This Owner Has to Take a Ferry for Work!

Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today I'm going to be sharing some in person consulting that we recently did at an in person workshop here at our headquarters. And it's really unique situation because the owner has a business on two different islands and has to take a ferry in between the two and some of his crew lives on one side and crew lives on the other side. It's very complicated. So we actually gave some advice that I don't think I've given before about giving estimates from your website so people can book the appointment right from your site. So it's going to be a unique one, but I think you'll learn a lot, especially if you have a wide service area or. Or if you're traveling an hour or an hour and a half to go to a different service area. Let's go ahead and roll the tape. All right. What do you got, Martin? He's from landscape maintenance, installation, Dream Team Landscaping. Four trucks, five full time employees, 275 in revenue in 2023. Four hundred thousand revenue 2024. Big jump this year. Let's go seven hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand. Good job. Google Ads is the main marketing channel. Two thousand plus a month close ratios a little under 50%. Number of estimates in the last 12 months is two hundred and forty eight. Do you do a lot of commercial? No. You do installs.

All residential.

All residential, but commercial installs. Right.

It's mostly project based.

Okay, cool. All right. $0 salary and less than $50,000 in take home in distribution for the owner. What is your current obstacle in the business or profitability? Myself being the bottleneck and not being able to afford to hire someone to do admin or sales, I think.

Cool.

Four, five.

Okay. All right.

Do you want to grow or make more profit?

Kind of both.

Quality. Let's focus on profit first.

Yeah.

And then we can think about growth. So.

You grew a bunch this year. Did you have to buy a bunch.

Of stuff this year? No. Part of the reason I grew this year is it took me like half of last year to kind of get everything. So, like half of last year was terrible.

And you start already, Stanley, like middle of last year. So the momentum kind of carried in this year.

Yeah, I started doing about 50 plus K a month, like middle of last year.

Okay, cool. And what was the reason for that change? Like what took you from like 15,000amonth to 50,000?

Because.

Because before like 2022, I actually did 500. But then people like the middle class in my area stopped spending on projects almost completely okay. So it took me a while to kind of lean into like recurring and yard maintenance and smaller projects.

Okay, so that's what the bread and butter is for you is the smaller projects.

Yeah, it's all small projects.

And what's the ticket size for you that ideal?

Like most of them are 10, you know, between 5 and like 20K. But the average would probably be 10.

Okay. And.

Okay. 248. 150. So 100. Yeah, that's average $8,000. Okay. Okay.

How far are you booked out right now?

Two, two to three weeks.

And that's pretty much always like that.

Yeah, somehow I was only about two to three weeks.

Okay, right. And what's your hourly rate on projects for labor?

So it was 75 and I just raised it to 90.

Okay, and when you say just when was that?

Maybe like four weeks ago.

Okay. And has your closed ratio been affected or not really. Yes.

But I don't know if price is the reason.

It's.

It's hard to say.

Okay. Yeah. What do you mean it has been impacted? Like it's gone down.

Yeah. But it's like I just keep getting these waves of like accept, accept, accept, accept. Like if you look at my profile, it's. And then another three week wave of like decline, decline, decline, decline. And I don't know if it's me that's maybe doing that or what it is.

Always assume it's you because if it's not, then it's luck.

Yeah.

So we can't change this. So the first thing I'm looking at like what I would first do is I would look at all the customers that declined. I would look at all the estimates that accept and look for commonalities.

Yeah.

So first off, what type of projects are these? What size of projects are these? And. And then what did you do differently with these projects? Right. So for example, right now, if an estimate request comes into your website, where do you like, what is the process? Like within 24 hours, do you have an estimate to them? How fast are you getting to their property?

Now I'm doing the course like once a week, so I'll do the visits if I can. If it's like a lawn or something, I'll just send it over email. But yeah, so it usually takes like a week and sometimes even two weeks to get a quote to them.

