← The Mulder Life Podcast
The Mulder Life Podcast
Ep 164. Maximizing Profits and Efficiency in the Landscaping Industry
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Welcome to this week's episode of the Molded Life podcast, a live show featuring your questions about all things landscaping, equipment, business and life. Join our live show weekly on Instagram Older outdoors, Monday nights, 8:30pm Central Standard Time to ask your questions or tune in here for the replay.
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And now from the Incon Studios Incon, a world leading manufacturer of tilt rotators and attachments enhancing your business. Here's your host, Andy Mulder.
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What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Molder Life podcast. We are live in the N Con Studios. Thank you to NCON for being our studio sponsor. Also, I want to thank synced up synced up project management software for being a sponsor this week as well as CMP attachments. CMP attachment.com Go check them out. I think if you're any part of the show in any way or have ever listened to it or have you ever watched any of my channels, you know that both of these companies, including all three of them, really are all companies that I care about and believe in and think that they have great products and so go and check them out and show them some love and let them know how they how you heard about them on the Motorlife podcast. So guys, it's been like a couple weeks since I, since I have done a podcast and it really wasn't planned for that two weeks ago. I was very sick on Monday night. I had not been that sick in quite a while and so I had to cancel the podcast. I'm doing much better now, thank goodness. But I was unable to do my podcast two weeks ago and then last week we were out of town. We were out of town on vacation and I had already planned to do that and wasn't going to do a show. So it ended up being two weeks since I have done a show. And so yeah, I'm back and I'm pumped to be here with you guys. There's just like we are in springtime. I mean things are ripping. It's awesome. Ledge Hill Landscaping. What's going on set? He says how was ripping that fresh pow over in Tah with da boys? What is. Oh, Utah. Yeah. So we were in Utah last week. We went snow skiing at Alta Ski Resort. We were supposed to ski in Deer Valley, but that all got shut down because they had no snow. And and so we moved our plans to ski in Alta, which is a much higher elevation and we went skiing for two days there. The snow, I mean, if you're an avid skier, you probably would have said the snow was terrible. I'm not saying it was the best snow ever. We don't ski a lot. We ski, you know, once a year. I'd be lucky if we skied twice a year. But my boys love it. I love it. My wife partially loves it. My wife only skied about a half of the first day. And then me and the boys skied the rest of the time. But the snow was really good in the morning usually. And then by the afternoon it wasn't that great. But we didn't really care. We. We skied the whole time. We skied from the lifts, opened at 9:15 and we skied until 4:30 when they closed. Both days, basically I was destroyed. I could barely walk. But we had an awesome time. And then we traveled down to Moab and I believe that would be down. Don't quote me on that. I think it's down. And we spent two or three days in Moab and we did Hell's Revenge with a Side by Side. And we did. What was the other place that we went? Canyonlands and Wind Tunnel. Cave. Wind Cave. The Wind Caves or something. We went to Arches National Park. We just had an awesome time. We really did. It was a great trip. The boys are getting so old. I got. They're 13 and nine now. And it's crazy how fast time goes. And I know everybody always says that, but it is really wild how fast time goes and how big they're getting. And it's just a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun together and very blessed to be able to go do that. But while I was gone back to work and landscaping and our business, the guys were working on our hardscape project, landscape project that we've been working on since last fall. We had a crew there and then we had another crew working on mulching and bed edging and spring cleanups and those kinds of things. And they had a rough week because it just. It rained a lot, a lot while I was gone. So that was, I guess, a blessing for me because