus clocked hours, and if your efficiency score at the end of the pay period is over this, you get this amount.
632
00:35:59.717 --> 00:36:01.117
If it's under this, you get this amount.
633
00:36:01.477 --> 00:36:02.838
And you can create tiered structure.
634
00:36:03.058 --> 00:36:08.880
So that way the people who have been using for a long time, if they're so efficient and so good, and so awesome at their job, they can make more.
635
00:36:09.500 --> 00:36:15.726
If someone new coming in is also incredible, has tons of skill, they don't have to feel bad because everyone knows what the pay scale is.
636
00:36:15.966 --> 00:36:17.788
And it's a percentage of how quickly am I moving?
637
00:36:17.828 --> 00:36:19.890
How efficient am I without getting yellow slips?
638
00:36:20.130 --> 00:36:21.191
Callbacks.
639
00:36:21.251 --> 00:36:22.853
So I would really push in that direction.
640
00:36:22.873 --> 00:36:24.054
Like what can we control?
641
00:36:24.134 --> 00:36:25.676
We can control paying them more.
642
00:36:26.036 --> 00:36:26.977
How do we pay them more?
643
00:36:27.217 --> 00:36:28.699
We do it based upon how efficient they are.
644
00:36:29.019 --> 00:36:31.121
How do I make sure that I can actually know how efficient they are?
645
00:36:31.181 --> 00:36:34.144
I got to figure out budget hours and clocked hours in every single site.
646
00:36:34.324 --> 00:36:35.625
And I think you're really close to that.
647
00:36:35.825 --> 00:36:38.947
It's just a function of probably doing a little bit of math and spreadsheet work.
648
00:36:39.327 --> 00:36:53.775
And if you do it on the back end, Bo, without even telling them, I can guarantee you, you will very quickly, it'll probably just reconfirm the thing you already, the suspicions you have in your brain of which crew members are crushing it and which ones are like doing half as much revenue as the others.
649
00:36:54.035 --> 00:36:54.235
Right.
650
00:36:54.456 --> 00:36:54.696
Okay.
651
00:36:54.816 --> 00:36:55.516
No, I appreciate that.
652
00:36:55.596 --> 00:37:00.439
I actually created a tool called Total Cost of Labor versus Total Cost of Value.
653
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:03.781
And so I actually have a tool that we've been using to track that so when we take the
654
00:37:04.221 --> 00:37:05.964
amount of time, what the person's paid.
655
00:37:05.984 --> 00:37:10.991
And then we actually look at what the bill is versus what we actually can absorb and allow for.
656
00:37:11.111 --> 00:37:13.114
And so we actually do all of our billing that way now.
657
00:37:13.234 --> 00:37:13.414
So.
658
00:37:13.818 --> 00:37:16.900
So while I'm tracking efficiency, it's only done when we're creating the bill.
659
00:37:16.920 --> 00:37:21.044
That's why for now it's hard to track that because I don't know if you're familiar with that.
660
00:37:21.064 --> 00:37:22.525
We use Sage 50 software.
661
00:37:22.585 --> 00:37:23.606
It's a double entry system.
662
00:37:23.686 --> 00:37:29.310
It is extremely cumbersome and issue prone, but it's backable and defensible in court better than QuickBooks is.
663
00:37:29.771 --> 00:37:35.355
And since we have a multitude of pay scales that go from prevailing wage, non prevailing wage, we have to use that instead.
664
00:37:35.775 --> 00:37:38.077
So it makes it very difficult because it doesn't schedule anything.
665
00:37:38.097 --> 00:37:42.721
So we have an outside scheduler and then so we have a disjointed set of working systems that
666
00:37:43.021 --> 00:37:48.523
make it very hard to pull the correct efficiency out, except simply like you say, budgeted hours versus the actual hours done.
667
00:37:48.623 --> 00:37:55.265
So how much how much of your revenue percentage wise does prevailing wage play play into it?
668
00:37:55.825 --> 00:38:00.887
So I would say on the construction side, it's approximately 70 percent of what construction brings in.
669
00:38:01.407 --> 00:38:03.828
Overall, the years tip one way to the other.
670
00:38:04.008 --> 00:38:04.788
Usually it's a.
671
00:38:05.268 --> 00:38:13.072
In the years when it's heavier on construction, it would be like 60% of all of our revenue is construction and then 40% of it would be like contract revenue.
672
00:38:13.112 --> 00:38:16.834
But that's when we have 600 to 700,000 coming in just from construction.
673
00:38:17.295 --> 00:38:20.577
But we've had years where only 300,000 came in from construction, then it was more 50-50.
674
00:38:21.657 --> 00:38:26.000
And then of that 50%, probably 80% of it was prevailing wage.
675
00:38:26.220 --> 00:38:28.441
A lot of it, the prevailing wage is actually minimum wage.
676
00:38:28.501 --> 00:38:30.483
And our guys make more than minimum wage already.
677
00:38:31.003 --> 00:38:41.750
So it all depends if it's, you know, I got an Indian reservation or it just depends on what construction we're doing, because we do a very unique installation of basically playground structures that is done
678
00:38:42.344 --> 00:38:46.546
essentially nationwide and we're all we're certified Ray and myself are CPSI certified.
679
00:38:47.086 --> 00:38:53.870
And so therefore we get reached out by the producers of the playgrounds to come in and actually install it being certified and doing all that already.
680
00:38:53.890 --> 00:38:54.930
We've been doing that since 2005.
681
00:38:54.970 --> 00:38:55.070
So
682
00:38:56.718 --> 00:39:01.179
Yeah, so you already sound like you're tracking up numbers if you're doing it billing.
683
00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:02.800
It's not necessarily a bad thing.
684
00:39:02.820 --> 00:39:03.780
You could do this.
685
00:39:03.960 --> 00:39:13.762
I'm not a huge fan of this, but you could do where their pay scale changes monthly or quarterly based upon their last month or quarter of performance.
686
00:39:14.303 --> 00:39:15.523
I like it being immediate.
687
00:39:15.543 --> 00:39:17.663
That's why we do budget hours, which is actually on every visit.
688
00:39:18.003 --> 00:39:19.584
But if you're doing large projects...
689
00:39:20.144 --> 00:39:24.526
like it's very difficult to do it to your point because you're doing at the end of a big project.
690
00:39:24.566 --> 00:39:25.966
So you could do that.
691
00:39:26.546 --> 00:39:29.748
I have seen some large construction companies using P4P to do this.
692
00:39:30.108 --> 00:39:33.289
And that is essentially, they just track it all at the end of the job.
