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Profits with Pajak
Stop Underpricing in Spring, Fix Your Pricing and Finally Make Profit Ep. #485
00:51:12
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- [00:00]
John Pajak
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 PayJack, 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.
- [01:04]
Welcome to Profits with Paycheck, the podcast. We talk about business strategies and financial insights for the green industry. It is my pleasure to bring you, Naylor Talia Farrow to the studio right now. We're doing something kind of fun right now. We're doing a multi stream recording. I'm not exactly sure what you want to call this, but it's going to be fun. We're right now Naylor has got a live stream going on his channel, his Instagram channel, and we are recording from the Yard Book studio here in wonderful northwest Indiana. But Naylor, it's great to have you on.
- [01:40]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Thank you, Pajak. It's great to be on. It's been a little while. I can't remember when, when the last time was, but thanks for inviting me back and I'm excited. This time of year we have a lot, a lot going on right. With the spring rush and I have a lot to talk about. But you know, of course there's only so much time in the day and the night and on episodes. So there's, there's, there's levels. Right, that we can really approach this subject to, to help help our community know their numbers and, and stop underpricing.
- [02:08]
John Pajak
Yeah.
- [02:09]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Their jobs, their work. Right. I feel like that's, that's a huge, huge challenge. And I know personally because I put some polls out recently, like what are some of, what are some of your roadblocks or challenges for the spring rush? And underpricing is always the highest rated option, you know, in, in that poll. So I, it's not a guess. Like I know that it's, it's a challenge and I had this challenge, you know, early on when I first started my business 12 years ago. And I know, John, you've talked about this in the past too, when, you know, like Johnny Boy, Lawn care, whatever, whatever it was, you know, like that you had to really learn kind of the hard way that way. And then went, went through some things after that, and then kind of started all over again with, with, you know, your new business. And you've been teaching everything that you've learned along the way. So I know you've, you know, my point is we've all had to start somewhere, you know, and we've, we've learned a lot, and now we want to just give back and help shorten that learning curve. So everyone's not struggling as much.
- [03:09]
John Pajak
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that is one of the many problems that I had in my first business was not pricing properly. Had no clue. And I'll tell you that, you know, when you're, when you don't know how to price your, Your work, it is terrifying. You always have this fear hanging over you. And that's the one thing that I truly want to help others avoid, is that fear of not knowing. You know, you built this. You started a business. You know, some of us have actually built a business. Some of us are still in the process. Right. But, you know, if you start a business, you're trying to do it for whatever, various reasons, whether it's to claim more independence over your life, if, if it's to make more money, or, you know, just, you know, be the boss, you know, whatever. There's a million reasons why people start a business. But to keep that going, we need to understand first the actual cost of our business, but then also the value that we bring. So there's also, there's all types of things that we could say. It's like, you know, like when you start looking at the way that I price, you know, budgets break even the bottom lines. That's, you know, what I'm kind of known for now. You look at it and like you said, you get down to a granular level, I get down to the molecular level. That's what was a Stan Genetics said that, I think. Or Jonathan Pitocinik, I can't remember which one said it. But it's, it's, you know, you look at it that way and you're like, okay, now I know what it's. It, the price is. And then from there you figure out, okay, what's the value of my service? You don't just have to price like that, you know. But anyway, I noticed in the comments a few people, hey, Erica Kruipen, thanks for jumping in and saying hi. It's been a long time since I've seen you and I, I can't read that other one. My glasses are off.
- [05:12]
Naylor Talia Farrow
That's all good.
- [05:13]
John Pajak
But anyway, thank you everybody for stopping in. But yeah, it really does give you freedom once you understand what your numbers are. And like you mentioned right at the top, that it's very. Just getting a start on trying to find your numbers. It could be scary. And like I said, I try to keep people from falling into that fear, so. Naylor. I know because I'm part of it. But we got something really cool coming up pretty soon here, actually, like two things. One's really close and then the other's gonna be in the distant future, right? Yeah. Why don't you tell everybody?
