They Fired an Employee and I Took His Spot on Mowing Route!

Foreign.

Mike landscape business course. Today's gonna be a cool episode. I have the GoPro and hopefully I get some footage today. So what happened is this week we let go one of our employees locally, and I haven't mowed for a long time. Let me think when the last time I mowed. It's been a long time, probably a few months at least. But today I'm hopping out on the route because I know the crew's behind, and I want to just show my support because we did fire the midweek and kind of last minute right in the middle of the busy season. So I'm gonna hop out there, spend maybe seven, eight hours mowing with Nick, and so he's gonna pick me up here this morning. I had a few meetings for Mount Vernon and then for Anytime Fitness. And so just trying to get a couple of things done this morning. And then I'm gonna heat up, gonna meet me here. We're at Rite Aid here in the middle of the coronavirus. So I'm just parking here. He's gonna pick me up, and I have no idea how much video footage I'm going to get, but I know he's trying to get a whole bunch of jobs done today. So whether or not I get any footage, that is to be determined, but I'll try to get some for you. And Nick is an awesome guy. He's worked for us about a year, a little over a year now. And he actually wants to own a franchise one day. So I've never worked with him before. A lot of fun. Take care and come along for the ride.

All right. We're out working. We're on this property out in Bellingham. These are commercial property bars. I have not been on a zero turn mower for probably.

A year. Last time I mowed, I. Oh, no, you know what? No, no. Six, at least, like seven months. I haven' been on a push a zero turn mower. So I'm going to go and hop on and hook you guys up with me and see how this works.

It's.

So a lot of people would disagree with me out mowing the day. They'd say I have a lot more important things to do or whatever. We have 17 Augusta Lawn Care locations. The reason I do this, try to do at least every once every three to six months, is to really keep me grounded in what we're actually doing at Augusta Lawn Care. It's easy to get wrapped up in franchisees and unit metrics and marketing, and those things are all important. But more importantly, is the Customer. If you take care of the customer and they pay the franchisee, franchisee makes money, they're happy. So as long as the customer is happy and they pay the franchisee, the franchisee gets happy, and we'll sell franchises and the business will speak for itself. And so I think a lot of times, as businesses grow, the founder can get disconnected from the grassroots, from the guys out in the front lines, and from what really matters, which is the customer. You make the customer happy. Stuff tends to work itself out. And so I'm out here trying to stay connected, you know, so that way I know actually what's happening, actually how we're treating customers. And it's also time for me to think about what is the next phase in the landscaping industry after this whole coronavirus thing. Where are the opportunities for growth? And it also really helps your team. They saw someone get fired this week, and they knew that there'd be slack created. So for me to jump in and help out is good for them, good for morale. And they know that I'm not just some guy that pulls up once a week and says hi to them at the shop. But I actually can work, believe it or not. And so I think it's a good thing for morale. And if you have a team, if you have four, five, six guys, maybe you're starting to even work out of the field. You don't even have to be there, like, this whole week. Today's Friday, and I know the guys are gonna have a long day, so I want to come help.

And also, I had only showed up to the shop all week one time, just for like 15 minutes. And so I don't want to become disconnected from them. I don't want them to feel disconnected from me. And I don't want. Especially if you're trying to work out of the field and you don't need to be out working anymore. I think it's still good to connect with your guys by showing them that you can work, that you care about the customers, that you empathize with the weather, long days. This is going to be a long Friday of work. And so I think it's important to do that depth. Even if you grow. I don't. I don't think it's good to be disconnected from your frontline workers, what they're trying to do. And so that's why we're out here today. So I'm going to try to go do some blowing. Blow off this property. I like four buildings here.

It.

Sorry. All right. Mowing related. Yep. We Need a trim this side. I can't go any lower. All right, so you want me use the push mower? Push mower works good. Yeah. Hey, sounds good.

It's got a few more mows left done like I don't know, 20 so far today. This is an interesting property though. This lady here, a couple of years ago, one of our crew was here, his name was Charlie. And she actually had a. She fell down, couldn't get up. She had like a heart attack or a stroke or something. And he ended up taking her to the hospital, their house. Her name is Jean. Super, super nice lady. And she ended up taking our entire team out to dinner for a team meeting. And just to meet everybody. She's super, super kind lady. She actually pays extra money for her favorite employees to come and mow her lawn. So today this is her backyard. Here.

Goes check on Nick, see if he's earning his keep over there. See.

And rank Nick's mowing job here. Nick is a cool guy.

Ppp. We're killing it today.

So I would definitely suggest like if you are more of the estimator in your business, if you add day to day operations completely like I am sorry Kai, catch your breath. I would highly recommend getting out in the field, working with your crew for day every few months. It really helps with the morale of the team. It helps you stay centered on the reason why we're in business and that is for our customers. And so I never want to be in an ivory, kind of an ivory tower of franchise metrics and marketing and all this theoretical stuff and forgetting about and losing touch with the reason why that's all happening and that's with the customer. And for stories like Jean, where our team cares and is different than everyone else. We were on the last job we were just at, there was a gardener and she had been at this really, really beautiful estate for like nine or 10 years. And she said that she's like, man, you guys are the best crew ever. Because it used to be a. They just hired us. They used to have a different landscaping company. And I said, well why, why, why are we so good? And literally it was something small. It was like you move the trampoline and you move the garden furn when you mow and that sort of thing makes a big difference. And I think forgetting about that is easy when you're not in day to day operations. Here I'm standing in the middle of the road, you're not in day to day operations and all you're worried about is your financial statements. And getting your taxes done and marketing, expansion, and hiring, those things are all very, very important, not downplaying them at all. I think it's also important to stay connected with your crew by showing that you can work, that you're not some lazy butt that pulls up an vehicle when it's 90 degrees outside and you can't push a mower. And, you know, it's one thing for them to hear about the good old days when you first got started, and I can talk about that all day long. But the new guys like Nick, they've never seen me work, and I can still do it. And so it's good to show them that you can work hard and that when the team is in a crunch, you step in and you pull your weight for other people. That when they're running behind. And I think it's really good for the team, and I think it's really good for us as executives, as your business does grow to do it. You know, like I said, I do it. This is my second time the whole year. I did it one time last year, so, like, maybe every three to six months, I do it for a day. But it's good for the team to realize that you're not just. You're not soft. You can get the work done. And I think there's a lot of intangible benefits from doing it. So, that being said, I've been going for two minutes here, and I need Nick's grappling. Who's inside the trailer? Just in case you've never seen inside our trailer before. It's Friday, so everything's pretty dirty. Tomorrow it'll all get washed. David comes to the shop and washes everything out, and we'll get all welcome. Sparkling clean again. But really simple layout. We really reduce the amount of equipment in these trailers. Keep it as simple and clean as possible. Here we go.

They called me washed up. I'm telling you what. What? Lawns don't stripe themselves, my friend.

Getting some rust off right now, but we're working. Last job of the day.

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