Answering the HARDEST Questions About Running a Lawn Care Business

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Thank you for hopping on here today.
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I know all of you have already joined HopeLight and kind of gotten started in terms of getting onboarded, et cetera, but today is really mostly just answer questions for myself directly.
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It's really an open Q&A format.
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So feel free to turn your camera on.
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If you have questions, anything I can help with, please feel free to just go ahead and unmute yourself.
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This is much more like business marketing, hiring, anything I can possibly help with.
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Obviously, Tommy's here from the support team.
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If there's technical stuff, they'd probably be better to do a Zoom call with you and kind of walk you through some stuff one-on-one.
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But if you have a question, feel free to unmute yourself or raise your hand.
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There's a little button there on Zoom, and we'll just fire away.
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So go ahead.
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I think, Luke, you already unmuted yourself.
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Go ahead.
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Oh, I don't have any questions.
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Oh, you didn't?
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Okay.
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No worries.
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No worries.
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Good stuff.
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All right.
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Let's see here.
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Sweet.
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Yeah, well, usually how this goes is no one has questions until the end, and then we have to all stop.
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So if you have one, feel free to unmute yourself.
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Don't worry.
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This isn't, like, being published on YouTube or anything crazy.
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So feel free to just ask away.
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Josie looks like he's trying.
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Here, now you go.
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You should be able to click that button.
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There you go.
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So there's my wife's name on here, so I'm Dennis.
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Okay, good stuff.
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Maybe you start with where you're from and kind of size of business and what you're doing.
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Yeah, up in Benzie, but no one knows that area in Michigan, so by Traverse City, Michigan.
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Cool.
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Our size is about, I'm trying to do about 250 to 300 this year.
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So my question would be, is going into, because I'm starting to think about next year.
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And I, so, and I watch, I should say, I watch all your stuff.
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So I'm trying to put as much things in practice as possible from your videos and whatnot.
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So I'm trying to think of, for next year, looking to scale up.
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And I know, so I know we're doing the EDDMs, which works real well.
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We do the door hangers.
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We do Google ads, and then we just recently started the process to get Google guaranteed.
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So I'm wondering, is there anything...
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else besides that to kind of really scale to, I don't know, double.
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Yeah.
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You're like, ultimately when it comes to marketing, it's not a function of whether or not a marketing channel works.
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It's a matter of how much money do you have?
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Because you can get customers in any form of marketing.
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It's a matter of which one has the best customer acquisition cost and which one's going to bring the best customers.
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So I know, for example, that you get the best leads using the cost per lead.
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If you want to Facebook lead forms, you can get leads for $9 to $20.
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Now, the conversion rate is going to be low.
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The quality of that customer is going to be low compared to if you went and knocked on doors and talked to people.
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Also, one is more scalable than the other.
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And so I think there's a lot more questions that have to be asked in terms of what channel you're going to use.
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I would say from a cost per lead perspective, it's not even just that because, for example –
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Google local services is going to be unbeatable in quality and cost per lead.
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The challenging part is you can't pour gasoline on it because there's only so many leads that Google give you.
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And so there's this balance of like what's the best cost per lead and highest quality?
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Probably Google local services.
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What's the most scalable form?
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Probably a mix of something like door hangers, if you're going to go more boots on the ground, versus something like Facebook ads.
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The question is, do you have the skill for Facebook ads or do you go in agency?
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Or something like door hanger, something like in your ballpark, you can get it done, it's a lower budget, et cetera.
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So I would really test things out, depending on your budget.
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If you have less than $5,000 to spend on marketing, I would very much try to test one channel, figure out your customer acquisition cost, and then keep going from there.
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The only thing to think about is your customer acquisition cost.
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and like nailing what that is for each channel.
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And then you scale it right.
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Does that make sense?
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Yeah.
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And I'll just say as a side note, there's a video I made a couple of weeks ago about Facebook ads specifically.
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Just don't run random Facebook ads without doing like tracking codes, actually having the codes on your thank you page.
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Like there's some finer details there.
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And that's why I think a lot of times the lowest lift is something like a door hanger, yard signs.
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Because like you can get it out there and you'll get customers.
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And if you spend $1,000 on doing – like right now, a lot of Augusta is doing for Augusta Lights.
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They do yard signs.
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It's just like a complete program.
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It's like, okay, if I get 500 signs and it costs me $4,000 and I put them all out, I will get this number of customers.
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It's just math.
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And so the closer you can get a marketing channel, you just know how many doors you have to knock, know how many yard signs you have to put out, know how many ads you have to run, the better.
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But you can only do that through testing.
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What about Angie's leads?
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You never talk about that, but we've been using Angie's leads or Angie's list or previously what was HomeAdvisor for…
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since I started, so like probably 10 years and, you know, yeah, the customer acquisition costs is, I feel high, but, um, you know, if you filter through them, we do land, um, you know, some pretty good jobs off of Angie's list, but what's your opinion on it?
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Cause I've never in any of the videos or anything, I've never heard you say anything about Angie's list.
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Yeah, totally.
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I kind of group them with like a whole bunch of other lead services.
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Just for my context sake, what's kind of the average cost per lead for you now from them?
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It really just depends on what service.
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So give me like one high, one low.
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Okay, like if we were to do a lead, we were to get a lead for like, say, site prep, land clearing, over $100.
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I don't know the exact price off the top of my head, but like a mowing or maintenance lead is probably $30 to $20 roughly.
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So like if you can get that kind of lead cost, I think I'm a fan.
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It simply comes down to like what the lifetime gross profit of that customer is.
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So in something like land clearing, if you're doing a $10,000 job and you get them for $150, great, fantastic.
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Yeah.
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I think it makes a lot of sense for one time jobs.
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I usually like to own my customer data and I don't like them being marketed to by someone else.
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And so because Angie owns the customer, they can go market them for five of the services that you might offer.
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And I don't want to pay for a lead twice.
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More importantly, I want to control the entire relationship with the customer.
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So it's not a function of I don't like the leads.
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In some of our markets, people do use them.
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Like I said, I just got out of a training.
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The sixth out of a list of what I recommend for marketing is Angie's.
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It's just I would exhaust other forms before going there.
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Because if I can get an instant quote with a price, with a card on file, I would rather get that even if it was $40 or $50 customer acquisition costs because that customer is not tied to Angie's.
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They're coming to me directly.
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I have their card on file.
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I own the customer.
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And more importantly, when I run money, when I pay for Angie's or these other lead services, it's kind of this weird, like you're kind of biting the hand that feeds you.
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What I mean by that is they take your money and they go run ads.
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And they're simply driving traffic to your page, like inside of Angie's.
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And so what happens is a lot of times you are paying for them to outrank you on SEO.
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Yeah.
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And so what starts happening is you start getting addicted to them because they're all the traffic is going through them instead of your website that would otherwise rank for your business name.
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And once they've done that, you're basically – you're on the drip.
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You've got to have them.
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because they're beating you out in SEO.
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And you get all these reviews there, is it sunk cost of why people never move away, like just focus on their own organic SEO, their own website.
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And I think of like renting versus owning, like your website, you own the domain, it's yours forever.
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I drive traffic there, I build brand reputation long-term, like equity in a house.
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Whereas like, I like Angie's.
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The renting, it's cheaper quote unquote today, but I'm not building long-term value in my domain.
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And when you think about real estate, I think the same thing as online.
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Like online, my domain, I'm trying to build authority, whether it be SEO, search engine optimization, or AEO, answer engine optimization with AI.
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Like I want to build that asset.
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I do not want to be giving someone else $50 or $40.
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They spend $20 on the backend to go run an ad to your site to bring traffic to you, and then they make an arbitrage.
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In the meantime, they get the click and they get the domain authority to be able to outrank you.
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So it's very much of a longer-term thing.
