I Tried to Start 4 Businesses in 1 MONTH & THIS Happened...

Now we started what we call the executive model at Augusta Lawn Care, where you can start six locations at the same time.

It's not all fun. I can, I can promise you that. It's. It's hectic. It's a little chaotic at times.

And everyone was like, you can't start that many locations at the same time. It's impossible.

We're not gonna make it. Not happy with them at all. So lovely.

Okay, great. Well, I own eight locations and we're starting four brand new ones.

Then you see the kind of, the chaos and I'm not a chaos person, so it freaks me out.

Chuck, my regional manager, is gonna walk us through the entire process.

He's gonna.

Equipment that he purchased.

This is the other side, right? So, yeah, I get to spend 50 grand on equipment, go to Lowe's and get shovel all the cool things that everybody thinks. You get to do.

The trucks that he purchased, I get.

To buy eight trucks. Picking up more trucks, cars, trucks, more trucks, get them painted and get decals.

He's going to hire these people.

Why do I make hiring sound so easy? He ghosted me.

And then they're going to come to training and they're going to come and actually learn how to run their businesses as general managers.

Then there's a whole nother side to my day that I don't think, like, people realize. Like, I'm just not buying trucks in the middle of it. I'm coaching calls and all these other things. These all trailers, they need titles. Getting insurance lined up on eight vehicles, adding new drivers. This is the goody drawer here, right? Keys for trucks, mailboxes, storage units, new credit cards for GMs. Like, so all this stuff has to be ordered, processed, and put through the ringer to make sure that we're getting everything that we need.

So without any further delay, let's hand this over to Chuck and the general managers out in North Carolina. Charlotte, North Carolina, where we're starting four new locations in just the next couple weeks.

Here we go a lot to it. Not always just buying and having fun.

Truck in a truck.

We had the paint job here in Mooresville, North Carolina. We use Mako, $500 per truck. And that includes, you know, obviously the standard paint and our color. So we have that one, we have this Silverado, we have that Ford have this Ford, this gmc, we have this GMC here. We have this and we have this one. On average, they are all about $15,000. That one is done. And as you see, some of them are in various stages but bought and paid for. Eight trucks. Here we go. Picking up more trucks from the paint shop.

All right, so we're dropping the trucks off. It hitches. You can see one there here, one there. We got one more to pick up from the paint shop. You all do them for anywhere from between 300 and $350, depending upon the model. That includes the hitch, as well as the wiring for the pigtail and the plugs. And we're getting the four prong and the seven way. That way we've got both it covers, dump trailer. And if we ever need like a small landscape or whatever, for whatever reason. But yeah, so dropping off here at the U Haul, it's trailer hitches.

So here's what's happening. Ah, lovely. And this is where people need to learn not to panic, right? Because this is going to screw up our entire workflow. So I get to U Haul originally, we called them 10 days ago, and they said, yeah, we can have you in January 26th. And we can get all. All four of the trucks done in one day. Like, oh, fantastic. Let's do it. We show up and the guy's like, oh, well, we can only do two today. We'll have two done by this afternoon. Okay, we can live with that, right? Like, I'll make that work. So then we go there today. It's now 4:30, so they close at 5. So we get there at 4:30. Mind you, they don't call. They don't anything. We get there and the lady says, oh, well, the one we. We don't have the parts for yet. And then the other one, when we ordered, is wrong. So do you have, like, when will it be done? Like, tomorrow? Like, oh, we don't know. Well, what about the rest of them? Oh, we don't know. Well, we're supposed to get decals put on Monday. So now they don't have an answer on the trailer hitches. They can't even start the other two because they don't have those parts either. But, like, why not call and tell us? Everything would have been finished by the first, which was my goal. All equipment, all everything. Mowers, like, we're picking those up. Decals, paint supplies, everything. Because the GM start February 1st. So unfortunately, you know, you can't put a ramp rack on without a trailer. What do you. You gotta expect the unexpected. Like old Mike Tyson says, everybody's got a great plan until you get punched in the mouth. Here we are.

