FIRING EMPLOYEES to make Payroll (Landscaping Business)

WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.331 --> 00:00:02.374
Would you rather just not have Jason around right now?
2
00:00:02.775 --> 00:00:03.175
Probably.
3
00:00:03.456 --> 00:00:05.419
This is the Business Turnaround Show.
4
00:00:05.579 --> 00:00:09.384
We have frustrations on our side of things, and I'm sure he has frustrations on his side of things.
5
00:00:09.524 --> 00:00:10.205
Effort stinks.
6
00:00:10.346 --> 00:00:11.047
I need numbers.
7
00:00:11.247 --> 00:00:13.891
Yeah, you're just a number no matter how hard you work.
8
00:00:13.951 --> 00:00:15.613
You're never going to be anything more than a number.
9
00:00:16.494 --> 00:00:19.056
There have definitely been times where I've wanted to get out of the business.
10
00:00:19.196 --> 00:00:23.399
Today, we're in Kansas, visiting Luke and Logan from Warrior Outdoors.
11
00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:25.921
Not a lot of people get to see their brother every day.
12
00:00:26.161 --> 00:00:27.202
But yeah, it's super stressful.
13
00:00:27.442 --> 00:00:30.905
Last year, they did almost $1.3 million in revenue.
14
00:00:31.125 --> 00:00:33.327
And even though sometimes I feel rich, I also feel very poor.
15
00:00:33.707 --> 00:00:34.908
They tend to overthink.
16
00:00:35.309 --> 00:00:37.290
That's how we get stuff done, like really get it done.
17
00:00:37.330 --> 00:00:37.750
So yeah.
18
00:00:37.990 --> 00:00:40.392
But they only have $6,000 in the bank.
19
00:00:40.632 --> 00:00:42.413
We are back to zero again.
20
00:00:42.553 --> 00:00:44.954
Like our payroll has been out of control.
21
00:00:45.094 --> 00:00:47.776
They have over $300,000 worth of loans.
22
00:00:47.916 --> 00:00:49.757
They have a ton of equipment.
23
00:00:49.877 --> 00:00:51.478
That is not where the money in the business is at.
24
00:00:51.598 --> 00:00:53.319
And no one is being held accountable.
25
00:00:53.559 --> 00:00:55.360
Why do you think you can't hold people accountable?
26
00:00:55.820 --> 00:00:56.680
I'm not very good at that.
27
00:00:56.801 --> 00:00:59.262
So you just avoid confrontation and you don't want to tell people what to do.
28
00:00:59.582 --> 00:01:01.002
Luke's gonna be heartbroken, I think.
29
00:01:01.122 --> 00:01:01.583
I'll be okay.
30
00:01:01.683 --> 00:01:02.923
My name is Mike Andes.
31
00:01:03.103 --> 00:01:05.184
I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care.
32
00:01:05.204 --> 00:01:07.104
We have over 180 locations around the world.
33
00:01:07.264 --> 00:01:10.245
He knows how to play the game and I'm not that good at it.
34
00:01:10.445 --> 00:01:11.866
Is Jason the operations manager?
35
00:01:11.946 --> 00:01:13.286
Is Logan the operations manager?
36
00:01:13.346 --> 00:01:14.686
Is Luke the operations manager?
37
00:01:14.706 --> 00:01:15.487
Who's my boss?
38
00:01:15.647 --> 00:01:16.387
It's ridiculous.
39
00:01:16.767 --> 00:01:19.929
I travel the country fixing struggling businesses.
40
00:01:20.189 --> 00:01:24.792
We just said right before this, if we had to right now, given all the information we have, we'd meet and go.
41
00:01:25.193 --> 00:01:25.933
This is the unlock.
42
00:01:26.193 --> 00:01:31.317
Our goal is to give Luke and Logan a strategy to turn around the business in the next six weeks.
43
00:01:31.777 --> 00:01:32.998
This is what I'm so confident on.
44
00:01:33.018 --> 00:01:34.719
If you do this, it'll change everything.
45
00:01:34.979 --> 00:01:37.001
I want them to do it like tomorrow.
46
00:01:37.361 --> 00:01:40.563
From the stressful side of things, I'm totally down for it.
47
00:01:47.853 --> 00:01:51.054
For seven years, I ran the business with my brother.
48
00:01:51.274 --> 00:01:54.435
We were really small, like we had $30,000 or less a year.
49
00:01:54.515 --> 00:01:55.955
Very part-time while we were in school.
50
00:01:56.155 --> 00:02:00.656
I know it's like to be running your business with your brother and there being conflict.
51
00:02:00.896 --> 00:02:05.517
But I don't know what it's like to be running your business with your brother and the business being in debt like it is.
52
00:02:05.837 --> 00:02:09.678
Like when I was living with my brother, we were both making good money while we were in school.
53
00:02:10.018 --> 00:02:14.199
So like 15 grand a pop for each of us, paid our way through college essentially.
54
00:02:14.548 --> 00:02:15.369
Hey guys, how's it going?
55
00:02:15.429 --> 00:02:16.150
Good, how are you doing?
56
00:02:16.190 --> 00:02:17.050
And you're Logan, right?
57
00:02:17.130 --> 00:02:17.371
Yes.
58
00:02:17.591 --> 00:02:18.091
And you're Luke?
59
00:02:18.111 --> 00:02:18.572
Luke, yep.
60
00:02:18.592 --> 00:02:19.352
Good to meet you guys.
61
00:02:19.473 --> 00:02:19.873
Awesome.
62
00:02:19.893 --> 00:02:21.174
Great shop space you got here.
63
00:02:21.254 --> 00:02:23.196
Hi, I'm Logan with Warrior Outdoors.
64
00:02:23.416 --> 00:02:26.319
Currently the maintenance manager, sales manager for maintenance.
65
00:02:26.459 --> 00:02:28.361
I was like 12 or 14.
66
00:02:28.581 --> 00:02:32.785
Like when I started working full time here, I worked for Luke for the first like six years.
67
00:02:33.005 --> 00:02:37.169
I started another like an insurance brokerage company, ran it for like two and a half years.
68
00:02:37.569 --> 00:02:38.250
And then I came back.
69
00:02:38.290 --> 00:02:40.492
So I've been here for about three years in this capacity.
70
00:02:40.612 --> 00:02:43.074
Building a business with someone you trust is always a good idea.
71
00:02:43.334 --> 00:02:50.438
And because family is, there's inherent trust already built, it's a common connection to be like, oh, I'll start a business with that person.
72
00:02:50.458 --> 00:02:51.739
And it's not a bad thing.
73
00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:54.101
There are some great businesses that are built with family members.
74
00:02:54.381 --> 00:02:57.623
There's also a lot of struggle that comes along with it.
75
00:02:57.703 --> 00:02:58.683
My name is Luke Whitlow.
76
00:02:58.803 --> 00:03:01.424
I oversee the design build side of the business.
77
00:03:01.724 --> 00:03:04.345
I started it to like get through college kind of a thing.
78
00:03:04.365 --> 00:03:06.766
I'd come back every weekend and mow and then Logan would help me.
79
00:03:06.946 --> 00:03:08.587
So like for us, it's not a big deal.
80
00:03:08.607 --> 00:03:10.087
Like we have a similar morals.
81
00:03:10.107 --> 00:03:12.068
We have a similar thought process.
82
00:03:12.552 --> 00:03:18.619
and you know how to make everyone mad and everyone's failures and weaknesses and their past and everything that goes into that.
83
00:03:18.679 --> 00:03:20.181
Like when we're on a project together.
84
00:03:20.201 --> 00:03:21.963
Oh, we know the next move.
85
00:03:22.003 --> 00:03:22.904
You don't need to talk.
86
00:03:22.944 --> 00:03:23.785
Like it's crazy.
87
00:03:23.985 --> 00:03:26.008
I bet we'd be three people on a Mo Crew.
88
00:03:26.268 --> 00:03:27.089
Yeah, easily.
89
00:03:27.369 --> 00:03:28.130
It's ridiculous.
90
00:03:28.851 --> 00:03:30.633
Yeah, my wife does all the admin, she's inside.
91
00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:38.188
and to have your wife in the office makes it even more difficult because then you can't go home and disconnect from the chaos.
92
00:03:38.368 --> 00:03:40.190
You have to just keep talking about it.
93
00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:41.271
So how long have you been at the shop?
94
00:03:41.511 --> 00:03:42.973
Been since 2020.
95
00:03:43.113 --> 00:03:45.055
Is that when you got the house or you just started building?
96
00:03:45.075 --> 00:03:48.839
Yeah, we just moved in here before we were running out of our parents' place south of town.
97
00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:50.361
Yeah, that's Luke's house right there.
98
00:03:51.302 --> 00:03:53.883
If you want a tour of that, you might need to give my wife a heads up.
99
00:03:55.124 --> 00:03:58.666
We used to work in the basement before this, and it was awful.
100
00:03:58.806 --> 00:04:01.147
And then there's not a lot of work-life separation.
101
00:04:01.347 --> 00:04:04.229
We'd be working until like 7, 8 at night, and the guys were like, you guys don't work at all.
102
00:04:05.079 --> 00:04:05.959
They just didn't see us.
103
00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:09.461
Yeah, so they did like 1.2, 1.3 million in revenue last year.
104
00:04:09.481 --> 00:04:12.262
It looks like they're on track from like 1.5 this year.
105
00:04:12.442 --> 00:04:15.463
They were at 529 since five months.
106
00:04:15.483 --> 00:04:18.684
Like, they're honestly, they'll do 1.3, 1.4 again this year, honestly.
107
00:04:18.724 --> 00:04:20.405
Unless there's something I'm not seeing.
108
00:04:20.425 --> 00:04:22.586
They might be counting all their money they're earning.
109
00:04:22.606 --> 00:04:25.086
It looks like their accrual and not their cash accounting.
110
00:04:25.307 --> 00:04:26.267
That could be a case.
111
00:04:26.587 --> 00:04:30.031
And so like the past few years, has revenue been about the same or you've been growing pretty quickly?
112
00:04:30.091 --> 00:04:32.593
It's been pretty similar the past few years.
113
00:04:32.753 --> 00:04:35.536
Prior to that, we were doubling revenue year after year.
114
00:04:35.696 --> 00:04:40.761
We got to about the 1.2 mark and have kind of plateaued.
115
00:04:40.781 --> 00:04:43.044
We've gotten gone up and down a little bit this year.
116
00:04:43.064 --> 00:04:44.545
I think we're tracking a little bit better.
117
00:04:44.565 --> 00:04:46.027
I think we'll hit two million.
118
00:04:46.167 --> 00:04:46.367
Yeah.
119
00:04:46.487 --> 00:04:49.190
The second half of the year is where a lot more of the revenue is for you guys then?
120
00:04:49.450 --> 00:04:51.051
Yeah, we had a horrible beginning of the year.
121
00:04:51.071 --> 00:04:51.471
I don't know.
122
00:04:51.591 --> 00:04:54.934
The contract just didn't get signed until like a month later than normal.
123
00:04:55.074 --> 00:04:58.536
So we had about a month late start as far as install and all that kind of stuff.
124
00:04:58.636 --> 00:04:58.896
Okay.
125
00:04:58.936 --> 00:05:00.157
Kansas is a weird place.
126
00:05:00.217 --> 00:05:01.158
It is a weird place.
127
00:05:01.458 --> 00:05:02.539
A lot of landscaping.
128
00:05:02.599 --> 00:05:03.840
Yeah, we're small for that.
129
00:05:03.860 --> 00:05:06.561
There's a, you go like five miles from here, you got Epic.
130
00:05:06.742 --> 00:05:08.343
They're probably 25 million.
131
00:05:08.463 --> 00:05:10.084
Signature's probably 50 million.
132
00:05:10.204 --> 00:05:11.385
Hermes does about 50.
133
00:05:11.465 --> 00:05:13.366
There's a lot of landscaping.
134
00:05:13.466 --> 00:05:14.748
So we keep like our skid loader here.
135
00:05:14.908 --> 00:05:16.590
We have like a mini excavator.
136
00:05:16.830 --> 00:05:19.013
Those are our old fleet of mowers that I'm selling.
137
00:05:19.273 --> 00:05:20.795
My very first stand on was that model.
138
00:05:20.815 --> 00:05:21.576
They run pretty well.
139
00:05:21.596 --> 00:05:22.257
Yeah, they're great.
140
00:05:22.277 --> 00:05:23.118
You've had those since like 2020?
141
00:05:23.138 --> 00:05:25.040
Yeah, some of them are 2018 even.
142
00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:25.401
Really?
143
00:05:25.481 --> 00:05:25.801
Yeah.
144
00:05:25.821 --> 00:05:27.524
They got like 2000 plus hours on them.
145
00:05:27.544 --> 00:05:28.405
Yeah, they're ready to kind of
146
00:05:29.045 --> 00:05:29.666
We moved on.
147
00:05:29.766 --> 00:05:32.628
You guys got all the Vertex's this year then?
