MY RESPONSE to DM: "You are bragging and DISGUSTING"

Hey everyone, It's Mike Andes. Landscapebusinesscourse.com today I'm going to be reading you a message that came in on Facebook messenger from one of the fans that have been listening to the show. And we're very unhappy with a video I made last week talking about how Augusta Lawn Care was going to grow and expand and change the level of professionalism in this industry. I think they bring up some valid points. I want to bring some clarity around and I think it's a good discussion for us to have about the future of the lawn care industry. So I'm going to go ahead and read this Facebook message that came in and then respond to it. I've listened intently to all your videos and truly appreciated your knowledge. But today I heard your video where you bragged about becoming the Amazon of the lawn care business. What a disgusting statement. You are bragging about putting the lawn care business out of business because no one will be able to compete with you and your brand. The only industry has been the life's blood to many regular. I think she meant the lawn industry. The lawn industry has been the life's blood to many regular people who just want to make a living. They don't necessarily want to do it with you, but apparently your goal is they won't be able to compete if they don't do it with you. Apparently you, like you, like other greedy businessmen, will do anything to make a million. Bragging about wishing to become like Amazon, a company that has destroyed many small mom and pop companies around the world, makes me want to vomit. You lost your way and I've lost my respect for you. Go away and leave us little guys alone. So here's my response to that. First and foremost, I want to clarify the fact that Amazon did not go after their competitors as much as the customers. Expectations changed because what the standard of Amazon was, the standard of Amazon was two day, one day and free shipping. It was free returns. It was a massive selection and there were competitors that could not compete with that. There were people that didn't want to go online. They didn't want to offer that type of service to the customer to be able to take back unwanted merchandise. And they are the ones who went out of business. Now, are there small mom and pop shops that are actually doing better because of Amazon? Yes, because there's still things Amazon can't do. And if you're afraid of a big incumbent moving into your industry and taking you out, you've got to get laser focused on what can they not do. Amazon cannot Come to my house and actually try on the shoes for me. They can't create an experience when I walk into a store and there's salespeople that greet me and that have even a higher level of customer service. So when we talk about the lawn care industry and our goal for Augusta Lawn Care, we want to change the level of professionalism in this industry. To do that, yes, we're going to grow very big and we're going to have a lot of franchisees. And in each one of their markets, they are in turn going to raise the level of professionalism for the industry by changing the expectations that the customer has. The customer will expect their phone calls to be answered. They'll expect fast communication, uniformed employees, employees that are well compensated, have P4P and have profit sharing and open book management from their employer. That will become the expectation of the customer to be able to interact with those employees and be able to have a great customer experience. And for those that don't want to do that, do not want to have an insured business, do not want to have a website, do not want to have uniformed employees, yes, it will probably hurt them. And that was the premise by which I made that video. But I want to go in a little bit in more detail about Amazon and how a big incumbent like that in this industry might look. Let me first be very clear. That will never, ever happen to the lawn care industry. Because if you look at e commerce and online sales, 51, over 51% of online retail goes through Amazon.com now guess what? The top 15 largest lawn care and landscaping companies in all of America combined make up less than 15% of the revenue that comes into this industry. What that means is that we have a very fragmented market when it comes to lawn care and landscaping. There are hundreds of thousands of landscapers and lawn care professionals open for business and doing business in this country. So if the top 15 are only making up 15%, that means like 1%, the largest companies making up 1 or 2% of the industry. So the fact that even if Augusta Lawn Care became the largest, which I did not say we wanted to become the largest, I said we were going to become the best. But if I said I was going to become the largest, even if I said that, that would be maybe 2% of the total addressable market would be going towards Augusta Lawn Care, which means that 98% of the market is still available and 98% of the revenue is still going to be made by other landscapers, you say, well, we don't want Amazon to keep growing and they're putting small businesses out of business, etc. First off, if they don't, and we put so much taxes on them, like for example in Seattle, they're putting a headcount tax on, on Amazon. That's why Amazon's moving. Amazon's like, we're out of here. The reason is because if we do that and we make it so unprofitable for them and