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- [00:05]
A
Here we go. Lawn care is not easy. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not a. It's not rocket science by any means, right? It's not brain surgery. So when people say or think that lawn care is easy, whether that's you or before you started your business, maybe you thought that or other people in life say and. Or think lawn care is easy. Well, yes, it could be in comparison to, to some other professions, some other jobs. And I don't know if you or them are saying that in comparison or are they just generalizing that lawn care is easy because it is not easy, again, in. Compared to brain surgery, being a rocket scientist and jobs that. Jobs of that sort that require a lot more knowledge, a lot more time for training and education. Yeah, that's. That's definitely not nearly as easy as lawn care. But that doesn't mean lawn care is easy. I mean, we have to deal with all of the elements. All the elements. Extreme elements, extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme wet, extreme dry. We have to deal with if, if it is extremely dry or extremely wet or extremely cold. Any of those extreme conditions could interrupt our schedule. And we can't get our schedule done during the week. Now we have to cancel our plans so that we. Our weekend plans so that we can work on the weekend. Unfortunately, to get that work done that was contracted or needs to be done because of a limited window of opportunity to get the work done. So that, that doesn't sound pretty easy to me. You know, that's sacrificing your time, your life, your physical, mental and emotional energy. It's hard work when you're working outside. And depending on what kind of services you're providing, it could be harder as well. You know, like if you're spreading mulch all day with a pitchfork and a wheelbarrow out of a trailer or truck bed, then that's pretty rough. And you're doing that throughout the whole year, including when it's super hot. That's exhausting. And it could act. It could be back breaking in some, some respects as well. Like, you could really hurt yourself if you're, if you're not careful. But even if you are careful, it wears you out, versus if you're the person that just sits on a mower all day or stands on a mower all day. Definitely not nearly as strenuous. Even when it's super hot, you get a little breeze from the mower, right? But if you're the owner operator, you still got to get off the mower and walk around the property. You know, to, to, to trim and edge and blow everything off. So there's still that, that amount of energy, but still nothing like that compares to the amount of energy as, you know, shoveling, shoveling dirt. Right. Planting plants, ripping out plants and, and planting new plants and spreading mulch and laying patio pavers and a lot more heavy duty type physical labor work, of course. So, so there's different services that are going to be harder than others from a physical standpoint. So that's an overgeneralization for people to think that lawn care specifically is, is, or categorically is easy. Because it's definitely not easy. Those of you that, I mean, if you know, you know, I mean, you're listening to this, you're in the business, you know that. So. But I said, I say all that to set up the fact that it's also not hard. So it's not easy, but it's also not hard, or it's not as hard as you might think or we might think. I know. If you're listening to this and your head's down, you're grinding it out, you're deep in the weeds, physically and metaphorically. It's hard to see beyond what's right in front of your face. It's hard to have vision when all you can see is what's right in front of your face. And you're surrounded by challenges, you're surrounded by all the weeds of the business. And it does seem hard. It feels hard. I get it. And there's going to be ups and downs for sure. Even the businesses that you think are crushing it or look like they're crushing it and they're super successful, they have ups and downs and you have no idea what they're going through. It might be nothing but downs, even though financially there's looks like nothing but ups. But it could be really, really intense and difficult to maintain that and keep growing that from an internal perspective. But that doesn't mean it's hard. And it doesn't have to be as hard as it might be in certain scenarios and certain times. But when we're, again, when we're stuck in those grind stages and we're just feel like we're on the struggle bus and we can never get off, it seems so hard. It feels so hard that we don't even know if we want to keep doing it sometimes. And that's why I talk so much about networking and how critical that is. Networking with online communities and in person live events, that type of networking where you can actually connect with people in real life. I mean, you can listen to these podcasts and you can watch content on social media that's only going to get you so far. You're still isolated, you're still by yourself listening and watching those things. I mean, you know, you might have employees around you, but it's different. They're not you. You're the only business owner unless you have a business partner. But still you have two different personalities, two different things going on, but you're the only one experiencing this by yourself, listening to this podcast or watching content on social media. But when you connect