my phone wasn't that busy while I was on vacation because this time of year, it's not like I. And I don't really do this ever when I go on vacation. I don't know if people know that. I mean, I don't know what everybody else does, but I don't just straight up shut off my phone when I'm on vacation. I don't really have that luxury as a business owner. Maybe one day I'll get to that point. But right now I do not have that, that, that ability to do that completely. I have a great crew, but I'm the one that's fielding, you know, calls that customers may be coming, calling or stuff that the office needs to know or orders. And especially this time of year, like, this time of year is I. I used to say that I would never be able to do any kind of spring break thing with my family because it's. This is go time for us every single year. This is go time. But I've tried to just remember that my kids are only small once and it's only one week. And I also have been blessed and worked towards having a great crew that I can trust. And they get work done when I'm not there. I don't have to babysit them all the time. And they got it done. They handled it. I didn't have to. Excuse me. I didn't have to worry about what they were doing so much as far as, like, day to day. But we were discussing things here and there through text messages. But really for a spring, for a week in the spring, I felt like I didn't have. I didn't get on my work computer one time. I brought my laptop with, but I didn't have to get on it one time. I answered some emails here and there and I got back to people and as I needed to via email and stuff. But I'm just really thankful for our team and how good of a job they did and they do every day and just really, really blessed with that. So, yeah, it's good to be back. And I'll tell you, like, the sun is out and this week is not a lot of rain. I mean, maybe none. And you can tell, I mean, we are so busy right now. It's phenomenal. I'm so excited. I'm just fired up. Like, I'm fired up for this podcast. I don't know, I'm just all amped up. But, yeah, just a ton going on. I mean, just tons of leads coming in, good leads, great projects that I'm excited about to go look at and estimate we were working on an awesome project that every time I go there and seeing it continue to come to life is just the coolest thing. And we just finished up that big natural stone job around the pond. It was like 400 tons of natural stone. We just finished up that. They finished that while I was gone, actually. And that just turned out so beautiful. The team did such a good job with that. We had that. That's what we had. That John Deere 135P4 with the Encon. Just phenomenal machine. I would love to buy that machine, but it's not in the cards right now. But yeah, guys, just. There's just a lot going on, right? I mean, I, I six in the morning until six at night right now. Not every day, but that's what today was for me. And it's probably going to be like that for me for the next couple of weeks as we kind of push through the spring rush, so to speak. And that's kind of what it takes sometimes. So, yeah, we just. Tomorrow I have four meetings tomorrow. I have two on Wednesday, I have one on Thursday and two on Friday, and half of those came up today. So just lots going on. It's very exciting. So, yeah, I, I'm very thankful and we're running on all cylinders, it feels like right now. And kind of toying around the idea of maybe hiring somebody else. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm thinking about it. I know that's been something that's going on, been going on in my head for the last, I don't know, week or two. Just wondering if we should add one more person. But I don't know. I think I've talked about it many times. It's a big commitment and I just don't know if that's something that I'm ready to, ready to do yet. It's always really busy in the spring and I just want to make sure that, like, is it going to stay busy or am I going to sell a bunch of this work? It's not like we have a million sold jobs, but we have a lot of really good leads, I think that are strong possibilities of projects and you get some of those saying yes at the same time and it's like, oh my. So I, Yeah, super excited. Just super excited. The just. It feels like the weather is breaking all the way now. Tomorrow it's going to be cold, really pretty cold in the morning. But by Thursday it's 70 degrees again and it's going to be great.
