Coaching call between Mike Andes (coach) and Nick (Augusta Lawn Care franchisee) about how Nick can step out of day-to-day field work and scale his landscaping business. Main advice: simplify offered services to tasks that are easy to train (mulch, weeding, simple sod installs), avoid technical/machinery-heavy jobs or occasional complex jobs (flagstone, retaining walls) unless done monthly or more; if a service won't recur monthly, cut it. Operational guidance includes pricing to cover owner involvement, adding fees when demand is high, and monitoring lead flow before cutting services. Short-term revenue target discussed: ~ $35,000/month; cited recent figures: $36k earned last month and $47k collected.
Questions this video answers
Approximately $35,000 per month.
Earned $36,000 last month and collected $47,000.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like I was doing, I was thinking this the other day, like, probably like the most, I guess, like complicated thing I do is like to put into small like retain holes. But even like it's not even retaining a small garden holes. I'm thinking like, like even that right now. It's like I'd be there to do those jobs and stuff. And I'm saying like, you know, they're good money and stuff, like revenue wise. But I'm thinking of like, even cutting that. Just like literally sticking to like mulch, weeding, you know, sod installation, even that. Like I have to be there.
So like. Yeah, I guess it's kind of what you're saying is just like cut back on the concrete stuff. Like would you say just sticking with like, like super simple, like literally mulch weeding.
Or would you say. Or do you think I should say in like a little small retain wall job, dog insulation? Like, is that easy to train people to do down the road?
Honestly, if I was you, I'd stick with the simple stuff because it's not like the labor force is getting more educated in terms of or experienced as time goes on. It's the other way around. You're gonna get more and more people when you hire them. They have less experience, less work experience in the outdoors. So like just, just prepare for that now by not even taking that work on. Right. And, and then that way you don't have pictures of it on your website. That way it's not like it's out there. Like, it's challenging for us to pull back our services now because we have pictures of flagstone patios and retaining walls and all the rest of it, right? No, just focus on those things. Like you can make, you can scale this business no problem from a revenue standpoint without adding those services. Like, why would you do that? Right? So I'd highly recommend just be really disciplined about that. Cause you're not gonna have a problem getting work otherwise. So like, I would stick to, you know, mowing maintenance in terms of property cleanups. And then for landscaping, it's like installing of material that's easy. You know, anyone can do a wheelbarrow and shovel basically.
Yeah.
Things like planting maybe, but even that, it's like there's a lot of different variations. Right? So just trying to create a simple model from day one. That's what I'd be pushing to do as much as possible.
Yeah, yeah. Would you like, do you guys do much stock? And like, for me, SOD is like, is like the Big revenue items usually. So I don't know, like, which that's something that you find is, like, relatively easy to teach people, or is that, like, I should just cut that as well?
We. We do do sod.
This is how I would judge it for you, Nick, is if you're not going to do the service once a month or more, just cut it all totally, completely.
So we just cut out another service, and that's flagstone. Just the. Because we just did a flagstone pathway and the same thing happened. Like, if. What are one or two, maybe three of our guys that were more experienced would have been on the job, probably would have been under budgeted, but because that didn't happen, it was over budgeted and it was like, you know what, let's just cut this all together. And it gets. It's quote unquote simple for most of our guys or the ones that have been around for a long time and have done landscaping, but, like, it's just not going to fit with the model we're trying to do. Right. So I would highly recommend if you don't do it once a month, cut it out.
Okay. Yeah, I can, like, I can definitely see next year, it being like more than once a month for sure.
But yeah, I already know, like, yeah, like, both my employees now, like, I know them both and, like, they're like, really, really good. I'm like, super grateful that I had both them for my first year. But, like, even with them, I can just. I can just already see how, like, employees is just a big, big part of the challenge. So, yeah, I guess I'll probably. I'll probably end up cutting that as well.
Like right now. If, like, for example, no saw it is usually pretty simple. So, like, don't cut that one too fast. Like, see how it goes. Maybe next. Next spring. Spring. Usually that's something you can train someone. It's like literally like, hey, do the edges this way, cut it this way, pound it in this way. Make sure you have soil underneath, whatever. But when you start getting technical things or things that require machinery, that's when it gets difficult. Right? Yeah. But, yeah, I'd say it's like a matter of asking yourself, especially next spring is like, as you start getting employees and you really can't afford to be out working with them because you're so busy with estimates, as that happens, you have to ask yourself every single time and that is, do I need to be on this job? Like, if you do the estimate and you're like, oh, I'll need to Be here for X part of the job. Don't take it. Right. Or price it out to wazoo to accommodate the fact that you're gonna have to be there. Yeah.
So would you recommend this year me starting to kind of think like that, or should I just like, build price shelves?
Right.
Should kind of be there just to kind of just for revenue sake this year or just right away, start kind of practicing for next year, having that mentality.
It's gonna depend on your lead flow. Right. So, like this next few months, our goal is to basically keep you around 35,000 in revenue. Last month you did 36. You collected 47. But, like, you know, if we did 35,000 earned the next few months, I'd be thrilled out of my mind. Now if you're getting so many leads that, like, you're struggling to stay up without having to hire someone else and get another truck, that's when I would say start implementing, like cutting sod out or cutting whatever out. Right?
Yeah.
As well as adding an E fee in. Right. So, like, as you know, it's the supply and demand. Like, if the demand is really, really high, that's when you can add the price. That's when you can start cutting things out so that just see how the leads feel. Like if you're. If you're only booked out two or three days and someone asks you if they can do a sod install, you're gonna say yes right now because you can be on the job. Right. And so, but if leads are, you know, coming in like crazy and you're just struggling to get estimates out, don't be accepting, you know, jobs that are gonna tie you to the job the whole time.
