Gym Owner, Author, & Landscaper (EPIC FAIL!)

Hey everyone. Today is gonna be a little bit different of a video. Right now I'm in Anytime Fitness, the.

Club that I own here in Blaine.

And we're closed down right now due to the coronavirus. And so today I'm actually gonna be.

Doing some workouts here in the gym. We're gonna film those and give them to the members of the club.

But I figured today I'd have you come along, kind of see what we're up to.

We're gonna do some stuff in the gym here.

We're gonna go do some drive by.

Estimates, we're gonna go to the Bellingham shop, kind of go around the town a bit.

So welcome to kind of a day in the life.

And first of all, we're gonna do some work, can video them and send.

Them to all the members that can't.

Be at the gym right now.

Everyone. So we are now headed to Ferndale, Bellingham, Lynden to do some drive by estimates a day. We're making some videos for the franchisees, how to do drive by mowing estimates. So we're doing some training videos and figured bring you along for the ride. And the reason we're doing this today is because.

Watching this now you know what's going on with the whole coronavirus thing. And so what it's caused is a lot of project based work being put on hold since the economy's really taking a hit and people are pretty worried and afraid about it. A lot of our target market is retirees that have money in retirement and a lot of questions in fear right now. So projects and things can be put off, but recurring maintenance can't be, especially if they're older, they don't have equipment, they physically cannot do their mowing. The grass continues to grow, the weeds continue to grow. They have to be maintained the properties, especially if their property is one of their biggest assets, their house itself. And so mowing is an essential service. And so if we do load on into a shutdown, we'd be able to continue doing that. And so we're really kind of taking advantage of this. And as most of you know, I've talked a lot in the past few years, really since 2016, about the chance of having another recession, having another downturn and what to be focusing on coming up to that point. And then during that time. And so even a couple years ago at the conference, we talked so much about keeping cash right now, paying off debts, being anti fragile, making sure that you aren't over leveraged and so that you can keep cash that when the next recession does come, the next economic collapse does come, you can actually capitalize on it. And so that's what we're actually trying to do today. Our state last weekend went into. They closed all the restaurants down. Our gym got closed, all gyms got closed. Most hotels are closed. And so just kind of a really changing, fearful kind of time for a lot of people. And so what we're doing is we're doubling down on what we can do, and that's mowing and recurring services and focusing on building up that recurring revenue. And I've said this before time and time again about people that the past 10, 15 years, because the economy's been good, the money has been in the projects because you can go out and you sell 50, $60,000 projects, you sell five of those, and now you've got a pretty decent sized business. Well, now that money is not there. People are pushing off those big projects. They're delaying them because they're just afraid. They don't know what's going to come. Their retirement is. Their 401k is disappearing. And so we're really trying to focus on the mowing and the things that really are the recurring revenue. Dr. And stable rent, cash flow right now. And so yesterday for all the franchisees, we made a document in service Autopilot where we basically pitched Boeing services. And where they click, with one click, they can order an estimate. So they click the button, it triggers an estimate to be made for them. And what we did in that estimate is basically addressed COVID 19 and everything that everyone's going through and said, hey, because of that, we're changing our parameters around giving estimates. And so no longer do you need to meet someone in person. You can just click this button and within 24 hours we'll have an estimate to you.

All right, so this is the house we're looking at right now.

And on my phone here I'm looking at as well, because we're not trying not to get on the property today. So again I'm looking. I can tell that they've already mowed this this season. So either they might have had a provider do it and they're not happy with them, which I can tell the edging job is either amateur, just horrible because it wasn't done. It's possible they did this themselves and they just realized it was too much work. But this is the property. How much of it you can see, but pretty small.

Lots of moss.

Definitely a treatment option. Backyard's pretty small. You can see that from the Google.

View as well as just looking at the property here. However there's a backyard gate and so only the push mower would be able to be used in the back. And really the front is so hilly it all have to be push mower too. So on this one, this one's a little more straightforward and do mowing.

Let.

Me go ahead and do 45 and then I'm going to do for bi weekly I'm going to do 67, 50, 50% more and I'm going to do include treatment.

