The Lies Home Service Owners Believe About Growth

WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.231 --> 00:00:06.796
If you have a home service business and you're trying to go from zero to $3 million in annual revenue, this video is for you.
2
00:00:07.197 --> 00:00:16.064
This is actually a question and answers session that I had with over 20 home service business owners that are all trying to grow their business past that seven-figure marker.
3
00:00:16.404 --> 00:00:19.987
And we're going to be talking about sales, operations, and admin operations.
4
00:00:20.527 --> 00:00:25.109
at every single size of business and what you need to do to be able to get the business to the next level.
5
00:00:25.329 --> 00:00:37.515
So all of their questions are really revolving around the business model they're trying to build, whether they should do multiple locations, how they should hire general managers, and overall the structure of fixing the off season for their specific industry.
6
00:00:37.756 --> 00:00:41.517
So without any further delay, get ready for a marathon of questions and answers.
7
00:00:41.878 --> 00:00:42.238
Here we go.
8
00:00:42.958 --> 00:00:47.399
So if you were to ask a technician on a rainy week, how's your capacity?
9
00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:49.900
They're going to say, oh my gosh, I'm slammed.
10
00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:52.141
I'm barely going to be able to get everything done.
11
00:00:52.901 --> 00:00:58.783
That's different than in August when your your lawns aren't growing like crazy.
12
00:00:59.163 --> 00:01:07.406
So can you define for us a little bit of a broader spectrum understanding of capacity corporately?
13
00:01:08.327 --> 00:01:23.482
structurally, what is my understanding of capacity supposed to be so that I can decide the entire company is going to move into profit mode or back into growth mode at this time?
14
00:01:24.409 --> 00:01:24.949
Great question.
15
00:01:25.150 --> 00:01:29.913
So it all comes down to the amount of budget hours that someone could complete as an employee.
16
00:01:30.353 --> 00:01:32.655
Now, does that number change between employees?
17
00:01:32.795 --> 00:01:33.035
Yes.
18
00:01:33.256 --> 00:01:35.918
Does that change based upon the time, the weather?
19
00:01:36.058 --> 00:01:36.338
Yes.
20
00:01:37.098 --> 00:01:41.862
And so do you mind me asking, do you use HomeWorks or I Copilot right now or not?
21
00:01:41.882 --> 00:01:42.923
We're on service autopilot.
22
00:01:43.444 --> 00:01:43.724
Perfect.
23
00:01:43.884 --> 00:01:44.045
Yep.
24
00:01:44.145 --> 00:01:46.928
So they fortunately do a budget hour column.
25
00:01:47.568 --> 00:01:48.950
You can just manually do outside.
26
00:01:49.590 --> 00:01:55.837
Inside Homeworks, we have it where you can see it on a week or per month schedule, and then you can see the individual's capacity.
27
00:01:55.857 --> 00:02:01.303
So the reason I'm saying that is because all you really need to know is how many budget hours of capacity do I have?
28
00:02:01.723 --> 00:02:04.605
What comprises of that is individual people on your team.
29
00:02:05.046 --> 00:02:14.213
We generalize, as I say in the book, 30 budget hours or 75% capacity for a 40-hour week because most people are not going to drive time, load time, et cetera.
30
00:02:14.673 --> 00:02:16.634
Now, I know that some people, it's 28.
31
00:02:17.775 --> 00:02:18.956
Some people are 32.
32
00:02:19.637 --> 00:02:22.178
Some people are 38 in terms of their capacity.
33
00:02:22.559 --> 00:02:28.803
That's why like in homework, you can individually change the budget hours for each user, what their capacity is per week.
34
00:02:28.883 --> 00:02:31.225
Down the road, I'd like to do it per day because that also plays into it.
35
00:02:31.665 --> 00:02:40.412
That being said, I would look much more look at, especially as you grow in terms of size, much more holistically in terms of how many budget hours can I complete in a week on average.
36
00:02:40.632 --> 00:02:44.715
And that's why I use the 30 budget hours per full-time employee as a very broad stroke.
37
00:02:44.735 --> 00:02:45.015
Yeah.
38
00:02:45.155 --> 00:02:55.023
Now, if you have really good drive time, for example, and you have really tight routes, that number could easily be 85%, 90%, very easily.
39
00:02:55.183 --> 00:02:59.627
What we do is we move that 30 budget hours based upon the time of year slightly.
40
00:02:59.887 --> 00:03:05.391
So during the spring rush, to your point, we usually bring that down to around 27% or 28% at my location.
41
00:03:05.872 --> 00:03:09.234
During the summer when the guys are just flying through stuff, we usually move that to like 34% or 35%.
42
00:03:10.395 --> 00:03:12.776
in terms of the budget hours that can get done.
43
00:03:12.976 --> 00:03:18.219
This is why in the summer, guys are doing lawns fast, they're getting off after five hours, six hours worth of work.
44
00:03:18.239 --> 00:03:20.840
And you're like, man, if I just had more jobs, I could fill their schedule more.
45
00:03:21.380 --> 00:03:27.783
Their capacity of budget hours is increasing because the conditions for them to do the work are improving.
46
00:03:27.903 --> 00:03:28.904
Also, if you...
47
00:03:29.424 --> 00:03:34.606
if you get better equipment and they can go more efficiently also increases their budget, our capacity.
48
00:03:34.906 --> 00:03:35.146
Right.
49
00:03:35.226 --> 00:03:40.167
And so, um, I would look at much more holistically in terms of number of budget hours on the schedule.
50
00:03:40.948 --> 00:03:46.449
And like when you in homework, when you schedule a visit, it actually shows what your capacity is for the next four weeks.
51
00:03:46.809 --> 00:03:49.890
So, you know, as a total, am I overbooked?
52
00:03:49.970 --> 00:03:51.191
Am I close to being overbooked?
53
00:03:51.431 --> 00:03:52.831
Do I need to watch the weather a little bit?
54
00:03:52.851 --> 00:03:53.812
Cause it could be a little hairy.
55
00:03:54.232 --> 00:03:55.072
So there's some advantages.
56
00:03:55.092 --> 00:03:56.733
They're just like seeing budget hours.
57
00:03:57.473 --> 00:03:57.633
Um,
58
00:03:58.113 --> 00:04:01.435
But yes, to your point, capacity does change based on weather.
59
00:04:01.835 --> 00:04:03.216
It changes based on skill level.
60
00:04:03.616 --> 00:04:07.679
So if you have a whole bunch of new guys in the field, they're not going to be completed 30 budget hours in a week.
61
00:04:08.799 --> 00:04:11.001
Between them and their trainer, they might get 40 done.
62
00:04:11.401 --> 00:04:14.543
And so it slows the trainer down because you got this newbie along with them.
63
00:04:14.963 --> 00:04:15.163
Right?
64
00:04:15.403 --> 00:04:17.345
So all of these are definitely variables.
65
00:04:17.785 --> 00:04:22.489
Ultimately though, capacity needs to be determined by budget hours and budget hours need to be accurate.
66
00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:27.433
And so I see some people do is they'll raise prices and when they raise prices, all they do is increase budgeted hours.
67
00:04:27.754 --> 00:04:33.538
And the problem with that, because like, for example, let's start it's $80 per cut, I'm just going to use mowing for an example.
68
00:04:33.799 --> 00:04:33.959
Okay.
69
00:04:33.979 --> 00:04:37.361
We raised prices to a hundred, but I keep my hourly rate at 80.
70
00:04:37.742 --> 00:04:40.564
Now, instead of one budget hour on the job, they're getting 1.2.
71
00:04:42.145 --> 00:04:42.265
25.
72
00:04:42.705 --> 00:04:47.047
And so now all of a sudden, again, randomly increases my fit my my capacity, I don't want that.
73
00:04:47.327 --> 00:04:49.768
I want budget hours to be accurate at all times.
74
00:04:50.048 --> 00:04:56.271
So in that case, instead of raising the amount that I am giving budget hours, I would raise my hourly rate to $100 per hour.
75
00:04:56.551 --> 00:04:58.111
So my budget hours stay fixed.
76
00:04:58.491 --> 00:05:02.553
And so the problem I see most will actually make your own capacity is their budget hours are not accurate.
77
00:05:02.933 --> 00:05:06.578
So assuming that is accurate, then I can start figuring out like seasonality.
78
00:05:06.718 --> 00:05:10.222
You can start bringing, okay, I'm going to do 28 per person during the summer.
79
00:05:10.242 --> 00:05:13.286
It's going to be 34, 35, 36 budget hours per person.
80
00:05:13.646 --> 00:05:21.155
But then knowing approximately per week how many budget hours you can do within the constraints of how many employees you have is the key.
81
00:05:21.536 --> 00:05:21.896
Also...
82
00:05:22.457 --> 00:05:28.502
We also have, I talk about having personal capacity, or sorry, labor capacity, which is what we've been talking about, budget hours.
83
00:05:28.962 --> 00:05:33.526
The next thing is asset capacity, because you can increase labor capacity.
84
00:05:33.966 --> 00:05:38.149
In other words, how many budget hours can my crew get done by increasing your asset capacity?
85
00:05:38.210 --> 00:05:40.111
In other words, buying more trucks, right?
86
00:05:40.291 --> 00:05:45.075
And there's also structural things like better route density you can also do to increase their capacity.
87
00:05:45.295 --> 00:05:48.476
You could switch out capacity in that regard for the word efficiency, right?
88
00:05:48.496 --> 00:05:52.677
Like if my guys get more efficient, they can therefore get more budget hours done per week, right?
89
00:05:53.057 --> 00:05:54.437
Does that kind of answer your question, Drew?
90
00:05:54.457 --> 00:05:55.978
Sorry, I was kind of a little- Yeah, it does.
91
00:05:56.118 --> 00:05:56.798
Yeah, that was great.
92
00:05:57.298 --> 00:05:57.598
Awesome.
93
00:05:58.018 --> 00:05:58.158
Yeah.
94
00:05:58.178 --> 00:06:01.259
And then in terms of different employees, I 100% agree.
95
00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:13.302
And that's why P4P is so powerful because as they get more efficient and there is someone that is more capable and completes 38 budget hours to everyone else's 28, yeah, across my entire team, I'm looking at 30 budget hours per person, but they're always way above.
96
00:06:13.762 --> 00:06:15.022
They should be making way more money.
97
00:06:15.402 --> 00:06:22.227
And that's why then tying budget hours to their compensation is the thing that starts making budget hours be super consistent.
98
00:06:22.507 --> 00:06:31.373
Like we can book out way out in the future with certainty of days of a project because I am very confident my crew will finish their routes because their compensation is tied to budget hours.
99
00:06:31.674 --> 00:06:33.795
So they might say, hey, boss, it's raining tomorrow.
100
00:06:34.055 --> 00:06:36.977
Can I just work 16 hours the next day, take tomorrow off?
101
00:06:37.238 --> 00:06:39.019
Because I know I'll be able to be way more efficient.
102
00:06:39.339 --> 00:06:43.202
And they'll do that instead of just sitting in the truck and having the heat on for the first day.
103
00:06:43.582 --> 00:06:43.803
Right.
104
00:06:44.124 --> 00:06:51.442
So when we when we switch to P4P, we saw that their capacities level out a lot more instead of having huge spikes and valleys.
105
00:06:51.883 --> 00:06:52.244
Derek.
106
00:06:53.163 --> 00:06:53.704
Yellow.
107
00:06:54.124 --> 00:06:54.484
All right.
108
00:06:55.045 --> 00:06:55.486
How's it going?
109
00:06:55.566 --> 00:06:55.926
Thank you.
110
00:06:55.946 --> 00:06:56.947
Hey, everybody.
111
00:06:57.608 --> 00:07:01.632
So mine will be a little different, obviously, because everything is mainly lawn care and landscape.
112
00:07:01.652 --> 00:07:05.116
So I watched a lot of the content and read the books and stuff like that.
113
00:07:05.736 --> 00:07:08.379
And I've kind of tweaked it towards my industry, right?
114
00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:12.323
So I want to do the multi-location.
115
00:07:12.944 --> 00:07:13.885
That's kind of the...
116
00:07:14.505 --> 00:07:15.846
the path I want to explore.
117
00:07:16.406 --> 00:07:24.848
My current location, I'm like a hybrid of like the working GM slash full-time GM.
118
00:07:25.348 --> 00:07:27.849
So everything runs without me on a day-to-day.
119
00:07:27.869 --> 00:07:27.929
And
120
00:07:30.570 --> 00:07:31.491
I don't answer phones.
121
00:07:31.531 --> 00:07:33.212
I have an assistant that answers the phones.
122
00:07:33.252 --> 00:07:36.294
I got drivers that do all that, that do the deliveries.
123
00:07:36.975 --> 00:07:39.917
A lot of orders come in online or she takes the orders, right?
124
00:07:41.558 --> 00:07:49.864
So I'm at the point where, you know, what is the determining factor where I know the second location is something that I should focus on?
125
00:07:51.415 --> 00:08:01.198
Because obviously, like you were saying, once everything runs, if you've got the revenue, you've got the income, then you can gauge it to go to the second one.
126
00:08:01.698 --> 00:08:12.621
Sometimes I feel like I'm not really doing much because I'm focusing on SOPs, marketing, stuff like this, and I feel like I have a lot of time where I could go branch and start the second location.
127
00:08:13.002 --> 00:08:17.423
And I guess I'm just kind of wondering, what is the actual gauge that tells me good to
128
00:08:18.043 --> 00:08:20.404
And then I have a secondary question after you answer.
129
00:08:20.664 --> 00:08:27.346
Are you asking if you're good to go in terms of leaving your current location or if you should do a multiple location, like a secondary location?
130
00:08:27.406 --> 00:08:27.906
No, no, no.
131
00:08:28.166 --> 00:08:30.107
If I'm ready to go to the second location.
132
00:08:30.387 --> 00:08:30.567
Yeah.
133
00:08:30.647 --> 00:08:39.729
If the business can run without you, like if someone can become a customer, everything gets done in terms of the work and everything that goes along with that, including training the employees.
134
00:08:39.989 --> 00:08:44.891
So usually that's the last thing people can get out of operations for is training new employees and hiring them.
135
00:08:45.691 --> 00:08:50.913
So the actual training and hiring of a new team member is usually the last thing that people will let go of.
136
00:08:51.333 --> 00:08:59.877
And that's why in the book I talk a lot about using a software platform where they submit videos because that's something that's probably the hardest thing for a GM to learn is hiring.
137
00:09:00.277 --> 00:09:02.958
They can usually train pretty decently if you have a good system and a good checklist.
138
00:09:03.158 --> 00:09:06.419
And especially you would make this a checklist.
139
00:09:06.899 --> 00:09:10.881
It's the hiring part that you don't really want them to learn on your dime.
140
00:09:11.281 --> 00:09:11.501
Right.
141
00:09:11.881 --> 00:09:20.145
And so that's where I think you could do a lot of video-based interview and application stuff, use any sort of ATS, applicant tracking software.
142
00:09:20.546 --> 00:09:21.426
So we do that now.
143
00:09:21.726 --> 00:09:25.868
So we have – when our applicants submit an application, we require them to send a video.
144
00:09:26.509 --> 00:09:28.029
But I'm doing the hiring.
145
00:09:29.050 --> 00:09:30.450
My drivers are doing the training.
146
00:09:30.530 --> 00:09:33.492
So I built out like a whole training SOP.
147
00:09:34.925 --> 00:09:35.966
you know, like a field training.
148
00:09:36.886 --> 00:09:37.926
So they have to go through the steps.
149
00:09:37.946 --> 00:09:39.647
They got 90 days, all this stuff.
150
00:09:39.687 --> 00:09:40.627
My guys are doing all that.
151
00:09:40.667 --> 00:09:42.808
So I'm doing the actual hiring now.
152
00:09:42.928 --> 00:09:43.148
Okay.
153
00:09:43.528 --> 00:09:45.608
How many stops per day do they have on the truck usually?
154
00:09:46.809 --> 00:09:48.109
Around 14.
155
00:09:48.409 --> 00:09:50.690
Oh, wow.
156
00:09:51.110 --> 00:09:53.250
It's hard because like we can do a ton of deliveries.
157
00:09:53.430 --> 00:09:53.711
Okay.
158
00:09:53.731 --> 00:09:57.692
But when we start throwing pickups in, you know, we got to drive to the site, pick it up.
159
00:09:58.012 --> 00:10:00.713
We've got to drive to the landfill, dump it.
160
00:10:00.973 --> 00:10:02.213
And then we've got to drive to the next site.
161
00:10:03.766 --> 00:10:05.628
So that varies daily.
162
00:10:06.869 --> 00:10:12.054
If we have deliveries, I mean, we can just rapid fire because it's just deliver, go to the closest yard, deliver.
163
00:10:13.655 --> 00:10:22.223
But last year, we ran two trucks and we were running, I mean, basically 12 to 14 hours a day every single day.
