Author Archive

0:02 Callahan’s Corner where you ask
0:04
the questions. We answer them
0:05
live right here on Facebook.
0:07
So, one of the many Facebook
0:08
groups we are involved in with
0:11
Callahan’s Corner s, there was
0:11
a question asked this morning,
0:15
what works better? Direct mail
0:16
or Every Door Direct Mailing
0:19
EDDM. Well, really the question
0:22
is right off the bat is, is
0:24
this individual or if you’re
0:25
looking at exploring different
0:27
marketing options for Everydoor
0:28
Direct, mailing, mail Facebook
0:30
ads, Google Ads, whatever that
0:32
is, are you actually tracking
0:34
the data? So, we did, in our
0:38
run, usually in the spring, we
0:39
run 75 to maybe $85, 000 at the
0:42
peak of the advertising season
0:44
in a month in Upstate New York
0:46
for the lawn care company I own
0:48
and that definitely worked but
0:50
the thing that I will tell you
0:51
is is working with hundreds of
0:53
businesses all over the US and
0:54
Canada, even Australia, and the
0:55
UK now. Um each market is the
0:58
same but it’s going to be a
0:58
little bit different based on
1:01
how they digest and what target
1:02
market actually demographic
1:04
you’re going after. So, really
1:06
I think it would be foolish to
1:06
answer the question directly
1:08
what worked better in my market
1:09
and actually show you how to
1:10
track your own data for
1:13
non-emotional systematic way
1:14
and I can show you how to
1:15
actually create a high-level
1:16
marketing plan to go along with
1:17
this. Once we got some good
1:18
data. So, what I’m going to do
1:19
here is open up the screen and
1:22
open up service autopilot. So,
1:24
this is one of the CRMs that we
1:26
use, customer relationship
1:27
management software is here. Um
1:28
so, if you using service
1:30
autopilot and the gentleman
1:31
that actually asked this
1:32
question, I know, is using
1:33
service autopilot. I’m going to
1:34
open it up and show you how to
1:36
actually use service autopilot
1:37
to track this stuff. Literally,
1:38
automatically, once you set it
1:40
up, it takes about five minutes
1:41
to set up. I’m going to show
1:43
you actually how to do it. So,
1:45
first thing you want to do is
1:46
go to our gear icon. and we’re
1:50
going to go into
1:54
client source right here and
1:55
client source is going to be
1:56
lead source tracking. So,
1:58
whether you’re doing Everydoor
1:59
Direct Mail ing, direct
2:00
mailing, or any other type of
2:03
advertising, literally, word of
2:04
mouth, they saw your truck,
2:05
whatever that is, that will be
2:07
able what we’re, we’re looking
2:09
at here. So, as you can see in
2:11
my old account here, we had our
2:13
20 twenty Every Door Direct
2:15
Mail ing with the long copy,
2:15
and one with the picture of a
2:18
family. So, you may be testing
2:19
different copies of this
2:20
marketing copy as well, because
2:22
Avidor Direct Mail ing may work
2:24
great on one piece but not as
2:26
good on in others. So, this is
2:27
how we go in a non-emotionally
2:28
set this up. So, if we go in
2:31
and let’s add a new source
2:33
right from the beginning, I’m
2:34
going to put this as our Every
2:35
Door Direct Mail ing test. 2022
2:41
and we can go in and put some
2:42
details in here. Now, the first
2:44
thing we need to do is set
2:45
these up. The second thing now
2:46
is when we do that Every Door
2:48
Direct Mail ing, we need to
2:49
actually go in and add a
2:50
campaign. So, if we
2:54
let’s say in March and it ran
2:56
all the way through the end of
2:58
April, we could put that date
3:00
in there. So, anytime a lead
3:02
comes into the system in that
3:03
date for that particular client
3:05
or lead source, it’s accredited
3:07
to that. Now, let’s say we’ve
3:09
did a ten thousand distribution
3:12
and it ran us to $8000 dollars.
3:15
So, we put the 10, 000 in here.
3:18
And our eight-thousand-dollar,
3:20
oh,
3:23
$10, 000 distribution and our
3:27
8, 000 dollars to actually have
3:30
the expense. Now, if you’re
3:31
actually marketing your current
3:32
database, we can actually hit
3:33
upsell and it would track the
3:34
upsell conversion ratio. So,
3:35
what this is going to give you
3:37
is how many leads came from
3:38
each marketing source? how many
3:42
converted into a client, the
3:43
closing percentage for your
3:45
actual estimator, and the
3:48
client acquisition cost. So,
3:49
what it costs you acquire for
3:50
each and every client that you
3:52
get and then, in addition we
3:53
could have a client lifetime
3:55
value. Uh if you are going to
3:57
this extent, I’m also going to
3:59
recommend that you go in and
4:01
track your cancellation and one
4:03
and loss reasons. So, if we go
4:05
into the gear icon, and go into
4:10
cancellation reasons and
4:11
estimate reasons. So, we have
4:12
estimate reasons and we’re
4:13
going to go in and put the
4:15
reason why we won and lost the
4:17
estimate and then, we’re
4:19
going to go back in. And
4:22
cancel, track our cancellation
4:25
reason. So, what we’ve done is
4:25
track our acquisition, cost,
4:27
and percentage of closing and
4:29
client lifetime value per lead
4:31
source and then, we can also
4:31
track our cancellation. So,
4:34
dissatisfied, whatever those
4:35
may be, we just go in and add a
4:37
cancellation reason and it’s
4:38
based on gleed or client. So,
4:39
once we have that information,
4:41
all the data now flows
4:42
automatically So, if you’re
4:44
using service autopilot, the
4:46
other thing that you may
4:47
want to look at here is your
4:50
website lead capture form. Now,
4:51
there’s two different versions
4:52
of it. There’s a V 2, there’s a
4:54
Vthree, for simplicity,
4:55
whatever I’m in here. I think
4:57
we’re in probably Vtwo. I’ll
4:59
show you but it’s going to be
4:59
the same exact thing whether
5:00
the V2 or V3 version but what
5:03
you want to do is go in and
5:04
when you create a form, we
5:07
want to be able to have it
5:08
automatically submit, do some
5:10
duplicate checking but the
5:11
thing that we’re looking at for
5:13
this video is how do we track
5:14
that lead acquisition off the
5:18
website. So, what we want to do
5:19
is autoproof, create on,
5:21
submit, and we’re going to
5:23
update and probably create and
5:25
update a lead source on submit
5:30
So, we’d actually go in and
5:32
have one in here for our
5:35
website. In that way, we would
5:36
have the ability to track the
5:37
lead sourcing coming off your
5:39
website or if you have separate
5:40
forms embedded into a Facebook
5:43
ad or a landing page, you
5:44
probably want separate lead
5:45
source tracking to track those
5:47
campaigns with the pricing
5:48
behind it. So, that’s how we
5:48
would be able to tackle that.
5:50
So, the final part is here,
5:52
when we go in to the My Day
5:54
screen, your office is working
5:56
this. We want to go into the
5:57
green plus icon, add a lead and
5:59
this is the important here. So,
6:01
we’re going to put in our first
6:04
name last name, the service
6:08
address,
6:12
As we’re talking to him, we’re
6:13
going to put in the postal code
6:15
and we’re going to update the
6:16
city. We’re going to get the
6:17
Email in here.
6:24
and we want to put the phone
6:25
number in the cellphone field.
6:27
Once we get the basic
6:28
information, we, this, the main
6:30
part around this question is we
6:31
want to go into details, select
6:33
the account type, and most
6:35
importantly, the sales type,
6:36
how did you hear about us? And
6:38
that’s where we can go in and
6:39
say they selected the Every
6:40
Direct Direct Mail ing with the
6:43
picture. Now, if they were
6:44
referred by someone in your
6:47
list here and you actually went
6:47
in, and had a customer referral
6:52
in here, you can go in and if
6:56
this wasn’t a test account, a
6:57
list of all our leads and
6:57
clients would show and you
6:59
would select the appropriate
7:00
person. So, not only do you
7:01
know the effectiveness of your
7:03
mail, your marketing copy but
7:05
your customer referral,
7:06
conversion ratio, and client
7:08
lead acquisition. If there’s
7:09
any gift cards or things you
7:12
send out for referrals. So,
7:13
comments, questions, drop
7:14
below. Callahan’s Corner. You
7:15
ask the questions. We answer em
7:16
live right here on Facebook.
7:17
What marketing source is
7:19
better? Direct mail, every
7:20
door, direct mailing. That’s
7:21
going to depend on your market
7:24
but a pro tip here is if you
7:25
are doing Every Door Direct
7:27
Mail ing, we want to do it not
7:29
just once. We want to do three
7:30
to five times. That’s going to
7:31
give us the best result and
7:33
then, in addition to that, one
7:35
thing that we did in my lawn
7:37
care companies, we drove around
7:39
literally with a notepad, a
7:42
notepad, something like this
7:44
and we wrote down the addresses
7:45
of all the homes that looked
7:47
like they were commercially
7:49
mowed and we went in through
7:50
the winter months when we’re
7:51
slow and went in through
7:52
satellite imagery and measure
7:54
all those and did direct
7:56
mailing to all those properties
7:58
with property specific pricing
7:59
and in the Email or on the
8:02
envelope, the address would be
8:03
lawn mowing customer. So, we
8:05
knew they were getting their
8:06
lawn mowed most likely and we
8:06
sent them a direct contract to
8:10
sign up with us. With property
8:12
specific pricing. So, that was
8:14
a huge way that we dominated
8:14
our market and grew market
8:16
share specifically in the
8:18
neighborhoods that we’re
8:18
already in and the
8:19
neighborhoods in between the
8:20
neighborhoods that we weren’t
8:21
servicing to build route
8:22
density. So, once again, you
8:23
want to the lead source on that
8:26
as well so you know the
8:27
conversion ratio and the cost
8:28
per acquired client. So it
8:30
actually cost a little bit more
8:30
to do the direct mailing with
8:32
property specific pricing. But
8:34
on average our client
8:36
acquisition cost because it was
8:37
so effective was actually
8:39
lowered. So the upfront cost
8:41
was a lot more but when you
8:42
average it over all the clients
8:43
we gained. Um that was a great
8:45
way of doing that. So it’s kind
8:46
of a pro tip. Callahan’s
8:48
Corner. You ask a question to
8:49
answer live right

0:00 hey mike kelly here had a quick question
0:02
submitted to callahan’s corner about
0:04
what they should be tracking in their
0:06
service business particularly a lawn
0:07
care business they said mike what should
0:09
we be tracking on a daily and weekly
0:12
basis to outline success so i kind of
0:14
want to start it out right now with the
0:16
crazy inflation in gas prices and labor
0:18
at an all-time high as far as wages uh
0:21
there are some things we need to
0:23
actually track for success um but a
0:26
pre-note to that really is let’s go in
0:28
and focus on the things that we can
0:30
control now there’s going to be some
0:31
things we want to track
0:33
but what are we tracking right now on a
0:35
daily and weekly basis that we can
0:37
actually control we can’t control gas
0:39
prices we can’t control the inflation
0:42
but what we can
0:43
control and track are certain key
0:45
metrics in the business so we’re going
0:47
to talk about gas prices and how we
0:49
should look at that in a few minutes but
0:51
the main things that i want to be
0:52
looking at in my service business
0:53
particularly a lawn care or a home
0:55
cleaning company is going to look in
0:58
at the biggest hitter right off the bat
1:00
which is labor that’s going to count for
1:01
about 60 percent of your expenses in
1:03
your service business so what i’m going
1:05
to recommend if you have not we need to
1:07
build an estimating system um based on
1:10
how long you think it’s going to take or
1:12
production rate based estimating system
1:13
but the key variable that we need from
1:15
your estimates when we go to schedule a
1:17
job is how long will it take
1:20
or should it take for that job to be
1:22
done now the crews need to see a
1:24
budgeted time so we need to track budget
1:26
versus actual the way that i would train
1:28
this in the lawn care company uh with
1:31
really good success especially when i
1:32
was on the trucks training the guys and
1:34
then when we trained our trainers they
1:36
would do it this way but let’s say we
1:37
have a
1:39
full day of mowing today
1:41
and we want more training those guys and
1:42
girls on the crew what we’re going to do
1:44
is take a large overview so you’ve had
1:47
the budgeted time for the whole entire
1:48
day so let’s say we’re working for 10
1:50
hour days so we’re going to have 10
1:52
hours budgeted time
1:54
for the day so minus lunch 7-5 we’ve got
1:57
a 10-hour day so the goal is we need to
1:59
have all 30 or 33 lawns cut
2:02
in 10 hours now that is going to seem
2:04
extremely overwhelming for even a
2:06
veteran person on that crew no matter
2:08
the route density that we’d run 30 to 33
2:10
lawns a day in our residential cruise
2:13
we did that through route density so
2:14
we’d say hey we’ve got 10 hours to get
2:16
this done we need to be back at the shop
2:17
at 10.
