Booked With Work... but Stuck as a Solo Operator

Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes and today's a special episode. I'm going to be doing a one on one call with a young entrepreneur that has a lawn care and landscaping business and is having a really hard time finding and retaining great talent. He spent money on yard signs, Facebook, he's trying to do indeed ads but there's just not a lot of application and when people come in, they leave within a day or two. And so we're going to figure out how can he scale up his team, take advantage of a huge opportunity in a market where there's tons of leads pouring in but he can't get great employees. We're going to go over video screening high. They have application process and onboarding process to attract great employees. I think it be super useful. Here we go.

So basically just kind of in that little bit of the gross squeeze solo but also needing to, you know, get you know, into the hiring system and try to just figure out the people business because I mean that's just the, the hardest part for me. You know, as a, at a skill level for me I'm just so much better at everything else that yeah, just hiring and people is just my constraint personally and obviously the business constraint as a lawn maintenance home service business. Right.

Yeah. So, so right now basically year to date we're 100k so we'll easily get to 150, 160k probably this year your profit is around 23%. You have a little bit of debt in terms of 22,000.

Okay, cool. So.

So yeah, basically everything zeros out for a lot. Right.

What you have in the bank account basically wipes out the day. That's fine.

Yeah.

And when did you start the business, Isaac?

So this one I started up back in spring last year. Again I did do lawmakers when I was younger in high school. Then I went and flipped houses, wholesaled, went that route. You know, I left even to Nashville. And then. So that's part of the problem right now is I did, I lost money on a flip and that's like 30k. So I'm really just trying to, I'm digging myself out of that hole first. But then I'm really just trying to grow and scale into this business because I've, I realized when I went and did the, what do you call it? It's like the what you like what you know and where there's demand.

Yep.

I, I went through those questions for myself and it was like I like Monserrat and I want to grow this. Yeah. I want to I want to grow this one location and then do multiple locations. I'm sure I think you went through it. But then I want to do more of the mergers acquisitions route with, you know, retiring business owners. Like there's so much demand for that as well as just acquiring, you know, revenue and teams that are already there in place and scaling.

Yeah, Like, I think the good thing, Isaac, is, is what happened to you cost you $30,000. I think it's a good getting you learned so early because like every single time you want to do something new, you need to think about that because it is, it's like it's just one of the entrepreneurial seizures we all have. And I just like, really, as much as you don't want to think about losing that money, you, you need to because it's going to be the thing that keeps you focused on the business. So whenever you're like, I'm going to do this or this or I'm going to start like merging like low.

Like it has for sure like directed my focus so much more. And like I made money in real estate at first, but then even after losing that one, I was like, I could either just continue real estate, which I really just don't like right now. Like I don't even care if I make money in this business. And so I just was like, I know and like lawn maintenance. And I just went back right into it.

Cool. So. So right now you're basically maxed out as a solo operator. Have you hired anyone at all or not?

So I've been, it's been a struggle, sort of. I've. I hired one guy, he worked for two days. He gave me like kind of. I don't know if it was true or not. I could have made excuse. But then he wanted a day off and then he came back again, finished out the week and then he decided it wasn't for him. Another kid who worked great, he just is in high school. He only had the summer anyways. And then of course the day I was like, okay, we'll finish out the summer with me, he ended up breaking his foot the day earlier playing basketball. So those are two hires I've made. I have a part time helper who's a buddy of mine who was like my business partner in high school. He's only on Saturdays though. So any like projects work overflow, I throw them in there. But yeah, no other than that. Like I've done test days with the guys. I'm just like, just poor attitude, late, no show ghosts. It's just that sort of thing.

Okay, cool. And right now is the constraint still the fact, like, are you so overbooked you can't get the work done? Where are we at in terms of capacity? You booked out five weeks? Are you booked out a few days? Like, how far are we actually in terms of the bottleneck being labor?

Well, the thing is, like, I can. Most of it is my recurring maintenance stuff. I can take care of it myself, but there's so much more I can be doing. I'm just not pushing it because, like, I'm pretty much capped. Like, there's so much more selling I could do within the upsells of like extra trimming, cleanups, garden work, know other projects as well. Like, I have products on my list that I haven't even like worked estimates on yet. And then there's a lot I need to get ready for snow season. This is my, my first year doing snow plowing. I'm actually getting a new truck today with to get that all upfitted and everything to be ready. So I really need a guy as well to fill that truck. And then I need to be working on commercial bids and all that. So there's just so much other work that I need to be doing that's like, I could be selling a lot more.

