ZERO TURNOVER for 12 Months! $50K/Month Revenue, 4 Employees - Lawn Care Business

You know, I've been at this for 10 years now.

And to see how it's actually supposed to run.

To the way I was doing it, this is the way to do it, you know.

Morning, everybody. We are now in Massachusetts, specifically Sandwich, Massachusetts, where we are meeting with Jeff Bromley. We drove yesterday from New York over to here, and we were supposed to film in the afternoon, but it was just a torrential downpour. And so we rescheduled for this morning before we went to the airport. We're going to get this filming in and do a team meeting probably, or hopefully if we have time here. And Jeff is an awesome dude. The commands there. Loves working with him. I love working with him. He's just so, you know, willing to learn and change his business model. He came to Augusta already doing, you know, already having his four employees. So this year has been really being rebuilding year, setting up for next year's growth. So he didn't grow a whole lot this year. It was more about implementing P4P. He just changed a lot of the systems and the procedures and things like that. And so I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out of this one because he's really already has a little bit of scale in terms of size of the business, but he's implemented the system this year to allow for some pretty good growth next year. So I'm really looking forward to this one. What's cool about this one as well is before he became a franchisee, I actually did a zoom call meeting with his entire team. So they all kind of know who I am. I did another zoom call meeting with his whole team after they had implemented P4P and they had ironing out some of the kinks and had questions and things like that. So what's kind of cool is I know all of his employees that are there right now. So let's go ahead. This is our last.

Location we're visiting on this visit. Both a little bit tired, ready to get back home, but this one should be a good one. This is probably one of my favorite locations in terms of just someone who's really willing to take the systems we talk about and make changes, changes in their existing business. One thing to do when you're just getting started, like most of franchisees, but when you have an existing business that you're transitioning over to Augusta, there's a lot of changes and systems that we use to simplify the business. And change is not easy, but change is necessary.

Jeff, how's it going? I assumed the decals came in Yesterday.

They came in.

Two days ago.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. You know what's funny is they gave. They stuck somebody else's phone number in there. No way.

That's hilarious. It's happened to us several times. Did they get this all done then, too, right? Oh, did this get all painted?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So let me introduce you.

Yeah.

Guys. You're Josh, right? Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming out. Yeah, Mike, thank you so much for coming out.

Yeah, yeah. I heard yesterday was like, the first day of rain in, like, three months.

Oh, yeah.

We're in.

Still in it, like 10 inches, they were saying.

Brought it along with it.

I was gonna say they were like, I don't know. Guys are like, I don't know if this is a good day. I'm like, this is a Washington day. Like, these guys are ready to shoot. Right? Isn't that what you.

Well, in North Carolina, we did shoot in the rain. Yeah. Because we had to. But then yesterday I was driving. I was like, there's no reason for us to rush this if tomorrow's gonna be nice. And so, Josh, like, it's gonna be nice weather in the morning. So, like, that's what switch.

But, hey, guys, I don't know if you already met.

We've already kind of chatted a little bit.

Okay. So Mike. Mike.

Yep. Yep.

Mike, Josh, Seth and Nick's in there getting some stuff together.

Cool. Very cool.

Yeah. And Joe is on his way. We have a couple trucks that are being worked on, so he's coming back with a U Haul.

And.

And then I just wanted. Can we talk for a little bit this morning? What do you have? I guess we'll finish loading up and then.

Yeah, yeah, do your thing. Do your thing.

But I just wanted to say. Can I just say a couple things?

Yeah, go for it.

You know, I've said this in the past, and I'm continuing to say, you guys all need to know that you do an excellent job here. And.

You know, the reason I know that is because we get very, very few customer complaints, you know, and that is so huge for me because I think back to my earlier years, and, you know, if I get a call, it's something that I need to work on. It's not the quality of the work and the, you know, professionalism on the job. So you guys nail that. You've nailed it all summer. I just wanted you to know that. And you're all professionals, and I truly appreciate that. And, you know, there's been a lot of change this year. But I think we've gotten a lot of things headed in the right direction. We have the service autopilot software, which is much better than what we were using.

And what were you using before?

Work Wave.

Work Wave. Don't want to talk about it.

But.

You know, we P4P, that's the biggest one. And I know all of you, I can say with confidence they're making more on an hourly. If you look at the hourly rate than you were last year. So that's huge.

You know, we had. There's some stuff happening in the background that you guys don't see much of. But we have the command center now. It's answering the phones. You know, we're getting the estimates out a lot quicker.

And, you know, as we move forward into next season, you will still be implementing a lot of things, but we definitely made a lot of, I feel like a lot of good progress this year. And.

You know, we're headed in the right direction. I feel like.

And beyond that.