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If you guys want a little update on our shop, what's going on with that while we are gone? This is exciting. The the offices got painted so that's super cool. And there something was going on with my computer there. The offices got painted and the flooring company. I have a flooring company coming in on Thursday and Friday to do our epoxy floors in the offices, which is super exciting. I'm pumped on that. They're waiting on the Amish company is supposed to come back and start the metal this week in the shop and so that's amazing. My water heater got installed. My air conditioner got installed. The what else? The plumber was there today getting some more water lines put in. I'm basically ready for the water softener to get installed. And man, what else happened today or what else got done in the shop? There's some trims that went up in the shop, like metal flashing and stuff. I think that looks, it looks really sharp. I don't know. I just, it's really cool. I'm just getting really excited. I I feel like we're a month out, maybe a month, month and a half from the shop being done. I'm not 100% sure. But the big thing is if we can get this metal ceiling up and get the metal on the inside of the shop done, then so many things can happen with, with plumbing and electrical and it's just, it's so cool. So yeah, lots going on with that. What else is going on? If you've never. If this is the first time tuning in to the podcast, you can leave your comments down below or questions you have. We talk about anything, equipment, landscaping, business, life, whatever you guys want to talk about. Very, very thankful for this season of the podcast. I I've said this many times, but I've gone back and forth about continuing this sometimes and I've gotten some really cool feedback in the last week from a few people about different podcasts that they listen to and so I appreciate all the feedback of that. I know there probably isn't a lot of people listening live this week because what is going on this week tonight? The NCAA tournament championship game is going on. My boys are watching that. I'm sure they won't watch the whole thing, but I know my oldest is going to want to stay up and watch the whole thing. I'm, I'm. I will see if he does. He probably won't, but so that we have our brackets. Of course, we all have our brackets. Every one of them is a complete bust. I believe so. But yeah, I, I'm trying to think what, what else has been going on with work, but it's just, you know, there's a lot of things going on right now and we're busy and I've been really thankful for the guys and, and their commitment to. Commitment to excellence day in and day out. And they all seem to be excited and it's just going to be great here. I'm excited about that landscape. Dumpster says. Looking back at it, would you have still built your shop or just bought one that was already done and zoned correctly? That is a really good question. And I have thought about that many times and I've talked about it before a little bit on here, where I have a new appreciation for. I have a new appreciation for sites like industrial complexes where they have all the lots are already developed and ready to build on it. There's a huge advantage to that. And somebody put in all the work that I've had to do. Basically I did a new development. And so you're starting from nothing. Infrastructure, power, gas, parking lot, everything has to go in. So would I, if I did it again, would I still build my shop or buy one that was already done and zoned correctly? And I think that's the key to that whole question is and zone correctly. So it's very hard, very hard by us to find property that has a zoning that allows for outside storage of materials. So dirt, mulch, rock, those types of things. That is very hard to find the correct zoning in our area. And so I had looked at, I looked at two other buildings that were already built and I tried to work out a deal with one of them. In hindsight, I think that the one that I was looking at was 70 by 120. Maybe, maybe it wasn't that big. Maybe 50 by 120. And it was a concrete contractor. And he seemed like he was kind of on his way out. And I approached him and asked him if he wanted to sell. And we had a meeting about it and we talked and he told me what he wanted at the time. And in hindsight, he probably wasn't that far off now that I've gone As far as I've gone into this, but it was on two acres of land and he had a smaller parking lot. It was all fenced in already. But I mean, the shop needed some work, the offices needed a full rehab. It was like they built it for the business and then didn't touch it for 35 years. So I don't know. It was a shingled roof. And so that was something that I was like, well, that's going to need maintenance or a new steel roof, metal roof at some point. And it just, it needed a bunch of cleanup, which I'm obviously not afraid of that based on what we did at our current property. But I don't know if that would have exchanged hands, if that thing would have. If we would exchange owners. If I could have just put up bins and put up mulch and, you know, dirt and all this stuff. And. And again, in hindsight, I think that. I think that it would have been too small. I just think it would have been too small. It was a nice setup. It was a pull around kind of a thing. It could