Losing Money on Jobs | $300k Business in 30 Days (20)

I'm traveling 3,000 miles across the country to build a $300,000 lawn care business in just 30 days. This Augusta lawn care location needs to be making $1,500 per day before I can hand it off to a general manager and go back home. I'm starting with no employees, no equipment and no customers to prove that systems build great businesses.

Alright, Today is day 20 and it's a little bit later in the evening and simply because this morning we had to drive from Louisville all the way back to Charlotte. Alright, so here we are at Papa John's where the better ingredients, better pizza branding has come into question recently.

They came out, I don't think they were super thrilled that we were out here videoing in front of their facility.

But the goal for today, the game.

Plan is to be able to do.

Several estimates with you. My eyes are burning. I used the wrong saline in my contacts. It's not like super light sensitive.

It's horrible.

Anyways, back to regular schedules, programming. We're going to do several estimates because a lot of people have been asking, how do you do estimates? How do you know that you are bidding low on these jobs to be able to get them? And how do you look at the job and know how long it's going to take to get the job completed? So that's what we're going to cover today in this edition of Estimates of Mike.

So it looks like the client is not home, or I should say the renter is not home. So I'm going to drop my literature back in the truck inside of my handy dandy briefcase. And I'm now going to proceed to make two videos. One for my crew and for command center and second one is for the customer because the customer is not here and the owner of this house has not seen this property for a very long time.

Hi Megan, it's Mike with Augusta Lawn Care.

I'm just at your property here. I'm actually in the backyard right now, but I just want to kind of walk you through it. Sounds like you are renting this out and haven't been here for a while. So I just kind of wanted to walk you through my recommendations for kind of most cost effective way of getting this place looking good. I just want to be careful because I know there was a dog here.

Whoa.

This is like a mirror glass thing.

What in the world is.

This.

Backyard is really overgrown. This grass right here is about 3 to 4ft tall. Most of this is about a foot and a half to two feet tall. And so definitely Needs a good initial mow. I'll give you an option for initial mow, kind of just getting under control and then a second one for more recurring like weekly and bi weekly service. Now, when I look at the leaf cleanup, a lot of it's going to be the debris that we got to get out of here. Probably a whole truck, truckload of debris. So we charge 99 for a truckload of debris going out to the dump. So all these leaves, both sides in here, we have to get all this stuff out, clean all this up, the leaf side of things.

As well as pulling the weeds out of the flower beds, trimming that one branch in the backyard, that's going to take probably at least five hours. Now do I think we can sooner than five hours? Yes. But I'm also calibrating for the fact that we got to make a trip to the dump as well as the fact that this is a lot of just work hauling debris from there to there. There's a lot of back and forth. You have to go into the backyard, there's going to be all that, those leaves on the back porch. So five hours. Very conservative to get that done. Now in our current state where we're trying to get jobs on the schedule, I might go to four hours. I am almost, I'm very confident we'll be able to get this job done in between four and four and a half hours. Now how am I so confident? Because I've done a lot of these over time. And as you do more estimates, you'll get more and more accurate about knowing when you look at jobs, knowing exactly how long they're going to take. This walkway is just kind of overgrown here. But anyways, in the backyard, really what we're looking at is there's all the gutters are completely filled and the eaves up there of the house are filled with leaves. Not so bad on that side. It's really mostly bad over here. This, these gutters are completely filled up and then we got a lot of leaf accumulation on the roof there. Now when it comes to the gutters in the front yard as well as in the backyard, honestly it'll probably take less than an hour. I'm going to add more time though, because I don't know is will I be able to just hop on the, on the roof and start blowing them out and getting all out, all the gunk out that way or will I have to move the ladder along the gutter as I clean them out? If I have to move the ladder along, it'll Take much, much longer, and ultimately I will have to charge for that.

On the back patio here.

Got quite a few leaves. Obviously, what I'm thinking is in terms of the leaf cleanup is we'll do an initial clean everything out and then more of a recurring. Just once a month, we would come clean out all the beds, blow off the deck, and just kind of look at for the leaves around the house. The only branch that I think is critically needing to be cut is this one here. It's falling down on the house and actually touching. So it can lead to rodents and just not good stuff happening. So we would remove this one, just this one branch, haul it off for you.

We can give you estimates for more.

Trimming, but I think for now, like, the more emergency stuff is just trimming this one away. Also, some of these branches that are down, we'll get those picked up as part of the cleanup portion. I'll go around to the front. But what I'm going to do is break this down into three line items for you. The first one will be the Boeing, the initial and the recurring. The second item is going to be for the property cleanup, which is going to be the trimming that branch off of the house, as well as pulling the weeds in the front yard beds. And I'll show you in a second. And then that third option will be cleaning the ease of the house and the gutters out. Let's get all that debris and make sure the gutters are flowing. Okay. All right. So now that I've made a video for the customer, and I will send that to them later with the email. Now I'm going to look through exactly how long I think each item will take. So, like the initial MoW, when I look at this property, we would typically charge at least $60 weekly, $90 BI weekly for this service. Now, the initial service, because it's so long in the back, just to get it looking half decent, we're going to have to spend two hours here. So like $140 just for that first cut.

