REVENUE DROPS! $2M Business Has a 2.5% Close Ratio

Hey everyone, my name is Mike Andes. I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care where we have over 150 locations around the world. Today I'm talking with an electrician that had a $2.4 million business and has scaled it back by almost 30%. The only number I care about next 12 months is close ratio. Why? Because he's lost track of employees. Employees aren't working hard. He's out in the field having to rein in a lot of the mismanagement that's happened over the past couple of years. And a lot of that is just because of systems and procedures. Right now it's costing you 30 hours per closed job. And his hope is to use copilot to be able to add some systems and procedures. But you'll see in this coaching call that there's one massive gap in the business that if you can just fix this one thing, everything else will be much easier.

So he just laid a couple of people off, got rid of some management level stuff, and I'm gonna start taking back over.

Let's see if we can jump in with this electrician company that's been scaling back, create systems and procedures to ensure their close ratio is increased and, and he can continue to grow the business. Well, hey, I know you. You've seen on the YouTube videos and stuff. I usually don't hop on initial calls, but I like to stay in touch with the users and members and just kind of get a feel of where you're at. So I would love to just kind of know about the business, kind of where you're at right now and, and see if COPA would be able to help at all.

Sure. So first off, you know, I'm not a landscaper, so you know the bad part there, but I am an electrician and I think looking at your guys software, I think that there is a benefit to be had. So. So I do commercial work, I don't do any residential. All of our work is contractual. I don't do any reoccurring services.

So I'm, I am. Look, you know, right now I'm just using like a whole handful of different things to handle everything. Like anywhere from Procore or Autodesk construction cloud for drawings in the field stuff. And then I'm using QuickBooks Online to send invoices and then I'm using.

Building connected bid board to handle bid requests that we're getting. And then I'm using procore takeoff to do takeoffs to generate those estimates. And I'm kind of looking, you know, I Just started looking at everything and I'm spending a lot of money for a lot of different things. So I'm looking to try to centralize a lot of different things and I think co pilot or something like Jobber or something would be interesting and I am interested in. I've seen a lot of you guys videos about the P4P I definitely want to do something like that. So I wanted to get with somebody in the company to figure out how to set that up for a business like mine because it's not reoccurring services so it's going to be based around. I don't know how customizable something like that is because I also use an app called Busy Busy. That's what we use for time tracking and it manages our. It keeps track of our budgets for our labor on the projects. So I don't know if you guys offer something that in depth but I'm not like the only software that I have that I think that I need to keep right is the procore for the estimating because we have our cost catalogs built there. I do all of our contracts, all of our or all of our takeoffs with our estimates and all of our change order work inside of that system. But then realistically that those numbers and those data gets manually transferred over to QuickBooks so and then that's where the, the invoices come and then there's whole accounting process with the monthly invoices, the waivers along with those, the progress payments and things like that. So.

Got it.

One of the biggest things that I'm trying to make sure before I switch anything is I've been a busy, busy user for about five or six years and that they do a pretty good job of the time cards, the GPS time tracking to make sure and then like the time card approvals that get signed each bi weekly pay period and then for us, our service there because I only do commercial work so I have like a handful of customers that we try to follow around and our service area is quite large. So we have like a 300 mile radius that we'll basically work in. Yeah, quite big. So I just wanted to make sure that like any time tracking app that we have has those two things like time card approvals and GPS tracking so that I'm making sure that I'm not paying somebody to drive three hours because we don't pay for their drive time.

Got it. And how many employees you got now, Zach?

We have eight field employees and then myself and I actually just laid a couple of people off, got rid of some management level stuff, and I'm going to start taking back over to try to bring some profitability back to the business.

Gotcha. Cool. And so the past year or so, has it mostly been unprofitable, you think? Just like too much like labor is kind of going different directions.

Too many layers of the onion, I think, you know, and then not enough decision making happening and people just here for a paycheck instead of really being invested into the profitability of the business.

Got it. And from a leads perspective, like, do you have plenty of work? It's really just a matter of getting more employees kind of bought in.

There's a balance there. Right. So as far as I need to be better about my sales and I need to. I'm the only one that does anything for the sales. I gen. I talk to the customers, I generate the estimates, I send them off, I follow up. And I'm not usually very good about that. So some of the time I'll be turning in bids like a week late, and then I'm hit and miss about following up about those. So my actual conversion rate is only. If I did the. If I looked at our little CRM that we're using now bid board, it says that I have a hit rate of like two and a half percent. So it's not very good at all.