2:18
let’s ignore the launch just for easy
2:20
math but between seven we leave at seven
2:22
we get there five we need it back to the
2:24
shop by by five o’clock
2:27
what i did is i broke down the schedule
2:29
itself into quarters um and then i broke
2:32
it down into hours the first thing we’re
2:34
doing is we’re gonna set some short-term
2:35
goals so if on average we need to cut
2:38
three lawns or three and a half lawns an
2:40
hour to hit that goal uh we labeled that
2:43
out and basically i would sometimes when
2:45
they first started print the schedules
2:46
out so i could physically show them we’d
2:48
use the mobiles from the clock in and
2:49
out but i can physically show them that
2:51
these are the three lawns
2:53
at this point at 9 a.m we should be at
2:55
and at 10 p.m we should be or 10 a.m we
2:56
should be here at 11 am we should be
2:58
here and at noon before we go to lunch
3:00
we should be here but we’re giving them
3:02
short-term executable goals now keep in
3:04
mind in most areas of the country these
3:06
the mowing early in the morning the
3:08
lawns are going to be wet with dew um
3:10
it’s going to take a little bit longer
3:11
so we’re going to account for the
3:13
slowness in the morning based on the
3:15
conditions and the speed that should be
3:17
picked up
3:18
on there but we’re going to set short
3:19
and long term goals so 10 hours for the
3:21
day
3:22
how many lawns per hour at 9 10 11 noon
3:25
and so on
3:26
and then break it up in quarters where
3:28
we should be at the parts of the day
3:29
that actually helped a lot
3:31
and as you’re training your quality
3:32
standard they’re going to get into a
3:34
pace and be able to visually see where
3:35
they’re at so as a business owner that’s
3:38
how we actually start to institute that
3:39
into the cruise with quality but at the
3:42
end of each day we need to make sure
3:44
there’s good start and stop times for
3:45
every job and a budget first actually
3:47
it’s on the shop wall the next day for
3:49
accountability publicly and personally
3:50
for those crew members with a quality
3:52
standard so the first one is budget
3:54
first actuals for the crews
3:56
next one is we should be looking at on a
3:59
weekly basis
4:01
our new clients canceled clients
4:05
and our net new clients in addition
4:07
depending on the services that you are
4:09
providing we also probably want to look
4:12
at our monthly reoccurring revenue so
4:14
how much reoccurring revenue for lawn
4:16
mowing and fertilizing have we budgeted
4:18
for and what’s the budget versus actual
4:20
we also want to track the one-time sale
4:22
so if you’re in design build or soft
4:24
skates and you’re doing maybe some
4:25
maintenance and design build want to
4:27
break those out separately so we have a
4:29
idea of what the recurring revenue is in
4:31
the one-time revenue and the final thing
4:33
that you’d be probably looking at here
4:35
especially if you have a sales team is
4:36
the opportunities that will close in the
4:38
month in your sales pipeline
4:41
and
4:42
projected next month out
4:44
or maybe quarter based on hardscapes but
4:47
those are some key variables you want to
4:48
look at but don’t get hung up in my
4:50
opinion we’ve been through this in 2008
4:52
uh with the recession we had and wicked
4:54
gas prices in my company and in the
4:56
beginning we started to get focused on
4:57
the things that we couldn’t control like
4:59
gas prices
5:00
um and that’s not where you want to play
5:02
and it’s only going to be two to three
5:03
percent of your budget
5:04
and we can also do a surcharge for gas
5:08
and systematically go out now i’m going
5:10
to recommend we’re coming up around july
5:12
4th weekend uh we would run a job
5:15
costing report so if our goal is 65
5:17
dollars per man hour anybody below 65
5:20
unless it was a commercial contract
5:21
locked up we would actually do price
5:23
increases on the customers not hitting
5:26
that threshold but let’s say your goal
5:28
is at 65 dollars per man hour and fuel
5:30
continues to go the way it’s going and
5:32
it probably will continue that way maybe
5:34
you need to be at 67 or 68 per ml now we
5:36
can systematically raise the prices on
5:38
the clients that are not hitting that
5:40
new financial break-even threshold so um
5:43
a lot of content right there but these
5:45
are the things that are kind of top of
5:46
mind with that question submitted
5:48
comments questions drop below callahan’s
5:50
corner you ask the questions we answer
5:52
them live for right here on facebook

0:01
hey mike kelly here i want to make a
0:02
quick video had a
0:03
question submitted earlier this week
0:04
regarding employee theft just on the
0:06
road here about to uh hop on the plane
0:08
but thought it was important to tackle
0:10
this one head-on this morning so issue
0:12
was that gentlemen had someone steal a
0:14
piece of equipment and want to know if
0:16
you should just press charges fire the
0:17
gentleman or
0:19
what else should he do so i’m going to
0:20
reflect back on my years of 25 plus
0:22
years of my lawn care company and how we
0:25
handled threat and what the biggest
0:26
thing that popped into my mind was when
0:29
a gentleman a few years ago actually
0:31
stole uh gasoline from us well below the
0:34
gas prices that we’re seeing now
0:36
but this approach to how we handle the
0:38
prolly that may actually surprise some
0:39
people so
0:41
at that point our shop was about a half
0:42
a mile down the road from the gas
0:44
station we’d have four or five gentlemen
0:45
come in and gas up 18 to 20 trucks every
0:48
morning load them up and then um the
0:50
crews would arrive between 7 and 7 30
0:52
and they’d be staged out to go out so i
0:54
got a call around 8 8 30 in the morning
0:56
from the gas station obviously spending
0:58
a significant amount of money there
1:00
they alerted us that one of the
1:01
employees pulled up in their personal
1:03
vehicle
1:05
and actually grabbed the
1:06
gas handle and filled up their personal
1:09
vehicle
1:10
while
1:11
some of the crews were filling the
1:13
trucks
1:14
while the crew leader actually was
1:15
inside the gas station
1:17
going in to pay for one of the other
1:18
pumps so the other employees saw but
1:20
didn’t necessarily facilitate it but
1:23
what’s going to probably shock you is
1:24
the amount of gas this gentleman
1:26
actually stole
1:27
if he’d actually asked me i probably
1:29
would have just told him to put in his
1:30
tank and not to worry about it but he
1:31
actually stole about three dollars and
1:33
say 75 cents worth of gas probably just
1:36
enough to get to the shop problem is
1:38
ethically we did not stand for theft in
1:40
the company it did not align to our core
1:43
values at all um so
1:45
literally went down to the gas station
1:47
got a picture and a video of the
1:49
gentleman stealing the gas
1:51
spent about two and a half to three
1:52
hours went down to the police station
1:54
press charges but
1:56
the way i tackled it was a little bit
1:58
different and we had been plagued with
2:00
theft as well already
2:02
our shop had been broken into twice some
2:04
of the trucks and the tablets ripped off
2:05
the dashboard so
2:07
this was literally the last straw for me
2:08
but i needed to make a stand that i was
2:10
not standing for
2:11
a couple dollars worth of gas or
2:13
thousands of dollars worth of equipment
2:14
being stolen so after getting to the
2:16
police station and pressing charges
2:18
the officers wanted to know if i knew
2:20
where the truck was well that this guy
2:22
was working i knew exactly where it was
2:23
but i said listen guys could you do me a
2:25
favor i know you’ve been down to the
2:26
shop a few times we’ve been broken into
2:28
really want to uh unfortunately make an
2:30
example this gentleman to let people
2:31
know where we stand on theft
2:33
so what they did is they arranged to
2:35
come down to the shop
2:37
at 7 00 a.m during our team meeting
2:40
unbeknownst to me they came in hot we
2:42
had the gate open because we had an
2:43
electric gate with a passcode but they
2:45
came in hot with about three cruisers
2:48
and pulled up to probably about 35 to 40
2:51
guys literally standing at a team
2:52
meeting uh while i was on top of one of
2:54
the trailers kind of addressing the team
2:56
and we literally as the officers pulled
2:59
up and got out of the car i went over
3:01
and basically talked to them thank them
3:03
for coming and we actually pulled out
3:06
um and asked the gentleman to actually
3:08
come out
3:09
and kind of present himself uh to the
3:11
officers and at that point they actually
3:13
arrested him put him in cuffs
3:15
and put him in back of the cop car and i
3:17
will tell you
3:18
by doing this we were able to really
3:21
address how we stood on theft and where
3:23
we were going as a company and aligning
3:25
to those values so yes we actually had a
3:27
gentleman arrested for a little under
3:29
four dollars worth of gas in front of
3:31
the whole entire company
3:34
but what they did is it created a story
3:36
and it created clarity so literally
3:38
after the gentleman got drove drove away
3:41
in the car i asked everybody there are
3:43
we clear of where we stand on theft and
3:44
they were like yes we are crystal clear
3:47
and it was interesting things in the
3:48
shop stopped going missing things like
3:51
um additional gas or weed whacker line
3:53
things like that started to actually use
3:55
less and i have a feeling we actually
3:56
had some more theft
3:58
or people taking things probably for
3:59
their own home that we didn’t realize
4:01
but the end of this was it was very
4:03
clear where we stood on theft
4:05
but the cool thing was it was a story
4:07
that got better and better year after
4:08
year and i remember by the third or
4:10
fourth year um the story got so
4:12
embellished but it was just one of those
4:14
things that it when these things happen
4:16
you’ve got to literally act in the

0:01 hey mike allen here want to make a quick
0:02
video i had a question submitted this
0:03
morning around
0:05
pre-estimate nurture or education so
0:07
where this really comes into play um is
0:10
what we used to do in the early days is
0:11
actually manually do this but the
0:13
question was specifically around
0:15
automations and how do we educate and
0:16
nurture around
0:18
pre-estimate education so the instance
0:22
or how this would actually happen is if
0:23
somebody hits your website they’ve
0:24
requested an estimate commercial or
0:27
residential or they’ve hit the office
0:29
and requested an estimate so the way we
0:32
would automate this and if you’re going
0:33
to do it manually this is how you would
0:34
do it is we want to segment the database
0:37
based on the service they’re interested
0:39
in so one of the biggest mistakes that
0:41
we found out in the early years was
0:43
having too many services to nurture upon
0:47
because we wanted to make it automated
0:48
but personal so the way i recommend
0:50
tackling this is having five or less
0:53
services
0:54
that are going to be automated for
0:56
estimate nurture and the reason being is
0:58
if you’re building this out in a
0:59
automated fashion
1:01
we want to rank the most important
1:03
service from one two three four five in
1:06
descending order because the logic of
1:08
your automation now is going to go in
1:10
through a true statement if this then
1:12
that basically and based on the
1:15
importance of the service so if you’re
1:17
doing landscape maintenance per se
1:19
um
1:20
your fertilization weed control i’d
1:22
imagine is probably going to be more
1:23
important than your lawn mowing because
1:25
that’s a higher margin and easier
1:27
services scale with one technician
1:28
versus two to three man crew so the idea
1:30
here is that we want to go in and off
1:32
that website lead capture uh at least in
1:35
the logic only nurture up to five
1:38
services and base them on the importance
1:40
level that we want to nurture on so it’s
1:42
for instance if you had 10 services on
1:44
there that automation potentially could
1:46
be blasting 10 different pre-estimate
1:48
educations out that you don’t want so
1:50
you want to avoid the spam and keep it
1:52
personalized but automated so in the
1:54
marketing content
1:55
of the actual pre-estimate education we
1:58
should be talking about what a
1:59
professional does on that service so if
2:02
we’re using lawn mowing an example
2:03
proper mowing height how to sharpen the
2:05
blades how to go out and alternate the
2:08
different cutting directions you get the
2:09
idea but we want to provide a higher
2:11
value to the service basing you as the
2:14
expert
2:15
what are they getting it’s just not a
2:16
college kid going out and blowing an
2:18
engine we’re going to get actual
2:19
professional service that’s predictable
2:22
in addition the secret sauce is going
2:23
out in your pre-estimated nurture
2:25
education is to overcome the price
2:27
objections or salaries objections you
2:28
always hear so do i need to be home to
2:30
have the lawn mower what happens if it
2:32
rains are you going to cut in the rain
2:34
all the different questions we get what
2:36
happens if a rock goes and damages a
2:38
window what are those things we’re going
2:39
to answer the questions that most
2:40
contractors do not want to answer up
2:42
front
2:43
to shorten the sales cycle build more
2:46
trust so they know like and trust you
2:47
and educate them that you are the
2:49
professional to create a higher
2:50
perceived value so you could be
2:52
charging the highest amount in your
2:54
market so once again we want at most
2:56
five services we nurture pre-estimated
2:58
education they hit the website they hit
3:00
the phone they get that pre-estimate
3:02
education after their lead letter which
3:05
is the five or six main reasons you’re
3:06
different and when you are going out to
3:09
pre-educate if they select say lawn
3:11
mowing and fertilizing we educate to the
3:14
most important service then we delay the
3:16
next um sequence of education going into
3:19
the next service so most are getting
3:21
five communications about the top five
3:23
services spread out so we’re not
3:25
spamming them the next key to this is
3:27
based on an automated estimate file such
3:29
as 20 days to close when they accept
3:31
that estimate
3:33
that nurture automatically ends and we
3:35
start having the conversation of welcome
3:37
and wow and acclimate them and get that
3:38
credit card on file and get them
3:39
scheduled so comments or questions drop
3:41
them below
3:42
high summary of it though no more than
3:44
five services do we ever want to nurture
3:47
and we want to rank them in order from
3:48
the most important service to the least
3:50
important service and as we go out and
3:52
up to five emails educating we want
3:55
those properly spaced out and as soon as
3:57
the estimate is one we automatically
4:00
stop that nurture and drive them into
4:01
the welcome and acclimation sequence
4:03
comments or questions drop below
4:05
callahan’s corner you ask the questions
4:06
we answer them live right here on
4:07
facebook
AllRelatedLiveRecently uploadedWatched

Hey, Mike Callahan here with
0:03
Simbler Growth. We’ve got our
0:05
seven business, seven-figure
0:07
business expert, Dylan here
0:07
with us from the Simple Growth
0:09
Team and Dylan and I were just
0:10
talking about all the things
0:11
that are going on in
0:12
businesses. It potentially
0:13
could be broken without the
0:15
business owner really knowing
0:16
it. Uh so, we decided to hop on
0:18
a quick Facebook Live here to
0:20
actually break down something
0:22
we’re going to be doing free of
0:23
charge for any service business
0:25
that’s willing to take 15 to
0:27
maybe 20 minutes with our
0:28
Simple Grow team to actually
0:29
show you the in your business
0:31
potentially are broken. Um and
0:33
Dylan, I know you’ve done this
0:34
audit over the last six to 12
0:36
months with probably hundreds
0:38
of of different service
0:39
businesses based in lawn care,
0:41
home cleaning, pest control,
0:42
pool services, you name it. Um
0:44
but right now there’s a lot of
0:46
uncertainty right now. A lot of
0:47
businesses are trying to
0:48
continue to grow to that
0:49
million mark and well beyond.
0:50
Uh but inflation, gas prices,
0:52
labor shortages. Where do I
0:54
need to work on my business
0:56
specifically right now to go
0:58
out and just crush my goals but
1:02
stay alive and continue the
1:02
same size I’m at. Um now,
1:04
obviously, most people watch
1:05
this want to continue to grow
1:06
their business successfully and
1:08
profitably but if you’re
1:09
looking at your service
1:10
business right now and you’re
1:11
like, I need to make sure my
1:13
business is okay to sustain
1:14
what’s going on in the
1:16
ecosystem right now. Uh we’ve
1:17
got good news. Dylan has the
1:18
ability for you to hop on the
1:20
team with one of our
1:22
seven-figure growth experts to
1:23
go through this free audit. So,
1:25
Dylan, I know we’ve got some
1:26
compressed time because you
1:26
actually have an audit here in
1:28
another 10 to 15 minutes. Um if
1:29
you don’t taking the wheel
1:32
brother and just kind of going
1:33
through what we we walked
1:34
through. We’re going to put in
1:35
some fictitious answers here so
1:36
people can actually see what
1:37
you get at the end of this but
1:39
like it’s a massive, actionable
1:41
information that would cost a
1:43
lot of money but we’re just
1:45
literally trying to help every
1:46
service business we can know
1:48
where they need to focus and
1:49
what pinpoints are going to
1:50
help them along the way. So, if
1:52
you don’t mind, brother, let’s
1:53
let’s walk through this and see
1:54
what it is and when we’re done,
1:56
if you’ve got a link, if you
1:57
want to slack it to me or after
1:59
this, we can post the sign up
2:01
link in the Facebook Live here
2:03
so people can sign up for this
2:04
free audit but I’ll let you let
2:05
you take over here. Cool, cool.
2:08
Yeah, it’s not every day that
2:09
you can kind of get like a a
2:12
scorecard almost on how your
2:14
business is doing, right? You
2:15
see your financial statements
2:16
at the end of the year and
2:17
you’re like, oh, I I think I
2:19
did pretty good but sometimes
2:21
the financial statements don’t
2:23
say everything as well. So,
2:24
this kind of secondary report
2:26
card just to make sure that
2:28
your business is healthy in all
2:29
aspects and that there’s not
2:29
really any glaring things that
2:33
you’re just missing can be
2:34
really beneficial. So, step 1
2:37
is, obviously, we’re going to
2:39
expect different things
2:41
depending on the size of your
2:42
business, right? If you’re just
2:43
starting out and you’re 50, 000
2:45
a year in annual sales,
2:48
going to be totally different
2:49
expectations on a company
2:50
that’s doing $3 million dollars
2:52
a year. And that’s the actual
2:54
process we go through here. So,
2:56
what if I’m a steady operation
2:57
between a half a million and a
2:58
mill? Alright, so we’ll mark
3:01
that down. And then we roll
3:03
into just a simple setup
3:05
analysis here. So Mike in your
3:08
company, are you using a CRM?
3:10
Uh well Dylan, what is a CRM?
3:12
Uh CRM is a customer
3:14
relationship management
3:16
program. Um that you would
3:17
house your customers in, you
3:19
know, kind of think service
3:22
autopilot, jobber, yardbook,
3:24
something like that. A little
3:24
bit different than QuickBooks
3:26
which is primarily just a
3:28
financial software. Okay, so
3:29
our Aspi and other softwares
3:32
like that would probably
3:32
qualify as that as well. Yeah,
3:33
I’m I’m definitely using a CRM.
3:35
Okay. And I do have a a website
3:38
and a Facebook page. Okay,
3:41
perfect. Um. And are your
3:44
services priced based off a
3:46
square feet or are you just
3:47
kind of eyeballing it? Oh,
3:48
let’s play. I’ll play doubles
3:50
advocates. Um let’s say it’s
3:52
the early years and I’m just
3:53
eyeballing it. Okay. So, I’ll
3:57
mark that as no. And when
3:58
you’re doing these quotes,
4:00
Mike, are you jotting them down
4:01
on a notepad? Are you entering
4:02
them in directly into your CRM?
4:05
How are you capturing that
4:06
information? I’m going to
4:06
answer this fictitiously just
4:08
to kind of see what it looks
4:10
like but I’m going to say we’re
4:11
driving around in an estimate
4:12
truck or car, writing it down a
4:13
pen and paper and then we get
4:14
back to the office. We put it
4:16
into that CRM.
4:22
and are your team members, if
4:24
you have any team members, are
4:24
they clocking in and out using
4:26
like a mobile app, tracking
4:27
their time, or? I’m going to
4:29
say for this exercise, they are
4:31
not. You’ve gotta be making
4:33
money because there’s money in
4:34
the bank. So, why would I
4:35
want to track that, right?
4:36
Gotcha. Yeah, well, we’ll see
4:39
why. You do want to track that
4:40
shortly but I like the
4:42
fictitious example. Oh, yeah.
4:43
So, the next part here is the
4:46
sales analysis and basically,
4:47
you’re going to receive a score
4:48
on each one of these segments
4:50
which is really cool Do you
4:53
have a website quote form? And
4:55
if so, is it automatically
4:57
entering the leads into your
4:59
CRM? Yeah, I’ve got one, Dylan,
5:01
but it sends me an Email and I
5:03
gotta type them in. You tell me
5:04
there may be a way to get those
5:05
in automatically, huh? Yeah.
5:06
So, right now, I do not have it
5:07
automatically getting those in.
5:10
Okay. So, I’ll put no for now.
5:13
And are you tracking and
5:16
reviewing where these clients
5:17
and leads are coming from, your
5:19
client’s source? Fictitiously
5:21
for this example, I am not.
5:25
Okay? And are you sending out
5:26
at least 20 quotes per month?
5:29
Oh, yeah, for sure. We’re
5:30
blowing it up. Okay. Uh, and
5:34
are you following up on these
5:35
quotes at least five times? Uh,
5:38
I will pretend it’s, I will
5:39
pretend it’s early days before
5:40
we automated. Be lucky if you
5:41
got maybe a phone call back.
