Mike Andes LIVE (My Burner Phone DIED!)

What's up, everyone? It's Mike Andes. Today we are doing something brand spanking new. We're in a call in show. You can actually call in, ask a question. And so we've never done one of these before. I'm going to see if there's any sort of demand for this sort of thing. So in down here, right over here on the screen, just call that number. When you do call that number, you're not going to give a response. You're actually going, the phone call is going to drop, but it'll then queue you up and I will be able to call you back. So if you are interested and ask me a quick question, call this number right here. You will. It'll be a missed call, but that will put you in the queue and then I will give you a call back and we will talk shop. I don't know if this will work. I don't know if anyone even wants to do this sort of thing. I'm trying to do a call in show to where we can actually hear from you instead of just watching someone's question in text form. So feel free to give me a call. The Number here is 260-899-0822. Again, when you do call that number, it is not going to be alive. I'm not going to pick up. It's going to put you in the queue and then I will call you back when you are next in line. So until then, I will wait for my phone calls to come rolling in here and then we will see if this thing works. I have it all set up here. I got a new road soundboard thing. Hopefully this will actually allow us to do these shows live, where you actually call in and you hear from other landscapers, not just the texting side of things. So welcome Bradley, the Southern collector Warrior Barrier Warrior Bear, everyone that's in the chat. So feel free. Again, if you're just tuning in, we are going to do this as. Try to do this as a call in show. So call the number on the screen and yeah, we're accepting 13 year olds. Absolutely. So, yeah, give us a call in and let's see if this thing works. And down the road it'd be cool to be able to have these on phone instead of just tech. So, Jack, Welcome Slow Rider 30, welcome to the show. I look forward to seeing everyone at Landscape Summit. But yeah, I got this new. Let's see if I can hold this thing up.

The new fancy shiny thing here.

And I recorded the audiobook on it and then I was looking into all the things it can do, and I'm like, oh, it can have phone calls. So we're gonna see if we can't try to get phone calls to come in on this thing and then record it live. So if you have questions in the chat, feel free to post them in there, too. I'll get those in between calls if we get any calls at all, because some people are shy. They don't want to call in. But if you would like to get an answer. Forrest just called me. I know that number. All right, Forest, I'm going to call you back. Here we go. See if this thing works.

Your call has been forwarded.

Forrest didn't pick up. Okay, zero, Forrest, I'm calling you back.

So when you call, there's not going to be an answer. It's going to go directly to just cut you off, but then force. What's up, brother?

I figured I'd just call you.

You're the first one ever. Let's go.

Okay, so how many years did it take you to 1. Your first million in gross revenue?

We are just short of it on our third year, so. A third year of going full time. So I was like, I think it was 978 if I'm mistaken. But you're down in California, and you. You're killing it too, man.

Well, what was your second year?

So first year full time was just under 200. Next year was just under 500. And then the next year we did the. The 970 something.

So you're pretty much just doubling up.

Pretty much, yeah. Like the. The one. The. The second jump, the 200 to 400, 000. There was an acquisition in there that probably boosted us by, I'd say, 80 or 100,000. We bought them out. But then, that being said, that was basically. It's the money we would have spent on advertising and marketing anyways, so.

Okay. That was my question.

You're driving, dude. What's up with that?

How do you know I'm driving?

I can hear it.

Oh, yeah. I just got done working.

Good stuff. What were you doing today.

Bowen?

We just. The rain killed us this week, so. Just getting caught up on those today.

Oh, it's good stuff, man. Awesome. Well, I'll let you go. Thanks for calling in, being the very first one to ever call in for us.

Perfect. I'm gonna keep watching.

Okay. Thanks for the invite. Cool. All right. That was awesome. So if you would like to call in, just call the number on the screen, and then it's gonna Cut you off, and then that will put you into my waiting list here where I can then call you back. So we got some other questions popping in here. How many people did you have to make 900,000 in revenue the third year? So typically, kind of the benchmark that I'm looking for is you're trying to get at least $100,000 in revenue per full time employee. And so if you're able to do that, that's really the goal is to get at least 100,000. And again, every single market's going to be different just because.