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I'm not saying you should not use them.
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I just don't bring them up in my content because it's a short-term win, and if I said it, everyone would go get some more jobs.
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Long-term, I see them doing nefarious things and hurting people's SEO on their website.
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It's a core fundamental part of going into profit mode is I need to be able to reduce marketing spend and still get enough leads from my website to be able to replace churn.
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If I can't replace churn with new customers that are coming from my site, I have to keep paying money for ads.
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And so I see a lot of people that get on those lead companies and never leave them.
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They get addicted.
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That's my problem.
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That's my problem.
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I pay Angie probably average $300, $400 a week for 10 years.
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Yeah.
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You know what I mean?
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And anything that you Google, any kind of service in my area, they're at the top.
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It says annuals.
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Yeah.
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And you got them there.
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It's one of those things.
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It's like you're basically paying for your competitor to beat you out, right?
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Yeah.
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So – but long story short, it's like, hey, like I would probably, if I was you, I'd say, hey, how do I take my marketing budget?
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And I start taking 20%, 30%, 40% over the course of time more towards my own website and driving traffic there.
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Because here's the thing, the reason Angie's crushes is because they have an optimized website.
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And so when they get traffic, they convert them into leads.
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That same traffic coming to your site, you might have to get twice as many clicks to get the same number of conversions.
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And this is why Angie's crushes most home services because the design of the site needs to be optimized for mobile, load fast, be ranking well on SEO.
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And so I would first, if I was you, if you're spending $300 to $400 a week, I would first spend that per month on a great website and a great SEO.
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And I'd start there, and as the course of time goes on, I try to just move more and more of my budget as much as possible towards driving traffic to my own domain.
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Yeah, and really with – I don't want this whole conversation to be about Angie leads, but with Angie, whenever it's the middle of July and we are just swamped.
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I turn it off and I don't pay Angie nothing.
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But like this time of the year in the wintertime, whenever it kind of slows down and we're only booked like maybe a month out, month and a half out, you know, it's, you know, that's when I'm paying Angie, you know, the three to $400 every week.
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But you've answered the way my long term way around this, Luke.
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No, you're fine.
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This is great.
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Great topic.
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The long term solution to this is having a customer base inside Copilot that you're texting and email on a consistent basis with seasonal offers that when it gets slow, you send an email out or you send a text message and you get immediately your schedules booked out.
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And so, like, for example, I sent a text out yesterday, 97% open rate, and I think there was like 30 closed deals within 24 hours.
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That was just booked them out for three weeks.
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And so if you can – that's why, like, owning the data of the customer, I don't want anyone else marketing them because I see the value.
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That's why I'm willing to pay twice as much per customer if I own the data versus someone else because if I own the data, I cannot just sell them today.
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I'll sell them five more times over the next couple years.
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I'll give them a recurring service.
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I'll increase the lifetime value by 5 or 10x compared to this other lead that someone else –
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rent is renting to me.
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Yeah.
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And so it's very much, it's very much of a long-term thing.
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Like it's difficult.
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I know to get off that, that kind of that thing, like that treadmill.
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But I would just try to divert as much as you can towards that way.
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Because the thing is the amount of leads that you're getting right now from them, you could eventually completely replace with organic leads coming from your website, which are higher quality.
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You own all the data.
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It's just going to be a longer term play and it might take two or three years.
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To fully get off of that.
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But when you get, when you start beating them out in SEO for the keywords, because you've been focusing on that, that's when it's like, it's lights out.
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I'll let somebody else go if they got any other questions.
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Yeah, go ahead.
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You got it, man.
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Joel, go ahead, man.
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Yeah, can you hear me?
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No?
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You gotcha, man.
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So, Mike, I have a question.
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You said that in Google we have to get at least 30 to 50 reviews, but while we get 30 to 50 reviews in Google and Yelp, how many clients they will call me every time in average?
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How many free leads I will get after 30 to 50 reviews once I get all of them?
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You will get zero.
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You will get leads based upon people coming to your website and submitting a form or calling you or emailing you.
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What you will get in having more reviews is more authority in the mind of Google to be able to rank higher on their platform.
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And so – and the thing is like everyone is like, oh, reviews don't matter because of AI anymore.
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No, like AI scrapes reviews like nobody's business.
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Like search for local services in your area.
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on Gemini, which is Google's, and it is simply scraping reviews.
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So another side note to this is I would then respond to every customer review with a keyword-rich response.
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And you're like, well, how do I do that?
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I don't want to sound like I'm gimmicky.
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Put it into AI, put it into chat to be like, hey, here's a customer review came on Google.
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Please respond with a keyword rich answer that doesn't sound salesy.
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Boom.
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They take that.
213
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And now it's saying certain keywords like your services, your area name inside of your response to customers.
214
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That is being scrubbed by AI tremendously.
215
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So getting more reviews will not get you more leads.
216
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It'll get more authority.
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And that authority gets you to show up on the algorithm more in terms of Google answer, any sort of answer engine.
218
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And then that potentially leads to leads, assuming once they get to your site, it converts well.
219
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okay sounds pretty much thank you mission you got aaron aaron from michigan great beard great beard one day one day i'll get there my goodness hey thanks hey so um kind of new to co-pilot um really new i don't know if all these guys are new but um
220
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I am.
221
00:14:30.874 --> 00:14:38.821
Anyway, but so we're southeast Michigan, not by Traverse City, probably about five hours away from you guys up there.
222
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But I wanted your what your thoughts were on basically lawn signs that don't have your business name or business logo on them.
223
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I've heard this a couple of different spots where it's just like a Google number, just the service basically, and you don't have your business, it's not branded because you don't want the Karens to call and all that.
224
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What are your thoughts on that?
225
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Do you like that?
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Have you seen that work well?
227
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And what is your thoughts?
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I ask that because,
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I did one month of this service where it was a cold SMS.
230
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and I got horrible.
231
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I thank God I didn't put any, there wasn't anything like with my business name on it because I just, some of the, I had some guys send me like a gun wanting to like hunt me down.
232
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It was ridiculous.
233
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So I'm just curious your thoughts on the, you know, that type of marketing with the non-branded lawn signs and the Google number.
234
00:15:50.097 --> 00:15:53.681
Yeah, that guy has some seriously low tolerance for annoyance.
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My goodness.
236
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Okay, so.
237
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For sure.
238
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He can be ticked off that much from over a text message.
239
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Goodness.
240
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About lawn care.
241
00:16:01.150 --> 00:16:05.515
So I can only imagine what he has to go through during the political cycle.
242
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Yeah.
243
00:16:07.397 --> 00:16:07.698
So.
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00:16:09.037 --> 00:16:11.959
So I would say first and foremost, tracking is important.
245
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So I like the idea of having a different phone number just for the sake of tracking.
246
00:16:16.502 --> 00:16:20.325
I will then say the next part is very much similar to what we just talked about with Angie's versus your website.
247
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I like having my logo because, yes, I will get some Karens.
248
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They're not my customer anyways.
249
00:16:26.845 --> 00:16:31.568
However, that logo is another imprint on people's, like it's a branding play.
250
00:16:32.029 --> 00:16:36.532
And I like that because then down the road, there's residuals to that yard sign.
251
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And typically, that brand, if you have an elevated brand, demands a higher price and a more premium customer versus someone who's like, oh, I need lawn care because my lawn is overgrown.
252
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So I'll call that number.
253
00:16:50.532 --> 00:16:55.435
So I would say if you're going after overgrown lawns, because you want to save you go after that, then that probably works.
254
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But if you're trying to go after a premium customer, they're not likely to have an overgrown lawn or see a yard sign like, Oh, I have that problem.
255
00:17:02.019 --> 00:17:04.381
They're more likely to see your yard sign five times.
256
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And then next week, their long guy doesn't show up and they remember your name.