5:42
So, definitely not. I’m out
5:43
there in the field or at least
5:44
I was back in the day. Uh,
5:46
getting that work done. So,
5:48
we’ll say no. Yep, been there
5:50
for sure. Um, are you upselling
5:53
your database at all? Uh, well
5:56
fictitiously, who has time for
5:57
that? Maybe, maybe in the
6:00
spring and. Yeah, maybe, maybe.
6:02
Obviously, things have changed
6:03
but we’ll we’ll answer this as
6:05
if we’re in the early days.
6:09
Turn turning back time. Um you
6:11
turn it back my hairline will
6:12
be better, huh? So the last
6:16
part here is operational. This
6:18
one’s a little bit tougher, a
6:19
little bit more advanced. Are
6:22
you tracking daily if your
6:23
teams are hitting their
6:24
budgeted times? Uh yeah I am
6:26
but it’s it’s through a pen and
6:28
paper. Excel sheet. Do my best.
6:30
So I’ll say yes. I mean you’re
6:33
tracking it. Uh however you’re
6:34
doing it. Might be a little bit
6:36
more of an efficient way to do
6:37
it. But at least you are
6:38
tracking it. That’s great. Are
6:41
you communicating any of those
6:42
findings with your for
6:45
accountability. I’m going to
6:46
say I know because most people
6:47
we talk to right now are scared
6:48
to do such because they’re
6:49
afraid they’re going to lose
6:50
their employees but obviously
6:51
when you do it correctly,
6:53
that’s a good way to get
6:54
employees. So, and keep them
6:55
but I’ll say no for this
6:56
example just so we see what the
6:58
report kicks out. And are you
7:02
reviewing any of your clients
7:03
that you have that you’re not
7:05
hitting your revenue goals
7:07
with? Um we’ll pretend this is
7:08
back in the day. Let’s say no.
7:10
Okay. So, if you are doing a a
7:13
price increase, it’s just a
7:14
blanket across the board. It’s
7:16
usually what we see in these
7:17
Facebook groups. So, yeah,
7:18
let’s let’s roll with that and
7:19
see what the the audit comes
7:20
out with. have you received
7:22
over 25 five-star reviews in
7:25
the last 12 months? Uh let’s
7:27
put a note because before we
7:29
systematically went out to get
7:29
those reviews, it didn’t
7:31
happen. Mm hmm And are you
7:34
tracking your equipment
7:35
maintenance and warranty
7:36
expiration automatically? Uh
7:40
no, we definitely weren’t too.
7:41
We were blowing two or three
7:41
engines in a year. So, let’s
7:43
check in the oil. So, let’s
7:44
let’s put no because that was a
7:45
big issue in the early days.
7:47
Yeah, I’ve been been there as
7:48
well. Those add up pretty
7:50
quickly. I’ll say no there. So,
7:52
that’s the end of the quick
7:54
quick analysis and then like
7:57
what? Maybe eight to 10
7:59
minutes? Maybe 15 tops with
8:01
some some in some conversations
8:03
back and forth and dive in a
8:04
little bit deeper? Pretty
8:05
pretty painless? Exactly, yeah.
8:07
we went to some of these
8:08
questions a little bit more
8:09
detail. A lot of them are,
8:11
well, maybe sort of I do this
8:13
but. Okay, maybe we’re having
8:14
some fun with it but just
8:15
kind of let people know what
8:16
what this audit actually does
8:17
for him. Yeah and so if we go
8:20
over to the results page now
8:23
which we include as a PDF to
8:24
everybody once we’ve done this,
8:27
looks like we’re having a
8:29
little bit of an error here,
8:30
but that’s okay. I’ll tally up
8:31
the results, shouldn’t be a,
8:34
shouldn’t be a hard equation to
8:36
do here. Um, so you, you
8:39
basically got about 60% on the
8:40
setup side of things. So, I’ll
8:44
have to, oh, let’s just go. Um,
8:50
Three divided by five. There we
8:53
go. That looks a little better
8:54
anyways. Um. All the things
8:56
that happen on Facebook Live
8:57
but we’re we’re good. So.
8:59
Alright. No. No, Biggie. Um so,
9:00
you’re a stage three business
9:02
on the setup side of things. Um
9:03
you got 60%, which, you know,
9:06
is a passing grade and not
9:07
passing with flying colors but
9:09
past. Um then, on the sales and
9:12
the operational side of things,
9:14
you didn’t do so well. Um ten,
9:17
10% is basically what you got.
9:19
So, the overall score is about
9:22
17%. Um with the the biggest
9:25
issues coming from like the
9:27
sales and the operational side
9:28
of things. Obviously, you can
9:30
kind of see it in graph form
9:31
here. But usually what I’ll do
9:33
is when I send over the
9:34
results, I don’t just send you
9:36
this and say, hey, have fun
9:37
with it. Um there’s obviously
9:39
like some recommendations, very
9:40
high level that can be made to
9:42
improve these sections. Um
9:44
usually, they’re fairly easy
9:45
things to fix. It’s just a
9:47
matter of, you know, enlisting
9:48
someone to do it that’s someone
9:51
at your company or or someone
9:52
else but that’s that’s
9:55
typically the process that I
9:56
would do is just add in some
9:58
some kind of concrete
10:00
recommendations here based on
10:03
what she answered no to. Yeah,
10:05
I’ve seen those recommendations
10:06
are really solid and and a lot
10:08
of things, I mean, obviously,
10:09
we’re doing this for free but a
10:10
lot of the stuff, honestly,
10:11
don’t want to, we’re not really
10:12
selling anything with with a
10:13
lot of it. It’s it’s really,
10:14
these are things you need to
10:15
take action on and fix and if
10:17
you do need some help, some of
10:18
it, we provide services, some
10:20
we we actually don’t. Um but it
10:21
really is some great
10:23
transparency and you know, it’s
10:24
just 60%, you know. I mean,
10:27
that’s how I got through some
10:28
of my chemistry classes at in
10:29
high school. Um you know, I got
10:32
through but it really wasn’t
10:33
successful and it’s something
10:34
that I probably couldn’t take
10:35
later on life with me. Um so, I
10:37
mean, if you’re 10% of your
10:38
sales and operations, those are
10:40
usually traditionally very easy
10:41
fixes and some can be
10:43
automated, some can be systems
10:44
and processes but the idea here
10:46
is if you’re looking at it and
10:47
you kind of want to know what
10:48
stage business you are from one
10:50
to a million or beyond and what
10:53
we do is we look at the
10:53
different stages business one A
10:57
and one B I like to call it.
10:58
So, one A, you’ve got a
10:59
part-time or you got a
11:00
full-time job, you’re doing
11:01
your your service business full
11:02
or part time. One B, you
11:04
kind of said the hell of the
11:05
man. He’s making too much money
11:06
off you. I’ve quit that job and
11:07
I’ve become an entrepreneur.
11:09
Now, my biggest pain point is,
11:11
how do I get more leads? Stage
11:14
number two, your biggest issue
11:16
now and it’s based on and we
11:18
can break down the sales
11:19
revenue things but the biggest
11:20
hurdle there is going to be
11:21
going in and figuring out how
11:23
to make sales. Stage 3 is
11:26
systems, and then stage four is
11:28
at Million Beyond. Um so,
11:30
that’s really SOP, standard aid
11:32
operating procedures, and
11:33
building a team. The stage 5 is
11:36
three to five million and
11:37
beyond is really building a
11:38
leadership team. Um so, if
11:40
you’re kind of looking at that
11:41
stage of business that kind of
11:43
correlates and behind the
11:44
scenes of this, it’s looking at
11:46
the biggest pinpoint and hurdle
11:48
and are you at 1 hundred
11:49
percent? So, if you’re at a
11:50
stage three business, just to
11:52
about to break a million or or
11:53
button up again it, the biggest
11:56
pinpoint right now is sales and
11:58
operations. So, this kind of
11:59
lines up perfectly against
12:01
that, Dylan and there are some
12:02
very strategic things that
12:03
every service business should
12:04
do with a stage three business
12:06
and obviously, if this was a
12:07
real business, they’ve got some
12:09
really tough issues here. So,
12:11
somewhere between that $750 and
12:12
a million dollars or even a
12:13
half a million and seven fifty.
12:15
If they don’t fix these things,
12:18
they’re they’re at serious risk
12:20
of financial failure. Um and
12:22
not being able to recruit and
12:24
train and and retain the
12:24
employees that we all need. So,
12:27
if people are interested, we’re
12:28
going to drop a link here below
12:30
this but basically, it’s a 15
12:32
to 20-minute free audit with
12:33
Dylan or somebody on the Simple
12:35
Growth team that has scaled a
12:36
seven-figure business beyond.
12:37
Um it’s all private and then
12:39
once you get this graphic
12:40
underneath it, there is some
12:42
detailed plans of things that
12:44
you should do specifically now
12:46
at that stage one, two, three,
12:48
or four, five business to be
12:49
successful. Um and there’s
12:51
there’s a decent amount of
12:52
detail in there. So, I’d wish
12:52
something like this was around
12:54
when we were trying to break
12:55
that million mark at $750 to a
12:57
million mark. As you know,
12:58
Dylan, you’ve been there
12:58
before. It’s like the gray area
12:59
of death. You gotta you gotta
13:01
get over that or you’re
13:02
going to die in there. Um as is
13:03
well, that one to two 2. 5
13:06
million mark, there’s also some
13:07
massive hurdles there. So, this
13:08
is built to just literally
13:10
pinpoint the exact pinpoint
13:11
based on your business and what
13:14
the pinpoints are in each stage
13:15
of business and how they
13:16
correlate. So, Dylan, I know
13:18
you’ve got a another audit to
13:19
do here in another minute or
13:20
two but any closing thoughts
13:21
before we wrap this up and post
13:23
the link and I guess if you can
13:23
actually message me on Slack if
13:27
you have it afterwards I will
13:28
post the link for people to
13:30
sign up for the free audit.
13:31
Yeah, we’ll do. Um I guess my
13:33
only thing to add is some
13:35
people want to go a little bit
13:37
more in depth with it. Um so,
13:39
sometimes on a screen share,
13:41
like we don’t need to follow
13:43
this exact format, right? Um
13:44
sometimes, someone comes to me
13:46
and says, hey, this is my issue
13:48
specifically. I know what it
13:49
is. Um I’d like to do the audit
13:51
but I’m more interested,
13:53
kind of your opinion on this
13:53
one issue. So, we kind of scrap
13:56
this format if necessary and
13:59
really dive in a little bit
13:59
more in depth to a specific
14:02
issue Maybe their budgeted
14:04
times aren’t matching up with
14:06
their actual times and they
14:07
just want like a more in-depth
14:09
analysis on that. So, you know,
14:11
I’m interested in stuff like
14:13
that. Kinda nerd out on on
14:15
solving some of these problems.
14:16
So, I’m more than happy to to
14:19
kind of break the mold of this
14:20
if it is necessary. If people
14:22
do want to get a little bit
14:23
more in-depth with it. Yeah,
14:24
glad you said because some of
14:26
the biggest breakthroughs of
14:27
when you’ve gotten off the path
14:28
of this. We’re actually done
14:29
this and dove in a little bit
14:30
deeper but I know some of our
14:31
our clients that we work with
14:33
have literally ended up sitting
14:34
with us knee to knee for 23
14:35
hours over screen share or in
14:39
person to actually rebuild
14:40
their whole entire pricing
14:42
matrix and service business
14:44
after diving in and actually
14:46
seeing the solution. They tried
14:47
it themselves. They didn’t have
14:48
the time or the bandwidth to do
14:49
it and they said, you know
14:51
what? We just trust you guys
14:52
after this. You showed us how
14:53
to do it. We just didn’t have
14:54
the time ability to do
14:55
ourselves. So, we’ll we’ll show
14:56
you how to do it and then, if
14:58
you need some help, obviously,
14:58
we’re here. The idea is just to
15:00
to go and pinpoint those
15:01
business pain points right now
15:02
in the uncertain times we’re
15:03
living in to to be make sure
15:05
this business survives and
15:06
thrives throughout the year and
15:08
in the next year. So, we’ll
15:09
post a link right after the
15:10
video and Donna let you take
15:11
her home. Alright, sounds good.
15:13
Yeah, I was just going to add
15:14
one last thing like there’s,
15:15
it’s just so important to get a
15:18
second set of eyes on things.
15:19
There’s things that me and you,
15:21
Mike, if we’re looking at
15:22
someone’s file, would be able
15:22
to see and notice, then would
15:25
never ever reach your
15:26
accountant’s eyes. Um so, you
15:29
know, little things like the
15:31
discrepancies between actual
15:32
and budgeted times that can
15:33
actually be a massive issue
15:34
depending on the size of your
15:35
company. Um you know, your your
15:38
accountants are never going to
15:38
see those those data points.
15:40
So. Yeah and pro tip,
15:42
especially with gas prices
15:43
right now, off-road fuel credit
15:45
tax. If your accountant is not
15:46
getting you the off-road fuel
15:47
credit tax in the states, get a
15:51
new accountant but we’ve had
15:52
people literally seven or $8,
15:54
000 of tax credits for fuel.
15:57
that their accountant never got
15:58
them. So, you can reimmend
16:00
those tax returns up to three
16:01
years at a very small price.
16:03
So, you know, this video may
16:05
just profit you seven to $10,
16:07
000 in tax credit. So, Dylan,
16:10
can’t thank you enough and
16:11
we’ll get that link under here
16:12
to sign up for your free
16:12
business audit coming up here
16:15
shortly. Thanks again, Dylan.
16:17
Appreciate it. Yep, thank

0:00
Here, want to make a quick
0:01
video. I was reading a Facebook
0:03
post earlier today and
0:06
literally someone was freaking
0:08
out as a lot of us do in our
0:09
lawn care companies when
0:11
someone actually quits on a
0:13
Monday morning as a no-call, no
0:14
show and you find out the
0:15
individual is never coming back
0:16
to work for you. What do you
0:18
do? Well, it got me thinking,
0:20
holy **** I’ve got a an
0:23
interesting life lesson here
0:24
that I would like to share that
0:27
happened in my lawn care
0:28
company probably about 10 or 11
0:29
years ago. Um happen is
0:31
literally on the same exact
0:34
experience this gentleman was
0:35
having, I rolled into the shop
0:38
with all intentions of getting
0:41
all the crews out and
0:42
literally, I think at that
0:43
point, we had probably 12
0:46
crews, two-man mowing crews,
0:48
and some maintenance crews and
0:49
fertilization but literally, we
0:51
didn’t have enough bodies for
0:54
six of the crews, approximately
0:56
five or six crews. Uh so,
0:57
basically, a little, little,
0:58
more, little, less than 50% of
0:59
our team didn’t show that
1:02
morning. So, literally, in a
1:03
frantic we started calling
1:05
these individuals to see like,
1:07
hey, if they’re okay and B,
1:08
were they coming in? And a lot
1:10
of them didn’t answer their
1:11
phones, but one or two of them
1:13
actually did, and basically
1:16
told us that they had basically
1:18
quit and started their own
1:20
well-attempted to, start their
1:21
own lawn care and landscape
1:22
company. So, the point of the
1:26
video here is, we need to
1:27
build, build some redundancy.
1:29
So, literally, when I lost
1:31
about 50% of our staff that
1:32
day, Uh I went into panic mode
1:36
and literally jumped on one of
1:38
the mowing crews in some crazy
1:41
wild idea thinking that I would
1:42
actually be able to cover the
1:44
production of five or six crews
1:46
which obviously looking back at
1:48
it is a complete insanity. Um
1:51
but such a whirlwind, such a
1:53
devastating thing to lose about
1:53
half of your team and literally
1:55
have them go out and try to
1:56
start a competing company with
1:57
you. Um and they come to find
2:00
out they’re actually starting
2:00
to steal some of your clients.
2:01
Um a lot of when we’re in the
2:04
trenches of the war of our
2:05
service business, we don’t
2:06
actually have a clear mind of
2:08
what we should be doing. So,
2:10
kind of responding to A, the
2:12
gentleman that lost one
2:13
employee, thankfully, he didn’t
2:14
lose half his, half his team
2:15
for the maintenance division.
