Stealing Employees, Nic Reed, Getting Shop Space for Free

Welcome back to the Mike Andes Podcast, where we discuss the ins and outs of owning a small business. If you're new here, the Mike Andes Podcast is all about starting, maintaining, and growing your small business. Today, Mike tries to poach an employee that used to work for him. Next, we hear from one of Augusta's very own Nick Reed, a franchisee who started in the field working for Bellingham and used the 3F program to start his own successful location. And finally, how you can get shop space for free. There is a way. As always, you can find the video versions for this interview and more over on the Mike Andy's YouTube channel. But let's get started and hear how you can make your business stand out from the crowd and attract the talent you want.

And just like that, we are signed and ready to roll.

So this morning was just a whole bunch of meetings. Now, I don't go to all the meetings. Liz is sort of my eyes and ears at a lot of the different management meetings as well as hr. So, for example, her, Lonnie and Lee will have weekly meetings and talk about struggling loc Ones need help, which ones might need to be kind of drawn up short. And ones that are doing really well, they kind of get a really good diagnosis because Lee does a lot of coaching calls. And so they have their weekly meeting. That was earlier this morning. And then Liz comes to me and sort of synthesizes what they talked about as well as things that they need my feedback on, because most of it they can handle themselves. But there are some things that she wants to run by me or that she just needs to keep in the loop on certain things. So it's very important for her and I to stay very well connected. So we don't really have a regular meeting cadence. We just meet whenever there are things to talk about, which is every day, every few hours, we're gonna have some.

Sort of a meeting.

Mostly just a bunch of meetings this morning. GMs, regional GMs, internal meetings with Liz. The whole point of the Bellingham shop is to have the capacity to build that location and continue growing. And now that we simplify it so much, there's really nothing holding us back from continuing to scale it as soon as assuming that you have a GM that's capable enough because it can happen. This year, we cut out so many projects and our revenue will just barely be going down, like maybe 5%. And yeah, we're trying to find and solidify a GM for the Bellingham shop because Marcus is going to be moving out in a Couple months. So some meetings about that this morning, too.

There are several things that we talked about. First of all, we are rolling out an internal software package inside of Augustination that is going to require quite a bit of training. And so literally, we are going over the training rhythm in terms of when Lonnie is going to train live on a live stream. Some of the franchisees that are struggling with certain parts of it and are.

Just needing extra coaching.

Although we don't actually build software for the franchisees, we do feel responsible to make sure that whatever package command center is using and we are servicing the customers through that, we are all on the same page and that we are creating systems inside of that software that the franchisees can be successful in. So if they're struggling with certain aspects.

Of that, we try to help them.

As much as we possibly can. Like 90% of that conversation with Liz, I can't share, but we talk a lot about these type of meetings that are just confidential because it's most about hiring and firing. We were talking a lot about bringing some new talent into the organization and hiring specific key roles. And there's actually one employee that used to work for an Augusta lawn care had to move along because there was just not any opportunity to become a general manager or make more money at that location. But he stayed in touch with the owner, stayed in touch with Augusta Nation. I might hire him as a general manager in the future. And so I'm actually setting up a zoom call with him. So that's the type of stuff we talked about on that call. And when we talk about firing and things, I'm just not comfortable enough talking about their names. I'm not like the barstool sports of the lawn care industry, where we talk about every piece of drama and firing people in the organization. So we're not there. I don't think I'll ever get there, honestly.

So even though you can't hear me in this call because somewhat confidential, I'm actually calling somebody who used to work for me about four years ago, and.

I'm trying to actually talent poach them. They currently have a position they're wanting to leave. I've known that.

And so this morning in a manager's meeting, Liz Lee and Lonnie kind of had this idea. They pitched it to me, and I.

Was like, you know what? We're gonna go for it.

I feel like what we got now is great. Like, whoever would come in, the guys.

Are good, but they're all hungry young.

