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We're deep enough into the season where patterns are starting to show. Some things in your business are working beautifully. Other things, they're already waving red flags. And the truth is, too many business owners wait until the entire season is over before they stop and evaluate what actually happened. But what if you didn't wait? What if Mother's Day became the checkpoint, a moment to celebrate the moms who keep everything together while also taking a hard, honest look at our businesses before the season gets away from us. Let's talk about that.
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Today's episode is brought to you by Yardbook, the All in one CRM for your lawn care business. And as an exclusive partner of this podcast, you can get started today and begin simplifying your business and maximizing your profits. Sign up now@yardbook.com the link is in. The show notes Time now for Profits with Paycheck, an essential podcast for you in the green industry who are looking to unlock the full potential of your business. Hosted by John Pajak, your certified financial coach, the show features in depth discussions with successful entrepreneurs, thought leaders and industry experts, providing practical advice and proven strategies on financial planning, operations, marketing and sales. Profits With Paycheck has valuable insights and action steps that you can implement today for creating long term success. Now here's John Pajek.
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Welcome to Profits with Pajak, the podcast where we talk about business strategies and financial insights for the green industry. I'm your host, John Pajak and today I want to do something a little bit different. First off, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Whether you're running a business, raising kids, supporting your family, or somehow balancing all of it at the same time. Thank you for everything you do. Mothers have this incredible ability to notice problems early. You know, they, they pay attention to detail, they adapt quickly, and they keep things moving even when no one else around is noticing, you know, how much work is happening behind the scenes. And honestly, as business owners, we could probably learn a lot from that because right now we're at a very important point in the season. You know, spring is still here, the season is still young enough to make adjustments, but we're far enough to see how patterns are starting to emerge. You might notice that some systems are working and some are struggling. Some clients are amazing and some are already becoming problems and routes. Some of them might be really smooth and others are, well, let's just say they're not so good. Instead of waiting until October to figure out what went wrong, I think this is the perfect time to pause for a minute and give our business a spring report card. So one of the biggest mistakes that I want you to avoid is I see operators, they wait until the season is over before even looking back at their business. You know, and I'm sure, you know, you're doing a great job. I mean, you know, you're. You're pushing, you're grinding, you know, you're staying busy, and you're surviving the day to day. But then, you know, next thing you know, it's. It's going to be August, you're going to be exhausted. And if. If things aren't working well now, well, by that time, you know, cash flow might be tight. You know, your equipment might be getting beat up and worn down, right? Your employees might get frustrated, and they're realizing that, you know, they've been running in circles all season. But here's the thing. You could still change the outcome right now. This is why this checkpoint right here, this is why this is going to matter. Mother's Day is almost like the unofficial transition point of the season. I look at, you know, this is kind of like the spring rush still might be happening, but things are starting to kind of calm down a little now. You know, we were always rushing, rushing, rushing, a lot of us just to get things moving. And then obviously, a lot of our clients want their lawns looking great because of Mother's Day. But at this point, it's kind of like we're going to get a tiny little breather. Hopefully the weather's gonna give us a little bit of a break. But, you know, the reality of your systems start showing up now. You know, this is where we could take a step back and we could take a look at the hull, and we could see if there's any cracks that are forming, you know, in the big ship of our business. You know, you're gonna start noticing again which. Which routes are inefficient, you know, which customers are underpriced, which equipment is slowing you down, and which parts of the business are quietly draining your energy. And if you pay attention now, you still have time to fix it. This isn't like, oh, let's wait until the end of the season. No, no, no, let's work on that now. So I want you to actually think about this. I want you to grade your business. Seriously, if you had to give your business a grade right now, what would it be? And I'm not talking about, like, the social media version, you know, not the everything's great answer. Not. I'm asking you for your real, real Answer, you know, so let me help guide you. Let me, let's break it down so that you could really truthfully answer this for yourself. Okay, let's look at production. How efficient are you really? Are you, or you know, if you have crews, are you moving smoothly or are you constantly stopping to refill? Or you are your top. Are your routes tight or are you wasting time driving all over God's green earth because wasted motion is going to kill profit? So think about that. Think about, you know, especially again, I, I would highly recommend that you time yourself not only on the jobs, but in between the jobs. So you could. This, this data is going to really be like, there's no, no doubt when you look at that data. Okay, let's talk about profitability. Are you actually making money? And I'm not just talking, I'm not talking about generating revenue, okay? It's. And I'm not talking about staying busy. Those two things are very easy to do. They're a lot easier than being profitable and making your business more efficient. I could go out and look at my top