Questions & Answers while Mowing In The Truck

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes and you're listening to the landscape business course podcast. Today we are going to actually be doing a compilation of videos of Q and A that Josh and I recorded when we were out mowing a couple weeks ago. So if you want to watch the actual videos, make sure you check out the YouTube channel. Just YouTube.com mikeandys you can watch these actually as clips when I'm driving around town.

So you're going to hear the background.

Noise, you're going to hear Josh asking the questions. And these questions came directly from the landscape business course Facebook group. So make sure you join that as well. So without any further delay, let's jump right into it. But if you want to actually watch the video of me mowing some lawns, doing P4P and actually tracking that, what I would be making as an employee, make sure you check out the YouTube channel. But let's go ahead and jump into about 10 or 15 of these questions that came in from the Facebook group and that I answered while I was mowing lawns.

Here we go.

All right, so Mark Koch asks, what is the number? Are your top three suggestions to build team culture?

Mark Koch is in Linden. Mark, I hope you're working hard today too.

Three tips, Team culture. Okay. Number one, fire people that don't abide by the rules. And the rules might be the cultural rules.

I'm gonna take a slight right.

Rules, culture. Yeah. Fire people that don't abide by the rules. That is how you set the standard. You can yak and tack all you want about culture, but until you fire someone over, it doesn't really matter. So we fired someone yesterday because they were not supporting the team and they were slacking off a little bit. So we fired them. It makes it very clear to everyone that is not allowed. Number two, have team meetings.

At least twice a week. Connect with your team. Don't make them feel like they're abandoned or by themselves. Number three, have off site meetings and open book management where you share the numbers and they feel included. Try to be as fair as possible in terms of profit sharing or pay for performance to give them a piece of the pie when they work harder. Those are my three tips for culture.

All right. Do you adjust pricing on recurring mowing clients when the grass is growing vigorously and the client wants to cut the same height as usual, which would require additional work?

Usually if we're doing a year round mowing service recurring, we're just going to annualize the average time it takes to do the lawn in Terms of spring and fall versus like the summer. Spring and fall is going to take us a little bit longer. We have to pay the employees a little bit more on P4P. But during the summer, like right now, there's hardly anything growing and we just fly through the job. So typically we just kind of average it out. It's in easier sell to the customer. Typically you're trying to reduce friction in the sales process and if you start trying to explain, well during these months it goes higher and these ones it goes lower and then it just messes things up. So the goal is to just take the friction out of the sales process by making it as simple and straightforward as possible and knowing that our profit margins are going to be a little bit more in the summer and a little bit lower in the spring and the fall. However, if we think it's going to be a short term customer in the spring, for example, like they're selling their house and they're only going to be mowing for a couple months, in that case we'd probably take that into account that we aren't going to get those summer mows and charge them a little bit more.

All right. The honorable Kevin Fairburn.

Kevin.

Hello Kevin.

He has the same birthday as me.

Asks how do you find or ask to acquire other businesses or accounts?

How do you find or ask to acquire other businesses or accounts?

Craigslist is honestly a really good spot in the middle of winter or when your slow season is for someone that's just trying to get out of the business. And they're usually lower priced. If they have a broker involved and you're looking on like bizbuysell.com for example, that's a good place to look. It's kind of like the MLS of businesses when they go for sale. And so that is usually gonna have a broker involved though, or at least an agent. And those are usually priced a lot higher. If you're trying to get a deal, Craigslist is usually the best way. And that's not even as good as actually just personal connections. This is when having good connections and good relationships with other landscapers comes into play. Because if they know you're a mover and shaker in your local market and you've talked to them and you're nice to them and you cover their back and you help them when you can, they're gonna come to you first. Because sometimes a little bit shameful if you've got to close your business or if you' succeeding and they're going to come to you, who they can trust and know that you're not going to make them feel like an idiot. And so having those good connections with other landscapers is what's going to lead to a really good acquisition. That being said, if you're trying to move into a new market, I would look on Craigslist during the slow season for someone that's retiring, trying to get out of the business. They're usually going to be selling it for really just the cost of their equipment, plus, you know, a little bit of money for say their website, phone number and client list. That's really what you're trying to buy. The value of your business is in your client list and in your contracts. It is not in your equipment. When we bought companies in the past, equipment has never been involved. I always tell them, hey, go get someone else to buy your equipment on Craigslist or something. I just want your contact list. That's where the money's at.

How do you collect reviews for your business? What's your go to place to send customers to write reviews for your business? Google, Yelp, etc. Are there technologies that help automate this process? Thanks.

