My Goals for 2021 (and what I learned from 2020)

Hey, everyone, this is Mike. And today we are going to be talking about what I achieved in 2020, what I could have done better, and what my goals are for 2021. Before we get in the show, though, today, a big thank you, Today's sponsor, which is Gusto, if you haven't already, go to gusto.combootcamp try out their software completely free for 90 days. You do all your payroll needs and benefits for your employees. Check it out today, go to gusto.combootcamp now. Right now we're at the Bellingham location here at Augusta Lawn Care, and I wanted to kind of just take you a little bit of a tour around. It's actually Christmas Eve, and wanted to kind of show you.

What 2020 has kind of been for me in all the businesses. And obviously, it's been crazy for everyone, whether it be the pandemic, you know, election season, like, just a whole bunch of craziness has happened. But let me kind of walk you through each of the businesses. What was kind of some of the main takeaways and things that we accomplished in 2020, and then what some of our goals are for 2021. So. So, first off, Anytime Fitness, that's the gym that I own. As most of you know, I purchased that mostly to learn the process of how they did their franchise system, and so we could use that and implement it at Augusta Lawn Care. So for the gym in 2020, obviously, we had the big Covid shutdown. We were closed down for, like, three solid months. It was horrible. But honestly, I learned a lot in terms of just, like, pivoting and changing and adapting to a new environment. Right? So obviously, when Covid struck, we had to go virtual with all our clients. We had to shut down billing. It was kind of like a legal thing at the beginning. And so I've never dug through bills, like, legal bills, in terms of what comes down from Congress, so in depth. And so it really forced me to really dig deep into some more complex legal matters that I hadn't really dug into before and seeing entity structures and how insurance really works. And a whole bunch of stuff like that was really, really interesting. And getting to meet so many different landscapers and gym owners throughout that time when, especially March, April, everyone was shutting down. Everyone was just, like, absolutely freaking out in the gym industry. So really, really good experience. And 2021, our goal is kind of changing the focus of the gym to really be more about training and really focusing on high ticket sales that are, you know, three, $400 a month per customer instead of 40, $50 a month for a gym membership. And so the reason for that is because yeah, in 2020 like our gym membership count went down like 25, 30% which stinks. However, we almost tripled our training revenue. And so really focusing on that is going to be the goal for 2021. And I feel like the gym industry as a whole is going to get completely disrupted by peloton, by Apple's fitness thing that they're rolling out with software. So our ability to change and adapt is so important. I feel like this is important for any industry, whether it be fitness, landscaping, retail. You've seen the massive change in retail over the course of the past eight, nine months. And I think like when it comes to in person buying, the thing that's going to allow the in person retail store or in person experience to win and actually survive even is going to be experiential shopping. So instead of going to Amazon, which more convenient, faster, maybe cheaper, better customer service, whatever it might be, if you're going to have an in person like a brick and mortar shop, a gym, any sort of retail space, you need to make it where there's value in actually experiencing something. And so we try to make the gym more of an experiential place where people come not just to work out, but also have community, have that environment where they feel encouragement and they feel like they're part of something that's something that they cannot get as good on virtual or via technology. That's something that we can offer as our unique selling proposition, I might, you might say, or what kind of sets us apart from those other options that are really honestly going to completely change the industry and wipe out a lot of our competitors. And so the gym was a big learning experience. It was overall, you know, just I'm lucky to be surviving through Covid with the gym in terms of Augusta. So. So for 2020 we got a little over 30 locations, about 32, 33 locations.

