Business Bootcamp: Aaron Zoom Call #2

Welcome back to the Mike Andes Podcast where we discuss the ins and outs of owning a small business. If you're new here, the Mike Andes podcast is all about taking your business to the next level. We're covering season one, episode two of the Business Boot Camp Zoom calls.

This week.

If you haven't heard, we've been watching four different home service business owners overcome their challenges and build their business into something great. Part of the whole thing is a zoom call check in that we do with Mike. Along the way, Mike has tons of great advice for anyone who runs a small business. So here's what we're getting into. We're back with Aaron from AZ Lawn Maintenance out of Scottsdale, Arizona. Their business is currently worth 900k, but he's looking at almost 300k in debt and only 2k left in the bank. What they have here is a major cash flow issue, plus some massive payments being made on equipment they just don't end up using new. With this episode, we're going to look at implementing jobber to help with the overall scheduling. As always, you can find all this and more over at the Mike and his YouTube channel. But here's to second call with Aaron from AZ Lawn Maintenance.

Last week on Business Boot Camp, Aaron from Arizona Yard Maintenance had almost $300,000 in debt, only a couple thousand dollars in his bank account, and had a truck that was worth like $140,000. Today, though, I'm talking about the fact that if he's going to keep this equipment without selling off and paying off the debt, he's going to have to scale the business up very quickly. And if he's going to do that, he's going to need software to help him organize the business instead of just doing off the reminders app of his cell phone. So today that's what the call is all about. There's a full extended ve of the consulting call. If you'd like to see the entire episode, check out the description. There's a link down there for last week's episode, but this is the full consulting call with Aaron from Arizona Yard Mains. Here we go.

Can you hear me?

I can. How you doing? Good.

I've been.

I was signed in a few minutes ago, but it was kind of glitching out. I don't know if you saw that.

Yeah, no worries. You're good. You're good. How was the week?

Good. Good.

Yeah, Mostly this time of the year. Are you guys focusing on projects more or what? What kind of percentage of the work is still recurring?

Most of it is recurring, I would say about.

25, maybe 30% or so is like once a year calls or you know, like once in a lifetime calls. That's not recurring, you know, so.

And you kind of include the tree maintenance stuff in with the recurring side because you have a lot of that, right?

I don't. So no. So reoccurring is, I would consider just like monthly yard maintenance, weekly maintenance, bi weekly, you know, jobs that are already on the schedule. And then I fill those gaps in with like, you know, first time callers.

You know, just. Yeah, basically, you know, people are just calling, you know, for the first time.

Have you ever thought about. This is just kind of mental gymnastics. Have you ever thought about trying to just preserve that 70 to 80% and letting go of a lot of the bigger equipment for the project side of things? Because that's where a lot of the debt is right now.

Yeah, I don't want to do that because I feel like I make more money. That's why I picked up all that bigger equipment is because I know it's going to be profitable.

I'm confident in my ability to make money. I know, you know, like right now it's a little bit of a struggle.

But I know that I have the ability to make sales, you know, to have, you know, a lot of money in my account. You know, you just got to work through it. It's how I look at it.

Okay. And so was it mostly this year when you started focusing because you had the equipment to do those larger projects then? Right, and that's really where the growth has been, like the extra 20, 30% of the revenue.

So I've. I've always done trees and I've always done maintenance, but I used to have to rent that equipment versus owning it. I never really rented a chipper though. But as far as like skid steers, boom lifts, you know, I don't have an excavator, but I still rent that, you know, when I need one. But yeah, so it's basically saving me money right now instead of, you know, I've always ran my business very tight though. So it's almost like I'm forced to hustle, forced to go out and make money. And I'm just constantly reinvesting into the business. And I knew this was going to be a challenge getting all this equipment, you know, But I, I feel like I'm confident enough that I, if I need to, I can go door to door and, you know, make some sales to pay my bills.

Okay.

Okay. All right.

Okay, cool. So I know we had talked about Jobber and the guy that said you tried it out a little bit. I know it's a big. It would be a big transition to move away from the Reminders app. What's sort of your fear in doing that? Obviously, it's a big change, but what's sort of your fear? Because my. My concern is that the business can't grow much more with that being the bottleneck for everything. And I'm actually really interested to see, even next week when you're gone, how things continue to operate using your g. When your manager takes over, not having the Reminders app, or potentially there is. So maybe educate me a little bit.

