$1M+ Landscape Business CAN'T PAY the BILLS
This is a transcript of a Mike Andes YouTube episode (October 11, 2023) documenting a clinic-style business review of St. Laurent Property Maintenance, a New Hampshire landscaping company with ~ $1M annual revenue but severe cash constraints. Participants (host Mike Andes, owner Jake, GM Will, office lead Rebecca, and assistant Mikayla) discuss operational fragmentation, employee turnover, unclear leadership roles, an over-diversified service offering, and weak pricing. Key facts surfaced: ~ $11,000 cash in bank, about $95,000 of reported loans (plus likely additional equipment debt), and a recently-removed $42,000 skid steer contract dispute. Mike’s recommended fixes include immediate price increases (suggested 20% across the board/mowing + raise hourly rates from ~$67 to $80 for cleanup work), cutting fringe low-margin services, clear rules of engagement (when staff escalate to Jake), systematizing operations, and delegating to Will and Rebecca to stop the owner from firefighting.
Chapters
So you're on the hook for the skid steer. Not having money in a business is like running out of box.
It makes us look like bums. If we're getting thrown out in five.
Months, we barely break anything.
Harry, I feel like I'm a terrible leader.
We hate hoa. Is there things that bounce?
I'm very glad that he walked out of the room, because if you get.
Hit by a bus right now, we got problems.
Here's frustrating everybody. These people are all out of jobs. The only reason you're still surviving after 18 years is you have ADD and you're able to just juggle. Oh, snap.
Yeah, yeah. That was my concern.
Just walk out. Now.
Today we are in New Hampshire, and we're going to visit a $1 million landscaping business.
Now, although the top line revenue looks good, the bottom line is not so healthy. A little 1% profit margin. And furthermore, there's only $11,000 in the bank account, and there's over $95,000 worth of debt. Not only do we need to fix the financial situation, they're burning through employees, and they're not training them fast enough to become profitable. We've gotta fix these problems and get.
This business turned around.
What's up, brother?
Guys, you wanna meet up in the office or here?
Which direction you wanna go? Up in the office. Whoa. That bobcat.
That's $100,000.
Ho, ho, ho.
Someone's in trouble.
Hey.
So I have, like, one responsibility that I couldn't move around this morning. It's dropping my daughter off a daycare right down the street.
I don't know.
If you guys want to scope guys.
Coming in.
You'Ll stay here and just try. Not just.
Yeah. You thinking like, 20, 30 minutes or what are you thinking?
No, like 10.
When I roll up on these episodes and owner has a really nice truck, it's just all I can do inside of me. All I can do. He'll be like, hey, what are you doing? Not allowed.
All right, let's go check out the shop.
A lot of times I see business owners buying fancy trucks or equipment mostly to sort of prove themselves and show the fruit of their labor on the exterior by getting all these nice, flashy things. However, I don't always think that's the right business decision. So when I see the skid steer, knowing what I know on the back.
End, it just makes my stomach turn.
I'd love to tell you. The fastest way to tell the story is I went to high school right next door.
You went to school there?
I went to School there, got introduced to a landscape program.
Oh, wow.
A girl in town and like, didn't move very far. Fast forward years down the road. I ended up starting my own thing while working at a different company. And I just rented a truck and trailer spot here.
Okay.
And then eventually took this over. And our biggest clients are homeowner associations, 55 plus communities here in town. That's, I guess, what we're kind of known for now. And we're trying to just be the best in Hudson.
Well, do your thing in the morning.
Feel free to get the guy started or whatever, and then we can, you know, chat up at the office or whatever you want to do.
They're gonna be like more weirded out than I'm here because I've. If someone.
Oh, you're usually not here.
Will. Has taken over to be. I'm almost like an absentee owner in the morning, at least because he's been. I've been dealing with him and he kind of deals with the guys. I guess I'm not talking bad at all about him, but the problem is he won't ask me for help. This guy's a really good leader. He's ex military and like the world could be burned. And he's just like, I'm gonna get it done and get it fixed. Last fall, I got pretty frustrated and we pretty much cleaned house and we had some help, hired somebody to help me with the hiring and interviewing process. And I basically started over and I was like, I'm not going to let stuff go the way that it was going. And it's been a really good year. But I guess that is just the thing is I've got these great people and it's like, how do I fill them in on all the stuff that's going on? Coming in for client communication, losing your.
