Mike Minutes Mastermind 09/28/2023

Hey everyone. Hope you're doing amazing.

Let's go and get started. I do have a couple little announcements, but nothing major.

Let me just drop this into Facebook.

Some very cool things we're working on for conference. It's gonna be amazing for Wednesday.

Super fun.

So you will not want to miss it. All right, paste that in there.

No. What in the world?

New Facebook thing. When you're on desktop, it like automatically has a drop down of what it thinks you want to tag. It tags like the most random things. Okay.

First off, P4P & Co pilot integration. I know it doesn't really affect anyone because only about 15 or 20 of Augusta Nation is in Copilot. However.

Hopefully next week we do the connection. We were going to roll it out last week, the connection between P4P and Copilot, but we want to get Copilot moved over towards AWS so that way they're both in the same. Because P4P is already on AWS, which is Amazon Web Services, which is like servers and where we host the site. So we're trying to move COPA over to aws. Then we'll make the connection, make it a little bit more smooth. And when we make the connection, we're already going to finish stage four of the transition. There's six stages. Fourth stage though includes yes, your employees being able to see what their estimated wages are for the day before they start.

And it will live update throughout the day of how much they're earning. It will not have the fancy design and the whole UI redesign of the of the app. That's stage five. Stage four is they will get the expected wages and as they complete jobs throughout the day they'll see how much they have earned. So that when we roll out hopefully next week that will already be inside the app. So that'll be exciting. We are still seeing about 40% of bulk emails through Surface Autopilot are being undelivered. We tested again yesterday for the Bellingham shop. About 40% are still not going through. Don't know why, haven't got any response on that. I would still send them out. Don't wait. Like 60 is better than nothing. So I'd recommend still sending them out. We sent the core aerations one from the Bellium shop and as of this morning they had 50 estimates for corerations and so I imagine they'll probably get to 80 or 90. So the core aerations template, it kicks butt if you do at the right time. So we, we just started getting rain, the color, the leaves started changing colors. It's kind of of perfect timing. So I think they nailed that one. So definitely make sure if you're doing aerations, which you can make a bunch of money and if you don't have the narrator, fine, rent it for a day, schedule that and go get 20 or 30 aerations. It's a great upsell to existing customers. And what's really cool is you don't have to be there for an estimate that that click comes to Command center. Command center can measure the property or use the existing pricing of their mowing to give them a price. And you don't have to go there. So if you're busy, it's like, hey, just send the one click estimate. It's super nice.

All right.

Present share Where are we going, Mike? Minutes. How many we got today? 4.

All right, let's jump in.

Devin from Red Deer. Hey Mike, if an employee came back two days, $500 and left, and he was your only employee, would you pay him directly, deposit or cash? If he was only 500, 500. The thing is, typically we have them set up for direct deposit before they start day one. That's the ideal way for it to be done. So I'm probably gonna still run them through payroll. Honestly, if you had not set them up for payroll, I'd probably just, yeah, give them cash or whatever.

Just so I don't have to go through the whole setting up in QuickBooks and setting up in the state system and all the rest of it. But typically if you're doing things right, all of that's been done before the first day of work. So it's all legit from day one. And so we typically just run through there run them through payroll nonetheless. Caleb from Merritt Island, I changed the PvP percentage to 40% in the user settings for each employee during the summer months to avoid having to make a manual adjustment every day. Very good. When I change it back to 33%, it retroactively changed the previous week time cards on the employees P4P app to reflect at 33% instead of 40%.

The timesheets on the desktop reflect the numbers accurately and did not change previous weeks. After I adjust the percentage. It seems that when we press Generate payroll it takes a snapshot and saves it to the timesheets on the desktop. But this doesn't seem to function the same for the mobile app. Should I have been making manual adjustments instead of changing the percentage in the users? To be perfectly honest, I'm not fully tracking what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. In this regard, you changed to 40% in all the users.