Oh, man. I wonder if this only allows my contacts to come in. That would not be good. Okay, well, we'll see if someone else calls. I think my problem right now, I think, is that only people in my contacts will actually come through on my phone. But, hey, prove me wrong. So, yeah, we want to shoot you for 100,000 or so, but every single market is different. There's markets where if you're charging 50, $60 per hour, that if you can do 70, 80,000 per year in annual revenue per employee, you're actually doing pretty good. So every single market's gonna obviously be different. So, yeah, I think I have a problem here. My big problem that I'm running into right now is the fact that if you're calling me and you're not in my phone already, you're not going to pop up. That's why Forrest popped up. Man Forest is a franchisee down in California. So let me see here. Let me see if I can't make it where you all can get in without being in my phone already. That's horrible. That's just crazy horrible. Okay, let's try. No, that wouldn't work. Okay, I'm gonna try a different number. No, no, no, no, no, that won't work.

Let me see if I can just change this real quick.

Let's answer some questions while we're doing that. When did the season usually start for us in our local market? Usually starts around March, but kind of across the country, I would say, you know, April is usually when most people start ramping up in terms of mowing. All right, let's see here. Okay, so this is the better solution. Okay, Try to text me. Try to text this number and then see if I can't call you. I have a feeling that my, my thing is not going to let anyone's phone call to come in that is not in my contact. So try to text this number. So I'm going to try to text this number and Then I'll see if that would come through. A bad feeling that this thing, this I put on Verizon, I was getting all these. This, you know, spam call estimate. I basically said, hey, I don't even want my phone to ring if they're not in my. In.

In my contacts. And it works great until you need a stranger to give you a call. All right, see some other questions here. What's the easiest way to keep track of one's hours? And what's the easiest way to do invoices? Okay, I got. We will come back to this question in terms of tracking one's hours. You want that in your CRM? What's the easiest way to invoice? Is the same thing. You just gotta have a good CRM. Okay, so we have a number from an 8, 5, 0, number. So this is great. So what we'll do is text this number. Okay. This is fantastic. Actually, text this number right here. Text this number your question. And then if you text it to me, I'm going to assume that I'm allowed to call you. Right. And if I call you, then we can actually talk about your question. Okay, this is great. I got multiple people doing this. So let's see here. Text me your question. There's multiple people have already. Text me. I appreciate that. Text me again if you have a question. I just put your question really, really brief. I'll click on it. And I should be able to have you on a phone call immediately and everyone be able to hear you. So that'll be awesome. Okay, let's see here. What's the best part of Gie? Well, it's turning into a quip expo next year, I'd say the best part, just networking with other people, honestly. Yeah. Cool. So thank you, everyone that has text me. I appreciate that. Yes, thank you. 8, 5, 8, 4, 5, number. 9, 3, 6, number. So if you guys want to text this number, I know it says call in, but hey, we're learning here. Text this number here. A quick question, very abbreviated. I'll click on your number and actually call you. All right. That will actually work really well. So sweet.

Cool. Melvin, I look forward to seeing you there as well. No, call here. Just join your channel and learning. Okay, cool. Okay.

Okay. I'm getting all these text messages from people that are saying that they're texting me, but if you text me a question that I know you actually want me to call you, I don't want you to feel like, hey, all right, let's see here. Let's See what's coming in. This is by the way, I know I put this on the Facebook group, but this is the new book that's coming out in January. P4P. Really looking forward to launching this the 16th that this will come out will come out in the audio version as well. And it breaks down P4P. Open Book Management, profit sharing. We go through all the different variables and calculation side of things. In the back years we actually show like different pay periods and how to calculate it. It's going to be a lot of fun. So this is, this is coming out January 16th and I think it will be very much helpful. So like it said, I said here have build on P4P open book management and then profit sharing is kind of the top of the pyramid. Building a great culture and a great business. That's coming out. Big shout out to Zach and Jaden and Liz that helped me on that book. All right, let's see here. So again, if you have a question and you want me to call you, all you have to do is text this number your question. I will then call you and we will chat it up about your question. See if this actually works. This new fandangle equipment that I bought. Let's see here. Okay, so I have an 8.4K. Big Mike, love your show. Keep up the great work. Okay, so I gotta see a question. So that way I know when I call you it's not just a hi, we actually have something to talk about.

Let's see here. What CRM. Yeah, I'd say like if you're just starting out, Lawn pro yard book. Those are great. A jobber if you're kind of in that middle zone, you know, if you're starting to get a lot bigger, potentially Service autopilot or.

LMN is great. You're in Bellingham, the home of two second lean. Yeah. Have you been to FastCap and met Paul Acres? Yes, I have. You should have speak him at your summit, by the way. I'm coming. Cool. Yes. Polycares is awesome and I have talked to him and then he gave me a tour of his facility. It's super cool. So, okay, so I got people texting me, but I need to know if you let me to call you or not because I don't want, I don't want to call you and be like, hey, I just texting you.

