His team needs a leader... will he step up? (Coaching w/ Mike Andes)

Today we're doing coaching with a $500,000 landscaping business called Edwards Lawn Care, and the owner, unfortunately left the state and abandoned the business. You're running away from the business, and the crew is starting to suffer from this poor leadership.

I'm so indecisive about everything in my life.

This is an extended version of the entire turnaround that you can view on my main channel. Mike. Andy, when it comes to all the systems and things you want to do in the business, the initiatives. Right. You simply have to prioritize them. Right. And right now, if the goal is I want to do a $500,000 business and take 100 grand to the bank every single year, if that's the goal, it is better leadership and you taking over the admin. And it would be a matter of every single morning you're at the shop, getting the crew ready to roll. You're gonna cut massive inefficiencies out because people showing up late. I know someone showed up late 20 minutes this morning. You know, they know what they're getting in terms of product and equipment for the day. There's not inefficiencies of driving back to the shop. They know their route. They're on pace. They're on schedule. You're the leader. Let. Yeah, you have a laptop inside of your truck, and you're gonna literally leave from the morning. You can do sales, you're gonna do estimates. You're gonna be able to do the estimates. You don't need to do this whole back and forth double entry into a spreadsheet. Cause you know the numbers. You're gonna put them in. You're gonna send the estimate to the customer way faster.

Yeah.

The invoices will actually go out, and I think you'll do all of what she's doing right now in a whole day, in an hour and a half. Mm.

I really feel that. I mean, when do I. When do I hire someone back on, though?

Because when you actually have a system to give them to me, like, do your job right now.

Let her go.

I, like, I just think that she's working an hour down and a half a day.

I know. I really know this. I mean, she's. I have a text message. We've gotten into it a couple times. I mean, not like, yeah, over text message. And like, one thing she said the other day is she's like, I don't think you realize I'm only one person. I'm doing the invoicing, the call calls, emails, Facebook. I'm like, I used to do all of that and work.

Yeah. Well, this is the thing. At 500,000, you probably need almost full moon, full time. Yeah. I think you're doing most of the work and then she's just like checking the boxes.

She does a lot. I mean, she does do a lot of things, but it's like I have to oversee everything.

You're doing it vicariously. That's what I'm saying. That's what I said. I'm saying is if you just did the work and then create a system for it, because you don't actually know how a lot of these things are working because you've been like, so hands off for so long. You almost need to get back into the business, understand how things work so that you can create systems. Yeah. Otherwise you're Monday morning quarterbacking everything from the sidelines.

Yeah.

Like, you got to get off the sidelines, back into the game, play quarterback a bit to understand your team, how this game works so that then you can go make the play calling. Yeah. Then you can be like, okay, I know the strengths and the weaknesses. I know how this operationally works. I can create systems around checking email and what folders I need to be putting those in, how to do it fastest, how to block out, like, you. One filter, for example. Have a filter inside your. Your Gmail. Yeah, yeah. But a filter for Gmail for any work. Any email has the word unsubscribe, 80% of email is gone.

Set a filter for any. Any email that has the word unsubscribe, it's sent to your archive. It's all spam. Like, I just saw your email.

Oh, it's terrible.

80 to 90% of that is just spam.

Yeah.

So get rid of all of that with one filter.

Okay. I need to learn how to do that.

Like, Right. It's literally a filter. Any. Any email that has the word unsubscribe, just put it to my archive.

It's a lot of little things like that that I just haven't learned yet.

But you won't be able to learn them until you're in the game.

Yeah.

Right. You're just like, you're. You're delegating by abdication, which is like, I don't see it. The admin is taken care of, then the crew shows up in the morning, and I just hope they kind of get going in the. And like, let's. Until something breaks. Like, I hope everything goes well.

Yeah.

Right. And so delegation by abdication, like that is like a recipe for disaster. Yeah. And the Crew doesn't know, you know, they are so disconnected from, like, the business, from you, why the business exists. You're going to always have churn. The fact that you have one guy that's been your unicorn is the reason this business exists.

Yeah.

Because without that, you would be forced to be over there and be playing quarterback. Yeah.

I knew this. I definitely knew this was coming. And it's like, I need to be in there. It's just like.

It seems like every time I try and get something started or fixed, I'm just so indecisive. I don't want to mess up again. I feel like I've just been.

When did you mess up last?

Well, really leaving, but it's like, when the guys, like, left me or it's just like, sometimes, like. Like I said, I just feel like I'm, like, micromanaging them too much. And like, I have a. For instance, I have a point system I just created and I want to implement, but I'm scared they'll all.

I'll have to hire all new guys, you know?

Well, you probably would at this point because they would take whatever sort of like, Tracy's really good.

Which one was late today?

I don't know. The guy with the loops, that's Levi.

He's really came a long ways, which is all fine.

