CALLING IT QUITS! Closing Augusta Lawn Care Franchise

This one's a little bit tough for us today, but I wanted to be open and honest and just like show everything. The good, the bad and the ugly. Today is the ugly. Here we go.

Foreign.

Good morning, everybody. We are starting one of our last days, I think our second to last day here on our trip. But this day is gonna be a very different episode. Most people would not show today's episode because it's not a good one. It's really kind of a negative one. And so people are rooting for our failure. This will be an episode you enjoy. It's actually our first closure of a franchise.

And this one's tough. They're all, you know, every closure I know will be tough for me, but this one's specifically tough because this is our best performing franchise as of a few months ago.

So what happened is the owners got divorced and the business is now closing. However, they. They started a little less than a year ago and within the first few months of spring, so I think it was either May or June of this year, they did 98,000amonth in revenue. One month they did 98,000 in revenue. And it was incredible. And so this is really a tough one to close down because I feel like there was so much potential in this market, these owners, et cetera. But hey, divorce happens. Stuff has to get split up in court and it's just not going to be sustainable for the business to continue running with two separate owners like that. So anyways, we got to close it down. And this is kind of the unique thing, I guess, about Augusta is like, theoretically, when you sign a franchise agreement, when you sign a franchise agreement, it's basically like it's a legal document. We could hold them to having to pay for the next 10 years the monthly fee. We're not going to do that. I think that's probably the unique thing about Augusta and what we're trying to do is I'm not here. Like most of you know, this is not a money motivated mission behind Augusta. And so if someone has a divorce that's ugly like it is now, I'm not going to hold them over a barrel and tell them they got to pay, you know, a monthly fee for the next 10 years. And that's something I can't put in a legal document. It's something that I've struggled with because that's what I want to say in a legal document. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to force someone to keep paying if either a. They've tried the systems and they feel like they don't work and it's not good for them and their. Their model or their market or two, if something like this happens or like a family emergency or like a sickness and they cannot continue the business. And so we're not going to make them keep pay. Today we're really going there to meet A.B. just make sure the business is getting closed down professionally, the customers are getting taken care of. Because he had quite a few customers, he grew the business quite sizable. And then just in the past couple months, I have to really take it back just because of the divorce. So bit of a downer today. I want to be as open and honest on these vlogs with you guys as possible. Showing the good, the bad, the ugly. I know people have just started watching the past month or two. They probably think I make a ton of money, never have a bad day, and that everything is just hunky dory. When in reality, days like this is probably some of my harder ones because I know the potential that this kind of a business could had and it's not going to be easy to shut it down. So have no idea how today is going to go. But really we just need to close the business down in a professional manner, make sure the customers are taken care of, that the brand is still held in good regard to the customers in this area. So if someone ever does start a franchise here that they don't have any negative brand reputation. And then two, just to help AV see what we can do to help him going forward. He has a restaurant. He's always been in the restaurant industry. So seeing if we can help him there and just try to see what we can do, it's tough. You know, divorce is a horrible thing. It's just one of those things that as a franchisor, I kind of get sucked into the personal and health issues and all the other stuff of the franchisees because I am so involved and I care a lot. So this one's a little bit tough for us today. But I wanted to be open and honest and just like show everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Today is the ugly. Here we go.

What's up, brother? Good to see you.

What's going on?

This is this is this. I mean, yeah, I never really put it to use except for those.

All the uniforms is here, all the stuff.

So, I mean, whatever. I set it up as an office.

Yeah.

Did you own this whole building then?

Or like, the owner is a very good friend of mine.

Got it. Got it.

Very cool.

Yeah.

So I pay, like, almost. I pay buckets for this.

Yeah.

The only thing is, I can dump here. So the other place where I could dump, I lost it because they're doing construction.

Remember that? Huge. Are they building, like, an apartment?

No, they're building, like, massive complex. Yeah. It's like six. Six acres. And, you know, and it was great because I could dump everything. Grass and all that jazz. Now. Now I have to pay for a dumpster. But I have a little dumpster here.

Yep.

Did you see it? So I'm dumping stuff over there.

Yeah.

But anyway, the business is, as, you know, I. I just can't do it with, you know, you. Because, like.

No, No, I don't right now. At this point, I think it's just the best thing, honestly.

Just because it's a shame because the business is. I'm telling you, I could turn this business into another $100,000 a month. It's stupid. Easy.

Yeah.

You should see the competition that I have.

I think the thing is, right now, it's just, like, if we can just close it.

Okay.

And, like, make sure the customers are decent.

Yeah.

