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Side Hustle Squad
Ep 330. When Everything Breaks: How to Stay Productive in the Field Without Going Back to the Shop!
00:13:44
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- [00:01]
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Are you ready to kick back and get inspired? Grab your favorite drink, pop the top and join the side Hustle Squad with Mike Garvey. This podcast is the perfect resource for anyone who's already started their side Hustle or is just considering taking the lead. With in depth interviews featuring guests from the green industry and beyond, you'll gain valuable insights and learn what it takes to succeed in running a business while juggling a full time career. From personal stories to practical tips, the Soc side Hustle Squad podcast has everything you need to turn your passion into a thriving business. Now, here's your side Hustle Squad host, Mike Garvey.
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Hey, what's going on guys? It's your host Mike Garvey with the side Hustle Squad podcast coming at you from the Brandon Bull Studio here on a Thursday. Getting through the did some more weed controls, got that all done. We're finally through it. It's again, like I said, great being back out in the field. It's where I love to be just so peaceful, just no one bothering me, doing my thing, doing my lawns, doing the weed controls and really just getting it done. Helping out the company to get everybody up, to get everyone caught up. Got a little bit of rain in the forecast, stuff like that. So it was kind of a lot, it was a lot of fun. I mean really just getting back out there, talking with customers. Had a guy, met him at his house, open, unlocked the gate for me and just told me, hey, you guys do a great job. You know, I value you guys. I appreciate the work you do. You may not have the big name of the big brands, the big companies, but that's not always, that doesn't always necessarily mean that you're better just because you have a bigger name or you've been around the longest. Things can fall off, things can happen. And it's really good to know that, that you're growing and that people do value what you do. Ran into a couple issues while I was out in the field. Wanted to talk about what you guys do and think about what are you going to do when you do have a breakdown in field. A machine, hey, something you've run out of product, different. You know, jobs run long. My, my water tank was empty and you know, you're 30 to an hour, 30 minutes to an hour away from the shop. So once I just spark the to get you thinking about what are these some real world, real world issues and then also how, you know, developing strategies that we can talk about to stay productive when things go sideways, you know from. Let's talk about, you know, having backup equipment and trucks that are ready to go or calling in favors from family, friends, really helping out to get things flowing and get things back on track. And you know, you can hope that nothing breaks. You can say that as much as you want, but I guarantee stuff will break, you know, so let's, let's jump in, let's talk about it. Let's see. We've run into a couple different issues. When we first started out, we had one truck, we had a pickup truck. And then we went through a pickup truck and trailer. And you know, if that truck goes down, do you have a second truck that you could use or do you have a rental truck that you could be able to pick up or a rental trailer to be able to pick up? There's some, some, a lot of different things. So I was over the. Where I ran into two issues. When I was out, I was about 40 minutes from the shop. And we have a 200 gallon water tank. And it goes pretty quick on some of these jobs, especially the bigger ones. We do a lot of stone, some commercial stone, stone, st. Spraying for weeds, some like yacht clubs and boat clubs and stuff like that. And then, you know, goes pretty quickly. And else the, the, the other option is to, you know, drive all the way back to the shop to get more. Another 200 gallons of water. But that's gonna kill me. Probably, you know, 40 minutes back to the shop, another half hour to fill another 40 minutes, you know, that you could get eight houses done in that time. What I did was I had a co worker who's also a customer at, who lives over there. And I said, hey Eric, can I just grab some water from your hose to fill my truck up, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, no problem. And almost treated it as like a little substation really to, you know, okay, if I'm out this way, I could fill up here. If I'm over there, I can fill up here. If I'm over there, this is where I'm gonna go. I could shoot back or am I carry another tank of water to be able to do like backpack sprays and stuff like that. But it's stuff that you got to think about another issue. I had my air conditioning went in the truck. I had my dog with me. And I know it was a fuse. I had to go get some fuses for the truck. You know, where are you going over there? There's not a Home Depot, so you got to know your surroundings, equipment breakdowns, like, what are you guys carrying on your trucks that. Do you have a tool, a whole, you know, toolbox filled with everything that you're neat, you're going to need? Do you have other things that you know? Do you have everything that you, you think that you'll need in case something goes sideways? Because going back to the shop is going to kill your, kill your production. You're going to lose production hours, you're going to throw off the route, you're going to lose money on fuel, drive time, labor, and the stress just keeps stacking up. So every, every trip that you go back to your shop is a profit, a profit killer. So there is a real difference that between being reacting to problems or planning for problems. So I think the best in