DAY 1 of Building a $1M Business in 1 Yr

So the title is not clickbait. I am moving to Texas and starting a lawn care business that I'm gonna grow to $1 million of annual recurring revenue within the next 12 months. All the money that I have spent in the past few weeks just getting ready for the project, I've put over $200,000 into the business and I wanna show you exactly what that budget is. I moved across the country to build a million-dollar business.

Now I gotta train somebody how to use an edger, how to use a weeder, how to mow. I'm more nervous about that.

Even the gas chambers in themselves, just to put less pressure so they're not going super hot.

Even if it's in the air conditioning, it doesn't matter. It's just so hot. They're gonna explode anyway. And I'll tell you something about the applicants we've been getting. Everybody's had red flags.

We're buying vans today, but we're already behind on the ramps as well as the wraps for the vans. Let's go ahead and get started.

Hi, how are you?

Good. I'm picking up a van. It's already been purchased. Um, okay, do you know who you were talking with? Uh, I can get the salesman's name. I don't think I have the company email on my phone. I only have my personal email on my phone, so I'm gonna have to change that. How's it going? Good.

Who are you looking for?

I know, I'm trying to find his name. We bought 4 vans and then I had to pick up one. The very first thing And the biggest item on the budget so far has been 4 vans. It's under Augusta Lawn Care. John is my GM. He was the one that purchased them. Augusta Lawn Care? Yep.

Scott Bradley is gonna have those.

Awesome.

So that's actually in the building down the road.

Okay, so he said we gotta go to the used car spot.

Okay.

So these cars are like 1 year old. No, they're 2026, but they have like 10,000 miles on 'em. So they're used, I guess.

Yeah.

So we got ProMaster high ceilings, 2026. And we did this because if they're high, The high top that allows us to be able to drive the stand-on zero turns into the back on a ramp and be able to not have to duck way down. I wonder how many miles a car has to be before it's considered used.

1 mile.

Look at their 2026. They've been used. I think most of them have like the 4 that we got like between 8,000 and 10,000 miles. So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say they have had an owner, but man, it must've been like a lease, a very short-term lease. 'Cause for them to be built, bought, and used for, 8,000 miles or so in 2026, and we're in September of that year. Okay, so this is a big lot, man. Like, I shouldn't have to say, here's why a franchise is better. It's like, you think it's so much easier because I'm joining with— starting the location with Augusta. That's why you join. So I feel like we, from our perspective, we don't need to sell. We don't need to— we just do what we're doing and it speaks for itself. Hi, I'm looking for Scott. Oh, that's a great question. I have no idea. Sales? I know he's in sales. Oh, okay. Yeah, he's gonna be in the building across. He's the one on this side. This is the service. So the sales is just right across this one. I went there. They said to come over here. Is it pre-owned? Pre-owned, yeah.

Okay.

So this is a pre-owned Scott. Yeah. We're striking out. Can we just walk over here? We'll go around. Dude, filming in public is brutal, dude. Maybe by the end of these six months, I'll get over that anxiety. I'm already just. I just—

I'm callusing it.

I hate making people feel awkward, but also, like, if I see someone filming in the wild, I'm like, dude, that's so cool. What are they doing? I'm more interested and curious than anything. All right, Scott from Used. This is the Used Scott, not the new Scott. This is Used Scott. All right, so I'm going out on a limb and saying this is ours. It's either this one or that one over there. Dude, those are dope. If that's ours, bro, dude, let's go. I don't think I've ever driven that nice a car before. It might be the nicest car I've ever owned. They're $42,000 apiece. And so let's just say $168,000 total for just the vans. Now, this is the biggest item, and it's also the one that could very easily be financed. So everything I'm talking about today, I'm paying with cash, but you don't have to. You could absolutely finance your trucks, your equipment. The bigger items on this list are actually financeable. I'm just looking at it from a strict perspective of what's the dollar amount, and because I'm doing it with cash.

Hi, I'm looking for Scott.

Scott? That's gonna be the very last office to the right.

Okay, cool.

We're just picking up a vehicle we already purchased.

Hey, Scott. Hey.

We're just picking up one of the vans.

Okay.

Augusta Lawn Care.

Hey, nice to meet you.

I don't know if you remember.

Oh yeah.