You now are changing it back to 33 and you're saying it's going back in time and it is modifying their time cards. If that is happening, I wouldn't worry too much because unless you click Generate Payroll it's not going to change anything. But you're saying, it seems that when we take a snapshot and save that the timesheets on the desktop does not seem to function the same as the mobile app. So what I'm wondering is what is it showing on the mobile app that's different? Because it should not change in the mobile app unless you click Generate Payrolls.

If you could get a video of this and send it to supportforpsoftware.com be very helpful. However, I do think it is doing what it should be doing and that is whenever a number is changed, it will change on the time cards. But unless you click Generate Payrolls it will not make that a reality. This is also for the case when people like for example want this to be done, they forget they're like halfway into a payroll. They can change the percentage and then go back and just click Generate payrolls on the last five, six days and then it's caught up correctly. But I think I'm missing a part of what you are saying, the mobile app connection. So if you could make a video for me, it'd be very much appreciated and we will fix if there is an actual problem with the differences there.

But in terms of best practices on that, I think I personally would probably use my company wide percentage as the way to move that up. Instead of changing on every single user, I just change it on my, my company wide one.

And I wonder, I wonder if that might be what's causing this difference is you have, when you changed it back, it might have like gone back to your company wide default. But typically that's only when you start create a user, we use that number. So send me a video of what you think is going wrong and I'll let you know if either there's something you could change or if there's an actual bug of what's being shown. The mobile versus the desktop.

Sorry for not having a definitive answer. Chad from Valparaiso, Indiana. With the possibility of the federal government shutting down, is there any way to capitalize financially based on market history?

Not really. Honestly we've all come to expect that getting shut down every couple years because we haven't pretty dysfunctional government in terms of negotiation.

So I think like literally wall street doesn't even figure this stuff in. Like when, when the government shut down for like months and months a few years ago or like was it five, six years ago? Like for months and months.

Everything just went fine in terms of the markets. So basically we've come to grips with the fact that eventually the government will just print more money and we'll figure it out eventually. So it's, it's. I wouldn't, you know, try to do an arbitrage or anything like that. Nick from Marysville, what is the protocol for when a client cancels then restarts a month or two later? I haven't known. I haven't got a notice for the few that has happened with like from CC on my dispatch board saying FYI, client restarting, should I be getting a notice? Basically it just shows in the dispatch board if I don't catch it, we service and that's overgrown and we didn't inform them of overgrown charge and then we basically have to take the hit. Even when it's not overgrown. Some people game the system and get monthly mows by canceling, calling us back and since we are informing them of an upcharge we do it and then they cancel right after and basically get one mo in two months that cost their weekly rate because we restarted them to that the client should be informed or I should come up with a new price for monthly visits like that. So this is why in your estimate I highly recommend just saying if it, if the.

If the Lawn is over 6 inches we are going to be charging a dollar and 50 cents per minute per man or whatever your rate is. So that way, because this happens it's way think about like this. If you now have to have a monthly price and you have to, you're going to resell them on the phone and a lot of that number gets very, very large. It's just easier that they have a clicked accept on a verbiage that says if the lawn is over a certain amount we're charging you more. And then we just require the guys to take before and after pictures. And so the crew is just trained. If you get to a lawn ever and it looks overgrown by six inches you take pictures of before and after because what's going to happen is it's going to, then they're going to see pictures. The dispatcher office person is going to say oh this looks like it was overgrown. Fantastic. I'm going to charge them $1.50 per minute per man because that was accepted on the estimate. Instead of having to resell them on something different. You will not be notified if someone restarts like this because again, if Command center was notifying you directly every time someone started or stopped you just be in day with messages. They're going to put office notes. And what I would say is if someone's actually gaming the system of being able to cancel, you don't want them as a customer. This same person that's going to try to gain the system is also going to get freaking out mad if you give them a monthly price that is triple the price of weekly, they're going to freak out. So I would, I would caution trying to create a system around retaining people that are trying to game the system and, or people that are the same type of person that's penny pinching to the, to the point of.

