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Transcript:

Corner where you ask the
0:02
questions we answer them live
0:03
right here on Facebook. Got a
0:05
doozy submitted in one of the
0:07
private Facebook groups. Um so
0:08
I thought I’d answer this
0:10
question here via video. Um
0:11
says an HOA snow ice client,
0:13
snow removal, almost four
0:15
months is seeing our four
0:16
months afterwards is seeing our
0:18
plows damaged their speed bombs
0:19
and we need to pay the repairs
0:21
estimated between five and
0:23
6thousand dollars. Our winter
0:24
contract does not say anything
0:26
about not being liable for the
0:28
curbs and the speed bump The
0:31
HOL HOA also let this
0:34
contractor go sometime in March
0:36
because they felt that
0:38
potentially their prices are
0:38
too expensive. They did in fact
0:41
pay the invoices in full for
0:42
the contractor which is a win.
0:44
What would you do about the
0:46
speed bumps? Uh several
0:47
comments in here. Uh they have
0:49
no proof and if they are no
0:51
longer a client, shouldn’t
0:52
Roane damage be covered by the
0:54
city. In fact, most HOA roads,
0:56
if you’re plowing them, you
0:57
know, are private roads and
0:58
owned and maintain by the HOA.
1:02
Reason being you have to have a
1:02
contractor Um go in there and
1:05
some other people commented
1:06
that they are worried about a
1:08
lawsuit. Um it could leave
1:10
damaging reviews. So, after
1:12
about twenty-six, 27 years in
1:14
snow and ice removal in Upstate
1:15
New York, Rochester, New York
1:17
to be particularly the third
1:18
largest snowfall market in the
1:20
whole United States averaging
1:21
about a hundred and 30 to about
1:23
125 inches of snow. Lakeside,
1:26
this is near and dear to my
1:27
heart. So, the contractor
1:30
unknowingly probably should
1:31
have reached out to a legal
1:34
entity such as a lawyer to
1:36
actually have some hold
1:37
harmless information in there.
1:39
So, my take on this is you’ve
1:41
got a bit of a gray area.
1:42
Technically, you are liable for
1:44
the damages caused to road, the
1:46
speed bumps, and potentially
1:48
the curves if it’s not in your
1:49
contract. Now, the contract is
1:53
ended. They’ve paid you in
1:54
full. So, I would suggest
1:56
sitting down and actually
1:57
having a conversation with the
1:58
HOA if reasonable to see if you
2:01
can actually meet somewhere in
2:01
the middle. You are correct.
2:03
Yes, damaging reviews from not
2:05
only just the HOA but all the
2:06
people in the HOA so you can
2:08
have multiple Facebook, Google,
2:09
Yelp reviews. It could spiral
2:11
into a really downward, ugly
2:13
situation for you. Now,
2:15
hopefully, we do have an
2:17
insurance coverage and that
2:19
will be covered. So, maybe a
2:22
payment four to 500 or a
2:24
thousand as a deductible. We’ll
2:25
cover you. That’s probably the
2:27
road I would go through and let
2:29
your insurance company handle
2:29
it after at least having a
2:31
conversation. Don’t emit any
2:33
fault or guilt because you
2:34
could get yourself trouble
2:35
right off the bat. Um but
2:37
technically my my opinion on
2:39
this one and we’ve been there
2:41
is that you are probably on the
2:42
hook. That’s why we have
2:43
insurance. But the lesson to be
2:45
learned here is we really need
2:46
to go out and protect ourselves
2:49
as contractors. And be upfront
2:51
with our bidding process. So
2:53
I’m going to show an example of
2:53
a residential contract that we
2:56
use in our company. Some of the
2:58
verbiage was pretty much
2:59
identical for commercial snow
3:01
removal. It was actually a
3:01
little more lengthy. I
3:02
literally just read this and
3:03
I’ve gotta hop on, believe it
3:04
or not my lawyer in five or 6
3:06
minutes to update some
3:07
contracts. So, I was like, let
3:08
me answer this in the next five
3:09
or 6 minutes but if you can’t
3:11
see this here, the area that I
3:13
highlighted is, well, actually,
3:15
I’m going to read through all
3:16
of it ‘cuz it actually, you
3:17
need to go in whether it’s
3:19
residential or commercial. Like
3:20
I said, the commercial contract
3:20
is a little more lengthy and
3:22
more detailed but these are the
3:23
main things you need in any
3:25
snow removal contract in my
3:26
opinion. The driveway will be
3:28
plowed. When the snow falls and
3:29
accumulates from the sky on the
3:31
driveway with a total
3:32
accumulation of three inches in
3:35
non-obstructed areas. Sounds
3:36
obvious to us but we are not
3:38
plowing under cars. We are not
3:40
coming back after the cars are
3:41
moved. Unobstructed areas. Now,
3:43
in a commercial situation, we
3:44
need to define, are we coming
3:46
back to plow the parking lots
3:47
that have cars in them? What is
3:49
the time span that we’re
3:50
actually doing this in and what
3:52
is the length of time we’re
3:53
willing to wait? If any, to
3:55
hurt people to move their cars
3:57
because you could have a 15 to
3:58
20-minute cleanup run for some
4:00
parking spots in an HOA or
4:01
general parking area that could
4:02
turn into a to five-hour
4:04
ordeal. Complete with honking
4:06
and people running into your
4:07
truck or each other. So, those
4:09
are things I would recommend in
4:10
the commercial end that we add
4:11
into that. In addition,
4:14
highlighted area, the company,
4:16
Callahan’s Lawn Care is not
4:17
responsible and will be held
4:19
harmless for any previous
4:21
driveway damage and or any that
4:23
may occur since all driveways
4:26
or pavement conditions are not
4:27
the same. And we also included
4:30
inside that contract in the
4:31
commercial end that to the fact
4:33
that we couldn’t see the
4:35
conditions on a nightly basis
4:36
or daily basis underneath the
4:38
snow. We were not able to
4:39
actually monitor some of the
4:41
conditions throughout the snow
4:43
event. So if damage happened,
4:43
we were not taking
4:47
responsibility that. Callahan’s
4:49
will also be held harmless for
4:50
any slip and fall on your
4:51
property or damages to siding
4:54
or fences directly next to the
4:57
plow area. All equipment is new
4:59
and properly maintained to
5:00
avoid damage. So we’ve held
5:01
ourselves harmless. So, we if
5:03
we went and got sued, this
5:06
alleviated is from slip and
5:07
fall liabilities, any damage to
5:08
the property. Now, the big
5:09
thing you’re going to see with
5:10
property management companies
5:11
is they’re going to try to
5:12
force you to sign their
5:14
contract which eliminates any
5:15
of the rights you may have. I’m
5:17
going to highly recommend it.
5:19
All costs and you do not sign
5:21
it and if you do have to sign
5:23
it, have your lawyer review it
5:24
and add amendments to it that
5:26
are attached and signed to it
5:27
to get you off the hook for
5:29
some of these things. Uh we got
5:30
sued for an HOA where gentleman
5:32
from a garbage this company
5:35
slipped and fell on the
5:36
driveway of one of the homes in
5:37
the HOA are only responsible
5:40
for salting the main roadways.
5:42
So, we add an addendment to
5:44
that particular contract that
5:45
we were not responsible to any
5:49
of the non-salted areas for
5:50
slip and fall liabilities such
5:51
as the sidewalks and driveways
5:53
that we did not maintain. In
5:55
addition to actually still
5:57
being held harmless for the
5:58
main driveways. We will not
5:59
guarantee an exact time the
6:01
driveways plowed you the way
6:02
the snow may accumulate. You
6:03
may be locked into some really
6:05
stringent timelines but if it
6:06
starts snowing at three, four
6:07
in the morning, Um it doesn’t
6:09
hit the trigger till six and
6:10
everybody rolls out at 6thirty.
6:12
You can’t be there on that
6:14
timeline. Just impossible. So
6:15
set the cadence and
6:17
expectations upfront. Also not
6:19
responsible for snow drifts.