148
00:05:32.648 --> 00:05:33.489
Just got them.
149
00:05:33.869 --> 00:05:38.553
We were running all John Deere's and we loved them, but they started breaking.
150
00:05:38.593 --> 00:05:38.874
Really?
151
00:05:38.894 --> 00:05:40.975
So we were kind of at the end of their life.
152
00:05:41.236 --> 00:05:47.721
It's like 45% maintenance and then it's like 20% snow and 30% project time.
153
00:05:48.121 --> 00:05:49.963
They have a ton of equipment.
154
00:05:50.258 --> 00:05:53.279
Was this shop in the back built already when you moved in?
155
00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:54.560
The shop was existing.
156
00:05:54.580 --> 00:05:56.961
We just kind of improved the property a little bit.
157
00:05:57.001 --> 00:06:00.142
And then we just recently brought in our office trailers.
158
00:06:00.563 --> 00:06:02.984
Well, so no problem with the neighbors or anything like that?
159
00:06:03.004 --> 00:06:05.445
Well, so we- Kind of, oh man.
160
00:06:05.585 --> 00:06:06.785
This year is the first time.
161
00:06:06.825 --> 00:06:09.386
This year was the first time it's actually been an issue.
162
00:06:09.506 --> 00:06:11.567
We're working on like rezoning and all that stuff.
163
00:06:11.587 --> 00:06:12.568
So that's been a-
164
00:06:13.228 --> 00:06:13.989
Huge money sucks.
165
00:06:14.009 --> 00:06:15.069
Huge undertaking.
166
00:06:15.089 --> 00:06:15.770
Oh, really?
167
00:06:15.850 --> 00:06:16.190
Yeah.
168
00:06:16.210 --> 00:06:17.071
Just to get it re-zoned?
169
00:06:17.091 --> 00:06:19.432
Yeah, because they made us re-survey everything.
170
00:06:19.512 --> 00:06:21.473
They made us commercial code.
171
00:06:21.493 --> 00:06:23.915
Yeah, we got to get through commercial code and all that stuff.
172
00:06:24.075 --> 00:06:25.596
Did you bring the trailer in after that?
173
00:06:25.876 --> 00:06:26.517
That's what started it.
174
00:06:26.597 --> 00:06:29.338
That's what started it, yeah.
175
00:06:29.539 --> 00:06:31.020
It was a mess when we brought the trailer.
176
00:06:31.540 --> 00:06:31.980
Oh, man.
177
00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:32.961
That stinks.
178
00:06:32.981 --> 00:06:34.442
The county called me and said,
179
00:06:35.002 --> 00:06:36.283
We were doing the wrong thing.
180
00:06:36.763 --> 00:06:37.384
Oh man.
181
00:06:37.584 --> 00:06:39.685
We just figured we were outside of city limits.
182
00:06:40.146 --> 00:06:41.126
We just didn't think about it.
183
00:06:41.306 --> 00:06:42.467
So now we're trying to do it.
184
00:06:42.487 --> 00:06:44.769
I mean, we always try to do things the right way.
185
00:06:45.049 --> 00:06:46.270
This is Jason in the office.
186
00:06:46.290 --> 00:06:47.871
He's our production manager.
187
00:06:48.131 --> 00:06:48.711
He's out there.
188
00:06:48.931 --> 00:06:51.573
And did he just recently start on the production side?
189
00:06:51.653 --> 00:06:52.394
Yeah, this year.
190
00:06:52.494 --> 00:06:53.274
Like three months.
191
00:06:54.015 --> 00:06:54.835
Two or three months in.
192
00:06:54.975 --> 00:06:55.356
What's your name?
193
00:06:55.736 --> 00:06:56.076
Jason.
194
00:06:56.196 --> 00:06:57.157
I'm the operations manager.
195
00:06:57.177 --> 00:06:58.398
So I just had mouth surgery.
196
00:06:58.978 --> 00:06:59.599
You're all good, man.
197
00:06:59.619 --> 00:07:00.799
Don't talk too much right now.
198
00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:07.204
And is Jason, does he kind of go between the crews as well as at the office here, or is he mostly in the office?
199
00:07:07.464 --> 00:07:08.465
A little bit of everything.
200
00:07:08.485 --> 00:07:10.707
He also does some art irrigation.
201
00:07:10.987 --> 00:07:11.667
Are you Alexis?
202
00:07:11.767 --> 00:07:12.128
I am.
203
00:07:12.328 --> 00:07:12.668
I'm Mike.
204
00:07:12.708 --> 00:07:13.288
Good to meet you.
205
00:07:13.308 --> 00:07:14.629
Nice to meet you.
206
00:07:14.669 --> 00:07:15.750
This is the headquarters.
207
00:07:15.830 --> 00:07:15.930
Yeah.
208
00:07:16.030 --> 00:07:16.711
Welcome.
209
00:07:17.511 --> 00:07:20.594
It was a month ago where they did the turnaround application.
210
00:07:21.194 --> 00:07:22.975
This is the middle of Storing Rush.
211
00:07:23.336 --> 00:07:24.897
It should be in a better spot now.
212
00:07:26.229 --> 00:07:26.769
Not about what.
213
00:07:27.370 --> 00:07:31.232
From your all's perspective, where's the current pain like in the business?
214
00:07:31.252 --> 00:07:32.893
Like obviously you've grown a bunch.
215
00:07:33.233 --> 00:07:36.134
This year we've had some unexpected stuff with the county thing.
216
00:07:36.375 --> 00:07:38.236
What do you all currently see as the constraint?
217
00:07:38.456 --> 00:07:41.477
I would say the, before the money to be the people.
218
00:07:41.697 --> 00:07:44.299
Early in the year, we brought on our first manager.
219
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:45.419
And it's Jason.
220
00:07:45.559 --> 00:07:45.740
Yep.
221
00:07:45.900 --> 00:07:47.741
I kind of took over here in February.
222
00:07:48.661 --> 00:07:53.564
When I started to get six guys, we got it up to 19 and I let a couple of those.
223
00:07:53.664 --> 00:07:55.605
Now the group we've got is pretty solid.
224
00:07:55.865 --> 00:07:57.026
We don't have a ton of turnover.
225
00:07:57.286 --> 00:07:58.567
Our culture has gotten a lot better.
226
00:07:58.887 --> 00:08:05.252
Like, we switched to vests, because that's what we decided we wanted to do, and, like, getting them to just wear it.
227
00:08:05.272 --> 00:08:06.493
It was me and Luke managing it.
228
00:08:06.634 --> 00:08:07.514
Like, we had that solved.
229
00:08:07.955 --> 00:08:11.958
Now that Jason's managing all the old bad habits that I had, like, worked really hard to fight.
230
00:08:12.698 --> 00:08:13.939
are coming back.
231
00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:24.266
We have frustrations on our side of things, and I'm sure he has frustrations on his side of things, but I think that overhead is kind of like straining us a little bit, and we're also not really sure how to use a manager and what to expect.
232
00:08:24.446 --> 00:08:26.628
It's just been hard on the follow through side of things.
233
00:08:26.708 --> 00:08:32.792
I'm guessing that's just the expectations with Jason and that whole rule and what that looks like.
234
00:08:33.507 --> 00:08:35.730
Is that like the major kind of thing we need to deal with?
235
00:08:35.750 --> 00:08:36.331
That's my major thing.
236
00:08:36.351 --> 00:08:36.491
Okay.
237
00:08:36.511 --> 00:08:38.193
Because he's my direct guy.
238
00:08:38.213 --> 00:08:38.493
Right.
239
00:08:38.794 --> 00:08:42.058
And so have you basically said to the crew that you report to Jason?
240
00:08:42.238 --> 00:08:42.418
Yeah.
241
00:08:42.679 --> 00:08:42.919
Got it.
242
00:08:42.939 --> 00:08:44.180
And so you've been completely removed.
243
00:08:45.204 --> 00:08:45.564
I should be.
244
00:08:45.845 --> 00:08:46.345
Yes.
245
00:08:46.405 --> 00:08:46.846
Okay.
246
00:08:47.246 --> 00:08:47.587
Got it.
247
00:08:47.607 --> 00:08:49.449
He's very involved in the day to day.
248
00:08:49.529 --> 00:08:49.789
Got it.
249
00:08:49.829 --> 00:08:52.132
Which is tough for both people, Jason and yourself, right?
250
00:08:52.192 --> 00:08:52.432
Yeah.
251
00:08:52.472 --> 00:09:02.984
Before he was here, I was the irrigation tech and it was very difficult to try to manage crews, design, sales, and be out in the field for hours on end fixing irrigation systems.
252
00:09:03.284 --> 00:09:03.464
Right.
253
00:09:03.905 --> 00:09:06.888
You or Jason basically have to be the manager of the job.
254
00:09:07.388 --> 00:09:09.049
It's as irrigation involved.
255
00:09:09.209 --> 00:09:12.010
On your project, most of them have some sort of irrigation involved.
256
00:09:12.531 --> 00:09:13.111
Every project.
257
00:09:13.411 --> 00:09:20.334
Yeah, when I say commercial, a lot of it's estates, like 40 acre houses, all irrigated, big systems.
258
00:09:20.674 --> 00:09:24.376
Okay, so you got maintenance, repairs, as well as even installs.
259
00:09:24.396 --> 00:09:25.056
Right.
260
00:09:25.096 --> 00:09:27.097
And how much of those contracts, is it all commercial?
261
00:09:27.197 --> 00:09:30.419
We're probably 70% commercial, maybe a little bit more.
262
00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:31.599
And then a little bit of residential.
263
00:09:31.619 --> 00:09:31.859
Yeah.
264
00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:35.181
In the business right now, about what, 60% is maintenance?
265
00:09:35.869 --> 00:09:38.430
Yeah, probably a little bit more than that.
266
00:09:38.670 --> 00:09:41.411
I think I've already sold a million dollars in maintenance.
267
00:09:41.891 --> 00:09:42.372
For this year?
268
00:09:42.492 --> 00:09:44.693
For this year so far, but I'm a little million won.
269
00:09:45.373 --> 00:09:48.754
And then Luke has already done a couple few hundred thousand.
270
00:09:48.854 --> 00:09:49.114
Yeah.
271
00:09:49.575 --> 00:09:52.996
We have like three big jobs that are finishing up on install this week too.
272
00:09:53.196 --> 00:09:54.356
So that'll help on the cash crunch.
273
00:09:54.657 --> 00:10:01.119
And then from Alexa's perspective, do they call her throughout the day in terms of like routing, dispatch or anything?
274
00:10:01.239 --> 00:10:01.960
I do all that.
275
00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:02.600
Okay, got it.
276
00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:03.700
You do?
277
00:10:04.020 --> 00:10:04.220
Yes.
278
00:10:04.601 --> 00:10:05.461
So what does Jason do?
279
00:10:07.598 --> 00:10:07.860
Yeah.
280
00:10:07.920 --> 00:10:08.927
Okay.
281
00:10:09.451 --> 00:10:09.974
Two brothers.
282
00:10:11.185 --> 00:10:11.805
working together.
283
00:10:12.245 --> 00:10:13.826
One of them has their wife in the office.
284
00:10:14.246 --> 00:10:16.747
They also seem to have a lot of employees for the amount of revenue they do.
285
00:10:16.767 --> 00:10:19.907
They have up to 20 employees, maybe 1.2, 1.3.
286
00:10:20.207 --> 00:10:29.710
Context, my location that doesn't do projects, just Mowee, did one, just shy of 1.2 last year with about eight to 12 employees.
287
00:10:30.130 --> 00:10:40.733
Doing 1.2 like they did and having between 15 and 20 employees, it's gonna get all sweet, especially when a bunch of that is subcontractor and projects with a bunch of material costs.
288
00:10:41.229 --> 00:10:46.391
If they're having quality control issues, hiring a manager is not a great solution for fixing a problem.
289
00:10:46.551 --> 00:10:53.353
So it just kind of seems odd to me that they hire or like bring in an operations person that's not known.
290
00:10:53.513 --> 00:10:55.673
They have a lot of personal issues.
291
00:10:55.853 --> 00:10:57.434
The money just adds on top of that.
292
00:10:58.374 --> 00:11:01.175
About two years ago, we lost about a half million dollar account.
293
00:11:01.827 --> 00:11:02.708
and that upset us back.
294
00:11:02.908 --> 00:11:03.728
Maintenance contract?
295
00:11:03.749 --> 00:11:04.809
Yeah, maintenance contract.
296
00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:06.611
It was very difficult to recover from.
297
00:11:06.871 --> 00:11:09.053
And they hadn't like totally, they just like, we're just out.
298
00:11:09.293 --> 00:11:12.996
Well, we had had the account for what, eight years prior to that.
299
00:11:13.016 --> 00:11:15.317
So it was kind of like the foundation of the whole business.
300
00:11:15.377 --> 00:11:16.418
Yeah, it absolutely was.
301
00:11:16.458 --> 00:11:18.580
We had grown with them like exponentially.