end number and be like, yeah, this is great day. We had a lot of money come in, but what did you know, oh, I had to spend money on doing this, or I, oh, you know what, while I'm out, I might as well just stop off at this shop and pick up the materials that we need, you know, and it's like, is, am I being efficient? Am I, am I using my time the best way that I can? You know, are the numbers improving or, you know, are you working 14 hour days just to feel stressed at the end of the week? You're like, oh yeah, we kind of got everything done. But man, I'm so tired. We still have so much stuff to do. Because I'll tell you what, busy and profitable are not the same thing. They really aren't. I want to go down a rabbit hole on that, but I want to go through this report card for you. So now let's, let's take a look at how your equipment is holding up. Okay? Because right now, this is when the weaknesses start to show themselves. This is when breakdowns, you know, during peak season, they don't just cost repair money, you know, they cost you momentum, they cost morale, and they cost production. You know, think about that. You know, you get, you know, no matter what you have, let's just say it's a, you know, it's just something with an engine on it, right? You're moving along, you're trucking along, everything is great. You're like, you might be a little stressed because, hey, you know, we. We're behind because of the weather. We're behind because of whatever reason. Okay? It doesn't matter. And you're like, oh, man. Just as long as this thing keeps going, we're good, we're good. But then all of a sudden, the engine starts ticking. It's not one. You know, you're losing power. All of a sudden, you're just like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not right now. Not now. And then before you know it, the machine's limping along, and you barely get it up on the trailer to take it in. You know, you don't want the engines knocking right now. You want to take a look at your equipment. You want to make sure that, hey, am I doing the maintenance? Am I doing all the right things? Does it have oil in it? I know we know when it doesn't have gas in it, but does it have oil in it? Does it do for maintenance? How old is this thing? How many hours does it have on it? Ooh, that looks like my birth date right there, man. That's thing. This thing's got a lot of hours on it. You know, maybe is it time for this to get overhauled or maybe replaced? I don't know, but this is why I'm asking. You got to take a look at your equipment, see how it's holding up. Another couple things here that we're going to get into is communication. You know, customer communication. How have your clients been responding? Have you established clear expectations? Are the people happy? Are callbacks increasing? Are you communicating proactively, or are the problems piling up because nobody is slowing down long enough to communicate properly? It surprised me, even though we've been in business for quite some time. I'm just going to share this with you. Like, we had some people that I didn't reach out to as often as I normally did, and this year, they just thought, oh, we didn't hear from you. So we went with a different company. I'm like, what? Like, what? What kind of. All right, well, thank you. And then I see them in the street, like, hey, you know, you know, while I'm doing their neighbor, it's like, what happened? They're like, oh, yeah, you know, we didn't hear from you, and we just decided to go with another company. Okay. Like, what the hell? Like, you know. Anyway, long story short, it's just kind of like one of those things at this point in time, you know, if your clients are. They Used to you communicating with them. Are they. Are they on board with what the schedule looks like? Are they, you know, just any little thing, you know, look at that. Rate yourself. Right now I feel like a loser because I lost some, you know, and a lot of these clients, these are ones that we picked up last year, so they don't really know us that well. I should have been more effective with Mark communication again. But anyway, the last one I want to talk about, and this one's really important, you know, how are you doing? You know, are you okay? Are you constantly frustrated? Are you exhausted? Are you starting to snap at people? Are you mentally checked out when you go home, do you just. I know a lot of us, you know, I used to do this a lot when I would get really stressed out. I'd work all day and be really exhausted. And then I'd just sit in the driveway and I might sit there for an hour. No music, nothing, Just engine off, sitting, family waiting for me inside. And I'm just waiting. I don't know what for, but I just needed a time to just chill before I went in the house. But here's the thing. If your business is succeeding but your health and your marriage, your family or your peace are starting to collapse, then something's wrong. And I'm just saying Mother's Day is a good day to remember that the people that are closest to us are sacrificing alongside us, sometimes more than we realize. Equip Expo 2026 is coming up October 20th through the 23rd in Louisville, Kentucky. If you're serious about growing your business, this is where you need to be. We're talking live equipment demos, the latest technology, and thousands of contractors all in one place, sharing what's actually working right now. And here's the deal. Tickets are normally $120, but right now you can get them for $12.50 when you use promo code PAYCHECK. That's 50% off the already discounted early bird price. But this deal expires May 31, and prices go up after that. So don't wait on this. Lock in your ticket now get in the room and I'll see you there. Use promo code payjack. The link is in the show notes and. And grab your ticket today. Back when I was getting my lawn care business off the ground, I was juggling routes, invoices, and customer notes with paper and prayers. It was chaos. Until I found Yardbook. Yardbook gave me the structure. It helped me track chemicals, route efficiently, invoice faster, and most Importantly, it helped me grow a profitable business. If you're tired of duct taping your systems Together, go to yardbook.com and sign up for free. And if you're ready to go premium, use promo code PAYJACK to get your first 30 days on me.