6:20
Snow plowed by the town part
6:23
trucks on sidewalk or apron if
6:25
snow prevents entrance into the
6:26
driveway or maybe damaging the
6:28
vehicle. It may be plowed out
6:29
at your request which we charge
6:30
an additional fee. In addition,
6:33
down here at the bottom, I
6:34
want to bring kind of to this
6:36
because this is going to happen
6:38
snow market eventually if it
6:39
hasn’t. So, in 2014, Upstate
6:42
New York, Buffalo. Buffalo had
6:43
snow, no joke, literally up to
6:45
the gutters of the first-story
6:46
homes. Uh City went into a
6:47
state of emergency for probably
6:50
about a week but we wanted to
6:52
put a contingency in there. In
6:53
the event of a snow emergency
6:55
where a one-ton truck cannot
6:56
plow the driveway, load of
6:58
services available at an
7:00
additional charge at market
7:02
rate, several feet of snow in a
7:04
24-hour period similar to the
7:05
2014 snow storm in Buffalo, New
7:06
York that was absolutely
7:09
paramount and it did save us
7:11
because we did have a couple
7:12
massive storms where it at
7:14
least bought us some more time.
7:16
We didn’t need to bring the
7:17
loader but if we did, we were
7:18
able to charge for it legally.
7:20
So, my suggestion here is talk
7:23
to the HOA, see if they’re
7:25
reasonable, don’t necessarily
7:27
commit to anything. If you can
7:28
have a somewhere in the middle
7:30
agreement that’s amicable, that
7:31
saves you some insurance,
7:33
great. If not, have your
7:33
insurance come in, pay for it
7:35
but by all means add these
7:37
things into your contract, talk
7:38
to a lawyer each year, put them
7:40
on a retainer for a couple
7:41
hundred dollars, a 000 a year,
7:43
and have them review this as
7:44
the laws change. So, those are
7:47
the things, unfortunately, I
7:48
think you probably are on the
7:49
hook for this, you know, but
7:51
that’s why we have insurance
7:52
but do your due diligence and
7:54
make sure that we’ve got these
7:55
and if you are forced to sign
7:56
the HOA contract, have your
7:57
lawyer review it and add some
7:59
amendments that are attached to
8:00
it. So, hopefully, protect you
8:01
as the contractor and
8:03
potentially protect your client
8:04
as well from different slip and
8:06
fall liabilities because if
8:08
somebody goes down in that HOA,
8:09
they’re not only suing the
8:11
contractor but they’re suing
8:12
the HOA and probably whoever
8:14
owns the unit if they go down
8:15
to that unit. So, by doing
8:16
this, you can protect yourself,
8:17
the HOA, and the management
8:19
group because they’re going to
8:20
get wrapped up into that
8:21
lawsuit as well. So, Callahan’s
8:23
Corner s, you ask the
8:24
questions, we answer them live
8:25
right here on Facebook.

Transcript:
0:02
Corner. Were you asked a
0:02
question? We had some live
0:03
right here on Facebook. Had
0:04
another great messenger
0:06
question submitted last week.
0:08
Um I’ll paraphrase it here but
0:10
basically, a gentleman is
0:11
saying that Mike, I hardly ever
0:13
get time to have one-on-one
0:14
meetings with my office staff,
0:15
my crew leaders, and some of my
0:17
managers and what I do have
0:19
these meetings, I’m not really
0:21
sure what to talk about and
0:23
they seem to, if I’m
0:24
paraphrasing here, be all over
0:26
the place with no organization
0:27
and if I’m reading between the
0:29
lines here, probably don’t have
0:29
a of value in the managers, the
0:33
crew leaders, and the office
0:34
staff really don’t enjoy them
0:36
and there’s really no need to
0:38
have these unless they’re
0:38
organized. So, this is
0:40
something actually we’ve been
0:41
working with and going to be
0:42
instituting in the Simba Girl
0:44
Scout Group where we have
0:45
one-to-one coaching with
0:48
business owners under a million
0:50
dollars in our over a million
0:51
dollar basically consulting
0:53
group is our masterminds group
0:55
but I’m going to open up the
0:56
screen here. So, if somebody
0:57
owns a service business, this
0:58
is pretty much what we in my
1:01
service business as well. Um
1:02
and feel free to take a look at
1:04
it and you know institute this
1:06
in your own business here. So,
1:07
let me flip the screen over
1:08
here and pop this open. So,
1:10
this is something if you’re in
1:11
the scout group with Simple
1:12
Growth with the one-on-one
1:14
consulting two and a half hours
1:15
with our seven-figure business
1:16
experts. Uh you’re going to be
1:18
seeing here shortly but this is
1:19
something we used in my
1:21
business here and this is what
1:22
we’ve been looking at on a
1:24
weekly basis. So, on the far
1:26
left here, we’re going to be
1:27
walking through and this is a
1:28
10 to 15-minute exercise with
1:30
some things off to the right
1:32
that need to be prepared before
1:33
the meeting. Uh top of mind,
1:34
things we should talk about.
1:35
So, you’re actually engaging
1:37
this and the employee, not the
1:40
managers filling this out to
1:41
have ownership. Uh priority
1:43
since we last met, what have
1:44
you been working on? Uh
1:45
priorities until we meet again.
1:47
Top things you’re going to be
1:49
focusing on from now until the
1:50
next time we meet. Positive
1:52
things that went well this
1:53
week. Recent wins and positive
1:54
news. We’re going to frame it
1:56
with positivity and see what’s
1:57
going on. Uh next thing is our
1:59
Challenges. Roadblocks and
2:01
concerns that we can work we
2:02
can work out. And last thing is
2:05
feedback, recognition, and
2:07
suggestions for improvement. So
2:09
whether it’s a crew leader for
2:09
a landscape maintenance
2:11
company, a cleaning tech with a
2:13
multi-person crew, a manager,
2:15
or the office. This all
2:17
basically on the left hand side
2:18
fits in perfectly. Now, what
2:21
we’re looking at here on the
2:21
far right is probably going to
2:23
be more for a manager or
2:25
business owner. But this is the
2:26
things that we should be doing
2:27
on a weekly basis. The things
2:29
on the left here even as the
2:30
business owner, I have a
2:32
personal coach that I meet with
2:33
every Friday for an hour, not
2:34
cheap but we have these types
2:36
of accountability. So, these
2:37
are some of the things that I
2:39
actually do in my current
2:39
business as well as the lawn
2:40
care business. So, on the left
2:43
here, or in the middle, we’re
2:45
looking at employment
2:47
recruitment in virtual bench.
2:48
If you ever heard me talk about
2:49
stacking the virtual bench, we
2:50
should always be interviewing
2:52
at least twice a week.
2:53
Traditionally, Monday,
2:54
Wednesday, and sometimes
2:55
Friday. We’re stacking the
2:56
virtual bench. So, when we meet
2:57
an employee and we we don’t
3:00
have a basically a virtual
3:02
bench set almost like a farm
3:04
team for a sports club. It’s
3:05
too late. So, we need to have
3:07
those people already readily
3:08
available on screen before we
3:10
go out and hire. So, what I’m
3:11
going to recommend is go out
3:12
and interview two to three
3:13
times a week and we should be
3:15
tracking this for our cadence
3:16
to see where these interview
3:17
people coming from or
3:19
applicants are coming from. So,
3:20
this Thursday for the scale
3:21
group, we’ve got a whole hour
3:22
about going out and doing paid
3:25
advertisements for in in a in a
3:28
recruiting process to go out
3:30
and get employees when you need
3:31
them but also to stack that
3:33
virtual bench. So, we’re
3:34
going to put the date of the
3:35
week in here. How many
3:36
interviews were booked? How
3:38
many showed? How many were
3:39
hired? And then how many were
3:40
qualified to go on that virtual
3:42
event? So, what we’re doing is
3:43
creating a cadence of
3:43
accountability throughout each
3:46
week tracking your employment
3:48
process. I’ll tell you folks,
3:50
including myself in the early
3:51
days, we did not do this and
3:53
man, when we we stopped doing
3:55
this, we got in trouble. So,
3:56
really need to go out right in
3:58
my opinion, several times a
3:59
week and go out and recruit
4:00
even if we don’t need anybody
4:01
because you’re going to find
4:03
these applicants that you may
4:05
be able to use. So, the
4:06
gentleman who ran my company, I
4:07
found him about a year and a
4:08
half, two years earlier than I
4:09
needed him but it was a perfect
4:11
applicant. So, we moved some
4:11
money around and made it happen
4:13
but like I said, when you’re
4:14
going out to find that person
4:15
when you need them right in
4:16
that time and then, BDC, you’re
4:18
not going to find it. So, we
4:19
need to go out and recruit
4:19
beforehand. So, I’m suggesting
4:21
that our weekly meeting summary
4:23
from the following week for the
4:25
previous week, we go in
4:25
interviews interview showed,
4:27
hired, added to the virtual
4:29
bench. And then the final thing
4:30
based on the position, this
4:32
would be great for crew leaders
4:34
as well. Uh, in the field and
4:36
managers is the week of the
4:38
total budgeted hours for either
4:40
that crew that they’re in
4:42
charge of or the whole entire
4:43
division or company if they’re
4:45
managing that whole entire
4:46
company depending on the size
4:47
of it. But we want to know the
4:48
total budgeted hours, total man
4:49
hours work, and over and under
4:51
man hours. Now I would also
4:53
suggest here in the space
4:54
below, we have something about
4:56
quality because production that
4:58
is not aligned with quality
4:59
work is not going to be a
5:01
benefit. So, I would go in and
5:02
probably put some kind of
5:04
internal ranking like we did.