Like literally calling you two or three times over the course of the summer to like start and stop and start and stop. I would rather just get rid of them. You're not gonna make money on them. Even if you charge for a monthly mo price, you're not gonna make much money on these people. So instead of trying to create a system around the 5% of people that will game the system, just focus on the 95% of people and don't create extra friction in the process of the sale for the 95% of people that are not going to cancel or, or are not going to try to game the system at the very least. And so that's why I'm not a huge fan of doing like weekly, biweekly and monthly pricing in the estimates is because now you've opened up the door to monthly and you've also added another layer to the sales process. And I would just rather try to keep everyone locked in and going throughout the summer. And if there's someone that's constantly canceling during your months when you know you're making those profit, you don't want them as customers. I would raise price of them until they cancel. If someone cancels for a month or two during your best season, like for, for profitability, for mowing, there's a good chance you are losing 50, 60, 70% of your profit on that customer. You don't want them as a customer. I would just raise prices on them to wazoo or down the road when you're, especially if you're out of growth mode, you could just say you are required to stay at bi weekly year round or like throughout the growing season and we don't allow you to start and stop. And you could do that.

Yeah, I Would just recommend in general not to try to even pander to the person that's trying to start and stop their service. Like, you don't want them as a customer. Honestly, I just raise their prices in general and eventually either get rid of them or they're willing to pay those prices. Because the person that's gaming the system, they're going to try to game the system no matter what. And then they're the type of person that's going to want to drill down into like, well, it wasn't 60 inches, so, like, why would you get charged more? It was only three weeks. It wasn't four weeks. They're gonna. If they're gonna be that way, I don't want them as a customer. So I'm not gonna try to pander to them or create systems around trying to pander to them. It is a small, very loud minority.

Oh, there's a long question that I cannot see all of it. So I'm going to go over to Facebook and read it here. All right. This is Nick Reed thought on. Can I share this here? I'm just going to read the question here from Facebook. You will not be able to see on your screen. It's from Nikrit Thought on performance pay. I've been listening to Tommy's new book elevate and I'm thinking next spring I will not make P4P available to new employees, but instead explain that it'll be instituted when I feel they are fully trained. What has been happening is they hear the idea and then cut corners or get discouraged when they aren't even close to hitting it in the spring when I'm hiring them. And it ruins the entire relationship from that point on because they don't trust me. Instead, I'll wait until I have their data, their actual performance and meet with them and explain where they need to be. And once I see them get there, I will make it available. I'm not set on that, but leaning in that direction or that way. Okay, I like the idea. The reason is you are creating scarcity of like, you will be able to qualify yourself for P4P. Here's the problem. A lot of people are comfortable at your base pay and now you are going to eventually either a have to never put them on P4P. And now they're working with people who are on P4P. So now your highest performers, your go getters that have been with you for a long time that are crushing it on pay for performance, have to work with someone who's not on P4P. That's a recipe for unhappy people. Especially like again, always think about it. I know we always think about like the new person, but think about your best people. Like it's extremely demotivating. If I'm making $26 an hour to work with someone who is making a base pay of 20 and is not motivated to work any faster, I'll just get mad like I will only want to work by myself. I won't want to train anyone and I'll just be grumpy because I want to make more money.

That mean my only concern. And that's why in general I think everyone the same pay comp is really, really effective.

Pay plan pay schedules because everyone knows the pay plan, everyone understands everyone's incentives are exactly the same. And that is we work faster, we make more money. If you take one person and make that their incentive and the other person is just like more clock time. Let's go. Now you've pitted two guys against each other. And especially because you're saying fully trained, that means that you have someone else in that truck with them. And if that's you, this would would work. If this was like your first second employee. I think this works great what you're saying because you're the trainer, you're the one that is going to able to keep them accountable even when they're not on P4P to be effective and efficient. But if you put that on another employee who is on P4P you will have, you will make your most productive and efficient team members very unhappy. I think based upon what I have said, based on what I've seen.

