Starting a Second Location - Ep.41

Hey, everyone, this is Mike Andes and you're listening to the Landscape Business course podcast. Right now I'm out actually next to the Pacific Ocean. The sun is setting really, really still night out here. You'll probably hear seagulls and stuff in the background. I'm watching a pod of seals actually feeding out on the water right now. It's really, really nice. You can see Mount Baker. Today was kind of rainy, cloudy, and then it really turned out to be a nice evening. And hopefully we get that the rest of this week. So just wanted to come to you guys though, and share a little bit.

What'S been going on.

I got off a little bit earlier than usual. Usually I'm just getting home right about now from the office. And so I wanted to take this time and kind of update you guys where I'm at, what's going on with the business, especially the landscaping stuff. And so, as I told you last week, regardless of whether or not I've been listening to Business Bootcamp podcast, you.

Will know that we have been actively.

Engaged in trying to find a second location for Augusta Lawn Care Services. And so we found one. We have, as of right now, we have not signed a lease agreement. However, we have put forward a proposed lease, five year term, and the landlord.

Liked it a lot.

And so we're pretty much going forward. Unless something crazy happens, we'll probably be doing that.

And so it looks like July 1st.

I'm hoping that we can get access to the property and then just start.

Doing our improvements as far as the.

Land, putting the office in, all the.

Things we gotta do, which I'm gonna.

Talk about today, that build out costs.

And all that, we're gonna be doing.

That over the course of July and then I'm hoping that August 1st we can, by August 1st we have the doors open. So I'm gonna walk you through exactly what I'm thinking as I make the second location and all those things. Like, some of this stuff I have to kind of keep private or at least have to watch what I say because I do know that some people locally are listening and there's only been one time, but it has come back to bite me once with one of my competitors doing some things to listen.

To the podcast thing, you know, do.

Things to disrupt our company. So I have to watch what I.

Say a little bit.

I don't want to share too much. I definitely am not sharing the address of where we're. We're moving to essentially just a much larger market than what we currently are at. And it's going to prove that the concept works not only in a million dollar a year gross revenue, but also work at a 3,4 million dollar revenue. And that's what we're going to be shooting for at the second location. Much larger market, much more competition, so lower prices, a little bit less probably in our net margin. However, we're going to make up for it by just having a much larger.

Market to pull from and larger revenues.

In general in the gross category.

So how I look at this, and.

So this is going to be important for us to do this second location because it's kind of like a franchise in that it's a, it's not the parent location. And so we're going to be running it as really a test trial for all the franchisees in the future. And essentially how it's going to run is I'm going to, I'm going to be needing between 80 and $90,000. I think I'm going to be able to bring that down considerably. I think I'm actually going to be able to be 70,000. That's kind of the goal. But conservatively, 80, 80 to $90,000, what we're going to need to get this location started. And it helps a little bit that we already have quite a bit of infrastructure in place.

And as it is with most franchises.

Once you have your first location, second location, the third one, fourth one they all get, it gets easier and easier to kind of move along. You have the infrastructure in place, you have the people in place, you have the equipment in place. And so even for those first couple months, we're not going to have to invest a whole lot into equipment because we already have so much at our first location, we can kind of spread and it even lowers. Like when I'm talking about the second location, the reason it makes it so much sense is that within, like the, essentially we do services already within the market that the second location is going to be at. So what I mean by that is like about 40% of our lawn mowing.

Clients is in this market already.

So we're going to be able to. Already I already know that the service side of the business for the second location will cover expenses and all of that.

In addition, what's nice about the concept.

That we do at Augusta Lawn Care Services is that you don't need an expensive facility, you don't need an expensive.

Retail space, you don't need an expensive.

Office, you don't need a lot of.

Room in an office. It's very simple setup. And in Fact, what I'm finding out as I do the second location, it's actually very mobile. And what I mean by that is, as I look for land for a potential site, all I need is blank space. I literally don't need any offices, I don't need any fencing. I don't need anything. And 90% of what I bring on the property, I can move off if.

Needs be, which is great because that.

Means you can lease the property without the fear of having to buy, have a huge mortgage, then do all the capital improvements, building and all of that, because you don't want to lease it, and put a couple hundred thousand dollars into a building that in five years you're going to get kicked out of. Because the lease on the land is.

That's what's advantageous for this concept, this business model that we're using, is that I'm literally looking, excuse me, I'm literally.

Looking for just blank land that is.

In a really good, prime location for road traffic. So lots and lots of road space. And so the place we're getting right now for the second location has 2 acres, and it's rectangular with the long side of the rectangle going against a very, very busy highway slash. Not interstate, not like i5, but a very busy road. And so it's going to give us a lot of advertising just by having our sign up front. And then secondly, it's going to.

Just offer a huge amount of retail upside because we do sell gravel, soil, mulch, etc. So essentially how this breaks down is the land can be very cheap because literally, this land that we're getting, it's two acres, but it is completely, like three or four feet high in grass. There's, like, BlackBerry bushes everywhere. It's completely overgrown. But literally, I can knock that all down, like, within a few days. I happen to know a really good.

Landscaping company called Augusta Lawn Care Services.