Got it. Okay, so. So just so I'm clear on that one, I would call that close ratio. So are you saying out of about 40 estimates, one will get accepted?

Usually, yeah.

Got it. All right, cool. In terms of constraints to kind of growing, Zach. Cause like, really at copa, we actually, we will refund someone if they don't grow their business in terms of revenue or profit. Like, that's all I care about. And how. How I help you grow the business with software, website, or we do the coaching side is irrelevant to me. So when I look at, you know, the current bottleneck in the business, is it that you don't have enough work? Is that you have enough employees? What's kind of the major thing you think right now? Like, what's the difference between you doing 250,000 this year versus 500,000 next year? What's the biggest thing in your mind currently?

So currently, right now we're at $1.8 million, and last year we were at 2.3. But I think the biggest bottleneck in the business is just clear communication with the employees about what they're doing, why they're doing it, what we should be doing, the material that we need because it's, you know, a big dependent is having the proper material that the guys need. So we're not. I need to create a better system in place for that. But the other big bottleneck is just cash flow because it's not like a job and then I can send somebody an invoice and I get paid tomorrow. So realistically I get paid net 30, net 60, net 75. So that's the big bottleneck is. So the way that it works is we'll get like a big flux of work come springtime, fall time, whatever. So we have a handful of projects and then those kind of get stretched out all together. So then there's a few like dead months in there where we are still working. But I can't invoice the customers for work that we have that isn't finished yet. So it's just a matter of starting projects consistently I think because if I can start like a project or two a month then I would be good because I could always have an invoice going into a customer. I think that's the biggest. Is the bottleneck to the business is cash flow.

Yeah, I think like what's, what's really.

Interesting, Zach, is the bottleneck to the business is cash flow.

Yeah, I think like what's, what's really interesting, Zach, on my end is like so when I first was looking kind of at your business and stuff, my first thought is like the websites, I don't fs fespower.com don't know where it's at that, you know, I saw you on Yelp and I was able to see it on LinkedIn but there's no website. But it sounds to me like you have a ton of leads. If we're only closing 1 out of 40, I actually immediately ax off that as a problem because I know if we simply increase your close ratio for let's call it, let's just call it 3% to 6%, we double the business, we get twice as much work. So I'm actually not concerned about that because leads just creating an automation inside copilot to follow up the customer via text and email would probably take you from a 3% to like a 6 to 10%. So I, I actually look at them like non issue. Then it's a matter of okay operationally with the team out in the field, why aren't they being efficient? And so you know, I know you know P4P is on your mind and I agree. It's also a matter of sometimes like you said, you have so Many things on your plate, you're juggling different softwares and et cetera, that you don't have the time to train them and spend time with them in the field. And I'm going to guess this part, Zach, but tell me if I'm wrong. This past year, kind of taking the step back in terms of revenue, has it been mostly you jumping in, just trying to get your hands dirty again with the guys? Is that kind of okay? Yeah. So the question is, how do we automate some of this stuff so that you can spend the time with the team? But we still are following up with these estimate and still closing these jobs. Because right now, if we're doing, let's just call it 20 proposals even and only one's getting accepted, it means that let's say you take an hour on each one. By the time you visit them, talk to them, etc, we're spending 20 hours of your time. Like how much time do you think it takes on average for proposals? Actually, on average I would say 30.

Minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the project, something like that. Some of them take 4 hours, 6 hours depending on the size.