101, there you go. Awesome.

You guys are good to go.

Awesome, well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I'm sure we'll be back. Like, how often do they have this exact model? Oh, we get 'em all the time. Okay, well, we'll stay in touch 'cause we'll probably get 3 or 4 more next month. Okay, just give me a call and we'll get 'em ready for you.

Awesome, thanks, Scott.

Appreciate it, you have a good one. Oh boys, let's go. Dude, this thing is a gem. Dude, this is crazy. Bro. Once we're on. Dude, this is sick. So if you're on a mower, that's the thing, like, I would barely even get in, but if you're like 6 feet tall, it's still gonna be— you're gonna hunch a little bit to get in, but the high top is nice. 'Cause you'd be here if you didn't have a high top, which is like a regular-sized height. But as soon as you get the high top, you can at least stand up. What's the benefit of being small? That guy right there, that one's not a high top. So this gives you an extra, I think it's about, I'd have to guess 16 to 20 inches of height. But yeah, this is great. See, we had this thing installed. So this is like, I wouldn't say airtight, but very close to it to keep the fumes and the AC in the front with the driver. And this is all sectioned off. But today what we gotta do is get vents for the ceiling, the sides, so it doesn't get super hot back here. It's not so bad in here, but it's also early in the day. But we gotta get racks for like weed whackers, blowers. Okay, the next thing we got is 4 ramps. $20,000 for the 4 ramps. Now these ramps, the reason we actually got the ProMasters is because of these ramps. And on the back of the ProMaster, they're flat. Whereas with the Sprinter and the Ford Transit, they have a little bit of a bend to them on the back of the doors. Whereas with the ProMaster, because it's flat, we can remove the doors, make a ramp that is very secure and waterproof and water doesn't get in. So obviously there's other ramps I'm sure that work, but we have a preferred vendor at Augusta specifically that other owners have used that they like and that the ramp is long enough to where the mower can get up over the crest of it without scraping the bottom of the deck. And so because it's already been used, we know it's secure and solid. And then we've got to get fans. So solar fan for the top and vents along the side just to make sure it's ventilated as much as possible. And for those of you like, why aren't you in your work shoes and your work pants? Because my clothes show up tomorrow. And so I'm still wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday on the flight to Texas. So $3,000 a pop, let's just say $12,000 is gonna be for the, just the wraps. Now these are full wrap of the entire van. So the Augusta brand shows max. It's just a big billboard driving around all the time. And in the long run, the reason we wrap our vans or our trucks is because this is where brand awareness comes into play, 'cause all the neighbors of your customers the people in their neighborhood, they see this all the time. And for everyone who's like, you don't need a wrapped truck, you don't need a wrapped truck. But in the long run, I want leads coming in 'cause people just see my crew out in the community. They see them doing great work. And if I have a rolling billboard right next to them saying, hey, call this number, this is our brand, they start to think about Augusta Lawn Care, Max, our mascot, the vehicles, what they look like, the quality of the work. Whenever they think about lawn care, I want them to think about us. And in order for that to happen, it's easier if I have a wrap because my branding will stick better. So that's why I'm willing to pay the extra 3 grand per van. Over here, dude, there's 4 mirrors. We are living it up. This is my daily driver for like 6 months, so I gotta get used to it for a second. Dude, this thing is dope. I want one of these for my daily driver, bro. But parking this is gonna be absolutely a pain in the butt.

Yeah.

Uh, no, no entrance. Well, now it is.

Yeah.

Dude, the visibility is great though. Feels so nice to drive. Probably not supposed to be back here. Dude, that was smooth though. Shout out Scott.

Yep.

Used Scott, not new Scott. Poor Scott. The thing only has 1,500 miles. I don't know how you consider that used.

Smell it.

Bro, that is new and improved. Dude, this is, this is a nice stinking truck, van, sitch. Okay, now, now the real test is like, what is it like to park? I just like the fact that I feel like I have a drone following me with this situation. Um, you know what? I'm gonna back in like a boss into this spot.

Right here.

Dude, this is sick! How close you can get to another vehicle. Oh dude, this is— oh bro, this is life on easy mode. I am impressed. Whoa dude, this is great! This is so awesome, bro. Dude, oh man, I'm in love. Okay, so one of the things that we did for this location is we used a— this is called Regus, but it's just a co-working space. And so it's great because we can park the vans here While I'm doing that, y'all want me to go get that bid?

