Mike Minutes Mastermind 08/15/2022 - Orientation Day

Happy Monday, Augusta Nation. Hope you're all doing super well. Let's go ahead and get started. Last night I posted this orientation document and feel free to download it. Make it your own. Make sure there's changes that are necessary for your location that you make them. The goal in this is the fact that for many people I see that have this really bad problem with keeping employees for more than two days is the fact that your orientation looks like, hey, here's a uniform, hop in a truck, let's go. Now I want that to look like is show them around the shop so they know where things are at, they're not lost. And secondary, sit down and go through this document. Now I think this document will probably take 15 to 30 minutes to go through, depending on how many questions they have. But you're going to read it with them. You're going to literally read through it. Them sitting next to you and read through the thing. Okay? So I would Recommend attaching the P4 P3F and audible book recommendations as a supplement to this and those you might not necessarily read word for word, but this document here should be read word for word. It's going to go through the 3F program. It's going to go through P4P from a very high level. It's going to go through. What are yellow slips like? These are the basic questions that people have in their job and it's super demotivating to not know these things from the get. What does it mean to be late? And you can change this if you don't think that this is the case. Being late means one minute late. Team meetings. Again, you can change this however you want. How to ask for time off. These are things that like people think about literally in the first few days of work and if they don't know the answer, it just feels very alienating. How does paid time off work? How does paid time off work? That should not be an S. If you don't have paid time off, take that, that part out. If you don't have healthcare benefits, take that out. Is there work in the winter? Same thing. Adjust these to whoever you have in your market. But these are the type of things that people are thinking about and questioning right from day one. Uniform policy.

Other ways to make money. If you have the hundred dollar gas card every month, they have perfect attendance. $50 cash review bonus, cash referral bonus for someone they get as new. A new customer upsells, someone joins to work all these things just again giving them all the ammunition, answering the question that they have Right. From get how to be promoted, how to get in your head in your career, giving them tangible steps and actually how to do this right, like how to get ahead in your career. Here's three things right there, okay? Profit sharing program explaining that and exactly how that works. And I stay in here specifically that if your location is new or growing quickly, it might be a couple of years before consistent profit sharing is possible since our consistent or constant investments need in trucks, equipment and hiring. So all of this is in there. It's as a word document is a download on the dashboard. I gave a link on the Facebook group last night. Feel free to download that, but I would highly recommend read through this and after every single section, ask them, do you have any questions? Is there anything about that you don't understand? And then wait for them to answer back. Most of them. But yep, that's fine. Yep, that makes sense. That's a, that's fine. Some of them are going to ask questions and that's really, really good. Okay. And then they're going to sign at the bottom of it and you're going to tell them at the very beginning this, hey, we're going to read through this word by word and at the end of it I'm going to have you sign it saying that you understand it. So if you have any questions throughout this document, please let me know because I'm going to assume that you understand all of these things so there's no misunderstanding as you move forward and you know how to be able to get promoted, you know how to get ahead, make more money inside of Augusta. So feel free again, download this document, make it your own, customize it as needs be. But these are the type of questions that someone is thinking about and, and honestly I could probably come up with a thousand more, but these are the ones that we commonly see as hang ups in like month one and two. Like man, you didn't know this. So again, orientation needs to be done. Taking some time on if, if you, if you just throw them into a truck, they're just not going to stay stick around, especially in this labor market. So that is the first thing. Let's go ahead and jump into questions because there's a whole bunch that came in and I have not had a chance to go through them. So give me one second here.

I haven't looked through these yet. Share.

All right.

Zoom in a bit for you. First question, Kevin, how's the Christmas lights page for the website coming along? It's coming along Good. By the end of this week we're going to have our first draft finished and finalized for the dashboard and we're going to roll out the lights page with the dashboard. So that way when the dashboard comes out, you'll be able to select if you want to have Christmas lights as a service page. And then we're kind of shooting for like a 48 hour turnaround. So if you request a new service page or some change or a new banner on your front page within two days, we should be able to get that up for you. And so I'm realistically, I said by the end of August, I think it's going to be next week that this will actually be released the end of next week. Because the end of this week we have our kind of final draft that I'm looking over and critiquing. So I'm kind of guessing end of next week is when this, the dashboard will be ready and that's when your Christmas lights page will be ready to roll as well.

10. Whoa, whoa. Lots of trucks. Okay. Submission for approval on the one truck wonder model with clarification and benefits explained. Clarification details. Each GPS rig will come with a phone for zooper apps, maps. Oh, this is about your idea of having the, the employees take the trucks home. Got it. Okay. So live tracking and zoom meetings. Few in person meetings necessary. The manager owner will do all the scheduling for each rig, including maintenance on the truck. If an employee can only work certain days, the truck will go to another employee for the rest of the week. Benefits have. An entry level employee could potentially be given a company vehicle truck tracked by the phone and a fair feel of ownership and responsible for tools and equipment. I really like this part. Right. Like this is the part that I love. All right. That's, that's the main reason. Because honestly, when you have start having multiple trucks, you're not saving a whole lot per month on just storage of the truck. Right. If you pay a couple thousand dollars even and you have 10 trucks, you're saving $200 a month.