difficult, and guess what, this is a market, an economy where we're gonna have China move in, we're gonna have Alibaba, we're gonna have some other competitor come and do it. Because guess what, the customer wants it. Every single time you go to checkout online and you go for two day shipping instead of two week shipping, you're voting, you're voting for the fact that you desire and want things faster and cheaper. And at the end of the day, the customer's not always right. I've made videos about that in the past. But when it comes to their decisions and their buying decisions, the customer's always right and they will always want faster and cheaper. And so unless you're going to be the customer that decides, I'd rather have two week shipping instead of two day shipping, I'd rather have no free returns, I'd rather have very little selection, then you're gonna be stuck with the people in the past. And like I said in my video, a rising tide floats all boats. And Amazon has made many, many millionaires because of their Fulfillment by Amazon program. People that saw the trend of people moving online and buying online and built businesses around Amazon. And yes, FBA Fulfillment by Amazon makes some people unhappy. There's also people that go out of business. But let me ask you this question. If you go back 100 years into our history, there was a lot of horror horse and buggies going around. There's not too many buggy manufacturers anymore. Probably 99% of them went out of business. But the bottom line is we as customers made a vote. We'd rather have a combustion engine instead of a horse drawn buggy. And so at the end of the day, if you're going to stay stuck back in time, if you're not going to answer your phones for your customers, when it comes to your lawn care business, if you're going to have an uninsured business and if you're not gonna have a website, if you're not gonna have a social media presence, if you're not going to treat your employees correctly, there is going to be competition regardless if it's Augusta or regardless of another company moving in town, they will wipe you out. Cause technology and improvements to the customer experience will always win in the long run. And if it's not Augusta, like, if it's not Amazon, it's gonna be someone else. And if it's not Augusta that comes in and tries to change the level of professionalism in this industry, someone will. Because industries like ours that are so far behind the times are wrought for change. And they're absolutely a massive opportunity because there's going to be someone move in and change the game. And if you look at brightview and kkr, which is the holding company, investment company that actually owns brightview, you watch what they're doing right now. They have billions and billions and billions of dollars. And they are not just staying happy with commercial landscaping right now. They're starting to move into the residential market. And they're the ones that I'm more afra because they're not going to have the same standards that we have at Augusta. And I promise you, you'd rather have us in your market where we encourage our franchisees to talk to other people, encourage and lift all the other competition up and help sustain each other, instead of someone like brightview or kkr, come in the buyout, do massive price cutting in order to earn business. Because guess what? Customers want lower prices. And if they're willing and able to do it, they will. We don't do price cutting. We charge a premium price. And we want to make sure that the whole industry is able to rise with the rising tide of professionalism. And you might be saying, well, it's worse for the employee if a big player comes in. For example, if Amazon moves into town in the middle of America. I don't think that the average mom and pop shop is paying 15 to $20 per hour with benefits the same way that a warehouse employee for Amazon would. So I don't necessarily think that the, the argument that's bad for the employees wins. I think the only person who loses because the customer wins, the customer gets a better, cheaper price and more efficient. They cut out the waste and done faster. But the people who lose are the enterprises and the business owners that fail to adapt to the changing market. To think that any massive company is going to move into the lawn care industry and put you out of business is a scarcity mindset. The thought in business is not true that if someone else wins, you have to lose. That is not true. If someone else wins, you can win with them. You can ride the coattails of an Amazon or of an Augusta Lawn Care that's trying to change the industry. You've just got to change and adapt. Big business is moving into the lawn care industry, and it's a big wave. And that wave can either crush you, or you can ride the wave. And the energy that we're trying to build at Augusta Lawn Care to change the level of professionalism. And in this industry, you can ride that wave. You can be one of the part of the people that raise your prices, begin to treat your employees correctly, begin to empower them and set them up for the next step of their career, and have professionalism, have a great website, have uniforms, have insurance for all of your employees that if they get hurt, there's coverage. These are the things we stand for, and these are the changes we hope to make in the lawn care industry. I'm Mike Andes, landscapebusinesscourse.com.