A short YouTube interview in which an owner asks Mike Andes how to define a meaningful "why" for a home-service business. Andes reframes modest-sounding goals (providing for family, creating stable jobs) as meaningful, counters social-media-driven ideas of "glamour," and recommends building the company purpose around creating well-paying, safe, stable jobs. He suggests turning values into measurable benchmarks (number of jobs created, home/car ownership, consistent pay), aligning team incentives (profit-sharing, benefits) with business goals, and communicating "what's in it for them" to employees.
Chapters
When I'm looking at my company, how do I come up with, you know, the why for everything? Because I know for me it's not going to be something I'm probably not going to change the landscaping industry. It's something much more simple. Like I want to provide for my family, make a good living, you know, provide a good environment for my employees. But I don't feel like my why is. Is really all that, I guess, glamorous. And I don't. I have a tough time figuring out what that is, I guess. What's your process to, you know, figure out what your why is?
Great question, great question. First off, respect your humility. Amazingly, for asking this question. I will say, I think, unfortunately, the definition of glamorous has been.
Marred massively by social media. It is not any small feat to provide for your family or to create a business that allows your employees to provide for their families. And so I would not understate or underestimate the impact that has on your business, on your employees, on their families, and on your community. You can create jobs in your community for a fraction of what the government does. That sounds like a pretty good ideal thing to be doing. And so, you know, do we want to have these massive goals, ambitions, and the whys that drive our team? Potentially, yes. But I would say you're probably underestimating what creating a safe place to work that's paying people really well, that they have a consistent, you know, income and they can provide for their families and do so when they go home, they feel full instead of empty that you pour into them when they leave and they go back to their families and they actually have something to give their families instead of being so drained because everything at work took it out of them. And so if, if you want to build that sort of why it really has to come from you, like what makes you tick is important. Obviously we need to make money. Obviously the employees need to make money. But then what's the next layer behind that? The fact that you even ask the question tells me you care a lot about your team and about the community. And so I would build the why around that and is like, if it is to create X amount of jobs, if it is to be able to provide a certain amount of living standard for your team, like how many people buy houses, how many people are able to get their rental by themselves or own their own car debt free. These are the type of benchmarks you can use to get towards the end result of, like, I want to create a great paying job for My family that can provide for them. And if I get hit by a bus, the business can still run. And I want my team members to be able to be proud of the job that they have, the work that they do. And when they go home, they're not empty, they are full. That sounds like an awesome why.
Okay, great. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. That kind of brings me back. And you think that would be something if I present that to the team? That would. Because I know there's all these other bigger companies that have these, you know, I guess. And I know, you know, I know that's still, you know, my why could still be good. I just have a tough time seeing how I could get a whole team of motivated people, you know, just by, I guess, my why being something as simple as, you know, providing a good. A good stable income for families and things. But you think that's. That's still something that my team would kind of be on board with.
Here's the thing. Your team cares less about the massive goals and missions and all the rest of it than the thing they came to work for. And as a paycheck that's consistent and a place that they can come that is safe and they like working there. And so, yes, we can have big goals and dreams, and that will drive the more entrepreneurial type of person inside your organization. And the fact is, the fact that you think the other missions are great and big is because you're a business owner and you're comparing yourself to what other business owners are doing. But when you're presenting something to the team, they want to know what's in it for them, right? So changing the level of professionals in the landscape industry is our goal. But my team still shows up every single day wanting to know what's in it for them. And so I've got to make that clear and I got to have profit sharing or I've got to give them a benchmark of here. If you hit this revenue, if you hit this profitability, here's what I can do for you. And so if your goals are aligned with these things, keep marching towards the goal of changing the level of professionals in the industry, because I'll make sure your goals and dreams happen over here. So if you want healthcare, if you want dentist, if you want a 401k and you can retire here and work here for 20 years, here's the things I need done, right? And then there's an exchange of value and we're all happy and So I would not underestimate just how important it is to focus on your team in the why and not just your own ambitions and.