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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 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.
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Hey, again, I want to remind you that the Equip Expo tickets are on sale. Now, I know you just heard the little my little spiel earlier, but I just want to remind you that the super early Bird tickets are going to be only available until May 31st. So they're $25. And with promo code Paycheck, you get those for $12.50 right now, but after May 31st, the prices go up and why not just get them now, you know? Come on, come on. I want to go to Louisville. I'm going to be in Louisville all week. I want to see you there. So might as well take advantage of the $12.50 tickets while you can. You can buy as many as you want. You take the whole crew and use promo code paycheck. So get those tickets. The promo code is in the link is in the show notes. So here's another important part. As we start talking about our, you know, early season report card here, you got to look at what's actually working. Don't just focus on the negatives, okay? This is, this is very important. You cannot just focus at the negatives, I tend to look at the things that are going wrong first because those are the easiest things to point out. But you need to identify what is working because. Excuse me. You know, a lot of times, you know, when we, when we're taking, we're, we're doing an assessment, we were looking at all the negatives because, like, oh, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad. But we gotta look at the positives. The positives are what brought us this far so far. And you know, I, you know, just for example, like, you know, look at some of the upsells that you're doing that are working. They're bringing in more revenue for you. You know, look at your route density. You know, like, for us, it's huge. It's like making sure we have. The trucks don't have to move that much. They're making as much money per stop as possible. It makes our scheduling easier. It makes our lives easier. It makes everything easy. Look at your estimates and see if there's anything that you're doing that converts better than the other. Most of our stuff standardized, but occasionally I'll throw kind of a different. The estimate will be the same, but I'll throw a different offer in there, or I'll throw different email body onto it just to see if it makes any more conversions. You know, look at the systems that are making everything smoother for you. You know, it's not like one day you just, everything sucked and then everything was great. It was, It's a process. So look at the things that are making things easier for you. Also, take a reality check on yourself. You know, you know, if you're, as you go through this, the more you know, you're going to get more confident without even realizing it. Because with repetition of doing the work and repetition of making the sales and talking with clients and everything over time, you, instead of being this clunky, clumsy, you know, maybe you're not insecure, but you might sound insecure with repetition and just practice, you know, you're going to get better at these things and you're going to, you know, so, so take note of those things, okay? Because all that matters, you need to identify the things that are creating momentum and then starting to, and start to double down on them. Because growth, a lot of times it, it, it comes, it doesn't come from reinventing the wheel. It goes, let's, let's refine that wheel. Hey, you know what? Instead of making it out of stone, let's use a different material. Let's you know, let's make it out of wood or aluminum and instead of it being solid, let's, let's, let's figure out how we could make spokes going from the hub. It's gonna light that wheel up and make it turn faster and you know, all these things. So you don't have to reinvent the wheel, but you could just refine it. One big one thing too that I was thinking about. You know, a lot of operators think they need some giant breakthrough and sometimes the answer is simple. You know, again, it could be, you know, beating a dead horse here. You go back, you tighten the routes, you start communicating better with your clients, you raise your prices where necessary, you know, and you basically just repeat what already works. You don't have to make huge, huge leaps. It's like little tiny adjustments as we go. This is what I'm talking about right now. It's not what, we're going to take it back to zero for mother's Day here. You know, this is just good time to look at your business and go back over it and start refining some things. Fix a couple things that need to be fixed. But we're not going to trash everything. We're just going to go, what's working for us and what's not. Let's go fix and tweak the things that aren't working right now. And I mean, that's the whole point of today's episode is just make adjustments while there's still time. Don't wait until the season is