302
00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:25.185
And so when we lost that account, it definitely had us backpedaling, but we actually were able to make up that revenue.
303
00:11:26.191 --> 00:11:26.612
that year.
304
00:11:27.092 --> 00:11:30.895
When we lost the $300,000 account, I made that up within a couple months.
305
00:11:31.395 --> 00:11:35.579
And then last year, I grew another $400,000 in contracts.
306
00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:37.200
And is that door knocking?
307
00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:38.321
Is that cold emailing?
308
00:11:38.341 --> 00:11:39.142
What are you doing to go?
309
00:11:39.282 --> 00:11:40.723
Yeah, both.
310
00:11:40.743 --> 00:11:43.645
So most of it, I'll go door knocking.
311
00:11:43.665 --> 00:11:45.567
Then there's some big property management companies that
312
00:11:45.927 --> 00:11:47.228
I'll just go after those guys.
313
00:11:47.509 --> 00:11:49.911
I thought we were good beginning of this year.
314
00:11:50.131 --> 00:11:54.415
We were in the best spot we've been in a long time, and then we were back to zero again.
315
00:11:54.475 --> 00:11:58.938
So I've been personally floating the company, but it's definitely been stressful.
316
00:11:59.119 --> 00:12:01.501
And on those projects, how are we collecting it?
317
00:12:01.541 --> 00:12:02.281
50% down?
318
00:12:02.422 --> 00:12:06.785
Yep, 50% deposit, and then the remainder is due upon completion.
319
00:12:06.945 --> 00:12:11.569
And so it's that 50% completion part that if we're over time and all the rest of it, we're just burning it into cash.
320
00:12:11.730 --> 00:12:13.271
Yeah, we're just carrying it basically.
321
00:12:13.431 --> 00:12:16.795
And is it 50% down to secure the job or at start?
322
00:12:16.915 --> 00:12:18.356
Yeah, it's start basically.
323
00:12:18.396 --> 00:12:18.657
Okay.
324
00:12:18.717 --> 00:12:19.237
Is it start though?
325
00:12:19.257 --> 00:12:21.219
Or is it like when they booked the job two or two months?
326
00:12:21.239 --> 00:12:22.080
It's at start.
327
00:12:22.460 --> 00:12:24.222
I want it to be when they booked the job.
328
00:12:24.362 --> 00:12:27.125
And we've had a few people do that, but I haven't been super strict on it.
329
00:12:27.225 --> 00:12:28.967
So are you usually collecting that check?
330
00:12:29.628 --> 00:12:30.168
Yeah.
331
00:12:30.329 --> 00:12:30.509
Yeah.
332
00:12:30.869 --> 00:12:31.129
Okay.
333
00:12:31.650 --> 00:12:32.090
In person?
334
00:12:32.591 --> 00:12:35.474
Yeah, usually in person or they'll pay online or something like that.
335
00:12:35.988 --> 00:12:37.790
Outland projects, you think it's 50-50?
336
00:12:37.890 --> 00:12:41.815
Or what's the split of people paying at start versus when they accept?
337
00:12:41.975 --> 00:12:44.238
I'd say most people pay right before.
338
00:12:44.618 --> 00:12:49.624
So they can accept you, do the whole process, and then as long as they pay before the day of start?
339
00:12:49.664 --> 00:12:49.885
Yeah.
340
00:12:50.172 --> 00:12:53.054
There are four reasons why every business will stop growing.
341
00:12:53.254 --> 00:12:54.896
I call it the 4L framework.
342
00:12:55.036 --> 00:13:01.701
Either you're going to be constrained by your liquidity, cash in the bank, the amount of leads you have, the amount of labor you have, or the leadership in the business.
343
00:13:02.181 --> 00:13:09.067
From a liquidity perspective, I think there's certainly like a cash flow issue, and that's very typical with project-based work.
344
00:13:09.307 --> 00:13:14.568
Whenever you're like, end of this week we will have more money in the account, immediately there's a cash flow problem.
345
00:13:14.708 --> 00:13:21.429
Simply because it's like, we are counting on the job to be completed, when we should have collected all the cost of goods sold prior to the job getting started.
346
00:13:21.569 --> 00:13:23.270
We should never go negative on a project.
347
00:13:23.330 --> 00:13:33.492
Because like, you're going to be profitable on a job, but if we're going below zero for any period of time, well I got, I cut 50% here, then we did the job, and then I ended up making a profit here, right?
348
00:13:33.572 --> 00:13:34.132
We made money.
349
00:13:34.572 --> 00:13:39.558
But if it takes, okay, there's our deposit, we're making money, but then we have all of the labor going out.
350
00:13:39.938 --> 00:13:41.400
This is the part we're trying to avoid.
351
00:13:41.420 --> 00:13:44.423
It's like there'll be times where you have a $200,000 job or five $20,000 jobs.
352
00:13:44.443 --> 00:13:46.866
And you have this massive roller coaster.
353
00:13:46.886 --> 00:13:48.267
Sometimes we have $100,000 in the bank.
354
00:13:48.548 --> 00:13:50.209
Sometimes we have $5,000 in the bank.
355
00:13:50.570 --> 00:13:51.451
It's 100 grand.
356
00:13:51.591 --> 00:13:52.112
You guys know.
357
00:13:53.433 --> 00:13:54.174
It's here and there.
358
00:13:54.354 --> 00:13:54.935
Gone tomorrow.
359
00:13:55.435 --> 00:13:57.617
And even though sometimes I feel rich, I also feel very poor.
360
00:13:58.077 --> 00:14:01.600
On the project stuff, what's our hourly rate that we can are targeting first?
361
00:14:01.640 --> 00:14:03.321
We're shooting for 85 an hour.
362
00:14:03.461 --> 00:14:03.742
Got it.
363
00:14:03.922 --> 00:14:09.246
And then in terms of our close ratio on accepted estimates, is it pretty high?
364
00:14:09.706 --> 00:14:10.747
Yeah, it's probably about...
365
00:14:11.227 --> 00:14:35.282
70 to 80 percent got it and you're basically hand-holding that whole process yeah i'm i am literally doing every single aspect from start to finish okay and what's the average ticket on those usually like 20 30 000 what's your yeah it can definitely vary like we have a job that's 100 000 right now one that's 50 one that's 20 so like they kind of fluctuate depending on the different aspects of the project so their target hourly rate is 85 an hour
366
00:14:36.783 --> 00:14:43.934
I wonder if they actually hit that much on commercial maintenance, just because if you look at how many employees they have versus their revenue last year.
367
00:14:44.254 --> 00:14:48.260
On the other portion, from the maintenance side, what's your target hourly rate for maintenance?
368
00:14:48.641 --> 00:14:49.061
We do 85.
369
00:14:49.081 --> 00:14:50.423
85, that's pretty good.
370
00:14:50.443 --> 00:14:51.244
What's your base pay here?
371
00:14:51.785 --> 00:14:55.328
Most guys are about 18s are starting, and most guys are around 20, 22.
372
00:14:55.368 --> 00:14:58.071
That's actually pretty good, especially if your base pay is $18.
373
00:14:58.091 --> 00:15:00.052
If your target hourly is 85, it means you're hitting the 25% rule.
374
00:15:00.092 --> 00:15:03.215
I always target where base pay is less than 25% of the target hourly rate.
375
00:15:08.880 --> 00:15:10.502
From a hoodie perspective, we have cash flow.
376
00:15:10.522 --> 00:15:12.825
We also have how much credit card right now, do you think?
377
00:15:13.326 --> 00:15:13.626
30.
378
00:15:13.826 --> 00:15:14.107
30.
379
00:15:14.147 --> 00:15:15.428
So it just floats, I'm assuming.
380
00:15:15.448 --> 00:15:17.771
Like, when you have cash, we'll pay some of the credit card off.
381
00:15:17.811 --> 00:15:18.031
Yeah.
382
00:15:18.352 --> 00:15:20.875
We pay it off completely every 14th of every month.
383
00:15:20.915 --> 00:15:21.175
Got it.
384
00:15:21.195 --> 00:15:21.375
Okay.
385
00:15:21.415 --> 00:15:25.320
So we have a little bit of credit card debt, but I'm assuming you're just going to keep managing.
386
00:15:25.340 --> 00:15:26.722
It's like you're floating that card debt.
387
00:15:26.762 --> 00:15:31.883
When it comes to liquidity in the business, they have a lot of credit card debt and they do have a lot of loans on all the equipment.
388
00:15:31.903 --> 00:15:37.124
But a lot of those loans are collateralized with actual assets, trucks, mowers, etc.
389
00:15:37.164 --> 00:15:38.444
We have big skid steer in the back.
390
00:15:38.464 --> 00:15:38.904
That's fine.
391
00:15:39.204 --> 00:15:41.825
I'm not too worried about the equipment loans for that credit card debt.
392
00:15:41.865 --> 00:15:45.186
And the fact that we have hardly any cash in the bank is very, very scary.
393
00:15:45.206 --> 00:15:46.246
Yeah, it's super stressful.
394
00:15:46.806 --> 00:15:47.966
It's like I've been paying for it.
395
00:15:49.106 --> 00:15:51.627
And on the project work, how far are we booked out right now?
396
00:15:52.188 --> 00:16:15.200
two to three months probably okay and is that pretty consistent not always i mean we're being in a seasonal business there's always those fluctuations i would love to have a bigger funnel the next question becomes like wait great how do we just bombard you with leads when it comes to leads as the next constraint in the 4l framework we've got to make sure that we can actually control our lead flow i don't feel like that's something that we've ever had dialed in we've
397
00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:21.665
Started with some marketing with some mailers and stuff like that, but I don't think we've had the quantity to actually get real results.
398
00:16:21.925 --> 00:16:24.887
We've posted a few things this year and that's about it.
399
00:16:24.967 --> 00:16:26.589
We haven't gotten a ton of content.
400
00:16:26.689 --> 00:16:34.215
I actually really enjoy doing that, like making content and stuff like that, but I don't feel comfortable with it, I guess, or feel like I have the time to do it.
401
00:16:34.515 --> 00:16:37.057
All of our business up to this point has been word of mouth.
402
00:16:37.197 --> 00:16:41.081
And when we started the install division, it was, what, three years ago?
403
00:16:41.902 --> 00:16:47.307
And we got like two or three couple, $200,000, $300,000 jobs, like right off the bat.
404
00:16:47.327 --> 00:16:49.710
And then it just kept kind of flowing up to this point.
405
00:16:49.730 --> 00:16:53.694
We haven't really had the need for marketing, but we haven't really.
406
00:16:53.714 --> 00:16:55.736
Like we don't do marketing.
407
00:16:55.976 --> 00:16:57.738
Like we're just not marketers.
408
00:16:58.118 --> 00:16:58.879
I don't know how to market.
409
00:16:58.899 --> 00:16:59.920
It's always outbound for me.
410
00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:02.102
I would say leads coming in is not a thing.
411
00:17:02.202 --> 00:17:04.044
I always call, especially for commercial.
412
00:17:04.304 --> 00:17:08.889
On your website, I don't see a ton of project stuff from the top of the very top.
413
00:17:09.009 --> 00:17:15.335
I see leaf cleanup and I see residential mowing as the form to fill out and get an instant quote.
414
00:17:15.576 --> 00:17:20.040
Right now in the business, we're making all of our profit from projects and commercial work.
415
00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:22.042
And that website does not screen that to me.
416
00:17:22.222 --> 00:17:27.165
If in the middle of spring, in the middle of summer, like right now, we're showing fall cleanups, not a great idea.
417
00:17:27.225 --> 00:17:29.526
We're not going to pitch that service during the summer.
418
00:17:29.606 --> 00:17:31.307
Instead, we're going to focus on design build.
419
00:17:31.507 --> 00:17:35.389
I would really recommend seasonal offerings on that website, right?
420
00:17:35.429 --> 00:17:41.452
If we're at the beginning of the season or like January and February when everyone's renewing contracts, we're highlighting commercial maintenance.
421
00:17:41.472 --> 00:17:44.314
We're putting our crews on big mowers, on big properties.
422
00:17:44.614 --> 00:17:50.197
We are saying sign up, get your annual contract, property managers in XYZ County, like you're going after them.
423
00:17:50.477 --> 00:17:58.065
At the end of the year, because we don't really want to focus on snow, we're going to focus on our contracts, those massive commercial contracts and their renewal around January 1st.
424
00:17:58.146 --> 00:18:06.254
So like banners and pictures, as well as like your current form, like your best real estate is spent right now on recurring money because it's an instant price form, which I'm a fan of.
425
00:18:06.935 --> 00:18:08.495
Simple estimates, let's go, love it.
426
00:18:08.975 --> 00:18:11.436
It's just a function of that is not where the money in the business is at.
427
00:18:11.616 --> 00:18:18.578
And so if leads is our constraint, we're not hardly getting any inbound for commercial and we're not getting enough inbound or design build.