5:06
We did internal QC test and
5:08
then, we also had a portion
5:10
that based on the clients
5:11
calling in compliments or
5:13
complaints. So, those are the
5:14
things I I’d suggest you be
5:16
looking at but a quick summary
5:17
here, top of mind, things we
5:18
should talk about here.
5:20
Priority since we last met,
5:21
what have we been working on?
5:22
Priorities until we meet again.
5:24
Top things you’re focusing on
5:24
from until the next time we
5:27
meet, things that went well
5:28
this week, recent winds and
5:29
positive news and then we’re
5:31
looking at our challenges,
5:32
roadblocks, concerns, and ways
5:33
we can work them out and then
5:35
feedback, recognition, and
5:38
things for improvement. So,
5:39
these are the things that I
5:40
would suggest on your weekly
5:41
meetings with crew leaders,
5:43
managers, and office personnel,
5:46
a version of this is going to
5:47
be in, and then whoever’s
5:48
responsible for your
5:49
recruiting, right here, weekly,
5:52
how many interviews you were
5:52
booked, how many showed up, how
5:53
many hired, how many stuck
5:54
filtered to bench that were
5:56
qualified and then production
5:58
wise, budget, total hours work
6:01
over and under budget and I
6:01
would have a quality thing in
6:03
here and the final thing that
6:05
I’d be looking at off to the to
6:06
right here that is not on here
6:08
yet is I’d be also looking at
6:09
total client count, total
6:12
cancelled clients, new clients,
6:14
and net new and those are
6:16
going to be metrics across a
6:18
service business. I’m going to
6:19
recommend you look at on a
6:21
summarized weekly basis. So, if
6:22
you’re wondering how to go out
6:23
and tackle weekly one-on-one
6:28
meetings, this is what we do.
6:29
Every every week at Simple
6:31
Growth, every Tuesday, the
6:32
second half of the day, I’m
6:32
doing one-on-one meetings,
6:34
creates clarity, and we can go
6:35
in and better support the team
6:36
members and in a turn, better
6:38
support our customers. So,
6:40
comments, questions, drop
6:41
below. Callahan’s Corner. You
6:43
ask the questions. We answer
6:44
them

Transcript:
0:00 Make a quick video. I had a
0:02
question submitted right now
0:04
with the crazy gas prices and
0:07
needing to cover drive time.
0:08
How do we actually go out for
0:09
best practice and institute
0:11
this into a software program to
0:13
make sure that each and every
0:15
job moving forward that is
0:17
estimated includes travel time
0:19
and approximate cost to cover
0:22
the labor, overhead, and the
0:24
gas. As well as if you’re doing
0:27
design, build, or landscape
0:28
maintenance far as like mulch
0:29
installation shrub pruning,
0:31
things like that. How do we
0:33
account for the travel time and
0:34
the gas cost that’s passed on
0:37
to the client but it’s not
0:38
shown upfront as an extra line
0:40
item itself. So, what I’m
0:42
going to do is open up a
0:43
software that we work with,
0:44
Service Autopilot and show you
0:45
how this is done. Uh the final
0:47
product that I’m going to
0:48
reverse engineer it over the
0:49
next 10 to 15 minutes but this
0:50
is going to be applicable to
0:52
any software that you’re using.
0:53
If you’re not using a software,
0:54
this is a great option to go
0:57
out and build this into your
0:57
system. This is something we’ve
0:58
done in my company since about
1:00
two thousand8 when gas prices
1:04
skyrocketed and we hit a
1:05
recession. So, this is tried
1:06
and tested and we’ve done this
1:08
for hundreds and hundreds of
1:09
companies over the years. I’m
1:10
going to show you actually how
1:11
to build this out yourself
1:12
here. So, comment your
1:13
questions, drop em below but
1:15
that’s how we’re going to do
1:16
it. So, right now, I’m going to
1:17
go in and this is the workflow
1:18
of how it’s going to happen in
1:19
your office and I’ll actually
1:20
show you how to set this up.
1:22
So, first thing I want to do is
1:23
go in. Uh this product here
1:25
service autopilot. This can be
1:26
done. Um even with an excel
1:28
sheet but if you’re not doing
1:29
you should be doing this in a
1:31
software. If not, at least a
1:32
Google sheeter sells sheet. So,
1:34
what I’m going to do is put in
1:34
the first blame and last name
1:37
of our lead. So, they’re
1:38
calling your office imagine and
1:40
we’re going in now and just
1:41
having a conversation asking
1:44
them where their property is.
1:46
Now, this could be commercial
1:47
or residential, really doesn’t
1:49
matter. and we put in the
1:54
postal code and then the system
1:55
if it’s in question is going to
1:56
ask us what city and state that
1:58
is. Now, we’ve got information.
2:00
You notice the service address
2:01
is automatically going into the
2:02
billing address and we’re
2:03
going to want to put in an
2:04
Email address so we can
2:06
actually send them out a
2:08
estimate with the gas prices
2:11
and overhead included in it and
2:13
we would put their cellphone
2:14
number in there so we could
2:15
follow up with an automated
2:16
system to text them and make
2:17
sure they got this estimate.
2:19
Final couple things I recommend
2:21
that you’re doing before we get
2:21
to this. Uh things you should
2:23
be tracking is the account type
2:24
commercial and residential and
2:26
finally the sales. Uh how’d you
2:28
how’d you hear about it? So, I
2:28
heard about you from your nine
2:29
around direct mailing. Or the
2:32
every direct door. EDM, every
2:34
direct door mailing with the
2:35
long copy of the picture. So
2:37
we’ve got them into the
2:37
software. We’re going to pull
2:40
him up. Now, we’re working this
2:41
lead over the phone and this is
2:42
where we actually kind of are
2:43
tackling the question at hand.
2:45
How do we go out and build for
2:46
these things and not raise a
2:49
red flag with the future
2:50
client? So, what we’re going to
2:51
do is go into the more tab and
2:53
I’m going to go into property
2:54
measurement and actually
2:55
measure out this property. Now,
2:56
I’m going to show you here
2:57
shortly how we actually have
2:58
the math going in here but I
2:59
want to draw some context to
3:01
this. So, right inside the
3:02
software, we’re going to go in
3:04
and measure that area. and got
3:09
a little busy with the clicking
3:10
here but let me go in and
3:11
measure this out. So, I’m just
3:13
grabbing the turf area. So,
3:14
this could be for lawn mowing,
3:16
could be fertilization, could
3:18
be any service. Right now, I’m
3:19
going to do a lawn mowing
3:20
example just for real basic
3:23
travel time and gas
3:24
recuperation. So, we’ve got the
3:26
area here. I’m going to
3:27
recommend if especially if
3:28
you’re using service autopilot,
3:29
you want to go in and color
3:31
code these. and name it. So,
3:33
every time we come up to the
3:35
client record, we know the
3:36
areas we’re servicing, what
3:36
we’re on the hook for. This is
3:38
a test account. It’s got a ton
3:40
of these custom fields but what
3:41
I’ve done is embedded a couple
3:43
emojis here. So, that will make
3:45
your sorting a little bit
3:47
easier. So, that’s a little pro
3:48
tip here if you are using
3:49
service autopilot. So, we’re
3:50
going to hit save and we’ve
3:51
gone in and adjusted this. So,
3:55
once we save that custom field,
3:57
we’re going to go in and add an
3:59
estimate. So, I’m going to do a
4:00
lawn mowing estimate. I’m also
4:01
going to do one for mulch
4:03
installation as well. So, we
4:04
actually can see how to add
4:07
material pickup as well as the
4:09
drive time based on location.