Prices and do basic.

So based upon what I'm looking at they're probably not going to be the type of person that does premium package but you can include that definitely. But I can tell that they have a lot of moss, I can tell some of it's been turned brown. So they've obviously used moss out before or something with iron. But I would traditionally not give this person a premium package just because their property value and what they obviously letting weeds go off in the property, stuff like that is probably not, probably not necessary. So definitely the basic treatment package and I think that's it for now. So done save, it's complete now it's being sent to the command center and they'll send that to them in a few minutes.

And so in the past we did drive bys as well but really never looked at it as like a selling feature. Some people like to meet people in person but in this email we really picked it as a positive kind of a highlight that we're trying to help the community by doing these drive by estimates, practicing social distancing. They don't have to come out of their house because a lot of them are corn. A lot of them if they're older, they don't want to be around younger people that could possibly give them the virus. And so it just reassures them that we're looking out for their best interest, we're looking out for their safety but we're also making sure that as we come into spring we are taking care of their property as the grass is growing. Yesterday afternoon around 4pm the office sent out the email with that one click estimate and we got about 30 replies so far that afternoon. So I think between 4 and 6 all those estimates they put on for me today and I had about 25 and so they'll probably get another 25, 30 today. And so that's really the power of again I've talked about this before, the power of having all of your clients database and staying in touch with them with a Newsletter having the one click estimate. These are all things we talked about for so, so long. And for some people they've laughed. Some people they just kind of turned a deaf ear to it. Some people have said they don't need to do emails and do email newsletters because they're already getting so much business and word of mouth and they're so great that everyone comes to them. But these are the times when the economy starts to constrict the proves who's been paying attention their business and focusing on the longevity and the sustainability of their marketing systems and their business in general. Whether it be cash flow, whether it.

Be how much cash you have on.

Hand, whether it be marketing, having the database of emails, having where you've been emailing them already every month so it doesn't go to their spam filter when all of a sudden you're like, oh, I need to send monthly newsletters. This is not the time to be reactive. This is the time to be proactive and put your foot on the pedal and really go on the offensive. Right now people are not spending money on marketing. Traditionally this time of every single lawn care company is doing door hangers, flyers, every door, direct mail. They're doing Google Ads, they're doing Facebook ads. Right now, they're not. Some people I know in our community haven't even started mowing lawns. We've been doing it for about two, three weeks now consistently and three weeks now. And so this is the time to really be on the offensive, not just defensive. What you do not want to do is wake up in two months and your big excuse is that you're not going to grow this year because the coronavirus I'm going to be and the franchisees of Augusta Lawn are going to be the ones that prove you wrong and that you can grow during these times. If you built a sustainable business without over leveraging yourself and you have systems in place and you have marketing systems in place, this is the time you can actually grow and expand into the marketplace because all of your other competitors are not spending money on marketing. Your cost per click on Google is going to be less. Your cost per customer acquisition costs are.

Going to be less because no one.

Else is out in the marketplace. Restaurants are closed down, they aren't spending money on marketing, they aren't the gyms, they're all closed down hospitality, they're closed down down flying flights and they're not advertising. And so when they're not advertising, it drives your customer acquisition costs down. And this is the time if you have cash if you actually save money. During the times of prosperity and economic everything was going well. This is the time you can spend that money and get stuff for pennies on the dollar. You can get customers for pennies on the dollar. You can really expand in the marketplace when no one else is doing door hangers and there's no one else trying to promote brand awareness. You can be the one that stay in front of the customer. So when things do pick up, because they will when things do pick up, that you're front and center in the mind of the customer because you've been the one in the marketplace putting your name out there. And so that's what we're really trying to practice today. I haven't done estimates for the local shop in a long, long time, but I'm trying to be an example for even our local shop of like, we are focused on mowing, we're focused on recurring revenue. And number one, I don't want any of the employees to fear for their job. And then two, I want to make it very clear to the franchisees, like, this is what we need to be doing at this time. We need to be focusing on recurring revenue, focusing on mowing, and using the systems that we've put in place for marketing, like the one click estimate to be able to focus on this time when everyone else is contracting.

