Will Augusta wipe out the industry? What change is coming & Double your Profits!!

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Lawn care business course podcast. Listen while you work edition. Today we're going to be talking about the biggest threat coming to the lawn care industry. Some massive change that's on the horizon for us and the best way to double your profits. You're not going to want to miss this. And as always, if you guys want to check out the video versions of these episodes, head over to Mike Andes on YouTube. But let's talk about the biggest threat coming to the lawn care industry and answer the question, will Augusta wipe out small business? Here we go.

If you don't do that, you're going to get wiped out and I'm giving you 10 to 20 years to figure things out.

All right, so I got this comment on a video that I made last week that I wanted to address because I thought it was actually a really good question and something that we should address. And that is, is Augusta Lawn Care going to wipe out every other landscaper and independent that currently is working? And this is on the heels of a video I made here. You can watch it about domination. And I likened the way that Amazon did took over the market over the course of 20, 30 years in E commerce to kind of the same direction how we're using Augusta Lawn Care to take a very segmented, broken apart industry like lawn care and landscaping and in the future dominate it. So this is the question and the comment that was presented. So Justice Tiger 1980, which is kind of funny given what was said here. So nice of you to tell all your loyal followers how you plan to crush their little business that they are pouring their heart and soul into. I hope everyone is paying attention and reading between the lines in one video you tell everyone to raise their prices and now you reveal that with your massive infrastructure, you plan to someday hit a price point with which they can't compete in essentially wiping them out. So this is the deal first and foremost. Like Amazon, they will never control 100% of the market. They've really hit saturation around that 50 to 60% marker because there's still a lot of very competent people that do E Commerce. Walmart, like literally Shopify, is made up of small business owners that are crushing it over the past couple years and making tons of money doing exactly what Amazon did. And so at the end of the day, I truly believe when it comes to lawn care and landscaping, I will only put in Augusta Lawn Care will only put the companies that do not listen to this content out of business. So for the person watching this, you should not be Worried you're going to probably be changing, evolving, educating yourself. And as technology begins to evolve, as the industry evolves, as we are constantly changing and improving what the customer's expecting in terms of professionalism, if you're adaptive, if you're willing to make those changes, you will not go out of business. You will absolutely make money. And as you've heard me talk about in the past is, I truly believe that the next couple decades is going to be the golden era for lawn care and landscaping, because the baby boomer generation that holds the wealth of our country is aging and a lot of their wealth is wrapped up in real estate. They're going to want to make sure that their property is taken care of and that it is improved. I don't think there's any scarcity in terms of what is on the horizon. For someone who's not at Augusta, do I feel that in 10 to 15 years, a massive advantage will be going to someone who's a part of Augusta Nation? Absolutely. It's my business. I have that in my vision. And that's what we're trying to build. That is the moat we're trying to build. And I stand by everything I said in that last video. Let me also be clear by the fact that there's a lot of retailers that actually have really won and made a lot of money and been very successful doing exactly what Amazon could not do. And I've been very open and transparent about things that Augusta Lawn Care, as we scale, systematize, copy and paste, make many locations, there's gonna be things we cannot do. We don't focus on super high custom end jobs. We don't focus on work that takes highly skilled employees. There's gonna be no time in the world where we have 5,000 locations that do a bunch of excavation, tree work, arborist work. All of that we will never, ever touch. So therefore, that's always going to be a great opportunity to take advantage of and have a premium service that someone like a quote unquote, Amazon of the lawn care industry doesn't do. And again, we're talking like 10 to 20 years. So if you're like, oh, man, I'm