693
00:39:33.709 --> 00:39:35.190
They say, okay, great, that's done.
694
00:39:35.630 --> 00:39:42.232
And the quarter, we look at your entire quarter performance and next quarter, your pay scale is based upon that performance.
695
00:39:42.632 --> 00:39:44.833
So that might be an easier method for you as well.
696
00:39:45.053 --> 00:39:45.673
Okay, perfect.
697
00:39:45.693 --> 00:39:46.834
That sounds like a good opportunity.
698
00:39:46.854 --> 00:39:47.174
Thank you.
699
00:39:47.454 --> 00:39:47.975
Chris is up.
700
00:39:48.215 --> 00:39:50.197
Little background, Emerald Edge lawns.
701
00:39:50.237 --> 00:39:52.820
We just do lawn treatments, lawn fertilizations.
702
00:39:52.860 --> 00:39:55.423
We control aerational obesity and that kind of stuff.
703
00:39:55.583 --> 00:39:59.428
In 23, going to 24, we went from a single operator to a GM model.
704
00:39:59.648 --> 00:40:00.549
Brought on an employee.
705
00:40:00.709 --> 00:40:01.630
She was a great employee.
706
00:40:01.650 --> 00:40:02.972
She's a great lawn care technician.
707
00:40:02.992 --> 00:40:04.013
Had some background on her.
708
00:40:04.653 --> 00:40:07.617
She worked for us through almost to the end of the season.
709
00:40:08.157 --> 00:40:14.660
At the end of the season, she took a job as a union electrician, which was her background 10 years previous before she got in some trouble legally.
710
00:40:15.941 --> 00:40:18.502
So can't blame her for having to take on a better position.
711
00:40:18.902 --> 00:40:20.903
So going in and we had a great year in 24.
712
00:40:21.443 --> 00:40:25.425
Going in 25, we had a bad hire in the spring and it really wrecked us.
713
00:40:25.545 --> 00:40:27.126
We had about two, two and a half months.
714
00:40:27.446 --> 00:40:30.407
Finally had to let that employee go after he couldn't pass the pesticide test.
715
00:40:30.967 --> 00:40:33.028
Went for another two months looking for somebody, couldn't find anybody.
716
00:40:33.388 --> 00:40:34.529
Finally found somebody in August.
717
00:40:35.109 --> 00:40:36.411
Our season ends in November.
718
00:40:36.991 --> 00:40:39.734
So the last three or four months, this technician was great.
719
00:40:39.994 --> 00:40:41.376
He came with no experience.
720
00:40:41.977 --> 00:40:43.939
He was a roofer gutter guy.
721
00:40:43.959 --> 00:40:45.541
So he used to work outdoors.
722
00:40:45.881 --> 00:40:47.162
But came on, he was great.
723
00:40:47.623 --> 00:40:52.548
So labor has always been our, as we've grown, labor has always been our hangup.
724
00:40:53.049 --> 00:40:54.771
Attracting it, Chris, or retaining it?
725
00:40:55.111 --> 00:40:55.732
Which of the two?
726
00:40:57.082 --> 00:40:58.363
So first, attracting.
727
00:40:58.463 --> 00:41:07.091
So kind of my first question is, whenever we advertise, our compensation is on point, if not a little bit more premium than when we do.
728
00:41:07.111 --> 00:41:13.237
So taking compensation out of it, what's the biggest factor it actually determines to get high-quality technician supply in the first place?
729
00:41:13.837 --> 00:41:18.938
So we get indeed ads, we'll get 40, 50, 60 responses, and really almost nobody's qualified.
730
00:41:19.359 --> 00:41:22.699
I think I did 30 or 40 interviews, in-person interviews last year.
731
00:41:23.460 --> 00:41:42.165
I took some of your advice about pre-qualifying them, and even pre-qualifying, we were getting nothing of any kind of value, of any kind of experience, or really the gentleman I did hire was kind of the, he was reliable, great guy, just did not have the smarts to pass the pesticide test, the state test.
732
00:41:42.525 --> 00:41:42.765
Right.
733
00:41:42.865 --> 00:41:49.867
So you're saying you're, you're, you're getting a whole bunch of applications and they're not even, this is honestly probably a job.
734
00:41:49.907 --> 00:41:51.407
I mean, we're worried about them driving my trucks.
735
00:41:51.487 --> 00:41:57.408
Like the people I came out interviewed showing up and beat up pieces of, of, you know, equipment, you know, and their vehicles.
736
00:41:57.428 --> 00:42:02.729
You know, sometimes they say, you know, if you want to know how a guy's going to take care of your piece of equipment, look at his personal piece of equipment.
737
00:42:03.009 --> 00:42:06.790
If you want to know how he's going to take care of his, your yards, how's he take care of his yards?
738
00:42:07.410 --> 00:42:11.931
You know, these were, these are some rough characters that we were able to even get applications from.
739
00:42:12.972 --> 00:42:25.230
So I do think there's a job ad problem with the actual job posting, mostly because there's no reason someone apply if it's clear that you are not going to be hired if you don't have a pesticide license.
740
00:42:26.057 --> 00:42:28.619
Now, I'm assuming, though, correct me if I'm wrong here, Chris.
741
00:42:28.939 --> 00:42:32.121
Did you essentially put that as a preferred thing eventually?
742
00:42:32.501 --> 00:42:32.861
Oh, no.
743
00:42:33.301 --> 00:42:34.782
First 90 days, you have to be licensed.
744
00:42:34.962 --> 00:42:39.405
If you don't have existing license, first 90 days on the ad, you have to get licensed within the first 90 days.
745
00:42:39.845 --> 00:42:40.586
Got it.
746
00:42:41.166 --> 00:42:43.067
That's why the other gentleman lasted three months.
747
00:42:43.347 --> 00:42:44.288
Yeah.
748
00:42:44.328 --> 00:42:46.949
The first time he missed 30 questions.
749
00:42:47.690 --> 00:42:49.351
The first time he took a test, he missed 34.
750
00:42:49.411 --> 00:42:51.072
I told him, take it again.
751
00:42:51.112 --> 00:42:51.752
Take it again right away.
752
00:42:51.772 --> 00:42:53.013
You just know what the test was.
753
00:42:53.653 --> 00:42:59.577
take the study material, do the Zoom meeting again, go through the four-hour online thing, take test weekend.
754
00:42:59.597 --> 00:43:00.618
Well, he dragged on, dragged on.
755
00:43:00.678 --> 00:43:02.819
And I finally went like, Brad, you got to pass it this week.
756
00:43:02.839 --> 00:43:04.040
You got to take it online now.
