Ep 92. Growing Too Fast Almost Broke My Landscaping Business | Dan Wanders

Summary

The Cost of Doing Business Podcast – Ep 92

"Growing Too Fast Almost Broke My Landscaping Business"

Host: Weston Zimmerman
Guest: Dan Wanders (Raymar Landscapes)
Date: January 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this candid conversation, host Weston Zimmerman sits down with Dan Wanders, owner of Raymar Landscapes, at the after-hours of the Landscape Ontario show. Together, they discuss the realities of rapid business growth, the painful lessons learned from overextending, the importance of systems and efficiency, and practical advice for landscaping entrepreneurs. Dan shares his journey of nearly losing his business and rebuilding it with a new approach, highlighting the difference between revenue and profitability and the necessity of resilience and humility in business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Company Background & Evolution

[00:32–01:26]

• Dan took over the family landscaping business in 2018.
• Initially expanded to 2–3 crews; later scaled back to a core crew of two plus Dan.
• Raymar Landscapes focuses on natural hardscapes, flakestone, planting, mulching, and water features, leaning towards a “peaceful oasis” style rather than modern, geometric pools.
  • Dan: “We like to do hardscapes like a natural, like the flakestone… kind of like flowing and like a peaceful oasis of sorts.”

2. Getting Into Water Features

[01:27–02:02]

• Entered water feature work accidentally through Dan’s father in the early 2000s and a key employee’s interest; developed strong vendor relationships to support this niche.

3. Dan’s Role & The Critical Importance of Efficiency

[02:14–03:57]

• Dan handles estimating, project management, planning, and onsite operations.
• Efficiency is emphasized through forward planning and disciplined logistics, reducing costly downtime and inefficiency.
  • Weston: “People really underestimate the power of any of efficiency and the hidden cost… it doesn't have to take long before you start being like that's enough to wipe out my profit for the whole year.” [03:02]

4. Discovering & Implementing Systems (SynkedUP Software)

[03:57–05:53]

• Dan explains how SynkedUP (business management software) helped with job costing, tracking, and real-time numbers.
• He stresses the importance of software that’s simple and efficient for field workers.
  • Dan: “Simplicity for the guys on their phone… it was simplicity and efficiency. Like to be efficient, I needed to know real numbers on hand…” [04:14]
• Lesson: Software alone doesn’t solve management; consistent oversight and staff training is critical.

5. The Fallout of Rapid Growth ("Growing Too Fast Almost Broke Me")

[05:35–08:12, 13:02–17:35]

• Despite record revenues, Dan realized profit was dropping due to inefficiencies, mismatched pricing, and insufficient oversight.
• Letting staff run jobs without proper tracking led to cost overruns (hidden expenses, unexpected rentals, materials).
  • Dan: “That job just went from like 15, 20 profit to like, I just lost money on that job, thinking it was creating money.” [07:05]
• Over-investment in equipment (buying rather than renting) and giving too much financial authority to employees caused cash flow issues during slow periods.

6. Systemization & Process Documentation

[08:12–12:56]

• Dan and Weston discuss the importance of processes and “playbooks” for scalable training.
  • Weston (on the ‘Camcorder Method’ from the book Buy Back Your Time): “Record yourself doing the thing, talk out loud about what it is you’re doing, why you’re doing it… so it’s not just like a black box.”
• Tools like Loom (video & screen recording) help capture step-by-step training for both in-office and field roles, making onboarding and consistency much easier.
  • Dan: “I like that idea. You can be like, here, watch this video… Sometimes, especially being a smaller company, to find that time to take it because you stop your work… So they can just watch your video while you’re still keeping stuff going on.” [12:25–12:56]

7. The Hardest Season: Financial Crunch After Overexpansion

[13:02–14:32]

• Dan recounts the disastrous winter of 2023–24: grew to 7–8 employees and lots of overhead, only to face a drought of work, lay off staff, and nearly collapse financially.
  • Dan: “It’s almost at a point where it’s like, sell everything and be done with it. But you’re like, I think we can keep going… You kind of just dig your hole, and then you don’t realize you’re at the bottom of a pit…”
• 2024 was a survival year; 2025 recovered to a “solid” but not sensational year, restoring hope.