worried you're going to take me out, you got a long time to figure out how you can make sure you are evolving, constantly changing. But yes, I do believe that people who don't have a website, that do not have professional staff, that aren't trained and can communicate with the customers, that don't adopt technology when it comes to communication or with video and audio with their team as well as communication with the customer via having someone pick up the phone and have automations and credit cards on file and have a backend office system. Like if you don't do that, you're gonna get wiped out. And I'm giving you 10 to 20 years to figure things out and I'm giving you all the tools and resources and I give you free videos. I've made over a thousand free videos for you to figure out how to do things right. This is what you should be doing. And so if you wanna consider it a warning, sure. But for most people watching this that are adaptive, growing and they're gonna figure out a way to still survive, it doesn't matter if someone comes in and takes 30, 40% of the market. But for someone to think that they're gonna dominate this market, they almost have to be out of their mind. So that's why some people would say I am. Right now, Brightview holds less than 2% of the value and the market share of lawn care and landscaping. And by the way, it's like almost 0% of residential lawn care and landscaping services. So the ideology that someone's gonna come in and let's just do a, say a 20 billion do company, they're literally gonna have still a small piece of the pie. There's a whole lot revenue out there, still might build massive businesses in this industry. I truly believe that a rising tide floats all boats, comma, unless they are anchored down. And so if you're watching this content and you've been following and you have lawn care web design and you follow the course and you watch these videos and you implement things like lawn carebookkeeper.com and even if you don't use my services, but you actually adopt the psychology of culture and using P4P to be competitive with labor, if you do all those things, you're gonna be just fine. So if you're anchored down to the way you've been doing things for the past 20 years, if you're anchored down to the idea that technology is going to disrupt this industry over the next couple decades, if you are oblivious and blocking off the ideology that you need software on your side to control labor and have systems and communicate, if you're blocking yourself off that and you're anchored down on old mentalities, yes, you will sink. But if you're buoyant, if you are adaptive and willing to grow and learn, you will absolutely ride the wave and the current and the tide that Augusta would be become wind at your back. But if you are willing to be buoyant and willing to rise with that tide and make changes in your business, it'll only do good for you, your business and for your profit margins. And just keep in mind the math here. Even if Augusta Long here gets 1,000 or 2,000 locations in North America, we are still a tiny, tiny little fraction of the number of landscaping businesses that will be in operation. The thing that is going to put people out of business is not Augusta Lawn Care getting more locations. It's going to be people's inability to adapt to the technology that comes about from Augusta being able to have the resources to reinforce certain industry standards that we believe in. We believe that customers should get their phone call answered right away. We do not believe that estimate should take 3, 4 weeks to get back to a customer. We do not believe that putting cash or check underneath the customers front doors mat is a good customer experience. And we do not believe that having people smoking, drinking, half drunk on drugs on a customer's property is the standard for this industry and has put an absolute bad reputation on what lawn care and landscapers are looked to as because we are seen as like entry level. My goal is to change that. And we're going to use our technology to make the landscaping professional a profession, a trade like you think of an electrician or a plumber. And so for the people that don't adapt to that, they're not going to be able to compete. And we've started with something simple like P4P4P software dot com. It is a system that takes labor and makes it more efficient. That's just the tip of the iceberg. As we begin to use technology, whether or not you get on that train, whether or not you ride that wave and that current as it begins to rise, as the tide begins to rise, whether or not you stick in your heels and like, oh no, like I'm not doing that, I'm doing hourly. It's so much easier.