Here. Cool. If there's any other questions, you can put them in the chat because I'll answer those until someone actually texts me on the number on screen.

Currently make $85,000 at my full time job and I've bought into the solo franchise model. Yeah, Chad, let's go. At what point should I know that I can retire from my full time job and make enough $85,000 or more with Augusta? Yeah. So it's really going to come down to how fast you're growing, because if you're, if you're growing really fast, you're typically going to pump your cash back into the business. If you're trying to grow really fast, as we've talked about before, growth sucks cash. So if you're, if you can spend $2 on marketing and get $10 in revenue and then 10 year, $10 in revenue next year from that $2, that's a great investment. To keep growing the business, it really comes down to speed at which you are wanting to grow. So I would say, to answer your question directly, you could literally do this within a year, no problem. If you were not wanting to go the next year to 500,000 or 600,000, like if you want to take that second year to 5, 6, 700,000, you're going to be pumping quite a bit of money back into the business. And, and therefore you're probably not going to have, you know, 30%, 40% profit margin. It's going to be slimmer because you're spending a lot of the money on cash. Okay, I got questions coming in on, on the phone here. So I'm going to give some of these a call. So here we go. Calling. How does, let's see here, 205 number. Call. How do I call this person? Call.

All right, it's coming, it's coming. I got to write the number down. Are you serious? What is up with this technology? All right, I'm going to call this number. It's a question about P for P21.

Okay, here we go. Make a call. And I'm punching the number in. Here we go.

Gotta be careful not to say their number online. That would not be cool. All right, call on the first caller. Here we go.

Hello.

Hey, this is Mike Andes. How you doing?

Good, how about you?

Good, good. Sounds like you had a question about P4P.

Yes. How does your P4P work?

Yeah. So basically the general gist of it is that the employee gets a percentage of the labor revenue that they earn for the business. So every single day they're going to get a certain percentage of the labor revenue. Not the total invoice, but the labor revenue. So you're going to kind of break apart materials and labor on your estimate, but they basically just get a percentage of that every single day. So do you do mostly mowing or landscaping?

Kind of both, yeah.

So basically, the hardest part about switching to P4P is getting your budget hours on every single job. So both for mowing and landscaping, you'd be assigning a certain number of budget hours. And what that means is, like, hey, I go to a job, like, how long is it going to take? Eight hours. Okay, great. Let's assume you have a $50 per hour labor rate. Well, that's $400 in labor revenue. And then we say, okay, well, we're going to give one third of labor revenue to our employees. Okay, great. Well, One third of 400 is what, $133. So they're going to get $133, and it doesn't matter how fast they do the job. Right. So if it takes them five hours or it takes them 10 hours, or it takes them 12 hours, they're getting $133. It's up to them to be as efficient as possible and therefore make as much money as possible. Does that make sense? Hey, Duff, Cool, cool, cool. Have you tried doing that before with your employees, or do you do hourly right now, or are you just getting started?

I'm just getting started.

Very cool. Awesome. Well, best of luck to you. In January, I have this book coming out. It's only gonna be a 99 cents, and so it kind of explains more in depth, all the little pieces of P4P. And in terms of.

Bonuses, overtime, if someone makes a mistake. Because you don't want them to go too fast. Right. So all that will be in the book, and it'll be coming out in January.

Best of luck, brother. You have a good one. Thanks for calling in.

Cool. All right, we got more people texting. All right, we got another one. I'm going to give this number a call. This is so fun. So text the number on the screen if you're trying to call it right now. I do apologize. What I've realized is that my spam blocker is not going to allow you to call me. But if you text the number right here, I will see your text and I will give you a call. So I'm going to call the next person right here. Do make a call. Bam, bam, bam. And when you come on, make sure you introduce yourself. Tell us where you're from. Here we go. Calling the next caller. This is fun. Just text this number here if you have a question.

Hi, my name is Abraham. I'm from Maryland. And I've been watching you live on YouTube.

Abraham, let's go. How you doing?

Good. How you doing?

Good. Good. What's your question?

So I've been doing lawn care and landscaping basically as a side hustle for about a year with like some family of mine. I've been watching a ton of your videos on trying to figure out how to make things better and more professional. So I'm just wondering what's the best way of doing that.

How many, how many customers do you have now?

We probably have like around 50, like during the regular season right now. We had to cut things down because winter.

