Should you QUIT SCHOOL to Start a Lawn Care Business?

And again, like, this is the determining factor of whether or not you need to go to school.

And so I have the mom question.

First and foremost, this is my honest opinion regardless of whether your mom is here. I don't know if that's what you wanted to hear, but.

Which years are you in? I'm senior. Very nice. Are you gonna grow it up next year once you're out? Yes. Very good. Good for you guys.

And so I have the mom question.

Okay, go.

What are your thoughts on continu.

So first and foremost, this is my honest opinion, regardless of whether your mom is here is if they're. If your parents are paying for it and you accept it, you have to do it. If you're gonna live under their house and they're gonna pay for your bills, you have to do whatever they say. That's my opinion. So, like, when I. When I started, when I dropped out of school, I was still living at home. And that was the moment on. I said, okay, either I move out or I'm paying for everything. So my opinion is, is if you're gonna get paid for, you do whatever your parents say. The asterisk next to that is you can always go back to school. And so if you have a. The business, and I'd say you need to prove yourself a little bit more than 20 customers to prove it. Something that can actually provide for yourself. But if you do that, you can always go back and get a degree. I could always go back and become a doctor if I wanted to. Right. So I have six years of post high school education. Honestly, I learned more in my first two years of growing my business. And so if you're really going for it, I would say that's a very valuable skill. And you can always go back and get a college education. It's always there for the taking. It's the most expensive it's ever been. But if you're going to get stuff paid for by other people and you got to do what they say, they hold all the cards. So I don't know if that's what you wanted to hear, but I really.

Wanted your honest opinion because it's taken me a while to come to the. I'm older, I grew up in generation that go to college. And so it's taken me a while to say, okay, if that's not what you want to do and you want to grow the business. But my question is, like, what about tax law? What about these things that you do learn in the classroom? Yeah, that it's hard to learn Outside of the classroom, would you do some online studies?

Of course.

I hear, well, Mike Andy's has this thing you can just invest in Mike Andy's. And I'm like, well, it was Mike Andy. He is interfering in my life. But I do appreciate the content that you're putting out there. And I've actually started to watch it. So that's just kind of where I am. And I want to guide them and encourage them in the right way. I want them to grow their business to build it. They've been kind of limited because they're in school. And so when you enter, when school's back in session and you have 25 lines, it's hard because you're dealing with darkness and stuff. But I just want to point them in the right direction.

The thing is like, all those things can be taught in an educational system and that is law, tax, finance, etc. What can't be taught is the ability to sell, the ability to create customers and run a business, hire people that cannot be taught in a classroom. So if they get those skills and they ever need the other, they can always go back and get them more. Yet though, you can hire all that out. I'm not the best at a lot of those things. But you grow the business to the point where you can hire a cpa, you can hire an attorney and get those things taken care of. Those are all commodities that can just be taught in a classroom the same way that chemistry and biology can be taught in a classroom. And you just don't need those skills to be a business owner. Now, if you're going to become a lawyer, yeah, you got to go to school. If you're going to become an accountant, you got to go to school. If you're going to become a doctor, you gotta go business owner. You just don't need it. The defining factor is whether or not someone has the work ethic to make up for their lack of education. With growing a business, if that stalls out and you don't have the work ethic to put in 12 hours figuring things out, you won't be able to catch up when you don't know things. But if you have the work ethic, you'll figure it out. You will YouTube balance sheet and you'll understand the law and you'll call the department of labor of licensing and like figure out how to license in your state correctly. You'll just do it because you're hard working. And so that's a skill that can't be taught. And that's work ethic. So as a parent, if I was a parent, I'd be looking at like, is the work ethic there? Because if it's not, I'd be concerned. Right. So if my child was like, I'm going to become an entrepreneur and I didn't see like their ability to grind and hustle, that'd be concerning to me. Because they're going to go fall flat in their face and have nothing to show for it. And they're probably not even going to get skills because they're not going to push themselves to learn. Whereas if they're going to push themselves and even they fail, but they grow their business and they learn all these skills that cannot be taught in a classroom, then they go get their education in their 30s, let's say. But they come out as an incredible executive. So I would just focus on that. Like as a parent. That's what my thought would be like. If they have the work ethic, I'd give them a pass if they don't get in school.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so if you had to go, go. But my next question is they're ready to buy a new mower. I mean they've been working using the same one for what, I don't know. But it's like a residential mower, it's not a commercial. Would your thoughts be on what their next step would be? Cuz he's all like we gotta get a new mower. The old, those existing mower is starting to show.

Yeah. What size mower?

It's a 54 inch deck.

Okay. How big are your most your properties? I know you're in Louisville, you live here like a smaller residential or you do commercial or what do you do?

How long did it usually take to mow?