Entire crew, having to sort of clear house, get a new office manager, a new general manager, all in one year.
Can be very scary.
And despite all of that, Jake's grown his business by 20 or 30% each year for the past couple years because he got these great snow contracts and commercial contracts that he continues to sell.
The HOAs are tricky because we, we hate HOA.
There's so much work to manage the account.
Do a good job, Adam. But like, we just got one this year that I shared within the email.
That, yeah, man, three year agreement.
And there was change in management in my company, but we were just ready to sign a $42,000 piece of paper for a skid steer for their association. And literally, I Was like, hey, to the guy at Bobcat, hey, man, I can't make it today. He's like, no problem. And then I got a letter, a termination letter. And I was like, I've been communicating with you guys, like, daily. I drive through here on a regular basis. You guys made an agreement with me for three years. Like, what is the just cause?
Because you were five months in already. Yeah.
And they said, oh, well, there was like weeds in the beds. I'm like, but every time you called, we went there. We sent a crew. Every problem I. I've answered, I go. We record all of our phone calls. We have gps. Like, we have all this data. And, like, I don't know what to do to either. Like, you're gonna look like a jerk suing people that are on 55 plus and that type your reputation. But at the same point, what. What does it do to my reputation on the street when I've had. I've been taking care of one on that Same road for 12 years. I told all the neighbors, hey, look at. We just got this new contract here, and we would love to take care of your place. It makes us look like bums if we're getting thrown out in five months. And it makes us look like we don't know how to do our job.
Now, when I looked at the balance sheet that they sent over prior to us coming, I never saw this skid steer on the balance sheet. And I can almost guarantee you there's debt on it, which means that $95,000 loan amount is probably significantly higher because this is a very nice enclosed cab. I bet there's 100 grand. And the fact that now they're having to take legal action to try to recoup their cost of losing that contract is tough. So just the risk you take the. The skid steer now. So you're on the hook for the skid steer. No, not I was able to get out of it.
The downfall is there. I have such a good vendor up the street. They're treating me like a $20 million a year company. I bought a machine, was financed for the machine. They brought it in. They said, jake, I can't say this machine, it's a piece of garbage. They go, we're going to give you a newer machine with less hours for the same price. So I've got like, the deal of a lifetime that I have to walk away from.
At least they let you out.
I know, but I'm telling you, it beats. I guess it's because they did all that for you but like it's really crushing to go in even though it didn't really hurt anybody and they're going to sell the equipment to like to go in there to the salesman and be like, man, I can't take this machine.
And especially when they're treating you good.
Yeah.
How many, how many kids you got?
Just one. So another story is my wife and I just celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We've tried for nine years, really doing IVF and all that stuff. And then it happened.
Wow, man.
Before I sit down with Jake, I want to understand Will's perspective on operations. He's the general manager and he's actually served 12 years in the military, two of which were in Afghanistan. And now he's been working with Jake for a year. He's really pivotal when it comes to leadership, the handling of the projects, fertilization, maintenance on the equipment and managing the employees.
What's the hardest part from an operational standpoint? Because I know he'll want to talk about numbers, admin, stuff like that. From your point of view.
I came here and they were kind of scattered all over the place. So I'm trying to bring organization to each different facet that they have here. It seems to be working out just fine. But it's been a challenge of getting those things established and trying to explain to Jake we don't have to cover.
Every service that a customer. Customer might want.
Right.
We just need to do three or four.
What are those three or four that you think are like the most profitable, like etc.
For the condo associations, which is where a lot of the big money is in this area. They require irrigation, plowing, mowing, fertilizing, and then prunings. And so if you can encompass those things and do them perfectly, then you've locked in just about every condo that's in this area.
What services outside of those five you just mentioned are currently being done?
We're doing fertilizing through another company.
Okay.
And that was a huge waste using.
Bring that back in houses.
Right. So everything that we can, let's bring it in this, in this company, stop, you know, giving it to anybody else. And then anything that's outside of that spectrum don't say we can offer it.
What are those services though like, that are being currently offered in San Migando?
He was having some other guy come in and do like forestry cleaning.
Got it, all that stuff and just subbing it. Low margin, distracting.
Okay.
Exactly.
And by the end of it, we barely break anything higher. It's like that's not really worth it.
Subbing always sounds great until you start running into problems.