Okay. And when you say it's you and your family, is it you and like your brother or like, you know, how many people are involved?

I've been doing me, my dad part time and then my uncle part time, my neighbors part time and like two, a cousin part time and a friend part time. So. Yeah.

And are you the only owner or is it kind of a family, like kind of all of you own it?

We kind of all have been. We haven't like set everything up yet. So that's kind of what I've been wanting to do so that we can grow a lot more, make things, everything great, like better. I guess.

Yeah. I think the challenge I have, I see a lot of times with kind of your side of business or family run businesses like that is if you don't have one owner or someone that has equity that is really the decision maker, your business will kind of top out around that 50 to 100 customer rank, like kind of level, simply because there's no one that's like actually in the business, driving, making decisions, deciding where you're going to spend money on marketing, deciding if you're going to do a website, you know, actually putting together organizational in terms of who's hiring, who's training. Like there's got to be someone doing that. And so are you the only one that's full time?

Not. Not yet. I'm waiting until I graduate to go full time.

Yeah. So, you know, like, if I was you, like, I. What I would recommend is just, you know, talking to your family like, hey, like we've. I want to grow this thing. Can I be the owner? And then if you guys want to work for me part time or if you want piece of the business and then we actually figure out an LLC with, you know, part ownership or whatever, but like getting very clear in terms of what you want from the business because otherwise they're just like there's no standard, no One really has account. No one's accountable for certain positions, and that can be really challenging for the business and for the customers, like, because there's no direction for the company. Right. So I would recommend, like, do you want to grow it up? But they don't. Is that kind of the dynamic right now?

No, we all want to grow it up. It's just we haven't had, like, we. No one has the time to go full time right now. We're just waiting until I can graduate so I can go full time, and then my dad will jump on board with me.

That's very cool. So. So are. Is next spring, you said you're gonna go full time next summer?

Yeah, yeah, in spring, if I graduate, hopefully.

Yeah. Like, what I would say is, like, at the end of the day, when you're that size and you're trying to basically make it worthwhile for you to go full time and then even potentially sounds like your dad, like, the bottom line is you gotta focus on one thing, and that's selling, right? So whether it be going door to door, whether that be doing door hangers, whether it be talking to everyone you possibly know, it be going to Facebook groups locally, whether it be going on next door, like, you've just got to put so much pressure on yourself by having so much so many sales coming in. It'll naturally pull you out of, you know, into full time and naturally pull him into full time, just because the demand is so much there, right? So that'd be the only thing I'd be focusing on. I wouldn't be focused on buying what kind of equipment, kind of truck. Like, none of that stuff matters. You just got to get more work, because that will actually, it'll just. It'll make it so clear to you that that's the right direction. And then in terms of setting up your LLC and getting insurance, you'll be like, oh, I have to do it now, because I'm booked out for four weeks and. And I have enough work for both of us to be full time that will pull you into doing it full time. So I. I just focus on that one thing and. And that alone.

So I've actually been having a lot of success with selling. My fear is that I have, since I haven't set everything up, is I'm scared to grow a lot more. So I'm just wondering, like, what's the best way of setting things up, like finding a good, you know, accountant and lawyer. Like, are there any sites that I can go to to find one or do I just have to trust word of mouth or something like that.

So when you. So first of all, why do you. Why do you feel like you can't. What, like, is it a matter of it's legal, like you're not set up legally and that kind of. You feel like you can't grow because of that?

Yeah, kind of that aspect.

Do you have a sole proprietorship right now or an llc or how are you set up?

I haven't really set up anything. It's just been like a side hustle for all of us so far.

Got it. Yeah. So I would definitely recommend an llc. Right. So if you. You could literally go into Rocket Lawyer and get help from them for like 40 bucks a month membership, you can get actually access to an attorney or you can just look up local in your area attorneys that can set up an llc. That being said, if you go on to your SOS or Secretary of State for your. For your state, it's usually pretty simple to get an LLC set up. So just go, Secretary of State. Are you in Maryland, you said?

Yeah, I'm in Maryland. Yeah.

So here, let's pull it up. Let's go. I bet it's.md.gov let's see here. Oh, yeah, Secretary of State here for Maryland. If you do.