Cool. So I actually think that time blocking is going to be your unlock. Time blocking and then having where every single day in the afternoon or Evening, like at 7 to 800,000 annual revenue your constraint is sales, like getting more jobs on the schedule. And in order to do that, we need to be able to get more jobs accepted. And to get more jobs accepted, we need to get to the customer faster. Like your close ratio, if it's like say 47, 48% now, can easily get to 65, 70% simply by. Instead of seven days you take to get to them, it's one. So I would really focus on the time blocking side of things and where like you have an hour every day. Because if you did an hour every day, that's one estimate. And that's, that's all you need to get all your estimates covered. That way, every single day, when someone calls within 24 to 48 hours, you're on their property and giving them a quote.

The challenge of that is just because my service area is very sprawled out. And so like, for example, a lot of the time I have to take a ferry and it turns into an entire day of mercy. Yeah. So I kind of have to like bundle them all into a day to do the in person stuff. So I'm really definitely like wanting to move more into the occurring. Like I'm kind of like using the projects to, to maintain.

Okay. Out of 7,800,000, how much of it recurring?

Not enough. I've got like 10 more clients.

Okay. Yeah, you're more local market. How much, how much population your current city?

So the nearest city has, I think like she's 30,000 people.

Okay. Yeah. Okay, let's check out your website. I have an idea. What's going on. Okay. Campbell River, Quadra. Is that the. This is this island that you, you are on?

I live on Quadra. And the nearest city is Camel River.

Got it. Of your customers that come in, how many, what percentage are coming from just your island?

Like probably the volume. Campbell river. But people who actually accept our quotes is about 50.

50. Because between these two places.

Yeah.

So these are two different places.

Yeah.

Okay, so Campbell river is a city. Quandra island is the island.

Yeah, it's like a smaller town.

Okay. And you take a ferry over there.

Yeah, got it.

So how much of, how much of your revenue is coming from Campbell River?

I'd say most of it.

I would cut out Quander Island.

Well, that's where I live.

Are you serious?

Yeah.

Whoa. Okay. How many people live in Conjure island?

It's like 2000 1500.

Okay. But you're over here every day doing work. Campbell River?

No, no. Like half the time it's on water.

But most of your revenue is Coming from here?

No, I wouldn't say that.

It's a 50. 50.

Yeah, closer to that.

Okay. Okay. All right.

Yeah.

So of your revenue, 50% or so of it is coming from Quandary island, which is like 2 to 3,000 people.

Yeah. But they're more likely to have money because it's bigger properties, bigger estates.

Sure.

I could still get. And, like. Yeah.

Okay. So personally, unless you were going to change to recurring revenue, which is going to take some time to replace all the equipment, like, all that stuff, I would just focus all my time and attention on Quadrant Island.

Well, that's what I used to do.

Okay. Why?

There was like, a building boom in 2022, and then when that stopped, that's when the phone just stopped ringing. So I was kind of scrambling.

Expanded service area to back home. Yeah, like, expanding service area. We will always get more leads, you know, whether or not we make more money.

Yeah. Well, the thing is, like, because I. I have a shop in Campbell river, and all my employees are in Camel River.

Whoa. Oh, okay. So you have, like, a shop space here. You live over here?

Yeah.

Half your revenue's from here and half of your revenues from here, which is a lose news because, like, these guys got to go in the ferry to get over here, and you gotta. Oh, my goodness.

On the same day, guys have a island.

Dude, that's torture.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness. Okay.

It's a very controversial.

Okay. But here's the thing. Every day, you're taking the fair. You are taking the fair every day.

No, no, no. Like, once or twice a week.

Okay. And you're going from Quadra island to Campbell River. Okay. And. But the team is starting here without you.

Yeah.

Okay, so you have, like, a foreman.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Wow, that's crazy. And you have a shop space over here in Campbell River.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Quadra island, you could do estimates every day, but Campbell river, you only go over there once or twice a week.

Yeah. So. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Could you at least do estimates on a daily basis in Quadra island? Oh, yeah. 10. Who's answering your phone right now? Is it you?

Yeah.

Okay.