257
00:17:09.044 --> 00:17:15.748
And so the if you look at the challenging part with this is if you look at your cost per lead, it will be higher for the second one, the brand one.
258
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So
259
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Because the lowest cost per lead will be if you do a non-branded sign.
260
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But it's not going to be the type of customer typically I want to associate long-term.
261
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And if there's a Karen, quote-unquote, they're not your customer anyways.
262
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They're not buying from you anyways.
263
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Sure, yeah.
264
00:17:33.972 --> 00:17:43.578
So, I mean, so that brings me to a second question then, because of the locations of where you can put lawn signs.
265
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That's the main reason why you do the non-branded and the phone number, because you throw them up everywhere.
266
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you don't get fined because nobody technically can kind of, you know, track you and so forth and so on.
267
00:17:57.145 --> 00:18:02.967
So where would you recommend or not or how would you go about doing that?
268
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Because that's the main thing for me.
269
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Yeah, I can put them in some of my customers.
270
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We do currently we do more commercial than residential and some of the residential spots are only there because, you know,
271
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the commercial clients that we have kind of really close surrounding it.
272
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I don't necessarily want to build up residential clients over there.
273
00:18:23.436 --> 00:18:26.398
So where, where I want to build.
274
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I have that municipality issue where they're like, hey, don't put them – you can't put lawn signs in breezeways.
275
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You can't put them on – well, where do you put them if you can't?
276
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If they're branded in – Right.
277
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Yeah, I would test them.
278
00:18:42.064 --> 00:18:45.926
Have you already put out some, Aaron, that are – Yeah, I have in the past.
279
00:18:45.986 --> 00:18:47.147
I haven't done lawn signs like –
280
00:18:49.528 --> 00:19:14.215
recent real real recently like like i had in the past but i did do them um a few years ago and i just blanketed like a ton of you know area and um yeah the city called me and was like hey you do it again we're gonna you know don't do it again basically and they threw all the lawn signs out they took them all down and they were like we're gonna find you next time yeah
281
00:19:14.793 --> 00:19:28.626
Yeah, like, you know, it's just a matter of sometimes some people have said if they do like one a day and it's like slowly you boil the frog kind of thing, there's less inclined versus you putting on 100 and they see it 10 times today.
282
00:19:29.066 --> 00:19:29.327
Right.
283
00:19:30.868 --> 00:19:33.831
And then also you can look up these laws and like, can they actually fine you?
284
00:19:33.851 --> 00:19:34.892
What's the actual cost?
285
00:19:34.932 --> 00:19:40.397
I know some people have actually paid the fine knowing it's there just because it's a one time fine.
286
00:19:40.797 --> 00:19:45.701
So like they're like, Gary, I'll pay a $200 fine and I will go put out 500 yard signs tonight.
287
00:19:45.801 --> 00:19:50.685
So I would just like look into your actual municipality, see what the restrictions are.
288
00:19:51.185 --> 00:19:56.589
Also, if it's on private property, they're less inclined to do stuff usually.
289
00:19:57.029 --> 00:20:02.613
So I'm usually looking for more rural areas like farmland, areas where no one that owns that land actually cares.
290
00:20:03.554 --> 00:20:08.338
If there's around other signs, usually you will get called on, but usually you have less penetration.
291
00:20:09.419 --> 00:20:20.887
So if you're looking for lowest risk, I'd be looking for areas where there's already yard signs that are political usually or where you know they go political because people have white space.
292
00:20:20.927 --> 00:20:22.328
They don't think about the yard sign.
293
00:20:23.329 --> 00:20:26.611
We always see yard signs on that corner because it's during politics season.
294
00:20:28.132 --> 00:20:39.079
And then the other part is if you find spots that are rural, I would do the stapling on the power poles.
295
00:20:39.099 --> 00:20:41.200
So they're like six feet off the ground, 10 feet off the ground.
296
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I would just make sure you don't do those in areas where if they tell you to come take them down, you're going to spend a gob amount of time doing it.
297
00:20:49.325 --> 00:20:53.127
But if you do those in areas like that are more rural, typically you'll get away with it.
298
00:20:53.967 --> 00:20:56.110
Counties are usually less organized around this too.
299
00:20:56.130 --> 00:20:59.894
So like if you have an edge of your surface areas, for example, but just stuff.
300
00:21:00.114 --> 00:21:01.876
Every market is so different with yard signs.
301
00:21:02.237 --> 00:21:08.624
We've seen sometimes they crush and then you move one city zip code over and because they have certain codes or like laws, it's very difficult.
302
00:21:09.545 --> 00:21:14.390
So I have – I do have – so there was an Augusta location.
303
00:21:15.149 --> 00:21:17.350
like literally around the corner from me.
304
00:21:18.150 --> 00:21:20.972
Um, I think the guy shut it down last year.
305
00:21:20.992 --> 00:21:22.392
So you went to seminary.
306
00:21:22.872 --> 00:21:23.252
Yes.
307
00:21:23.613 --> 00:21:23.893
Yes.
308
00:21:23.973 --> 00:21:25.854
You know, the guy, so I almost actually bought.
309
00:21:26.314 --> 00:21:26.954
Yeah, Derek.
310
00:21:27.334 --> 00:21:29.975
So I almost actually bought his client list.
311
00:21:30.416 --> 00:21:33.757
Um, earlier this year I had a conversation with him, but, um,
312
00:21:34.888 --> 00:21:38.830
So you know the market, you've talked to Derek, I'm sure a few times.
313
00:21:41.412 --> 00:21:43.393
What have you seen work in that area?
314
00:21:43.413 --> 00:21:51.317
I mean, I know he was kind of, because of where he went to, where he was kind of like, probably he was working
315
00:21:52.337 --> 00:21:55.981
in the market because of I think the seminary and that sort of thing.
316
00:21:56.462 --> 00:22:00.506
So he was away from my, our current like where we both live.
317
00:22:01.066 --> 00:22:05.932
But that this, I mean, it is that area.
318
00:22:05.972 --> 00:22:11.057
So if you can remember what worked well in this area.
319
00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:17.505
Honestly, if I recall, because he was so busy with the church, he ended up just like whatever just came on the website.
320
00:22:17.965 --> 00:22:22.009
And I think that's why he was around $400,000 or $500,000 in revenue.
321
00:22:22.029 --> 00:22:28.094
He just let organic leads keep his churn to where he was not growing.
322
00:22:30.135 --> 00:22:33.558
That being said, the first few years, I know the first year or two, he was growing.
323
00:22:33.819 --> 00:22:35.100
So he was probably doing something.
324
00:22:35.280 --> 00:22:36.661
I don't remember, though, to be honest.
325
00:22:36.981 --> 00:22:37.602
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
326
00:22:37.822 --> 00:22:38.763
Okay, that's fair.
327
00:22:39.882 --> 00:22:40.162
Okay.
328
00:22:40.463 --> 00:22:42.344
And the second question, I did have another question.
329
00:22:42.364 --> 00:22:44.146
I don't want to take anybody else's spot.
330
00:22:44.246 --> 00:22:45.407
No one else has their hand up.
331
00:22:45.427 --> 00:22:45.788
You're good.
332
00:22:45.808 --> 00:22:46.088
Go ahead.
333
00:22:46.108 --> 00:22:46.308
Okay.
334
00:22:46.508 --> 00:22:46.929
All right.
335
00:22:47.449 --> 00:22:47.790
Cool.
336
00:22:47.810 --> 00:22:49.711
So I do have a question.
337
00:22:49.771 --> 00:22:51.513
I've debated.
338
00:22:51.533 --> 00:22:58.560
So I've been going through coaching for about a year and a half, business coaching a little bit.
339
00:22:59.040 --> 00:22:59.441
I don't know.
340
00:22:59.461 --> 00:23:00.802
I have a...
