0:00
back to Callahan’s Corner we asked the
0:01
questions handsome live right here on
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Facebook got another question submitted
0:04
through the Facebook users group here uh
0:07
Amanda says when billing for weed spray
0:09
by the gallon uh how are you putting
0:11
this through service autopilot as a
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product or a service in the past we’ve
0:16
always done this as a service but it
0:20
seems to be better if processed as a
0:23
product included with the existing
0:25
Service uh both in amp on the dispatch
0:27
board uh would love to hear how others
0:29
are processing this through service auto
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pilot as I’m trying to build out our
0:33
estimate slash jobs for the upcoming
0:35
season thanks in advance well Amanda
0:37
great question we’re going to break this
0:39
down step by step uh expert workflow as
0:42
we always do here at Callahan’s Corner
0:44
um very very common question especially
0:46
going into the season here uh how do we
0:48
actually get job costing for
0:50
fertilization granular and liquid in
0:53
there so I’m going to break this down
0:54
how to handle the product how to get the
0:56
uh information in there and ensure that
0:58
you’re making profit and as an added
0:59
bonus I I’m gonna actually go in and
1:00
show you how to do a price break model
1:02
because the general uh base price with
1:05
overages usually does not play out well
1:07
for a fertilization we control
1:08
application now if Amanda’s question is
1:11
around maybe southern Florida or
1:14
different areas out in Arizona where
1:16
we’re doing the lawn mowing with say a
1:18
post-emergent weed spray uh this example
1:21
actually play out just as well for her
1:23
so I’m going to pop the screen open here
1:25
and I’ll show you what it looks like
Overview
1:29
all right so what we’ve got here is
1:31
we’re going in the service autopilot
1:32
we’re going to build out this service
1:33
with our liquid and granular product
1:35
before we do that we’re going to want to
1:37
go into the simple growth blueprint uh
1:39
if you’re joining us in Upstate New York
1:41
on a few weeks for our live event uh
1:43
we’ll be going through this uh
1:45
extensively how to get this in the
1:46
system but this is going to be the uh
1:48
example that we’re going to be looking
1:49
at here so uh fertilization with a ride
1:52
on spreader is the service I’m going to
1:54
be pulling from my master template here
1:56
uh please don’t copy the production
1:58
rates in here they are fictitious
2:00
um you need to figure out your own
2:01
production rates or use some industry
2:04
standards which you could provide for
2:05
you so what we’re going to do is do
2:07
round number one that would probably be
2:09
in most areas are pre-emergent I’m going
2:12
to show you on the base area how we do
2:14
this with a base price and some overages
2:16
and then I can actually show you a price
2:18
break model how do we take this out all
2:22
the way out to an acre or maybe even two
2:25
acres of uh price breaks with product in
2:27
there but before we get into that
2:29
monster we’re going to break it down
2:30
simple stupid here so we can understand
2:32
the methodology in the workflow uh so
2:35
before we really get into the actual
2:36
matrices itself here and then we’ll
2:39
stick this in service autopilot we
Pro
2:40
really want to talk about the pro this
2:43
is really the most confusing part when
2:45
working with hundreds and well hundreds
2:47
of businesses every year uh with the
2:49
simple grow team simple grow team is
2:50
actually up to about 28.29 full-time
2:52
team members on about 13 of them
2:55
ballpark have been uh business owners
2:57
using service autopilot three to five
2:59
years and most of them are cut people
3:00
that have actually worked with us and
3:01
then sold their businesses so
3:03
um this is not just Theory folks we’re
3:05
actually using this in businesses that
3:07
we own
3:08
um and then after acquisition the team
3:10
has continued to grow and refine this
3:11
process so uh if Amanda was talking to
3:13