Egov maryland.gov, that's the search here. One point this up. So basically. Yeah, here we go. Perfect. So, yeah, if you just search. If you just put Maryland Secretary of State or Maryland sos, it'll come up and that's basically, it'll walk you through the steps. In the top right hand corner, it literally says, want to plan, start, manage or grow your business? Click here and it's going to walk you, like through step by step. So business express.maryland.gov and it's going to walk you through this stuff. And I would just call, like, there are people with the SBA and with these government sites that will actually walk you through, like, the benefits of llc, what you should be doing in terms of the, you know, liability. Right. So I would suggest an llc, simply because you're gonna get more liability protection. And what you don't want is if you do a sole proprietorship or just start. If you keep doing under the table, if you ever, like, hurt a child, you hurt someone's, you know, damage someone's house or their car, they can theoretically then come and see you personally and for your personal assets. Right. So whether it be your dad's or your own, like, you can. They can come and get those things, basically, if they took you to court. So you want to keep that protection from the business and your personal assets.

Yeah, absolutely. What about an accountant? Like, what's the best way of finding one of those? Because I know that's crucial. I've watched your videos and you explain that.

What do you need from an accountant? Do you need like planning or do you need like just bookkeeping or do you need like tax advice?

I would, I was thinking more tax advice. That was, that's my main concern.

Yeah. So that's when I would talk to local business owners and just literally just like, hey, do you, do you have someone that you'd recommend? I wouldn't go after lawn care landscaping guys because they're probably not going to tell you or they're going to tell you. The people they don't, they would actually not recommend. But what I would recommend doing is like, you know, if you know a dentist, if you know anyone that's in your, you know, kind of circle of business owners and just, hey, who do you guys use for accountants or CPAs going to Nextdoor and asking your local community, hey, is there any of the business owners that have a really good CPA? You'll have 20 results and people responding within 24 hours. So that's what I would do because I'm a big fan still of having a local CPA as old fashioned as that sounds. Same thing with insurance agents. I'm still old fashioned. I want to go walk in there when I want, when I want to kind of have, you know, a need a knee talk or like look them in the eye and know that they're listening to me. So I'm still a big believer of local the. But there's plenty of online CPA stuff for, for, you know, an accountant. But that's what I would do. I'd go in the next door, I'd go into your local circle and just try to ask around in terms of who's good, who's good in the local area.

Great. And one last little thing. Is it best to start the LLC before the year ends or once the year starts?

Well, the fact that, yeah, we're only 12, 13 days away from the end of the year. Right. So if I was you, I would just wait till the end of the this year. Like I'd do it January 1st, but when you start on, typically depending what state you're in, you can go in there, fill all your registration and then put your start date as January 1st. I would do that simply because you would not then need to claim on the schedule C would not have to be on 2021. It could just be on next year's tax return. It's not a big deal because you're not going to probably have much revenues for the next 12, 13 days. But it's just another step. If you haven't set up anything, I'd just wait till January 1st. Or at least if you register, put that as your first starting date of business. So that way you don't have to do a schedule C on your. On 2021's tax return.

Great. Thank you so much. I really, I really appreciate it.

You got it, brother. Thanks for calling in.

All right, take care.

Cool. This is so much fun. Okay, we got another question. Let's see here. I'm going to give you a call. This is great. So I will try to refine this whole system so it's a little bit smoother next time. But basically you're just joining in. If you text this number your question, then I can call you. All right, so we have already found out that Michael's spam blocker will not allow anyone to call him. He does not in his contacts. So what you need to do is text this number, then I can call you. All right, let's go. Next one, six four six. That's who I'm calling.

Eight one calling. This is great. This is a lot of fun. Hopefully you all can hear them. Okay, I have the volume control here. Okay, cool.

Okay.

Hey, is this Mike?

This is Mike. How's it going?

It's great. Good evening. Good evening.

Amazing to be talking to you from. Where are you calling from?

My name is Divya and I'm right now in Hunter, Alabama.

Very cool. Very cool. What's your question?

So, Mike, I'm trying to model out what I'm just starting off and I'm trying to model out what a year of operations would look like. And you know, I'm trying to understand, let's say in a city when residential, you know, you start thinking of residential customers, you know, how often do they end up being repeat customers, that sort of ticket service on a, you know, let's say monthly basis versus how many times do people usually just get service and then, you know, don't come back? Just kind of curious what you've seen based on your experience.

Now when you say they have service and they don't come back, are you talking about someone who just has a one time mow or are you talking.

About like a cleanup or project.

One time mow? I'm really focused on Mowing. So I'm kind of curious how many mowing customers tend to come back.

Yeah, it really depends on what you're trying to do with the business. Like I'm a big believer if you're trying to grow really fast that you're going to probably take on one time mows or sorry, not one time owns, but like overgrown mows because.