Like, Lowe's is like 10 minutes down the road. John Havens, general manager of the Dallas area. We're gonna hit $1 million in 1 year, guaranteed.

So I need the business to run without me. I need to rely on my general manager. I need to rely on systems like Command Center, Augusta Leads, other people to do work for me because I can't be there running it all myself and juggling everything.

Yeah, so right in the, the job application is I did mention that this was a media project, and he basically said if you cannot— if you're not comfortable with it, or, you know, it's probably not gonna be a good fit for you. I just felt for me, I've never done anything like that. I mean, this is like my first somebody interviewing me for like the first time. I mean, I've just never been interviewed. But I think he's coming from a place of honesty. He was upfront about every single thing, and that's what I'm doing too. It's like if I'm not familiar with an area, I'm not gonna pretend to know it. And so I just— I was like, If they're just gonna be genuine with me, I'm just gonna be myself and it'll work out.

Those cabs are nice. I really like them.

And what I liked about the bulkheads that we put in there was it's gonna keep the cab cooler because when you start having vents on those metal—

Right. Yes. It's just gonna come through anyways. Yeah.

You're not gonna keep that cab cool. Got it.

So was that like a decision you made, like in terms of keeping it sealed?

That was one of the first things that I kind of was looking into was metal or those. I don't like the composite ones that we have for like, there's pluses and minuses to both. Yeah.

With the plastic.

Yes, because now I got to worry about, is that going to hold if the mower goes through?

Right.

I've got— I'm going to put some stuff in there to lock those mowers in so they're not going through. But it is just a composite, you know, bulkhead. Yeah, it's not— the metal is definitely stronger and all that stuff, but they're attached the same way.

Yeah. As soon as you put a hole in that thing, though, like anything, the fumes are coming through.

Right.

He is working for about 4 weeks prior to us getting there and starting the business. Now, I found my general manager, John. He's a phenomenal general manager. I'm really looking forward to working with him, but I actually found him months ago. So I was running ads. I had hundreds of people apply. I then sifted down about 40 to 50 that I started doing back and forth with. We did video interviews and Loom back and forth, and I whittled it down to a small group of about 8 or 9 and then finally selected John.

And then it was a Saturday morning. I saw an Indeed posting and it said Augusta Lawn Care. It mentioned an area that I was very, very familiar with because I was already familiar with Mike's content already, and I just had a big smile. I was like, oh, he's coming here, you know? Uh, that was my first thought. And then after that, it was like, I got to be a part of that.

How long have you been following Mike's content?

So yeah, I've been thinking about that. At least 5 years. I, I'm not sure if it was during COVID a little bit before COVID or like, you know, like right after COVID, but it was in that time frame. So about 5 years. If it were like somewhere else, I don't know that I would have applied for it, but it being in Flower Mound, I was like, oh man, like that's my area. Like, I love this area. This will be great. So that's why I did that. I'm a Texan, so we support everything Texas, everybody Texas. You know, that's just, that's just our culture. So it was, it's gonna work in my market just because I love it so much. And I was just excited.

Now that was after traveling to Texas with my wife to visit John and his wife, take them out for dinner, get to know them personally, and just make sure that, that It was really cemented, that relationship. I don't think there's anyone that's documented this kind of, in the green industry at least, the very detailed documentation of starting a business. For Augusta, if it was just for them, we'd do it. And if the video's reviewed 100 times, just owners of Augusta in the future, it'd be worth it.

Sure.

I think the ability to be able to do it though for the public, I don't need someone to join Augusta in order to hit the mission of what we're trying to do, which is change the level of professionalism in the industry. I want to change some people's beliefs in this industry about like what is possible, the type of person that can be in this industry, the ability To hire technicians, like, I really think we undertrain and under-onboard our technicians. We don't care about our technicians as a whole in this industry. And like, I would like to be a force in the opposite direction. Because the number one most important thing in all of this is my general manager. The success of this location will hinge on that because I cannot be the leader in the daily operations of the business. I have to have a phenomenal general manager that will make sure that quality control is high, make sure that team culture is good, make sure that the equipment and the vans are taken care of, 'cause they're gonna be taken home with the crew.