And then on some of the things we were going negative. So like he provides services for all the Taco Bells in New Hampshire, which is great. But then he wants to fertilize all those companies without getting paid for it, you know, just as a, an incentive to them and hopes that they'll take it. Like I wouldn't necessarily do that. Maybe one, the highlighted one, biggest traffic area one in New Hampshire, do that one. And so they can see it, but not all 14 of them. You know, stuff like that. Especially when it comes to aeration overseeding that's such a huge money maker. Don't give it away for free. You do some examples, but don't broadcast it everywhere as free.
When did the office gals get in?
First one should be in by eight and then Rebecca starts at nine.
She kind of does all the invoicing, all the number side, etc.
And that's what we were thinking, that we need to differentiate because like we're still missing like stuff going out on time sometimes. But it's the fact that she's training people. She's going to get a belt for a lawnmower. She's picking up waters at Sam's Club. Like.
Yeah.
And also trying to train. So it's like I can't hold anybody accountable for anything until I have like systems.
Right, right. This property kind of have a little bit of everything. Your offices, self storage.
I used to run it out of my apartment and then when we had the baby, I was forced into getting an office.
That's funny.
That was a good, good thing.
How's it going?
Are you Mikayla?
Yes. Good to meet you.
I'm Mike.
Nice to meet you.
Absolutely.
There was somebody in town that had lost a child to cancer. We did like a pop up cleanup and just like showed up and did it and got like all this media attention. It was awesome. That inspired me to like figure out what I could do next. And I got into the Rotary Foundation. For me, if my business was more successful or if I had more time, like I would make sure that every Monday I was at that meeting. Because they do a lot of cool stuff for the community and the world, the country. Like, like, I just love that foundation.
Despite his faults and struggles, Jake has built a very strong team. And it's clear to me he has great intentions and wants to build up his team and his community. Before we move further, I need to know where Jake's relationship with the business Stands.
I don't ever say that I hate the business, but I guess that the frustrations are with me struggling with ADD and like I still have trouble organizing all this stuff. So I guess that's the frustrating. And it's easy for me to go back to the mower. So I have friends like Jake, stay out of the field, stay out of the field. But I'm comfortable with it. So I think it's. That's what I'll do and I'll let all this important stuff build up. Then it just becomes too overwhelming. And I love the winters when it's not snowing because then I'm like sometimes pulling all nighters, working on my business, working on the numbers, working on the stuff I should be working on 12 months out of the year. And when I start to get off track, I know it because I start reacting the wrong way to people or I'm not friendly to be around type of thing. So I guess it's getting on track on the mission in that. And that's what Will had shared with me too. Is that something he missed most about the military, is that the mission was clear and I'm not super clear. I'm not clear at all.
Admission is the first step of fixing that. So that's great.
It feels like I'm just running around in circles chasing the next problem.
So when those problems arise, whether it be someone handing something in the office or a customer complains, for example.
Why is it that you have to jump in? It's terrible.
When I jump in, I am like the worst person. That's how we'll lose weight.
So why do they hand it to you?
Sometimes they just meddle in and do stuff. That's the stuff. Like the last customer we lost, they called on a Saturday and requested a call back on that Saturday. And for some reason it's tied to my voicemail. And I felt that I had to call them back because they asked me to call them back and it ended with them finding another service provider.
And that happens time after time.
If I'm getting involved with an upset customer, which is terrible, like that's not.
The customer service I want. You shouldn't have to get involved. I'm speaking in the mirror because I'm the same way. I don't need to jump in with my developing team on every bug. Cause someone complains on Facebook and trust me, it's every hour that's happening, people tagging me, complaining, et cetera. I can't do that. And furthermore, I'm taking away all the power from them doing their job. And it's extremely frustrating, especially for your highest performers. Low performers, they want you to take everything off their plate. They don't want to have to take care of the unhappy customer, the yard that got a divot in it, etc. They don't want to take it. Great performers, they are annoyed as all get out when you jump in.
You don't have to tell you, well.
Since he said all the negative things about you, what's he bad at?
Nothing.
He's perfect. You will not be able to grow. Keep doing what you're doing. You have a foot in sales, you have a foot in operations, and you have a foot in admin. Like, the only reason you're still surviving after 18 years is you have ADD and you're able to, like, just juggle. Right? That is not sustainable. And yeah, okay, Mikaela, I see you nodding your head over there.
When you think about fires, they're like, pulling them in different directions. Cause I've heard that like 10 times now. What are those? Is it complaints? Is it something happening in the field? Is someone not showing up for work? Is it. What are those fires right now? Okay.
