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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 fill up 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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Foreign.
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Welcome back to the episode the LCR Media podcast where we get to know the pros. I'm your host, LCR Nayla or Taliaferro, and in this episode I'm sharing a snippet of John Pajak from the Profits with Pajak Podcast Talk, a presentation that he had at our Inner Circle Masterclass that we had. So he was. He did. He spent 46 minutes going into how to break down the numbers in your business, how to be more profitable, budgets, bottom budgets, break evens and bottom lines is what he calls it. And he was really breaking it down and he unpacks it layer by layer by layer. That's how pay Jack is. He's very good at explaining, making it make sense, demystifying as we say, some of the knowing your numbers part of your business that just people kind of glaze over and it's kind of overrated or overused term knowing your numbers and but you really do need to know the numbers that run your business, right? I mean just from simple like how to price properly. That's like step one right there. And what's your man hour rate? What does that even mean? You know that there's some real basic fundamentals that, that when you know that that's a great starting point and you can be more profitable right out the gate. And I didn't want to, it's hard to share that if I shared the entire 46 minutes. You know, he's, he's using, he's got slides and whiteboard and it's, it's, it's easier to see it than it is to, to hear the whole thing. But you know, I stopped it where he's just starting to kind of get warmed up and start unpacking the more layers and getting deeper into it. For my inner circle coaching group and being more also a lot of it became specific to everyone's numbers. I didn't want to share their personal information. That's just for the inner circle coaching group. The recording was for their benefit, not to post on YouTube or something like that. You have to be in the inner circle to be able to have access to that information and be able to get trained to get your numbers dialed in from John Pajak and all the other leaders in the industry that are in my network that help out like Eric Triplet, me. Justin White was on a call the other day. So many people that give back to help the inner circle. But so that's another reason why I'm not sharing the whole 46 minutes because some of it's more private information, but I'm sharing the beginning of it because I think, you know, and I stopped it at the point where he, he was able to kind of make a point and some examples to help you understand a little bit more of why it's important to have budgets, why it's important to know your numbers and even some entry level basics of like how to get started and where to get started. But of course he's going to be going into all of this. Not everyone's individual numbers but, but he's going to be going into his whole presentation and, and then more the heat, more because he's going to have more time, more than 46 minutes to be able to have a whole presentation, a couple of presentations about how to be more profitable in your business and breaking down the numbers in your business. What numbers do you need to know first? Like what do you need to start with? And you know, what are the layers beyond that so you can really dig in. And he's going to be doing all that. Profit accelerator live event here in Richmond, Virginia, Friday, Saturday, June 26th and 27th. So don't, don't wait too long to get your tickets because they, you know that there might not be any available. But it's going to be here, like I said, in Richmond, Virginia at the Omni Hotel. It's going to be a really nice environment as well as great networking opportunities and of course, the learning from, you know, myself, John Pajac, Air Triplet and several others. Cornell Max, coming through. It's just a lot of great leaders in our industry at all different levels and in our online community. So we're all going to be there. So come spend the weekend with us. Like I said, it's a Friday Saturday, so you can get your work week done. You know, just wrap up a little bit early on Thursday, drive down here Thursday night or fly in Thursday night or so that you know you're ready, you're here already and you can start first thing in the morning. On Friday we have breakfast at 8 and then we get started at 9am so if you're local, it's obviously a lot less moving parts and you can get work done all the way through the workday on Thursday if you really need to. And then just make sure you're not working on Friday, which I have a four day work week typically anyway, so that Friday is kind of like the backup day. If we get rained out during the week or we have the extra projects that are seasonal, we can fit those in on Fridays. Right. Because we got all the regular maintenance done in the first four days of the week if everything goes according to plan. So hopefully that's you and, or at least you plan for that to be you. So you can come on down Thursday night and spend Friday and Saturday with us and, and Sunday if you want, or just go home Sunday morning or Saturday night and learn. Learn several things about increasing the profits in your business, essentially making more money and also having more time in your schedule. That's something I really specialize on and I'll be sharing my time management and money management systems following nature's framework. So I look forward to sharing all that with you all. If you want more information, go ahead and click the link in the episode description. Right now you can get two tickets for the price of one. So if you want to bring your spouse or business partner, you buy two tickets for the price of one. So it's buy one, get one free. So go ahead and take advantage of that while you can and we hope to see you there.