341
00:23:02.203 --> 00:23:05.504
my coach is in Texas and he just actually sold his company.
342
00:23:05.524 --> 00:23:08.885
He had a fairly large company down in Texas.
343
00:23:11.225 --> 00:23:19.728
Anyway, that being said, when I started coaching with him specifically, we've been coaching maybe about a year and a half.
344
00:23:19.848 --> 00:23:29.130
We raised prices dramatically and I noticed, well, one, I lost about, I would say 40% of my residential clients, huge,
345
00:23:30.031 --> 00:23:31.231
huge swing.
346
00:23:32.212 --> 00:23:39.475
Probably if I were to do it again, I would not have jumped so high so fast, because we almost doubled.
347
00:23:40.575 --> 00:23:53.560
And so when I when I talked to Derek, I felt because of what I'd done, his prices were so low that I was like, man, I'm gonna have to jump in and raise your prices like
348
00:23:54.485 --> 00:23:56.106
20% immediately.
349
00:23:57.026 --> 00:24:00.288
And so we had a discussion over that a little bit.
350
00:24:00.688 --> 00:24:13.315
But I'm curious on your thinking, where that price should be for, you know, roughly, well, the minimum, basically, your minimum stop.
351
00:24:13.695 --> 00:24:15.136
Currently, I'm at 58 bucks.
352
00:24:15.956 --> 00:24:17.517
Yeah, for mowing for mowing.
353
00:24:18.327 --> 00:24:25.897
Yeah, like, um, in terms of price increases, as soon as you start raising above 20%, that's usually when you start to see some serious churn.
354
00:24:26.358 --> 00:24:35.771
It's like we average our average increase around was around 22% this year at Augusta, and no one lost more than 10% of their customers, not a single one.
355
00:24:36.291 --> 00:24:40.194
So it's more a matter of like when you go 40%, it makes people really think.
356
00:24:40.755 --> 00:24:41.996
It's a big jump.
357
00:24:42.036 --> 00:24:44.437
Or if you double, like if you almost double, like an 80% increase.
358
00:24:45.078 --> 00:24:46.999
But hey, it still made more money.
359
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.482
If you almost double the price and 40% of people, it's still a good thing.
360
00:24:50.782 --> 00:24:51.383
Which I did.
361
00:24:51.423 --> 00:24:52.483
That was basically what I did.
362
00:24:52.543 --> 00:24:54.425
I went in and we went in and doubled the price.
363
00:24:54.705 --> 00:25:00.549
Yeah, usually when I'm doing acquisition, what's nice is I can take it based on, hey, this is what your current price is.
364
00:25:00.569 --> 00:25:01.650
This is what you're currently making.
365
00:25:01.890 --> 00:25:09.235
But then I know if I can raise prices by 20% and only 5% or 6% of people leave, I can immediately basically recoup the cost of capital.
366
00:25:10.315 --> 00:25:18.742
That's why – this is why when it comes to buying out other businesses, assuming they have a good product and you can retain all their customers and you have a better product.
367
00:25:18.762 --> 00:25:20.603
So usually you can upgrade service somehow.
368
00:25:20.923 --> 00:25:27.188
That's when it makes a lot of sense because usually what we'll do is we'll say, hey, we'll buy your client list.
369
00:25:27.248 --> 00:25:33.833
We know immediately even if we finance that, I just need to raise prices by 15% or so, and if I can just keep them for about two to three months –
370
00:25:34.213 --> 00:25:38.296
at their current price and then raise them, they won't leave because they've seen the increase in service.
371
00:25:38.657 --> 00:25:40.598
Like we answered the phone 24 seven, all this other stuff.
372
00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:44.401
And so from an acquisition perspective, that's kind of how we look at it.
373
00:25:45.182 --> 00:25:45.402
Sure.
374
00:25:46.343 --> 00:25:47.204
But where is your base?
375
00:25:47.564 --> 00:25:49.586
Where do you, where do you get your pricing?
376
00:25:49.946 --> 00:26:01.095
You know, as far as like, you know, some, say I'm just starting out, which I'm not, but say I'm just starting out and somebody is like, you know, a lot of these guys, it's an easy point of entry.
377
00:26:01.115 --> 00:26:03.477
So they'll start the business and they, they have like,
378
00:26:04.554 --> 00:26:05.716
super cheap pricing.
379
00:26:06.316 --> 00:26:06.496
Yeah.
380
00:26:06.777 --> 00:26:23.776
Where would, if somebody was just starting out, I mean, obviously your overhead is going to be, you know, a lot less than somebody that's been going for a while, but if you wanted to be comparable, you know, where, where's that, where's that price at?
381
00:26:23.896 --> 00:26:25.078
If you, if you were to compare,
382
00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:32.548
you know, with all the locations that you have, all the markets that you have, where do you see the price being?
383
00:26:32.628 --> 00:26:43.601
I mean, I know what it should be, but I don't believe that customers are willing to pay where it should be.
384
00:26:44.803 --> 00:26:45.304
Two things.
385
00:26:45.964 --> 00:26:46.805
Yeah, so two things.
386
00:26:46.985 --> 00:26:50.066
So first off, in terms of our minimum, there's locations that are as low as 40.
387
00:26:50.186 --> 00:26:57.570
There's ones that are as high as 90 for their initial – like first time – or not first time, base price for Moeke.
388
00:26:57.590 --> 00:26:58.971
100% comes down to close ratio.
389
00:26:59.311 --> 00:27:02.233
So like right now, what's your close ratio do you think just on average?
390
00:27:03.193 --> 00:27:05.514
Well, we've had a lot of issues with leads.
391
00:27:05.594 --> 00:27:09.757
So, I mean, we're probably looking at 20%, 30%.
392
00:27:11.208 --> 00:27:11.348
Yep.
393
00:27:11.748 --> 00:27:20.054
So assuming that we've fixed all holes in the sales process, including speed to lead, follow up phone calls and everything else, assume that for a moment.
394
00:27:20.474 --> 00:27:21.715
And I'm like, it's because of price.
395
00:27:21.935 --> 00:27:23.616
Let's assume that that's a big assumption.
396
00:27:23.796 --> 00:27:25.477
Let's make that assumption.
397
00:27:26.178 --> 00:27:31.562
Then it's a function of how price sensitive is someone, because if I can reduce their price by 20 percent.
398
00:27:32.562 --> 00:27:34.543
And let's just call it $15 or $20.
399
00:27:34.943 --> 00:27:39.984
Keep them for several months, but then upsell them three other services and increase their lifetime value by three times.
400
00:27:40.184 --> 00:27:46.685
So instead of $1,000 a year, I get them on $4,000 a year because I sell them an upfront package, a cleanup, and winter services, for example.
401
00:27:47.786 --> 00:27:52.047
I can make sense of the loss leader for the first three months.
402
00:27:52.447 --> 00:27:54.947
So I would really test what your price is.
403
00:27:54.987 --> 00:27:57.388
If you bring that number down, what's your close ratio do?
404
00:27:58.308 --> 00:28:12.035
Because if you can bring that price down to, say, $45,000, and all of a sudden you have this massive uptick to 60% close rate, I would do that deal, and in three months after serving them, getting them on three other services, making you very sticky.
405
00:28:12.975 --> 00:28:17.297
Also, mowing is usually in that market not your winner in terms of profitability.
406
00:28:17.698 --> 00:28:19.519
You're going to get them on four other things, though, that are.
407
00:28:20.519 --> 00:28:24.161
And then down the road, raise their price once all the services are with you.
408
00:28:24.702 --> 00:28:25.502
They love your service.
409
00:28:25.522 --> 00:28:26.683
You're doing a great job.
410
00:28:26.943 --> 00:28:28.504
And now their expectations are higher.
