Turnaround Update, From Panic to Plan: 90-Day Profit Reset

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today we're doing something we have never done before on the turnaround show. We're actually going to take a video call that Zach, our head of operations at the media team, had with a previous turnaround applicant. So about six to seven months ago, we went out to Courtney Lawn and Landscape with Matt, the owner, and did a turnaround show. When we talked to him last time, it was in the middle of winter. We built a website, we made a huge amount of change in the business. Leads went through the roof. But then summer came along, a drought hit, leads started drying, and so things change. And it's never a linear path to success, even after a Turnaround show. The 4L framework says that when I unlock one constraint, I grow the business. It just changes as you grow the business. So I think this is a really good episode to be able to watch after watching the main turnaround show. So if you haven't, go watch Matt Courtney's video that we made several months back on the turnaround show and then watch this one as a recap. Now, six to seven months later, let's check in with Matt.

Right after we left, what were some of those, like, pieces that you had put in place and changed? You know, right after we had our coaching.

Yeah. So I mean, like with the follow up video right before you guys released the. The one that went on, I mean, we. We subbed out all the mowing.

Sold all the mowing equipment.

And then I think it was like. And actually talked to Mike about it because my biggest customer, we ended up 30 day and out. It's like $140,000 contract because we couldn't get subs to pick them up because it was too big. But we had a sub pick it up and it lasted about a day. And then we were doing it and realized when we was doing it, we was renting equipment. We was making like $90 of profit a day. That was without me taking a paycheck. So, like, this is stupid. So talk to Mike. We 30 day out of that. It was my first customer. It was my biggest customer, about 150 grand a year. So I'm not saying that when that email went out, like, my whole heart wasn't shaken. I thought my world was screwed.

But we did it. And it's actually been like as soon as they found someone else to take it over.

Which was like two weeks, like, we didn't even work out the 30 day, they found someone to take it over and it was like just a huge weight and Looking at the revenue now, like it's what, 4th of September? And we've actually done more revenue this year than we ever have. We still got four months to do so and that's without the biggest customer. So it's been a blessing. It's not been without struggle. I'm not. It didn't, you know, just the light come on and life's been grand ever since. And I sent you like the halfway report which would been the end of June, which was, you know, basically halfway the year and we were killing it. Life was great. Our close rate was like 65%.

And I mean production rates were out the roof. We were, we were closing five to six jobs a day. And then July and August hit and actually in June we had the biggest month we ever had. We did 120, 000 in revenue. We followed up, we followed that up in July with I think 103, 000 in revenue. And then in August we did 107, 000 revenue. The problem is we hit a wall in July. So in June when we hit that120 or123,000 revenue, we was 20 net profit. In July we were 1.5% net profit. And then in August followed it up with a whopping 6.2% net profit. So hit the wall. Leads have dried up completely. I think we've. In the last two weeks, I think I've done five estimates.

And yeah, it comes down to bottlenecking.

I know you guys suggested one of the people here be a branch or operations manager and that wasn't the guy, I'll tell you that.

I don't know if you guys read the, the Mike Andy's AI I comment on their locks. That's a lot I can talk to. And yeah, I'm just pretty much at my wits end with him. And so I'm doing ops, sales, admin and yeah, we're at a wall again. So we're, we're on a downslide. It's got me nervous with the lack of sales, lots of leads and yeah having to do everything again. It feels like we're back in the. Because in June we did. We had a month and a half of revenue in the bank. I'm like, yeah, we're going. This, this is, everything's great. And now it's like hope we make payroll again. Like we're, I feel like we're right back where we are, you know, two months later. Like if we would had this call like two months ago, I'm like, oh, this is the greatest thing ever, you know. And now I'm like, yeah, nothing's changed, you know.

Yeah, it's definitely a roller coaster. Just like, especially as we're coming in like the, there's always that summer slump and then you have like fall cleanups I'm sure pick up for you. And then you'll have like that winter slump as well.

Well, I mean we ended up with you guys and we ended up subbing all the mowing and the fall cleanups out. Now we are trying to push false services which nobody does around here or winter services which no one does around here. So trying to introduce them and why they should do it is a whole other thing. And then we haven't had any good reviews on that. I mean as far as good feedback on that. Like we haven't at all. I gotta send a couple quotes out of what you're gonna do here this afternoon when we jump off. Let's go. Let me see what the pricing would be and it makes sense. And I'm telling we'll cut down your, you know, your spring cleanup. Like I'm pushing it pretty hard but. And then we're gonna focus on.