8. Lessons Learned from Fast Growth & Overextension

[14:32–18:10]

• Major mistakes:
  • Giving employees too much unchecked purchasing power.
  • Buying equipment for potential instead of proven, regular need.
  • Mistaking revenue for sustained profitability.
  • Allowing ego (“shiny equipment”) to drive decisions rather than practical evaluation.
• Dan now focuses on gradual, cash-driven growth:
  • “Move at the speed of cash.” (Dave Ramsey principle)
  • Plan meticulously, grow at a sustainable rate, avoid debt and equipment overload.
  • “Looking back, a lot of it was like self inflicted for sure. But it teaches you well.”

9. Advice for New Landscaping Business Owners

[18:10–20:44]

• Buy secondhand, avoid overextending, focus on what you do best.
• Push your reputation locally and consistently deliver quality and reliability.
  • Dan: “What people come back for is… they like working with you… the quality of work you do… the consistency.”
• Communication is everything—set expectations transparently with customers.
  • Dan: “If something goes wrong… as long as you inform them… they’re like, oh, no problem. You show up [and] they’re ready.”
  • Weston: “Be the easiest to do business with.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Efficiency:
  Weston [03:02]: “People really underestimate the power… of efficiency and the hidden cost because it’s not very obvious… all you have to do is start adding up… it doesn't have to take long before you start being like that's enough to wipe out my profit for the whole year.”

• On Learning the Hard Way:
  Dan [07:05]: “That job just went from like 15, 20 profit to like, I just lost money on that job, thinking it was creating money.”

• On Systemizing Training:
  Weston [09:40]: “[Use] the Camcorder Method… record yourself doing the thing, talk out loud about what it is you’re doing, why you’re doing it... It forces you to kind of articulate what’s going on.”

• On Narrowing Focus:
  Dan [14:58]: “Should have rented it first to see how often we need it… a little bit in my own head of like ego, of like, oh, let’s have all this equipment… but it sat in the shop for six months…”

• On Growing Carefully:
  Dan [18:31]: “Move at the speed of cash… Do what you’re good at and like, manage what you can… It’s a grind. It takes years of just grinding and pushing and pushing… keep the quality of work.”

• On Customer Trust:
  Dan [19:27]: “Setting expectations is key… keeping that trust.”
  Weston [20:20]: “Be the easiest to do business with…”

• Entrepreneurial Resilience:
  Weston [20:46]: “Your risk tolerance has got to be like… There’s a name for this when you can’t feel pain. You know, it’s a little bit like that for entrepreneurs, right?”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:32] Dan introduces Raymar Landscapes and company history
• [01:27] Origins of water feature work
• [02:14] Dan’s day-to-day, logistics, and focus on efficiency
• [03:57] Discovering/implementing SynkedUP; tracking numbers
• [05:35] “Best revenue ever”—but where did the profit go?
• [08:12] Lessons on systemizing with playbooks and process videos
• [13:02] The hardest year: nearly losing the business to overexpansion
• [14:32] Mistakes: overbuying, unchecked authority, learning from failure
• [18:10] Advice for new owners: move at speed of cash, focus on trust and service
• [19:27] Setting expectations & being easy to work with

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Takeaways & Action Points for Business Owners

• Efficiency Pays: Track all activities and costs; small inefficiencies can erase profit.
• Don’t Mistake Revenue for Profit: Rapid growth without oversight leads to painful losses.
• Systemize Training: Use simple tools and clear documentation; don’t rely on tribal knowledge.
• Rent Before You Buy: Evaluate true equipment needs based on usage, not ego.
• Grow With Cash, Not Debt: Scale sustainably and keep reserves for lean periods.
• Communicate & Build Trust: Customers value reliability, communication, and follow-through above all.
• Share Your Lessons: Speak openly about mistakes; experienced entrepreneurs can help prevent others from repeating them.

