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Let me say something that might confuse you. You do not need more customers. In fact, more customers might actually be the worst thing that could happen to your business right now. Let me explain.
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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 Pajak.
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Welcome to Profits with Pajak the podcast. 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 the lie that's keeping you stuck. You know, we, over the past couple episodes, you know, we've been pulling back the curtain a bit and you know, we've talked about money that you're not collecting. We're talking about time you're wasting every single day in inefficiencies. And now we're gonna talk about what almost everybody does next. And they say, I just need more customers. And that's where things go a little sideways. Now let me be clear. I am not talking to the guy that's just starting out and only has like 10 clients. I am not talking to someone who is barely making enough revenue to support the business. There is a required amount of volume that we need in business to be profitable. Okay, so who I'm talking to are operators that have been in business for a while. They have a large base of clients and maybe they're closer to capacity. Okay, these are the people I'm talking to. You know, they've been around the block for a while. They just keep thinking, outgrow this problem. I just need more clients. Sometimes that's the worst thing you could do. I understand the bigger problem because when you get more customers, that really does feel like progress. You know, you get more calls, you get more estimates, you're getting more jobs, but you're also getting more noise. And here's the truth. If your systems are broken, if your efficiency is off if you're not. If you don't have good cash flow, if you're not collecting your money properly, More customers does not fix that. It just really amplifies. It literally puts a, like a magnifying glass on the issues, and they just get bigger and they get worse. So let's just say, you know, you're doing 250,000 a year. Your average customer is worth a thousand dollars. Okay, we'll keep the math simple here. And let's just say you've got 250 customers. Now, instead of fixing your pricing or upselling, you go chase 50 more customers. Now you've got more driving, more stops, more scheduling headaches, more chances to miss the invoices if you haven't patched that up yet. More inefficiencies. And your profit, sometimes it barely moves, sometimes it moves in the wrong direction, which is a no bueno. We don't like that. We like profits around here. Profits with paycheck, right? I want you to make money. I want you to get paid and be fruitful with all the labor that you put into your business. This is not a joke. This is real. Okay, but here, let me just lay this out for you, and this is what I feel is the smarter play. Instead of chasing 50 new customers, what if you made each existing customer worth $1200 instead of that thousand? Now, that's a $200 increase. It's not a lot, but across those 250 clients, those customers that you already have, that's 50,000 in additional revenue. That's all without adding a single stop. You know, you're not stopping for new clients. You're not adding Ms. Rothsworth Burger's, you know, cousin who's weird. Got gnomes everywhere in a yard, backyard smells like cat pee really bad, and you just don't want to touch anything. That's a big. That's a big change. You know, instead of trying to trace 50 new people, we just increase the average ticket and we can make an additional $50,000 in revenue, isn't it? Think of it that way. I'm going to give you some time. You know what? Take a minute, listen to. Listen to where we're going next. Okay. We're going to be in Louisville in October. We're also going to be in Las Vegas. No, no, no. Scottsdale, Arizona, for the lawn and landscape tech here. Just listen to the reel. You'll hear IT 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 could get them for $12.50 when you use promo code PAYJACK. 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 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 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.
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All right, so you've had time to chew on that a little bit. You also heard, you know we got the Profit Accelerator Live. Highly recommend coming To Richmond, Virginia for that event. Scottsdale, Arizona, is where the lawn and landscape Tech conference is going to be and the equip Expo. You better get those tickets May 30, May 31. I forgot how many days are in May. By the end of May, those prices are going to start going up. Now, you could still get a discount with my promo code paycheck, but, you know, act on it now. Okay? We got. We're running out of time in May to get those super duper, super cheap tickets. So anyway, all the. Everything's in the show notes. Click on it. It'll take you right to where you need to go. And any app, any bonuses and stuff will be added to your cart. So let's talk about how to actually do this. We're going to. We're going to increase our average ticket. Okay. We're going to make our $1,000 a season client turn into a twelve $50 a season client. So the first thing you could do is add on services. Okay. Maybe you call it upselling, but yeah, I know that this works very well. You know, if I were to reduce the total number of my clientele, I would make sure that for every person that I let go, I would have another person that I would have add ons to, so I could make up that revenue, actually make less stops per season, and actually make the same or more money per season. You know, you could do things like, you know, depending on whatever you're doing. Okay. Or aeration, overseeding, lean tick control, perimeter, pest control, aeration, overseeding, you know, bush trimming, annual flower, all these things. Okay. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Sprinkler repair, maintenance, startups, you know, you need licensing for some of these things. But, you know, if you, if you're looking to add these things on, just go through the process, get legit. And Adam, these are super easy wins because you're already on the property and people trust you. So more than likely, if you let them know that, hey, they're not going to have to go search for a mosquito guy now, because you went and took the courses and got the licensure and you got all the good equipment and the right products and everything, it's like, oh, perfect. I don't have to have some dude I don't know coming around and spraying my barbecue pit. You know, you're. It's, it's. It's an easy win. You could bundle offers, you know, don't just sell one service. This is, this is the, this really is the Gravy here. Okay. When you package them together. Oh, I'm telling you, this is my favorite thing to do now. I don't look at my business as like a grind anymore. I look at it as like, how fun can I make this business by like stacking things together, you know, and given crazy names and you know, like, I got, you know, a grub, and it's not even grub, it's like a insect and fungicide program. It's called, you know, Fortress. You know, it's a package we sell. I just have fun with it now. I don't care. Literally, I'm like, I'm serious. But at the same time, like, I'm like, I'm having fun with my business now. I got to the point where I just started to let go and I'm like, I love this. I could be creative and make money at the same time. This is great. But, you know, you could have a lawn program and say like, you add flea and tick and perimeter pest control, you know, so now instead of selling it at like, I don't know, 60 bucks a visit, now you're selling a hundred and a hundred dollar plus per visit. You see how it could just, you know, double your, your revenue. So instead of having to have, you know, more clients, you could just be like, you increase that average ticket. Oh my goodness, man, you could, you know, even if you just want to, you know, not saying that you stay the same, but you, you know, like, what did we say? 250? 250,000. I forgot what the example is. Let's say 300k a year. I forgot what I, what I said originally. Maybe it was 250 anyway. Maybe. Can you imagine just making 250,000 a year, but doing it with less clients and just being able to serve the current people? You have better. Tell you what, it's a relief off my back and it feels good. And I, you know, I could count on those people year to year instead of going, oh, are my clients coming back? Oh, they have to come back. I got all their stuff. I take care of their property. I am their, you know, I am the person that is their caretaker for their whole property. So yeah, okay, they're going to come back to me. You know, another thing is you could just do these simple campaigns for the upsells. I know I talked to you about it before, but, you know, I sent out one email and this is one email, and I had a very clear offer for an add on and it pulled in some serious revenue very fast. I send Everything out in batches. So I'm not sending out like a thousand emails at a time. And I remember the one batch that I sent out, you know, it had like a 44% open rate, which is pretty good. That doesn't sound like a lot. You know, it is, it's a lot. You know, if you send out a hundred, that's 44 people open. And I think I sent out like 200 at one time. And we had about 88 people that opened it. Out of the 88 people that opened it, we, we had like 44, about half of them sign up for the add on. And it was some very, it's very easy, low hanging fruit that I was offering. And it was just like such a killer deal. We had a huge, it added like $20,000 to our revenue. Now we didn't actually get the money right then, but throughout the season it's going to generate $20,000 of top line revenue. And it's such a great thing because we're already there, it's bringing up our profit margins as well. And this is literally a low effort and high return thing that you can do when you do a, just a simple upsell campaign. Now this, this one here, some of you need a lesson in pricing with confidence. I'm going to call it that Price with confidence. Some of you don't need more services, but you just need to charge correctly. You know, that requires something I call kta. You know, you gotta know your numbers, you gotta trust your numbers and you gotta act on your numbers. Because these, all three of these things are very separate. Even though they sound the same or very similar. You gotta know your numbers inside and out. You gotta know what it costs you to open up the doors every day, baby. I mean, seriously, you need to know that. You need to know what it costs to send a truck trailer with, you know, two guys out for the day. And you need to know that that costs you money. And they need to go out there, kill something and bring it back. And it can't just be skin and bones. It's got to be more than what it costs to go out there. Okay, Is not only they're paying for the rig that they took out there, they're also paying your salary, your, your money, the owner's money, right? That's all part of it. You know, the shop fees, the shop itself, the insurances, all the stuff, right? That's. You got to know those numbers, then you got to trust those numbers. Once you figure out your pricing, like as far as, like, okay, I'm going to be Babe Ruth and I want a 30%. I want a 30% profit margin. Well, you got to trust that. And you got to go out there and got to be tenacious and say, like, you know, you're in the right. If you're in the right neighborhoods, if you're in the right demographic, a lot of times that's not the problem. You know, you tell the price, people are like, yeah, let's go. You know, sometimes you do that and people are like, well, you know, this is life changing money for us for $500 a season. That's. I mean, I can't tell you how important it is that, you know, we get a good value out of this and whatnot. You know, other dudes are just