164
00:10:22.744 --> 00:10:26.207
Well, Monday through Friday and then Saturdays were...
165
00:10:26.697 --> 00:10:28.320
eight hour days.
166
00:10:28.721 --> 00:10:31.386
And then I bought a third truck at the end of the year.
167
00:10:32.127 --> 00:10:38.398
Obviously it's basically bled me for the last couple months, but knowing that come spring, we're gonna need it.
168
00:10:39.058 --> 00:10:50.364
My thought process though when talking to my team is that I'm on the mindset, like you speak of the $800,000 in revenue, the small team, and I could just raise my prices slightly.
169
00:10:50.884 --> 00:10:56.467
I can't get away with a 20% increase just because of how the market works with dumpsters.
170
00:10:57.578 --> 00:10:58.658
We all have the same item.
171
00:10:58.678 --> 00:11:00.319
We have a metal box people put trash in.
172
00:11:00.659 --> 00:11:03.760
But at the same time, most people are looking for the cheapest metal box.
173
00:11:04.220 --> 00:11:08.621
Not that we are, but to raise it substantially, I won't be able to get away with that.
174
00:11:09.401 --> 00:11:15.523
And so I was thinking that with this third truck, if I raise up prices a little bit, which is going to slow my intake down.
175
00:11:17.062 --> 00:11:23.285
keep those guys busy still 10, 12 hours a day doing all these deliveries, I could take the third truck and branch off and start another location.
176
00:11:23.665 --> 00:11:40.313
Yeah, and I think – so typically the safest way to start another location is going to be increasing the asset capacity like you have buying the third truck and then starting to market in the new territory, knowing that it's going to be inefficient to drive back and forth, whatever, but the safest way to do it.
177
00:11:40.893 --> 00:11:43.376
Which is, okay, so like how far is the new market?
178
00:11:43.416 --> 00:11:44.257
Like 45 minutes away?
179
00:11:44.717 --> 00:11:45.678
Yeah, there's another question with that.
180
00:11:45.698 --> 00:11:47.940
But basically, 30 miles is what we do now.
181
00:11:48.461 --> 00:11:52.365
So I would go right outside that 30 mile to where I get the next 30 miles.
182
00:11:52.705 --> 00:11:53.086
Exactly.
183
00:11:53.106 --> 00:11:54.887
So you just start accepting those customers.
184
00:11:55.068 --> 00:11:57.730
Change your website, like to accept that service area.
185
00:11:58.371 --> 00:11:58.972
I would add...
186
00:11:59.492 --> 00:12:03.478
in the perfect world, this is from just Augusta knowing this, I would start another website.
187
00:12:03.518 --> 00:12:12.152
So for example, like if you have yellow bins.com, do yellow bins.com slash territory name, and then do a second one, which is like a branched of your website stuff.
188
00:12:12.473 --> 00:12:12.573
Um,
189
00:12:13.613 --> 00:12:15.535
And then start a new Google listing in that market.
190
00:12:15.796 --> 00:12:16.637
So you'll rank better.
191
00:12:16.957 --> 00:12:19.160
Cause if you just extend your service area, you'll increase a little bit.
192
00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:24.426
If you get a second Google page with a website that's designed just for that location, way better.
193
00:12:25.087 --> 00:12:28.130
Um, so I would do those physical address, physical address.
194
00:12:28.251 --> 00:12:31.855
I w even if it means giving someone a free bin and saying, Hey, I'm
195
00:12:32.015 --> 00:12:38.458
get the verification inside your new territory, get a Google page, get a website built specifically for that market.
196
00:12:38.978 --> 00:12:40.979
And it looks on like two locations, just like we do at Augusta.
197
00:12:40.999 --> 00:12:43.080
You can see like we have different pages, different everything.
198
00:12:43.660 --> 00:12:50.544
And then if it goes bad, the worst thing you're gonna have to do is close down a Google page and a Facebook, or in a website.
199
00:12:50.944 --> 00:12:51.464
That's it.
200
00:12:51.824 --> 00:12:56.346
If it goes well and starts taking off, that's when you say, okay, I'm gonna get some space over there to park.
201
00:12:56.686 --> 00:12:58.087
I'm gonna get a second truck.
202
00:12:58.127 --> 00:13:00.328
I'm gonna find a general manager and then you copy and paste.
203
00:13:00.408 --> 00:13:02.509
And so basically we already kind of do like your same concept.
204
00:13:02.529 --> 00:13:06.912
So I have like my current trucks and the dumpsters at a storage yard.
205
00:13:08.554 --> 00:13:12.917
I do own the storage yard, but it is an RV lot and I rent spaces for myself.
206
00:13:13.257 --> 00:13:17.920
But in this other territory, I've already got the storage yard, like where I've talked to them.
207
00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:21.623
I've got the pricing, not we're going to commit, but I've got all those things that works.
208
00:13:21.803 --> 00:13:27.867
Currently building the website right now, we're changing the homepage to where when they do select book, they will choose the location.
209
00:13:28.778 --> 00:13:31.727
That will reduce your conversion by 40%.
210
00:13:31.988 --> 00:13:32.730
It will reduce it?
211
00:13:32.750 --> 00:13:32.891
Yep.
212
00:13:33.392 --> 00:13:33.573
Yep.
213
00:13:35.015 --> 00:13:37.076
Yeah, so that's why I'm saying having two different pages.
214
00:13:38.236 --> 00:13:43.939
Everyone wants to make it easy for them, but the customer, as soon as you put that there, that will reduce your conversion massively.
215
00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:46.580
So, for example, we tested this at the very beginning with Augusta.
216
00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:49.061
It was like, okay, we can just have one form, and then they choose their location.
217
00:13:49.401 --> 00:13:55.443
As soon as we did that, even at 10 locations, it dropped our conversion to it because they have to think about what's going on.
218
00:13:55.744 --> 00:14:01.246
Right, so separate ads then for that area with a separate URL, like...
219
00:14:01.746 --> 00:14:03.687
separate landing pit, like all that.
220
00:14:03.727 --> 00:14:04.087
Everything.
221
00:14:04.487 --> 00:14:06.428
Yeah, I think that's all that's on my head right now.
222
00:14:06.488 --> 00:14:07.409
Cool.
223
00:14:07.589 --> 00:14:22.996
Yeah, like the lowest risk way to do multiple locations is extend service area, start marketing it with a separate website, and then when it's ready, you break it off for the sake of saving all that drive time because you're not going to be profitable when you're driving 45 minutes one way, 45 minutes back.
224
00:14:23.596 --> 00:14:25.697
It's going to be super inefficient, especially with 14 stops.
225
00:14:25.957 --> 00:14:28.058
Let's call it even eight or nine or 10 in a day.
226
00:14:28.478 --> 00:14:29.579
You just lost all your profit.
227
00:14:29.979 --> 00:14:38.545
So it's not going to be profitable, but it's more safe so that when you do break it off and you do start parking the truck over there and hiring an employee from day one, they're above break even.
228
00:14:38.645 --> 00:14:38.866
Right.
229
00:14:38.986 --> 00:14:39.246
Okay.
230
00:14:39.726 --> 00:14:39.966
Awesome.
231
00:14:40.367 --> 00:14:41.848
Thank you.
232
00:14:41.988 --> 00:14:46.151
So we're going through obviously using the off season to, to work on our systems and things.
233
00:14:46.171 --> 00:14:49.273
And I've been going back to the basics on our pricing models.
234
00:14:49.293 --> 00:14:53.676
We've kind of been doing the thing of like, you know, what's, what's the market rate and then we fit within that.
235
00:14:53.736 --> 00:14:55.658
But going back to that,
236
00:14:56.318 --> 00:15:02.621
I just I don't know how involved I need to get into this price sheet or if I should just be continuing on with the market rate.
237
00:15:02.641 --> 00:15:08.525
I know that you have I just finished up a couple of your online courses, the landscape business course and other stuff.
238
00:15:08.545 --> 00:15:13.427
And so are you are you thinking about temporarily reducing prices to capture market share?
239
00:15:13.447 --> 00:15:14.508
Is that what you're thinking about doing now?
240
00:15:15.040 --> 00:15:23.824
Yeah, we want to be able to go into the market this year with an offer that's, you know, like Hermosa says, you know, stupid if you said no.
241
00:15:24.464 --> 00:15:32.588
And we like your idea about the free low cost things like the fertilization stuff, because we already have the licensing for that stuff.
242
00:15:32.608 --> 00:15:36.890
But where do you go?
243
00:15:36.990 --> 00:15:40.812
So, yeah, I guess how deep do you usually recommend going with that?
244
00:15:41.473 --> 00:15:43.354
Yeah, what's your close rate last year?
245
00:15:43.374 --> 00:15:43.894
Do you know, Nick?
246
00:15:44.254 --> 00:15:46.015
We don't because we didn't really track it.
247
00:15:46.595 --> 00:15:53.339
We had a majority of our work coming from project management companies, and so that was a big problem.
248
00:15:53.659 --> 00:15:55.960
We didn't do advertising last year.
249
00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:02.843
Two years ago, we put out like 3,000 flyers, direct mail, not every door direct, but got it.
250
00:16:03.263 --> 00:16:05.664
a list, sent them out to high-income homes.
251
00:16:05.724 --> 00:16:08.664
And we've been working off of that for projects ever since.
252
00:16:08.844 --> 00:16:14.106
And then the lawns has just been organic growth from where our crews have been for the most part.
253
00:16:14.506 --> 00:16:21.187
But if you had to guess of estimates that you send, not necessarily from ads, but just estimates sent in general, is like 50% closed, 70% closed?
254
00:16:21.207 --> 00:16:22.588
Where are you at?
255
00:16:22.608 --> 00:16:24.228
Probably like 70.
256
00:16:24.448 --> 00:16:25.268
Yeah.
257
00:16:25.288 --> 00:16:27.569
So we could increase our prices based on that.
258
00:16:28.472 --> 00:16:35.238
I don't think you need to reduce prices to make an offer so good that people don't say no, especially because you're 70%.
259
00:16:35.278 --> 00:16:44.005
If you would have told me, hey, we're like 30%, 35%, okay, then I would say, okay, if you lower prices, you will probably capture more share of the market.
260
00:16:44.465 --> 00:16:48.749
I think if you lower prices, you are simply going to cut into your margin and have an 80% close rate.
261
00:16:48.909 --> 00:16:50.110
That's what's going to happen.
262
00:16:50.130 --> 00:16:50.350
Yeah.
263
00:16:50.750 --> 00:16:53.811
And if you just look at last year, let's say it's 20, your 20, 25% profit.
264
00:16:53.831 --> 00:16:55.391
Okay, we get someone 20% off.
265
00:16:55.412 --> 00:16:57.672
Is that really going to make an offer so good they can't refuse?
266
00:16:57.732 --> 00:16:58.412
Probably not.
267
00:16:58.733 --> 00:17:03.474
But you just gave away all of your margin for probably going from a 70% close rate to an 80% close rate.
268
00:17:03.494 --> 00:17:05.034
Because they're going to be 10% of the market.
269
00:17:05.055 --> 00:17:06.315
If you charge $1, they're not...
270
00:17:06.835 --> 00:17:07.736
using you, right?
271
00:17:08.056 --> 00:17:13.322
So like, they're just not, it's like you're going after like the lowest value customers by getting this very lower in price.
272
00:17:13.742 --> 00:17:19.348
I would be much more looking at things like a freebie, things that are low cost to you, but high value to them.
273
00:17:19.368 --> 00:17:22.592
So for example, we mentioned before, like a correlation is $200.
274
00:17:22.752 --> 00:17:24.334
You can market as a $200 giveaway.
275
00:17:24.734 --> 00:17:26.976
Instead of just lowering your price,
276
00:17:27.677 --> 00:17:33.663
and giving all of your margin away, give a freebie that costs you maybe 20 bucks in labor to be able to give that away.
277
00:17:33.803 --> 00:17:38.027
If you're really trying to, again, I am assuming you're trying to grow to capacity, right?
278
00:17:38.047 --> 00:17:39.969
You're trying to backfill and fill up your truck.
279
00:17:39.989 --> 00:17:40.189
Great.
280
00:17:40.449 --> 00:17:41.410
So that's the goal.
281
00:17:41.810 --> 00:17:46.875
Let's not give away all of our profit margin in perpetuity by lowering price on a per service basis.
282
00:17:47.236 --> 00:17:51.620
Let's just give them an offer upfront that can absolutely increase
283
00:17:52.641 --> 00:17:59.209
customers coming in, but I don't think you really have a problem with when it comes to close rate, like your pricing.
284
00:17:59.469 --> 00:18:00.630
I don't think your pricing is the problem.
285
00:18:01.091 --> 00:18:03.253
It sounds like it's a promotion, like we've never promoted, right?
286
00:18:03.273 --> 00:18:05.916
So like when we promote, yes, you might not have a 70% close rate.
287
00:18:05.956 --> 00:18:11.143
That would be a very interesting number to know when I do actual advertising and I get leads, what's my close rate then?
288
00:18:11.723 --> 00:18:17.168
But based upon 70% of customers saying yes now, I don't think pricing is going to be moving the needle much.
289
00:18:17.568 --> 00:18:25.435
It's going to be much more an upfront offer, and then you just nailing what type of promotion you're doing, whether it be door hangers or yard signs or whatever you're going to do.
290
00:18:26.096 --> 00:18:28.218
Nailing that is going to be the thing, not pricing.
291
00:18:28.238 --> 00:18:28.638
Yeah.
292
00:18:29.052 --> 00:18:37.796
So then our next question is with both of us being operators, I've been in the landscaping industry for 15 years and then Nick's been like five, I think now.
293
00:18:38.156 --> 00:18:39.157
Yeah, so I'm like that.
294
00:18:39.697 --> 00:18:53.643
So do you have a recommendation on how to, like our goal was kind of to split things up and start to have one person staying home and working on systems a little bit more, but we've been so busy and we have projects that we were trying to be stopped with last year, they're carrying over into this year.
295
00:18:54.943 --> 00:18:58.105
So we're planning on having one of us run projects and one of us run
296
00:18:58.825 --> 00:19:05.612
maintenance, but do you have a recommendation on how to split up roles so that we're not overlapping and frustrating our employees and frustrating each other?
297
00:19:05.632 --> 00:19:06.673
Yeah, 100%.
298
00:19:07.174 --> 00:19:08.475
Sales, operations, admin.
299
00:19:08.635 --> 00:19:14.220
We've got to figure out which of those you both are going to go into and then which one you're going to split or delegate.
300
00:19:14.701 --> 00:19:16.943
Sales is going to be the highest leverage.
301
00:19:17.524 --> 00:19:19.165
Operations is going to be slightly lower.
302
00:19:19.526 --> 00:19:20.467
Admin is going to be the lowest.
303
00:19:21.087 --> 00:19:29.092
So first off, I want to make sure, like, first off, when it comes to sales, which of you immediately like I'm the salesperson or is it kind of we just do both of us?
304
00:19:29.752 --> 00:19:32.894
It's kind of both of us because I think that we're both pretty good with customers.
305
00:19:32.994 --> 00:19:38.698
I think that if it's more of a project based than I go over there, if it's if it's a maintenance thing, then she usually does.
306
00:19:38.778 --> 00:19:41.360
But, yeah, it's it's kind of 50 50.
307
00:19:41.380 --> 00:19:41.500
Yeah.
308
00:19:42.212 --> 00:19:51.038
Okay, I've seen some couples do this decently well where it's like, hey, everything to the sales operation admin for projects and then everything to the sales operation admin for maintenance.
309
00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:53.040
And they really make it a service division.
310
00:19:53.280 --> 00:20:00.225
The challenging part with that now becomes if either of you leave for a couple days, you have a problem, like a big problem in their departments.
311
00:20:00.465 --> 00:20:06.630
Because, you know, Hannah doesn't know how the projects are being ran, how it was sold, who's over here working, and vice versa.
312
00:20:06.650 --> 00:20:06.830
Yeah.
313
00:20:06.870 --> 00:20:10.191
So that can become a huge constraint and put a lot of stress in the relationship.
314
00:20:10.611 --> 00:20:14.613
I think if I was you, I'd be trying, like, are you trying to grow, like, down the road?
315
00:20:15.133 --> 00:20:23.336
Our goal is to stop all projects temporarily, grow the maintenance side, and then the irrigation is a lot easier to get a higher margin on in our area.
316
00:20:23.356 --> 00:20:24.457
So we're trying to do a flat rate.
317
00:20:25.437 --> 00:20:31.461
irrigation system for like 90% of the irrigation stuff so that we can maximize our budgeted hour profit.
318
00:20:32.162 --> 00:20:37.025
And then, but right now the goal is like stop, like finish out the projects that we've already committed to.
319
00:20:37.205 --> 00:20:37.725
And that's it.
320
00:20:37.845 --> 00:20:39.146
We're not taking on any new project.
321
00:20:39.186 --> 00:20:42.388
We're focusing on yeah, maintenance first.