I've done it for a long time.

It'S worked just fine. If that is your mentality, you will fail. And it's not going to be a gusta lawn care that puts you out of business. Every single gust of lawn care did not exist. Tomorrow you'd still eventually be put out of business because there's opportunity and capitalism is efficient. And as technology gets more and more efficient, that is the thing that's going to wipe out 60 to 80% of lawn care operators in this industry is going to be their inability to embrace, adapt to and take advantage of technology. We are literally 10 to 20 years behind where the precipice of technology is. And as that gets introduced, whether or not you jump on that ride is going to be the determining factor of whether or not you can find employees. Whether not you're able to compete with chucking a truck down the street that's doing cash on the table. You will not be able to compete with that person. You will not be able to compete with that self employed individual. I know how hard it is to compete with someone doing lawns for $15 or $20. The only way you'll be able to compete with that while doing it legally is through technology. And so in the next 10 to 20 years, adapting that technology, adapting systems like P4P to systematize labor and create systems around your business so it's not all running on you and how hard you work and how great you are at selling, but rather it runs on systems that will be the determining factor of whether or not Augusta Lawn Care or any other business or any other technology wipes you out or you ride the wave of innovation. I truly believe that everyone listening to this is not complacent. They're not sitting back on their laurels and they're not going to allow things to change in this industry without adapting and constantly staying ahead of the curve. That's why I make this content. That's what Augusta stands for. And that's why every single franchisee at Augusta Lawn Care, the standard by which we allow them into the system, comes down to whether or not they're willing to help their competitors, whether or not they're willing to step in and help when someone's truck goes down, whether or not they're willing to meet for lunch, we do not look at this as a winner take all approach. We truly want the people that are working around us to succeed because a rising tide floats all boats. And if we all have a higher level of professionalism, if we all treat our employees correctly, that will improve the professionalism, that will improve the perception, and that will improve the margins of our businesses. Whether or not someone joins Augusta Lawn Care, I'm not really too concerned with. My goal at the end of the day with Augusta, is to change the level of professionalism in the industry. And if fear is the only thing that's going to make someone do that because they're afraid we're going to wipe them out, mission accomplished. Because we're going to change this industry one way or another.

Hopefully that was insightful for you guys so that you can Be part of the rising tide, raising the level of professionalism in the industry. Before we get into this change that's on the horizon for us, I want to let you know about lawn care. Web design is the very first thing you should do if you are trying to raise the level of professionalism in your own business. And with this service, we keep your photos up to date, your SEO up to date, and you own the website. So check it out. Lawn CareWeb Design.com Take your business to the next level. But let's hear what Mike has to say about the next 15 years of lawn care. Here we go.

You're going to be wiped out. You've got to get on the train because it's, it's going to be.

Hey, everyone, my name is Mike Andes. I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care. We have almost 100 locations around North America. And today I'm talking to you about what the future of the lawn care and landscaping industry is going to be. And I'm going to project 15 years into the future and tell you what I see in this industry. So whether you're just getting started, you're thinking about starting a lawn care business, or you've been in the industry for quite some time, I feel like this is important information if you want to stay in business, be relevant, and run a really profitable business over the next couple decades. Obviously, if you watch my content, you know that I'm very bullish on the lawn care landscaping industry over the next couple decades, mostly due to the fact that the wealth of our country is held by baby boomers. And baby boomers are now coming to the age and in the age bracket where they physically cannot do the work that they need to be done, that needs to be done on their property in terms of trimming bushes, mowing their lawn, doing their landscaping. And so I'm very, very bullish on this industry as a whole, and there's a great opportunity. I also feel like there's a massive shift that's about to come over the next couple decades. And today I'm going to go over the five different things I see coming down the pipe for the lawn care and landscape industry and something you should be thinking about and educating yourself about in all of these areas. The first one is robotics. And, and again, some of these are not, like, gonna be surprising. And I'm not here to say, like, you know, to predict anything necessarily as much as just say this is the changes that are gonna happen and these are the things you wanna be aware of and be Thinking about if you wanna stay relevant. So robotics. I do not believe that trimming bushes, edging and the like will ever be fully automated by robots. What will be automated first and in the next 15 years is going to be mowing and treatment. Those are services that are twofold. One, high intensity of labor. Two, they are also very high profit margin for the treatment side. And three, they can also be potentially hazardous and dangerous. Both chemicals as well as blades turning very quickly. So whenever you combine high labor cost, high margin for treatments, and then a high potential of danger in terms of chemicals or injury, massive opportunity for technology in the form of robotics to take over. Now the biggest obstacle to robotics taking over is going to be the cost, the cost of those robotics. The thing is right now, the infrastructure and the technology is already in place. But no one is going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to get a few mowers. That's just not going to happen. The cost of that machinery, the cost of that equipment needs to come down substantially. And furthermore, the mass adoption of this will happen when it will be a unit that can go, can plop onto an existing mower and it's going to be like an add on. That's when the adoption will take off the fastest. But again, whether it be lidar or videos and pictures that are used, or any sort of radar around the mower, for example, it's going to be a while before the cost of that technology actually works well for the mowing side of things. Treatment side of things I actually think is going to be the first step for robotics. And there's already plenty of companies in both of these sectors that are figuring it out. But mowing and treatment, in 15 years, robotics will absolutely be taking it over. And you're like, well, what do I do if I'm mowing lawns? You're gonna be just fine because you still gotta edge the property. You gotta blow off all the sidewalks and the walkways, trim the bushes, install the mulch. And those things are not gonna be.