And what was really exciting to me is the fact that during the same time that we went up to 30 locations plus grounds guys and us lawns, kind of our main competitors in the franchise industry, they declined by a total of 50 locations. So not I'm like super happy that they failed, are failing but, but more just really happy with our team and just kind of proven that we were able to grow during this time instead of decline in terms of number of locations. So very, very happy about that. I'm very confident in the fact that we run a very efficient model in terms of the franchise and we can service our franchisees better and a much, much lower cost than any of the other competitors in terms of franchising. So whether it be grounds, guys, us, lawns, spring green, all of them, I'm very confident that we can. We are much more efficient and extremely lean compared to the way that they service their franchisees. And the cost that it takes us to service our franchisees is significantly lower and in my opinion, higher quality and can continue getting better as we continue going forward. So very, very happy about that in 2020. I feel like in 2020, our management team at Augusta really solidified. So whether it be the local shop here or command center or just like the people that I really lean on, as my direct reports, we really solidified in 2020, started having more managers, only meetings, and just kind of staying as a cohesive unit in terms of just the management. So I really think that was a very positive thing. I learned in 2020 just how much work it is to be a franchisor and take care of the franchisees. If we're really going to service them, if we're really going to care about them, if we're really going to care about them and their businesses and their customers, it's a lot of work. And. And so especially because it's such a lean model that we're using at Augusta to service the franchisees, a lot of that for the first 25, 30, 40, 50 franchisees will fall on me. So when a franchisee is going through a tough time, I'm going through a tough time. When they're going through a divorce, I'm going through like, it's tough. Like when they are struggling financially, I feel that same pain. And so that's something that is definitely the hardest part probably of being a franchisor and really caring and really caring about the success of the franchisees. Just how much their success and where they're at in life is going to affect me. And so a lot of work, but very much worth it. I feel like in 2020, some of the things even locally in the shop that we've implemented in terms of Profit sharing, changing P4P up, improving the software of P4P version 3 is going to be rolling out here pretty soon for the franchisees. Those are all big positives in 2020. A couple other things.

You know, Nick in 2020, started his franchise down in Marysville. So he used to be a employee here at the shop here and for about a year and a half, and very proud of him to be able to start his location down there. And we started what we call the 3F program, which is the franchise fee forgiveness program for employees that work two years or more at Augusta location. And that's not just our location, it's any of our franchisees. So just trying to inherently put that in within the culture of the company, where someone from the ground up can build their career and, and go from just starting out, mowing a lawn to really owning their own business within a couple years and then giving them the education, learning the know how in that process of the couple years, through Open Book Management, P4P, sharing the numbers, educating them on business and marketing, things like that. And so they actually know how to run a business after those two years. So that was very, you know, kind of a proud moment for me in 2020, is Nick opening his franchise in 2021. Our goal for Gusta, you know, kind of our stretch goal is 90 locations that I want to get to. That literally means we have to sell more than one a week. So we'll see how that pans out. I know it's a bit of a stretch goal, especially, you know, just financially being able to make sure that we keep it solidified, but I'm very confident we can get to it in 2021. That is the goal. That's kind of the main goal. We're starting three more corporately owned locations. And so this is definitely going to stress test the systems because, you know, in the past we've had two corporately owned locations, and I've never opened three corporately owned locations in one year. But that's what we're gonna do over the next few months is open three more corporately owned locations across the country. Not in this state, not within driving distance, all very far away, where, like, I have to rely on the systems only and the managers have to rely on the system. We're gonna constantly be opening up corporate relocations, a couple each year at least, just to stay fresh and sharp in terms of marketing and what it's like to open up a new location, because you're going to market differently. You're going to have a whole different mindset. And so we've got to stay fresh for our franchisees as they join the system, knowing that we actually know what we're talking about, because we are opening up new locations fairly consistently. So we're going to be opening up three corporately owned locations across the country. And again, there is no, like, me showing up and helping them. If a general manager is struggling, they're going to Struggle like a franchisee would. They have to own that themselves. And they're going to rely 100% on command center for so much of their admin office work, just the same way we've done in Mount Vernon. We're trying to replicate that three more times over the next few months. Again, stress testing the systems that we've implemented, the franchise where we can really refine those and help the franchisees so that they can start a second, third, fourth, fifth location down the road, which they will be wanting to do in three to five years. So definitely something that we're trying to figure out, make sure we nailed everything down in terms of how you pay a general manager, how you support them, what do they need in addition to what the franchise can offer them if a franchisee was to go off, you know, start a second or third location. So that's gonna be a lot of work. Really looking forward to it, though. And really, at the end of the day, in 2021, I think the biggest thing for Augusta is gonna be the software. Honestly, this is something that we're talking a lot quite extensively with the franchisees at the conference that we have specifically for them in January. And that is software is going to be.