4:11
So, like I said, we’re going to
4:13
open this up and show you how
4:14
to actually build this but this
4:15
is the actual idea. So, I’m
4:16
going to go and grab my
4:17
template and all my services
4:20
are going to load here in a
4:21
second and what we’ve done is
4:23
at 8400 square feet is now that
4:25
I measured on the map
4:26
automatically comes in. On all
4:28
this is fictitious, you need to
4:29
make your own pricing but based
4:31
on the model that we set up
4:32
here, it’s charging $30 for the
4:34
on-site only mowing, weed wa
4:37
blowing, and edging. Uh we said
4:39
that’s going to take point four
4:40
man hours and based on the
4:41
hourly cost in his test
4:43
account. It’s costing us $14
4:44
and 76 cents before we make a
4:47
profit. So that comes out to be
4:48
about a 50% net profit bottom
4:50
line in your bank account. Now
4:52
you ask how do we account for
4:53
the drive times? Like I said,
4:55
this is actually from my
4:56
company, Callahan’s Lawn Care.
4:58
We’ve recreated this in this
4:59
test account. Uh but we’ve got
5:00
several areas. So if you’re in
5:02
Upstate New York, over in
5:04
Rochester, New York, these are
5:04
going to actually look
5:06
familiar. These are postal
5:08
codes. So, one, four, five,
5:08
three, four, one, four, four,
5:10
five, oh, some members on our
5:12
development team actually live
5:12
out there in Fairport. One,
5:14
four, five, two, six. In Greece
5:16
and Irondequoit, we’re right
5:17
near our shop. So, what we
5:18
would do is the admin in the
5:20
office would simply go by the
5:20
zip code and go in and
5:23
literally click in here. So, if
5:25
you’re going to this first zip
5:26
code, we just type the one in
5:27
there because we’re going there
5:28
once and it calculates its. 16
5:31
man hour. So, it multiplies it
5:32
by your hourly rate and
5:33
calculated $8 and nine cents.
5:35
Now, conversely, if we were
5:37
right by our shop and we did it
5:38
here in this Greece area, it’s
5:39
only $three dollarsand twenty3
5:41
cents and point oh six. So, it
5:43
allows you to basically be more
5:47
competitive, price wise, closer
5:50
to your shop but what we’ve
5:51
done is taking the map and the
5:54
routes of all our jobs and all
5:57
the jobs that are in the one,
5:59
four, five, three, four, postal
6:01
code. We’ve averaged them in.
6:03
So, if there’s five different
6:04
days we’re out there, we took
6:05
those five days on average
6:07
through the mapping program and
6:09
from the shop all the way
6:10
through those jobs and back was
6:11
the total time. Um not
6:15
basically drive-time
6:15
allocation. So, if there was 1
6:18
hour of drive time in those 30
6:19
stops, that would be 2 minutes
6:21
of average drive time per
6:23
visit. So, that’s how the math
6:25
has worked in here. Now, based
6:27
on this in a break it out here
6:30
in an Excel sheet a little bit
6:31
in a minute. How did we figure
6:32
out the drive time caustic
6:33
fence and actually add that
6:34
into that charge? I’m going to
6:36
get to that but this is what it
6:36
looks like in the software and
6:39
now, all the clients going to
6:39
see is lawn mowing here for
6:41
thirty-eight oh 9. 56 man hours
6:45
and a cost of twenty-six
6:47
seventy-four. So, we’ve got
6:48
about a 45% net profit margin
6:51
long as the guys and girls on
6:52
the crew hit their budgeted
6:54
time with equality. So, we’re
6:55
going to go to drafted quote.
6:57
Now, this is a live estimate we
6:58
built in the on-site time
7:00
specific to the machines we’re
7:01
using so you could break it out
7:03
to a sixty, a fifty-two, a
7:04
forty-eight, a push mower. Um
7:06
all those different things.
7:07
Backyard and front yard with or
7:09
without a gate, a smaller
7:10
mower. All these variables can
7:11
be built in here with that
7:13
drive time and overhead cost
7:14
effect. Now, in addition, if we
7:15
scroll down here I didn’t fill
7:19
out the on-site estimate form
7:19
but what would happen is you’ve
7:21
got one, two, or three inches
7:23
depths of bed. So, I’m going to
7:25
say we’re going out to this
7:25
residential property and it’s a
7:27
little more the top dress but
7:28
it’s two-inch addition, two
7:29
inches of additional depth. So,
7:31
we would plug in say 600 square
7:32
feet and what that’s going to
7:34
do is calculate $330 for the
7:38
three yards of mulch, three
7:39
hours to get it done, and 198
7:42
labor materials. That’s a 40%
7:43
profit margin. So, now, what we
7:45
can do is we figure on average
7:47
is how long is this going to
7:49
take to actually either fill up
7:51
the dump truck or the dump
7:55
trailer on site or drive to a
7:57
nursing unit filled and get to
7:58
that property on average in our
8:00
service area. So, based on
8:02
this, let’s say
8:06
this is 1, 200 square feet and
8:08
that’s six yards of malt. So,
8:10
maybe our dump trailer or dump
8:11
truck can only handle four,
8:13
five yards of mulch. That’s
8:13
actually going to make us go to
8:14
the shop twice and actually
8:17
wore the nursery and fill up
8:18
twice for the wholesaler. So,
8:19
what I could do is put in two
8:21
units here and it would be an
8:23
extra $42 dollars and 90 cents
8:24
and point 66 man hour. So,
8:26
we’ve covered the drive time
8:28
and the drive time gas effect
8:31
for that individual to go and
8:32
refill that dump truck twice.
8:34
So, these are the keys to
8:36
success that I usually see when
8:37
we set these up. We’ve done
8:39
this for my company. Uh
8:40
multi-seven-figure business as
8:42
well as hundreds of other
8:43
businesses anywhere from a half
8:44
a million to all all the way up
8:46
to 19 to 20 million in annual
8:48
revenue and it works on scale
8:49
but we need to do is build this
8:51
in here and be able to hit save
8:52
and have a system that a very
8:56
can measure this or enter data
8:58
in or someone in the field
8:59
through their mobile device and
9:00
be able to create these
9:02
estimates in a systematic way
9:03
that covers that drive time,
9:04
gas effect, and budgeted time.
9:06
It projects profit. So, once we
9:09
have this, we can go in
9:10
literally and hit Email and
9:13
what it’s going to do is pull
9:15
up a an Email here and here it
9:18
is right here and we’ve got a
9:20
pretemplated Email button. You
9:22
can click if you’re on your
9:23
mobile in the five major
9:24
reasons why our business is
9:26
different than other
9:26
businesses. So, this right here
9:28
is basically incorporation of a
9:30
lead letter and it
9:31
differentiates yourself and
9:32
you’ve built it enough value
9:33
into this before they get the
9:34
estimates. So, price is not the
9:36
issue. So, what I’m going to do
9:37
is hit send real quick and on
9:38
my other screen, I’m going to
9:40
pull up my Email real quick so
9:40
you can see what the consumer
9:42
is getting and how we built
9:43
that in and then in the next
9:44
five to 8 minutes, I’m going to
9:46
actually go in and show you how
9:47
to build this out inside your
9:50
software system here. So, this
9:54
is going to be, in my opinion,
9:56
instrumental right now with
9:58
everything that’s going on in
10:01
the industry right now. So,
10:02
what we’ve got here is inside
10:03
my Email inbox. The ability to
10:04
go and see the Email that was
10:06
already pretemplated. Nobody’s
10:08
writing an Email. It’s said it
10:09
and forget it. We’ve got some
10:10
testimonials in here. Um and
10:12
what we’re going to do is the
10:13
customer now is going to click
10:14
view my proposal and as this
10:16
opens up, we’ve got it right
10:18
here. Step one, select the
10:20
services. Step 2, accept and
10:21
sign. Now, what I’m going to
10:23
recommend for best practice,
10:24
don’t have all this verbiage in
10:25
here but in this test account,
10:27
we’ve got all the verbiage to
10:28
say, hey, you can put as much
10:29
details you want in here or you
10:31
have a couple things spilling
10:33
the exact service and
10:34
underneath in in the contract
10:36
or the estimate terms you have,
10:37
the finer details but once
10:38
again, it’s got that
10:39
thirty-nine oh nine in there
10:40
per cut includes the drive time
10:42
and budgeted time. Consumer can
10:44
click it and another key to
10:45
success is we can go in and
10:48
have a video embedded live
10:50
inside the estimate that
10:52
actually talks about what’s
10:53
included, not included in the
10:54
service, and we can create more
10:56
perceived value. So, this video
10:57
myself in here was our our
10:59
automated salesperson,
11:00
literally twenty-four seven.