2:17
Um what what I should have done
2:19
looking at it in retrospect is
2:21
gone right back to the office,
2:23
got the, the five or six crews
2:24
that were left out, had them
2:26
tag team at the end of the, end
2:28
of the day, to just start
2:29
chunking away at the additional
2:31
work if they could, incur the
2:33
overtime, that would have been
2:34
fine, and rally the troops
2:35
around that, but Really, what I
2:39
did is, is I jumped out on a
2:40
truck thinking I was going to
2:41
cover that gap which obviously
2:42
didn’t happen. So, I should
2:44
have went back to that office
2:45
and started working that
2:46
database of potential new hires
2:49
that we had previously
2:50
interviewed. I should have ran
2:52
some Facebook ads, should have
2:53
put a basically a one-day
2:57
recruiting and hiring session
2:58
together and try to actually
3:01
fill that gap. Now, yes, some
3:02
of the clients may have been
3:04
aggravated. The key commercial
3:05
HOAs and other places like yes,
3:08
we’d obviously prioritize
3:10
those. Um but I think if
3:11
through some communication, I I
3:14
think we could’ve worked a
3:16
seven-day week that week and
3:18
maybe the next week and covered
3:20
a lot of that gap but what I
3:22
did is actually going back on
3:23
that truck, I prolonged the the
3:26
the pain of it and didn’t allow
3:28
the company to respond the way
3:30
it should. So, what we need to
3:32
be doing proactively to beat
3:34
this really is to go out and
3:36
constantly recruit and to that
3:39
day moving forward, we have
3:40
always gone out in that lawn
3:43
care company and interviewed
3:44
every Monday, Wednesday, and
3:46
sometimes Friday and what we
3:47
found in the Northeast in
3:49
Upstate New York is
3:51
traditionally over the last 10
3:52
or 11 years, we had looked at
3:53
it, we would always lose one or
3:55
two employees either they would
3:57
get fired or we’d have to let
3:59
them go but there are main
4:00
things right before within a
4:02
week before after Memorial Day
4:03
and within a week, before,
4:05
after the July 4th weekend or
4:07
holiday and then right around
4:09
the second or third of August
4:12
which ends up being my
4:13
birthday, August 18th, but that
4:15
week, before or after, we would
4:18
consistently lose guys or girls
4:19
and then right before the fall
4:20
cleanup season going into
4:21
November. It it just around
4:24
those holidays, whatever it is,
4:27
the traditionally, we knew we
4:29
were going to lose people
4:30
whether they just got burned
4:33
out and they weren’t a good fit
4:34
anymore or people would just
4:35
quit, no show. So, we knew
4:38
around those three or four
4:39
times throughout the year that
4:41
we would ramp up the recruiting
4:42
even more and that’s when we
4:44
would kick in the Friday
4:45
recruiting. So, if you’re
4:46
looking at you’ve lost some
4:47
employees. Uh hopefully you
4:49
haven’t lost half your team. Uh
4:50
the desire or the first
4:54
interest is to go out and jump
4:55
on that truck or really that’s
4:57
the worst thing you can do in
4:58
my experience and I’ve made
4:59
that mistake more than a few
5:01
times that I like to admit. Uh
5:02
but every time that we’ve
5:03
actually gone back to the
5:04
basics and said you know what?
5:05
Let’s let’s get the initial
5:06
team to cover that. And maybe
5:08
shift the guy for the
5:09
fertilizing crew over the
5:10
maintenance crew for a day just
5:12
to cover the gap. Um obviously
5:13
a higher expense but we can
5:14
shift some fertilizing around
5:16
We got creative while we
5:18
covered that gap but the way
5:19
that we solve that right out
5:21
the gate, the most successful
5:22
was to go right back to the
5:24
office, start working the
5:26
database, and if you don’t have
5:27
a database, we need to start
5:28
interviewing Monday, Wednesday,
5:29
and sometimes Friday because
5:31
when we need the employee, it’s
5:33
too late. We need to have an
5:34
active database segmented, in
5:35
my opinion, rated in A, B, and
5:37
C fashion with or without a
5:38
driver’s license and then, we
5:40
can pull from that database and
5:42
if you end up losing half your
5:43
staff, really, you want to go
5:44
out and you want to have a
5:45
hiring, basically, a vent, pump
5:49
it out, give it two, 3 days
5:50
notice, and then literally go
5:52
in, interview everybody anybody
5:54
who made the cut, have them
5:56
come back for the second
5:57
interview, about halfway
5:58
through the day, and then at
5:59
the end of the day, you
6:00
actually have job contracts and
6:02
offers there, and you actually
6:03
signed it on, on the spot, and
6:05
that’s how you would actually
6:06
do that, because we did that in
6:08
the spring, many of times to
6:09
hire when we, we grew the
6:11
company, literally doubling in
6:13
size some years, how did you go
6:14
out and actually staff that?
6:16
Well, we actually went out and
6:16
had hiring events live. Well,
6:17
there’s nothing really stopping
6:19
you doing that in the spring,
6:20
or on a given Wednesday or
6:23
Thursday after you lose half
6:24
your half your team on a
6:25
Monday. Um but what I’m
6:26
going to suggest and really
6:28
really talk about here is this
6:30
you don’t ever ever want to go
6:32
in and fill that gap unless you
6:34
absolutely have to by
6:36
physically jumping on the
6:37
truck. Now if you’re still on
6:38
the truck nothing wrong with
6:40
that. Like that’s a different
6:41
story. Um but even if you’re on
6:43
your truck and you lose your
6:44
helper you definitely want to
6:45
take a half a day to a day and
6:47
just work on the business and
6:48
not in it. To fill that gap.
6:49
Because you can physically not
6:51
keep up the work of two people
6:53
by yourself. You may be able to
6:54
do it the short term but like I
6:56
said, I’d rather see you work,
6:57
a half day, or full day on a
6:59
Saturday, or even a Sunday to
7:00
cover that gap but push the
7:03
work off and work on the actual
7:05
issue at hand and go out and
7:06
staff for it. So, main video
7:09
today is I saw a gentleman who
7:10
lost his his one employee. Uh
7:11
thank god he didn’t lose half
7:13
of his employees like we did
7:14
one time when they went out to
7:15
go start their own company.
7:15
Now, you’re probably wondering
7:17
what happened to those five or
7:19
six guys that went out to try
7:20
to start own company. Um we’re
7:22
actually 10 to 12 guys based on
7:24
the five or 6 crews. Uh we we
7:26
systematically wiped wiped them
7:28
clear and and basically put
7:29
them out of business where they
7:31
started. Um it circled back to
7:32
the clients that they had taken
7:33
and and recovered 99% of them.
7:36
So they stayed in business for
7:37
about maybe two weeks if that.
7:40
Um but we took care of that as
7:42
well. I mean that’s obviously
7:43
something I would not take
7:44
lightly and obviously I didn’t.
7:46
Um but the main point of the
7:47
video is listen if you’re
7:48
losing an employee don’t on
7:50
that truck especially if you’re
7:52
not on the truck normally. Go
7:52
out and do what the business
7:54
owners supposed to do. Set the
7:55
vision, set the strategy, and
7:56
this is the strategy. We need
7:58
to go out and hire and recruit
8:00
constantly. Monday, Wednesday,
8:02
sometimes Friday. If you look
8:03
in your business, you’re
8:04
probably going to see that
8:05
Memorial Day, 4th of July,
8:07
middle of August, and right
8:08
before fall cleanups. If you’re
8:09
in the northeast area, those
8:12
consistently happen in the
8:13
business. We would always lose
8:14
somebody or we’d let somebody
8:15
go. Um those seem to be the
8:17
burnout points or maybe people
8:18
are shift jobs going into the
8:21
winter when that happens in
8:23
November. Whatever the case may
8:24
be, if you can find a
8:25
historical trend, that’s when
8:26
you start recruiting that third
8:28
day on the week. So, Monday,
8:30
Wednesday, Friday, or Monday,
8:31
Wednesday. Build that database,
8:32
segment em, and now, when you
8:34
need an employee, you’ve gotta
8:35
qualified list to start
8:36
working. Man, if I had that
8:38
list when we had lost all those
8:39
guys and girls, it could’ve
8:40
probably spend a half a day
8:42
working that list and on
8:43
Tuesday morning, we would have
8:44
been back up and running but
8:45
no, I let the insanity run for
8:47
almost a month and just about
8:47
killed myself mentally and
8:50
physically. Um it did take a
8:51
toll on the family and not
8:53
being able to go and I remember
8:54
that one day I had to work
8:57
three quarters a day on
8:58
Mother’s Day just to literally
9:01
get caught up when I was still
9:02
in the truck with those guys
9:03
and and then then the light
9:05
came on later that day that you
9:07
know, let’s just wait a day or
9:08
two. Let’s go out. Let’s
9:09
recruit and fill that
9:11
bottleneck of employees and
9:12
within a few days, we had it.
9:13
Now, they may not have been the
9:14
best employees. They may not
9:15
have been the best fit but to
9:17
get through that short short
9:18
area, We hired, we overhired,
9:21
and then we literally kind of
9:22
had a tryout for the best
9:24
employees and those actually, a
9:25
couple of the guys that came
9:26
out of that were some of the
9:27
best employees we had right up
9:28
to the end. So, that’s it.
9:31
Aaron’s got a quick question
9:32
here. I might answer as well.
9:34
Uh are you always paying for
9:35
recruiting job boards, Facebook
9:37
jobs, post to keep the list
9:38
fresh? Aaron, yes, that’s
9:39
exactly what I’m talking about.
9:40
So, we need to be running those
9:42
ads. We need to be doing
9:43
referrals for current
9:44
employees, referring their
9:45
friends and family in for jobs.
9:46
Uh we had a bunch of guys from
9:47
Guate that we brought in in H2B
9:50
visas. They went to a
9:51
particular church on Sundays
9:53
and we would drive the guys
9:54
every Sunday to church and and
9:56
that was some of our best
9:57
referral because those guys
9:59
loved us and they would get 250
10:00
bucks every time they referred
10:02
somebody from the church would
10:03
work for us. Um you gotta
10:04
figure out where is your your
10:05
best employee hanging out and
10:06
go to that place. Uh there was
10:08
also a trailer park that I had
10:10
probably 70% of my employees at
10:12
one point were living in. So,
10:13
we actually went out and
10:15
targeted that trailer park for
10:16
job ads you gotta figure out
10:19
where that demographic your
10:20
perfect employee is kind of
10:21
living or hanging out and every
10:23
week, we need to invest money
10:25
into the Facebook, the job
10:27
boards, all the things you’re
10:28
talking about as well as
10:29
organically going out and
10:31
trying to find some people.
10:32
Local Dunkin’ Donuts or things
10:34
like that. You’re going through
10:35
the drive thru. Uh we had one
10:36
gentleman that was just a
10:37
standout. Um so we literally I
10:39
threw him a had a good
10:40
relationship with him because I
10:41
was getting a a coffee every
10:42
morning and and literally I
10:44
threw my car and said hey man
10:45
if you’re ever looking to make
10:45
a change you know hit us up.
10:46
Guy hit me up six later and he
10:48
he joined the team. So, look at
10:50
those different areas because
10:51
if you’ve got Cooks or waiters,
10:53
things like that in the back of
10:54
those kitchens several hundred
10:55
degrees at some point in
10:57
summer. Those are the folks
10:58
that are going to be able to
10:59
survive outside doing landscape
11:00
maintenance and maybe they
11:01
want to get out and just get
11:02
some fresh air. So, we need to
11:03
be creative especially now in
11:04
the tight labor market but as
11:06
soon as we stop looking for
11:08
future employees, it’s when we
11:09
get in trouble. So, we gotta be
11:10
looking and if you, if it hits
11:12
the proverbial fan and you lose
11:14
one or two employees on a over
11:15
a weekend, don’t jump back on
11:16
the truck take a day, reset,
11:19
and start focusing and
11:20
recruiting because that will
11:21
pay big dividends in the long
11:22
end and maybe we gotta pay a
11:24
little extra overtime or work
11:25
an extra day on the weekend.
11:27
The team will survive and so
11:29
will the business in a lot
11:30
better way if we go out and
11:31
just try to fix that right off
11:32
the gate. Um Aaron says other
11:34
sources for employees besides
11:35
indeed Facebook and referrals.
11:37
Um Aaron, depending on right
11:39
now, sometimes like local
11:41
Craigslist ad will actually be
11:43
pretty good. Um we gotta be
11:44
creative. A lot of times
11:46
actually put like a yard sign
11:47
in front of a Lowe’s or Home
11:49
Depot on the exit. If if it’s
11:51
in a plaza, you can get away
11:52
with that usually times they
11:53
take him down. You gotta put
11:54
him back up. Or if you’re like
11:56
a site one or Ewings, things
11:57
like that. Um putting some
11:59
roads, some signs where those
12:00
guys are driving by. that
12:02
worked well for us as well like
12:04
a site one or Ewan’s. Um a lot
12:06
of those counterwall cards if
12:09
you ask them nicely. Um because
12:10
those are where you’re
12:11
potentially pre-employed at a
12:13
level. We gotta be creative
12:14
right now. Um but those yard
12:15
signs outside of Lowe’s or Home
12:17
Depot near the exit. Um if you
12:19
can get them out there.
12:20
Especially when you’re doing
12:21
that live hiring event. Uh
12:21
that’s a great Great idea I’ve
12:24
seen some great results out of
12:26
that as well. So, love the
12:27
comments, love the questions,
12:29
Aaron. Hopefully, you’re not in
12:30
this scenario that I was in but
12:31
if you’re out there and you
12:32
lose an employee this week,
12:34
don’t learn the temptation to
12:36
jump in that truck immediately.
12:37
Go out and dial in to hopefully
12:41
that database that you’ve
12:42
created for hiring and if you
12:43
haven’t, that’s your action
12:44
plan this week. Go out and
12:46
start recruiting for every
12:47
position. If you’re saying,
12:47
hey, Mike, I’m still in the
12:49
truck. I don’t have time to do
12:50
that. Blackout an extra fifteen
12:51
to 20 minutes during your lunch
12:55
hour, twice a week, which you
12:56
can do. I don’t care if you’re
12:57
at Mickey D’s or you know,
12:59
pizza joint or just eating your
13:01
bagged lunch on the side of the
13:02
road in the parking lot. Take
13:03
an extra 15 minutes, twice a
13:05
week, and start working those
13:06
over the phone interviews and
13:08
start start recruiting because
13:09
we need to do that. Well,
13:10
one-man show or two-man show or
13:13
15 to twenty-million-dollar
13:14
company. This is this is this
13:15
is what breeds success but
13:17
remember, when you lose those
13:18
employees, fight the temptation
13:19
to getting on that truck. I’d
13:20
rather see you a half a full
13:21
day behind but then have that
13:24
work, that team coming in and
13:25
hopefully, you’ve got them
13:26
covering the tail end of the
13:27
week to get you caught up. So,
13:29
comments, questions, drop
13:30
below. Callahan’s Corner. You
13:32
ask the questions. We answer em
13:32
live right here on Facebook.

0:02
Callahan’s Corner where you ask
0:04
the questions. We answer them
0:05
live right here on Facebook.
0:07
So, one of the many Facebook
0:08
groups we are involved in with
0:11
Callahan’s Corner s, there was
0:11
a question asked this morning,
0:15
what works better? Direct mail
0:16
or Every Door Direct Mailing
0:19
EDDM. Well, really the question
0:22
is right off the bat is, is
0:24
this individual or if you’re
0:25
looking at exploring different
0:27
marketing options for Everydoor
0:28
Direct, mailing, mail Facebook
0:30
ads, Google Ads, whatever that
0:32
is, are you actually tracking
0:34
the data? So, we did, in our
0:38
run, usually in the spring, we
0:39
run 75 to maybe $85, 000 at the
0:42
peak of the advertising season
0:44
in a month in Upstate New York
0:46
for the lawn care company I own
0:48
and that definitely worked but
0:50
the thing that I will tell you
0:51
is is working with hundreds of
0:53
businesses all over the US and
0:54
Canada, even Australia, and the
0:55
UK now. Um each market is the
0:58
same but it’s going to be a
0:58
little bit different based on
1:01
how they digest and what target
1:02
market actually demographic
1:04
you’re going after. So, really
1:06
I think it would be foolish to
1:06
answer the question directly
1:08
what worked better in my market
1:09
and actually show you how to
1:10
track your own data for
1:13
non-emotional systematic way
1:14
and I can show you how to
1:15
actually create a high-level
1:16
marketing plan to go along with
1:17
this. Once we got some good
1:18
data. So, what I’m going to do
1:19
here is open up the screen and
1:22
open up service autopilot. So,
1:24
this is one of the CRMs that we
1:26
use, customer relationship
1:27
management software is here. Um
1:28
so, if you using service
1:30
autopilot and the gentleman
1:31
that actually asked this
1:32
question, I know, is using
1:33
service autopilot. I’m going to
1:34
open it up and show you how to
1:36
actually use service autopilot
1:37
to track this stuff. Literally,
1:38
automatically, once you set it
1:40
up, it takes about five minutes
1:41
to set up. I’m going to show
1:43
you actually how to do it. So,
1:45
first thing you want to do is
1:46
go to our gear icon. and we’re
1:50
going to go into
1:54
client source right here and
1:55
client source is going to be
1:56
lead source tracking. So,
1:58
whether you’re doing Everydoor
1:59
Direct Mail ing, direct
2:00
mailing, or any other type of
2:03
advertising, literally, word of
2:04
mouth, they saw your truck,
2:05
whatever that is, that will be
2:07
able what we’re, we’re looking
2:09
at here. So, as you can see in
2:11
my old account here, we had our
2:13
20 twenty Every Door Direct
2:15
Mail ing with the long copy,
2:15
and one with the picture of a
2:18
family. So, you may be testing
2:19
different copies of this
2:20
marketing copy as well, because
2:22
Avidor Direct Mail ing may work
2:24
great on one piece but not as
2:26
good on in others. So, this is
2:27
how we go in a non-emotionally
2:28
set this up. So, if we go in
2:31
and let’s add a new source
2:33
right from the beginning, I’m
2:34
going to put this as our Every
2:35
Door Direct Mail ing test. 2022
2:41
and we can go in and put some
2:42
details in here. Now, the first
2:44
thing we need to do is set
2:45
these up. The second thing now
2:46
is when we do that Every Door
2:48
Direct Mail ing, we need to
2:49
actually go in and add a
2:50
campaign. So, if we
2:54
let’s say in March and it ran
2:56
all the way through the end of
2:58
April, we could put that date
3:00
in there. So, anytime a lead
3:02
comes into the system in that
3:03
date for that particular client
3:05
or lead source, it’s accredited
3:07
to that. Now, let’s say we’ve
3:09
did a ten thousand distribution
3:12
and it ran us to $8000 dollars.
