Mike Minutes Mastermind 01/16/2023

Hello destination. Hope you're doing good. Let's go and jump in.

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Destination.

All right, so I got into the forms for questions this morning and check this out. We have an all time record for how many questions were asked. When I pulled it up it was 32, but I hadn't deleted Friday's questions out yet. So we will jump right into questions in just a second. I did have a couple things I wanted to go over though, in case people need a bounce. Number one.

Conference recordings. They are now available on the Academy for Augusta Nation. Not the public one, but the one with just us on Thursday. So definitely check those out. If you are not there in person, please, please, please watch them and get caught up on things. If you don't, you're going to be lost throughout this year. So please make sure you listen to those. If you know of anyone in other groups or WhatsApp groups etc. That you are a part of that were not there, please make sure you put some pressure on them to watch it. They will be lost throughout 2023 if they do not listen to those videos. Also if you were not there, the very last segment of our part together, August Nation was about the one click estimate email schedule and creating that calendar for the year using the new downloads from the marketplace both in Service all and in Zooper is a pack of like 15 or 16 of them and you can schedule those out and then just make it much more streamlined in terms of where you want to place those one click estimate emails throughout the year. Just that they're a little bit more automated. We did not completely automate them again to make sure that you didn't frustrate anyone by one click estimate. Going out in the middle of spring rush and you're crazy busy and then all of a sudden getting overloaded with more estimates. But you can make it much more simple by having a schedule on a calendar of what emails you're going to send out on which months next thing cards on file. Since beginning of January we were using a method of every single job had to have a card on file regardless if it was a over the phone estimate, a cleanup, et cetera. We determined that we're just going to allow it to be where it's still. Cards on file are required for all over the phone estimates and so that's always been the case that will keep that for one click estimates or sorry, over the phone estimates only. So if someone does it over the phone, estimate accepts on the phone, we'll make sure we get a credit card. However, if they are doing a property cleanup or a three or four hundred dollar, you know, bush trimming or whatever it is, we aren't going to require unless you specifically tell us though in your wiki. And so the reason for that, just to add some flexibility. Ultimately, I know that 99% of the time we would all want a car on file. But that one time that you want a job on tomorrow and need it on tomorrow, the last thing you're going to want to hear is command center said that it can't get the job on schedule because they have a credit card. So we are just going to make it where obviously we can push that. The reason I'm really not concerned about it is because in Copilot and to some extent already in Zebra, you can automate this by having a threshold for deposits as well as making rules around when they need to have a card on file. So for example, you have a box is checked look before they accept any estimate, I want a card on file. You can have it where it is based upon a certain threshold of a dollar amount on the invoice. They have to have paid the deposit before accepting the quote. So all of this can be done, it can be automated much better. So I'm not concerned about trying to make a whole bunch of changes. And I would not be worried about this a whole lot because it's all going to be automated in the software. And once that's done where they can have a button that you click on a threshold, I'm going to, I'm going to personally bring our threshold way lower for deposits. I think right now is $3,000. Anything above $3,000 they have to pay 50% down on when that. When it becomes automated to where they can't accept the quote until they have a card on file and they've paid their deposit. I will probably bring that number down to 500.