Okay. So, yeah, with that, I think it's just the initial beers of change, you know, and that I would like, you know, yourself to. To be able to understand the picture before I take your advice. But I know that you're smart, you know what you're doing. I mean, you. I mean, you really delved into this business, you know, more than I have. So, you know, with that being said, I looked into Jobber, you know, and I decided to go ahead and get Jobber, you know, I just wanted to look into it first. So I did make a video. I don't know if you watched the video, you know, or your team got back to you about it, but I was hesitant, you know, and I. I know it's a smart move to. To. To do something, to. To take another step, not just stay where I'm at, you know, So I looked into Jobber and I felt like it was a good fit, so I actually signed up for a year.

So I have that now. And then I'm. I have a meeting next week on Monday with Jobber.

They kind of implement things. So. Yeah, I've been having an issue with QuickBooks for, like, the past, like, five months, six months or so. Some of the invoices, they. They say that they're sent, but they actually don't get sent. So I definitely need to switch, you know, because that's, like, not okay. It's, you know, just, you know, I need to be able to collect my money. So I think Jobber will help out with that.

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Yeah, like it'll definitely be a tradition. Be very, very difficult because right now the Reminders app is so, so simple and you understand it like the back of your hand. Here's where my concern is and why I pushed the jobber side because in my mind there's, there's two direction take the business. One, you scale it up and use all this equipment to its full capacity so it's not sitting in the yard for four days out of the week. It's actually being used all the time. And that is you gotta grow that business to 150/000 per month in revenue. And I think you have the capabilities as you, in terms of your confidence to do that if you're going to do that route. That's where I see you have to have a software because you're going to need someone else to start handling a lot of the stuff that you're doing currently like scheduling, dispatching, invoicing. You're not going to be able to handle it all at 150,000 plus a month in revenue. And that's the size of business I feel you're going to need to grow to, to make it worthwhile to have all this debt and this large equipment. So that's the Route 1. Route 2 is you stay on the very simplified route but you take, get rid of all the debt structure and you focus on simple services and then just raise your prices. Right. And I think that's the route you don't want to go because you, you, you're, you know, you're confident in selling the larger projects and there's definitely money to be had there. I think it's just a matter of if you're going to decide to go that route. And it's very evident you're going to have to grow the business in order for it to make sense financially. That's when I'm like, okay, there's just no way you are going to be able to handle all the scheduling, all the estimates, all of the invoicing and all the admin side when the business literally needs to triple because you've bought the equipment to basically triple the business. Right. And that's why you're hitting this cash crunch, because You've invested so much for the, the upfront of what you're going to grow the business into. Right. And that, and that's fine. You've obviously bought into the vision and you know where you can take it. We've got to get there pretty quickly though. And in my mind, you're going to have to eventually hand things off that are not sales related to somebody else and pay them 20 bucks an hour, 18 bucks an hour, whatever. And yes, it's going to be a few thousand dollars a month at least for them just to handle some of the emails, the calls, et cetera, the scheduling. And they're not going to be able to do that in the Reminders app because I'm learning that. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah, most definitely. So I'm hoping that within the next couple of weeks I can transition all of my schedule that's in the Reminders app and transfer everything that's in QuickBooks to Jobber and then start implementing Jobber. I also looked into P4P. I don't think it's a wise move right now to do both of them at the same time. I need to get some of that data as far as how, how long the guys are spending on jobs and that way I'm just bombarded, stressed, 100% agree.

So I almost have, didn't have them send it to you today because when they said that you were trying job or I'm like, there's no reason to be trying to do two at the same time. I already know you're stretched thin. Right. And that's where my concern is. And in terms of choosing the route that you're going to go with the business because you could keep doing what you're doing, but you'd have to simplify services in order to scale it while just running off your Reminders app or B, you need software because you're going to need to be able to hand that off to somebody else because if you're going to go to 150,000amonth in revenue, you will be the full time salesperson. Like that will be your full time gig.