322
00:20:42.568 --> 00:20:48.172
And then once we have one location that's able to grow, maybe two locations, then we'll start growing like a third location.
323
00:20:48.192 --> 00:20:52.295
It's basically operating in tandem with those two, this pure irrigation.
324
00:20:52.315 --> 00:20:52.415
Yeah.
325
00:20:52.695 --> 00:20:53.617
Cool.
326
00:20:54.179 --> 00:20:56.043
And what was revenue last year?
327
00:20:56.063 --> 00:20:58.028
6.0 or 6.25.
328
00:20:58.128 --> 00:20:58.890
Okay, yeah, like...
329
00:21:02.810 --> 00:21:04.131
It's going to be different this year, though.
330
00:21:04.731 --> 00:21:08.873
It's going to be a whole new situation for us because we lost a big client in Washington.
331
00:21:09.153 --> 00:21:10.794
We already spoke to you about that on a previous call.
332
00:21:11.535 --> 00:21:14.376
So that's why we completely got rid of Washington.
333
00:21:14.396 --> 00:21:26.242
We're only operating in North Idaho now, and we're trying to focus on the higher income markets with full service from spring turn-on to your fall blowouts, maintenance packages that just split up into monthly payment.
334
00:21:26.803 --> 00:21:31.085
But it's going to be different than how we operate because we're going to be done with commercial.
335
00:21:31.782 --> 00:21:32.002
Right.
336
00:21:32.262 --> 00:21:34.383
Who's better at operations, like dealing with the team?
337
00:21:34.443 --> 00:21:35.844
Are you guys going to split that too?
338
00:21:37.205 --> 00:21:38.305
We both can fill the role.
339
00:21:38.325 --> 00:21:43.108
Like this is the hard part is that there's not really any like thing that one of us can't do for the most part.
340
00:21:43.768 --> 00:21:43.968
Yeah.
341
00:21:43.988 --> 00:21:48.531
I think as far as the maintenance goes, I would be the better person with the team because I've done it.
342
00:21:49.111 --> 00:21:51.352
And we're getting rid of projects, right?
343
00:21:51.372 --> 00:21:52.553
Getting rid of projects, yeah.
344
00:21:52.573 --> 00:21:53.353
Short term, yeah.
345
00:21:53.593 --> 00:21:54.594
For the short, yeah.
346
00:21:54.614 --> 00:21:55.014
Right.
347
00:21:55.394 --> 00:21:56.055
Irrigation.
348
00:21:56.295 --> 00:21:56.515
Yeah.
349
00:21:57.428 --> 00:22:08.091
If I had to guess, I think that from the fact that we have a project limitation in terms of skill, I would probably be pushing Nick to try to move into sales and Hannah into operations.
350
00:22:08.411 --> 00:22:14.713
Because if we're trying to get rid of a lot of the big projects, that means Hannah, you should be able to do most operations and lead the team.
351
00:22:15.433 --> 00:22:16.514
Make sure everyone's dialed in.
352
00:22:16.634 --> 00:22:18.396
Anything that's doing the work is you.
353
00:22:18.796 --> 00:22:22.019
Anything that's getting the work, that's going to be all Nick, right?
354
00:22:22.460 --> 00:22:28.225
And yes, you can do that, which is great because if Nick needs to go out, you could cover the estimates, right?
355
00:22:28.265 --> 00:22:33.530
Especially because now it's going to be mostly maintenance and you can push off irrigation because rarely is it a 911 situation.
356
00:22:33.790 --> 00:22:33.950
Right.
357
00:22:34.130 --> 00:22:39.172
The delineation, though, between sales and operations is, is this getting the work or is this doing the work?
358
00:22:39.432 --> 00:22:40.113
Very simply.
359
00:22:40.473 --> 00:22:46.996
And if I was you guys, I would write down everything you guys do on a daily basis and then just ask yourself, is this sales or is this operations?
360
00:22:47.016 --> 00:22:48.516
And the other categories mean admin.
361
00:22:48.836 --> 00:22:54.559
And I think that's the role I would be trying to delegate if I was you both, because both of you have skills that are higher leverage than admin.
362
00:22:54.799 --> 00:23:10.433
So whether it be a part-time admin person locally or it be a virtual assistant, I think spending time making those systems and handing all admin off is what allows you to get over a million by Nick focusing on sales, hand on operations, and having an admin person take that stuff off your plate.
363
00:23:10.733 --> 00:23:12.595
But you'll need to get really clear in terms of
364
00:23:12.895 --> 00:23:14.276
Here's everything I do in sales.
365
00:23:14.596 --> 00:23:15.676
Here's everything I do in operations.
366
00:23:15.836 --> 00:23:16.837
And here's everything I do in admin.
367
00:23:16.897 --> 00:23:22.159
And when there's a gray area, you both look at each other and say, which of these three categories should this fall into?
368
00:23:22.500 --> 00:23:24.280
So that way you're not stepping on each other's toes.
369
00:23:24.741 --> 00:23:28.422
The team knows exactly who to go to when it comes to calling out operations.
370
00:23:28.903 --> 00:23:30.743
Oh, there's something wrong on my equipment.
371
00:23:30.944 --> 00:23:31.564
Operations.
372
00:23:31.884 --> 00:23:32.124
Okay.
373
00:23:32.164 --> 00:23:32.945
There's something wrong.
374
00:23:32.985 --> 00:23:34.025
I do a work order change.
375
00:23:34.225 --> 00:23:34.885
That's sales.
376
00:23:35.106 --> 00:23:35.926
That's getting the work.
377
00:23:36.266 --> 00:23:40.891
So the clarity for the team, but more importantly, the both of you to know who does what.
378
00:23:41.431 --> 00:23:45.435
And then there's going to be obviously times where sales is really heavy and operations not.
379
00:23:45.455 --> 00:23:47.838
And you could compensate for each other and help each other out.
380
00:23:48.078 --> 00:23:51.862
But it's clear in terms of who do we like the buck stops with sales with Nick.
381
00:23:51.982 --> 00:23:53.623
It stops everything with operations.
382
00:23:53.663 --> 00:23:55.405
If we're running away behind, we need to hire more people.
383
00:23:55.966 --> 00:23:56.767
That's all on Hannah.
384
00:23:57.327 --> 00:24:00.309
She should be thinking about the budget hour capacity and where's jobs going on the schedule.
385
00:24:00.530 --> 00:24:04.493
She should be communicating to the admin to be able to make sure that everything's going smoothly.
386
00:24:04.693 --> 00:24:07.635
I would highly recommend pushing in that direction so you don't step on each other's toes.
387
00:24:08.135 --> 00:24:09.416
Yeah, cool.
388
00:24:09.456 --> 00:24:11.118
That's actually the thing you're trying to guard against.
389
00:24:11.138 --> 00:24:13.519
Yeah, so just a quick thing for the pricing.
390
00:24:14.740 --> 00:24:19.984
Do you, so when you say raise prices, you're talking about raising prices on your current customers, right?
391
00:24:20.505 --> 00:24:25.829
So then you just send out the mass text and say like, hey guys, we gotta raise prices in mid-season.
392
00:24:26.349 --> 00:24:27.790
Yeah, and to new customers as well.
393
00:24:28.590 --> 00:24:32.731
Assuming that the inflow of leads is so high, you can't stay up with it, right?
394
00:24:32.992 --> 00:24:47.017
So sometimes what people will do, they'll raise prices to existing customers because they know they have good service, they know people will stick, but they'll keep their price the same for new customers because they know that that's the entry level price, they need to prove their worth before they can raise prices.
395
00:24:47.397 --> 00:24:55.040
But if you're like way over capacity, like leads are just pouring in, you actually need to raise both to new customers as well as existing customers.
396
00:24:55.300 --> 00:24:56.441
Do you do that mid-season?
397
00:24:56.981 --> 00:24:58.062
I do it when I hit capacity.
398
00:24:58.262 --> 00:24:58.983
No matter what?
399
00:24:59.443 --> 00:24:59.963
No matter what.
400
00:25:00.544 --> 00:25:04.426
Because if there is like, well, it's the middle of season or like a month left of spring rush.
401
00:25:04.766 --> 00:25:05.067
Okay.
402
00:25:05.287 --> 00:25:05.947
So what are we going to do?
403
00:25:05.967 --> 00:25:07.848
Like turn away new customers, right?
404
00:25:08.029 --> 00:25:14.473
No, we've got to raise prices, remove our lowest value ones and get room for space with probably within three or four weeks to replace all of them.
405
00:25:14.693 --> 00:25:14.933
Right.
406
00:25:15.193 --> 00:25:18.896
And then if you're hitting capacity, it's usually you are in the spring rush, you're hitting up against it.
407
00:25:19.176 --> 00:25:26.440
The only reason you would not raise prices is if you think you're going to lose 20 or 30% of them, which as long as you're doing good service, it's not going to happen.
408
00:25:26.800 --> 00:25:32.043
But assuming that that is the case, you wouldn't do that towards the end of a spring rush, because then you lose them for the rest of the year.
409
00:25:32.504 --> 00:25:36.006
And usually as churn kind of took your number of recurring is dwindling.
410
00:25:36.646 --> 00:25:42.930
If you guys can figure out promotion, though, that means that you can turn on promotion when you need to refill the basket of leads.
411
00:25:43.590 --> 00:25:45.891
That will be the unlock and that's why I want some separation.
412
00:25:45.971 --> 00:25:48.492
I want Nick to be thinking about sales and promotion all day long.
413
00:25:49.052 --> 00:25:52.313
Upsells, using the texting inside of CodePi, do all of that.
414
00:25:52.333 --> 00:25:53.514
That's all sales now.
415
00:25:53.854 --> 00:26:02.597
Figuring out a monthly email and a monthly text based upon the entire year, you figuring out that system, having it scheduled as a to-do, remind you the day before via text message.
416
00:26:02.897 --> 00:26:08.419
Setting all that stuff up is the thing that allows you to be able to grow, but now you know who's responsible for it.
417
00:26:08.619 --> 00:26:12.341
We build custom websites for home service business owners just like you.
418
00:26:12.781 --> 00:26:25.028
And you can get a 15-minute free consultation about your website because our team, on average, when someone joins as a client, we increase the number of leads they get by almost double, 80% within the first 12 months.
419
00:26:25.388 --> 00:26:34.352
In fact, if you go to our website, you can actually go through and see all the different websites that we build for a whole bunch of different home service businesses that have taken their business to the next level.
420
00:26:34.713 --> 00:26:37.054
Go check it out and book a free consultation call today.
421
00:26:37.554 --> 00:26:38.314
Andrew's next.
422
00:26:38.394 --> 00:26:39.014
Go ahead, Andrew.
423
00:26:39.034 --> 00:26:42.595
Hey, so last year we did about, I did about $256,000.
424
00:26:42.655 --> 00:26:45.395
It's just me and another employee.
425
00:26:45.575 --> 00:26:48.216
So I got myself into a bad ShopSpace lease.
426
00:26:48.416 --> 00:26:52.337
Thought it was going to work out, like spacing wise and everything, but nothing works.
427
00:26:52.397 --> 00:26:58.138
And so I was wondering if you kind of had like any metrics as far as like revenue percentages to go to ShopSpace.
428
00:26:58.438 --> 00:27:03.458
Because right now I'm at like, after I sign this other thing, it'll be like $33.50 a month.
429
00:27:03.498 --> 00:27:06.479
Yeah, what's your monthly rate on the current lease that you have in place?
430
00:27:07.260 --> 00:27:08.685
Uh, it's $2,000 a month.
431
00:27:08.926 --> 00:27:09.929
And the new one's $1,350?
432
00:27:09.949 --> 00:27:10.090
Mm-hmm.
433
00:27:12.015 --> 00:27:15.498
what's the advantage of moving from the $2,000 to the $1,300 one?
434
00:27:15.838 --> 00:27:17.379
Just the cost savings of $700?
435
00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.662
Well, the $2,000 a month is an indoor space.
436
00:27:22.863 --> 00:27:26.286
And so it's extremely difficult to park and everything.
437
00:27:27.067 --> 00:27:30.970
And then the actual parking for my employees outside is atrocious.
438
00:27:31.690 --> 00:27:34.532
And so the $1,350 is an outdoor space.
439
00:27:35.853 --> 00:27:39.196
It's much easier to move stuff around and that type of thing.
440
00:27:40.554 --> 00:27:42.215
How long do you still have on the existing lease?
441
00:27:42.836 --> 00:27:43.357
Nine months.
442
00:27:44.117 --> 00:27:44.438
Okay.
443
00:27:44.558 --> 00:27:45.979
So it's an $18,000 mistake.
444
00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:46.880
Yeah.
445
00:27:47.020 --> 00:27:47.240
Yeah.
446
00:27:47.260 --> 00:27:48.602
So it's an $18,000 mistake.
447
00:27:49.683 --> 00:27:51.384
Have you talked to your landlord about getting out early?
448
00:27:51.404 --> 00:27:52.746
I have not.
449
00:27:52.786 --> 00:27:57.490
I'm going to after I have this other one set up.
450
00:27:59.012 --> 00:28:03.156
Did the landlord use a real estate agent to get you to sign the lease?
451
00:28:03.957 --> 00:28:04.057
Yeah.
452
00:28:04.077 --> 00:28:04.177
Yeah.
453
00:28:04.837 --> 00:28:09.538
So if I was you, I would go to them and be like, hey, here's the problem I'm having with the space right now.
454
00:28:09.598 --> 00:28:18.840
I've found another space, and I'm wondering if you'd be willing, if I get an agent, I'm willing to pay their commission if they can come in early and try to find another tenant.
455
00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:20.461
And if not, that's fine.
456
00:28:20.601 --> 00:28:21.481
I will pay everything out.
457
00:28:21.501 --> 00:28:26.222
But I'm just being – like just be really upfront and honest with them because in nine months, they're going to have to do this anyways.
458
00:28:26.282 --> 00:28:32.283
If you just say, hey, can we do it earlier, and I'm willing to pay the commission on it, but like can we just try to get this off sooner?
459
00:28:35.224 --> 00:28:38.426
they're finding a new tenant and then someone else comes and signs a new lease with them.
460
00:28:39.266 --> 00:28:39.467
Okay.
461
00:28:40.127 --> 00:28:43.829
And then what, do you have any idea of like what that commission would be like the percentage?
462
00:28:44.649 --> 00:28:45.470
You just ask them.
463
00:28:45.710 --> 00:28:51.253
Usually it's like, depending on the, you're probably looking at three to four grand, just depending, very much depending.
464
00:28:52.674 --> 00:28:56.416
And they might already have an arrangement with an agency, like a brokerage.
465
00:28:56.856 --> 00:28:59.738
So I would just put all the cards on the table to your landlord.
466
00:28:59.838 --> 00:29:02.399
It's only nine months at the very worst is an $18,000 mistake.
467
00:29:02.419 --> 00:29:02.519
Yeah.
468
00:29:03.980 --> 00:29:05.041
And we live and learn.
469
00:29:05.782 --> 00:29:09.405
And at the very best, you may be paid the next two or three months and then you can get out.
470
00:29:10.646 --> 00:29:11.226
Okay.
471
00:29:11.546 --> 00:29:14.028
So what is your percentage?
472
00:29:14.048 --> 00:29:15.630
Do you have a shop space percentage?
473
00:29:16.070 --> 00:29:18.332
Am I somewhat in that right now, even with the $33.50?
474
00:29:18.352 --> 00:29:18.412
No.
475
00:29:18.432 --> 00:29:18.612
Like...
476
00:29:21.487 --> 00:29:25.009
If you grew by, you know, grew like you're thinking you will, then yes.
477
00:29:25.089 --> 00:29:29.072
But like, so in the book, I talk about under 15% is the goal for all your admin.
478
00:29:29.452 --> 00:29:32.294
Right now, you're spending over 15% just on shop space.
479
00:29:32.874 --> 00:29:38.137
But admin for me includes like answering the phone, all my utilities, everything to do with admin.
480
00:29:39.038 --> 00:29:41.840
So you are significantly higher than that.
481
00:29:42.680 --> 00:30:09.646
um okay the 1350 makes a lot of sense at 400 000 let's go that's more like like four percent that's good i like that okay um so definitely moving to 1350 i agree if it's also gonna allow you to have like better operational efficiencies because like parking is better etc you're gonna have to just rip this band-aid off you're gonna make a couple decisions like this as you get the career your career up and running you're gonna make a couple mistakes it stinks hopefully you can get a little bit recouped by getting someone else in there but honestly even if you pay for
482
00:30:12.187 --> 00:30:12.467
anyways.
483
00:30:12.868 --> 00:30:13.048
Yeah.
484
00:30:13.388 --> 00:30:13.569
Right.
485
00:30:13.589 --> 00:30:14.790
So it might be just one of those things.
486
00:30:14.930 --> 00:30:15.932
It's a hard lesson to learn.
487
00:30:16.412 --> 00:30:16.673
Okay.