428
00:18:18.838 --> 00:18:24.819
We need to scrap the part of the business that's probably making up 10% of our revenue when it comes to the best real estate on our website.
429
00:18:24.959 --> 00:18:31.180
And so I would talk to your designer and just really think about, okay, like how do we pre-prioritize, for this four months of the year, we're doing this.
430
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:32.341
For this four months of the year, we're doing this.
431
00:18:32.361 --> 00:18:33.641
For this four months of the year, we're doing that.
432
00:18:33.801 --> 00:18:37.102
If you're trying to sell something in a store, you put it near the checkout.
433
00:18:37.162 --> 00:18:42.523
You put it, like that's the most coveted space on the shelves because it is the highest frequency purchase.
434
00:18:42.643 --> 00:18:46.884
And so if you want things to be purchased often on your website, your storefront, put them in the front.
435
00:18:46.924 --> 00:18:48.524
Like tell people about it first.
436
00:18:48.604 --> 00:18:55.146
If you want people to put an SM request form in and submit one and give you a call, make those the most important call to actions on the website.
437
00:18:55.366 --> 00:19:01.828
And right now, have you standardized much of your product offerings or what products you install or every single one custom?
438
00:19:01.848 --> 00:19:03.608
They're very custom, I would say.
439
00:19:04.048 --> 00:19:04.268
Okay.
440
00:19:04.348 --> 00:19:06.250
And have you ever looked at changing that?
441
00:19:07.291 --> 00:19:11.394
Um, I saw that.
442
00:19:11.834 --> 00:19:12.775
I say yes.
443
00:19:12.795 --> 00:19:13.736
Okay.
444
00:19:14.016 --> 00:19:19.560
A part of our problem with our guys is they don't know what they're doing because we do everything like we were doing right now.
445
00:19:19.580 --> 00:19:21.062
We have a patio, a patio,
446
00:19:22.010 --> 00:19:24.493
We're doing a screened-in porch with a fire feature.
447
00:19:25.034 --> 00:19:26.396
That was a 4x4 that was going out?
448
00:19:26.496 --> 00:19:26.756
Yeah.
449
00:19:26.796 --> 00:19:27.237
Yeah.
450
00:19:27.637 --> 00:19:30.922
And then we're doing a water feature rebuild.
451
00:19:31.002 --> 00:19:31.803
Water feature?
452
00:19:31.883 --> 00:19:33.265
Bro, that's a whole lot of level.
453
00:19:33.345 --> 00:19:34.266
Lighting system.
454
00:19:34.286 --> 00:19:34.987
Lighting system.
455
00:19:35.007 --> 00:19:36.289
Like, all that's happening today.
456
00:19:36.409 --> 00:19:36.589
Right.
457
00:19:36.609 --> 00:19:36.729
Right.
458
00:19:37.378 --> 00:19:41.520
Now, is that a function though, like you offering everything because you need the work?
459
00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:41.900
Yeah.
460
00:19:42.241 --> 00:19:42.441
Okay.
461
00:19:42.661 --> 00:19:46.943
When you go to a client, I'm assuming, what do you bring to show them?
462
00:19:47.043 --> 00:19:52.586
Yeah, so I actually have a 3D rendering program that like does the exact material we would use.
463
00:19:52.606 --> 00:19:55.408
So they would have a very real world like representation.
464
00:19:55.428 --> 00:19:57.129
That's in the second meeting, what about the first one?
465
00:19:57.269 --> 00:20:04.092
In the first one I'll have like a Unilock book or something along those lines, just to kind of show them what the materials would look like generally.
466
00:20:04.192 --> 00:20:05.353
This is my recommendation.
467
00:20:05.813 --> 00:20:07.154
So I used to do the same thing.
468
00:20:07.294 --> 00:20:08.194
It's horrible.
469
00:20:08.335 --> 00:20:09.135
I trust me, trust me.
470
00:20:09.155 --> 00:20:10.476
This is what I'm so confident on.
471
00:20:10.496 --> 00:20:12.237
If you do this, it'll change everything.
472
00:20:12.337 --> 00:20:12.577
Okay.
473
00:20:12.897 --> 00:20:26.745
Don't bring a Unilock or BellGuard or any other, like you are just opening up a can of worms for that customer to be overwhelmed with options, overwhelmed with design, overwhelmed with color, overwhelmed with the fact that that picture looks great, but is it gonna look good in my backyard?
474
00:20:27.085 --> 00:20:29.546
Then I need a design to validate these two things.
475
00:20:29.787 --> 00:20:32.228
I would recommend you have a product book.
476
00:20:32.608 --> 00:20:37.529
The best example of simplification and standardization is actually in restaurants.
477
00:20:37.749 --> 00:20:41.570
In general, the more menu items, the cheaper the restaurants.
478
00:20:41.590 --> 00:20:44.831
You look at Denny's, you look at fast food restaurants, like it's a huge menu.
479
00:20:44.951 --> 00:20:50.672
If you ever go to a really, really fancy restaurant, you're talking about two, three entrees, and they cycle them out.
480
00:20:50.712 --> 00:20:52.752
They are certainly not simplified.
481
00:20:52.892 --> 00:20:55.393
They're very complex dishes, but they're standardized.
482
00:20:55.553 --> 00:21:00.294
They stick the same few things that you all have created from pictures that you have installed.
483
00:21:00.434 --> 00:21:02.535
And if you don't have one, you can find one online pretty easily.
484
00:21:02.595 --> 00:21:06.377
But you're going to say, hey, like when it comes to papers, these are the two or three papers that we installed.
485
00:21:06.417 --> 00:21:10.299
You don't tell the customer that, you just say, hey, these are the gray ones, these are the other design that works well.
486
00:21:10.659 --> 00:21:11.800
Like we only had two papers.
487
00:21:11.900 --> 00:21:13.100
We eventually got to one paper.
488
00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:15.562
The design was like a pretty complicated five piece design.
489
00:21:15.722 --> 00:21:18.803
It was Rio from Belgar, like it was a very specific kind.
490
00:21:18.983 --> 00:21:25.947
We only ever did that paper, but it's because I had four different pictures in my product book of it in different scenarios that I feel like, okay, this is gonna be a pathway.
491
00:21:26.007 --> 00:21:27.307
Great, we'll turn it to the pathway page.
492
00:21:27.327 --> 00:21:28.068
Do you like this?
493
00:21:28.568 --> 00:21:28.808
Yes.
494
00:21:28.948 --> 00:21:29.569
Okay, great.
495
00:21:29.649 --> 00:21:30.350
I'm using that.
496
00:21:30.670 --> 00:21:34.493
It also makes the design process like 10% of like way shorter.
497
00:21:34.634 --> 00:21:34.834
Yeah.
498
00:21:34.914 --> 00:21:36.836
Because you have the two or three things you drag in.
499
00:21:37.256 --> 00:21:37.937
Very simple.
500
00:21:38.297 --> 00:21:46.705
And you could eventually probably get away from even doing a lot of the big designs up for like 10, 20, $30,000 jobs because your pictures tell everything.
501
00:21:46.885 --> 00:21:49.447
And so if you want to be paid well, you either go spend...
502
00:21:49.487 --> 00:21:55.214
super, super custom and every single job is different and every single job is its own special snowflake.
503
00:21:55.254 --> 00:22:01.961
But if you're going to do that, the owner or someone very, very skilled is going to have to be on the job and their goal is to be able to move out of the business.
504
00:22:02.122 --> 00:22:06.547
And if their goal is to move out of the business, try to do it in a way that it would be easy to replace yourself.
505
00:22:06.867 --> 00:22:36.367
And what's really great is Your labor gets trained much faster So we got to where we had one type of block One type of paper and one type of natural stone For patios and we trained All of our crews on those three things In two days and after that they just knew How to do it all because we were like okay great when do you see A wall you see on a slope this way And we're going we have to put it against The angle then there's other times we're going into the Wall okay we just did all of these scenarios at our Shop space and then they can do it all Like they had seen it and after they Do them like three or four times they're so efficient
506
00:22:36.427 --> 00:22:42.130
Because what kills me on custom is you get there and it takes half a day and then it's like, we put it together, oh, take it apart.
507
00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:44.191
And then we put it together and then back and forth.
508
00:22:44.472 --> 00:22:46.373
Finally we get it, then we can just copy and paste.
509
00:22:46.553 --> 00:22:50.415
You can cut that whole first part out just by saying this is the same type of product every single time.
510
00:22:50.435 --> 00:22:54.937
And there's way less management on your part because your crew just gets so good at installing.
511
00:22:54.997 --> 00:22:55.198
Right.
512
00:22:55.538 --> 00:22:55.738
All right.
513
00:22:56.138 --> 00:22:59.201
So that's where I do think leads solves a lot of this problem.
514
00:22:59.221 --> 00:23:03.745
You've got so many leads, you've got, okay, we're going to cut this service out, we're going to cut this service out, we're going to cut this service out.
515
00:23:03.765 --> 00:23:08.229
The challenging part, you have built the infrastructure of the business in a way you have to do $1.5 million.
516
00:23:08.649 --> 00:23:15.596
There is no like, hey, let's go back and take a couple of these services out, kick Jason into the curb, and just focus on our core four things.
517
00:23:15.896 --> 00:23:17.817
Because you built the infrastructure, you need 1.5.
518
00:23:17.978 --> 00:23:20.419
You're still in terms of the debt, the two of you, etc.
519
00:23:20.719 --> 00:23:29.946
I don't see any world in which a business is profitable with less than 1.5 million with two owners at the top, an office person full-time, and definitely a production manager.
520
00:23:30.066 --> 00:23:32.147
You don't even get any leads coming from residential.
521
00:23:32.387 --> 00:23:32.788
We'll get some.
522
00:23:32.808 --> 00:23:33.468
We'll get some.
523
00:23:33.648 --> 00:23:34.069
Random.
524
00:23:34.209 --> 00:23:35.049
Yeah.
525
00:23:35.349 --> 00:23:36.010
Yeah, we'll get some.
526
00:23:36.030 --> 00:23:36.410
And we'll pick.
527
00:23:36.430 --> 00:23:37.251
We usually pick them up.
528
00:23:37.911 --> 00:23:38.492
No problem.
529
00:23:38.832 --> 00:23:39.753
But it's not that many.
530
00:23:39.773 --> 00:23:40.193
It's probably...
531
00:23:40.830 --> 00:23:41.990
one every two, three weeks.
532
00:23:42.410 --> 00:23:42.670
Really?
533
00:23:42.790 --> 00:23:43.151
Wow.
534
00:23:43.191 --> 00:23:44.631
Yeah, it's not a huge influx.
535
00:23:44.651 --> 00:23:44.771
Okay.
536
00:23:44.791 --> 00:23:46.351
I don't know, Lexus, am I wrong on that?
537
00:23:46.631 --> 00:23:51.373
How many times do you get calls for maintenance for mowing or anything like that?
538
00:23:51.553 --> 00:23:52.513
Maybe a couple times a week.
539
00:23:52.713 --> 00:23:58.134
If it's like a true residential, like they just want their yard push mode, we lose that account every time.
540
00:23:58.874 --> 00:24:00.735
You know, like we're definitely not set up for that.
541
00:24:00.975 --> 00:24:01.855
A lot of our stuff are like,
542
00:24:02.451 --> 00:24:04.232
mansions, they're nice.
543
00:24:04.272 --> 00:24:08.615
So like, it's pretty much a commercial account and we just fit right in with that.
544
00:24:09.216 --> 00:24:12.718
Basically to me, it sounds more like you're both involved in sales.
545
00:24:13.079 --> 00:24:15.881
One's involved in the front end, getting the leads, one's on closing.
546
00:24:16.141 --> 00:24:21.605
Yeah, so I run basically the whole install, like design build side of things and then Logan runs the maintenance.
547
00:24:22.025 --> 00:24:25.748
Good, and so you both control your sales for those two just new sites?
548
00:24:25.768 --> 00:24:30.092
Yeah, so I do all the design and sales for install, and then Logan does all the sales for contracts.
549
00:24:30.152 --> 00:24:31.233
Any contracts that come in.
550
00:24:31.453 --> 00:24:37.077
The delineation really is department, so all design, build, all maintenance, sales for both.
551
00:24:37.618 --> 00:24:43.943
The way they have it currently set up, every single person that comes in as a lead is gonna have to be handed off between the two owners.
552
00:24:44.283 --> 00:24:47.206
And so that is going to cause some toe-stepping.
553
00:24:47.506 --> 00:24:49.848
Is there five other things you're also managing in the business?
554
00:24:50.137 --> 00:24:53.540
Yeah, so I handle like CEO and then I handle all the sales.
555
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.682
I could handle the production for sure.
556
00:24:56.002 --> 00:24:57.924
I have been for the last two or three years.
557
00:24:58.564 --> 00:25:03.209
My thought process was Jason handles all the production and gives me time to actually do more outbound.
558
00:25:03.229 --> 00:25:07.953
Because I feel like if I had the time to do the outbound, we could double, which is what our goal was.