- [06:02]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Well, yeah, well, so, so a couple, a couple of things, like, you're definitely the, the profits, you know, the, the leader in the discussion of profits and how to really break it down for, for everyone. How to, how to get their budgets in line, how to, you know, like you said, the budgets break evens bottom lines. I forgot exactly how that all flows. It's been a little while, but essentially, like all, all of, all of that planning that you've done for everyone, like, so you, you are the go to person for that. But, but you know, there's some things that I've learned along the way, too. Like, you know, there, there are certain things. So, so yes, there, the paycheck alluded to. There are some events coming up. There's actually a profit accelerator Live, which is coming up right here in Richmond, Virginia, the end of June, June 26th and 27th. And we're going to be spending two days, myself, John Pajak and Eric Shiplet, we're gonna be spending two days with you, really dialing in your profits. Right. How to accelerate your Prof. You know, manage your time better so you can get more profits out of life, which is more time. Just really dial all that in. But, you know, June is, is a little ways away and right now is a spring rush and you can get yourself into a little bit of a bind if you under price. And the spring rush can either make you or break you. So my goal right now on this podcast and on this live is, is to help give you some sort of insight and action steps that you can take, like immediately right now. You know, of course, audio wise, we can only say so much. A lot of times we have to show you some things. So with that being said, you know, the next step is Wednesday, April 15th. Those of you listening live and real or in real Time watching all that. April 15, on Wednesday at 7pm Eastern Standard Time, we are going to, myself, John Pajak and Eric Triplett actually are going to have a webinar. It's a free webinar and it's all about how to stop underpricing your jobs, essentially what we're talking about now. But it's going to be a webinar, so it's going to be a little more immersive. Right. I'm going to use my board in the background here and be able to write things down and show you what things look like. You know, Paycheck might, might have a slide or do something along those lines. Triplet as well. But I know specifically, you know, Paycheck's going to be breaking down the formula on how you can figure out your pricing so you at least have something to go by, right, Like a foundation. You know, it's not going to be personalized for your business because we can't do that until you get to the Profit Accelerator Live event where we're actually in person and we can dial some of this in for, for some of you at the event. But you know, right now we can't do that because we're not even interacting with you in that sort of way. We can answer some questions here and there, but that's, that's, that's the surface level. But then on the webinar on Wednesday, we'll be able, on April 15, we'll be able to dive in a little bit deeper and show you more and really dive into the formulas. But right now, you know, there are some things that we can still talk about, like route density, for example. You know, some things take longer to put into effect. You know, like if you have employee issues, that's another conversation. You know, if you're, if you're over leveraged, you know, you have too much overhead, you have too much of the wrong equipment, you know, you have too much debt. Maybe you have services that aren't, you know, working that aren't profitable. You know, there's a lot of those things that take a little bit longer to fix. But route density is something that I can like literally give you exactly what to do right now and you can start implementing that immediately. You know, there's, there's just certain aspects like that that you can, that we can implement, that we can help you implement immediately. And then like I said, Paycheck on Wednesday will be able to give you the foundation of how to get some of your pricing in line so that you can have Something to work with so you're not underpricing your jobs, right? And then you get locked in, maybe with some contracts in the spring, you're all excited and you realize you under price and you're stuck with it for the whole year. So, so with that being said, let me just dive in real quick. Well, not real quick, but let me just go in a little bit and pay. Jack, I know you, you talk about route density as well. We're all, you know, you and I were on the same page. I mean, clearly you're, you're all about the numbers, so you know the, how profitable route density is. For me, it's a little bit of a different story. I, I, I realized how profitable it was with my time. Not just the money is with, for me, it was about time I by default stumbled upon route density before I even knew that was like a, a, a, a phrase. You know, I didn't even know that was a thing. I just knew that when I started my business 12 years ago after burning out in retail management for over 15 years and just wanting to reset my life and you know, reconnect with my wife and my kids and see if I can repair the damage that was done and actually enjoy life and started my lawn care business because I just enjoyed lawn care and all that. If you've heard my story, you've heard my story. I won't go into it here, but my number one goal when I started my lawn care business was can I, how can I get my time back? Right? How can I get my time back and still make money to pay my bills, right? I still need to support my family financially, but how can I get my time back, be more in control, right? I didn't have to deal with horrible bosses anymore and nasty customers and just put a smile on my face. Now I, I can dictate who came, came in and out of my doors, right? Like, who are my customers that I'm going to work with? So there was that, but then it was also the time and, and I realized very quickly the first year driving all over Richmond, Virginia was not profitable with my time because I was working really late, past dark, missing dinner, barely making as much money or enough money to, to, to get to where I wanted to go and keep unlocking new levels. And I was only doing a small amount of work, but it's because I was driving all over the place and I'm like, this just doesn't make sense. Like, the only way for me to get more work done is in a select amount of time, be home for dinner and so on is to have better route density. Like why didn't. I didn't even have that word. Is to get my customers closer together, right? So that's what route density means for maintenance, for lawn mowing, fertilization. We control, right? That's weekly, biweekly, monthly, those type of services. What we're really talking about, and that's what I primarily was doing in the, in the early years and still do now. And that's where when you can get everyone as many customers in similar neighborhoods, surrounding neighborhoods. So you're minimizing the windshield time as some, some call it. You're not sitting in the truck driving all over town, especially when you have employees. That's a lot of wasted payroll. You want billable work, not non billable work. So all these things I just figured out by default just knowing like, hey, if I want to make a certain amount of money a day, I need to be able to get all these, I need to get more work done in a day. So if I get them closer together, then that just made sense to me. So that's what I started working on. And so by default I wanted to get my time back. And that's how I discovered route density. And I created a framework without realizing it. And that framework is just four easy steps, right? Saying no, that's the first and foremost thing is say no to the wrong work out of your service area or out of the area that you want to work in. Like so you're not spreading yourself all over the place saying no to the wrong work, right? Maybe it's a service that it's not profitable or that you don't want to do. Just not saying yes to everything, like not saying yes to all the wrong work, all the wrong people in all the wrong areas. So you got to say no so that you have room in your schedule for the yeses for the people that you want to work for. You want to do the, the they want the services that you offer in the area that you want to work in or areas. So saying no is the first step. Of course there's a whole lot more about that. We'll go into that more. I'll be going into this in more detail on the webinar as well as at the live event and really breaking that down in addition to some other, other other business principles as well. But then there's increasing your pricing, right? Strategically raising your price, your prices so that you are repelling the wrong people and attracting the right people. And typically those Right. People are all together. Right. I, by doing, by just by doing the first two steps, by saying no and raise. Strategically raising my prices. I built a whole neighborhood of 26 accounts in a neighborhood with only million dollar plus homes. And that was my ideal customer because they, they, they recognize value and they're willing to pay for value. And they just wanted, they were the people that were like, can you just add this to my invoice? How much? Or they didn't even ask how much are you able to do this? Okay. And like they just even asked for a price. Like those, those are the type of customers that when you start raising your prices strategically, it attracts those people because they state, they, they just perceive the value in that and then you do the work and they're like, oh yeah, this is legit. And it repels the wrong people. The cheap people. Right. The people that are cheap and looking for a bargain. Let's make a deal. They're looking for Chuck in the truck, all of that. So I had, I built up 26 properties in that neighborhood and I sold it to a local competitor a few years ago or friend petter, I should say.