Go to a decal shop and you get all these trucks to get decal. Lined up, ready. He's finishing the short bed there. Decal guy crushing it. Got the finished product here. Looking good. Got it all labeled up. Decal.

So we're gonna get. We're gonna. It's copy and paste. So we're gonna buy four of everything. So we're gonna four of these flat shovels. But one of the spade shovels, I always grab a cobalt because if you bring them back to Lowe's, they'll replace them for you. Hard rake. I like the scoop shovel. It's very good for handling well. We don't need any of this junk. A hoe and, you know, all this other. You don't need any of this. The only thing we will get is a pitchfork for mulch. And then we will get a leaf rake. Do not get the plastic one if you're going to get them. These are the ones we always get. I like the fiberglass handles. Trash cans. We put normally one per truck. Pull weeds or the sticks, debris, stuff like that.

Yeah, we'll get four per location. I like the brood, but they're $60 and these are 25. And again, Lowe's brand, they will replace these. They have a lifetime limited warranty.

Four trash cans, leaf rake, pitchfork, scoop shovel, flat shovel, spade shovel, hard rake. Every location will get all of those hand loers for trimming bushes. We will get an extendable PUL saw. And then we will get a ladder. So we always get little giants. We try to get the 22 footers.

Like this. You can keep them on different stairs when you're doing, like slopes to trim bushes, things like that.

And.

They'Re rated for £300, so that's Husky. Call us, we don't have to be scared. Tarps. Our dump trailer that we bought has a tarping system, so we don't have to worry about that. But the 10 mil, the 5 mil is a real thin one. So I always recommend getting at least a 10mil 15mil if you can. But those are. Those are pretty, pretty thick. But they also get significantly more expensive. Like you're going to add $20 by getting it a little bit thicker 10x12. You can load a pretty good amount of leaves on it. And we'll get two tarps for each location.

This is what happens when you order four of everything. They got to pull them off the top shelf.

12, 43, 62.

All right, so this is like a mechanics tool. Set wrenches, sockets, impact gun. We just do three, eight gun. It works great. Changing blades, things like that, cutting pliers, battery for the Impact charger for the impact tape measure. A mallet for when you start doing your ramp racks and you need on your hammer or on your mower. Some of you guys may use just a regular hammer, but I'm more inclined to use a rubber mallet. But we got a hammer as well. Screwdriver. We don't need a lot, right? Phillips flathead, adjustable wrench, regular kind of pliers. And this will give us our basic tool set up for mechanic stuff so we can change blades, do any small work on any of the machines. We have a measuring wheel as well to walk off or mulch beds and things like that.

These are the two dump trailers we just got in today. $6,800 for that one, $6,800 for that one. They are identical. We have four of them, six by ten with a tarp. Again, same thing, six by ten with a tARP. Again, they are both $6,800 for each of them. And we have four of them exactly the same and identical. So this is trailer number three, same thing, six by ten with a tarp. $6,800. 7,000 pound axles, 24 inch sides, barn style doors. Identical. When you keep things identical and everything is systematized for us. We bought four trailers at one time. We got a better price because we bought all four the same. All the equipment is ran exactly the same. So if you ever do have an employee that you can promote to a manager, they then can, you know, move up. And all the equipment is the same, training is the same. When they use a dump trailer, it'll be exactly the same across all locations that we have here in North Carolina.

Just got the titles done for the trailers. They're all finished and ready to roll. Took about an hour and a half. They were about 400 a piece to do. The titles pay some property tax on it. And the fees, $4. They couldn't split up the payment, so I had to make one payment. But I cleared everything with the bookkeeper, the accountant to make sure. Hey, how do you want me to process this if they can't process it individually? My one tip would be just be prepared. Your documents are prepared for the people. Don't be rude, be kind to them, do your due diligence. Don't go in there blind being a knucklehead and treating people rude because you had to wait. Like, come on, just go in and be, be a solid person. Trailers are done. They are in the places they need to be at all four storage lots of. And now we're moving On.

