← Profits with Pajak
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There's nothing wrong with using lawn care as a stepping stone, but there is something wrong with treating an industry like it's disposable. And if you've been around long enough, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
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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 Pajac, 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 Paj.
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Welcome to Profits with Paycheck, the podcast where we talk about business strategies and financial insights for the green industry. I'm your host, John Pajak and today we're going to be talking about something that's been on my mind and I'm going to be direct and honest and I'm going to share my experiences with you. And you know, I've been in this industry for over 25 years now. I've built a career here. I fed my family here, I've employed people and, you know, watch their families grow as well. And I've also seen a trend that I think we need to talk about. And here's the problem. We there's a difference between lawn care as a leg up versus lawn care as a profession. And let me be clear right out the gate. I understand not everyone wants to stay in the green industry forever. And I understand that lawn care has a low barrier to entry. And I understand people come here to make money and then move on. That part doesn't bother me. What bothers me is how some people do it. They don't treat clients like relationships. They treat them like paychecks. They don't treat the work with pride. They just treat it like something that they have to get through and they don't care about what happens when they leave. And I don't know, maybe I don't know if it's just my mentality, my work ethic, my the way I was raised, I'm not exactly sure what it is. Okay, But I see you Know, there's always been fly by night guys, right? No matter what, no matter what industry it is, it doesn't matter. There's always some fly by night outfit out there. But here's the part that people don't see when someone comes in, and this is the typical one, okay? And I want to get a little bit deeper on this too, but let me just do the one that everybody's pretty much aware of. You know, somebody comes in, they undercharged, they do mediocre, mediocre work or even bad work, and then they disappear. And the thing is, you know, all of us see that the damage doesn't just leave with them. It stays, it lingers, it hangs around, it shows up. When clients don't trust the next contractor, when we're having pricing conversations that become defensive, it's like, well, we're, you know, the, the potential client puts us up on the ropes with all these questions because they don't have trust anymore. You know, they. The expectations become distorted. And a lot of times, you know, the, the industry looks unprofessional and unstable. I see that firsthand. You know, I get potential clients that reach out and say, yeah, you know, the last guy disappeared, or, you know, he was a lot cheaper than you. I don't understand why your pricing is so much higher. And, you know, sometimes when I get people like that and they're really close to the edge, I'm like, let me come out and introduce myself to you. You know, and then I walk the property and I see why, you know, the homeowner wasn't served. They were used in a. It. It's upsetting. You know, you go to a property and you're saying, wait, how long do they. You've had service from a professional, a quote, unquote professional. And it looks like, this, this is not acceptable. And it's so frustrating because again, this industry feeds more than just one family, right? It's not. This is, this is the part that matters to me. This industry feeds families, not just the owner's family. It takes care of the employees, their spouses, all their kids. Right? And when someone treats lawn care like a short term cash grab, they don't feel the consequences when they leave. You know, if you're that guy. And I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, but I do know some people that are local and I. It frustrates me. They do substandard work. They're in it. They. They flip everything for money. You know, obviously that's the, the point is to make profits. But at the same time, it just doesn't feel right with me. It doesn't sit well with me. And when they're doing the basic cash grab, you know, and then they, they, they dip out, it leaves, you know, a bit of a void in a sense, you know, because they're, they don't care. They're onto the next thing. Oh, I did this just to get some money so I can move to the next thing. Okay. Right. You don't feel the repercussions, but we do. The rest of us do. And we're the ones that are still here. When all that trust needs to be rebuilt and then pricing has to be re explained, the reputation has to be repaired and that ripple effect doesn't go away just because someone found their next opportunity. This just, you know, these tiny little ripple waves, eventually they can turn into like, almost like a tsunami, you know, if you think about like the butterfly effect, you know, one person or, you know, the, the wings of a butterfly can generate a hurricane, you know, just because it compounds on top of itself. And it's not fair to the industry itself because again, I don't know, maybe I'm an anomaly now. I, I just take care of people. You know, it's not just the lawns themselves. I look at it much deeper. I'm not committing just to the lawn itself. It's like the people that live in the house that the property is on, those, that's what's important to me. I want to make sure that they feel like they've gotten their value and that I've helped them and that, you know, whatever they are trying to achieve, I can help them achieve it. It's not just this substandard work and you're rushing through it and you're cutting corners all the time. That infuriates me. I can, I could bar. There's several people that I look at nowadays and I can't even talk to them without feeling disgust because I know how they treated people and I know the work that they've done. And it's, it, it's like, what am I going to do, you know, Criticize them? No, I, I, it's not worth my time. It's like they, they, they're not even in the industry anymore. They have left. They have already extorted everything that they can get out of it to move on to the next thing. And I look at their next project and I'm like, your next project, you're basically going to be treating people the exact same way and you're going to contaminate and degrade the value of the next service you're doing. All right, a quick reminder for you. If you're serious about growing your lawn care or landscape business, you need to be at Equip Expo 2026. That's happening October 20th through the 23rd in Louisville, Kentucky. And right now, tickets are the super early bird rate of just $25. But when you use promo code PAYJACK, you could get your ticket for only $12.50. I said that right? $12.50. You can't even go to lunch for that anymore. And Equip Expo is where industries come together. You get hands on equipment, you could get some real education. You could network with operators who are actually building businesses, not just talking about it online. But don't wait. These prices are going to go up the closer we get to the event. So grab your ticket now, use promo code paycheck, lock in that $12.50 rate, and I'll see you October 20th through the 23rd in Louisville, Kentucky. The link is in the show notes.