Yep. Okay, cool. So I saw your Indeed ad. When someone comes in right now, like an application, what's sort of your process to get them into an interview?

So I've done like the three different strategies. I did the yard science, I did the Indeed, and I did the Facebook ads. Each of them, you know, either directed into like on the Indeed, I just go on there and then call them. So it's like it goes from that application, phone, interview, try to get like references, get to know them a little bit. And then I really just want to get in front of them. In the past, I've been doing in person interview or just quiz them. Basically realized that's not the best way I want to go. And so starting now, I want to do like a group orientation where basically just I can have like three or four guys come in and be like, here's the business, here's what we do, here's the expectations, the conversation, the, you know, ascension plan of like where you could be is like, do you want to do this?

Cool.

And then I'll schedule in a test day so like they can come in, work full day. I just think that's the best way to figure out if they can do the work and are a good fit and Then after that just decision from there.

Okay. So when I see the hiring funnel right now you're not actually spending on. Indeed you have an open application. You're not spending ads on it.

Yeah. So there could be an unlock there. That's just a free ad right now.

Okay, but so you actually put, you put, you put nine. You spent 900 on yard signs for hiring.

Yes.

Yeah, got it. Okay, cool. Yeah, like I think, I think just based upon like where you spent the money, like yard signs typically are going to bring in your lowest quality candidates. Anyone that's like driving down the road without a job. Like, oh, I should go get hired because that yard sign says I'm hiring. Like yeah, usually not the best candidate.

And they only last like a week at Mac.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that's the type of just quality person you're going to get. Someone indeed is going to be higher quality even than Facebook. So like I would look at it as like your lowest quality is probably a little like a yard sign, then Facebook and then indeed being better like like in reverse. So I think if you spent $1200 between the Facebook ads and the yard signs. 900, which was the yard signs, I would flip all of that. So I'd be like 900 on. Indeed, 300 on Facebook. Nothing on yard signs. I also think that when people. Right now. What's Your, what's your URL for your website?

Eagle Lawn VT.com.

That'S right. Eagle on. I looked at this the other day. Like your site is good enough. Like it, it, it, it passes the, the sniff test for a new team member. So it's basically a one page website. So I, I do think that down the road there's certain. No, you do have. Okay, yeah, like it passes a sniff test. And so um, we just reworked that too.

Like within the last two weeks. I had to.

Yeah, it was a mess beforehand. Different when I looked at it before. Okay, yeah, good, good, good. One thing is on your. Here I'll share real quick. Just one thing because I'd taken notes last a couple weeks ago. I would definitely put your service area right here. So put like serving whatever, whatever, like whatever cities you are here.

I would.

If you have pictures of you or your trucks, etc. I would try to have that picture here. But this actual like subtitle should say your service area. Because if I look at this website, I like it. Like it's good enough that my concern is mostly around. Okay, great. I know they do lawnmower. Do they serve me? Those are the Two questions that someone has when they come to your website. So I want to answer that as quickly as possible. Did you build this out, Isaac?

Did I what?

Did you build up the site?

No. So I basically similar to what you have for your model, it's just a 200amonth site builder. Okay.

Okay, let me.

They use like AI Basically just building the whole thing.

Yeah, that's what I figured. Okay. It's better than like some stuff I've seen. So totally fine. Okay.

I definitely. There is some like constraints with it and I've considered like, I don't know, there's a lot of things on my mind that I want to change. But then I'm like, well, is the website the best use of my time to really fix right now? Probably.

Right. Okay, cool. Yeah. Like. Okay. So if you can make changes or if you can request changes without spending a gobs of money with them, I would be trying to put your essent request form up here. You'll double your leads you get if you just put it up top here. I would also just look for spots like this. Like this big gaping kind of black area. I'm just trying to tighten this up. If there's a photo, it needs to be have you or your truck or your logo in it. Like a random picture of a lawn just doesn't do the business any good. Also people don't know the acreage. I think you could just probably take this part out. Just show a picture if you can. If you're trying to. Do you actually sell all your packages like this or is it. This is like aspirational on your website.

