I FIRED EVERYONE... I'll do it MYSELF

I have two days to turn this business around.

Really just feel like the business is like running me.

I don't have all the answers. We are trying to figure this out. Why are these people leaving?

I guess I just didn't really know how to address situations the best way.

I've already talked to your guys that you fire.

It was a hostile environment. Like my boss would scream, yell, cuss, break things.

Cameron needs to change the way that you deal with people. You'll always be an army of one. Always. I know how he's treated command center. I know how to treat other franchisees locally.

It's just one of them things where it's like if every person is saying the same thing, like you gotta address it.

We're all like almost like scared to say something.

Just getting started.

Be that way.

Is this a scam? Is this like the carrot on the end of the stick?

Maybe a phrase, the wrong word, but that's kinda how it looks.

And we're gonna have to change a lot. And I'm not gonna be able to tell you what to do all the time at your job. I'm gonna need you to be able to figure it out and bring solutions to me.

We just cap 135 locations for Augusta and never grow again. It's just too much headache for my brain. I'm Mike Andes, founder of Augusta Lawn Care that has over 135 locations around North America. Cameron wants to throw in the towel on his Augusta Lawn Care location. He's overbooked. He's turning down work and has turned off all leads that are coming in from command center. His whole team either recently quit or or got fired and no one wants to work for him. So without telling him, I booked a flight to Boise, Idaho to figure out why.

It's the weekend. I really want to swing by the shop and just see what shape it's in before Cameron knows that I'm in town. Really nice shop. This is incredible. He's an awesome spot. And if I remember correctly, he's only paying like 12 or 14 hundred dollars per month. This massive two shot bay and this great frontage in terms of commercial space. Now what's really kind of funny behind this is a hen house.

Okay. So you know when I show up to do a turnaround, we're going to check your equipment and it's unlocked.

Pretty clean, honestly.

Ow. And I appreciate it. Keep it open for me. I can spend the weekend in here, nice and clean. I know in my local market if we leave trucks and equipment unlocked they're going to be gone the next day. Oh well, these are. Oh man, I like these sprayers. I'll give them a favorite. Oh wait, someone drilled out. Look at that. Someone drilled this lock out.

I did that because they sent the key didn't work for the. For the lock. So they're like just send it back. And I'm like draw out to steal the gasket. I guess they can really have if they want it.

All right, so they. Someone's tried to steal from it before cuz they drilled that lock up. Or maybe he doesn't want it lock. Okay, so we got some fuel, we got a nice little battery. We were able to get that truck because it was unlocked. And actually now I need a big battery and I need a hydraulic system. So is there a reason why they have locks on these? It obviously looks like Cameron's mental state is affecting his business and a lot of the little things are beginning to slip through the cracks. I wonder what else I'm going to find when I surprise Cameron tomorrow morning at his team meeting by showing up.

All right, so we've already driven by a couple times. Looks like there's someone without a uniform helping him today. I don't know. He's lost a lot of people, so it could be just him and this other guy.

What's up, dude?

Good to see you, man.

Yeah, doesn't expect to drive by. I was like, who is this guy you were always pulling in here?

Oh, really needed like a turnaround.

Yeah, I know. When he saw him coming, I was like, oh, sweet. I was expecting him to show up, but yeah, that was definitely a nice surprise. And I think it'll be helpful for me to get like, kind of like recharge my batteries his first day.

Cool. Good stuff, man. So is it just the two of you today then?

Yeah. So Kyle, I was telling you and I was trying to explain to him it was me and four other guys we were having major problems with. Three out of the four guys.

Yeah.

So last Thursday I had to. Just two Thursdays ago I had to just let everyone go.

I've only been here for 60 seconds and I can already tell that Cameron is struggling mentally. First, some of his equipment was unlocked on the weekend, but now he's telling me that he lost four employees in the past couple weeks and he doesn't even know how many budget hours or how much work is on the schedule.

From like being like everything's going great to like, you got enough works coming in, enough employees to just like, you know, Back to square one.

Knowing we make around like 20,000. So we're writing 30 is like projects.

Right.

So definitely most of it's still been projects. Yeah, that's like the money maker there. So I definitely don't want to just turn that off. Just we do have like probably four projects that need to be done. Yeah, they just happen right before all that crap happens. So I had to tell them.

