Is Florida Turf Pros the Real Deal? Or...

Hey everyone, it's Mike over at Landscape Business Course and today I'm reacting to Jonathan from Florida Turf Pros. I'm really looking forward to this one. He recently bought a new truck and I know for the half of you you think that I'm gonna bash it. Well, I have some news for you. Stay tuned because I think you might be surprised my perspective on the way that Jonathan purchased this vehicle. And first all I want to say big shout out to Jonathan. Jonathan is one of the OGs in the industry and on YouTube and he, he is in my opinion the best YouTuber for small lawn care business owners, 100%. And the reason I'm making this video is because the video he made today where he made this point and I figured, you know what, it's time to give credit where credit is due. And Jonathan's the best. And I would usually say this for someone who was just getting started in the lawn care business. I would tell them that like lawn Care Millionaire was the best place to get started. Jonathan Patosnik. The problem is Jonathan hasn't made videos in years himself in terms of like consistently and he hasn't made any Harley himself for like the past year or two. So I can't reliably put someone in that channel because I simply want new content and where someone can get new information as things are happening. Jonathan from Florida Turf Pros is the place you need to be. And if you're subscribed to my channel and you're allowing care and landscape business owner, you need to be subscribed to his channel if you're, he offers great insight. If you're just getting started, if you have a couple crews and he's very, very aware that that's his target audience and he's awesome. I love him for his frugality, the way he's ran his business for the past five years and beyond anything, his level of humility on his channel, being able to admit that he's wrong, the simplicity in which he teaches things. I highly, highly recommend that you subscribe to his channel and I don't think you've ever heard me say that on this channel ever recommending go to subscribe to someone else. Jonathan is the real deal. He is not flashy, he's not trying to sell anything. And this is why I'm so confident that when he gives advice, it's the best advice he can possibly give, alright? And so I appreciate him so, so, so very much. And he's been in business for five years and he just recently brought a brand new F250 Lariat trimmer package truck. Alright? And so for everyone that's watched my other videos about Tiger and Gertz, they think that I am going to bash. You probably clicked on this video because you thought I was gonna try to like tear down the reasoning and the numbers behind this truck purchase. And I'm not. The reason is because why he bought the truck. And that is because for five years he's run a very, very lean operation, very, very frugal. And this is his reward. Kind of like, hey, I deserve this, I've worked really hard for it. And I'm gonna buy this as kind of like a gift for myself, you know, a Christmas present for himself. And I think that this is the right move. Alright? And if you want a truck, a brand new truck, a brand new vehicle and you're looking for the brand new shiny equipment, get it if that's what's going to fulfill you. And that's why Jonathan purchased this. But he knew this was not, you know, from a business standpoint that this is not a business move. This is I'm rewarding myself for the hard years of work, the years of hard work and labor that I put into my business. And so the day of the video I'm making here is number one, get you to subscribe to Jonathan's channel a Florida turfpros. Number two is when do you reward yourself? When do you actually go out and buy the thing you've been looking to get? When do you go out and actually purchase the house, the car, the equipment, the shop space that you've always wanted. When do you do that? And I feel like a lot of times the things that I have criticized is people who get mixed up by thinking that the fancy stuff is what leads to a good business. It's not being frugal, working really, really hard and being really, really head down, grinding like Jonathan for five years is what is in my books, gives the check mark for, you know, go splurge, go reward yourself, go do the work. But don't think that buying those big nice things, big new trucks, getting a five acre shop with a massive mortgage when you're doing 150, 200,000 in revenue, that is not going to be what leads to the success of a high margin, profitable business. Okay? So I think that the thing I love so much about Jonathan, excuse me, is that he knows the size of business that he wants and is going to work for him. And he is very, very aware that hey, in the past I wanted to Grow a big business. And he says, I wanted to grow a big business. I followed Jonathan the past several years and he says he wanted to grow business that was really big. And then he decided, you know what? I'm gonna do two mowing crews. And then recently he's gonna start doing SOD installations. But let me first address the mowing side of things. And that is he realized that he doesn't wanna have a whole bunch of crews out in the field. He doesn't wanna be managing a bunch of people. And he realized, hey, I'm gonna take two crews and make them ultra, ultra efficient, okay? And I want you also to remember he did not buy this F250 brand spanking new truck when he first got started. He showed a picture in this video which I'm gonna link in the description below of the 2001. I think it was a Ford Ranger like $2,000 truck that he started with. That's what got him to the truck that he can now afford. And it makes financial sense. And he could afford it because he started off small, he started off hungry, he started off frugal and built a profitable business. Not a business that was just running a huge amount of cash. Cause he very easily could have gotten out five or six trucks, got them all financed, got six or seven trucks on the road, and literally realized a few years later, this is not where I'm happy, this is not where I'm satisfied, this is not fulfilling me. And it's not as profitable as it could be. And more importantly, he realizes, look, I'm not going to, I do not want to go out and build a big business. And that's fine. I can't overemphasize this enough because we so often are talking about scaling up your business, growing a team, building systems so you don't have to be in the daily operations. And for some people out there, like I want to be there, I want to be working, I want to be able