488
00:30:16.753 --> 00:30:18.094
And then another question I had.
489
00:30:18.575 --> 00:30:25.123
So with me going to around like 400,000, hopefully next year, I mean, this year, keep forgetting it's February.
490
00:30:26.485 --> 00:30:30.289
I have hired another person, he'll start in the second week of March.
491
00:30:31.671 --> 00:30:35.394
And with that, I'm wondering, like, I'm in the working GM type thing.
492
00:30:36.455 --> 00:30:52.411
So I'm wondering how will I balance, like, estimates and working in the field at the same time with – because we already work until, like, 7.30 p.m., if not later during the spring, and then doing estimates after that and everything.
493
00:30:52.491 --> 00:30:52.751
So –
494
00:30:53.900 --> 00:30:56.066
How do I, how am I supposed to balance that?
495
00:30:56.146 --> 00:30:59.975
Is it like, should I hire someone virtual to answer the phone or whatever?
496
00:31:00.015 --> 00:31:02.983
And so what's your advice on that?
497
00:31:03.591 --> 00:31:12.698
Yeah, like in the perfect world, if you can get someone on a permanent basis, because you probably only have one or two inbound leads a day, even during spring rush, you might be paying a couple dollars a minute.
498
00:31:12.938 --> 00:31:16.681
But if they can just get that information to you and answer the phone, awesome.
499
00:31:16.981 --> 00:31:24.427
So at your size, a permanent rate for a phone service is going to be better because you spending any time trying to hire an admin right now is not worth your time.
500
00:31:25.187 --> 00:31:29.529
And so permanent rate is what I'm trying to find someone to answer the phone or do some admin tasks maybe for you.
501
00:31:29.869 --> 00:31:30.969
But you don't need a full-time admin.
502
00:31:30.989 --> 00:31:31.950
You don't need a part-time.
503
00:31:31.970 --> 00:31:34.131
I don't want you training anyone how to answer the phone.
504
00:31:34.591 --> 00:31:36.752
So that's why answering service is going to be useful.
505
00:31:38.372 --> 00:31:43.774
And then also I would time block to where like let's just say call it from 5 to 7 p.m. every night.
506
00:31:44.054 --> 00:31:50.777
That's when you do estimates, meaning you get off at 4, 3, somewhere in there with your crew member, and then you're going to go out and do estimates.
507
00:31:51.397 --> 00:31:55.782
And if you're like, well, we're already working 12 hours a day, six days a week, you're above capacity, right?
508
00:31:55.802 --> 00:32:01.568
So that's when you're going to have to need another employee or another truck to increase capacity to be able to continue growth.
509
00:32:01.868 --> 00:32:08.896
Because if you're working 14 hours a day, six days a week, you're going to eventually break down either your body or your employee's body.
510
00:32:09.356 --> 00:32:10.898
And so you're above capacity at that point.
511
00:32:11.320 --> 00:32:11.540
Okay.
512
00:32:12.041 --> 00:32:21.349
And so then if, since I am above capacity, then would I, with my, I'm starting a second truck, because right now it's just one.
513
00:32:22.730 --> 00:32:26.613
So this year with the second truck, would I split the route that I have now?
514
00:32:26.633 --> 00:32:29.235
Because we mostly do only mowing.
515
00:32:29.616 --> 00:32:31.758
We do mowing four days a week and then prop.
516
00:32:32.298 --> 00:32:54.472
projects friday um sometimes saturday um so would i split my route like kind of in half um or only give them like a certain day or like i don't i'm not really sure how many budget hours of mowing do you have right now per week um i'm not really sure i'm not super how many customers oh we did about it was about 75 in this per week
517
00:32:55.239 --> 00:32:55.460
Mm-hmm.
518
00:32:56.141 --> 00:32:57.124
How many of them are bi-weekly?
519
00:32:57.765 --> 00:32:58.286
None of them.
520
00:32:58.768 --> 00:32:59.429
Okay, so 75.
521
00:32:59.509 --> 00:32:59.850
Okay, great.
522
00:33:00.412 --> 00:33:02.056
And what's your average cost per cut?
523
00:33:02.918 --> 00:33:03.439
About 70.
524
00:33:03.459 --> 00:33:03.539
70.
525
00:33:04.487 --> 00:33:13.413
Okay, so you probably have about 60 budget hours worth of mowing, if I had to guess, per week, which means that's about two full-time people, i.e.
526
00:33:13.433 --> 00:33:14.113
what you're doing right now.
527
00:33:14.153 --> 00:33:14.534
There you go.
528
00:33:14.894 --> 00:33:17.155
So that's you and the other guy working.
529
00:33:17.796 --> 00:33:25.180
By you splitting the one truck off, they'll increase their capacity by about 20%, but you're going to need another employee pretty quickly.
530
00:33:25.361 --> 00:33:33.586
I would then try to get it to where the capacity of that one mowing truck is able to handle all the mowing, and then the second truck, probably you, is doing projects and estimates.
531
00:33:33.686 --> 00:33:33.826
Okay.
532
00:33:34.487 --> 00:33:34.747
Okay.
533
00:33:35.348 --> 00:33:35.508
Got it.
534
00:33:35.528 --> 00:33:37.529
That's usually a very efficient method.
535
00:33:37.549 --> 00:33:40.632
It's like one truck with two crew members doing the mowing.
536
00:33:40.752 --> 00:33:44.855
You know right now if you have 60 budget hours per week of mowing, that will keep them busy.
537
00:33:45.676 --> 00:33:51.560
And then you open up the capacity for that second truck to do the property cleanups, do projects, and have more flexibility around your estimates.
538
00:33:52.041 --> 00:33:52.401
Interesting.
539
00:33:52.461 --> 00:33:52.701
Okay.
540
00:33:53.141 --> 00:33:53.362
Okay.
541
00:33:53.422 --> 00:33:53.702
Awesome.
542
00:33:54.382 --> 00:33:54.603
All right.
543
00:33:54.623 --> 00:33:55.163
Thank you very much.
544
00:33:55.223 --> 00:33:55.723
I appreciate it.
545
00:33:56.224 --> 00:33:57.785
You got it, brother.
546
00:33:57.885 --> 00:33:58.526
Derek, you're up.
547
00:33:59.126 --> 00:33:59.406
All right.
548
00:33:59.466 --> 00:34:00.948
Two quick questions that I thought of.
549
00:34:01.648 --> 00:34:03.690
So a little different obviously for me again, dumpsters.
550
00:34:04.655 --> 00:34:13.369
the off season kills me because nobody wants to do any work when it's cold out and I need them to do something.
551
00:34:13.409 --> 00:34:16.354
So I will say, so about 80,
552
00:34:17.776 --> 00:34:20.499
85% of our business is a residential market.
553
00:34:20.539 --> 00:34:21.781
That's what we really focus on.
554
00:34:22.181 --> 00:34:25.324
We like the stay-at-home moms, the handymans.
555
00:34:26.265 --> 00:34:28.368
So that's what we're working with.
556
00:34:28.468 --> 00:34:30.350
Our big thing is clean dumpsters.
557
00:34:30.370 --> 00:34:31.431
We wash our dumpsters.
558
00:34:31.451 --> 00:34:34.073
We do driveway surface protection, all the fancy stuff.
559
00:34:34.093 --> 00:34:35.335
We're the bougie dumpster company.
560
00:34:36.018 --> 00:34:38.419
In the off season, we just like die.
561
00:34:40.881 --> 00:34:42.402
I don't really have any ideas.
562
00:34:42.482 --> 00:34:52.447
The only thing that I know that some of the other dumpster companies do, but they don't focus kind of on the primary residential like I do is, you know, they'll just let a can sit somewhere forever.
563
00:34:53.688 --> 00:34:57.109
You know, they'll get some kind of like trash service in a way.
564
00:34:57.730 --> 00:35:03.673
But again, we're still like more, they're more expensive than like waste management or your general trash service because we're talking a roll off.
565
00:35:04.440 --> 00:35:05.440
So I just don't know.
566
00:35:05.540 --> 00:35:08.441
I just want to know if you have some ideas off the top of your head.
567
00:35:08.461 --> 00:35:11.742
Yeah, like in terms of months, what are your off season?
568
00:35:12.042 --> 00:35:12.642
Is it just the winter?
569
00:35:13.883 --> 00:35:18.624
Yeah, like November, we still stay decently steady, but that's when we drop.
570
00:35:18.744 --> 00:35:22.085
And then like December is just dead, January is dead.
571
00:35:22.750 --> 00:35:24.231
February is going to be pretty dead.
572
00:35:24.291 --> 00:35:26.053
And then March is going to like skyrocket.
573
00:35:26.433 --> 00:35:30.196
So March through like September, full throttle all the time.
574
00:35:30.656 --> 00:35:34.079
November's like, oh, this is nice because we're not full throttle.
575
00:35:34.099 --> 00:35:36.421
And then December is just like, oh, we have nothing to do.
576
00:35:37.481 --> 00:35:39.083
How many of your customers are repeat customers?
577
00:35:39.583 --> 00:35:40.204
Not a lot.
578
00:35:40.224 --> 00:35:45.308
I don't have the percentage, but I mean, not a lot, probably like 25%.
579
00:35:45.328 --> 00:35:46.128
Okay.
580
00:35:46.448 --> 00:35:49.431
And what's your cap as a blended for the whole year right now?
581
00:35:50.009 --> 00:35:50.770
What do you mean?
582
00:35:50.850 --> 00:35:51.550
What is that?
583
00:35:51.590 --> 00:35:52.531
Customer acquisition cost.
584
00:35:52.551 --> 00:35:52.731
Sorry.
585
00:35:52.791 --> 00:35:54.392
Oh, I don't know.
586
00:35:55.092 --> 00:35:55.613
I don't know the number.
587
00:35:56.453 --> 00:36:04.659
So I think in the event where you don't have recurring revenue, you have to figure out how can I spend money on ads to at least break even during the offseason.
588
00:36:05.779 --> 00:36:09.102
So this is essentially cure number two inside the offseason book.
589
00:36:09.402 --> 00:36:11.123
Have you got that one, Derek, by chance?
590
00:36:11.903 --> 00:36:12.964
Actually, I think I just got it.
591
00:36:13.364 --> 00:36:15.106
After I did the webinar, I bought all three.
592
00:36:15.126 --> 00:36:15.486
So yeah.
593
00:36:15.926 --> 00:36:19.549
Yeah, and mikeandies.com slash workshop is the digital course region.
594
00:36:19.569 --> 00:36:20.109
It's all free.
595
00:36:20.570 --> 00:36:22.852
And so this is cure two.
596
00:36:23.552 --> 00:36:29.617
And what you're wanting to figure out is can I break even with my customer records and costs if I spent money on ads?
597
00:36:30.157 --> 00:36:35.802
And I would be looking at creative things, for example, or like Christmas, Thanksgiving, people getting ready for that.
598
00:36:36.182 --> 00:36:40.204
You know, can they get a dumpster and do a full house clean out?
599
00:36:40.324 --> 00:36:40.804
Maybe.
600
00:36:41.745 --> 00:36:45.966
If you can give it for 50% off, can we still at least get our cogs covered?
601
00:36:46.206 --> 00:36:47.547
Potentially, right?
602
00:36:47.867 --> 00:36:50.929
And so you could just be like, hey, this is the Thanksgiving deal.
603
00:36:50.969 --> 00:36:51.769
This is the thing.
604
00:36:51.949 --> 00:36:52.969
This is the Christmas deal.
605
00:36:53.210 --> 00:36:54.630
This is the New Year's special.
606
00:36:55.170 --> 00:37:00.473
And you can just put like $9.99 slash $4.99, like really lean into the discounting.
607
00:37:01.073 --> 00:37:07.799
assuming you can drive enough demand and bring your customer acquisition costs down low enough, you might be able to at least skate by a breakeven.
608
00:37:08.620 --> 00:37:10.601
So I do the Black Friday, the New Year's.
609
00:37:12.283 --> 00:37:14.164
I didn't do like Google ads for it or anything.
610
00:37:14.244 --> 00:37:17.507
I mean, we run Google ads constantly, but we didn't do ads for that.
611
00:37:17.627 --> 00:37:22.492
I did like Facebook, and then like I did the text marketing like you talked about because we run a go high level.
612
00:37:22.532 --> 00:37:22.632
So
613
00:37:23.724 --> 00:37:25.406
I literally got like one or two rentals.
614
00:37:25.526 --> 00:37:27.288
I didn't slash the price.
615
00:37:27.308 --> 00:37:28.529
We gave like 50 bucks off.
616
00:37:29.369 --> 00:37:34.514
But one of my ideas was, and again, I understand that it's everybody's opinion and whatever you want to do.
617
00:37:34.534 --> 00:37:39.098
But I thought about, you know, come November, December, I come out with like a winner pricing.
618
00:37:40.745 --> 00:37:45.288
And like straight up, let's say one of my cans is, you know, 425.
619
00:37:45.628 --> 00:37:47.269
I come out and I'm like, it is 299.
620
00:37:47.309 --> 00:37:55.875
Now, obviously I'll run my costs, make sure what, you know, we're making some money, but I would rather have my cans out rotating, rotating cashflow.
621
00:37:56.415 --> 00:37:58.937
And then come spring, it's just like, Hey, they go back up.
622
00:37:58.997 --> 00:38:00.257
And obviously people question it.
623
00:38:00.297 --> 00:38:02.359
It's like, Hey, that's winter pricing.
624
00:38:02.579 --> 00:38:04.180
You do your project in the winter.
625
00:38:04.220 --> 00:38:05.020
You get a better deal.
626
00:38:05.060 --> 00:38:05.961
You spring rush.
627
00:38:06.441 --> 00:38:07.562
Cause then we're always out of cans.
628
00:38:08.202 --> 00:38:09.123
I mean, what's your thought on that?
629
00:38:09.708 --> 00:38:19.201
Yeah, like I think most people dramatically underestimate how low they can reduce their price when the alternative is making nothing.
630
00:38:19.902 --> 00:38:25.990
Because the only thing you need to cover is your variable expenses, which is essentially fuel and labor to get the thing there.
631
00:38:26.531 --> 00:38:26.791
Right.
632
00:38:27.312 --> 00:38:34.840
And so if you can have winter pricing, by the way, also, it allows the person that is, quote, price conscious and says you're really expensive to now look at a lower price.
633
00:38:34.860 --> 00:38:43.609
You're like, oh, hey, if that's too expensive, your immediate downsell is, hey, if you're willing to wait for your project another couple of months, that that just got cut in half.
634
00:38:44.110 --> 00:38:44.950
You save a few hundred bucks.
635
00:38:45.190 --> 00:38:51.992
Now, to most people doing a $15,000 remodel, that's probably not going to be enough for them to be like, oh, yeah, reschedule for three months.
636
00:38:52.212 --> 00:38:53.213
That's where we want to be careful.
637
00:38:53.733 --> 00:38:58.574
There's not a lot of time flexibility for most people to wait five months on this sort of thing.
638
00:38:58.594 --> 00:39:03.616
Yeah, I think most of it's going to be just like getting people in the winter to say, you know what, I'm willing to do the work.
639
00:39:04.096 --> 00:39:07.417
But that's my next – and I'm trying to make this really quick because I already got to go.
640
00:39:07.477 --> 00:39:10.578
But I still have contractors that are ordering through the winter.
641
00:39:11.533 --> 00:39:13.394
So am I giving them the winter pricing?
642
00:39:13.454 --> 00:39:15.876
And, you know, because they're still ordering regardless.
643
00:39:16.936 --> 00:39:18.757
Yeah, that's going to be the hard part, right?
644
00:39:18.817 --> 00:39:23.600
Is you're going to have to face like, what percentage of your bins are out during the winter usually?
645
00:39:24.180 --> 00:39:25.781
I would say like 25%.
646
00:39:25.801 --> 00:39:26.341
Yeah, it's low.
647
00:39:29.273 --> 00:39:29.713
Yeah.
648
00:39:29.973 --> 00:39:32.574
And like during the summer, we're like 95 at all times.
649
00:39:33.194 --> 00:39:33.435
Right.
650
00:39:33.475 --> 00:39:34.795
So I would do two prong strategy.
651
00:39:34.875 --> 00:39:36.156
First, I would try promotion.
652
00:39:36.256 --> 00:39:37.516
I'd figure out a promotion strategy.
653
00:39:37.836 --> 00:39:48.680
You need to know your customer equity costs because if you're willing to give a $200 away in a bin, what if, what if, if you just did a really good ad strategy, you could pay 150 and get a customer and not lower your prices and not do a discount thing.
654
00:39:48.700 --> 00:39:50.841
Just, just literally spend more money on ads.
655
00:39:51.241 --> 00:39:56.083
And by the way, there's a whole bunch of brand awareness that happens to people who don't buy during the winter and they come to you in spring.
656
00:39:57.143 --> 00:39:58.623
They don't show up in the ads cost.