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For more on Raymar Landscapes: [raymarlandscapes.com]
Find Weston Zimmerman and SynkedUP at syncedup.com or on Instagram @synkedup.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Cost of Doing Business podcasts. Things on Instagram are pretty shiny, but here we're going to get to the reality behind the scenes on the hard journey of growing a business so we

[B]

can all learn from each other.

[A]

I'm your host, Weston Zurman, co founder of Synced Up. Been in the green industry my whole life. Let's get into it.

[B]

What's up, guys? I'm here at the Landscape Ontario show. It's after hours. Everything got quiet.

[A]

Quiet.

[B]

I'm here with Dan for another episode of the Cost of Doing Business podcast. So, Dan, kick it off here with introducing yourself. What does your business look like? How many people in your company, what kind of work do you do? Like, what's your bread and butter type jobs, that kind of thing?

[C]

Okay. We're a landscape company and I've been doing it for, well, since I was very small working for my dad. Okay. He started in the late 80s, and then basically in 2018, I took over from him. He was going a different direction in his life. We kind of grew a little bit to like two and a half, three crews. And now we're back to just like myself running a crew of two guys.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

We like to do hardscapes, like a natural, like the flakestone. We do a lot of planting, mulching, some water features and a lot of maintenance for water features.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

It's kind of the way we like to go and. And not so like modern, such landscaping. Like some guys do, like, kind of like pools and all, like squares and everything. Like, kind of like flowing and like a peaceful oasis of sorts. Interesting. That's kind of the way.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Awesome. And how did you get into the water feature side of things?

[C]

That was more kind of by accident. My dad just. He started like early 2000s. I think 2001 was his first water feature.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And he was like through Aquascape and everything.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And then he built some. And then over the years we started building and then we got Thomas hired on whenever. That was probably 10 years ago. And he really liked water features. So we just kind of went that direction and started working with a local store. And then they would give us kind of meanest people and had all the products and everything at that time. So that's kind of how we started.

[B]

Okay. Okay. Okay. Awesome. So talk to me about what your day to day looks like. Like, what are your main. Like what's your. The main things that you're focusing on in your. In your role in your business?

[C]

Oh, that would be kind of like Anywhere from estimating to running a site with the guys.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I try to get them going during the day. I, I try to keep the day kind of like a 7 on site to like 4:35 o'. Clock. So I will get them going and then if I have meetings I'll leave like midday usually around like lunchtime I'll go well sell more jobs or meet people. But a lot of yeah. On on site stuff of machine operation, of organizing. I used to have the guys doing a lot of like the manual stuff but I'm doing all the making sure everything lines up because I really like the structure of like efficiency.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Of so I like to plan. I'll. I'll be calling suppliers like a week, two weeks up and hey, can I have it this day? And they're like oh that's really helpful. Usually people are like calling me same day, they're like can I get something now?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I like to plan and have the efficiency there.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

That's really, really key. I think people really underestimate the power of any of efficiency and the hidden cost because it's not very obvious of their inefficient activities actually have on the business. It's mind boggling just how much it is. All you have to do is start adding up. Pulling into a gas station to get f. The extra run to the supplier to get an extra layer of pavers you forgot or like all it doesn't have to take long before you start being like that's enough to wipe out my profit for the whole year.

[C]

Yep.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I had guys who would go out for anywhere from like. Yeah. As they were coming back they stopped by the gas station for a quick like some candy or whatnot.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And. And it would just like I'm like where did this hour or two or ten go? And it was like you're losing a lot. And I was always like a numbers guy too. So I'm looking at the numbers. I'm like certain numbers we gotta hit and then when we didn't hit them I'm like where did we go?

[B]

What happened?

[C]

So I kept searching through. That's where synced up was very helpful. I go okay, this is, I can track it much better. So I have peace of mind. So that's why I like that.

[B]

Yeah. Talk about your how you got to how you found synced up and like what, what you saw that you wanted for your business.