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It's not only to help my family, obviously we have to do some sort of trade to take care of our family. But you know, a few years ago I really started, I always had the heart of a teacher and I really started just helping people avoid some of the problems like we're talking about, you know, theft and the Guys that just don't want to call, you know, they call off or they text and say, hey, I'm not coming in. And now it throws your whole schedule off. So, you know, that's where a lot of my passion comes from, is just helping everyone get really good at their business itself. You know, you guys could probably say, I am the best trimmer, I'm the best mower, I'm the best, you know, landscaper around. But I find most of the time we have problems when it comes behind the scenes with the actual business and we start looking at the numbers. So years ago, I didn't even have a name for this, but I did. Budgets, break, evens of bottom lines. And what it's going to do is it's really. I know Alan's been through this. We went through it together. And it's really a strategy, and it's like a template in order for you to, like, make sure that your pricing's right. And it's not only just about, like, hey, I'm going to compete with XYZ down the street. It's about, like, your personal goals. And, Alan, I know we've went through a lot of your goals, helped you achieve a lot of your goals, and we did that by making sure that your pricing was right and that you're profitable on all your jobs. So this. This isn't, like, going to go super in depth with what this program is. And I'm not selling you guys on this because we're going to be, you know, if you have any questions about anything, and I know you guys had questions about fertilizer, we're going to talk about that. But I just kind of want to have everybody have a base model of what it is. That's why I'm giving you the copies of the slides as well, to kind of help, you know, jar your memory down the road so you don't have to sit there and take notes all the time. You can focus on asking me the questions or understanding the whole process. And Alan, with. After you went through this, like, how did that affect your business? I knew exactly what to charge. Getting feelings involved. And if they said no to a certain price and I said, well, then I can't do it. And, I mean, now we're in our third truck. Yeah. And here's the thing. How many of you guys raise your hand if this applies to you? You get a little. You get. You get some of the feelings, you know, you get, like, well, you know, Ms. Herf Nurbler, she's a nice old lady and everything. I should probably give her a deal, right? You know, she's really nice and she's, she gives us cookies and lemonade and all this other stuff, right? Do you ever let that affect you? Yeah, I do too. Like I said, I've been in this industry for 25 plus years. I've had two businesses in lawn and landscape over the past 14 years. And the crazy thing is I know I'm the numbers guy, dude. I know. And I'm still like, ah, yeah, I probably should. But then after I put this to, you know, apply this to myself, I'm like, I know what my bottom line is. I know what my break even points are. You know, I know when I'm at that point where it's like, I'm not making money or I, you know, I'm not making money, I'm not losing money. But if I were to do it either way and see, like, well, I could do it for 50 bucks, then it's like, no, no, no, you're doing it for absolutely nothing. You're doing it for free. There's no. You're actually, even if you're at zero, you're not making or losing. You're still technically losing because you're missing the opportunity, the opportunity costs that are involved. You could spend that time finding other clients, doing other profitable work. Just like Naylor hinted at, what you guys were discussing before about the productivity, and that's a huge thing because especially with this program, it's not just knowing what everything costs, it's understanding what your productivity rates, what's your capacity to do work. And that's something, it's not really in this presentation as deep, but it's something that I always want to make sure that you guys understand because, you know, there's times when you're out there, you're working, you're working, you're working, you're super busy, right? How many, how many of you guys are busy right now? Yeah, I mean, it's preseason and we're all busy, right? Is that work actually benefiting you and your company or is it just busy work? So, you know, a lot of times, you know, going through, when I start talking about these things, this, just getting into the numbers and looking at how, when you get that confidence from these, knowing what it actually takes your business to survive, it puts you in a whole different mind frame. So out of you guys here, are you guessing at your prices, who puts their hand up and says, hey, base it off of what the guy down the street charges or the Next neighborhood. Good. I'm glad. Because when you do that, that is more of like what I call like a hobby business. You know, there's a lot of guys, and I'm not knocking a side hustle or anything like that, but there are too many guys that are out there that are just like, well, that's my main competitor. I found out from the neighbor that has them that they're charging this much. I could do it for that much. Or, you know what? I'll sweeten the deal. I'll do it for a little less. A lot of times those hobby guys stay a hobby or they don't. Or they don't grow at all. And then they end up saying, you know what? Screw this. And they end up disappearing halfway through the season. When you're doing this, you got to think of, like, when it comes to your pricing for your business, it's an engineered blueprint. Think of it that way. Don't just. Because when I say budget, everybody's. I know. There you go. So your eyes just roll a little bit. You're like, budget. You're going to tell me not. Maybe you were looking at something else. But I just. As soon as I said budget, your face changed a little. So I was like, I'm going to pick on you. See, that's the reaction I get. We're so, like, psychologically bound, like, as we're growing up and everything. Everybody, anytime somebody says a budget, we're programmed to be like, that guy's going to tell me not to spend money. I gotta cut back. I gotta do this, I gotta do that, right? How many people feel about that if I just say, I'm gonna put you on a budget.