I would personally set aside time blocks to get estimates within 24 hours in Quadra island. And then I would. When you go over there, like, you're currently doing time blocking for those estimates once a week. Yeah. I would then compare my close ratio. I happen to believe this is going to skyrocket if you get essence in within 24 hours. The Augusta business model is to do $800,000 in annual revenue 200,000 DOL and profits. How is that possible? Because of command center taking our phone calls, emails, text messages, and even running payroll, doing all the admin work so we can focus on growing the business. If you think having someone answer your phone throughout the day would be a relief for you and your business, go to augustalawncareservices.com franchise, book a call, and see if joining Augusta Nation would be the right fit for you.

The thing is, the leads are very sparse, but they just, they're usually bigger.

Bigger projects. Yeah, got it. I just think, I think our close ratio go from 47, 48% to 70% very quickly if we can just get to them right away.

So one idea I had was like. And hiring a sales manager. So someone who's just committed.

Well, that's why I asked you about your foreman. Because like, for example, you could, if these are smaller projects, have the foreman go meet the customer, get them needs, and then make a video and you create the estimate.

Yeah.

So if I was trying to optimize this business, I would do daily blocks of time, maybe a chunky suit, maybe it's only two or three times a week. You're even getting an estimate from Quadrant island, but I'm doing within 24 hours. And then on Congo River, I would be trying to get those estimates within 24 hours also. But I do it by getting my foreman to chunk his last hour of the day as available for me to go do a drive by estimate. So I meet with the customer. Is this person capable enough to talk to the customer?

Yeah, but he doesn't know like how to. I mean, he's done like for yard cleanups and mowing. Sure. But when it comes to like fencing and concrete.

But yeah, And I get you.

Yeah. So yeah, you could do like, you know, the, the recurring type of work. You could do that for sure.

Okay.

But yeah, it would kind of pull them away from the job. But I could figure out some of the. For that. Or he could even do an extra hour. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

Okay. That'd be one thing. Another thing you could do is try to get more skin in the game from people in Campbell river to make sure that the close ratio.

Like when you do meet them and you go take a ferry to their stinking house and take a whole day that they're like they're buying.

Yeah.

So for example, you could do like a. I've seen some people do FaceTime estimates, like for smaller projects. It could be something you do.

Yeah.

Okay. Facetime me. You set up a time, like, from your website. They could schedule a time, and it's FaceTime.

Yeah.

Like, calendly goes right into Copilot. You hop on a call with them, and you're. You're doing that.

That's a good idea, so.

Because you can't spend a whole day going after a project lead unless you're getting paid a few hundred dollars for that quote. Yeah.

Well, that's why I bundled them together. But like you said, like, speed is everything.

Yeah. I would consider this. I would just try to run. I would set up my request form to set up an appointment, as they have two options. One, do you want to. Do you build your website right now?

No.

Okay. Do you have access to the person that does build your website?

Yeah.

And they're ready and willing to work. I would ask them if they could build a form that allows people the option to book a call with you on Calendly, which you then open up very, very frequently, like, as. As close to immediate as possible, and then have the time blocking of, like, once a week that you're bundling all your estimates together for business in person. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Cause I think that you're gonna get 30 to 40% of people that book the call with you do a Zoom Call, and you sell the job, like, right away. And they're, like, thrilled. They don't have to meet with people. Cause everyone else in your market is doing the same thing, like, all that traveling and stuff. So you might be able to get them on a FaceTime call and just roll.

Yeah.

Crazy. I've never heard of that ever before. Where ferries are going both directions for the crew. That's crazy, dude.

And I'm just going, oh, this is so much wasted money.

Yeah. And then I think, personally, I would try to go one or the other. Like, that is such a huge constraint to operations going efficiently. There's so many things that opens up in terms like you can't pay paid for performance. What happens if someone's ferry gets delayed? Like, there's a huge variable you can't win on.

Well, ideally, I just want to keep my Quadra guys on Quadra and the Camborder guys on camp.

So you have two separate teams.

All my guys are in Camborder right now.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. I happen to think that if you did something like trying to push people towards a FaceTime or Zoom call, you could close a lot of these Campbell river jobs. Yeah, I'd do that.