Christmas lights which we've never done. So that's gonna be another obstacle to, to climb. And you know our lot out here, we are looking to sell Christmas trees and we signed up to be a wholesale dealer for Christmas ornaments. So we're going to turn the one shop into like ornaments and try to get that, you know, get us through November, December if it doesn't snow. So I mean we're, we're trying things but again I've been, you know, kind of assuming the rule of op sales admin and still you know, with the initial call of the turnaround video dealing with my parents health, I always put my mom in a nursing home three days ago. So I've had to, you know for the month of July and August I was out of the office each month about 14 days dealing with complicated projects, dealing with that and you know, which is why our sales are down. Like I know like I wasn't doing anything I should have been, you know, August 31st I had nah, 29 days of expenses to enter into co pilot to. You know what I mean? Like so. You know what I mean? Like I, I haven't been able to do my job, you know. And that's, that's what's hurting. It's hurting the cash flow, it's hurting everything. So it's frustrating. Yeah, but trying to get the pieces in the place you know, so.

Yeah, and so you've transitioned fully out of the maintenance side and the last like few months here have been very project focused. Right. Like what's the team size look like for that? Like as you're doing these projects?

When you guys originally left, it was just me and Brandon and then we brought one of the guys in, so it was Brandon and one guy running all the sales or running all the work. And then I was just doing sales and everything. We've added another two man crew. We split them up. So we've had another crew. And I mean there's, I mean even though sales suck right now, like they're still. Both crews are booked out three more weeks. But for a while, I mean we were booked out like three months. So like it was scary. But I, I know how it is. Like, and I've been in this industry a long time and when I wasn't in this injury, I was in sales. And it seems like around here, I don't know if it is the same for you guys, but from like the first week of August till the third week of September, like the world just shuts down. Like people's trying to get their vacations in, kids are going back to school, there's fairs, festivals, and then it like picks up like third week of September because everyone's like, oh, I gotta get this done by the end of the year, you know, so I'm confident it'll pick up. But it's just, you know, with everything going on, you know, with the business and the finances that have dipped back down, it's got me frustrated. Dealing with everything on a personal level, it's got me frustrated, you know, I mean, my alarm goes off every morning at 4:30, I'm at the shop at 5:15. If I'm home by 9:00 clock at night, I had a good day, you know, seven days a week. You know what I mean? It's like awesome. This is great. That's what I signed up for. Right.

Especially with the like. Yeah. Trying to manage like not only the work stuff, but trying to get your personal life on track and like your parents health and all that sort of stuff. Like that's never an easy position to try, like navigate through.

Yeah. I mean ultimately like if we could find someone with like my same mentality to run the op side.

This place would kick ass. I mean there's, there's no other like, you know what I mean? But it's like if I walk away, you almost gotta shut it down.

Yeah. Have you looked around for another ops manager, like, in the meantime, Because I know, obviously then hiring adds a whole nother piece of the puzzle here.

But, like either an ops manager or a service to take off the admin, like to try to delegate one of those two roles.

Yeah. And I don't know what's the easiest, you know, I mean, turning. There's just been, you know, originally it was to do with Brandon to do the ops, and I've caught him, and I got a list. I wrote down, like, four lies that he lied to the customer and me, and then I was sitting in the middle looking stupid, like, it's done and it wasn't done. I think lies like that. And it's like, how do you trust someone? You know, it's supposed to have your back and somewhat kind of sort of be related and they're lying to you or they're lying to the customer, or somebody's lying. And I'm trying to come in the middle and be the good guy and save my reputation.

We did implement P4P last week, would have been our first week.

So that opens some people's eyes a lot.

You know, I had a, you know, one of our entry level, he was, I think, 17 or 18 bucks an hour. He's making 25 now.

He's like, wow, this is awesome. Like, yeah, like, I'm not. I'm not here to screw you. Like, I'm here to help you. Like, you know, so that's definitely improved that. But, yeah, I mean, we. We need to take some responsibility off me because it's just. It's too much like, you know, I, you know, and unfortunately, you know, Brandon's a salary employee. We had a rain day of the day. It's the rain for the first time in, like, I don't know, like, three months here. And it's bad, but I just gave him off because if. If I bring him in, he's just gonna sit here and play on his phone, so I might as well just have some peace of mind. And that's frustrating, you know, you. You know, I mean, because you're supposed to be my guy and do stuff, but you're just going to sit here and sit at the desk and play on your phone. And so I know that's not the guy, but it's finding the guy. And it's just, if I could find them and if anybody's out there.

Get my number. Like, we'll talk. Like, you know, I would love that someone to just come in with that mentality that I didn't have to worry about it, you know. And yeah, that I think that's the biggest thing right now is just, you know.

Yeah. Trying to delegate some of that work. Well, we talked to a business owner down in Texas recently and then this has been a talking point that Mike had at a seven figures club where we brought in all the owners that were doing over 700 or like seven figures in revenue as well as like multi location owners. And it was like breaking down, you know, how to delegate and where to delegate first. And admin is like the first on chopping block as far as like what's the easiest thing to hand off or like the lowest.

Value of your time. Right. Because like admin, you could get that replaced for somebody doing like 20, $25 an hour, like really, really well.

Where like your time as like the salesperson you might be generating like, you know, closing deals are in like the tens of thousands. Right. So like working you up into that position where that's where you're working exclusively could be a benefit. And like get the lowest hanging fruit is admin. Like just get somebody to respond to your customers, schedule your jobs, you know.

