THE PODCAST IS CHANGING! (2017 Business Goals)

Hey everyone, this is Mike Andes and you're listening to landscape businesscourse.com podcast. I am actually streaming this live via Facebook. I'm gonna put it on our page, but I wanted to first of all say almost a sorry and apologize. I listened to the first 15 episodes here on this podcast and if you haven't already, I have a. My first podcast was Business Boot Camp Podcast. And that's the one where I do usually longer form audio and dig deeper into subject matter. Whereas the first 15 episodes of this podcast, landscapebusinesscourse.com have been a lot of just very short tips. And although some of you have said those are great, I listened to them last week and I really felt like they were lacking in substance and in actionable, not actionable advice. Cause there are like really good tips. I do feel that, but I just felt it was. They sounded a little too commercial. Like, obviously I started this whole podcast to advertise and get the word out about landscapebusinesscourse.com and what we're doing there with the course. And I'm not ashamed of that. Like, I still think it's a great product and everything. But I want the podcast here to be not just promotional and commercial. I do want to offer more value on this podcast. So starting today, the the episodes are gonna change a little bit in style, they're gonna be a little bit longer, and I wanna dig deeper into what I'm doing with my business and hopefully you can learn from that. Like, I could do that on Business Bootcamp podcast, but I think there's less landscapers and less people interested in what I'm doing with Augusta Lawn Care, which is the name of my business that I run. So if you haven't already do check out landscapebusinesscourse.com essentially what it is is, is a free webinar. You can sign up and I will tell you more about the course but also talk about the way we've done our marketing methods and the five things that have kept a lot of landscaping businesses small. But this whole podcast, as we go forward, I wanna try to put one on every week and I want it to be a little bit longer form. I want it to be more about what I'm doing with my business and so people can cause like I said on Business Bootcamp podcast, I talk a lot about questions that come in from various industries. But for this one, I'm gonna really closely to landscaping and I'm going to talk a lot about what I'm doing in my landscaping business, not my Podcast, not my book, not my consulting, not the course. I'm going to talk a lot about landscaping. So today we are doing something very special and very different, and I'm going to be sharing with you the goals that I have for 2017 in the landscaping business. So I'm not going to talk about the podcasting business and the books and the course and what we're trying to do with those. I'm gonna talk about landscaping only. And I have all these papers in front of me, and I'll try to show some of you on Facebook what I'm looking at right now. A whole bunch of papers.

And what those papers are from is today was the day where I spent most the day doing planning for 2017. So one day every single year in December, I try to spend most of the day, and all I do is plan for the next year. And so today is 2016 of December. And so I was planning for 2017, and I look at all the businesses that I have, including the podcast and the course and lawn care and all this stuff, and I try to create very, very detailed goals and schedules and.

Analytics for each company. And that was today. And so it's always a very inspirational day. It's very fun to look back and see what I did for this past year and be able to see that we surpassed that. In fact, for the lawn care landscaping business, we surpassed my goal for this past year by 10%. And so I was really happy with that. It was a very exciting day. And I do want to share with you what those goals are. So I'm going to stop the stream now on Facebook Live. Make sure you guys check out the podcast if you want to hear more. But as far as what I wrote down, it's in this little book here I have. It's like a little notebook that I keep. And on the front, it has engraved in it, it says, some people dream of success while others wake up and work. And so that's really what it's all about. It's not about just creating goals, about actually getting up and doing the work. I actually put. Just recently, I was thinking about the law of attraction. I said, this is what I said. I said, the only thing true about the the law of attraction is the last six letters, and that's action. A, C, T, I, O, N. And so I just find that the more you do, the more you get out and actually work hard, the more you find the law of attraction works, where success and all the things that you're wanting and money and all that Stuff comes to you when you get out there, actually try doing stuff. So I'm gonna read you some of the goals and the things that we are gonna be doing in ALCS, which is Augusta Lawn Care Services in 2017. And just a quick recap if you haven't gone on to landscapebusinesscourse.com and join the webinar yet for that. I talk a lot about this, but I'll give you a kind of brief Cliff Notes summary of my business and our growth that we've had. The first year I did in 2014, our revenue was under 30,000. And then the year after that I did just under 200,000. This year we did right around right at 4, 550,000. We'll get over that by the end of this year. Next year. The goals. Now these are where I go into goals for Augusta right now for 2017. So the goal will be 250,000 revenue. And the reason it's not as big a growth as pattern as we had like from going from the first to the second year we had like six times growth. This past year we had like three times growth. And so why wouldn't I double it? The thing is because as you'll see in a couple seconds here, we're trying to save a bunch of money this coming year for starting a second shop and buying a bunch of property. So that's the reason why we only went from 550 to 750 in my goal for 2017. So $750,000 is the revenue goal that I want to hit. 130,000 of that will be materials. And if you don't know what that means, you have probably listened to the webinar. But we do have retail end of our business as well. So 130,000 in materials, 300,000 of that will be in lawn care and mowing. 320,000 dol. 20,000 of that will be landscaping, cleanups, etc. And so then I put down our full time staff members and who will be having at all those positions. So our goal will be to have six employees, one of which will be a driver. And so I listed them all out and all of that. So then I put we got buy another. I kind of put to do thing of things we got to do throughout our whole year. But I'll read a few of them to you. One is I got to buy another truck in February. I'll be hiring another crew member in February as well as a driver. I'm going to be spending $500 a month on Facebook and Google Plus, Google AdWords. That'll be our budget per month, $500. We'll be using the dump trailer a lot for deliveries. And then this is the big one is we're gonna be leasing or buying. Probably buying, really. Usually people don't want to lease. We'll be buying a shop location in Bellingham, and I'm not gonna give the address on here just because it's not firmed up yet. And because if, you know, if you're my competitor and you live in my area, I don't want you to go buy this property.