How's it going? Hey, how's it going, man? Good, good. Megan had just asked for an estimate.

For the leaf cleanup and stuff like that.

Okay.

So I'll get out of here in just a couple seconds, okay? Yeah, yeah, no worries.

So you can see the tenant kind of rolled up on me. He was super chill, though. I was able to make a video for the customer and for my crew and that one for the customer, obviously attached to the estimate that I'm making now, the one that I Made for my crew goes on to WhatsApp, a WhatsApp group, and it compresses the video file and I just name it the name of the customer. So that way, in two, three, four weeks, when they show up at this property, they can just quickly search for the name of that customer and see exactly the video that I just made for them. Now, now, before I even leave this property, I want to finish making this estimate. We have what we call an estimate template, where we take all the different types of services that we offer, and we already have the verbiage, which is going to be on the estimate already. So we can copy and paste those notes very quickly, make a couple little changes, like for example, that branch in the back of the house. I am going to make that, make sure it's part of the property cleanup, that I remove that branch. But just slight modifications. And within three to five minutes tops before I leave this property, all of the estimate and all the information required.

Sent over to command center.

One thing that a lot of people don't think about a whole lot, and we talk a lot about when it comes to mowing and route density and all the rest of it, and that is being able to save a lot of time when it comes to estimates by also having a very tight area or territory or service area that you're willing to serve. Would I be able to grow a business faster if I serve 5 million people in my service area? Yeah, probably. But by focusing on 3, 4 miles of a radius, I can get some of these estimates very quickly. That last one was a mile drive. This next one is 1.8 miles away. It's super fast. I can get 3, 4, 5 estimates done in a matter of just an hour or two.

Okay, so this is the next property we're rolling up on. And this customer actually submitted an S request form from the website, which is great news because I've been working on getting some Google reviews. Looks like we're starting to rank pretty, pretty well. So getting a lead from there is.

Great because it means we're not going.

To pay for every single lead. Let's go. Now, the customer submitted several photos on the estimate request form. And so I can basically do the.

Estimate without them being here.

But it looks like they're home. So I'm gonna knock on the door, see if I can just take a look in the backyard.

It looks like they have some gravel and rock work. They need that.

Really?

Oh, absolutely.

I got your pictures, so I think.

I could probably do it without you.

Too much work.

I Figure.

So this what we had done.

Okay. We just.

We built and sold during COVID and we used to live in the very first house.

Oh, really?

On the corner of Running Me and Windsor. It was a bungalow, so we lived there for 10 years.

Yeah.

But when we bought the house, we got it at a really. I mean, we were like, pants that we could be able to make it in, but it was a short sale.

Okay.

So we don't come from building houses.

And all that stuff. Right. Like, that's not what you've done.

Yeah, we. I mean, like, yeah, we just. We just kind of make what we have.

So.

But anyway, because of that, we were able to tear down and build. But we did it right before COVID got it. So we had this done, which I love, but we need to mimic the.

Back in the back there. Okay. At the time.

At the time.

Cool.

All right. Perfect.

Beautiful house, though.

Oh, you're very kind.

Thank you.

And what they want to do is put metal edging all along the edges of this to contain this rock. Now they want to put a little bit more rock in, but the problem is they're having a trouble finding exactly this gray. This is another kind she found. It's more of a bluish. Not exactly the right color. I'm going to attach a picture to the job of the bag of rock that she has got. That I think, is the closest thing. It's more of a darker black. Oh, wow, look at that.

That's pretty close.

That's more of a bluish speckle.

It is, but it's this kind.

Oh, wow.

You've been all over.

I have.

Let's go.

Like I said, I was trying to, like, get the rocks so you won't.

Have to mess with that. I'm just gonna.

No, yeah, you're good.

But that's not right. That's from Lowe's, right?

Yeah. This is the exotic garden stone. Okay.

Now, she showed me a couple different shades of rock that she thought was a little off, and they were very close to what she already had. So I'm almost confident. There's almost no way we're gonna perfectly match the color of rock that she wants, because it was from a year and a half ago. And the fact is, the quarries, when they go through rock, there are a lot of times the shades will change slightly. And so I'm probably just going to bid that as if it's like, hey, we're getting a little bit of extra rock that is in bags, and we're going to top put that on Top and then just put the metal edging on the side. That will save a whole lot of time and expense of trying to find the exact color that matches the front yard. When in reality, anyone looking at the property is never going to compare the front yard to the backyard in terms of the shade of the rock. It's just going to look good. It's the black rock will match the trim of the house very well.