So definitely I can send you some resources as far as like what we had sent over to Efren as well.

Yeah.

Because I don't know if you saw that video. But like we talk to him and the initially he was like, he'd been doing the same thing like seven years, just grinding every single day, seven days a week. And he had taken this business over from his dad who had been doing the same thing for 30 years. And he's like, I just can't, I can't do this. This is crazy. It sucks. Yeah. And he was able to get that off his plate and he was like a completely different person. In the follow up call. He was like, I just have so much time. I've been getting back on irrigation jobs just because I have time to do them and build out that whole sector. And like he's like, this has just been like the biggest breath of fresh air like I've ever had.

So. But like first it was scary for him too, right. So he had to do a time audit to figure out like, what are all the things that he's doing today? Break it down by like every is every 15 minutes, Mike gave him a sheet and it's like take a colored pencil out of your pocket and like highlight like, okay, this 15 minutes I was doing admin. This 15 minutes I was doing sales. This 15 minutes I was in the office, I was out in the shop, it's the worst entire, the worst week of your entire life because it's just every 15 minutes you're interrupted. But then it gave him a clear understanding of like when what tasks are getting done, the switching costs throughout the entire day. So I can send that sub over to you to see, have that reference and maybe you'll get some ideas.

I guess the thing with me with admin, that scares me because people have brought that up.

Because I. And I've had some shady ex wives, don't get me wrong, but.

They were getting my mail and then they were cashing the checks. So like I worry like when I think admin, I'm thinking money. So I'm not gonna know what's there. What's going on. Is someone, you know, cashing checks saying, the customer didn't bill, now it didn't pay, Now I'm looking like an idiot calling the customer like, those are things that like, like I. There's some trust issues.

Totally. But you guys are in copilot now, right? Yeah, yeah. So, and you're like the majority of your money are you doing through credit cards on file? Are you still receiving checks?

Both.

Both. Yeah.

Yeah.

So potentially just moving over to credit cards on file because then they can't do anything like a. The customers have to pay you and then you'll get your money right away.

A lot of our, A lot of our. And I'll be honest, a lot of ours fight us because through co pilot we go through stripe and the 4%.

And it's actually got me to the point where now CO pilot holds 25 until the end of October, which is killing me because there's like, I think $20,000 sitting in the reserve in Co pilot or not in, but in stripe because some customers like why paid? But it was like X amount because we do a lot of big projects. So 4% on twenty thousand dollar payments is a lot of money. So then they want their money back and I was refunding it. Well, I became high risk to Stripe because I was refunding all this money. But basically what I was doing is giving it back to the customer and they'd write me a check. So now stripe thinks I'm high risk. So they hold 25% and I'm, I sit there and go, oh, there's nothing in the bank but oh, there's 10,000 in stripe that I can get in the end of October. Like and it's just frustrating. So like I encourage people not to do credit cards because I get it. Like, you know, like. And I don't know how to overcome that.

Yeah, yeah, it'd be interesting. I, I would definitely look at like how you can get rid of that status. But additionally, like the way that like a lot of our clients do is they just bake that 4% into the price. So they're not like pulling out as a separate line item that the customer is seeing. Like there's a credit card fe on there. They're just raising their prices by 4% and then like that's just the price, you know, so that's like a potential way to do it.

So you, you can go to stripe and adjust it to don't charge the customer and then just bake it into the price on coput. I didn't know that. So.

Yeah, so that, that could be a way to do it just because like, yeah, you know, when, when you're looking at ticket prices that are that big, like the customer is going to go down each line item and be like, well, can we get this taken off? Can you get this adjusted so it's just like one less thing for them to worry about. And it's just like can clean up your process. Right. But even with checks, are you doing 50% down for these? Like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Projects were always 50% down.

Yeah, yeah. So that's great. That's great. I want to say when we talked to good hand roofing, they're like a roofing company out in.

I forget exactly where, but yeah, we talked to them about, they were doing 30% down. And Mike, I want to say even told them to do like up to 70% down.

And now in copilot too, you have the option in there to pay in full. So that might help your cash flow as well, like just giving them the option. We've seen that like 25% of people will just pay it in full right out the gate, which can obviously help your cash flow as well.

What we do on big project, like we just did like an eighty thousand dollar project and we did 50 down. It's signing. Then we did 25 the day we showed up and then 25 at the end, you know, I mean, so like before we actually did anything, we had 75%.

Oh, that's so smart.

That's, you know, but on a $2,000 job, like you give me a thousand dollars, like we're gonna be there a day, you know, I mean I'm gonna say give me 500 before we put a shovel on the ground.

But yeah, no, that's a great Usually.

Those multi day jobs, we, you know, we'll get 50 up front, 25 to start and then 25 at the end. Yeah, because really the 25 at the end is your profit and your labor. So you have at least your material and everything covered at the, at the beginning, you know, before you drop whatever, drop a load or drop anything. So, yeah.