Our unique selling proposition or our unique advantage, our unfair advantage, really. And at Augusta, because we have everyone together, we're using the same systems, we're using the same business model. As we refine those, we're able to create software that does so many more things than any other landscaping company can do in their local market. So I really feel like software is gonna be our unfair advantage. And in 2021, that's gonna start becoming pretty evident. I think it's gonna be about two to three years from now, probably three years, when people look at Augusta and be like, literally, it's unfair. Like, you have an unfair advantage. You. You cannot do this without being part of Augusta. And I feel like what kind of is unique about landscape business course and what I do is the fact that, honestly, at the end of the day, everyone watching this, I'm gonna be your competitor at some point through Augusta, right? Like, that is the unique thing about this. And so I share as much as I can in terms of systems and what we're doing, but obviously, the software and the things that we're developing on the back end for the franchisees is something we hold pretty tight to ourselves. And I really feel, like I said in two to three years that software is going to give our franchisees such an unfair advantage against the competition to make us More efficient, make our labor more efficient, attract better people. And so I feel like 2021 is the start of what we're trying to do with software. And we have several different projects that we're starting to get underway now. All right, real estate and stocks. So again this is kind of for Me Personally in 2020 we purchased 8 different units and all of them were 3 bedroom, 2 bath. All 8 of them were 3 bedroom, 2 Bath. I invested quite heavily in the stock market in and I've always played with the stock market but I've never been a long term investor. What happened though in spring when the market crashed and then I saw the government step in with junk bonds and just like just one buy up and basically save the market. I knew that it would lead to a huge rebound, especially with the amount of money that was being pumped into the system through stimulus. And so I jumped in, full board. I literally took out lines of credit, I took HELOCs, I took all the money that I had basically and poured it in the stock market. And so that's what's really allowed us to start. Even the three corporately owned locations, all of that's debt free. We were able to pay off everything in terms of equipment, debt, everything. Like there's no debt on the business and that's only because of what we'll do in the spring. Really just went all in on the stock market for a few months and then really over the course of 2020 those changing from much more risky kind of transaction in companies to really just focusing on companies that had solid balance sheets, had consistent cash flows and were value based business. And when you hear value vers growth stocks, what that means is that the way that a growth stock is valued or people purchase at a certain price, if it is a growth stock, it means you're buying the growth, you're buying what's in the future. Whereas a value stock, you're buying it based upon the PE ratio, the price to earnings ratio, which is usually tried and true and you know it's going to consistently be that way. And it's not like you're, you're buying that stock based upon future growth or future projections or what the company could potentially do. So over the course of the year I've taken the money from the stock in the stock market and used it for starting the new locations. But I've also moved it towards just much more stable investments. Companies like Adobe, Salesforce, Apple, Amazon, these companies that are much more tried and true, they have solid balance sheets and you're not trading for tomorrow's dollars. You are trading based on the value and what their price to earnings ratio is. Just much more fundamentals of stock market trading. And so, you know, in 2020, again, real estate, stock, stuff like that. I learned so much about stock market, about valuating companies, and honestly, I feel like I kind of tapped into some of the stuff I learned in my MBA for the first time in a long time. Because when you start talking about like a dcf, like discounted cash flows and evaluating what a stock market, a company on the stock market is really worth and really having an opinion that's educated and, and based upon something, I actually felt like I used some of the stuff for my mba. So shout out to regular high school or higher education, I guess in 2021. In terms of real estate and stocks, I don't really plan on doing a whole lot in real estate. I feel like I wanted to get some. I felt like there's some really good deals in 2020, when the whole pandemic was going on, was able to buy into those, the kind of dip there. And then now they've just taken off. And so I don't plan on buying a whole lot more real estate. I do plan on investing more into locations for Augusta, the corporately owned locations. I feel like we can make those very profitable within three to six months and then really recoup all of my money within 12 months. And so I feel like that's the best investment. I very much believe in the systems that we're doing. And I feel like I got to put my money where my mouth is. Like, if I feel like Augusta is the best investment for everyone watching this or for any landscaper, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. And that is I'm going to put my investing dollars into opening more locations. And so that's what my plan is for 2021 is not necessarily buying more real estate. I'll continue to invest every dollar in terms of cash into the, into the stock market because I feel like there are companies that still have value. I still feel like that we're on the precipice and kind of like the start of a massive uptick in terms of technology. And I feel like the pandemic has just accelerated that obviously I'll be much more conservative. I won't be buying the real estate, the airlines, I won't be buying, you know, the cruise lines and recovery stocks. Like those are going to be very volatile. Those are going to be up and down. And based upon what the vaccine does and all the rest of it. I'm going to be focused more on investing my money into more blue chip companies, solid profit margins, solid balance sheets, and companies that if we did hit some massive decline, the stock market, they might go down 20, 30%, but they won't go down 90, 95%. And so my goal for 2021 in terms of returns in the stock market is 20%. And that's higher, obviously, than like.