I have all the confidence If it doesn't work, it's gonna be because of me. It's not gonna be because, oh, we didn't get enough customers, or, oh, our name wasn't out there. I mean, it's literally gonna be because I'm not managing the crews correctly. I'm not managing this business correctly.

Have you been taking one of these home?

I have been. I've been taking them home and working on them, you know, putting certain brackets and things like that on them. And then I've been getting like material, like getting 2x4s and certain equipment with them. So that's been nice. So yes, I do. I have been taking one home. That bike is like the nicest vehicle I've ever owned. Same here.

Same here.

I was thinking the same thing. It's— they're really nice.

So the GM wages, I'm going to go ahead and include like the cost of me flying out there. I'm going to include the cost of the Indeed ads. I'm going to include the wages for like a month or so of the general manager. So it's got to be at least $15,000. When I take all that into consideration. Again, I'm talking about running the Indie Dads, me traveling down there with my wife for a couple days, and then also the general manager's wages for the first month.

So, all right, so here's— I'm gonna— this is where I got kind of frustrated.

Okay.

Was with these. Was with these. So this is the only one that is completely done. I got all the wood cut. Well, I'll take that back. There's 2 that are done, but I'm gonna have to make some adjustments. Not getting the vans when I wanted to get the vans really slowed everything up because I just didn't want to start cutting And buying stuff without measuring anything.

Right.

So I needed to advance physically there.

Yep.

Um, and I needed these to get my measurements. Well, they gave me the wrong measurements, um, because you don't know, are they doing holes, holes? Are they doing— where do they measure from? They just didn't do a good job of that.

Who, the—

Uh, just the buyers.

Oh, okay.

So I just was trying to get all the measurements, so I had to adjust some of these boards, uh, to make them fit. Not a big deal. Uh, the rivets just did not work. So I spent some time putting all these rivets in.

Right.

It took, it took a little bit of time, and they just don't work. You know, trying to line them up, they spin, they pop out. They're just— I don't know if these are cheap. Again, rivets are, again, temporary at best. It's just one of those things. But these are rivet nuts. They didn't work, so I just had to secure them a different way. So once I figured out how to do that—

It's still pretty secure.

Yeah.

Given the fact that you don't have a—

I should have started off with that to begin with. This is what I wanted to do from the beginning, but I was like, well, I'm going to take his advice and go with the rivets. That's what he did.

Did those other 2 that we took to the Ram place, have they already got the vents on them?

No, so I actually wanted to talk to you about the vents because I want to show you the different bulkheads that we have in these. They're different than what I've seen everybody else use. Everybody else uses like a metal one and it's got like holes in it.

Mm-hmm.

And so all the fumes and stuff are getting into the cab. This one's completely sealed off.

Right.

So we do still need vents. But I just don't think it's like, um, super, super high priority. I really don't, because I don't feel like anything's gonna get inside that cab.

My thought was more for the heat on the—

On the inside?

Gas can— like the gas cans, the— even the gas like chambers in themselves, just to put less pressure so they're not going super hot.

But I'm just worried about like rain getting in there, just not sealing up right. It's real thin metal on those vans, and I'm just worried about it Like not fitting in there right. And the ones that he would— he didn't recommend the solar panel ones. He was just like, we just don't use them.

Okay.

That's just not common. Okay.

So he's used to this area. So is he like, it's not super necessary?

No. Well, because to your point with the gas cans, I can have a gas can in my garage and I'll go outside and it's just blown out.

Right.

You know, it's just so hot.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just, even if it's in the air conditioning, if we had an air conditioning cab, it almost seems like it doesn't matter. It's just so hot.

Yeah.

They're gonna explode anyway. But they relieve themselves and stuff like that. So I'm not like worried. It's just common. So I've been in this area since I was 9. So almost 30 years, 36 now. So 27 years. Before I got offered the job with Augusta, I was working with the town of Flower Mound and working like in the parks department. I did like the athletic fields. I did all the park stuff. So playgrounds and ponds and medians and right-of-ways, Trees, uh, just kind of managed, uh, the parks department, or at least my area of it.

So even for like the trimmers and stuff, it's not a big deal?

I don't think so.

Okay.

That's my opinion.