me on a essay setup or deep dive I’m
3:15
going to say Amanda what is your cost
3:17
per bag for round number one
3:19
so maybe Amanda is at uh 20 bucks a bag
3:22
and that’s a 50 pound bag so these are
3:24
the data points you want to get from
3:25
your site one Ewing wherever you’re
3:26
getting these products uh we’ve got a
3:28
cost per bag the pounds per bag and then
3:30
right on that label there
3:31
um it should tell you the bag coverage
3:33
so let’s say this bag covers 11 000
3:35
square feet obviously this is fictitious
3:37
you need to call your vendor and get the
3:40
um area here uh product murder markup
3:42
I’ve got an option here I wouldn’t
3:43
suggest marking the product here uh
3:45
we’re gonna Encompass it over here and
3:47
the coverage for that granular product
3:48
is I’m going to say 100 so my cost per
3:50
thousand for that granular product is
3:52
2.55 cents well uh what if we’ve got a
3:56
liquid application as well like Amanda
3:58
talked about and her question so it can
3:59
be a little confusing so the way we’re
4:01
going to tackle this here is let’s say
4:03
our jug is 125 bucks and we’ve got 120
4:07
ounces in that Jug on it that jug will
4:10
cover 110
4:11
um thousand square feet and obviously
4:13
I’m making these numbers up but these
4:14
are in the ballpark of a normal product
4:16
you see as a post-emergent or even a
4:18
preemer depending if you’re doing bed
4:20
maintenance liquid application
4:22
uh no markup here but Amanda’s situation
4:25
here I’m going to throw a a basically a
4:29
an option in here so if it was 100
4:30
coverage blanket uh that 255 and 114
4:34
would come out here to be 3.65 per
4:38
thousand square feet to cover the cost
4:39
what happens though if we’re really
4:41
going out and after uh our post-emergent
4:43
application or pre-emergent application
4:45
we just want to do a spot spray we’re
4:47
focusing in on IPM integrated Pest
4:49
Management uh like I said most people on
4:51
the team have done this as a living so
4:53
we get and understand where you’re going
4:54
uh so let’s say per thousand square feet
4:56
we’re only doing a post-emergent for
4:59
probably 30 percent of the lawn so we’re
5:01
going to do is dial this back to 30
5:03
coverage now obviously it’s not going to
5:05
be 100 perfect but we want to capture
5:07
that on an average so it to 255 to the 3
5:11
34 cents now the sheet has got us at a
5:14
cost per thousand of 2.89 we’re charging
5:17
289 with zero percent markup so that’s
5:19
the key Amanda if you’re diving in to
5:21
set the foundation it is we want to
5:23
build that matrices in
5:26
and working with service autopilot now
5:28
for probably seven or eight years and
5:29
running all their Regional shows with
5:31
Scott Howard up before covid
5:33
um this is what we’ve discovered with
5:34
their development team
5:36
so now that we’ve got our product
5:37
granular and liquid spot spray or
5:39
blanket depending how you want to do it
Example
5:41
um that simple blueprint is going to
5:43
pull that all in here and let’s go in
5:45
and the first thing I’m going to ask
5:46
Amanda is Amanda what is the the maximum
5:48
area that your base price covers so she
5:51
said Mike that’s going to cover seven
5:52
thousand square feet
5:55
um what I’m going to tell Amanda based
5:56
on the production rate that I built into
5:58
this that the minimum you can charge uh
6:01
right now for a 21 net profit margin is
6:04
37.70 and that was derived by uh her
6:07
potential cost of wanting to charge 125
6:10
an hour and an expense Break Even fully
6:13
loaded at 67.32 so in order to preserve
6:17
that margin that she was looking at she
6:19
would have to at least charge 37.40 so
6:22
uh Amanda I’m assuming you’re probably
6:24
charging maybe nine or ten dollars per
6:26
thousand here so let’s say Amanda’s at
6:28
seven eight seventy five per thousand
6:30
times seven Parts uh that base price
6:33
would be 61.25 so that gets her up to
6:36
about a 51 percent net profit margin
6:38
which is going to be in the area of our
6:40
industry production or industry
6:41
standards for net profit margin with
6:44
product and overhead
6:46
and then every 7 000 is an additional
6:49