Guys that want to grow. And what's gonna happen. The GM position is they go like, they don't need the extra 10, 20 grand they need. They want to go start their own. Right? And that's great. There's nothing more fulfilling for me. But for the business and for the local shop, it's just gonna stay around 1.5 to 1.7 unless someone digs their teeth into it.

I literally called him out of the blue and I'm pitching him on coming.

Back to the company and becoming a general manager.

Now, when you're doing this, you've gotta realize that you're trying to take grade A talent and sometimes you don't have all the compensation and perks and benefits that they would otherwise get from a massive company. You actually have to sell them on the dream, the idea, the vision, and specifically, verbatim, what I said on this call was, do you wanna be artificial turf and putting greens for the rest of your life in Washington state, or.

Do you want to come build a.

Multinational, international, multi billion dollar business that will change the lawn care and landscaping industry?

But, but part of it too is.

Part of it too is like, I've always sworn to the guys that I wouldn't hire someone that was outside the company, that had been in the field. You know, you have the perspective, you know what it's like to work when it's raining, when it's hot, when a job's going south and you're way behind, like that sort of thing, right? And so you have the feeling and the heart for the guys too, which is a big piece for me. Like, I would not go offer this to someone that just like worked in another business. I'd be like, sorry, you have to go start in the field. Because I, I just can't have it where the guys, especially on P4P when they're working so hard on paper performance. I can't have someone have no feeling for the guys when the climate is horrible and stuff like that.

And so, yes, do I lean into the vision and the goal? Yes, because that's the only unique advantage I have over every other employer that probably could offer better benefits, better compensation, etc.

Well, the thing is, the thing is.

Like, you know, you know how it is. Even when, when you were with me, like, there'd be once in a blue minute I'd hop on there and it's like, it's not even about needing the work, it's needing the work done. It's about just showing the guys like, hey, I can do this. And I'm not, I'M not the guy in the ivory tower that just drives around an AC car all day long. Right. Like, I know what I'm doing here and I can work hard too.

I think he'd be a great addition to the team and I really hope.

That he comes on board.

We're now headed to the title company. Just sign on the Mount Vernon property. This is the property we are where we are going to have the shop location. There's also house on it. So I'm going to get some rental income and I'm going to get an RV in the property and get some Airbnb rental income coming in as well. So that'll more than cover the mortgage and make this an actual investment. And again, the main reason why I'm getting this property is to solidify this location and be a vote of confidence for the general manager down there. That's Caleb, to know that this is a long term commitment to this area. And I really like this location for myself because it's right next to the Bellingham and the first location of Augusta Lawn Care. And we've really found that the locations that are close together actually get a lot of brand awareness and a lot of synergies between the two locations because they can help each other out with labor or trucks or equipment and things like that. So really looking forward to it. And now we got a sign on the property.

And just like that we are signed.

And ready to roll.

So stay tuned for next week when.

I actually show you the property, give.

You a full tour and then you'll.

See kind of before and after because over the course of the next two.

Weeks, gravel goes in, fencing goes in.

We're gonna redo the garage so that we have a shop space. It's gonna be great.

See, it's a new video series.

It's called 50 Shades of Yellow. Yellow shirt, yellow watch, yellow shoes. Somehow they just don't match.

Competing for talent in today's market has much more to do with than just pay. Workers want to work for a business that knows what it's doing more so a leader that has the right knowledge to make the right decisions. Whether you're just starting growing or saving your company. The MBA for Entrepreneurs teaches the principles and fundamentals of small business ownership. With over 350 in depth lectures and bonus live streams, you'll have access from anywhere through the teachable app. You can read all about the course over at NBA. The number four entrepreneurs dot com. Next up, let's hear about the tools of the trade from Augusta's very Own Nick Reed.

This is Nick, by the way.

Marysville.