You'Re confident you can convert a certain percentage of them into recurring. That being said, I know most landscapers and lawn cares and most of our franchisees will not take one time most because one time most just don't make sense from a financial standpoint. It's very hard to budget them correctly if you're going to do an estimate for them. Either a, you're doing over the phone and showing up and then disappoint the customer with a really high ticket item. Or two if it's a one time mo. Like every one time mow is overgrown. Like there's no one like oh please mow my grass for this week because I'm gone. And it's like already perfectly manicured and edged. So you're dealing all the time with like really tall grass hard on your equipment. It's hard to schedule them because it can. They're such a wild card. It's like, well, take somewhere between two and five hours to mow your lawn. Cause it's three feet tall. Right. So there's just so many variables. Lots of, you know, very a lot of wear and tear on the equipment. The guys don't like to do it. A lot of times it sparks their allergies. So.

When you look at your revenue, what percentage of it comes from one time mows do you think?

I'm just getting started. So I'm trying to model it out and I thought it would be something like 60% would be recurring revenue, 40% one time owns. But based on what you're saying, it sounds like it just doesn't even make sense to go into the one time mowing side at all.

Exactly. The only reason we would do an overgrown mow is because we know that person has the intention of going recurring service. And occasionally you'll strike out and someone will be like, hey, could you come mow my lawn? And then we give them a one time mow price or initial mow we call it, which is going to get the edging dialed in. Get them. We do not just give them a weekly or bi weekly and eat it. The first time we give them the initial price is much higher. And then there's going to be that occasional time where they're like, oh, you know what, let's have the first mow only. But if they call and actually ask for just a one time mow, it's not worth our time. We just don't know like if you're going to send an estimated there. Just by the time you send someone there, you drive by and go there and back like you've already wasted so much money. And then if you just do on the basis of yeah, we'll show up, we'll mow it and then we'll charge you, a lot of times you're not going to get that money. Right? Because typically someone who's abandoned their house, it's overgrown, they're not taking care of their lawn, they don't value it. And you coming along and mowing their grass, they're like, oh, thank you very much. And you don't hear from them. So I would say some of the biggest bounce rates and the biggest, when we look at collections across all of Augusta Nation, I would say about 50 to 60% at least are just one time mows. So I would stay away from them. I just would say that I would not. When you're first starting out, say you won't do an overgrown mow, just kind of feel out the customer in terms of are they actually looking for recurring service or are they looking for a one time mow? And you can literally just tell customers, hey, we don't mow only one time. We'll mow it the first time initial, get it up to snuff and but we got to go recurring after that. Does that make sense?

Understood. Thank you so much for answering and a huge fan and thanks for helping the community.

You got it, brother. Take care. Have a great evening.

You too.

Bye. This is so much fun. Okay, another question. I apologize, I have to write your number down, then give you a call. It takes me extra second here, but let's see here. If you guys like this, let me know in the comments because I will try to do this more often. I think it's more fun than just hearing me read the question. And you guys are doing great in terms of just being very punctual on the phone call. It's always annoying when you listen to a show and the person just goes on and on and on. So you guys are doing great. This is fantastic. Okay, next question. 8, 5, 0 number.

Hello?

Hello, who is this? This is Mike Andes.

Hey, this is Colby.

Colby, how you doing?

Good, how are you?

Cool.

Where are you calling From Florida.

Florida. Very cool. What's your question?

What do you do to keep people Like I've had an issue with like employee retainment and stuff. I was just wondering like what, what do you do that. I know you do the T4P but what do you do that that helps.

To keep your people?

Other than just a piece of tea.

How many employees do you have right now?

I had two. Well, we went in the winter season and it's just, just me right now.

Got it. And then next year you plan to get like to maybe three or four. Is that kind of your hope?

Yeah, yeah, it'll be. If next year goes well, it'll be me and a landscape crew, Me and a landscape truck with one other person and then two on maintenance. There would be a total.