It's pretty much like that. Most of our customers are like 300amonth minimum. I mean actually so some of that needs to be changed. Minimum is actually upping to 250. I'm raising. I may be raising prices next year.

But yeah, most people once a year. Is this one. One just for the season.

Oh, so six months. So we run May through October and then we just do a monthly flat rate. So everybody gets billed first of the month and I do it that way because then it just brings cash right up front.

So some of that, some of that you would want to have in there. Also like for example, if you're going to have pricing and someone clicks on the price, the last thing I want to do is send them to a form because now they have to select it again. And here they don't see the pricing. So like they don't remember if it was large or large. Plus they just remember 250 or 300, whatever. Right. So things like that could be really tightened up. I think that that would be more of a leads constraint and I to. From what you've telling me, that's not the constraint. So I don't want to spend a ton of time on it. But certainly once you.

Yeah, exactly. That's why I haven't spent too much there either.

Yep, that's fine. That's fine. That's cool. So first off, when it comes to hiring, I would definitely spend on indeed. Like even if you spend five bucks a day, you like triple your applications. They just don't. They like bury your, your, your.

Job posting. Unless you're spending. That's just kind of like. So even if you spent five bucks, ten bucks a day, I think within a week you'd get double or triple your applications and they'd be much higher quality compared to yard signs. And even if you spent $900 in yard signs, I would give it 30 days. At 10 bucks a day, it's $300 on a deed for you to get quite a few good candidates. The next thing I would say is like the same way you think about speed to lead for customers, I would think about when it comes to the applicants. So like we, when we, when we had labor Constra, especially during 2021, it was like push notifications to your phone from the need app. When you hear a ding, you stop whatever you're doing, you call that person and you're doing a phone interview and you're trying to get them in for an in person. We now have it where it's automated and I don't recommend this for you, Isaac, but down the road you could think about this or even if you wanted to kind of create your own system around this. We use a service called sparkhire. It's expensive. We got it for all our owners, so they don't have to pay anything. But it's like 2.99amonth. Basically. It's when they apply, it automatically sends them a message with a link to a video interview where they leave messages, like video responses to questions that we've set out. So it's pre screens, all of them.

Yeah.

And so because like as soon as you start spending money on D, then your next thing is going to be like, oh my word, I got 20 or 30 applications. What am I supposed to do with that? Right now you're spending your whole day just calling people. Half of them don't show up. Half of them are selecting 100 jobs and clicking apply like, it's. It's a mess. So you definitely want to have a system for getting to them quickly. And then ideally, if you are getting flooded with applicants, how do I screen them out faster than calling them? All right, so you could potentially even just do a form. It's like, hey, great, you applied. Like, you can set up an automation set Indeed. To immediately message them. Like, they click Apply, and right below it is a message like, fill this out. So you could do it. Google Form. It's free. You can do something, like, around a video. Just be careful because, like, the tech side of things can get messy. That's why Spark Hires made a business around it. But even if it was just a.

Form, checked out the careers page on the website. I have a form there as well. I was wondering, could I just link them to that maybe?

Give me one second. Yeah. Apply now. So my only concern. So I like this. Okay, cool. Yeah, this is cool. So my only concern with this one, Isaac, is they've already applied on Indeed. So if you send here and they're like, they're putting their name, like, first off, Indeed doesn't like you sending traffic to somewhere else. So, like, you'll see. See, it's really hard to put links, like, in your page and stuff. They don't want that. They want people to apply on Indeed and stay on Indeed. So, yeah, what, what you want to do is set up an automation. And as soon as you have a paid ad, you can run an automation that once someone applies, immediately they're getting a link. Now could you send them here? Yes. You could just put a message being like, hey, fill out this form, whatever. And you're going to weed out, like, 90% of people that will not take the extra step. In the perfect world, they don't have to fill this extra information out. But honestly, like, let me just. I'm going to fill an application.

All right, Give me a second.

I'm applying.

Cool.

I'm hired. Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Dude, I just need a job so badly.

Like, you don't have enough on your plate, right?

