MDY Business Spotlight | Red Rock Maintenance

All right, thank you for joining us for another million dollar year business spotlight. Today we have the amazing Scotty Faulkner. I know he's got Scott here, but he is our Scotty in our Facebook community, so I'm just gonna go with that.

Sounds good.

We're all such good friends in there. Scott's Red Rock Maintenance, is that correct, the name of your business?

Correct, yes. Good.

Tell me a little bit about your business, where you're located, and kind of what your business does.

All right, so my business, like I said, it's called Red Rock Maintenance, and we are located in Coba Konk, Ontario, which is in the heart of Kawartha Lake, so right in cottage country, which is nice. And basically what we do is lawn care, window cleaning, deck cleaning, deck staining, that sort of stuff. So I'm trying to try and not do so much window cleaning this year, but I've got so many calls for it. I want to try and focus a bit more on lawn care, but it's kind of hard to focus on one thing when you got so many calls with everything, so. But that's what we do, right.

It may be one of those things where you hire a crew that just does that, and then we have another crew over here that just does this. So we're getting all the business kind of in your surrounding area, right?

That's right, yeah. Yeah. And I've hired a third guy right from the start this year just to keep up with it. Congratulations. I know my. My goal was to send the crew out to do lawns this year, but I picked up so many lawns in my two days that I may have to go out with them just to keep up with it. So. And then I may be starting another. Another lawn care day, which is what I want. So I'm. I'm gonna have to. Yeah.

And it's so nice to hear this after, you know, a lot of us went through a lot business owners during COVID and things that were going on. A lot of uncertainty then. So it's so nice to hear about you, like, hiring other people and the business growing and having options with, you know, different things you can do within the business.

It is. Yeah. And you know what? I don't know what it is. I don't know if it was Covid that's helped my business or not. But, like, just in the last two winners, I've had more and more calls over the winter time to pre book me for the summertime. I've never really had that in, like the 10 years I've been doing this. So I was almost pre booked for like May before the winter was even over, which was amazing. And. Yeah, well.

And I think we learned from anyone who is having any sort of maintenance done on their home or their cottage or any of that stuff that we can't leave it to last minute anymore or we won't be able to get in the mix, so to speak. We'll call all of you amazing people up and, and as grateful as you want to be and as gracious as you want to be towards us, if we're, if we're not on it, we're going to miss the boat, so to speak, for the whole season.

That's right. And people do call me last minute and say I can't do it. I'm already pretty good.

Feeling turning them away. But again, we've got a. That's probably the good thing about COVID is that it got us thinking ahead, planning ahead and respecting contractors of every kind in the way of their time.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like, like everybody's always busy, so I don't know that that's always my time with customers. If you want, if you want me to, you gotta call me early. Call me like February now. I actually call me in February because if you don't, you're not going to get your day that you want. Right. So.

No. So smart. So smart. So I'm glad we're starting to see more of that and then really like honoring that time and getting themselves in the mix and being able to get your services. So what got you into this type of work and owning your own business?

Well, I was actually, I'm trained to be in culinary so I went to college for culinary management and, and I was working out west for quite a long time. And the last year I worked out west, it was very like the restaurant industry kind of slowed down for some reason. I was working in Victoria and we were really busy when I first got there and then also just died. I was lucky to get four hours and then they wanted to cut me down to. Yeah, then they want to cut us down to two hours. It was insane. So my cousin called me up and she wanted to start a window cleaning business and our friend actually taught me how to clean windows way back in the day. So I said sure. So I came back. Yeah.

So I.

So I came back to Ontario. We started up by a window cleaning business. The first year my one cousin left us and then the other. Then me and my other cousin were working together for like four years and we didn't work out together so well because we had two different ideas what we wanted.

Business happens in business.

