Mike Andes meets Luke, who runs a $1.7M landscaping business in Ohio that's collapsing from employee turnover and burnout. Luke's toxic workplace culture has crippled operations, and Andes works to diagnose what's broken and how to fix it.
All of it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I've been doing. None of it matters. None of it's making a difference. None of it's moving the needle. It's just getting worse.
Today we're in Ohio visiting Luke with J and L Landscape.
I've described what I've been through the last three years as trying to change the tires on a car while it's driving down the road. Everyone who works here is either going to get fired or quit. This is where all landscapers come to die.
Luke made $1.7 million in revenue last year.
These guys have a clue what I'm dealing with. No matter how much effort or time and money I throw at it, I'm still running into the same brick walls constantly.
But right now has more credit card debt than he has money in the bank. I get the impression, like, you almost want to quit.
Oh, y. Yeah. Just completely burned out. My wife wants me to quit. My brother who used to work with me tells me I should quit.
And employees are leaving.
I don't enjoy managing people.
Employees are stealing from him.
I'm just not sure if it's worth it anymore.
We had a zero turn stolen yesterday.
Honestly, he wants to give up and his wife is kind of losing faith in him. This is hard to watch. Luke, can you do something like, is this even worth it?
It's really started to feel like it's never gonna turn around.
We don't make money. I don't trust them. I hate my job. I don't wanna come to work, and they don't wanna show up either.
It's never fun being told you're the problem. I know I'm the problem.
This is the business turnaround show. My name is the founder of Augusta Lawn Care, where we have over 175 locations around the world. And I travel the country fixing struggling businesses. Let's assume for a moment that you don't have bad intentions and you want what's best for them. Why would we not tell the truth?
I have told him as this has been a ongoing conversation. You're the reason I got high blood pressure.
We need to stop the poison in its tracks.
I mean, what if I am the poison?
Our goal is to give Luke a strategy to turn around the business in the next six weeks.