We'll be buying it in 2017, and I'll be needing it on here. I'm just reading $200,000 in liquid cash. And so that's, you know, I have a whole bunch of things we have to do and time periods and dates that we have to get that completed. But the $200,000 in liquid cash draws me to one of my next pages, because on each and every one of those items, I then do 8 and a half by 11, just with a pencil and pen on a blank sheet of paper, I write down all the things about how we're gonna do that one item. So it's pretty in depth how I do this. It's not like just goal setting. I really dig deep into every little thing. And so on this one, this is the one I'm gonna share with you today, is that second shop. So that's really what this whole podcast, I think, is gonna be about for the next year, is our development going from this first shop, where we're gonna be grossing about three quarters of a million dollars in revenue. We' location building the second shop. Where I really feel the growth is, is in the second shop. Because where we're at right now is in a little town called Blaine, and there's maybe 10,000 people. I'm not even sure, but I'm guessing around. Around 10,000 in Bellingham, where we're moving to, or not moving to, but creating a second location. There's like 85,000, 90,000 people. And so I think the growth is going to be way bigger down in Bellingham. That's where we're going to be moving to. And I'm looking forward to it. So that's really what this pod I think, is going to be a lot about, documenting what I learn over the course of next year and creating a second location. Because we always talk about systems and procedures, especially in the course and everything, But I think this is going to be a test of Those systems and procedures. And I'm going to have to get really, really good at those systems and procedures in order to make two locations work. We have two different offices, two different storage locations. You have equipment that you've got to balance between the two locations and all of that. And then after 2017, if we start a third one in Mount Vernon and just continue going down I5 South. So we'll just figure that out later. But right now we're going forward this second shop. So we already have a location that we are sure we want to get. I've already been contact with the owner, made sure that the city is okay with us as far as zoning and what we can do on the property. The Property is almost one acre in size, which is about.