Yeah. Do I have a valid driver's license? Yes. Can you reliably get to Northfield? Sometimes. Let's discuss. Can you lift pounds? Next. Do you have any landscaping experience? Next. Oh, yes. Submit. Okay, there it is. So why you want to work with a guy? Okay. Okay, there. Okay. So two things. First off, I could. You could take that entire form and put it. Indeed. So all you're really asking is, like, their basic information. They're asking for their app, their, their resume. And then you're asking for one question which is why do you want to work for us? Put that all into Indeed. Like you're not asking anything special. You're not asking for a video, you're not asking like in depth questions. If this is all you're doing, just put all of that into your indeed application. You'll get you like five extra applications.

Perfect.

So because like they, they have it where like when you they to submit an application, you just make a required question and you can make two or three to even like weed people up more. But put it inside Indeed, you'll, you'll get way more applications. Cool.

And then so do you think like it has indeed been you guys best bet for you know, even just getting a players and everything?

Yeah, pretty much.

Okay.

Yep. What it comes down to is like getting there, especially in this labor market, getting the application is not difficult. It's how do you actually weed through 50 to find the one or two good ones? Because let's just say you get 50 applications right now, maybe 20 of them will show up in for an interview. So what happens is like more than half of your time is wasted if you don't have a system to screen down. So it's actually the screening process is the most important once you get that many applications. And so what also happens is because you have so many.

We want to keep the funnel wide at the beginning.

I like keeping it wide, but I like to automate the filtering. Right. Cause I want to capture everyone. I don't want to make it so difficult to apply to get in the funnel. So like that's why we just have it where it's like it's the automation. You can set up the automation right away and there's like whether it be a text message or whatever to them with an extra link, I happen to believe for now. Isaac, like our constraint has been just finding good applicants. I think if you just started a five to ten dollars a day indeed application thing and then ran ran where they had to fill out questions as part of the application, you'd screen out 80 to 90% of people. So like that in itself is good enough. Even when we do that, we will still get loads of interviews or like applicants. That's why we do another like hey, thank you for applying. Click this link and submit these questions via video. As soon as you do that, you just cut out 90% of people because they're just going through and doing things fast. And you can tell if someone put like, thought into their question, their answer, even if you just do the standard indeed questions. So I think this is much more of a, like, we call it, like, like a video application screening system. It's all about the screening. Because right now you've been taking kind of whatever you get because you have low volume of applicants from the yard signs at Facebook. But, like, as soon as you do a paid indeed ad, I think you're. Especially with your rates that you're offering, like, they're very fair in terms of labor, you're going to get a ton of applications. It's like, how do I go from 50 applications to four decent interviews? And most people get. So that's 8%. It's like, this is a waste of my time. So they just start hiring people randomly or, like, doing phone interviews and I'll hire you tomorrow situation. So I would just try to avoid that by having, like, really thoughtful questions in the indeed ad itself. And then if like, oh, my gosh, I'm still getting too much. Great. Add another screen, another filter, which is as soon as they apply, you send them somewhere. You make them watch a video, or you ask them to submit a video or something like that.

Yep. I can't say I've almost hit that point where it's just like, yeah, yeah, come in. Let's go.

Yeah. And then it's like, it's a function of even a good person. You could actually have them. But because your. Your process is so broken and so, like, haphazard, they're like, this is not a place I want to work. And so, yeah, I want, I want to create a screening system that attracts the best talent because they're like, oh, this is a hard place to get into. But then I need to make it easy enough to get someone who has five job offers and is excellent. I don't want to create too much friction. So there's that balance. And if you just fall into the trap of, like, I get a bunch of applicants, I just try them out, like, hey, start tomorrow, then. Then we're in a world of hurt. And you'll have, what. What's happened? Like, people work for a day or two or, you know, don't even show up.

Yeah. And so I guess it comes to, like, after that point, it's like, getting them in. How do I make sure the company's structure in a way where they. They actually just want to stay and this is like, something they. They can enjoy every day.

Yeah. Like, I like the path that you have for them. Like, kind of like the three different stages. I like that it's better than most people have. So that's certainly an advantage. The thing is, as a larger company, you're going to be able to retain people better because you have clear paths for development and growth and expansion and more money. Last year at Augusta Lawn Care, the average location grew revenue by more than 27% and we're on track to beat that this year. If you want to see why, go to augustalawncare services.com franchise and watch over 50 videos and case studies of different owners that took their independent lawn care business and turned it into Augusta Lawn Care.

And so like right now they're like, oh, you're just a solo.