You know, I started working here in April of 2019. I was making $16 an hour. And that was before we did P4PMike was still doing estimates full time. So it's, it's been really cool to see all this grow. And I'm a living testament too, just to all the opportunity that, you know, this simple job, it's like we're mowing lawns and doing property cleanups. Very basic work, but it has the power to change your entire life if you let it. I've been running my own business for a year and a half now. It's just incredible. I used to think I was stupid. I didn't have a degree, I didn't go to college. I used to think that I really didn't have a future beyond just like any entry level labor. And I've totally flipped that in my head. And it's thanks to these wonderful people. So I love Augusta. I think it's incredible. When you were on P4P, what was the highest per hour you made? You bid that job?

Yep.

I made $33 an hour for a whole paycheck. So for a two week pay period on performance pay. And it was sick.

The constant perpetuation of improving oneself.

So I worked here for an entire year before I listened to any podcast, any audiobooks. You know, I wasn't buying it. I wasn't about the learning life. You know, I would just, I would just plug in and just do my work. And I was extremely good at it. But I didn't take the next step, which was beginning to educate myself and actually started with all of Mike's podcasts on business boot camp. The YouTube channel wasn't as big back then, but absolute education. Everything that you would need to know. And it's like after listening to all that stuff, I had a grasp on what it was to actually run a lawn care business. Because there's so much that goes on in the back end that you don't see. I was able to wrap my head around it. I was like, wow, this is something that I could actually do. And that was around the time that you actually franchised the business. And then the opportunity was available and just, you know, through support and talking to my fellow co workers, people were like, hey, you'd be really good for this. You know, I have natural leadership qualities. I was the kind of person that stepped up and took charge for the team and just kind of led, even though I didn't have that title.

Taking yourself up by the bootstraps.

Instead of, you know, being an employee that, you know, your boss is like, hey, this is what you need to go do. Go do it, and then come home and then do your job for the day. And that's it. If you can shift that to saying like, this is my job. I own it. I own my truck, my equipment, my route. Whenever I go out, do it for the day. And you take ownership over everything in your world. It's like you only have yourself to blame for the mistakes, but you also only have yourself to blame for the successes. And it's just incredible. And then that is what automatically propels you towards becoming an owner, because that is the mentality that you have to possess as an owner because you have nobody to run, report to it. Sometimes it's scary and uncomfortable.

Someone who doesn't have a lot of education or a lot going for them.

And making something of themselves.

I'd actually moved into a van. Before that, I just lived in parking lots around here. I'd say at Mike's gym, I'd say at rest stops. So when I lived in the van for that whole year in this 90 degree heat, it was just an oven. And in the van, it would be over 100. And every day I'm like, man, this kind of sucks. I was eating top ramen. I didn't have any kind of ac. I didn't shower for five days on end. It was just brutal. And I was like, why am I doing this? And I did that for the entire year of 2020. And I did that. And I literally just saved my money. I spent only a couple hundred dollars a month. I saved $25,000. I started my location through the 3F program. So I waived all the initial fees to start. So literally just a year of hard work, grinding. I had enough money to start. I was just so supercharged with the prospect of being able to start my own location. It just automatically just propelled me, and that's what keeps me going to this day, has nothing to do with myself or my own personal interest. I just hope that gets taken care of along the way, which I'm sure it will, right? But.

And then passing that along to another set of employees, team members, and helping them develop themselves is what it's all about.

Like, I want a big team. I want to see people grow. I want to see people like Marcus literally show up at 19 years old, right out of high school, and now run a business that does over a million dollars. That's unbelievable. There is no, like, obviously you Guys know this. There's no other areas in life that you're gonna see that happen. Right? Augusta is so unique in that regard.

That one meeting capsulates everything Augusta Nation stands for.

And that is taking something from nothing.

Turning it into something, and then having that person allowing other people to do the same thing.

It's not even about opening up a franchise. Like we always talk about that, because it's a very clear and comfortable step for people to take. Because literally, if you have that field experience, you can do a two hundred thousand dollar business your first year. Anybody can. Like, I'll fight that to the death.