Yeah. So can Jobber, can Jobber do that or do I need to hire someone else? Because right now I next week. So when I go to the equipment expo, I what I'm going to do is just create the schedule the night before. I'm going to send it over to, you know, my girlfriend, she, you know, she lives with me and then she's going to set the schedule out for the guys. You know, I could Also just send the schedule to my, to my foreman too, but I like to have it in paper. So that's how I'm going to handle next week, you know, and then that's how I've been doing it. Except I've been putting out the schedule when I'm not working with them and.

It'S been working great. My, my big, my concern is when that triples. Cause in order for the business to be profitable using our current financial structure, we do need a triple. And I'm fully confident you can do that a hundred percent. My concern though, is it all the, all the bottleneck coming back to you setting the schedule, you sending the invoices, and this very system that is based on you is very risky. And you're going to have to hire someone else and hand it over to someone and it'll be much easier for them to learn jobber where there's, you know, support and there is a system for doing things and there's. It's much more automated versus so manual. That to you is simple, but it's mostly all cause you have it in your head and that's very difficult to pass along.

Yeah. Where do I find that person? Where do you recommend me finding a person that's knowledgeable on that?

Like, I think it's probably going to kind of happen organically next spring rush when you really start to scale up again because you're going to feel this pressure of like either I'm answering emails and phone calls or I'm out in the field selling. Well, if we're going to scale to 1:50amonth, we've got to be out in the field selling. Right. And so it's going to feel pretty natural when you're like, I cannot handle this anymore. I have to hire somebody. And I think what I'd be looking first is potentially someone that you do know. Just because from a trust perspective, that first office person is. Is a position. You do need to trust them. And I don't mind having you. Even if you paid them four or five thousand dollars, by the time you have to pay their taxes and paid time off and have an office for them and all the rest of it, let's say it's 5,000amonth. But if that allows us to go from 50, 60,000amonth right now in revenue to 120, 130, that's where they'll make their difference. Right. And them sitting behind an office, behind a computer, they'll be able to understand jobber and the workflow and putting things on a calendar and invoices that automatically combine at the end of the month. Whereas right now a lot of it really comes down to you knowing which jobs where you're manually putting jobs from week to week. That process is not scalable. And honestly, when I look at a business doing a hundred plus thousand a month in revenue, it's almost scary because if the business owner literally got hit by a bus or broke their leg or was incapacitated for a day or two, the business would fall apart. And that's the part where we're trying to avoid by having software and then someone to handle the admin side so that you can go sell. And that's where your strongest point is. In my opinion, even just based on a few hours with you, you can sell like a machine. So everything else needs to be outsourced. For someone that can handle emails and calls and all the rest of it.

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Okay. Would you have you.

Any thoughts about like the people in India or virtual like or you know, like I've heard that they work for extremely, you know, like $5 an hour or something, you know, what are your thoughts about that? Hiring someone like that?

Totally. They're going to be really good at remedial tasks. Things like copy paste, you know, send me reports, those sorts of things. When you start having them communicate with your customers, you got to ask yourself, are you losing out on a $20,000 project because they couldn't understand the person on the phone? Right. So those are the things you start kind of balancing out. And the fact of the matter is someone that is paying $5 an hour is probably going to take longer for you to manage. And if you're spending half your day just managing them, that's where I'm like, again, the whole reason we're having them is that you can go sell. Like you need to be able to train them up and then leave them alone.

Jill's office handle that task with Jobber.

Definitely, definitely be a place to start off with. I know they integrate well with jobber. It's something that could get you started. They're, they're pretty expensive. Like they're $2 plus a minute and so. But it'd be a good place to start handing things off, in my opinion, and kind of force you into the jobber role. Right. And then what would happen is as your bill with them would trickle up, you could probably afford to hire someone full time next spring rush.

Okay. Yeah. I'm just trying to think about, you know, the commitment that I have to invest in someone for them to understand and then, you know, worried that they're just going to leave after spending time, you know, invest in them. So.

And ultimately though, that's the risk that will have to happen if you're going to grow to a hundred plus thousand a month in revenue. Right. Because if you don't have that dependency, otherwise, the dependency is the fact that it's all in your head and you have to do the schedule every night. And if it, if you have a night where you're just out, like off, like, you're like, I cannot handle this, or you're stressed out, like, that's what gets scary at that size of company because everything is bottlenecked at you for sure.

