This vlog documents a 10-day road-and-flight trip by Mike Andes to visit roughly nine–ten Augusta Lawn Care franchise territories across the U.S. (starts near Seattle/Tacoma, then Medford, OR, then planned flights to El Paso TX, Littleton CO, Little Rock AR, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, New York, Sandwich MA). The chunk focuses on the Medford, OR stop with franchisees Andy and Ashley Burleson (they began their franchise ~5–6 months prior). Topics covered: on-site operations (HOA commercial property servicing, budgeting hours for large HOA complexes, discussion of switching to P4P pay model), hands-on filming and marketing video capture, administrative support from franchisor (estimating software, systems), multiple coaching/territory/contract phone calls (including a franchise signing), and day-to-day travel vlog details (hotel, equipment, anecdotes).
Questions this video answers
10 days
Brian Connor signed and became franchisee number 2526
About five to six months
Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays
Planned flights to El Paso, TX → Littleton, CO → Little Rock, AR → Mississippi → Tennessee → Kentucky → drive to North Carolina → New York → Sandwich, MA
Chapters
Everyone's Mike here and Josh is here in the driver's seat. We are now just past Seattle in Tacoma, Washington. About two hours we've been driving. And so this trip is going to be next 10 days. We're going to be traveling to about nine or 10 different franchisees across the United States. I'm going to walk you through really quick of where we're going. We're going to go to Oregon right now. Then we're going to Medford, Oregon. Then we're going to take a flight because we're driving there. We're going to take a flight then to El Paso, Texas. Then we're going to take a flight to to Littleton, Colorado. Then we're taking a flight to Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. Then we're going to take a flight to Mississippi, then Tennessee, then Kentucky, then we're gonna drive to North Carolina, then we're gonna go to New York, then we're gonna go to Sandwich, Massachusetts, all in the next 10 days. So we're going there mostly just to support the franchisees, connect with them. These are a lot of the original ones that came a year ago as part group of franchisees. So just there to support them. But also Josh is gonna be getting some really good video footage for them to be able to use in their marketing. So that way they can use in their own marketing with Facebook and social media, they can use their own videos. So we're gonna take you along for the ride. A bit of a travel vlog each day Josh will make for you using the GoPro, our cameras, our phone, and then also the footage that he actually takes, some of the footage that he takes for the franchisees at their location. So hope you enjoy it. We'll do try to do a video every single day for you. And so come along for the ride as we basically go from the west coast all the way toast and back in 10 days. So I'm working here on my laptop, working on some franchise stuff. Josh is kind enough to drive me safely here and we are headed out. We'll talk to you guys soon. Just watch how many times we show up at a Mexican restaurant on this trip.
Here he comes now.
Josh was so kind to make sure he hid my AirPods when we went inside of the restaurant. Now he can't find his own AirPods.
I got him.
There was light.
Sam.
Welcome to our Crib Quality Inn in Oregon. Oh, hey, I'm Kid. Come on in.
Nice little lens. I like this. We're gonna rate this a 4 out of 10. But I think this brings it up here. 5. It's a nice little touch of home here. One of the lights doesn't work. Handicap friendly shower for myself. You know, times are tough when the sink is outside the bathroom. Got a little blow driver. It stopped working. Right. Because you plugged in the microwave. Little coffee maker, little sink. I like this. It's not so like big and luxurious and stuff that you feel like you're out of place. That's when you feel right at home here. It's a nice little sink. This probably hasn't been updated since like the 80s and stuff. No, honestly, like, it's kind of like the place I prepare. So. Four out of ten. Four out of ten. Hey, we got a deal, man. Look at this. Two persons per day, $125. We paid $93, I think. Look at that. Stonks.
Josh's bed has some unpurities. Let's call it that. Our clock doesn't work and our phone probably is a mere accoutrement at this point. Who knows if it works or not. But hey, get some sleep. Oh, microwave doesn't work either.
Quality, quality.
Good morning. It's Monday and we are headed over towards Medford, Oregon right now. Andy and Ashley Burleson, they started their franchise here about five months ago. Five, six months ago now. And so we're gonna catch up with them, get some video and just kind of connect with them. Our first stop here on our trip. And it's a one. Correct. There he is.
Dude, that's so weird seeing an Augusta truck out here.
Tripping me out.
There it is.
How's it going, man?
What's up?
Good to see you.
How's it going?
Good. Should we just park over there?
Anywhere along here is good.
Okay, perfect. We'll turn around, be right back. Okay. The first live action sighting when I get us to check outside Washington state. Actually, you know what, you're right. Yeah.
That we've seen.
Looking good. Looking good. Not much, man. Good to see you.
Yeah, you too.
This is a great place out here. It is.
I mean, the weather's still good.
It's not one hoa though, is it?
It's like this whole neighborhood is one hoa. Well, it's broken up into different knowledge, different homeowner associations.
Got it.
But we do probably 90% of this.
This whole thing.
Yeah. The whole neighborhood.
Yeah. What?
Yeah, right?
Are you serious?
I know, right?
Are you by yourself today then? No, he's.
He's coming.
Okay, cool.
He was just picking up A couple piles of leaves over here.
Have you guys already started doing cleanups for leaves and stuff? Like using a few more weeks?
Yeah. I mean, you can see a lot of these trees just kind of trickle for the next couple months. Yeah, wait. Wait till the leaves.
It's like a two days of work, right? Isn't it?
Yeah. We're here Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
Got it.
So three days a week we're here in some fashion or form in the area.
This is a tough one for P3.