Right?

Very attainable. It's not even about that. It's like, what? How do you want to further yourself in your own life? Soft skills? Professional skills? Owning your mistakes. I guarantee you, if you work in any kind of corporation, large corporation, people shove stuff under the rug. There's bureaucracy, there's people sabotaging you, not owning their mistakes. And if you're a person that doesn't do that stuff, you're so incredibly valuable to any employer anywhere, literally.

It's.

It's like the stuff they don't teach you in school. A degree will not teach you this stuff. It's literally just, how do you be a decent person that expects a lot out of themselves at the end of the day and provides for others? And just that mentality, it doesn't matter if you're gonna franchise or not, that will just propel you through life. And it is just unbelievable. And we're literally just mowing lawns and landscaping. Just to sum it all up, it is what you make it every day. So. And you have that decision to make.

And that's how we'll change the landscape. Industry, one person at a time helping.

Two people, and those two people helping.

Four people change their lives one person at a time.

So many people have been able to use Mike Andy's teachings to become successful business owners. If you're already a fan, we don't want you to miss a thing. That's why we have the Mike Andes text club. We promise it's not a ton of spam. We really like to make sure our audience gets exclusive access to new products and services from Mike Andes before anyone else. You'll get notifications whenever Mike goes live so you can jump in and be a part of the conversation. Join today by Texting Landscaping to 360-227-6362. We're down to our last segment now, and we asked the question, is it possible to get a shop space for free? Yes. And you could be saving tons of money once you know how.

Saturday run complete. Today's challenge was to do it without any water. I don't know if that was a good idea. My mouth is completely dry. Can't even spit. Cuz I do the same run every single week. I try to mix it up a little bit. Last week I put one of these size rocks in my shoe just to make it a little harder. So I don't know if today was smart though. Got to do hard things.

All right, so we are actually at the property that next week we're going to start construction on and is the middle of the county. We got dairy farms over here. Look at that, dairy farms. It's, it's fantastic. There's no one out here. It's beautiful. And it's only like eight minutes from downtown, probably 10 minutes from the center of our territory. So I'm going to walk you through what we're going to do and then literally in a couple days you're going to see it actually happening. So we're going to create a gravel driveway in the back of the property here. This is the one acre parcel that I just bought. This is the one we closed on last week. It's an old house, 1925 house, but completely gutted and remodeled. There's a basement and an upstairs second level. So there's like 2400 square feet of a building. I'm actually here with Liz today because she's already found a tenant, someone that works at as a petty officer, a local navy base. And so they're going to be living here as a family. It's a big, the best place to.

Live as a family.

You got an acre of property, you're out here on the farms. It's incredible. Like the sunrise is right over those mountains right there and you can see the sunset that goes on that direction. So anyways, gravel driveway is going to come through here. All of the back of the property, this whole back of the property is going to be graveled and gonna be the shop space for this location. We're gonna build a privacy fence all the way through here to kind of separate the house and then back shop space here. And there's not a lot of trucks. Our goal for this location is, you know, 5, 600,000 revenue. We only need five or six trucks for that. So it'll be plenty of space. Back here we'll have a storage box, one of the shipping containers that we'll bring over here that we own. And then again like I said privacy fence there and then back here is what's really cool is this. This property is actually zoned for an ADU or an accessory dwelling unit. Instead of going through the permitting process, though, what we're going to do is we're going to bring an RV on, which is actually a tiny house. This is a tiny house.

I bought this bad boy, and it's.

Hopefully going to get delivered here next.

