Going from Homeless to $10K Monthly Revenue - Ep.049

Hey everyone, this is Mike Andes. You're listening to the Landscape Business course podcast. I've been in a bunch of calls with members this past week or so, trying to get in three to five each evening. And so I want to share a couple of those. One of these tonight. I wanted to share because I hope it falls on ears that need it. I hope that the message that Tim brings out today, his story of how he started, went from homeless to now in his third year of business, making $10,000 a month in revenue and growing, expanding, looking to achieve more, really going after it. I hope that this message falls on the ears that need it. And if there's someone out there that you feel should hear this message, I appreciate you passing along. So without any further delay, let's go to Tim. He's in his 30 year business and he's trying to really make it a real company. He's become a course member this past year and is looking to really scale things up. Here we go.

This is the third year that I've been doing the business and really just this year I just started to get serious about it and put just a few simple.

Structure into it and really reading on, like.

Setting up the website.

Getting the right equipment and.

Just getting the software. Yeah, actually, let's see. So.

One of the things I was wondering is when you had the. When the software that. The Lawn Pro.

Yeah.

Did you have that connected with the website.

To login for their account?

Right. They do have a login feature that.

You can just have them do it for the email.

I just had them do it through the email I would put on. So we don't use Long Pro now because we're pretty large. Like I kind of think it's good until you hit around half a million and then it's worth paying a few hundred a month for something extra. But like when we, when we had it, they had just come out with the new feature, which is where they do allow you to put a tab on your website or a button and allows them to log in through the portal. And so we tried it and then like not too many people used it. To be honest with you though, because most of them get the link in their. Every time you send an invoice or estimate they get a link and then that link is really just taking them to their portal.

But yeah, it does have the capability of having it on there. What are you using right now as far as software is the one Pro?

I did have the free one.

Okay, but you got the course though, right?

Yeah, so you. I just transferred everything over.

Okay, cool, cool. Good.

Yeah, I was just in the process of doing that. Finished probably a couple weeks ago now. So just trying to get used to, you know, moving around in it. And my other question was, because I'm sure there's so many different ways to do it is okay. I had a customer, I did an aeration feeding jet and in the spring he wanted me to put down a pre emergent and then also the following fall do another application of overseeing and.

Iteration. And so I was wondering what's the best way going through that program to set that up for future jobs or just reminders?

Right. So yeah, we just, what we would do is you can just schedule out as far as you want. So we would just schedule. Yeah, what we did, we just, you know, when you're setting up the job as a one time job, not a recurring job, obviously when you set it up you just, unless you want to do recurring and do like once a year and set them out for like five years. But usually when we did Lawn Pro and what we still do is we schedule our jobs for one full calendar year. So like if they're recurring visit, let's say they're a monthly cleanup, we schedule it. Even if they're on like an ongoing basis, we'll still only do 12 months out. So like what you could do is either a do like an annual visit recurring or you could just do a one time visit in the spring for the pre emergent.

And so when you see that schedule pop up, is it something you just remind the customer, hey, I had you on the schedule and then.

Yeah, yeah, so yeah, exactly. Right. So what I would suggest doing is the day before or like depending on what application you're doing, put a to do for yourself and to either call them or email them just to remind them. And that's one thing that I, I wish, I hope Lawn Pro eventually adds some more automation stuff. They have it with texting, they have it with texting, but they don't really have it yet with email. And to be honest, even like the other service like Autopilot, they don't even have a lot of those things like automation stuff. So. But it'd be really cool for things like that, you know, a reminder the day before to do certain things. It would be cool.

And then also for the accounting software for that, for the credit card system, do you actually have, do you have that?

What accounting software do you use?

Yeah, so lompro, like when we use lomp, so now we use service Autopilot and Lompro is basically the same thing I always say, but with 95, just 95% of the features. And so when we had Long Pro, that's the only software we used for accounting for everything, because you can, you can track your expenses in there and all of that.