757
00:43:04.621 --> 00:43:05.961
And he missed like 42 questions.
758
00:43:05.981 --> 00:43:07.102
He got worse the second time.
759
00:43:07.122 --> 00:43:07.503
Oh, man.
760
00:43:07.523 --> 00:43:10.845
And I'm like, hey, you know, your 90 days is Thursday.
761
00:43:10.925 --> 00:43:12.266
I'll keep you on a week after that.
762
00:43:12.286 --> 00:43:13.787
So I actually came a little bit longer.
763
00:43:14.547 --> 00:43:18.991
You're going to have to find something, you know, a week from Friday, 10 days from now is you're going to be a last day.
764
00:43:19.132 --> 00:43:22.855
So to get the 50 or 60 applications, how much did you spend on Indeed?
765
00:43:23.115 --> 00:43:24.417
Maybe 200 bucks, 300 bucks.
766
00:43:24.797 --> 00:43:25.037
Yeah.
767
00:43:25.057 --> 00:43:28.300
So right now you're, let's call it cost per lead for a minute, right?
768
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:29.582
Your cost per lead is about three bucks.
769
00:43:30.022 --> 00:43:33.625
I want that to be 50, but we're going to reduce the amount of people getting through.
770
00:43:33.926 --> 00:43:40.672
What you have done is the equivalent of putting out a Facebook ad that says like, hey, I will give your first lawn for free lawn service for free.
771
00:43:40.932 --> 00:43:43.755
Yeah, you get a ton of customers, not great candidates.
772
00:43:43.915 --> 00:43:45.056
They're all customers.
773
00:43:45.076 --> 00:43:45.897
Yeah, exactly.
774
00:43:46.017 --> 00:43:46.277
Right.
775
00:43:46.697 --> 00:43:48.779
And the same thing is happening right on your job ad.
776
00:43:49.060 --> 00:43:52.022
And so when you're spending three to five dollars.
777
00:43:52.723 --> 00:43:57.104
per quote lead applicant from Indeed, I almost can guarantee they're not gonna be good quality.
778
00:43:57.504 --> 00:44:04.426
The same way if I told you if you're in three to $5 customer acquisition cost, cost per lead, you'd be like, probably not great quality.
779
00:44:04.986 --> 00:44:06.367
I can assume that with Indeed.
780
00:44:06.747 --> 00:44:12.668
And so what I would do, Chris, is make it much more stringent in terms of your requirements.
781
00:44:13.128 --> 00:44:16.089
It's not like a recommendation, it's not within the, you're required to have it.
782
00:44:16.549 --> 00:44:19.410
And if you really want to, you've required to have it for the past year.
783
00:44:20.010 --> 00:44:22.872
Now, is that going to reduce 95% of people?
784
00:44:22.932 --> 00:44:23.232
Yes.
785
00:44:23.652 --> 00:44:26.014
So let's assume then that we have to pay 20 times as much.
786
00:44:26.774 --> 00:44:30.216
20 times $5 is what?
787
00:44:30.236 --> 00:44:30.517
$200?
788
00:44:30.557 --> 00:44:32.698
$100 cost per lead.
789
00:44:33.018 --> 00:44:34.099
That's where I'd be looking.
790
00:44:34.199 --> 00:44:37.041
And I will also say this, Chris.
791
00:44:37.481 --> 00:44:48.348
If labor is the actual problem of the business and getting 60 candidates cost us $200, I would just be asking, is it worth $2,000 to solve this problem?
792
00:44:48.368 --> 00:44:48.488
Right.
793
00:44:48.508 --> 00:44:49.389
And the answer is yes.
794
00:44:49.969 --> 00:45:02.521
And I believe that if you would increase the requirements on the application and then you spent $500 to $1,000 and you increase the cost per applicant to $100 or $150 or $200, you'd get better quality candidates to work with.
795
00:45:03.101 --> 00:45:05.924
And then you'd feel better about interviewing them, et cetera.
796
00:45:06.364 --> 00:45:08.806
So how's that increasing the cost per lead on Indeed?
797
00:45:09.046 --> 00:45:13.190
Does that then need less recruiting or just gets in front of more people?
798
00:45:13.830 --> 00:45:14.951
You just make a requirement.
799
00:45:15.011 --> 00:45:19.415
So like when they do the job ad, in the job ad I'm saying like you are required.
800
00:45:19.715 --> 00:45:25.000
But also I'm making it where they have to actually answer a question that says, how many years have you been passing the license?
801
00:45:25.020 --> 00:45:26.981
And if it's not above one, I don't even see it.
802
00:45:27.001 --> 00:45:27.862
It gets screened out.
803
00:45:28.343 --> 00:45:28.463
Okay.
804
00:45:28.503 --> 00:45:28.643
Okay.
805
00:45:29.043 --> 00:45:33.587
And so right now by saying, Hey, you have to get, get applications license within 90 days.
806
00:45:33.827 --> 00:45:35.588
What you're saying is I will teach you anything.
807
00:45:35.728 --> 00:45:36.949
Just be green and show up.
808
00:45:37.289 --> 00:45:38.010
That's what they hear.
809
00:45:38.290 --> 00:45:41.352
And that's why you get all kind of like the everything the same way.
810
00:45:41.372 --> 00:45:46.756
If you said, put a customer's ad out there and said, it's a dollar 99 cents for your mowing service.
811
00:45:46.996 --> 00:45:48.157
You'd get a bunch of customers.
812
00:45:48.578 --> 00:45:54.002
So along those similar lines is the one good employee that we did have left for a union electrician job.
813
00:45:54.022 --> 00:45:54.482
I mean, right.
814
00:45:54.942 --> 00:45:57.883
you know, pension and everything that the green industry has not set up yet.
815
00:45:58.103 --> 00:46:01.424
That would be nice someday if we could actually figure that out and get that one.
816
00:46:02.545 --> 00:46:09.467
So what's one recruiting retention lever completely unrelated to compensation that you think the green industry is underestimating?
817
00:46:09.827 --> 00:46:16.169
So outside of compensation, what are we missing out on in the industry to keep our people in our companies?
818
00:46:16.409 --> 00:46:17.370
a ladder to move up.
819
00:46:17.711 --> 00:46:20.854
So like the stages of success inside of the book is the key.
820
00:46:21.234 --> 00:46:24.458
And that is, you think about why do I stay at a job?
821
00:46:24.518 --> 00:46:34.729
I either want to make money today to provide for my family, think hourly wages, or I'm trying to move up in the role and I'm willing to take a lower paying job for now, but I have a place I'm going.