411
00:28:28.524 --> 00:28:32.907
The reason that they're going to compare you to everyone else in terms of price is because their expectation for a landscapers is so low.
412
00:28:33.908 --> 00:28:45.555
If you can beat that out to where you can actually beat your competition on service, whether it be admin speed, whatever it might be, if you can beat them out, then when they go compare you against a cheaper person, they have actually something to compare you to.
413
00:28:45.896 --> 00:28:47.337
They don't know what good looks like.
414
00:28:48.217 --> 00:28:48.658
I got you.
415
00:28:48.938 --> 00:28:49.298
I got you.
416
00:28:49.518 --> 00:28:50.179
Yeah, that makes sense.
417
00:28:50.419 --> 00:28:53.462
This is why you'll see stuff online about Augusta, but how we're like the low price.
418
00:28:53.482 --> 00:28:55.485
We come in and we buy people out for cheap.
419
00:28:55.885 --> 00:28:58.268
The reason is because I know most people don't know what it looks like.
420
00:28:58.308 --> 00:28:59.529
They'll compare us on price.
421
00:28:59.969 --> 00:29:00.830
I'll get in the door.
422
00:29:01.231 --> 00:29:02.592
I'll prove that we do a really good job.
423
00:29:02.612 --> 00:29:04.054
And then when I raise prices, no one leaves.
424
00:29:04.952 --> 00:29:05.172
Yeah.
425
00:29:06.313 --> 00:29:09.096
And it's not a function of- Because they don't want to deal with the other company.
426
00:29:09.356 --> 00:29:16.302
Yeah, they realized that at the last five companies that they did switch because of cheaper prices, all had to leave every year or they couldn't get their phone calls answered.
427
00:29:16.502 --> 00:29:17.143
Now that doesn't happen.
428
00:29:17.163 --> 00:29:18.564
They don't even think about it because the cards are filed.
429
00:29:18.584 --> 00:29:19.325
They have automations.
430
00:29:19.605 --> 00:29:23.028
These are the type of things like they start to actually realize the value of a premium service.
431
00:29:23.268 --> 00:29:25.990
And if they don't, the 5%, 6% that are going to leave, great.
432
00:29:26.511 --> 00:29:31.075
I will then take all the extra profit, put it into marketing, and recoup those customers in a matter of a few weeks.
433
00:29:31.835 --> 00:29:32.596
Right, I got you.
434
00:29:32.736 --> 00:29:32.996
Okay.
435
00:29:33.416 --> 00:29:34.117
I mean, that's fair.
436
00:29:34.137 --> 00:29:46.005
I like that thought because, you know, it's something that I've been like sticking on, you know, with our, one, our close ratio and two, you know, yeah, the lead problem that we're working with.
437
00:29:46.411 --> 00:30:02.160
you know, towards, I think it has something to do with, you know, SEO and, and just being, there's a, there's a lot of few, a lot of issues that I'm working to fix, but it was, you know, it's something that I was, you know, trying to think of, you know, work on.
438
00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:02.260
So.
439
00:30:03.781 --> 00:30:05.982
Yeah, man, like, definitely, I would test that out.
440
00:30:06.122 --> 00:30:25.466
And then next year, when we go on our on the momentum call, we'll be on this kind of similar style, you know, check back with me in terms of how those did what that close rate, it's gonna take quite a bit of tagging, like, hey, this is the entry level people in that we got, we gave them the lower offer, you're gonna have to do them in tandem to you can't say like, hey, we're changing prices for this month.
441
00:30:25.786 --> 00:30:30.267
Well, the seasonality of this industry makes it impossible to compare against next month in terms of close rate.
442
00:30:30.547 --> 00:30:31.788
So you're gonna have to do in tandem.
443
00:30:32.328 --> 00:30:32.508
Okay,
444
00:30:32.948 --> 00:30:34.669
We're going to do literally a split test.
445
00:30:34.990 --> 00:30:38.872
Every other time that phone call, if it's an odd number at the end, we're doing this price.
446
00:30:38.952 --> 00:30:40.313
If it's an even number, we're doing this price.
447
00:30:40.554 --> 00:30:41.995
So we can split test close rate.
448
00:30:42.515 --> 00:30:47.539
So just as a side note, you're going to have to do the A-B test in the same time.
449
00:30:47.699 --> 00:30:50.020
And Copilot, does Copilot have that ability?
450
00:30:50.601 --> 00:30:50.981
Tag them.
451
00:30:51.061 --> 00:30:51.842
Yep, just tag them.
452
00:30:52.102 --> 00:30:52.862
Oh, tag them.
453
00:30:52.942 --> 00:30:53.443
Tags, okay.
454
00:30:53.463 --> 00:30:53.663
Okay.
455
00:30:53.843 --> 00:30:58.086
Yeah, I would tell my admin person, like, hey, if it's an even number, this is the pricing sheet.
456
00:30:58.166 --> 00:31:01.288
If it's the odd number, we're doing this one, and then I do it for one month.
457
00:31:01.548 --> 00:31:06.792
And let's just say you have 30 leads in both, you should be able to pretty quickly know, like, is price actually moving the needle?
458
00:31:07.715 --> 00:31:09.076
Yeah, gotcha.
459
00:31:09.276 --> 00:31:11.418
And then, again, we are jumping a lot of conclusions.
460
00:31:11.598 --> 00:31:13.019
The sales process is completely dialed in.
461
00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:19.025
We also have a really good onboarding activation to be able to get them from one service into three.
462
00:31:19.565 --> 00:31:21.046
That would be the first place I'd be looking.
463
00:31:21.266 --> 00:31:23.829
Because if you can do that, I don't care about your 25% close rate.
464
00:31:24.109 --> 00:31:29.033
If you're able to make a customer so valuable that you take some of that money, throw it back in the marketing machine, and get another lead.
465
00:31:29.053 --> 00:31:29.153
Yeah.
466
00:31:29.847 --> 00:31:30.407
Right, yeah.
467
00:31:31.048 --> 00:31:31.528
Absolutely.
468
00:31:31.548 --> 00:31:39.573
So I think there's a lot of juice on both ends of it, but if you're just looking at the actual yes-no close rate, I do think that pricing is an easy lever to test.
469
00:31:40.333 --> 00:31:40.773
I got you.
470
00:31:41.154 --> 00:31:41.414
Okay.
471
00:31:42.274 --> 00:31:42.715
You got it, man.
472
00:31:42.755 --> 00:31:44.135
All right, last question of the day.
473
00:31:44.236 --> 00:31:45.076
Aaron, you got it.
474
00:31:46.037 --> 00:31:46.597
Hey, can you hear me?
475
00:31:47.650 --> 00:31:48.812
Okay.
476
00:31:48.952 --> 00:31:49.934
My name is Aaron Blaska.
477
00:31:49.974 --> 00:31:52.377
I run Blaska Landscaping in Spokane, Washington.
478
00:31:52.417 --> 00:31:54.721
We've been in business for four years.
479
00:31:55.462 --> 00:32:02.071
We do a lot of projects, a little bit of maintenance, mostly for a property management company that we have a relationship with.
480
00:32:03.132 --> 00:32:08.216
Next year, want to do more maintenance outside of the property management company and drop them for multiple reasons.
481
00:32:09.477 --> 00:32:14.721
I have two questions, one being fall cleanups and advertising.
482
00:32:14.761 --> 00:32:17.603
We've been lucky enough, and I hate to be that guy, but –
483
00:32:18.990 --> 00:32:19.550
All word of mouth.
484
00:32:19.570 --> 00:32:21.792
We've never spent a dollar on advertising.
485
00:32:21.852 --> 00:32:23.573
I sold advertising for many, many years.
486
00:32:23.633 --> 00:32:24.954
So I understand it.