And then you'll note, obviously, you probably figured out now for credit cards, you can accept, you know, Stripe or PayPal through Lawn Pro. So I would do. What I'll do is if I was you, you know, set up your Stripe account or whatever. And then so that way people can pay from their invoice. But then also what's nice about having that account is you can then go into Stripe and enter in other payments. For instance, if they call you with their, their credit card, you can just go right into the thing and enter it in right there.

Or like, or just random stuff. Like, for instance, someone buys, you know, someone buys a piece of equipment from us and off of Craigslist, and they want to pay with card. I'll be like, yeah, sure, that's fine. And then we'll go through our, our, you know, processor instead of going through the actual Lawn Pro or, you know, service Autopilot. So that's, that's probably what you want to do is like. I remember when we. So they added, they had PayPal and Stripe on Long Pro, then they took Stripe away for a little bit, but when they had it and now they've added it back, it was really, really good. Like, really seamless. And I really like the way Stripe is set up for the customer. When they click on it from their invoice, it's like super seamless. So we had a good experience with that. And I haven't used it, to be honest with you. I haven't used the Stripe integration since it's been put back up on Long Pro. But when they had it up before, it was really good for the customers. They liked it.

Okay.

Yeah, it was actually better. It was actually better than even service rope. They integrate with bluepay, and bluepay isn't. I don't think it's customer friendly, but that's just my opinion.

No, I've called them prior and they, they're really demanding.

Yeah. But.

So, so right now you have, you're in your third year, you have 84 clients, and that's pretty good. Yeah. And then 70 with average, so about 10,000. So do you, you have. Okay, so this is the question you had about expanding to another crew.

Yeah. So my question for expansion is, I Do have a guy that for driving for next year.

Yeah.

And he can do mowing. And also I do have a guy that will probably be with them as well. And so for the following, so for next year while they're doing the mowing, I was wondering, would it be a good idea for me? Well, well, the other thing is he's not good at landscaping and being focused and able to really manage a landscaping job and maybe the bare minimum, some cleanups and stuff. So I was wondering, could be a good idea for me to schedule other landscaping jobs, hire a part time guy and with that.

As well do a bunch of, you know, marketing and try to keep expanding with the mowing routes and make the routes tighter.

Right.

There's two things I would say. First of all, it's something I haven't really talked about on the podcast and maybe I'll put this up on there. But like it's that that first employee, if you don't trust him yet to do cleanups and stuff and landscaping, I'd be careful. This is weird. Like I'd be careful about hiring more people because they're going to do whatever he does.

Yeah.

So either a, you got to make it really clear to the new hires that like it's expected, there's more expected of you because everyone's going to kind of follow a trend. Right. And so unless you hire someone with a bunch of experience and they, when they come to the business, they already have like they're kind of already the superior of your, your existing. But that's expensive. What I would do if I were you is, you know, get through this season with that guy and then next year start looking for someone that's more dependable that you can't. You think, like don't hire so much more for the, for the experience part, but more for the dependability, the trust. See if they've been have any sort of sales or customer service experience experience in the past and then see if they, if you can get someone like that and then have the guy that you have now more as just your mowing guy. But then make it very clear that like what the. Because like I haven't talked about a lot but like the first two, one, two guys in your crew are gonna be, are gonna set the standards. And so, and so I'd be careful about getting a whole bunch of part timers or like people that aren't gonna, you aren't gonna be able to kind of mold them very much because they're just gonna follow whatever's going on. And so your part timers especially will just go. Will tend towards just going toward the lowest common denominator as far as work ethic. And so if your first guy is not where you can trust him, I'd work on that. Like, like, obviously don't, like, not grow, but if I was you, I'd be looking for either, you know, someone that you can get. You can trust enough to do landscaping stuff and teach them really. And you kind of stick with them quite a bit and let this other guy mow and kind of grow that way maybe.

Okay.

