Mike Minutes Mastermind 03/28/2025

Welcome everyone to Mike Minutes Mastermind. Let's get this show on the road. Happy Friday. Quick thing. Yesterday we talked about the media stuff, so I had a meeting with them. We were working on something similar to what I'm about to show you here. It's not gonna be exactly what it is, just FYI. But just so you have an idea what we're working towards and be a spot where you'd be able to create kind of like what you'd like for a.

Design and then people could upload it. So we're working on this. One of the challenging parts of getting the access to this to so many people and making it public, so we're working on that. That way you don't have to like log into a separate thing. It can be a more of a public board inside of the dashboard. So we'll work on that with the media team. That way if you have media ideas or template design requests, etc. You can just upvote it and then they know exactly what everyone wants and they can take off the top several each month to tackle instead of being having 100 plus design requests and they have to kind of sort through them. So. And then you don't know if someone else is already requesting it. So that should be hopefully next week we get that wrapped up. We just got to figure out a way to get access for everyone. Most boards require user accounts for everyone to log into, so we can just hide it inside the dashboard. We don't have to worry about the public getting to it. But then we need it to be where we can just quickly go in there and just upvote the ones you like versus everyone to create an account additional. We already have enough accounts creation. Goodness. The other day in Times Fitness, I told our franchise business consultant, I was like, look, I have over 40 logins to like the security cameras and then like the member management and the texting and you know, like they have separate software for every single thing. It is crazy. So I'm trying to avoid that. Even their dashboard and their academy have separate different logins. It's very, very confusing. So I'm trying to avoid that. When you go in the dashboard, you can kind of access everything. That's why we move everything in Google Drive instead of all the templates being where in the past like log out or checkout. So I'm just trying to avoid that with another login required just to get in there and upload stuff. So it's all just on one page and everyone can access it. So we are Working on it over the next week. I don't know if it'll look exactly like that but that's the direction we're going. So you can just submit your idea and then upvote the ones that you like which obviously beneficial to everyone.

Let's see. I think we have a couple questions here this morning. Let's go ahead and jump in. Today's the last day of training for the new owners here at training.

Let's see. Oh yeah, we got two questions. If you have a question, feel free. In the description of the video there is a link to the form. Feel free. We'll definitely be able to get to it today and present this it changes again on me present Share screen okay we got two first one is from Mr. Anonymous. We have some issues with set up our Google Business profile. When we set up our account we received an email stating that our profile has been suspended. We appealed the suspension, filled out all the information that needed their appeal and have not heard anything back from Google as far as the timeline or what else we need to do to correct this. Our profile is still down and we just got an email from Google to complete a verification form but will not give us the form to fill out. Interesting. Did you try log? We do not know what is going on. Do you have any tips and tricks for resolving issues with Google or have any recommendations on how to contact to contact to resolve this? We reached out to our coach and the media team to see if they had any thoughts on this and they thought you might be the best person to reach out to. Okay. So yeah welcome to the absolute hell which is called Google Business Verification. They have no support for this whatsoever. It's just brutal. Supposedly they're trying to make some changes on this. As of last month I saw an announcement from them and that is like when they if they ever suspend giving more clear feedback on it but they've been saying that for a while so I don't know if I necessarily believe them because I know they're trying to just make everything AI instead of having manual review. So if you have a. If they say you have a form I would definitely log in your business listing actually go to it and see if there's a like a pop up there. Usually if they say there's a form you need to fill out if you go to the listing there's going to be an alert. Also I don't know who this is so I can't look on my end but I can look on my end and see stuff. Usually I Would I'd recommend everyone put a reminder in your phone to check every two months. Like just make sure your profile is updated, the services that are on there, someone hasn't added a whole bunch of random stuff to.

I would highly recommend. Let me look at one thing here real quick. I'm going to switch over.

Because I can see all the ones that are connected for us to post to.

Yeah, there's quite a few that are like get suspended unfortunately. Like for example right now it's crazy. Okay, some of these are new locations, so take some of these out. But there are 19 unverified locations right now. So I would recommend everyone go check this every couple months.