over to admit something isn't working. Fix it now. If pricing is wrong, adjust it. If the routes are inefficient, just tighten them up. If an employee needs training, train them. If a customer is draining your business, address it. And don't be afraid to just say, you know what, I don't think this is going to work out. You know, you never know what's going to happen unless you address the situation. But you know, if you're overloaded, overburdened, everything, you got to simplify some things because the operators who win long term are not the ones who never have problems. You're going to have problems no matter what. It's just a matter of, you know the one. The successful long term operators are the ones that are willing to make the adjustments early. So let's do kind of a recap here. You know, give yourself, give your business an honest grade. You know, look at your production, your profitability, your equipment, your communication. And look at yourself, look at where your stress levels are right now and be honest. Identify that one thing that's working. It doesn't have to. You could you. If it's more than one, and I'm sure it is more than one, but identify those things, okay? Find momentum and build on it. Don't ignore your wins. Your wins are the you. They don't have to be super big, but every little one, it leads to more. You should celebrate it. You don't have to wait until like, oh, I'm only making $150,000 a year. I'm. I'm not gonna celebrate until I'm making 1.5 million. No, you know, it's like, hey, we. We just, you know, we're. We're forecasted out. We're gonna make 200k this year. Great. Celebrate that even before you even hit the 200k. Who cares? Just make some celebrations. Keep yourself going, keep moving. You know, the other thing is, you know, find when you find a problem, and you will find a problem. Just take one problem and fix it immediately. Don't do it next month. Don't do it after the summer. Just do it now. You're already busy, right? You're already doing things. Why not? Maybe if you fix this one little thing, maybe it's going to help lessen the stress on you. Because some small adjustments today can completely change the outcome of your season. Again, it might not just be the one thing, it might be, like, several things. But if you tweak them now, you know, imagine I always talk about, you know, imagine your business as a ship, a big old pirate ship, right? Like, that's what I vision in my head, and we're sailing to an island that we could actually see. But, you know, sometimes we take our eye off the ball, and next thing you know, we go a little off course. Well, it's like, oh, well, I look back up and I see that we're a little off course. Okay, I'm just going to adjust the wheel a little bit and I'm going to get. Put us back on course. Right? That's no problem. We could do that. We could make those small adjustments. That's easy. It's when we take our eye off the prize and we. We don't look at the island off in the distance anymore, and we're looking around, we're doing other things, we're getting busy, and next thing you know, we're like, you know, 90 degrees off course. Well, now, that takes a lot of work to get us, you know, spun to get back on track. So just think about that. You know, small adjustments, it might just might not just be one, it might be several, but all these little adjustments that are going to help keep us on track and help us get the outcome we're looking for. So anyway, as we wrap up today, I just want to say Happy Mother's Day again to all the incredible moms out there. I want to thank you for your sacrifice and your patience, your leadership and all the things that you do that often go unnoticed. And everybody listening. I hope that you were able to take a breath this weekend, spend time with your family, celebrate the people who matter most, but also take a quiet time to honestly reflect on your business because the season is still being written and you still have time to improve the ending. So with that being said, thank you for listening. God Bless. Keep pushing through and we'll catch you on the next one. Thank you once again for listening. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave a review and share it with fellow business owners. Your support means the world to me and helps keep the show going strong. I want to give a special shout out to our friends at Yardbook. Their continued support has been instrumental in bringing this podcast to you week after week. If you haven't checked them out yet, visit yardbook.com and see how they can give you the tools to streamline and manage your lawn care business. Also, don't forget forget to explore the resources and upcoming events that I've collected just for you in the show Notes. These are curated to help you stay ahead in your business with the latest tips, tools and networking opportunities. Whether it's a new tool, an insightful article, or an event you don't want to miss, I've got you covered. Until next time, keep pushing through and God bless. Sa. Um.