If not lower. Just because I want to have 50% of my money before I get started. Just prevent so many cash flow issues. So third thing, before jumping to 23 questions that came in on the weekend before we do that. This is a random idea, so take it or leave it. But it's something that I've been doing for a long time and I thought it actually might be a lot really helpful for some of the smaller operators. This is just an idea. This is not a system. This is not something that we are implementing. But it's something that I've done for a long time. And I was thinking, okay, if someone has 5, 10, 15 new customers a week, they could definitely do that themselves. All right, so I've kind of alluded to this in the past. A lot of you have actually received video messages from me. But what I do is I have a separate email on Gmail. Okay? So if you open up the Gmail app, for example, here, let me just close this out. So I have obviously my mail app down here on my phone, right? But then I have a Gmail app right here. I keep them separate because this is a separate inbox that I only use for outgoing video messages. And I change it every, like three to six months. Right now it's like Mike Andy's inbox, gmail.com. so I'll change it to something else down the road. Mike Andy's mail. Mike Andy's. What was the other one I used? I forget. Mike Andy's email. Whatever it is. Here's the deal. What you can do is every time you get a new customer that is recurring, you can send them a video. Now, the objection to that is, well, then if they see me in the video, they're going to want to contact me back and say about all the rest of it. Here's the deal. Don't say your name in the video because then what you can say is, hey, I'm the owner over at Augusta Lawn Care of Mooresville. Just wanted to reach out. I saw you were able to get on the mowing schedule. Just want to reach out and say I really appreciate it, really appreciate you supporting us in our small business. We got started this past year. We're really growing and looking forward to growing the local community. And I just want to reach out personally as the owner. Just say thank you. I really appreciate your support and I look forward to 2023. That short 2030, 42nd video is great. The reason what I use that for is basically anyone that buys anything, I have everything being sent to me in an email that I can click on. So, for example, this is. Yes, there's a few orders yesterday I didn't get to. So for example, we click on Isaac Davis. Okay, Isaac Davis bought a instant quote door hanger from us for 49 bucks. I then click on View order and it pulls up his order here. I don't want to show it his personal information, but I would then tap on his email, go back into Gmail, go compose. You can see this. And then what's cool about Gmail app is you click on this little attach button, click on the photo thing, and then go to video and then it compresses the video live. So check this out. So check. One, two. This is a test. I'm making a video for this person. One, two, three. Great. Stop it. Use the video. It immediately attaches it to the image, to the video or to the email. And what I just do is I just do the subject, a personal, personal message attached and then I just send it and it's immediately compressed. It literally takes 10 seconds. I think this might be a good move. If you have 10, 15 new customers a week, it doesn't take very long. When you get that email, it says a job has been scheduled. You literally could just make a habit of making those quick videos. What you don't want is the customer to be thinking they can contact you back and get immediate responses and help on accounts and their problems and their questions answered. What you want that to be is more personal touch and connection with them. So just make sure you don't say like, contact me back if you have any questions, like, do you want this to be a thank you? Really not a lot of response back. But that personal connection. I do believe this will help you with attrition. This is why I'm bringing this up. I think it'll help you with attrition. I think it'll make more loyal customer base, especially if they don't over the phone estimates. And they haven't met anybody, they haven't actually seen anyone face to face, they don't have any name, face to the name they've just called, got their quote on, got their car on file, and now you're going to show up to their house. So I think people, for people like that, especially a quick video would actually do a lot of good. Now, the email that you make, I'd recommend it being super generic, something like Augusta inbox or Augusta your territory inbox, like whatever it is, so you can change it whenever. Don't use this email. But anything but for outgoing videos. My opinion. All right. I think it'd be a great personal connection. Do not get in the habit of responding back to people. And you can always just say the office, even in the video to say the office. And the team, we look forward to serving you. Give us a call anytime. You might have a question like that's the kind of thing that I would be saying inside those videos. So. All right, now for the gargantuan task of 23 questions, all time high.

A little bit more.

All Right, let's get some water and dig in.

All right. And I try to do what they said in last and as read the person's name. Alright, so this comes from Iota in Columbia. I received a call from a third party company offering to have the Columbia location added as an accredited business at the BIT bbb. That's a Better Business Bureau. I would try to do it myself at the Better Business Bureau website. I just wondering, is that something you would recommend doing? No, I would not recommend doing that. The Better Business Bureau is lost all its social credibility since the Internet took over. It used to be a big deal. To this day they kind of just live off of what their brand used to be. But the better like just ask yourself when was the last time you went to the Better Business Bureau to like look up who you were going to, you know, hire? It doesn't happen. You go online looking for reviews.

So yeah, the Better Business Bureau is going to sell you. And they are so expensive, like extremely expensive. So highly recommend you do not do that.

I've never seen anyone be like man, I grew my business so much because I was on the Better Business Bureau. Never in my life.

Nick, how would you account on your profit and lost selling a piece of equipment to someone? So it's not a profit and loss activity, it is on your balance sheet. So you might show the cash going out if you wanted to and just temporarily categorize it under trucks and equipment, for example. But then whether command center is doing it for you or you're doing it yourself, that is not a profit and loss item. That's not a cash item, that is a balance sheet item. So you're going to move. What's going to happen is that asset is going to be turned into cash. So you have your assets and your liabilities, assuming you have no loan and you're going to take the asset of your truck, piece of equipment, whatever it is, and it's going to be liquidated and turned into cash on your balance sheet. But nothing on your profit and loss statement. There was no profit or no revenue generated. It's just a, an asset that was sold. So.

Typically what I will do is just have it categorized underneath trucks and equipment.

And then when command center does their quarterly report, they'll just move everything of that nature on the balance sheet.

Okay. Long question. Matt Bedelia from Delta bc. Hey Mike, we're, we're planning an offset meeting with our entire team in mid February to kick off the season. Our main goal is to clearly communicate our plans for the upcoming season and the years beyond, with the hope of inspiring and motivating the team, especially those with potential to be future GMs in our business. Do you have any advice or tips on how to run these meetings? How to plan for and set an agenda? How should we be presenting info, charts, diagrams, PowerPoint, etc. We've never done a proper off site meeting with any substance. Okay, so you have to throw away what's going to work well for about your team a little bit on this one. Your frontline team members out in the field have likely never been to an offset meeting. They've never seen graphs or charts. They don't know what a profit and loss statement is. They don't know what balance sheet is. They really could care less. They don't like math and they don't want you to be long. So try to fit within the constraints of that. And it's difficult because you're like, I'm going to show all this information like they do not care. Okay. You'll want to inspire them hopefully to care down the road, but right now they don't. So I would use as little charts, diagrams and PowerPoints as possible. Speak to them like you would at a team meeting and that's how they're going to receive it. If you show them a graph or a chart or piano, they will cross eyes and you will lose them. So I would try to keep your speaking part to less than 20 minutes, especially if it's your first one and then none of them have really bought into the financials and all the rest of it. Show some top line recommendations.