Yes, I like Google my business. Currently not a huge fan of Yelp because so many of your positive reviews get screened out somehow. The bad ones stay until you start advertising. So you want to make it an automated process. So what we do for Augusta and our franchisees is every four months, customers get a survey from us right after their job is completed. A job and anything is completed, every four months they get a survey. And that survey is internal, which means it is not publicly. It's not like we asked them for an online review. We don't want people who've had a negative experience to have the chance to air their dirty laundry. So what we do is we send a survey. If that survey is a five star survey, then they get an automated email asking them to post that review online. Google, Facebook, et cetera. If it's four stars or less, that comment then goes to the office and the office can deal with it internally without the public knowing about it. And they're always really impressed within when literally within a few minutes of a crew member leaving their property, they're coming back to fix the issue that they just typed into their computer or their phone what they thought was not good. So that's what we use. It's all automated. And that's the best way to get a lot of reviews. And by the way, Google reviews for Augusta Lawn Care locally is hitting 100 reviews this week, it's at 99, we will get to 100. So that's what I would suggest.

Cameron Goldsmith asks, how long did it take you to turn a profit when you started? Six months in and the revenue is there, 40, 60k a month, but still not seeing nearly enough take home. Are we growing too fast?

It's the balance between growth and profitability, right? Growth sucks cash. If you're growing quickly, you're gonna probably be able to take less cash home because you're hiring people that causes waste. Cause you're training, you gotta hire and hire, you gotta find them. And when you're growing, you're usually marketing, you're buying more equipment. All of those things cost money. So growth sucks cash. And there's that balance. If you want to take, if you need to take more money home, you might need to slow down your pace of growth a bit or raise your prices, which will naturally tend to reduce the demand for your services and slow you down a little bit there. So yeah, that's a good one.

All right, so we got a question and it is. Hi Mike. One thing I find that gets overlooked is keeping yourself motivated. What do you do for keeping yourself going whilst working 10 plus hour days dealing with staff, customers, breakdowns, paperwork, etc. Sean from Dune, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Dunedin, New Zealand. Well, if I lived in New Zealand, I'd be motivated all the time. 24, 7, 365. No, like honestly it's a big part of it is for me personally is that I really do love what I'm doing, whether it be mowing lawns like today, pouring sweat or you know, making a video at 3 in the morning. Like I like that journey in the process. For some people it's not that way and it's more like a grind throughout the day and then they live more or less, you know, whether for family, for vacation and that's totally fine. Like whatever aligns with your goals and what you want out of life. But in terms of staying motivated, for me also one way street. Oh, oh no, no, not now. It's not.

For me personally, like I gotta stay sharp physically and mentally to kind of keep doing that and keeping the pace. So for me personally, I have to, I have. My thing is always I say if I can work out and pray every day, I pretty much feel like I can do anything. So that's kind of my two things. If I can do those two things, even if it's a 20 minute workout and 15, 20 minutes of meditation and prayer, devotion, that's what Gets me through the day, keeps me motivated.

All right, so we have another one from Caddy Jackson. Caddy are lead magnets in the lawn care industry worthwhile investing time in? Can you share any advice or knowledge on this topic you wish you knew five years ago?

Well, first let me try to get into this driveway that is very narrow in this alleyway here. Lead magnets in case you don't know what a lead magnet is, a lead magnet is something that you give to a customer, typically free digitally like a PDF, a how to guide something of that nature and it gets and in order for them to get it for free, typically they just have to put their contact information in.

Cool.

Good.

We have not seen that convert to actual clients a whole lot. That being said, in your market, you've got a test, test, test that might work great in your market. Try it out. Run some Facebook ads against a free one page PDF of how to make your lawn look better for under $100 or a video guide to making your edge look like a million bucks. It's all about that clickbait title, getting their contact information and then selling to them.

Questions with Mike.

How do you handle leaf cleanups? Mulch, blow, vac, other option.

Depends on your market. If you have a ton of oak trees and leaf cleanup is like a four week, five week deal for you, maybe it's worth it. For us we definitely have leaves. It's just not worth storing a big piece of equipment for 11 months out of the year. I'd rather rent something that I'm only going to use that infrequently. And so in our market, if you have a rider, if they have a zero turn and with a bagging system that might be better, you just go over it several times, mulch it up with the mower and then suck it all up. That might be the easiest way. Otherwise yeah, LeafVac is great. Again, I don't like to buy any piece of equipment that I'm only using 10% of the year. So that would be my first consideration.