This is our time to really expand and grow.

So we're going to do some training videos, come along for the ride, and.

We'Ll touch base occasionally throughout.

All right, so this next one's pretty straightforward.

You can see we're in a neighborhood, a lot of cookie cutter houses.

Literally.

I'm not there yet, but I already know really what this price is going to be because all these are the same houses, same grass pattern, same square footage. I'm just making sure this is not two feet long, which in this type of a neighborhood, it's not going to happen. So we're looking at for 47.

Right here. All right, so this is it right here, 4761.

So usually I would probably get out.

And just take a gander in the back of the lawn, backyard. But again, all these are the same property size. What I'm going to do is I'm going to go into my satellite image on maps, zoom in, just make sure the backyard isn't crazy big. And most properties like in this type of neighborhood are going to be your minimum price because you can already tell, like there's hardly any lawn. So, yeah, sure enough, the backyard isn't super big. There's a backyard gate. The grass isn't going to be long. The edges aren't really like crazy overgrown packages. Package options.

Save.

Start, job, stop job. Is it complete? Yes.

So that is what a very quick and standard estimate can look like.

And if you have a lot of.

Properties like this in your area, you can do, you know, 30 of these drive bys in a day just because they're so quick. But that's a fast one. So that's kind of it for today. Hopefully that helped you guys a little bit. I wanted to kind of cement sort of how to do those notes for mowing estimates like that. I know most of you have been pretty solid on it. We know it Command center. That means $50 weekly, $75 BI weekly. And I highly encourage you on any property you think it's possible to include those treatment options. Doesn't cost you any more at command center. And they'll do all the calculations for you in terms of the cost of variation, thatching, fertilization. They'll do all that for you easing your pricing.

So hopefully that helped today.

And we'll probably do a couple more.

Of these for landscaping jobs in the future.

But right now we really want to focus on being able to do these drive by estimates. Especially when you got a bunch of them stacked up in one day. So Best of.

Sam.

Cool. Anything you need from me?

No, I was gonna ask you a question. There's a couple of people came in wondering if we were open. I just kind of said no.

No. Yeah, we're talking.

No, no. What are the 20 materials?

One guy was and the other didn't say. He asked if the one in semi.

AMU was open though.

Yeah, so we used to be in.

Semi but we don't have a shop anymore that we moved here and then.

We don't even do materials.

Yeah, that's kind of. I remember I read that song.

Yeah. So yeah, we are close. Yeah, you don't have to worry about that. And it shouldn't happen much.

Like maybe once or twice y two people came. So I was just like oh, I hope this isn't going to happen all day.

People are coming. So are you. Did she have like a list of stuff for you to do and all.

That and then do you think it'll fill your whole day probably yeah.

Like halfway through the trucks and then I'm try to get to the trailers and stuff.

We got some of them done last week. Right.

From all.

Yeah, I got. I did like three so I'll keep save Those for last until I get to them.

Get to them.

And then on the future like this.

We get a little more ahead of.

The game, a little clean.

I'll probably have a list of stuff too. Okay. Just like stuff like.

Front putting, sweater.

Cool. All right. Well, let me know if you need anything. Did Nathan drop by already?

No, he's coming at noon, so he'll be here soon.

Okay, sounds good. Thanks, David.

So this is the Bellingham shop.

It's a Saturday, so we just do.

A bunch of maintenance.

No one usually is. Usually we're not working here in terms of doing job.

So David comes in, washes all the trucks, does fuels up everything. And then Nathan, he's our mobile mechanic, he comes in here usually once a month and just looks over all the trucks. So we do have, as most of you know, cheaper trucks. We paint them so they look decent but does require maintenance. And so as long as you have good maintenance program, you're gonna. We don't have any trucks down hardly ever in terms of not being able to be used. So if you haven't seen the shop before, let me show you like a quick 360.

So all the trucks are parked up front there.

And then the trailerless trucks are on the other side.

You can't see those.

We got a couple skid steers and track loader here for bigger projects.

In the back is where we're able.

