This is a recorded on-site conversation (YouTube video) with Mike Andes, Jesse, and Brian at Augusta Lawn Care. The group discusses scaling a lawn-care business toward a $1M revenue goal, operational details (treatments, spraying, fertilization, landscaping, projects), growth metrics and pains (personnel turnover, management, manufacturing/vehicle setup), and on-the-ground logistics (equipment, tank sizes, production targets, pricing). Notable specific facts mentioned: Augusta Lawn Care is aiming for $1M in revenue this year; in March they completed 365 estimates; mole-cricket treatment runs about $320 (granular); common tank size shown is 200 gallons; daily production target is roughly $1,000–1,500; annual revenue target band mentioned is $200,000–$250,000; company minimum yard price $40.
Questions this video answers
$1,000,000 (one million dollars).
365 estimates.
About $320 (mentioned in context: spray vs granular).
200 gallons.
Around $1,000–$1,500 in production per day (they try to get around $1,500).
Chapters
All right, we have left North Carolina and now we're headed to Georgia. We're headed to Augusta, Georgia. This is actually the place that Augusta Lawn Care is named after. Somewhat because of the Masters, which happened last week. We barely missed it. Headed down there three hours though, me with Brian and his team. It's a pretty big company here. They're shooting for a million dollars in revenue this year. I think they'll easily surpass it. Last month alone, in the month of March, they did 365 estimates. So they're growing very quickly. And so they're going through a lot of growing pain. And they're just getting more personnel and management. And they have a treatment division and landscaping and projects and all the rest of it. So we're going down there specifically to kind of get some marketing material, treatments and spraying and fertilization. Because about half of our franchisees do it, half of them don't. So I want to get some specific videos and pictures of them today. And of course we have some brain food. Quick tip. Because my tortilla chips are my weakness in my diet, but if you have good guacamole and you have good carrots, it actually works pretty good. It's good travel food, mindless eating. And what's really cool is because the carrot gets stuck in your teeth, you kind of get to enjoy it for about three or four hours after you eat the actual carrot. So very, very good tip for your travels.
Gross.
Incredible.
Gentlemen. Good to see you guys.
How you doing?
Good. I was just commenting to Jesse. It kind of changes pretty quickly from that neighborhood over to this one. Yeah. I'm like, wow, this is quite the neighborhood to be doing a shoot in. And I was like, okay, this is good.
This might have been the one in this entire round. I know they had some mole crickets. Y' all ever have any mole crickets?
No. No.
It must be a Southern.
Southern. It is same like even like fire ants. Like we don't have, like people don't scrap ran like nothing like that. Oh, wow.
That's not. I guess, cuz it gets so cold and.
So what, did they just kill the grass?
See if we can find some signs of it.
Yeah.
Oh, here it is. See it like it was raised right there.
Yeah. And you can stick your finger.
It's almost like a mole.
Yeah, like a. Like a small mole does the same thing.
Eats the roots.
Do you usually make the mole cricket like a treatment, like part of like a annual package?
You can, but it's so expensive. So it's 320 for spray, but you get. No, it's a granular.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah, this one's better. In a granular.
It's actually.
Does it kill them or kill their food source or what?
Kills them, too. They're working together.
Balls and ball.
Crickets.
Yeah, they might be.
Yeah.
It's bad. That's real bad.
Sam.
The guy that, you know, I brought in from another commercial installer.
I was like, hey, man, what are. What aren't you comfortable with? He's like, I don't like doing hardscapes. He's like, no patios. All right, cool. So everything else. Irrigation, drainage.
Apparently walls and, you know, all the side installs, the grading, everything.
Yeah.
And so if I would have. If you would have stayed just this year in general, and I got, you know, two months booked with all these deposits, I'd have been screwed.
Oh, man. Was he trying to. Was he just trying to make the calls since, like, that was his. What he thought was his division kind of thing?
No, he was smoking weed.
Oh, nice.
On the. Not on the properties. But he come to find out he'd always get there early, like, before me. He'd be there like, 6, 15.
Yeah.
And I'd be like, why is it dad getting here so early? I guess he was. He was rolling it up before the day and, like. And he would leave on a lunch break.
Yeah.
And go smoke and come back.
But then he had an attitude or whatever, too, right?
Yeah, he had. He was cocky.
Yeah.
Real cocky.
And he didn't. He had all the talent in the world, but didn't want to. He picked when he wanted to use it. He did really great on that wall.
Yeah.
And then, like, a real simple sod repair, plant install. Just kind of. Because he did a drain on the job and then used, like, tracked through the yard instead of using the plywood like I asked him to.
Oh, yeah.
I was like, man, we gotta repair that.
All right.
And so instead of, you know, raking it out the treads.
Yep.
And getting it nice, you just put it on top.
Soil on top.
No, you just put the sod on top of the tracks without mercy. You know, breaking it, putting some soil down, making it nice and flat. So just little stuff, like when someone has the talent and they choose when to use it. That's just.
Yeah.
I'd rather somebody bust their ass and not have all that much talent.
Right, right.
Try every single time. But, yeah, I was just. He just wasn't a good fit.
Yeah.
Good.
I.
Nice stuff, guy.
So would this be like, manufacturing Usually. Right.
Yeah.
They.
This was their main. Their manufacturing.
They.
Because they ordered their parts and put it together here.
Right.
So. Wow.
Is there trouble getting the trucks in and out of here or. Not really.
No.
They go in real good.
They'll pull up this way.
Yep. Oh, and then back in and back.
Into these little slots over here.
Oh, they use these for the. They'll lift the mowers up.
Yeah.
That's cool.
So.
Oh, this is all one product.
Yeah, this is all just the first.
So it's actually coated. Poly coated.
That was stuff he was putting down the day, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Cool.
But this was a Frankenstein.
This won't be the trailer or the system.
The. The trailer. I had this custom built because I. In my head, as an owner, operator, I was like, hey, man, I can hear.
Yeah.
And I did.
I did it a couple times. I mowed and I. Yeah. You know, we treat. But as far as. Once Jesse gets his. His next employee, at the end of this year or the beginning of next, whatever, we decide to pull the trigger. We'll take these off these tanks so we don't have to buy them. Yeah, they'll go on the bed of a truck.
Yeah.
How many gallons is your tank? That one is 200.
On the back of my truck, it's 200. Typically, you want to have 301.
101.
That's 200. Just around here, we have more Bermuda than just about anything, so we use the 200 for that.
Oh, cool.
Tell them about what your target is daily.
Target. We try and get around 1500 in production a day. It sits somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred.
Got it.
Right now, some days are a little bit lighter with where we're trying to build some of our territories. Between 200 and 250,000 is what we're shooting for, but it kind of depends because our minimum yard is $40. That. That goes anywhere between, you know, 500 square feet to 4,000 square feet. Right. But right now we're sitting at about 370. And I mean, I've still got pretty big blocks of time to where. Yep, we could probably speed.