to get my hands dirty. And that's great. That is so good. There is nothing less about that than growing a million dollar business where you don't have to show up and you can go for vacation on two weeks and everything runs smoothly. The bottom line is knowing, knowing what size of business you want, optimizing it, making it as systems oriented as you possibly can, and then being happy and satisfied and content in that. My problem is when people grow a massive business, that is they aren't happy, they aren't happy. I don't care how much money they're Making in profit, they are not happy. Cause it's stressing them out. It's way too much for them. And I'm also very concerned about the person that's very, very small, A small lawn care operator that's trying to act like they're a massive company and buy big trucks and big equipment far before they should ever even think about it. So I really recommend that you subscribe to Jonathan's channel. And I believe in rewarding yourself. I believe in the years of hard work and the frugality and the, the effort that goes into it, that you should reward yourself if it's something that you want. And that is gonna be a good thing for you because it's motivation. Like if Jonathan wanted a nice truck and he buys that for him personally, it's a reward for yourself. And literally tells yourself, look, I worked so hard for X and I got it, okay? I got the truck that I always wanted. All right? Now it's the next thing. Or like, what else can I do? Can I provide for my family? Can I get a house? What can I do to that is going to set me, my family, my community, those around me, those that I want to support and give to, how can I set them up for success? By going for the next thing, the next big thing. Maybe that just means doing the same thing over and over until you get to that next checkpoint. But at the end of the day, rewarding yourself is an awesome thing. And I feel like one of the things I love too about Jonathan is he talks about in this video about how he's now pivoting because he only wants to have two mowing crews out on the road. And. And then he wants to have a focus now, a branch of his company focusing on sod installation. And this is what we've talked about for so long here. We're talking more about this at Landscape Summit. And that is simplification of services. He realizes that it's easier to train somebody on installing sod. Literally put topsoil down, lay sod. And it's a whole lot easier to train someone brand new that's never done labor before. Train them how to do that versus training someone how to drive truck, back up a trailer, use a zero turn, use a line trimmer, use an edger, use a blower, all these other pieces of equipment that they gotta learn, you gotta teach them. And if you're trying to simplify your business, the number one way that you can simplify your business is simplify your services. We've talked about other ways to simplify your business. Like, obviously, you can simplify the products that you install. Even if you do hardscaping I've talked about before, I don't mean simplify like, oh, you gotta make it easier, but you can simplify. If you do patios, you can simplify the type of products, the type of blocks, the type of pavers that you're willing to install, the design that you use, you can simplify those things. And so I'm a big, big fan of Jonathan because he's realized that simplification is what leads to freedom in your business. And if you're looking in your lawn care, your landscaping business, it feels like you're fighting fires all day long. The number one way to put those fires out is not bringing a massive fire truck with water that is, you know, cash and buying more trucks and equipment and growing and just like, oh, we gotta, like, put these fires out, Because I'm just gonna keep growing and like, you know, these issues in my business, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna smother them with more work and more employees and more trucks and more debt. That's not necessarily the thing that you should be doing in this case. Like what Jonathan is doing, he's putting out the fire by saying, look, why don't we just like, wipe out this whole half of the building? Like this, Cut the whole building out. The part that's burning, not doing well. It's really taking all my time and effort. Let's just cut it off completely, let it burn to the ground, let it go to zero. And I'll focus on this other part of the building that is structurally sound, that is actually remodeled, that is actually brand new, that is easier for me to maintain. And that's what I so encourage so many landscapers to do. Let the parts of your business that are always causing you attention, like the fires are always breaking out because of the leaks and the issues with the plumbing and the electrical. It's ie, it is services that take your time, your energy, and you're always fighting fires that you need to cut out of your business. And if you can take a building. We're using this analogy, apparently. If you can take a building that is a service in your business and simplify it, make it more structurally sound, if we're using that analogy still. And just try to make that landscaping, that hardscaping, that tree surface, simplify those services and make sure that your business is more systems oriented so you don't have to have a really high skilled employee come and work for you, you can take an entry level employee and like Jonathan says, much easier to teach them how to spread topsoil and lay down. Sod versus run a mower, run a weed eater, run a blower, drive a truck, back up a trailer. You know, all these other things that go into lawn care and mowing. So I'm just a big fan. I wanted to drop this video in here because I feel like there is absolutely scenarios where buying a new truck is an absolutely a great idea. Rewarding yourself for your hard work and if you had years of frugality, it is absolutely a milestone, something that you're meant to like. You can stand on and be like, look, alright, I made it here. Going for the next thing, going for the next thing I can give to the people around me, my family, the people I support and just absolutely an awesome time. So I wanted to give a big shout to Jonathan. I hope you all subscribe to him. I know he watches the videos occasionally as well. So I just appreciate him so much for his openness, his transparency and for years of YouTube videos that have helped so many people. So thank you so much everyone. I'm Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse. Com. We'll see you next.