I just, you know, I want all of you to know that this is much bigger than just me. This isn't like, sometimes you guys will say, talk to me in the sense that it's like my business. Well, yeah, my name might beyond this LLC here, but you know, in the big picture, ideally one day I want you guys to be out on your own. You know, learn the systems, see what happens here, see how we grow through it, we work through it. And then, you know, maybe it's not what you guys want, but that's at least what I want for all you. Because I know all you can do it. I know all you can have your own operation. There's plenty of terrain, there's plenty of room here. And, you know, I've been at this for 10 years now and to see how it's actually supposed to run to the way I was doing it, this is the way to do it. You know, it's real simple startup. You just need a truck trailerless setup, ideally. And all of Mike's marketing skills in your. You're up and running. You know, the pricing is extremely fair. I feel like tremendous value for what you get. All right, I know that's long term and down the road, but I truly want what's best for all of you. And I feel like one day, when the time's right, if you want it, this is the way to do it. All right? Like, I was looking at the truck yesterday and I was like, this is the golden arches of Lansky.

It's.

I'm serious, you Know.

I say that and it's. We laugh. But in all seriousness, you know, this industry.

I don't think there's anything out there like this and what's happening. I feel like we're in like, right place, right time, you know, and.

You.

Know, there's only two guarantees in life. You know, you got to get a ticket in and you got to take it out. You got that small chunk of time it's, you know, in there to do the best you can with. And I know the day to day grind wears on you, but you got to remember that that time is a gift, all right? And.

The things that people stingiest with, other things you can't take with you, all the material things. But the thing that's finite time, we're the freest with. So just remember that you guys are all young guys. You got a lot of years ahead of you, God willing. And I just want the best for you. All right? And very, very fortunate to have this opportunity here to grow with Mike. So thank you.

All right. Yeah, we'll be here today. We'll bounce around your jobs. Really our goal is just get videos and pictures for like next year, especially as we start to market and grow and things. So we'll use a lot of this videos and pictures down the road for social media and things, the website. But yeah, like on my end, you know, when we video called like a year ago, I guess first of all, let me say, like, it's crazy rare that the same four guys I talked to a year ago on a team are still at a place like the year after. Like, it's insane. It really is. So, like, you guys got something really kind of special here. I told this to Jeff a year ago, but not knowing that like, we'd be here a year later and like still talking the same people, like in this industry, that does not happen. Like, the same four people in a small business like this, usually you turn them over every 12 months. You'd have four new things. Right? So I think it's a testament to really all of what you guys are building. And like, I honestly, like, Jeff is just so transparent. I think that's kind of why we all like, like him. He's just like, we know when he's not doing good and we know he's not when he is doing good. Right. And he's just really open and honest and like, that's what I appreciate about him. But you know, even our calls that we've had, like this year's, I know been a lot about change for P4P here, just a lot of different changes. But the way that like no one even left over that and like there was some hiccups, bumps, we had to kind of iron out and that no one left over that stuff is pretty awesome. You guys kind of stuck through it and like figured it out and that's what's going to make this location successful. I generally believe this is my favorite location because Jeff and you guys implement systems, right? A lot of the other companies that come to us, about half of them are newbies, right? Never, never done landscaping or just getting started. Right? Then you got the other half who have already flown 4, 5, 6 employees and it is a struggle to get them to change. They've been doing the same thing for 10, 15 years. How long have you been doing this?

This is our 10th year, Mercy.

So like, like when someone's been doing the same thing for 10 years, it's hard to change them. And so the fact that you guys did all this change this past year, like no one left or like there wasn't like a massive blow up and like you all just kind of like figured things out together. Like kudos to you guys, like honestly. And so everything Jeff said, I honestly actually believe that all of you could own your own landscape or any business, honestly. Because like that get takes some guts and like to stick together through all that. So in relation to that though, like what Jeff was saying, yeah, one of our, our, our guys locally, he just started his own franchise just about hour and a half from our location. And kind of the same what Jeff was saying, just kind of like learning from what we're doing, learning the systems, knowing how things work, like you have a great advantage whether whether it's August or like something else, like learning systems of like P4P that should go in every industry, right? If you are really passionate about like building and you want to build houses, become a contractor that uses P4P. You will become the most efficient. You will beat other contractors pricing, you have the happiest employees and the customers will like your prices a lot more. Right. Like it's some just things that you can learn to pick up here that like will translate to whatever you're gonna do down the road. And if it is Augusta, like by all means you're going to learn service, autopilot and everything else here that will really set you up for that. And so I know, I know he put him onto the podcast, which is awesome. The fact that you're listening to a business podcast is awesome. Like our guys, the Biggest change for our guys when they come in. Like, Josh has been with us for like four and a half years before he became, you know, video guy. Now he used to actually work, believe it or not. But your roots are in Lansky, right? He's lost his good stuff. Slim, trim. Look, after going to video, I stay behind the camera.