[C]

For that part I wanted simplicity for the guys on like their phone. Like the app was super helpful. There's other Softwares for like the computer side estimating and everything was working okay. But yeah, that time was mostly. Can I teach the guys how quick can they learn? So I find there was like a little videos by yourself and I forget who else really. Hey, this is how you do it in like a short amount of time. So the guys aren't sitting there for like four hours like trying to figure out. So like, hey, this is a video. Watch it. Can you do it? So we had a couple like onboarding meetings with the guys early on. I'm like, hey, can you figure this out? So every couple hours we just go for a couple hours, have a break. And we figured out, got their phones out, got computers out and just figured it out. So it's simplicity and efficiency. Like to be efficient, I needed to know real numbers on hand because back in the day my dad would be like, you send out the contract, you wait two weeks, you get it back, there's like some changes and it's just a slow process where I like, if, if you can get back to them quick, you sell more jobs. If yes, be efficient. I find you sell more jobs and if you know your numbers, like I had a time probably two, three years ago of I didn't know my numbers. I let the guys do it too much and then it just was like best like revenue ever. But like profit was way down. I'm like, where did that come from? So it was lessons learned and kind of why we was that before.

[B]

Before or after you had gotten synced up?

[C]

That would have been actually after. So basically I think, I think I led. Oh, software will run them. And I, I kind of like stepped back a little bit and I just ran jobs and got working.

[B]

So you weren't paying attention to the actual numbers again throughout the year? Yeah, got it.

[C]

Understood.

[B]

So when you realize what had happened, did you have all the hours per job? Like, did you have the job costing? You needed to kind of figure out like where it went sideways.

[C]

It went. It went sideways a bit of. Yeah, basically just probably pricing is slightly wrong because when I'm on site with the guys is different than if they're like three guys are on site who aren't me. The efficiency just goes down. No fault of anyone's. It's just.

[B]

Just is what it is.

[C]

Experience.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Do a little less like heart in the work probably too.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So that would be. I think, I think it was after. But yeah, I just. Oh, this software will fix the problems of less management. But I think, I think I, I mistrained them or didn't train them enough, so they kind of got behind. And, yeah, it kind of went spiraling.

[B]

What was it that they weren't doing?

[C]

That would probably be mostly just, like, tracking correctly, like, where the costs were. So I thought from my end, when I reviewed it, I'm like, okay, we were under budget on, like, materials, but then when I went back to, like, QuickBooks or something, I wasn't quite using them together yet. But I'm like, okay, we were actually, like, way over budget on material. What happened? So I go talk to them, and they're like, oh, we needed, like, an extra 2 yards of concrete and we needed extra mesh, and we needed all this.

[B]

I'm like, oh, nice to know, huh?

[C]

We rented this machine too, because we needed it. I'm like, oh, so now that job just went from, like, 15, 20 profit to, like, I just lost money on that job, thinking it was creating money.

[D]

So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

And so today, is there anything you can point at? It's different about your process today. That solves that for you?

[C]

For myself would probably be just, like, keep a close track on it. And what I'm working on this. This winter actually, is just to systemize everything. So when stuff comes in, it's just like, what is the process? So, anyone? Yeah, that's a bit of a challenge. But right now it's just tracking it. So if I send out a estimate, do I follow up? And then the answer is like, oh, I don't actually do that. So a little bit more of just like, okay, what is that? And what does that look like to be repeatable for other people and thinking and process?

[B]

It's one thing to know how to do it yourself. It's another thing to be able to let somebody else come in and be like, oh, I can do this, you know?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Basically, what is teachable? What is, like, trainable? What is. Yeah. What is possible for someone else?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So it's just. Yeah. Redirecting that software really helps that part of it. It's just doing the part.

[B]

So do you read books? Like, do you get into business books at all or anything?

[C]

Usually in winter, I will get into books a bit more. And then I'm like, I'll keep this up all year, but. April, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Have you ever heard of the book called Buy Back youk Time? It's a blue cover.