That way, when someone does come here, it's not like there's negative brand perception of Augusta, what happened to us in the past, blah, blah, blah.

And it's a shame that really the customer base by me went, like, slope down because I. You know, because I really have my. My two guys, and they're not, like, I'm not on top of them because I was, like, sort of, like, giving up, you know? So.

So do you think, like, I'm kind of thinking is, like, let's get through October and just, like, tell the customers, hey, end of October, we're done. Okay. Hey, we have another business opportunity. We're moving out of town, whatever it is.

Okay.

Lonnie can send a mass email to me. Take care of it after November 1 is up to you guys.

Right?

Are you still mowing right now?

I'm still mowing.

So you'll probably mow the end of the month.

Probably.

So they'll probably be fine, really. Right. Spring.

Right.

So what we tell them is, hey, we're gonna take care of you the end of October. After that, you're on your own. And then our end, there'll be no fees after that, and just okay all day.

I understand. For me, it's just a shame to see this all go down because I know there's a huge potential, like, because I'm. I'm shutting down. It's not because business is bad, and I'll be a great advocate for you. You know, that, like, anytime, you know, whatever, like, you need me to talk, whatever. Because I really. I went from 0 to 100, and it's like, I have, like, zero experience. I don't even know how to open a freaking door. Cutting, meat, cooking, no problem. I have that down fact that, like, this stuff is. I'm not this kind of guy.

Yeah.

And I made it work, you know.

But, hey, it was good seeing you.

Yeah.

Stay in touch.

Always. Always. And if you need anything from me, just let me know.

I'm sure you'll still be around. Like, let me know if there's something we can help, other business or anything like that.

Whatever. Whatever you need.

Cool. Cool.

My name is AB Bilgray. Dix Hills, New York. So, number one, I found this out prior to even Covid that I wanted to do something that Amazon is not going to be able to take away because I'm in the food business. And even Amazon has been sort of taking away stuff like, you know, they obviously purchase whole foods and whatever. And now that we see through Covid, at the end of the day, all lawn care is essential. And that was really amazing that, you know, due to being essential, we could work through Covid. And me being in New York was. It was really essential to work during COVID and we saw a real, real, real boom because everybody's sitting at home looking at the yard and. Yeah. So that was a really. An amazing, you know, venture and investment for me. So.

Originally, the best thing I liked about Augusta was that Mike was very, very hands on as a franchisor. I did look into grounds guys, and there's no way you can speak to, like, the top guy. Number two is actually, once I joined Augusta, I realized the support that I got from the command center has just been so there. I mean, anytime I had even a quick question, it was just. It was answered immediately. Always helpful. The support is, you know, by far the best. So unfortunately, due to my divorce, I didn't want. I don't want to leave Augusta. Augusta. I turned Augusta from, literally from zero dollars with zero landscaping experience. We did over $100,000 literally two months ago. But because of my divorce being everything marital, it's just. It's way too complicated to continue it going because my child support levels are just. Just gonna.

I have to unfortunately close it. I don't want to because I really love it. But unfortunately, there's no other option for me at the moment. It's not even being biased. It's being real. Augusta has not just been.

Everything. Everything you can imagine a father doing for you as like giving you a business. That's what Augusta is. I mean, Mike has been, like, so forthcoming, so honest, so helpful that for someone thinking about getting into the landscape business and not purchasing Augusta is like, you'd be stupid. It's just. It's so amazing. And the ideas behind it, the command center behind it, the whole pay for performance method is just. It's a home run. If you don't do it, there's obviously something wrong with you.

All right, so we just left. Wasn't a very long trip, but he's kind of good to connect, make sure everything's gonna be taken care of correctly and that the best interest of the franchise, the brand and AB and his ex are taken care of. So now is the fun part of actually making sure legally everything is taken care of. So I have to be in touch with their attorneys, our attorneys, both of their attorneys, and make sure all the legal documents are correctly signed in terms of allowing them to terminate the franchise agreement. So I'm just about to email here her attorney.

Well, there's another day wrapped up. Not a fun one, but I wanted to make sure you all saw that we're gonna cut this part out of this next part where we're going, which is in Massachusetts, to see a franchise doing really well. But we'll cut this one out as a different episode just to show kind of the behind the scenes that don't want to show not happy about. But I think it's fair. If you're interested in becoming a franchisee, you see kind of how we deal with the inevitable life events that might happen. So I just got to make sure that closes out the business the customers are taking of and that he can go forward and think that I still have a good taste in his mouth about Augusta and looking back at kind of his experience with us and he can go forward and learn from it. So anyways, that's a day in the life. We're headed to Sandwich, Massachusetts. Here we go.

It.