559
00:25:07.993 --> 00:25:09.955
Our goal was to be around $3 million.
560
00:25:10.615 --> 00:25:12.917
end of this year, beginning of next year.
561
00:25:13.238 --> 00:25:19.764
That hasn't really happened, and he hasn't really taken it over like I thought he would with the experience he said he had.
562
00:25:20.144 --> 00:25:28.412
I feel like I'm stuck in limbo between going and doing sales and actually being a good account manager to our accounts and fulfilling the production.
563
00:25:28.692 --> 00:25:35.735
Logan doesn't have any time to do outbound sales because he's busy doing operations and doing the work of the manager that should be managing the crew.
564
00:25:36.175 --> 00:25:41.678
Once work comes in from a production manager perspective, is Jason managing both crews?
565
00:25:42.458 --> 00:25:43.979
I'm doing install still.
566
00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:44.579
Okay.
567
00:25:44.679 --> 00:25:48.781
So I only have two install crews, so I'm able to manage them pretty well.
568
00:25:49.021 --> 00:25:51.522
So you're basically soup to nuts everything design builds.
569
00:25:51.862 --> 00:25:52.102
Got it.
570
00:25:52.142 --> 00:25:57.945
And then maintenance leads come in, he hands those, then hands off to Jason, Jason manages the maintenance crew.
571
00:25:58.985 --> 00:26:05.247
For Jason, has it been difficult with the crew, like between him and the crew, or is it between him, middle management, and you all?
572
00:26:05.487 --> 00:26:06.307
Has that been more difficult?
573
00:26:06.527 --> 00:26:10.548
I think the second relationship is a little bit more difficult from our side of things.
574
00:26:10.848 --> 00:26:12.169
He's very good with people.
575
00:26:12.509 --> 00:26:15.049
All the guys seem to really take to him, respect him.
576
00:26:15.429 --> 00:26:17.470
It's just, we may not be seeing
577
00:26:18.250 --> 00:26:19.911
some of the things that we were hoping to see.
578
00:26:19.931 --> 00:26:22.772
I have a hard time pinpointing the problem.
579
00:26:23.052 --> 00:26:27.814
A lot of our productivity I feel like is kind of slower than it should be, which could have you a training.
580
00:26:27.974 --> 00:26:31.375
But I feel like nobody ever takes my budgeted hours seriously.
581
00:26:31.615 --> 00:26:33.656
The next constraint to growing a business is labor.
582
00:26:33.756 --> 00:26:43.260
And right now, we have the fact that there's low efficiency, there's not a lot of camaraderie or great culture in the business, and that's in part due to the fact that we don't have a clear role for operations.
583
00:26:43.460 --> 00:26:44.881
Is Jason the operations manager?
584
00:26:44.981 --> 00:26:46.301
Is Logan the operations manager?
585
00:26:46.361 --> 00:26:47.702
Is Luke the operations manager?
586
00:26:47.722 --> 00:26:48.522
Who's my boss?
587
00:26:48.542 --> 00:26:51.324
There's not any clarity around the management of the labor.
588
00:26:51.464 --> 00:26:56.986
It's just so different because I was in the field for a lot of years and it's a lot easier to keep on top of people when you're out there.
589
00:26:57.446 --> 00:27:06.531
You can kind of drive production, but because of the lack of production, we're behind on jobs and then we have to pay overtime on top of that, which really cuts into the cash flow also.
590
00:27:06.831 --> 00:27:09.772
I also don't do a great job of like harping on people.
591
00:27:10.212 --> 00:27:11.513
That's never been my management.
592
00:27:11.793 --> 00:27:14.155
management style like I've never yelled at anybody in my life.
593
00:27:14.515 --> 00:27:19.599
We have a lot of damaged equipment, a lot of damaged property that we have to deal with, and then productivity.
594
00:27:19.619 --> 00:27:24.583
They just don't get what's going on, and they don't really care to get what's going on.
595
00:27:24.983 --> 00:27:26.144
They kind of like to just come in.
596
00:27:26.484 --> 00:27:27.886
Whatever it takes is what it takes.
597
00:27:27.906 --> 00:27:29.587
They don't care to look at the budget hours no matter.
598
00:27:29.827 --> 00:27:31.328
I had it pretty good when I was managing it.
599
00:27:31.588 --> 00:27:33.330
I had them starting to like get in on the
600
00:27:33.990 --> 00:27:57.640
on track with that but we're like 60% productivity this year and that's been killing us with overtime I mean we've just been is that blend between both departments yeah yeah we're pretty close to that so that's part of our problem like our payroll has been out of control from a labor perspective we have all identified that there's like low efficiency
601
00:27:58.752 --> 00:28:05.417
Also, it feels like there is really no care for hitting budget hours.
602
00:28:05.937 --> 00:28:06.678
There's no buy-in.
603
00:28:06.698 --> 00:28:09.480
Like, just culturally, there's not a lot of buy-in.
604
00:28:09.600 --> 00:28:18.246
And then I would also say we have a manager that right now we have disconnected expectations from what they think they're doing versus what we think they're doing.
605
00:28:18.487 --> 00:28:18.887
Okay.
606
00:28:19.167 --> 00:28:22.870
And so have you talked to him about, like, hey, what can I do?
607
00:28:23.250 --> 00:28:25.012
What has the conversation been with Jason?
608
00:28:25.032 --> 00:28:25.192
Yeah.
609
00:28:25.812 --> 00:28:26.973
It's been sporadic.
610
00:28:27.474 --> 00:28:28.355
I'm not very good at that.
611
00:28:28.515 --> 00:28:33.981
Like, I am the worst person at accountability with the guys, and especially Jason, because Jason, he's super smart.
612
00:28:34.281 --> 00:28:40.548
I don't know, not manipulative, but like, he knows how to play the game, and I'm not that good at it as far as like managing him.
613
00:28:41.169 --> 00:28:43.952
So I've just been struggling with holding him accountable.
614
00:28:44.232 --> 00:28:46.154
I thought I had been super clear about what I wanted.
615
00:28:46.815 --> 00:28:50.216
And then things just aren't being followed through on, in my opinion.
616
00:28:50.276 --> 00:28:52.597
But I also haven't been like every week meeting with him.
617
00:28:52.737 --> 00:28:56.078
It's like I would tell him something and then like two weeks later, I'd be like, Hey, this happened.
618
00:28:56.098 --> 00:28:58.699
He'd be like, no, I'd be like, okay, well, what can we do about it now?
619
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:00.960
It just continual cycle like that.
620
00:29:00.980 --> 00:29:02.660
And then he's had a ton of medical issues.
621
00:29:03.080 --> 00:29:04.501
He had all his teeth removed.
622
00:29:04.541 --> 00:29:06.982
He's been having surgery like every couple of weeks.
623
00:29:07.542 --> 00:29:09.782
So he's in and out a lot.
624
00:29:10.363 --> 00:29:11.123
He's been a strain.
625
00:29:11.143 --> 00:29:14.704
And we want to be like understanding to him, but like he's missed a lot of work.
626
00:29:14.936 --> 00:29:26.687
I think a lot of the things they see as problems in the crew is just a function of, you know, and then them saying they don't hold the team accountable is actually like you can't hold anyone accountable if they don't know who they're accountable to.
627
00:29:26.987 --> 00:29:32.312
Who am I accountable to and what am I accountable for are the two questions you have to answer for a team member.
628
00:29:33.032 --> 00:29:35.473
In a team meeting, for example, is everyone looking to you as CEO?
629
00:29:35.673 --> 00:29:36.214
Yeah.
630
00:29:36.294 --> 00:29:38.535
And then what if he says something in the meeting?
631
00:29:38.555 --> 00:29:39.635
Like, is he an owner?
632
00:29:39.695 --> 00:29:40.595
Like, what's the rule?
633
00:29:40.615 --> 00:29:43.497
What's the dynamic between the two of you in relation to the crew?
634
00:29:43.897 --> 00:29:45.478
Do they see you as the owner, really?
635
00:29:45.798 --> 00:29:47.919
Or do they see, like, this is a joint thing going on?
636
00:29:47.939 --> 00:29:48.799
It's definitely joint.
637
00:29:48.939 --> 00:29:53.541
To be honest, I don't even know if they really understand that he'd be the CEO, to be honest.
638
00:29:53.741 --> 00:29:56.342
So you look at both of you running the business pretty equally.
639
00:29:56.622 --> 00:29:57.583
We're almost running.
640
00:29:58.563 --> 00:30:01.224
like two separate businesses that kind of overlap.
641
00:30:01.344 --> 00:30:03.105
Design, design, build, and maintenance.
642
00:30:03.425 --> 00:30:06.086
Who am I reporting to and what are the metrics of success?
643
00:30:06.426 --> 00:30:08.046
And neither of those things are well defined.
644
00:30:08.406 --> 00:30:14.789
And so it's not that they don't hold people accountable, they haven't created systems in place to be able to hold anyone accountable to anything.
645
00:30:15.069 --> 00:30:16.529
Because they don't have a system in place for it.
646
00:30:16.709 --> 00:30:22.011
They don't have metrics and they don't have any roles and responsibilities of the leadership team so people know who to report to.
647
00:30:22.271 --> 00:30:26.633
Have you talked to Jason about like his role, performance, anything like that?
648
00:30:26.713 --> 00:30:27.473
And how has that gone?
649
00:30:28.762 --> 00:30:30.904
I have, didn't go super good.
650
00:30:31.324 --> 00:30:32.505
He thinks he's doing really well.
651
00:30:32.645 --> 00:30:35.287
Yeah, you're just a number no matter how hard you work.
652
00:30:35.327 --> 00:30:37.188
You're never gonna be anything more than a number.
653
00:30:38.229 --> 00:30:40.110
It's just, yeah, do your thing, you're here.
654
00:30:40.611 --> 00:30:43.613
I'm not super good at that accountability, like I said, so.
655
00:30:44.253 --> 00:30:45.814
It hasn't gone anywhere.
656
00:30:46.214 --> 00:30:49.396
Generally, this really kind of goes more to the leadership stuff.
657
00:30:49.836 --> 00:30:54.319
Like what I fail, I'm seeing is like sales, operations and admin.
658
00:30:54.739 --> 00:30:56.060
Obviously, this is admin.
659
00:30:56.280 --> 00:31:01.543
And then I'm really split on who's sales and operations because you kind of are operating as two different businesses.
660
00:31:02.095 --> 00:31:09.237
Right, you're kinda like sales and operations, slash Jason, for maintenance, sales and operations for design build.
661
00:31:09.577 --> 00:31:15.858
A $5 million business is gonna look like you have an estimator for design build, and you have an estimator for maintenance stuff.
662
00:31:16.058 --> 00:31:21.200
You have an operations person for design build, you have an operations person for out doing maintenance.
663
00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:23.940
And then you have probably admin with a couple assistants underneath.
664
00:31:24.120 --> 00:31:26.881
But that's a four to $5 million business.
665
00:31:27.041 --> 00:31:30.342
Ever considered one of you doing sales and one of you doing operations?
666
00:31:31.022 --> 00:31:32.603
I think Luke's a great operation guy.
667
00:31:32.643 --> 00:31:34.865
He just doesn't want to admit it.
668
00:31:35.666 --> 00:31:38.888
I'm a better outbound sales guy, so that's why I took that on.
669
00:31:39.609 --> 00:31:42.852
I mean, I probably upsell our book about 25% of what I sell.
670
00:31:42.872 --> 00:31:46.114
So if I have a million dollars in contracts, I can sell $250 in upsells.
671
00:31:46.635 --> 00:31:50.778
But most of our projects are just one-off things that we don't do their maintenance.
672
00:31:50.818 --> 00:31:53.260
They just want a patio or something.
673
00:31:53.797 --> 00:31:56.437
He's not gonna go cold call apartment complex.
674
00:31:56.818 --> 00:31:57.698
He's not gonna go do that.
675
00:31:57.738 --> 00:31:59.178
Like that's me, I do that.
676
00:31:59.438 --> 00:32:01.358
Like this has been our problem the whole time.
677
00:32:01.398 --> 00:32:07.919
It's just like feeling like we're both good at certain things in certain fields, but struggling with other things.
678
00:32:08.059 --> 00:32:09.560
I know Logan's a great salesman.
679
00:32:09.800 --> 00:32:13.860
I don't have the industry knowledge to do the design stuff that he does.
680
00:32:14.641 --> 00:32:18.681
As far as patios and I wouldn't even know how to bid it.
681
00:32:18.981 --> 00:32:22.702
I think I'm better at holding people accountable than Luke as far as operations though.
682
00:32:23.838 --> 00:32:25.119
I don't know, we kind of overlap.
683
00:32:25.259 --> 00:32:37.570
So the only limitation from saying you are sales and you are operations is you can't sell the design bill because you don't have the experience and he can't keep the crew accountable in terms of operations on the maintenance side.
684
00:32:37.971 --> 00:32:38.151
Yeah.