So I do like this part. That being said, when you don't have a place for them to gather, they start to feel less connected to you. And that can also be a derogatory part. You don't have to drive to a shop to start work. I 100% like this. Could potentially have your own start time. I like this too. Fever. People track them on, track them on, keep them on track hourly. Once the probation is over and employees prove themselves, unlimited data for the phone will be activated, allowing them to listen to Books from Audible or podcasts while working. You know, I, I think this work, this model is great. I 100% like this. I'm just. My biggest question is, can in this labor market you find people that are willing to do this.

That are this accountable for a truck, a piece of equipment, their own start time, and are they actually gonna get the job done? Or are you going to get a 1 1pm one in the afternoon call for them saying, hey boss, I just haven't got started today. And now you're on the hook to go get those jobs done because you told the customers you would. So they're. There is a certain level of quality that is also upheld when you get to see them in the morning, just because you gotta make sure they're good, make sure like they're not on drugs. You know, there's our overhang. Like there's just a lot that can be said about having some sort of in person connection at the beginning of the morning. But this is the part that is the huge upside is giving them a better feel of ownership. They get to feel like they get to start, get started in the morning, et cetera. The downside of that though is the fact that if you give them too much ownership, they're like, well, why would I not just do this myself? I just get a truck myself, throw a mower in there and go, you know, mow my own lawns. Like, why do I need this company? And for all you know, they're using that truck and equipment now on the weekend to do that and get started on their own business. So there's a lot of gray areas. And I do believe you can get this, this model figured out. I don't know if there's enough, high enough of a.

A labor rate that we're to trying paying employees to be able to expect them to be able to do this.

And have a high degree enough of quality and professionalism. Because the type, like ask yourself right now, like for those of you have five, 10 employees, how many of them would you trust to have your own, have their own truck of yours, all their equipment over the weekend, drive wherever they want. Obviously you're tracking things, I get that. But.

I like, I'd like to test it. I'll say that I would like to test it. And we have given thought to this at the Bellingham shop even. And that is okay if we want to just scale this thing and like double or triple the size of it, because we could, could we just mobilize the trucks and give it to the Crews. But then I look at the amount of turnover that we have and I'm constantly giving and taking trucks away from people anyways because people leave or like you said, they're off for the week. Well, now I've got to move that truck around anyways. How do I get it from Bob's house to Bill's house? Now Bill's got to take him back to his house like this. It just starts to get a little bit messy. So.

Do you realize that the form on Google is no longer completely anonymous? Since adding the pick option, the crossed out I at the top no longer is present. It also says that your name and photo associated will be recorded. Well, I can't see anything. This is exactly what I see on my end. I don't think I can see anything.

Yeah, I can't see anything. Oh wait, maybe I can. What's this? No, no, it just shows like this. This is all I see. It's. It's anonymous. There's plenty of people that don't want anonymous. By the way, they keep telling me not to keep this in here. But.

Cool. Like, honestly, like if you have critical feedback, like I really don't mind hearing it. So please, even if we, if I, even if I did know your name, it's not like it's a bad thing. So it's. The only way we get better is through improving. So I cannot see who. But I, to my knowledge, I cannot see who is leaving posts. I think if you leave an attachment, maybe that might be what you're talking about. But no, I made it that way. So that way if someone doesn't feel comfortable sharing their name, they can. But there are lots of people who keep telling me to take that option away. But I think it's good. Just in case. What are your thoughts on letting your GM use your equipment on the weekend to cut their own lawn? I personally don't have a problem with it as long as they are not moonlighting with it. I think you just got to draw a definitive line. We've always made it where it's like very clear. Like no one uses the truck, trucks or equipment and it's for everyone. And it's just, you got to keep the standard the same. Right? Like for example, you're saying use it, let the GM use it. Well, what about a good employee? It's been around for a year. Are you gonna let them use it? Well then what about the guy who started for two weeks, two months? Like where's the definitive line? I truly believe employees are looking for Definitive lines and necessarily want, you know, a very flexible goal line. Like what, what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad. And that's partly why the orientation document is so important. Like what is late considered, how do I get better at this job, how do I make more money? Like these are things that people think about and they want definitive actions and lines and markers to, to be able to get towards that achievement.