Being with copilot has helped a lot because I, I try to use QuickBooks and I, and I use Brad, it's my account guy, he wants me to be more QuickBooks and I'm like, I suck at it. Like, I'll just use, you know, co pilot. But with co pilot, then I can see it like really, I mean, the couple months there that I really wasn't in the office, like, I wasn't. But I've seen it every day. Like, like I look at our rental equipment and this year on rental equipment, we spent like $47,000. And I'm like, then we just buy something. But then I'm like.

Then I gotta maintain it, I gotta insure it.

Yeah.

You know, it might sit three months in the winter. Like, you know, it's like a hard thing, but at least lets me see like, like last month I think our rental cost was $15,000 and that, you know, we could have some nice equipment for $15,000, you know, instead we have, you know, we have nothing sitting here. But, you know, so. But it gives us something to look forward in the future. It's just getting through these next couple months and, you know, obviously where we're at, you know, last year when you guys were here, we had a great snow year. This year we might not have zero. I. I don't know, you know, I mean, you're just trying to guess that. And I didn't want to be in the, you know, especially in June when I sent that letter and we had a month's worth of revenue, I was like, all right, we don't have to, you know, we're, you know, by the time we get to winter, we're gonna have three months of revenue and we're gonna be great. You know, here we are three months from winter. I'm like, there's nothing there. You know, so it scares me. So now we're back to dependent on snow. And, you know, I, I don't know if the winter services or Christmas lights are gonna fly because it's. Especially the winter services is something that, as far as I know, no one around here offers.

Yeah.

You know, so I mean, we're trying to go with the approach that we're the only one that offers it.

And hopefully it catches. But, you know, looking at our maintenance customers, because, I mean, really, we saw about the mowing, we said about the fertilizer. We subbed out over half the mulching just because we were so busy. So really, I mean, we've made one or two visits. So like, it's really, you know, I mean, and we're making decent money on the subs, don't get me wrong. But.

It'S like we only have probably five to seven customers, I think, that would be interested in the winter services.

Yeah. And if you guys aren't doing mowing too, that's like usually the. The carryover for winter services is that like, it's. Your mowing price just continued through the winter. But if you guys aren't doing maintenance work, I can see how that'd be challenging. Like, are you just. Are you trying to upsell the ones that you are currently subcontracting into winter services? Is that.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's cool. That's cool.

Yeah. So, you know, and I figure it's going to be, you know, basically your milling cost is divided. You know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to, you know, get it out, but to get people that's never had that because it's not a service around here. But then. But what I'm trying to roll in and. And maybe I just need to go to Mike AI and say, hey, type me out how it'll save them, you know, with. Because most of the contracts are up this year.

And.

You know, just tighten me up how it can save you on the spring cleanup. Because it will. Because, you know, really, by the time March, April rolls around, by the time if we're doing everything every other week, basically when we show up, all we have to do is add your mulch. So your spring cleanup cost is going to take out all the pruning, all the cleanup bs, all that. So they're not really making more. It's just giving us a little bit. Giving the guys something to do in the winter. It's just. How do you approach that and attack it to somebody that's never done it? You know, it's a. It's a whole different ball game. So we're trying to figure that out and trying to figure it out sooner than later, you know, so we know, because we're what, first week of September, realistically, we got two months to figure this out and get stuff in our contract. So, you know, just trying to figure all that out. And we've never done the Christmas lights. We've never done the selling Christmas trees. So it's all, you know, me trying to figure this out. And the last thing I want to do is go out and make sure that somebody does their job. You know what I mean? And squeeze it all in. Yeah. So I.

You definitely have the exact right approach for selling the winter services. Have you seen the sheet that Augusta has made for selling it? Like, with that Augusta uses, you could rip that off, I don't think.

I've never seen that.

It's cool. I'll send it over to you. So essentially, it shows two comparisons. And it's like, here's what you would normally get, and it's like two cleanups in the price. And it's like, here's what you get, like, with winter services. And it's like. And that's as a price, that's obviously cheaper and that has a little bit more verbiage. But what owners will do with inside of Augusta is they will, like, have a zoom, like, loom. You know, loom. Like how you can record your screen with it. So they'll do, like a loom call, and they'll have the property up on Google Maps, like Street View, and they'll talk about their property, and they'll just go through all their customers. Right? Because like you said, like, for the first year, honestly, for the first, like, two or three years, you are, like, teaching the customer what this is, you know, because no one knows what it is. Like, just no one. No one is used to this. So what they'll do is they'll record the video, and they'll be like, hey, Ms. Jones, like, I'm just looking at your property here at 418 Oak Drive, and I just want to let you know about our winter services. And then they'll, like, drag over the comparison sheet. And you can see here, like, over the last, like, few years, like, we've charged you, like, twelve hundred dollars for, like, spring and fall cleanups. But this year we're offering winter services. So it's just a continued maintenance where we're going to visit your property four times or whatever over the winter season. And that actually comes out to be like, $800. It's just your mowing price continue throughout that season. And once it gets back to spring, we just pick up your mowing. That way your property looks good year round. It looks great for the holidays and actually saves you money over the course of the year. But that's something you want to do just Click the link below and get signed up. So they'll record a video that's just like that essentially and just send it to each one of their customers. Because we realize that just like that little pitch doesn't take too long to do. And it's like, because it's a one on one like video, they see their property, they see the savings at the difference between those two prices. It's converted really well. Even in markets where it's like there's snow or they're just not used to the service. Lower income areas, like all of it is like converted way better. Doing that, obviously it takes more time, but yeah, yeah, if that's like what you're looking, you're like, I got the time, it's slow right now. I need to do something like I, I would recommend it. I can send you that sheet.

