Using Google Maps to Give Mowing Prices Over the Phone | RoundUP ep.28

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes here for another episode of the Roundup podcast. Today we're talking to Gilly, who started his business about six years ago. He was working the oil fields, and him and his brother decided to start this thing part time, doing mowing, doing landscaping. Three years ago, they went full time, and now they've grown the business to over 300,000 in annual revenue. They're trying to double that in 2022. Today we're going to be talking about how they've gotten a second storage facility, and they're using storage units as a way to grow their business, as well as how they've really professionalized their operations as they've grown the company and actually do estimates over the phone for mowing and for lawn care services. So it's going to be a great episode. If you're just getting started, you're thinking about getting started, or you're trying to take your business to the next level. They're going to be shooting for 600,000 plus this coming year, and I think it's going to be a lot of insight for all of us. Here we go.

Let's go.

Thanks for coming on, Gilly. I really appreciate it. And so maybe just kind of kick things off. Tell us why you started the lawn care business and what kind of got you into the industry.

So to make a long story short, we were. My brother and I were in the oil field for several years, and six. About six years ago.

We got really slow. So the oil field got really slow. So we just decided to just. It wasn't even supposed to be a business. It was just supposed to be something that we just started just to get by and to try to, you know, bring more income. So we went, we got us a mower. We had a trailer already, and we had a push mower. And we just went out and kind of just advertised it on Facebook with family and friends and got us a few yards. And that's kind of how. How it started.

And then how is it in terms of just like working with your. Your brother, obviously, having to kind of, right from day one, I assume, provide and kind of replace the income you're making previously from your job in the oil industry? Was that difficult that first year or two, or did you already kind of start with a run, kind of a Runway, doing some of the lawns on the weekend and kind of easing yourself into it?

Well, it was pretty hard at first. Like I said, we were slow. So we had that time to just, you know, both of us, you know, Help each other out and. But as we got, as we got busier with the oil industry, it became a little harder because we had different days offs. So whenever I wasn't off, he was cutting a few yards or whenever, you know, we just kind of took turns on that.

Awesome. And then, and then, did both of you at the time already have a family when you got the business started?

We did, yeah. Yeah. So we both had, you know, married and kids.

What would your spouse think about that? Like, was it more difficult to kind of convince, like, hey, because I'm assuming the oil industry was a little more stable. You'd been in that field for a while. Was the transition to the, the entrepreneurship self employment side something you had to kind of sell them on.

For, for our families? Is that what you're saying?

Yeah.

Yes, it was. I mean, you know, we just like, you know, we like, I feel like we had our dream job, you know, like that was, we had great benefits, we had, you know, paid vacation and so it was, everything was there. So we felt like that was like that was a dream job, you know, and whenever this opened up and for one thing, I believe it was just God. Like, it wasn't. God was just aligning things for, for us to work for ourselves, you know, and we really started pursuing this landscape industry and it, we really liked it. You know, we liked the work and you know, our dream was to, to one day leave the oil field and just dedicate ourselves to, to just being, you know, self employed and having our own business.

So it was the numbers in those first few years in terms of revenues and were you focused mostly on the, the residential mowing side or what was some of the services you were focused on at the beginning?

So the first three years. So we've been in business for six years and the first three years, I really don't want to count them. I mean, we were in business and we were, you know, or LLC and things like that, but.

We didn't keep track of things like whatever money we were making, it was for us. So it was. And of course we learned a lot from that. You know, it was one of those things that we just wanted to start just to get us by until the oil industry picked back up. And the last three years was whenever we really started saying, man, this is it. This is a business that we can live off of and, and make great income. So the first three years, to be honest, we don't even really know. I want to say somewhere around 20 to 30,000, but. And I have it somewhere we used to use yard books, so I had some, some of that notes and stuff there. But we kind of got off that and we're using Java now. So the, the, the starting in 2019, like, we made 100 and I want to say 137,020, we went up to about 196. And then 2021 was like 340.