That's why I say this is tough to try to break this up and, you know, like, we get paid a flat monthly fee year round.
So, hey, it's good I'm here because then when we do it in the winter, I'll know. Exactly.
And he's just starting to mow. I'm gonna try to figure out how to use a Husqvarna weed eater, which I have never done in my whole life. It looks very foreign, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I'll try to do some edging, see if I can still do it. Sa.
Name is Andy. I am from Medford, Oregon. One of the main struggles I had, I guess was probably a lot of admin, clerical systems, software type issues.
Working out in the field sometimes. I didn't always have time for some of those type of things. That's where Augusta has helped a lot, is they've had a lot of these done for you type systems implementations in the software stuff where I don't have.
To think about it.
It's all kind of just done for me. And they really have been helpful along the way. Yeah, I guess the best part of becoming a part of Augusta Nation is just all the support I get if I ever have a question on how to do something or the proper way to do something. Mike or Liz has been super helpful in answering our questions. Helpful with like. Like I was saying before, the, like, software and some of the systems they developed. It's. It's a lot of stuff that's already done for me. I didn't have to think about. That's been super helpful. Estimating software, all that kind of good stuff. It's. It's been great.
Hey, well, we'll get out of your hair. Okay. Tell Ashley we said hi. I will, I will. All right. So we're just heading out. We were able to connect with Andy and his crew here. He had Tony and his other employee out mowing. This is a massive hoa. So what I was talking about with him is really about figuring out budgeted hours for this place, what their hourly rate is. It's pretty complicated. They've never done P4P and so something they're willing to switch this winter. But on a massive property like this, nailing down your budgeted hours is very, very difficult. So we're just talking about that. Also raising the prices. There's three different HOAs in this big complex, and just figuring out kind of a strategy for raising the prices and therefore being able to afford his third guy, which he really needs. But he's just, you know, trying to get his pricing to the point where he can afford that. So I think it was a successful day. Able to help him a little bit out with, you know, I did some weed whacking with a Husqvarna, which I've never done in my whole life, but it was fun. And now we gonna head back. I got calls all this afternoon. A couple franchisees, a potential franchisee, a brand deal. So a couple different things we got to go over. So I'm sure you'll get some footage of that busy afternoon, and then we'll head out to Texas tomorrow morning.
So we literally have gone around our hotel here twice trying to find an entrance. There's no way in.
There's literally.
I think we just gotta drive over the curb. Dude, there's no one behind you. Oh, I see. Wow. No, dude, no.
Just go slow. Y slow.
We made it. Home sweet home.
Okay, So I have 11 minutes. I gotta get on a call. Here we go.
Hey. So we've been doing some calls. At 1pm we had a call with a potential franchisee named Tim over out in Pennsylvania, and so late or not late tonight. Sometime this evening, tomorrow morning. Who know, I gotta do a little more research on his specific territory. So what I do when a potential franchisee calls is usually beforehand. I didn't this one because we're on the road. I only spent about 30 minutes last week looking at his territory, but usually I spent a few hours looking at every single neighborhood using the United States Postal Service. They have a lot of data in terms of the demographics and income and things like that. So I got to do a little bit more homework on his territory. But we had a really good zoom call. What we do is just kind of talk, see if it's, you know, Gus is a good fit for you. And so that's what we did today. And we just. We don't really have, like, a sales process, honestly. It's not like, high pressure or anything. We don't Want someone getting involved because I'm trying to sell them on something. It's more or less just seeing if it's a good fit for them and then if they're a good fit for our mission at Augusta Lawn Care and then sales at 1 o', clock, at 3 o' clock, I had a call with Nick Dentalsbeck over in Cordova, Tennessee. We talked a bunch about a few things, pricing he needs to increase. He liked my little notes here, so fantastic. All right, so pricing really increases pricing. It's something that's really important to get those that nailed down if you're gonna switch to P4P. So he did switch to P4P and made that switch and got some really heavy kickback because his price prices were not where they needed to be in terms of giving the guy enough budgeted hours. So we talked about increasing his prices. We are going to be going to his location here in a few days and we're going to help him with getting him set up on some social media things and get some more reviews online. He's also getting a bigger shop. We talked about dump fees which will pay for that new shop. So I know you're not going to get any of that phone call, but I was a good hour long phone call with him. Then we just finished a signing with Brian Connor over in Georgia. He just became a franchisee. Franchisee number 2526 just joined this morning. So that call is like only 15 minutes long. It's with our attorney that actually is what awards the franchise. So that's after someone has paid their initial fee, they get we have to go on on a phone call, conference call for like 10 minutes with an attorney over New York and they basically have them sign and then I have to sign. That kind of legally awards the franchise so they that way they can open their bank accounts, business licenses, insurance and all of that. He'll be coming for training in December and by then he'll get all his trucks painted. That's what we were talking about on the phone as well. And that kind of once after the signing, which today was the signing, that kind of kicks the process off of us building their website, getting their email set up, getting them access to dashboard and academy, setting up with P4P for the Pro shop, printing that. We use all that sort of thing that kind of kicks that all off. So that sequence will start for him next few weeks and then hopefully here in December he'll come for training and kill it. So got a couple more calls. Next one's here in like 30 or 40 minutes. With who's in that? Kevin over in Mississippi, Another one of our franchisees. Just for the monthly coaching call. And so, yeah, that's what we're up to.
Everyone just wrapped up Monday evening here. It's a little after 8 o' clock here in Redford, Oregon.
Early morning tomorrow.
Get up at 4, 5, 20, we fly out to El Paso, Texas for day two, this vlog. We'll see you then.