And so we can do that no problem. And then it's not graded either, though.

So we're gonna have.

We're gonna bring a big backhoe, probably grade the entire thing. And the top shelf, one acre is going to be for the retail. The bottom half will be for the service side of things, which we will probably enclose with fenced wire, wire fencing.

And, you know, put all our equipment.

Trucks, trailers, and all of that. And so, so essentially how I'm looking at this is, okay, I got to go in there, I got to clear off all the land, like all the. The foliage, the BlackBerry bushes, the. The grass, even some small little, like, alders that are starting to grow and get rid of all that. Then I got to grade it. Then I got to put a sub base down of gravel. So you're going to have dump trucks coming in, you're going to have a lot of traffic, you have heavy machinery, skid steers, tractors, all that running around. You got to have a really good.

Base and you don't want to be.

Soft and you don't want it to be puddling during the winter, as we.

Found out at our first location, which.

Has really bad drainage in the winter. And we get like massive puddles, lots and lots of mud. So we're going to be working the grading, we're going to that to help with the drainage. And then we're going to put a really good 3 to 6 inches of.

Really good gravel base and probably do.

Some quarry blast some larger rock and then on top do some crushed ashful.

Or something of that nature to really.

Get it hard compacted and then good drainage like I said. So that's going to be the next step. Then we're going to be bringing an office. Now usually when you say building, bringing an office, we're talking like foundations and permitting and all of that. Well, what we're going to do to eliminate all of that is bring in an office building. A lot of you should be thinking about this in the landscaping business is your office can be one of those storage containers. They're 8 by 20 or 8 by 40, depending what size you want. They come across from China and it's cheaper for them to make new metal storage containers in China than it is to ship empty ones back from the US from the US back to China. That's why there are literally thousands and millions of these storage containers in the US that are needing to be used. And that's why you see creative entrepreneurs coming up with ideas like making apartment buildings. And now they are making offices out.

Of these storage containers.

And that's what we're taking advantage of.

So literally, for $10,000, we're going to be buying a brand new storage container. And it's not just like a, just a metal. It's painted, looks really nice, has a security door on it, like a special very heavy duty door on it. You can't bust through it at all. It has a window in it, it's framed out inside. It's not just metal, it's framed out with insulation. It's going to have lighting, it's going to have outlets, it's going to have a heating and air conditioning unit. All for about 10 grand, you can get them for literally 2,500 if you're.

Just going to use them for storage.

So that's another great option for using storage for your shop. However, for ten grand you can get a building that literally, you can plug it in, it has electricity, it has heat, ac, everything you need for an office. It's really, really awesome. It's framed out, it's like insulated, it's legit. And what's great, what's really awesome about this is you don't need a building.

Permit, you don't have to go run.

Through the city, you don't have to do a foundation and get it permitted for electricity and plumbing and all this other stuff. It literally, they deliver the thing, you plug it in and you're good to go. Now that being said, the property that we're getting for the second location literally doesn't have electricity or water on it yet. So we do have to bring in the electric and water. I'm not 100% sure what that's going to cost yet to get it metered and all of that, but I'm guessing around 1000 bucks. I'm budgeting that much, at least for now. And so that's the office. Then we got to do signage. So we're going to do a couple massive signs out next to the road. They got to be really big because the highway is a four lane highway and you're going to need to see.

It from a long ways away.

So two of those really big signs. Then we're going going to do signage. On top of which is another thing we're going to do is that's concrete, concrete blocks. So they're called ecology blocks. They're 4 by 2 by 2, 4ft by 2ft by 2ft cement blocks that we use to essentially organize all the materials. The rock, the gravel soil, the mulch, all of that. So we make those bins and we stack them three high and then we make these big bins that we can store all the materials in. Well, on top of that we're going to put these massive signs that will essentially just say what we sell, like mulch, gravel, soil, things like that. Just so it's eye catching from the road. And those are going to be obviously with as much visibility from the road as possible, all the materials, just so it's very clear as to what we do. So that's signage.

Signage.

I'm, I'm right now I'm approximating to be around 8 to $10,000. I don't want to skimp on the signage.

I want to make it very big.

Really nice because it's. We got to take a full advantage of the location that we have and.

All the traffic that goes by.

So signage is not going to get skimped on. So we got signage. We got the one thing we also need to do for security because this is a much higher traffic area and there's other stores around us and things like that. The other thing we need to do is do some more security stuff. So the office building is perfect. It's basically bulletproof. However, we need to make do some chain link fencing or barbed wire fence stuff around our service side of the of the facility because we'll have trucks, trailers, equipment, and I'd rather put a fence around that. Always making sure we're like dead bolting trailers and taking out keys from mowers. So we're going to make a fence around that, have a gate and really.

Make sure it's secure.

So yeah, that's kind of what we're doing right now. Budgeted it out and like I said, I think I can get under 70 grand. The reason for that is because we're going to already have a dump truck ready to go for that location. The driver can essentially, in a full day's work, be able to do all the deliveries. And so we already have a dump truck in place. We don't need to buy one yet until next spring probably. Also, we don't really need to buy any more service equipment for now because we are just going to essentially move the accounts that are closer to the second location over to that location, what they'll be responsible for essentially. And so we don't need to buy any more equipment for now. Like I said, literally within a month of that place being open though, we're probably going to get huge amounts of business, like new business and we will have to get new equipment. However, just getting it off the ground starting the second location is going to.