Like, I think. I think where you're at right now, if you're doing around 10,000 monthly, I think next year, you won't be 100% out of the field. But what I'd be trying to do is that first little bit, you know, have this guy that you have now if you can trust him for mowing and if he can cover that stuff, I'd be trying to focus on training someone else on the landscaping and the cleanup stuff and being with them. Being with them four to six hours out of the day and then when checking up on them consistently and then, you know, doing the estimates, kind of having another truck and doing that. So I don't know, like, I don't know the guy. I don't know kind of your mark or anything like that. But based upon just that one thing. If you kind of saying you can't trust him yet, I would be careful about putting a part time with him because the part timer is just gonna follow whatever he's doing, right?

Yeah, he's. He's really good and he has really great speed at, you know, mowing and the trimming real particular and everything. Maybe it's just that he hasn't done enough cleanups and.

Okay.

Such not to really. Yeah. Get adjusted.

But you trust them. But do you trust them, though?

Yeah, definitely.

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay then. Yeah. I think it might just be a training thing, right. Like even over the. The winter. Or like, if you do hire someone else maybe like the month before you guys start getting busy, do a lot of training with the two of them. Because if you trust them, that's the main thing. Like, if you like. So scrap everything I said, because if you trust them, then it's just a matter of training them. Right.

And I think it also just finding his himself, like self value and himself being not motivated, but more knowing, trusting himself, I guess, on the job. Because sometimes he questions himself.

Yeah.

Doing cleanups or something, you know, asking lots and lots of questions which Is good.

Right.

But to the point where I'm like, I don't know if this is concept. Maybe it is to me, but.

Right. Yeah. Like, if I were you, I would, you know, next year, you know, to train him up, but then keep checking up on. So if he has a cleanup that's gonna take him the whole day, try to check in with him like, three to four times so you can answer his questions. Make sure he's confident enough. The big thing is making sure that the guys. Your crew guy is confident enough to talk to the customer so the customer doesn't come out, talk to him. He's clueless, and then the customer has to call you for answers. Right.

Right.

So that's the big step.

Yeah.

I'm guessing that's happened before.

And I've got, I think, probably six guys this year.

Oh, wow.

Really? I've known this guy. He was actually working with another guy for a while, so I've known him for a while. He's. He's been doing it for years.

Why do you. What. Why do you think you lost. Gone through that many guys? Do you have it. Is it just like they're going to be.

Personally, I was. I was not hiring, like, higher stand. I didn't put really good standards in. I was kind of just finding guys wherever.

Yeah.

So I just started, you know, the. Starting really serious with the business as well as getting serious with. Yeah. Guys that I need to hire. You know, getting awesome guys instead of just whoever or guys. I don't know if you know about St. Louis. It's like the number one, like, homeless, like.

Right.

I'm always out reaching out because I've been there. That's how it started, actually. Three years ago, I was homeless in a garage, living, good job, and I started from literally nothing. And so I'm always. I always have, like, that willful heart.

Yeah.

You know, to help those. But, you know, I know those that don't want to help themselves well. Never work out.

Yeah. So I think. I think the challenge. And, you know, first off, you know, congratulations. That's awesome. Good story. But, like, I think. I think knowing that what you can do is what you should be trying to figure out is, okay, you have this massive labor pool, you know, to draw from. You have to figure out the ones that actually want to get out and want to, you know, achieve in their life, and they're out there. Like, you. If you were there, you kind of probably have the inside scoop a little bit.

Yeah. And you're saying definitely about finding guys that do have jobs and that maybe want a better job or better opportunity. Sure.

Right. And I think if you can try to find even the ones that are unemployed or homeless, like if they have the drive to get out of it and work hard, like they can be really loyal if you train them up and give them a good job.

Right. So I'm just looking basically at your numbers as far as revenue and then seeing what you're gonna be able to do next year. And like, so right now you're mostly mowing and what'll happen probably next year if you. Cause this is your kind of first year focusing on the business. Like your second year, when you start focusing on it usually is when you'll make us. Your revenue will kick up like craz, but your customers aren't going to move up very much. Like you might go to like maybe 110 next year max, but your revenue will double because you'll start getting good enough at the business where now you can, you know, your, your guys can do cleanups and tree trimming and installing mulch and that's where the money's at.