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John Pajak
Friend petators.
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Naylor Talia Farrow
Yeah. So, so just those first two steps like really dialed in my route density and started making me more money, but in effort of saving time because I know you guys are super busy and we have a lot going on and I want to get into more of the meat and potatoes here with paycheck on the podcast. You know, check out the link in my bio and you can sign up for the free webinar on Wednesday and we will go into this deeper route density. There's four steps that I, that I, that I utilize to create route density. You guys can do those immediately and you can start creating route density or improving route density if you already know what that is and you're already building on that, there's some things that you might not know or think about in, in such a way, and I'm going to help break that down for you. So, so I'm super excited to be able to introduce those things to those of you that don't know or go back over them again. And I know Pajax got some great stuff that he's going to share. I mean, is there anything that you wanted to kind of give everyone like a preview of what you're going to go over at all on Wednesday on the webinar?
- [16:12]
John Pajak
Oh, yeah, we're, we're doing, we're going to implement some things that you can do right now. It's not the long in depth thing. It's like literally, let's just get you running right now and making sure that, you know, we're going to play horseshoes and hand grenades right now. It's not going to be perfect because again, you have to, you know, we have to know your exact specifics, but I'm going to lay some things out for you. So it's like, hey, you're going to be pretty close. It's not, you know, you're not going to know exactly your profit margins. You're not going to be like Babe Ruth. I always say this. Babe Ruth always points out to the stands, he's hitting home run, he puts the ball where he points. You know what I mean? You, these tactics, they're probably not going to get you exactly where you want to be, but it's going to, you know, it's going to help you get more profitable very quickly. And then, you know, you're going to start, it's going to change your mindset. These things will literally change your mindset and how to look at your pricing, how to look at the value that you're bringing to your clients. And then it's like, all right, let's go back and we can now, we could refine, we could fix the cracks that are in the foundation. You know, let's, we don't have to tear the whole thing down, but let's just fix the cracks, it get good. And, you know, as the season progresses, let's make sure that, you know, you're not going to have a leaky foundation where you're going to take on water. Let's make sure your foundation doesn't crumble. And all of a sudden your, your stack of cards comes tumbling down. So, and it's again, I'm going to have four steps. Everybody's got a four step plan now. I mean, the three step plan. What's that about? Oh, come on. We, we love you more, so we love you long time. We'll give you four, we're going to give you four applications each. It's going to be great.