685
00:32:38.591 --> 00:32:38.932
Got it.
686
00:32:39.432 --> 00:32:40.452
Lots of crossover.
687
00:32:40.912 --> 00:32:42.073
Yes, very much.
688
00:32:42.273 --> 00:32:43.313
And we've struggled with roles.
689
00:32:43.573 --> 00:32:44.694
Yeah, that's very difficult.
690
00:32:44.714 --> 00:32:47.314
That's been one of our biggest things we've been trying to fix.
691
00:32:47.574 --> 00:32:53.516
Yeah, you're basically you guys are crossing over departments, sales and operations, and you're crossing over like service mixes.
692
00:32:53.876 --> 00:32:59.998
Because like the fact that you can still talk to his crew and tell them what to do, you immediately there's like, oh, like I have two bosses.
693
00:33:00.338 --> 00:33:02.880
Which is just confusing for them.
694
00:33:03.001 --> 00:33:05.203
There's no clear leadership.
695
00:33:05.323 --> 00:33:08.906
Jason, that might be actually a result of him feeling that way.
696
00:33:09.386 --> 00:33:10.668
He doesn't really know his role.
697
00:33:10.708 --> 00:33:12.349
He doesn't have clear expectations.
698
00:33:12.369 --> 00:33:14.691
He doesn't have benchmarks for success, etc.
699
00:33:15.072 --> 00:33:19.516
I'm assuming both of you have pretty shared and aligned goals for the business.
700
00:33:19.756 --> 00:33:21.658
What is the vision for the two of you?
701
00:33:22.512 --> 00:33:25.055
There have definitely been times where I've wanted to get out of the business.
702
00:33:25.295 --> 00:33:28.760
To be honest, one of the reasons Logan came on was so that we could grow it and sell it.
703
00:33:29.420 --> 00:33:38.771
My vision is to be like three to five million, have every aspect of the business handled by somebody, and to where me and Luke could step out for a week and then not
704
00:33:39.392 --> 00:33:39.872
fall apart.
705
00:33:40.353 --> 00:33:43.374
If it's a marketable business, it should be a profitable business.
706
00:33:43.394 --> 00:33:46.715
So like if it's something that we could keep going, we would definitely do that.
707
00:33:46.895 --> 00:33:54.559
We have a need to grow to three million so it can support both of us and the management needed to do it because neither of us are super great at accountability.
708
00:33:54.579 --> 00:33:59.841
So we're like, we need to at least have a production management level so that they can have that.
709
00:34:00.041 --> 00:34:00.882
And that was my goal.
710
00:34:01.022 --> 00:34:08.505
Yeah, I kind of saw a couple of times where they inferred that because they didn't yell at people and they weren't harsh with people, that therefore they couldn't hold people accountable.
711
00:34:08.945 --> 00:34:12.449
Why don't you guys think you guys are good at holding people accountable?
712
00:34:12.510 --> 00:34:13.210
I've heard this a lot.
713
00:34:13.591 --> 00:34:14.632
Why do you think that?
714
00:34:15.013 --> 00:34:16.875
I struggle personally with conflict.
715
00:34:16.915 --> 00:34:19.638
Like I'm not a confrontational person.
716
00:34:19.738 --> 00:34:22.782
Right, but confrontational and keeping someone accountable is very different.
717
00:34:22.882 --> 00:34:25.325
So like, why do you think you can't hold people accountable?
718
00:34:26.447 --> 00:34:27.007
Just haven't.
719
00:34:27.852 --> 00:34:30.273
So just avoid confrontation and you don't want to tell people what to do.
720
00:34:30.813 --> 00:34:37.256
I feel like personally, I've held myself to like a relatively high standard for how I perform and everything.
721
00:34:37.697 --> 00:34:42.019
Or I have in the past made the assumption that everybody else is going to have that same mindset when they approach something.
722
00:34:42.319 --> 00:34:44.600
And then I've been let down a lot after that.
723
00:34:44.740 --> 00:34:47.081
So I've been trying to kind of reframe how I've
724
00:34:47.601 --> 00:34:48.421
been looking at things.
725
00:34:48.822 --> 00:34:51.162
If the standard isn't defined, you can't hold them accountable.
726
00:34:51.182 --> 00:34:55.024
So of course you're not gonna hold anyone accountable because there's no standard by which to measure them on.
727
00:34:55.284 --> 00:35:00.006
Let's create the standard and then we will focus on, is someone measuring up to that standard?
728
00:35:00.479 --> 00:35:06.466
All right, from a leadership perspective, this is the part where I feel like actually is the biggest squeeze and the biggest opportunity here.
729
00:35:06.546 --> 00:35:11.351
It's unclear as to who's running this business, who's at the top, what the dynamic is here.
730
00:35:11.712 --> 00:35:17.979
Even like the thought of like, we moving the shop space here because they don't believe we're actually working and we just need to get in front of them.
731
00:35:18.439 --> 00:35:19.981
It shows some level of like,
732
00:35:20.782 --> 00:35:22.263
there's a disconnect a little bit.
733
00:35:22.463 --> 00:35:25.204
The last constraint in the 4L framework is leadership.
734
00:35:25.324 --> 00:35:35.290
And right now, we don't have any clarity of where's the business going, what's our role, what's our success metrics, and we've gotta figure out what sales, operations, and admin functions the business are responsible for.
735
00:35:35.390 --> 00:35:41.273
Who's responsible for what, and what does success look like in the sales department with close ratio and certain metrics.
736
00:35:41.333 --> 00:35:46.338
What does operations look like in terms of successful, in terms of efficiency score and people showing up on time?
737
00:35:46.398 --> 00:35:47.298
And same thing for admin.
738
00:35:47.359 --> 00:35:49.981
We've got to make sure we have clear roles inside the business.
739
00:35:50.401 --> 00:35:55.526
Suspend belief for a second and pretend like there's no cameras here and we can take this out if it needs to be.
740
00:35:55.846 --> 00:35:57.868
Would you rather just not have Jason around right now?
741
00:35:58.289 --> 00:36:02.012
Like if you just push a button, he's just gone and you're able to manage the crew, would that be the best thing?
742
00:36:02.032 --> 00:36:02.592
We can cut this out.
743
00:36:03.073 --> 00:36:03.493
Probably.
744
00:36:03.713 --> 00:36:05.055
I think that's what the business needs.
745
00:36:05.235 --> 00:36:07.317
It can't afford another manager right now.
746
00:36:07.677 --> 00:36:15.000
I think they're the classic business where basically they've got ahead of their growth and they've built the infrastructure and the leadership team for a larger business.
747
00:36:15.240 --> 00:36:16.381
And I'm not against that.
748
00:36:16.461 --> 00:36:21.443
If you have plenty of capital to pour on marketing to be able to make sure the business actually gets that size.
749
00:36:21.463 --> 00:36:25.925
When we have 1.2 to 1.5 million revenue, let's say this year it's going to be higher for 1.5.
750
00:36:26.445 --> 00:36:27.526
We have two owners.
751
00:36:27.886 --> 00:36:29.027
We have someone in the office.
752
00:36:29.347 --> 00:36:34.010
We have a fourth production manager on a lower margin because it's commercial work.
753
00:36:34.130 --> 00:36:38.512
And we also have a lot of subcontractors and design build, like our cost of goods is higher.
754
00:36:38.613 --> 00:36:41.054
We have a relatively low margin to work with.
755
00:36:41.350 --> 00:36:46.812
Now, if we were able to scale up and because they had delineation between the four roles, he was able to focus just on sales.
756
00:36:46.852 --> 00:36:49.433
And this year we're going to do 3 million, very different conversation.
757
00:36:49.633 --> 00:37:00.517
So not against having other managers in place, but if you're going to scale past 1.5 and start getting a whole bunch of general managers in place, you better make sure the business has plenty of capital to actually scale that size.
758
00:37:00.757 --> 00:37:05.499
The reason I haven't let him go is because I feel like I haven't fairly done a good job to tell him what to do.
759
00:37:05.779 --> 00:37:06.020
Okay.
760
00:37:06.280 --> 00:37:14.363
So I feel like to let him go, it's because of, yes, some things he's doing, but a lot of it's because I just was not a good manager for him.
761
00:37:14.624 --> 00:37:16.004
I think he'd feel blindsided.
762
00:37:16.244 --> 00:37:16.344
Yeah.
763
00:37:16.364 --> 00:37:23.428
And from my side of things, I think he is under the impression he's doing a good job because he's trying hard and he shows up.
764
00:37:23.488 --> 00:37:25.629
Like, he just had a surgery the other day and he was...
765
00:37:26.129 --> 00:37:28.890
here on Monday, like he's trying to be present.
766
00:37:28.990 --> 00:37:33.272
Like he's just had stuff outside of his control in some cases that have pulled him away.
767
00:37:33.452 --> 00:37:35.492
So I do feel like he'd be a little bit blindsided.
768
00:37:35.552 --> 00:37:38.974
I feel like not that I owe it to him or that the business should support it.
769
00:37:39.334 --> 00:37:41.775
I personally feel I have done him a disservice.
770
00:37:41.795 --> 00:37:43.335
Like I should give him another chance.
771
00:37:43.635 --> 00:37:44.796
That's the way I feel.
772
00:37:44.876 --> 00:37:50.578
But if we look at like the success metrics of say a crew, it is only diminished once we got a production manager in place.
773
00:37:50.898 --> 00:37:58.061
you know, whether or not you think you can, can or cannot hold someone accountable, your crews perform better under you than the current production manager.
774
00:37:58.081 --> 00:38:08.045
Like if a production manager steps in that has experience, the crew efficiency and morale of the team and people showing up on time, being safe, and all the other benchmarks of success should go up.
775
00:38:08.165 --> 00:38:08.685
And they have not.
776
00:38:09.025 --> 00:38:15.989
And so whether or not a production manager is effective at the job is not whether or not they can yell at someone, not whether or not they can have a hard meeting with someone.
777
00:38:16.009 --> 00:38:18.010
It's what is the success of their team?
778
00:38:18.270 --> 00:38:21.372
Like the success of your team determines the success of the leader.
779
00:38:21.452 --> 00:38:33.198
And so if the current leadership, the culture is degraded, people are showing up late, they're not wearing their uniform, there's a bunch of just low care for their business, that is the success metric side which I'm going to measure the manager.
780
00:38:33.558 --> 00:38:37.599
Then the next question, you go, well, have I not set them up correctly to make sure they can do that?
781
00:38:37.959 --> 00:38:41.660
Have I not actually told them what they should be doing and what success metrics I am actually tracking?
782
00:38:41.940 --> 00:38:48.121
I think that's where I would first start when it comes to the labor side of things, the low efficiency.
783
00:38:48.622 --> 00:38:54.563
We've got to have a meal adjacent and not say you're doing a bad job, not saying I thought you were going to do this and you did not.
784
00:38:54.583 --> 00:38:55.243
That will not work.
785
00:38:55.723 --> 00:38:57.024
We've already kind of tried that.
786
00:38:57.504 --> 00:38:58.044
It doesn't work.
787
00:38:58.544 --> 00:38:59.784
No one's going to take that well.
788
00:39:03.665 --> 00:39:05.566
when they react to someone saying, you're doing a bad job.
789
00:39:05.646 --> 00:39:10.948
Like it's pretty obvious based upon the interaction with Luke and Logan that they think that he shouldn't be around.
790
00:39:11.228 --> 00:39:14.929
But they also are very gracious in the fact that, hey, they take responsibility.
791
00:39:14.949 --> 00:39:16.350
They didn't set him up for success.
792
00:39:16.630 --> 00:39:21.892
How they handle that conversation with him will be very telling as to whether or not they actually do the rest of what's on the six week plan.
793
00:39:22.092 --> 00:39:28.536
Because if that conversation goes well, they should be able to retain the employee, retain, sounds like his sons, Jason's sons work for the business.
794
00:39:28.916 --> 00:39:31.998
My oldest son's coming in and helping out.
795
00:39:32.019 --> 00:39:32.899
He's fabulous.
796
00:39:33.299 --> 00:39:34.920
He's the next generation in on it.
797
00:39:35.221 --> 00:39:38.663
Big old boy, he's bringing home five, six hundred bucks a week, he's loving it.
798
00:39:38.970 --> 00:39:41.953
Like, they will retain all of them if they just have that conversation and do it well.
799
00:39:42.133 --> 00:39:48.200
If it doesn't go well and they start casting blame or saying negative things about his performance, that is not the time and place to do it.
800
00:39:48.540 --> 00:40:00.733
And you've got to be self-reflective enough that if you're going to say, hey, I'm taking ownership of the fact that this person wasn't successful in their role because I didn't set them up for success, then you've got to be able to not say in the moment, even if they lash out a little bit, the negativity.
801
00:40:01.788 --> 00:40:02.488
that you want to.
802
00:40:03.089 --> 00:40:04.349
You have to withhold that.