So it really grew this past three years. And that, you know, that first year in 2019 was whenever we were like, man, this is it. We can, we can really, you know, make a living out of this and doing what we really like to do, you know.

Did you feel somewhat vindicated in 2020 when the oil industry probably also had a massive slowdown and now you had, you had the business actually to fall on?

Yes, yes. So a few things that we didn't mention in, in 2020.

It was my brother and I and one, one employee, and we were still in the oil industry.

We left for a little bit and then we, you know, we came back still doing the long service. We met this great guy that helped us out. And in 2020, I would work seven days. Seven days and be off. Seven days. And the seven days that I was off, I was doing long service and my brother was. We were alternating. So he was working seven days that I was off. And then we were kind of alternate. So it was just two guys in that year, 2020, basically, two guys, you know, us and then another guy. And in 2021, in, in March or in April was whenever we just decided to just quit the old industry, you know, and go full time. So this is what was, what was.

Sort of the deciding factor there. Like, why did you go full time then? Was just a matter of, like, you knew, that's what needed to grow beyond just the two of you or what was kind of that deciding factor.

The main thing was, was our, you know, we were growing so quick as well, just for, for being two guys and that we weren't really pushing for us to grow. It was just word of mouth and things like that that were just, you know, what was coming in. And also our schedule, like our schedule in the old industry was really, you know, it was bad. Like, we were sometimes we ended up working 30 hours straight, you know, and, and, you know, working night shift and things. We didn't have a consistent schedule. And that's whenever we decided, like, man, let's, let's do it. And I believe we should have done it, you know, maybe a year back ago, you know, maybe even Two years back. But it was, it was kind of like a, you know, I guess sometimes scared, I want to say, or, you know, just afraid to take that leap, you know, into just going full time.

Do you feel like it was helpful having those few years where you kind of doing it part time though, with your job just in terms of confidence, knowing that you would have a ton of work when you did go full time? Was that helpful at least though, from like a financial or even just a fear kind of factor of going full time?

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Like, you know, it helped so much because like you were saying, we gained confidence and giving better estimates and just having that, that conversation with customers and trying to sell work. So, yeah, definitely. Those first three years were real critical. We made so many mistakes and we, those have helped us so much, you know, because we, if we would have went full time, then, you know, I don't know how hard it would have been, you know, for us.

Last year, I assume you, you did you have one or two employees then.

So, you know, whenever it's two employees and my brother and I, so it's four of us now. The, the third, you know, the, our second employee, I want to say he came in the end of July and so he's worked with us throughout the whole season, you know. And so it was three of us, I want to say, the first half of the year and then we, we added someone else.

And then this, this year, your plans are you, you want to double the business. So I'm assuming probably like 600,000 or so is the goal. What, what steps are you taking from an infrastructure standpoint, whether it be trucks or a shop space or what have you been doing? Just kind of allow and facilitate that growth. Like are you operating out of a garage? Are you operating a storage facility? What have you done from an infrastructure standpoint to make sure you can continue to grow?

So the steps that we've taken now is we've doubled our, our storage space. This, we're actually here in our storage. We operate storage facility and we have one and now we're gonna have the one right beside it.

How much do you pay for those each month?

We're paying like 160, right? About 160amonth. So we're gonna have the other one be another 160.

Are those, are those like 10ft by 30ft or something like that?

No, this one's a 12 by 50.

Okay, nice.

They're pretty, pretty good size. And then the other one be the same size 12 by 50. So we're gonna have plenty of room.

To.

Yeah, to help us out, to help us grow. We've been doing that. We've also looking into trying to go with a trailer to set up kind of like how y' all guys run at Augusta. I feel like that's just one of the routes we have to take.

Just to. To be able to be more efficient and things like that. So we're looking into that, into purchasing, you know, maybe one or two trucks to go, you know, with trailer, the setups. And of course, we have to hire employees quick because I know it's already February.