822
00:46:35.030 --> 00:46:36.852
And so I'm willing to hold my breath a little longer.
823
00:46:37.492 --> 00:46:44.775
I give the example of the seven stages in the book, but I would take out to every business, take those as a starting point, and then just go make your own.
824
00:46:44.975 --> 00:46:45.975
What are the seven stages?
825
00:46:46.676 --> 00:46:47.816
Do you want to tie comp to it?
826
00:46:47.956 --> 00:46:48.376
Maybe.
827
00:46:48.676 --> 00:46:49.176
We don't.
828
00:46:49.597 --> 00:46:50.657
We just give them a certificate.
829
00:46:50.677 --> 00:46:51.477
We clap it up.
830
00:46:51.797 --> 00:46:52.638
We take a picture.
831
00:46:52.658 --> 00:46:54.799
We put it on social media, and we tag them.
832
00:46:55.039 --> 00:46:58.180
That, to most people, is the non-compensation that they're living for.
833
00:46:58.820 --> 00:47:04.248
Because no one else has ever tagged them on their social media in a business setting with them in their uniform.
834
00:47:04.388 --> 00:47:05.790
All their friends are going to like it.
835
00:47:05.830 --> 00:47:06.571
They're going to share it.
836
00:47:06.591 --> 00:47:07.873
They get pride around it.
837
00:47:08.113 --> 00:47:14.422
And now they get known as the person who works at XYZ Lawn Care Business, and they don't want to split with that brand.
838
00:47:14.662 --> 00:47:21.124
And so now you've created social hooks and you've created a culture where people want to stay and they want to grow inside the organization.
839
00:47:21.144 --> 00:47:26.665
And then all the pride and I'm a stage one tech, I'm a stage two tech, I'm a stage five tech, I'm a stage seven tech.
840
00:47:26.785 --> 00:47:30.747
Oh, I unlocked a one time vacation for me and someone else to go to Mexico.
841
00:47:31.027 --> 00:47:36.308
That doesn't cost you like maybe two grand, but that stage seven tech might take two years to get there.
842
00:47:36.608 --> 00:47:42.550
But now you start putting on your wall pictures of all the families that have gone to Mexico because they hit stage seven.
843
00:47:42.830 --> 00:47:43.310
Yeah.
844
00:47:43.350 --> 00:47:45.651
And we're already talking about a return bonus.
845
00:47:45.671 --> 00:47:53.092
I think that's one thing we kind of talked about some other things seasonal is, you know, bringing people back and spending $1,500, $2,000 as a return bonus, you know, on that.
846
00:47:53.112 --> 00:47:54.493
So there's that kind of thing.
847
00:47:54.933 --> 00:48:03.015
So last thing, kind of similar with all this kind of stuff, you've been out with a lot of other service industries, not only the green industry, but, you know, HVAC and things like that.
848
00:48:03.495 --> 00:48:06.996
Where do loan companies lose the best candidates and our employees?
849
00:48:07.136 --> 00:48:12.057
Like along those same kind of lines of the retention, where you see that we lose them that other industries don't?
850
00:48:12.692 --> 00:48:17.337
Most of those two things, either money today or promise a future tomorrow.
851
00:48:17.678 --> 00:48:28.270
So if we can do that, which is we have higher margins and we use pay for performance to pay them more today, and then we give them a ladder and a place to move up into in the future, that's how we can retain them.
852
00:48:28.510 --> 00:48:28.791
Thank you.
853
00:48:29.111 --> 00:48:29.611
You got it.
854
00:48:29.672 --> 00:48:30.012
Hey, everyone.
855
00:48:30.052 --> 00:48:40.480
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 on how hard they're working.
856
00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:49.387
If this is something you're interested in, this is the perfect time of year during the offseason to be able to figure out the software that makes this possible automatically.
857
00:48:49.687 --> 00:48:57.473
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.
858
00:48:58.113 --> 00:48:58.674
So go check it out.
859
00:48:58.774 --> 00:48:59.875
P4P software.com.
860
00:48:59.895 --> 00:49:01.297
The first 30 days are completely free.
861
00:49:01.737 --> 00:49:03.519
So you can make sure it's working for your business.
862
00:49:03.699 --> 00:49:08.544
Set up a call with Layel, our support system here to be able to make sure it's implemented in your business correctly.
863
00:49:08.724 --> 00:49:09.986
Last but not least.
864
00:49:10.526 --> 00:49:10.826
Hey, Mike.
865
00:49:11.387 --> 00:49:11.707
Yeah.
866
00:49:11.727 --> 00:49:17.233
So we're kind of in a I guess I'm curious if we're in two different stages at once sometimes.
867
00:49:17.413 --> 00:49:20.797
So our winter side is so unpredictable being in Alaska.
868
00:49:21.277 --> 00:49:24.963
It's much lower on the income, but it's also much lower on expenses.
869
00:49:25.183 --> 00:49:28.849
So it's actually more profitable by percentages, but it's just much less money.
870
00:49:29.189 --> 00:49:30.872
And so I do 90% of the work.
871
00:49:31.393 --> 00:49:33.236
So I'm definitely working GM on that side.
872
00:49:33.656 --> 00:49:36.721
Vice versa, in the summertime, we are, I think,
873
00:49:37.297 --> 00:49:42.741
well set up in almost a 90 recurring service for lawn care.
874
00:49:43.302 --> 00:49:47.585
And it kind of, we're almost in a full-time GM situation there.
875
00:49:47.765 --> 00:49:51.508
And so I'm curious if I need to kind of like where we're at.
876
00:49:51.708 --> 00:49:58.493
I want to grow both sides just a little bit more before I full go into full profit mode and then start expanding.
877
00:49:58.573 --> 00:50:02.857
Cause we're also in like a village setup where every 20 miles you have like a little
878
00:50:03.457 --> 00:50:03.878
center.
879
00:50:03.918 --> 00:50:05.359
So it's perfect for this model.
880
00:50:05.899 --> 00:50:09.922
It's just hard because we get so many calls from these people that are like, well, you're just 20 minutes away.
881
00:50:09.962 --> 00:50:12.143
It's like, that's forever now.
882
00:50:12.724 --> 00:50:21.270
So I guess I'm curious, is it okay to start thinking about a next location that's pretty close while we're in this kind of dual process?
883
00:50:21.990 --> 00:50:22.551
If that makes sense.
884
00:50:22.591 --> 00:50:25.074
So in the winter side, I guess I want to expand on that.
885
00:50:25.455 --> 00:50:29.941
The guy that helps me is who I would use as a GM at one of the two locations.