7.89 based on the production and her
6:52
cost and that gets her at about 30
6:54
percent net profit margin when you round
6:56
that up or profit of 2.31 so uh not
7:00
knowing Amanda but I’m assuming Amanda
7:02
wants to make some average prices here
7:04
uh based on the industry so I’m going to
7:06
assume that Amanda is probably going to
7:08
be around 575
7:11
and that would not be probably a good
7:13
move for her because it’s costing 5 58
7:16
per thousand right now on the actual
7:18
cost now uh if we did the first seven
7:21
thousand we might be able to dial this
7:22
back on a ride on spreader to drop cut
7:24
that production rate in half and that
7:26
gets her back up to 26 so she’s probably
7:28
got to be at least uh somewhere in that
7:32
six dollar per thousand range based on
7:34
the cost here so it gets a 37 percent
7:36
net uh probably between 40 and 45 is
7:39
where she’s going to want to be so we’re
7:40
going to bump that up to seven dollars
7:42
here and it gets her right around 40 net
7:44
and a profit of 2.77 per thousand so
7:47
once we have that we’re going to build
7:49
that out into a service inside service
7:52
autopilot uh before we do that though
7:55
I’m assuming that a lot of people
7:56
watching this including Amanda may want
7:58
a price break model uh so this is how
8:00
we’re going to tackle this we’re going
8:01
to take the original 7000 at 61 dollars
8:04
that she was charging
8:06
and go in and say okay seven thousand
8:08
dollars covers our base price of
8:11
61 let’s round it up to 62 bucks and
8:15
we’ll do that same on the uh original
8:16
one here so they they even up
8:19
and we’ve got 125 and 67.32 so revenue
8:23
is 125. break even for labor overhead
8:26
and Recovery is 67.32 uh what we need to
8:29
do then is bring in Amanda’s product
8:32
just like we did on the other sheet and
8:34
for Simplicity here I’m going to copy
8:36
that in but we’ve got a granular and we
8:38
have
8:40
foreign
8:42
spot spraying at 30 percent of the area
Price Break
8:46
so we’re going to drop that into the
8:47
price matrices uh price break here so
8:51
now we’ve got the ability to take a look
8:54
at here and Amanda according to the
8:56
calculations is charging 886 per
8:58
thousand
8:59
um we’ve got that production rate set
9:01
here
9:02
um and then we can go in and manipulate
9:03
this so if we’re going to do the same
9:05
exact production rate that Amanda had
9:06
before we’re going to drop that down
9:09
and as we continue to change the price
9:11
per thousand this is going in here so if
9:14
she wanted to be at seven dollars per
9:15
thousand
9:17
those numbers are going to continue to
9:18
change and as we roll down the sheet
9:21
here we went for seven dollars a six
9:23
dollars per thousand to five dollars per
9:24
thousand
9:25
450
9:27
and as we continue to go down we can see
9:29
these price breaks I’m going to go in uh
9:32
and make an assumption as we normally do
9:33
we’re going to cut this right around 42
9:35
to 43 000 square feet in our price break
9:38
model
9:39
um
9:40
and go every thousand thereafter so
9:43
every thousand after forty two thousand
9:46
uh Amanda’s gonna need to make a
9:48
decision here well it’s costing your 423
9:50
so uh that price can’t be any lower than
9:54
that so as we’re going in we probably
9:56
don’t want to be any lower than five
9:58
dollars per thousand
9:59
um probably a little bit higher
10:02
and we can go in and update these here
10:08
and as you can see as I update this the
10:11
profit percentage continuous drive down
10:13
so this is going to keep Amanda
10:14
somewhere around a 30 net margins my
10:16
guess without doing the math once she
10:18
hits about an acre but this is how we’re
10:20
going to go in and drive a price break
10:21
model if you’re just joining us we’re
10:23
building out our calculation cost cost
10:25
per bag pounds in the bag the coverage
10:27
uh would be 100 so that granular
10:30
products is 2.55 and we’ve got a liquid
10:33
product of a jug of 125 dollars cost 120
10:37
ounces and that jug is covering 110 out
10:40
uh 110 000 square feet and we’re only
10:43
going to cover 30 percent coverage so
10:45
we’re spot spring 30 percent of the area