with a online community, with other business owners similar to you, similar situations to you, sometimes almost the exact same situation and mindset and personality traits as you, but just being in the same category, in the same daily hustle and grind and the same ups and downs, it's helpful to connect. It's helpful to have that connection and that interaction so that you can hopefully get some inspiration from each other. Like, oh man, I struggled with that too, but this is what I did. Or this is, you know, or oh, thanks for giving me the heads up on that before I have to go through that. Like I'm gonna start hiring, getting ready to hire my first employee. That was good to know. So now I can hopefully avoid some of those pitfalls that you had to go through or whatever like it. There's so much back and forth with sharing in communities to help each other grow and get through tough times. And even if there's not an immediate solution, just having someone to talk to and some of you or many of you might have that might have made those connections locally or through the Internet where you, you know, you probably went to an in person event, right? You take it, it's kind of like levels you connect on social media, then maybe you find a community, an online community that you can connect with that's more than just commenting or dming, commenting on posts or dming people, but actually being in a community where you can post and upload videos and interact anytime you want to stay connected and you become, you know, you connect with certain people and become more friends than just acquaintances. And then you go to, and if you're not local, you finally meet in, you finally meet at an in person event, whether it be at Equip Expo or wherever, and then you strengthen that relationship essentially. And then you become legitimate friends and you have phone numbers and you can call and text each other when you're in some tough times or just to check in or celebrate successes, wins things of that nature and if it's local, there's plenty of people locally that I've gotten to know myself here in Richmond over the last decade and, and, and change, almost a decade and a half. Like I've definitely gotten to know a lot of folks and I mean one, you know, one guy's at the gym that I see all the time. You know, Charles Nelson said we still landscaping that I've mentioned so much and he's been on my podcast many times. Like I, I just, we just recorded a podcast and did a YouTube live the other last night at the time of this recording. And we, you know, we get together for lunch and every now and again throughout the year and talk on the phone. So it's good when you have those connections. But for those of us and even the ones that do, it's still never really enough. It shouldn't have to be just that I'm still connected to all kinds of communities and go to as many in person events as I can. Obviously the ones that I host and then the ones that I don't host, whether I'm a part of them as a speaker or not, I still try to participate in and attend whatever I can because I know the impact, I know the importance of community and connection because that's helped me grow and that's helped given me ways to help you all grow. Whether you're scaling up or refreshing your fleet, LCR Media podcast sponsor Toro has your back. With Toro's fleet program, you can save up to 24% on the industry's top performing mowers and turf equipment. And for a limited time, you can stack that 24% savings with special financing offers to give you even more for your money. Click the link in the episode description or visit your local Toro dealer to start saving today.
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Twelve years ago, when I started my lawn care business, I had no idea what I was doing. But I quickly learned route efficiency with all of my mowing accounts along with the money management system so that I had money in all the accounts. So I needed it to pay the bills and run my business as well as my personal life life. But eventually over the years I learned time management system to help me not be working all day every day and build a business that serves me instead of me serving it and not taking all of my time away from me just to the business. Over the years I've been sharing all of this with my peers and some mentors as well as teaching my inner circle members this. But this June 26th and 27th and Richmond, Virginia, I'm going to be teaching you as well as John Pajac from the Profits with Pajak podcast who's going to be breaking down all the numbers in your business, how to be more
- [11:26]
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profitable, how to price properly.
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Air trip with the pond digger who is an expert at closing high ticket sales, attracting those premium customers and closing those sales for for those customers. The landscaping bookkeeper and Joey Coberly from the Lawn Care Launch team will be joining us as well. And we're all dedicating those two days to teaching you how to increase the profits in your business fast. You leave with a plan in hand so that you finish the second half of the year stronger than you started and your spouse gets to come for free. When you get two tickets to buy one, get one. So come join us for the weekend in Richmond, Virginia Network Learn and take your business to the next level. Click the link and I'll see you there.