have been nice, but I think we would have ran out of space too fast. So. And again, I don't know if I could have gotten away with the material storage. And then I looked at another property that was not zoned anything and I don't know if I could have got that done with the county. I also. Oh, no, I actually, I did find out when I asked about that it was zoned good for the business. I could have ran my business, but I. They would not have let me have bins of material there. It's just hard. So, like in a, for a landscaping business like me, finding a shop that was already done in the right zoning that would allow me for the outside storage of materials, that's the main problem would have been very complicated. It was als. I mean, finding the property that I found. I own 12 acres. There's a pond on it, there's some wetlands on it. And then now I have these two retention pounds that I need. So really I have like 4 or 5 acres that I can actually use. Right. And that's, I mean, you're going to have that kind of stuff with any kind of property that you're going to develop. Nowadays, they want you to contain your own water. They don't want it just to go to the next guy. So it doesn't matter who would have bought the property that I bought. Anybody would have had to do. Would have had to do what I've done to do what I'm doing on it, but it was zoned correctly and it was exactly the zoning I needed for my business. And so that was a no brainer. And that's a huge value to me. That was the biggest thing about the whole property. I knew I could figure out anything else. But getting that zoning right is so important and it's so much work to get that done if it's not done. So I guess I'm still not answering your question. Would I do it again? Yes, I think I would. But hindsight's 20 20. Like there was some times when I was, I hadn't even closed yet, but I was trying to get the site plan approval done so that I could, I know I could close. There was times when I told my wife, I'm like, I, I just, is this even worth it? Like at that point I was 25 grand into civil engineering on the property and I was like, why? Like, I can't go any more into this until I own it. Like, I just can't do it if, because if I would have walked away, I would have been out that 25 grand in civil engineering fees. And I just, it just made the whole thing was making me sick. And finally we just decided, basically it came to the point with the county where like, I either I needed to own it so we could keep going with the process or I needed to be done because the county really wasn't going to do anything until I went another step further. And the only way to go a step further was to spend more money. And I didn't want to spend more money unless I owned it. Does that make sense? So like I just decided, okay, we're just going to close and we're going to get this done. And we closed and by the grace of God, we got it done. And I didn't waste any money. But it was really close. It was really close to, I was really close to backing out of it. But after I closed on it immediately, owning it, like starting to clean it up, I was like, whatever this takes is going to be amazing. I know how much money I've put into it so far and I'm confident that the value of that property now is well above what I've put into this. And at the end of the day, it's very valuable to me and my business. I'm sure it will continue to appreciate in value. And as we put up more buildings and all that stuff, it's going to be more value valuable. We put the parking lot in, we cleaned it all up, we Cut all the trees. We did all the seating. I think I just. Yeah, all. All the utilities, like I said, the ponds. It's. It's an incredible thing that we've kind of created there. And again, I wasn't. I wasn't anticipating the amount of visibility we've gained from that location. So would I do it again in that spot? Absolutely. The question is not, you know, you don't always have that spot and, and it, it worked out. So. I know it's a really long answer to your question, but I would still do it again. I'm also really excited about the shop. It's very much everything I ever dreamed of. Of course, there's things that I would change on it already, but it's. It's one of those things like as you do something, you learn, you learn. And I've been. I planned that building for 18 months and longer in my head, but, you know, hardcore planning, you know, as between from the start of buying the property to the size of the building, where it's going to go and how are we going to be able to. How are we going to use it and blah, blah, blah, and already it's not done. And I'm like, I could have probably done that differently, but I don't think that you're ever going to get away from something like that, because every time you build something, every time you do something, every time we build something for somebody else, I'm always thinking like, okay, well, the next time we could probably do it like that and it would be even better. And that's improving and that's, you know, just living and learning. I think that's just how it goes. So, yeah, it's. It's the coolest thing. I mean, watching the offices get painted and, and now the floors are going to get done, and then after that it's drop ceiling. And before you know it, the offices are going to be done and, and then the shop's going to be done and they're going to pour the apron out