10:47
for a post-emergent IPM treatment so uh
10:50
if we’re going in we would drive in get
10:52
our dollar per man hour expense per Mana
10:54
or set our base price the lowest we
10:56
would charge to show up and the maximum
10:58
coverage and as we update our production
11:00
rates and our charge per thousand the
11:02
sheet will get us a production rate
11:03
based estimating system so the final
11:05
part here is taking this blueprint and
11:07
driving this into a product like service
11:10
autopilot so I’ve got a smaller version
11:12
here with these top five lines
11:15
um as they work down
11:17
are going to
11:20
um line up identically so these top five
11:22
lines or going to go into these five
11:25
lines as we work down and then every
11:27
thousand over the last number
11:30
um is going to give us the next five
11:31
lines and that’s going to be down at the
11:32
bottom of our price break template here
11:35
um driving that in now the one thing
11:37
you’re going to notice in uh the complex
11:39
version with price break here is I’ve
11:41
got profit profit percentage
11:43
um and even the other smaller version
11:45
I’ve got profit profit percentage uh the
11:47
one thing that none of the softwares
11:49
have is a projected profit profit
11:51
percentage if you’re wondering why are
11:52
we taking this into a Google sheet and
11:54
then transferring it a it’s our
11:56
blueprint it shows us what to build it
11:57
confirms that our assumptions are
11:59
correct it allows us to enter the
12:00
product and product markup and coverage
12:03
liquid and granular and it confirms our
12:06
profit margins uh the software does not
12:08
do that so the profit the software is
12:10
assuming
12:11
um that you’ve already calculated and
12:13
assumed your profit margin so after
12:15
working with hundreds of companies a
12:16
year doing this
12:18
um unfortunately what we find is that a
12:20
lot of companies will put the
12:21
information inside the matrices here but
12:24
actually we’ll be losing money because
12:25
they have not used a blueprint like the
12:27
simple growth blueprint to confirm the
12:29
profit profit percentage on a base model
12:31
with product or on a price break model
12:34
all the way up to to an acre
12:36
with our granuary and liquid products
12:38
Amanda great question if anybody has not
12:41
built one of these out I’m going to give
12:42
you the quick rundown how to actually do
12:43
this first step is go into the gear icon
12:45
we want to build out a custom field
12:49
and uh we’re going to be suggesting we
12:51
work as this video is being made in V2
12:53
not V3 I’m going to go in and
12:59
put a couple hashtags in front of this
13:01
just so I can find it but that’s going
13:02
to be our Turk square footage and we can
13:04
measure that online it’s going to be
13:06
Associated to the customer not the
13:07
property and the text is going to
13:10
actually turn into a number so I’m going
13:11
to do some calculations on that I’m
13:12
going to hit save then we’re going into
13:14
the gear icon we’re going to create that
13:17
service and then drop that service into
13:18
a template and probably in Amanda’s
13:21
situation that’s the question we’re
13:22
going to drop that into a master package
13:24
so we’re going to go into services
13:27
I’m going to add the service and I’m
13:29
going to use the um simple model here
13:41
we got our fertilization round number
13:43
one
13:45
and this is how we’re breaking this down
13:47
here I’m going to put that right into my
13:49
fertilization account and put it
13:51
probably into my summer class
13:53
and
13:55
submit description and create a rate
13:57
Matrix so it’s going to be quantity rate
13:59
times visits I’m going to grab my custom
14:01
field that we just created of Turk
14:04
square footage
14:06
and I’m simply going to go to the
14:08
blueprint here either the top lines and
14:10
drive all the way down
14:13
um or we’re going to go into the basic
14:16
model the same methodology if you’re
14:18
building this out here we’re going to go
14:20
in to take our round number one preamp
14:21
one to seven thousand is our base price
14:23
of 62.