[C]

Who has mentioned this before?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so. Because what you were talking about reminded me of something I read in that book, which in the book, it's called Camcorder Method. And Basically, it's like, in the same way that you're thinking about this winter, like, processes how I get. What's the process, how can I get somebody else to do it, that kind of thing. Like, probably the biggest takeaway I took from that book that I do today, every, like, is we do it in synced up is like, let's say I have a thing that I'm currently the only one that knows how to do it. And it's maybe, you know, multi step. And it's not just as simple as, like, yeah, you know, do it, you know. Yeah, exactly. So what I did, the idea I got from that book called the Camcorder Method, was just like, record yourself doing the thing, talk out loud about what it is you're doing, why you're doing it. Because when you talk out loud, you're like, oh, but yeah, then sometimes you have to. It forces you to kind of articulate what's going on. So it's not just like a black box, whoever's watching the video. Right. Uh, but yeah, just record yourself doing it. And then the way I do it, like, especially if the task is something on my phone or my computer, is I use an app called Loom L O O M. And. And so what's really nice about that is you can screen record. It has like your little avatar, your little head, like webcam down in the lower corner. So you can see your screen and you can see the person, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And then you can talk and then you can. So let's say I am trying to automate a bit of a bookkeeping process for my business, right? So I'll record the thing. I'll record myself doing the task. I'll talk out loud while I'm doing it. Then I. Loom has this feature where you can copy the transcript of the video and I'll dump the transcript into AI Be like, hey, create this playbook for me, like, bullet, bullet. And create like a two to three sentence definition of done. Like, when it's done, this is the definition of done, you know? And so we just create this whole library. We call them playbooks, or you could call them SOPs or whatever, but like whole library of these things. And then, like, recently we hired a person in our business to take over this one role. And it was. It was a. It was a role that I had done quite a bit of Playbooks and processes, documentation, this thing, this thing I'm talking about. And like, it was amazing. Like, the onboarding process was so easy. She's crushing it. She's doing an incredible job. And it's just like. Yeah, yeah. So it's just like so much. It have been so much harder if I'd have been like, okay, come sit with me for half a day and I'll teach you xyz and then sit with me another half a day. Like do that for months. And then. Oh, by the way, then she leaves or whatever. So like then now you're starting all over at square one. But when it's in like documentation like that you can. It's so much more free. It gives you more leverage to like hire people and off board that task delegate. Like so it's a mindset too.

[C]

But also what I like about that they can kind of work at their own pace.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

If they want to get it done in.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Two days, three days.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

But also I find sometimes. Yeah. Having the patience with that person for half a day when they're so.

[B]

And they're trying to drink from a fire hose, you know.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

How do I explain this? Like gently. But it's like, I do it this way and why you're not doing it that way. Let's go fast.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

No, we gotta learn this. So. Oh, that's cool.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Now, of course, like doing it and doing it like doing that for like in the field processes is not as easy as just recording your screen. You'd have to shoot a video and all that. But still same same concept. And in fact, that app I was talking about, loom. It lets you record camera only. So it doesn't have to be a screen sharing. You can still do it on the field. Get the transcript.

[D]

Yeah. Cool.

[C]

So

[B]

it's a game changer when it comes to just. Now everybody can look over your shoulder forever on how to do the task. And it lets the person that you just hired and onboarded and trained how to do it reference back. Hey, what about that one little detail? They can just go back there and look instead of talking to you. Exactly, exactly. Now the mindset that I'm in is. Oh, you ask me a question. Huh. I need to clarify that in the playbook. I'm not. I'm gonna. Sure, I'll answer your question. But let's update the playbook, you know.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Cool.

[D]

I like that.

[C]

I like that. Yeah. Because training guys is challenging because I like that idea. You can be like, here, watch this video.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Not figure it out. Have questions. But also on site sometimes, especially being a smaller company to find that time to like take it because you stop your work where you're trying to keep everything going to train one of the guys who's trying to learn something, and then it's also the guy underneath him. That's like watching the inefficiency kind of.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Compounds.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So they can just watch your video while you're still keeping stuff going on.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

What is the most difficult challenge you've ever dealt with in your business?