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In terms of finding those employees, are you mostly trying to tap into kind of your existing network and people that you know or what has worked for you? Obviously, you found two last year almost. You're probably looking for a few more this year. What's kind of your strategy for finding those employees?

Well, we. Our current employees, we have asked if they have anyone, you know, that I feel like that can kind of get. They can kind of be able to tell the culture that we have here, you know, and. And we have a better chance of finding better employees if our. Our current employees are telling their friends, you know, how, you know, the cultures that we build here, you know, and that's what we're working on that right now, you know, and then we. We put in a Facebook ad to try to find help as well. And that's our only two options that we have right now that we've done that. We're definitely trying to get some tips and better ways to hire more, you know, or hire employees quicker.

And then in terms of your responsibilities, along with your brother Tomas, what sort of how you delineate who does what in daily operations? Obviously, you're both the owners, but what is sort of do you have, like, hey, I do estimates, and you do, you know, the field and work employees. How do you break up kind of your responsibilities?

So we're going to change it up this year, but last year was, you know, I was doing all the landscaping, and he was just mainly taking care of the lawns. And then we were, we were teaming up twice a week on the commercial stuff just to be more efficient. So he was kind of making his own schedule. And the schedule was pretty much the same for lawn, for lawn service. You know, we were just having to make a few changes, you know, weather delay, things like that. As far as estimates, I was doing the estimates and then he was just taking care of, you know, if he had any estimates, he was taking care of them as well. You know, if he was getting a call or if he was, you know, somebody was stopping him for an estimate. So we were kind of just both trying to do the same thing. But I know it, it's going to work better this year when we both have, we both assign things, you know, that we know we're, we have to do and maybe more efficient that way as well.

Speaking of estimates, what has your process kind of changed in the system for creating those estimates over the past few years? Obviously at the first you were a little more part time. You probably had to work around schedules and things. But what have you done? Whether it be pricing or how you look at jobs, when you go to a customer's property, you're talking to them, you're trying to figure out the pricing, you're creating the estimate. How has that changed over the past few years as you've become a little bit more professional and improve the operations of the business?

Well, years back we were having to go to every property and I was kind of just giving them an estimate right there on site. And that's a good thing. And it's also was a bad thing because, you know, sometimes especially landscape jobs like I was, you know, whenever you go, you leave the property like, man, I should have did this or I should have did that. Now what we do is we just tell them, look, you'll get an email estimate, you get a. Has been sent to your email or by phone number. Jobber does offer that option as well. With lawns, we pretty much try to give all the estimates via satellite that we do have a lot of new homes that we're just going to have to go by there, you know, and try to look at because they're not on Google Maps, things like that. So that has helped out a lot. You know, just trying to be more efficient too, and not having to go to each property to, you know, give an estimate out, especially with like long service and things like that.

And is your brother or yourself the one answering the phone trying to do that estimate live? Then while the person on the phone or do you usually Just get the estimate and then call them back or email them an estimate based upon that square footage.

We were emailing them an estimate, but if it's for long service, we believe that if we, if we were to measure the property there and then and give them an estimate, I think it will work better because they don't have a chance to call someone else or they actually have an estimate right there that second, you know, so we're going to work on that. Normally we would, you know, say we'll reach back out to you and give you an estimate, but we're going to try to. If it's long service, we're going to try to do it over the phone if we can measure the square footage on Google Maps.

And then how are you doing that if you're in the field? Like, is it a matter of, like, you and your brother knowing who is going to take the phone calls for a certain period of time or certain days and then I'm assuming, drop what you're doing and measure the property, or is one of you always kind of in the office at some point?