It does. Oh, yeah. So we ended up splitting up. And I took the window cleaning side, she took the lawn care side. But I did have a few customers that wanted to stay with me. So I took those customers and. And then one day I was just looking on the. On Kijiji. I think it was Kijiji. And I saw some guy sit on this lawn care business, and I didn't think too much about it. And then I told my dad about it. He's like, you need to get on that and call him up and talk to him about it. So I ended up calling. Yeah, call up, talk to him about it. And then I ended up buying his business. So he had. I'm not sure how many customers he had. He didn't have maybe like 30 customers for like lawn care. And it looked like a good deal at the time, but when I. When I bought the business, all his equipment was broken. It wasn't working good. This was after he supposed to have his mechanic look at and fix it. And it was just not good equipment. So we rescript and saved and bought a new lawnmower for me to have. A reliable lawnmower.

Absolutely good, essential.

So that's basically how I started. And then I just started kind of advertising. I was doing home shows every year.

To try and get booths there.

Yes, yes. Having boost. So that. That kind of helped me, you know, get somewhere business. And then I had a website, and then I didn't really do much on Facebook. I had a Facebook page, but I didn't really do much with it. So I got. I got more of the business from, you know, the home shows on my website. But yeah, so that. That's kind of how I started out. And. And it's just grown from there. And it's just like blowing up in the last couple years, more than I ever thought it would blow up. And I'm just kind of like all over the place trying to.

Trying to deal around, picking up the pieces.

Oh, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny to see the way my business got like where I started and where I was and where I am now. And kind of how I'm thinking what I want to do now instead of like. Like I said earlier, like, I don't want to do as many rental cleaning jobs. I'd rather do jobs, but it's trying to turn that over and say no to those customers. I don't want to do which is the hard part, because I'm very hard at saying no. No to people. I always say yes, but I need to start saying no to jobs that are not worth it. And, and you know, are there way.

Or whatnot being more selective about the jobs that you know, so that you're not saying yes to something that is, is not gonna also take care of the business. Right. Like, it has to probably do a certain dollar amount or like a certain contract look a certain way for it to be worthwhile as the business grows. Right. And what you start out with and what you finish with are often different pictures, right?

It is, yes. And the hard part is I've been in some of these customers for like 10 years since I started the business.

Yeah.

And some of them are very low, low price customers. And for instance, like I have a lady just email me wanting her windows, and I've done it every single year. But it's a very low paying job and I have a very hard time saying no to that customer because very nice customer loyalty.

Right. Means something to you. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's, it's very hard to do that. And then do I tell them, well, I can still do, but I now have to jack your price up, you know, maybe 25, $50 to make it worthwhile, because like I said, I got a staff have to pay you as well. Right. And the drive time. So you have to think about all that now.

And you do. Right. And I do think, though, that consumers are coming around and they're understanding a lot more what that looks like. And inflation and prices having to go up, especially after Covid as well, we're seeing a big increase in restaurants having to charge more money to cover the food that they're buying. Right. And then cooking, no different for you guys, your supplies are going, demand forces going up, that kind of thing. So, you know, unfortunately that also means price goes up. But it is fortunate for the business owner because you need to grow, you need to scale, you know, you need to get yourself in that mindset that you're ready to do that as well and okay with that and kind of in flow. Right?

Yeah. And the funny thing in my business is, yes, nobody wants to. Nobody wants to pay the tax. They all want to pay cash, not the tax. So it's kind of frustrating because I tell everybody I do everything on the books, I have to do that. Right. Because I don't do that. I can't buy things in my life. Like if you want to buy a new house, if you want to buy A car, if you want to know, you've got an income coming in.

Right, Exactly.

So. And it's like, you don't go to the grocery store and ask not to pay the tax there.

So you're a lawn care guy. Right, Right. So, you know, so all of you out there, make sure you're taking care of your contractors and paying them correctly and paying that. That's right, absolutely. Tell me a little bit about what sets you apart to work with your company over someone else. Like, if I was just. I was selling you and I was out there telling a friend, what would you want me to say that would really represent your company and the culture and what you're building and why?

Well, for me, I actually had to think about this. I asked my wife before this, and I wasn't really sure what to say for this, but so for me, whenever I go to a customer's place, like, I'm always really efficient in getting the job done. So we get the job done in a timely manner and we don't sit there for hours and hours and, you know, wasting the customer's money trying to get a job done. So we go in there, get the job done, and we move onto the next job. And I've had a lot of customers over the years say, wow, I can't believe how quick you are and efficient you are. And they like that, right? Because I see other people dawling around the job and I'm like, how does it take you guys that long to do job? You should be in and out in all your next job. So I think that's kind of what sets us apart, is customers love seeing that, and they're happy that you get the job done for them. And it's not taking you days to do one job that should have been done, you know, in a couple hours.