3:15
So, we put the 10, 000 in here.
3:18
And our eight-thousand-dollar,
3:20
oh,
3:23
$10, 000 distribution and our
3:27
8, 000 dollars to actually have
3:30
the expense. Now, if you’re
3:31
actually marketing your current
3:32
database, we can actually hit
3:33
upsell and it would track the
3:34
upsell conversion ratio. So,
3:35
what this is going to give you
3:37
is how many leads came from
3:38
each marketing source? how many
3:42
converted into a client, the
3:43
closing percentage for your
3:45
actual estimator, and the
3:48
client acquisition cost. So,
3:49
what it costs you acquire for
3:50
each and every client that you
3:52
get and then, in addition we
3:53
could have a client lifetime
3:55
value. Uh if you are going to
3:57
this extent, I’m also going to
3:59
recommend that you go in and
4:01
track your cancellation and one
4:03
and loss reasons. So, if we go
4:05
into the gear icon, and go into
4:10
cancellation reasons and
4:11
estimate reasons. So, we have
4:12
estimate reasons and we’re
4:13
going to go in and put the
4:15
reason why we won and lost the
4:17
estimate and then, we’re
4:19
going to go back in. And
4:22
cancel, track our cancellation
4:25
reason. So, what we’ve done is
4:25
track our acquisition, cost,
4:27
and percentage of closing and
4:29
client lifetime value per lead
4:31
source and then, we can also

00:01
mike calling here wanted to make a quick
00:02
video about
00:03
your areas of genius in your business
00:05
what i mean by this is
00:06
there’s certain things that um you as a
00:09
business owner the people in your
00:10
business
00:11
is their specific uh skill set or genius
00:14
so
00:15
what we see a lot of times is business
00:16
owners wearing multiple hats
00:18
and not really specific specifically
00:20
focusing on what they’re good at or
00:22
their area of
00:23
being um skill set as as basically a
00:26
genius so
00:27
there’s several areas in the business
00:28
that i recommend looking at especially
00:30
in the service business and
00:32
the first one is financials and
00:35
production and basically budgeting so
00:36
the financials and how do we actually
00:38
price stuff
00:39
so if that’s not your area of genius
00:41
then i suggest going out and hiring
00:43
someone and if it’s
00:44
not in the budget or the scale of your
00:45
business quite yet actually going out
00:48
and hiring a consultant or professional
00:49
to help you there next part is going to
00:52
be your internal systems and processes
00:54
as far as your equipment if you’re in
00:55
the lawn care
00:56
or landscape industry uh this definitely
00:58
was not my area of genius for sure in my
01:00
lawn care company but preventative
01:01
maintenance
01:02
and working on the equipment things like
01:04
that that’s an area
01:05
that we need to be able to uh manage and
01:07
be able to effectively take care of
01:08
because that’s a major
01:10
pain point if the equipment’s not
01:11
working properly or engines are being
01:14
blown in multiple things
01:15
that are going wrong so we’re looking at
01:18
our financials
01:19
and production rates we’re looking at
01:21
equipment and preventative maintenance
01:23
and then the big one right now
01:24
is employee systems and training
01:28
so along with that i would probably
01:30
encompass recruiting so
01:32
this is another area of genius that i
01:33
would go out and hire for specifically
01:35
hr recruiting training
01:39
now depending on the size of your
01:40
organization it may be two separate
01:41
positions but the idea is we’ve got to
01:43
have somebody that
01:44
their native geniuses going out and
01:46
recruiting
01:47
and making sure your new applicants
01:49
align with your mission vision values
01:51
it’s a cultural
01:52
fit in addition in the field whether
01:55
it’s lawn care home cleaning pest
01:56
control
01:57
we also have need to have a native
01:59
genius
02:00
or a skill set to actually be able to
02:02
train and a lot of things that we really
02:04
miss in the service industry is we don’t
02:06
actually go out and train our trainer to
02:07
train
02:08
so your guy or girl in the field might
02:10
be the best lawn mowing crew leader
02:12
there is
02:13
but unfortunately they don’t have the
02:16
native genius to actually go out and
02:18
train
02:18
and actually replicate a standardized
02:21
operating procedure
02:22
so what we really want to do is go in
02:24
and tackle the financial production rate
02:26
estimating
02:27
uh equipment preventative maintenance
02:29
systems around that and then employee
02:31
system as far as recruiting training
02:33
and onboarding that’s gonna be another
02:35
area and then
02:37
the last area of there’s several more
02:38
but the main areas that i want to talk
02:40
about today is going to be
02:42
your sales and marketing systems um and
02:45
that is going to be another native
02:46
genius area that we probably should hire
02:48
specifically for
02:50
um to go out and re get those leads
02:53
qualify and close sales and then
02:55
upsell to raise that client lifetime
02:57
value as well as
02:58
creating a marketing system to drive
03:00
qualified leads in
03:02
so as you’re looking at the financial
03:04
productions uh the equipment
03:05
preventative maintenance
03:07
and systems around maintenance
03:10
employee systems and now sales and
03:13
marketing systems you got four distinct
03:15
areas and
03:15
what you traditionally see is in an
03:18
organization starting the scale
03:20
the business owner should really be
03:21
ahead of the strategy
03:23
and the mission and the vision in
03:24
leading the charge but what we find in
03:27
most service businesses is that
03:28
owner um native genius is traditionally
03:32
not going to help the business scale
03:35
quickly so a lot of times a a lawn care
03:39
business owner
03:39
may be really good at sales or equipment
03:42
and preventative maintenance
03:43
but they’re not really good at the
03:45
operational part of getting employees
03:47
recruiting training and onboarding and
03:48
training those trainers
03:50
and they’re maybe not really strong on
03:51
the financial and production rate area
03:53
to actually go out and bid jobs
03:55
profitably to be able to scale and
03:57
create budgeted time and profitability
03:59
so
04:00
really the point of the video today is i
04:01
think we as business owners we need to
04:03
take a look
04:04
inward and see exactly
04:07
what our native genius is our strength
04:11
and we probably should also make sure
04:13
that that native genius that we’re
04:14
providing for the business
04:16
is those hundred to two hundred dollar
04:18
value things um
04:19
if your native genius is preventative
04:21
maintenance and equipment maintenance
04:22
that’s great maybe that’s your passion
04:24
but we need to go out and hire people to
04:26
plug those other holes
04:28
but at the end of the day maybe that is
04:30
your passion but once you’re starting to
04:31
scale that business
04:33
working a wrench and working equipment
04:35
and changing oil
04:36
is probably not the 100 to 200 dollar
04:39
jobs that you need to be doing to scale
04:41
the business and create a system around
04:43
it so
04:43
it’s not only that your native genius
04:45
needs to be focused on
04:47
um where you bring the best value but
04:50
it’s got to be those hundred to two
04:51
hundred dollar an hour jobs now
04:53
as the business scales and i know a few
04:54
business owners actually their native
04:55
genius is preventative maintenance
04:57
equipment and they really enjoy
04:58
wrenching on the equipment
04:59
nothing wrong with that um but
05:02
what they’ve done is gone out and hired
05:04
people to fill the other gaps to
05:05
basically run the business
05:07
and they focus on the equipment and set
05:08
up so they’ve got 20 30 crews
05:10
with all the equipment and that’s that’s
05:12
where they want to be um there’s nothing
05:13
wrong with that but you’ve got to have a
05:15
look inward to be able to say
05:16
okay this is where my skill set is this
05:18
is where i can provide the most value
05:20
but now at scale i can afford to bring
05:22
these other people in to continue to
05:23
scale
05:24
this business so um today’s challenge is
05:26
kind of go out and take a look at it
05:27
where is your native genius where are
05:28
you bringing the most value to the
05:30
business
05:31
is it the financial estimating product
05:33
or financial and production rate
05:35
set up for estimating is it the
05:38
recruiting and training and onboarding
05:40
piece is it the equipment and asset
05:42
management
05:44
or is it the sales and marketing and i
05:45
suggest that we build and go out and
05:47
hire around this and if we’re not at the
05:48
point where we can afford to hire for it
05:50
we go out and hire experts where it’s a
05:52
virtual assistant
05:53
a consultant uh going into a masterminds
05:56
group and kind of working together on
05:57
those things but those are the things we
05:58
need to focus on in my opinion
06:00
to go out and scale at business quickly
06:02
i did that exactly in my
06:04
seven-figure business now with simple
06:05
growth outside of the lawn care company
06:07
but i went out and
06:08
um got bill and laurie as expert
06:11
developers
06:12
and as bill and lori continue to grow
06:15
they’ve brought chad in as a
06:16
junior developer and almost basically a
06:18
developer at this point we’re building a
06:20
bench that can continue to scale and
06:21
retrain
06:22
we brought dylan and virginia in who
06:25
both have owned seven figure lawn care
06:27
businesses and snow removal
06:28
they’ve lived in the trenches that
06:29
everybody has already lived in that
06:31
we’re working with they
06:32
understand the needs of our clients and
06:34
they also understand how to scale a
06:36
business
06:37
and they have native genius in helping
06:39
people
06:40
um achieve that they’ve already done it
06:42
and they understand those pitfalls but
06:44
um in its simple growth you know
06:46
obviously my native genes is kind of
06:48
setting the strategy and the vision
06:50
but in addition um i do have a passion
06:52
for helping business owners create
06:54
production rate-based estimating systems
06:56
that are scalable and they can be
06:58
delegated so
06:59
those are the different ideas that i’ve
07:00
kind of taken into simple growth and
07:02
it’s allowed us to scale the seven
07:03
figures and beyond
07:04
significantly quicker than we did in the
07:06
lawn care company because
07:08
going at it the second time they say
07:09
it’s easier to break a million dollars
07:11
i don’t want to say it’s necessary
07:13
easier but it is a little bit easier
07:15
because you already understand
07:17
that you can’t do everything and it’s
07:19
better to surround yourself and go out
07:21
and get
07:21
the experts or the geniuses in each part
07:23
and build and scale a team around that
07:25
and with the labor market how tight it
07:27
is
07:28
we may have to pay some more and charge
07:30
some more but i’m going to recommend
07:32
that you go out and find
07:33
people that have the native genius in
07:36
the gaps in your business
07:37
and look at that finance and estimating
07:40
systems to make sure
07:41
it’s hitting your financial goals we
07:43
look at someone to recruit train and
07:45
onboard and train your trainers
07:47
which is probably the most important
07:48
right now given the labor market
07:50
we’re going to go in and do sales and
07:51
marketing and then if you’re in the lawn
07:53
care and landscape industry we need
07:55
somebody
07:55
that has a native genius for equipment
07:57
and managing the fleet because that can
07:59
get out of control and get extremely
08:01
costly especially with downtime or
08:02
replacing engines so
08:04
we’ve made all the mistakes possible in
08:06
my business not plugging these holes
08:07
with the right people but i will tell
08:08
you
08:09
the second time at it and as we continue
08:12
to grow my lawn care company
08:14
after learning these lessons um it went
08:17
significantly smoother and faster
08:18
so uh homework today is go in and figure
08:21
out what is your native genius is it at
08:22
least 100 to 200
08:23
an hour job and where is the biggest gap
08:25
the pain point in your business that you
08:27
could go out and hire someone on your
08:28
team to fill the gap of that native
08:30
genius that’s missing
08:31
or if you’re not at scale to have a
08:33
full-time person is there a consultant
08:35
is there a business coach or something
08:37
or a virtual assistant
08:38
or part-time agency that can do that for
08:41
you until you can actually bring it
08:43
in-house and sometimes it may be easier
08:44
to not even bring it in-house
08:46
build it in the budget with a fixed cost
08:48
and that is a quicker way to scale
08:50
occasionally
08:51
so comments questions drop them below
08:53
what’s your native genius and how are
08:55
you going to go fill the gaps
08:56
probably around your employee recruiting
08:59
training and onboarding process to
09:00
overcome
09:01
this labor crunch and a big surprise
09:03
coming up here
09:04
in the next month or so we are going to
09:08
unveil a new employee recruiting uh
09:11
process that we’ve been working on for
09:12
the last five or six months at simple
09:13
growth that should
09:14
be able to help everybody and we’ll
09:15
provide provides more information about
09:17
that and how you can do it yourself
09:19
and a big magazine article coming up i
09:21
just wrote for snow magazine
09:23
this september from gie media so
09:26
hopefully see you at
09:26
gien expo and mike callahan with
09:29
callahan’s corner you ask questions we
09:30
had some

00:02
Welcome back to work it
00:03
Wednesday. Mike Allen here with
00:04
Dylan from the Simple Grow
00:06
Team. Going to be talking about
00:07
things you should be working on
00:08
in your business um and well,
00:11
actually the things you should
00:12
be working on in on your
00:12
business and not in your
00:13
business is Michael Gerber says
00:14
but Dylan and I are going to be
00:15
breaking down production rate
00:17
based estimating for
00:18
fertilization and weed control
00:19
based on a standard push
00:22
spreader hose and reel in a
00:24
stand on unit. Some of those uh
00:26
prima green or maybe a Toro X
00:27
mark Um but Dylan, I know
00:29
you’ve got some insight working
00:29
with of businesses already this
00:32
year. Um so, we’re going to be
00:34
going over a basic matrix of a
00:35
uh standard based price. The
00:37
minimum to show up in a set
00:39
amount. There are over a
00:40
thousand square feet and then
00:41
we’re going to go into breaking
00:43
down um price breaks based on
00:46
larger properties up to an acre
00:47
and actually over. So um I know
00:49
you’ve been dealing with a lot
00:50
of people here with simple
00:50
growth facing uh selling a
00:52
product based estimating
00:54
system. We’ve budgeted time and
00:55
actual budgeted cost including
00:57
overhead recovery and the
00:58
actual materials per round So,
01:00
I’ll give you the floor here
01:02
before you open up the screen
01:02
and actually show people how to
01:04
do this. Yeah. Uh speaking with
01:06
so many people recently, uh
01:09
obviously everybody here knows
01:10
that the matrix is like a
01:11
really really important tool, a
01:14
really neat tool rather than
01:15
taking so much time to build
01:16
out an estimate every time you
01:18
do it, you put in the work up
01:19
front and then estimates become
01:21
very very easy. The one thing
01:22
that I’m excited to break down
01:24
here is the number one issue I
01:26
see with Matrix is people say,
01:28
oh it might is actually built
01:30
up pretty well but over 20
01:33
thousand square feet, I always
01:36
find myself having to adjust
01:37
the price that it actually
01:38
produces because I know for
01:39
sure that’s not going to get
01:41
accepted and then it it just
01:43
kind of compounds as you get
01:45
into bigger, larger, and larger
01:46
properties like two, three
01:48
acres and above. A lot of
01:49
people just throw the matrix
01:51
kind of out the window. Um so
01:53
with certain price breaks
01:55
actually built into it, you can
01:57
still ensure that you’re
01:58
profitable um but also sure
02:00
that you’re your price isn’t uh
02:02
you know, too outlandish.
02:03
You’re actually going to be
02:04
winning these bids because if
02:06
you’re having to manually
02:06
adjust the price that the
02:07
system produces for you, your
02:10
your matrix is broken to some
02:11
degree So that that’s kind of
02:13
what kind of what I wanted to
02:14
say before we hop in here.
02:15
Yeah, I could agree with the
02:17
bar too and like it face value
02:18
where he thinks it’s it’s set
02:19
up correctly and it may be but
02:21
once it gets past a fifteen to
02:23
20 thousand square feet the the
02:24
prices get really wonky and
02:26
then the other thing that we
02:26
see is a lot of times is like,
02:28
hey, we’ve got a production
02:29
based system but it doesn’t
02:31
actually show us what the
02:32
projected profit profit
02:33
percentages with materials and
02:34
a lot of times we don’ a
02:37
budgeted time um and we
02:38
obviously really want to base
02:39
in that square footage because
02:40
no matter the software we’re
02:41
going out when we go out to
02:42
dispatch it on a dispatch board
02:44
or whatever that is in your
02:46
software, We really want to be
02:46
able to dial that custom field
02:48
of that job Variables such as
02:50
church square footage because
02:51
that’s going to give us the
02:51
ability to go out then and
02:54
actually project how many bags
02:56
or gallons or ounces of
02:58
material we need per round per
02:59
day and actually set a goal for
03:01
the technician with a quality
03:02
standards. So, um couldn’t
03:03
agree with you more on that
03:04
one, Dylan. So, what to do is
03:06
break open here in the stream
03:08
and uh show the simple growth
03:11
uh blueprint here. So, I love
03:13
the fact that you came in after
03:14
me. So, you’re actually on top
03:15
now and I’m not on top of the
03:16
video here. So this is perfect.