You know, I've made a few mistakes, which.

I hate when that happens. But in the schedule, you know, like as it started to ramp up, I have made a few mistakes in the schedule and you know, I get hard on myself and I'm like, this is why I can't be distracted, you know, the people around me. Because especially with the Reminders app, it's a lot to handle. It's like back and forth, like, you know, and then my working memories, like six different things, you know, like in the schedule, invoicing, all that.

So, like, when it comes to recurring work, you should set them up one time at the beginning of the year on a recurring schedule and never think about that again. It should just be a matter of a set for the entire year and you or your office person or your crew member shows up and it's, it's literally for the next three weeks, you know exactly what your schedule is and it's repeating automatically. There's no more manual. Like I'm going to drag it two weeks or I'm going to create two reminders for this month. That is something that, again, all of that time right now that you're spending is time that should be spent selling. And I truly believe that's a hundred dollar per hour. Task that you're, you're, you're not doing that and Instead doing a 15 or $20 hour task which is literally copying and pasting reminders.

Okay, okay, cool.

Like even, even, even if we took a job, took jobber off the table, I'd still be saying like we got to somehow get rid of these lower level tasks so you can focus on selling. Because at this, at this size of company and the amount of debt that we have, we've got to scale up quickly.

I'm not sure if we saw, do we have enough time? I got another question for you.

Go for it.

Okay, so regarding videos, I've seen a lot of guys have success in doing daily vlogs, marketing themselves on Instagram, Facebook, all that. I've thought about doing that same thing with YouTube, but one thing that I feared is being too open and like talking about pricing and then seeing my customers watch that or me talking about like customer problems. So I wasn't sure whether or not I should restrict kind of what I say, like watch what I say on the videos or just openly like be myself. These are my true thoughts and then post it.

You know, I think, I think right now if I was you, I'd be spending every all time focusing on the business. That's where the best return of your time is going to be. And if you want to make videos, because just a creative outlet, I'd be doing it in a way where there's not much editing, whether that be you just hopping out, making one quick clip while you're out in a job site, et cetera, but you don't want to spend a lot of time on it. Right now you have a business that's going to be doing, could easily do over a million dollars in revenue next year. That's where your best time is spent. If you're, if you took off on YouTube, you'd be lucky to make $20,000 on, on ad revenue next year. Right? So I want like the business has got to be the point where it's just like pumping out money, then you have plenty of options, right? You got time to be able to spend on editing a video or creatively coming up with ideas. And if that's something you just want for now, I just try to be as low production as possible. And then in terms of how much you share, my main thing is protect the employees because as soon as you start bringing them into it and start saying they're, you know, airing their dirty laundry, that's when drama starts happening and again affecting the business. And that's what you don't want.

Okay. Okay, sounds good.

All right, brother. So in terms of next week.

I think, you know, if you start working on jobber and you have that call with them, that'd be great. And just starting to see what the benefits. Obviously, it's gonna be a big transition, but just start working that direction because, like, I really need you to be able to scale the business. And any time that's not selling right now is time wasted. Honestly, we've got to scale it up because you have all this fixed assets of trucks, equipment that literally could sustain a $1.5 million business. And so let me. We really gotta get to that level.

Okay. All right. Yeah, no, I'm gonna. I'm gonna make it happen, you know, definitely. I mean. Cause I've invested already invested into it, so I. I gotta do it, you know?

And you're great at sales. Like, I truly believe what you said, and that is, if you went and knocked on doors, you'd sell. So, like, every minute that you're moving reminders around or taking calls or emails is literally 15 to $20 tasks at the risk of you literally selling massive jobs or many, many jobs in the future. And I truly believe, like, you knocking on doors, you're gonna sell a ton of. So we just gotta. We gotta. We gotta get you in doing that.

Most definitely. Okay. All right, I'll see you next week.

You got it. Take care, Aaron. Have a great weekend.

See you, man.

Bye.

This has been the Mike Candies podcast. Now you have some ideas on how to take your business to the next level. If you like what you heard, we have tons of interviews, lectures, and more over at the Mike and his YouTube channel. That'll be right up your alley. But that's all we have for here today. We'll see you next time.