803
00:40:04.449 --> 00:40:12.914
And so if we actually want to give Jason a shot at it, it's simply a measure of like, hey, let's get really clear about what success looks like for a production manager at Warrior Outdoors.
804
00:40:13.094 --> 00:40:14.094
Here's the efficiency score.
805
00:40:14.374 --> 00:40:16.516
Here's going to be what our overtime looks like.
806
00:40:16.816 --> 00:40:19.177
Here's what percentage of revenue is going out the door to wages.
807
00:40:19.737 --> 00:40:23.079
and maybe safety cases and callbacks, for example.
808
00:40:23.279 --> 00:40:24.259
This is not confrontational.
809
00:40:24.299 --> 00:40:30.102
I would actually say the thing that you said to me, because like, I don't feel like I have set you up for success.
810
00:40:30.523 --> 00:40:32.324
I haven't given you a good shot at this.
811
00:40:32.784 --> 00:40:38.667
We want to clearly define what good looks like for production manager so that you can know if you're doing a good job.
812
00:40:39.287 --> 00:40:42.848
I don't have to say anything, you don't have to say anything, and that we're all speaking the same language.
813
00:40:42.988 --> 00:40:47.470
Because you're speaking the language of efficiency, and all this, he's speaking the language of effort.
814
00:40:47.630 --> 00:40:49.751
And you're like, effort stinks, I need numbers.
815
00:40:50.211 --> 00:40:53.072
And so let's just, okay, these are the things that we're actually gonna benchmark.
816
00:40:53.092 --> 00:40:55.213
Because some people, their benchmark is effort.
817
00:40:55.233 --> 00:41:00.615
It's like if you just show up and work really hard, and after a surgery, just walk right back into work, you're good, and that's fine.
818
00:41:00.915 --> 00:41:02.296
But you are very much the opposite.
819
00:41:02.416 --> 00:41:06.257
I need these numbers, I need these efficiencies, I need people to be showing up on time.
820
00:41:06.617 --> 00:41:08.718
So make those the benchmarks of success.
821
00:41:09.098 --> 00:41:10.619
And then you don't have to tell him anything.
822
00:41:10.659 --> 00:41:12.941
The language of the numbers tell him each name.
823
00:41:13.062 --> 00:41:16.805
And so when you need, if and when you need to let him go, the numbers will just tell him the story.
824
00:41:17.045 --> 00:41:20.968
The six week plan to turn around Warrior Outdoors is as follows.
825
00:41:21.088 --> 00:41:25.172
Number one, we've got to collect money faster to solve the cash flow problem.
826
00:41:25.392 --> 00:41:28.255
I think the first thing is like tighten up deposits.
827
00:41:30.379 --> 00:41:34.500
We can't be waiting a few weeks after a job has been accepted for that deposit.
828
00:41:34.520 --> 00:41:36.261
We've got to collect it right away.
829
00:41:36.381 --> 00:41:38.001
50% down payment immediately.
830
00:41:38.041 --> 00:41:43.623
Collect that cash as soon as possible so I can go use it to go buy the materials and the supplies required to do the work.
831
00:41:43.763 --> 00:41:45.663
Right now, you're doing a lot of that in person, right?
832
00:41:45.683 --> 00:41:48.924
Like the sales process and they're going and collecting the check, etc.
833
00:41:49.044 --> 00:41:54.246
Is there pushback on getting the check like right when they accept or even just on doing like through the estimate online?
834
00:41:54.966 --> 00:41:56.187
Not a whole lot, to be honest.
835
00:41:56.327 --> 00:42:06.855
I just feel like I maybe, I definitely didn't come from a sales background, so I feel a little bit unconfident in some circumstances where I'm asking people for money, I guess.
836
00:42:07.136 --> 00:42:09.898
I don't think it would add any friction whatsoever to the sales process.
837
00:42:10.118 --> 00:42:11.819
It's just a function of making the ask.
838
00:42:11.859 --> 00:42:13.000
Like, we need the money no matter what.
839
00:42:13.100 --> 00:42:14.601
So like, we gotta make the ask.
840
00:42:14.901 --> 00:42:16.963
And so if you take out a couple little things,
841
00:42:17.463 --> 00:42:17.703
i.e.
842
00:42:17.724 --> 00:42:41.023
a manager that's in productive probably adding to your workload as well as really bad cash flow on projects we would probably be okay like you're probably at 15 mark and that's not horrible for this size of business especially with two owners you're both taking distributions so tightening up deposits simply comes down to setting clear expectations from the estimate like on the estimate just saying this is required to get the job on schedule you just change the terms and then when you're selling the job
843
00:42:41.363 --> 00:42:46.305
Instead of saying like, once you accept or just say to get on the schedule, they just require a deposit.
844
00:42:46.325 --> 00:42:47.286
We just require a deposit.
845
00:42:47.366 --> 00:42:48.746
Once that deposit, we lock you in.
846
00:42:48.786 --> 00:42:52.188
And then you use that on your follow-up process to create scarcity.
847
00:42:52.248 --> 00:42:53.588
Hey, Mr. Jones, we're booked out two months.
848
00:42:53.848 --> 00:42:56.189
We do need to get that deposit to get you locked in the schedule.
849
00:42:56.410 --> 00:42:58.611
Just so you know, we do have a few big projects coming down the pipe.
850
00:42:58.951 --> 00:43:01.712
I'd love to get you scheduled ASAP so we can secure that spot.
851
00:43:01.792 --> 00:43:04.233
But we do not put anyone on the calendar unless they have paid.
852
00:43:04.859 --> 00:43:12.601
The second thing we gotta do in the next six weeks is make sure the website is updated to show seasonal specific offers for season specific services.
853
00:43:12.862 --> 00:43:15.682
Like our six week plan is season specific offers.
854
00:43:15.963 --> 00:43:19.604
We just never spent the money on the website because no one goes to it.
855
00:43:20.484 --> 00:43:23.185
You know, like we don't get like traffic to it.
856
00:43:23.285 --> 00:43:25.366
I'm not sure once it's there, it's awful.
857
00:43:25.406 --> 00:43:29.687
It's also a function of like the reason we don't get any leads from it is because the way it's built.
858
00:43:29.867 --> 00:43:30.167
Yeah.
859
00:43:30.207 --> 00:43:30.467
Right.
860
00:43:30.707 --> 00:43:33.708
And so she's already saying we're getting two a week or so, a couple of weeks.
861
00:43:33.808 --> 00:43:42.111
And it's because the thing you're highlighting is that we just change two leads a week from residential mowing to like one massive design bill and a property manager.
862
00:43:42.371 --> 00:43:44.152
This business looks very different in 12 months.
863
00:43:44.872 --> 00:43:54.639
So I would really revolve the entire website around that truck, and then I would highlight the different types of off- like the main services, design build and commercial maintenance in that area.
864
00:43:54.699 --> 00:43:55.860
Like right on the top there.
865
00:43:56.120 --> 00:44:02.685
I think I'm meeting with Jason and all we're trying to do there is definition of success.
866
00:44:03.515 --> 00:44:05.357
So in the perfect world, he stays on board.
867
00:44:05.537 --> 00:44:09.060
I think the next best case scenario is he leaves, but on good terms.
868
00:44:09.180 --> 00:44:11.783
And then worst case scenario is he leaves and goes sour.
869
00:44:12.043 --> 00:44:17.808
I also think that standardization of product for design goals.
870
00:44:17.928 --> 00:44:21.251
I would really, really recommend standardization, create a product book.
871
00:44:21.571 --> 00:44:24.934
And instead of taking Unilog, you take Warrior Outdoors product book.
872
00:44:25.054 --> 00:44:27.337
And you make it designed really nice.
873
00:44:27.577 --> 00:44:28.618
I'm sure she's great at Canva.
874
00:44:29.899 --> 00:44:42.897
sure yes fantastic she is see like look like give us a couple days give her all your pictures be like these are the ones we want to highlight don't highlight the ones you know that are really hard and you lost your shirt on yeah
875
00:44:44.676 --> 00:44:46.198
This guy's just like, yeah.
876
00:44:46.278 --> 00:44:50.201
I knew exactly what pictures were going in that book, and they're not the same ones.
877
00:44:50.482 --> 00:44:52.143
So you know which ones, right?
878
00:44:52.623 --> 00:44:56.507
I do believe if you standardize the design side enough, this is the unlock.
879
00:44:56.687 --> 00:45:05.315
This is fine, but the unlock here is you standardize the design side enough so you can take over sales, you can take over operations, and you don't have a production manager.
880
00:45:05.335 --> 00:45:06.756
That business will do $2 million very profitably.
881
00:45:07.898 --> 00:45:18.303
They are hitting the capacity when you have two managers, like that 1.4, 1.5 million, like you need a better management team to be able to get to three, four, five million.
882
00:45:18.463 --> 00:45:19.724
And so they're hitting up against that.
883
00:45:19.804 --> 00:45:24.967
There are a lot of leadership things I actually like kind of glazed over because I can't even address them if we don't have clear roles.
884
00:45:25.487 --> 00:45:29.772
What's easier to replace is your job, if I'm trying to hire someone, is sales.
885
00:45:30.332 --> 00:45:38.701
Not your job is sales, operations, you got to manage the crew, have a defunct middle manager that you don't really know what's going on with and you don't have any metrics for success for them.
886
00:45:38.721 --> 00:45:40.202
It's easier if you go hire a salesperson.
887
00:45:40.483 --> 00:45:42.765
And by the way, you don't need to know how to do all these custom things.
888
00:45:42.785 --> 00:45:46.109
There's four different types of projects we install and here's your product book to go sell.
889
00:45:46.849 --> 00:45:48.310
That's an easier role to replace.
890
00:45:48.590 --> 00:45:50.932
Let's simplify our roles and make sure their roles are clear.
891
00:45:51.112 --> 00:45:52.654
So I can't talk about close ratio.
892
00:45:52.974 --> 00:46:02.881
I can't talk about even like follow-up mechanisms and certain other systems I would have to be able to scale the business if we don't have just the fundamentals of organization in the company.
893
00:46:03.221 --> 00:46:05.343
This is the unlock.
894
00:46:05.603 --> 00:46:05.863
It is.
895
00:46:06.204 --> 00:46:10.507
We've got to simplify and standardize enough on the projects to where you can sell.
896
00:46:11.017 --> 00:46:22.739
And that's something that we don't talk about for a business doing 200 or 300 thousand because the sole operator does sales, does operate, does admin, but this size of business now you need to specialize in order to be able to take it to the next level.
897
00:46:22.899 --> 00:46:26.520
When I hear what you guys are saying, like the goal of the business is that you eventually be able to hand this off.
898
00:46:26.960 --> 00:46:28.040
We need to like focus on that.
899
00:46:28.420 --> 00:46:29.420
What does that business look like?
900
00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:39.542
It looks like very standardized projects to fill in the gaps of a maintenance business that is dialed in, like on efficiencies and the labor side.
901
00:46:39.902 --> 00:46:40.062
Yeah.
902
00:46:40.383 --> 00:46:41.964
Luke is having a baby like this week.
903
00:46:42.104 --> 00:46:42.345
Yeah.
904
00:46:42.365 --> 00:46:43.726
So he may be out for a few.
905
00:46:43.746 --> 00:46:46.609
Yeah, I should probably keep my phone on.
906
00:46:46.689 --> 00:46:48.311
He may be out for like a little bit.
907
00:46:48.431 --> 00:46:48.571
Yeah.
908
00:46:48.591 --> 00:46:51.654
So we might have to implement this like a couple of weeks.
909
00:46:51.674 --> 00:46:51.874
It's okay.
910
00:46:51.894 --> 00:46:52.535
You got six weeks.
911
00:46:52.555 --> 00:46:53.276
You got six weeks.
912
00:46:53.336 --> 00:46:54.757
So I'm looking forward to it.
913
00:46:54.797 --> 00:46:59.102
I think just having that clarity will allow us both to excel in our roles because.
914
00:46:59.282 --> 00:47:07.710
Like, this has been our problem the whole time, is just, like, feeling like we're both good at certain things in certain fields, but struggling with other things.
915
00:47:07.791 --> 00:47:12.395
But having that clarity so that we can actually complement each other, I think, is going to go a long way.
916
00:47:12.415 --> 00:47:15.238
The hardest thing for them is going to be standardization of the projects.
917
00:47:15.899 --> 00:47:22.105
Because you are walking away from work, and those projects they're going to want to take on, that they have to, like, realize they're not going to probably win those.
918
00:47:23.967 --> 00:47:26.208
We already know that Logan knows how to do the sales.
919
00:47:26.528 --> 00:47:32.451
He just doesn't know how to probably like put some of the numbers in the software and do some design work, but he's already sold like water features.
920
00:47:32.491 --> 00:47:33.491
So it'll be just fine.
921
00:47:33.812 --> 00:47:36.793
Alexis, you're always, the office person always has all the dirt.
922
00:47:37.013 --> 00:47:39.194
They know all the skeletons.