Okay.

I'd be very interested if you can report Back to this. It'd be really interesting because I think it's one of the unique scenarios where I actually recommend it. I never recommend this because, like, you could also make it like, we've done this before where they have to submit a video, but we see that killing your conversion on your forms because no one wants to take a video. But if you say, hey, in your form, I got your information, here's what you want, by the way. Here, book your appointment and it's like within one hour. And the thing is, you're out doing jobs or whatever, you could literally pull your phone, like, okay, I'll do it right now. So I would make it as immediate as possible, like, open up your calendar, calendly calls. I would do it right. Right into it.

Okay. And the other idea that I was working on was like, instant pricing as many possibly things as I can for projects. Well, I mean, I'm trying to skim down the projects, right. So just fencing, just concrete, but like a fence, I can do an instant price. It takes some time, but I can do it. And so I guess I was thinking instant pricing as many things as I can and then have a paid consultation, like, if they want me to come.

Yep.

Or like you said, a video call.

Yeah. I'd say. How I would look at it is like, first and foremost, I'd be trying to call every lead within 60 seconds. So like, I'd set up an alert on your phone immediately, calling them if a lead comes in. That's like, easiest. Yeah. Next is on the form having a calendly appointment where they can book a zoom call with you and you give them an estimate. Third, and finally, the hardest thing is going to be.

I don't instant quotes, like, is very difficult to do for projects and do it properly, especially when you have like a ferry between you. Right. So I think that's gonna be very difficult. I would probably stay with, like speed to lead, like, get them on, reply to them as soon as possible level beyond that and actually try to get them on a zoom call and you sell from there.

Well, I have a question. When you're saying call them back right away, like, how do I incorporate that into this? Cause that's another, like, one of my biggest problems that I have is the, like always switching, like I said.

Yeah. So one of two things. One would be out, like most of your day is manager time. So you manage your time inherently is reactive. You're responding. Second thing is, like, at your size, I would get a calling service. You only have 200 some odd leads a year you're gonna spend. Maybe. Maybe.

Depends on if you use. You might spend a few hundred bucks a month to have someone answer your phone.

I tried Jill's office last month, and it was really bad.

Yeah.

Why was it bad?

Oh, they totally watched it. Like, they put, like. They didn't take down any of my information at all. And I paid, like, whatever, like, 600 bucks for the setup.

Yeah.

And they put my service area as the street I live on.

So people would be like, oh, do you service Campbell River? And they'd be like, oh, we service what? You know, they'd say the street name, and they're just scaring away clients. Like, I listened to the recordings and went off. They scared my clients for, like, two weeks. And I was like, I'm really disappointed, you guys. And they just didn't really own up to it.

So I would try a different service then. Yeah, right. Like, because there are. There are people that can answer the phone. There are people that can at least, like, you're not even asking to sell. You're asking them to simply take information, set up a calendly appointment, like, low friction. So I don't know how they messed it up. That's crazy.

Yeah.

I would try another service. Like, I think you not answering the phone is a good idea. All calls get answered, and then s. Request forms also go to them, and they're immediately getting called, like, within 60 seconds.

Okay. One idea I had, too was like, if I had a salesman.

I hired a salesman. And, like, when he's not doing that kind of work, he's just putting door hangers or something. What do you think of that?

How much money is in the bank right now?

20 grand.

That's the constraint.

Yeah.

Right. So, like, that's why I think we need to be in profit mode. I'm glad you raised prices to 90. That'll help. But my concern is that we don't sell enough jobs. And that's why the only thing I'm focused on is your close ratio. Because if we raise prices, great. But if we're not closing up jobs, you're going to probably lower your prices again. So to not do that, we need to increase close ratio. And to increase close ratio, we need to be getting right on the call with them. We need to be trying to book zoom or video calls to book the point right away, or having your foreman make a video and send it to you.

Okay.