Let's take an hour. Just kind of as a broad stroke, if we're doing 40, let's just, let's go down. I want to be conservative here. So like, let's say 30 and one of them's accepting it means we're almost spending a week of time to close the job. And in your mind, like, hey, as long as I have one or two a month, I'm good. My thought is, can we automate some of this, follow up so you spend less time doing sales because right now it's costing you 30 hours per closed job. And then you delegate that 30 hours. So instead of spending, let's call it 30 hours a week on sales doing these proposals, etc. We're going to spend two times a month, 30 hours because we doubled our close ratio. You have to worry about that. I actually think that's the biggest bottleneck because if we can just improve close ratio, and now you're like, I don't need the work. Like, we're booked out far enough. I got, I'm closing 7 to 10% of these jobs now, which I think is very doable. By the way, if a customer calls you wanting a project and I know it's commercial, but even at commercial, if someone's under 15% close, Rat, I know there's a lot of opportunity to simply improve the system to get the customer to accept, okay, like residential we shoot for over 50% but commercial is anything less than 20. We have red alarms going off because it means that we're spending so much time generating estimates like just getting the proposals out. Like you could, you could theoretically probably take your hourly rate, let's call it 150, 200 bucks an hour, multiply that by the 30 hours on average that you're spending per closed job or we're looking at five grand plus of your time if you were just out in the field. Yeah. And so my thought is this is a matter of how do we simply fix one problem and that is the close ratio. And I, and I think a lot of this is simplification so that you don't have to worry about it. Like the fact that an estimate takes five, six, seven days. We've got to simplify things. And so the automations is probably the number one thing I'd be thinking about. So when you send out the proposal, it automatically is going to text, email, it's going to send reminders to you over the course of a three, five, seven day process. And I think if we just make that like the core focus, we give you time back, we give a massive amount of just. Even if we took two of these jobs a month and converted them extra and then took that time that you're currently making all of these proposals and just put you working in the field, let alone like leading the crew, training three or four new guys at the same time, which is obviously a better use of time. But even just the time of you doing work is 10, 15, 20 grand a month.

Yeah, it's huge.

And so right now sounds like most of it's kind of like you send out the proposal, kind of hope they, they call you back. If not, it just kind of, you let it go.

Well, it's a little, yeah, basically let it go. But the other factor is the people that I'm the. So I'm a subcontractor and we're turning our bids into a general contractor. The general contractor is a decision maker on their level, but then there's an owner that's the final decision maker if they're going to go with the gc. So not only am I dealing with getting, let's say that I'm competing against six other electricians, 10 other electricians for bids on a project. Then we're also competing with three other general contractors that have their own five or six electricians that are bidding that job. So it's just another layer of things. So it's not Just like, hey, they have this project and it's just a matter if they're going to go with me or not. It's a matter of if they can even get the contract from the owner. Totally.

I think, I think what's really interesting in this model, so there's several subcontracting companies inside Copilot. So I see how they interact with their users. And actually, because you can change the name of customers inside copilot and I would just change it to general contractors. Like, if that's because that's your customer, your customer is not the owner. It's not anyone else. It is the general contractor. And so then it's a matter of like, well, let's reverse engineer this. What makes me the best fit or service to my customer, which is this general contractor. And the biggest thing is they want the estimate in hand as quickly as possible.

Okay.

And like, how do I become the go to for that general contractor to where when there is five or six bids, they're still going to go with me because they know I get them stuff right away. They have a client portal where they can see all the information of upcoming jobs that you're going to do for them. They can see all their invoice history. It's all automated. They get reminders if they forgot to do something automatically from the software. That's really what I would be focused on because I would imagine you probably have. Have maybe 10, 20 general contractors that you really focus on. Or is it pretty dispersed?

No, it is 10 to 20. And then there's a. So I would say like probably 75% of our business is. My business is with a handful of customers anywhere from 5 to 10. And the other 25 is the random ones that come into town from Bumfuck, Egypt that want to do a project here.

Yeah, yeah. And then, then like, I, I don't think leads is the constraint here, but even if it was having something where you can message customers that are the one off people, sure, getting them, keeping them warm is important. So that way when you need the leads and you say, hey, we've got time, we can get on a job right now. There's promotions. There's also times of the year, like you said, like spring, fall, there's certain rushes that you can capitalize if you've kept them warm. So having them in one spot, emailing them all, you can mass email and mass text from copilot. And so we've seen massive conversion on the texting side because it's 100% deliverability everyone's getting dinged on their device like you're going to get responses. Also just even if you look at your, your ideal customer, which is these general contractors, they're on their cell phone, they want to text, they don't want phone calls, they don't even want to look at their email. And so how do we build the automations in a way where they get their estimate via text, they get reminders about that estimate via text. That's the type of thing that if we can just automate it and give you your time back to focus on the crew, I think a lot of the operational crew issues get solved once you get half of your time to focus on it.