An index fund. But, you know, in 2020, like, the returns are literally for this year have been like 80, 90%. But again, it's been a trader's market. It's been a market where you can put money in and grow very, very quickly. There's been companies that have IPO'd and just skyrocketed. So it's not every day like, I don't expect 80, 90% next year in terms of returns. In terms of content. So that was real estate and stocks, stuff like that. In terms of content in 2020, I was able to get Josh full time in July, and that was something we've been looking forward to the past year and a half. Really appreciate him really taking us to the next level in terms of just the value of the content and the consistency of the content. Now he posts pretty much every Single Day on YouTube, pretty consistently on Facebook and things like that, Instagram. And so we've been much more consistent on YouTube. I really like that platform. I like the audience there, and I want to grow there especially. And so having him on board has been great in 2020, being more consistent with our media. Since he's joined, we've almost doubled our. More than doubled our subscriber count even in the past five, six months. So I really hope that we can get to 50,000 subscribers in 2021. That's kind of my goal for the media side of things. And then in 2020, we launched lawn care web design. Lawncarewebdesign.com is where we design websites for landscaping and lawn care companies. And so we were able to launch that and have quite a few of you join that. I really appreciate that. And we're able on every. I'll just be really honest, like, every single month, we make about $150 per month per person. That is on the. On the Lawn Care Web design. And part of that, it takes us about a year to recoup the cost of building your website because we don't charge an initial fee. And so that money that we make every month from that, we're able to put into the media, whether that be, you know, equipment, whether that be, you know, getting Josh and you know, in 2021, like I said, I want 50 subs, 50,000 subs on YouTube. I want to be able to take the money that we do make from the content, whether it be landscape, business course, lawn care, web design, et cetera, and just create better content. And I feel like eventually that might mean us hiring another person or even if we give the, the editing side of the video content creation to like farm that out to a freelancer and then have Josh more focusing on the creation and getting more creative with what we're doing and how we set things up and kind of production instead of post production. But that'd be something that I'd be very much open to in 2021 is just being able to invest more into the content for all of you. Our goal is to create as much free content for the industry. And then the stuff that's paid is what kind of pays the bills and allows us to expand and continue offering that to everyone in the industry. In 2021, we're going to finish the MBA for Entrepreneurs course. Link is in the description. And so many of you have already purchased that I really appreciate that. It's a course that I am trying to build over the next several months that really tries to encompass everything that I learned in the MBA course when I was in my business school and just take what's relevant for entrepreneurs. And so for example, like right now we just finished module five. There's about 13 or 14 modules that will eventually be up on the course. Module 6 is the one that's gonna be probably the best. It's gonna take me a while to record these ones. Cause everything with numbers. So this is balance sheet, this is profit and loss statements, cash flows, like a statement of cash flows, all of your income statements, how to balance certain things out. So a lot of the stuff that I learned in my MBA course was good, but it was good for large companies. Stock trade. No, on the stock market like big corporations. And less for the small business, the entrepreneur. And so my is for this course is to be able to share with business owners what they need to know for their small business. Whether it be from taxes, whether it be entity structure and law. Knowing your numbers and not just like knowing ratios, those are really important. But even like balance sheet P and L things that you would otherwise just give to your accountant and maybe you still give them to your accountant or bookkeeper to do, but just that you can be educated and be Able to have a discussion with them about certain things in your business and know what they're talking about, know what they're talking about. When they talk about LLC versus an S corp and what the differences are. These are all things that we need to know as small business owners. But I don't feel you need to go to a two year program in a business school and spend $50,000. I don't think that's worth it. So MBA course is something that we will finish in 2021 and looking forward to that. Last but not least, personal. So in 2020, I learned a lot. I learned I need to