[C]

Oh, the ongoing challenge, I would. I would think is like, keeping guys around for winter. Huh. That's kind of just always in the back of my mind. The biggest challenge was probably what year 2023. We. We were going strong, lots of jobs going on by. Too many things going on at once, and we hit a wall of, like, no work. So I had to, like, offload guys and everything. And then 2024 was actually a very challenging year, mostly for the fact because we had built it up for, like, seven, eight guys for, like, overhead equipment and everything, we were down to two guys working for me and myself. So you. You were kind of like, just getting choked out that if you didn't make, like, the bit, like, money coming in, then you're going to be, like, crushed by, like, equipment debts or payments or leases or anything like that. So working out of that was challenging. And a lot of work and kind of like grinding it out. It's almost at a point where it's like, sell everything and be done with it. But you're like, I think we can keep going. I think we can keep going. So I was going to say wait to end of 2024 and see how it was. We got, like, by. And I'm like, I think we can make it through winter. So 2025 is like, let's go. And 2025 turned out to be a really good, like, a solid year. I wouldn't say it's, like, way above average, but it was just like, a solid, good year. So we got to the end of the year. I'm like, okay, there's hope to. You kind of just dig your hole, and then you don't realize you're at, like, the bottom of a pit, basically, and you start working your way out. But, yeah, that's probably the hardest thing.

[B]

Was there things inside of your control? Looking back 2025, 2024, 2023, was there things that you could have done to lessen the blow or to rebound quicker? Like, I'm just curious, like, there's some. There's an element to where some things. Like, there are things outside of your control. Right. But what were my. What I'm really digging at is what were the things possibly inside of your control that now, with hindsight you see now, right.

[C]

For those things would be anywhere from probably giving the guys too much, like buying authority is a huge credit card. You need stuff, don't talk about me. So that was a little bit of overspending on tools, rentals and all that kind of thing. The other thing would have been myself of like, oh, let's buy this equipment because we need it. Should have rented it first to see how often we need it. So that was more just a little bit probably in my own head of like ego of like, oh, let's have all this equipment. Nice equipment, shiny. It sat in the shop for six months because by the time you have December, January, February, March, that's four months. And then you have two months of maintenance, I'm like, I'm only using it for half the year anyways. So it's just over. Buying yeah. Equipment as nice and shiny as it is, that was probably within my control where it was just like, we're growing, growing won't stop. Guys will always stick around. So it's kind of just like, wow, this is amazing. Money's here, everything's here. And then it came to the end of that where it's like, you almost have to keep a bit more of reserve, like be smart. And. And I think a little bit was just like, we got work, let's work hard. Now I kind of look back and like, there was no plan, there's no goals. It's just like, oh, we'll do anything we do. So this year is also kind of, I was just looking at it kind of like from now to start days, about 40 days to work on the business and then I got 180 whatever days to work in the business. So the goal this time is to like make a plan, like grow at like a comfortable rate and grow at like what money can do instead of lending and borrowing and as much as possible. Because yeah, to the debt ratio there was like crazy for that. So looking back, a lot of it was like self inflicted for sure. So you're like, but it, it teaches you well. Like, I don't think I'll ever go that route again. So you kind of go the one way of like, well, I have learned my lesson. Hopefully I don't repeat it. Yeah, you can kind of share that with other people too. Even discussions with former employees or other guys too. Like, hey, this is what I did is what I would encourage you not to do.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Because you're like, cool.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

But yeah, that's really good advice because, like, usually you don't have to convince landscape contractors to go buy equipment.

[C]

Like, that's.

[B]

Yeah, that's the easy part. It's. It's the. I think you really touched on a key point there is like, try renting it and then see how much your guys actually use it. Because the worst thing is buying something that doesn't get used. It doesn't actually work the way you thought it might, or the application isn't quite, you know, meshing with the way you do your jobs, you know. So, yeah, it's good, good advice.

[C]

And with, with rentals too. It's almost like a forced in a job product.

[B]

Yeah, it's. It's called cost of goods.

[C]

Yeah, it's like, okay, I have to charge at least this plus all my markup and everything, and it goes out the door for whatever the X amount is. Whereas sometimes the piece of equipment, like, oh, I could probably lower the price a little bit for this job, but the equipment kind of gets forgotten about a little bit. Sync up helps me in that. But I find this, if you have a rental, you charge for it because the cost comes the job there where sometimes if the equipment is not in the job or something, then you got to be a little bit tran for there.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, that's.