And, you know, that's really linked into integrity. I feel like when you have integrity, you quote a job correctly and you go and you deliver to the job correctly, and I think the other thing we've talked about, even today, I've learned just how. How loyal you are. So if they are loyal to you and they grow with you, grow with your prices, grow with your team, that kind of thing, that you will stand by them as well. And I think that's. That's been lost sometimes in. In business to customer relationships. Right. So I think there's quite a few things that probably set you guys apart in the way that you do business with integrity and you show up. Like, a lot of thing is, is Even getting people to show up sometimes, which is mind boggling. Right.

So here's the other thing that I think sets us apart is that when I hear all of my employees, I tell them I have a strict schedule, that I book customers at certain times for the day and we have to be at the customers places for these times because I don't mind myself. Personally, I hate being late. I'm always early wherever I go. So I always tell them we have to be on time because the customers actually have said that too. They're like, well, you're on time. And for example, today we were ahead of schedule. So I text the customer and told her we can be there early. And she was happy about that. So always make sure you're on time at the job and don't be late because the customers know when you're late and it looks bad on your business.

Yeah. And I think that also makes you stand out when you are there on time. And when you do keep to a schedule, you don't quote times and not show up. You quote times, you show up, you show up ready to do it and you do it efficiently. I think that that says everything. So what are you most passionate about? About running your own business?

Well, my wife always asks at me for this, but I. There's a certain kind of lawnmower I run, it's called the Walker mower. And I absolutely love the mower and I love being out on the mower cutting the grass. And for me, it's hard for me to send a crew out. Like that's what I was saying before. I want to send a crew. But for me, I love, I love being on the moor. So I love just being able to do that and get out there and cut the grass and ride that more all day long. And I just, I just love that about my business for that.

Yeah, it brings you joy, right? It's something you enjoy doing. I mean, many of us should be more selective about the, the type of jobs we do and things like that. Because if it's not bringing you joy and pleasure, you know, and just money, it's going to feel a little hollow at some point, right?

It does, yeah. Yeah. You gotta love what you do. And you know, I think it's taking me a while to actually figure out what I love in my business, what I don't love. And I think for me that the lawn cares. I actually do like being out there because I like being outdoors and I get to be outdoors all day long and, and some days, you know, it's not fun when it's really hot outside, like 40 plus days or whatever. But it's still great to be outside being on the lawnmower and cutting grass and making it look good.

And yeah, it probably gives a feeling of freedom. And I think all entrepreneurs, there's some pieces of it that we do want some time freedom. We, most of us don't want all the time in the world. Even though the book says like the four hour work week and people think they want that. Normally when I see entrepreneurs get there, they actually don't want that at all because they actually love what they do and they want to be doing it. But I do think there is a sense of freedom of, you know, just not being in, in behind walls and doors all day for you that would really, you know, be sparked as you're like out there driving the lawnmower and stuff. So maybe the top customers who paid the most that, you know, they get you and then everybody else gets crew or something, there's a way you can work that so you can still scale your business and be out there a little bit, you know. But yeah, I think it's important to keep aspects of that as you grow. That's amazing. And outside of business, what else are you passionate about? Just in life in general or sports or hobbies?

Well, I like downhill skiing. I'm actually a level two ski instructor, so I haven't taught in the last few years. Yeah. But I love, I love teaching or teaching skiing. I love Daniel skiing as well about a couple years ago. And I love water skiing. So I water ski in the summertime. As you know, Belinda, I do live on a lake, so that's perfect. Living on a lake. I get to go water skiing after work every day. And it's great because, you know, I can post photos of to my friends that live in the city, dying. Yeah, I'm on a lake and it's great. Yeah, I love doing that. So yeah, I love the water skiing. Get out there and especially when it's hot, it's nice to cool you down. Relaxes you after work. And then.