in front and all this stuff. Like, it's just, like, it's the coolest thing. Just. I'm very thankful and blessed to be able to do it, and I'm very thankful that we've been able to do it the way we've been able to do it. I. We've paid cash for the whole thing as we've gone along, and that was my biggest goal when we started this building was to. I did not want to go into debt for the property or for the building. And we saved for 10 years to get that thing going. And, and, and we're doing it and we're going to make it. I already know we will be able to make it and just very thankful. And I wouldn't do that any other way than how I've done it. I really wouldn't. So Ledge Hill Landscaping said, if the US Government called for you to do a blank check for redesign of the White House LANDSC landscaping, would you consider taking on the project? No, probably not. Redesign. I mean probably if they wanted me to design it, but I would probably not install it. I don't know. What's a. That's a crazy question. How are the roads? That's funny. Tanner Steinborn says, when did you switch from buying used work trucks to new trucks? And what drove that decision? We currently have three work trucks and need to replace one this year. And I'm debating if it's time to go new. A very good question, Tanner. I didn't buy my first brand new truck until my first brand new one was a 2019. That is wrong. My first brand new truck was a 2016. That was my pickup. And so we started our business in 2013 part time. And then I quit my day job and went full time in spring of 2014. But the business started in 2013. That's when it was opened. So spring of 2014, I had a truck that was a 2001. 2000. I'm sorry, 2000. I traded a garage kept weekend truck because at my old job I had a. I had a company vehicle so I didn't need a truck every day. So I had a nice 2012 garage kept again. Only drove it on the weekends and maybe in the evenings a little bit. Super nice. I traded that straight up for my 2000 truck. Was it a 2000? 2005? No, I had a 2005. I sold it, traded in for a 2000. It was a 1500 and I traded in for this 2,500. Anyways, that was my first truck. Started the business with that. Within the first year. I bought a $6,000 dump. We used my dad's pickup when we needed a second truck. And then I could afford, until I could afford. I bought a $6,000 dump truck. And we ran that dump truck for several years. We ran that dump truck for. I think until I bought my new dump truck. Yeah, it was a 2012, I think. Don't quote me. I mean it's not like you're gonna. But it was a Ford F350 with a small gas and V8. We painted it, made it look really nice and it was a great truck for as long as we had it. It had the 5, 4 small gas, so it had no guts whatsoever, but it got the job done. And then we needed our MO crew, went to a full time MO crew. And so my pickup was the one that hauled the, hauled the mowing trailer. And then on the days that the guys needed my truck, I would drive the dump truck around all day. And so I did that for a while. And then I bought a brand new GMC 2016, 2500 HD. It was like a plain Jane, no bells and whistles. And that was the first brand new truck I had ever bought. Was able to pay cash for that. And then I didn't buy another truck until 2019. I believe that's how it went. 2019. No, I bought a F350, a newer Ford F350 dump truck from another landscaper. That was the next dump truck that was used. And we ran that truck for, I don't know, I mean, five years maybe. So in between my brand new pickup and my brand new dump truck, in 2019, I bought this other used dump truck. And so I didn't buy my first brand new dump truck until 2019. So that would have been six years after we were running the business full time. And that was the first dump truck I bought. And then I bought a new dump truck every year. I bought it one in, I bought one in 2019, I bought one in, let's see, I bought one in 2019. And then I. We sold the old, the first Ford that I bought and then I kept that other Ford, the F4, it was actually F450. We kept that other Ford dump truck. So we had two dump trucks then for the next two years. And then I bought a 2022 regular cab dump truck, brand new Ram. And then I bought. The next year I bought a year old brand new 2022 four door. So I have two 2022 dump trucks, I believe, and one 2019, which the 2019 now is coming up on. Or this is seven years old now. It's wild how fast the time goes. But. So all that to say what made me switch to buying new ones? A couple things. And some of these things are personal preferences. They're not necessities. So please don't mishear me.
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The Molder Life podcast continues. In just a moment, Andy asked me to highlight a company that enables you to truly work smarter with their hydraulics over hands philosophy, enabling you to operate at a high level of efficiency. Obviously I'm talking about CMP attachments. They make all kinds of attachments and buckets. Andy loves and uses their Hydra Grapples and Hydra buckets. Cmp attachments is 100% made in America and has some of the industry's highest quality attachments for excavators, skid loaders, mini skid loaders, tractors and more. CMP can take on any custom project to help make your business more efficient and profitable. Visit them@CMP CMP attachments.com or click the link that we've provided in the podcast Description.