886
00:50:30.001 --> 00:50:34.787
So we would both essentially have a working GM mode for each locations in the wintertime.
887
00:50:35.107 --> 00:50:35.888
And then vice versa.
888
00:50:35.908 --> 00:50:39.333
In the summer, he would run the one and I would be growing the second.
889
00:50:39.433 --> 00:50:41.454
My first question is, what's your service during the winter?
890
00:50:41.494 --> 00:50:41.994
Is it snow?
891
00:50:42.014 --> 00:50:42.814
90%.
892
00:50:42.854 --> 00:50:43.414
Yeah.
893
00:50:43.454 --> 00:50:48.296
We are going to expand into Christmas lights per your suggestion on our last one, but we were a little late to it this season.
894
00:50:48.376 --> 00:50:48.696
You're good.
895
00:50:49.096 --> 00:50:49.576
Yeah.
896
00:50:49.636 --> 00:50:56.338
So I think the main thing I'd be thinking about is making sure that there is no quarter of the year where you lose money.
897
00:50:56.739 --> 00:51:01.400
So when we talk about profit mode, the subtones of that is that I have solved the off-season.
898
00:51:01.540 --> 00:51:12.324
I would put every marketing dollar possible, assuming your CAC isn't incredibly higher than your summer, into making sure that the revenue during the slower season is increased.
899
00:51:12.464 --> 00:51:16.465
And just so I'm clear, Reggie, is it the summer that's actually your slow season?
900
00:51:16.485 --> 00:51:17.585
Is that correct, like the mowing side?
901
00:51:18.085 --> 00:51:20.506
No, the summer is a lot more money.
902
00:51:20.546 --> 00:51:22.787
It's just, I guess, less profit percentage-wise.
903
00:51:23.227 --> 00:51:23.607
Got it.
904
00:51:23.708 --> 00:51:23.928
Okay.
905
00:51:24.188 --> 00:51:25.129
So I'd be doing two things.
906
00:51:25.289 --> 00:51:32.256
One, I'd be trying to increase the revenue during your snow season, mostly because you have capacity for it.
907
00:51:32.296 --> 00:51:33.597
You're way below capacity.
908
00:51:33.857 --> 00:51:48.111
And then on the other side, when you have the peak and the spike in all the leads coming in and the revenue for the mowing side, that's where I would be looking at going into quote unquote profit mode on those because I don't want to extend capacity to the height of summer.
909
00:51:48.351 --> 00:51:56.096
I want you to be able to bring that capacity down and not need so much excess capacity during the winter when those all those trucks aren't being deployed.
910
00:51:56.356 --> 00:51:56.697
Makes sense.
911
00:51:56.997 --> 00:51:57.157
Yeah.
912
00:51:57.177 --> 00:52:05.723
So like there are there are times when you have these big swings like you guys do in Alaska where I will say, hey, we actually want to raise prices only on this one service.
913
00:52:06.143 --> 00:52:12.446
Because if we don't, it's going to run away and drive all of our asset capacity higher by buying more trucks, hiring more people.
914
00:52:12.786 --> 00:52:14.346
And now what you just said happens.
915
00:52:14.566 --> 00:52:18.128
You're like, I literally need all hands on deck on this during six months of the year.
916
00:52:18.488 --> 00:52:19.748
It's very difficult to scale that.
917
00:52:19.869 --> 00:52:25.511
It might work for two locations, but you'll never do three because now you're bouncing between three locations trying to do sales during the busy season.
918
00:52:27.192 --> 00:52:32.795
I would really recommend actually bringing capacity down during the summer by raising prices.
919
00:52:33.336 --> 00:52:34.817
And that will do two things.
920
00:52:34.837 --> 00:52:38.359
One, you'll make more profit because you'll raise prices on the services during the business time.
921
00:52:38.920 --> 00:52:43.903
Two, it'll bring your capacity down so you have less excess capacity during the winter.
922
00:52:44.223 --> 00:52:44.443
Okay.
923
00:52:44.603 --> 00:52:48.186
And just to be clear, we're using three trucks in the summer and two trucks in the winter.
924
00:52:48.246 --> 00:52:53.049
So is that still fitting in that or is that maybe not as bad as what you were thinking in your mind?
925
00:52:53.269 --> 00:52:54.731
What's your total annual revenue, Reggie?
926
00:52:55.452 --> 00:52:58.235
I think this week about $6.00 to $6.50.
927
00:52:58.475 --> 00:53:01.519
And I would say $120.00 of that is the winter, with the rest being the summer.
928
00:53:01.699 --> 00:53:03.541
And it's almost exclusively recurring.
929
00:53:03.701 --> 00:53:04.943
I don't really do landscaping.
930
00:53:05.403 --> 00:53:05.644
Got it.
931
00:53:05.684 --> 00:53:07.746
And how many employees do you have in summer versus winter?
932
00:53:08.307 --> 00:53:10.810
In the summer, we can sometimes squeeze away with four.
933
00:53:10.930 --> 00:53:11.711
So it's four to five.
934
00:53:12.011 --> 00:53:13.533
In the winter, it's just me and a helper.
935
00:53:13.853 --> 00:53:14.173
Got it.
936
00:53:14.414 --> 00:53:18.879
So you don't actually have a lot of asset capacity because if I was you, I'd also keep the extra truck.
937
00:53:19.180 --> 00:53:20.221
It's more of a backup.
938
00:53:20.522 --> 00:53:22.504
So asset capacity is not what you have a problem with.
939
00:53:22.805 --> 00:53:23.786
It's labor capacity.
940
00:53:24.166 --> 00:53:27.911
Because during the summer, you're filling those trucks up with people.
941
00:53:28.412 --> 00:53:29.333
During the winter, you're not.
942
00:53:29.593 --> 00:53:29.853
Right.
943
00:53:30.214 --> 00:53:35.398
And so I still think in terms of like, I'm always looking for excess capacity and you have a lot of excess capacity in the winter.
944
00:53:35.418 --> 00:53:38.981
So either a, you go really focus on selling more snow service.
945
00:53:39.321 --> 00:53:53.553
And that's where I, like when I mentioned the CAC, if you can make sense of it, I would potentially raise prices on your mowing, take that profit and go dump it into getting more customers for snow so that you can level out these two equilibriums of demand throughout the year.
946
00:53:53.913 --> 00:53:54.133
Okay.
947
00:53:54.313 --> 00:53:58.235
It's something that we've been looking to do, like a call center setup.
948
00:53:58.275 --> 00:53:59.456
We have a local one here.
949
00:53:59.536 --> 00:54:05.599
They charge like 150 bucks a month and it gets us, you know, like an X amount of minutes, which I think will be sufficient.