657
00:39:58.663 --> 00:39:59.864
So I would first do that.
658
00:39:59.904 --> 00:40:03.305
A lot of times people are so quickly like, I'll cut $300 off.
659
00:40:03.385 --> 00:40:05.125
Whoa, you can get customers for $150.
660
00:40:05.405 --> 00:40:06.886
Right?
661
00:40:07.046 --> 00:40:15.568
So I would first figure out my ad strategy and really dial in like, like really good targeting, putting like how many people in your contact list?
662
00:40:15.588 --> 00:40:16.348
Like a few hundred?
663
00:40:16.868 --> 00:40:17.728
Like 1500.
664
00:40:18.608 --> 00:40:19.149
Fantastic.
665
00:40:19.169 --> 00:40:20.809
You do a look like audience inside Facebook.
666
00:40:20.829 --> 00:40:24.370
So it's going after those people and then people that look like them inside of your market, like.
667
00:40:25.210 --> 00:40:27.251
I think that's the strategy I'd be using.
668
00:40:27.271 --> 00:40:28.351
I'd be going after that one.
669
00:40:28.411 --> 00:40:33.732
And I'd make another one calling contractors out specifically, like attention contractors in XYZ market.
670
00:40:33.752 --> 00:40:35.352
Like I would make a contractor one.
671
00:40:35.392 --> 00:40:36.453
I'd make a residential one.
672
00:40:36.973 --> 00:40:46.315
And then I would focus on ads and figure out that CAC because that's the CAC that you'd be giving away, customer acquisition costs, that you'd be giving away in form of discount.
673
00:40:46.515 --> 00:40:53.557
And then just ask yourself, would I rather get new customers and go on the offensive or would I rather go on the defensive, cut my prices and scrape by?
674
00:40:55.257 --> 00:40:56.999
you're going to be able to get a customer for under 200 bucks.
675
00:40:58.540 --> 00:41:06.447
And in that case, you'd rather just go on the offensive and get the brand awareness that residually comes with ads, instead of just giving a $200 discount and then becoming the discount brand.
676
00:41:06.868 --> 00:41:08.349
Okay, last question real quick.
677
00:41:08.990 --> 00:41:14.995
So the commercial side of things I have a lot of so I have another company that deals with like commercial vehicle reps and signage, right?
678
00:41:15.015 --> 00:41:16.576
So all my business there is b2b.
679
00:41:17.537 --> 00:41:21.201
I know a lot of contractors in construction, but like big level construction.
680
00:41:21.241 --> 00:41:21.341
So
681
00:41:22.218 --> 00:41:30.665
They don't, they don't use my dumpsters because they're using like the big boys and that, that can's getting dropped and it could be there for 45, 60, 90 days.
682
00:41:30.725 --> 00:41:30.945
Right?
683
00:41:31.746 --> 00:41:34.788
So in my opinion, that's two different business models completely.
684
00:41:35.189 --> 00:41:38.111
And I haven't wanted to explore the commercial side.
685
00:41:38.171 --> 00:41:38.371
Right.
686
00:41:38.712 --> 00:41:46.198
But there is a part of me that's like, well, you know, these cans are constantly out, they constantly rotate and there is a return on investment with that.
687
00:41:46.278 --> 00:41:47.479
It's just, it's just longer.
688
00:41:47.499 --> 00:41:50.982
My cans make a lot of money because I flipped them every, every week they flip.
689
00:41:51.770 --> 00:41:55.714
I guess just what is your opinion on those two different business paths?
690
00:41:55.774 --> 00:42:05.342
Is it worth setting my can somewhere long-term and only making money when they call me because it's full, which could be 45 days, 60, 90 days?
691
00:42:05.882 --> 00:42:07.824
Yeah, I think that I would do that during the off-season.
692
00:42:08.244 --> 00:42:16.651
So I would have a really good promotion strategy going into your slow season of, hey, we know our prices go to this if you keep the can during these months.
693
00:42:17.372 --> 00:42:19.173
But the can comes back to us in spring.
694
00:42:19.493 --> 00:42:20.694
Because they're contractors.
695
00:42:20.974 --> 00:42:21.434
It's B2B.
696
00:42:21.474 --> 00:42:23.295
They understand numbers and math and business.
697
00:42:23.636 --> 00:42:24.436
So you can just be honest.
698
00:42:24.456 --> 00:42:26.097
Like, hey, we're the residential people.
699
00:42:26.117 --> 00:42:26.998
Stop using them.
700
00:42:27.038 --> 00:42:27.258
So.
701
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:31.280
Because of that, we now have this great deal for commercial contractors.
702
00:42:31.420 --> 00:42:34.481
As long as you keep it during these months, it's way cheaper.
703
00:42:35.201 --> 00:42:47.824
I think I would probably still do that after just trying to change the promotion lever because that's going to be an easier, like less of a drag operationally, just adding leads to the top of the funnel versus changing the model and how you do things in terms of pricing.
704
00:42:48.104 --> 00:42:51.405
But that would be my second thing I would go to is like, do I change the model to where like,
705
00:42:51.645 --> 00:42:56.487
In October, I'm promoting to all my contractors that they can keep the bins longer.
706
00:42:56.887 --> 00:43:06.532
And here's the new pricing for contractors only, allowing you to potentially have a two-prong approach that you are – for contractors, you give a discounted price because you know they're going to be keeping the bins longer.
707
00:43:06.752 --> 00:43:07.692
But they keep the bins.
708
00:43:07.712 --> 00:43:08.333
They're out.
709
00:43:08.633 --> 00:43:10.213
Like we want to get to capacity.
710
00:43:10.774 --> 00:43:17.357
And then you have another approach, which is I do ads to residential customers, but I'm not discounting it.
711
00:43:17.537 --> 00:43:19.958
I'm simply using the CAC instead of the discount.
712
00:43:20.858 --> 00:43:21.078
Okay.
713
00:43:21.538 --> 00:43:21.759
Awesome.
714
00:43:22.419 --> 00:43:22.659
Sweet.
715
00:43:22.879 --> 00:43:23.880
Thank you so much for your time.
716
00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:24.960
You got it, man.
717
00:43:25.700 --> 00:43:26.201
My pleasure.
718
00:43:26.301 --> 00:43:26.941
A few more here.
719
00:43:26.961 --> 00:43:27.741
Let's go ahead, Sergio.
720
00:43:27.821 --> 00:43:28.061
All right.
721
00:43:28.101 --> 00:43:29.122
Thanks for squeezing us in.
722
00:43:29.142 --> 00:43:30.242
Hey, you got it.
723
00:43:30.702 --> 00:43:32.323
So I have two quick questions for you.
724
00:43:32.963 --> 00:43:38.946
So this, this year with spring rush coming around the corner, we plan on going into profit mode.
725
00:43:39.886 --> 00:43:45.569
Um, and since, you know, maintenance is gonna, well, maintenance, recurring maintenance is basically our bread and butter.
726
00:43:46.469 --> 00:43:47.730
Um, how,
727
00:43:48.483 --> 00:43:59.791
How would you give me advice on how to deal with like the landscape projects that come upon, you know, like, let's say I have already a client that we do the maintenance every week.
728
00:43:59.831 --> 00:44:09.018
And then they say, hey, are you interested in doing this project such as installing saw, shrubs, you know, all the landscapes?
729
00:44:09.338 --> 00:44:11.040
How would I deal with all of that?
730
00:44:11.680 --> 00:44:14.342
Yeah, so this is when it's going to come to play right here.
731
00:44:14.362 --> 00:44:15.343
Let me just pull this up.
732
00:44:15.844 --> 00:44:16.984
This is inside the book here.
733
00:44:18.686 --> 00:44:21.128
So this is what you're going to use this matrix right here.
734
00:44:21.628 --> 00:44:26.813
So if it's a one-time job and it's not time-sensitive, your priority you're going to give them is very low.
735
00:44:27.393 --> 00:44:27.633
Right.
736
00:44:28.893 --> 00:44:31.074
If it's a one time job, but it's time sensitive.
737
00:44:31.134 --> 00:44:32.254
Well, now it's kind of in the middle.
738
00:44:32.274 --> 00:44:36.895
Like if you say, no, I can't do this for three months, they might go find someone else.
739
00:44:37.675 --> 00:44:37.896
Right.
740
00:44:38.076 --> 00:44:39.616
So now it might be some more time sensitive.
741
00:44:40.996 --> 00:44:45.337
But this is the part that you have the most juice to squeeze is one time jobs they're asking you to do.
742
00:44:45.617 --> 00:44:46.738
They're not time sensitive.
743
00:44:47.098 --> 00:44:51.599
You're trying to immediately book them in July because during the spring rush, you're trying to focus on.
744
00:44:52.439 --> 00:44:57.521
recurring time-sensitive jobs, which most of the time is maintenance because you can't let things sit for two or three months.
745
00:44:58.242 --> 00:44:58.442
Right?
746
00:44:58.502 --> 00:45:04.725
So I would just be in your, you know, in your market, you'd be like, these are the months where we are focusing on recurring jobs only.
747
00:45:05.265 --> 00:45:12.608
And the only way someone can squeak in is their existing customer with a very time-sensitive project and I'm charging them a premium price.
748
00:45:13.329 --> 00:45:20.072
But everyone else, like when we, for example, in my market, when we hit April 1st, we are now officially booked till July 1st for projects.
749
00:45:20.772 --> 00:45:24.413
So if someone's like, hey, like when are you next available on April 14th?
750
00:45:24.733 --> 00:45:25.213
They're booking.
751
00:45:25.233 --> 00:45:30.535
We're booking into July because we just know we're going to have so much recurring work coming in April, May and June.
752
00:45:30.915 --> 00:45:32.496
I don't want to be booking any projects.
753
00:45:32.796 --> 00:45:33.096
Okay.
754
00:45:33.716 --> 00:45:43.099
So would you say that it doesn't matter because what I've been afraid of like in the past is not to book them in because, you know, I mean, they're already my clients, right?
755
00:45:43.159 --> 00:45:49.561
But for them to say, hey, Sergio, well, I know that you're really busy, so I'm just going to, you know, hire someone else to go ahead and do it.
756
00:45:51.302 --> 00:45:55.823
Would it be, I mean, I guess it is what it is, or would you approach it a different way?
757
00:45:56.143 --> 00:45:59.025
Well, the bottom line is from your perspective, you're at capacity.
758
00:45:59.045 --> 00:46:01.225
In other words, there's so much work coming in, you can't handle it.
759
00:46:01.626 --> 00:46:04.867
If they leave, you have other customers.
760
00:46:05.467 --> 00:46:05.667
Right.
761
00:46:05.707 --> 00:46:11.291
We have to just look at it from a purely objective perspective, which is if they left, if you have so much demand, you can't handle it.
762
00:46:11.571 --> 00:46:12.431
They're going to be replaced.
763
00:46:12.952 --> 00:46:16.574
And if they want to wait because they see the value in your service, they just want to stick with one contractor.
764
00:46:16.594 --> 00:46:18.255
They know, know and like and trust you.
765
00:46:18.595 --> 00:46:18.835
Great.
766
00:46:19.036 --> 00:46:20.937
If not, I'm really sorry, Mr. Jones.
767
00:46:20.977 --> 00:46:29.262
We're booked out to July because I want you to be able to get as much recurring customers as possible during the peak when you're not going to be getting those recurring customers in July and August.
768
00:46:29.382 --> 00:46:29.722
It stops.
769
00:46:29.742 --> 00:46:29.922
Yeah.
770
00:46:31.172 --> 00:46:32.293
Okay, that makes sense.
771
00:46:33.054 --> 00:46:33.334
Yeah.
772
00:46:34.395 --> 00:46:44.304
Now, on my second question is, okay, so we haven't really done any marketing because it's all really been organically recommended, like the neighbor comes out, whatnot.
773
00:46:44.764 --> 00:46:54.293
But this year I decided to start doing door hangers, which I was already getting a little bummed with one of the guys, I guess, did 80,000 and only 150.
774
00:46:55.834 --> 00:46:56.595
I only did 5,000.
775
00:46:56.875 --> 00:47:11.631
So I'm going to try this out because I've always, so I'm a big believer when I did the first time that I did marketing, I did business cards and I would go up to the doors and I would actually knock to see if I could interact with the client or the homeowner.
776
00:47:12.552 --> 00:47:15.556
And that worked out pretty good the first year that I did it.
777
00:47:16.336 --> 00:47:26.681
Um, now this year I'm trying, trying it a different way because, um, the year that I did the business cards, you know, when they wouldn't open the door, I would just kind of slide it in the crack and just leave it there.
778
00:47:26.721 --> 00:47:29.643
But I know sometimes they'll miss it or they'll open the door and it'll fall out.
779
00:47:30.183 --> 00:47:33.765
So that's why I'm doing the door hangers this year, just in case they're not home.
780
00:47:34.625 --> 00:47:38.287
Um, I could just leave it on there, but I didn't put any information like, um,
781
00:47:39.282 --> 00:47:41.704
anything like where they could fill it out, like an instant quote.
782
00:47:42.124 --> 00:47:47.189
I just basically put like our name of our company and like in the back, the information that we do.
783
00:47:48.810 --> 00:47:54.294
I don't know if maybe that's something that I should just, if I, I mean, just finish the 5,000 and then change that.
784
00:47:54.955 --> 00:48:02.341
Or is there any ways that, or other marketing ways that, that I should approach the season?
785
00:48:02.361 --> 00:48:04.343
You know, if there's any other ways that I can do it.
786
00:48:04.937 --> 00:48:10.018
Yeah, knocking on the door when you're doing it yourself is definitely gonna be your highest, like the percentage is gonna be the highest.
787
00:48:10.699 --> 00:48:17.020
Now, usually most people would rather when they scale it, just do door hangers, mostly because it's hard to train people.
788
00:48:17.040 --> 00:48:23.602
Like I don't wanna get in the business and have to teach people how to talk to people at the door and knock on the door and like have a comp structure and all this stuff.
789
00:48:24.022 --> 00:48:31.304
So usually as the owner, I would knock on the door because I know that I can get about five times as many more people.
790
00:48:32.044 --> 00:48:33.405
to say yes if I talk to them.
791
00:48:33.946 --> 00:48:41.493
That being said, having the door hanger is going to way outperform your, your, uh, uh, business card when it comes to, if they're not home.
792
00:48:41.993 --> 00:48:42.193
Right.
793
00:48:42.213 --> 00:48:46.557
So you're just trying to like the, the at home, you talking to them is going to be the best below.
794
00:48:46.598 --> 00:48:49.060
That is going to be a door hanger below.
795
00:48:49.080 --> 00:48:50.161
That is your, your, your,
796
00:48:50.361 --> 00:48:51.141
you know, your business card.
797
00:48:51.161 --> 00:48:53.222
So you're definitely upgrading on the people that are not home.
798
00:48:53.242 --> 00:49:00.644
I'd still knock on the door if I was you, because you have the skill of gifted gab versus training that is going to be a whole different business.
799
00:49:00.684 --> 00:49:01.644
Not to say you shouldn't do it.
800
00:49:01.984 --> 00:49:04.045
Like pest control, it's a big deal door to door.
801
00:49:04.305 --> 00:49:05.665
You can absolutely scale that up.
802
00:49:06.046 --> 00:49:10.127
It's just harder usually to focus on that in terms, in addition to operations.
803
00:49:10.547 --> 00:49:10.887
Okay.
804
00:49:11.147 --> 00:49:21.251
Now, realistically, like speaking for about 5,000 door hangers, what is like my percentage that I should, you know, probably get out of that then?
805
00:49:21.752 --> 00:49:23.552
If you can get one of 100, you're crushing it.
806
00:49:23.833 --> 00:49:27.034
I think most people, if they're just getting started, one of 200 is more likely.
807
00:49:27.614 --> 00:49:32.618
depending on the time of year, depending on literally one day to the next, you can get drastically different based on the weather.
808
00:49:33.218 --> 00:49:36.081
So I would spread that over the course of a couple of weeks.
809
00:49:36.161 --> 00:49:39.203
I wouldn't do it all in one shot just in case you're early or too late.
810
00:49:40.544 --> 00:49:42.285
And then track the numbers from that.
811
00:49:42.525 --> 00:49:44.587
But if you do one out of 100, you're doing good.
812
00:49:44.867 --> 00:49:46.909
If you're doing one out of 200, it usually makes sense.
813
00:49:47.249 --> 00:49:54.715
Anything above that starts to not make sense usually just because the cost of just delivery starts to get too high.
814
00:49:55.275 --> 00:49:55.496
Yeah.
815
00:49:56.137 --> 00:49:56.497
Okay.
816
00:49:56.577 --> 00:50:04.951
Now, as soon as I finish those 5,000, would you say change it up like the, you know, how you mentioned the QR code and that way it'll take them to where they could fill that out.
817
00:50:05.833 --> 00:50:08.156
I mean, would you say I would change it up like that?