Yeah. Where do you run the operation out of?

Literally my mom's house here in Northfield.

So. So like it might be worth getting a very, very cheap split space even if it's just a store tools. But meat in the morning, like it's just going to add more validity. Especially like it's your parents, you're young. Someone doesn't feel great about talking about your. Their employment, their place of employment. And so even when I started, I paid 40 bucks month to park my trailer at a storage facility. And I did that because I didn't want people showing up to my parents house. I was still living at home. And so we just meet at the storage facility every morning. I take the trailer out, they would park their vehicle. The truck that I was driving was the first Augusta trucks. Like we hook it up to the trailer and so I would, I would recommend investing in. Even if it's a hundred bucks a month, like one spot to park a trailer or have a 10 by 10 or a 5 by 10 spot to store tools. Just have a space to meet other than your mom's house.

Okay. Damn that movie. A little bit tough. Not gonna lie in my area from.

A storage facility perspective or what? Yeah.

Just. Yeah. There's usually like no space and expenses wise. I. I'll. Yeah, I'll. I'll write that down to look, trying to think right now though, I don't.

Know, comes down to like if it's the constraint for the business. Like if it's. If the constraint for the business is I can't find labors, we can first attract great talent, then the next thing becomes retention. Right. So like what, what I want first, Isaac, is like let's not focus on that right now. Maybe. But like I do believe from a retention perspective you will keep good people longer if they're not showing up. Your mom's house.

Like, oh, yeah, for sure.

Right. So I think it's just a function of like, let's first solve the constraint of getting good people. And then I think as soon as that happens, like, the business technically will grow by like 70, 80% in terms of revenue. So like, we should be able to go forward spending a couple hundred bucks for a parking spot or just like a five by ten stores where you just keep your tools. But it's like we park over here, we walk over here, get the tools, and then we start the day. Like something other than that. It just adds a little validity. So.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I've always thought about too. I'm like, Dan, like, I mean, if I had a whole shop, it'd be so easy to hire because then people would like be like, oh, I want to go work there versus right now.

Like a lot of our locations, they'll get one big location in the middle that has a really nice shop and everything. That's where they'll hire everyone and they'll start other branch locations that have like little storage facility, but like they hire from the main shop because like, okay, it's valid, it's big. There's opportunity here. I see all these people in these trucks and there's an office.

They can feel cool, you know.

Yeah, yeah. But it's, it's also like a sense of security. It's like, okay, they're established, right. And so a great team member has options and if they, if they had to choose between one and the other, they would prefer an employer that is established. Right. From a security perspective. And so it just, it's, it's a, it's a nod to that security when you have that level of investment in the business.

Okay, so from getting from where I am now then, to getting to that 1 million, because like, in my mind, I build in the, in the way, like I'm already like at a million. But of course not everybody else is going to see that. Like, they don't fully see the vision, I guess. What are those constraints that I'm going to be hitting to make sure, you know, even within the team system with all that, like, what are the things I'm going to be hitting from now to then?

Yeah, the challenging part for going solo to like your first employee and even your second one is within one week, like, you're going to be elated to find a great employee. Great. A week later, you're like, oh snap, we don't have any enough work for both of us. And so because you double your productive, you double your output. Yeah, like the amount of work that can't get done on the schedule, amount of budget, hours, et cetera. And so I would just focus on the fact like once we solve this, literally if you find a great employee within one week, you're gonna have a bigger problem. I was like, we don't have enough work and I've gotta go find leads. And if you don't and you start spending all your time focusing on sales now, you're gonna lose all your profits because right now you're making all the, it's a, like you're higher margin because you're out in the field doing work. And so you're just gonna switch.

I would say higher. I'm not even paying myself at this point.

So I, I mean like from the business's perspective because you're not paying yourself, you're cheap labor. And so as soon as you, you're no longer cheap labor and there's an employee and there's costs now, the business's profit margins dive. So like, that's why I am, I know like, as soon as you find a good person within one week, you will run out of work. And you're like, I have a leads constraint. And so that's why as much as I, I, I know it's like, like a current constraints labor within one week that that can get solved. And so like the very next thing will be how do I get more leads? And, and ultimately leads is the unlock to be able to grow the, the business. Like from a revenue perspective, if you think about getting work, doing work and then getting PA if you get enough work, you will figure out how to do the work. And so right now we're actually trying to solve the do the work part by getting more employees. But as soon as you get an employee, you double like that constraint goes away. You immediately have the constraint of oh, I don't have leads. And so I think like fixing the website as much as if it is possible to get someone make those changes. Like s request form at the top, having your service area in the subtitle, taking out white space, reducing the amount of clicks to get through. These are the type of things that.