I think that is a big part of it. So I think the first step in the process, like you're saying, is get some of my time back so then I can start working on some of the other things. I do think the, like you said earlier, the website's a atrocious thing that does need to get worked on, but I think that's a step down the road later. 100% is some of the times. I do understand that like some of the customers, they say, hey, we wanted to go with you but we don't know you, right? But I think more than not, I can still get somebody on the phone and talk to them and reassure them. And between our, the way that our estimate looks, it's clean, it's line item by quantity, not just lump sum. So I think the website and all that stuff can be down the road. But I think the biggest issue, like you're saying is just getting some of my time back so I can start.

Focusing on operations and at your size, Zach, like this is the thing, when we think about one number that moves the needle, it's the close ratio. It's also a matter of the website I don't even look at as getting new leads. I think of as I just need my customers to be able to hit an estimate and like, okay, well who's this? FS F F Power. Click on link. Oh, here's all the other customers saying stuff. And by the way, these are general contractors, these are not owners. And so like even if you use home service, web design or any other service to be able to build the site at your size of business, like what you pay per month on a monthly subscription for website is negligible. My concern is if I can get you from two and a half percent to say five or six percent simply because of automation and then we get that from 5 to 6% to say 10%. Because now people have a way to validate your service and your business. Technically speaking that's 4x on number of closed jobs and then that's less of your time spent doing that and more on the team, the crew. You know things like tracking their gps, their, their truck. These are all defensive measures.

Yes.

And it drives you crazy and that's why you felt like you had to jump in this past year. Right?

Yeah. Dad and I had somebody who was like a manager and the guy just wouldn't make any decisions and he was holding stuff up and then I was relying on him to get things done and.

Yeah.

So I'm done with that now. So I'm moving forward. I'm just going to get my hands back dirty and get hands on again and grow this thing. So right now I'm the only person in the office. But like I said, I do agree with you because my current, I don't even know if you would call it a CRM. Basically it's like a bid platform that we get, so we get invites through there but then also I can, I get invites to our email not through that system that I can just forward to that system and it auto generates the lead. But there is no, it has like different categories for the job. Like hey, do you want to bid this one? You are going to bid this one, you've sent this one in, you won this one, you lost this one. But there's no auto generate for a follow up. So basically I have to go into the system, copy paste everything out of that system into an email, reattach the bid and then send the email, wait for them to reply. If they don't reply I got to go back into the system, find the info, call them. So that's kind of where I'm at with that. So I do want to get something more automated for the follow ups.

Yeah. And I think like regardless of whether you use COPA or not, just that one thing unlocks a lot because your, your, your close ratio is so low. Like we, that is the bottleneck, this is the constraint. The only thing I want to think about all the other stuff is just, is just I, I genuinely believe like if you get half of your time back even without P4P your crew will be more efficient because you'd be out there training them, you'd be able to monitor them better, stay on, on task with them. Yeah. And to even like the client portal, your general contractors, the ability for them to be able to see all their payments to you all their invoices, upcoming jobs that are on the schedule for their jobs. Like it prevents the calls. Like my goal is not. Instead of being defensive all the time, it's like how can we actually just prevent this stuff from happening and give you your time back? Because let's. As you jump back in and you kind of scale back to do that, there is going to be a time, especially if of a website, your close ratio goes up, you go offensive again. We need these things automated. We need it in one system so that you can hire an entry level person in the office to do these things for you.

Yes.

Because otherwise we're going to hit 2.3 again, 2.4, 2.5 and hit the same exact bottleneck. And so having it in train somebody.

When we're using six different pieces of software, it's impossible.