- [18:03]
Naylor Talia Farrow
I don't know. I, I have, I have heard a lot about the number number four. It kind of comes up everywhere in the universe. Right, right. You can't talk about the four corners of the universe, you know, and there's, there's, there's a, there's a lot of, a lot of universal principles with the number four that pops up. So that does seem to be a popular number because it just, it's everywhere in the universe. So it's just only natural that there's frameworks of four steps, you know, so just, just putting that out there. But one of the things that, that I'm really, why I really wanted to also have this live and, and, and this will probably go out on my Instagram as well. But another thing that I forgot to mention, the beginning of why I really wanted to talk about this is because a lot of us, or a lot of you, I did at one point. This could be the worst paying job that you've ever had, that you work more hours than you've ever worked. If you're not pricing your jobs correctly, if you're not pricing your work correctly, like, so just stop, stop doing that. Like, like learn. Figure this out. You know, talk to us. You know, learn whatever you got to learn. Do research online, get on the free webinar, attend Profit Accelerator Live, which by the way, on the webinar, I'm specifically going to be sharing an exciting opportunity for everyone, only on the webinar for the Profit Accelerator Live event. So there's gonna be a lot of fun stuff going on at the webinar on April 15, coming up soon. So definitely enjoying that. If, if for nothing else, to learn a little bit more about what you might be doing wrong or what you can improve or what you can start doing to get your pricing dialed in and be more profitable this spring. I mean, because this is when all of the work is coming in. So this is where you should be strategically raising your prices. Your service is in demand. A lot of people do the opposite. They're like, oh, I just want to get all this work and underpriced stuff knowingly or just not intentionally strategically raising your price, or price is, you know, and, and, and you end up just with a bunch of work that's not profitable. And you're working just to work. Like, what is the point of that? You, you, you're supposed to be in business to be profitable, to take money. Let me ask you this. Those of you on the Live, and those of you listening to the podcast, if you haven't actually given yourself a paycheck, then you need to attend Profit Accelerator Live. And the webinar is going to help give you some, some infrastructure there. But really, Profit Accelerator Live is where we're going to spend two days dialing in all the aspects of your profits. So you can really. Because you need to be paying yourself. So. Right, that's the, that's the litmus test right there. Like, if you're not paying Yourself. If you're don't have a paycheck, then you're not pricing correctly, you're not profitable. Something is broken there because you should be paying yourself. So you're literally just working yourself to the bone for free and thinking that that's okay. I mean, I'm sure you're paying your bills somehow or another with some money in the business, but that's not how it's supposed to work, right? You're supposed to get paid first, your business is supposed to pay you. And then you can also see what else might need to change. Like, wow, I can't afford myself, or what? Why? Like what am I doing? What in my business is inflated that's taking money away from me? Like, you should be the first employee getting paid. And there's so much more around that, that we, that we will go into of why that is important and how to fix it. But that right there, ask yourself that question. And if that's you, and no shame. We've all been there. Maybe, I mean, maybe some people haven't, but it is a common, especially when you first start out, you know, it's like boots on the ground. You're, you're just trying to do whatever you can just. I forgot the phrase. They're bootstrapping it.
- [21:56]
John Pajak
There you go.
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Naylor Talia Farrow
You just bootstrapping it. You're just trying to, trying to do whatever you got with whatever you got. And I get it. But as soon as you can, you need to figure that out so you can start paying yourself. And that's the only way you're going to progress and make more money and grow your business and build a culture for a team that wants to work and also get paid appropriately.
- [22:14]
John Pajak
So, so what you're saying, Naylor, is this upcoming webinar that we're going to do on Wednesday, April 15, it's not only, hey, you should attend, but then also there's a special offer that's like kind of a one off thing. It's not going to. When the webinar is over, the deal's over, right?
- [22:34]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Correct.
- [22:34]
John Pajak
Correct. So, you know, jump on. 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 paycheck to get your first 30 days on me.
- [23:07]
Naylor Talia Farrow
It'll be your best chance to, to join the Profit Accelerator live. That's. Yeah, I'll say that. Plus, there's always giveaways. I'm always giving stuff away, like really valuable stuff, like, you know, like a book or, you know, swag, whatever. Like, there's always something that, that, that I'm doing to show my apprec. For people that are showing up, you know, in person for the webinars that we do because, you know, you're. It's free, but you have to pay with your attention. So I'm not taking that lightly. You know, like, it's my time, it's your time, and I don't, I want to respect that time. So you show up and we're going to give you as much value as we can in, in the time frame that we have allotted. And, and then we'll go from there. And then hopefully you will see the value in joining Profit Accelerator live. But if not, you're still going to learn at least something ye at the. On the webinar so that you can stop underpricing your work and start making some money.
- [24:00]
John Pajak
Exactly. And the link for that webinar is going to be in the show notes. So if you're interested in that, I'm going to make it real easy for you. Just click on the link in the show notes. It'll be right towards the top. And then this is not to get confused with the Profit Accelerator, which is going to be in June. We'll, we'll release more details about that later as it gets closer. But we just wanted to clear up any, you know, make sure everything's super clear so that, you know, you're like, oh, I'm going to Profit Accelerator. And that's this Wednesday. It's like, nope, nope. There's a webinar that we're doing on Wednesday and then the Profit accelerator is in June. So that'll be a live event. That's going to be those. The live events are always. I find that they're more valuable because we can really spend time with people and see how they're reacting. And then somebody just raises their hand. It's like, yes. Hey, Erica, how you doing? Okay. What, what's your question again? Oh, okay, let's, let's go. Let's. Yeah, let's get that. So we could fix that.
- [25:00]
Naylor Talia Farrow
100, you know. Yeah. And for those of you on, those of you on the live Real quick too. You can. My. The link is in my bio. Or you can message either one of us. You can DM us. We. We'll send you the link. But the link is in my bio. You know, the. When you go on my Instagram and the bio is the information underneath, like the description. The link is right there for you to join the free webinar too. But. But of course, those of you on the podcast definitely click the link in the episode description.
- [25:26]
John Pajak
See, we got. Hey, how to hardscape. I like that guy. He likes me too. So that's cool. And it looks like you've got. I don't have my glass. You got a new follower.