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The Lawn and Landscape Technology Conference is gonna be this July 22nd through the 24th in Scottsdale, Arizona. I, for one, have never been to Arizona at all. And I've heard a lot about Scottsdale, Arizona, specifically. So I'm really excited to go check out another part of the country. One of the reasons why I enjoy traveling for different industry and community events, whether they're ones that. Or trade shows that I'm a part of or speak at. Like, I was at Vegas recently for the Con Expo. Had a great time networking there and checking out that show as well as that part of the country. You know, there's different parts of Vegas, you know, for better or for worse. And you know, where. Where Con Expo was, was. Was a different perspective, and it was. It was pretty nice. So I'm. I'm excited to check out Scottsdale, Arizona. Last year I was at the Lawn Landscape Conference Technology Conference and it was amazing. It was, it was focused on the technology in your business. Of course there's the, the automations like robotic mowers and battery operated equipment, but they also have a lot of training as well to help you grow your business through those automations and technology. But also just being on the forefront of the ideas and the future of the industry and what are some things that you can potentially adopt into your own business, regardless of what size it is and how you feel about the future and technology and automations, ultimately that's going to help you streamline your business and work less and make more. So I'm going to be there. John Pajak from the Profits with Paycheck podcast is going to be there. Air trip with the Pond Digger from the Deep End podcast is going to be there. Yeah. Cornell Mac on the Attack with Mac podcast going to be there. And then you have Mike and Larry with the side Hust side Hustle Squad side Hustle Squad podcast. There you go. Also going to be there. And we're going to have a great time at Pod Row yet again at the Lawn Landscape Technology Conference. So if you're going to be there, definitely stop by, say say what's up? Get on a podcast, share your story or just meet up with whoever we have on podcast. We're going to be interviewing all kinds of leaders. Like last year we interviewed Mark Bradley from Element and leanscaper and so many other high level entrepreneurs and business owners that stop by Pod Row. So you could even just, you know, stop by and listen. Listen to their story first, perspective and then shake their hand and talk to them after the fact as well as, you know, getting on a podcast and sharing your story. So a lot of bonuses, a lot of great things to come out to the Law and Landscape Technology conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, July 22nd to 24th. Check out the link in the episode description if you want to register. Hope to see you there. If your crew has been asking for a mower that can take anything you throw at it, LCR Media podcast sponsor Toro has you covered. Get up to $1,000 off Grandstand HD, stand on mowers or take advantage of special financing offers. This machine is a powerhouse. Rugged, comfortable and engineered to handle long days and tough jobs without slowing down. Click the link in the episode description or visit your Toro local dealer.
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The thing is, when you start looking at it through the lens of a business owner that wants to be profitable and wants to succeed and achieve their goals, you have to start looking at a budget in a different lens. A budget really actually gives you freedom and freedom for what? It gives you freedom to spend the money, but in a controlled way, in a very structured way. So you want to get. You know, Allen, he wanted. He started out one truck. He started in his third truck. Now, he didn't get there by going just taking wet spaghetti and throwing it up against the wall and see what sticks. He took his numbers, figured out what it's going to take, and we adjusted his numbers so that he could actually afford to put money to the side to buy that vehicle. The third one, he probably just rinse and repeat what he learned, right? So, you know, when you're thinking about this, you got to really ask yourself, what's the value of the service I'm providing? Not just I mow lawns and this is what everybody else charges. We got to stop thinking about just the price point. In a sense. We have to find a problem that somebody called us because they had a problem and they're looking for a solution. You could be that solution. And the thing is, I want you to be profitable about it, though. I don't want you to just take on work, just to take on the work. It's like, hey, you know, you guys mow or whatever. Somebody might call you and say, hey, I got a shed that needs to be torn down and the concrete needs to be removed. This is a real story. I had a call like that, like, 10 years ago. I'm like, we're a lawn care company. We don't do that type of work. He's like, yeah, but I figure you need the money. You could do it. You got the truck and trailer, and the guy's really trying to sell me on this other service. I'm like, dude, we're not set up for that. And what am I going to do? I don't have anywhere to dump concrete. But anyway, the thing is making sure that you understand the value of the service when you look at it from solving a problem that starts besides knowing your numbers, that actually is going to probably fall into what Eric's going to talk about later. The art of sales and the art of marketing and things like that. If you start dropping those little seeds at first instead of saying, hey, it's going to be this much, and they're just shopping around for price. You make yourself invaluable and you say, we could solve that. Let's, you know, let's look at some options. This is what we could do. What do you. What's your big vision, what do you want to do? You know? But anyway, when you turn your. When you actually start running your business, the whole purpose of the business is to make you money. And when you make that money, it serves you as an individual, and