All right.

But, uh, I don't think— I mean, you know, I could be wrong. We start moving, right, and, you know, the flow seems off and it's like, hey, okay, we definitely need this.

Okay.

That, you know.

So there's no vents for now. I'm fine with that.

I mean, we can.

I'm fine with it.

Like, we'd rather not.

Okay, all right, let's do it. Hey, it's more secure. There's less likely of leaking.

Because like, as far as just like, like I said, rain, snow, Um, getting— I just want that capped tight if possible.

Okay, I agree.

But we can— Hey, we can—

if everything's like flooding and like we're having problems, yeah, then we can always pivot.

Sure.

I'd rather not put them in. Cutting into the metal does not sound like a great idea. What I like about this is you don't have to put a piece extra on there.

Yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, exactly.

Because like on the ones we have, they go onto the racks of the back of the pickups, but you have to install like this piece that locks in, so it adds more weight to the weed whacker. And If it ever moves, it never latches. Whereas this just, it just sits in there.

Yeah, it fits in there. And then also there's no, like a lot of them had pins. So you had to like stick a pin to keep the weed eater edger from falling out. This one just sits in there.

It's all spring loaded.

Yeah, it's all spring loaded. So they're pretty sturdy though. These have been good. Just, they were off on the measurement.

Okay, so that side and then this side would be—

So this is going to be, we're going to put a blower here. Looking at blower racks because like, man, they have those big huge blower racks.

Just gonna get a hook.

Yeah, just get a hook, and then that'll take 2 seconds to put on. But yeah, just gonna get a hook. This kind of front area here, um, is gonna be like the fertilizer area. We're gonna have, uh, their little push spreader.

Okay.

You know, they'll have like a— yeah, like a typical push spreader, a large one, commercial size one.

Um, gas cans?

Yeah, so gas cans. I'm throwing some things out here. They fit perfectly right here. Yeah, one on each side. Again, that's a bracket I don't know that we need a bracket. So I can get— I'm just using this as an example— kind of lock it into place like that. And you can put your gas can here and then like do a little bungee tie.

Okay.

You kind of keep them tied up. But I think these are perfect fits for the gas cans. 5 gallons or 2.5 gallons, whatever we go with. So it's right there for them to grab. I don't have to put another rack up. They'll stay in place.

Okay.

So that was one thought with that.

Would we put the spool of They're gonna go here or here. Okay.

Um, that's another bracket that I'll just— I'll, you know, bolt it up to here and we can just pull their shit out. Looking at it, I'm like, I think we got plenty of room. Kind of a lot of waste. I don't know if I need these brackets because I was going to put brackets here too, and I'm like, I don't think I need them here. I think we got room to like, yeah, do different things with it.

It is nice for the guys though too, like just have a little space, you know?

Oh, it's fantastic. Well, look, I mean, what I like about it was fitting both Z-Spray and mower on Right. Because once we get going and we're knocking them out, we're— I expect the guys to be kind of having their own Z-Sprayer as well.

Yeah.

Just because we'll be moving.

Yeah.

You know, and they could do both because there's a lot of times they're going to be able to mow and then put the fertilizer down.

Yeah.

So it's like mow it, take your Z-Spray off, and you're knocking both at the same time.

And then they make more money too.

They're making more money, and then we're just knocking stuff out.

So these are going to be great to fit both.

That's another reason why we went with the 32s, because I wanted all the room Boom, to make sure we can fit that Z-Sprayer in there with our, with our, uh, mower.

Okay, cool.

Because I've never really used racks like this. I didn't like them at first. I was like, it's kind of gimmicky, right?

Well, my biggest concern, like, that's why I first like just hit it like this when I came in, is because the mowers would hit these. The nice thing about the 32 is you also don't have to worry about that if you're running a 48. Like, this probably can handle a 52, right?

Sure.

From a deck, like, but when you start doing that, you're like, you're getting real close, really close to these, you know, they're hot, they're Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That's it.