Yeah, like I said, the Danish and a beautiful way. Sorry to end the day.

I was gonna say it is. Yeah, yeah, it's great.

I love that. I love those two fashions. That's great. So you have been part of our million dollar year program. First of all, like, how did you hear about us?

Well, actually, my friend Tom, he actually uses Bob as his accountant.

Okay.

And he actually told me about the ascent summit that was going on that's right. Okay. Yeah, so he told me it's free. So I'm like, I'll join. Cause I want to, like, I want to invest myself this year. So said sure. So I joined that. And then I don't want to make this sound bad, but whenever I listen to certain programs like that, they always have a catch when it's free to, you know, sign up for their program. So, you know, the opportunity came up and honestly I've been thinking about doing something like this for a very long time. I've just never jumped on it. So when, when you guys presented the opportunity, I'm like, this is exactly what, what I want to do. It's time for me to jump on this. Because all the years like screamed out.

To you, like when it was presented to you, like what parts were you like? Yep, I, I need that in my life.

I want to be around people more like minded, like me and who, who are the masterminds. Yeah. To the mastermind type stuff and, and grow. Because I find when you're on like the Facebook groups and that, and when you ask questions in those groups, they're always negative and they're not the answers you want to hear. And they're always like, not very nice. So I've heard that, you know, when you join groups like this, everyone helps everybody out and you get so much more value and information that actually helps your business out. And it's absolutely true, man. Like, it's absolutely true. Like I am, yeah, I like every time I ask a question or anybody else that asks question, everybody always jumps on and you know, tells them what they should do or what they think. And, and I find I get way more information from this group than I would if I had just posted on like a regular Facebook group. And yeah, it's just, and like I said, like, I wish I had done this years ago because I've actually learned a lot, a lot of stuff that I wish I'd known years ago if I had maybe joined a group, maybe I would have known this stuff years ago to help my business out. So yeah, it's, it's absolutely fantastic. And I think I would tell anybody, you know, to jump in a group like this just to help you out.

Amazing. And there's no sense in doing it alone. I think sometimes we wear that as a badge of honor as entrepreneurs. Like, I struggled through it and I came out on top and it's like, but do we really need to always struggle or can we have a group of like minded individuals that we go Through, I mean you have your experts in the program. Bob, myself, Bob. Really looking at like taxes and looking into, you know, how to look at your finances and understand them, I think which is, which is mind blowing. And to have really an accountant in your pocket, so to speak, that every Friday you can ask him anything that's worth the price of admission right there, right?

Yeah, yeah. And my thing in business is like, I don't want to knock my cousin but like when we're working together, like I wanted to do stuff and ask questions and do stuff but like she didn't want to do anything. She didn't like my ideas. So I think it's great to be able to ask people questions. And if you think you know everything in business and you won't ask people questions and you think you're not going to get very far in your business, you need to be able to ask questions and go to the people who know the answers to help you get to the next level. Because if you don't, you're not going to get the next level. Trust me, I've been there and I know it does not work that way.

Yeah, no, really great point there because it really is going to the experts, hearing from them and feeling confident that you're getting the right answers. But then I love that our experts will answer your questions. For sales or investment or mindset. The list goes on and on. Right. Marketing, it just is amazing. But as you said, I love how the community answers your questions too because a lot of people, even in different industries have different situations come up that have happened to them and they can tell you what they did in an industry that maybe help yours. Something you haven't tried.

Yeah. And you know, that's what's great about the community. There's, there's people from all different aspects of the work environment is crazy. And yeah, like you said, like, like you ask somebody that you, you might not know they know the answer but they may give you a bang on answer that you weren't expecting.

So absolutely no. That's great. And I, you have participated in the Tuesday trainings. We go live every Tuesday. We have lunch together. We do Tuesday, 12 noon Eastern Standard time. Make it a commitment to show up. And, and what have you found from that? Because I've seen you on there participating in stuff like what does that hour mean to you per week?