30, 40% smaller than the one we have right now. But I think it'll be okay. We just have to design it a little bit better layout of the office and the warehouse and the bins for the materials and all of that. And so it's in a very, very high traffic location, like super high traffic. So we do, you know, security is a big thing. We're gonna have to put fence around the entire property. We're gonna build a 40 by 60 storage facility, or actually, I'm thinking actually might make it 40 by 40 metal building and then building out an office into that location. So right now, what I'm looking at right now and what I did today is I drew a map. I actually do three out third one is what the one I like, just using the city guidelines and things and our measurements and putting in where we're gonna put the storage location. We're gonna build out the office inside of that, just frame it out and put install electric and things where the signage is gonna go, where all the bins are gonna be in the layout of the property. And just making sure that we have. We optimize our view from the road, all that traffic going by. And then I put a budget. So in that line item I was talking about before was the goals for 2017. And one of them was to get the shop. But it also said that we needed $200,000 in liquid cash. And so let me kind of break down really, really fast the line items for that so you can kind of get a grasp an idea of what I'm doing, how I think through this. So the budget for Augusta Lawn care services shop 2.0, I'm gonna run through them really fast and then I'll give you totals. So I got permits and other application stuff is 5,000. A concrete slab for the shop is 4,000. The metal structure, the materials part is 18,000. The labor to build it is 5,000. Frame out and put in electrical for the office is 10,000. Concrete blocks installation, that's where all the materials go in is 4,000. Signage 4,000, fencing 10,000. That'll be like a chain link fence around the entire place. And then doing an entrance gate will be $2,000. That'll be a big entrance gate, really nice one. So then we got grading in a limestone base and then compacting that all with a roller is 8,000. So the total cost for build out on the property is $70,000. And then assuming that we put 300, we, we get a offer of $350,000. Accepted. To buy the property, we need 25% down. So we're going to need $87,500 in liquid cash for a down payment. So the total cash need is 157,500. There's other costs, but some of it can be financed or put on credit. Things like all the initial material inventory which is around 8,000, lighting for some of the property is 3,000. And then financeable is like dump truck, the skid steer, the loader, stuff like that. So we're needing right around $200,000 to get 2.0 of the shop up and running. And then of course you have to start thinking about, well, is this thing a week successful, what's the break even points, all of that. So then I put together a break even analysis and a business plan for the second shop. And I put what our overhead is going to be for two full timers to run the office and the materials end of things, what it's gonna cost to finance a dump truck and a loader, which would have to be on grounds all the time. Then the mortgage on the property, then Internet, insurance, utilities, porta potty, things like that, that'll be on the shop there too. So our total overhead for the cost for the entire place, including the labor for the full time people, staff and all that is 11,000 per month. And then that's really on the high end, to be honest with you. We could do less than that. But that, that's what I put down. So then what I do is I assume a 30% gross profit on materials and I assume a 40% profit margin on services and I start figuring out a break even point. So if I want the materials Only at shop 2.0 to cover all the expenses, we need to $35,000 per month in Revenue just from the materials. And that will cover all of the overhead, which I don't expect to have to cover all the overhead because we're also using the office as a way to sell the service end of the business. And that's really where their money's at. But if we were just doing materials, it'd have to be $35,000 per month to cover all of those overhead expenses. And like I said, those are probably more inflated than they really should be. And so then I put, I always do this when I do business plans and stuff. I do a first year probable forecast, then I do a best case scenario, and then I do a decent case scenario. So, like, for my first year, what I'm kind of, I think is really probable and achievable is if we did $300,000 at 30% profit margin for materials, that wouldn't cover our overhead, we'd still be in the whole $42,000 in the year. But I also think that in that first year, it's probable that we sell $300,000 worth of services at a 40% profit margin, which brings our total sales for Shop 2.0 to 600,000 and a total profit of $78,000 for that first year. And I really think that's probable, very achievable. Now, best case scenario, obviously, is probably a year or two after that when I want to do $500,000 in materials and $800,000 per year in services. And then your total sales are 1.3 and your total profit is $348,000. That doesn't include shop 1.0, where we're at now, which I hope is pretty much at that sales mark by, you know, in a few years. So that's kind of the how I look at creating a new shop. And as we expand, what we'll be needing is, you know, obviously we're starting to get involved in real estate when we buy these locations, but I feel this is, it's a good move for our company. Like when, if you listen to Business Bootcamp podcast, you know how I talk about investing in your business, and then when you have enough money and that's going good, you can start investing in real estate. And then when that gets good and you want to even be less involved, you can start involved. You can start investing in paper assets, to stocks, bonds, et cetera, and financial products. And so like, I'm still, I think I still should be focusing on the business aspect. It's where the highest returns are. Yes, it does involve a Lot of time and energy and effort. Less than, I mean, more than real estate probable and also more than stocks and bonds. Just generally speaking. Generally speaking. And so that's what I need to focus on right now. And so the money that we make and all the profit margin now, that's why 2017, I said the growth pattern is a little bit less for us, the incline of growth for 2017, because I'm gonna be pulling a lot of that money out of the business, saving it for when we build the shop in late 2017. And so it's gonna be interesting. I think it's gonna be really cool. And I hope you all are along for the ride. And on the course on landscapebusinesscourse.com you can join the webinar where for an hour I share about some of the stuff that we do, our methods and our systems and stuff. And if you actually join the course where I have all the videos on how we've done the past three years in our company and exactly all the steps, if you join that, I'm gonna be starting next year, like another module just for everyone that is in the course. And it'll be videos on showing like the behind the scenes of starting this second shop. So I think it'll be really interesting. And so that'll just be for the people who actually join the course. But even if you don't join the course, of course, I would suggest you do go to landscapebusinesscourse.com on the webinar. It's usually like an hour to hour and a half long. And I share a lot of content about what keeps landscaping business small, what the role of the owner should be as it grows, my other three marketing methods that we've used in the past, and then we do open it up for Q and A. So even if you don't join the course, I think you get a lot of value. I was asking questions. I'll usually try to analyze one website from one of the listeners and we try to keep those small groups on those webinars. So usually no more than five people are on those at any given time each week. Usually on Thursdays we have those. So I would definitely recommend landscapebusinesscourse.com you can ask me more questions about how to start, grow or save your landscaping business. And until then, until you join the webinar, until I see you live in a person. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I look forward to doing this every week and sharing about what my struggles and successes are in the landscaping business. Exclusively. So that's it for today. Mike Andy's Landscape businesscourse.com.