$70K MISTAKE... I'm trying something new

Turns out they did not send me the one.

I bought that one piece of wood.

That came off during the trip. And then it looks like they might have hit something a tiny bit on the roof, the metal roof there.

Phil will start moving stuff over to the new shop. It's like only five minutes from here. I put the address on the team chat last Thursday, but I'll make sure everyone has it again today. We'll probably end the day there and then we'll have someone else drive us back today. They're getting like boxes over there, dumpsters.

Needed over there to toilets over there.

Out of the property today everything's starting to get moved over. So I am marking the lines for the fence. It's the orange, so the trash bin is going to be mark that out. Over here is where the tiny home.

Is going to go.

It's going to get delivered here in the next few minutes. And over there is where the box is going to be. So I'm just kind of measuring and marking everything just so we're clear. And I'm not going to be here next few days when they actually move. So here, for example, let's go ahead and do a gate.

This way we can actually get to the office area.

Cool. So send us the guy who's doing.

The fence and everything should be going.

In the next few days, so should be good.

So the team meeting I had this morning with the location down in Mount Vernon was important because it's a relatively small team. Just like probably three, four people now probably get up to maybe five this year and then maybe six or seven next spring. But it was an important conversation to have because that location is now just over two months old. And I've been spending quite a bit of time down there once or twice a week going there to help out because the manager still has not come yet for training. They'll be having it in a few weeks and they'll be able to take a little. Be a little more autonomous down there. However, I also wanted them to realize that I really need them gel as a team.

I look at as much more of.

A team sport here in Mount Vernon.

Because we don't have a person in the office all day long. We all will have to work together in order for this to work. I really can't be down here a lot. We have 100 other locations. I feel very responsible, make sure they're doing well and I'm investing time with them. Over the past 12 months, I've been.

Down here a lot more because we're.

Trying to turn everything around and change everything up. But ultimately I need the team here to gel and come together and support each other and be able to take account for what's going on down here in terms of equipment and trucks and estimates have to be done and all these other things. It's got to be. It's going to be a team game.

Here, and they've gone through a lot of transition and trying to get new team members and everything like that, but I really need them to gel as a team, support the general manager. And I really just wanted to catch a vision of what Augusta is all about in terms of the future, and I don't want them to stay there for a long time. It's something that's semi controversial that I tell most team members at Augusta Nation, their frontline staff, I tell them, I don't want you to stay here for five, 10 years.

And ultimately, like I tell the guys all the time, like, I don't want you to be here in three or four years. I don't want you to be mowing lawns. I don't want you installing lawns for three to four years. I want you to be doing something else, whether that be at Augusta.

Great.

No, I want to start two more locations about 15 to 20 minutes away from here next spring. That's the goal. I want someone to be that gm. I want someone to be able to take that spot. And maybe it's someone here, maybe it's someone that comes up as an employee I'd rather hire from inside of our team. But also, if you do your own thing, whether it be at Augusta or doing something completely different, fencing or roofing or whatever, the goal is to get the skills required to be able to do that while you're here.

I want you to get skills and then move on in your career. Go do something cool. Whether it be inside of Augusta as like a general manager or owning your own franchise under the franchise fee forgiveness program, whatever it is, or if you go do something else, go to another company and use the skills that we talk about at P4P and open book management and how to lead people in the audio programs and go do something cool.

I hope that maybe you know this position like Caleb down the road, you can have another location or go start your own.

We have what we call a 3F program.

If you work somewhere for two years.

You don't have to start, have any franchise fees to get started, your own location. We hope you get started. Please just get some skills and learn some about money and Managing people in leadership, it'll serve you so much better.

How to mow grass.

I started mowing lawns when I was really a young kid, and I use lawn care as a way to hopefully help other people do the same thing in terms of, like, get out of whatever situation you're in and go do something cool.

I want you to make more money.

Be able to provide, be able to do better for yourself.

And so I just really want to inspire them because I'm going to have to start stepping back as they get more established and they have their own location. And this is something my regional manager next year will kind of do more for me, and that is manage the managers. And hopefully as new team members are added over the next few weeks, they can really gel together as a team and make that location something special and really prove out what I'm wanting to do with multiple of our locations, which is what's called the working GM model.

Right now we're kind of in the stage where it's like we need about.

Three or four team members just to.

Kind of get the mowing done.

But the goal here at this location is to grow.

It is to have at least 6, 7 team members by next year. And really the whole goal of this location specifically is actually approved. Something we work with our franchisees on. And that's what we call a working.

GM model, where someone is the gm, the general manager is still out in the field working three to four days a week. That way it's very easy to be able to recover their overhead of their salary. And then Command center takes a lot of the load in terms of emails and phone calls and sales and just lets the working GM be on the field with three, four, maybe five employees. I think it's a good model.

As we start more locations, the. The goal is to be able to have what we call a working gm instead of someone who has a whole bunch of management experience and a bunch of money and is able to come in and buy a bunch of trucks and all the rest of it is gonna take someone who just needs to know how to do the work. And that's basically what Caleb, you know, he has never been trained on the management side or hiring or marketing or the rest of it, but he's able to step in, be a working gm, which means three, four days out of.

The week, you're out in the field.

Still working, but then you're in contact with command center, who's doing all the calls and the office work and all the rest of IT in Ferndale 5 to 600,000 annual revenue. 5, 6 employees out in the field, and then have someone that doesn't have a ton of management experience and own businesses before be able to be the general manager.

We're already doing a couple of our locations that I own. And so I wanted this to be a further expression and a further proof that that is a really good way to do it if your goals are 5, 600,000 in revenue and not a million, 2 million, etc.

Now, that model requires, requires though, a lot more support and teamwork. So here it's going to really require people to be much more self directed. If you have a flat tire, if you text Caleb, you might not get it for 30 minutes, but he's out mowing a lawn, right? So you might have to go, okay, where's the closest place to get this fixed? Can I get this fixed myself? And figure out things on your own. So it's going to be a little bit of a different dynamic. The reason I want to prove this is because I feel like a lot.

Of guys in the field, they're never.

Going to be able to manage a 15, 20 person crew like Bellingham. They're not gonna have the skills or they don't even want to. But I feel like a lot of guys could manage four, five, six guys and are a very profitable business at a smaller scale.

All right, the tiny house is being delivered. So turns out a little bit strange, but they did not send me the one I bought. They randomly upgraded me slightly without telling me and then gave me this one. So I might paint this one because not really the colors I'm looking for, but, you know, gave me extra few feet, like six feet extra. All right, so we got it in here. Let's go ahead and take a quick peek inside. All right, so inside now. And this is the tiny house. So we got AC unit, got a remote there. Got lots of windows, lots of light coming in. Got some steps up to this loft here. And then that loft will have that ladder hook right onto the pipe there. That's pretty cool fan.

Nice finishes.

We got washer, dryer, combo, freezer, fridge. And then we got to the bathroom. So got the full deal to shower and everything. Let's go. All right. And there she is. Got one piece of wood that came off during the trip. Part of the deal is they're not responsible for any damage during transport. So a little bit there, and then it looks like they might have hit something a tiny bit on the roof, the metal roof there. But we'll fix it up. It'll look good.

I always know it's going to be.

A really long night when I show.

Up at Command center and 3:20 in the afternoon. I'm just getting here, so.

Yeah, just finished an interview, podcast interview with Tommy mello. He owns A1 garage doors. They do like $150 million in revenue. It's going to be a full interview here in a week or two, so keep your eyes peeled for that.