Some of these are the new ones though. So like again I just recommend everyone check your account. There's a couple in here too. Like I know I said their names would be like what? So go check them, please. If it says verification required, they're not going to show it on the listing as often. And you're very. And if you don't verify, that's when it leads to a suspension eventually. So I'm just looking through here.

Yeah, some of these ones folks. Go check, go check. Please, please, please check your Google listing. This is something we can't do for you. You have to verify it yourself. If you give us the ownership thing, I can see it here and we can sometimes like troubleshoot with you, but I know it's a pain. But please, we can't verify these for you and this hurts your SEO tremendously as you go into string rush. Please, I would just have a reminder on your calendar, on your phone, make it to do inside of copilot if needs be. Every two months check Google listing and we'll go in there, make sure it's verified. Make sure there's no alerts, no pop ups. Sometimes the messages from Google about your verification suspension can go to your spam where you accidentally archive it or you think it's one of the other bazillion messages you get from Google. So I know it's easy to sometimes just gloss over them. So I do recommend every couple months check your Google listing. While you're in there, make sure your reviews are responded to hours. We say 24 7. Your services are updated. Someone hasn't added a bunch of crazy services that you don't actually offer into your account and most importantly that you're verified. So Jeff from Sandwich, Massachusetts, Mike, please see attachments. What is your opinion on this? Instead of a door hanger.

All right, let's see here. All right, we Got a little sticky, sticky situation, it looks like. Let's see what else we got here.

Okay. It looks like this is 1-800-got- junk. We make junk disappear. So basically look like they're giving a coupon.

I find typically coupons, because they're so mass market, is less of a response than actually giving a price. So the advantage that we have with lawn care is we get to see the property and give them a price. This is actually why I actually like home services so much. Sorry. Lawn care in home services so much is one of the few services that you can give a price to without having to go inside the house or getting more contacts. You can just see the property and give a price and get through all the. Otherwise, warming up the customer. And I feel like this is more of a warm up and an offer versus cutting straight to here's the price. There's not a discount. One of us saying, hey, get $25 off your first visit. We're actually giving you a price. So I'm against this. I know any promotion is going to have some sort of return.

But if we give this, for example, the next logical question is, well, how much is it going to cost me? I'm glad you're giving me 25. 25 off, but is that 25 off? 500. 250 bucks. Is this 50% off? Like, it's difficult to know as a consent customer. So I would look at this more as a promotion or a, a, a way of getting in front of the customer. Another touch point, instead of like cutting to the chase of here's the price. Do you want to accept it? Yes or no? Because the next step of that process for the customer, if they want junk removal, for example, is contact them, set up an estimate, or set them up for service. Come to the property, and you still don't know the price. So there's more stuff there. We're trying to remove that with a here is the price. I traditionally have seen those convert better than like, here's a coupon, here's a discount. It's more of a touch point. Braden.

Hey, Mike. I hope you're doing well right now. I have two guys hired and doing cleanups. I'm booked out about two weeks. Mowing will start in less than two weeks. Oh, you haven't started mowing. Good stuff. I have an average 85 budget hours a week, which two guys can handle. Okay. It's pretty steep. I guess you're probably helping them. I have a third guy starting next Monday to help me with projects. I've had two 22 interviews this weekend and seven more today. So I have enough choices to find a fourth guy which I will start when we start cutting last year. I will have start when we start cutting last year. Oh, I see. He probably ended the year out with you. I got stuck in the rut on and off of the third guy doing projects with me. I don't want to do that again this year. So my plan is to hire to hire up to four guys full time. Four guys, two on project, two on mowing. And throughout the year I will fill up the project crew to double down on mowing with door hangers and yard signs. My idea is once I have them trained up, I can almost go full time in sales to keep their project scheduled full and add onto our mowing to get more recurring. Right now I have about $30,000 in the bank. So to get get to my question. Am I rushing into hiring these two, these guys or do you have any tips or different avenues you. You would take to get up to those four guys and go full time sales and hop in the field when needed? My $5,000 a month does not include payroll. Cool. So what you're trying to do here, you're trying, this is basically your rush in spring to get to 500,000, I. E50, 60,000amonth in revenue. So right now I would assume 80. You're probably around.