923
00:47:39.554 --> 00:47:41.115
They know everything wrong in the business.
924
00:47:41.415 --> 00:47:48.418
So like anything from your aspect, like when you've overheard kind of like the general direction, anything like doubts or like questions you have?
925
00:47:48.619 --> 00:47:50.960
I'd say my biggest concern is
926
00:47:52.060 --> 00:47:55.662
Not implementing it immediately like right now they got a fire under them.
927
00:47:55.842 --> 00:47:59.244
And so I want them to do it like Tomorrow okay.
928
00:47:59.264 --> 00:48:05.087
Why I wanted to have Bravo It's like music to my ears.
929
00:48:05.107 --> 00:48:09.749
They tend to overthink and it becomes easier to just keep
930
00:48:10.670 --> 00:48:12.511
the more time they get away from it.
931
00:48:12.531 --> 00:48:13.452
Great, that's why you're here.
932
00:48:13.472 --> 00:48:15.373
You're gonna hold them accountable to make sure it happens.
933
00:48:15.634 --> 00:48:18.055
Alexis always is doing that though, so we're used to that.
934
00:48:18.075 --> 00:48:20.437
That's how we get stuff done, like really get it done, so.
935
00:48:20.457 --> 00:48:22.178
Yeah.
936
00:48:22.258 --> 00:48:26.562
If she wanted to, she could probably be a better CEO than me or Luke, because she's so aggressive with that stuff.
937
00:48:26.582 --> 00:48:28.123
We're gonna have the timelines, let's go.
938
00:48:28.863 --> 00:48:29.683
Alexis is cheering here.
939
00:48:29.744 --> 00:48:31.164
Okay, all right, all right.
940
00:48:31.464 --> 00:48:35.366
So number one, the tightening of the deposits, that's gonna be 24 hours.
941
00:48:35.746 --> 00:48:40.969
That is simply a decision made now on the sales side, which is currently still you, we gotta get there.
942
00:48:41.369 --> 00:48:47.372
But like within 24 hours, we don't leave the job without collecting and we are using scarcity as a way to make sure that is a deposit.
943
00:48:47.712 --> 00:48:50.793
Second thing is clear offers on the website.
944
00:48:50.813 --> 00:48:51.234
Within 24 hours,
945
00:48:52.274 --> 00:48:56.815
We're going to make a request to the web developer of what we want changed.
946
00:48:56.835 --> 00:48:59.016
We're going to be clear with what those things are.
947
00:48:59.056 --> 00:49:05.997
So within 24 years, you can ask that within, let's just give it two weeks, because sometimes web designers are slow, they'll have it changed.
948
00:49:06.177 --> 00:49:07.238
Perhaps ambitious.
949
00:49:07.558 --> 00:49:08.598
Two weeks is ambitious.
950
00:49:08.798 --> 00:49:09.838
Yeah, she's kind of slow.
951
00:49:10.218 --> 00:49:12.499
But three, I would really hope so.
952
00:49:12.679 --> 00:49:14.499
Okay, well, I'll meet you for weeks.
953
00:49:14.719 --> 00:49:15.219
It's okay.
954
00:49:15.259 --> 00:49:17.300
Number three is meeting with Jason.
955
00:49:17.740 --> 00:49:18.921
Number three is going to be in three days.
956
00:49:18.941 --> 00:49:19.341
Let's go.
957
00:49:19.501 --> 00:49:22.484
I would have a meeting between the three of you in terms of how that meeting is going to go.
958
00:49:22.804 --> 00:49:23.744
I would have some notes.
959
00:49:24.105 --> 00:49:28.067
You're not going to go into a blind because you both have admitted that you don't like confrontation.
960
00:49:28.448 --> 00:49:32.230
This is not a confrontational meeting, but we need to have organizations so you don't stumble your way through.
961
00:49:32.551 --> 00:49:35.533
And then emotions get flared up and you start saying stupid stuff.
962
00:49:35.873 --> 00:49:38.395
Nothing negative is said within three days.
963
00:49:38.735 --> 00:49:39.175
We're doing that.
964
00:49:39.215 --> 00:49:44.259
And we're going to promote Jason, either promotion away from the business or promoting the irrigation department in a year.
965
00:49:44.319 --> 00:49:45.260
Hopefully we can bring him back.
966
00:49:45.540 --> 00:49:46.641
Only part of those things said there.
967
00:49:47.301 --> 00:49:48.443
Alexis will keep you accountable.
968
00:49:48.463 --> 00:49:51.247
She'll throw darts at you or something if you are saying negative things.
969
00:49:51.808 --> 00:49:52.489
She will.
970
00:49:52.549 --> 00:49:52.929
I will.
971
00:49:53.150 --> 00:49:54.131
So that's three days.
972
00:49:54.812 --> 00:49:58.958
Before the standardization of the product design, how long will it take us to make a product book?
973
00:49:59.198 --> 00:50:00.280
I don't think it'll take that long.
974
00:50:00.420 --> 00:50:01.101
A week or two.
975
00:50:01.121 --> 00:50:02.943
Okay, so one week to make the product book.
976
00:50:02.963 --> 00:50:03.664
So one week.
977
00:50:04.685 --> 00:50:05.245
product book.
978
00:50:05.686 --> 00:50:12.468
We're going to do another week and this could be a day but I'm going to leave you a week for it and that is training around the design software.
979
00:50:12.868 --> 00:50:20.751
Anything that you think he doesn't know that he needs to know might mean you go out and do a few estimates with him just to make sure you're both on the same page and easier transition.
980
00:50:21.151 --> 00:50:23.932
Also, during that training process you're thinking about things like estimate notes.
981
00:50:24.192 --> 00:50:26.653
Like hey what are the gaps here that we need to standardize?
982
00:50:26.993 --> 00:50:31.675
One week of training after one week of creating the product book and so what are we looking at?
983
00:50:32.271 --> 00:50:34.233
August 1st, you're gonna be the salesperson?
984
00:50:36.014 --> 00:50:36.775
Starting August 1st?
985
00:50:36.855 --> 00:50:37.075
Yeah.
986
00:50:37.335 --> 00:50:38.516
And then that week we call you.
987
00:50:38.796 --> 00:50:41.519
And then we see how it's working.
988
00:50:41.919 --> 00:50:43.220
How's it going?
989
00:50:43.260 --> 00:50:45.542
So we will know whether or not we hit these benchmarks.
990
00:50:45.582 --> 00:50:46.362
Yeah.
991
00:50:46.603 --> 00:50:48.884
Anything else, Alexis, besides timelines on this?
992
00:50:49.185 --> 00:50:50.226
That's all I can think of.
993
00:50:50.246 --> 00:50:50.906
Okay, all right, cool.
994
00:50:51.146 --> 00:50:56.431
He's got a really good gift of understanding where we're at.
995
00:50:57.183 --> 00:51:12.452
without knowing us or spending a lot of time with us, being able to come in and just with some financial numbers and then 10 or 15 minutes just even beforehand just getting to know us, I feel like that's a serious gift to be able to do that.
996
00:51:12.652 --> 00:51:20.877
But have that perspective and then have actionable stuff for us to do, I think really is super valuable.
997
00:51:20.977 --> 00:51:22.598
So I'm excited about that.
998
00:51:23.120 --> 00:51:24.161
Yeah, I was super impressed.
999
00:51:24.181 --> 00:51:26.041
I was like, dang, this dude just got right to it.
1000
00:51:26.061 --> 00:51:28.223
Like, he knows me better than I know myself.
1001
00:51:28.243 --> 00:51:29.743
Yeah, I was like, what the heck is this?
1002
00:51:30.264 --> 00:51:31.684
But yeah, no, it was super cool.
1003
00:51:31.864 --> 00:51:35.466
And I'm super appreciative of him and coming out and all that.
1004
00:51:36.327 --> 00:51:37.107
Yeah.
1005
00:51:37.747 --> 00:51:39.708
Hey man, thanks for letting us come by.
1006
00:51:40.148 --> 00:51:40.749
I appreciate it.
1007
00:51:40.769 --> 00:51:41.409
I really appreciate your time.
1008
00:51:41.509 --> 00:51:42.210
Absolutely.
1009
00:51:42.530 --> 00:51:44.031
I appreciate you letting us come out.
1010
00:51:44.071 --> 00:51:46.772
There's a lot of other people that are in the same boat, same problems.
1011
00:51:46.972 --> 00:51:48.733
And so if people say dumb stuff, just ignore them.
1012
00:51:48.773 --> 00:51:57.238
They're just being whatever, but there's a lot of people that take a lot from someone like your size and be like, okay, if they have problems and I'm trying to grow to that size, maybe I need to redo my business now.
1013
00:51:57.258 --> 00:51:59.860
So when I get that size, I don't have that same problem, right?
1014
00:52:00.200 --> 00:52:00.781
So I appreciate it.
1015
00:52:00.801 --> 00:52:03.786
It's really a part of the community and just trying to give back to them.
1016
00:52:03.806 --> 00:52:04.767
So, all right.
1017
00:52:05.007 --> 00:52:05.508
Thanks, guys.
1018
00:52:05.548 --> 00:52:05.929
Thank you.
1019
00:52:06.069 --> 00:52:07.371
You'll have a good one.
1020
00:52:07.431 --> 00:52:08.373
Yeah, enjoy the sunshine.
1021
00:52:08.393 --> 00:52:09.114
Yeah, definitely.
1022
00:52:09.154 --> 00:52:09.975
It's a little hot today.
1023
00:52:10.015 --> 00:52:10.316
Goodness.
1024
00:52:10.336 --> 00:52:15.123
It went really well.
1025
00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:18.361
He took it really well and he's just been, it's been a lot better fit for him.
1026
00:52:18.621 --> 00:52:22.581
I think he, it's more his groove, his cup of tea, I guess.
1027
00:52:22.661 --> 00:52:26.722
So he's been killing it on the irrigation side and so it's been going good.
1028
00:52:27.042 --> 00:52:34.184
It's just like one of those things where you've, you build it up bigger in your head than it actually is, you know, and then it ended up being no big deal at all.
1029
00:52:34.644 --> 00:52:36.404
Yeah, so that's what he's doing.
1030
00:52:36.804 --> 00:52:40.565
Irrigation tech only, we moved them from salary to hourly.
1031
00:52:40.985 --> 00:52:43.328
like same rate, but just hourly.
1032
00:52:43.569 --> 00:52:47.133
So you got everything same compensation as far as like how much is getting paid.
1033
00:52:47.193 --> 00:52:48.755
It's just a little bit different.
1034
00:52:49.056 --> 00:52:53.101
We're reworking our, just our terms basically.
1035
00:52:53.301 --> 00:52:58.448
So all future work's gonna have that set up to where we collect the deposit in order to get onto the schedule.
1036
00:52:59.148 --> 00:52:59.929
Luke had the baby.
1037
00:53:00.309 --> 00:53:01.310
He's three weeks old.
1038
00:53:01.330 --> 00:53:04.233
He was born on July 3rd.
1039
00:53:04.413 --> 00:53:11.420
I've been holding on the sales and operations for a little bit, so that way Luke could have some time with them.
1040
00:53:11.460 --> 00:53:14.323
Then Monday morning, we're hitting it split.
1041
00:53:14.383 --> 00:53:20.029
I've been doing all the sales meeting for the install though, so I think I have pretty much 100 percent of the sales now.
1042
00:53:20.069 --> 00:53:23.512
Luke's going to hit the ground running hopefully next week, Monday for
1043
00:53:24.150 --> 00:53:24.811
operations.
1044
00:53:25.051 --> 00:53:35.004
Like Luke's been working on getting that, like while he's been off, he's been working on getting that like set system, like the written product sheet and exactly what we're going to offer.
1045
00:53:35.185 --> 00:53:38.809
So we should be able to implement that in the next couple of weeks or so.
1046
00:53:39.110 --> 00:53:40.832
That'll make my life a lot easier for sure.
1047
00:53:41.087 --> 00:54:00.291
Yeah, and we're working with our web designer also to kind of bring those seasonal offerings to the forefront and then also kind of simplify our standardized install offerings also, just so we can have a little bit more direction when somebody clicks on our website so they're not always just seeing a leaf removal page or something like that.
1048
00:54:00.411 --> 00:54:04.952
That was definitely kind of a, at least for me, it kind of hit the pause button on most things.
1049
00:54:05.632 --> 00:54:09.254
My family definitely my priority over the business.
1050
00:54:09.294 --> 00:54:16.356
So that took kind of forefront of my bandwidth and then Logan's done a great job holding down everything in the meantime.
1051
00:54:16.536 --> 00:54:21.278
So that kind of ate into our productivity as far as our goals.
1052
00:54:22.359 --> 00:54:27.341
But I think we got a lot of things in place kind of getting ready to go on all this.
1053
00:54:27.561 --> 00:54:28.421
Yeah, for sure.
1054
00:54:28.621 --> 00:54:32.743
Yeah, every time I get on YouTube, I see a new mic and you're like, oh, is it ours?