Yeah. Like this is really, you know, at the end of the day this is a tough industry, right. It's typically entry level. And even, you know, for our company we still have turnover, right. It's not as bad as a lot of places, but we still have turnover. Right. And so you still have to replace people and the people leave and they randomly leave. A lot of times it's not like it just kind of comes out of the blue. So I think the big thing is just focusing more and this is something we're going to talk a lot about at conference and that is focusing on marketing to find employees and the same way that we would market to find customers. Right. So actually having a process and you're really thinking about, okay, in terms of customers, I would make sure I have a good estimate proposal. I would make sure I have a good follow up process. I would make sure I have a good onboarding process and getting their credit card on all on count. I would make sure that I'm a presentable when I go and meet them at the estimate, I would make sure I answer the phone. All of those steps can be translated over to well, what are you doing in terms of marketing to get employees? Are you doing that interview in a same professional manner? Do you have an actual checklist of questions that you go through in that interview? Do you give them a job offer right away? Do you wait one day and get their, their, their references? Like back in the day we would require three references and we had to get here back from them and we'd maybe give a job offer two, three days later. Well now in this market you probably aren't going to have that luxury because if someone's good, they're going to go get five job offers the next day. Right. And so what I would do if I was you is really thinking, think out what is the process that you're hiring somebody and then how do you onboard train them? And not, not just like, hey, once I have a job offer, it's done. Like, do I follow up with them? Do I actually train them? Then do I have like, then it's a matter of retention. The same way we try to keep customers happy with customer service and all the rest of it. It's like, well, what are you doing for your employees? Do you have off site meetings? Do you have profit sharing? Do you have open book management? Do you have P4P? These are all the things that would help retain an employee. And it's not the perfect science because the industry that we are in is entry level. And so the number one way to help protect the business from that is simply simplification of the business and run on systems so that when people do leave, not if, but when they do, because people will, that the business doesn't fall apart. So like this year, did you lose both those two people or just like the end of the season you let them go?

Yeah. Let them go.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, even if it's a matter of like when you let someone go in the fall, you can try to stay in touch with them throughout the winter so that when next spring rolls around that you're still into contact, they know what the start date is because hopefully those two people will train your next two people. Right. So do you think those two people will come back next spring or not?

Probably not one of them. Okay, so let me, let me rephrase that. I did, I let one go and the other one moved, but with no notice. So he kind of quit. He went, he went back to Kentucky and you know, it was one of those, he was supposed to come in Thursday and then Thursday morning I get a call at 6am.

I'm getting kicked out of my place. So there's no notice. And it was funny because it was even one of those deals like where somebody goes way over the top to tell you, like, hey man, if I'm ever not going to be here, I'll let you know. And at worst case, I'd give you two weeks. And he let me know that morning and we were doing, we had £18 sod to do that day and we're supposed to have him. And it was so funny. Yeah, it was a mess.

Yeah, like, you know, it's part, part of the industry and at the end of the day, like how, how do.

You, do you screen people, like, when you get people that, when they come into your business, do they, do you screen them like background checks? Are you just like, how do you do it? Because it's not enough time if, if you're trying to get people and you need help, like, what do you do?

Yeah, like, we used to references, drug tests, background checks, the whole nine yards. But now with the labor market the way it is, we are hiring on the spot. We're giving them a job offer within a few minutes of them walking out the door.

And you're just weeding them out as they go.

Yeah, and I think, I think the bottom line is creating a culture that you can weed them out. Nice thing is that your size, you're going to have direct contact with them throughout the day, right. So you're going to know pretty quickly if they're good or not. What I would say though is you're going to. You need two solid people before you get busy in the spring. So I would really encourage you to really start trying to focus on hire like in January, because you need those two people solid so that when March and April rolls around, you can go get two more people without drowning yourself. Because this is what a lot of times happens is this. Is. Is this your first, first winter?

No, no. I've been doing this about, about nine years, since I was 16.

So cool. So now you're. You're kind of just playing now to grow it now, Is that kind of the plan?

Yeah, I've tried, I've tried. I've tried for a long time. I had two people last year and I had two people this year.

And this happens a lot. It happens a lot because what happens.