Yeah.

But yeah, ultimately, what do I want?

I don't know.

I just want to be able to feel like I'm in control. I really do feel like I'm probably gonna get emotional because it's really hard.

Really just like businesses like wanting me since super hard in that aspect. So.

Just some, I don't know, just some guidance to kind of get things back into shape. So I don't feel like I'm losing everything before. Yeah.

When it comes to being a leader and a great manager of your team as it begins to grow, I think there's a lot of room for improvement. And that's where Cameron's struggling. But strong leadership is going to require him taking ownership and control of, of everything that's happening in the company. Why are these people leaving? Right. And like, I go from the perspective of I only see certain amount of data. I see coaching calls and I see Command center. And I can only see based on base my. My thoughts based on how an owner treats those two individuals. And like canceling last minute on coaching calls is like a tell tall sign to me that someone's not respecting other people. Right.

I've only done like coaching calls with Lee. Honestly, I've never had a conversation with Chuck before ever. I don't know. I guess I've just prejudged him for the type of person he is. And like, I don't think I would really mesh with that person. I super, super well. So I'm just gonna stick with Lee, who's more my type of guy, you know?

And there's nothing against you. I know you get busy, you're in the business, you feel it's incon. It's controlling you and then you're doing things.

I don't have time.

Right, totally. And I get it. But. But that same mentality is what is being used on employees. I can guarantee it. Even when I look at Command Center, I hear, I can see all recording calls. I can tell you're under pressure, the way you're talking to them. I can tell that the way that you then react or lash out at someone is based upon how the business is Putting pressure on you. And so then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. You're feeling under pressure, feel like the business is controlling you, so then you lash out. You do things to employees and they're like, forget this or they're going to do things behind your back and actually try to tear the business down.

So the game plan is to actually try to get a hold of Cameron's wife as well as maybe even some of his past employees and get their perspective. Because he realizes that the people side of things is his problem. But he really doesn't know why. He says he needs help, he understands he needs help, but then he can't recognize the fact that there's people wanting to give him help and he's not taking it. So let's see what's up.

I know some will disagree with me, but I definitely do feel very alone in this business. I haven't met them. There's like a new owner who just purchased the Voice location a few months ago. And the only reason why though is I'm not really looking for like landscaping advice. I'm more looking for like business advice. And I know like a lot of new franchisees and people who join us that aren't the most like business savvy people.

There are some, but I know like, so I kind of pick and choose like where I, who I take advice from, if that makes sense. Kind of like the blind leading the blind. I know that sounds bad, but that's kind of how I feel sometimes.

I got a hold of Cameron's wife, Courtney and wanted to meet up with her and get some insight as to what she believes is taking place and why she thinks Cameron is struggling in the business.

Well, I feel like this is why he's having a hard time. We make quite a bit of money from this, right? Because like none of that money is his. All businesses. We only pay ourselves $5,000 a month. So he's like, realistically like I could making more money doing something else and putting in like a fourth of the amount of effort.

How did I deal with it really? I ultimately kind of wasn't really sure what I was gonna do. Maybe I'll just sell the business. Maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I should just do it all myself.

And I feel like for last year.

Did they have like a group chat or anything like that? Yeah, they did.

And you would send messages and then only two of the guys in Tucson. He didn't want to take advice from people. I feel like when things started going downhill, he seemed like really at his head.

It's definitely been like an up and down roller coaster of highs and lows all the time, which sometimes makes me question, like, what my own judgment, whether I'm the problem, whether I'm doing something wrong.

What do I do now?

What do I do now?

And then just kind of. It all just broke down at once. And so when everything fell apart, I just started knowing you need somebody to help you.

Right. I can tell that Cameron is starting to settle because he's literally hiring someone that he previously turned down in the interview process. If this new hire only lasts a few weeks before leaving, this can become a compounding problem where you hire someone, you get more jobs on the schedule, and then when they leave, you even have more stress and more jobs that you can't get to.

When you have lots of jobs coming in, you need to get done. And then you take someone who's like, brand new. It, like, slows everything down. So it's nice when you have someone who can just keep up with the pace from day one and you don't have to, like, teach them. Like I said everything.