$30,000 a month, maybe $35,000 a month. You can make that jump to 50,000. There's this little bit of gap of time where like, yeah, you're going to go into sales. They're going to be a little bit of a drop in profitability. But the whole goal here is book yourself out, hire people and then backlog ton recurring work so that when the drop off of spring rush ends, you still have the recurring work to go into the summer with. And furthermore, you have more customers in your database to upsell into projects to keep yourself busy during, during the summer. And you have more recurring customers to convert into winter services. So if you can go from 85 budget hours of mowing to say 140 or 150 budget hours and then they'll convert half of that into winter services. Now you can keep two people busy all winter long. You can go in the field full time, have maybe one, maybe two helpers and be and really get to your off season very well. So I'm a big fan of this. The 30,000. You're a little bit tight. You're less than one month of revenue in the bank. However, this is a matter of like, can I get to 50,000, 60,000? And then the goal is that when you get through spring rush, you're able to actually start working with a little bit more. And that's really where you'll be profitable. Because if you're like fully out of the field, that's going to be a bit of a dip in your, in your profitability. That's why you're in that 30, 40,000amonth in revenue. That's where most people get very discouraged. Get past as quickly as possible by focusing on the sales. And I would just be very careful advertising projects during the spring rush because that work will come and it will go. I'm trying to do is, I'm trying to take the leads that are coming in organically from projects, keeping my crew busy, growing, expanding the crew. Great. But all my marketing is trying to get into recurring revenue. I'm doing follow up calls throughout the day. While you're full time, you can be doing that between your estimates. So that would be my, my 2 cents on this and just really, really focus on that 85 budget hours of mowing trying to get that to 140, 150. If you can get there, you're likely going to be able to not have a big drop off after spring rush, you know, so start getting in the field, doing some work. You work on upsells of your projects mostly, but just be careful of selling a bunch of big projects during the spring rush because what will happen is you will hire these people on those projects will drop off and you'll either A spend gobs of money on marketing or B, you will have to lay people off. So I would also hire any project crews with the understanding that hey, next several months you're full time. When we go into off season, my goal is to sell as much as winter services as much as of the recurring services as possible to keep your job secure. But there's no guarantee. So just be careful of that also. So that way you don't have this pressure built up in your head of like I've got to keep them busy. And so you start taking bigger projects, you start advertising for projects when like our goal should be building up that recurring revenue base to be able to sustain revenue past the, the, the spring rush as well as to be able to convert more people in the offseason into winter services. So as long as you, you stay focused on that goal, I, I would be giving you the green light to accelerate, get past the wilderness of profitability. And absolutely make that two crew model. You. You being the third, be very profitable. And then as you work more in the field in the summer, that's when you'll start to really see projects. So it'll be a little bit skinny here during the. The spring rush, probably as you grow and expand that quickly. But this is the matter of, like, using the spring rush momentum to just carry you all the way through. You can do this in probably six to eight weeks.

Good stuff.

All right, everyone, that is it for today. I hope you all have a fantastic day. Yesterday we pushed out several improvements and bug fixes to the estimates, improvements that were made earlier this week. We're also beginning a survey today about it. Feel free to add some. Any sort of like, hey, it'd be better this way or this will better for us, whatever. Give us feedback. We will make iterations on stuff. So when we make. When we roll out a new feature like we are. We just did with essence, we're not going to, like, abandon it for two years with little things that can be improved. It will be. Feedback will be taken and a new release will be coming out. So we already have a really cool thing that we're going to be working on for the next release that will come behind us in terms of estimates. So we're not going to abandon estimates. We're going to make the improvements that come in from feedback, especially if it's new, it's fresh in your head. You have, okay, this can be better. Please give it to us. We will act on that. There's a really, really cool thing that we're gonna work on I'm not gonna talk about quite yet because I want to make sure it's actually going to get in this very next release of estimates that will be super beneficial for projects. So my mic seems a lot slower than normal. Oh, did I not switch over to my microphone? No. I'm so sorry. My bad.

I was switching my Air AirPods. Now we are on my microphone, which gets much louder. So I do apologize.

My apologies.

All right, everyone, hope you have a fantastic Friday. You have to jack up the audio for the beginning part of this episode. I apologize.

And we will see you on Monday. Take care.