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These products are amazing. They're both to last and they'll help you make more money. Again, that's cmpattachments.com Number one, I don't buy things unless I can afford them. So if I can't afford a new dump truck, I'm not buying a new dump truck. Okay? I run my business debt free. I will never go into debt for anything again in my life and that includes my business. And so that's been a commitment of ours since we started the business and in our personal life for the last 14 years. And so that's number one. So if my business couldn't afford to buy new trucks, I wouldn't buy new trucks. Number two, I definitely had no problem owning used trucks in the beginning. No problem. And I really have no problem buying a used truck now. I look at used trucks all the time on Marketplace. I'm always looking at stuff. I have considered buying another dump truck and just getting a used one because I don't think it would get used all the time. But it might be nice to have another four door dump truck. So I don't know if I'm going to buy another new one. Next time I might buy a used one. This is not a necessity and don't take this as the bible in any way, but I'm not a mechanic. And my, my dad was a mechanic. Not by trade, but he could fix anything. And I am not a mechanic. I have tried. I can fix things but I get so frustrated and I don't know what I'm doing enough to work on. I, I can, I can do breaks and oil changes but I don't have time so I don't do them anymore. I also don't hire my guys to be mechanics. I make money landscaping, okay? I make money selling jobs and landscaping. My guys make the business money landscaping and lawn maintenance. They don't make money being a mechanic. And so the more things that I can do in My business to make sure that we are concentrating on what we are good at, which is landscaping, lawn maintenance, snow plowing, and me selling and designing work. Those are the things that make the company money, right? And so I have gotten to the point in my business and again, this didn't happen overnight. This took half of my business's life to get to the point where I could buy my first new truck. I also. I'm gonna double back on it. We couldn't afford it now, okay? I couldn't afford it back then. And that's the truth. I can afford to buy new trucks now. They don't break down as much. We have warranties, but the warrant. I don't buy extended warranties of any kind. But it's nice to have a warranty in the beginning. But again, all the trucks break. I don't do it because they're not gonna break, because they will still break. I like the reliability. I like the image that it presents. Now, again, I have trucks now that are seven years old. So they're not. It's not like it's a brand new truck all the time. It's only brand new when you buy it, right? So, like, I don't. That doesn't even make sense for me to say I like it. It's a nice image. I like the trucks to look good, but you don't have to have new trucks for them to look good. Okay? I sold lots of great work that has been. It's still something that I would consider a portfolio job with my used dump trucks and my used pickup and all those things. All those things are part of getting the business going and getting to the point where you can financially afford nicer things. And that's all part of it. And now we have worked the business up to a point and financially work to a point in the business where we can afford new trucks and we can afford nicer things and we can afford new excavators and this and that and. And all of that helps with efficiency and quality and all those things. But they are not a utter, no matter what necessity to do a really good job and to run a very successful business. So some of it ultimately comes down to personal preference. Now I wanted to work towards buying new trucks. I like having new trucks. It's very exciting. It's cool. I like it. That doesn't mean it may not be cool for you or the next person doesn't think it's cool. And that's fine. It's my business and that's what I like. To do now. But I knew I only like to do that now because I can do it and we can afford to do it. And it doesn't hurt the business in any way. And it doesn't hurt me personally in any way. And it doesn't, it doesn't jeopardize payroll in any way and it doesn't, it doesn't stress me out and it doesn't, it doesn't weaken our position from a business standpoint when we go into winter. And all those things are how I process when we're going to buy something. Right. And really a lot of it boils down to can I afford to buy it or not. So I, I don't borrow money. So if I bought a used truck versus a new truck is irrelevant, tax wise or whatever. It doesn't matter. Yeah, it's just there's, there's different ways to do things and I couldn't do this always from the beginning. I couldn't always buy new equipment, I couldn't always buy new trucks. But we can now. And that's what I do. I like to do it. And that's all those reasons are