11:02
Now, the mulch insulation
11:03
obviously, we could’ve updated
11:05
the details but we built this
11:07
out as a test account but you
11:08
got $702 and 90 cents. That
11:10
actually include the mulch
11:13
installed, I believe it was six
11:14
yards and it includes the drive
11:16
time for two different visits
11:17
with the dump trucker dump
11:19
trailer. So, that’s the idea
11:20
here. Now, obviously, we can go
11:21
in and update that and another
11:24
pro tip here. So, if we went
11:25
in, you can go in on the fly
11:29
and update this one off.
11:31
Traditionally, you want that
11:32
all loaded in but what you
11:33
could do is includes mulch,
11:43
flavor or mulch, installation
11:47
of double round,
11:56
and you can put that in there.
11:58
So, you can obviously put some
11:59
more details and everything.
12:00
You could customize it on the
12:01
fly, hit save. Cool thing here
12:03
is when I go to view my
12:05
proposal and I actually refresh
12:07
this. Uh system hasn’t caught
12:11
up but that would actually
12:12
update this system here. So, we
12:14
go and see if I can get this to
12:15
actually update for us just so
12:16
I can show you the live update.
12:18
This is a cool trick. You can
12:20
also do this for change
12:22
requests as well. And actually
12:24
get that to come out.
12:28
and
12:29
we’ll give it one more try.
12:31
Alright, so right there, it
12:32
automatically updates that. So,
12:34
that’s another pro tip. You can
12:35
update those until some excepts
12:36
or doesn’t accept it which
12:37
means you can also update the
12:38
price. So, that’s what it’s
12:40
going to look like finish.
12:41
You’re going to measure it
12:42
through the mapping program.
12:43
Probably have an on-site
12:44
estimate form to plug in the
12:46
square footage of the mulch
12:46
better measured online. We’ve
12:48
included the additional drive
12:50
time in there for the mulch and
12:53
we’ve included it for the lawn
12:54
mowing based on postal code.
12:56
here. So, As we’re going in,
12:58
this is how we actually fill
13:00
this out. So, if our dollar per
13:03
hour goal is say, let’s say $65
13:05
and we’ve gone through a
13:07
financial overhead recovery
13:09
model. So, we know it’s costing
13:11
us $42 per man hour break even.
13:13
That’s including your average
13:15
fuel cost. Now, at the higher
13:17
rate, that’s going to be built
13:18
in. So, what we do is say,
13:19
okay, what’s our base price?
13:20
The lowest we would charge to
13:21
go in. So, I’m going to say at
13:22
4-5 bucks and based on that
13:25
equals 4-five divided by 6five
13:27
bucks an hour. The longest
13:29
amount of time I can take is
13:30
point six nine man hours right
13:32
here. Now, a lot of people are
13:33
going to be like, what is point
13:34
69 man hour mean? Well, that
13:36
means if one person was mow
13:38
blowing stick edging that
13:38
property, they’d have 41. 4
13:40
minutes to get that done.
13:41
That’s the most amount of time.
13:42
So, we’ve got that in there and
13:44
I’m going to say between one
13:45
and 5000 square feet is my base
13:48
price of forty-five and if I go
13:50
in and add some simple math
13:51
here, that budgeted time, time
13:53
is a break, even a 42 hour.
13:55
Coverage drive and gas here. Uh
13:58
that’s twenty-nine oh eight.
13:59
So, you’re charging 4five. It’s
14:01
cost you twenty-nine oh eight.
14:03
You got about a thirty-five
14:04
percent profit margin of
14:05
fifteen ninety-two. In this
14:07
example, now, what I’m going to
14:08
say is a very basic model.
14:09
Every thousand square feet over
14:10
the first 5000 is let’s say our
14:13
production rate is 6 minutes
14:16
per thousand. That’s
14:17
significantly higher than it
14:19
probably would be but we’ll go
14:20
with it just for this example.
14:21
So, it’s point 10 or. 1 man
14:24
hour. So, if I would go in and
14:26
that multiply by my hour rate
14:28
of sixty-five, I would need to
14:30
charge $6 and 50 cents per
14:31
thousand and it would be
14:32
costing me $4 and 20 cents. So,
14:35
that’s the on-site labor and
14:37
how we create a system where
14:38
you measure it and that’s what
14:39
the math does in the back end
14:40
of the software. Now, for drive
14:43
time, I’m going to just put DT
14:45
one four six one two. That’s
14:47
the the postal code, okay? And
14:49
I would say from one to one
14:52
trips to that area, let’s just
14:53
say, on average, each stop the
14:54
drive from the shop, to the
14:57
first stop, all the way through
14:58
25 stops and back to the shop
14:59
again. Let’s say that takes
15:01
about 8 minutes drive time. So,
15:03
eight divided by 60 is point
15:06
one three. So, my price would
15:09
be the. point13 man hours times
15:11
6-5 bucks. It would make that
15:12
would ensure that I would have
15:14
to charge $8 and 67 cents per
15:18
stop to cover that non-billable
15:19
drive time and the additional
15:20
gas expenses built in to now
15:23
the forty-two an hour from the
15:25
38 and every one visit over the
15:28
first visit is an additional
15:29
eight seventy-six point one
15:30
three man hours and its cost is
15:32
560. So, that’s how we build in
15:34
the onsite versus the drive
15:35
time and that’s exactly what we
15:37
had inside service autopilot.
15:39
That’s what was going on behind
15:41
the scenes. Now, same idea as
15:43
the drive time here, pickup,
15:46
and delivery of materials, 65.
15:49
I’m going to move that 30 up to
15:50
$42 an hour break even based on
15:51
new gas prices and inflation
15:53
and once again, it’s a
15:54
one-to-one ratio. So, each
15:56
visit, if it took me forty
15:58
minutes to do at. 75 man hours,
16:01
I would have to charge at 65
16:05
bucks an hour, forty-eight, 75
16:07
per pickup of materials. So,
16:10
each pickup, it’s an additional
16:12
4eight seventy-five. Each
16:13
additional one is another
16:14
forty-eight seventy-five. What
16:15
we’re going to do then is go
16:17
into service autopilot under
16:20
the gear icon and this is where
16:21
it actually all comes together.
16:22
So, you’re going to build out
16:24
some things called custom
16:25
fields first. These are those
16:26
job variables. So, you’re
16:27
going to go and create
16:34
per square footage and it would
16:38
be built to a number and then
16:40
save a new and then you would
16:42
put in the one four six, one,
16:44
two, that’s the postal code,
16:47
that I had in the example.
16:49
Primetime, number of trips. Hit
16:51
say, next step is we’re
16:53
going to go into
16:57
services and build this out.
16:58
Now, we’re going to use a
16:59
simple growth blueprint here.
17:00
This blueprint, we blueprint it
17:02
before we build it just like we
17:03
build a house off of blueprint.
17:04
Do you not want to go in and do
17:06
this without a blueprint? So,
17:07
we’re going to do is add a
17:08
service and quickly, I’m
17:10
going to show you how to build
17:11
this out. So, you would have
17:12
your lawn mowing.