03:17
Thank you. So, what we’ve got
03:20
here is uh you Dylan is raising
03:21
the roof. Um so, over here,
03:23
we’ve got the simple growth
03:25
blueprint and I’m going to go
03:26
into a very basic uh two line
03:28
production based estimating
03:30
system. Dylan, feel free to hop
03:31
in and and you know give some
03:33
some feedback on this year but
03:34
I’m going to scroll on here
03:35
just to service number one and
03:37
I’m going to call this uh we’re
03:38
not going to build out all five
03:40
rounds but I’m going to show
03:41
you some examples of the basic
03:42
matrix and then with price
03:43
breaks but this could be round
03:45
one. Uh pre emergent
03:51
is our service. Um with her.
03:57
abbreviated here just for
03:58
today. A formality but we have,
03:59
that’s the service name or it
04:00
could be round one but round
04:02
one is that service. So, the
04:05
custom field of the job
04:06
variable is going to be curved
04:08
square footage that is going to
04:12
be a core service. So, if
04:13
you’re using a product like
04:14
service autopilot, this is
04:15
actually going to be one
04:16
service that’s actually
04:17
buttoned up into a package. So,
04:19
we have time. We’ll actually go
04:20
into there. So, the question I
04:21
always ask Dylan is um what is
04:24
your base price to show up if
04:25
you have one for your
04:28
fertilization service. So,
04:29
Dylan, you may say, hey, Mike,
04:30
my base price to show up for
04:33
fertilization is $45 um $45
04:36
here to show up and then the
04:38
next question really is Dylan,
04:39
how many, how many square feet
04:41
does that cover um of just turf
04:43
area? We’re not looking at lot
04:45
size like full area. We’re
04:45
talking about treatable and
04:47
that’s what we’re going to
04:48
recommend. It may take an extra
04:49
minute or two to measure that
04:51
area but we really want to be
04:52
competitive and make sure we
04:53
know our production rates once
04:55
we get these numbers in to run
04:57
in the report center. So, uh
04:58
Dylan, you may be coming at me
04:59
and say, hey, Mike. uh that
05:01
covers up to 5000 square feet
05:04
That’s great. So, Dylan, uh if
05:05
you are on a call with Simple
05:07
Growth here building it out
05:08
yourself, what would be your
05:09
charge per manner? What would
05:10
be looking to get per man hour?
05:13
usually on fertilization, weed
05:14
control services like this.
05:15
it’s a little bit more than
05:16
like the lawn mowing rate. So,
05:18
a pretty common one that I see
05:20
and uh people strive for is
05:21
about Seventy-five bucks uh uh
05:22
a an hour and in the northeast
05:25
here, we may be breaking even
05:26
it’s a little higher uh
05:28
overhead recovery and the
05:30
technicians especially with
05:31
kind of post COVID or or of
05:34
covid’s higher. So, I’m I’m
05:36
going to say that this is
05:36
probably going to be close to
05:37
about 46 bucks per hour break
05:39
unit So total overhead with
05:40
labor and labor and recovery.
05:43
So, what we’ve got here is our
05:44
base price is one to 5000 bucks
05:46
are based price. Um we’re going
05:48
to adjust a budgeted time. now
05:52
looking at this. So, an
05:55
industry average is maybe like
05:56
.05 or .047. If you’re using a
05:58
push spreader Now, uh Uh I’ll
06:00
put in there. So, maybe it’s uh
06:02
let’s round it up to 105 Times.
06:04
We’ve got five parts and
06:05
thousands. So, it’s basically
06:08
15 minutes .25 Man hours. Well,
06:10
Dylan, I don’t know about you
06:11
but if I’m I’m including my
06:12
base price, our technicians
06:14
probably going to have to get
06:15
out and unload the machine,
06:16
fill the hopper and maybe in
06:18
certain areas actually put up
06:20
some pesticide warning signs.
06:21
So maybe we’re going to bump
06:21
this up to uh .35 Man hours to
06:25
cover that extra uh set up time
06:28
to actually be covered in
06:29
there. Now, a lot of companies
06:30
will also cover your non
06:31
billable um mobilization on
06:34
average. So, maybe your first
06:36
5000 square feet really is
06:37
going to be close to the .45
06:39
because we’re going to include
06:40
some mobilization in there. So
06:42
So, that’s normally the to
06:43
three different things we’re
06:44
talking about are looking at is
06:45
we’re building out the basic
06:47
methodology before we go to a
06:48
price break methodology. So, as
06:50
you’re looking at the top
06:51
numbers here, Dylan looks like
06:52
your company. I was really
06:53
doing really good. We’re we’re
06:54
we’re making uh $24 profited a
06:58
54% margin. Well, the one thing
07:00
that most companies always
07:02
forget about is product cost
07:05
and I know for a lot of
07:06
companies, this can be really
07:08
tough. So, if we’re looking at
07:10
a product for pre emergent, um
07:12
traditionally, that is a
07:13
granular product with the
07:15
fertilizer baked into it. So,
07:16
let’s just say we’ve got a bag
07:17
of fertilizer that is running
07:19
us um $16 a bag now across the
07:22
US and Canada, it’s going to
07:23
vary but that’s probably
07:24
somewhere in the middle sixteen
07:25
to twenty. bucks depending on
07:28
where you’re at. So, the math
07:29
behind this is really, we want
07:31
to say what we have. $16
07:33
divided by five parts of a 1005
07:36
times a thousand is 500. So, if
07:38
I divide that by five, my cost
07:41
per thousand is $3.20. So now,
07:46
this has this equation has
07:48
changed quite a bit here. So
07:50
and and and Mike, sorry that
07:52
that would be if the bag covers
07:55
5000 square feet, right?
07:57
correct? Yes. My bad. So,
07:59
you’re correct 100%. So, that’s
08:01
Facebook Live is kind of
08:03
crazier. So, actually, your
08:03
cost per unit is, let’s say
08:05
this bag covers. What do you
08:07
want to say? Uh 10 thousand
08:07
square feet. Uh hey, well, we
08:09
don’t even have pre emergence
08:11
up here in Canada. so, you
08:12
probably have a clearer idea
08:14
than I do on that one. Yeah,
08:15
it’s a sixteen divided by uh
08:18
yeah, let’s call it 15 thousand
08:20
square feet. So, that is uh
08:23
that’s correct me if I’m wrong
08:24
then so this is uh It’s
08:27
probably going to be closer to
08:30
ten. So, it’ll be a dollar
08:34
sixty per thousand. It’s the
08:37
math that way there. So, that
08:39
would be
08:43
I’d chime in and help but it’s
08:44
like it’s a little tiny on my
08:46
screen but III trust your math.
08:48
don’t worry Facebook Live,
08:52
brother. Yeah. So, it’ll be a
08:53
bit about a dollar fourteen per
08:54
thousand. So, it’s five parts
08:55
of a thousand. So, five times.
08:57
1.4 1.414. Make sense. It’s
08:59
about $5.71 per thousand. So, I
09:00
appreciate you. Obviously, the
09:02
Facebook Live. You don’t think
09:02
about that occasionally but now
09:04
we’ve got an interesting
09:06
scenario here. So, this is the
09:07
issue that sometimes goes in
09:08
with a lot of companies when
09:09
they’re building out of
09:11
mattresses. So, based on that
09:14
uh .45 if that is the actual
09:16
time we’re going to be
09:17
budgeting, we’re actually
09:18
losing between product and
09:20
material this cost here. Now,
09:22
let me just double check the
09:24
math here because this is
09:26
prebuilt. So, we’re what we’re
09:27
going to do if you’re building
09:28
a math yourself, this actually
09:29
is kind of cool. We’re doing
09:29
this. We’re taking our budget
09:31
hours and tying it by our 46
09:32
bucks per man hour and we’re
09:35
adding our $5.71 So, math now
09:40
is actually correct. So, if
09:42
you’re looking at the math, you
09:43
are taking a break, even times
09:44
your budget or your cost per
09:46
hour. So, it’s going to give
09:47
your labor with overhead
09:48
recovery costs and then you’re
09:49
adding your cost
09:54
5000 square feet here.
09:57
and our cost per thousand is a
09:59
dollar for. So, we’ve got got
10:00
about a 41% net profit margin
10:01
and not have to labor overhead
10:03
of material. Um so, anywhere
10:06
between about forty to 45% that
10:08
what we’re seeing nationally is
10:09
probably about right right now
10:10
so that that that is falling in
10:12
the ballpark. Um any questions
10:13
or comments on that Dylan
10:14
before we kind of dive into the
10:16
overage Uh the only thing that
10:18
that kind of came to my mind
10:19
was I hear some people say
10:20
like, oh I know a competitor’s
10:23
charging $45 as their minimum
10:24
fee so that’s what I want to do
10:26
as well. Uh it’s just so
10:30
important to run this like when
10:31
you’re when you’re entering
10:32
your services, run it with your
10:34
actual numbers. You know, maybe
10:35
that competitor that you think
10:38
is low balling has no office,
10:39
has no overhead to to actually
10:40
recover. Um so they might be
10:42
able to actually price
10:43
themselves considerably lower
10:46
and still hit that that really
10:47
really uh profit margin but you
10:50
know, a lot of the companies
10:51
that we deal with they have
10:53
office staff and you know,
10:55
offices and stuff like that
10:56
that they actually need to
10:58
recoup in a lot of these costs.
10:59
So, it’s just so important to
11:00
use your actual real numbers.
11:02
Yeah and the other thing that A
11:03
lot of people do we talk about
11:05
is a is a benchmark is the cost
11:07
or the charge. Basically, the
11:08
charge per thousand. So, if you
11:11
took the Forty-five and divided
11:12
by five parts um and you did
11:14
the math, you’re charged per
11:15
thousand is actually $9. This
11:17
is going to get interesting as
11:18
we get into a larger acreage
11:20
break point of um cost break
11:23
but I think this is something a
11:24
lot of people don’t necessarily
11:25
look at it. You nailed it on
11:26
the head, Dylan. Hey, well, my
11:28
competitors charging 45 bucks
11:29
in the first 5000 so I gotta do
11:31
the same thing but we’re really
11:32
kind of want to look at it is
11:33
we at and it’s an internal
11:34
benchmark are cost per thousand
11:35
and as we go to our price
11:37
breaks, what can we afford and
11:39
how does that as it gets more
11:41
productive? Um how do we, where
11:43
does that come out as a price
11:44
per thousand? So, in a basic
11:46
scenario, I’m going to say
11:47
using a push spreader here, we
11:48
will keep the production the
11:49
same at about .047 .05 around
11:53
man hours per per thousand
11:55
every thousand over 5000. My
11:57
base price is let’s say we’re
11:59
going $6.50 per thousand I go
12:02
in and round that up to .00.
12:05
.05. My cost now is going in.
12:07
Same kind of equation. I’ll do
12:08
this live here. Here’s your .05
12:10
man hours time, your $46 break,
12:13
even what it cost you before
12:14
you make a profit. Plus, the
12:16
cost of that bag uh per
12:20
thousand square feet was $1.14.
12:23
So, you’re charging 650 and you
12:26
are costing you overhead and
12:28
materials $3.44. So, if you
12:31
want in and said, hey, I’ve got
12:34
minus my 344 and I divide that
12:37
out here at about a 47% net
12:41
margin. So, it’s actually based
12:42
on that math right now. It’s
12:44
actually a little bit more
12:45
profitable. So, if you’re
12:46
trying to become down and be a
12:48
little more um competitive, you
12:51
can actually drop that down but
12:52
the one thing you’re going to
12:53
find here is you probably get
12:55
on the $5.75. So, you’re pretty
12:58
close to the rounding up. So,
12:59
you’re at 41% Margin on top,
13:01
your base price but you
13:02
remember we added some extra
13:03
time for drive time. We added
13:05
some time for the the filling
13:06
and kind of getting the
13:07
equipment ready Now if we want
13:08
for every over the five at 575
13:12
per thousand. That’s still
13:14
going to get us about a 40%
13:16
margin. So, that’s still really
13:17
in the ballpark. maybe a little
13:18
bit on the lower end but those
13:19
are the numbers you want to
13:20
start looking at because if you
13:21
just go into a product like
13:22
service, autopilot here and go
13:24
into a rate mattresses, it
13:25
doesn’t show you um your profit
13:28
profit percentage. So, if you
13:29
were to take that uh equation
13:32
here, these top five lines,
13:33
I’ll do it a little bit later
13:34
after you go to the price break
13:35
in the bottom five cells now
13:39
load into these five cells up
13:43
top and the bottom and we would
13:44
go in and grab turf. Square
13:46
footage is our variable and
13:48
we’d go in and create our
13:50
calculations, quantity reaps
13:51
visits. So, does that make
13:53
sense though before I actually
13:54
dive in and show a production
13:55
rate based estimating system
13:56
and I’m going to try to show an
13:58
example between the push
13:58
spreader hose and reel and um
14:01
through a Facebook post,
14:01
somebody wanted to actually
14:03
have like a ride on the X mark
14:04
Toro or production. Yeah, that
14:06
looks good. The one thing about
14:07
the the profit and actually
14:09
showing that by taking a couple
14:11
extra seconds and doing the
14:12
blueprint before just sticking
14:14
it into a CRM like service
14:16
autopilot is typically on these
14:17
larger price mattresses that
14:18
I’ve seen built out when we
14:20
actually transfer it out of
14:22
service out about into this
14:23
blueprint. You see that profit
14:25
margin percentage just shrink
14:27
as you get into these larger
14:28
properties. Absolutely dwindles
14:30
are sometimes are actually
14:31
losing money We can be an eye
14:34
opener and they’re like, well,
14:35
I can’t be right, Mike and and
14:36
Dylan. I’m like, well, it is
14:36
actually, the numbers don’t
14:37
lie. Obviously, we go through
14:39
and we update the formulas
14:40
based on what we’re doing um
14:42
because you saw it was a little
14:44
misinformed that I actually
14:45
updated it based on our product
14:46
the way we put it together. Um
14:48
the other I think for a pro tip
14:50
would be as well, it’s like,
14:50
let’s just say you’re doing, I
14:52
PM integrated pest management.
14:53
I’m not sure if you have that a
14:54
can of Dillon but uh I PM is a
14:56
big thing in the states and uh
14:58
with I PM uh you’re only spot
15:00
spraying post emergent
15:02
pesticides on the the areas
15:03
that need to be treated. So, if
15:05
you’re looking at your cost for
15:06
the emergent chemical. I
15:09
suggest kind of looking at it
15:10
and say, okay, based on a
15:11
thousand square feet, what
15:13
percentage on average in my
15:15
spring, is it 20%? Is it 50%?
15:16
And then we can kind of back
15:17
that math in there. So, I think
15:19
that’s the other big thing when
15:20
you go to put this into a
15:21
software program, most software
15:23
programs don’t have the
15:25
ability. Um almost none that
15:27
I’m aware of. They do have
15:27
chemical tracking but they
15:29
don’t really have um the actual
15:31
job costing materials per
15:32
round. So that’s how we want to
15:33
look at it before we get it
15:34
into the system. Um so now that
15:37
you’re looking at is going
15:39
well. if I’m in in something
15:39
like service, autopilot,
15:40
there’s no room for price
15:42
breaks. So, we’re going to show
15:43
you how to add these lines in
15:44
here if I hit this button but
15:45
how do we actually create this
15:47
and this is applicable to any
15:48
software Um in my opinion or no
15:51
software. If you’re running a
15:52
pen and paper Excel sheets, uh
15:53
the early days of accounting,
15:54
this is how we did it. So,
15:56
yeah, I’m not just guessing
15:57
about it either, right? Just
15:59
saying. Oh, I think maybe we
16:00
should drop it by a buck after
16:01
10 thousand square feet. Well,
16:02
where did that number actually
16:03
come from? Like it’s a fine
16:04
line between you want to win as
16:06
many as you possibly can but
16:08
you also need to be profitable.
16:10
It’s all warm and fuzzy inside
16:12
to have that big property on
16:13
like the cornerstone in in your
16:15
market but if you’re losing
16:17
money every time you go and do
16:18
do that property, even with the
16:20
visibility, it’s it’s just not
16:21
worth it, right? So, what I did
16:23
is I took the $75 charge per
16:24
hour and I spent per hour and
16:26
our cost per 5000 was it was
16:28
the base price and we had our
16:29
cost per unit a dollar fourteen
16:30
and we’re going to do this for
16:31
every round. Probably not live
16:33
but the idea is we want a job
16:34
costs and build this offer
16:35
right around because what
16:36
you’re going to find is certain
16:37
rounds are going to be more
16:39
profitable than other rounds.