Week, so you guys will be able to see it. And my goal is to make this pay for the entire property that we're getting for the Mount Vernon location. So, yeah, house hacking to its finest now. Tiny house. It only is like 250 square feet, but what we're going to do is we're going to make this all gravel. We're going to make it super flat, like really nice and level. Bring the tiny house right here and in this back sanctuary area is going to be part of the Airbnb. So this tiny house is going to be something I can rent out for 200 bucks a night, no problem. And back here is kind of be a sanctuary. It has a gate, so if they want to bring a dog, they can just like lock the dog up in here. But also, I'm eventually going to put a pad in here of concrete and put in a hot tub and then also a fire, a fire pit here. Now, this is a goat farm behind us, and right now it's pretty hot out, so they don't have the goats out, but typically you hear them all bleeding.

It's just like a beautiful atmosphere out here. And what we're going to do is put a fence in between the main house and the Airbnb unit, so that way there's some privacy here. We'll tear this bad boy out. But all of this back here is going to be gravel and then privacy fence around it for Augusta Lawn Care. So really, we're trying to kill three birds with one stone. We got Augusta Lawn Care, the shop space. We have the Airbnb unit back here. I've already purchased the tiny house. It's coming from California, and it is $75,000 brand spanking new. And we will easily rent that out for 200 a night, like every day of the week. Week might even go up to $300 during the summer, especially around the Tulip Festival is around here. But anyways, there's going to be another fence here to protect from the house. Now, the house is going to be rented out. Like I said to a tenant, we. I think we already got somebody. Liz is Making a video for them because they are moving to town in a few weeks and they are going to move in here. And I think we're getting $3200 for the rent at this property. If you think that's really high, trust me, we're in Washington state. It's a really good deal for a 2400 square foot on this type of property. And we're going to mow the lawn for them. It includes their wi fi, includes their garbage because we're going to have a big garbage bin anyways. So we're going to just basically share it with tenant. Now right here, this is the garage. Now the garage is not going to be for the tenant is going to be for Augusta Lawn Care. So we will have our shop space in the back there in terms of parking, the trailers, the truck, etc. But then over here is where we're going to have this two car garage to basically have for stand up meetings. And it already has like plenty of storage space. A bench has the garage doors that we can move up. So if we want to have larger team meetings again there's probably only going to be five, six employees here max. So it's not going to be a huge operation. We'll keep raising prices and making a pretty profitable location over the next few years. But this is perfect to be able to have a bench for grinding and sharpening blades and just stores of stuff here.

Now the problem, I really wish this.

Garage was about 100ft in that direction because I don't really like the fact that it's right next to the house where the tenants are going to be living at. So we'll have to kind of figure out how we're going to, you know, keep this probably as the entrance and then we the guys head back there in the morning. But this is a great property here and I'll probably show you a little bit inside. But it's. I know most of you are mostly interested in just the business side of things, but just a great property here. On the middle of here, the dairy farms and it's quiet. A lot of this stuff is brand new. They did all the ac, the heating was brand new, etc, let me check. Let me show you this. This is the actual listing here. You can see here they got it was for 700 or sorry, $575,000. We didn't pay that originally. It was actually listed for 650,000. But they really put on the market in a really, really bad time when interest rates had just really ramped up. To like six and a half thousand. And so we came in, they had just lowered the price down to 575. I came and said, hey, look, I know this property. I know that we can turn this into a three in one kind of deal in terms of a rental unit, an Airbnb and a shop space, which is obviously huge value to me, a lot more than what the typical buyer is going to get. And so came in here, offered a $540,000, waived the inspection, close, closed really quickly, put down $20,000 in earnest money because I knew I wanted the property. And yeah, man, this is great. There's a lot of space. There's like four or five bedrooms, but one or two of them don't have a. A closet. So it's technically not bedrooms. But you can see here it's somewhat dated in terms like colors and things, but everything is new in terms of the finishes, like flooring tile. We've got stainless steel appliances, granite countertops. There's a perfect. This is gonna be an amazing place to raise kids. So I'm really looking forward to this. I don't really have any single family houses. I guess I do have one in my rental portfolio. Most of my places are apartments, duplexes, things like that. Upstairs here, this is a cool. This is gonna be the coolest place.

To be a kid.