why I now buy new trucks. So if you can't afford it, in my opinion, and you asked me, if you can't afford to pay cash for the truck, then don't buy it. Buy a used one. Buy something you can afford because nobody is going to not hire you. None of my clients hire me because of the vehicles that I drive and the trucks that we pull up with. Nobody. I promise you. They hire us because of what we, how we treat them, what we put in and the customer service we provide when we are gone. And that's what's you need to keep the main thing, the main thing when you're running your business, don't let the excitement of having a new vehicle or a cool interest rate or what is it gonna look for my buddies or how is it gonna look on Instagram or whatever. None of that crap matters. It really doesn't. I like new trucks. I like trucks. Who doesn't like trucks? I get the most amount of response on Instagram when I would post when we got a brand new truck, but I could post something that is worth valuable, way more valuable, or a crazy project. And you don't get near as much except. But when you buy a new truck, everyone's like, oh, congratulations, you've earned it. I mean, why is that? Why is a vehicle such a status symbol in, in American culture? It is, I don't know why it is I have a really nice pickup. It's stupid nice. It's nicer than I need it to be. I like it. It's very cool. I like to drive it, but I don't find my identity in it. And I don't think that it makes me a better landscaper and I don't think it makes me a better, better businessman. But I would be the same person if I sold that truck and bought one that was $10,000 and probably does. Would do the same. Same thing that this truck does. Probably wouldn't have WI fi, but I'd probably would survive. I just. I'm trying to make sure that. That you have a good. Just don't. Your business needs to make money. So don't buy things that. That keep you from making money because you're trying to impress somebody or you think it's necessary. It's important that you're not spilling oil on the customer's driveway and that it doesn't sound like, you know, a piece of junk when you start it. Like there's. I don't go too crazy the other way. I'm just here. I hope you're hearing what I'm saying, even if I'm not saying it. But I think you know what I'm saying. So. Joe Trabuso how we disguise access. The ball belts for the spillway walls, they will be covered with decorative stone on the backside. Most of them will get. Most of it will be covered with the coping and then decorative stone over that and you won't see them at all. And if you need to access them, you can just move the stone aside and get to them. That is the plan. Ledge Hill Landscape says. Is there anything you would have changed when you started your business or any mistakes or regrets in the early years? I would have not. I would not change how we started the business. I really wouldn't. I have thought about that and been asked that question a few times. And I really like. I don't look back and say and there was nothing that like stuck out to me. That was like, man, that was really stupid. I think all the things that you learn as you run your business are all part of the journey. It's part of doing it. It's part of getting better. It's makes you who you are. I think something that I guess sticks out to me is I didn't have a contract in my landscape jobs early on. A good solid contract. And I got screwed out of $3,000 from a customer that wouldn't pay me when we were Done and never heard from her again. I know exactly where she lives. I've driven by the house 100 times and I've just had to let it go. It's not a big deal anymore. Didn't ruin my life. At the time I thought it was going to ruin my life, but it didn't. And so that's probably something that I should have had earlier on. Was a really good contract. But I really feel like we took it as slow as we needed to take it. And we limited risk as much as we could by running the business debt free and growing slow and trying to find the best people to work for if you can. And it's not always easy. I found somebody that I thought was going to be a great client and they ended up screwing me. And. And you're going to have that in business. I have. I've had to make hard choices. When I've had to make hard choices. I've had to work a lot of hours. When I have to work a lot of hours. And all of that is just part of it. Right? It's. It's. I. I don't think that I can sit here and, and think of specific things that I really regret. There was. There was an old pickup one time that we bought and I didn't even talk about this. I kind of forgot because I owned the truck for a week. I bought this truck for $1,000. Thought it was going to be our mowing truck. We cleaned it all up. I. I detailed it. I was all excited about it. It was black already, like the company colors. And. And then I got rear ended on the way from my dad's house to back to my house. And it rear ended so hard that the company totaled the truck. And