818
00:50:08.698 --> 00:50:14.243
First, I would do the 5,000 so you have a benchmark of how many customers you're getting per 100.
819
00:50:14.763 --> 00:50:18.046
Then I would do a split test, which is the next 5,000.
820
00:50:18.086 --> 00:50:21.248
2,500 have a QR code.
821
00:50:21.448 --> 00:50:24.311
2,500 have just where they completely write them in.
822
00:50:24.891 --> 00:50:28.714
And then you go split test that one variable at the same time.
823
00:50:29.655 --> 00:50:30.876
And you can very easily measure it.
824
00:50:30.896 --> 00:50:31.997
Like I would do every other door.
825
00:50:32.057 --> 00:50:35.399
So that way it's not like based upon the neighborhood or the time of day or anything like that.
826
00:50:35.800 --> 00:50:39.042
But then you know if you scan the QR code and it comes in a form, that's from them.
827
00:50:39.402 --> 00:50:43.145
If they send me a picture with it written, that's one for that one.
828
00:50:43.185 --> 00:50:44.686
And you keep track of those two things.
829
00:50:45.186 --> 00:50:45.547
Okay.
830
00:50:45.767 --> 00:50:46.087
Okay.
831
00:50:46.767 --> 00:50:46.948
Okay.
832
00:50:47.868 --> 00:50:55.312
Okay, now, should I focus on more ways to market or should I just do door hangers for now?
833
00:50:55.392 --> 00:51:01.416
Maybe like the web, we have a website and I try to look at it on Google, but it does, it's a lot.
834
00:51:01.676 --> 00:51:06.259
I mean, our ratings are pretty, well, it's a 4.6 or 4.7, something like that.
835
00:51:06.719 --> 00:51:11.762
But we've only, because we started implementing like getting reviews from our clients this year.
836
00:51:12.622 --> 00:51:21.505
And right now I have about 20, 20, 21 or 20 something reviews, but it doesn't, it's not like one of the first ones that pops up.
837
00:51:21.525 --> 00:51:25.366
So how can I help that, you know, keep going up on the search engine?
838
00:51:25.787 --> 00:51:26.767
Yeah, get more reviews.
839
00:51:27.807 --> 00:51:32.489
Also, I would optimize your site for conversion, not necessarily even SEO.
840
00:51:32.849 --> 00:51:35.270
Like I want a higher percentage of people when they get to your site to convert.
841
00:51:35.730 --> 00:51:42.093
So like a few weeks ago on Home Service Millionaire Channel, I did like an hour long of like diagnosing sites.
842
00:51:42.593 --> 00:51:43.093
Watch that.
843
00:51:43.153 --> 00:51:51.677
Try to copy what I'm talking about in terms of like where your S&M request form goes, the speed load, the page load speed, as well as like your images, your video being optimized.
844
00:51:51.697 --> 00:51:55.758
There's a lot of little things you can do to increase because you don't actually care about ranking on Google.
845
00:51:56.018 --> 00:51:57.079
You care about getting more leads.
846
00:51:57.399 --> 00:51:57.739
Right.
847
00:51:57.839 --> 00:51:59.500
So everyone likes like, how do I get on top of Google?
848
00:51:59.520 --> 00:52:03.801
Like, why would I want more people to see your lousy sub shop, right?
849
00:52:03.981 --> 00:52:04.862
Make the sandwich better.
850
00:52:04.882 --> 00:52:08.003
Like make it when they get there, they convert into becoming a lead.
851
00:52:08.623 --> 00:52:12.205
And so I would focus more of my attention on conversion, and then you'll get more reviews.
852
00:52:13.205 --> 00:52:14.667
SEO stuff, yes, that's there.
853
00:52:15.147 --> 00:52:25.296
But right now, the biggest lever you can pull is that if one to 400 people that show up to your site are converting to a lead, if you're going to change that to one out of 100, you will 4x the amount of leads you're getting.
854
00:52:25.837 --> 00:52:32.323
So instead of trying to get incrementally better with SEO, let's just focus on converting more people that are already showing up at the website.
855
00:52:32.883 --> 00:52:33.364
All right.
856
00:52:33.484 --> 00:52:34.024
Sounds good.
857
00:52:34.064 --> 00:52:34.565
Thank you, Mike.
858
00:52:35.145 --> 00:52:35.626
You got it.
859
00:52:35.666 --> 00:52:36.406
You have a good one.
860
00:52:36.486 --> 00:52:37.547
Alexandra, you're up next.
861
00:52:37.627 --> 00:52:38.028
Hey, Mike.
862
00:52:38.048 --> 00:52:38.588
How are you doing?
863
00:52:39.089 --> 00:52:39.449
Good, brother.
864
00:52:39.629 --> 00:52:42.552
I just wrapped up this last December, my second year in business.
865
00:52:43.373 --> 00:52:48.657
And for context, 100% of my marketing efforts for the last two years were in mowing clients.
866
00:52:49.638 --> 00:52:51.540
and reoccurring revenue.
867
00:52:52.240 --> 00:52:54.682
And the way I attend those were through door hangers.
868
00:52:56.283 --> 00:53:03.568
This year, I'm looking at it in a second acquisition channel, specifically Facebook ads, doing an offer for that.
869
00:53:04.368 --> 00:53:11.113
And one of the questions at 3Total is what my expectation should be for this year for the acquisition channel.
870
00:53:11.133 --> 00:53:13.895
Do you think I could try to learn it differently
871
00:53:14.535 --> 00:53:20.719
during spring rush and also try to take advantage of the season to get maybe 50 clients from that channel?
872
00:53:20.920 --> 00:53:28.104
Or should I purely kind of try to aim for just the growing season mentally, knowledge-wise, for Facebook ads?
873
00:53:29.085 --> 00:53:30.306
What were your numbers on door hangers?
874
00:53:30.566 --> 00:53:31.586
How many door hangers did you put out?
875
00:53:32.227 --> 00:53:33.087
In the last two years?
876
00:53:33.808 --> 00:53:35.329
Let's just say last year, 2025.
877
00:53:35.929 --> 00:53:37.450
Maybe like 80,000 door hangers.
878
00:53:37.911 --> 00:53:39.492
You put out 80,000 door hangers in 2025?
879
00:53:39.512 --> 00:53:39.612
Yeah.
880
00:53:40.628 --> 00:53:40.848
Yeah.
881
00:53:41.468 --> 00:53:41.869
Let's go.
882
00:53:41.909 --> 00:53:42.329
You're the man.
883
00:53:42.789 --> 00:53:42.989
All right.
884
00:53:43.009 --> 00:53:45.391
How many customers did you get from that?
885
00:53:46.091 --> 00:53:49.233
I think it was around like 150 per month.
886
00:53:49.933 --> 00:53:50.193
Okay.
887
00:53:50.493 --> 00:53:52.435
So not great numbers.
888
00:53:52.475 --> 00:53:53.255
We can improve that though.
889
00:53:53.495 --> 00:53:55.356
Because you're right around 150.
890
00:53:55.536 --> 00:53:56.737
I'm sorry.
891
00:53:57.097 --> 00:53:59.438
You're about one in 500 right now.
892
00:53:59.458 --> 00:53:59.639
Yeah.
893
00:53:59.959 --> 00:54:00.199
Yeah.
894
00:54:00.239 --> 00:54:00.419
Right?
895
00:54:00.499 --> 00:54:01.420
Okay.
896
00:54:01.440 --> 00:54:02.340
Cool.
897
00:54:03.080 --> 00:54:04.901
Did you figure out a customer acquisition cost from that?
898
00:54:05.082 --> 00:54:06.102
Yeah.
899
00:54:06.162 --> 00:54:06.562
It was like 150.
900
00:54:06.582 --> 00:54:06.682
Okay.
901
00:54:06.702 --> 00:54:06.803
Okay.
902
00:54:09.915 --> 00:54:10.896
What did you do in the door hangers?
903
00:54:10.936 --> 00:54:11.677
Did you have QR code?
904
00:54:11.697 --> 00:54:12.417
Like what was your offer?
905
00:54:13.639 --> 00:54:15.420
It was just the instant quote door hangers.
906
00:54:15.861 --> 00:54:19.684
For context, my first year, I would get three clients for every thousand.
907
00:54:19.724 --> 00:54:27.031
So I think the big thing was printed prices, but also my prices were higher in my second year.
908
00:54:27.592 --> 00:54:28.072
Oh, I got you.
909
00:54:28.092 --> 00:54:28.412
I got you.
910
00:54:28.432 --> 00:54:28.753
I got you.
911
00:54:28.793 --> 00:54:29.013
Okay.
912
00:54:29.673 --> 00:54:29.954
Okay.
913
00:54:30.314 --> 00:54:33.017
Um, how much do you ever spend on Facebook ads?
914
00:54:33.577 --> 00:54:40.519
Well, I'm dedicating to door hangers this year, $8,000, and I'm looking to spend from $2,000 to $7,000 for Facebook this year.
915
00:54:40.539 --> 00:54:41.059
Okay.
916
00:54:41.559 --> 00:54:46.200
Yeah, like I would be really interested to see if you could just dial in your door hangers more.
917
00:54:46.581 --> 00:54:51.422
$150 is not great in terms of customer acquisition cost, but I think you could do better, right?
918
00:54:51.442 --> 00:54:53.202
Like you know which markets are working well.
919
00:54:53.242 --> 00:54:54.383
You know when to put them out.
920
00:54:55.703 --> 00:55:00.684
I would really play with having introductory offers, so a lower price that you cross out in the printed.
921
00:55:00.704 --> 00:55:01.645
Did you do that already?
922
00:55:03.142 --> 00:55:08.951
No, I was going to add in this year, I'm looking to do a first month free offer.
923
00:55:09.111 --> 00:55:14.459
And I think that alone will lower my acquisition cost from anywhere to from 150 to 100 to 120.
924
00:55:14.519 --> 00:55:15.300
Just a better offer.
925
00:55:19.447 --> 00:55:21.710
So I would recommend a few things.
926
00:55:22.110 --> 00:55:26.275
One, I would cross out the price and just put a lower price.
927
00:55:26.315 --> 00:55:30.321
That alone will increase your conversion dramatically because they're getting a discount.
928
00:55:30.681 --> 00:55:32.283
I would not offer a free month.
929
00:55:32.704 --> 00:55:35.828
It's too much cost to you because you have actual real hard costs on that.
930
00:55:36.388 --> 00:55:39.310
And I could very easily really backfire on you.
931
00:55:39.430 --> 00:55:44.254
If you want to give something away free, give away something like a fertilization or a core aeration.
932
00:55:44.494 --> 00:55:46.716
That might cost you $5 or $10 in actual costs.
933
00:55:47.416 --> 00:55:48.817
And to them, it might be worth $200.
934
00:55:50.342 --> 00:55:54.964
So a core aeration that you are literally going to do in 10 minutes, you can value that to them at $200.
935
00:55:55.304 --> 00:56:01.287
So you can just say, hey, after your first month of service, you get a free core aeration, which kind of lines up with your spring rush.
936
00:56:02.028 --> 00:56:03.748
And that's a $200 value.
937
00:56:03.768 --> 00:56:05.489
You get that as being part of a mowing customer.
938
00:56:05.529 --> 00:56:07.110
Now you've done their service for four times.
939
00:56:07.430 --> 00:56:08.471
They're a solid customer.
940
00:56:08.491 --> 00:56:09.271
They've paid you.
941
00:56:09.671 --> 00:56:10.792
And then you can give the freebie.
942
00:56:11.472 --> 00:56:13.813
But I do the cross out on the door hanger.
943
00:56:14.593 --> 00:56:22.776
If you did that and the freebie around like a correlation or treatment, that should basically double your conversion from one at $200 or $250.
944
00:56:23.497 --> 00:56:27.098
And then you can make sense of like a $70, $80 customer acquisition cost.
945
00:56:27.298 --> 00:56:31.020
That's something that can scale and probably is going to be difficult to beat in your first year of Facebook ads.
946
00:56:31.560 --> 00:56:33.480
Because everyone just thinks the new acquisition channel is going to be better.
947
00:56:33.500 --> 00:56:36.982
What's going to happen is you're going to start there with no information and you're going to have to do testing again.
948
00:56:37.803 --> 00:56:39.648
So you have something that kind of works.
949
00:56:39.668 --> 00:56:44.761
Like if it's $150 customer, okay, it's not great, but we can absolutely work with that and just make it better.
950
00:56:45.435 --> 00:56:45.715
Okay.
951
00:56:46.035 --> 00:56:51.676
So as far as Facebook, do you think I should still try to experiment this year with it on a smaller level?
952
00:56:51.696 --> 00:56:53.677
Because I see it happening.
953
00:56:53.857 --> 00:56:58.958
I would like to, the following year, full on use it as an acquisition channel.
954
00:57:00.178 --> 00:57:05.219
You know, given a better business, more funds, I would already be looking to market more.
955
00:57:05.559 --> 00:57:06.239
So I see it.
956
00:57:06.540 --> 00:57:08.520
I could prepare this year knowledge-wise a bit.
957
00:57:08.804 --> 00:57:12.045
Yeah, you could definitely test it, see where the customer acquisition costs are coming in.
958
00:57:12.365 --> 00:57:20.988
I see too many people thinking a new customer acquisition channel is going to solve their problem versus just you already have a customer acquisition cost that you can work with and just refine and make it better.
959
00:57:21.008 --> 00:57:24.189
And I would not abandon $150 customer acquisition cost.
960
00:57:24.249 --> 00:57:25.510
I just focus on making it better.
961
00:57:26.130 --> 00:57:30.333
So when I started Augusta and scaled, my customer recording cost was 200 bucks because I didn't know what I was doing.
962
00:57:30.973 --> 00:57:31.233
Right.
963
00:57:31.293 --> 00:57:32.414
So you can make it work.
964
00:57:32.854 --> 00:57:37.117
It's just a function of you can also just keep refining it and get set 150 to 75.
965
00:57:37.437 --> 00:57:43.400
And that I think is very much possible by offering like a freebie around a fertilization, crossing out the price and giving a lower price.
966
00:57:43.540 --> 00:57:46.062
Do you have a QR code right now, Alexandra, or do you have them write it in?
967
00:57:47.183 --> 00:57:52.606
Just for the website, it's printed pricing, so they just have to contact us and we schedule them.
968
00:57:53.330 --> 00:57:57.595
Okay, so like, do they have to fill out their information on the door hanger and send you a picture?
969
00:57:58.211 --> 00:57:58.411
Yeah.
970
00:57:59.172 --> 00:57:59.432
Okay.
971
00:57:59.712 --> 00:58:03.214
So switch to a QR code, immediately will increase your conversion rate.
972
00:58:03.714 --> 00:58:03.874
Really?
973
00:58:03.894 --> 00:58:13.640
So if you have a QR code that goes to a Jot form and then that information just comes to you, that's going to increase your conversion rate there because now they don't have to write something out.
974
00:58:13.940 --> 00:58:17.322
On their phone, if they scan a QR code, it will pre-fill the whole form.
975
00:58:17.742 --> 00:58:18.603
It knows their phone number.
976
00:58:18.663 --> 00:58:19.684
It knows their email.
977
00:58:19.724 --> 00:58:20.664
It knows their address.
978
00:58:20.904 --> 00:58:23.346
It'll do that in two seconds versus them writing it with a pen.
979
00:58:23.826 --> 00:58:24.967
Like I don't even have a pen.
980
00:58:25.527 --> 00:58:26.107
For crying out loud.
981
00:58:26.127 --> 00:58:26.827
I have a marker.
982
00:58:27.308 --> 00:58:31.289
But like if someone gave it to my house, I would just be like, oh, well, they can't fill this out, I guess.
983
00:58:31.649 --> 00:58:31.809
Right?
984
00:58:31.849 --> 00:58:34.750
So, yeah, I would try those few things.
985
00:58:35.690 --> 00:58:38.751
And then also, yes, if you want to spend a little bit on Facebook ads and try to improve it, great.
986
00:58:39.131 --> 00:58:49.875
I think that you have something to work with and abandoning the acquisition channel almost always leads back to a waste of time and energy instead of just doing more and better what you're currently doing.
987
00:58:50.698 --> 00:58:51.499
Okay, thank you.
988
00:58:51.619 --> 00:59:01.145
And my second question is this year, at one point I was billing over 200 invoices at the end of the month.
989
00:59:01.385 --> 00:59:06.009
And given it was my first year with cards on file, I wanted to reduce as many mistakes as possible.
990
00:59:06.049 --> 00:59:11.592
So I would quickly just double check every invoice, double check them, and then I would bulk bill them.
991
00:59:12.453 --> 00:59:15.535
But I noticed that maybe it was just anywhere from $3 to $1,
992
00:59:16.996 --> 00:59:18.898
eight mistakes at peak, right?
993
00:59:18.978 --> 00:59:22.901
Do you think it's worth the time to try to do everything correct?
994
00:59:22.921 --> 00:59:26.643
Or should I just bill and then they contact us and we try to fix the situation?