You got these really low ceilings here, you got like these nook little storage things. And then back here you got a bathroom. But then this is like the coolest thing ever. Kind of like a walk around kind of closet area.

So obviously it was like an old.

Design because 1925 is originally built. It's all been brand new, redone, new ac, new heating, etc. So this is upstairs. I'm gonna go down now down to the very basement and show you some cool stuff down there. Okay, so now I'm headed downstairs to the third story or like down basement. Now we are in a flood zone. This is another thing that a lot of people is a big red flag for them as other buyers. But like, look at this. You got storage down here. They left us a couple of deep freezers and then this. You could actually make this bottom story a separate unit. You could, because this goes right outside, right up to the garage. You can make this a separate unit and sell this as like a separate suite almost. But the reason I did not try to do that is, number one, I live like 30, 40 minutes away from here. I don't want to have to have any problems. Even though Liz is the manager, I Don't want her to have to come down here. We want to sell it to a family. It's going to stay here for years to come. And secondarily down here does not have a shower. There's a half bathroom and to build a shower off of this would be a pain in the neck. We looked at where, you know, the heating was at and load bearing walls. It's not worth it. Now another reason why a lot of people wouldn't buy this house is because it's in a flood zone. And so this will probably flood every 10 years or so. They have a brand new sump pump. It worked great, it was inspected, all the rest of it. But this whole downstairs area is really nice. They really renovated it all, made it brand new. They got brand new AC and heating here. They have all the like the bones of the house are fantastic. Even though it's 1925 bullet. Check out these washer, dryer, like these things are brand spanking new. So I really true believe that this property would have sold for almost 700,000 if they would have sold this eight months ago. But because the downturn on the local market, people stopped buying. But you got this brand new, brand new heating. Literally just put it in June, August, now it's first part of August. This is that pump I was talking about. It's in the lowest part of the building of the house here and automatically comes on as soon as water would get inside of there. So yeah, of course have to pay a little bit extra for a flood insurance. But honestly, the value of this property to me is a lot more than any other buyer. That's the type of properties you're looking for if you're doing real estate is where can I buy a house where even though the math might not look good for a regular person, it makes it worth it for me. For example, this is going to be a $3,000 mortgage basically with once I pay my insurance and all the rest of it. This is brand new, all remodeled, full bathroom here. But to a regular Homeowner, this is 30, you know, $3,000 for a mortgage. They're going to come live here. That's great for me. I'm going to get 3200 for rent. I'm going to probably save $1200 in having a shop space at least 1200, like with that garage space for the shop and everything. This is probably $1,500 of a shop space would typically cost me. Plus I'm going to get an Airbnb and make at least $3,000, at least $3,000 a month in rental income from that. So, okay, we got 3,200 for rent from the actual main house. Then we got 3,000 at least a month from the Airbnb. Like, that's being very conservative. And then we have probably fifteen hundred dollars worth of value that we're going to have the storage of the vehicles. Like literally $7,000 in value I'm paying with taxes, insurance, interest, the mortgage, everything. $3,000 on this. So this will be a great property for Augusta to be able to grow in this local area, as well as just for rental portfolio income. And there's something with Augusta Lawn Care we've talked a lot about with them as they begin to grow their locations and they get multiple locations is owning the real estate and actually turning into an investment instead of a cost of having storage space, having an office space and how to house hack properties like this one to turn it into where now I have an Airbnb and can make really good rental income. So hopefully that was helpful. Inspiring. Places like this, you can make this work. I'm around dairy farms zoned where I can do this sort of thing. And like, this is a great place to live, but it's even a better place to invest with the business, the ADU or the RV that we're using. It's going to be the tiny house. It'll be a fantastic place for Airbnb and I'm really looking forward to it. So take care.

This has been the Mike Andes Podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, we have tons of lectures, interviews and more over on the Mike Andy's YouTube channel. That'll be right up your alley. Anyways, that's all we got for you today. We'll see you next time.

Sam.