17:17
and
17:18
you would need to go in the
17:19
per unit, invoice description,
17:21
income account is going to be
17:23
maintenance services and
17:25
estimates what the subscription
17:27
is on the, on the estimate, and
17:29
then rate matrix, we go to
17:30
quantity rate times visits, we
17:32
would go in and pull up your
17:35
turf square footage, and the
17:37
one to 5000 square feet that
17:40
was on the blueprint here,
17:42
taking the top five lines and
17:44
bottom five lines and literally
17:45
put him in there and that’s as
17:47
easy it is. Now, you’ve built
17:48
in your overhead recovery and
17:49
job costing for your service
17:52
business. Now, this could be
17:53
lawn care, home cleaning, pest
17:54
control, pool services, holiday
17:56
lights. List goes on and on.
17:58
We’ve done this in multiple
17:59
industries. Uh asphalt
18:01
maintenance, you name it. So,
18:02
what we’re doing is just
18:04
literally taking these top five
18:05
lines and I’m driving it right
18:07
here. So, one to 5000 square
18:08
feet is forty-five bucks. And
18:12
We’ve got point 69 man hours.
18:18
and it is costing us 2908
18:22
before profit. So, you kind of
18:24
get the idea. We’re just
18:25
rebuilding that blueprint now.
18:26
The top five lines and the
18:27
bottom five lines. Each one of
18:29
these services and now they’re
18:31
connected in the back end of
18:32
the template. You measure it,
18:33
it pulls the math in. We know
18:35
the math is right because we
18:36
tested it in the blueprint and
18:37
now we have a way to create
18:39
systematic, repeatable
18:40
estimates can be delegated to
18:41
anybody in your business.
18:43
Callahan’s Corners, you ask the
18:44
question, we answer them live
18:45
right here on Facebook. Leave
18:46
your comments, questions below
18:47
but that’s how I recommend
18:49
tackling the drive time per
18:51
postal code or zone in your
18:52
business and up and delivery or
18:55
disposal of debris for your
18:57
landscape maintenance services
18:58
or your hardscaping services
19:00
and how you’d update that based
19:02
on the higher gas prices and
19:03
have that job-costing and
19:05
additional prices hidden in the
19:08
back end of the software that
19:08
you’re using. So, comment your
19:09
questions, drop below.
19:11
Callahan’s Corner US

Transcript:
1
Corner where you ask the
0:03
questions we answered live
0:03
right here on Facebook. So, had
0:05
a question submitted earlier
0:07
this week. Company business
0:08
owner wanted to know how do we
0:11
communicate with the crews to
0:11
get them to stop going to gas
0:15
stations and fast food joints
0:15
outside of their break time
0:18
because it’s absolutely burning
0:19
up their profits and with the
0:21
price of gas right now, it’s
0:23
eroding their bottom lines.
0:23
Well, folks, this is nothing
0:25
new if you’ve owned a service
0:27
business. After 25 years,
0:28
owning a lawn care and snow
0:29
removal business. This is
0:30
Something that every business
0:32
owner including myself has
0:34
dealt with but we really need
0:35
to be able to go out a
0:37
conceptualize what the cost of
0:38
that extra drive time is and if
0:41
you eventually move to a
0:43
pay-per-performance or peace
0:44
rate system, how you educate
0:46
your crew around making good
0:48
decisions and not bad decisions
0:50
and finally, even if you’re not
0:52
using a P3 to pay for
0:54
performance system, how do we
0:54
have a conversation? So, the
0:56
crew actually understands what
0:58
they’re doing for their budget
1:01
verse actual time and how this
1:03
craziness of stopping at
1:04
Wendy’s halfway across the city
1:06
for a frosty on a 90-degree day
1:08
is absolutely killing Ada
1:10
cruise efficiency. Their profit
1:11
in their pocket if they’re not
1:12
paid for performance and
1:14
killing the company at the same
1:15
time. The madness has gotta
1:17
end. Um just saw five or six
1:19
trucks in a Wendy’s parking lot
1:20
on the way to the office this
1:22
morning. All eating breakfast
1:23
with their feet up on the
1:24
dashboard. That company was
1:25
getting blood dry and if that
1:27
company had paid for
1:29
performance at peace rate,
1:30
those employees were doing
1:31
themselves some injustice. So,
1:32
I’m going to pop the screen
1:33
over in here. And really show
1:35
How we broke it down in my
1:36
company, Callahans Lawn Care
1:38
and explained to the crew
1:39
members how they actually were
1:41
hurting themselves because
1:42
they’re on a peace rate or pay
1:43
performance system and how we
1:45
can actually talk to crew
1:46
members even if they’re not on
1:47
that kind of system about the
1:49
impact and how we can educate
1:51
managers and business owners
1:53
what the net effect of that gas
1:54
station or Wendy’s stop is. So,
1:56
I’m going to pop the screen
1:57
open and talk about this here.
1:59
So, what we’ve got here is just
2:01
a blank sheet of paper. I’m
2:02
going to recommend you put this
2:02
on a dry erase board. A big in
2:04
the shop. I’m going to kind of
2:06
go free hand here. Uh but what
2:08
we’re looking at and this is
2:08
how you should be looking at
2:10
your jobs too. And if you don’t
2:11
have budgeted time, you really
2:12
need it because this is what
2:14
what’s going to happen if if
2:15
you don’t. So, I have got job A
2:19
right here. And I have got job
2:24
B. Over here And what we’ve got
2:28
going here is I’m going to bump
2:29
this up here a little bit so
2:31
everybody can kind of see it.
2:32
Alright, so I’ve got Jab A.
2:33
I’ve got job B. Imagine we’re
2:36
cutting job A and and we’re
2:36
going to we’re going to put as
2:40
food over here as a another
2:44
option. So, what we should be
2:46
doing as we have job A, job B,
2:48
job C, all the way through the
2:50
day is we should be talking to
2:52
the crew leaders that when they
2:53
leave job A here, the budgeted
2:56
time for job B start. Makes
2:58
sense, right? On average, we
3:00
need over the 25 or 30 stops a
3:02
day. The average drive time
3:03
should be built in the budgeted
3:04
times of those jobs. You need
3:05
to recover that overhead. As
3:06
well as From the shop, to the
3:08
first job, and from the last
3:10
job, back to the shop. So,
3:11
let’s say on average, it’s it’s
3:13
three to 5 minutes drive time
3:15
for this cruise. So, we’re
3:16
going to say it’s a two-man
3:16
crew for this this service
3:18
business, lawn care, home
3:19
cleaning, whatever, whatever
3:20
that may be in my home or lawn
3:23
care company. This is how we
3:24
had it. So, we’re not going to
3:27
have any budgeted time here but
3:28
we’re going to say this is a
3:30
thirty-minute the hours. So 30
3:33
minutes of budgeted hours. So,
3:35
theoretically, this crew here
3:38
after they finish this job that
3:40
30 minutes starts. So, they’re
3:42
driving over to there. So, I’ve
3:43
got 30 minutes to drive there,
3:46
mow blown edge, and click out
3:48
of my mobile device and then
3:49
I’m going to go on to job C.