Yeah, especially coming off that ramp. As much as it is like, it's still a little weird to go up.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's the heck of those things. Think about that. So no, I'm actually really happy with the sturdiness of them. All right, so this is a coworking space that we're using for the facility, and so I want to walk you through, give you a bit of a tour. But realistically, the only reason to do this is that we didn't need a big shop space. It's month to month. Also, there's a bunch of these coworking spaces throughout the entire city and where we want to expand in the future. So when we do interviews, it's kind of nice to meet someone here in an office instead of meeting like a Starbucks or inside the truck. So it's really simple. You use a key fob, we're able to scan in, we got 24/7 access, we got a private little office. We pay about $250 per month. Is it fine if we make a quick video walking through? I thought you were going to like do a Google Earth. Not right now. I will probably do that. We got to wait for our vans to get wrapped. That was what we tried and declined.

When you do the Google verification, I would do it on a Saturday or on a Sunday. If possible, and there's just people walking around and they're just working.

Got it.

So I just felt interrupted the whole time. So I was like, I'm gonna try it early in the morning.

Got it.

So I came here at 8 the next morning. There was nobody here and it still failed.

Yeah, okay.

It was better.

All right, yeah, I think the window decals for the office come in hopefully this week. As soon as those get delivered, I'm assuming they'll probably email you like, hey, packages have arrived for you.

Yeah, so she Um, she can, uh, but normally she'll just put it in the office.

Oh, okay, like inside of our office doors. Oh, that's cool.

They bring it right to the office. Uh, but, uh, I can have her do that cuz there was— I'm still waiting on uniforms. I said, hey, it's going to be— I don't know how many boxes are coming, maybe— I don't know how they're going to ship them. Yeah, uh, but I told her, you know, just let me know if she needed help.

Okay, cool, cool.

But yeah, it'll be in the office. So I, I come here, you know, a couple times a week just to at least check the mail.

As soon as I get them wrapped, hopefully like you said Wednesday or Thursday, I'll come like This Saturday, first thing.

Okay.

Try to get it verified. Because our one down Southlake, it's verified, just not the address, just like the service area. But this one, they locked me on.

Yeah, and, and this one, I don't know, they said show surrounding buildings. I thought I did a pretty good job of that.

No, no, I think the biggest thing is like we didn't have any wraps, so we'll have to wait for the vans to get wrapped. And then I'll put like a little— in the office, like blank right now, I'll put some signage. Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. So it's nice, you kind of have a bit of an office space, you can meet people here. here, shared working space, and then the ability to be able to get mail. And like what she was saying, for verification of address, this should work when it comes to Google verification, because if I'm going to just do a service area inside Google, it's helpful in terms of getting actual address on a map. And so this is close to the city center in Flower Mound. That's our main service area. So yes, I could do a service area in Google, but your Google Business Listing will rank much better if you have a specific address. So in this case, I think it's this one. Is it this one? So we'll just scan in here. And then it's small, it's just a little small office here, but this allows John to have a spot to work from, the trucks being parked, interviews, and just having a good little space. Also, when we have our training days where we have 3 or 4 technicians and we're training technicians for the day, we can rent another facility and it's not too bad for like the whole day. And just get like a nice big screen, a kind of conference room, and it's all here. The nice part is that I'm not locked into a 5-year lease, and $250 a month is not bad, especially when I can use all the other offices around town that are coworking spaces so that I can meet the applicants closer to where they're at in terms of interviews. So that's why we're doing the coworking space. Cheap, affordable, not a long-term lease. So what can I do to help now? I know obviously if the racks or the ramps are ready to roll, I can go pick those up.

That's a big help for me because I was talking to Emily and that's an hour at least. Oh, I know, dude. I don't know.

How you did all the vans. Was Emily helping?

Yeah.

Oh man, I'm sorry. I felt so bad.

It was Memorial Day. The kids loved it. Uh, they were getting tired, like, how many more? Because it's 20 minutes from here to the dealership. But no, it was fine.

Yeah, I'll get those here. So, oh, in, uh, Louisville. Nice. For, for the, the racking though. Okay, so the one van already has it. This one you're working on now?

Oh yeah, this one's kind of done for the most part.

There's mine.

I've got 2 more bands I've got to do. Yours and one that's added.

Do you need help with those?

I don't. I mean, I don't need help. I did a couple of days ago.

Okay. Sometimes you just want time to like figure it out. You don't really want like— you just got to adjust it.

I don't want everybody to think I'm like, I'm going slower. I'm not moving. Like, I'm just, I'm really thinking about this and I want it to be, I want it to be perfect.