- [12:06]
A
Those of you that don't have any kind of local connections, whether you're just starting in this industry or it just doesn't seem like people are that friendly in your local area in this industry, which I get that there's plenty of people that give me throw shade my way as they drive by. You know, I try to be friendly and throw up a wave or a nod and they just look at me. They just keep staring at me and just keep on going like, dang, like, is it that serious? Like, I didn't do anything to you. Hopefully you didn't do anything to me. I'm just trying to be friendly. Like, I don't, I don't get that. I've never got that. I never will get that. Those are just people that are not in the right frame of mind. They're not probably the, the happiest people in the world. I'm sure there's a lot of other aspects of their life that that all bleeds into. They're probably just people that you interact with in the real world outside of our business that you don't really care for. You know, they're the people that you're like, what the heck is their problem? Just in, just in everyday life, like they cut you off in traffic or whatever, you know, like all kinds of different negative behaviors of humans. And you know, some of those are, those could be those business owners that you're dealing with. They're just throwing you shade and it is what it is. I just, I just shrug it off. Like, whatever, that's their problem. Like I'm not gonna get all bent out of shape Over. I know I didn't do anything to them. I'm not stealing people's work, nothing. There's plenty of lawns for us to do, for all of us to have plenty of work, more work than we can all handle. So there's plenty. And there's just keep popping up more houses with more lawns like it's, it's just never ending. As long as the Earth, as long as the planet still exists and we're still growing grass and building houses, should be good to go. Nature does its thing. As long as nature exists. So there's plenty of work for all of us. I don't know where the shade comes from, but whatever it is what it is. So if you're in that, find yourself in that situation where there's so many people or the people that you see are just not very friendly, well, that's even more of an importance and sense of, more of a priority for you to get connected to online communities and attend whatever in person events you can. Yeah, there's a. Whether it's a free event or free community or not. Yeah, there's obviously time commitment that you have to pay with your time and attention. But then there are, you know, sometimes money, you know, costs involved to go to an event. Right. You have to drive or fly, get a hotel room, pay for the ticket for the event if there's, if it's a paid admission event, you know, but you just have to budget that stuff. Just save up some money, Take some money a little bit at a time out of the money that you're making. Knowing that this is going to help you make more money and not be as stressed out, you know, give you like a way to connect, like I said, and just get kind of out of your own head and share your wins and share your challenges and hopefully overcome them through faster than if you were all by yourself because you have someone to share it with, hopefully many people. So when you think about the payoff, like, oh man, if I spend a little bit of money to be a part of this community or attend this event or whatever it is, then above and beyond my time and attention, then the payoff is I'm going to get through this, these challenges in my business faster and I might actually avoid some of them altogether because. Because I'll learn stuff proactively from people that have been there, done that, and I can avoid some of these things altogether and I won't have to suffer. My friends and family won't have to suffer as much or at all because I can just bypass some of this stuff or at least get through it faster. And I'm telling you from experience, it changes the whole game for you because you don't feel all alone. It definitely is a very. It makes you feel a lot worse when you feel all alone dealing with these challenges. You can't share this stuff with your employees, your staff necessarily. And, and your spouse doesn't, doesn't necessarily understand completely either, unless they are working in the business with you. And even still, they're not you. So they don't have the same thoughts and emotions as you. They might be similar, but not the same. So unless you're talking to another business owner doing similar things as you are another male business owner or another female business owner, because just that alone is, is going to be a different dynamic. You know, if your spouse is working for you, just the fact that they're a woman or a man, they're the opposite gender as you, they're going to process things differently based on their default gender characteristics. Right? So if you talk to another guy or another girl in the industry that has a similar business as you now, you have a lot more relatability and it just eases your mind a little bit and de stresses you a little bit when you're listening to what they have to say or they're just listening to you, what you have to say, getting it all off your chest. And it just feels great sometimes to have someone to talk to. So for all those reasons, it is my point, it doesn't have to be as hard, and it isn't as hard as it might feel at times to be in the lawn care business. I will say for as long as I can imagine that this is one of the best businesses and best industries in the world to be in for a couple of reasons or multiple reasons anyway. I didn't count them in advance, but just as always, these truck talks are always off the top of my head. I come up with an idea and I just spill it all out on the podcast. So multiple reasons of why lawn care, I believe, is one of the best industries in the world and businesses to have is because it's, it's, for the most part, it's pandemic proof. I mean, I know the recent pandemic with COVID some states got a little crazy about that and didn't, didn't say that lawn care and landscaping was essential, unfortunately. But the majority of the world and states in our, in our country, United States of America, this say lawn care and landscaping