Millionaire Landscape Contractor Share Tips for Starting a Lawn Care Business

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes and you're listening to the Landscape business course. And today we're going to be talking to Zachary Trigger, who's actually out in Maryland and is looking to start his business. It's gonna be kind of a longer episode. This is a part of something you can actually get in on. If you would like a one on one consulting call. It's $299, 45 minutes, we do a zoom call. We can do all sorts of fun stuff together. And in this case, Zachary is getting started in his business. He's going to tell you a little bit more about what he's up to. He's been in the Marines 16 years, so thank you for his service to our country. And now he's looking to give back, which I think is incredible, and creating.

Jobs to do that. And as small business owners, that's one.

Of the things we forget is that we are actually a very important part of our economy and our community and our country when we create jobs for our local area. So we're going to go ahead and jump into this one. He has not started his business yet. So this is a great one if you're getting started. If you know someone that's new, new in the business, gonna be talking a lot about website stuff, about branding, about pricing, about equipment setup. So just an all around, really great episode. If you want to book a call with me, one on one in the links of the description below, just use that to book the one on one consulting call. Also, before we jump into the show, also a reminder to sign up for Landscape Summit 2021, just go to landscapebusinesscourse.com conference. Do make sure you sign up because we're going to sell out and not based upon size of the room, it's going to be based upon like the fact that they're not going to allow us to have so many people there due to social distancing. So I'm pretty confident we can get 200 people there if they allow us to go like they allow our restrictions there. But we're already over halfway to that number. So we're over, well over what we had last year in terms of people at the conference. And that doesn't include the franchisees who are all coming the day before for, for our own kind of a seminar. So anyways, make sure you sign up. That's all I want to say is like it could literally I'm going to be meeting with the hotel, seeing if we can kind of stretch it anymore, but there's A chance that they keep us restricted down to 150, and literally we have to cut the registration off here pretty soon, So I don't know if that's going to be the case. I'm trying to expand how much space we have and what they're going to allow us to do, but make sure. If you're wanting to come to the conference, book it now. If you know you're coming, just book it now. Book your hotel, because the hotel rooms are going to be all gone if we get even 150 people there, let alone 200 or 250. So make sure you do that. Look forward to seeing you there without any further delay. Let's go ahead and jump into the Zoom call with Zachary Trigger.

All right, can you hear me now?

Yep, now I can.

All right, here we go. It's been a bit since I've used Zoom, so no worries. I've been a lot of Ms.

Teams.

So can you see me clearly or is the light, like, jacking you up anyway?

Nope, that's perfect. I can see you just fine. Yep.

So how you been after getting back from your. Your long trip?

Good. We're recovering. You're recovering. Lots of calls just booked up from last week. But it's. It's good. It's good.

Yeah. Nice.

I actually.

I messed up my days. For whatever reason I thought it was last Monday. So, like, I'm on here. I'm like, I'm thinking. I'm like, man, that's gonna be tough for him to join a meeting while. And then I'm like, I'm sitting here, I'm sitting here. I'm like, let me go back and check and make sure, because all I did was click, like your first available date.

Right.

And I went back. Oh, it's the 19th.

No worries.

I totally forgot last Monday was, you know, even a federal holiday, so.

I got back from 10 days in Utah prior to that.

Very cool.

Yeah. Yeah. So. So I'm assuming you got a chance to kind of read, like, what I put in.

I guess, the conference call notes.

So you mean kind of start kind of about me seeing a little bit better handle on that, or.

Yeah.

So you.

You graduated, you got your degree. That's pretty cool in the business side of things. When did you graduate then? What year was that actually?

May. So, okay. So, yeah, so I guess, like, I. Born and raised in Maryland my whole life. Grew up in Pasadena, Maryland, which is Anne Arundel county between Baltimore and Annapolis. I think you got a franchise starting in Howard County.

Exactly.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Family wise, I was married last June.

Obviously dating several years prior to that. And I guess financially, because I think that's probably, it's very important. The only debt I have is my home and then short term debt, obviously my bills go through my credit cards and I pay it off at the end of the month. So I really don't have any debt. I got about $70,000 in cash.