Like. But I don't blame the guys because without the leader there, that's what they're going to do. They're going to take the path of least resistance. That's just human nature. I don't blame a crew person anytime. It's always leadership's fault. Right. Any problem in my business is ultimately my fault. Yeah. And so.

But they need a leader. And without Tracy, like, the business is nothing.

Yeah, for sure.

And so it's just a matter of, like, we have to. Number one, that is the. Like. We can talk about point systems, we can talk about systems, we can talk about all the things on this whiteboard. But ultimately, it's a bottom line of we have a bottleneck, that if one person left this company, you'd probably have to cut it in half or be in the field every single day, eight hours a day. As a business grows past $500,000 and it's important to have strong leadership, it's also important to have accountability at every single level of the organization, including frontline team members that are on the customer's property. Let's see if we can create some structure and compensation systems to make sure this happens. Do they want to be out of salary or do they, like, salary?

So they. I think.

They didn't like the idea of going to it, but my thought on it was it's like I can control, like, how many hours there are within.

Right.

And then they. They liked. I told them we're gonna have a meeting at the end of the year with my accountant, and, like, we're gonna compare, you know, the hours that you worked, and I'm gonna make everything all right. And like, Levi especially, he's like, I just don't believe, like, you're gonna pay all that. I'm like, I promise you something, I'm gonna do it. So, like, I made up for all that pay.

And then like, I keep saying we're gonna go to P4P. You're, you're. You should make the same amount of money with the way you guys work. You know, 20 to $30 an hour.

Just.

I haven't got. I haven't got to that point yet. And here we are another season, and I haven't gotten the things done I wanted. I want done. I mean, I have done a lot in the past 10 months, but there's. I don't know, it's. From the outside looking in, it's like, probably just screwing off, but it's like. I mean, there's a lot of things to do in a business, especially once you get to this size and like, you know, this admin position, I just feel like I've been. I've been trying to figure that out for so long, and the further that we go, I just feel like I'm doing more and more of her work. And like.

I mean, I've been biting my nails waiting for this, but, like, I've been up late night just thinking, like, I'm probably gonna have to take that position over eventually. I think that's. I think it's the answer.

How many estimates are you doing a day, like, from a sales perspective right now?

I just started the month. The monthly letter thing.

Yeah.

And that's been awesome. I probably. I would on average, three to five.

Okay.

I mean, every day is different.

Yeah. So let's pull up estimates for like, say this past week on yard or is it in here? Okay.

Yeah. So sometimes I like, if it's a.

A lot of these are smaller jobs.

Right.

This is why I've been so attracted, like, to what, what you do. It's simple services.

Not everyone. I make a invoice for, like, if it's. Or I mean, estimate. Yeah. And that's.

Because, like, if it's hourly.

Yeah.

You Know, and we've. I just tell them, you know, I can't. It's really hard to price this workout.

Yeah.

I don't know how other guys do it. I'd love to learn a better way. So this is. I guess this is one she has measured out.

Okay. For mowing.

For mowing.

Okay.

We don't have to go there. We just measure.

Yep.

But she doesn't have a proper research. That's fine. So, I mean, grass cutting 120.

Yep.

I mean, it should say in the notes, you know, this is like, this is your price. We cut 20. Like, I have a whole spiel. Every time I talk with someone, I say, hey, we cut 27 to 30 times.

So in your product and service, can't you create like a description that's standard? So instead of putting like, leaf removal, 150 bucks, or by the hour, like grass cutting $120, is there any way to give more description of what that job actually entails? Like when you put job notes there, why is that not going on the estimate?

Like just giving more details and clarity of what the job actually for the customer?

Yeah, I guess. I mean, we could be doing that.

Because if you get. Think of. In the customer's point of view, if you get two estimates, one of them says, hey, you're gonna. You're gonna property cleanup for $2,000. And the other one has property cleanup, and it lists out the eight different things they're going to get on their property. That's including that property cleanup. I promise you, they will value that so much higher. Yeah, right. And so otherwise, and if you're five, six weeks booked out, you're not going to remember what property cleanup means in five or six weeks. So guess what you're going to do? You're going to be on the bottleneck because the crew's going to have to ask you every question for sure.

This is so like, whenever I have.

I mean, this is at the bottom of estimates, like grass cutting, what it is, what it entails. And when I send out an estimate, like, this is our terms of service. I don't know if that's necessary to be on there, but.

But you expect the customer to see the estimate and scroll to the very bottom and see the grass cutting terms of service. Click on here. Yeah. So why. Why is this not like on the estimate?

I mean, this is on estimate.

So what does the estimate look like? Sorry, I just not super.

Oh, no, you're fine. I could print it out so you can see.

Even if you just. Yeah.

Can we scroll down?