16:40
So, maybe before you actually
16:42
break it down per round, you
16:43
may average all your chemical
16:44
cost across five or six rounds
16:46
together and use that up here
16:49
to say on average, what is my
16:51
average profit margin across
16:53
all the rounds. Now,
16:54
traditionally last round at
16:55
least in the northeast is
16:56
probably the most profitable
16:58
for sure. So, that’s another
16:59
thing we want to look at. Uh so
17:00
we’ve got our uh pre with fruit
17:05
is program. Same thing. Custom
17:07
field is going to be our church
17:09
square footage um and let’s
17:10
take a look at it. So, your
17:12
full transparency, you push
17:13
spreader hose and reel are
17:15
going to be the same. You’re
17:16
looking at about .5 to .047 Ish
17:19
Man hours as an industry
17:20
average per thousand. Now,
17:22
you’re right on machines. most
17:24
right on machines are going to
17:25
produce. I would say ballpark
17:26
uh if if it’s a veteran rider,
17:29
you’re you’re in about a minute
17:30
per thousand um and you can be
17:32
doing granule and liquid at the
17:33
same time. Now, the first three
17:34
to four square feet are
17:37
probably not going to be as
17:38
productive because you’re
17:39
slowing it down. You’re hitting
17:40
the edges. You’re not trying to
17:41
drift into flowerbeds and kill
17:43
the plants, things like that.
17:44
So, let’s just say the
17:46
production for the first 5000
17:48
is consistent then, uh we may
17:49
dial it back. So, same exact
17:52
thing. One to 5000 square feet
17:56
is our base price of Forty-five
17:57
bucks that Dylan gave us uh we
18:00
go back, let’s just say that
18:01
first that first group is .45
18:05
I’m going to probably say it’s
18:08
going to be closer to . .05 is
18:10
my guess. Um times 5000 square
18:13
feet. It’s .25 and then maybe
18:16
another. I had another .01 Man
18:18
hours to bring that up to .35
18:20
for loading and unloading the
18:21
machine. If we gotta gas it up,
18:23
we’ve gotta put some liquid or
18:24
or product in there. Um so that
18:27
would probably be my assumption
18:29
here then I would I’m going to
18:30
update this formula. so equals
18:32
are budgeted
18:39
times our break-even for an
18:41
hour. So, as you can see, our
18:42
labor and overhead cost a 1610.
18:44
Then, I want to go in and add
18:47
five times. So, it’s five parts
18:49
of a thousand times. Um our pre
18:52
unit cost or if you’ve already
18:54
built it out in your matrix as
18:55
you take that 571 and just plug
18:58
that in there. So, we’ve got
19:02
our number here of our break in
19:18
So, we’ve got our profit here
19:19
of 2319 and a profit percentage
19:21
of 51.5 51.52. So, obviously,
19:24
it becomes a little more
19:25
profitable when when we’re
19:26
starting to use right on
19:27
machine and we’re being ultra
19:29
conservative here. If you’re
19:29
doing this yourself, you may
19:30
want to lower that budget of
19:32
time but I want to use that as
19:33
an example. Um so, does that
19:34
make sense at that point doing
19:35
any thoughts before we do that?
19:37
Yeah, no that that all looks
19:39
good and the industry averages
19:41
that we’re using here are just
19:42
like averages, right Of course.
19:43
So, um the most concrete way to
19:45
do this is is pulse my actual
19:49
examples from like an average
19:50
applicator that you have maybe
19:51
not yourself as the owner going
19:52
out there and doing stuff and
19:54
zooming through the route but
19:55
just uh someone that’s easily
19:58
applicable. Yes, a good point
20:00
to you probably don’t want to
20:01
base on the owner because we’re
20:02
we’re probably going to go a
20:03
little bit bit faster. Um so,
20:04
what I’m doing here is I’m just
20:05
adding some math uh F five here
20:07
is the one to 5000. So, I’m
20:09
always going to go up one. So,
20:11
we’ve got some gaps and
20:12
differentiation and I’m adding
20:13
an extra thousand. So, if we
20:15
grab these formulas and drag
20:16
them down Um not really doing a
20:19
class on Excel or Google sheets
20:20
here but uh I’m going to get
20:21
you kind of close here. So,
20:22
we’re going to go all the out
20:23
to about 42 to 43 thousand
20:24
basically an acre pretty close,
20:26
Okay. And we’re measuring this
20:28
online and we’re going up to
20:29
the nearest thousand square
20:30
feet. So, when we’re measuring
20:31
this online, don’t worry that
20:33
you’ve gotta put so many dots
20:34
in it. It’s going to come out
20:35
in the wash if if you’re within
20:37
five to 600 square feet, you’re
20:38
going to be in that range
20:39
anyway. So that’s going to be
20:40
kind of a tip when we go to
20:41
measure this. So now we’ve got
20:43
maybe a charge per thousand
20:45
here. So, uh if you remember We
20:48
were at our charge per thousand
20:51
was the 45 divided by five
20:54
parts of a thousand. We’re at
20:56
$9 per thousand. So, we
20:59
potentially could be drawn to
20:59
that formula but maybe we’re
21:01
going to get down here and now
21:03
based on the first example,
21:05
we’re at 575 per thousand
21:08
that’s still around 40% profit
21:10
margin. So maybe the next one
21:12
will go in. We’re going to go
21:13
drop that down to 575 to be a
21:15
little more competitive and
21:16
what we’re going to do make
21:18
this Forty-five plus at 575. Um
21:22
if you are taking an Excel
21:24
class here or Google sheets
21:26
especially Google sheets, the
21:27
dollar sign between the end
21:29
here, The letter is going hold
21:31
that equation. So, uh I’m going
21:33
to drive that down to what do
21:36
you what do you think Dylan uh
21:38
about about 10 thousand? Yeah,
21:39
I think after 10 thousand,
21:40
you’re probably going to need
21:41
to lower it a little bit.
21:43
Alright so and and you
21:44
definitely want to base on your
21:46
numbers. We’re just kind of
21:47
doing this off the cuff and
21:49
each market is different for
21:50
sure. Uh but the one thing We
21:52
didn’t. we didn’t look at Dylan
21:53
is what is the production rate?
21:54
So, we said, you know, the
21:55
first 5000 is going to be
21:57
around .05. I’m I’m guessing
21:59
that we’re going to go down to
22:01
about a minute per thousand for
22:02
using a ride on machine. So,
22:05
our production now is going to
22:06
be a little bit different. So,
22:07
I’m going to take that bass
22:08
production and I’m just going
22:09
to go in for every thousand.
22:10
I’m adding .00 .02 but
22:13
basically 1 Minute divided by
22:14
sixty is .02 Man hours so
22:16
that’s kind of what we’re
22:18
driving. Once again, we’re
22:18
going to want to go in and do a
22:20
little uh sheet math or magic
22:23
and we’re going to drag that
22:25
down. okay? So, we’ve got that
22:28
in there. So, now, you can see
22:29
our production is it is going
22:30
up 1 minute. uh per thousand.
22:32
Now, our break-even is going to
22:33
be a little bit different. So,
22:34
I’m going to say, hey, and
22:38
actually we may
22:43
So, we’re going to take our .37
22:45
which is our H and we’re going
22:48
to take that by our K. Right
22:49
here is our expense per hour.
22:52
That’s K three and I’m going to
22:56
take our F six which is our
22:58
square footage. I’m going to
22:59
want to divide that by a
23:01
thousand there because I want
23:02
to know how many parts of a
23:02
thousand are in there and then,
23:04
I’m going to multiply it by my
23:07
MR 114 thousand. So, that’s
23:11
going to be Mthree
23:25
and uh
23:30
Alright, so let’s double check
23:31
our math here. Eight, six,
23:37
times are Forty-six. This is
23:41
our labor and overhead recovery
23:43
and remember, it’s like sixteen
23:44
oh one. So, that would be
23:45
correct. there and I should
23:47
learn by now using the prebuilt
23:48
templates here. So, we’re going
23:49
to go in and divide this by a
23:52
thousand
23:58
times. cost per unit is 114 per
24:01
thousand.
24:07
Here we go. So, there we go.
24:09
We’ve got the the product. So,
24:09
our product market actually
24:11
goes up a little bit because
24:13
we’re we’re catching that gap
24:14
and that was about the same
24:15
percentage as we saw on the
24:16
original one here. So, that
24:19
doesn’t surprise me. So, we’re
24:20
going to go in and grab that
24:21
profit and profit percentage
24:22
and our Break-even drive that
24:25
down the sheet. So, what’s the
24:27
what’s the price coming out to
24:29
now like they were charging the
24:29
customer at around 10 thousand
24:31
square feet. Uh we’re about
24:34
7375. Okay, I think that seems
24:36
pretty reasonable still. okay
24:41
Maybe we’re going to go in here
24:42
um in this cell here and and
24:43
the cool thing is once it’s
24:44
built, we can actually play the
24:45
math game and say, hey, how how
24:46
lower or how high we can get.
24:47
So, once we build this out,
24:48
then we can actually play with
24:50
these great cells um but let’s
24:51
just say we went down and we
24:53
went down a dollar per thousand
24:54
probably aren’t going to go
24:55
that low but let’s just let’s
24:57
play the game here to see What
25:00
happens here?
25:06
So, we’ll take that up to 20
25:09
thousand. 20 thousand. Are you
25:10
saying we’re charging an
25:12
additional dollar per thousand
25:13
square feet to the customer? Uh
25:15
we’re charging a dollar less
25:17
per thousand. Okay. So, instead
25:19
of the five something. Yeah. So
25:21
we’re going 575 per thousand
25:22
now, we’re charging 475 per
25:24
thousand. Okay. Make sense.
25:31
and we’ve got our profit. We’ve
25:34
got our profit percentage. So,
25:36
maybe here fictitious. Let’s
25:39
make it a pretty heavy drop.
25:40
drop on let’s say $3 per
25:42
thousand
26:05
We’ll double check the math and
26:06
the formulas. Uh once we’re
26:07
done here too just because it
26:09
is easy to mistresses. Yeah,
26:14
it’s interesting because I got
26:15
a certain point. you’re not
26:16
going to get any quicker. Uh I
26:18
don’t know if you’ve reached
26:19
that point yet but at a certain
26:22
like that and maybe we’ve
26:25
already passed him but like
26:26
that minute per thousand square
26:27
feet it doesn’t it doesn’t
26:31
matter if you’re in an open
26:32
field or or whatever it is you
26:35
just you literally can’t go any
26:36
faster than that. Nope. Yeah.
26:37
So It literally just stays
26:38
where it’s at. I’m going to try
26:40
to make these price breaks come
26:42
across here. as we go. So you
26:46
can kind of see it comes up a
26:48
little bit. Uh this may not be
26:50
actual market pricing but as
26:51
you go down now, your profit
26:53
margins are starting to kind of
26:54
dwindle. So, traditionally,
26:56
when we get most folks on a
26:57
call um as we get into that
26:59
3035 thousand, their profits
27:01
are just like absolutely
27:02
shrinking. So, we came in
27:03
pretty heavy Um here up top but
27:07
if we just change this to five
27:10
bucks and 450 see what starts
27:14
to happen here. Things just
27:16
start shifting a little bit.
27:21
And where do you want to go
27:22
here, Dylan? On price per
27:25
thousand. Uh so, so what square
27:29
footage amount are we at right
27:30
now And what is the I’m at 3000
27:33
or 30 thousand square feet.
27:35
Okay. So, I’m going to be going
27:39
and do you want to go to keep
27:41
it at three? Do you want to go
27:42
lower? Just to kind of see what
27:43
happens. I mean, I don’t
27:43
suggest going any lower than
27:45
where we’re at. Probably not a
27:46
lower like $5 per thousand but
27:48
these are obviously very
27:50
fictitious numbers but I want
27:50
to show people how to actually
27:52
build this out. Yeah. Well,
27:54
what’s so what’s the uh break
27:57
even uh or sorry, what what was
28:00
the chemical cost and the uh uh
28:03
a dollar a dollar fourteen. I
28:04
mean, I’m I’m usually seen in
28:05
between 225 and 250 on average
28:08
so that’s probably why the
28:08
numbers are looking a little
28:09
funky. Okay. Um but we can we
28:11
can manipulate that up here in
28:12
a minute just so we can
28:13
actually show people what that
28:14
looks like. Yeah, I would think
28:16
the price breaks are going to
28:17
get less and less. Um you know
28:20
what once we you know, even
28:22
though we’re talking about a
28:22
larger property here like at a
28:24
certain point you don’t want to
28:25
completely erode your margin.
28:26
Yeah, you’re going to go
28:27
negative basically. So, let me
28:31
pull this down here.
28:45
is going to go in and we still
28:47
got still got some decent
28:49
margins here. So, I mean, I
28:50
don’t know. Let’s just double
28:52
check to make sure all these
28:53
formulas rolled down and what
28:55
is the percentage that you’re
28:56
seeing even on like the the
28:58
larger property Uh 73%. Oh wow.
29:03
Okay. Yeah. a traditional.
29:04
we’ll see it around thirty to
29:07
35% ballpark but obviously
29:09
these are these are very
29:10
fictitious numbers So that’s
29:11
kind of the issue because we’re
29:13
not dealing with actual numbers
29:16
that someone would give us.
29:18
Yeah. the out the methodology
29:20
is exactly how you would do it.
29:22
Yeah. Even if like you had no
29:24
idea what you should be
29:25
charging. Um you know, it is
29:26
good to go on the higher end as
29:28
well and hey, if you start
29:30
sending out quotes at this rate
29:31
and 75% of your quotes are
29:33
getting accepted. Well, maybe
29:34
you don’t need to adjust them
29:36
down but I do hear from some
29:38
people like my my my quotes are
29:41
getting accepted at like a ten
29:42
to 20% rate. Well, I would
29:45
recommend really making sure
29:46
you know what your break even
29:47
is and relook at some of your
29:50
services and say, am I too
29:51
highly as well. Yes. So, I
29:54
bumped that up to $50 just to
29:56
kind of see what happens here
29:57
um but that it’s going to be a
30:00
pretty realistic um production
30:02
right now. You may be up to 78
30:03
thousand before you really
30:04
catch the efficiency but like
30:05
you said, you’re not really
30:06
going to get any faster. I
30:07
suggest you put some breaks in
30:08
probably around ten 1520 uh
30:13
thirty and then somewhere
30:14
around an acre. So, if we’re at
30:16
$3 per thousand fictitious here
30:20
every thousand over the 43
30:22
thousand we may be charging
30:26
$2.75. But I mean, we’re really
30:26
in a real world scenario. We’re
30:28
probably not going to go any
30:29
less than $5 per thousand. um
30:31
with actual real cost and
30:33
overhead of materials is what
30:36
I’m seeing traditionally. So,
30:38
you’re and then you’d be going
30:39
in and the line will be your
30:41
budget hours times. your break
30:45
even plus your cost per
30:48
thousand
30:52
And this this can be
30:55
extrapolate as well. if you
30:56
only do twenty acre complexes,
30:58
well, maybe you do have an
31:00
extra price break in there like
31:02
five or ten acres uh but you
31:05
know, obviously that’s a little
31:06
bit outside of the norm. So,
31:07
we’re not going to build that
31:08
out here today but if you do
31:10
those massive complexes uh
31:12
whether it’s weed control or
31:13
lawn mowing or whatever it is,
31:15
right? Just know that this this
31:16
can be extrapolate to however
31:19
many acres you’d like. Yeah and
31:21
it’s interesting, Dylan. So
31:22
once we got to the overage here
31:24
um with that formula. We’re
31:26
actually at $3.33 cost
31:31
per
31:31
thousand. and we’d only be
31:35
fictitious. charging 275. So,
31:36
you’re actually losing money
31:38
but we’re catching some of the
31:40
extra higher profits up here.
31:42
Is it kind of scroll down? So,
31:43
the main things you want to
31:45
look at is the price, the
31:46
budgeted time, and the break
31:48
even cost and that’s going to
31:49
be your time. Time to break
31:51
even. So, the scenario here,
31:53
your budgeted time, you got
31:56
that 1750 now based to fifteen
31:58
an hour and then we want to add
32:00
the 1250 for the first 5000
32:02
square feet that was this
32:04
Mthree. The 250 per thousand is
32:07
our cost. So, it’s 1250 for the
32:08
first thousand and then our
32:12
break-even here moving forward
32:14
is going to be just so it kind
32:16
of reiterate what this is is
32:17
you’ve got your your budgeted
32:20
time, time to break even. So
32:22
once again, that’s seventeen
32:24
went up to eighteen. So that’s
32:25
our labor and overhead and
32:26
labor burden recovery and then
32:28
we would go in and just hit
32:30
plus and you’d want to take the
32:35
total square footage here.