Raise these client. Copy that, Mike. I will watch closer and raise these clients in the future. Yeah, so I would just simply like if you know it's always happening, just raise prices on these type of customers. They're gonna. If you're gonna lose sleepover, if it's gonna be annoying to you if your guys get to these jobs in September after the clients paused their service for six weeks. And you know, and then they have a fuss over the dollar and 50 cents that you're gonna charge because that's what it says in the estimate. You don't want these customers. You just don't. It's not worth it.

Especially when they're can't. They're pausing service during the most profitable time. So you need to raise your prices on them across the board. So that way the other five, six months out of the year that you are mowing them, you make up for that profit loss.

What's your opinion on other franchises teaming up to grow together? Let's say one franchise closed down or have a GM run that location, then team up and run the other. I'm not a fan of this. There are a few locations that have done this and I personally think it is the wrong decision. I don't know how better way to say it. I just don't think it's a good idea. And it always seems good on paper, but I have very rarely seen this work out. Well, not just like Augusta. I'm just talking in general.

And the same way like with a marriage, you have a legal binding contract and therefore when it gets torn apart, it gets ugly. When you have a business relationship with someone and it's ends which indefinitely will at some point, whether it be in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, or when someone dies.

It gets messy. It just always does. Now, there's always the people that point at people like Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. They've been partners forever and they're doing great. Yes, you're right. The other 99.9% of biz partnerships, I shouldn't say that. That's a high percentage. 90%, I'd say 90% of partnerships in the next 10 years will end badly. Those aren't really great odds.

So I personally am very much against the same way that I am against commingling funds between personal and business. I am against being like, hey, let's buddy up. Typically that comes as a result of two very weak people in weak spots. Hey, I'm not doing very well. I'm not doing very well, dear. We should pair up and therefore one plus one will equal two and we'll be successful. When reality one plus one of two very incomplete business owners come together and.

Lead to just more chaos in the business because you have two unsuccessful systems coming together in the short term, it always is good. Always less pressure. This is awesome. I can rely on someone else. I feel like there's someone on my team. I'm not all alone. I have rarely seen this work out in the long term.

Okay, sorry.

Unless you have very clear rules from day one that is like you are this and I am this. Usually that's going to look like you are sales and I am operations. Right. Those last the best, typically. But if you're just going to jump in together, like, we're going to do this together, we're going to work on the field together and do estimates together and just like buddy up, like, sounds great and it works well for about a year, maybe Two, usually after the. I see it go off the rails and typically the people that are like, oh no, like it's going to work out, they also haven't figured out the ramifications of if it were to be bad. What does that look like from a legal perspective? Who gets what? What's the. Is it 50, 50? What's the percentage? What's distributable cash mean? Because with two people come struggling together, guess what they're not thinking about what happens in five years. If we're doing really, really good and we're making a lot of profit, then what. And then what happens is they, they actually figure things out, works really well five years ago. By now they're making a bunch of profit and they haven't figured out how that distributable cash is supposed to be broken up and now they have a disagreement because everything is going well. So I just typically don't see it work out well. I think it can work out well if it's done right from the beginning. If it has, things are written down. It's very clear what distributable cash is. It's clear what happens if someone wants out. It's clear the valuation mechanism, if someone wants to be purchased or bought out.

But I. Most of the time when people want to get together, it's not because of. From a point of strength and that is like we need to have rules of engagement or roles and responsibilities. Exactly how this thing is going to dissolve, because it will eventually. How the valuation mechanism at that time is how we distribute cash when we're profitable. What happens if a business needs more cash? How do we split that owner's investment? What if one owner can't afford the investment? These are things that have to be thought through and I just typically don't see people thinking them through. So that's why I'm generally against them. I think they work well, though. If you actually were able to dot all your I's and cross all your T's by just. Most of the time when people are like, I need a partner. I don't see them coming from the place of being methodical, data driven and thinking about the future. It's more for like, I have pain. I must fix pain with a band aid. All right, everyone, have a fantastic day. Good mastermind. We'll see you tomorrow.