Honestly, like, what is my game plan? I'm not really sure yet. Like, a lot of, like, the business side of things, I feel like are kind of like, at least I feel this way is expected for me just to know it already. We had four employees we had to let go three of them two weeks ago, and one of them was his last day. So I literally went from four guys to no guys matter of, like, one day. So definitely very, like, emotionally draining and just like, felt like, man, all this hard work I've been working up to or all this hard work I've been putting in his business kind of just like all came down crashing down on me a matter of 24 hours. So I laugh about it now. But also, yeah, definitely is very.

Just disheartening, you know, in the moment. So.

Now, in Cameron's defense, I had two people that were supposed to meet with me that were previous employees, and they opted to either just text me and give me a very long spiel we can show you, or just not show up. All right, so I've talked to a couple of his previous employees that he let go via text message. This one's willing to call me.

Hello?

Hey, John, how's it going? It's Mike Handy's here. Good.

How are you?

Good, good. I just wanted your. Your kind of take on things, and.

I've talked to a couple of other.

Guys and just kind of get your feedback on it.

Well, and there's tons I could say, but if I could just sum it up really quickly, it's just one of them things where it's like, if every person is saying the same thing, like, you got to address it.

There's got to be something on my end I'm not seeing that can be better.

You have to go in serious instead of just talking them down and being like, well, you know, that's just how we do things around here. Or that's just how it is.

I just don't want to hire anyone who doesn't have experience. Like, legit experience. Like, oh, yeah, grass growing up as a kid. Like, no, I want you to be like, I work for this fancy company for three or four years.

There's literally a 17 year old. And nothing against him at all, but it's like, I'm literally babysitting this guy. I'm teaching him, I'm guiding him. He's constantly wandering off to go start step two. And we haven't finished step one yet. And it's like, man, well, every day you have me work with this guy. I feel like I'm training him. But him and I are getting paid the same when I've been working in this industry since this guy was 10 years old. And it's like, it kind of makes me angry when. When him and I are viewed as the same value. Man, I'm a hustler, I'm a go getter. And it's like I was just told, like, you know, Monday, you kill it, you get paid this. Tuesday, this happens, you get paid that.

Although I'm listening to John, I'm also taking over all this information with a grain of salt because he's a previous employee, and most previous employees don't have a lot of positive things to say about their previous employer. And so I'm not trying to extrapolate or listen to a whole bunch of negativity about Cameron. I'm simply trying to get a different perspective because I do believe I need multiple angles in order to try to find out what is the root problem for Cameron's business.

I was making 27 an hour in my last job, but it was a hostile environment. Like, my boss would scream, yell, cuss, break things, apologize for it, do it again. Like, I literally turned down better jobs for, like, the school district taking care of all the grounds and all the schools, and only because of that whole P4P. Like, like you could make 20 to 30 an hour. And it's like, yeah, well, I never did.

Right? What do they usually were making on PvP, like 23, 24 guys making 35.

Bucks, like an hour.

This a scam? Is, is this like the carrot on the end of the stick? Like what, what's going on here? And I never screwed off. I never slacked him so quick. I, I feel like he just kind of tried to quickly dismiss what I said and he didn't. I don't, I don't feel like he.

Heard me out at this point. I have a pretty good understanding of some of the issues that are happening inside the business. I'm going to sit down and have a face to face conversation with Cameron and Courtney and figure things out. There has to be some sort of leadership and if you don't, if you're not that person, they're going to find it internally and then they're going to create a subculture within the company.

I could tell they're all starting to. It was kind of like, it was like toxic. It was starting to spread. You know, one bad one can ruin it all very quickly. And that's what happened. When I was talking individually, I could sense that.

It's like he had the conclusion of our conversation in mind before, before we started. So it's like no matter what I said, he was just gonna steer it back there.

I'm just gonna scrap this and start over afresh and with the hopes of kind of rebuilding the team culture rather.

Than being like, okay, I'm here, you're there. Can we meet in the middle or like somewhere close? Can we compromise in any way? And he was not trying to find any sort of.

Compromise.

Compromise. There you go.

Because I didn't want people coming to work feel like they're gonna be mistreated or bullied or feel like they can just kind of get away with a lack of professionalism and just really just dignity for their work and respect and things like that.