Honestly, I, I love that. Now I'm gonna say this coming forward, I'm not gonna be able to go on much more now because I'm so busy. But I'm gonna be watching replays, but I just, I love actually being there live to see, you know, see the questions in the comments and just seeing the different topics and just hearing things that I don't even know about that may help me out or, or, you know, just. Yeah, it's. To me, it's good knowledge, good knowledge that you don't know about that's going to bring you hopefully something in your business that you can, you know, put forward with it and do something with it. So.

Well, I'm so glad. And whether you're live or you catch the replay, it's a knowledge that you gain. Right? And it is, yes. Understanding and growing with. With all different sort of experts that are presenting and, you know, I'm. I'm one of the experts and I'm scribbling down notes from, you know, whoever's presenting myself. You know, we're all. And I think that's it. Like, it's a mastermind. So we're all growing together, we're all rising together. We're learning as we go. There's no stupid questions by far. It's like every question matters and you're seen by everybody in the group and really encouraged to grow. And I think that's the biggest part too, because there's lots of people that don't encourage you to grow in life. And maybe sometimes people around us don't understand the entrepreneur spirit. So sometimes it can feel a little bit lonely being a business owner. When you want to grow and, and do something bigger than some people just think, oh, you should just be content. You, you know, you got this, you're washing windows, you should be good. But when you really have a desire to add a new section to your business, like you were saying earlier in that you want to grow, then it's good to be around others who want to grow.

It is. And it's good to be around those people too, because they, they can give you information on how to grow or what you need to be at the next level and, and like, different questions about, like, for me, because I'm nervous about growing because like I said, I like to go do the work. So it's hard for me to send the crew out, but you can ask other people in the groups, like, what have they done to overcome that fear? Or what they do to send their crews out to get you, you know, maybe to that next level so you're not so nervous or, or just let them do the work for you so you can get the business even higher up. Where you are?

Absolutely. I do think the mindset aspect of what we do is important and I love coaching within the program on mindset because I think, yes, we need our finances in order and yes, we need to know about investment and marketing and all that stuff. And it's just kind of the thread that ties everything together is the mindset. Because, you know, if. If we don't have the mindset, then we probably won't follow through with getting our finances in order and looking at our numbers and doing that kind of stuff. Right. So I love that we have touched on so many different aspects. So it's not just one aspect that you get in the training. It. And. And then there's a whole training library that there is, you know, to crack open and to devour with even more information outside our Tuesday meetings.

Yeah. And you know what, there's so much information. Like, I'm trying to get through it, but it's just so much to take in. And like with the Tuesdays, sometimes those. I wish they were way longer because there's so much, you know, when people are asking questions, so much more you can say, but like you can spend a whole day on some of these topics and you like, it's mind blowing. Like it's.

That's right.

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I just find it so much more better, like I said, better than Facebook groups because, like, you actually have people telling you what you know, you need to do, where you can go and. Yeah, it's just fantastic. I love it.

Well, we appreciate you so much inside that group. You are always participating, you're always vulnerable, you're out there sharing, you're letting us know, you know, if there's any struggles so we can support you. And that's half the battle, being able to kind of speak your truth and speak up. Right. Like a lot of people just kind of struggle in darkness and. And don't even ask for any help, like you said. But the fact of learning to ask for help and being there to support other people in the group, which I've also seen you do. So we want to thank you too for showing up as such a big force and everyone, if you're out in your area, we definitely. You have an amazing business here to reach out to. We'll put all your contact information and all our social media when we go live with this and our emails, but thank you for taking the time to. To meet with me tonight. I know you had a long day today. You know, we are later on in the. And you still made time, and that tells me a lot about your integrity as well. So we appreciate you, Scott.

Yeah, I always make time for this. Like I said, I want to learn, and this is for me, investing myself is how I'm going to do it. And I got to make time to do this. And if you don't, then you can't get the next level. So you got to do it, man. If anyone's watching this that does want to jump on in the MDY group, you got to do it, man. It's really worth it.

I love it. So come join us in Million Dollar Year. You'll get to meet Scott and the rest of us again. Thank you, Scott. Scott, I appreciate you, and we're gonna sign off for now, but thanks for hanging out watching our business Spotlight. Take care, guys.