995
00:59:27.124 --> 00:59:31.587
Or should I be looking at installing maybe automatic, like four week billing at the size?
996
00:59:31.727 --> 00:59:33.649
If not, when do I look into that?
997
00:59:33.969 --> 00:59:44.574
Yeah, if you're doing if you have auto billing on and there's mistakes happening, it's mostly actually your problem with this batch board, like like a daily screening of did the jobs get completed correctly?
998
00:59:44.594 --> 00:59:45.494
Did they get skipped?
999
00:59:46.094 --> 00:59:48.435
If you do that every day, there should be no reason.
1000
00:59:48.575 --> 00:59:52.237
Like when you say there's an error, you mean like a billing like they got billed for something they shouldn't have.
1001
00:59:52.708 --> 00:59:52.908
Yeah.
1002
00:59:53.669 --> 00:59:53.829
Yeah.
1003
00:59:53.869 --> 00:59:57.511
And what's also happening, by the way, is they're not getting billed for something that you did do.
1004
00:59:58.031 --> 00:59:59.612
That's, by the way, happening the same rate.
1005
00:59:59.873 --> 01:00:01.214
It's just they're not going to tell you about it.
1006
01:00:01.474 --> 01:00:05.977
So if you're getting eight mistakes that they recall you about, you're also getting eight that you're not charging for.
1007
01:00:06.397 --> 01:00:14.282
And so this is actually much more of a scheduling and admin problem, which is on a daily basis, we're going to go through the whole dispatch board and make sure anything that was skipped is skipped.
1008
01:00:14.302 --> 01:00:15.643
Anything that was completed is completed.
1009
01:00:16.103 --> 01:00:18.565
Nothing should be staying back.
1010
01:00:19.105 --> 01:00:23.188
last week or yesterday that was not addressed completely.
1011
01:00:23.868 --> 01:00:28.671
And if you do that every day, then the end of the month, like everything should be automatic billing and no problem.
1012
01:00:29.312 --> 01:00:29.612
Solid.
1013
01:00:29.892 --> 01:00:30.052
Okay.
1014
01:00:30.072 --> 01:00:30.633
That makes sense.
1015
01:00:30.733 --> 01:00:30.873
Yeah.
1016
01:00:30.893 --> 01:00:32.314
Cause Spring Roach was pretty crazy.
1017
01:00:32.334 --> 01:00:44.782
I mean, it was mostly me doing all three hats, but this year is a little different, which leads me into my third question and the last one, I will be hiring my first inbound VA over the next month to two months.
1018
01:00:45.562 --> 01:00:48.623
And I've already created all the scripts slash SOPs for them.
1019
01:00:49.163 --> 01:00:51.184
I made it a big priority during the off season.
1020
01:00:52.465 --> 01:00:54.826
My goal is how do I not screw this up?
1021
01:00:54.846 --> 01:00:55.746
How do I retain them?
1022
01:00:56.046 --> 01:00:58.047
The hiring fee for them is like 3000.
1023
01:00:58.327 --> 01:01:01.808
So I'm using an agency to hire someone from America.
1024
01:01:01.828 --> 01:01:03.669
Are you using somewhere?
1025
01:01:04.565 --> 01:01:05.846
I'm using an agency online.
1026
01:01:05.866 --> 01:01:06.986
I don't remember their name.
1027
01:01:07.087 --> 01:01:07.347
Okay.
1028
01:01:07.587 --> 01:01:07.787
Okay.
1029
01:01:07.807 --> 01:01:08.027
Yeah.
1030
01:01:08.207 --> 01:01:13.530
But my idea is I've created a bunch of the scripts and SOPs.
1031
01:01:13.590 --> 01:01:17.032
I'm looking to probably create videos, walking them through everything.
1032
01:01:17.053 --> 01:01:27.179
I also have to do checklists, like reports at the end of the day, from my understanding, at least since it's the first time for me, is there anything else I should watch out for?
1033
01:01:27.499 --> 01:01:29.340
Or you recommend I keep in mind?
1034
01:01:29.960 --> 01:01:31.101
What was your revenue last year?
1035
01:01:31.121 --> 01:01:31.881
200,000.
1036
01:01:33.042 --> 01:01:37.027
Yeah, it's like your admin person is not going to have a full-time job right now.
1037
01:01:37.487 --> 01:01:42.493
So you can really create a lot of things for them to do, like reporting, checking the dispatch board.
1038
01:01:43.234 --> 01:01:47.578
All those things just need to have a solid SOP slash a video that they can just watch and copy.
1039
01:01:48.419 --> 01:01:53.065
And so do that now and hire them a month before you think you need them because it is not easy to train them up.
1040
01:01:53.691 --> 01:01:56.133
They are not going to step in and just watch your video and do it right.
1041
01:01:56.153 --> 01:01:57.473
They're going to make so many mistakes.
1042
01:01:57.894 --> 01:01:58.794
You're going to pull your hair out.
1043
01:01:59.335 --> 01:02:01.456
So hire them prior to the spring rush.
1044
01:02:01.556 --> 01:02:06.559
Otherwise, you will let them go in the middle of spring rush because they will be so frustrating, especially if they're from LATAM.
1045
01:02:07.239 --> 01:02:08.981
It's very difficult to train them.
1046
01:02:09.101 --> 01:02:11.682
They don't think they're just going to watch your video and do it correctly.
1047
01:02:12.203 --> 01:02:13.884
I've just trained too many of them.
1048
01:02:14.464 --> 01:02:20.688
So what should I do actively on a day-to-day basis to make sure they're on track?
1049
01:02:21.188 --> 01:02:24.611
Do what you want them to do really well before you train them.
1050
01:02:25.232 --> 01:02:30.296
So if you're making eight mistakes a month on invoicing stuff, we need to iron that out.
1051
01:02:30.916 --> 01:02:33.238
The system is not good enough yet to actually train it.
1052
01:02:33.499 --> 01:02:38.042
Because if you just train the amount you're currently doing, that eight will just turn to 18 very quickly.
1053
01:02:38.663 --> 01:02:41.005
And so we need to nail it before we scale it.
1054
01:02:41.285 --> 01:02:47.631
So nailing it becomes we got to dial in things like that, the billing issue, so that when we train them, it's done right.
1055
01:02:48.351 --> 01:02:53.077
Because otherwise, no one's going to come close to you on admin in terms of how you're doing.
1056
01:02:53.458 --> 01:02:57.302
So if you're making eight out of 200 mistakes, that's a 4% error rate.
1057
01:02:57.442 --> 01:02:59.124
We don't want more than 1% error rate.
1058
01:02:59.585 --> 01:03:02.549
If you're already at 4%, they're going to be 8% to 18% error rate.
1059
01:03:02.609 --> 01:03:03.670
You can almost guarantee it.
1060
01:03:04.151 --> 01:03:07.395
And what happens is when you hit Spring Rush and you just will fire them because you're so frustrated.
1061
01:03:08.143 --> 01:03:08.403
Okay.
1062
01:03:08.783 --> 01:03:14.845
And then on a daily basis for the first month or two, should I be meeting up with them going over questions to ask?
1063
01:03:14.965 --> 01:03:15.865
Or should I daily?
1064
01:03:16.566 --> 01:03:17.806
One hour a day, two hours a day?
1065
01:03:17.826 --> 01:03:19.707
15 minutes.
1066
01:03:19.727 --> 01:03:20.367
15 minutes.
1067
01:03:20.587 --> 01:03:22.308
They should be able to go through everything they're blocked on.
1068
01:03:24.168 --> 01:03:37.320
So just say, hey, this time every single day we meet and you go over anything that you were blocked by the day before, whether that be jobs that were messed up, reports that didn't connect correctly, someone not clocking out correctly, an email that someone's mad about.
1069
01:03:37.780 --> 01:03:40.943
They're going to – they have their time lock and they better be a very structured meeting.
1070
01:03:40.963 --> 01:03:42.044
Yeah.
1071
01:03:43.305 --> 01:03:55.641
in terms of what you want them to go over in that meeting, like I want you to start with the email that I want you to go over our reports that I want you to go over future projects and stuff that you got to do, like in terms of scheduling, scheduling, like scheduling materials and equipment.
1072
01:03:55.982 --> 01:03:56.102
So
1073
01:03:57.338 --> 01:03:59.160
I think you've got to really dial those things in.
1074
01:04:00.001 --> 01:04:04.706
Most people will end up firing their first overseas hire, and they'll be super frustrated.
1075
01:04:04.786 --> 01:04:12.114
And then it'll cause a way worse problem in the biz because you're going to go to 400,000 run rate this year, and then you'll fire them in a little spring rush if you don't have the right systems.
1076
01:04:13.075 --> 01:04:13.376
Okay.
1077
01:04:13.996 --> 01:04:14.757
Just be careful.
1078
01:04:15.057 --> 01:04:16.058
That's not my question, Mike.
1079
01:04:16.679 --> 01:04:16.959
Thank you.
1080
01:04:16.979 --> 01:04:17.099
Cool.
1081
01:04:17.179 --> 01:04:17.559
You got it.
1082
01:04:17.819 --> 01:04:18.580
Brian, go ahead.
1083
01:04:18.760 --> 01:04:19.800
Hey, good afternoon.
1084
01:04:19.820 --> 01:04:20.600
My name is Brian.
1085
01:04:20.660 --> 01:04:21.201
That's Joe.
1086
01:04:21.801 --> 01:04:23.261
I'm in North Carolina here.
1087
01:04:23.741 --> 01:04:25.002
So my wife's active duty.
1088
01:04:25.062 --> 01:04:25.882
I got out of active duty.
1089
01:04:26.402 --> 01:04:29.163
I was doing this part-time for two years from 22.
1090
01:04:29.203 --> 01:04:32.164
I got full-time when I got out last 10K.
1091
01:04:32.224 --> 01:04:33.265
Was it two years ago?
1092
01:04:33.325 --> 01:04:34.725
So in 2024.
1093
01:04:35.325 --> 01:04:39.747
So this last year, we had 400,000, about profit margin, about 30%.
1094
01:04:41.047 --> 01:04:48.231
Um, the part that I'm trying to still figure out is with my wife being active duty, she's going to go, she's going overseas for about a year.
1095
01:04:48.291 --> 01:04:50.532
She's not going to know where we're going to go for about a year and a half.
1096
01:04:51.192 --> 01:04:52.973
And obviously my wife wants me to go with her.
1097
01:04:53.413 --> 01:04:54.954
My goal is to keep the business, run it.
1098
01:04:55.674 --> 01:04:58.676
Um, I seen all the stuff you had, listened to some of your books on audio.
1099
01:04:59.536 --> 01:05:02.760
And obviously the goal is to have a GM run everything.
1100
01:05:03.120 --> 01:05:08.386
And then me just kind of, you know, whatever state I'm at, help monitor, maintain, stuff like that.
1101
01:05:08.787 --> 01:05:13.932
So the couple of questions I have is, what recommendations would you have for me with a short timeline of like a year and a half, two years
1102
01:05:14.773 --> 01:05:15.514
to focus on.
1103
01:05:16.054 --> 01:05:22.780
And then a couple of my mentors, one of them, he owns like 20 different little restaurants, Jersey Mike, stuff like that.
1104
01:05:23.301 --> 01:05:30.787
He told me, don't ever give away like the money aspect of your business because he's had multiple people like do fraud stuff for X amount of money.
1105
01:05:31.548 --> 01:05:33.290
So he, he never gives away like,
1106
01:05:33.910 --> 01:05:35.091
the money part, if that makes sense.
1107
01:05:35.151 --> 01:05:36.612
He always makes sure he maintains the books.
1108
01:05:37.192 --> 01:05:40.975
He gives like, you know, his GM to do all the GM work, but he always does all the money.
1109
01:05:41.896 --> 01:05:48.341
So the two questions I have like that is what can I do to set myself for success in a year, two years for when I have to leave Fayetteville, in general sense.
1110
01:05:48.381 --> 01:05:53.985
And then do you guys do anything in general to make sure you stay safe of people like frauding you?
1111
01:05:54.427 --> 01:06:01.153
Yeah, so in terms of the money side, I would assume it's like access to the bank account, access to checkbooks, access to payroll, things like that.
1112
01:06:01.533 --> 01:06:03.895
So a lot of that, yeah, it can be outsourced.
1113
01:06:03.996 --> 01:06:08.960
I would get someone like a bookkeeping service to run payroll, stuff like that.
1114
01:06:09.040 --> 01:06:10.361
So they never even have to touch it.
1115
01:06:10.421 --> 01:06:15.566
And it's just like they talk to the bookkeeper when there's bank stuff, when there is stuff like that, or they talk to you.
1116
01:06:15.966 --> 01:06:20.030
So you can absolutely make it where it doesn't seem like you're trying to guard anything, but just like...
1117
01:06:20.430 --> 01:06:22.271
bookkeeping and payroll, you go talk to this bookkeeper.
1118
01:06:22.731 --> 01:06:27.333
And if you have questions about the numbers and stuff, you come to me like, and then they don't feel like you're guarding them.
1119
01:06:27.353 --> 01:06:28.673
Like, Oh no, you can't have the bank passwords.
1120
01:06:28.693 --> 01:06:30.874
Like, no, no, like the bookkeeper keep, they do all that.
1121
01:06:31.494 --> 01:06:36.716
So, uh, for us, like a command center, it's like, if the, if the GM has a question, they're coming to command center about their bookkeeping.
1122
01:06:37.136 --> 01:06:37.356
Right.
1123
01:06:37.936 --> 01:06:42.158
Um, so I would really recommend using a third party for bookkeeping and payroll.
1124
01:06:42.638 --> 01:06:43.820
that you can keep accountable.
1125
01:06:44.200 --> 01:06:46.143
So like home service CPA might be an option for you.
1126
01:06:46.163 --> 01:06:46.564
I don't know.
1127
01:06:46.824 --> 01:06:51.371
But like it'd just be a function of getting a bookkeeper that handles all that money stuff for you.
1128
01:06:51.431 --> 01:06:57.179
And then it doesn't seem like you are this arbitrary, you know, handcuffing them from that side of the business.
1129
01:06:58.361 --> 01:07:01.643
the thing that I would be doing is probably entering profit mode somewhat prematurely.
1130
01:07:02.203 --> 01:07:09.209
And so you might not be above $500,000 yet, but I would go to stage one and just start from there in terms of the stages of success.
1131
01:07:09.749 --> 01:07:16.474
And go into profit mode, focus 100% of your time and attention this year on recurring revenue, simplification of projects.
1132
01:07:16.534 --> 01:07:19.836
Anytime you're getting called out on a project, we're cutting that surface.
1133
01:07:19.916 --> 01:07:22.618
If there's a service that only you can do, it's off.
1134
01:07:22.899 --> 01:07:24.820
Because you need this business to run without you.
1135
01:07:25.220 --> 01:07:26.922
And to do that, you have to simplify and standardize.
1136
01:07:27.502 --> 01:07:28.743
Same stuff every single time.
1137
01:07:28.763 --> 01:07:30.624
It needs to be simple and easy to replicate.
1138
01:07:30.964 --> 01:07:32.925
And if it's not those things, we got to get rid of it.
1139
01:07:33.345 --> 01:07:44.111
And so the only marketing that I would be doing, Brian, is to be able to increase the amount of recurring services and simple services that you could replace the project-based stuff that currently is taking a lot of your time and energy.
1140
01:07:44.551 --> 01:07:48.573
That's the only marketing I'd be doing in preparation for when you can say, all right, we're out.
1141
01:07:49.113 --> 01:07:57.895
And I'm going to be able to leave knowing that I have a general manager that's been trained up, knows what's going on, and I'm not requiring them to do really complicated stuff.
1142
01:07:58.435 --> 01:07:59.756
So we do that already.
1143
01:07:59.956 --> 01:08:03.436
Me and him are both – he's still in the military.
1144
01:08:03.456 --> 01:08:04.277
I'm ex-military.
1145
01:08:04.857 --> 01:08:07.017
We like simple stupid because it's easy to communicate.
1146
01:08:08.038 --> 01:08:09.098
So I keep my –
1147
01:08:09.838 --> 01:08:10.639
My service is simple.
1148
01:08:10.659 --> 01:08:17.045
It's pretty much lawn care, bushes, and then every so often like sod and then seeding.
1149
01:08:17.065 --> 01:08:18.827
That's essentially the only things we really provide.
1150
01:08:19.227 --> 01:08:21.969
So we keep everything just basic in general sense.
1151
01:08:22.410 --> 01:08:25.253
So it helps us train all the employees with that.
1152
01:08:26.374 --> 01:08:27.274
So that part's good.
1153
01:08:28.135 --> 01:08:33.000
It sounds like I just need to get a profit mode to get everything just running pretty much by myself or without me then.
1154
01:08:33.271 --> 01:08:36.513
Yes, like you basically skip that step if you're like, hey, it's all recurring.