was essential. So we still needed to maintain. I mean, because at the end of the day, this is the other reason why. Another reason why I believe this about lawn care is because nature doesn't care about pandemics. I mean, this is the fact. Nature doesn't care about pandemics or the economy or who's the president of the United States or anything like that. It could care less as long as nature still exists. Like as long as we didn't blow up the world and nature is still surviving and thriving the way it's supposed to. Yeah, there's different fluctuations now, and people debate all the different things of what's going on with the weather and with nature and the planet and global warming and all these different scenarios that people talk about extreme heats and colds and ice caps melting and all kinds of changes in the world. But ultimately the grass is still growing. And I don't foresee, unless you have another ice age or something like that, or it gets so hot consistently that only certain type of grass can even grow and exist, that's going to be a new challenge. But for. For as long as we have recorded history of humans and as far in the future as we can imagine, nature exists, the grass is always going to grow, the leaves are always going to fall. That's my spiel that I always say to people, you know, lawn care is great because it's. Talk about job security, this is another reason. But it's all tied together. It's because the grass always grows and the leaves always fall. Nature doesn't care about pandemics. Who's the president, what kind of state the economy's in, it could care less. It's going to keep doing its thing and. And it needs to be maintained by somebody. Now, of course, during pandemics, like I said, some states were restricting lawn care and landscaping, saying it wasn't essential. So that was unfortunate. And then there's going to be. If there's economic issues and people just are losing jobs or they're just cutting back and they can't afford to pay for someone to mow their lawn, and they just buy their own cheap lawnmower at a big box store and just muscle through their yard on their own once every couple of weeks and just do the bare minimum just to keep their grass maintained, then, yeah, that's going to reduce the amount of revenue and the amount of businesses that are required out there to maintain properties, of course, but there's always going to be the senior citizens, the people that are physically unable to mow their own lawn for various different physical reasons, disabilities. And there's always going to be businesses that don't have time or don't they figure, why hire an employee to maintain the property, the landscaping, when we could just hire a company to do it and let the company deal with their own employees. Right. Like it's just one more employee to have to deal with and pay for payroll taxes and all these other things that comes with having an employee to maintain your properties. Landscaping, let's just hire a landscaping company and to do it. Yeah, we might have to pay them more up front. Like it seems like you're paying them more on the front end, but you're saving in the back end because you're not paying all the payroll taxes and the stress of finding and keeping good employees, the stuff that the landscape company has to do, you've kind of offloaded all that on your own. I mean, you've offloaded all that on your end to them as a business, a commercial business, like a bank, office building, you know, retail locations, all these places that are still operational and the grass is still growing, the bushes are still growing. Right. Weeds are still growing. All these things that need to be taken care of. So there will always still be work. There just might be less of it because if people can't afford it, there might be less of it. Right. But at the end of the day, if you are, if you build that reliable branded business that has a great reputation at providing high value services at a good price, then you're going to be the one that, you're going to be one of the ones that is still working because people are going to kind of look whoever is the best and survival of the fittest. All the trucks and the trucks out there, they're just winging it. The weekend warriors that have no intention on making it a full time professional business, they're going to just follow, they're going to just fade away into the background because they're not going to have enough work. You know, all the people, the kind of people that they have are the ones that are going to cancel that service first because they don't have the money anymore or whatever. So for all those reasons and many more that I didn't even mention, Lawn care is definitely one of those businesses that I believe is one of the best businesses, like I said in the, in the, in the, in the world and this industry as a whole, a lot of great people that I've met as well over the last decade and a half that run that are in this industry. So for, for so so many reasons. Lawn care is, is great, but it can definitely be challenging. But I think the biggest, the biggest hack, if you will, the biggest cheat code, whatever, the biggest power play, maybe that's the best way to say it because I feel like cheat codes and hacks, it sounds like those are kind of like negative, negative connotations. I feel like, but negative responses or whatever, but negative words to describe stuff. I think ultimately a power move sounds a lot more positive. So power moves, I think the biggest power move is, is to connect somehow, some way with a bigger community or a community or just other people in this, in this industry. If you're not able to connect locally, to have an online community, go to in person events. I feel like that's, that's the, the biggest power move you can have for growth and to help you kind of keep your sanity, you know, when, when you go through your tough times as we all do and will. So with that being said, I hope this episode was helpful. Quick little off the top. Truck Talk Tuesday. Again, thank you all for listening. Thank you to Toro Company for sponsoring LCR Media podcast. And until the next episode, this is Naylor Talia Farrow signing off. This has been an lcr media and Mr. Producer production.