Kyle, is there possibility for a reduced initial franchise fee upfront for example, but having payments over the first year instead? Yeah. So if you're buying your second location, there's a $5,000 discount on the initial fee on your second, third etc location is $5,000 of whatever the current price is. So currently it's 20,000. Your second one or multiple locations you would be 15. If you are in the military there'll be an additional five, a five thousand dollar discount. So in this right now it'd be ten thousand dollars for a growth model. I have another guy that is potentially GM quality but nowhere else to move him. My issue with starting the location is so quickly is I don't have the capital for the initial fee, equipment and marketing. I could put down 15 to 20k initially for the second month. Right now maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. But just curious if this is something you would consider. I would highly recommend being profitable for one year. I would talk that GM and give him like the what the opportunity is going to be in a year or a year and a half and give him a definitive line. But in that year, year and a half you could put yourself in a much better cash position. Especially Kyle, knowing the size of your business, you can put yourself, you know, 50, $100,000 ready to deploy for that location versus if you're feeling like you're going to be scraping by after putting 15 or 20 grand in, I would start a second location in that regard. I would take a year. You know, you're just, just going to be starting Augusta here soon. It's like take next year and really be profitable. Put cash aside, use the systems and then you know starting a second location with 50 to 100 grand is very different than 15 to 20 grand. So I would in this case not recommend starting a second location. Lee would never recommend starting a location a second one right now. Take a year, be really profitable, increase prices, increase margins and then talk to your GMA and give them what your plans are. Be very clear what your motives are and tell them that hey, this is what I'm trying to Build over the next year. This is what I want you to be able to do. We need to put cash in the bank, etc. And you'll probably have a very loyal employee for that next year while you're trying to get there.

We just picked up 10 accounts from a competitor that is going out of business. I'm having difficulty putting these accounts together on the schedule due to already existing accounts taking up the available budget hours. Would you just throw them on the schedule anywhere and fix the routing next year or overload the crew on one day of mowing to take care of these accounts next to our existing customers in the area? How do you, how do you do your routing to be most efficient but not also piss off customers by moving them often. So again, setting the expectation very clearly, customer is plus or negative one day off of the day that I tell you we're going to be there. So that way you can move throughout the year by a good amount. You have three days out of the week that you can mow someone's lawn. So and then almost always you might move it once but it almost always falls in the same pattern in terms of what day of the week they start getting mowed on. Even though you don't promise a day, it usually ends up falling into that pattern. And so if you got 10 new accounts you might need to rejigger. Like for example, I would throw them, let's say you have kind of three towns that you service like Monday, Wednesday, Friday and you got a whole bunch of new ones on Monday. Just say for example, like man, I got, there's no way we're going to get these done on Monday. Okay, great, throw them all on Monday and see how many budget hours you have capacity and see if you can make, can make like a one man route or you know, one, one route on Tuesday and just move all those jobs to that day. And yes, probably some of those clients are going to be people or used to being mode on Mondays and now they're going to fall on Tuesdays and you got one of them to contact. Like I'm always done on Mondays, why is it not done? Why am I doing done on Tuesdays? And you'll have to explain, hey, it is plus or negative one day and you're now going to be Tuesday plus or negative one or it's always been Monday. We told you Monday plus or negative one day. Now you're on Tuesdays and it's we give you that plus or negative one day because of things like scheduling and weather, climate, etcetera Being able to affect the route.

Do you measure attrition at Bellingham? If so, how? This is a great question. I'm going to put some better minds than my own in terms of who knows service autopilot on this. But the thing about service all part right now is they have the same filter is active and paused. So what that means is you can't distinguish pause versus active. And so that is makes it difficult to do.

To make allows. It makes it difficult to track attrition. To be perfectly honest, within one year I want attrition to be on the max metrics. The problem is right now it is not very definitive how to measure it inside service auto or Zebra. And most CRMs they it's very hard to do this. And that's why you will rarely rarely see a CRM that has an attrition KPI because it is such a murky number. But we can create very defined terms around of it next year in super. And I want it on the dashboard and I also want it on your max metrics so you can see consistently what your attrition is. Because ultimately attrition is your ultimate defense and close ratio is your offense. Right. How fast you're growing. Your offense is strictly determined by your close ratio and your attrition. Your defense is going to be directly tied to your customer service and the defense of the business and making sure it remains profitable. You're able to retain customers when you as you go through price increases. Obviously attrition will take up when you start raising prices. But being able to measure that consistently is extremely important and something that is not super clear and defined across the board. That because there's ways to do it inside service autopilot that I've figured out. But it can mess up with things like when you cancel a project when you cancel anything besides recurring. And it's like well if I only do mowing, but then there's recurring people who have weeding service or bed maintenance. I want them to them to be part of the attrition. So inside of Zooper we have a job type called recurring jobs. And so the goal down the road be able to see what is the total number of recurring jobs and then seeing how many recurring jobs were canceled. And those are two different statuses inside of Zooper and we have a lot more control over the type of statuses that we can input in versus service output which is fixed. So next year, this time, this time next year, summer of 2023 we will have an attrition that we are constantly monitoring inside the Max Metrics and the dashboard live inside of Zooper.