1155
01:08:36.533 --> 01:08:37.414
It's all simple services.
1156
01:08:37.454 --> 01:08:37.674
Great.
1157
01:08:37.954 --> 01:08:39.916
We still get to raise prices, go into profit mode.
1158
01:08:40.076 --> 01:08:42.057
We've got to find a general manager, train them up.
1159
01:08:42.617 --> 01:08:48.181
And we've got to also make sure that they're incentivized, like creating an incentive system for that GM.
1160
01:08:48.201 --> 01:08:52.905
Because ultimately, you just want to come back to a business that's doing slightly about the same revenue, maybe a little higher.
1161
01:08:53.745 --> 01:08:55.087
and is running well.
1162
01:08:55.167 --> 01:08:56.488
That's all your objective is.
1163
01:08:56.768 --> 01:09:01.293
So if you have to give a big chunk of that profit away, I would not mind that.
1164
01:09:01.734 --> 01:09:06.459
Like if I was you, I would be giving 50% plus of distributable cash to your GM.
1165
01:09:06.959 --> 01:09:09.622
Because let's just say you have $150,000 of distributable cash.
1166
01:09:09.762 --> 01:09:13.926
I'm happy to take 75 grand for doing absolutely nothing on the other side of the country or the world.
1167
01:09:14.567 --> 01:09:14.747
Right.
1168
01:09:14.767 --> 01:09:23.333
Like I would really encourage you to incentivize heavily that general manager when you're gone, because you need them thinking like you.
1169
01:09:23.353 --> 01:09:29.597
And the only way to do that is make it where like a truck going down and having a six thousand dollar repair puts them out of a bonus this month.
1170
01:09:29.637 --> 01:09:31.498
Like you need them to think like an owner.
1171
01:09:31.519 --> 01:09:36.222
And the only way to do this is massively incent them on profit sharing.
1172
01:09:36.582 --> 01:09:37.002
Awesome.
1173
01:09:37.102 --> 01:09:37.843
Thank you for the info.
1174
01:09:38.341 --> 01:09:38.721
You got it.
1175
01:09:38.782 --> 01:09:39.162
Absolutely.
1176
01:09:39.522 --> 01:09:43.707
And I would keep the relationship good with Matt because I'm sure he could always step in and help while you're gone.
1177
01:09:43.847 --> 01:09:44.468
Jarrett, you're up.
1178
01:09:44.708 --> 01:09:46.249
I'm Mike Jarrett from Buckley, Washington.
1179
01:09:46.750 --> 01:09:50.474
I have a quick question, but first I want to thank you for coming to Seattle last January.
1180
01:09:50.654 --> 01:09:54.939
The Blue Collar Summit was a huge eye-opener for me and helped us dramatically in our business.
1181
01:09:55.179 --> 01:09:58.042
My question is what you think our business should look like in our region today.
1182
01:09:58.202 --> 01:10:03.023
at the 800 to a million revenue mark and maybe a first step to implement right away.
1183
01:10:03.643 --> 01:10:10.204
Currently, I'm running the sales operations and admin and then bookkeeping and accounting are outsourced.
1184
01:10:10.784 --> 01:10:14.725
We have four employees and hit 675 in 2025.
1185
01:10:16.265 --> 01:10:21.906
In 2024, our payroll expense was much higher and we only did 510.
1186
01:10:21.946 --> 01:10:26.207
And I would say a lot of that has to do with going to Blue Collar Summit last year.
1187
01:10:26.827 --> 01:10:27.087
Awesome.
1188
01:10:27.787 --> 01:10:30.608
Yeah, so I think the first thing I'm looking at is delegating admin.
1189
01:10:30.888 --> 01:10:40.631
The thing that's going to hold you back from being able to scale past a million or even just having more freedom in the business, even if growth is not your objective, is going to be delegating admin.
1190
01:10:40.651 --> 01:10:42.392
It's also the lowest leverage thing in the business.
1191
01:10:42.812 --> 01:10:46.273
So do you have someone already answering the phone?
1192
01:10:46.814 --> 01:10:47.494
You do all of that.
1193
01:10:48.134 --> 01:10:49.775
Yeah, it's mostly myself.
1194
01:10:49.795 --> 01:10:50.715
We have pretty much everything.
1195
01:10:51.609 --> 01:10:53.852
Yeah, and it might take you six to 12 months to really nail this.
1196
01:10:54.192 --> 01:10:56.455
Find the right person or right answering service.
1197
01:10:56.495 --> 01:11:00.861
But like right now, you answering the phone is like a $25 an hour task.
1198
01:11:01.281 --> 01:11:04.125
When alternatively, you could just go do work for $100 an hour.
1199
01:11:04.545 --> 01:11:10.513
Or let's go crazy and be going to do sales or sending a text message to everyone, which is probably $300 per hour worth value.
1200
01:11:10.973 --> 01:11:11.173
Right.
1201
01:11:11.434 --> 01:11:16.377
So at your size, you're going to start bumping up against that this year, which is like you just get overwhelmed with admin.
1202
01:11:16.678 --> 01:11:22.963
But because it's loud, squeaky wheels, your attention goes there instead of growing the business or focusing on the team, i.e.
1203
01:11:23.023 --> 01:11:25.745
sales and operations, which are higher leverage than admin.
1204
01:11:26.105 --> 01:11:26.966
OK, OK.
1205
01:11:27.640 --> 01:11:29.022
Yeah, I'm definitely the bottleneck.
1206
01:11:29.202 --> 01:11:30.103
I know that.
1207
01:11:30.243 --> 01:11:33.027
I've been stuck in my ways for since 2012.
1208
01:11:33.707 --> 01:11:40.235
And this is like a huge thing for me, just learning about you and all that you're doing for us.
1209
01:11:40.316 --> 01:11:43.159
But that definitely makes sense.
1210
01:11:43.519 --> 01:11:44.000
That's perfect.
1211
01:11:44.080 --> 01:11:54.502
Also, on Home Service Millionaire, I think it was a couple days ago, there was – I think somebody else says something like go hire an admin or something like that.
1212
01:11:54.582 --> 01:11:57.863
It was for a million-dollar company that does gutters.
1213
01:11:58.223 --> 01:11:59.744
It's called Downspout, the name of their company.
1214
01:12:00.144 --> 01:12:04.545
I talk all about admin stuff, like a ton of stuff around admin, getting your first one.
1215
01:12:04.645 --> 01:12:05.425
He's the same position.
1216
01:12:05.445 --> 01:12:08.006
He's doing everything, and he knows that's his bottleneck.
1217
01:12:08.306 --> 01:12:13.647
So I talk a lot of stuff about admin in that video.
1218
01:12:14.127 --> 01:12:14.347
Okay.
1219
01:12:14.768 --> 01:12:20.412
And then so at the 800 to a million revenue and just say, I didn't want to grow past that.
1220
01:12:22.214 --> 01:12:24.456
If that's the case, what do you think it would look like?
1221
01:12:24.476 --> 01:12:29.080
Would we still have, so we'd have somebody doing admin for us and I would still be doing sales and operations?
1222
01:12:29.521 --> 01:12:31.162
Yeah, that would be very profitable.
1223
01:12:31.282 --> 01:12:38.005
If you can get an admin person to either A, work during your busy season, just even that.
1224
01:12:38.285 --> 01:12:43.988
If they can work six to eight hours a day just for your busy season, that alone will allow you just flexibility.
1225
01:12:44.028 --> 01:12:47.990
You have the margin, and you can focus on building a team and sales.
1226
01:12:48.670 --> 01:12:57.778
Ideally, too, in the perfect world, you'd be able to get someone virtual that can handle four hours a day during the entire year to make sure you're never in the email inbox.
1227
01:12:57.999 --> 01:13:00.541
You're never figuring out what's on the schedule.
1228
01:13:00.861 --> 01:13:02.342
You can start delegating more to them.
1229
01:13:02.363 --> 01:13:03.383
But...
1230
01:13:04.184 --> 01:13:10.086
All I'd ask is like anything with admin, get it off your plate, focus on operations and sales, running a million dollar business doing that.
1231
01:13:10.106 --> 01:13:11.426
You can have very good margins.
1232
01:13:11.846 --> 01:13:19.988
And I think you could basically just delegate, just admin and be able to focus on operations and sales and get to a million.
1233
01:13:20.229 --> 01:13:20.449
Okay.
1234
01:13:21.049 --> 01:13:21.389
Okay.
1235
01:13:21.829 --> 01:13:25.350
And I thought I only had one question, but now that you say that we're using Jobber.
1236
01:13:25.850 --> 01:13:27.211
And we haven't been for a long time.
1237
01:13:28.831 --> 01:13:30.692
And I just feel like I'm just like stuck.
1238
01:13:31.032 --> 01:13:34.474
Like, I don't know, I, I'm not sure what I should do.
1239
01:13:34.554 --> 01:13:38.856
But it just it doesn't have enough systems for for maybe our size of business.
1240
01:13:38.876 --> 01:13:40.356
I don't feel like is that accurate?
1241
01:13:40.597 --> 01:13:41.137
Would you say that?
1242
01:13:41.812 --> 01:13:45.034
Usually once you pass 500,000, you'll feel a little bit of that in Jobber.
1243
01:13:45.294 --> 01:13:47.636
The question just becomes, is it worth the pain of switching?
1244
01:13:48.196 --> 01:13:51.918
And so it just really would come down to that question.
1245
01:13:51.979 --> 01:14:03.486
I think if you're not trying to grow a whole lot more and like, hey, we can make do, switching softwares when you're not trying to grow rarely actually unlocks anything besides just a whole bunch of more tasks for you to figure out and do switch over.
1246
01:14:03.926 --> 01:14:06.469
So don't do it for the sake of like being in homeworks.
1247
01:14:06.889 --> 01:14:11.474
I would only do it if you're like, I wanna reduce my marketing spend using the mass texting feature.
1248
01:14:11.554 --> 01:14:12.195
That makes sense.
1249
01:14:12.535 --> 01:14:14.978
I wanna use the upsell feature with my crew.
1250
01:14:15.018 --> 01:14:24.928
Like you have a reason to flip over besides just like, oh, there's some pain because a lot of times you'll switch and there'll be pain in another area of any software cause they're all built slightly differently.
1251
01:14:25.188 --> 01:14:25.348
Sure.
1252
01:14:25.609 --> 01:14:42.827
And I'm doing all the sales and estimating, you know, and I just feel like I'm guessing on the estimates a lot more than I should if it was, I mean, my brother uses LMN in Arkansas and I've heard good things about homeworks, but just having more, I mean, everything about it, like the job costing and all that, we just don't have that.
1253
01:14:43.107 --> 01:14:43.888
with job earning.
1254
01:14:44.008 --> 01:14:46.630
So I'm just kind of, and like the price, like, yeah.
1255
01:14:47.170 --> 01:14:51.093
And it might be too, Jared, you get your admin, get, get them going folks on that this year.
1256
01:14:51.453 --> 01:14:58.919
And then maybe it's a matter of later this year when we have like the price book and instant quotes that those are like the price book will help dramatically with the job cost thing.
1257
01:14:58.959 --> 01:14:59.179
Yes.
1258
01:14:59.219 --> 01:15:02.261
The instant quotes would be a reason why, in my opinion, people should like all, I'll,
1259
01:15:02.481 --> 01:15:06.964
You'll hear me talk about homework a lot more when we have instant quote pricing because no one has it.
1260
01:15:07.004 --> 01:15:14.149
And I'll be like, this is a feature that in and of itself people should move over for because of the cost savings on admin and the close rate being so much higher.
1261
01:15:15.390 --> 01:15:21.754
So you might just wait to like grow the business, focus on the admin side, dial in those systems so that when you do the swap over, you're ready to go.
1262
01:15:22.074 --> 01:15:35.440
Okay, yeah, and especially for like the Christmas light, we do the Christmas light, so like we do 35% install for the landscape install, and then 35% revenue is from maintenance, and then 30% probably from the lights.
1263
01:15:35.500 --> 01:15:42.363
So I don't know, just the reoccurring jobs, I think that maybe another software, but yeah, I'll do that what you said.
1264
01:15:42.543 --> 01:15:44.384
So thank you so much, appreciate it.
1265
01:15:44.844 --> 01:15:45.225
You got it.
1266
01:15:45.585 --> 01:15:47.366
Last but not least, Drew, take us away.
1267
01:15:48.046 --> 01:15:49.346
As I was looking at the revenue,
1268
01:15:51.001 --> 01:15:55.683
thresholds for the different operational modes.
1269
01:15:56.083 --> 01:16:01.506
It did seem to dial down to about 100,000 per employee.
1270
01:16:02.927 --> 01:16:06.488
You know, 3 million, you may have up to 30 employees, right?
1271
01:16:06.508 --> 01:16:06.969
800,000.
1272
01:16:08.218 --> 01:16:09.599
You may have up to eight employees.
1273
01:16:09.960 --> 01:16:13.103
That is drastically different than a solo operator.
1274
01:16:13.163 --> 01:16:17.887
A solo operator, you're operating at possibly 200, 250K.
1275
01:16:18.267 --> 01:16:28.937
Now, is that difference swallowed up in the overhead that the larger structure requires, or is it possible,
1276
01:16:30.339 --> 01:16:43.811
in the more complicated models to have technicians or your team, right, push past that $100,000 and operate more as solo operators?
1277
01:16:43.931 --> 01:16:54.481
Why the extreme gap of $150,000 between the solo operators max and the appearing max in the other models?
1278
01:16:54.501 --> 01:16:54.621
Yeah.
1279
01:16:55.552 --> 01:16:59.474
Yeah, because in the solo operator model, every single minute is efficient.
1280
01:16:59.994 --> 01:17:06.217
Usually I see efficiency scores around 110% for solo operators because you literally leave your house, go do the work.
1281
01:17:06.537 --> 01:17:07.837
You're extremely efficient all day long.
1282
01:17:07.857 --> 01:17:08.638
You're never stopping.
1283
01:17:08.958 --> 01:17:13.860
So it's just inherently you're usually around 30% to 40% more efficient as a solo operator because you have equity.
1284
01:17:14.580 --> 01:17:15.000
essentially.
1285
01:17:15.501 --> 01:17:25.367
The second part of that is when a solo operator, we're going to have the range from zero to 250 is if you're just in growth mode, usually you're going to have to get an employee around a hundred thousand if you're trying to grow through it.
1286
01:17:25.907 --> 01:17:37.754
But if you stay at a hundred thousand and like, all right, I'm staying here and you start raising prices because you have such a small amount of supply, let's just call it one labor, you, you raise prices very quickly, very fast.
1287
01:17:37.834 --> 01:17:42.637
I see people doing over $200 an hour for some solo operators that just been in profit mode for 10 years.
1288
01:17:43.197 --> 01:17:45.759
And they just keep raising prices because they have such little demand.
1289
01:17:46.279 --> 01:17:49.621
Their pipeline is so full of a wait list of customers that want to get on their schedule.
1290
01:17:49.861 --> 01:17:50.802
They just keep raising prices.
1291
01:17:51.302 --> 01:17:57.125
And so it's really a matter of staying in profit mode that allows that revenue per employee to start inflating.
1292
01:17:57.405 --> 01:18:01.228
So, for example, at my Bellingham shop, they have about six employees and do 1.1 million.
1293
01:18:01.248 --> 01:18:03.289
So they're almost around 200,000 per employee.
1294
01:18:03.709 --> 01:18:06.431
The thing is, they've been in profit mode for over five years.
1295
01:18:06.771 --> 01:18:07.011
Right.
1296
01:18:07.292 --> 01:18:13.478
And so it really comes down to how long are you in profit mode is the driving force, usually, of revenue per employee.
1297
01:18:13.778 --> 01:18:18.523
And the inflating of that number really comes down to how long have you been in profit mode?
1298
01:18:18.683 --> 01:18:25.811
That's why a location that goes into profit mode at 500, 550 can be doing a million dollars a few years from then with the same trucks and same employees.
1299
01:18:26.251 --> 01:18:26.872
That makes sense.
1300
01:18:27.392 --> 01:18:28.213
Yeah, that makes sense.
1301
01:18:28.433 --> 01:18:28.713
All right.
1302
01:18:28.814 --> 01:18:29.634
Well, yeah.
1303
01:18:30.315 --> 01:18:31.641
I'll let you close us off then.
1304
01:18:31.681 --> 01:18:32.303
Thank you for your time.
1305
01:18:32.805 --> 01:18:33.187
You got it.
1306
01:18:33.207 --> 01:18:33.568
Thanks for that.
1307
01:18:33.889 --> 01:18:34.291
All right, everyone.
1308
01:18:34.391 --> 01:18:35.315
Really appreciate you all.
1309
01:18:35.335 --> 01:18:36.962
Hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week.
1310
01:18:37.182 --> 01:18:40.034
Look forward to a great spring rush ahead, and we'll talk soon.
1311
01:18:40.295 --> 01:18:40.817
Take care, everyone.