To dump all our material. This is where all our bulk materials are stored. We got four enclosed trailers, three dump trailers. All the trucks are parked along the road. Out front is a putting green retaining wall, kind of couple patios just kind of show up, show off what we do.

We are off grid.

So there's solar panels and we have a backup generator.

That's basically it. We got two acres next to this nice highway here. You rent this whole land for a thousand dollars a month.

But then we kind of put everything on top of it being mobile. So the office is mobile. We have those big red containers, the 8 by 40 storage containers.

Got three of those.

And then we got a metal shed in the back. All these blocks are mobile, so everything can be moved if we need to move the it. We'll either buy this property or something like that once our lease is up here in a few more years.

This is the office. We've probably seen this before too. But I just got to get a.

Couple things here from the computer today.

Our office manager, Liz, is working from home, and she just wanted a couple.

Files off of here. So we'll get this and we're gonna head to London to check out a.

Truck that we're thinking about buying. And we'll go from there.

All right.

So Lee, the estimator at Augusta lawn care whatcom county notified me of this truck that's here has little scratches and little dents. The work truck, it's always perfect for us. When they say it's not perfect on the description of the vehicle because we're gonna paint it anyways. So it's $6,500. It has 110,000 miles, four wheel drive, F250 2006. New starter, new battery, 5.4 liter gas engine, automatic transmission. I think I'm getting it for five grand. So we're gonna see if we can pull up the dealer.

This is right in our wheelhouse. Scratches, little dent action going on here. Love it.

Tires are decent.

Love it.

Seat covers are on it. Oh, there's nice seats, dude. Pretty nice in there. Actually.

I think I'd take it for five grand if it actually runs.

Good.

Sales is not their forte here at this car dealership. Been here for five minute for you. Back in the come out of the planting shoes. 30 yard.

That's fine.

Okay, let's go talk to him.

Hello.

I just thinking about that front work truck.

Okay, that is one of the railroad trucks I bought. Bought and I went through myself.

Okay.

Did a file of work that I had done to it. We bought five at a time. And these are ones that all had good service records behind them. That one I put.

New battery, new starter. I drove it for a week myself. I put different tires and wheels on it.

The bumper on the front, the bumper.

On the rear is new. I put those on because it was a maintained truck by the railroad, so they had to different types of bumpers.

All right, well, we got three minutes.

Till the bank closes.

We're at least six or seven minutes away from there.

We're going to try to make it and get the cash for this truck.

And then try to dangle it in front of the owner. Get a good deal. Here we go.

Pulling the bait.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

It's the time. It's one o' clock on there. But what's the actual time on your phone? Like 1:03, 1:02.

Close, close, close.

Come on, people. Just let me in. We're gonna pull up and see if they let us do it.

In the beg.

No, they let. They took out the cans. Sick.

No walking away. Let's try this one more. Lady.

So annoying. Oh, no.

Someone's behind me.

They're not going to let me do it now.

Come on, people.

Where's your customer service?

Or send us a tube. He had a tube in his hand. The two guys came to the thing. They're looking at the line there.

We actually closed up at 1 on Saturday. What you trying to do today?

I'm trying to just get a withdrawal.

Okay. Do you have your debit card? You can do any?

No.

Well, I need it for $5,000.

Okay. We don't have any more available at this point.

Yeah.

Are you trying to make a purchase directly with cash, or could you write a check for it?

No, it's for this truck, actually.

Okay. So Monday morning night is when we'll be opening it.

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Man. And that guy over there knows me. He wouldn't do it for me.

Sick.

D.

Epic disappointment. Failure.

Customer service atrocity. Pulling up one minute past the overtime. I understand the bank vault was locked.

Little update on the truck. Front left tire. The brakes are smoking. Never a good sign. Not much of a mechanic, but I know this one thing.

Okay, well. Well, that, folks, is what you call an epic fan. And a waste of two hours.

But.

Gotta keep fishing. Eventually catch a good one.

Hey, everyone, thanks so much for joining us for the day.

And hopefully something was said that you learned from. Hopefully just kind of showing you around.

What we were doing today, doing the.

Estimates, doing anytime fitness stuff, heading out here to do some more other things. But hopefully you learned something today.

Take care.