It's actually we switched to Copilot. So like when we first built we had three CRMs. Behind me is where we have 150 locations, we have 70 people in the. And so like we had three CRMs. The amount of mistakes that were coming up because of that, it's insane. And so now we, we actually have the training that we use for our agents in Copilot. It's called Copilot University. Okay. It does take 11 hours, but it's really built for someone that when you do hire someone, you literally plant them in a chair and say for the next two days I want you to watch this. And if they do that, they'll know the dispatching, they'll know how to set up the automations, they'll understand where to put their call notes, keeping it all in one spot and then you can hand things off. Okay. I'm. I'm like thinking down the road, I'm like, I don't want you to hit that same bottleneck again at 2.5 and nothing's automated. You can't hand it off. You have five different softwares. I think we could probably get away with two. The QuickBooks side of things. I know that's a concern right now. All your invoicing and estimates will be done through Copilot. But then the only thing that you'll do in QuickBooks still is going to be the accounting side. So you know, syncing up with your bank and your credit cards and then reconciling, that's like they're great accounting software. They stink at field management, they stink at the estimates and the invoicing side. I want that all in one spot. I want the client portal one spot. I want in one spot. And so I really think between Procore, Copilot and QuickBooks, you probably have the trifecta. And it's a matter of, like, when you get an office person, you probably only need them in copilot because QuickBooks, that's your accountant, that's maybe you reconciling quarterly. Okay. Procore, you're doing the estimates, you know, so, you know, out of procore, you can export, you know, files. Those go into the attachments inside the client portal for each customer. So I would look at, like, we need one source of truth. And that's where I'm passionate about. Like, the software side is, like, I see a lot of people like yourself all over. Like, there's just. It's just everywhere. And the only way for it to keep working is if you keep doing it.

Yes, because I try to, like, do the training, make videos about, like, okay, you do this in this system and nobody watches the videos. You try to make, like, schedule like an sop. They halfway read it and then they say, I'm stuck. I don't know what to do. And you're like, okay, dude, what the. Like, you got half of it done. So it's a struggle for sure, man. So I am looking for something more centralized. So does copilot offer any type of, like, document storage?

Yeah. So inside of the client portal, there's attachments, and those can be pictures, they can be files, they can be documents. And then you can also attach those to the client profile on your side. So, for example, some people like before and after pictures to be viewed by the customer. Other people, they just want all the files stored in the client portal or client profile on our side. Like, so it's like you can keep track of it stuff yourself. Because people hand you plans, for example, or they give you paper docs. You want to be able to scan it in, throw it in their client profile, name it, and you're out.

Okay.

So it would just stay on their client profile.

And that's viewable from the field, from the phones, correct?

Yeah. Like right now on the mobile app we have is. It's essentially everything that you can do on desktop. You can do a mobile. And then we are coming out with a. An option for just the field text, which is going to be offline. So that way if they're in a bad spot, I know sometimes new development areas, bad service, they can still be able to get on the app, make job notes, etc.

Okay. Yeah, because that's another part of it just making sure. The guys have access to plans because obviously we print them out and they take them with them, but it's always nice to have that backup just in case they need something. So, yeah, that's a huge part of it, and I'm definitely interested.

Yeah. And when they're using the app, too, it'll track them. So on the map, you'll be able to see all your crews. It's not as details like if you have a plug into their truck where you see, you know, gas levels and brakes.

And that's all that I use now is busy busy. It's just like, you know, it's when they're using the app to clock in or out, it's tracking their location. And then sometimes it'll do like a granular thing like every 15 minutes or hour or something. It'll show where they are, and if they go outside of the geofence, it'll track their location every once in a while out of there. So then how do you guys offer. Because Busy Busy also is our payroll provider. So is you guys offer some kind of payroll or.

So we don't run payroll through Copilot. What we use, what we have is a payroll report. And from there you can put into QuickBooks Gusto just about any software and just run. Run payroll that way. And so, you know, do you like, busy busy from like a.

Not really.

Honest.

I really care less. It's just one of those things that's work, so why change it? And it's only like 1500 bucks or 1600 bucks for the year.

So I would, if I was you, Zach, I'd probably do what I do with most my locations, and that's probably just use QuickBooks for payroll. It allows the guys to have a portal they log into. They can see all their each paycheck. It's all, you know, virtual. It's a lot more caught up than a lot of those other ones. Like, they're just leagues ahead. And then that way you just. You still remain with it. We want this to be as close as possible to QuickBooks and Copilot, right? Yeah.

And so we're using Gusto now. So then the Gusto stuff has to get transferred into QuickBooks every quarter or whatever. So, yeah, it's a pain in the ass.

Well, this is what's co when it comes to QuickBooks payroll. What's nice is it comes into your bank account and already knows which employees it's assigned to. And you never have to categorize. Like, there's no reconciliation because it Sees all of the deductions for like state, fica, Fuka, all that stuff. It sees all that and can split it up automatically.

Okay, cool, man. I'm definitely interested and I, I appreciate it and I'm try to get signed up and see. See what to do.