- [25:36]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Appreciate it, Appreciate it.
- [25:38]
John Pajak
We got that. That's awesome. We got celebrate these things. It's wonderful.
- [25:46]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Unfortunately, Instagram Live folks can't hear that, but.
- [25:49]
John Pajak
Oh, just forgot. We're not. We got. We gotta.
- [25:52]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Oh, that's good. Yeah, it's all good. The podcast listeners can hear. So you guys just have to listen to the podcast so you can get some of the extra insight there. The. The paycheck classics.
- [26:01]
John Pajak
Yeah. So we'll have to figure this out. You know, this is the first time we're doing this, so this is a kind of a learning experience for us as well. But I kind of like the idea of streaming live and recording as well. So, you know, there's something people can look at later or, you know, they can watch it now and then listen to it later while they're on their mowers or something.
- [26:23]
Naylor Talia Farrow
So, you know, all the above. Yeah, those. So those of you on Instagram, check out profits with Ajak podcast that's going to have the audio version of our whole conversation here. Some of you are just joining right now. Longtime paycheck follower. Awesome.
- [26:37]
John Pajak
Thank you.
- [26:39]
Naylor Talia Farrow
But so some of you that just hopped on now, just go ahead and watch the replay of the Instagram of this Instagram live and. Or listen to the audio if you're like on a mower or something, you know, listen to the. The podcast episode. So lots of ways to, to join, collaborate, listen, learn. And me personally, I listen to important information multiple times. That's just how I am. That's how I've gotten to where I am. And I know a lot of highly successful people, and I'm not saying that, that, that's me, but I, I am successful to, to. To a degree in, in my own mind anyway. There's a lot of people that are like most people would say they're super successful and they do the same thing. They they, they read things multiple times, they listen to things multiple times, they attend events multiple times, they get in multiple rooms with multiple, with the same people multiple times. Because the more you do it, the more you absorb it and the more you kind of unlock new things. And not for nothing, but you're a different person tomorrow than you are today. So that's why if you've ever watched a movie for the second time that you haven't watched in a few, in, in a few years or something, it kind of hits different, if you know what I'm talking about, you know, like, because you're different. That's why it hits different. So tomorrow you're going to be different. So that's why if you listen to something again tomorrow, something is going to click different. You just catch, pick up on something, or oh, I get it now. Or oh, wow, I missed that. Or it's going to sink in even more. So definitely check out the podcast, rewatch the replay so you can get all the benefits because, you know, it's all about, it's all about winning and not under pricing. It's literally like the number one thing. If you fix that, if you fix your pricing, that's going to change so much for you because then you can pay your employees better, so you can attract better employees, because you can pay them better, you can afford better equipment, you can keep it maintained. You know, so many things. I've heard so many stories. Some of my employees would tell me crazy stories from other companies that I just thought was the most bizarre thing. Here I am thinking, like, oh, man, I hope I'm doing everything right. And I'm trying to, you know, be like the best business owner possible. And I can hear these stories about, yeah, the last, last company I worked for, man, he just would never get his. He had this 10 turn that he would never fix. And we'd have to jump it in the morning and just leave it running all day. And then we had these big acre properties. We'd have to put the gas can on, on, on the front of the mower and we'd be halfway through the lawn. We'd have to just start pouring gas in it while it's still running just so that it wouldn't cut off because then we wouldn't be able to get it started again. And I'm like, what kind of world are we living in right now? And I know that happens. It's just bizarre. But, you know, if you have the money because you're pricing properly and then you actually have the Mindset of actually doing the right thing with the money, you know, that's the other step there. Then you can really grow and progress and pay yourself and have the life that you want. And to. To. To. I forgot the. To Folly's point, I believe said it earlier or some. I forgot to have a. Build a business that works for you, not you work for it. Yeah, right. Me personally, I built a business that. That works around me, not me works around it like a business that's. That revolves around my life, not. Not vice versa.