I've already talked to your guys that you fired. They think you're making money hand over fist.

I wanna know what they think.

I really wanna know.

He called all.

I talk to them, I text them and I'm gonna meet with some of them. You should. I am.

I wanna know what they have to say.

This is the thing.

You should know when they leave, why and they should feel comfortable enough to tell you. And unfortunately you've created the environment where they wouldn't tell you why they left until you fired them. Like right now. If you called them like, hey, I want to know why and they're gonna tell me. And they already have.

I honestly felt like they wanted to be fired. And that's why the one guy, he.

Laughed when I fired, he literally.

Lol.

Firework text.

Lol. It's like, basically I was like, I.

Think that they damaged things their last day on purpose since they wanted to be.

I don't know if you saw this. One of the guys, he actually, like, it's not a huge problem, like I said, expecting this to happen, but the tailgate was down, I guess, and he ran into the back of the dump trailer. But to this day, no one's really fessed up to who it was. If things like this happen, just speak up. Like, I'm not going to be mad if you're just honest, but if I have to, like, play investigator and try to figure out who did what because you're too afraid to say something, then that's when I get upset. And I feel like, okay, now I can't trust my guys. Now I feel like I have to watch them like an eagle, because if I don't, you know, something's gonna go wrong and I'll never know who did it right.

But they would only do that. And once you've said, hey, you're fired. What it should have been is weeks prior, they said, hey, we have a problem with this. Why aren't you showing up at the shop? Like, there should be that open dialogue. And then it gives you the license to be like, hey, here's all the estimates I did yesterday. Here's what I'm trying to do in the back, and here's all the stuff that I'm doing. And if someone complains about pay, it's like, hey, here's the 20 things I did yesterday. If you want to take some of these off my plate, I am happy to pay you more money.

I actually did do that with one guy. Yeah.

I told him.

Yeah. I was like, cool. Basically, I'm going to YouTube. How do you deal with a employee.

When he wants to pay?

We talk about doing market research and figuring out, like, what the going rate is.

And I did all these different things.

And I basically came up with. I basically came up with a plan.

My first day was on Thursday, Saturday, he called me, and then he's like, we're gonna start training for that. And then he never did.

Basically, I talked about, like, here's what your position makes 100 square miles.

This is what come to Japan.

We're on the higher end. And became a. The plan of, okay, like, make more money.

Cool. We're gonna.

You can come in on Fridays and do this and this and this and this and make more money.

Cool.

And then the next day he like quit.

So.

Yeah, yeah, he, he even called me.

One day and told me that he wanted me to be like the manager.

I also found out afterwards he was a five time talent. So.

But, but for example, why, why didn't he feel comfortable enough right after you said that to say what he was thinking? I knew what he was thinking.

I literally got my paycheck, had a big talk with him that night, and the next day I just couldn't do it.

He was thinking enough thoughts for him to quit the next day. But why didn't. It was pre.

Like he didn't just decide like he wouldn't come in for 30 minutes that day.

But why didn't he tell you? That's the question that we need to be asking ourselves. Because that's the only thing we can fix is ourselves. We can't fix him. We can't fix that he's a felon. We can't fix what he put. The next day. He. We can only fix ourselves and ask ourselves why did he not say anything to us?

Everybody's always like, communicate, communicate. And then you do. But then somebody doesn't try to hear you out or they don't try to work with you or at least explain why this is going on. Hey, I would love to compromise with you, but I can't.

Why? Like if you're going to actually take ownership of the business, right, and you want to, you want to be have control over, it means you have to take ownership of everything that happens to in it. If that's going to be the case when they leave, it's not a matter of they were late. Like the question why are they late? Why do they not care enough about my business and their job to show up here on time?

We're at the top of the industry standards here. And it's like, but you're not though. Like you're not.

Why do they not care enough to show up 15 minutes early, get their truck ready so they can make more money on Peter P. That's my problem. I didn't train them enough on why it's important to show up on time, why it's important to get your truck ready and so, you know, have a lunch pack so you don't have to stop throughout the day. I didn't do my job correctly. Because we can for days blame it on everything else, right? But we can't control that. We can't control them. We can't control what they do. We can only control ourselves.