Uh huh. Right. And I have done a lot of that. And also the other thing was, I mean when I first started, you know, from the poverty level, I was, I had that, you know, the mindset of an employee. So I was all excited for like, you know, $20 to mow someone's lawn. And so it really took me up until this year, beginning of this year, to get out of that and finally the.

Strength to finally actually overcome a lot of that fear and just really tell the customers, hey, I gotta raise the prices. Like I'm giving you way more than I was three years ago and you've been great customers. But I got insurance now. I got great equipment. Now I can serve you in so many ways. I got a website for you guys now. I'm giving them great material.

Yeah, that's awesome. No, that's exactly how to do it too. And I bet you probably lost hardly any of them.

Yeah, actually no, I didn't really. I mean I lost a bad, you know, a few bad apples that were customers for sure.

But yeah, that's good. That's awesome. Congratulations.

A lot of customers didn't really mind if I was raising the prices, you know, 25%. It was okay with them.

Out of curiosity, what was kind of like the impetus behind starting the business and kind of getting out of all that.

For you?

Oh, well, I got off a bunch of drugs four years ago and I was working. I Was already working with a lawn landscaping company for like a year and I didn't like the way he was running it. And I've always had that entrepreneur mindset since I was in high school, in college, taking classes and stuff, but just fell off the deep end.

But so. So I'm looking at your email. A couple other questions I think you had about the employee payroll thing and stuff like that.

Yeah, what do you use for that? I know you're talking about something in the podcast that you.

I forget what company that was, but I was wondering if they worked out well.

Yeah. So Gusto, if you want to do it yourself, Gusto is where you can do it. And if you use the Gusto.com Bootcamp, that's where you get the three months for free.

However, I don't even use that right now. We're considering using it next year for benefits.

But as far as payroll, the reason we're not is because we got an incredible killer deal with my accountant. So I do all my personal taxes through an accounting company. They also, they also have like one bookkeeper that kind of just runs people's books that have businesses of their clients like this kind of, it's kind of an upscale accounting department, I mean firm. And then they kind of just. There's like a couple little bookkeeper people. Well, their, their rate is 125 bucks per quarter and they do all of my employees regardless of how many I have. And literally we just, the office just sends them our timesheets every like so I can't even compete with that. And so I'll probably never outsource my. Or taken into inside like internally do our own payroll. Because if it's such an incredible deal, they take care of everything. I just write the checks. Actually I don't even do that. They do direct deposits and everything. So I can't beat that. However, you know, we'll probably use Gusto for.

Benefits next year but, but usually if you want someone else to do it, like if you just like a look up bookkeepers in your area or something, they'll charge usually like a hundred bucks a month or something like that for an employee or something like that. And so.

That'S a little bit steep. Like some people are cheaper. Some people do like 50 plus like a certain percent or like a percentage of their WA, like 1%. And so just like a throw up of, you know, what your time's worth really. Like if I had to run all of my people. Well, the office, even if they had to do it, I Couldn't do it for under, you know, just the wages that I'd pay my office people to run payroll is less than what my accountant does it for, but my accountant does it for so cheap because I run my personal taxes, and he makes a killing on it. So. So, like, there's a. There's. There's a balance, right? And so.

But if I were you, I'd, you know, play around with the gusto thing when you have a couple employees, because, you know, basically for a couple employees, you've been looking at like, you'd be looking at, like, 50 bucks a month. Once you're paying, I think it's $39 flat fee and a $9 per employee after that. And it'll be really good. Like, for a few employees, you don't have to spend much time entering in the data when you hit, like, if you hit, like, 10 guys, then I'd consider trying to outsource it. But from what?

Save, like, a lot of time?