3:51
So, this is the issue that
3:53
happens when our employees make
3:55
the fast food stop at the gas
3:57
station stop but imagine this,
3:59
we’re going to be really
4:00
conservative here. This is
4:01
probably the best-case
4:03
scenario. We’ve got 5 minutes
4:04
here. So, from job A, they’re
4:06
driving five minutes to fast
4:08
food joint. We know the gas
4:11
station, the cigarette stop,
4:12
whatever they’re doing here,
4:13
probably going to be way more
4:14
than 5 minutes. Um but let’s
4:16
put that in as another 5
4:16
minutes here. And just take a
4:20
look at this. So you’ve got
4:21
your five minutes at the gas
4:23
station. You got five minutes
4:24
driving there. And I’m going to
4:26
say in the best case scenario
4:28
you got another 5 minutes. So,
4:30
real simple math here, if we’re
4:32
driving from job A, five
4:34
minutes to the fast food joint,
4:35
there are another 5 minutes
4:36
there, getting the frosty, and
4:37
another five minutes back to
4:39
job. B, that is with my math,
4:43
here is five times free. That’s
4:45
15 minutes for one person but
4:47
once again, we’ve got a two-man
4:49
crew there. So, we need to
4:51
multiply that by two. So, what
4:53
you kind of see here is
4:54
happened is we have created a
4:59
situation where by going five
5:01
minutes out of the way, another
5:03
five minutes at the gas station
5:04
or fast food, another 5 minutes
5:05
of job B. Technically, when we
5:07
leave job A, job B’s budgeted
5:09
time starts and I’ve got 30
5:11
minutes for job B and I’ve
5:13
already wasted 15 minutes times
5:15
two guys. So, I’ve eaten my 15
5:18
minutes times two. So, when I
5:19
get to job B, I’m already over
5:22
budget. So, if we’re paying
5:24
them pay for performance,
5:25
they’re getting paid for the
5:26
budgeted hours. So, if they do
5:27
this two to three times a day,
5:31
that’s going to affect their
5:31
pain in a negative way. Now,
5:33
you, the business owner, this
5:35
is, this is pretty detrimental
5:37
as well. So, let’s say right
5:38
now with gas prices and
5:39
inflation, it’s costing you
5:43
let’s say 38 to $40 per man
5:44
hour break even before we make
5:46
a profit. So, let’s round that
5:47
around in the middle of
5:48
thirty-nine dollars point 5.
5:52
So, what that has cost you in
5:55
expenses, not projected revenue
5:58
but just in expenses is you
6:00
have lost now an additional $19
6:04
and 50 cents. So, if this was
6:08
say a $40 cut, what you’ve done
6:12
is you’ve added additional
6:12
expense here. So, we won’t even
6:13
play with the forty but really
6:15
what this fast food joint stop
6:17
has caused you is is $19 and 50
6:20
cents. So, let’s say that these
6:23
guys do this two or three times
6:24
a day. You’re you’re looking at
6:26
40 to $60 of extra expense a
6:30
day and that’s not uncommon
6:32
that we’re seeing. So, let’s
6:33
just round it up to twenty
6:34
bucks. You’ve got 40 bucks a
6:36
day an additional expense,
6:38
times five days a week, times,
6:41
let’s just say a thirty-week
6:42
season. Actually, we’ll do it
6:44
thirty-six because even in the
6:46
northeast with fall cleanup,
6:46
spring cleanup, that’s about
6:48
what you’re running at. Believe
6:50
it or not, if they do that
6:52
three times a day over your
6:55
thirty-six-week season, they
6:56
have incorporated an extra
6:58
$7two hundred dollars of
7:00
expense Um so, we’ve gotta be
7:03
able to take a look at that and
7:05
have some accountability and
7:07
transparency. We’ll talk about
7:08
some KPIs, Jake Roberts
7:10
actually is in the Masterminds
7:12
Group at Simple Growth. We’re
7:13
going to be diving into KPIs
7:14
and how to make sure all of
7:15
this stuff is being accounted
7:17
for and how to track it on a
7:18
daily, weekly basis, and how to
7:20
actually talk to your crews to
7:20
do that so this is really
7:25
really important here, and what
7:26
I’m going to do is go into a
7:28
test account here that I have,
7:30
and I’m going to go in and pull
7:31
up a account, for Maps Pro, so
7:36
Google Maps. It doesn’t matter
7:37
what software you’re using
7:38
here, but I’m going to go in
7:39
and just pull up this test
7:40
account. So the second part of
7:42
this is, if they’re being
7:44
efficient, but you don’t have
7:45
standard standardized operating
7:48
procedures, you’re also hurting
7:49
yourself. So, a lot of the
7:51
companies that we’ve seen,
7:52
including myself in the early
7:53
days, they don’t have a a
7:56
standard way of handling how
7:59
they tackle where to park,
8:01
where to stop, where to do
8:02
these jobs. So, if you’re
8:04
looking at this house here in a
8:06
residential situation, let’s
8:07
not, let’s not accommodate
8:09
stick edging. There is a way to
8:10
do this but I’m just going to
8:11
sit a very simplistic way. If
8:13
you’re pulling up to this
8:14
house, where are you parking?
8:14
Are you parking over here with
8:15
these two cars are at? Are you
8:16
parking over here? So, before
8:19
you answer that, in my opinion,
8:22
you want to ask, which way is
8:23
the weed wacker carrying the
8:25
weed wacker? Is it off to the
8:26
right or is it off to the left?
8:27
In whatever way the head of the
8:30
weed wacker is on, the left or
8:30
the right where I’m parking.
8:33
So, if the guy’s holding it
8:34
like this and the weed wacker
8:35
heads right here, I’m parking
8:37
down here and what the reason
8:39
we’re doing is we’re
8:40
streamlining and creating
8:42
standardization. So, this will
8:43
save four to 6 minutes alone
8:45
every time consistently and
8:47
create better quality but what
8:48
we would do is he hops off the
8:50
trailer and he’s coming down
8:51
here and going around the
8:55
sidewalk on a 90 up the
8:56
driveway around the house and
8:58
the landscape badge here. Down
9:01
around the sidewalk, back over
9:03
here, and then right here and
9:05
when he’s here, the Carlos and
9:08
the team who trained these guys
9:09
said, don’t break the snake.
9:10
It’s a streamline thing. So, if
9:11
there’s even something right
9:13
next to it, you don’t weed
9:14
whack around it but if there’s
9:15
something in the front yard,
9:15
you grab it and we’re walking
9:17
around the house going down the
9:19
fence line. Maybe you’re
9:19
grabbing a shed. If there’s a
9:21
tree, we grab it and then we’re
9:23
walking all the way down back
9:24
to this truck and trailer. Now,
9:26
we’ve streamlined the process.
9:28
Ideally, this guy should be
9:29
done before the guy mowing. If
9:30
it’s two-man crew. He’s picking
9:33
up the blower very same
9:33
fashion. Blowing everything off
9:35
here. If the guy’s in the
9:38
backyard, he’s going to tackle
9:39
the rest of this year and then,
9:41
he’s going to go around the
9:42
house but hopefully, he’s going
9:43
up and back around the house.
9:46
And blowing that off. All in
9:47
one streamline fashion and if
9:49
we go in and use that same
9:50
system of going up and down and
9:54
around the house, blowing off
9:56
the mulch, coming back in here
9:58
and then going out round, load
10:01
off any swing sets or anything.
10:03
He’s back at the trailer or
10:05
truck with trailer and lifts
10:06
the gate for the guy there. But
10:08
the positive thing is now,
10:10
everything’s blown off in a
10:11
systematic fashion. Now, the
10:12
mower, in my opinion, should be
10:13
mowing the side yard up to the
10:14
back of the house, the whole
10:16
front and the side
10:20
before he goes into the backs,
10:22
everything’s done. He’s facing
10:23
an obviously away from the beds
10:24
in the house and then, most dry
10:27
or mowers are going to be
10:28
discharging from the right. So,
10:31
he’s going to go starting here
10:32
and coming back. Now,
10:33
obviously, we need to change
10:34
the directions but as he’s done
10:35
now, he’s coming back out
10:36
landing right at the truck and
10:38
trailer. So, you want to create
10:39
a standardized system or
10:39
procedure and then, the guy in
10:41
the mower is probably running
10:43
the crew can see way before a
10:46
guy misses something where he’s
10:46
going to miss it because he’s
10:47
doing it the same way. Now, if
10:48
this is a bigger House and the
10:52
guy weed whacking’s done and
10:53
he’s going to jump on another
10:54
sixty. He knows where the guy
10:56
is always starting and stopping
10:57
so he can start in an area and
10:59
work systematically towards
11:00
him. But creating a
11:01
standardized procedure like
11:02
this to where to park based on
11:04
the way the guys weed whacking
11:05
and basically a systematized
11:09
streamline way around the house
11:09
for weed whacking and blowing
11:11
and where they’re going to be
11:12
mowing first and mowing last
11:13
can save big big time and money
11:16
and create a better quality
11:17
product. So we tackled drive
11:18
time, how to talk about it, how
11:19
to those gas station or frosty
11:22
stops at Wendy’s and where we
11:24
park in the truck for
11:25
systemized predictability and
11:27
that’s going to improve the
11:28
quality and the ability for the
11:29
guy managing that crew to
11:31
double check that standard
11:32
process. So, questions or
11:34
comments, drop them below.