I feel like that's true. And I also feel like if someone, people watch somebody be late over and over and over again and not really getting fired for a consequence that's easy to see and witness, then they all think like, oh, I could be late or I could call at sick tomorrow and be fine.

Right?

We all did the same thing, but it was like on accident. You know, I would tell him, oh yeah, he tried to call me and I didn't answer. And they're like, me too. I was like, oh man, we're all just kind of done with this, aren't we?

Everything's my fault.

I'm my fault.

Michael doing anything right?

No, but see right now the reason you feel stressed and you feel out of control, you feel like the business is controlling you. You feel like the employees have the power, the customers have the power, everyone else has the power and you got to suck that all back in. And if you do that, it's all your fault. It's extremely liberating because you control everything that happens. Then it was you who fired the bad, the quote unquote bad employees. It was you who didn't have the dash cam. It was you didn't have the insurance. You got the shop in the wrong spot. Like all these things that start to line up, it's all your fault. But the cool thing is you can change it if it's the employee's fault. What are you gonna do? Cuss them out, be mad at them? That's all you got.

Does make sense. Okay, that makes more sense.

Yeah, right.

Act like I have it all together.

In front of my team. Because sometimes even when I don't have the answer, like should I just be real with them and be like, I don't know but we'll figure this out.

Or should I just.

Just fake till you make it, you know.

Like I feel like this is just like my belief is like I feel like I'm going to be stuck in this non stop like cycle forever and ever and ever and ever. That's why like last week I was like, let's just sell it. Let's just move on to something else. Let's just put this much effort into something else that doesn't require so many more like as many moving parts. Cuz I feel like something big expension have all the answers and to know everything and like you're the boss, you should like know all the answers and you know, but sometimes like I really don't know, like how as I go.

Right, but what is that? What is that? Right? Because everything requires you at the beginning stage. You're gonna sell and you're gonna crush it. And we've said this a thousand times, go to get you from 0 to 500,000 is gonna be your ability to sell. And you can do that. You've proven it. You. 60,000amonth almost, right? That's not the issue. What you're gonna keep hitting up against is what is he to 75?

Let's go.

Right, so you've proven that you can do that. What you're gonna hit up against, regardless if you're in lawn care or you're in fencing or for your insurance or whatever you do, it'll be when you start having to manage people. And what your. Your ideology of what you want is, hey, I don't want to be working in the business. I want to be working on it. That's going to require a team 100%. And so if your goal is to ever work on the business and be the leader, it will require you changing the way you work with other people. So it's not a matter of always thinking that the next level is easier or better. It's not that way. It's different. And what you got to define is, like, what size of business meets my definition of success. Because always chasing the next one or what's lower than you, you'll always be discontent. You'll get a few good guys. You'll be better at leading people. Like, okay, all right, now I'm going to go for 10 or 15 employees and get a general manager so I can be out of the field. Okay, well, if that doesn't align with what you want ultimately from the business you're going to build it, that GM won't want to work for you anymore. They'll bail, and then five of the employees leave with them and go start another business. Now what are you doing? There's always going to be that risk. That's what business is. How you build a moat around that. You start to pay people more, you raise prices significantly. And that's why I said, like, get to a point where you can. You start just raising prices. You're raising prices. You don't need to accept all the estimates. You let the OTP go and have a 30% close ratio, but you're at 10, $15 more per cut now the guys are making more on P4P. So you said there's always risk.

So what's the risk with having just a general manager or he jamming into employees, like, what's the risk with that?

The GM leaves.

Okay, so what happens when he leaves?

Then you put, you gotta step back in because you haven't built a business that can sustain without one gm, without just the one gm.

That's what I'm saying. Shouldn't there be like a different.

Yeah, grow it, build it, make it bigger. But if that doesn't align with your level of what success means to you, you're not gonna do it. Because it could drive you insane. If you had 12 employees and you have to answer to a GM on everything because you do not have a lot of control. When you have a gym, everything needs to go through them. So it's like, what is the definition of success for you? It's always going to seem more appealing to grow. Always. So far we've touched on Cameron's ability to be a better leader, also his management style, as well as looking at what a general manager role might look like in the business. Also, we really tried to clarify what are the goals of the business and why does it even exist. But there's one more thing I have to address.