Can you like, see what the customer sees? Like, if they. If they click on, like the link to this or whatever, what do they see they see? If you click print, do they see kind of like a PDF version of this? Like this? Yeah, perfect. Okay, scroll down.

Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll.

Scroll, scroll. Okay, so there it's like page four to see what grass cutting means. But what they're doing is they're looking at this one thing at the top, which is grass cutting.

Yeah.

Right. So I would recommend have the description of whatever this item and services right here.

So whenever I do it here, something I've. It just drives me nuts. I'm trying to get everything set up so I can pull a report on everything.

So I'll tip like when I'm making the invoices. Like, I'll. Especially on like we call it side work. Anything that's not mowing, I'll put notes down here. There's little things like this that I'll tell Holi and it's just forgotten.

But why would you not put it in the estimate? Why would you put it in notes or terms and conditions or like the fourth page of the estimate?

I. I don't know. That's just like something that hasn't been fixed or I haven't worked on.

Because, like, this is, I'm assuming is only here because there's mowing on the estimate. So she adds these based on what's in the estimate. Like, so if there was no mowing, this would not show up.

Yeah, I don't believe that would show up. If there's a mount, I think it's triggered whenever you click grass cutting.

Okay. Like we can. If you can format it basically in a way that, like, hey, when I put grass cutting, I see what that includes. And ideally, instead of having to pay. Scroll down to page four. It says perimeters in the spots and what is. You know, hard surfaces will be cleaned and the weekly service will continue season until canceled. Because I guarantee you the vast majority of customers are not seeing this. This. I'd say like 50, 60, 70% do not see this. Yeah, they just see grass cutting.120 and then accept it or reject the quote.

It drives me crazy. I feel like I'm like, should I be working from home? Like, I want an office space so bad.

And it just stresses me out. That lease is. I don't know if you've seen it's for sale. Yeah. And that price is going down so much. I want to buy it, but I've kind of messed up my money, you know, 20% down. Like, that's what I've been trying. That's why I initially hired this other coach was like. Because I don't. I'm not confident in going and buying another place and, like, doing it all right. Like, his goal was to get me to pulling more revenue so I can put a. Like a down payment on a place. And, I mean, there's a lot of other costs.

How much do they want for that place?

That place right now, 267.

Got it.

It's not bad. No, but I can't burn there. Wait, 20 down on that would be 50 grand.

Would he do a lease to own?

I tried so many times. Just think about owner financing. Like, it's been for sale forever. You haven't, you know, you haven't sold it.

Could you lowball them like 200 maybe?

I doubt he'd take it. He's came down from 300 to 267. So he'll take 400 with both those buildings.

Oh, he'll take 200, maybe, yeah. Have you looked into financing at all?

Not commercially.

Just. Just go ask a banker. I could say, hey, if I get. If I had this for 200,000, what could I get down on this? You could potentially.

20% down, right.

Well, you could also get an SBA 504, which is way less than that.

So.

SBA 504.

Yeah. Hey, we're adding to the wall of text. I know there's so much. So 504 loans gonna be basically for real estate for your small business. And so with your current balance sheet and profit and loss statement, I think you could get a loan for 504 on 200,000. Your. Your, your mortgage isn't gonna be a whole lot more than your rent.

Yeah. So. And that's what I'm trying to think. It's like, should I have. It's like, that's okay. How much do you have to put anything down?

Usually 10%.

10%?

Usually. It just depends.

It's better than 20.

Yeah. And then they only. The SBA loans are only really made for if you can't get conventional financing. Like, that's why the SBA exists. And they're gonna be better rates than conventional, etc.

So I'm pre qualified right now for 450.

For a regular house. Yeah, regular house.

I've been trying to find the perfect location where it's close. Close.

Do a shop space and all that sort of thing.

Yes. So there's not down time. And I like I just dream of having a rental portfolio.

Yeah.

That's what I want. I want property. I mean, you have property. That's been my dream forever, and it just. I haven't made it happen. I want to rent this place out. That's why I fixed it up and I did it, you know, cheap as I could.

And, like, I want. My. My thought is, was with everything, like, what I dream. What I dream of happening is making enough money with this business where I'm happy and proud of it and where it allows me to invest into rental property.

And that's why I have that FHA loan ready to go. Now. I don't.

They were going.

Some of that was based off of how much money I had in the account. Now I have half of that or, you know, less than.

But, hey, an FHA loan, if you can get something for, say, 300,000, has a house and a shop on it, is going to be better.

That's the dream. Yeah. I found the perfect location.

It was.

I called it the unicorn. It was five acres. The shop was 40 by 100. It was a nice home. That rent out easily is right outside of Springfield where everyone wants to live. And I got outbid by 10 grand. And then it's just like, my agent keeps sending me things, but it's just like, I want to wait to talk to you to see what you think about that whole situation and how far away I can justify being like, the further you go out of Springfield.