No, that's been a little challenging because both of us are in the field. So without my phone number, my personal number has become a business number. So I get most of the calls and I haven't kind of dropped what I'm doing to be able to give my estimate, you know, or take their. Take their information so I can reach back out to them. So that's one way we're looking to. To make a change, you know, just to be more. Be more professional too. Because, you know, during last season, I'm not gonna lie, there's some calls that I never returned back, you know, and even though it. It didn't matter if they were gonna, you know, use us or not, I still wanna. I still didn't want to just leave them like that. I wanted to actually reach back out to them, say, listen, I can't do it. You know, just have more communication with that. And that's one thing we're going to have to improve on this season.

And what's your process like when an estimate does come in? Obviously you're mobile. I think a lot of people listening to this are out in the field still. So what does it look like if you are going to try to do the estimate live there? Are you pulling up a laptop, a tablet? How are you actually measuring those properties to get that quote to the client.

If it's for long service? You know, I have my Google, Google Maps on my phone, so I'll pull up the address real quick. Ask them for the code, make sure there are. They are in our zip code and we measure their property. You know, give them an estimate. If it's for landscaping, I would just get their information and then, you know, get a time to meet up with them, you know, to go over things, what they want done and things like that.

And is that something you're just starting out now and then doing over the phone, or is that something you started last year?

No, something we're starting out now.

Very cool, Very cool.

We do a lot of Christmas lights as well. You know, with that. It's been all over the phone, you know, all over. Just Google Maps. We don't even go see a home. We used to measure on Google Maps and give them an estimate like that. And I know that if we apply that same process for lawn service, I think, you know, we'll be on the right track and be more efficient and save up time as well.

For lawn service, I'm assuming it's square footage, but for the Christmas lights, do you do the perimeter like, the perimeter is what the charge is bond per linear foot?

Yeah, so we just try to get a close estimate to, to, you know, the facial of the home and then the ridges of your home, your driveway, and your fire beds. And that's been pretty accurate with Google Maps. We've been surprised with that. We hardly are ever off. You know, if it's a newer home, we would just have to, you know, try to do it in person because they're not on Google Maps.

Obviously, the newer home you have to go visit. Like you're saying, what if there is a lawn that potentially is overgrown? How are you dealing with someone saying, oh, yeah, the grass, I cut it last week. You show up as a foot tall. How do you deal with that in terms of pricing? You just go up to the client's house and be like, hey, look, first mo's got to be more because it's, it's. It's a lot higher. The grass is. How do you deal with those type of customers that happen? Pop up occasionally, or potentially it's only an inch or two overgrown, but then by the time you get there a week later, now it is, you know, six inches overgrown. How are you dealing with that?

That's also been an issue for us. Like, we will. We have to be specific when we talk to them that how long, how long has it been since your lawn been cut and things like that. And if it's overgrown, we have to charge you More, you know, and we try to get them, you know, if it's one of our, I mean, we try to get them on, on a bi weekly or weekly, weekly basis. So that way we know they're maintained bi weekly. We have a lot of homes here that are just no irrigation or they have a lot of trees and things like that. So we just do bi weekly with them. But we don't, we really don't like doing just one time cuts as well, especially during the busy season. I think now we can justify that because, you know, we are a little slower girl. And see in the busy season we want to do something that's recurring.

What are you doing right now? As it is February, we're heading into the spring rush here. Soon it gets really, really busy in your area, especially in April. What are you doing right now in terms of working on the business? I know you probably just came through a busy time, even just the holidays and getting all the lights down, et cetera, but what are you doing in this kind of interim over the next, you know, four to six weeks where you do have the opportunity to work on the business? Are there certain things you're trying to implement before the spring rush?

We are. So we're, we're looking over our schedule and adjusting our schedule mixture each day is feel, especially with the lawn mowing. We are doing some training, you know, with employees and things like that and working on our trucks, just making sure they're, you know, they're ready to go, especially our mowers too, you know. So that's kind of things that we're doing and trying to get ahead.

You know, here for March or April when it gets really busy.

