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- [00:02]
A
Are you mowing lawns, running crews, and still wondering where all the money went? You're not alone. Naylor Taliaferro of LCR Media has been there, and that's exactly why he created Profit Accelerator Live. Join Naylor and expert speakers John Pajak and Eric Triplett for two powerful days of hands on workshops designed specifically for lawn care and landscaping business owners in Richmond, Virginia, June 26th and 27th. This isn't a conference where you'll sit in the back and take notes. You'll leave with an actual business plan in hand, knowing exactly what to charge, how to manage your time, and how to attract better customers. Tickets are just $299, but right now you can bring a partner or a fellow business owner free with our two for one special. Tickets are just $299, but right now you can bring a partner or fellow business owner free with our 2 for 1 special. Only 75 spots are available and they will fil fast. Use the link in the show description or go to profitacceleratorlive.com to secure your spot today. Put more money in the bank and more time in your schedule with Profit Accelerator Live. Here we go.
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Welcome back to the episode of the LCR Media podcast. I'm your host, lcrnaylor Taliaferro and let's listen in on a conversation I had with Cornell Mack on the Attack With Mac podcast where I focused on how you can be more profitable, but specifically, what are a few adjustments you can make in your business right now, immediately in the spring rush to have a more profitable season. Right? Instead of being busy and broke, which a lot of us end up doing. Cornell, I think, is the one that coined that phrase in this episode and I really liked that. And he titled, he put that in the title, Stop Being Busy and Broke. Because I think that happens a lot with the spring rush. We just get so busy and we don't even realize how much money we're not making or how much money more money we could be making. And when the dust settles, we realize we got a whole lot of work done or a whole lot of new customers and it wasn't priced correctly, it isn't priced correctly for the rest of the season and we're in. We end up leaving money on the table or, or maybe even losing money and that that's not going to help our business grow, it's not going to help our sanity, it's not going to help us have more time with our family and friends and just enjoying life the best that we can, like, we have to work, of course, but we want to be able to have a life too. We don't want to just work our life away, you know, hustle and grind our life away. So we. What. Why work so hard for so little, you know, Work so hard for so long for so little. So that's kind of one of my main focuses recently here with a spring rush. And of course, I have my event coming up with me. John Pajak, Eric Triplett, some other special guests are going to be coming to help everyone understand how to be, how to make more money in their business. Essentially, you know, we talk about knowing your numbers and profits, but you know, to get it down to the granular, granular level. Granular. There you go. Level. It's, it's how, how can you just make more money with less time? Essentially, that's what's going to make you more money, more profitable. You're going to have more money in the bank, right? If you make a million dollars, but you spend a million dollars, you have zero dollars left for quote, unquote profit. You have no profit, right? You may have paid all your bills and everything's still fine and dandy, but you have nothing left over to show for it. To give your employees a bonus. What's that all about, right? Oh, I don't, I don't know about all that. I mean, that's a great incentive if you want to have good employees as you grow and have crew leaders and ops managers and all that, like, they should be getting some sort of extra incentive, bonus, whatever. But if you can't afford it because you have no profits, then, you know, now you're, you're on thin margins and you're just, you're hoping that because you're a nice enough person and you're busy that you know, and you have good equipment, hopefully that, you know, the environment creates sustainability for your employees. But it also, and that is true, right? If the, if you have the opposite of that, you're going to have people second guessing whether they want us to keep working there or not, no matter how much money you pay them. But even if you have the best environment and everything I just said, sometimes a little extra money could really help them, just like it helps you, right? So just think about that. And then, and if you have some profits that you can spend on your family or friends, you know, go out on a little vacation or little getaway or something, you know, or invest in upgrading something in your house or put towards savings for a house, like whatever you Know, like that's what profits are for, to reward you for a job well done. Like if you're just working and working and working and you're not paying yourself right, you don't have a paycheck, but you're just kind of paying the bills somehow, some way without, you know, you're kind of fudging things and you don't really know what I'm talking about. You're not paying yourself and you, and you don't have anything left over to reward yourself, then you're