950
00:54:05.859 --> 00:54:07.600
So it's definitely cheaper than hiring someone.
951
00:54:08.100 --> 00:54:15.004
I'm just curious at what point does, they, I guess I should clarify, they do not access Copilot.
952
00:54:15.104 --> 00:54:17.405
So they would essentially be like a ticket.
953
00:54:17.685 --> 00:54:22.368
And so at what point should I look at, I guess, the more personalization of the,
954
00:54:22.968 --> 00:54:50.458
having an actual person in the office or when i make the transition from working gm to full-time gm should i take that back under my wing or leave the call center in place until such a time that i need a full-time admin yeah assuming you have a full route where you can work as many hours as you want in the field there's never a reason to admin because it's always a lower leverage task than just going out in the field making 80 to 100 bucks an hour i'm assuming that's where you're at so like there's never a reason to do admin i want to get off your place as soon as you get past a
955
00:54:51.918 --> 00:54:52.759
What was your revenue?
956
00:54:52.999 --> 00:54:53.759
What's your revenue this year?
957
00:54:53.779 --> 00:54:56.560
You think you're ready going to be about six to six 50.
958
00:54:57.180 --> 00:54:57.440
Got it.
959
00:54:57.540 --> 00:54:59.141
So we went admin off your plate.
960
00:54:59.801 --> 00:55:02.342
Um, why do you think you're only gonna need 150?
961
00:55:02.582 --> 00:55:04.103
Like how many minutes does that include?
962
00:55:04.583 --> 00:55:05.744
It's like 200 minutes.
963
00:55:06.344 --> 00:55:08.284
We honestly don't get very many phone calls.
964
00:55:08.425 --> 00:55:10.385
Most of our stuff's online through the website.
965
00:55:10.625 --> 00:55:14.747
And so they just kind of apply and then we email them or text them.
966
00:55:15.627 --> 00:55:19.849
Um, so a lot of it kind of happens automatically through copilot, which I manage personally.
967
00:55:20.807 --> 00:55:27.670
So I see that as part of the job, and I don't know exactly when to cap that part of it off.
968
00:55:28.050 --> 00:55:28.331
Got it.
969
00:55:28.411 --> 00:55:31.212
All the other – that's where the juice is right there, Reggie.
970
00:55:31.592 --> 00:55:38.255
So I would be looking for someone that can work part-time, either virtually or in person.
971
00:55:38.595 --> 00:55:48.940
But usually the answer you're looking for is like $800,000 in revenue is usually a good point where it's like, hey, it's starting to make sense to hire someone and pay a little extra and get them in person.
972
00:55:49.700 --> 00:55:58.029
local, et cetera, I would not be opposed to someone working for you like four hours a day, like part-time, because then what they can do is they can stack all the things that need to get done.
973
00:55:58.049 --> 00:56:02.594
For example, send out the estimates, send out the invoices, do the scheduling for the next day, order materials.
974
00:56:02.735 --> 00:56:04.116
You'd have like this massive checklist.
975
00:56:04.557 --> 00:56:09.282
And at your size, even at 600,000, they could probably fill three to four hours a day pretty solid.
976
00:56:09.522 --> 00:56:10.905
You can't afford eight hours yet.
977
00:56:11.305 --> 00:56:14.612
So what I would probably do is do reactive tasks with something like the answering service.
978
00:56:14.912 --> 00:56:15.293
Fine.
979
00:56:15.694 --> 00:56:20.763
They only get it, though, if the person who's at the office, let's call it 10 to 2 every day, doesn't answer the phone.
980
00:56:21.470 --> 00:56:23.052
Now, you don't have a lot of phone calls.
981
00:56:23.392 --> 00:56:23.892
Very few.
982
00:56:24.273 --> 00:56:26.194
Those four hours need to be filled with something.
983
00:56:26.295 --> 00:56:32.881
That's when you're going to make sure that everything you're doing, I'm talking payroll, email, text messages, every single aspect.
984
00:56:33.101 --> 00:56:35.603
Like creating text blasts and emails and psychopla.
985
00:56:35.823 --> 00:56:40.888
Everything is needing to have a system so that you can give them something to do for three to four hours a day.
986
00:56:41.889 --> 00:56:42.129
Okay.
987
00:56:42.149 --> 00:56:45.653
Because that will cost you about – what market are you in, sorry, Reggie?
988
00:56:45.673 --> 00:56:45.813
Okay.
989
00:56:46.313 --> 00:57:10.434
um where we're located alaska right got it so yeah so if you did part-time like someone four hours a day i think it would get 80 to 90 of your admin done and i think you'd probably spend between 30 and 40 000 to do that even if it's someone local right like yes you go cheaper and go someone remote you could do that but i think if you have a shop like a space where they could be reggie right now or not
990
00:57:10.754 --> 00:57:13.258
Yeah, we have a little deal with the local storage yard.
991
00:57:13.318 --> 00:57:15.301
So they took out an old building.
992
00:57:15.561 --> 00:57:17.444
And so we kind of have a little bit of an indoor office.
993
00:57:17.524 --> 00:57:18.526
It just doesn't have water.
994
00:57:18.666 --> 00:57:21.690
So no bathroom, but it's in a grocery store parking lot.
995
00:57:21.730 --> 00:57:24.514
So if I did have someone locally there, they could walk, I guess.
996
00:57:25.055 --> 00:57:25.636
Yeah, yeah.
997
00:57:25.716 --> 00:57:27.097
Hey, this is part of the job description.
998
00:57:27.217 --> 00:57:29.578
You say it up front so they don't have bad expectations.
999
00:57:30.038 --> 00:57:31.598
But I think that's the move.
1000
00:57:32.119 --> 00:57:34.660
I think $30,000 to $40,000, you spending that.
1001
00:57:34.920 --> 00:57:37.641
But again, everything in admin needs to be delegated to them.
1002
00:57:37.661 --> 00:57:45.104
Because if you hire someone part-time right now, but you're still kind of doing the email, you're still doing payroll, you're still doing all these admin tasks, that's when it doesn't make sense.
1003
00:57:45.584 --> 00:57:48.607
But I do think at your size, I would get someone for four hours a day.
1004
00:57:49.048 --> 00:57:54.374
Any overflow in terms of phone calls, like reactive stuff can go to the call center, but it's not a lot.
1005
00:57:54.714 --> 00:57:59.139
But right now you're doing a lot of the admin tasks and you could otherwise just be in the field working.
1006
00:57:59.279 --> 00:58:03.644
But I think you spending your time on the actual sales of things, that starts to look a lot more interesting.