487
00:32:24.974 --> 00:32:39.642
I know the value and we're going to get there next year, but the immediate need for fall cleanups now for the next three, four weeks, depending on when snow falls in our area, I would like to do four or five fall cleanups per day as soon as next week.
488
00:32:40.042 --> 00:32:41.763
So we're going to throw some money on the fire.
489
00:32:41.983 --> 00:32:42.884
I'm probably, um,
490
00:32:43.644 --> 00:32:45.925
Google LSA and Facebook ads.
491
00:32:46.685 --> 00:32:48.986
And my wife does all of the content.
492
00:32:49.026 --> 00:32:50.586
She was in marketing for years as well.
493
00:32:50.686 --> 00:32:57.328
So I'm curious for that lead count, how much fuel should we put on the fire, so to speak?
494
00:32:57.488 --> 00:32:58.608
And should we do both?
495
00:32:58.728 --> 00:33:00.349
And if so, how much?
496
00:33:01.429 --> 00:33:01.629
Cool.
497
00:33:02.149 --> 00:33:04.870
So your last sentence, you broke up.
498
00:33:05.030 --> 00:33:09.491
When you said something, something much, did you say Facebook ads?
499
00:33:10.472 --> 00:33:12.052
Yeah, Facebook and Google LSA.
500
00:33:12.924 --> 00:33:13.104
Cool.
501
00:33:13.244 --> 00:33:13.464
All right.
502
00:33:13.764 --> 00:33:17.285
And so you're wondering what your budget is to be able to get enough leads to basically fill the schedule.
503
00:33:17.905 --> 00:33:18.265
Correct.
504
00:33:18.325 --> 00:33:18.506
Cool.
505
00:33:18.746 --> 00:33:21.566
So you basically have for four weeks, you're going to do four a day.
506
00:33:21.626 --> 00:33:24.727
So we're looking at, let's just call it 80 leads you need.
507
00:33:25.427 --> 00:33:25.688
Right.
508
00:33:25.708 --> 00:33:26.068
80 jobs.
509
00:33:26.248 --> 00:33:26.368
Yes.
510
00:33:26.388 --> 00:33:26.828
80 jobs.
511
00:33:27.228 --> 00:33:28.928
Okay, let's assume a 33% close rate.
512
00:33:28.968 --> 00:33:29.809
So you need 240 leads.
513
00:33:32.510 --> 00:33:32.770
Okay.
514
00:33:33.450 --> 00:33:45.256
And then this simply comes down to like, if someone has this, the chops on Facebook, because if you're marketing for leaf cleanup, when there are leafs on the ground, you can get leads for under $10.
515
00:33:46.337 --> 00:33:46.617
Right.
516
00:33:46.637 --> 00:33:50.659
And so like, it's simply like, I would personally do a three prong approach.
517
00:33:50.699 --> 00:33:51.639
I would do DMS.
518
00:33:52.040 --> 00:33:53.660
I would do Facebook lead forms.
519
00:33:53.961 --> 00:33:56.082
I would do conversion tracking on your website.
520
00:33:56.822 --> 00:33:57.662
Is your website great?
521
00:33:57.722 --> 00:33:58.803
Like, are you really good at that?
522
00:34:00.180 --> 00:34:00.921
Uh, we're all right.
523
00:34:01.021 --> 00:34:04.224
I mean, there's some optimization that we need to do on the techie side.
524
00:34:04.404 --> 00:34:05.886
I mean, it looks good, right?
525
00:34:06.286 --> 00:34:09.329
Um, it looks professional.
526
00:34:09.409 --> 00:34:11.290
Um, at the top.
527
00:34:11.591 --> 00:34:11.771
Yep.
528
00:34:12.111 --> 00:34:12.311
Yep.
529
00:34:12.592 --> 00:34:12.912
Cool.
530
00:34:13.052 --> 00:34:13.953
So I would do all three.
531
00:34:14.253 --> 00:34:14.994
I would do all three.
532
00:34:15.414 --> 00:34:22.300
Um, make sure there's tracking code in your thank you page for your, your form, but like a send message DM, like DM us and we'll get you a quote.
533
00:34:22.841 --> 00:34:23.321
We'll crush.
534
00:34:24.703 --> 00:34:29.828
you can then make a bot that when they DM you, it sends them a link, for example, or tells them to do something.
535
00:34:30.168 --> 00:34:32.451
So if you make like an instant quote style, you can do that.
536
00:34:34.333 --> 00:34:44.964
But in my opinion, if you're trying to get 240 leads, if you average it out, let's just call it $30 per, you're probably looking at $6,000 to $7,000 if you're trying to fill the schedule for an entire month.
537
00:34:45.484 --> 00:34:56.832
But if that generates, let's call it 70 grand and you have a 10 X return on a return on ad spend in terms of revenue, but then more importantly, you get those 60 or 70 customers do now 30 of them become mowing customers.
538
00:34:57.333 --> 00:34:58.373
That's where the real value is.
539
00:34:59.274 --> 00:35:04.238
So when you're doing this blitz, like you're about to do, it's not, it's not the money you're going to make in the next six, six weeks.
540
00:35:04.938 --> 00:35:09.842
It's the fact that if I can convert half of them into a recurring service or something else next year, that's when I start to make money.
541
00:35:10.662 --> 00:35:12.624
And so I would grease the gears of your offer and,
542
00:35:13.484 --> 00:35:18.368
I would use the pain point of leaves as a way to hook them in, but I would attach it to something else.
543
00:35:19.169 --> 00:35:23.312
So for example, in Spokane, you have a very harsh winter and then spring kicks in.
544
00:35:23.932 --> 00:35:34.300
I would do something along the lines of if you get your fall cleanup, you get like a winterization for free or you get your spring cleanup for free or like you get a discount spring or you get like priority.
545
00:35:34.420 --> 00:35:36.202
Like I would make sure you have a really good offer.
546
00:35:36.722 --> 00:35:39.924
That will be the difference between a $30 and $40 cost per lead and 10 to 15.
547
00:35:40.745 --> 00:35:42.506
Do you think the offer could be
548
00:35:43.765 --> 00:35:44.105
Totally.
549
00:35:44.466 --> 00:35:44.986
Sorry to interrupt.
550
00:35:45.006 --> 00:35:54.912
Do you think the offer is good enough if we're trying to get recurring mows for next year through these one-time clients, right?
551
00:35:55.313 --> 00:36:00.656
Could it be as if you get a fall cleanup this year, you get the first mow for free next year?
552
00:36:00.676 --> 00:36:04.539
Because then that's already leading them into the pipeline for ongoing services, right?
553
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:04.659
Yeah.
554
00:36:05.407 --> 00:36:06.948
Yeah, the challenging part is two things.
555
00:36:07.288 --> 00:36:10.510
One, it's so far away they don't even think about mowing great grass right now.
556
00:36:10.530 --> 00:36:11.030
Totally.
557
00:36:11.050 --> 00:36:12.491
They want to address the immediate pain.
558
00:36:12.911 --> 00:36:19.155
So the only thing that right now we see this working well in terms of offer is a free core aeration or a free winterization of their lawn.
559
00:36:19.495 --> 00:36:21.516
You know your cost of goods on that is so low.
560
00:36:21.797 --> 00:36:24.938
It's actually cheaper than a free lawn mowing because their labor is so much less.
561
00:36:25.839 --> 00:36:30.882
And while you're doing the fall cleanup, you get the stinking winterization spread on the lawn.
562
00:36:31.853 --> 00:36:32.874
Or the air raid or whatever.
563
00:36:33.255 --> 00:36:36.940
So their cost of goods are really low on it, and you can beef up the value.
564
00:36:36.980 --> 00:36:44.190
So, hey, you're going to get $199 treatment for free if you just sign up for this service, and we have four spots remaining, right?