just, it's just a job. You just gave yourself a job. You're self employed. You're not a business owner, truly, you know, you're not. The business isn't working for you, you're working for it. And that we all fall into that trap. Trust me, I did as well in the early years, even though I came from a business background, I still got caught up in the hustle and grind because that's what you got to do to get the, to get the work and to get the work done. And I get all that. But I've learned a lot along the way over the last 12 years as well as all the connections that I've made in this industry and outside the industry, outside lawn landscape, but still in the service industry, like from friends and mentors, peers like Eric Chip at the pond digger. Right. And Jonas Olson, the pest control millionaire. Like, these are high level entrepreneurs that are in other service businesses in the trades. Right. Pest control or pond construction and maintenance. Right. Those are things that landscapers gravitate to adding onto their business as they're growing. Oh, we have a pest control division, you know, like with our fertilization and weed control or we're going to do pond, you know, aquascapes, water features, ponds, that sort of thing. Like, so those are a lot of add ons. So it's still relevant to our business. But regardless of that, the mindset and how they run the business part is what is really what I focus on. Not, you know, we're not talking about ponds and fish and pests and all that as much as we're talking about what are some efficient ways that you run your business in pest control and, and stay profitable that maybe we could learn from. And the same thing with ponds and so on. So that's what all this is about. So anyway, this is one of many conversations that I've had recently, so I wanted to share this with you like I normally do when I'm on other podcasts and hopefully you enjoy.
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We need to continue to be like that. But, Naylor, you're here because we're going to talk about how we can be more profitable in our lawn care business. You got, you know, your years of experience. I got now a decade in the game, and I'm still learning. So, listen, if you are watching now and you've been in the game for a long time, this is just a refresher for you. You might know some of these things, but if you're brand new, these are some things that you need to be thinking about. And the first thing that I have for you, Naylor, is it's a lot like my own self. So Naylor's gonna talk about this, but these are things that have happened to me, and that might happen to you or may be happening to you or right now, but I went through a bit of a change in my business this year, Naylor. And after I looked at numbers and I looked at draft times and things like that, I realized that although I am still very profitable and we're doing a great job when it comes to that, I just realized there was some window time and some things like this that I maybe wasn't accounting for that was hurting the profits, and they weren't as big as I. As I initially thought they were. So. Most guys think they're profitable, Naylor, but they're not. So what are some things that they might be missing that they should look at?
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Yeah, so I definitely learned. I definitely learned a lot, just like you, through trial and error, as well as leaning on peers and mentors in the industry. Kind of like I had mentioned, like the Lawn care Millionaire and folks like that that were putting out that great content, going to the few events that existed at the time so that I could learn as much as I could. But one of the. One of the things that. That I learned immediately, that I discovered through default, because for me, profits were. Was. Was time. Like, I wanted to get more time back in my life. So that was a form of profitability for me. And one of the quickest things I learned was route density. You may or may not have heard me say it. If you heard me talk about it once, it was, it's not enough. So route density, I didn't know what that even was or that term existed at the time. I just. When I first started my business, I was just going everywhere, all over the city of Richmond. You know, there is one. My first year I had. One of the clients I had was 45 minutes away. One way, right? All the way in the opposite side 45 minutes. Took me 30 minutes to mow the lawn, right? So an hour, an hour and a half, round trip, and only took me 30 minutes to mow the lawn. I couldn't charge enough for that to even make sense. And I tried to, you know, a little bit. I knew, I tried to do some marketing, some flyers or whatever, talk to the neighbors, try to get some more yards over there. It just didn't work out. And I remember thinking to myself, I gotta, like, get rid of this yard somehow. I mean, this is really nice. Like, all my neighbors are recommending me to their friends and family members that are all over the city. And, you know, we're grateful to get that work. We're excited. We want to get the cash flow and our foot in the door. And I'm super appreciative, and I still am. But I quickly had to learn and understand that I can't be spending an hour and a half, you know, in the truck that could be multiple yards or, you know, or multiple services on one yard that I could be doing. So I was literally