1007
00:58:03.904 --> 00:58:04.144
Okay.
1008
00:58:04.625 --> 00:58:13.917
And then in that same aspect, we've kind of grown nothing but organically and it has slowed down as we get a little bit old, I guess, bigger in that same aspect.
1009
00:58:13.957 --> 00:58:17.521
Should that type of person be doing things like social media and stuff?
1010
00:58:17.541 --> 00:58:22.067
Like, would you consider that all the same task or should I hire that out to an agency?
1011
00:58:22.227 --> 00:58:22.527
Totally.
1012
00:58:22.547 --> 00:58:26.430
So I would be working at the top of the list, the bottom list every single day for my admin person.
1013
00:58:26.870 --> 00:58:29.812
First thing is going to be highest priority, lowest, lowest priority.
1014
00:58:30.153 --> 00:58:31.554
Do I want them to do social media?
1015
00:58:31.594 --> 00:58:31.894
Yes.
1016
00:58:31.974 --> 00:58:37.878
But that's at the lowest priority because I'm not going to have them not send out the invoices to go make a social media post.
1017
00:58:38.418 --> 00:58:40.420
And so what you got to figure out is what's that checklist?
1018
00:58:40.440 --> 00:58:43.762
What's that order of operations for them to go through on a daily basis?
1019
00:58:44.143 --> 00:58:47.365
And realize that during the peak season, they might only get through a half of it.
1020
00:58:47.765 --> 00:58:52.551
or the first one if they walk into 10 voicemails and five estimates and you go out, right?
1021
00:58:52.911 --> 00:58:54.113
It's all about order of operations.
1022
00:58:54.153 --> 00:58:58.738
So for example, at command center, we like what every single department needs to do every day.
1023
00:58:58.778 --> 00:59:01.782
So for example, we're not sitting in the email waiting for their emails.
1024
00:59:02.283 --> 00:59:05.406
We go in there three times a day at specific times and we check the email.
1025
00:59:06.027 --> 00:59:09.488
And so you're going to create a checklist similar to that for every single thing that needs to get done.
1026
00:59:09.928 --> 00:59:12.769
And then you need to say, hey, at the end of the day, here's the checklist.
1027
00:59:13.049 --> 00:59:14.930
I want to picture the end of the day before you leave at 2 o'clock.
1028
00:59:14.970 --> 00:59:16.310
Just send a picture of what you got to.
1029
00:59:16.711 --> 00:59:20.252
That way I know did everything get done and if not, what didn't get done.
1030
00:59:20.532 --> 00:59:20.792
Okay.
1031
00:59:21.498 --> 00:59:26.339
Now you say sending out estimates, and I just want to clarify, that person would not actually be doing the estimates.
1032
00:59:26.359 --> 00:59:31.261
They would just be taking possibly notes from the estimator, or would you include that in there?
1033
00:59:32.961 --> 00:59:34.842
I'm assuming the estimator is making notes.
1034
00:59:34.922 --> 00:59:39.403
I'm assuming also that there's requests for estimates that come in and they're doing measurements.
1035
00:59:39.723 --> 00:59:48.246
I'm assuming any sort of facilitation of number crunching, putting the quotes together, attaching a video to the quote, all that should be the admin person.
1036
00:59:48.526 --> 00:59:49.027
Okay.
1037
00:59:49.047 --> 01:00:00.318
With us having the six month and six month season so hard here in Alaska, would you say the best time would be to raise prices kind of as you're trying to sell along everyone else?
1038
01:00:00.458 --> 01:00:08.286
Or would you go into the season normally and then kind of once you get past the spring rush, then send out a notice, you know, kind of like everything else does?
1039
01:00:08.627 --> 01:00:11.750
Or do you feel like that's maybe a little bait and switchy as it were?
1040
01:00:12.347 --> 01:00:15.608
Yeah, I always, in the perfect world, I want to always hit capacity, right?
1041
01:00:15.628 --> 01:00:18.809
So that's why like, it's like welcome the capacity, and then I have the decision.
1042
01:00:18.909 --> 01:00:24.310
If you're not at capacity, you don't want to be raising prices because now you're creating excess capacity if you lose customers.
1043
01:00:24.690 --> 01:00:29.272
I want to be raising prices to the point where I need to be losing customers because I'm at capacity.
1044
01:00:29.552 --> 01:00:34.973
And so in the perfect world, you grow in the spring rush, you hit capacity, you're like, I must do this immediately.
1045
01:00:34.993 --> 01:00:36.854
I don't care if people leave, I need them to leave.
1046
01:00:36.914 --> 01:00:38.674
Otherwise I have to turn away new customers.
1047
01:00:39.014 --> 01:00:40.255
That's the perfect case scenario.
1048
01:00:40.895 --> 01:00:52.267
Now, if you're going into the spring rush and you know you're going to hit capacity in four to six weeks, then it's usually the most civil thing to do is let them know, hey, this season, this is your price.
1049
01:00:52.848 --> 01:00:54.830
And let some people filter out then.
1050
01:00:54.850 --> 01:00:59.715
I will say if we're going to do that, go higher on our pricing because now it won't be looked at a price increase.
1051
01:00:59.775 --> 01:01:03.519
Most people won't even notice the price increase because they haven't done service for six months.
1052
01:01:03.899 --> 01:01:04.159
Right.
1053
01:01:04.439 --> 01:01:04.640
Yeah.
1054
01:01:04.660 --> 01:01:09.863
I guess that's just my concern is to lose them to the, you know, the cheaper guys who are going to be running around.
1055
01:01:09.943 --> 01:01:12.625
Cause a lot of the guys here, they really don't have anything.
1056
01:01:12.685 --> 01:01:15.387
It's like guys with residential mowers charging way under price.
1057
01:01:15.707 --> 01:01:17.649
And so we always have to try to compete with those guys.
1058
01:01:18.309 --> 01:01:24.033
And so I agree that once they are our customer, we don't have any problem in any time we try to raise prices.
1059
01:01:24.113 --> 01:01:29.317
But, um, my concern is that we kind of don't have true recurring customers.
1060
01:01:29.337 --> 01:01:32.819
I mean, I have customers that I've had for 10 years, but they don't, uh,
1061
01:01:33.165 --> 01:01:35.166
you know, they go away for six months of the year.
1062
01:01:35.226 --> 01:01:38.187
So you are kind of selling them again every single year.
1063
01:01:38.807 --> 01:01:44.669
There's, I've tried to kind of switch it to like, you know, Hey, we're just turning your service back on, but then people get confused.