Yeah.

No, I mean, I stained the dang wood. You know what I mean?

That's good.

I did that. And I just like, if I'm going to put it up, I want to put it up nice. Yeah, so those are the things I got to work on. And I'll tell you something about the applicants we've been getting. Um, it's reversed from what I thought we were going to get. I thought we were going to get guys that had experience mowing and not experience with the treatments, and it's been complete opposite. They all have experience with treatments.

I noticed a lot of people from like, uh, Weed Gren and TruGreen.

All those guys have been applying.

And they have never mowed.

No. Now I'm like, I now got to train somebody how to use an edger, how to use a weeder, how to mow. I'm more nervous about that.

Yeah.

Than I am with— I wish it was opposite.

Okay, so I know there was the one gentleman, he can't start for a while.

Yeah, and he is— which one are we talking about here?

I think number 2. I'm using numbers because I said 1, 2, 3, and 4.

So 1 is a no-go. 2, he never called me back, so he's out. 3 is really, really green, young kid. I think he wants— he just needs like a path.

Okay.

You know what I mean? He tried plumbing. He's just young, needs a path, but he's really— I'm concerned That he's really never worked, right? You know, forty hours a week kind of thing. Yeah. The fourth guy just lives so far. You have no experience. I said when you get in here, you're gonna have to move and you're gonna have to pick it up quickly.

Yeah.

Because you know, you're gonna be taking a van. You're gonna be going to these million-dollar properties. Yeah. And you know, residents might be coming out and talking to you. Like it's gonna be a lot for young man. But I think he's got a head on his shoulder and I think he just wants to. He just needs something. That's what I tell him. I think you just need a path. You just need a trade to stick with.

Yeah.

Somebody that can teach you to do things.

Yeah.

This is what I need. My favorite part of it all is teaching people. You can tell, like, with training guys that they have an interest in it in some specific area, especially the people that are passionate about it, and trying to just get them to think differently about it.

That young guy, he's down the road, but we need— we need—

Now we could do him onboarding day.

Yeah, he'd be at onboarding, but in terms of like starting a little further down the road. But we don't have the other 2 like solid guys yet.

No.

Okay.

Um, I'm— I've got an interview scheduled tomorrow. I told the guy, I said I may have to cancel on that one just depending on the vans and stuff, but now I know that you can pick him up.

Yeah, yeah.

I should be able to interview him tomorrow.

Yeah.

Red flags there too. Everybody's had red flags.

Do you think base pay is a factor? I know like $21,000 right now.

I don't— I mean, maybe with the van though. It's gotta boost that up.

Yeah, I think that might be why you're getting TruGreen guys though too.

Yes.

Because they don't get that.

They don't get that. The ABC guys do, some of them. Um, yeah, they don't get to take— that's, that's worth $100 a week at least with gas.

Yeah.

Um, and then no oil changes and no tire— I mean, you know, that's a benefit. That's a huge benefit. It's a huge perk. That's worth, you know, uh, $500 a month.

Right.

You know, and to guys that are applying for $20, $20 an hour jobs, about $500 a month is a big deal.

We got young gentleman. I think worst case scenario is he comes to onboarding day and then we start with him knowing that—

I think so.

That first week you're basically just gonna have to be with him.

He was the first one I put a video into. He was like the first applicant. He was the first one I put a video in. I really liked him, you know. Like I said, I, you know, just training him up and teaching him. Yeah, it's gonna be the thing. But I love doing this. That's one of my favorite things to do is get a young guy and just work with him. Um, as long as he's willing to listen and do it.

Yeah.

He'll— I can make a tech out of him for sure.

Okay.

His why seems pretty good too. He's got a younger brother that he kind of takes care of. His mom's sick or something. Um, so he kind of takes care of him, helps.

Yeah.

His mom's not working right now, so he really kind of needs it. He's under fire, you know.

Yeah.

Pressure's there. I like that too.

Okay.

Um, so yeah, I think starting him off with the 29th, just—

Okay.

Probably what we're gonna—

Let's plan on that so we don't feel this huge push of like trying to get a great Tech that can within five seven days be switching over. Okay, because the great techs have a job, right?

And they're not gonna dip out right away. Yeah, if they do, like that's a red flag.