So on a project like that, I'm really just asking myself, is this a half day project or a full day project? I don't really usually get in the weeds of like, Is this a 4.36 budget hour job? No, it's like, will I be able to get two of these done in a day by putting two four hour projects for one crew member or will it take one person an entire day? And it's likely that if I or Terrence or anyone from Augusta is on that job site, it will take those majority of a day, probably six to seven budget hours. And if I'm going to take six or seven budget hours and assign it to someone, I'm going to charge the client for the whole day. So eight budget hours. And I think that's plenty of time to go source the materials, get the edging, the metal edging and the rock. And then the majority of that time, this real time suck is going to be digging out the trenches for those that metal edging to sit in.

That's our third and final estimate.

And actually wasn't even supposed to be at this one, but he's out in the yard. And I have a drive by for this one for tomorrow, so I'm just gonna hop out right now, Go drive bys. I can do them anytime. And what's cool about this property is we actually already have a property cleanup and a molten salt and already on the schedule for this coming week. So he wants more work done, but he's already accepted a $700 cleanup from the door hanger that was on his door last week. How's it going? I was supposed to come by your place tomorrow, but I. I saw you. I was driving by on the K. I'm about to drop by now.

Yeah.

I'm Mike.

Good to meet you.

Sorry, I smell pretty bad.

Are you kidding me? This is what I work with every day.

Yeah.

I got something on the stove.

I'm just gonna point you to it.

All right. Is it kind of behind the fence area? It's still kind of your area.

Okay.

See it?

All right.

It looks pretty bad. It didn't look bad this winter, but just kind of knee surgery.

Yeah.

Pockets hanging out.

Oh, cool.

Thank you.

And so I was busy with that there.

Oh, wow.

That all came this spring.

Oh, my goodness.

Wow.

The damn poke salad stuff and the poison ivy. I know. I don't think there's any point.

No, no, back there.

Okay.

Okay.

There used to be really bad. It was on this tree, But I got it down and I killed them.

Okay.

Okay.

Wow. Where's the tall. That's all the spring.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It was. It was not bad at all. And I'd even cleaned out some beyond the fence.

Wow.

Like my neighbor had.

Yeah.

But then my knee got bad, and I had to have a knee replacement. Replacement.

And then my dad died, and then.

My mom died, and it's just like.

Yeah, no, I get you.

Very inconsiderate.

Totally, totally.

Well, what I can do is I will make a video for the office, and then they will get an estimate to you over tomorrow. Okay.

It's supposed to rain all freaking week.

Do you think we'll make it happen?

This entire area, it looks nuts. And it is. Let me zoom out here for you.

There's a gate right here. Or, sorry, a fence, but there's a.

Gate right here and goes into this back area. And.

You can see right there, that green gate. It's about 15ft beyond this gate. All of this behind here has grown.

This past spring, literally.

And if we can get a combi system and just be like, knock this all down with a metal head attachment.

That'S probably the best option.

I'm not gonna lie. That one's a beast of a job. And I feel a little bit inadequate because I don't know exactly what type of weeds or overgrown whatever is back there. However, he did tell me he got rid of the poison ivy. I'm going to assume that there is poison ivy in there in terms of making sure the guys are masked up and completely covered. In terms of long sleeves. I know in our market, we use these things on the combi system that steel has. It had metal heads, and we would chew through that thing and literally two hours or less. I'm gonna budget for a lot more time because whenever I feel like I'm not 100% sure about something, I just usually put more hours. The last thing I want the guys to do is get way behind, especially if they're getting paid based on performance. And for a job like that, I'm probably gonna put at least five hours. Even though I think as long as everything goes smooth, it could be a two or three hour job, honestly. So I'm just gonna make sure though, because I have never used echoes metal head attachments. So I'm not as confident in knowing that, you know, like the steel machine, we just go through that thing in no time flat. So we'll see how it goes. But I am going to bid a little bit higher on that one just to make sure if we get that extra job accepted, we are able to hit it in budgeted hours. And yes, of course I'm also going to add a mowing quote to the estimate because he's out there pushing with electric mower and just had a knee surgery. And we can solve that problem for you, man.

Now, in the perfect world, we'd use.

Standardized pricing for things like bush trimming, like how many large, medium or small shrubs are on the property for property cleanups like that one. It is nigh to impossible to standardize that outside of using budgeted hours and consistently. I see the most accurate way of calculating how long a job is going.

To take and whether or not you're.

Going to be profitable is using budget hours. It is the unit of all of our industries in the service industry, and that is labor. So why not use that as a way to measure how much you charge? Now, we've been selling property cleanups and small projects like that left and right, literally with a 70 to 80% close ratio over the past week or two weeks. So tomorrow I have something very cool I want to try and it's going to be very interesting as to whether or not this is going to bring in a lot more property cleanups. Stay tuned.

This is the weather forecast for the rest of the week.

We have a ton of work on the schedule.

And this could potentially make us not hit the goal just in and of itself. We can't work in thunderstorms.