But you know, when they first come, a lot of times the biggest transition is to the mindset probably that you have already based upon listening to a podcast like that. And that is trying to just make yourself better, right? Whether it be in business, marketing, leadership, like, that's a huge thing. Those things translate to wherever you go, whether you go start your own business, go get a better, you know, in an industry that you're more passionate about, you know, a management position, that stuff all translates, right? So I just feel like when we, when we hire people, we tell them, like, look what you're going to learn here, like mowing and landscaping, like the skills here, you can kind of get that anywhere, right? Like you can go on YouTube and figure out a lot of the stuff we do on a day to day basis. What the value here is going to be being able to have a place where you can like go figure out leadership, talk to a customer, figure out pricing. Like, if you really want to like, learn, I'd be pushing Jeff on pricing. Like, how do we come up with these numbers? Like, okay, the budget hours, how do we come up with that? How do you think about that?

Wondering where the numbers are at in the business, right? And this is something that even at conference, probably next year will be a big change for Jeff, is like open book management, profit sharing, all of those sort of things, you're gonna even get know more and more of that. And if that's something that you think, like, that's where I want to be at, just pull on Jeff as much as possible. Like the reason Nick, who's the one, the guy starting a franchise, he worked for about a year and a half now and just like turned his whole life around. Like, he literally, like, he's like, I'm gonna start a business. Started living in his van to save money. He's now got enough money to start his own franchise. And like he's 20, 21, 21. And like he's just gonna kill it. Like, because he's learned, like, literally you, you are in the spot where you know all the systems, you, you know, service, Autopilot, you know, P4P, you know exactly how things should run. And like you're set up for It. Right. So if it's ever something you're interested about, let me know. Jeff has my number. I don't know, you guys might have. No, we don't, because it was zoom. But feel free anytime to contact me, reach out. But I think, honestly, regardless of whether it's, you know, with Augusta or whatever, like, just pull on Jeff as much as possible. Use him as a resource, like learn the business, the number side of things, and like, how he's doing stuff with estimates. Like, why are we doing certain things this way? Because I know from my perspective with Jeff is next year we gotta focus on profitability. This year we really focused on systems, making really important changes, I feel. But now next year we gotta grow and we gotta really focus on profitability and putting money in the bank. That's something we haven't done for years. It's something that locally this year, figuring out systems isn't necessarily an instant profitability fix, but it's necessary to become profitable and allow the business to grow and. And allow you to take on more jobs, things like that. Right. So I think we have a really good foundation. That's when I think about this location. This morning I was talking to Jock, like, what am I going to talk about? We have a team meeting. But in my mind, the thing that came to my mind is like, I think we set a really good foundation this year. And so whether that be hiring more people next year, whether it be getting more jobs, getting more and more, you know, actually marketing, growing, I think we got a really good foundation. And whether that means the four of you or the foundation work for the next five to 10 employees, and now you're kind of, you know, what's going on. You're the OGs of how what hourly looks like versus P4P and be able to teach someone else that is like, oh, this is crazy. Like, you know, like, walk them through it. Like, that's just invaluable, the skills you'll get there. Because if you go to another job, the thing that they're gonna be looking for is like, can you manage people? Can you look at numbers and know what they mean? Can you talk to a customer? Those are things that are like, worth a lot more than 15, 20, 20 bucks an hour. Right. And so I'm just really proud of you guys. Like, honestly, the fact that the four of you have all stayed throughout what. All the craziness that Jeff's pulled you through for the past 12 months is. Is really awesome. And so I'm just really happy to be able to drop by and get some video and pictures for you guys.

That man, he's never going to go out of business. No. Because he makes sure that everybody is 100 satisfied.

Yeah.

He's probably one of your best, best advocates.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. He's awesome.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. And all those guys are awesome, too. Oh, don't even talk about that.

Oh, this guy Mike.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Oh, yeah.

All right, so that's a wrap. That is the last shot, the last visit of the day, whole trip, actually. We're just wrapping up here in Sandwich, Massachusetts. We're driving back to Rhode island and gonna be flying out and should be getting back in Seattle in about 12, 15 hours from now, late tonight. And so thank you all so much for coming along for the ride. For the past, you know, 10 days, we've been traveling. We visited. Okay, let's recap. So we went to Oregon, then went to Texas, then we went to Colorado, then we went to Arkansas, then we went to Tennessee, then we went to Mississippi, then we went to Kentucky, then we went to North Carolina, then we went to New York. And then we. Let's finish things off here in Sandwich, Massachusetts. So 10 states, 10 days, 10 franchisees. That's the name of this. This video. Thanks so much, everyone, for hopping in and kind of coming along for the ride. And if you're interested in starting a franchise, let me know, go to augustalongcareservices.com franchise. A lot of people do like to get their franchise started in the winter. That way they can get everything ready to roll for the spring rush. We'll see you then. Thanks so much for supporting the channel. Landscapebusinesscourse.com check it out. Thanks so much. We'll see you next time.