Yeah, like, so. So once you sign up basically on each Friday, so I don't know if you'll do it this evening or next week, but in terms of. I'll do an onboarding call. Usually there's about eight or ten other business owners kind of walk you through. Okay, how do you actually get support if you run into a problem? How does that happen? Like, we have phone, zoom, chat, like the whole nine. So like, how do you get support? And then also within the first 30 days, we'll do a goal session together. So we actually want to. I know we've talked about some of the parts of the business, like even, like, when are we going to implement pay for performance, what needs to be done in order to get there and actually create a quarterly planning session over the next. There you go. Thanks, Christian. So over that first 30 days, that's the goal session. So I'll do that. I'll do that with you as well. Because I think, like, the software is a component of essentially helping the business, and I think it's being really focused on, hey, close ratio is why we're doing this. And then down the road, it's like, okay, can I incentivize my employees to work based upon how fast they work, how hard they work, the quality of the work, instead of just their hourly rate? And that could be something that we. In that goal session. Okay, when does. When. What do we need to change now to get there in 12 months, six months? And so that's what the goal session is. But we'll help you too. Even with the import process. Like right now, Zach, is everything in. Which software is it in now in terms of customer data?

Customer data is in building connected bid board and within procore.

Yeah. So I would.

Actual paying customers. All that stuff's in QuickBooks too. And busy, busy.

Gotcha. So if I was you, Zach, I'd probably do this. I'd probably be shooting for January 1st to actually pull the plug on everything else. The reason for that is because I would probably ask support here to actually help you move everything over. You probably don't have thousands of customers. It's more like. But you've got to be delicate with getting their information over. And so we have it right now. We usually stop it in the end of October, just because as we go into November, it's a little too crazy. But just assuming it's pretty soon you do get signed up. What I want is, I want the support to actually do it for you. We can actually make sure everything gets imported, CSV files, customer data, et cetera. And it's going to take a couple weeks. And then what you can do, even like in terms of payroll, is you have the QuickBooks ready to roll January 1st, you pull the plug on everything else and then it's kind of a fresh start. So that way, you know, Gusto, you have everything in 2024. It's in gusto, you switch January 1st.

Everything else is active projects running, you know, so if I got active projects running through the middle of that time, the good thing though is like I have a handful of projects that are probably going to be finished here soon and I got two that are starting in the next two weeks. So my idea was to try to. And this is how I've done it in the past too. You basically leave the old projects on the old stuff and then the new projects get started on the new one. So I think it's. But as far as the payroll and the P4P stuff or whatever else, I think it is probably better to do it after the first of the year, like that first payroll period.

Yep. And. And I think the team here too could help you. Even when it comes like estimates that you might have in their current system, we can duplicate it, make sure it's like in the new one. So that way even if in February someone's like, hey, what about that project? You. You have it in the new system.

Yeah. And the other thing that I'm really. One of the reasons why that I'm interested is because it seems like you guys are willing to help and change things to make the product better. Whereas now it's kind of a bottleneck where I don't really get the things that I'm trying to, to do. And they seem fairly simple to do on the back end, but I just, it's so slow moving. So a lot of times, a lot.

Of times it's just being able to know like, how do we connect the dots? Right. Because there's a lot of different home services, people use software. It's like, okay, custom fields. How can we use that to make this work for you? You know, automations, the flexibility of it is like, how do we make this work for you? Like, I don't, I wouldn't do a ton of emails to Contractors, they go gazillion, but I know they are going to read those text messages, right? So things like that. You know, I would probably book a zoom call as you kind of get up. Even your first project. Okay, this one's accepted. It's starting November 15th. Can someone just like get this set up for me? Yes, you can watch Copa University, but hop on a Zoom call. We'll actually like, watch your screen. We'll do it with you. We can log into your account. Like, okay, now try it. Let's work through this item and service. Set up your all your jobs in there. And at first it'll be a little bit, like, clunky. It's like, man, I got to put all this information in. Once. Once they get your rolling though, on a project or two, then we'll just keep adding to it. Like, even at the beginning, you're probably not even thinking about automation much. It's like, how do we just get the projects inside copilot, Right. How do we just keep going? But then it's like, as we go November, December, it's like, okay, how do we focus on close ratio? How do we automate follow up? And then we actually track your time to close. Like, how long does it take you to get the estimate to the customer? So that way, over the course of the next six to 12 months, I want to be able to see, oh, I went from on average taking five days down to seven, eight hours. Right. And so he's showing you what we call the KPI cockpit. And so you can see the time to close there and the time it gets takes to get paid is something we track over the course of time. Because I know it's a. It's a direct indicator of whether or not they're going to accept. Accept the job.