I'm looking to replicate what you're doing with the Mount Vernon location. I've never bought a home. What are the steps to do? So where do you go to get FHA pre approval? So go to basically any bank. I'd recommend going to the bank that you have a lot of history with already, the local credit union, anyone you're already doing banking with and just be like, hey, I'm willing to buy a house. I want to get pre approval for an FHA loan. And that's what's going to kick off the entire process. They're going to ask for tax returns, they're going to ask for business income, etc. It's very difficult if you. I'll be very honest. In your first year or two, if you're getting started with your business and you've been pouring the money back in and growing really quick, an FHA loan is gonna be tough because an FHA loan is the very conventional, very standard loan that they are typically looking for W2 income or stability of income when it comes to business profits. So it can be tough your first year or two unless you have an old business or your W2 income that you've done in the past. Like if you just got started this year and you have W2 income from 2021, that might be helpful. But. But in terms of getting the process kicked off, FHA loan, pre approval is what you're looking for and what you want is a pre approval letter. So you literally say, hey, I want a pre approval letter so I can go shopping, right? Because if you have a pre approval letter for an X amount of dollars, an agent will take you much more seriously because they know that you have the financing. If you just go to an agent, like, hey, I want to see properties, they might show you if they're desperate. But a really good agent's gonna be like, okay, like, do you have your financing in order to. Because they don't want to waste their time showing you houses if when you make an offer, there's no financing behind it. So get a pre approval letter from a bank and they'll use an FHA program. So you go to the bank, hey, I want to get an FHA loan, I want a pre approval letter and I want to get that process started. Having that pre approval letter is going to get you a better agent and they're going to be more likely to show you houses and be more flexible with you. And it Also gives you confidence so you can actually make a purchase. Like when you have a certain price range that you can get into.

Hours on the meter for the machine and the truck will be required to turn info. Turn in info. Yeah, I. This back to Ken, your idea of I 100%, like, let's go for it. Like, I'm not against it. Let me just be very clear. I'm not against it. I think scaling is where I start to see an issue and the management of all those assets that are now deployed away from the office. And you need an office anyways now because your manager is basically all day just tracking all this stuff. Right? So I'm not against it. I'm all for it. I would love to test this. So, Ken, if you want to be the first one to do it, go for it. I think there's already. I don't want to say the name of the location because I don't want to misstep or misquote, but I think one location is already trying this with just a couple employees. My question is, can this scale to 20 or 30 employees? I think it can. People have done it in H Vac, in electrical and plumbing. This happens all the time. I haven't seen anyone scale it massively in a lawn care industry where you're dealing with a different type of labor, much more entry level, much less skills and lower pay.

I know how SNAP works, but the snap on brand essentially does what Ken is saying. Yeah, exactly. So snap, though, by the way, is a franchise. So snap the people driving those trucks around. It says on the side, like owner, that they're franchises. So again, if everyone was owners, that'd be different. But again, I would love the Tesla smile. I'm not against it. I'm. I'm using all the logic. I've poked holes through it, but I. I would love to test it. And right now I'm not going to do it at a current corporate location, but down the road I potentially would if no one else tries this, just to test it. But right now we're testing other things at these locations, like the working GM model, for example. But down the road, I would be all game for trying to test like a mobilized shop and where they keep their trucks. I think it's not so much the savings of the shop space, it is the accountability and the extreme ownership that comes with having your own truck, your own equipment, etc. However, now you can't share equipment. You do have a lot more redundancy because every truck needs multiple trimmers, multiple Attachments and chainsaws and every single thing that you would do in any service. Although you could have like kind of a depot where they can come pick up supplies and materials. But that's kind of what a shop is. Right? So.

I don't like that take home idea at all. So much disconnect. Yeah. There's so many pros and cons, right. Team culture connection is 10x better. Just moving away from my home to a shop this year. So much better. Yeah. So there's so many pros and cons. This. I'm 100% down to test it. I cannot definitively say yes or no, but I have not tested it and I want to test it. And we have talked about this at length with the managers how this could work. Would this be better? Not again to save money. It's not a money saving measure. This is a how you retain employees measure. Do they like that? Having that accountability and that measure that ownership by having their own truck and do they take better care of the truck? There's a lot of different factors that can play into that and I'm all down for testing that. If someone else does, just help me out a lot. But I will eventually test this out at some point down the road with one of the corporate locations. So. Awesome. That's all I got. No more questions. Came in. Cool. You guys have a great day, a great week, happy Monday and we'll see you tomorrow.