For the most part, I handle complaints. I know my guidelines now. It's just the bigger things.
Where I'm like, I don't know. And there are certain services when people ask for an estimate where I'm like, I don't know how to properly put. Price this out. So we're making money.
Do you think sometimes, though, that, like, for example, that scenario, do you think those services should just be cut? Like, if it's so fringe that you don't understand them?
It's really just the bigger things, like, if we do hydro seed or a loan for a condo, or fixing or cutting up a tree that fell in someone's backyard.
It'S stuff like that.
Okay. Will said the same thing.
Really?
Same exact thing. No, no, it was perfect because, like, what Will says, like, hey, there's five services that we have to be able to perform in order to get these contracts. You know, pruning, mowing, plowing, fertilization, irrigation. Right. And he thought his. His inclination is the things that are outside of that is where, like, we get drawn in. The things that we likely. Are they likely bottleneck to you, Everything. She just mentioned hydro seeding. He mentioned brush cutting, cutting up trees, et cetera, which in my opinion is probably 15%, maybe 20% of the revenue, but creating like 80% of the headache and 80% of the things that she can't handle are those services.
That's where like when someone's been here.
For a year and they can't answer service questions from a customer service, those services should not be in offered. And this thing, I understand from your perspective, you want to please people, the customer, especially if they ask for a certain service and you just want to do it for them. You're like, even if I don't make money, I just want to keep them as a customer. I want to make them happy. I understand that. That the problem is going to be you will never either A grow B, not fight fires and more importantly, you're going to frustrate your best people because they can't do their job. And instead of even becoming an issue for you, it should be at communication level. It's like these are the services we offer. Outside of that, no bueno, not happening. And then it never even becomes a problem for you because it's cut off at that level.
I look at it as like you're either going to be a five star Michelin lesson restaurant and you're going to take years and years to train people and people are going to travel from far and wide and think you're the best thing since sliced bread. And some people like that. They want to be the custom guy. And then the other extreme is taking 15 year olds at McDonald's and within a day they're profitable for the business and you can train them up and immediately they know exactly how to make that burger and the fries and everything. And you've got to figure out where you want to be in that continuum. And I think a lot of us as Lansing, we tilt this way too much. I want to do offer this service and this and we're going to be the best at this. Being the best is completely subjective. The best burger, well, McDonald's sells the most burgers and it's because they've taken something that is hard and difficult making food and simplified it, systematized and said these are the only things we do. We make that burger, that fry and that milkshake and that's basically it. So the goal is like either A, how do we keep people longer or B, how do we make people profitable faster for the business where they can be here for a week or two weeks or three weeks or whatever it is, be trained up and be profitable for the business. When you add more services, it takes them way too long to get trained up right. Or you're gonna silo them off, right? You're gonna have one guy that just does the Taco, that scares me like crazy.
This is the guy.
I, I, I call him Big Boy.
And I just noticed this.
He's not that big anymore.
Only.
So.
Yeah.
So when I was.
I just don't know where we'd be without him this year.
So you do all 14 of Taco Bells?
Yeah, it's about 13 Taco Bells.
Yeah. Oh, man. Good for you.
Yeah. So every week and, and the owners and the managers know me, like, there you go.
That's awesome.
They talk with Jake like, hey, I like that guy.
Because if he goes away, then there's.
He has all the information of those contracts in his head. If he leaves. You are.
Not good words.
What's your concern, like, from a numbers perspective? When you think, like, if you put your tax hat on, if you're just looking at the thing, the, the business as a whole, the number side. Because I look at it, I see the P and L, I see the balance sheet. I have certain thoughts. What do you feel?
I'm very glad that he walked out of the room. Cash flow is definitely an issue. I feel like I see a lot more money go out then it comes in. And it could just be the speed that it's coming in.
Well, it's also just the quantifiable number. There's like $11,000. The balance sheet I saw is $11,000 in the bank. There is $95,000 in loans, and when you take the P and L, there's $95,000 of profit minus out your payments. It's like $11,000 a year.
It's just constant.
Constant.
We're always buying new belts. We're always buying new gas cans. We're getting gas every day. Like the guys are at the gas station every day.
Right.
In the morning, sometimes in the afternoon. It does worry me, although we've always.
Okay, it worries you. Why doesn't it worry him?
I feel like I'm more concerned and.