- [29:52]
John Pajak
And so that, you know, we've. We've known each other for a long time, and I think, you know, we've rubbed off on one another, especially as we kind of grew together. That is exactly what we did. You know, what I did for our company, it is literally not exactly. I mean, we still go out and we do the work and everything. We're not just, you know, theory or anything like that. You know, I built the business that I want. You know, I wanted this versus that because I, like, enjoyed the work a little bit better, you know, And I found that I didn't have to have as many guys working for me or working with me, I should say, to make everybody's life easier and give them, you know, pay them the right wages and ultimately make the business more profitable so that I could sit back and go, all right, what do I need to do? I need to manage this. I don't. I'm not out in the field as much. I still have to go out occasionally to help out. I'm not going to be a jerk about it and bury my guys. But at the same time, and like, all right, well, how can I manage this better? And it's crazy in the reason I mentioned that is like what you said earlier, when you are profitable, you price your stuff, right? And you understand the value of what you're offering. You know, you got to look at it this way. Here's a. Here's a little nugget for everybody. I don't care if you're listening live or if you're hearing the repeat here. Of course, it fell off the cheese, slipped off the cracker too long to get to the point. Anyway, the thing. Oh, dang it. It was so good, too. So good. It will come back to me. Just give me a little grace. Because earlier this week, for several days, I had over 102 fever. And my mind is still getting back to what it was. But, oh, the thing is, I know what it is, what it was. When I started to focus on Those profits and making sure everything was good. Right. I could then put it back into the business. I could make sure that I'm. You know, the guys that are working, they get the good equipment. You know, half the time there might be somebody that's only been working for like two months and all of a sudden they get a brand new piece of equipment. They're not just sitting there with a third hand thing. It's like, okay, they're doing good production. My job is to make sure that they have the right tools and they have good tools that are going to last them. Those other ones, I fixed them enough. Let's put them out the pastures. They'll. They'll be great secondhand, you know, tools for other people. But let's move on. We could, you know, you put those profits in your business, man, it's just, it makes everything easier. It makes, makes it fun again, it makes it more manageable and you get excited about it, so. Probably not exactly what I wanted to say, but, hey, I'll be better lighting it. You know, when we do on Wednesday webinar, we do the webinar. Don't worry, I got some, you know, like, things that I'll stick to so I won't drift off into the ether. What. What happened?
- [33:09]
Naylor Talia Farrow
It's. It's also late and it's Saturday night, so I appreciate all of you tuning in. Appreciate you pay Jack as well. And then I'm gl. Glad you're. You're on the. On the mend here and you're feeling better, so. But I know you gotta. You got plans tonight, so I don't want to. I don't want to keep you too long. So you.
- [33:25]
John Pajak
No, we're good. We're just, you know, I just wanted to. Ian with one other thing too. Most of us, I know it seems like a lot of us have used YouTube and podcasts and everything to like almost get a PhD in business nowadays, which never existed. You know, when I first started my first business, this YouTube wasn't even. It didn't exist, you know, and trying to learn these things was so difficult. The thing I want to point out is, even though there's a lot of information out there, I think it's especially important to like, really look at the people that are offering the, the information, make sure that they're cool, you know, And I don't mean like cool like, hey, I'm popping collars and I got a, you know, I got a cool truck and everything. It's like kind of look behind, behind the scenes a bit and find out if those people are truly honorable. And I'm not trying to, you know, it's not very humble of me, but at the same time, I know from my. The way that I approach life, you know, I have a heart of a teacher. I know Naylor and how he, you know, approaches things. And triplet Eric triplet, the pond digger who is on fire right now with the content that he's throwing out there. It's amazing.
- [34:55]
Naylor Talia Farrow
And fuego.
- [34:56]
John Pajak
And fuego. That's this fire in Spanish. No, but, you know, the thing is, it's like, look to those mentors that actually care. Unfortunately, there's some people out there that are. They're doing all the cool things and they're okay, you know, I mean, I'm not trying to besmirch anybody, but at the same time, they. They don't care. They just want your money. This is why I think we're doing the free webinars, to really just help people and get you pointed in the right direction. Because, I mean, this time of year, you know, we're in the spring of 26, everybody's cooking now. I don't care where you are in the country, even if you're far up north, you are, you're going, you're moving. So, you know, it's important to. If you're. I always highly suggest that you check on your numbers more frequently than, like, once a year. Some guys live by that, and they might keep the same price tag on their stuff for, like, five years in a row. But the thing is, it's just take advantage of this. This is a gift, really. It is. It's kind of a gift to you to come on board the webinar, learn a few things. And if you don't, maybe it's a refresher for you because, you know, if you've been following us for any period of time, you might catch a shadow of something. You know, it's like, oh, I think I've heard him say that before. We say these things over and over again because they work. You know, last year, I. I'll just share something. I, you know, three, we. We gained 346 clients last year. I didn't need to get that many clients, but I was trying to help others, so I went back to the drawing board to go, okay, here. This is what I did. Boom. Oh, well, it's easy to say that. Well, here, let's, let's, let's go. Let. I'm gonna do this with you and my clients. That were working with me, they, they, they didn't get 346, but for their first try at it, I think they did excellent. Because each one of them got well over a hundred new clients that year, last year. So that's nothing to snuff about. Some guys might only have a hundred clients right now, and to generate that in one year is pretty impressive. So.