565
00:36:44.210 --> 00:36:48.696
Okay, so aerating would be the only thing that we could do because…
566
00:36:50.582 --> 00:36:55.968
Most of, at least in Spokane, people get it done before November for winterization for the sprinklers, right?
567
00:36:56.088 --> 00:37:01.273
So maybe it's aerating for free is the move until the first hard freeze.
568
00:37:02.694 --> 00:37:09.221
And so $6,000 to $7,000 spend over the next four weeks, so about $1,500 a month, if not a little north of that, right?
569
00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:17.368
Yeah, it's mostly going to be the fact that when the lead's on the ground, your cost per lead will be 20% compared to once the leads are gone.
570
00:37:17.628 --> 00:37:23.915
As much as we want to say, yes, it's over the next three months, I would say you literally have two to three weeks of acute pain where your cost per lead is low.
571
00:37:24.355 --> 00:37:27.179
Because demand is inverse of customer acquisition cost.
572
00:37:27.559 --> 00:37:30.883
So when demand starts going down, your customer acquisition cost will go through the roof.
573
00:37:31.503 --> 00:37:40.089
So in my opinion, you actually need to – this is why most people can't spend this kind of money and do what you're trying to do is they don't know how to deploy $6,000 to $7,000 in the next few weeks.
574
00:37:41.089 --> 00:37:42.630
Right, right.
575
00:37:42.971 --> 00:37:44.211
Yeah, that's not a problem for us.
576
00:37:44.632 --> 00:37:45.172
Okay, cool.
577
00:37:45.372 --> 00:37:46.993
That's why I kind of crossed those bridges.
578
00:37:47.013 --> 00:37:49.535
I feel like you have the chops to know how to do the ad stuff.
579
00:37:50.420 --> 00:37:51.201
Totally.
580
00:37:51.421 --> 00:37:53.002
So that's six to seven grand.
581
00:37:53.042 --> 00:37:56.644
So let's just say we beef it up, put the fuel on the fire, leaves are falling right now.
582
00:37:56.664 --> 00:37:58.966
There's still some hanging, but people are thinking about it.
583
00:37:59.066 --> 00:38:09.353
So probably do like three grand the first two weeks and then the second two weeks, lessen it down to $1,500 to $2,000 because the cost per lead is going to be higher, right?
584
00:38:10.154 --> 00:38:10.294
Yep.
585
00:38:10.454 --> 00:38:11.375
Do you guys do Christmas lights?
586
00:38:12.350 --> 00:38:15.113
We don't – I don't want the liability, to be honest.
587
00:38:15.133 --> 00:38:16.534
We're not there right now.
588
00:38:16.834 --> 00:38:23.040
I'm just trying to figure out if there was something else in terms of either winter services or Christmas lights because those also work because it's top of mind.
589
00:38:23.460 --> 00:38:23.980
Totally.
590
00:38:24.040 --> 00:38:28.945
So one thing that you could do in the next two weeks is you could do the whole pumpkins on their front porch.
591
00:38:29.225 --> 00:38:30.166
Right.
592
00:38:30.206 --> 00:38:30.306
Yeah.
593
00:38:32.788 --> 00:38:37.191
Things like that that you could package in with the fall cleanup as just an idea.
594
00:38:38.232 --> 00:38:45.818
If you spend $20 on pumpkins and are able to get a few cool-looking ones for them and say, hey, you get this for free, they put a wreath on their door, something really simple.
595
00:38:46.298 --> 00:38:51.902
You know, a wreath might cost you $20 or $30, but that's going to be just the same cost if you give them a free treatment, right?
596
00:38:51.922 --> 00:38:56.225
So, like, you just got to figure out what makes sense to someone and what sounds best to them.
597
00:38:56.366 --> 00:38:58.927
The value prop of a treatment usually can be, like, $199.
598
00:38:59.328 --> 00:39:00.949
So usually that's, like, a good offer.
599
00:39:01.838 --> 00:39:02.058
Okay.
600
00:39:02.319 --> 00:39:02.539
Okay.
601
00:39:02.679 --> 00:39:03.060
Perfect.
602
00:39:03.160 --> 00:39:07.785
And then, um, was, I'm sorry to go back to the 6,000 to $7,000 spend.
603
00:39:07.805 --> 00:39:11.830
Is that all on Facebook or is that spread between Google LSA and Facebook?
604
00:39:12.850 --> 00:39:14.690
LSA is not, you're not gonna be able to spend that much money.
605
00:39:15.010 --> 00:39:18.351
Even if you put a thousand dollars a week, it'll spend two to 300 max max.
606
00:39:19.231 --> 00:39:21.672
And so I don't think you're gonna be able to spend that much money there.
607
00:39:21.972 --> 00:39:24.512
You could do some on Google ads where it's keyword based.
608
00:39:24.732 --> 00:39:26.053
You could probably put some more money there.
609
00:39:26.333 --> 00:39:30.934
That would help with not having to overburden Facebook and within a matter of a couple of weeks.
610
00:39:31.254 --> 00:39:32.814
So I'd probably do Google and I'd do Facebook.
611
00:39:33.374 --> 00:39:38.015
I would do in Facebook, I would do DM, lead forms, and then conversion tracking.
612
00:39:38.735 --> 00:40:07.205
um and after one week i would take whichever those three is working and put all my money towards it okay okay um because i know you're from bellingham so how how often do you see people doing fall cleanups um do they go like mid-december i mean it really just kind of depends right like first snowfall i'm i'm presuming is is the need yep yep up until then yep okay um and second uh go ahead i'm sorry
613
00:40:07.940 --> 00:40:11.883
It drops off after Thanksgiving because people are trying to get their property looking good before that.
614
00:40:12.143 --> 00:40:16.206
So I think you have two weeks to three weeks of selling, and then you can deliver on it later.
615
00:40:16.226 --> 00:40:20.009
Because if it's two days for Thanksgiving, they know they're not getting their leave done.
616
00:40:20.390 --> 00:40:21.190
But that's what they want.
617
00:40:22.091 --> 00:40:23.011
Right.
618
00:40:23.852 --> 00:40:25.373
One other idea is for a hook is we –
619
00:40:28.926 --> 00:40:44.903
We do landscape lighting, not Christmas lights, but now's the time of the year that's super easy to do it laying low voltage lighting and installing those lights and it's getting darker sooner so have you ever seen any of your locations selling that during this time of the year as an alternative to Christmas lights.
620
00:40:46.092 --> 00:40:52.000
I really like the – if you can do that, yes, you're going up against the freeze.
621
00:40:52.020 --> 00:40:52.681
That's sometimes tough.
622
00:40:52.701 --> 00:40:55.144
People aren't thinking about landscape lighting as much.
623
00:40:56.186 --> 00:40:57.307
So your demand is low.
624
00:40:57.547 --> 00:41:02.614
But what you might want to think about if you're doing already low voltage is the shining the light on their house.
625
00:41:03.415 --> 00:41:05.277
That's the new thing for Christmas lights.
626
00:41:05.678 --> 00:41:10.884
I would also say you could probably just go ahead and throw that in as an incentive for a fall cleanup.
627
00:41:10.904 --> 00:41:11.765
Hey, get a fall cleanup.
628
00:41:11.965 --> 00:41:16.390
We'll make your property look amazing, and then we'll light up your house for the entire next two months.
629
00:41:16.711 --> 00:41:17.772
We'll come pick it up in January.
630
00:41:18.711 --> 00:41:19.011
Right.
631
00:41:19.351 --> 00:41:19.591
Okay.
632
00:41:19.851 --> 00:41:20.031
Yeah.
633
00:41:20.131 --> 00:41:20.732
That's a good offer.
634
00:41:21.752 --> 00:41:23.172
And then I don't want to take everybody's time.
635
00:41:23.192 --> 00:41:24.213
I want to be cognizant.