Totally. Yeah. Because what's. Yeah. What's nice about Gusto is that you just put. You just put in the hours. It tells you what the numbers need to be, and then you can either A, write a check to the guys and then. Or B, or two that you can. You can have it where it does automatic deposits. And so I would do that if I was you, because right now, it's not worth you paying 150 or 200 bucks a month, which is what it's going to be, a bookkeeper. But then on the other hand, doing it yourself without gusto or like, another. There's other payroll companies out there, but any other company, like, it takes a long time to figure out all the, like, the numbers of the FICA and, like.

Unemployment and all that garbage. Right? And you don't want to do. Excuse me. You don't want to do it wrong because you go. You'll get busted. And so, yeah, that's my two cents on that. If I were you, I'd do Gusto for now and see how it works for three months.

Okay. You're saying using QuickBooks or something is probably better for me just starting out or actually getting an accountant you think is worth. I mean, where do you think I'm at?

Yeah. So, like, for instance, our accountant. They run everything through QuickBooks, essentially. The thing about QuickBooks is it's. It's for small businesses. Gets pretty pricey because I think.

Yeah.

I forget what it was. I know it was like a year ago. It was like 70 bucks a month. But plus, they charge per employee, so that can get pretty expensive. Like it's the same thing with my account. I'm just blessed because it would cost more for me just to get the software than for me to. I pay them to do all of my taxes, I mean, all my payroll. So I'm just super blessed. And like, that's another story. But like.

As far as, I've never used QuickBooks, but it's very, very similar to Gusto from what I've heard. And the people have used Gusto, have liked it. I, I'm Sure Gusto and QuickBooks are very identical as far as their payroll software. So either one, I'd suggest I just be looking, if I was you, at numbers as far as dollars. Cuz right now, like where you're at, every dollar kind of counts.

And so actually getting an accountant to do it, instead of me just doing it myself through QuickBooks and then doing the taxes at the end of the year through an accountant.

Right. So Gusto. Gusto software is basically QuickBooks Payroll. Like that's really all it is. Like it's the same thing. The only thing that, the reason you're paying though for more QuickBooks is for the integration into their other software packages. That's you're paying for the brand. Right. Whereas with Gusto, that's all they do. So it's basically the same. Like, honestly, I've seen both packages, I've just never used QuickBooks. Like both packages are basically the same thing. As far as payroll. It does the same stuff.

Makes sense.

Anything else I can kind of help with? You, help you with Tim?

I think maybe really just the last thing would be how you, you were saying your hourly rate, how you try to get everything around what, $50? 40. $50, you're saying your first year, second year.

So right now I saw that you're doing 40 for mowing and 50 for landscaping. And honestly, like, that's not really that bad. Like, if you're anything under 40, I'd be, you know, I talked to someone yesterday and he was at 35 and I was like, bro, you got to get that over 40. So like, you're on the right track. But if I were you, like next year, instead of like, I don't know how many, like, if you like ask you this, if you think if you put as much effort into next year as you did this year and really push the business, what do you think realistically, you're gonna be average monthly gross next year and next month? Monthly next year. And then how many customers you think you'll have.

Mm. Honestly, I'm. I'm gonna push for some high goals. Like.

Yep.

Two and a half times more, three times more.

So you're looking for like 25, 30,000amonth, and then you'll probably be around 120 to 130 customers. That what you're shooting for?

Yes.

Yeah. So what I would do if I was you is instead of going for the 160, because if you double the triple next year, if you go by customer numbers, you're gonna need like 200 customers. Right. What I'd be focusing is on, you know, how can you make more services. So do the gutter clean outs, do the pressure washing, do the cleanups, the tree trimming. And obviously you're have to train the guys and all of that. And then also I'd be looking at, you know, raising those prices. And so I think that's sometimes better.

To expand in, you know, your. Your options that you have with your customers or just have a niche and like, you know, with its landscaping and mowing.