Red flag. Okay, let's plan that direction then. If they want like hey, I want a job, then yes, we can offer like hey, you can start. But if he's like I gotta give my two weeks, like just come next week, come for training day, we'll pay you, and make sure it's a good fit for you. I think it's also a good way for them, like if To get to know everything before they commit too, right?

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, for sure.

And we're gonna— I'd rather have 4 people on next Tuesday and you're like, I don't really want that person, like they're out.

Yeah.

Versus like, we gotta have someone tomorrow.

Gotcha.

So yeah, I, I like that. Okay, I will change the base pay up to $22.

Okay.

You can let the young gentleman know too, it's going to $22, so he'll be excited about that. I'm gonna send a message to Nick. Hey Nick, could you do us a favor? We're putting up the racks and installing the Motive on the vans. But if you could just change on the Indeed ads to change it to $22 an hour base, I think that'd be great. We got one good person we're probably gonna start next week and then hopefully tomorrow with an interview. But I just wanna make sure we got plenty of good applicants. That'd be great, thanks. And then at least we know we can start selling that week.

Yep.

With him joining. And then I actually almost like it a little in a way, 'cause then it's gonna be 3, 4 long, it's not gonna be full-time. Him knowing that and being okay with it and you being able to spend time with him is probably not a bad thing.

Yeah, I reached out to a couple people I know too.

Okay.

And, uh, yeah, nothing.

Okay, well, we'll move up to 22 and just see what happens.

Yeah.

Like, sometimes you just find that kind of like—

That balance.

That threshold. It's like, okay, all of a sudden now the good people start flowing in. They just don't understand PPP at the get.

Right.

So, um, you just kind of get the base higher, and then we can always bring that down if we had to down the road for future applicants. So I'm fine with that. So let's go ahead and add this all up. All right, we got $168,000. Let's add this all up. Oops, not the camera app. Okay, so we got $168,000 for the vans. Then we got $20,000 for the 4 ramps. Then we got $12,000—

whoops—

$12,000 for the wraps. Then we got $7,000 for paying the management fee for Augusta Leaf. For all of Facebook ads, all of Google ads, and they don't take a percentage in the future, so that's nice. And then $15,000 for the wages, Indeed, me traveling out to Texas to meet the general manager and his wife. And then our equipment, we're just kind of guessing right now 'cause we have not purchased this yet, but we will before we get started. Obviously we need the equipment. And there's $70,000 and then $5,000 for software. I'm sure I'm missing a few miscellaneous things and I'm sure that things like uniforms, things like that, we still gotta buy. But right now we're sitting at $297,000 as the budget, and we have not made one single penny in this business yet. And so I'm doing this again for full transparency. I don't want anyone thinking that I'm showing up there with no money in my pocket and gonna scale a million-dollar business. Is that possible? Perhaps. But if you wanna have a business that runs without you and that I'm not gonna be in daily operations, I'm not gonna be hiring the team members, I'm not gonna be training them, my general manager's gonna be doing that, you're gonna spend more money. And so if you wanna go fast, This is the kind of model you're probably going to use. And we're running— we're going to have to buy a couple more vans before I hit $1 million. It's like this is not all the money that will go into this location. There's a very good chance by the time I spend money on marketing that we will probably spend about $400,000, $500,000 to get this business from, from zero to $1 million within 6 to 12 months. And so I want to document this, have the budget in place so you can always see what it is. And I'll update this as time goes on throughout the project. But before we made a dollar, we spent almost $300,000. just to get on a customer's property and start generating revenue. So if that's scary to you, that's fine. You don't need $300,000 to start a lawn care business. When I got started, I got started for like under $1,100 'cause we bought a push mower from Lowe's, a weed whacker from Lowe's, and a blower, a little handheld blower from Lowe's. My brother and I, I was 11 years old, we got started that way. And we grew that to about $30,000 per year in pushing a lawn mower around our neighborhood and making money. Paid my way through college. So you don't need $300 grand to get started if you're gonna do a smaller scale. If you wanna go fast, this is the That's the budget I've currently spent so far. And so when you see how fast we grow, realize that there's a lot of investment and time in finding a general manager, setting up the software, making sure that all the systems are in place so that when we get there, we can hit the ground running.