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get the premium business subscription of yardbook free for 30 days when you use promo code PAYJACK. Now, I want to be careful here. This is not about gatekeeping, okay? This is not about keeping people out. This is not about saying you have to do this forever. This is not about shaming new operators, okay? This is. This is about respect. If you're going to enter an industry, any industry, you have a responsibility to treat clients well, charge honestly, do the best work that you're capable of, and leave things better than you found them. If you know you're going to be temporary, that doesn't give you permission to be careless. I cannot tell you how many times it's almost like it's almost become like them versus us. Us meaning the operators, the business owners that are in this industry. We are dedicated to Long term longevity in here versus the people that are the. You know, nobody's technically says they're going to be fly by night but unfortunately that's the only category I could, I could say that it generates an image that I'm trying to portray here. So it's, it literally is like a them versus us. And you know, again people ask, you know, what's the difference between your company and the last guy? I'm like well I don't know the last guy. I don't know what he did, I don't know what, how he treated you, you know, but it's like the thing that I could convey to people, the thing that I do have control over is I can tell them we care. We care about the work, we care about consistency, we care about showing up next season, we care about our reputation. You know, you don't stay in business for 10 plus years by accident. You don't build a career on shortcuts and you don't survive long term by racing to the bottom. Now again this, this industry rewards people who commit and you know, not necessarily people who pass through and burden bridges behind them. It's, I mean unfortunately the, the world is full of that where everybody's so self focused on what they need that they don't care about burning bridges. They don't care about the people that they're serving or supposed to be serving. It's a quick, you know, I'm not saying it's a get quick Richem because you, you know, you know, you've been doing this yourself. You know, the hard work it takes, you know, the expense of operating your business, it's not. Why would you, why would you make investments into like just the equipment, you know, truck trailer, the mowers, the trimmers, you know, if that, if that's what you're categorizing. And you know, again for like guys like myself, the vehicles that are specially outfitted with all the pumps and the tanks and the, you know, they need to be able to have a specific towing and carrying capacity. I mean this is not cheap stuff. Why would you invest in all that just to do a half assed job and you know, upset people. But oh, I cashed out. Yay. And you left the wake of destruction behind you. You know, it's, it's frustrating and I, and I need to talk about these things. I need to talk about it because it is every single year it is our, there are too many, it's almost a bad thing. You know, we, we talk about these things openly. In efforts to try to help people. But at the same time, it opens up, you know, the. The right information in the wrong hands turns people into, you know, oh, I'm gonna get rich quick, and I don't care how I'm gonna do it. Boom, boom, boom. And it just leaves a. Again, it. It's very frustrating because all it really does is it just hurts the long term guys. And it also just makes it harder in a sense, once you get established, though, like, it's. It's fairly easy to be confident about it. But if you're a new guy coming in or, you know, maybe you're in those, like, really messy middle years, it. It's a. It's a real struggle, you know, puts undue stress on you. I mean, I guess in one way you could look at it, it's kind of a good thing to a degree, because that forces you to be better. So maybe this isn't all, you know, I'm not trying to frame this as negative, but, you know, it's just more of a. A way to, you know, look at the perspective of what I'm talking about here. So, you know, and I. I want to bring this together. You know, this is kind of a message for both sides. You know, if you're new, welcome. This is a great industry to be in. But take pride in what you do. Respect the people before you and the people that are going to come in after you. And again, one of the big things is just understanding what your numbers are first. But then if you don't understand what your numbers are and you're basing it off of what everybody else is charging, don't come in and undercut just to survive one season. It's not going to work out for you, you know, because if you are into, get it, come in, get it quick, blah, blah, blah, it's, oh, everybody's charging $50. I could come in at 35 and make a killing. Yeah, you're gonna. Obviously, if you're gonna burn the ships afterwards, I guess you can make some money. But it's gonna be a. When you start cutting corners and everything, you're gonna. Maybe you don't care, maybe you just don't care, but it does have an effect on the rest of us. But the thing is, if you're. If you're established, you know, you've been in business for a few years, maybe 10 years, maybe 20 years, right? Just keep holding the line, keep educating your clients, keep pricing it honestly, you know, and keep doing good work even when it's frustrating because inevitably the fly by nights they leave but the professionals remain so as just to kind of land the plane here. Here's the bottom line. This industry is not a payday loan. It's not disposable and it's not something to use and abandon without consequence. So if you're here, be here with integrity. If you're passing through, don't burn the place down, okay? Because when you leave, the rest of us are still standing here doing the work. So with that being said, I appreciate you listening today. If that, if this was, you know, this gripped you in any way, go ahead and share it with others. And you know, if you want to write in profits with Paycheck, Gmail.com is where the best way to get through to us. So I want to thank you for listening to Profits with Paycheck. 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 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. Sam.