Yeah, send that, send me that. And if you got something for like proposing the Christmas lights and all that, that'd be awesome too because like I said, it's new. I mean I know there's people around here that do that, but there's actually a local like lighting company and they pretty much took over the market and I. And they're not cheap by any means but like I, I don't even know how to price it. Go about it.

Did you know, did you see the.

That free course that we have on Mike's teachable or like it's just on his website where it's the. Oh what, what's it called? The off Season. It's like the book that we put out and it's like a whole course that shows like all the different five cures did you get? Okay, maybe check that out because that shows you too like essentially there's like the five cures for the off season that he did and it's like, you know, shut down. It's just like one of them where it's like literally just like the team.

I've heard you talk about.

Yeah.

Now that you said the shutdown.

Yeah, yeah. So he has it all in like a completely free course and it comes with like a workbook that we designed. It's from Summit. It's really good material. But Christmas lights are like a new service, like selling Christmas trees and stuff like that is in there. It's kind of last ditch effort, like. Or it's a, it's the last piece of the pie. Like there's the four other cures are like more effective, lower cost, lower risk to get started with. And that fifth year which is like start A new business.

Is a good option, but it's usually the last option. So maybe even getting into that, I'll send that over as like a resource as well. You can review it just to see because obviously like, you know, like just the startup cost of like growth and new things just like will suck all your cash away anyway. Right? So if you're buying a bunch of Christmas lights and stuff like, and then.

I think what we're doing with the maintenance just because we're, we're not relying on it as much, you know.

And most of our maintenance contracts were on two year deals and they're up at the end of December. I think we're just adding 10% and whatever sticks, Sticks, you know what I mean? Like yeah, if they say we're too high, let's find go to the next guy. You know what I mean? Yeah, because, because I mean, yeah, I mean we're making money off the subs for lizing and, and all that. But that's just an extra expense that we have. Like if we don't have them, we don't have that expense. So we're just adding 10% and.

If they sign, they sign. If they don't, we got less sub cost. I mean that's just kind of how I'm, my mind is, you know what I mean?

Like, you know, one crazy strategy that I saw was we did this with Connor over in North Carolina and then I think like Will and Larissa with military cuts in Texas just said this as well. They baked in a 20 increase on the, their prices for the next year. So they, but they reach out to their current customers in their current contracts and we're like, hey, if you want to pay in full for this year, you know, we can get you in at this like your current rate but just know going forward like this is your new price because then it's like you get to raise the prices on them.

Or you get to advance a lot of that money into your slow season. You get pull a portion of that, that money that would be like throughout the year into the slow season to like kind of balance that out a little bit. So that could be an approach too that you, you might want to consider. I thought it was pretty interesting that they were doing that.

No, I, I like that because like when I look I said like June, July and August, they were all $100,000 months, which is good. Like right, we should be a 1.2 million dollar company but instead we're like you know, 800,000. Because I look at January and February, we're 30,000amonth. You know what I mean? So that's a big.

Yeah, it's a big swing. And it's hard to, like, you know, the whole idea is to level those curves out, so it's like, more stable throughout the entire year. So that's why that. That strategy can be pretty helpful. And then also, you're the good guy in that situation when you're reaching out to the customers. You're like, hey, like, you've been with us for a long time. We want to help you out. Like, if you want to pay in full, we'll like, honor your current pricing, you know, so could be an interesting approach. So.

Yeah, that'd be awesome, actually. Yeah, I'd like to get some $20,000 contracts paid in January, you know, but. And what was the success rate with that? Like, because we're. A lot of our maintenance is commercial, so they're probably not going to do it would be my. Be my thinking, but maybe I'm wrong.

Yeah, totally. I don't know, like, the exact numbers behind it. I know. Oh, man, I wish I had them, but I know it was very successful. And then, like, there was a handful of customers that just were like, stayed on because it wasn't like the option to go find another contractor kind of isn't on the front of mind when you present them to options like that. It's like, hey, here's option A. Keep paying what you're paying and just like, pay it in advance. Like, take care of the year. Right? And then the other option is to pay your. Your higher rate, you know, and that, like, there's. You're kind of taking that third option of like going somewhere else kind of off the table. I mean, like, I'm sure there was customers that would drop anyway, but to your point, like, raising them 10 and then just seeing who drops, like, you're gonna have people fall off anyway because that option is still on the table of, like, if you don't like this, go find someone else, you know?