Yes. I wouldn't get a 54 inch. I would take half that money, I'd put that towards marketing. And then the other half is get like a 32 or even a push mower at 30 inch. Because if it's only taking you 15 minutes to mow, it means that seven and a half of those minutes or eight of those minutes are weed whacking and blowing. And you're really only spending about seven minutes on the mower. And if you go from a 54 to a 30 inch push mower, you're literally going to go from seven minutes to like 12 minutes. And that extra five minutes is time. But you have lots of time right now. Take that money, the extra five grand, six grand, seven grand you're gonna save, put that towards marketing and you'll go from 20 customers to 100. Right. Like, the guy that walked up here today said he had a $35 customer acquisition cost. Let's assume you have $50 customer acquisition cost, which means you have to spend $50 for every customer. If you can make $5,000 and go spend that on marketing, that would be a hundred new customers. So getting a new mower is not going to produce you 100 new customers. It might make you feel good, and it might be a little more reliable, But I think you could get away with it right now, saving that money. Put that towards marketing, because that will take you from 20 to 100 customers and 100 customer business is something to talk about. That's something where you look at your mom like, I can do this outside of I don't need college. Right.

So where would you recommend, like, our number be for the amount of customers like this next year?

I think you get to 100. I think you get to 100. Yeah. 100%. Right. So let's look at March, April, May, and June. That's four months. It's 120 days. In the spring rush. You need a customer a day, right? And the reason you need a customer a day, you're going to lose some customers, right? So if you shoot for a customer day, it's like, okay, I'm going to knock on doors, I'm going to put door hangers out until I literally get a customer. And that might mean you put door hangers and knock on doors for two hours a day, but if you do that for three months, you'll have a real business. You'll be hiring somebody. You'll really have a real something to, like, point to and be like, there's a reason I'm doing this.

So I ordered, I think I have 500 business cards.

Lawn care media with the instant quote on the back. Oh, yeah, Long care media. Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

Yep. Knock on the doors. And then if you ever get in a negotiation with your mom about college, have a number of customers you have to hit in one year, next year you're off. Like, let's just say, okay, instead of taking my break here, my year between college, I'm gonna go build this business. And if I get to this level, I don't want to hear about college anymore. Right? But then you've got to hit it. And it should be probably 100 plus customers, and that's gonna mean a real business that you can actually provide for someone down the road, right? And then you just gotta grind for it, like, literally. It's a matter of like, okay, what do I need per day, what I need per week? And if I'm not hitting that, I'm gonna literally just go knock on doors. Right. Like, I remember knocking on doors Friday and Saturday, both days for 12 hours. I remember that several times when I was first getting started, I didn't have any money to spend on marketing. Google Ads don't get in the wrapped up in the Facebook garbage. You're not gonna throw money as money appears. It's not happening. You're gonna have to grind. Right. So just have the numbers know exactly what you need and just go for it.

Yeah.

Well, I was gonna ask like on the online side of marketing, like what areas would you.

Yeah, like I would start off small, like depending on what your budget is. But like if you save say 4 or $5,000 from not buying the big mower and take that money and put it towards marketing. If you do that, number one, you get to 100 customers, you can now afford the mower. Not a problem. Okay, but then furthermore, if you do that, I'd be putting it small amount towards Facebook. I'd be focusing on every door, direct mail, the printed stuff more. Because you're getting a better bang for that buck. And you have time, not money. If you had 50 grand, we'd be talking about Facebook campaigns and Google Ad campaign and YouTube and TikTok. We did all that. You don't have that money, so you gotta be really efficient with it. And that's gonna be more like pounding the pavement and knocking on doors, talking to people, doing the instant quotes. That's probably gonna get your best bang for your buck. But in terms of online, I know a little bit. Maybe on Facebook. Google, definitely Google Ads. So do you have a Google listing, dual business account? Not yet.

Because we're not.

I saw you raise your hand. I saw that when you, when you said, who does not have a Google? My business account. Yeah, you did. I saw that.

They're still under it. He's still underage. Yeah, mama's protective.

Yeah, that's fine. But don't worry, I didn't have a Google. I didn't have a Gmail account until I went to college.

So we're planning on opening like an llc.

Yep.

And then when that's open, I'll put like all my information in there.

Just, just go ahead and get started. Get started. You know, try to get these business listening up. Because once you do that, then you can create a Google Ads account and run ads for Google. And again, like this is the determining factor of whether or not you need to go to school. And that is, can you figure out how to make a Google Ad without having to go to school? 100%, yes. In 20 minutes on a free. On a YouTube video. The question is whether or not you figure that out. Right. So, you know, you can watch some of my stuff, but, like, literally, how to make a YouTube video, search by the last two weeks to make sure it's the most updated one and watch that video and follow along. Right. So thank you for your time. Absolutely.

You want a picture with him?

Let's do it. Let's do it. Man, I'm in trouble.

Cool. Thanks, guys. Absolutely. Appreciate it.