Be great because we already have a lot of that equipment already.

So it's like we just got to.

Prepare the land for what we do.

And so that's why we're able to get move in there so cheaply. I don't know if that's a word getting there so for so cheap as far as initial startup costs. So that's what I'm doing right now. Like I said, I haven't signed the lease yet. The landlord's out of town until July 1st and so but he's like go for it, like get all the things you need. I've already checked with the city that.

You know, as far as land use.

That we're able to do it, check.

It with the electric, making sure we.

Can bring that in, the power. I've checked in with the office.

I know the numbers. Wednesday, I'm meeting with the excavating company to see if they can beat our pricing because they have bigger equipment.

They might be able to do two acres a whole lot faster than we.

Can do it because they have larger equipment. So probably have them do that, install the sub base for the gravel and all of that. So moving along, really good.

And like I said, the whole reason.

We'Re doing this is to prove the concept in a larger market. We've proven the concept that it works in a market of a million dollars.

Of gross revenue a year.

And I think we could probably slowly sc that up each year, you know, have 10 to 30% growth each year.

Which would be great.

But I'm wanting to prove that we.

Can do the same concept of 3 and 4 million dollar location.

And you know, excuse me, I just.

Had supper, so I'm burping.

But I want to prove that you.

Can do a 3,4 million dollar location.

Because when we start selling franchises and.

Someone wants to start a location in.

The heart of St. Louis or in LA, they're going to want to make sure, they're going to want to know.

That it works in a competitive market where your margins are a little bit lower, but your volume is much, much higher. So that's what we're going to be proving.

And I really want to do this so that when franchisees come on board.

They have more confidence in the brand, more confidence that their concept, the business model, works regardless of where you're at. And I think that's so important when you're franchising a company. And for a franchise to be successful, it's got to work regardless of where.

It'S at, regardless of what market it's in. And really you want to minimize as.

Much as possible if it's regardless of.

The owner or the operator and you want to take all those variables out.

To make it a really solid investment.

So that's what we're trying to do.

And so I hope you're excited to kind of join me in the journey, the second location. And I think once the ball gets rolling here, we got a second location, I think it's going to just snowball into third, fourth, things like that. And then as the franchisees come on, we might sell those off or we Might just keep them as far as parent locations for training.

So it'll be a lot of fun.

Really excited about it and a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of work to do. Definitely. It's been a learning curve for our whole company. As I start transitioning into growing the company, there are people have to step up to be crew leaders, crew managers, operational managers, office managers, things like that.

And so even right now, like today.

I had a couple interviews, tomorrow I have another interview for our second office manager position that would take over for the second location.

And so a lot of fun, really.

Working on the business, getting really deep into it. And so it's been good times. Also, big thank you to everyone that's been joining the course lately. Landscapebusinesscourse.com as you know, the course part is now free. You just pay 247 for the lawn Pro software package. And every single day of the week for the past couple weeks it's just been lots and lots of people joining every single day. And so it's been a lot of fun to see that growing and a lot of people with the feedback and everything.

So I appreciate that.

If you haven't already done it, do check it out. Just a huge amount of value there and definitely you're going to want to check that out.

By the way, if you are a.

Course member, I am setting up our webinars as we speak. So within the next couple weeks you'll probably get an email. I'm breaking up all the course numbers into cohorts of 10 to 20 based upon kind of like your size of your business, kind of trying to mix it up a little bit. So everyone within each cohort is kind of going to get the most out of it or at least be able to learn and adapt or mentor other people within their cohort. So I'm breaking the class up.

I think it's gonna be about 10.

Different cohorts of 10 to 20 people for now, and we'll just keep adding cohorts and then that way each time we do a webinar, you'll know the same people and we'll kind of get to know each other.

So within the next few weeks you're.

Going to go in to get an email with an invitation link to sign up for a webinar. That webinar will be for 10 to 20 of the course members and we will do a live webinar where you can discuss things you're going through, where you're at in the business model. In the three year cycle of taking your business from 0 to $100,000 in revenue each month and we can really hash out, talk about what you're going through, bounce ideas off each other. I I'm going to learn a lot. I think everyone within the course is going to learn a lot. So definitely, if you want to join us on that journey, check out landscapebusinesscourse.com Sign up today for the course. You get, of course, all the video modules, all of the information, all the templates for the marketing and all of that.

More to come on that, by the.

Way, for the course members out there.

I'm definitely going to add to that right now.

It's been a matter of time where I haven't been able to add new content. However, that's not going to stay stagnant. I will be adding to that throughout the year, especially during the winter when I have more time to film, record, edit and improve. Especially I want to improve right now the employee training video series that's on there. I really want to make that more professional, a whole lot more encompassing. Right now it's about three hours long. I want to make it about 10 if we can get it there. So check it out. Landscapebusinesscourse.com until next time, guys. Thanks so much for listening and be great. Go out there, mow lawns and make some money.