i found out… THE BEST WAY to raise prices!

So happens to be the next general manager early here getting the trucks ready. This morning we had a really great mastermind with our franchisees. And we talked about specifically when you're raising prices. And like, when should you raise your prices like we have. Some people have raised them already two or three times this year. Should I raise them again? And one point that was really, really good. And that was, isn't it kind of a waste? When you spend money, customer acquisition costs, you have marketing expense, and then you raise prices on this purse within three to six months and you lose them because of the price. And you've now laid on the table thousand dollars worth of lifetime value. That customer could have potentially been a customer for four or five years. That's true. Here's the thing. The only way you should be raising prices is if you don't have the throttle, full throttle, trying to grow and expand. So there's two different sides of the coin here. One, if you are growing your business and you're trying to maximize growth, that is when you're spending money in marketing and trying to grow the company, do not restrict that by raising your prices aggressively. You might do it price once or twice a year, stay up with inflation, cover the extra costs, et cetera. But if you're trying to maximize profit, it's very difficult to do that While you're also growing very quickly. You need to choose a path that you're on. Either you're growing very quickly and you're willing to take a little bit less in terms of margin and have a high close ratio, or B, you're going to do a bunch of price increases, maximize profitability and put a damper on your close ratio. You've got to choose those. It's very difficult when people are like, I need to raise a bunch of prices, but I also want to grow and have like a 90% close ratio. You can't. So you've got to figure out which one you're doing. And that's why I don't get why people spend a bunch of money on marketing, but then they're also raising their prices really quickly. It's like, look, if you're spending money on marketing, you're probably in growth mode. You want to maximize the dollars that you are getting from these people by spending money and then getting as many of them to close as possible and become customers. So don't go raise your prices a bunch. But on the flip side, if you're just booked out to Wazoo, you can't get enough trucks on the road. You can't get enough employees, you better be raising your prices. And whether or not that customer came from a $10 ad that you put years ago doesn't matter. Or even last week. If you got the customer and you spen on them a couple weeks ago and now you're just overloaded with work, you should raise prices. Why? Because now you're going to get rid of that bottom profitability of customer and replace it with another lead, another customer that's willing to pay a higher price. So raising price is a good way to actually harvest your best customers and let the bottom 10, 15% leave and then replace them with new customers. That's why I don't think you should turn off your leads unless literally, you simply don't want to grow or make more money. Keeping your leads on allows you to raise prices. Cut the bottom 10, 15% by raising. Some people are gonna get unhappy. They're gonna leave. But then replacing them with new leads and new customers that are willing to pay that higher price.

Today is the first day I've worn a sweater in a very long time.

The one risk you can have when you are bringing up people inside the organization and then promoting them to being a manager is there's a big transition for that individual when it comes to being part of the team and part of the guys and one of the crew to now being their manager. That can sometimes be some friction there, especially when you're taking someone that our most experienced or oldest individual on the team. So the general manager role being the estimate side of things, the hiring side of things, and really, like, the person is my point person and sort of like a Marcus is now, but then having another person that can do a little bit off the side, so that way it is not as long out. Yeah, you do work a lot. Just instilling the confidence into Dylan, like, as he becomes general manager, that, like, hey, biggest thing you're going to need to learn is, like, you're still part of the team. You still want to be part of the guys, but now you are a manager, and that means you're gonna have to lay down the law. Sometimes you're gonna say uncomfortable things to people. You're gonna have to hold them accountable for things. And that's a very different job description. I think my biggest concerns are you and April are both not used to putting a place where you have to lay the law down and, like, really go after people. And there is definitely parts of the job where you might not see markers, have to do it as much, but like there are times you are, you tell people they're fired, you tell people that they have to pick up the slack or else they're gonna get fired. That's sometimes the downside of promoting within is that individual has to switch their whole mindset and the relationship with all their previously co workers. Now they are their manager and they're going to tell them they have to do things and they're going to tell them they're wrong about certain things. It's easy in the crew to be like part of the guys. And when you come manager, it's not that you don't want to be friends with people, it's just a matter of there's this delineation, like I'm your manager and I am going to tell you to come back to the shop, like not to come back to shop and work together, two jobs and I, that is what I have to do. That can be difficult, especially if someone's not the one that is sort of the alpha and the one that is the leader, naturally. But when I am looking for a gm, I'm not necessarily looking for the most experienced or the oldest or someone who's been in the industry for a long time. I'm looking for the person that is willing to work on themselves, do hard work, has a track record for being on time and never missing work. Those are the things that are like the number one most important. The person who comes back from a long day's of work out in the field and is asking to help other individuals, asking the manager if there's extra things they can do coming in on the weekend, when they're not really asked for it, they know their needs, they step in without even asking if it's required. That's the type of thing I'm looking for. And that's why someone like Dylan, even though he's young, even though he doesn't have a ton of experience, even though he has a lot to learn from a management side, he's gonna do great in that role because he'll do the hard work on himself as a manager to improve and the team will respect that.

And furthermore, I know there's gonna be some pushback or potential question mark marks for the people who are more experienced, who have been around for a longer time, like, why was I, why was I picked as the general manager? And ultimately from a new manager's perspective, that you have to let that go and let your actions be the proof. For myself, as the owner that made that decision, I want to take the burden of if there's any blowback, I want that to come to me because I made the decision. I don't want that person or even the previous manager to be put in this position of, like, I made the decision. I'm the one that has to deal with any blowback or people, like, I deserve that or whatever. The bottom line is, the local shop has seen in the past few months, two, be promoted to general manager. I'm not the longest tenured person here, and you're not either. And, like, why do I deserve this? And things of that nature. But we decided for the reason, don't ever feel like, you know, you don't deserve it. Because I. I felt that a lot when I started, and I was just so much worse for it. Slewed my words at the team meeting. And I did make those decisions to hire and fire. We had a. You know, the team culture kind of took a bad turn last year. One person is leaving and starting their own business. There's plenty of opportunity to grow inside the organization. Like, there's no one there that's worked there for five years and not seen a promotion. So it's just a matter of time and dedication and evolving yourself and changing yourself as a professional before in an organization like Augusta, you're going to get promoted, you're going to see another opportunity, and you're going to be able to move up in your career. So that is the entire antithesis and goal of Augusta and something that I feel like, if anyone felt left out, it's like, just stick with it. Just keep doing what you're doing, keep putting in the hard work and keep improving yourself. And there's going to be an opportunity for you. It's just a matter of making sure you constantly are improving until that point.

They're a very sophisticated way of sharing files here at Augusta. Lawn Care on the back of a car, dropping files. That's how the vlog is me.

Hey, everybody. We're actually at the conference center where we are having Landscape Summit 2023, January 5th, 6th and 7th. Three days where you can bring your staff, your employees, and make an incredible event. We're gonna have a support track specifically designed just for employees, managers, spouses. It's gonna be a great event for them. They're gonna do a breakout session two of the days. And then this is the main event center where we're gonna have the stage set up and it's gonna be an incredible event. Probably 300 plus other landscapers, lawn care professionals. You definitely want to make it. Make sure you book your tickets, this entire hotel is gonna be filled with landscapers.

This is the bus you can literally get right from the Seattle airport directly to the front lobby. Pretty epic.

Gonna be doing a live interview, right? Mellow's podcast, the home improvement or home industry expert podcast. So he has 150 million dollar garage door business, but he's going to be interviewing me. So definitely check out his channel and his podcast for my full episode.