- [37:11]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Yeah, and to your point, I just wanted to add to your point of like, be careful who you're, who you're listening to or who you're looking at. I mean, just think about from a local perspective or even on social media, because you have no idea. People have like these amazing looking setups. You have no idea how profitable they are, how much over leveraged they are, their overhead and debt and everything. I mean, some of them have it dialed in, some of them don't. I mean, pay. Jack and I both know people that have just crashed and burned at monumental levels and sizes. You know, they seem like they had everything together in one wrong move and it all just came crumbling apart and they had to file bankruptcy. But locally, multiple business, multiple local businesses that are acquaintances of mine had to close their businesses down. And they look like they had it all together. They had all the trucks and trailers and all the employees and they were crushing it. I'm like, man, you know, it's easy to get caught up in that and think, well, why aren't I like that? Or why don't I have more trucks? Or why don't I have that set up? Or why don't I, why don't, don't I have all those accounts? Or how they get all those employees or whatever. Like it's, it's easy to get caught up in that, right? And then, and then they go out of business and you're like, dang, that's unfortunate. But that also shows you like something obviously wasn't going right, something wasn't working for them to go out of business online unless they were just having some personal issues maybe. But I know for a fact, because these are local people, so socially you have no idea. But locally, I'm telling you, that's not the case. They just didn't have their numbers dialed in and they just crashed and burned. Like they just, they just couldn't, they couldn't keep up anymore. They just had no, they were bleeding money everywhere because they weren't pricing properly. They, they had too many expenses, the wrong employees that they were paying, you know, the wrong amount and they, they weren't doing a good job. And they were losing customers and just everything that all of these like facets of your business that you need to have dialed in were just all falling apart. But it all starts with pricing for, for, you know, I mean of course, mindset and having the right mentality like of what to do and how to run your business is helpful, right? Being integr, having integrity and things like that, of course. But you can be the most, you know, integral person and known to mankind. But if you're not pricing properly, you don't have anything to work with. So I know for a fact several businesses in my area that look like they had it all together, they crashed and burned. And it's really unfortunate. So. And some other, some of those same people and some other people that haven't gone out of business have also gotten divorced as well. And so all of that is just tragic to me and it hurts my heart because I have utilized my lawn care business to kind of rebuild my, my life and my relationships in my life. And nothing's perfect. It's always still a work in progress. But it has come a long way and I have made a lot of progress and this business is the main contributor for that. And it's sad to see this business like kind of destroying people's lives because they don't have their numbers dialed in. They don't have the right mindset of, you know, and they're. And they're building their life around a business instead of building the business around their life. So. And essentially they're just an underpaid employee. They're self employed. They're not a business owner.
- [40:27]
John Pajak
They created a monster and then they. The leash got away from them. You know, that's a perfect way to think of it, man, because it's like how many times. I mean that's really what. Actually I didn't even build a monster back then. But it was just a complete unorganized. Yeah, yeah, it was not good. But you know, again, the foundations of your business being able to grow to scale, it does depend on being profitable. It does not. I don't care what else. You know, you could have great cash. You know, another thing is to cash flow. That's something I will be talking about, but you know, not to. I want you to come on Wednesday. That's why I'm not going to spill all the beans right there. If you listen to my show, you probably heard some of this, but we're going to put it into the nice little succinct little thing and you're going to be Able to walk away and go, all right, I'm going to make more money this year. Boom, there we go. And guess what? It's just going to cost a little bit of your time not charging you anything. Link is going to be in the show notes and for nail order, he has it in his bio on his Instagram. So for sure.
- [41:35]
Naylor Talia Farrow
And one other thing I'll say about what you just said is, I mean, we, we could, we could spill all the beans, right? We can give you all the information right now and some of you will be able to take that and do something with it. And some of you need a little more, some of you need the visuals. You need a little more time than an Instagram Live and a podcast to, to dial it in. You know, you need that extra level of a webinar where you can, where we can all get together in a different setting and really break things down with sl, writing things down on smart boards and whatever it is to help you understand and process what we're talking about. And, and we have a little more time to go in more depth as well. And then of course, when you go to live event, that's a whole another level. It's two days worth of in person learning and, and putting action. You know, instead of just theory or just writing notes, you're actually going to take action and have a plan before you even leave. So, so it's all different level. So it's more than the time that we have right now and wanting you to come to the webinar. It's the fact that even if we told you everything now, it'd be a lot for you to process. So we're trying to kind of layer it in, bake it in little by little so that you can get it and then you can make progress with it.
- [42:55]
John Pajak
All right, well, I'm looking forward to seeing everybody on Wednesday. I mean, everybody that's in here. I hope to see you there. Anybody that's listening to the Profits Paycheck podcast, I really would like. This is going to be in two days. This is, we're bumping the schedule up. This is going to be released on Monday. What's today? The 13th, 4? 13, 20, 26. So we're making a special, I wanted to make a special little deal for you guys and you know, put that in, get it there on Monday so that you guys could actually attend, get signed up and everything in an attend on Wednesday. I could pretty much guarantee this is going to be worth your time. And if you.
- [43:36]
Naylor Talia Farrow
I definitely guarantee it's going to be worth your time. If you're going to actually put in the time to attend it, listen to it, and execute on it, then it'll be worth your time.
- [43:46]
John Pajak
Right?
- [43:46]
Naylor Talia Farrow
And that's the thing. Like, we can. We can give all the stuff, but if you don't do anything with it, then it doesn't matter.