11:35
Callahans Corner. You ask the
11:36
questions. We answer them live
11:39
right here on Facebook

Transcript:
0:00
mike allen here want to make a quick
0:02
video took a quick run this uh afternoon
0:03
and we think about a conversation we had
0:05
with a couple of our lawn care uh
0:07
business friends and clients about um
0:10
the size of the business didn’t allow
0:12
for them to actually create room for
0:14
advancement when they were hiring and
0:16
when they actually onboarded and hired
0:18
employees
0:19
employees were looking for more of a
0:20
career they’d done one hell of a job
0:22
going in and finding a players that
0:24
wanted a career not just a seasonal job
0:27
but the issue that they’re facing is a
0:29
lot of these a players are investing a
0:31
lot of time a lot of money going out
0:32
recruiting and onboarding them
0:35
and got lucky enough to actually get
0:36
them on the team but once they got on
0:38
the team they realized there really was
0:39
no room for advancement which actually
0:41
wasn’t the case so what i’m going to
0:43
suggest right off the bat in your hiring
0:45
process no matter the size of your
0:46
business you can have room for
0:48
advancements i’m going to take the very
0:50
basic example of a lawn mowing crew
0:52
technician and crew leader imagine we
0:54
have a two-person crew doesn’t really
0:55
matter the size but i want to use on how
0:58
we can lay this into play so if we’re
1:00
hiring for a lawn care technician
1:03
we may have some clear defined levels of
1:05
the technician a technician in training
1:08
a
1:09
regular technician and then an advanced
1:11
technician so you’ve actually got three
1:13
different levels of a technician
1:14
technically they’re doing the same job
1:17
but as their pay goes up and their skill
1:19
level goes up we can actually have
1:21
basically micro levels of that same
1:24
position so now we can go in and
1:25
actually show three levels of
1:27
progression in a technician with
1:29
different skill sets and then that
1:30
advanced technician is actually starting
1:32
to take some responsibility in training
1:34
to become a crew leader what we did at
1:36
my company callahan’s lawn care is we
1:38
had a crew leader a head crew leader and
1:41
then above that we basically had an
1:43
advanced crew leader that basically was
1:44
trained to either become a manager for
1:46
quality control and training or actually
1:48
become an estimator so my suggestion
1:50
today no matter the size of your
1:51
business especially in today’s labor
1:53
market we need to go out and create
1:55
different levels of advancement within
1:57
the same position so even if you’re only
1:59
having two or three employees in your
2:00
team the technician example is a great
2:03
example technician training
2:04
regular technician advanced technician
2:07
and we’re not just going to in in
2:09
drive them into each position based on
2:12
seniority or tenure how long they’re
2:14
with the company we need clearly defined
2:16
um skill set and things they need to be
2:19
able to achieve to get to each level and
2:21
i’m also going to recommend especially
2:22
with the labor market right now
2:24
certification it doesn’t have to be
2:26
something really crazy but certification
2:28
that they have actually passed
2:31
either a physical or written test or
2:32
both based on each level now what this
2:35
is going to do is help you standardize
2:36
your operating procedures your sops for
2:38
onboarding and training and quality
2:41
control once we can go in and create two
2:43
to three sub micro um
2:46
levels of each position now when we go
2:48
out to recruit and actually retain those
2:51
employees we have room for advancement
2:53
and obviously we want our employees to
2:54
continue to advance and within the
2:56
organization eventually if you’re doing
2:58
a job right they’re probably going to
2:59
advance past your organization somewhere
3:00
depending on the size of it
3:02
but wouldn’t it be nice instead of
3:03
keeping on to a crew leader or
3:06
technician for half or full season two
3:08
to three seasons um and that learning
3:10
curve and then the ability to advance
3:11
through those so those need to be
3:12
clearly defined with no motion based on
3:14
kpis key performance indicators and i’m
3:17
suggesting a physical um if it’s in the
3:19
field with possibly a written test and
3:21
certification so not just everybody can
3:23
go from
3:25
technician to training to technician to
3:27
advanced technician it’s the people that
3:29
are putting in the the time and the work
3:30
and understand those levels um and this
3:32
is going to require you to
3:34
frame out some onboarding and really
3:35
create a standardized process but in
3:37
today’s labor market that’s going to be
3:38
the key to success no matter the size of
3:40
your business micro positions within the
3:42
position
3:43
crew leader
3:45
um head crew leader
3:47
and then advanced crew leader going into
3:49
training for management herself but
3:50
would it be really cool to have a
3:52
technician that’s been trained through
3:53
three different levels that understands
3:55
everything behind time become a crew
3:57
leader and if you imagine a crew leader
3:58
now getting to the top of their level
4:00
ready to get out of the truck and
4:02
understanding what it takes to be a
4:04
technician a certified advanced crew
4:06
leader and a head crew leader and then
4:08
eventually having them going into
4:10
marketing
4:11
sales
4:12
so you understand they understand all
4:13
the pain points and the things that need
4:15
to be done or going into quality coral
4:17
katrina because they’ve actually done it
4:18
and lived it um but when we do advance
4:20
in the training i also recommend that
4:21
the training is also going to have micro
4:23
levels in it because not everybody who
4:26
can do the job correctly can be a good
4:28
trainer so that’s a certain skill set we
4:30
need to look for and set some
4:31
expectations um and you kind of use the
4:33
analogy too so um don’t just throw
4:35
somebody out there to watch somebody
4:37
model it for two weeks so it’s kind of
4:38
like uh if you’ve got a kid going out to
4:40
learn how to drive i mean
4:42
the equivalent of having them sit in the
4:44
passengers and watch you watch you drive
4:45
for two weeks and then saying okay cool
4:47
take the wheel you’re ready to go take
4:48
your driver’s test that’s not going to
4:50
happen you’re going to set them up for
4:51
failures you’ve invested so much time
4:53
and money on the onboarding and
4:55
screening and interviewing make sure
4:57
that the onboarding and training is
4:58
specific and relevant and very clean cut
5:02
first impressions the only impression
5:03
but if you take the the idea of that
5:04
base technician we’re not just going to
5:06
say here’s how to start the weed whacker
5:08
go out and use it we’ve got different
5:10
levels of training so weed whacking
5:12
blowing mowing
5:13
possibly driving the truck truck and
5:15
trailer backing it up certain things we
5:17
need to be able to check the checkboxes
5:19
to go to the next level doesn’t long
5:20
doesn’t matter how long you’ve been with
5:21
the with the business
5:23
so we have somebody who hasn’t met those
5:24
criteria they just they don’t get it and
5:26
the cool thing is not everybody has to
5:27
pass these different levels of micro
5:29
commitments from
5:30
uh
5:31
crew leader in training to crew leader
5:33
to advanced crew leader um or technician
5:35
so it’s good if some people don’t hit
5:37
that because they understand it has to
5:39
be done so micro levels in there if
5:42
you’re starting out in lawn care home
5:43
cleaning i’m going to recommend
5:44
technician is going to be technician to
5:46
training regular technician advanced
5:47
technician and then your crew leader is
5:49
going to be your crew leader head crew
5:51
leader and advanced crew leader that
5:53
crew leader is now training for that
5:54
next position and you need to set some
5:56
expectations of the timeline that they
5:58
may be in these positions they are not
6:00
set in stone but it could be from six to
6:02
12 months two to three months
6:04
but that’s just a benchmark we need to
6:06
be transparent about that up front
6:07
because the worst thing you could do is
6:08
say hey you’re going to join us and as
6:10
soon as possible we’re going to blast
6:11
you off to this next position because it
6:14
may not happen a they may not have set
6:15
the qualifications to advance through
6:17
the micro positions and b uh we may just
6:20
not have a spot from yet in the in the
6:21
company so we need to set that up front
6:23
so comments or questions drop below want
6:24
to say what’s up to aaron um hopefully
6:27
you’ve got some micro positions in your
6:28
business and creating room for growth uh
6:30
for those people to scale without a
6:32
glass ceiling within the position and
6:34
then a clear path to the next position
6:36
callahan’s corner you asked questions we
6:37
had some 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
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