delegate a lot more. I have a lot of things going on. We've grown so much at Augusta and I need to learn, and I'm trying to learn more and more how to delegate and just almost relegate, which is like just completely let it go and not even worry about it. And so when you're first starting out and you want things to be perfect, you can kind of have your hands in everything. But I'm learning that I have to delegate more and more and more and literally work less, which means I need to like not be working. I need to be focusing on strategy and thinking about bigger concepts. And I know that sounds like, you know, high flu and whatever, but like that's, that's going to be the best ROI for me, for the business, and more importantly for the franchisee owners at Augusta is me thinking about strategically where the business can go, thinking about ways to improve the systems in the business. And so me being a delegate is going to be very important. And it's something that I've had to learn over 2020 when as the business has grown, I've literally had to say like, look, I'm not even going to look at this part of the business and I'm going to leave it to so and so and they're going to take it and run with it and just having confidence in that. I've learned that. I've learned that speed beats strategy. 90% of the time. 90% of the time doing things fast is better than trying to get it perfect, trying to make it just exactly right and fine tuning it and then making a decision. 90% of the time. You know, there's the 10% of the time where you can make damage by going too fast, but 90% of the time it is better that you just get things done and just are fast about it and make a decision, make a decision instead of the decision that you're trying to wait for that's perfect. I truly believe the thing that has allowed us to grow so fast is one of the reasons is the one little thing that I do well is I probably get done two to three times as much as most people do in an hour. Not in a day, but in an hour. What can you get done in an hour? The time blocking and the scheduling video we made a few weeks ago is really, really important. We'll actually link it up here in the description because it's that important to be able to get so much done in a short amount of time. And so in 2020, I learned just that speed beats strategy 90% of the time. I also learned in 2020 that risk is rewarded in America. If you looked at the bailout or the stimulus that came in March and is now in progress and in flux here in January, but. Or December. January. If you look at who's being bailed out, it is people that own real estate. It's people that own stocks, and it's people that have invested in their business.

Yes, People that were employees. They did get a stimulus check, a whopping twelve hundred dollars. What was given to investors? Free mortgages for up to 12 months. What was given to people who invest in the stock market? An incredible bailout package that has led to incredible stock returns and possibly the worst year economically for our country ever. What happened to people that invest in their business? They were getting the ppp, they were given the Eidl, and a lot of it was granted, a lot of it was forgiven. This is why it is so important in America to take risks. It is the place of opportunity where you want to get away from a W2, switch to a 1099, and eventually become your business owner, whether that be in the form of investments like stocks, investments in real estate, investments in your business. That's who is rewarded in America. And whether it is right, whether it is moral or ethical, I'm not debating any of that. I'm debating the fact that in 2020, you look at who was bailed out and who won. In 2020, it was corporations. It was people that was investing their money. And so I feel like more and more, the safer you are playing your game in terms of business, you're actually opening yourself up to more risk. The people who played really, really small in 2020, they're the small businesses that went out, the big companies, corporations, ones that had lots of employees, lots of risk, lots of, you know, expansion. They're the ones who dominated in 2020. The Lowe's in the Home Depot literally Took off while they left hundreds and thousands of small hardware stores in small town America to waste and that closed up their shop. Is that bad? Is that horrible? Yeah, you could argue that you can make that point. But the, at the end of the day, someone took the risk to grow big. Someone took the risk to invest and continue to grow the business and hire more people and make bigger stores. And that's what was rewarded in 2020 in America. And the ones that were played conservative, that played counted their pennies that were staying small and thinking small, they lost in 2020. So that's something that I learned in 2021. Personal kind of goals, things that I want to do, some of these are really, really like, don't seem very significant and they're not really have much to do with business because it's personal.

