my $1.5M business needs a MASSIVE CHANGE

Okay, so yesterday I booked my real estate exam tomorrow morning, it's at 9am I'm cramming right now because I haven't been looking at anything real estate related for a very long time, two or three weeks.

So last night at the managers meeting we made a bunch of decisions, especially for the local shop. The reason we spend quite a bit of time working on the local shop is because it's like our guinea pig and our test rat for everything at a destination. So we'll throw things at it that don't even seem correct or intuitive. But it's to make sure that it works or does not work before trying to roll it out across the entire franchise system.

The day after the managers meeting, I'm actually watching the video prior to going live. And I wanted to add this because in the meeting what was really interesting is they actually proposed something to me that for a solid 45 minutes I listened to and was like no, no, no in my head and to shut my mouth up, I just kept eating the fries.

One of the things that we tried this past spring did not work and we have to actually change it back. And what we had tried is basically to do where there's only one person at the top of the organization as the general manager does all the estimates, all the communication with the crew, basically everything hiring, firing, marketing, everything besides the calls and the what's going on at command center. They do all the payroll, the email management, etc. But what we decided and what we came to learn is that it is not possible to run a 1.5 to 2 million dollar organization like the local shop with model. We decided that anything above a million dollars still needs a second non revenue producing employee. And that was the goal of the experiment was to see can you run a 1.5 to 2 million dollar organization with only one general manager. And what we found, it's too much. And Marcus pulled it off. He's an incredible gm, but with him moving down and starting his own location now, we cannot expect to find someone like that that can take the kind of hours, especially during the spring rush. March, April, May and June are nuts. Like 70 hour weeks worked. And it takes a very special, very special person. And we're just not going to find people like that consistently, especially if we want that location to grow, which I think it will now that we're not going to keep cutting out services and raising prices very quickly like we have the past few years, which has caused our growth to kind of stagnate in terms of total revenue at that location. And so now what we're doing is we're having a two person team at the top of the organization. Gm and then the office manager. Sort of back to when Liz and I were in the operation of the local shop, she was the office manager, and I kind of ran a GM type role. And there were certain things that I would not do. And I would say, okay, that's Liz's role. You have to talk to her. So that's what we're going back to. And so today we're actually trying to talk to those two people, make the implementation, and within a week, they'll be training and ready to roll.

So he'll most likely be the general manager. But what we're trying to do is take a lot off of that person's plate because it's basically impossible. Right. Especially Spring Rush. Especially spring rush. So our sort of proposal is that you would be that role. Okay. It's not something you have to take, but it's something. Because it's very different than command center type of position. Okay. But I really need someone in the office that really does what you do every single day at command center, but for just the Bellingham location. Okay. Someone who's dedicated to that location. That's all they do. The Bellingham location is kind of out of the system simply because it's so much larger than all the other locations.

Right, Right. I feel like I would, you know, do great in this, that I would excel at this. It doesn't bother me if I'm in the office by myself or if the guys come in and out or whatever. So we had a meeting last night. Marcus, Lee, Lonnie. Are you okay with that? You were the unanimous choice by everyone. Really? Yeah.

That's amazing. We went over pros and cons of multiple people, and you were the only one we all felt could fit in this role. I think I could get to my spot where I'm comfortable with everybody enough to say something like, hey, I'm not your mom.

So everything about it is better. You're like me. You would excel. We trust you completely. You're loyal, you can make more money every year, and you get profit sharing.

We just had massive turn, and I don't mean massive. Every year we're getting a new general manager.

I know what that's all about.

And mostly because.

Mostly because it's like they're young, hungry guys and they go start their own location.

Oh, yeah.

Right. So it's like Lee, he moved up, and Marcus, he moved up.

So we're trying to get like a.

Team of people that want to be there for four or five years or more. And that's why there's a steady increase in compensation. And like, that's why we want it to be more.

Yeah, I'm not going anywhere.

I'm not going anywhere.

So within a couple months, Marcus is moving down. So we'll get them trained up, make the transition, and I think it'll be a positive thing. We are still using one of the local team members that started this past spring to be the gm and sure enough, it's one of our youngest team members. And that has been the consistent theme, I think, throughout Augusta is I just do not care about your age. I do not care about anything besides, are you willing to learn? Are you willing to put in the work? I don't care if you have a lot of experience. I don't care about those things at all. Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to improve yourself, to come to work every single day hungry to become a better person? That's the person I want to employ. That's the person I want to promote. That's the person I want to become the example in front of the team that I am running a business for.

Okay, so yesterday I booked my real estate exam down in Everett, about an hour and a half south of us. Tomorrow morning, it's at 9am I'm cramming right now because I haven't been looking at anything real estate related for a very long time, two or three weeks. So right now this is a multiple choice question. Comment below A, B, C or D. XYZ Realty listed a property and ABC Realty had a buyer who made an offer. In the counteroffer, the seller would be the comment below. A, B, C or D.

All right, it's been a while, but we are down at the Mount Vernon shop. And now the fence is completely finished. The tiny house is basically ready to go in terms of being furnished. Looks like they have now planted some seed filling in where the utilities went, the trench. But we had to put more gravel here just so they could access the dumpster. And then this is the gate that will get the crew into the back where the Augusta shop is at. See there looks like they have signs from the old shop pinned up against here. And then, sorry, it's a little bit dark. It's Friday night, a little bit late. Then over here we got the tiny house. They put the bottom skirting on. All the utilities are now hooked up and this is where the parking will go. And then if you can see here, this light will come on. It's motion detection light. It comes on just to provide a little extra light. Probably put some planter boxes in here, covering up the front part of the tiny house. They're working still on this, Finishing this up. Got a hose bib they're going to put in here. Got the gravel. This already has all the seed that's been planted. You can see they've been watering it. And Augusta came in here and did that. I think they also probably cut these br. Oh, this is next week. I think next week they got to cut a little more of these branches back off of the house. Built some steps going into here. They still got to stain all of this. We go inside. Utilities are now hooked up. See here? This light will come on. Nope. All right, so we're now on the inside of the tiny house. See, things are starting to take shape. Look pretty cool. Heaters on. Very nice. They've already put all this together. I have not been here for a couple weeks. Interested to see if that's actually working. I think what they did actually is they tapped into that outlet to make that little light that was out just outside there that has the motion detection. See if these lights work. I don't turn the light on. There it is. So looks pretty cool. It's pretty spacious, honestly. They still got to paint some of these areas, but now it's not that matte finish. Semi gloss is easier to clean. A lot of this stuff has already been here in terms of furnishing. Oh, yeah. There's the bed. The other thing is huge.

So it's looking good. This is pretty epic. People were give me all sorts of flack about how this was not gonna be private. It is so nice back here. Obviously, the shops on the other side of that fence, and for a few minutes each morning, there'll be a little bit of disturbance. But it is so nice back here. It's gonna be awesome. And once we get the back done with the sauna or with the hot tub, the fire pit, and some string lights, this back area here is gonna look great too, so I'm really looking forward to it.