Hey, I'm not gonna go ask my poor uncle for financial advice.

I don't want to ask a landscaper.

For a business advice. I want to ask Sex Flex business owner.

It was hard for me to like, but see that that notion will prevent you from ever working with someone below you. Because what that basically means is you will never listen to an employee because they're never going to typically be financially better off than you. They're typically have less experience than you. And so the thought process that I'm not going to listen to someone that doesn't have greater experience or skill in your ear than me basically sets you up to never listen to an employee. That's what it sets up you up for. So if you get a second in command, you will put them in this position and then basically strip them of all power because you're not going to listen to anything they say.

I do think that you were mentioning that too because you were like, yeah, I want someone who would be a gm, but I. Or kind of like my version of a gm, but I also don't want them to do this or this or have any control over the money because I don't trust them.

But more importantly, let's say they say something that you feel like they have no responsibility or power or experience whatsoever that still should be thought through. If you are the leader in the top of the pack, if you're going to say that I'm not going to listen to or learn from anyone below me. You are essentially handicapping every employee that wants to move up the organization. And any great employee is like, forget this. He's not going to listen to me about equipment, he's not going to listen to listen to me about the route, he's not going to listen to me about how we should be paid and there's no listening happening. And then at the same token, you're saying, hey guys, be open with me, honest with me, tell me what's going on, what are you thinking? And then they create these subcultures, but then you're like, please talk to me. They're never going to talk to you because you're never vulnerable enough with them to share what you're thinking.

It's either quit or just continue forward. There's not really any. A whole lot of those are my two options. And ultimately I have a family, you know, and I can't let a setback like this cause me to just throw all my hard work away.

But why not reach out to the people who literally know? And that's the two franchisees that are going through it.

Every state's different.

You got two franchisees within 10 minutes of you.

Oh, that's true.

Like you thinking that, oh, I can't learn from them because they're not business people, they're landscapers. When in reality they literally got the same call as you. They're going through the exact same thing. They are far more qualified to give you that advice than someone that has a five million dollar business doing plumbing or roofing or whatever. They know exactly what you're going through.

Like, if I only listened to people that made more money than me, I would never listen to anybody. I don't know a single person personally that makes more money than me. So how would I ever get better? Am I only gonna listen to people on TV or on YouTube or. No, that's not the solution. The solution is the people in the weeds in my business know far better than me how to run it. They just want a human being that they can pass that information along to and then they know takes action on those and values their opinion. People that are billionaires giving their opinion on how to do things and like, oh, that's a good idea. It will never work in a small business because they were managing five levels of executive between them and front line employees. So it doesn't matter how they walk into the shop for you. You gotta be here, you gotta be able to talk to the guys about their weekend and empathize with what happened with their wife on the weekend. Like, you have to do that, right?

I feel like something also that you're struggling with.

Lee just texted me. I guess you supposed to call me today.

Who did?

Lee messaged him like, hey, you have any, like five, ten minutes?

Tell him actively in a coaching call. Typically, when I look at a small business that's struggling, there's only a few things that need to tweaked or changed to completely change the profitability and the team culture of the company. I believe Cameron has some real potential. There's definitely some things he must change in order for that to happen. But, you know, ultimately too, it's like, I think overall it's a communication thing, right? Communication with employees, communications, other franchisees, communications with command center, communications with your coaches. Like, those are all really important.

And I don't care if someone's above, below, side, peer, whatever. It's like you gotta have those levels of communication and I think you can improve, you can change. And that's the change I was talking about in our email. It's not the system. I know you have that down. I know you can sell. I know you can. You got that right. You use Zooper probably best than anyone else and it's a crippled program, right? But, like, you know how to use it, right? But it's not that. The change, the change is inside and you're looking outside. What needs to change out here? It's like a hundred percent on you and that's like, oh, that's so harsh. No, like that's awesome because you can do something about it. If it was everything outside of you, well, then we got a problem. Now you might be wondering what's happened to Cameron since the time of this recording. In the past several weeks, since we were there in person, it seems like Cameron is making positive strides towards becoming a better leader and getting a great team underneath him. Now, if you would like me to come to your small business in person and within 24 hours do a turnaround, go in the description, there's links down below, or go to mikeandy.com turnaround and apply today.