Yeah, I'd say landscaping and mowing. But then the reason you want to add all this other stuff in is because the winter, right. And so this is. This is. Plays into part of, you know, especially next winter. Not this one, but the one out, like in a year from now, you'll really. Once you get a good guy or two, this will be something you start thinking about a lot. And it's like, how do I keep them busy in the winter so they don't go get another job? And so that's like, for me, even though those other services are fine and good, I don't hardly touch them during the busy season. We have plenty of other work, but, like, we're going hardcore tree service right now, because I know I can keep doing that during the winter. And so we're start, like, that's my main thing that keeps me up right now is, and it keeps me working is how do we keep our guys busy during the winter? And one of the best ways is like, gutter clean it. Like the random stuff that you don't really want to do during the summer, right. The pressure washing, cleaning out gutters, trimming bushes, doing leaf cleanups. All that stuff can be done during the winter. And so maybe don't worry about it so much now. But like, I bet last year your. Your revenue during the winter was basically nothing. And the difference. The difference between. The difference between going from your 10,000amonth to being able to go to 2030 during the summer. Is great. But then it's the winter when you can still make 8 to 10.

Next. Next season. That's. That's key. That's really. Yeah. Because then you don't have to save as much money up during the summer for the winter, and you can just depend on at least breaking even. Right. And like, right now, I bet that's what's happening. You're kind of like, keeping all your dollars together because, you know, you got a few months where it's gonna be slow.

All right. Because I want to have enough for startup. I was hurting this.

Yeah. Like, so if I was you, I'd do this, too, before you get off. I'm already late for my next call. That's fine. What I would do, too, right now, while you have the cash, Tim, is try to get a credit line of credit. If you don't have one already from your bank, even if you never use.

It, you finance equipment then.

So for equipment. So it's a little bit different. So. So for equipment, we. We always buy, like, my trucks. Everything's paid off. Trailers are paid off. Like, we pay with cash, but the only thing we finance is our skid steers. Like, bigger equipment. Like all our push mowers, we did. That's all pay with cash. The only thing we finance. And the reason for that is because we can get 0% down. Yes, you pay, like, $2,000 more, but on a $40,000 piece of equipment, I'm not too worried about it. And so, like, that's what we finance, but that's zero percent. So we don't have any loans that have or anything financed. That cart charges interest right now, and it's pretty minimal. But what we do have. What we do have, and what I would suggest getting is that line of credit from the bank. And what line of credit allows you to do is, you know, you. If you do run out of money this winter, you at least will tap into it next spring to make sure you get rolling.

And I wouldn't use that money necessarily to buy trucks and things, but I would buy it to, you know, market services or if you need to hire someone else, like, and have it in your back pocket. Because the last thing that you want to do, and this happened to me my second year is it came like, my second year came around. I was like, this is. I was super busy in the spring. Everything was great. But come June, July, I was like, man, if I could have had, like, a little bit more money to the market or hire someone else, like, I would have been Double what I was at, you know, that second year, right? And so you don't want to. You don't want to dry up on your cash come next spring. So right now, when you have the money and the bank looks at you and like, oh, you don't need this money. Of course we're going to give you a line of credit. That's when you want it. Like, if you come next spring with no money in your bank account and you're, like, stressed for it, they're not going to give it to you. That's when they look at your bank account, they're like, no, this guy's not dependable enough. And so if I was you, I'd try to get that now in your back pocket. Even if it's like 10 grand. That's like, we only have $25,000 line of credit. Because I only need it. Like, if something crazy happened, like, if I have a huge opportunity and I want to, like, throw a bunch of money in it, we'll need it. Like, we'll probably never use it. I use it once a year just to pull all the money in and pull it out, just to keep it active. And it's just there, right? And so if I was you, I'd apply for that. This as soon as possible. And so that way you can get it in your. And then maybe once a year, use some of it just to throw the cause as soon as you use it, you start paying interest. But 5 or 6% on a couple grand is a little bit of a fee that you can pay to have that confidence and then pay it back the next month. And so that's what I'd suggest doing just to make sure you have that ready for next year. And then as far as your employees, you know, I'd be looking for, you know, to train that guy, the one guy you have now, do whatever you can this winter to make sure you keep them. Like, you don't want to lose him. So, like, if you need to start, you have 84 customers. If you want to, like, market like crazy to them, like, one week. If you try to market to them on, you know, pressure washing one gutters, cleaning, you know, after a big storm, send him out, you know, try to keep him busy. Even if you break even on the jobs, just try to keep him busy, keep him in the loop, keep him motivated to keep working. Sell him on. You've probably heard this before from the podcast. Like, sell him on the. What you're going to do next year. I wouldn't like I don't know how much you trust him and stuff, but, like, I'd be, you know, showing him what your numbers you want to be hitting as far as, you know, how many guys do you want to have, like, so he can kind of feel like he's done the inside scoop. Because if he. If he's really that good, I'd be doing everything possible to keep him on board. So that next. So that next year you at least have one solid guy you can send out with a mower while you're with another one or two guys.