the game, the people that have been around and thrive and are most profitable, that they assume things will go wrong. And what are we going to do to keep everything ready to go? Do you have extra product? Do you have for weed control or mosquito or lawn fertilization? Do you have everything stocked? Do you have all your signage? Do you have your toolkit? Do you have ppe gloves, masks, goggles, safety glasses, backup nozzles for backup hoses, backup parts for your permagreen, for your tank sprayer? Do you have extra product on hand? Fertilizer, herbicide? Do you carry other herbicides on the truck? What if someone asks, hey, can I add this to this service right now? Can I add weed control today? Are you able to do it? Are you able to do it right there or is it just gonna, oh, but I'll come back out on another day and do it, and then you're wasting a whole nother trip there. Do you have everything on board? Do you have a smaller spreader, not just a permagreen, because in case something happens to the permagreen, or is there a gate that's too small that you need to fit through? Do you have extra batteries for your crest stuff? Do you have secondary tanks or a backpack sprayer in case your main, your main tank goes down? And also having backup vehicles and trailers or at least a backup plan. So let's take a quick break. On the other side of the break, we'll talk about networking, route planning and some other helpful tips that we can discuss. Hey, what's going on, guys? With Jobber, you can easily manage jobs, track your team, get paid faster, all from one simple app. Join thousands of satisfied lawn care professionals who trust Shopper to keep their business growing strong. Visit the link in the bio today and start your free trial. Hey, guys.
- [08:54]
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Adam, Fullerton here with branded Bull. As a proud sponsor of the Side Hustle Squad podcast, we're all about helping lawn care and landscaping businesses make their mark and stand out from the competition. Visit us@brandable.com to learn more about our professional branding website and graphic design services and how we can help your business look awesome and grow.
- [09:15]
B
All right, we're back from the break. Talking about breakdowns, talking about having backup vehicles and all these things that kill your profit when things go wrong. I think it's good to have a network of people in your life, family members that can help you, that can, that you can rely on, and developing friends in the industry. You know, that guy is not your competition. He could. Not everyone looks at each other as competition. There's other people that are looking to help you. The is, if your one mower goes down, you only have one mower. Is there someone around that could let you borrow something or help you out or teach you how to fix something or all of the above stuff to think about. Who could bring, who could swap equipment out with me right now? Who could bring me product right now? Or where's my closest dealer? Where's my closest supply shop? All of this stuff is things to think about. Route planning. Are you starting, starting your route, starting far away and working your way back, or are you starting close and working your way out because you'll need to run back to the shop to refill gas? Is, are you refilling at lunch? Are you refilling in the morning? Of are you refilling the night before? It's really things to think about. And as the years go on and the experience progresses, I think it's. It's good to learn from others and make yourself better again. We like to treat our trucks as our shop. We have a couple of box trucks and if you don't have it on the truck, it's just like you don't have it. So we try to, we don't try to have unnecessary stuff there, but we try to have as much stuff as we can to make it easy for routing. Make sure you know you're using a system. We use Jobber. Obviously it has route optimization giving us the best possible route. That is a huge game changer. We used to just plug in an address and then try to figure it out where it should be going. And a lot of downtime. You don't have to be perfect. You're going to work through this. I think especially just starting out, you're not going to eliminate your problems. You're just going to recover some of your time because being prepared for all of this stuff and thinking about your route, thinking about what's on your truck, thinking about backup systems, thinking about where your dealers are, where your repair shop, where your Home Depots are, where, where, you know, your support system, people, you know, family, friends, other lawn and landscape guys, just start thinking about it. If you, if something breaks right now, what's your plan? If you break, if your truck breaks down, how are you towing it? Okay, where are you going? You have a reliable mechanic, so I challenge you to build one backup system to something this week. And we're looking at our stuff right now too, so time to think about contingency plans and moving the ball forward and increasing your profit. Catch you guys on the next one.
- [13:01]
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Thanks for tuning in to the side Hustle Squad Podcast with Mike Garvey. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained valuable insights to help you succeed in your Side Hustle journey. Connect with Mike using the links in the podcast description. If you love the show, please leave us a well worded five star review on Apple Podcast. Your feedback and support help us grow and continue to provide you with the best content. And don't forget to follow the show to be notified when the next edition of the side Hustle Squad Podcast is available. We have many exciting guests and topics lined up so you won't want to miss a single episode. Thanks again for listening and we'll catch you next time on the side Hustle Squad Podcast.