Done by a robot.

There's just no time that a robot is going to be able to trim a bush and know exactly every single bush on the property and have everything down. Like there's just, that's not happening for decades, like way off. All of us will be dead by the time robots show up at your property unmanned and are trimming all the bushes, hauling away debris, throwing it in the back of a dump truck. That's happening way down the road. So right now, the lowest hanging fruit that's gonna happen in the next 15 years is gonna be mowing and treatments. And again, I stated why those are gonna happen. But the reason it's gonna take 10 to 15 years is going to be because the cost of that equipment needs to come down. The technology's already there. There's multiple companies already have that. This works just fine. In what I see, the opportunity for mowing is going to be that this machine comes off of the trailer and you mow the lawn one time and buy it manually. But it programs into that mower exactly what it should be doing and exactly the area. And using GPS coordinates, knows where to avoid and what to go around. And then every time thereafter can be pushed to push a button and it goes and does its thing. I think that's gonna be the most efficient route of doing it on a residential property. On commercial, there's already really good applications for this because there's so much open air. If you're going back and forth, mowing's not a problem. It's gonna be around residential things. Smaller properties, more curves, more turns. That's where the market is going to be a little bit longer adoption before robotics can actually use for mowing. And so down the road though, when that happens, you push the button, the mower can start doing stripes and do the property. And then the operator would then be able to edge, blow and do all the fine tuning of that property. Again, this is 15 years down the road, but it's not going to be 40 and it's definitely not going to be in two or three. So if you think robotics are going to take over your business, I do not believe that even if you're in mowing, even if you're in treatments, because there's going to be parts of the service that Stewart require human interaction. And that's the part you can still differentiate yourself from every other competitor. All right. The second thing that is going to be absolutely a big theme in this industry and is no surprise to us because we feel it, it gets worse every single year. And that is the labor issues that we are going to have over the next couple decades. Not so much because of low unemployment, but more a matter of the fact that entry level employees would rather take a pay cut and not work outside, not work in the heat, not work in the elements. And furthermore, it's becoming harder and harder to hire like the H2B program and immigrants. And as immigration becomes difficult, more and more difficult, and the politics behind that, it's going to become more and more difficult to find people that want to work outside are willing to work 30, 40, 50 hours in the blazing heat, in the cold, in the rain. It's going to become harder and harder and harder. This is not a news flash to anyone. And I truly believe that that's why robot will.

Foreign.

That's pretty insane. Hearing that the next five things coming for the industry is going to be robotics, labor fragmentation and consolidation of our market, software and electric. I feel like we all saw that coming. But it's on the horizon. Before we jump into the number one way for you to double your profits, let me just tell you about a little bit of software that we're working on. P50P software. It's the best way to pay your employees based on performance and not just an hourly wage. So check that out and set up a call with brad@p4psoftware.com. But let's jump into the best way to double your profits. And this isn't just for the lawn care guys. Listen up, landscapers. This is for you too. Here we go.

Foreign.

Time and time again. Simplification is the best way to double your profits. But that's all that we have for you guys on the listen while you work edition. But if you guys want to check out the video versions of any of these or any future videos, check out Mike Andy's on YouTube.