Like yeah, I'm really not too worried about the lead side. Like, I know I like there's a lot of work. There's work that I've even kind of been like, not fully turning away but like, I haven't been putting attention towards. Like, I don't really care. Like I'm good.

Yeah, it's just a function of like, I mean like on the road to a million. Right. So I agree with you. Like right now when you double that and you get an employee, it's like, oh, okay, now I can, I can't absorb the estimates. Great, let's get another employee. Like you're going to need several of those to get to a million. And so if we talk about like how many leads you have now versus what you will need to get to a million, you probably need to get about seven to eight times the amount of leads on the books in order to be able to get to a million. And so yeah, it'll just.

Yeah. Which I'm fine playing that game. I'd rather stay in the leads leads constraint.

Yeah. If that's like, if you're like, hey, I have no problem with leads, great, then we must solve labor. And to do that we're going to probably have to invest in like some, some sort of space. We're probably going to have to really nail down the system of when someone applies, I'm calling them within 30 seconds and they're getting an automation and I have a funnel. Like so this just becomes the only thing you think about.

Okay.

Yeah.

So upspend. Indeed. Try to find a space. Once I get you know, tons of applicants to get through a pain and.

You will get a lot of applications. So like that screening process becomes the next like thing to think about.

Yeah.

And I would say like if you're not, if you're getting low levels of applicants, like say for example less than 10 per day, I would be calling them immediately. Like I'd have a notification on my phone. I'd be calling them right away. If you're getting more than 10, we need to have a process of screening them out, putting questions in the indeed application process that weed people out. So you might instead of just doing the one which is like why do you want to work for us? It you could put two or three others like what's your future prospects for your career? Like you could add other layup like explain in detail your experience in lawn care landscaping industry. Like you could. The more questions you require on that application, just the percentage of people that will finish it decrease but the quality goes up.

Okay, how can I fast track to a million like what's the fastest you've.

Seen solving that's constraint. Like if you solve the employee issue, I can guarantee you it'll become a lead problem. As much as you're like, it's not a lead problem. When you 3 to 4 or 5x the amount of employees you have, you have to 3 to 4 or 5x like 500% the amount of leads in order to keep them busy. And so it might not be the constraint now. And you might see, man, I'm just overwhelmed. You might be a hundred percent over capacity in terms of leads now meaning let's just say you get 40amonth. You might be able to handle 20, for example. 40amonth doesn't keep a million million dollar business in business like now at 40 has to go to 150. And so it will become a leads constraint. And so like the, the main thing to focus on like whatever the next constraint is where you deploy all your energy against. So like within the next 24 hours you can execute basically on everything we've talked about in terms of like let's spend a tiny little bit on indeed, let's put a screening process in place. Let me put push notifications on my phone so I call them within 30 seconds. Like you can do that stuff really quickly. And I do believe within a week or two you'll solve the labor constraint. And then it was a simply like, because you'll get, I believe you'll get two or three really good people and you're like oh snap, I don't now we do not have a labor constraint. Like we can wipe this, this problem out with like so fast. That's why like I'm, I'm, I'm trying to get you to think of, go a little bit beyond it because like you can solve this. It is a solvable problem. And if you do what we talked about with indeed and like putting the application and calling them right away and you get to move from your, your house, you'll solve that constraint. It will just become. Can you generate 100, 200 leads a month that is required to keep that size of business going?

Yeah, I mean I have plenty of demand in my market. Like there's people all the time and the market I pushing in more, I actually have a guy that he's, you know, they're trying to get out of business. I had another property management company, he just sent me like 10 to 15 clients. And so it's just, there's so much more demand. Even all of them are like dude, I just can't handle the work. And so the demand is there. So to me all I think about is just like if I just had six A players I could, I would be at a million. Like it's, that's all I need. Because the other Side I can, yeah, I can figure out the money model. I could figure out, you know, the, the leads. I could figure out. Everything else is, like, easy for me. So it's just like, cool.