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Awesome. And kind of to wrap things up, Gillian, what would you say to someone that is potentially working a job right now? They're trying to do some lawn care on the side and they're concerned about making the big jump. They're concerned about going full time. What was it for you now, in hindsight that you would say to that individual to give them the courage to either make the jump or potentially what should they be looking at to be sure whether or not they should go full time into their lawn care, landscaping Business.

I was used to just try to get before you make that jump, make sure that you are. This is what you want to do. It's a big difference between doing it part time and doing it full time, you know, doing it part time. If you go mow 2 or 3 yards, you're not as wore out or you're not. It feels good, you know, to just go out there and cut grass. But if you're doing it, you know, if you could 20 yards a day, you know, with someone else, it's. It's more, you know, a little bit different, you know, so make sure that that is what you want to do. And another thing is get all the practice you can, you know, because.

I guess I want to say make some of the mistakes early in the business, you know, not pricing a yard right. And things like that. So whenever you do go full time, you kind of have a system in place. And, and now, I mean, there's just so much, so much on YouTube, you know, so much on YouTube. I don't think that it was this much available, you know, six, seven years ago. So YouTube is the way to go, you know, podcasts, things like that, just to help you out and be. Be more better at the business, you know. So whenever you do go full time, it'll. It'll be less mistakes that you make.

The last question I have for you, and that revolves really around the partnership between you and your brother. I know some people are against partnerships, some people are for partnerships. How is there something you guys do just to kind of keep sanity between the two of you? Obviously, you not only are business partners, but your family. Has there been some certain delineations or lines? You guys say, hey, we're not going to cross these lines, or we have to turn business off at a certain time just to preserve that partnership relationship. Especially when it's not like you can just, you know, break the partnership and never see this person again because you're actually family. I know I've worked with my brother in the past. I know that some partnerships go well, some partnerships go bad. What do you feel is sort of the secret sauce or something that you all have done that as kept you aligned as you've grown the business?

One of the things is that that's helped us out so much is that we worked together since. Since we were in high school. Like almost every job that he's been on, you know, I was following him or he was following me. So we worked together for a long, long time. So we, we kind of bonded, really really good. And I believe that was just something that God was setting up for, for now. Because we. I don't think we ever have had an argument, you know, and if it's something that's just, you know, joking around, things like that, things that we do do, just to know that, you know, just so we don't have any, any confrontations in the future, is that we keep good communication with work. We really don't talk much about work whenever we're with our families, you know, we do get together a lot of. We go with our parents, something like that. So we try to, you know, not. I know it's hard sometimes because we're both work together and we hope sometimes we have things we had to say or things that we forgot, but we try to kind of keep work out of it, you know, and just. Just, you know, be with family, you know, whenever we do have family time. And he respects, he respects my time if I'm at home and I do the same thing, you know, I don't just call in the middle of the night, tell him about work or things like that. You know, we always try to save that for the next. For the next day.

That's awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on, Gilly. Can you kind of share where people can find you and kind of where ox is going right now in terms of where people can maybe reach out to you?

Well, we do have a YouTube channel. We don't post much videos. We just post things about Christmas lights this past year. So we do have a YouTube channel. We're trying to work on that. We do have Facebook and Instagram Page aux services. You can find us there. And yeah, that's about all. All we have right now, social media.

Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on, brother, sharing your experiences and best of luck in 2022. Maybe we'll connect this time next year after you've blown it out of the park and done a six or seven hundred thousand dollars year.

Definitely in Jesus name. Believe that.

I appreciate it, brother. Take care. Bye. Thanks so much for tuning in today to another episode of Roundup. If that was something interesting to you and you learned something, comment below, share the message with other landscapers so we as a community can come together and learn and grow our businesses. If you would like to be on the Roundup show and actually interview with me just like we did today, feel free to go in the description. There's a link there. Fill out the form and we'd love.

To talk to you.

If you are wanting to share with the industry and help other people grow their business. Thank you so much. I will see you next episode.