This podcast episode (Mike Andes, Nov 20, 2016) explains the fifth barrier that keeps landscaping businesses small: the owner’s role. Andes argues owners must evolve from laborer to office manager to estimator to CEO, building systems and hiring to fill roles they vacate so the company can scale. He outlines the responsibilities at each stage, stresses moving out of hands-on labor into sales and then executive duties, and ends with a call-to-action to join his course/webinar for step-by-step guidance and templates.
Chapters
Alright, now this is number five, the fifth thing of the five things that keep small businesses small and what keep lawn care and landscaping businesses from breaking that hundred thousand dollar month per month in revenue marker every single month. Alright, this is number five. It's the role of the owner. As the owner of the business, you have to realize that you are a salesperson. And really the primary reason for your existence is to keep the business busy and make sure that sales are being created and that the crews stay working, the office staff stay busy, and you continue to scale your business. Now when we talk about the role of the owner in the course, we talk about four different positions that you scale. Going right from like where you're pushing the lawnmower to where you're the CEO and how every single year you need to go from one position to the next. Right from being a laborer, which you're number one year number two is your office manager. Year number three, you're the estimator and you're number four, you are the CEO. And so in the course we talk about exactly what your roles are throughout each one of those positions within your business. But it's important to realize that you have to create your role as the owner has to continually evolve with the business. If you're trying to always be the laborer, always being out there mowing lawns or telling people how, and you're out there pushing the lawnmower like I said, or trimming trees or on a big piece of machinery, you eventually have to move out of that role. Because if you're gonna grow as a business, you cannot be on every single job site, you cannot be micromanaging and you have to realize, okay, I gotta step out of the labor position into more of a sales role. And then eventually you actually have to hire people to do the sales and the estimates and stuff like that. So the role of the owner is super important. If you want to create a scalable business, you have to create a business that has systems in it like we've been talking about, that will then fill the roles that you move out of. So if you're the laborer and you're moving in the office manager position, you have got to find, you've got to create systems so that the laborers that you hire can fill your position. When you go from office manager to estimator and you become the estimator and you're going out and doing estimates, you've got to find someone that will fulfill the role of the office manager. And in your number four, which this is where we get you to in the course, walk you right through all the steps to get there. The CEO level, that's your fourth position. The fourth role of the owner is where you want to get to, where now you've actually hired an estimator. So as you move up, as your position evolves, you've got to create systems in your business so that other people can thrive and succeed within the roles that that were previously were held by you. And so we talk about these four positions. We talk about the labor, the office manager, the estimator, and the CEO. And if you don't let your, if you're trying in year number four, you're saying, I'm the CEO of my business, but then you're out pushing a lawnmower or out trying to fix the work that someone messed up on. You have not created a scalable business. And you will not create a business that will make $100,000 per month in revenue, I can tell you that much. Because if you're just trying to be a laborer, you might make 100,000, $200,000 if you're lucky. You've got to eventually evolve out of that to where you're actually doing the sales and you're answering the phone and doing the answering emails and sending estimates and all of that. Then you've got to evolve further. You got to outsource that, hire that, so that you can focus just on the estimates. And then you've got to eventually hire that out because then you're going to become the CEO and focus on the hr, focus on creating the team, creating a culture within the business, focusing on growth, acquiring other businesses, going new markets, providing different types of service like hydro seeding and tree care, fertilization and retaining walls, like all of that hardscaping stuff. And so that's the goal is to get to CEO, but there's very clear defined steps to get there. And that's what we talk about@landscapebusinesscourse.com and on the course that we provide is going through those steps to get there quickly and efficiently to get to that $100,000 mark and in revenue every single month. This is Mike Annie's landscapebusinesscourse.com Check out the website. You're going to be able to find a great webinar where you can get all of this information live. Ask me personally your questions and sign up for the course where you're going to get six modules worth and like 30 videos and a whole bunch of templates from all the employee contract the commercial contract, all of our advertising and marketing material. You're going to get all of that as part of this course. So sign up 100% free@landscapebusinesscourse.com for the webinar. I'll see you there. It's live, it's in person, and I can answer every single one of your questions you have on these five things that keeps lawn care and landscaping businesses small. I'll see you there.