All right, so today is mower pickup day.

We are picking up the four stand on mowers.

Behind me, all lined up nice and pretty. Looking good. I got Connor with me. Yes, sir. Get him done.

Saint and pickup today. Eders, blowers, weed eaters, couple more hedge trimmers. Oh, yeah, eight blowers. Good stuff. Lots more trimmers. Edgers.

Getting ready to go into an interview. Starbucks is where I'm going to do them here so that I can be in market close to somebody's location. Just did an interview. Three of them. First one, I spoke to him on the phone and then he no showed for this one. The other two had done phone interviews as well. The one that I had just done the phone interview, he showed up, loves himself, thinks he's awesome. The best weed eater in the world. Can make art out of his hedges. Said he could trim dogs and he could put a Mickey mouse in bushes. And, you know, he was a clown. I don't care how. Like, I don't care that you can lace perfect stripes. And most of the time, if you're going to talk about it, you're not really probably a high performer. You just think you are because everybody thinks they're special and they're not. And like I said, the one guy, no call. No, they're not. No call, no show. But didn't show up. And I don't care. Like, I'll be honest with you guys. Like, everybody asked me, well, what do you do for this? And if they don't show up, don't you get this skirt? No, I just don't care. Like, don't cry about it. Like it is what it is. Like, if you dwell on it, you're going to be miserable. So just move forward and on to the next candidate. Not a big deal. Third guy I am going to hire. No lawn care experience professionally has, you know, mowed lawns here, there, mowed the neighbor's yard. Mowed his yard. But he was upfront honest. Like, I'm not a professional, but I'll teach it and we will teach it how to do those things. He's managed people in a retail setting, which is entry level just like ours, all of those things like that. He's ran businesses as a managed store manager, training manager, all of those things. That's what I'm looking for.

Yeah, that's where we're going. David, you ready to learn something?

You got Sydney up there. He left us. You got my kettle right there. Going to be good learning something to train on the plane. Connor, Sydney. David. Up there. Direct flight Charlotte to Seattle. And then we'll make the drive from Seattle up to Bellingham.

12:5 deep Seattle Airport.

It's 3:30 in the morning. We're in Bellingham, Washington. Washington. Do not let a busy schedule dictate your health and wellness. I got it on a 10 incline, long walk, 100 burpees. You can do it anywhere, even here at the holiday. And about the airport. There's just no excuses for not taking care of yourself. Especially as we get into the spring rush. You're going to want to continue to push yourself and stay healthy mentally and physically. Spring rush is going to be stressful. You got to get after it. You still got to keep going. 3:30am Here we are getting after it. There's just no excuse. Guys make time. If it's important, you'll make time and you'll prioritize what needs to be done.

Remember this feeling right now. Be committed, be eager, be ready to go.

So typically when I talk about general manager, I think of it as that person's going to do all the estimates and they're going to do all the managing of the team.

All five of the GMs taking their tests.

Well.

Lost the GM. We got back from training, just had a week long training. First day in the field yesterday. Do some estimates get him going. Today he shows up and says, I quit, Chuck. I took a different job. It's been working the entire time. While we were at training, he's working on getting this other job. So now we basically paid him to go to training. And here we are, $2,000 later and he quit. I'll be honest, I'm just striking out, man. I am striking out at the Mooresville location. The other ones, the guys are rock stars, hitting estimates, getting jobs accepted, crushing. But Mooresville, I just can't. I don't know what it is. I, I don't. I don't know what it is. Hired the first GM back in October. Didn't work out, couldn't get right with the system. Now we got a second gm, was great manager of people, fantastic resume, Good, good interview. Quite frankly, it didn't even matter. Still locked out on the job this morning. Good note is he turned all his stuff in. Now that's a fantastic positive. But this is the stuff that's going to happen and I hope everybody understands. Like, you can't dwell on it. You can't think about it and cry about it and get hung up on it. Like I'm picking up equipment, doing estimates, doing coaching calls, managing the Others seven locations. It is what it is. Like, it just doesn't matter. Now I've got to hire a GM and three new employees in the next two weeks. So two weeks from tomorrow, we fire the mowers back up. And we've already, we're already kind of mowing like our winter service people. That's life. What are you gonna do about it? Just keep moving on. There's nothing you can do about it. Move on. Stay positive. As old David Goggins says, stay hard, get after it.

