Larissa and Will of Military Lawn Cuts switched to Copilot CRM and P4P software in 2024, which improved operations and team transparency. They're opening a third location within 12 to 24 months and credit mentor Mike Andes for pushing their growth.
Two current locations.
Within the next 12 to 24 months.
Copilot CRM.
P4P pay-for-performance software.
Six years.
Hey everyone, this is Larissa and I'm Will with military lawn cuts. We have two current locations, hopefully going to be starting our third one later this year and we just wanted to share with you about our 2024 as it was such a big year.
In 2024, we switched our CRM from the previous one that we were using over to Copilot, which previous CRM we were using. The mobile side was not very user friendly at all. So I would always have to bring my laptop with me and it just wasn't really easy to work with. It just was not simple. And so switching over to Copilot, super mobile friendly, super user friendly, easy to operate.
It has helped me tremendously as a regional manager over two locations, looking at opening the third location here in the next 12 to 24 months. Time is so important. Some of these other softwares that I've used, it takes so much time to pull data, analytical data to make decisions in your business. Copilot allows me to go to the KPI cockpit and literally see all of the KPIs key performance indicators that I need to know at a snapshot view within literally one click.
With us having P4P software ever since we implemented it, our guys have seen a direct correlation with their with their pay is they were skeptical of it at first because it's not something a lot of people are used to. But everyone on our team has told us how much they like it and are grateful for it and they believe that more jobs should be paying like that. It's really cool too. When there's something that happens during their day, whether that be a positive or a negative, they see how it directly impacts their pay.
When I look back on the last five years of us building two locations, when I look back on that, I would say a pivotal moment in our business was when we signed up for P4P software. It allowed me to stop sitting and watching the dispatch board and tracking my team's time, how long it took them to go from one job site to the other, free up my time in the business to go focus on more important things to start to work more so on the business instead of always in the business business.
Through Mike's inspiration, what I have done personally is started a YouTube channel to help other lawn care businesses and home service based businesses grow a more successful business. I remember when I was first starting out, I didn't have anybody to turn to or coach or a mentor. I found Mike Andes on YouTube giving away content for free using his time, which is a very Valuable asset and giving it away and teaching people. Seeing that has inspired me to start my YouTube channel. So now I do free coaching calls for people that are literally in the weeds with us growing their business. The most fulfilling thing ever is giving something to someone and expecting nothing back in return. I feel like we're true happiness comes from.
I served in the army for six years as a paratrooper, jumped out of airplanes, and I was an IT specialist by day. But after I got out of the military and deployed and did all that cool stuff, we still wanted to give back. In 2024, we sent Care packages to deployed soldiers overseas and we take a portion of the funds that we make to send care packages to soldiers that are away from their families during Christmas time. Because I know how that feels to be away. I was in Baghdad, Iraq in 2017. Christmas I spent away from my family. You know, we just want to always give back. And.
After Will and I had just came back from a trip, I had gotten a very important text from my dad saying that my mom was in the icu. I had to fly straight back home to Illinois to go spend pretty much my mom's last days with her. And.
After spending those last couple days with my mom, I was able to continue to stay up there for about five and a half weeks to really be there for my dad. So he wasn't alone. Those are things that I don't take for granted. And it was all because co pilot being so simple, even without like a good handoff to Will, because that is not where my mind was. My mind was completely with my mom and was able to just jump right in and kind of handle and take over that location for me.
Every year, my wife and I, we sit down, we put our goals on the wall. We always focus on like a faith goal, physical goal, a career goal, relationship goal. We want to make sure we're hitting all of our categories. But last year I had a very good success rate with the goals that I had. And one of my goals was to consistently go to the gym at least once a week, which I crushed and did at least like two to three times a week. That was really big personally, because I believe a lot of us grind and we put our workload into our career a lot, but we don't focus on our personal health. And that's really important for me to focus on personal health so that way I can live a long life and hopefully help and bless other people too.
Other people too.
His content and the way that he helps people in his coaching calls what's kind of funny is I actually have a picture when Larissa and me and Mike all finally met for the first time. I have it at. At the end of my hallway right before I walk into the office, because in my mind, I asked myself because of how much of an impact that he's had on my life. In my mind, I'm like, what would Mike Andes do?
Mike Andes, you have had an incredible impact on not only our business, but on. On will himself. Seeing him want to continue to grow and constantly educating himself by watching your videos or you having a team come out for a business position camp to help us. It's. It's been really incredible to watch my husband continue to want to grow and be a better person, and all it does is it rubs off on all of us. It's so contagious in such a good way. All of our employees just. They're so thankful to have a great boss to work for, and I know that's not always easy for people to find in businesses nowadays, and so we don't take that lightly, and we know that you're a great inspiration.