[C]

That's what I learned. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, it's good advice. So what is a piece of advice you would give to somebody starting out, you know, getting their first crew up and running? Like, what is a piece of advice you would give to them, you know, with the experience that you've. You lived through. What would you say?

[C]

Yeah, I would say there's a couple of things. One thing that my wife and myself listen to quite often, the background podcast, like Dave Ramsey, move at the speed of cash. That's super helpful. The other thing would be, like, do what you're good at and like, manage what you can. So, so buy that used truck, find some like, secondhand tools, buy used equipment and push your name. Like, get out there in people's faces. Like, it's a grind. Like, it, it takes years of just grinding and pushing and pushing and, and keep like the quality of work. Like, basically what people come back for is like, they like working with you. They like work like the quality of work you do. And yeah, the consistency of not one time you show up, like 10 o', clock, one time you show up like 7 o', clock, other times you don't show up.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And if Something goes wrong. What I really find with people, too is like, as long as you inform them that, hey, one guy's out today, we're gonna be like, two hours late. Truck had a flat time, dude.

[B]

Setting expectations is key.

[C]

And they're like, oh, no problem. You show up 11 and then tell them they're ready. Kind of at that point of like,

[B]

you've already ticked them off, they don't trust you. Yeah, exactly.

[C]

So keeping that trust.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Super good.

[D]

But yeah.

[C]

Yeah. Start out with like, yeah, small.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And grow from.

[B]

Grow and speed of cash. That's good advice because it forces you to deal with the reality of the resources you have at your disposal instead of, like, over leveraging yourself. And the other thing that I like about what you said is, I'll say it a different way, be the easiest to do business with, you know, because, like, generally speaking, homeowners just want to work with a contractor. Like you were saying, the relationship, the quality of work, all that. But they just want to work with a contractor. Contractor that doesn't produce issues and drama for them. Right.

[C]

Well, they got enough going on.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. They just. They just want peace of mind. It's going to be done right. It's gonna be okay. I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to, like, where you at? None of that stuff, you know? Yeah, exactly.

[C]

Show up and do the work.

[B]

So. Yeah. So don't let them guess, don't keep them guessing. And just be the easiest to do business with, you know? Now, I know that that's kind of cliche maybe, but, like, it goes a long way and it's the hidden things, you know? Oh, it's under the surface.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Answer your phones, answer your emails.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Say when you're going to be there.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Stand behind your work and.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It's huge.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, really good advice. And I just want to say thanks for, you know, putting your faith and trust in us and also commend you for pushing through those hard times. I mean, that's. There's a. There's a lot of people. I mean, I got to see quite a lot of this over, you know, a lot of people that were like, wow, I gotta. I gotta rethink some things. Some people took the dark path and, like, I'm out of here, you know, so it takes resilience to succeed as an entrepreneur. You gotta be like. Your risk tolerance has got to be like. You gotta be kind of like, I guess, like, what's that? There's a name for this when you can't feel pain. You know, it's a little bit like that for entrepreneurs, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, kudos to you for pushing through that and just forcing yourself to deal with the consequences like sleep in the bed that you made essentially, you know, with us, grow the speed of cash and like, you know, back out of the overextended things that you'd done. So those are really wise moves. And yeah, just want to say thanks for putting your trusting us with your business and for your processes and look forward to partnering with you for many years. Keep grinding that profit out. Oh, where can people find you before we wrap it up here?

[C]

Website would be raymarlandscapes.com Google

[B]

okay, sweet. Thanks, Dan. Appreciate it. Thanks for making time for this. Hey, thanks for listening to the Cost

[A]

of Doing Business show. If you need help with knowing your numbers or you're looking for a better automated system to run estimating and scheduling and job costing or more in your business, just hit me up. You can book a [e-mail] or DM me on Instagram yncedup, which is spelled S Y N K E dup. See you on the next one.