No, I. I like your guys. Do you have like, dialogue or something that you guys could send?

I don't think I have anything on that, but, like, I would just reach out to the mic AI like Delphi, and you can. You can chat about it and try to like, just dial something in. But the main verbiage was essentially just like, you know, yeah, pricing is going up. Or like, your new price of the season is this. Like, I wouldn't say the percentage or anything. I would just be like, here's your new quote for the next year. Because you're a long standing customer, if you want to pay in full, this will honor your current price. And then you just compare the monthly prices there. So it's like currently they're paying whatever a month and this would be their new month. Right.

So I like, I like that.

That'd be cool. Yeah. So an interesting approach. I know like a handful of locations have done it and they're, they were like obsessed with it essentially like, because it, it was really helpful.

I know when, when Connor did it he was like, he has a larger admin staff, he had like three people in admin. So he went through his entire contact list and did like account by account to try to get like very precise.

You know, like targeted customers. But like in your instance, right, where you're handling everything, it might be worth it just to hit those subcontractor maintenance accounts and just be like, here's your, here's each one of your like pricing. Right.

And if our contracts in December should, is this something I should be sending out like October?

Yeah, I would assume so. Yeah, I would, I would probably send it out to like renew. Right.

You know, pay in full by January 31st or something. Yeah, you know what I mean? Something.

Exactly. Something like that. That's a great idea where it's like when they get their new budgets like because you know when they're normally like the, have the funds or have the allotted like allowance to spend in, in these sorts of situations. So yeah, I would push for like, yeah, here's your offer. Pay by this date to, to get these savings and you can even say like it's this much in savings, like you will save like X amount, you know.

So it could be, yeah, could be very interesting. Could be a good approach. Hopefully that's helpful.

Yeah, yeah. So lot lots to think about as far as that goes.

I know it's always, it's always like a challenge though. It's like, it's such a, like a game that you have to play of like how do I stay busy? How do I educate the customers? Like what strategies can we actually implement to try to like smooth things out and keep things steady and rolling smooth. So. But yeah, I would definitely look at like, you know, admin services. There's a lot of good ones that you can just like hire out and they're used to working in your situations and you don't have to give them everything. You know, like you could start by getting like a call service or getting someone to do your Book, like, you have Brad doing your bookkeeping. Right. So that's good. And you can.

Like, the problem is our phone number is my cell phone, which I know Mike hates.

Yeah. But you can do forwarding too, you know. Okay, so, like, with your phone number, you could have it, like, forward over to a different phone number at first and then get transferred over to you if they actually need to talk to you. Right.

Because I get, like, a ton of spam calls. Like, hey, you're qualified for 4 million. You know, of course, send that over. You know, send that over. We'll talk about the details in the morning. Money never shows up.

You know, so. Yeah, but I get a lot of those. And that's why, like, it's hard to answer the phone because. I don't know, is it? Because now they'll spam, they'll come on, like a local number, you know, you're.

Like, I gotta check. So that would be the very first things I would get, like, I would get, like, email and phone calls off of your phone. Like, you shouldn't. I would say, like, you shouldn't be doing that. You could. You could hire that, like, very cheaply. And then that would. That would give you the time to focus on operations, right? Like, whether you need to make some, like.

Like structural changes, like finding new team members or promoting people. I mean, like, firing sets the standards. So, like, whatever changes you need to make there. But at least you'd have the time to do that because, you know, the customers are getting taken care of, you know?

Right.

And then as you get more comfortable and you're like, wow, well, this is great. Then you can look at other things, like using, you know, home service CPA to, like, manage the books, or getting a more qualified, like, virtual assistant to actually handle, like, admin and, like, collecting money and stuff. But the nice thing about somebody that's working.

That you have no relationship to is, like, that is. That's their job. Like, there's a lot of professional services, so a lot of the trust things of, like, hiring people from your past and, like, family members and people like that.

Like, it's their professional, trusted, vetted services. So hopefully, even though it's scary because of the history, I think that you could find a lot of good talent out there to help you out with that.

Okay, that's awesome.

Yeah. It's a terrifying thing to hand off, though. Like, every. Every owner we talk to, it's like, delete your email from your phone, take the app off your phone, like, just stop answering the calls. So I think you could do it for sure.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's scary.

Terrifying.

I know.

And then you're like, well, that's the only one.

Yeah.

So.

So. No, I appreciate it. Yeah. And like I said, you guys have been a godsent. I said we just. I'm on a, I'm on downward spiral personally, just because the stress of the business and you know, even though I know my mom's better off in the home watching my dad, they just celebrated her 59th wedding anniversary. So they've been together 60 years. So having him come home and you know, I mean, so it's, it's a lot to take in every day and then still deal with the business and, and try to figure it out and really have no backup plan. I'll be honest, you guys are the backup plan. I talk to Mike AI more than I talk about personal problems. They're probably like, well, this guy's crazy.

Yeah.

But that's, that's what I got, you know, So I don't, I don't burden other people. I'm like, if I'm talking to the computer, it's probably fine.