You'Re more concerned about the numbers than he lets on. Is it just he's gotten used to it, you think?
Maybe. I just don't think he looks at it that often. So, like, he'll check it.
Yeah.
Checks the bank account. He checks the spreadsheets that cycle CPA sends us.
Yep.
He looks at it, but I just don't think he fully understands it, which even I don't fully understand it.
Right.
I'm like, I might not understand all of this, but this doesn't look right.
No. Okay. I'll be honest. This morning I told him, like, some people would be Closing this down because it's just like $11,000 in the bank with $7,000 in credit card debt, that's technically now $4,000. There's a difference. Like, is there things that bounce occasionally?
We've had that. Yes. It's not always. Especially in the winter. In the winter, I mean, I feel like we're in a pretty good spot.
Yeah, right, right, right.
How do I know when it's time for me to get involved or. That's for them to tell me.
That's for them to tell you because they have rules of engagement that are clear. Clear and defined. Right. They know when to go to Jake because either A, they don't know or B, this is a Jake problem. You know, payroll balancing is a Jake problem. I'll go to Jake for that. But someone complaining about credit card file is not a Jake problem. And I will handle it. So they get rules of engagement as to when they come to you. The second thing is, is a system. There's two. There's. There's two ways in my mind to make a system, right? Either system, like standardize it, which is we do the same thing the same way every time. Which means you give them a standardized way of which I think you've already done this part. Estimates, etc. But there should be standard. How do we respond to someone about credit card. The standard way of responding to someone who asked for hydro seating.
No, we don't offer that service. Here's who we refer that to.
It never even becomes your problem.
The simplification part is also important. It's really, really hard to standardize building a house. Very complicated. Really simple to standardize and make a system around building a tent. That's simple. So the next thing is like, strip all the complexity away. Training Will, That's Operations, right? Callbacks. Will, he's in Operations.
Every callback goes to him and then he delegates it.
How do you know you weren't on the job? You aren't with the guys every single day. You aren't making sure the blades are sharp, making sure the equipment's on the trucks and all the rest. That's Operations.
Will will figure out who needs to.
Go back to the job site based upon who's closest the next day on the route, who has the skill set, who is the most reliable, etc. He'll figure that out. It does not need to go through you. If it's Operations, it goes to Will. If it's admin, they can handle it.
They're awesome.
I've been here an hour and a half. And I know she's an all star. I would hire her right now.
So far, we've established with Jake that juggling three different roles in the business, sales, administration and operations is not sustainable. Also, he needs to cut out all these services that are distracting him and keeping him locked up in daily operations. But now we need to focus on the main issue, and that is that there's literally no money in the bank account.
Not having money in a business is like running out of oxygen. You can't operate. But if price is not. If you're not concerned about raising price, you should do it immediately because it is the fix for the financial problems of the business. Because I guarantee your price of your costs have gone up more than 20% in the past four years. Guarantee it without a shadow of a doubt. Like, what was your base pay for guys out in the field in 2018?
I mean, it's hard to even think that far back.
Probably 14 was good. Yeah, 15 was like a guy that's. Now you got 20 and 25 and you haven't raised your prices. That's where all the money is going. And there should be standard increases to contracts every year. They just know they're getting a standard increase of 5% and just worry about being the best salesman, the best salesman, the best quality control person. And furthermore, what you already kicked butt at is a great leader. I think that's.
I write down every morning in that journal, like, be a better leader. I feel like I'm a terrible leader. I feel like I don't. I feel like that's like I need the most help.
What's the definition of a leader to you? I don't know.
Somebody that's just.
That.
Now, the way I'm describing my head is almost a babysitter. And that's not what I'm doing, but somebody you could call on somebody.
A leader is. A leader is simply someone who others are willing to follow.
If I walk out that door and you follow me, I'm the leader. If people are willing to follow you, you are the leader. I think you do a phenomenal job at that. And I can tell that because you attract people that are outsized in their skill and care for the business. And that comes in the form of currently the two people I've met, and it's your operations and your admin. And you should lean on them 100%. Let them do their job.
Because they want you to succeed. They want the business to do more money, have more money. They believe that if you make more money, they'll be better off, the customers will be better off and the community better off. I believe if you had 100 grand in your pocket instead of 11,000, a lot more of that would happen, like 10x. And I also believe that's where your heart is. Lawn care is a vehicle for making that happen. Lawn care is a vehicle for someone like Mikayla to get experience on the tax side and number side. So when she goes to school, she kicks butt. Right? You care so much about that, you don't even want her to think about work.
