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Side Hustle Squad
Ep 345. Lessons Learned Launching ROPED: What Nobody Tells You About Starting a Business!
00:15:42
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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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What's going on guys? It's your host, Mike Garvey with the side Hustle Spot podcast coming at you from the Branded Bull Studio here on another week, another Tuesday. And yeah, we're cruising right along, like I said, getting App three done, dodging a little bit of weather this week, some pop up storms and whatnot, couple new weed controls, couple new mosquito controls and then cruising through App three. Then we're headed up north to get that all, get all those people situated before 4th of July with their mosquito spraying and their lawns. So we'll do that and then everything going on with roped. So I wanted to pull back the curtain a little bit about roped, about launching this new business and you know, some challenges, some wins and really do something a little different. Share some lessons that I've learned over the past several months. Launching Roped robotic outdoor power equipment distributors, Kress's Jersey Shore Crest dealer. And you know, a lot of times, like we know on social media, you always see the highlights, you see the trailers, you see the, you see the, you know, the glass, the winds, the striping, the events, the meetings, the partnerships and just everything, assuming everything magically comes together. But again, starting a business, it can. And as you do it more and more, this is, it's messy, it's exciting, but it's also, you have some uncertainty, you have challenges, you have a lot of hard work ahead of you and things can get away. But I wanted to share a couple of lessons that I've learned, I mean so far to maybe somebody who's thinking about starting a business. And this applies to just starting out a long landscape business, starting out a side hustle, starting out some new endeavor. So let's hear from the show sponsors real quick and then we'll jump right in.
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Side Hustle at checkout hey guys, 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 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.
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We don't have every answer and you're not going to have every answer to start. And I, you know, at roped I didn't, I don't know what real I didn't know really what the organ, the organizational char will look like, what the dealership network will look like. I don't know every operational detail, but if you wait and just try to think out every situation and really death by analyzing and never taking action, you're never going to push anything. So I think every everything I do, every demo I go on, every install I have done, every interaction with a customer, I have to say that one of the biggest lessons I think it's it comes to communication, clarity and learning something new on every single thing. So you're not going to have every answer, but you're going to learn something new at every single thing interaction you do with your business. Just like by attending live events, you're going to come away with at least something that you want to implement into your business or something that you want to work on or something you haven't thought of. And you're going to come out with multiple things. But you need to take action on some of those things, not just think about them. Which leads me to number two, which is creating relationships with people, relationships with landscapers, with my relationship with Crest, my relationship with golf course superintendents, municipalities, relationships built through podcasting and attending those live events. And what I've learned is that opportunities rarely come from just sitting behind in a corner. Tonight I'm going to my. I've been a member of the chamber of commerce for a couple years. I have never attended a live event. I am going tonight 5:30 to 7:30 to this happy hour at this Tom's or brewing company and to talk about to network with people about roped and about Coastal. So what I've learned is that again things rarely get done from sitting behind there. But when you get out there and you meet new people and you shake hands, you have conversations, you're really putting yourself out there on. Let's talk about going to the lawn and landscape tech converse that's coming up. It's a smaller event but you are in there with the lawn and landscape industry. Top 100 to really get around some people and really talk with them and learn and grow and network and go into equip expo, go into sponsor games, go into pick one thing that you want to go do for the year and jump into it. I think just by sitting back and letting things come to you, it's not always the case. I sold a robot to a guy that was at a, was at a pool party or a barbecue graduation party I was at and we just got to talking and it's just you never know where things are going to take place. People ask you what you do. Hey, on a lawn care business. Oh, whereabouts? Oh, I live there. Oh. Who do you use? Oh, nobody. But I'm looking for somebody to do xyz. Oh, I do that. Boom, you're here. Well, here's my link. Fill it out and I'll get you an estimate. Because you know, creating network, creating relationships, that is what it's all about. Which leads me to learning the market I have. When we first launched I, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do, you know, but you know exactly what customers I want to hit. But there are. The thing with roped is that there's not a single ideal customer. There is a homeowner, there is a landscaper, there is a school, there is a municipality, there's a golf course, there are property managers and we're starting to navigate what direction we're going to go. We see a lot of landscapers with the hand tools. We see a lot of home owners with the smaller robots. You know, we see different people with the different