just making no money and wasting time and energy on that. And I was coming home late, missing dinners. And the whole point was I'm trying to rebuild my life, you know, and get my time back. And here I am driving all over the place, chasing small money at that, not even like, big stuff. I'm, you know, tripping over dollars to make pennies. And it was just ridiculous. So I quickly, in a year, realized that this, this, this can't happen. And like the lady that was a hour and a half round trip, she, she event eventually moved out of state. So I was like, okay, well, that's good. But then I had to get more intentional with it, and I had to, you know, I learned four things that four, four steps that built and maintained my route density so that I could make sure that I maintained that integrity. And then I could get home on time for dinner. And guess what? It made me more profitable as well. Because I wasn't dry, I wasn't wasting as much drive time and gas. So when I had, when I started hiring employees back in the day, that obviously was huge and helped with payroll. And I could also get more work done in a shorter amount of time because if they're all right in the same neighborhood, you know, for lawn maintenance, that's critical. If you're fertilizing, you know, doing weed control, mowing all that stuff your weekly, every other week, once a month, like that stuff, you can't be driving all over town that's what we're talking about for maintenance route density. So I, I just, I discovered that and that, that not only gave, gave me my time back, but like I said, make me more profitable. So the, the four things are one, the first one, and it's in this order, the first one is I had to learn how to say no to the wrong yards, the wrong customers. Either they were out of my service area, they weren't. They didn't want the price that I was charging because they didn't appreciate the value. They didn't want any other services other than me to mo blow and go. And I'm like, I'm sorry that I can't grow my company being the mo blow and go guy. And here's another thing. When you're the mo blow and go guy, the neighbors don't know because like, they would want a deal, right? Oh, it's fine, you know, you don't
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have to trim rage.
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It's fine. Just. Can you give me a discount? Just, just mow it, blow it and go. And, and, and I did that in the beginning and then I realized you get more of what you have. So. And the neighbors don't know the deal you cut with, with their neighbor. So they just see you as the mo blow and go guy. And they want the high value, premium trim edge and meticulous, you know, lawn maintenance guy every week, not every other week or every 10 days or some craziness that. Let me, don't get me started on those rabbit holes that these people want. And it's just like, no, no, no, that, that, that I had to, I had to learn to say no and just cut all that out and focus on the lawns that were premium for me, you know, the higher value, the weekly lawns, the well maintained, like the well maintained meaning they, they weren't covered in weeds and they had irrigation. And not everyone has those scenarios. So you do what you got to do, but you still want to keep them closer together. And you want to figure out who are your ideal clients and your ideal properties so that you can say no to the wrong ones. So you have room in your schedule to say yes to the right ones. So that's really what was the big first one right there. And it's hard even to this day, I still say yes sometimes I should say no, you know, to, to not like to another part of the town, but just, you know, yeah, I'll do this service or yeah, I'll help you with it. Like just little things, you know, and then I'm like, I always regret it after the fact. But so that's, that, that's the big one. And then after that, the second one is strategically increasing your pricing. So that pricing, something that maybe not everyone understands pricing actually works as a filter. It attracts your ideal customers and repels the wrong ones, right? So if you have, if you're priced correctly, you're going to attract premium customers that want value and appreciate value. And it's going to repel the cheaple, the cheap people, the ones that just want the mo blow and go, you know, the, the every other cuts and all this nonsense that's just going to repel them. If your price is structured in such a way that they're like, oh yeah, no, I'm good, I'll find Chuck in the truck somewhere. So, so pricing is critical. And then once you have that figured out, you have those two things dialed in and you're, you're, you're honing in on a service area or certain neighborhoods, then you can work on branding, right? You don't want to brand yourself when you're in the wrong neighborhoods and your pricing is bad. So branding is also part of the filter process. And, and when I first started, I just had magnets to put on my truck doors. You know, that, that, that was, that was what I started with. And then eventually I got my trucks lettered up and looking good and my trail, my enclosed trailers and all that. But that's the perception that you're going to be giving off when you pull up in these premium neighborhoods or just on, in on a yard that you want to service and you pull up and it's just a totally different feel