Yeah, well, definitely, like, I just want to see you be able to like, breathe a little bit. But in your personal life, in business.

I would, I would say that like, even though it can feel like you're on a downward trajectory, it's really. And you know this just from being in business so long. Like there's just ebbs and flows, right. Of like busy and stress and like it's that 4L framework, right. It's just like when something else breaks, then there's like, it's a chain reaction. So you always got to go back and fix this thing and then fix this problem and then fix this problem. And that's just like how growth is all the time. Especially the growth that you've experienced over the last year, like having those hundred thousand dollar months, like that's huge growth. And that would, that just sucks. Cash sucks your time. And without the systems and procedures in place, it's, it's, it's only a bigger problem that you're fixing. You know, I'm sure you're feeling that.

Yeah, I'm slowly getting systems in place. The biggest thing was like tools. I was, it's crazy. Like I tell people I was literally spending like 5 to 800amonth on hand tools. Like they would just come up missing shovels, rakes, blah, blah, blowers. So what I ended up doing is when we went to 2 Crew and I just did this Like a month ago, because they would all blame. Well, they took it, and I, I, you know, and I'm like, screw it. So I went and bought like another 500 worth of tools, made sure everybody had two shovels, two rakes, two spades, two wheelbarrows, blower, and then I painted them. So this is yours. Every day it's gotta come back. And then anything they didn't use, I went and bought a 500 dog cage and put it in my shop. Like, you know, like your laser level. Your partner saw stuff that don't go out every day or it's not assigned to a crew and locked it up and they have to sign it out. And I'm the only one that's got a key. And I'm like, hey, if tools break, that's fine. Bring them to me. I'll replace them. But if they come up missing, I'm gonna do an audit once a week. It might be both crews. It might be one crew.

I don't know.

We'll figure that out as we go. All of a sudden, all the tools are there every day. Yeah, because we got it really started because two backpack blowers, which are 800 bucks a piece, they got stolen out of the trailer. Well, we have a woods where we dump everything, and it got muddy in the spring, so we had a bunch of rain, and we just dump in the road. Because it's not a gravel road, it's just dirt road. Well, then this summer when it dried out, we took a loader. We found the blowers after we ran over with skid loader. Yeah, I'm like, well, there's 1600 bucks, you know, like, so now that you know, it comes out of their pay and it's time to pay for performance. So we do yellow slips and deductions. All of a sudden, like, oh, oh, stuff matters.

If you have a lawn care business and you've considered joining Augusta Lawn Care and converting it into one of the franchise locations, go check out augustalongareservices.com franchise, where you can see all the numbers and what the performance is of all of our locations.

That's cool, dude.

But that was like our little step of, like, I'm done dealing with this. And, you know, I say, hey, if you. If I have to go do anything, like, if there's a problem, by all means, call me. But if you leave a shovel on a job and the customer calls and I have to go, my time's 100 bucks an hour, and that's coming out of your bonus. And all of a sudden they're doing double takes, triple takes to make sure everything comes back. And I'm like, okay, we know we're on the same page.

Yeah, that's great though. That's like what those are the, like when we look at like a business, there is like, you know, the labor role that needs to get completed, like the doing of the work. There's the manager role of like making sure the work is done efficiently, making sure that it's. All the pieces are in place. And then there's like the architect role of like making sure that the business is heading in a direction that is like profitable and sustainable and like building out the business itself. Right? And like moving you to having more time in like manager and even more time in architect. It will just be like so beneficial because then you come up with that, like that $1,000 fix to a sixteen hundred dollar problem.

And I'm sure, like, the money is one thing, but I bet the, just the relief of not having to go to Lowe's every single day is like another one.

Well, and it's just like. But separate is like Brandon, he has met, was supposed to be the leader. Well, the first day I implemented the tools, they got to be put back. He comes in, he goes, do I really? I put my tools back? I mean, I need them all tomorrow. I said, did the other crew put theirs back? He goes, yeah, they're all hanging up. I said, they need them tomorrow too, so I'll shoot your ass out there and unload them and. But, you know, if that's your leader, that should be the guy going, this is a new rule. But instead, well, do I have to do it? And that's where I'm like, this, that's where it kind of clicked. This ain't the guy. Like, if you're gonna fight me on this because I let you get away with it, the next day they're not doing and we're right back where we are. You know what I mean?

So frustrating, no? Yeah, exactly. Like leadership. But it's very true. You need good leadership. Like the guys are only going to do what the leader of the organization is doing. So with holding up that standard is important, whether it's Brandon or someone else. Like, getting that figure out will be really, really good. That will, that will give you a lot of breathing room as well.

His crew got docked $300 for an issue on a yellow slip last week. You should have seen his, his second guy's eyes when I went over the yellow slip and all of A sudden, he didn't want to work with him no more. He wants to go. But I'm like, hey, this is what it is. You know what I mean?