30 of it I've allocated to starting this business and the other 40 is actually for a rental property that we've been trying to acquire. But as you know, the market is just incredibly inflated. So that's just kind of sitting there while we're still looking, but we're not, you know, if the numbers don't work, the numbers don't work, you know, and we're looking for our ROI and cash flow and everything. So.

And we're constantly re evaluating that because of the market changing so much. But anyway.

So basically kind of where I'm at career wise is.

As my prior careers, you can see, they're very.

I'm not, I wasn't sitting at a cubicle, put it that way.

Yep.

And that's where, that's where I'm at now. And I can do the work, but I don't enjoy the work. And as also as I stated in like, kind of my why Like I'm very grateful, you know, maybe this is not a common theme as much in this time we'll say this current time. Like I'm very grateful for what this country's done for me personally in terms of the Marine Corps and the GI Bill. Like I'm, I'm still in school. I went back to school. Right. I'm in school right now getting a undergrad certificate in digital marketing and then a second one in human resources. So like that's a huge benefit. And I, and I feel like, you know, I've served for 16 years, I'm going to serve at least for four more until I'm eligible for retirement.

I feel calling to give back and by providing, you know, good jobs for individuals in the community, obviously I'm not going to give 10, you know, be able to provide 10,000 jobs. But if I can, you know, have a small to medium sized company that supports my family and I can support other families, you know, I think that would really give me satisfaction, you know, in life.

But anyway, that's kind of where I'm at on that. And I really only have like some four and I kind of covered them in the email like four main Questions that I like to get your input on. And I guess we can dive into that unless you got anything. That's awesome.

A lot of good information. So that way when you ask the questions, I have contact. That's awesome.

Well, did you get a chance to kind of look at my area in terms of.

Yeah, I know it pretty good. I know it pretty good there because before Howard county, there was someone interested not too far away from you. So I've looked at that area a little bit. What exactly are you on the north side? Like what side? I'm sorry, I'm just pulling up a map right now of Forest Hill.

Yeah, here, I'll pull up my map. So we're kind of like talking the same.

Hold on here. So where I actually live is. I live. You're looking at a map. I'm closer to Jarrettsville.

Yep.

To the west. So you got Forest Hill, North Bel Air, and you got West. West Jarrettsville Road. That's kind of running from like the center of town, we'll call it.

Yep.

So I live in between Forest Hill and Jarrettsville, but you know, postal code wise.

Forest Hill. But yeah, I'll be looking to operate in the Forest Hill and North Bel Air areas. Okay.

And.

The comp. And some of my questions are going to center on this. Like there's a lot of. And this is not to be derogatory or anything like that, but a lot of chucks in a truck. We'll say guys just, you know, not branded. I. I don't know if they're insured or not. You know, I'm saying, like I've. And I've had these guys service my long time time when I've, you know, been out of town.

But barely any web presence whatsoever. You know, Google business listing, but websites like there's some ground. Ground guys are in actual Bel Air and they say this area is part of their territory. But truthfully, unless they had some serious route density up here, I don't know how it would be profitable for them for the time that it takes to travel from where their location is to. To. To this area. So. But anyway, I guess I'll dive in to my, my first question. So along the lines with the branding, the business, I was thinking about going all electric.

And what are your thoughts on all electric with its high cost to start up compared to gas? And do you think the customer actually cares enough that this will be enough market differentiator from everybody else out there?

Yeah, I don't feel. Based on the data we get, I don't feel like yet the customers care enough, or I should say enough of the customers care.

Because, you know, they're not willing to pay more for it. That's basically what we found. Like, hey, it's kind of a nice thing. It's quieter, things like that. But we have not seen someone willing to say I would spend $40amo instead of 30 because it's electric. Right. That being said, I don't feel it's a whole lot more expensive. And now it's starting to become more and more mainstream commercial services. A lot more guys are using them out in the field. Especially the hand, you know, the hand tools. Right. Like trimmers, blowers, stuff like that. The mower is the part that's going to get more expensive, especially if you're going to get a zero turn. Right. Those get expensive. Charging is a lot harder. So for example, like we were over in Sandwich, Massachusetts and they have the, their, their trimmers and stuff are electric and they just got like from hardware freight, like $100 little tiny generator. I think it's like a 1500 watts or whatever and it charges them all up all day. They can literally let it run throughout the day while it's on the truck. Right. It just sips on the gas. Whereas a, you know, when you're talking about a mower, you know, especially a zero turn mower, that thing going. This is my biggest, my biggest concern is that mower going dead in the middle of a day. Right? Yeah. And if you're doing large properties where you're going to need a zero turn and it's taking an hour per lawn to mow most of those, most of those, you know, mowers will maybe last three to five hours depending on the conditions. Right. And those are considerably expensive. You're paying a hefty price tag for those.