So I'd be shooting for that, like, and I think that's the biggest thing, honestly, right now is like, making sure you go into next year with one guy under your belt. Cause it'll give you the flexibility to get other people. Because if you go into next year and you don't have him, it's gonna be really hard to expand when you're gonna be training all the people you hire. Yeah, right.

Yeah. I think I'm pretty. He's pretty much sold into really wanting to invest himself into the business, so.

Good. Yeah, that's great. You know, get one or two other guys then that you can kind of, you know, mentor and be around more. After training him a lot during the winter on cleanups, communicating with the client, I'm gonna do a whole thing on this winner and I'll let you know when it's in the course. I'll try to remember, like you. Like you'll hear on the podcast, and it'll be just specifically training the employees to be more customer service oriented, like how to deal with the customers. And so it's a whole bunch of stuff we've been training at our company. And it's. This year has been incredible what it's done for us as far as me not having to deal with the customers after the sale. Like, the guys take over, they really own jobs, and it'll fleet free you up incredibly. Go out and get new, like that.

Idea a lot for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cuz if you can get them bought in on the business, that's like, great. But if you can get them bought in on customer service where they actually take it personal, like it's a big thing. Like, you've probably heard me talk about where we implemented it earlier this year, where if they do make a mistake on mowing and the customer calls them like, we don't. The office doesn't try to fix it. We just make an appointment for them to go back. At first, there was kickback to that like, not kickback, but they're like, oh, man, we're going to have to go back. They do that a couple times, and I promise you, they're taking a second look at every lawn that they do to make sure it's right. And they, they make it a matter of pride when they haven't got a call back in a month or two.

Yeah.

And then same thing with the cleanups. Like, I, you know, obviously you don't have a crew manager right now, but if you want to have a leader at each job site that you just have to check in on a couple times a day, at the beginning of the day, I'd introduce them to the client. I'd say, hey, this is, you know, Bob, and he's going to be your guy. He's going to be. I'm going to walk him through everything that needs to be happening and then make the Bob, at the end of the day, do the walkthrough with the client.

So they start owning the job. Right. And right now that's not super important. But once you get two, three guys and you need to be out there doing estimates all day and you can't be watching over them all the time, that'll be super important.

Congratulations on, you know, turning things around, everything. I wish you the best. Let me know like next spring if. If there's anything else that comes up. But if you did 10,000 monthly, this. So I'm guessing like this year you'll probably like a little under a hundred grand. That's kind of like what I did.

I'm really trying to get my customers on board, letting them know all the things I am offering. Kind of just keep it in their head because after I've noticed a lot of them had, you know, Scotts and everything like that, and also another maybe other landscapers and stuff. So I really want to get them in the door and kind of on the same page, say I offer all my services and also finding the incentives. I was also trying to actually do the same incentives. I heard from the last podcast you were talking about, you know, working with.

The leaves that you have the warm leads and other people. And also like, really, I just want to get my customers lawns looking amazing because I have a lot of them too that don't look good. And so I've also been offering a lot of lawn renovation and try and get them at a really good, decent price so I can get good before and afters and get future clients and raise the prices up for the following year and just open the door for a lot more opportunity and work like that.