32:37
6000. 6000 divided by a
32:40
thousand because we’re always
32:41
dealing with how many parts of
32:42
thousand time our cost per
32:44
thousand there and Mike, did I
32:47
hear you say that you
32:48
fictitious increased the the
32:51
break even on like the the very
32:52
top cell to to fifty or did I
32:55
miss that correct? I did. Yeah
32:56
and I just want to make sure
32:58
there’s our cell is not covered
33:01
out. so that is
33:06
and three. So, that is I might
33:07
have forgot one of our things
33:08
being on live. So, let me
33:09
update this because that that
33:09
makes you the numbers that to
33:11
Thirty-three to nineteen looks
33:12
a little suspicious that looks.
33:14
There we go. So, full
33:17
transparency. we’ve done
33:17
hundreds of these now that
33:19
looks like it should. Okay. I
33:21
thought it looked a little
33:22
funny. So now it’s a really
33:24
realistic numbers that’s that
33:26
break even So your percentage
33:28
now is going from about 33% all
33:30
the way down to 12% based on
33:32
these numbers. So, and I don’t
33:35
think it’s worth glossing over
33:37
this point. I mean, we could
33:38
probably talk for hours just on
33:39
that point alone but these like
33:42
that that Forty-three uh as a
33:45
break, even an all-in break
33:46
even including your overhead
33:47
recovery jumping to fifty like
33:49
it’s it’s not unheard of with
33:51
all the labor shortages and and
33:53
stuff that’s been going on with
33:54
COVID lately Um these types of
33:57
break even numbers are going to
33:59
have. I’m at least predicting
34:00
once we see some year end
34:01
numbers. Um some pretty
34:04
increases like that. So, this
34:05
is like the the major benefit
34:07
that some people don’t realize
34:09
about taking the extra time and
34:10
building it out in a template
34:11
like this rather than just
34:12
sticking it right into your CRM
34:14
and kind of forgetting about it
34:15
is when you do have those major
34:18
um you know, company expense
34:21
changes such as labor. Uh the
34:23
cost of labor has gone up
34:23
dramatically or if you’re a
34:25
design build company with the
34:26
cost of wood has absolutely
34:28
ballooned Well, you need to be
34:31
able to to enter in those cost
34:34
increases and say, well, how
34:34
does this affect my origins.
34:38
Maybe we’re not okay with it
34:38
dropping from a 35 or 50%
34:41
margin down to twelve. You’re
34:42
most likely not. So, you gotta
34:43
raise your prices. Yeah, good
34:45
point to it too. So, I mean, we
34:46
do hundreds of these So you
34:48
gotta double check your
34:48
formulas as well as you put
34:50
this in. So like it it just
34:51
didn’t look right here. So,
34:53
what we did is when you’re
34:54
pulling that number here,
34:55
you’ve gotta make sure those
34:56
dollar signs are holding the
34:58
cell here for the material cost
35:00
and the expense cost.
35:01
Otherwise, when you pull it
35:02
pulls the mat down so it’s off
35:03
a number that wasn’t there uh
35:04
but now We’ve kind of firm this
35:06
up. We’re making $9. We’re
35:08
charging $9 per thousand on the
35:09
base price which we were in the
35:12
earlier service here but now,
35:15
what we’ve done and I just
35:17
obviously made this on the fly
35:18
um but we’ve recharged it If
35:20
we’re charging 575 per thousand
35:23
um here it goes up and our
35:27
budgeted time is going up a
35:28
minute per thousand with the
35:29
machine So we kept the
35:31
production basically the same
35:32
as Dylan said but as I drop my
35:34
price of 575 per thousand to
35:36
550 to 535 to 520, and then
35:41
everything over an acre.
35:42
Approximately $5 per thousand.
35:44
You can see that margin really
35:45
starts. It’ll weigh a little
35:47
bit in and out but really it’s
35:48
going all the way from that
35:52
like 3536 area all the way down
35:54
to uh averages out again around
35:57
Thirty-five and then the
35:58
overdue beyond 33%. So, as you
36:01
start to manipulate these
36:03
prices and the production rate
36:05
based on historical numbers,
36:06
you can really see where you’re
36:07
at. Um so, I think this is
36:09
really a great way of looking
36:10
at it and my assumption really
36:13
is based on this if I was to go
36:15
in and do an analysis that 33%
36:17
is really probably too low for
36:18
a base price. So you really
36:21
probably need to be closer to
36:22
let’s see what it looks like.
36:23
Fifty Yeah, I mean, this is
36:25
going to be Fifty-five to
36:26
Fifty-seven. In my opinion.
36:27
that’s going to get you in that
36:29
proper percentage and get you
36:32
really where you need to be. Um
36:33
I mean that five bucks per
36:35
thousand may actually need to
36:36
come up to more closer to that
36:38
that 5.25 and if you got
36:39
multiple acres that was
36:40
probably right but once this is
36:42
built out, I think this is
36:43
really in my opinion, it’s
36:46
invaluable. You can go in and
36:46
say, hey, I’m at Forty-five
36:48
here
36:54
Wait a minute. We’re we’re
36:55
we’re well below that industry
36:56
average but if I bring this up
36:59
to 55, now we’re we’re driving
37:02
pretty good here. Mm hmm. That
37:04
looks to where I would want to
37:05
be. So, I would actually say if
37:06
this is my company, I would say
37:08
that base price is going to be
37:10
probably close to 57 maybe even
37:10
six, maybe even sixty. Yeah.
37:12
And I see a lot of people steer
37:15
away from like small to
37:17
medium-sized commercial because
37:18
they’re like we we want to
37:18
focus just on residential. The
37:20
margins aren’t there and
37:21
commercial in my area. No one,
37:22
no one charges enough. Well,
37:23
you don’t need to replicate
37:25
that. That model that you think
37:26
is’t charging enough, Right.
37:27
You can still do this small to
37:30
medium-sized commercial
37:31
properties that don’t require
37:32
if you don’t have a ride on it,
37:33
you don’t need to go buy a ride
37:35
on. You just need to be making
37:36
sure that you’re charging
37:37
appropriately for it and
37:39
Wouldn’t you take a commercial
37:41
that’s right next to a
37:42
residential property, right? If
37:43
you’re making the same margin,
37:44
right? And I think this is
37:46
where a lot of our clients are
37:47
seeing and this is where we saw
37:49
saw the sweet spot is, you
37:50
know, somewhere between 5000
37:52
5000, maybe 10 thousand max,
37:54
that ceiling, that’s, I mean,
37:55
that really is a sweet spot.
37:57
Yes. Um and you’re catching a
37:58
lot of extra budgeted time here
38:00
at that .35. So, if you got
38:02
route density that actually
38:03
could probably be closer to
38:06
that .25 that we had in there
38:07
and now you’re really some
38:09
serious margins. So, uh the
38:11
money is really if you can
38:13
build your density isn’t a
38:14
smaller, tight-knit residential
38:15
but if you’re going into larger
38:17
properties, price breaks, this
38:18
is how we’re going to break it
38:19
out. Um this is obviously an
38:20
example of a ride on machine
38:21
but we can go in and literally
38:24
if that productions at .05 the
38:26
whole time and you’re you’re
38:27
playing the math game. it’s
38:28
saying, hey, is it is it time
38:31
to actually go out and buy uh a
38:33
ride on machine and in full
38:35
transparency, I’m going to
38:36
guess that this production
38:37
actually is going to go down
38:38
the bigger the property gets to
38:39
you by the .06 because the
38:41
guy’s back um but if you had it
38:45
like this, wait a minute, we
38:47
can’t really afford to use a
38:48
push spreader now. we’re losing
38:50
money with that price break.
38:52
So, this is a great tool before
38:53
you build it in your software
38:55
to really play the game and
38:56
say, okay, if I’m riding a
38:58
machine or if I’m pushing or
39:00
using hose reel, where am I
39:02
really at? And then just
39:03
updating this as we go is
39:05
literally just showing you not
39:07
emotionally where you’re at.
39:09
So, but the example it was that
39:10
is the ride on machine and this
39:13
number is probably a little
39:14
heavy for the first 5002 so
39:15
that probably could come down
39:16
but if you’re putting in a
39:17
little drive time and a little
39:20
operator loading machine. I
39:21
think that’s a safe bet and
39:23
then to test this, you may want
39:25
to go in and you may not be at
39:28
uh per unit as an average if
39:31
you want to cross five or six
39:33
rounds, maybe you’re really
39:34
averaging out at $2.70 or maybe
39:38
even cheaper. Now, we can see
39:40
what it looks like as an
39:41
average across all around and
39:43
the only way to build out each
39:44
round separately but what you
39:45
would do is take this whole
39:46
entire matrix is once you’ve
39:48
tested out, you know, you like
39:49
it and you go into a product
39:50
like autopilot and literally
39:52
just go in and copy and paste
39:56
the cells all the way across
39:59
here. Open it up and then the
40:01
bottom line, every Os there.
40:03
So, yeah, I don’t know if that
40:05
was helpful. Kind of confusing.
40:06
I apologize. I had that
40:07
formula. I didn’t drag it all
40:08
the way down but that I mean
40:09
that’s that’s a normal error
40:10
that anybody can do Um and
40:12
obviously that’s why we put a
40:13
second set of eyes on it and
40:14
look at it to make sure all
40:15
those formulas are driving
40:16
before we ever get into the
40:17
software because we put it in
40:18
the software. You don’t know
40:19
that you may not have dragged
40:20
that formula all the way down.
40:21
Um so you got a you got a
40:22
blooper before you implement, I
40:24
would, in my opinion, at least.
40:26
Yeah. And I think that mistake
40:27
uh and you catching it is
40:29
probably pretty helpful because
40:30
I know a lot of people watch
40:31
these videos and you know,
40:33
maybe they’ve tried to
40:34
replicate this spreadsheet in
40:35
some way, shape or form and
40:36
Yeah, if you’re putting in bad
40:37
data, um you’re you’re going to
40:39
be making some bad decisions
40:40
off of that. The other thing I
40:42
just wanted to mention quickly
40:43
is it might seem like a lot of
40:45
work to do this but in my
40:46
opinion, totally worthwhile.
40:47
You know, you you need to to
40:49
build out a proper matrix
40:50
that’s going to work on small,
40:52
medium, and large properties
40:53
but important thing and maybe
40:56
we can talk about this next
40:57
Wednesday. um is the reporting,
40:59
right? These are time based
41:02
estimates, right? We’re hoping
41:04
that this 10 thousand square
41:05
foot property takes this amount
41:06
of time. Now, in in practice or
41:10
not in theory in practice. Um
41:13
if your employees are actually
41:14
taking Twenty-five 25% more
41:16
time than what what we’re
41:17
estimating here. Well, that’s a
41:19
big problem that 3040 percent
41:22
margin that you had is all of a
41:23
sudden completely eroded Yes.
41:25
Right. So, actually need to be
41:26
comparing this uh and you know,
41:28
if you’ve already built up some
41:29
some data in your system,
41:30
that’s even better because
41:31
you’ll have some legitimate
41:32
comparisons to say, okay, based
41:34
on my price matrix, are these
41:38
margins actually going to be
41:38
real at the end of the year.
41:39
So, you don’t want to be
41:40
surprised at the end of the
41:41
year and say, wow, we only made
41:42
or we lost 500 bucks instead of
41:45
um you know projecting uh a 30%
41:47
margin. Yeah, I could agree
41:49
with you more and it looks like
41:50
a lot of work but I mean I
41:51
think literally once a year you
41:52
you gotta do it and your
41:54
product cost are going to
41:56
change. um especially the crazy
41:59
times we’re in now. They’re
41:59
going to change. You may have
42:01
to do this twice a year. if
42:02
you’re distributor. Uh Uh if
42:04
you’re not prey, your materials
42:05
like if it’s a drastic change
42:07
uh job costing going into the
42:10
production based estimating
42:11
thing is it’s just it’s an
42:13
essential thing that we’ve
42:13
gotta do. Um so, we’re really
42:15
breaking out how to do that
42:17
yourself here if you need some
42:18
help, obviously reach out to us
42:19
but the whole idea is just the
42:21
mindset of abundance. We wanted
42:22
to show everybody how to do
42:23
this because in the early
42:23
years, if I had on this. You
42:25
know, there’ll be a lot more
42:26
money in the bank for the first
42:27
year or two in business until
42:28
you figure it out but um it’s
42:30
tough when you go into a
42:31
software and it doesn’t tell
42:32
you what your projected profit
42:33
is and then Dylan, you know
42:35
that the estimating and the
42:36
production is only as good as
42:38
it is. if it’s not being
42:40
actually replicated in the
42:41
field. So, we actually need to
42:42
go out and track a budget of
42:44
time and hold those folks
42:45
accountable with accountability
42:46
and the other thing we didn’t
42:47
really talk about is what about
42:50
callbacks. Those can be a bear
42:52
because if our product mix is
42:55
not correct or the applicator
42:56
is not a standardized
42:58
procedure. Um the cost of going
43:02
back could be astronomical and
43:03
it could completely erode this
43:05
to begin with. So, we gotta
43:06
make sure that we’re actually
43:08
treating with the right
43:08
chemicals or organics. We’re
43:10
have a process and if we do
43:12
have a callback, we use
43:14
something that I like to call
43:14
the waiting list. So, we go in
43:16
and put all the callbacks on a
43:18
waiting list. We geographically
43:20
be responsive like it’s maybe
43:22
not the next day but the next 2
43:24
days or 3 days but we’re we’re
43:26
systematically routing the
43:27
callbacks when the technicians
43:28
are already in that area. So,
43:29
we’re not driving all the way
43:31
across the city for one call
43:32
back. So, we need to be
43:33
responsive but we need to be
43:35
responsive enough to understand
43:37
that it’s going to erode our
43:37
profit margins just for a
43:39
callback as well. Yeah, yeah. I
43:41
had uh a person I was dealing
43:43
with as well where they had
43:44
some repeat offenders, not
43:45
really callbacks per say but
43:47
when they actually went to the
43:49
property, the gate was locked
43:50
and they didn’t want to just
43:52
spray the front lawn. Um so
43:54
they they just kind of tried to
43:56
call the customer weren’t able
43:57
to get a hold of them and then
43:58
they had to go back and and
43:59
reschedule an app that was you
44:01
know they were actually there
44:01
to go and do it and that’s
44:02
that’s where automations comes
44:04
into play. Uh automation we Be
44:05
there. Been there or pre and
44:07
post notification. dispatch but
44:09
that’s the client and I know a
44:10
lot of people that work watch
44:12
work on it. Wednesdays are lawn
44:13
care folks but we work with
44:14
some home cleaning individuals
44:16
as well um and even when Tina
44:17
comes to get my house, I get a
44:18
text message and uh she lets me
44:20
know when we’re coming but they
44:21
have AA lockout policy
44:23
basically. Um so if they can’t
44:25
get into the house to clean,
44:25
they actually charge me fifty
44:27
bucks. Probably not the same in
44:29
lawn care. can’t get away with
44:30
it but we can kind of take a
44:31
page out of a different
44:32
industry and say, hey, we can
44:33
set some precedents of it like
44:34
hey, if we’re like out. We may
44:35
be only applying to the yard
44:37
area we can get to and if you
44:38
want us to come back, maybe
44:40
this is just a break. even that
44:41
destination um but that pre and
44:43
post notification is absolutely
44:45
huge especially if you’re
44:45
dealing with chemicals and you
44:46
have kids or dogs and pets and
44:48
things like that. Yeah, totally
44:50
and even with that
44:51
notification, this person still
44:53
had some repeat offenders that
44:54
got the notifications still
44:55
wasn’t doing what they what
44:57
their duties were as a client.
44:58
So, we actually implemented a
45:00
really simple system but to be
45:02
able to track those repeat
45:03
offenders um you know, The
45:04
first offense. second offense
45:06
and third offense and at that
45:08
point, it kind of notified the
45:09
owner and said like, you gotta
45:10
make make a decision here. you
45:11
want to continue servicing this
45:12
person? It might look great.
45:13
$100, an application but if you
45:15
gotta go back three times and
45:16
you’re none the wiser that you
45:18
had to reschedule this three
45:19
times that’s going to erode
45:20
your profits to three strikes.
45:22
You pay or three strikes,
45:23
you’re out either way. So,
45:24
alright. Well, I appreciate it
45:25
buddy. Coming back at you next
45:27
week, work on it Wednesdays,
45:28
Mike and Dylan from the Simple
45:30
Grow Team. Uh happy to get some
45:32
more pres submitted questions.
45:33
We’ve got a couple good ones
45:34
coming up but uh if you have
45:36
some questions or things that
45:37
you would like to work on in
45:38
your business, uh we’re going
45:39
to break down step by up and
45:40
actually like we did today,
45:42
show you how to make the
45:43
formulas and how to actually
45:44
build that out uh outside of
45:45
the software and then
45:46
hopefully, how to implement it
45:47
in the software to buy those
45:48
time back and actually buy some
45:50
more freedom for you to
45:52
actually work on these
45:53
processes and systems in your
45:54
business instead of actually to
45:55
be a slave to your excel sheets
45:57
and pen and paper. So, we’ll
45:58
see you next Wednesday work on
46:00
it Wednesday with Mike and
46:00
Dillon from the Simple Grow
46:03