1064
01:01:44.729 --> 01:01:50.051
And there's always a couple of customers who are like, Oh, well you didn't service my lawn cause I never responded to anything.
1065
01:01:50.091 --> 01:01:51.552
Cause you just said you were going to do it.
1066
01:01:51.912 --> 01:01:54.753
And then vice versa, you get people who are like, well, I didn't respond to this.
1067
01:01:54.793 --> 01:01:55.993
Why did you service my lawn?
1068
01:01:56.454 --> 01:02:00.135
You know, and we kind of got caught between those two looking for a way forward as it were.
1069
01:02:00.857 --> 01:02:01.518
Yeah, so two things.
1070
01:02:01.598 --> 01:02:06.225
I would definitely say the good news about Chuck in a Truck is that they aren't going to answer their phone when they get busy.
1071
01:02:06.565 --> 01:02:15.357
So in your case, I would probably wait until you hit capacity in the middle of spring rush, because when that happens, customers won't leave because when they try to call Chuck in a Truck, he doesn't answer his phone.
1072
01:02:15.818 --> 01:02:22.041
Second thing I will say is when it comes to renewals and coming them back, it's how you prime at the end of last season.
1073
01:02:22.381 --> 01:02:26.683
And so at the end of last season, if you say, hey, Mr. Jones, thank you so much for your season.
1074
01:02:26.723 --> 01:02:27.983
We are wrapping up next week.
1075
01:02:28.003 --> 01:02:28.844
This is the last week.
1076
01:02:28.904 --> 01:02:29.744
Snow is flying.
1077
01:02:29.764 --> 01:02:30.385
Let's go.
1078
01:02:30.785 --> 01:02:33.406
By the way, we're going to be starting mowing on this date.
1079
01:02:34.046 --> 01:02:37.088
We'll remind you beforehand, but just so you know, we are going to be starting on this date.
1080
01:02:37.388 --> 01:02:42.470
If you prime them then, your retention on the uptick will be way better.
1081
01:02:42.730 --> 01:02:47.314
Do you still require them to, I guess, have a call to action where they at least still have to confirm it?
1082
01:02:47.394 --> 01:02:49.376
Or do you literally just make it automatic?
1083
01:02:49.656 --> 01:02:52.378
We just say, hey, like, first off, we're going to see you next year.
1084
01:02:52.679 --> 01:02:55.661
If they're about mowing their lawn, they're thinking I'm going to come back next spring.
1085
01:02:55.741 --> 01:02:55.982
Great.
1086
01:02:56.362 --> 01:02:57.203
I'm going to say that.
1087
01:02:57.743 --> 01:03:02.727
And then when I send them the reminder, I'm going to say, hey, just a reminder, like we said, on March 1st, we're coming back.
1088
01:03:02.928 --> 01:03:03.929
So we'll be there next week.
1089
01:03:04.129 --> 01:03:05.670
If anything changed, let us know.
1090
01:03:05.970 --> 01:03:06.170
Okay.
1091
01:03:06.611 --> 01:03:06.931
Perfect.
1092
01:03:07.131 --> 01:03:07.732
I appreciate it.
1093
01:03:08.116 --> 01:03:08.496
Absolutely.
1094
01:03:08.516 --> 01:03:13.399
And then they can always look in the customer portal too and see their upcoming visits if you allow them to see that.
1095
01:03:13.599 --> 01:03:18.101
And if they wanted to check it out early, sometimes customers call early and like, are you guys going to come out?
1096
01:03:18.321 --> 01:03:20.122
The nice thing about your area is very cut and dry.
1097
01:03:20.142 --> 01:03:22.563
It's like snow stops, lawn starts.
1098
01:03:23.284 --> 01:03:25.525
Lawn stops, mowing starts, right?
1099
01:03:25.545 --> 01:03:26.545
Or snow.
1100
01:03:26.605 --> 01:03:30.067
So I would just get in the habit of priming them at the end of the season.
1101
01:03:30.567 --> 01:03:33.029
And then when you send them the email prior, it just...
1102
01:03:33.769 --> 01:03:35.890
Hey, as we said before, we're starting on March 1st.
1103
01:03:35.950 --> 01:03:36.710
That's the season.
1104
01:03:37.091 --> 01:03:39.192
And you could even like call it mowing season and snow season.
1105
01:03:39.212 --> 01:03:45.175
Like it's I just really use that a lot so that they just in their mind know you're coming March 1st unless you tell me otherwise.
1106
01:03:45.515 --> 01:03:48.036
And that sounds kind of similar to the way where I am.
1107
01:03:48.056 --> 01:03:52.138
It just feels so it sounds like like basically let us know otherwise we will show up.
1108
01:03:52.701 --> 01:03:55.182
But how do you combine that with a price increase?
1109
01:03:55.703 --> 01:03:58.584
Because I do feel like they need to agree to a price increase.
1110
01:03:58.624 --> 01:04:03.747
You can't, or are you basically saying like, hey, we're raising the price and you're on automatic service.
1111
01:04:04.287 --> 01:04:05.508
So let us know if that changes it.
1112
01:04:05.648 --> 01:04:09.370
No, I would just in the reminder email the week before, be like, hey, we're getting started.
1113
01:04:09.390 --> 01:04:10.091
It's March 1st.
1114
01:04:10.311 --> 01:04:12.872
Here's your prices for the upcoming 2026 season, mowing season.
1115
01:04:13.132 --> 01:04:13.332
Okay.
1116
01:04:14.894 --> 01:04:15.575
I wouldn't say new.
1117
01:04:15.796 --> 01:04:17.439
I wouldn't say prices are going up.
1118
01:04:17.479 --> 01:04:18.421
I wouldn't say price increase.
1119
01:04:18.662 --> 01:04:19.804
Those are all scary words.
1120
01:04:20.305 --> 01:04:22.590
Here's your prices for the upcoming 2026 season.
1121
01:04:23.773 --> 01:04:24.274
All right.
1122
01:04:24.354 --> 01:04:26.939
You'll get like 98, 97, 98% will be okay with it.
1123
01:04:27.200 --> 01:04:27.440
Right.
1124
01:04:27.821 --> 01:04:28.102
Awesome.
1125
01:04:28.442 --> 01:04:28.783
Thank you.
1126
01:04:29.084 --> 01:04:30.006
Really do appreciate it.
1127
01:04:30.086 --> 01:04:33.974
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week and awesome 2026 ahead.
1128
01:04:34.495 --> 01:04:35.778
And we will certainly stay in touch.
1129
01:04:36.159 --> 01:04:36.680
Take care, everyone.