Yeah.

You can find someone so much cheaper.

Yeah.

But it's the drive time, the window time. I think I calculated it for just 30 minutes. For four guys, it's like seven grand a year.

Yeah.

And it's just like, I get hung up on so many things like that. Like, I think I'm a perfectionist to a sense. I watched another turnaround, and you said that about someone else. That's me.

Well, like, you're trying to figure out every single detail of the business, and it's preventing you from taking action on the things that are actually going to move the needle on all of them.

Yeah.

Right now. And that's where it's like, there's, like, three things we need to focus on. One is you getting back in daily operations and being a manager, not an architect and some massive CEO running on from afar.

Yep.

Virtually. It's like, I'm a manager, and I'm going to get in to make this thing more efficient. Because that's what a manager does, is they create systems, they create procedures, but you can't do that remotely. Never seeing your crew, they're haphazardly running the business. Your admin doesn't have any structure. You can't do that. Number one, getting back into the business. Right. Number two is we have to focus on the long term objective of getting security on a personal level. And that is getting a relationship that you can be proud of. That you feel like when you go to work, you're trying to build something for.

I feel like it takes. So I feel like sometimes I'm just like it's going to take away from my growth, but it'd probably be good for me. Like my. These like holes would be filled 100%. You know, it's just like all these.

Doubts and the lack of confidence started when the last relationship ended.

Yeah.

And now you know what not to do to not mess up the next one. Yeah. Right. You're going to have the structure.

That's. That's what it is. And not having systems just.

So that's why it's like, that's why number one is jump back into the business. Because then when you get number two, you'll be ready for it. Yeah, right. The business will be more profitable. There'll be systems in place. You'll have structure. Like I work from 8, I get off at 6 and I'm all yours. I'm not working on Sundays. Like I'm going to be focused on you. Right. And then that's why number two will come along.

Yeah.

Like, don't just focus on that. All this other stuff is minutia. Like you can only focus on one or two things. You only need to focus on one or two things. Like that's why I just say two things. We didn't talk about software. We didn't talk about any of this stuff.

So let go of, I mean P for P for now.

Don't worry. Yeah, don't worry about it. No, forget it.

I just keep paying for it because I'm like, I'll get it figured out. But now spring's here, I'll scare this.

Just focus on these two things. If you did those two things in the next 12 months, like everything else, you'd be. You have the confidence to pull the trigger on P4P. You have the confidence to stop doing the, the, the putting them on salary. You'd have the confidence to like pull like you would have made the extra $10,000 on the unicorn property. You would have had the confidence to do all of these things.

Yeah.

That's why it's like I don't Care about all this stuff. There's always a hundred things to fix. In any business, including my own, there's a gazillion issues. One or two of them is the only thing that you're focused on. Right. And so identifying that is the hardest part in business. Cause, like, otherwise, you will go a hundred different directions and get nothing accomplished.

Yeah.

So, like, it is, number one, get into the business and be a great manager. Be there every single morning. Make sure you know everyone's going through, understand what they're thinking all the time. Be able to give them their point of contact. Have this set up in the shop. Know. Know that you can be there and be productive. So if you're waiting for them at the end of the day, you can still get stuff done.

Yeah.

Admin completely. You can do that yourself, I think, in an hour a day. And it'll be done better and the business will grow just by you being in the weeds with them a little bit more instead of just, okay, figure it out. Cross your fingers, crossing your eyes and hoping it works out. You'll figure out there's repetitive processes, like having Excel spreadsheets, when everything can be done in one system. Yeah. That'll fix so many problems. You'll create a business that in 12 months is more profitable, runs more efficiently, has systems in place. Yeah. And I don't need to even give you the blocking and tackling of the systems. You know which ones. You've already said all the systems you need to do. Cutting out people that are far away, reducing drive time, implementing pay for performance. You already know what to do. You don't have the confidence to pull the trigger on any of these things.

Yeah.

So, like, do that. And then number two is like, we've got to figure out the relationship. And I know it's like, funny and no one wants to say it because, like, soft skills, but that is, like, the fundamental issue in terms of what I see. And it'd be different if you would never have had a relationship, because you wouldn't know what that was like to have someone that you go to battle for every single day and you care about and you're building a future for. And once you lose that, though, it's like you're wondering in the wilderness. Yeah.

Yeah. Really.

That's why you go to California and figure out, should I move someplace else? Should I do a different business? Should I just do real estate? Like, all of that stuff is simply a matter of not having direction.

Yeah.

If you're just given the key, the unlock to that next stage of growth. Like we talked about today with Edwards Lawn Care, it can absolutely happen for your business. If you're tired of bumping up against a revenue marker, tired of bumping up where you can't get out of the field or you can't start working on your business, book your tickets today for yourself, your spouse, and your manager@bluecollarsummit.com.