when you look professional. You got a nice shirt on, nice uniform shirt on logo, you're, you're, you've got some sort of logos on your equipment. You don't have, you know, smoke emissions billowing out of your mowers and your trucks. And, and you don't look like you just roll that a bed, right? Like the perception there, the premium customers don't want that in front of their lawn. And they're almost kind of like, ooh, I don't. That repels them. They almost are embarrassed. You know, perception is everything. Their perception is your reality. So if you're going after premium clients, you want to raise the prices and get more profitable. If that's what you want to do, then you need to make sure that you are looking the part as well. You don't have to have all brand new stuff, you just have to have Nice, good, clean, working stuff and maintain it and have that professionalism. So that's all part of your branding, as well as logos and what you look. And all of my stuff matched, you know, I had the magnets, I had postcards, I had door hangers, I had business cards, my shirts, like all the things matched, Facebook posts, everything. So at least when they see it all and they need lawn care service, they think of you. And when they see you in the neighborhood, it just all becomes second nature and you become the authority. And then last but not least, when you have all three of those things dialed in, then you start marketing hard and heavy in those neighborhoods. You just start really going all in with whatever it is. If you can do door hangers, go ahead and do door hangers. If you can't, and they're really strict about doing that kind of stuff in those neighborhoods, well then just do mailers, right? Print mailers, of course. Do Facebook ads, post stuff on social media in general, including, you know, and have all the links on your website. Don't shy away from that stuff because everyone is all about online now. Even more than ever, AI is pulling all of this content. People make the best decisions. Just like if you're buying something on Amazon, you're going to look at all the reviews, compare the differences between things, watch some videos. So it's the same thing with our business. So you want to be the one that has the most content, has for people to have as much time on your brand as possible and then they feel like they're connected with you, they feel like they want to work with you, they know you already and they're ready to work with you. So those four things is what I've used over the last decade to create and maintain my route density, which increases my profitability and time and money.
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All right, LCR Media podcast listeners, are you ready for more savings from Toro through May 31? You can save up to $1,000 or get special financing on select Z Master 2000 and 4000 series mowers. These machines are built for comfort, productivity and long lasting performance. Click the link in the episode description or visit your local Toro dealer before May 31 to take advantage of this limited time. Well, I hope you got value at some, some, somehow or another, some way or another out of this episode. I definitely enjoyed having the conversation with Cornell and we did it live. So we were serving his audience and comments are rolling in and it was a good time. But you know, this is all really in my wheelhouse because like I said, I've gone through this before and I know how hard it is and I know the simple tweaks. I mean, I know it's not easy, but it's simple. When you know what to do, you just have to do it. And that's sometimes easier said than done, but there always is a plan. So I shared some things that hopefully are valuable for you that you can tweak if you find it necessary so that you're not busy and broke. You're actually productive and profitable. So that's what this is all about. So if you want to listen to our whole episode, go ahead and click the episode. The full episode is in the link. Here we go. Good grief. The episode link is in the episode description description. So click that so you can listen to the whole episode if you would like. And also the the link for Profit Accelerator live coming up this June 26th and 27th here in Richmond, Virginia. It's going to be amazing time, a beautiful time of year. Before you plan your vacations, plan a weekend with us here in Richmond, Virginia, where you can actually learn how to make some more money. Along the way, bring your spouse or business partner with you for free. We have that going on right now. Buy one, get one free for a limited time only. So go ahead and capitalize on that. It's going to be a good time and a nice kind of refresher right before it gets super hot in the summer and you kind of are like dragging a little bit. But it's a great way to refresh and recalibrate and make sure you're making the money that you should be making. And you can apply any tweaks necessary going into the second half of the year so you can end the year stronger than you started. So hope to see you all there. But the link for that is in the episode description as well. So until the next episode, thank you for listening. And thank you to the Toro Company for sponsoring the LCR Media podcast. This is Naylor Tyler Farrow signing off.
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A
This has been an lcr media and Mr. Producer production.