Mike Andes breaks down when to run solo versus two-person mowing crews. Solo works for small residential jobs under $20,000 in equipment, especially with pay-for-performance. Multi-person crews make sense with $100,000+ setups, fewer stops, and hourly pay, though they're less efficient on frequent small properties.
Questions this video answers
January 22, 2021
Ferndale, Washington
About $100,000 for truck, trailer, and multiple zero-turn mowers (he says that setup is unlikely to be profitable as a solo route).
Around $20,000 for a truck and all equipment for a small residential mowing route.
Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes, Landscape business course. Today we're in Ferndale, Washington where we have command center for the franchisees. But today I'm going to be talking about one versus two man crews, or maybe you have three or four man crews. And so this is a big debate. Should you have solo crews, should you have three people on a truck, should have two, etc. I'm going to kind of give you my opinion and why I think a certain way.
Sam.
So in my opinion, whether or not you should have one person on a truck or two people or three or more really comes down to the size of your properties and the amount of equipment that you have on that route. If I have a three, a full ton pickup truck with a 20 foot enclosed trailer and three big zero turns on that trailer, I'm definitely not going to be solo routes. If I'm spending $100,000 on that setup, by the time I include my truck, a trailer, all the mowers, the equipment, if I'm spending that much money per setup, it's extremely unlikely and unprofitable for me to do solo routes. The reason for that is because I'd much rather you spend that 50,000 of that 100,000 on marketing, grow the business, instead of spending so much capital to get be able to do solo routes. So on those big setups, when you're usually going to be doing bigger properties, you, you're parking at the same place and spending two, three hours, four hours mowing a commercial property or a big estate that's residential, perhaps that's when I would recommend getting two or three people on the truck. Now, the more stops that you have in a day, the more visits to properties, the more waste you have, the more people you have. All right, so if I have that same setup that is $100,000 worth of setup and has three people in the truck and has big zero turns and all the rest of it. If I am constantly starting and stopping that truck and I am going from job to job to job every time the crew gets in and out, there's waste when you have more than one person. So in my opinion, the higher the cost of the setup, all the equipment, the trucks, the trailer, all the rest of it, more likely you're going to have multiple people in the truck. Also, more visits you have on your route, usually smaller, you know, smaller properties, you have 20, 30 jobs in a day sometimes that's going to be more likely to be more efficient with one person. Okay, now if you're using P4P that's when solo routes actually even make sense. Because if you're just paying people by the hour, it's much better to have two or three people in a truck because they're going to hold each other accountable. And then just for the sake of morale, the they're going to help each other get through the day. They're going to be more safe having two sets of eyes on the property in terms of quality control. But when you use P4P paid for performance and they're not using an hourly rate, they make more money per hour because they're more efficient. Because think about it, if you have two people in a truck, there's never, there's very rarely a time when everyone's going to finish mowing and the other guy weed whacking at the exact same time. They're always waiting just a few minutes here or there for that other person. And so that's where the inherent inefficiencies of having multiple people on a truck, that's where it comes into play. So in short, if you have a lot of small residential properties that you are servicing and you're using P4P, that's the only time I would recommend having only one person on the crew. Because they with P4P can actually make more per hour and are more efficient and therefore they can make more money. Otherwise, most people want to be with someone else they like to be with. From a morale standpoint, be with another crew member, have someone to bounce things off of. Like I said, it's more safe. And traditionally they're going to keep each other accountable more toward the work that's being done and not slack off. But if you're on P4P, you're doing small residential properties, you don't have a massive mower set up and truck and $100,000 in the setup. Definitely solo routes is definitely something that's going to make you more money. If you're gonna be able to get a whole truck, all the equipment necessary for a small residential mowing type of a route for under $20,000, that's when it makes a lot of sense to be able to do solo routes. Because I'd rather spend $20,000 per setup and get five setups than one setup with a massive truck, a massive trailer, a whole bunch of equipment. That's where you can really start to make Money and where P4P your employees can make more money. Thanks so much, everyone. I'm Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com, we'll see you next time.