14:28
and it is going to be budget hours of
14:31
0.14 and it’s going to cost us labor
14:33
overhead and materials liquid and
14:35
granular 29.63 so we’re going to drive
14:38
that 0.14 man hours in at 29.63 and then
14:41
every thousand square feet over the base
14:43
price of 7000 is
14:45
an additional
14:47
seven dollars point two point zero two
14:50
man hours in 423 that’s going to get
14:52
Amanda a profit per thousand two dollars
14:54
and seventy seven cents or a basically a
14:56
39 or basically 40 net profit margin
14:59
that’s gonna be right in that industry
15:00
average we’re looking for 40 to 50 46 47
15:03
net so we’re gonna drive those numbers
15:05
in here and round that up and I’m just
15:07
going to show you quickly how that now
15:08
ends up into a master package and we
15:12
pull that into an actual template so
15:14
Amanda this is going to be the best
15:15
workflow
15:16
um that we used in my company and
15:17
working with hundreds of other companies
15:19
here uh as well so now that we’ve got
15:21
that service we want to go into gear
15:22
icon
15:24
we’re going to pull in a
15:27
Master package
15:30
and we would go in and
15:35
add our package
15:38
and this would be spring
15:42
pre-m treatment
15:45
and we would grab our service
15:50
and we put a start round so if we’re
15:52
running in Upstate New York uh we’re
15:54
probably going to be running somewhere
15:55
around April 1st through
15:58
the desired range of probably April 20th
16:02
that’s this is hired round
16:04
um and we’re going to put in a name and
16:06
description there we aren’t going to put
16:08
minimum day our minimum days is how many
16:09
days in between rounds is the minimum
16:11
day so probably 20 days no default
16:13
budget hours or rate we’ve taken care of
16:15
that on the pricing Matrix we don’t want
16:17
it here because there is a hierarchy of
16:19
the job the package and the template and
16:23
they can override each other so we’ll
16:24
leave these blank and then we’d add in
16:25
our other four or five Services here and
16:28
hit save changes so if you’re wondering
16:30
what this looks like
16:31
um in the back end here this test
16:33
account
16:34
we would be able to go in
16:36
and pull out our test account
16:40
and someone calls live over the phone in
16:42
your office or with a virtual assistant
16:43
we’re going to go in and go into
16:44
property measurements
16:46
and measure that property out now this
16:49
one probably has a measurement already
16:51
which is perfect but we would go in and
16:53
measure the area
16:56
and save that to
16:58
our turf square footage
17:03
hit save and now we’d be able to do an
17:07
estimate of any service that has Turf
17:08
score footage in a matrices whether it’s
17:10
a simple uh base with overage or a price
17:13
break model as complex as this guy here
17:17
and most fertilization you’re going to
17:18
do a price break model up to about an
17:20
acre and then every thousand over
17:22
same methodology but once we have that
17:25
we’re going to go in and add an estimate
17:26
and we’ll be able to pull that data
17:28
right through that service that we’ve
17:30
incorporated into a package so we’re
17:31
going to go into templates and drive in
17:34
and grab one of our templates here
17:37
hit apply
17:41
and there we go
17:43
first application second grub third and
17:46
these are all here we have a price a
17:48
budgeted time a cost before profit and
17:51
in this test account uh fictitiously
17:53
it’s at 19 but you really want to see
17:55
that somewhere uh in the mid 40s is a
17:57
net profit margin after all overhead but
18:00
that’s the idea we’ve got this in here
18:01
we can hit draft a quote and that’s a
18:02
live asset we can sell over the phone
18:04
and email out where somebody can click
18:06
and sign for there so hopefully that was
18:07
helpful Amanda great question
18:10
um driving in how do you incorporate a
18:12
production rate based estimating system
18:14
and include products liquid and granular
18:16
with overhead recovery and profit uh
18:19
built into the system for scalable
18:21
delegatable system
18:22
hopefully that helped we’ll see you
18:24
again on Callahan’s corner where you ask
18:26
the questions we answer them live right
18:28
here on Facebook