Sure. A lot of the other frustrating thing is our estimates don't get like signed or like push a button to accept. I get a contract from them. So I. You got. I could do it manually though. Like, hey, this has been approved.

Yeah, you can do it manually on your end. And then on the client portal, they have a button where they can click accept. They can also request changes. So if they click request changes, they can then just type, hey, could we take out this one part? And then immediately sends you a notification. Hey, modify this estimate, send it back to them. They'll get accepted.

Sure. Rather than a phone call, email, and a text from them about doing stuff. Sure. That's pretty cool. Yeah, cool.

So what we'll do, Zach, Christian, could you just make sure, we reserve a spot. I want to make sure we have bandwidth. I know usually we don't do it in November, but could you, could you just let the support team know once they see him that we are going to do the like, get his CSVs and move everything over.

Already confirmed, brother. We have a spot for him for sure.

Okay. But just stay in touch, Zach, if there's anything we can do. I know it's a daunting process but like I, I really. You could flip a coin on the software. I need you in one so that you can eventually scale it and pass it off. And secondly, we need to automate follow up because the only number I care about next 12 months is close ratio.

Okay.

So.

And then is there somebody that I could have a meeting with, I could like show me how to somewhat use the software or is it just like a sign up for the month and then I start using it, see if I like it kind of thing?

Totally. So there is the Copilot University that's going to be like line by line. So if you just go to mikeannies.com copilot it'll. There it is. You sign up, it's free, you're good to go. You feel free to watch those or just pick a couple of them to kind of get the feel of the software. You can also sign up for free. So you can sign up and put up to 50 customers in there, no charge. So what I would recommend doing is get Copilot University, watch a couple videos, click around inside your free account, make sure like there's. You're probably gonna have a question or two like oh man, could I. What's call notes? What's the difference in call notes and customer notes? These are the type of things you can look in help articles but also just book a call. We just wanna make sure you're taken care of and make sure it's a good fit. And then once you're in that, we really make sure you're able to use it.

So I could sign up and get started?

Absolutely. Like you can just go on there, sign up, that'll get you into the account and then as soon as you do, you'll get an email to get the onboarding call with me and that we do those on Fridays. And then the support team will immediately be reaching out to help you get everything transferred over and they'll help you as much or as little as you want, even if you're like, hey, I want to do it, but could you be on a zoom call and Just be monitoring what I'm doing so I don't mess anything up. We're happy to do it. Or if you're like, hey, I need to move this project over. This is our first big one. I want to make sure it goes smoothly. We'll make sure we. We move it over and it's a smooth process for you. So, yeah, he's just showing where you can book the zoom call or the 15 minute phone call anytime.

Sweet. I look forward to it, man. I think it's something I'm going to start this weekend.

Cool. Well, Christian will reach out. He's going to make sure that we reserve that spot because we go into November here. But I think there's not a ton of your customers. It's a matter of getting it right and then getting your first couple of projects, making sure you're smooth there. So just reach out to us here at Support. Christian will reach out and stay in contact with you. But I appreciate you hopping on. I really, I really, really, I would love to talk to you in like a year because I think it's literally, this is one of those things, we change one number and there's so many trickle downs. And in a year then we start thinking, okay, well pay for performance and these other elements like the website even, like, there's so many elements. But.

It'Ll be fun, be exciting, man.

Well, I appreciate it. Happy Halloween.

Yeah.

Hey, Zach too, Michael, just on that topic too as well. I do do customer success interviews. I'm going to be starting these sometime in the next eight months or something like that. Would that be something that you're interested in? Just where the business was at, how it was affecting you and then coming into co pilot, if you do end up choosing us, the benefits of that and we'll kind of end up just chatting. Share your story a little bit. You don't have to, brother. I just, I think this could be a really cool.

Yeah, I'd be open to it as long as it works, you know, because I don't think if I didn't like it, I don't think you guys would want me to do the video. But yeah, for sure. I think it's going to be good. Be super, super open to it and I look forward to it.

All right, brother, we'll stay in touch. Best of luck to you.

Thanks, guys. Peace.

Take care. Bye.