All right, from a marketing point of view, what are your thoughts about using what are your thoughts around using a mobile number vs landline non mobile for a lawn care business From Caddy Jackson?

Well, say it again.

From a marketing point of view, what are your thoughts around using a mobile number vs landline non mobile for a lawn care business?

I suggest using a VOIP voice over Internet phone line. So that way if you ever change carriers or anything like that, you can just move the phone number, make sure you get it from a company that allows you to transfer that number. That way you're never tied into like your mobile carriers contract. And you can. It's really easy to forward those numbers typically. So Google Voice, Grasshopper phone booth. There's like a hundred thousand different types of void phone numbers, Ringcentral. But they're really easy because you can forward them really simply. And yeah, that's what I suggest.

All right, definitely hiring. We have never been busier, but no one in my area wants to work or they only last one day.

So I would first of all take extreme ownership. That's referencing a book from Jocko about taking ownership of stuff that happens to you instead of happening to you. It happens because of you. So ask yourself, what did you do wrong in the hiring process? Did you not set them up for success? Do you not train them correctly? Should you have weeded them out in the hiring process? Like, if I have to fire someone I look at, like, how did they even get in the system? Do we not interview them correctly? Did we not screen them correctly? Did we not train them correctly? Do we not inspire them enough? The mission of the business should hold them and the vision of what you're trying to do should hold them to the culture. And if that doesn't happen, I take responsibility for it and see how I can improve. Because I can't change their behavior. I can't change whether or not you think millennials are, you know, can't work or anything like that. But what you can do is have a vision, a mission, a why for your business. Have a culture that is hard working and you're teaching people how to improve their careers and not just come to work and punch a time clock.

You have a question. Who's it from?

Jeff Glandon asks. Jeff Glandon A call center for non franchise owners would be awesome. Any plans on offering this? And this is just 17 minutes ago.

Jeff Glandon we are not planning to do a call center for non franchisees. Let me first explain. Number one, would it make money if we increase the prices and did that? Yes, it would be. Am I confident I could sell that? Yes, I am. But the reason call Command center is so effective and our goal in the future is to really take all office work, including billing, routing, everything off the franchisees plate. The reason we can do that is because we're all using the same business model. If you have commercial jobs and big projects and you don't use the same estimating system as us and you don't use the same CRM as us and you don't use the automations like we do. It's impossible for us to do Command center for you without simply being an answering service. We do not want to be an answering service and we're not designing Command center to be a profit center for the franchisees. We keep the prices as low as we possibly can. And it's a service for the franchisees to scale their business when they're small and they don't need someone full time in the office and when they're big so that they don't have to have a bunch of temporary employees throughout the summer and the growing season, then try to lay everyone off in the winter. So it's a service for our franchisees. It only really works at our current prices when we have a standardized process across the entire board. So no we aren't. But you can become a franchisee by going to augustaloncareservices.com franchise booking a call with me and seeing if you're a good fit.

All right. Hiring, but especially if the equipment and shop is located at your house and working a full time job. Buddy Morgan.

So he's asking specifically about hiring.

Yeah, just as hiring comma, but especially for the equipment and shop is located at your house and working a full time job.

Okay, so my two cents on this is you got to separate the business and your personal life for your employees sake. Because if you're working from your house every day and you're coming out every morning with like a donut in one hand, a coffee in the other and your kids are running around, it just kind of blends in my opinion. Too much the business and your household too much. And the employees become so common with that it kind of feels weird. They feel like they're coming to your house instead of a place of work. So I would if I was you. Try to separate like have a different area for parking the trucks instead of like your front garage where your wife and kids park, for example, and where all your kids are getting picked up for the morning from school. Try to separate it as much as possible so your employees feel like they're coming to work and they're not coming over to your house for a midday tea.

All right.

What system systems do you have in in place to help employees to continually progress? I can see how P4P would play a large role, especially in the beginning years. But with your higher up guys, what do you do? How do things like pay raises, promotions, benefits, your free franchise setup or other ideas fit into the equation?

We tell them at when we interview them. We tell them that we don't want them to work there for more than three years. In other words, we want them to progress either into a management role, owning their own franchise, or going to another company and doing something really cool from the stuff that they've learned at our place of business. So they've learned about marketing, they've learned about business, they learn about management, numbers, leadership, and they go do something cool, regardless of whether it's at Augusta or not. That expectation, from the beginning, they realize that, hey, like, these people are out to improve my life, my career, and they're not all about just trying to use me for my labor and make money on me, which traditionally leads to a better culture and more commitment from the employees.