municipalities, golf courses, et cetera, with the bigger robots and the voyager. So I trying to find that ideal client. Like I'm very clear on what my ideal client is for Coastal. It's, you know, it's someone that has a nice manicured Lawn that wants their home to look beautiful. And they invest time and money. They have a sprinkler system, hopefully and they get mulch every year. And they want everything looking good. They want their kids free of mosquito bites, they want weeds out of their beds and they want their property looking good. And they're not looking to pinch pennies over every little single thing. It's something that I know what my ideal client is, but what roped. It's very difficult because we have different sections of different ideal clients for different robots. So robots and handhelds and stuff like that for different situations. So really figuring all that out, which lead me again, people are not going to leads me to vision. Right? Not everyone is going to get your vision. No one, not no one thinks like you. You don't think like everybody else. And that's okay because you don't need to convince people. You don't need to really tell people what you're doing and have them get it. Some people will say battery powered robots and battery powered equipment and robots. That's not going to work. People say you're crazy. People will doubt you, say, do you even know what you're doing? And it's really not your goal to convince everybody of what you're doing. The goal is to find people who understand where the industry is headed. And I have mentors in the robotics space now that I've met that are guiding me through that because they get it, they've been there, they're ahead of me, they're helping me. And that's what, you know, find somebody that is in business and has done it before you to guide you in the right way. That's why I teamed up with Larry. He's built a business in the lawn care industry. So then for us to redo it all over again and build it again a different way and avoid some mistakes. And then he's changing some tactics that he's been doing on his business. Social media and advertising and understanding branding and, and getting jobber and all that stuff. And it's been a great relations. Another thing too is think about building your team before you're even going to need it. What is your first hire going to be? Who is going to be in that, in that place? So you're not just taking this all on by yourself. It could be your spouse. Even though she could be working already, she might be helping you with the vision and the organization and to eventually get her to a point where she doesn't have to go to work or can help you or then you can hide higher out. I've had so many people helping me with this. From my buddy Ryan, who I grew up with since the third grade, who just wants to help me stay organized and push the ball down the field. And he comes from Corporate World in New York, but he is learning and helping me. You know, Larry, again, just keeping everything organized, operational things working, customer communication. Patrick, who's on the amazing creation side. The knowledge that he's learning from all of this, from everything from the handhelds and he's using all the stuff in the field. My buddy Eric, traveling with me down to Charlotte to go to Voyager Trading and to learn more and then start developing our golf program. I can talk to them about the vision. And I say this, not everything has to go through you. Delegate, Try to find people that are looking to help you and keep you keep some stuff off your plate. Because the reality is that every single successful company is not run by one person. It is run by a team. It is a team sport.
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It is.
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Then one person on a basketball team can't do everything. One person on the quarterback needs receivers. The quarterback needs offensive linemen to protect him. So the sooner you stop trying to make everything done, get done by yourself, you'll be that much better off to grow and learn. So I would. Letting others contribute their ideas, delegating to other people. When people ask what they could help you and bring different personalities, have your team take an enneagram test and learn who they are, because that's going to build a great team. So I think getting our, you know, first customer has been. Been very cool of a homeowner. She's been real patient with us learning and so we've been. Now it's real, right? We do the install, we do the demo. We, we have everything. It's real. We have responsibility, we have proof of concept, we have everything is here. We're doing an install for a landscape company with four robots at a community college. This is big and I can't wait to roll it out. So making the order, uploading the firmware and the software to the robots, making sure everything's up and ready to go. This is going to be really cool. Excuse me. To talk about and, and, and show you guys keep the momentum with your business. We're keeping the momentum. One meeting. Have meetings with your team members. Have meetings with your, your person, your me, your mentor. Because again, one meeting leads to another. One install leads to another. One referral leads to another referral. And one partnership leads to another partnership. Another opportunity leads to growth. So I think the key to staying in the game is keeping the momentum going. So get out there, network, grow, delegate. If you think you have everything figured out. But I encourage you, what's the worst that happens? Again? Start the business, launch the podcast, make the phone call to the lead, send the email, schedule the meeting. Take action because action creates opportunity. So we're still in the very early innings at Rope, but again, I'm excited about where we're headed. I'm excited to share it with all of you. We'll leave it at that. We'll catch you guys on the next one.
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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.