That's what makes a great leader. You are a phenomenal leader and it's proven by the people that follow you. Thank you.
I make sacrifices for myself when it comes to the business because of how much I care and like, I love my job.
Right now, I think you need to raise 20%. I think you'll lose less than 10% of your customers. Okay. And you've already stated to me that you are kind of maxed out in that area anyways, so losing 10% of your customers would be a good thing because we will guess what, we have to go get more debt. So you need to do it anyways. And that's ultimately when you raise prices, when you hit capacity. And that's what I want to see. Right. Right now we're hitting capacity of residential mowing. So what we're going to do, we're going to raise all our mowing customers because hopefully, which this might not happen, is you lose customers. I actually believe you're going to lose like 5% or less of your customers. But just say 10% because that's what we need. We need to lose 10%. Well, guess what? Now you're focused on sales and you're going to go sell more jobs and you're going to fill that 10% immediately. Guess what you do then. You either grow or you raise prices. It's very, very simple. You hit capacity, you raise prices, you hit capacity, you raise prices. Or, or you hit capacity. Like, man, I got $100,000 in the bank now let's go get a couple more trucks.
Boom.
And you grow. And that's how you go from a million to 2 million. But it's after raising your prices, hitting capacity, raising your prices, hitting capacity, now I'm really profitable. But that is the steps. One, raise price in residential. Two, figure out those three areas of the business and then lean on them 100%. Stop stepping into everyone's role. And three is raise prices on commercial. The middle one's the hardest.
Okay.
So it's a lot. I know.
As I'm wrapping up with Jake in the office, I sort of noticed Mikayla sort of hovering in the background, and I felt like there was something she wanted to say and I needed to get to the bottom of it. So I asked Jake to leave the room. And I wanted to talk with just her and Rebecca.
Trying to learn from the great one over here.
I am.
Good stuff.
She's actually been teaching me a lot. I'm picking up on things really fast, really comfy, sweet.
Just from my background, I was a manager for two landscape companies.
Oh, cool.
So just taking a break from field work.
Oh, you were on the field?
I was in landscaping. In the field for two years. Yeah. So now I just wanted to take a step in office and not, like, start learning the in and outs of how an office runs.
So she's actually making more than I am.
Right.
And she's under me.
Right.
Because I needed that help. I was like, I will make the sacrifice to not take a raise to pay someone else under me more so that they will take the job. He was trying to make up every excuse. And I was like, jake, we need this. Like, there are no questions asked.
We need this.
We need this.
So if I was you now, taking him off the table, I would create a plan for yourself. I want X amount of money based upon what I'm going to take off of his plate and how much money is in the bank account. And then I would present that to him after step one so prices are increased. I guarantee you're not going to lose as many customers as he thinks. He's not. Afraid you're gonna make a bunch more money in that first billing cycle. Probably end of October. Oh, my word. I just made five, six thousand dollars for doing nothing besides sending an email. That's when you present, hey, step one went great. We're working on stage two and trying to delineate and keep you out of operations, et cetera, and admin. Here's the things I think I should be taking off your plate. Now that I have two, there's two of us. He's afraid to bring it up right now because he knows he can't afford anything else. Right. So what you say is like, look, I'm not expecting anything now, but when we hit these certain benchmarks, I think it's that I would get paid more. And as I take these things off their plate, I'm gonna make sure that everything that I'm doing is systematized behind me. So If I take scheduling, I'm gonna create a system around it so if I get hit by a bus, someone else will be able to do it just as good as me. And so what we do at Augusta, we say always, like, leave the position. Like, leave the jersey better than you found it. There's gonna be a time when she moves on. There should be even better systems, more videos, better training, refining it for the next person. You have to get through stage one and probably one billing cycle. But then that's when I would strike if I was you. And, like, hey, this is the plan. This is what I expect for myself. He's not going to push anything back on it because he wants to do that right now. I guarantee it.
What I'm more concerned about is, like, the fall cleanups and the aeration and.
Overseeding are those locked in prices?
They're hourly.
We need to raise every hourly rate, like, immediately.
Even for the ones that are already signed up.
Yeah.
So when you send that estimate to them, what did it say? You will be charged X amount per hour.
This is our rate for this amount of time. And anything over this goes up at this price. Oh, snap.
