💸 Why Estimates Should Be Created AT THE CUSTOMERS HOUSE (Mike Andes Coaching Call)

Like, like one of these days what we should do.

I know we haven't had much, I haven't done much landscaping job estimates, but.

Like, just get, just get more. You're going to get this with time. That is just confidence in you being able to do one quickly. Right. And knowing that, okay, if I say 5 yards of mulch, it probably needs 3.8, but I'm going to go with 5, knowing I have a yard and a half extra. Right.

And same thing with hours. Like, okay, is this going to take six hours? Yeah, probably. I'm going to go ahead and put eight because I'm two weeks booked out and it's going to basically take a day anyways. Right. Instead of trying to think about, okay, like, is it six and a half or is it seven? Right. Like just, just right now it's about speed. You're putting so many estimates out right now. Like, I don't think it's be a bad idea. Right, right now, Nick, to go ahead and add an efi.

Like I would say right now. Like, like even if, if you took the ones from, from July, for example, and you marked. I'm just doing it now. And you got. So you sent out 42 estimates and you closed 14. So 33. 33, 30. Close ratio. But like on those 14, if you would have an estimate cf estimate fee of say 30 bucks and there's two line items, like, that's $700 that you would have made. Right? So.

I would do an estimate fee. But also the thing is, I do feel like that speed part is probably hurting your close ratio a bit.

Yeah, just a little bit.

I know right now the close ratio is low because I think a lot of those were snow removal quotes I sent out.

Oh, okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, about 10 of them.

Yeah, sorry. So wait, are you saying, you're saying the EC is going to lower the. Which. Yeah, it would, because it's more expensive. So should I still charge the EC moving forward?

If I was you, Nick, I would charge 20 or $30 a line item for an E fee. And then.

Either, either.

And basically it's going to allow you to afford either command center to send it out for you, or you spend a little more time during the day when you'd otherwise be working putting together the estimate.

Because yeah, like I said, if you had put a 20, $30, that more than pay for command center and give you a little time throughout the day to be able to get the estimates done then. Because when you do them in the evening, you're not as efficient simply due to the fact that you're trying to remember what was there.

Yeah.

Like when you're on the property on their driveway, you can look over there and be like, okay, is that six yards or five yards? Oh, five and a half. Boom. Whereas if you're doing it from home. Yeah. You're going to go to Google Earth and get the square footage because that's the only metric you can use at that time.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay. Yeah, I'm definitely. I've been wanting to. It's not like to do list. I can start doing that for so long, but I'll just bite it and do it.

Well. Yeah. So then another thing that I've been kind. I don't know if you recommend doing this. It just kind of made it easier scheduling wise. Like when I price jobs, like unless it's a really small job, I. I essentially like price it in like four to eight hour blocks of like, okay, I'm gonna give them a full day or a half day to do this.

I don't know if you like recommend doing that. Like say if a job was like by calling us six to seven hours, I would just do like eight hours, you know, then give. That would give either one person a full day or two do a half day to do it.

So I don't know if you guys do that similar. Should I like really trend on the hour of what I think it's going to take?

Yeah, like I would say, you know, great place to start is like half day, full day. That's what I taught like originally in the course. Right. When you're just getting started, it's a great way because then you're not as worried. You're not going to get buried down in the details if it's going to take six or seven. Right. However, with experience you're going to get much more accurate and you might know it's going to take six or seven but still charge eight because it's going to basically take a day's worth of work for someone to do it. The reason that it's important though to get more accurate is on P for P. Right. So when you come around to P4P and you put eight hours on there, but really it's like a long day, that's when they're going to be happy and vice versa. If you put eight hours on there, but really it's only going to take five now you're kind of the opposite direction. Right. So you'll get more accurate with it. But then on the Flip side, if it's a two hour job, there's no way you're just charging two hours. You're gonna charge more because of all the driving and all the rest of it. Even on P4P. Even on P4P. Because they're gonna be mad if you give them, if you gave them four two hour jobs, it'd probably take them a lot longer than eight hours. Right. Because all the drive time. So that, that comes into consideration too. Even on P4P. But you'll get more accurate with time and then it is. It is necessary to be accurate on P4P.

Yeah, yeah. Like I was just thinking a lot of the smaller, like I haven't really been getting the small, small jobs just because like yeah, like the job is actually gonna take an hour but I charge more just because I know like I have to get demolished set up and all that. So. Yeah, like. Anyways, I just wanted to kind of mention that. Yeah, they're small jobs. Yeah, I charge more and it seems like high when I'm charged the client. But it's just like all the back end stuff, you know, it's not just gonna take an hour to do it. Even if it's a small job.

Yep. Yep. Yeah.

All right, perfect. I don't want us to keep here too long, but yeah, sounds. I like the game plan moving forward for this year. Just keep it steady and try to get some reserves for next year.

Yeah. Because when I look at your estimates, I'm just, I've been leafing through them. The thing that I'm look, I'm seeing a pattern, Nick, is when you have like five and six estimates. Estimates on a day, that's when you don't close them.

But it's when you have like one or two, that's when you're winning them. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's just like when you have six, I can almost guarantee you feel like you're running around like a chicken without a head yet home and you're putting them all together.

Yeah, yeah.

Right. So like you know, either a, you limit the amount of estimates you have. Like you book, you book them out even if you tell commands. Or hey, I only want max if you two a day. Or it's like you're gonna take that hit by getting the estimates done when you're on the property taking the time then, you know. But I would, I would, I would try to get your. I think your girlfriend be on board with this. And this is like either have A time that you're allowed to, you know, kind of you have to unplug or B, where it's like when you get home, you have a certain amount of time to do whatever you need to do and catch up. But then just be a really hard set and knowing that you might lose some money but like you've got to protect yourself. Number one.

Yeah, will do.

Awesome, Nick. Well, have a great evening. We'll stay in touch and feel free. If there is, you know, any landscaping one, send me a video over, that's totally fine.

Okay, awesome. Yeah, I appreciate it, Mike, Thanks a lot.

Thanks brother. Have a great evening.

You too.

Bye.

Bye.

That was Nick. He is our franchisee up in Ontario. He's 20 or 21, just an absolute killer. He last year was doing about 3,000amonth in revenue. This past month he did 36, 37,000 in revenue collected. I think 40 something thousand. So really, really proud of him. He's grown, he's got, he has two full time employees now and up in Ontario they do a lot of snow removal. So he just buy a brand new tractor up there. So really looking forward to working with him, but hopefully I help someone. Lots of good content from that. But Nick is awesome young guy, has everything together, works hard, deserves every bit of the success he's seeing right now. So just love having him being part of Augusta Nation.