636
00:41:24.433 --> 00:41:25.693
Second, second question.
637
00:41:25.773 --> 00:41:30.115
And my last comment is we use a crew control right now.
638
00:41:30.135 --> 00:41:33.856
We don't use co-pilot primarily for the reason it's super fricking cheap.
639
00:41:33.936 --> 00:41:35.076
It's $50 per crew.
640
00:41:35.696 --> 00:41:41.138
So we spend a hundred dollars a month and, but there's not a lot of the tools that co-pilot from what I've
641
00:41:41.836 --> 00:41:50.088
research offers, right, like the drip campaigns, but we don't really have a lot of recurring customers, but that will change next year.
642
00:41:50.108 --> 00:41:58.440
That's why we want to have P4P and co-pigrated within our business, and we're starting to get those foundational items.
643
00:41:59.560 --> 00:42:06.683
So I'm just kind of dropping this as what's the best way for us to be able to see Copilot.
644
00:42:06.703 --> 00:42:13.405
I've talked to Christian already, and we have a call scheduled, but I haven't really seen a lot of the nuts and bolts within the program.
645
00:42:14.106 --> 00:42:19.948
I know that you guys are offering for P4P to try it for free for the next two, three months.
646
00:42:20.208 --> 00:42:25.630
So I'm curious if like getting inside of the system, being able to play around with it, see how it works is an option.
647
00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:27.119
Yeah, it's free.
648
00:42:27.239 --> 00:42:30.581
You can put up to 50 people inside Copa and not pay anything.
649
00:42:31.501 --> 00:42:31.781
Oh, wow.
650
00:42:31.982 --> 00:42:32.782
Okay, I didn't know that.
651
00:42:32.942 --> 00:42:34.203
Okay, well, perfect.
652
00:42:34.563 --> 00:42:35.563
I appreciate your time.
653
00:42:36.044 --> 00:42:37.524
Yeah, I would definitely just do the 50.
654
00:42:37.604 --> 00:42:40.185
You can integrate with P4P, see how the numbers come over.
655
00:42:40.606 --> 00:42:42.727
I would watch the videos, etc.
656
00:42:43.427 --> 00:42:49.210
The thing I will say is the reason you're spending money on ads right now is because of the lack of software.
657
00:42:50.010 --> 00:43:00.415
So like if I was you, like the reason we don't spend this kind of blitz that you're doing right now is because we are simply going to have a text blasts incrementally over the next four weeks.
658
00:43:00.735 --> 00:43:06.839
And I get hit every single one of those four offers we just talked about, Christmas lights, snow, winter services, treatment.
659
00:43:06.919 --> 00:43:09.520
I'm going to hit them all, and I don't pay anything extra.
660
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.525
So what kind of like we talked about earlier in the call is like, this is renting versus owning.
661
00:43:14.806 --> 00:43:24.797
And I would say the renting that you're paying to Facebook and Google right now over the next three weeks is the cost of not being able to text and email all these customers in one click and then track those campaigns.
662
00:43:25.217 --> 00:43:27.860
And so I know it's from a cost perspective, very different.
663
00:43:28.901 --> 00:43:30.063
But one text message is,
664
00:43:30.643 --> 00:43:53.230
from from copilot right now is free eventually we'll have to charge for text credits um but like one text blast to all of your customers right now would probably get you 20 or 30 customers and you're trying to only get 80 to 90 like how many people in your contact database that you think you have right now aaron uh since we don't do recurring and we mostly do projects it's probably our rolodex i would say is two three hundred um
665
00:43:55.392 --> 00:44:05.802
40 of those being just recurring with the property management company that their properties are just ghetto.
666
00:44:05.822 --> 00:44:09.045
I'll be frank, but they they pay a ridiculous amount of money.
667
00:44:09.225 --> 00:44:13.750
Like I charge seventy five dollars to one hundred fifteen dollars for each service.
668
00:44:15.071 --> 00:44:19.655
115 on the north side for bi-weeklies because it's just not really a huge focus of our business.
669
00:44:19.735 --> 00:44:27.222
Next year, on the other hand, I'm glad the gentleman, I believe it was Aaron who mentioned how much to charge, 40 to 45 for a mo.
670
00:44:27.242 --> 00:44:33.067
Like we're double that right now, but to make a splash in the market and actually get customers and actually have a full-time crew or two
671
00:44:34.147 --> 00:44:35.748
We're going to have to lower that cost.
672
00:44:35.808 --> 00:44:40.351
But a lot of the competition that we've been seeing in Spokane, some people are charging that $75 to $90.
673
00:44:40.391 --> 00:44:46.615
And I think you just have to have a good hook, line and sinker as to why you're different from the truck.
674
00:44:47.515 --> 00:44:47.855
What is it?
675
00:44:48.036 --> 00:44:48.636
What's the saying?
676
00:44:50.257 --> 00:44:52.458
Something in the truck, Joe in a truck or whatever.
677
00:44:53.499 --> 00:44:54.059
Chuck in the truck.
678
00:44:54.539 --> 00:44:54.820
Yeah.
679
00:44:54.980 --> 00:44:55.380
So, yeah.
680
00:44:56.580 --> 00:45:01.002
We're just not there right now because we're mostly doing $30,000 to $50,000 projects.
681
00:45:01.102 --> 00:45:04.503
And it's me and one other guy, and we did $500,000 this year, right?
682
00:45:04.543 --> 00:45:16.107
But next year, I see it as a good training opportunity for the maintenance, get two guys in one maintenance truck, see one of the two who is willing to make it a career, go into the new construction side.
683
00:45:16.187 --> 00:45:18.608
So that's kind of the way we're organizing.
684
00:45:20.428 --> 00:45:21.730
how our growth is going to be.
685
00:45:22.230 --> 00:45:25.134
And anyways, I've taken way too much time.
686
00:45:25.214 --> 00:45:26.115
So you're good.
687
00:45:26.395 --> 00:45:26.655
You're good.
688
00:45:27.236 --> 00:45:27.496
Good stuff.
689
00:45:27.516 --> 00:45:28.678
Well, thank you all for being here.
690
00:45:28.878 --> 00:45:32.862
Do make sure, especially Aaron, make sure you sign up for the Black Friday event.
691
00:45:33.343 --> 00:45:41.212
What you're talking about right now, like switching from that project base to the recurring side, like I go in extreme detail on that event and then the book that's coming out.
692
00:45:41.632 --> 00:45:43.113
So definitely be on there.
693
00:45:43.314 --> 00:45:45.815
A lot of the tools inside of Copilot I talk about in the book.
694
00:45:45.856 --> 00:45:47.997
So you can actually directly use them.
695
00:45:48.057 --> 00:45:51.820
Things like the texting blast, the email stuff, exactly how to format that stuff.
696
00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:53.121
So please be on that.
697
00:45:53.161 --> 00:45:53.882
It'll be useful.
698
00:45:53.902 --> 00:45:57.265
And then we also have a bunch of announcements around Copilot of new stuff that's coming out.
699
00:45:58.085 --> 00:45:59.967
So you will want to be on there.
700
00:45:59.987 --> 00:46:00.947
But thank you all for being here.
701
00:46:01.128 --> 00:46:02.849
Thank you for being part of Copilot.
702
00:46:02.909 --> 00:46:05.891
I will see you if you have any other questions on the masterminds every week.
703
00:46:06.292 --> 00:46:09.394
So at the top of the Facebook group, there's a form.
704
00:46:09.634 --> 00:46:10.115
Fill that in.
705
00:46:11.076 --> 00:46:14.706
and I'll answer those every single weekend live on Facebook.
706
00:46:14.726 --> 00:46:15.509
So love you all.
707
00:46:15.689 --> 00:46:17.795
Hope you have a fantastic weekend, and we'll talk soon.