Yeah.
Yeah. That was my concern.
Just walk out now.
Well, like, what I'm throwing up is, like, maybe we just wait on the mowing almost. Because, like, it's only a few more cuts.
See, I'd rather do the mowing instead.
Yeah, but the mowing isn't gonna impact the business as quickly. I know, right? Oh, man. Let's do both.
Let's do both.
Yeah, let's just do both. Because he's already considering buying another truck for mowing.
Yeah.
So let's before, because you'll probably get some new customers trickling in here and there. Right. Let's just do the mowing right away. Tell him, hey, this is probably gonna hurt more than we think because we only have a few movies. People will just stop. They'll be like, yeah, thank you. We'll cancel for the year kind of thing. Or we'll come back next spring. But, hey, we got the price locked in. Great. The harder one is going to be that fall one, but we have to increase that. Okay, so you're saying when the estimate goes out, it says we're gonna. We're gonna service you. It's gonna be X amount per hour? Or are you saying it's gonna be 400, for example, and anything over, like, five hours is gonna be X amount per hour.
So, like, we. Our minimum right now for a spring and fall cleanup is 439.
Okay. 439.
And it goes up every hour.
Yep.
Every man hour, I should say, because we had two guys. $67.
I heard 69.
We're trying to get 69aman hour.
We really need to be at 80.
67.
Thank goodness.
Okay, so would.
And how do you. How do you determine over. Do you give them amount of time and then anything over that?
So we send them the minimum, and we're like, if you want to lock in at this amount of time, we will stop working at this amount of time.
Yeah.
If you want us to go, more will do. The entire lawn, no matter how long it takes. It's. We base it like, we give them the minimum and we stop at their budget. So if they're like, okay, well, I can. I can afford six hours of work.
Okay.
This is the price for six hours of work. We'll cap it there.
Okay. Because, you know, this the best. How do you think praising that price would be best? Would it be our price has raised from $67 to $80.
I think what I would do is, for this year, keep the minimum as the minimum.
I agree with that.
And then the hourly price should go up.
But the hourly price is still being factored technically into the minimum.
It is.
Okay, good.
And that's why I'm saying even though the minimum price is going to be the same, we still raise that hourly price after the minimum.
Exactly. Well, the minimum. You're still calculating the minimum by the hourly rate.
So we keep it at the same.
Perfect. So what you can do is you can tell customers, hey, the minimum has not changed. It's still 439. But our hourly rate has changed from $67 to $80. If you have any questions, let us know. That's it.
So after this allowed amount of time, it's going up $80 instead of $67.
Yeah. When he comes back here, if you guys have a rough plan of how that's gonna roll. Cause it needs to be pretty quick. Cause we kind of are going into the fall cleanups. And the mowing is wrapping up.
Yes.
Okay. I'll leave it up to you guys. You guys are gonna kill it. Okay. I appreciate you helping him a lot.
Oh, yeah.
And I know he does. And he just struggles internally. Cause he can't really reward you.
Well, he helps me a lot outside of work.
Yeah.
My Christmas bonus. He bought me four new tires for my car.
Let's go.
Because I needed them.
Yeah.
So he.
That's why he needs more money. He'll do Good things. He just doesn't have the money. Like, it's scary.
The fact that he's so positive. I'm not even gonna address it cuz like he's gonna keep going on regardless. Yeah. So let's fix it.
Help push as much as he can until he physically cannot anymore than bank account is negative.
I know, I know. Talk to him. I'm not gonna bring it up about the conference. I'm happy to do all of that. And if there's more people coming, I'll get a third room if he needs be. It's in Louisville. It's two days. I think you guys will enjoy it.
I think that'll be really awesome and I'd love to see you guys, especially after this. I. I think he'd love it.
I'm confident that Jake will, Mikayla, Rebecca and the entire team at St. Laurent Property Maintenance will make the changes necessary, turn the business around, put more cash in the bank and get the business on a profitable trajectory. If you want to meet people like Jake and his team, come to Landscape Summit 2023. It's coming up soon and you can get your tickets@mikeandys.com summit. I've been preparing eight keynotes and I've been spending a lot of time getting these ready to be able to share with all of you as business owners. Furthermore, there's over 10 other speakers that are going to be speaking on stage and there's going to be hundreds of other landscape business owners that you can network with and learn from. I look forward to seeing you there. And you can book your tickets today by going to mikeandys.com summit.