Yeah. The hard thing is, though, that, like, if you have someone toxic in your culture like that or a low performer or something, that's exactly. The problem is, like, the high performers of the quality teammates that you have, they don't want to work with them. So, yeah, that can be really.

Even with two weeks of P4P, you're like.

Because I can pull it up and go, yeah, it's not just my thought. It's my thought on paper. And I'm like, I can't hide it. It goes from co pilot to P4P. So whatever you do is there. Your only deduction is when you screw up. And I get called.

Then I had to do one a day because, well, it was from a couple days ago. But the customer call goes, hey, you're replacing this azalea bush. And I'm like, what Azalea bush? Well, your guys broke it off, and they said that you would be back to fix it.

Didn't even know about it, but. So they're getting the 50 azalea bush and an hour of my time taking off their pay. They don't know because they weren't here today, but tomorrow they're gonna know, hey, 75 bucks a piece. So maybe you should have spoke up. You know, we're in the past. That would have just been coming out of my pocket, you know? You know what I mean? So there's definitely benefits of, you know, doing that stuff. Right. So.

It'S all part of the systems that Mike's talk about, but, you know, and it's not gonna cost me a dime, so we'll go ahead and. I mean, fixing. It's the right thing to do if we mess it up. But instead of Matt paying his time and that you. You are. And then we're not taking out of your pay. We're taking out your bonus.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? So maybe next time you'll be a little more cautious or speak up, you know, so we'll see. I think it's all good.

We're.

We're headed there. It's just.

Yeah, that sounds like it was a really good step, getting involved in P4P and getting that rolled out, Kind of like opening up the books, showing them, like, the cost of things, cost of not just, like, items, but time. And I bet it's changed their perspective, got them talking to customers.

Like I said. The new guy, that's like a 17, 18 buck an hour player. I was sitting here today because it was a rain day and I'm like, here, Just so you know, you're making 24 an hour. He's like, what?

That's cool.

All you do is do your job, you know, so that's, that's what it's about. All right, that's awesome. Let's say we need a new guy, you know, anybody. Well, I'll find someone, you know, because now he's gonna tell me, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, exactly.

That's what's so nice. It's such a good retention. Tool too, or like even like just tool to be able to find employees because like I'm sure the going rate in the area is like 17 to 18. So to be able to be like, yeah, you can come work here, you'll be self managed, you won't have a manager breathing down your neck all day and you'll make 24 an hour. That sounds pretty good to a lot of people. Employees.

Oh yeah. So yeah. So yeah, it's exciting to see what it holds. It's just trying to get through this law. I just, I just gotta get my head right, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's hard when you're doing everything. It's.

Yeah, exactly.

Your alarm goes off, you're like, oh, what's gonna happen today?

Yeah, yeah. But I think it's, yeah, it's cool that you're, you're like jumping on, doing stuff like this or even having us out there because like a lot of people are, I'm sure, are in your same shoes, like just going through like a lot of personal stuff, a lot of business stuff. And it's just like, it can be so overwhelming. It can be hard to like get up and work and do anything.

Oh, trust me, I, I had a lot of flack after the initial video come out. I think I emailed you, like, get it off. Because there's people actually emailing my customers like, oh, your, your landscaper is going out of business. He's a loot. Like, but it was funny. It kind of backfired on them because the one like we did the landscape on and they did the snow. Well, they sent the video like your landsc loser. He's going out of business. Well, like she contacted me because I had a good relationship. I'm like, no, like, you know, we're just making a judge. She was like, I respect that as a business person. She goes, you want to bid to snow. So we end up getting her snow contract.

No way.

That's awesome.

Because it was just unprofessional how he. He handled it. And I'm like, yeah, you know, so, yeah, I encourage anybody that does it. Like, you're. You're gonna take slack. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. And I got pissed off about some of the comments. Well, you know, he's lazy, he's fat, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, mother, mother effort. Come here and work out. Outwork me. You know what I mean? Like, I can lose weight. You'll still be a douchebag.

It's so true. Yeah. Sometimes the comments can be horrible. Especially like on Tick Tock or something where it's just a bunch of kids and you're like, gosh, this is horrible. So, yeah, we try to just focus on the good ones. Our audience is pretty, pretty positive, but there's always something that slipped through the cracks.

So had some 12 year old talking, and I'm like, dude, you have no idea about life. You know, there's some hair on your balls, you know, come talk to me about life.

Yeah.

Eventually my skin got thick. At first. It kind of hurt. Now I'm like, whatever, you know? So, yeah.

Yeah. Cool, man. Well, Matt, hey, I'll send you over those. Those docs.

Appreciate the time.

The off season stuff, the winter services sales stuff, and if I can find anything on the admin stuff, I'll at least send you over Efren's video so you can check that one out. It's a really good one.

Yeah, check that out.

Yeah. But, yeah, I wish the best for you. Hopefully we'll get a chance here maybe like in a year, year and a half to get back in your area and actually do another, like, coaching session, breakthrough sort of situation. That'd be fun.

Yeah.

Keep Mike in line.

Mm. Well, there.