Yeah. So I think a lot of what we talked about, like, it'll solve the, the labor issue. You will get enough applications, your. Your pay is high enough. You're going to have to change the way you do onboarding. Having a really good system. Like, hey, what's the first 7 days, 14 days look like? What's 21 days look like? You have a good progression in terms of their pay, but it's not super clear what's going on in each of those stages. It's like the first 30 days, 60 days, nine. Like, it says, hey here. Basically, you're making more money, but it's like, what do I have to do to unlock that? And I would make it much more based upon merit and like, what gets accomplished instead of just time. Right. So if just because someone's been with me for a month, I don't necessarily want to pay them more. It's a function of what did you accomplish? Like, did you hit certain amount of budget hours? Did you produce X amount of revenue in a day? Did you do a solo route? Did you complete a project that's over a thousand dollars by yourself? These are the type of things that, like, are benchmarks that can be measured versus just like, hey, if you have a heartbeat and you stay, stick around for a while, you'll get more money. So I would, I would try to tie, like, I would get really focused on what your first seven days look like. I would create not like a, not so much a checklist, but like, hey, your first five days here. Great. You just went through our application process. I called you right away that you fill out three questions on the Indeed application. I'm now meeting you at a shop space instead of my mom's house. Like, great, we're rocking and rolling. Day one, what are we doing? Day two, what are we doing? Day three, what are we doing? Like, this becomes just an onboarding system. Right? So. And I know, like, it's been difficult in the past to get someone to stick around for two days. So it's difficult to even think about how do I create a system? Like, I'm going to create all this extra time and, like, energy was like, on day one, what are they learning? Are they learning everything? Are they learning how to mow me?

I just throw them on, we whacker. I'm like, I literally just want you to learn, learn the routes. Like to me it's just learning routes on everything in laments is the key. It's like you, your, your property routes and then your trimming routes. It's like that's all I want them to worry about in the beginning. Sometimes like I get them on the equipment, just familiarize them with other stuff. You know, I want them trimming and blowing. Just do that. Get a good system going. Depending on what skill level too.

Yeah, it's like talk to, talk to Jack Chatgpt and just tell them everything you just told me and then say give me questions. So you can create a, like a seven day plan or a five day plan for the first week because like, you know that you want them on weedy whacker and get really good at it. In their mind, they shot, showed up to work first day, got a uniform hopped in and then you're giving them all the hard work because you're gonna sit on, stand on the mower all day and they're like, I want to be doing that, but they don't have a system that they know they're in. Right. So it's like day one, all I'm doing is weed whacking. Day two, okay, now I gotta use the blower. Day three, I gotta use the push mark. Day four, I get to drive the truck. Day five, I gotta drive the trailer. Like you. If you create that then, then their brain's like, okay, cool, I'm weed whacking today. That's it. It's gonna be brutal. But then like by day five, I can get on a mower, I can start driving the truck. So like having a process that they know they're in versus the first. Like if you just throw someone on a weed whacker and you're doing large properties like you're doing, that's grueling. Especially when they see you buzzing around on the mower like this is, this is a horrible job.

I guess.

Yeah.

To me I'm like, I just do that all day by myself.

So I'm like, yeah, but, but you know, they're going to come out of it and they're going to eventually have their own truck or whatever. Like give them the progression, give them what that's going to look like so they don't get disillusioned after a day or two of holding a weed whacker and doing massive properties.

Yeah, okay. And then so I guess that's where my question comes. Like, how do I communicate that properly? What do I do to present to them properly is that game.