like, oh, it's five grand to do. Yeah. Do you want my card or can you put it on my card or you need me to send you a check? What do you need me to do? You know what I mean? They don't even bat an eye at it, and they're spending ten times as much. So anyway, you. Once you know your numbers, you got to trust those numbers. You got to stick to those numbers, okay? And then you got to act on your numbers. You actually have to go out and do the work. You actually have to, you know, market it and tell people what you do and let them know, okay, like, don't be afraid to tell people what your pricing is. That's. I think that's a big obstacle a lot of us go through. But anyway, just stop thinking like this. Stop thinking of, like, how I could get more customers. Of course, again, just to be specific, if you're just starting out or if you have a low volume of customers and you're not really doing well, you know, the businesses, you. You. You specifically need more clients. Okay, but I'm, again, I am talking to the people that are basically at capacity. They're overclocked. Oh, they're so busy. All these things, okay? So for those guys, stop thinking, how do you. How do I get more customers? Start thinking like this. How do I maximize the value of every stop I already have? You know, think about this. You know, because every stop has travel time, they have setup time, they've got labor costs. So you better be maximizing it. You know, think about. Think about it and don't be ashamed about this, okay? Think about when you go to the grocery store. You will go to the grocery store, you will fill your basket with whatever, and right before you check out, they've got you Know, pop and stuff in the cooler on the end cap, they've got candy bars, they've got magazines, they've got breath mints, beef jerky, what all this stuff is in the checkout line. It's designed that way so that you just go, while you're standing there waiting for somebody to check out, you're like, oh, whatchamacallit. I haven't had one of those since I was a kid. Yeah, I'll take that. Oh, man, those breath mints. Should probably get some when I talk to my client at the end of the day, because, you know, maybe I got coffee breath or something. You know, it's just these last minute things. It's an upsell. This is an add on. This is an upsell that they do this subliminal. There's nobody yelling at you to do it. Nobody's asking you, but you just look at all these things and you look at all the bright colored packaging, and there's a whole science behind that. They're not afraid to put that there. Matter of fact, when you go anywhere nowadays, there's always something. If you look around, you could see how businesses everywhere are trying to upsell you on something without even saying a word to you about it. It's just different in our industry because, you know, we're home service business, essentially. And what are we gonna do, like, knock on the door and bring up a caddy case of like, hey, I got some rain gauges here. I got some, you know, I got some of these little things here, these little doodads. I got a bird bath, you know. You want, you want to upgrade here, huh? Most of the time we're trying to upgrade with services, but even if it's a product, I mean, I carry a bunch of. I get. Usually give them away for free, but some people ask me that, are like, hey, do you have any more of those rain gauges? Oh, yeah, I do. How much would it cost me to get a couple? And again, most of the time I give them away for free, but I'm like, tell you what, I'll give you three for ten. Oh, that's great. Yeah, let me go get my. Give me. Can you put this on my bill? Yeah, we could take care of that for you. Boom. You know, 10 bucks on something that cost me like 2 bucks. Right, nice. But anyway, the thing is, you need to calculate your average revenue per customer. You gotta know that number, okay? You gotta identify at least one add on to push this week. Just keep it simple. Doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. It's something that you already do, you're already set up to do. I wouldn't suggest doing this with a brand new service. Okay, but just something that you have, make a mention of it, push it a little, send out a, you know, a little campaign, email campaign, text campaign, whatever it might be. Just keep it simple. But just see how much you can get from that one add on and again you're sent. Just you're sending one offer. Don't give them a whole plethora, don't give them a menu of things. Just say, we are doing this one thing. Offer it to your existing clients. Don't overthink it. Just have a good, clear message saying, hey, you know, we're offering this if you're interested. If you want to turn into like some kind of, you know, discounted deal or bargain or whatever, you could do that. Or you could just plain out just say, hey, we're offering. I would love for you to get on our aeration and overseeding list for the fall. You know, that's a killer one. You know, people know what that is, they understand it. And then while they're before they forget about it until they're trying to call you in October when the season has passed, it's like, nope, we get on board with that. So anyway, here's the bottom line. You know, your more customers won't fix your business. Better customers, better systems, better revenue per stop. That's what helps fix your business. So look at your customer list, your current customer list. Ask yourself, am I getting the most out of every single stop? And if the answer is no, you know exactly what to do next. So as always, I hope this has helped, been helpful. I really enjoy sharing these things with you and if you ever need any assistance, please reach out to me. I do have a a coaching program that I think would probably fit your business. If these are things you're struggling with, you could contact me, go to johnpajak.com or you can email us at the show profitswithpayjackmail.com so as always, 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 are 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. Ra.