- [43:51]
John Pajak
Exactly. Because there's, you know, I'll tell you what, there. So many times I've been at speaking engagements where I've, you know, gave them. I gave people everything, and they just didn't do anything with it. And then I did one, like, I did a podcast that had, like, I talked about one thing, and somebody, you know, about two months later, dme saying, dude, I did this one thing that you told me, and I did it and I did it and I did it and I made way more money. It's like, okay, cool. I'm like, I love that. I love that. You know, it just drives me nuts that sometimes we give them the whole. The keys of the castle and we give them everything and they don't execute on it, which drives me nuts because it's like, you don't have to do every single thing we talk about, but if you, even if you just pick one thing, there's probably going to be, like, a multitude of things that you're going to learn on Wednesday night at the webinar. But, you know, if you just could take one of those things and focus on it, I could almost guarantee it's going to, like, make you money. It's going to improve your. It's going to improve your business, it's going to help improve your life. Because, you know, again, I, Nailor and myself, we built our businesses to fit us, what we want. And that's another huge thing, is whatever your goals are, you know, this is why you don't look. You know, going back to what Naylor was saying, like, some of the really popular people that look like they got it all put together and they got all these vehicles and they got all these employees and all this stuff, they. They probably just built a mo it got going, and then they built this monster. And a lot of people I ask, I pull them off to the side, I'm like, hey, what are your goals? What do you. What are you doing all this for? And they're just like, I'm just doing. I just need to get bigger. Well, why do you need to get bigger? I mean, I need more money. Okay, well, are you just making more money or how about being more profitable? Like, what's your profit look like? You know, I talked to people that have had millions of dollars in revenue, and at the end of it, I'm like, that's amazing. That's great. I love that. What's your profit margin? And they look at me like, blank, and they're like, I don't know. Like, I don't know where the money. My banker says or my accountant says that I have money, but I don't know where it's at. And it's kind of scary. You know, it's like, I want. Me personally, I want to be able to guide you so that you can make the money, make more of it, or work less and make more money, however you want to phrase it. Okay, it's good, but it's got to be based on your goals. No, it's just not to make money, just to make money. Like, what do you want? Because when you get that target in your. Man, I'm telling you, you get that in your sights, you get that target, man, it. You zone in on that, and then it's gonna. It makes it so much easier to hit that target. Because if you're just blindly firing away, I mean, yeah, you're gonna hit something, but is it what you want to hit? You know, maybe you're hunting deer and you accidentally smoke a turkey or something. I mean, hey, turkeys. I love turkey, too, but I wasn't going for that. And the game warden is going to yell at you because you're out of season.
- [47:04]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Yeah. But even if you hit the deer with a shotgun, that's gonna.
- [47:07]
John Pajak
Oh, yeah.
- [47:07]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Versus hitting it dead on, you know, with. With it. With a rifle. So, yeah, you got to be laser focused.
- [47:14]
John Pajak
Exactly. You could shoot them with a shotgun, but you got to use a slug, not a. Not buckshot. Otherwise you're gonna. I shouldn't even say.
- [47:20]
Naylor Talia Farrow
You're gonna make a mess.
- [47:21]
John Pajak
You're gonna make a mess. You know, you're not gonna get, like, you're not going to reap all the rewards of the meats. You're going to ruin it. It's like how a lot of guys ruin their. Their profits. They, you know, buy too many machines or they. They just overextend or they buy because they've never had this kind of money in their life before, and they're just like, why is like a open checkbook. Okay, I could do this, this and that. All right, cool. But, yeah, ultimately, I think I could speak for Naylor at this point, too. We just want what's best for you. We want you to be able to, you know, one, we want to just prove ourselves. Like, hey, we want you to make more money and not just with busy work. We want to be very strategic and make money. So you're not just running around town like crazy, man. You're, you go out, you do the work, you're very specific and you, your profit margins are going to go up. So with that being said, last thing, Naylor, anything you want to leave everybody here with a message or one last little thing?
- [48:29]
Naylor Talia Farrow
I mean, ultimately, if you're serious and not just curious, I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday's webinar where we're going to break more of this down for you so that you can grow the business that you wanted in the first place. Maybe you're struggling, you're not paying yourself, you don't even know what I'm talking about. You know, I know many people are, are struggling with pricing. So let's, let's figure that out together. Let's, let's show you how to fix some things in your business and, and, and, and grow together. So I look forward to seeing those of you that are serious on Wednesday. Link is in the bio, 7pm Eastern, Wednesday, April 15.
- [49:08]
John Pajak
Excellent. We'll ditto that in the show. Notes for profits with ajack here. Again, I want to thank you for taking time with me, Naylor. It's always a pleasure for those of you that are listening and on the live. I really appreciate you, you know, tuning in. Is that the right word? Is that the right word right there? He's tuning in. I don't know, you know, I'm getting a little old here, but again, I appreciate you as always. So we're just gonna log off here and as always, God bless us. Keep pushing through and we'll catch you on the next one.
- [49:41]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Take it easy, guys.
- [49:44]
John Pajak
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.
- [50:55]
Naylor Talia Farrow
Ra.