Yeah. So the brand I was looking at is Mean Green. And you know, they advertise, you know, you can get seven to eight hours with a certain battery package out of their mowers. But like on the hand equipment, no matter what, I think I'll go electric just because that way I'm not dealing with two different types of fuel, having to worry about the mixtures. Plus I think it's the equipment's easier on the operator compared to gas. The noise, the smell, the vibration. Yeah. A lot lighter, everything else.

So.

But yeah, my biggest thing was the Millers because like a.

Stalker 48 from Mean Green, mean talking like almost $25,000 where you can get a comparable 48 inch standard for half the price, if not less, you know. Okay, okay.

Because honestly, if you're looking at 25,000, like, do you have to bag clippings in your area?

No, no, no. Nobody bags club.

So really, for $25,000, you're really looking at three times the price. Right. Because a standard 48, for example, you know, you can get those for eight grand pretty easily. Right? So that's, that's the hard part, you know, and whether or not someone's willing to pay more for it, I haven't seen that yet. The thing is, it's how you market it, right? And you know, from your digital marketing background, you know this, like, if your brand was around that, that could become your differentiating factor, right? And especially if you have the mower, which most people don't, a lot of the guys are going to the electric and stuff. But if your brand is around sustainability, environmentalism, you know, the quiet, even if you named or something like, literally, like, I know there's a horrible example, considering where we're at geopolitically, but like quiet little Indians, like something weird and quirky that is like keeping quiet. That's the thing you want to focus on. It's small, but there's people who build their brand around closing gates, right. And that's, that's literally their focus is because they have a lot of fences and people are tired of their lawn care guy keeping the gate open. So if your thing was like quietness or environmentalism around green and eco stuff and the name of your company actually revolved around that, that starts to get pretty interesting.

Yeah, I don't see what you're saying with that, with the, with the, you know, branding with an environmental name. But at the same time, like, my naming, my thought train behind it was to kind of use an already recognized brand name in another industry and apply it to my business. So, for example, like Enterprise Landscape and Longcast Services, like, Enterprise is nationally known name. Like, yes, it's not in the lawn care industry. But look at it like, how many, like Paramount. How many Paramount roofing companies or Paramount, you know, constructions do you see? But Paramount is known for, you know, the movie industry. But it's in their name. Like, I mean, you think I'm tracking along the right lines there or do you? Because I just see as like something small and quirky maybe good for one area. But I don't think it's like, for example, you with Augusta, it's a nationally known, like, golf course, obviously, and it's already a nationally known name. Yep. Is that the reason behind your.

Right. What it's going to come down to is what your target market is. Right. Like my idea, what I just said, is going to be residential focused. Right. If you're trying to go after commercial, definitely that's not the way you want to go. Right. In terms of, you know, using a quirky kind of name that's catchy, but like enterprise, if you're going to use enterprise, that is going to be considered commercial like in the mind of a customer right away. Right. Depending on your logo. Like that. But it's the naming of it speaks commercial to most people. Right. And that's what. When you look at the biggest companies in the landscape industry, that's the type of names they have. But they're traditionally going after commercial. So just becomes what you want to target in terms of the naming. And then whether or not, promise you this, a commercial client not willing to pay a dollar more to have electricity. Right now, the residential market, I do feel like there's a sub segment of people that are willing and they see value in that.

Just something to consider. I don't think there's any right or wrong like naming conventions. And I think you can definitely brand enterprise, for example, towards a residential. But traditionally, like, even when you think about like packaging on SaaS products and things, enterprise is considered for like big businesses, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Just, just. That's the third person that popped in my mind.

Okay, okay.

Something else I wanted to go off of that question.