But I will take, I haven't done this yet, and that is, I will take a day, usually the end of December or the beginning of January, where literally all I do is these goals. I kind of jotted these down a lot faster. But what I will do is take each of the one things I talked about and write about a page by hand on paper, exactly how it's going to look, how it's going to happen, when it's going to happen, why it needs to happen, and each of these goals I get really specific about. But in terms of the personal ones, these are a little bit more, I don't know, flaky, I don't know. But these are things that I want to do in 2021. For example, I've always dreamed of having a hot tub and an ice bath, and I want to have both of them. I feel like I would feel incredible if I could do that every single day. And I feel like it would improve my efficiency. I feel like I could, you know. Do you know, if I could just right now, if I can work out and pray every day I say I can do everything. I feel like if I could do an ice bath and a hot tub and all those things, I feel like I could be invincible. So I'd really like to get an ice tub and a hot bath or a hot bath and a hot bath. I really like a hot tub. Okay. And an ice bath. I haven't figured out the logistics of that, but I would love to do that in 2021. I would also like to get a personal vehicle. Probably towards the end of 2021. I was gonna get it this winter, but I wanted to invest in the three locations that we're getting. But I'VE drove an Augusta vehicle for.

Seven, eight years now. And it's nice, but everyone knows where I'm at all the time. You can't go incognito anywhere. You can't speed, you can't tailgate, you can't do anything that's illegal, which I don't want to do illegal things. But it is nice to go a little faster than the speed limit occasionally. And. And when someone cuts you off, I like to, you know, tailgate them a little bit. And so I'd like to get my own car. So that's kind of a goal. I don't need anything fancy. I don't need like a hundred thousand dollar car. You know, I don't need a sports car, but I just want like a Honda Accord that's like my goal car. All right, So I want to get a newer car. It's new, newish, and is my own and doesn't have a gusta written all over it. With other stuff in 2020, 2021, I want to say keep my goal target, my goal weight target, 140 pounds or under. I don't fluctuate a whole lot. I just try to stay around 139, 140, exercise, prayer. And then the last one that I gotta really work on in 2021 is I gotta stop eating late at night. It kills me. It makes me not sleep as good. It makes me not sleep as much. And I do it because I get hungry at like 11 or 12, but if I eat.

I'll stay up all night and it's not good. So I'm trying to improve in that area and I'm sure I'll get better goals in terms of personal when I take a day off. But those are what I come up with now. So I hope that, you know, it's helpful. I think there's a great time at the end of the year to kind of like look back at 2020. What did I learn? Where can I improve? And then 2021, what are my goals? Where am I going? How am I going to get there? One of the things I didn't talk about today is how I'm going to get there. The reason I didn't is because it would take me three or four hours to go through each of these and be like, how are we going to get to 90 locations at Augusta? How are we going to change the business model at the gym? How are we going to accomplish the software advantage that I feel like we can do? Like that's a long, long conversation, but I feel like at least you need to at least distinguish and find out and really describe what goals you have for 2021. Some people call them New Year's resolutions. You know, that has a bad connotation. They don't usually work out. I own a gym, so I know New Year's resolutions and how they don't really work at all. However, when it comes to goals, I feel like the end of the year and the start of a new year is a great time to think about where you're at, where you're going and how you're going to get there. So hopefully something today that I said was inspiring, but more importantly, I want to inspire you to go do your own goals for 2021. What are you going to accomplish? How are you going to get there? And, you know, I have so many plans for 2021, and so many of you are part of them, whether it be our local team command center and what we're trying to do in 2021 is gonna be amazing there for the franchisees, whether it be the franchise owners, whether it be those of you who have just listened to the content landscape business course members, lawn care web design members, like all of you have been part of the goals. And that's why I wanted to share these today. I know it's a little lengthy, but hopefully it was inspiring to you, and hopefully you get to see kind of behind the scenes of as I do grow and develop the companies, and me personally, as I learn and become a better business owner, a better leader. I appreciate all of your support in 2020. I look forward to what 2021 has in store. It can't get any worse than 2020. And if you've had a bad year, it's been really tough, it's been difficult, and you haven't seen successes and just massive growth or anything like that. Don't be down, don't be discouraged. You have a whole lot more time. 2021, you could literally, a couple months, you could flip everything that was negative in 2020, become one of your best years ever in 2021. I look forward to joining you, and I hope you join along with that journey here at Augusta and all the other companies. Thank you so much. We'll see you in the next one.