Yeah. Right. We've got to focus mostly on estimate, like, speed to lead and getting your close ratio. Higher right now. Like, we can't. We can't afford a full time salesperson. So I'm like, I'm thrilled that you raised prices by 25%, basically. 20%. Awesome.

Well, I raised my material markup to 50%.

Great. So, like, we have the model now that will make you profitable. We need to sell more jobs at that price. And to do that, we've got to get to the customers faster. And if you're not, if you're not answering the phone, ideally someone else is and setting up appointments for you. And I think that cost will be 300 to $500 a month. Ish. Because you only have 200 leads. Like, you're literally talking about one lead a day.

Yeah.

And that's where I do believe that this gets the point where, like, this might be the most important thing you do in a day.

That's true.

So it might be a function of like, I am okay with an interruption. I'm a manager or labor. I can handle one interruption a day to make sure I close this job.

That's true. So this. Prioritize that.

Yeah. And honestly, I would do this if I was you. If you're taking one call a day, like, hey, do you want to hop on a call with me right now and I will give you a price?

Yeah.

Boom. We open it up. Great. Fantastic. Let me put this in my computer, talk about other stuff. Great. The price is X. I just text it to you. Now you're in copilot. You're just like literally sending it to them now. Highly recommend.

So I just need to be sales?

Yeah, your sales. Yeah, yeah. And you will grow out of sales and into more of an architect role by having these higher profit margins. Well, we need to focus on sales to keep the close ratio higher.

Just don't lower your prices. Just don't look at that as the constraint is why you're not selling jobs. It is because of the sales process. And so I would really recommend, like, if you go to have like a blaring phone, like ring, you get every call. You're talking about one call a day. You need to get one request for like an extra request form comes in. I want blowing your phone up so you're immediately calling them. Get on the phone. And then especially if it's like somewhere in Campbell river and you're in Quadra Island, I'd be like, let me, let me. I just text you a link, hop on it and we'll give you. I'll get all the information I need to send you the quote.

Okay.

And I know I really want to see in person. Great. It's going to be six days from now. You can't just go head over there. So I would really encourage nailing a system for. I am touching the link now. Let's go ahead and get this paid here. Yeah. One a day. So that is your constraint.

Text. I would like to schedule a video call.

Yeah, you could just have a text. I have a text template inside copilot and when you fill in their information, I'm going straight to the text. I'm sending them a link. Say, hey, let's go ahead and hop on the call now. I'll do the quote for you now.

Cool.

Yeah. So it can auto reply and copilot to give them that.

Well, you're taking all their information anyways, right? Yeah. Like you normally would. Yeah. And. Or it's coming in from a conduct form. I'm just immediately on the phone. Or once I get the conduct form and I put them in copilot, I have their profile pulled up. I'm on the phone with them and I'm waiting to say, like, hey, would you mind if I send you a link now? Do it over zoom or over facetime or whatever you want to do. Here's a link. Boom. I sent you via text. Click on it and I'll hop on there with you right now.

Okay.

Yeah, that'll crush and it'll save you a ton of time. All that fair stuff. A whole day for an estimate you don't close. 50% of your estimates aren't being sold.

Yeah, I know.

So, yeah, on the phone, I'm sending them a link top on zoom. I don't think I've ever told anyone to do that. It's just because you can't have a ferry ride for one estimate. That's crazy. Or even two or three. Cool. You'll crush it. That'll be really good. You're like, you'll get to 70%. Close ratio. With the higher prices, if you just take the call or the request form as soon as it hits your phone. It's immediate.

Yeah. And also like pre qualifying them better. So I'm not. That'll raise my ratio too, right?

Well, yeah. Well, the best way to pre qualify them is take 10 minutes on the. On a zoom call with them, give them the price and they say no. Great. I can waste half a day driving over there.

Totally.

Yes. Good stuff. Awesome. That was a unique one. Wow. Let's go. All right. Yeah.

I couldn't find any YouTube videos on that.

Yeah, you're not gonna find. Yeah, so when I have two crews separated by a large body of water, and I'm taking fairies.

Yeah. Come on now. Let's go.