So day one, what you want to ask yourself is like, what are all the questions? Someone wants to know when they show up to work their first day. Okay, how do I handle lunch breaks? How do I clock in and out? How do I make more money here? How do I get the next stage of my career at this job? So, like, what you mentioned, like that, that list, it's not a matter of like, here's the thing, go for it. It's like unexplained. Every single step, how to get there, the whole nine yards. That might take you an hour, but I would like that investment of an hour is well worth them knowing what they're on, like their progression. So we actually have steps that like, they move, they're on the board, they move to the next stage of their career. So like seven stages for technicians, seven stages for general managers, seven stages for owners. And then they see all their game pieces on the. And whether or not you use the map doesn't matter. It's a function of like, where am I at and how am I getting, like, where's this job going otherwise? This dead end job, I'm going to do it for a week or two. I'm going to, you know, try to make a buck so I can move or whatever. And so I would spend an hour. I have a very clear process of answering every question that a new employee has in the first hour. So that way when they get, they start mowing, it's like, okay, I know today I'm doing weed whacking. I know tomorrow I'm going to learn bush trimming. I know day three, I'll get on the mower. I know they have four. Like, they need to know that. So they, when they get disillusioned on the middle of a two hour weed whacking job on day one, that they're like, this is. This too shall pass. Yeah. And so like part of it is like, talk to, chat. PD have a system. And then like take that copy into Canva, put your logo on it, make it official. And then your first day is like, all right, we're gonna go through these five pages, we're gonna go over if you have any questions at the end of it, I'm gonna sign and you're gonna sign and we're gonna make sure everything's nailed down. When do you get paid? What day is it? Every week is every two weeks, is every 15 days is every like all of these questions that everyone has, answer them and then give them like, hey, what happening today? So today we're gonna do wing whacking. That's all you're gonna do. I just want you to get really good at it. And then day two is what we're gonna do. Like, then they know where they're at on the progression.

Yeah, no, I see that. That's probably where the biggest drop off would happen or had happened. Honestly, like, even that guy that came in for like three days, I think I didn't communicate because in my mind I'm like, dude, like, this is what you have.

Like, yeah, this is.

You have this all set up for you. Like, I can have you go from here to here. And maybe I just didn't communicate that.

Yeah, yeah, you could also tie. I'm just looking at. So in the first, first 30 days, like, you're starting to pay is 20. Then it goes to pay raise based on pace performance. There's a couple different things on your site. I know it's a little bit different. I would probably just make sure that whatever is on that doc you sent me is immune on your website. Because you're on your website, the pay looks lower. But more importantly, 30 days is a long time for an entry level team member before they see any progress. So I would rather like, Here's a starting 21, 20 an hour on your website. I think on the dockets at like 23, I would. If you're gonna do 23 or 20, I don't really care. Have progression in pay and responsibility in the first, like seven and 14 days. Because really, okay, you, you and me think in terms of years, maybe months. They think in terms of, like, hours and days and that's fine. Yeah, but like, we need to meet them where they're at. And that is. I want to see progression. I want to move forward in my career quickly and I need early wins. Like, I want them winning within a week or two. So we get them through the first four stages of a technician within them, usually within the first month. So. And they could literally within two weeks go to the first, like, two.

What are your stages?

We have seven. We have seven for technicians. It's like the first one's training and then they got to like, pay for performance for two pay periods. Then they got to lead two team meetings. So, like, there's all these stages, but, like, a lot of them could be done in the first month. It's just a function of like, I need win, win, win, win. So, like, they see progress, they're moving themselves on the board. We're all clapping it up during a team meeting. You could tie incentives to that too. And you just gotta ask yourself, like, what do I expect of someone after a week? What do I expect someone after two weeks? What, after someone after a month? Right. So for example, you put like for day 90, senior tech handle services start to finish. You want like clarity around that. What does that mean? Is that completing a project, is that completing a solo route? Like, how many jobs are supposed to do in that? If you, if someone does a 3 million jobs in a day, are they senior tech? So like, I would be really clear and basically ask yourself, like, if someone completed these things, would I be willing to pay them more? Yes. Oh, okay. Then let's just make those metrics very clear. Not super like, okay, you're gonna have access to commissions and bonuses at day 90. Well, what are the bonuses? How do I get access? What do I do to unlock them? And like snow season work opportunities. I get really, really clear on these things. Like raise, pay raise available based on performance. That's a day 90. I want to know what that is as a field tech. All I want to know is like, okay, so what is that? Like, what. First off, what is pay performance two, how much more am I going to make? So get really, really clear on them. Instead of being like chunking up to like handle services start to finish, it's like, okay, what kind of jobs are you solo? How big are the jobs? What type of jobs are they? Do you do any complete, like a mulch job, a probably cleanup and a solo route. Then I unlock, like, get really, really clear on those things. They have that roadmap and they know they're going, let's go. Good stuff, man. You have a good one.

Thank you for taking. Next time you have to.

Good. All right, let's see you. Bye.