you could achieve your goals, your personal goals. So that's what makes things a little bit different. So, again, I always like saying this. The budgets are the. Actually, I say it a little bit different, but budgets are literally like the roadmap in your business. They're the ones that are going to tell you whether you're going to be successful or not. So don't just. When I say budgets, don't just roll your eyes go, ugh, yeah. Nobody likes doing them except for me. I love them. I'm a weirdo. But I just like being like, hey, I kind of want that machine. Or, you know, I want to take the family on vacation. How am I going to do that? So I could put more money in my profit account, you know, but there. It's a. But that document's a living, breathing thing in your business. So I just want to change your mind about it. So one of the biggest things that I'd like for you guys to do is everybody's going to be different. And it might actually. You might have multiple numbers like this inside your business who just mows. Do you provide any other services? Okay, well, so this is perfect. You're saying you just mow, but then you said, oh, I got cleanups. What I would like for you guys to do, you could write on the back of these papers. These are for you, but for each. And instead of just saying just the services that you offer, I like to think of them more as divisions, and I go paycheck. That's crazy. You're using the same truck, the same trailer, maybe some of the same equipment to do the same thing. But what I'd like for you to do is imagine every service that you do, you might have a different loadout. You know, you play Modern Warfare and stuff like that, right? Call of Duty, you could load out your guy with different guns, different armor, different all the things, right? Well, look at your trucks. Maybe for some services, you only have the truck. And maybe you got like a ramp rack or something. And then it's a quick. It's like, very specific of what you put on it. Or maybe you have a covered trailer that might have more. You know, it might have the mowers and everything in it, but it might have, like, the chainsaws and the bush trimmers and all that other stuff. Okay, What I want you to do is for each one of these things, when we're starting to calculate how long your season is, take a look at, like, your mowing season. This is an example.
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This.
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We're going to use this number set as an example for mowing. We don't work eight hours a day. We work. We work four tens. But the, the. It's simple, though. Eight hours a day, five days a week, you're working 40 hours, which is a traditional, you know, standard. I know you're going to tell me I work more than 40 hours a week. I'm like, I know, but let's just use this as an example. And then let's just say you're maybe in the transition zone and you actually get 30 mows per season. Okay? This is going to show you without any overtime, what your hourly season looks like, your 1200 hours. Okay, remember talking about the allocation of time? You know, Naylor was hinting at that. This number is going to dictate a lot of things for you because this is going to tell you, like, how much time do you actually have to make the money. So in this example, you know, you could be like, this is our mowing example. And if this looks right to you, you could be like, okay, this is our mowing division. This is how many hours we have in here. Who does aerations? Okay, how do you. Eight days a week, 75 hours a day. How often do you aerate? I schedule them out. I do, like three weeks of aeration. So, yeah, I put them into a tight window. Exactly. We all invest in these really cool machines. They're like $18,000. And that's not. Include the seed box. Right. But it's like, man, we just spent like 20 grand on this awesome machine. Guess what? Like, 99% of the time, it's actually sitting back at the shop. It's not on the trailers, it's not making money. It's actually taking up space in our shop, and we're paying for that shop and it cost us money. Right. We'll get into that a little bit later. But for, you know, you would have another one. You know, I don't have a blueprint for it, but you might have aerations and you go, all right, we're going to work 10 hours a day. We're going to only, you know, we're going to try to knock them all out in a few weeks. So, you know, maybe five days a week, maybe we have 50 hours here, and then it's only going to be, say, three weeks. You know, that'll come out to, you know, maybe a couple hundred hours that you, that, that's what, that, you know, is your aeration season. Okay, we'll get back to that number in a second here. But I want to show you this. This is kind of like the simplest version to kind of give you guys an idea of how we break down all the numbers. Instead of this big conglomerate thing, I break it down into five parts. So these four right here are kind of like what are what's going to show you what your man hour break even points going to be. Okay, we'll start with direct labor. We'll move into equipment, the overhead, and then I include marketing in my budget.
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So again, I hope this got you started with the right way to think and start, you know, processing this information and thinking about how you can apply this to your business. And if you want more, you need more. You want to dive deeper into your business, Come join us at Profit Accelerator Live. Again, the link is in the episode Description. Profit Accelerator live.com Richmond, VA June 26th and 27th Friday, Saturday come spend the weekend with us. Learn, Grow Network. Have a good time. Bring your spouse or business partner for free. Buy one, get one. So you get two tickets for the price of one. Hope to see you guys there. And as always, thank you to Turok Co. For sponsoring the LCR Media podcast. Thank you all for listening. And until the next episode, this is Naylor Tyler Farah signing off.
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This has been an lcr media and Mr. Producer production.