Day one GM training Matthew Connor, Sydney. And this is. We're just putting the foot on the dump trailer, getting after it.

Like children. You set them free like, like little kids on all the equipment.

Here on the left side. There's nothing else to do. You don't have to walk to the exact spot.

We are doing live in person training for the new GMs. You can see they're going through. I've got them doing videos and submitting the jobs for estimates.

Awesome. Remember what I said. I'll include with everything that's just a property cleanup and a mulch job, a mowing quote. I'd give them a mowing quote every time. Like, so if this customer wanted this, I'm giving them a mowing quote.

We came back after conference and from there we just kept on rolling. Right. We went right into starting four new locations. All of the territories butt up against each other. They're all centrally located, really close, really tight and dense. So again, you're going to see the exact same setup at this location as all the other locations. We spent about $67,000 to get them up and running and started with all the equipment. Mike put an extra 5,000 in because we started with the 80,000. He did bump that up to 85,000 because we had to account for just the increase in cost of all the equipment, plus GM training, the accommodations to go along with that and to have a little bit more money in the account just to give us some cushion. So 85 total. We spent 67 to kind of get up them off the ground and rolling. And with that included, I bought, in a month's time, I bought eight trucks. Both of these trucks are V6, average about 15, 15, 5. And you'll, and you'll see everything is going to be identical from here to all the other locations. And then we have the dump trailer here, which is again six by ten. Nothing fancy. Three foot sides tarp. It'll do the job. Mowing setup, same exact thing. Blower rack. We need your trimmer rack, tool rack in the middle, gas cans, trimmer string and sprayer rack on the driver's side. This would be your curb side. So we put all of this stuff here. Had eight trucks painted, eight trucks decal, four standard mowers, four push mowers. All of this was done in 30 days.

So you don't have to get hung up on finding the perfect place the first time, making it, you know, this massive shop space. And any of that you just don't meet with like get what works to get you started. And we'll run $300,000 on all these setups. So. And if they really hustle and crush it, we could do 350 with exactly the setups that you guys are seeing. Eight weed eaters, four edgers, eight backpack blowers, handheld hedge trimmer for like lower level stuff. An extended hedge trimmer, power 2620 from Echo that could do like tall hollies. The Combi system to also do crate myrtles with full salt. We also did a, you know, assorted tools, shovels, wheelbarrow, all of those things. Gas cans, weed eater, string mower blades, everything. So that when they came back from training, they could open their container and go to work. But as you can see, it's just an oversized man door. This is the part I'm not a huge fan of, but again, the only parking we could find in this area. So when you bring the mower in and out, it's just, it's very tight but. But it's whatever got to make it work sometimes, right? So dry erase board, keys for the trucks. Identical equipment everywhere. It's all the same long hedge trimmer, weed eater, edger blower mower, push mower. This is a residential Honda. That's all it is. It's a residential Honda. We're going residential 21 push mowers because we use our standards for everything. Ladder. All the tools are in there that you would need. Two blowers, handheld hedge trimmer, all your mixed fuels, your gas, all those things. You got another bucket with some more tools in it, shovels, things like that. Again, there would be no problem fitting another mower, another push mower and a couple extra weed eaters. And you could, you could run a half a million dollar business out of a 10 by 20 storage unit. We ran them all in storage units, they all got UPS mailboxes. But when you're on a 30 day timeline, you get what you can get and what you can find in the area, all those things. All in all, it is possible to start multiple locations. We did it.