Is, you know, you see it all the time. But it was the one. As soon as I stepped out of the truck, everything just goes downhill.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Like. Like the thing is what so many times happens is you usually have two employees. They let you either let them go or they leave for the winter. And what happens is come spring, you basically, you know, if they're gone, you go higher when you need someone, right. You're like, okay, March 1st, let's go find someone. Well, by the time they're trained up and half decent, it's middle of April, you're drowning in work. You don't even have time for interviews. You'll literally take anyone with a heartbeat. You'll say, hey, hop on the crew. So again, you've deviated from your system of how to train them. Maybe like, for you example, I always Recommend someone has less than three or four employees. Have it where every employee comes through you, right? So you've hired them, you say, hey, tomorrow you're going to be with me. You know, get, we'll get your employee document signed. We're going to have an hour, we're going to go over, you know, how pay works here. We're going to work all your bank details, all whatever stuff out. But then you're going to be on the, in the truck with me for the next one to two weeks at least. And in that time, you're going to be the one that's going to be able to determine whether or not they're a long term fit. You're also going to be the one that trains them on all the standards that are required, right? And then you can, you know, offload them to another employee. The problem is if you hire someone right when you need them is you don't have time to train them. You literally just like, hey, just go do this job, I'll drop you off and I'll go do estimates and I'll go do mowing while you get this project. And now they have no connection with you whatsoever. Right? So I think the biggest, you know, the biggest thing I would say is, you know, hire people earlier so that when, when the rush comes and you're hiring other people, you already have a couple solid people. That would be like my only kind of bit of. I see it so oftentimes the two employee thing, not getting the third one. As soon as you go to three employees, there's going to be an at least one employee per day that will not work with you. And that's when most companies will fall apart because it's just a matter of they're not locked into the culture and just, you know, you know how it goes, right? People just do crazy stuff.

And so yeah, go ahead in, in that scenario. Okay, same scenario. And I get what you're saying. And I don't let the people go in the winter. I only, you know, let them go if I have issues with them. And it's like there's no point in carrying them on through. Like I, we have enough work, we have contracts, but it's more of a, you know, just like there's an issue and I just let it go in the winter and just, but, but for the, for the thing that you're talking about and like the.

Idea, oh no, our phone dropped out. I did not hang up on you, by the way. I do not know why that dropped off. I apologize. Okay, we got other questions coming in here. Let's go here. 603 Number rolling up here.

Okay, this is fun. I'm gonna do one or two more and then I gotta bounce. Let's see here. Phone call. Colby, I apologize for that drop off. I do apologize. Randomly just dropped on the phone here. Probably because my cell service is not great here. But let's see here. 6. Wait, I already typed it in. Why didn't do that? All right, I'm calling this next number. 603 number.

You have exhausted your daily Voice quota of 1500 seconds on your number.

Oh, mercy.

Voice call limit will be restored by tomorrow 12am at night.

What?

You have exhausted your daily voice quote, quote of 1500 on the number.

Oh, man, I've exhausted my minutes. Okay, well, we know it works and next time we'll be able to be better equipped for how this whole system works. But this is going to be fun. I appreciate you all hopping on here. Let's see if we can answer some of the questions from the live chat. While we're at it here, let me take this down so I don't discourage. Don't have anyone calling in again. So I apologize for the people who have already texted me a question. We will get you on the next one actually here. What do you do to retain. Okay, we did that one. I've been learning about the lawn landscape business from your channel and others. I had a question. Is it possible to start a lawn care landscape business with a physical disability as a manager of the business without working in the field as a labor or technician? Yes. You're just going to need more capital because you are going to need to hire either a higher quality laborers or a manager right from the get go. Okay, let's jump into the chat here and see if we can't get some questions. How much is it for someone to buy a franchise? Your company just go to augustalongerservices.com franchise. It has all the info there. Okay, I'm just kind of going through all these questions, then we'll call it a night. Should I take landscaping classes or just. Just start doing it now. I'd go and get started. If you want to get landscaping, hardscaping, construction, not a bad idea to go get certified, get some actual education from it because much more technical. But if you're just looking at more labor type position like mulching, bush, trimming, pulling weeds, mowing, like you do not need education or classes. All that money you make and you have. Yes, of course. You really think I'm gonna get my personal phone here. I'd have to be crazy. It is a burner phone. Yes, it is. You got me 1500. 1500. Whatever. Got used up, so. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Hey, at least we know it works. And it's gonna be. It's gonna be cool in the future. We'll. I think it's. It's a lot. Yeah. Premium version. No, I paid for this. I literally paid. Ah, I'll have to figure it off to buy some more minutes or something. It doesn't even allow me to buy. We'll figure it out. All right, everyone, I just want to say thanks for hopping on here bearing with all the technical issues. But next time we'll make sure it's set up to where I can make this a little more smooth. But I think it's a lot more fun hearing from the other landscapers than just me, so it's a lot of fun. Thanks so much, everyone. Have a great extra evening. Have a very merry Christmas, happy holidays, an awesome new year. I look forward to seeing you guys at Landscape Summit 2022. It's going to be a great, great time. So if you haven't already, just go to Landscape Summit. Co. It's also in the link in the description, but yeah, it's. This is fun. Everyone's just mocking up my burner phone number. Let's go. Take care, guys.