I got $2,000 for the truck. And it was. And I saw. I think I sold it for 500 bucks or I don't know what it was. Whatever. It was hilarious. Like I bought the truck, had it for a week. They totaled it because it got rear ended and wasn't worth anything. And. And it was gone. So I. I don't regret that. I just. I guess that's just something I'm thinking about. It was funny. But I don't know. I mean we did what we had to do. I. We had an old dump trailer that we had to put a bunch of money into it. We bought it from my grandfather. And that dump trailer was a nightmare to haul because it was. We always. It was one of those ones with the wheels under the trailer, but it was only 6 foot wide and 12ft long and. But the second you had a little bit too much weight behind the axles, it was like the biggest nightmare to pull down the road and it was going all over the place and. But you know, we had to do that stuff. I didn't have any money, right? I didn't. I couldn't afford anything else. That's what I could afford at the time. And it got. Got us by and I'm thankful nobody got hurt pulling it with me. And my foreman, my maintenance manager, Zach, he's been with me since the day I started the company and we joke about that a lot. That trailer, because there was one time he was hauling it and he. When he started working for me, he didn't know how to do anything. He couldn't back up a trailer. He didn't know what a drill was. I mean, literally nothing. I mean, so he's grown up working here and learned so much and now he runs the maintenance division and he. There was a one time where he was hauling that dump trailer and it got out of control and they almost flipped the trailer over because it was so out of control. Because the weight distribution was so impossible to get right on that trailer. You basically just had to load it all in the front and hope that you had enough in the front and then hope that the battery wouldn't die when you were dumping it. And like all kinds of crazy stuff. We used to have to lift the thing while it would dump with the machine so that it would dump the weight and like it was just the craziest stuff. But again, you do that to get it done and we didn't have any money. That's just how it works.
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You're listening to the Molder Life podcast because you want to get better at your craft. Andy is always working hard to improve himself and pass on that knowledge to you. He's even improved his molderoutdoors.com website to make it easier to use and to give you several ways to support the podcast. When you visit molderoutdoors.com, click on the shop link to pick up some of the coolest merch around. Choose from camo hats and beanies to fluorescent work shirts and super warm hoodies. While on that page, scroll down and check out the video courses, contracts and worksheets to make you and your company highly effective and profitable. I recommend the Everything bundle which gives you access to all the training and forms while saving you money. If you need to book a one on one consultation, you can do that as well, at more molderoutdoors.com support the show while growing your business. There's also a link you can use in the show description.
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It's so cool now. I'm just so thankful and blessed. Like the other day Zach told me that he wanted to, he thought we needed to upgrade two of the mowers and they were both three years old and we cycle mowers every three years. And I'm like, okay, go get two mowers. And he went and looked, told me how much they were. I'm like, cool, buy them. And like, in the beginning, like a brand new mower was like, how are we ever gonna do this? And it's just so cool and like, like to be able to do that and not worry. And it keeps the fleet upgraded and new and less breakdowns. And the guys are super excited about that. They're excited about new equipment. And it's, it's, it's, you know, we've, we've gotten to that point where we can do that now and it's just, it's such a blessing. But it takes 12, you know, going on, this is year 12 to do it. And so it's really cool. And now this next step of the shop is super cool and just a huge blessing. And I think it's going to be great for the comp. For the company and company morale and growth and it's just going to, you know, push us, I think, to where we want to go next. And, and I'm starting to get a little more clarity in that. I, I think that the next five years will be a very, will be very interesting for the business. I don't have a hundred percent, you know, clarity of where I want to take it yet, but it's slowly becoming more and more clear, I think where I want to go. And as that becomes more clear, I'll share that with you guys. And I think ultimately the growth of the company is going to depend on the people that come to work here and what they want. And I can't do any more here without. More, without the people that work here. I don't have capacity for it. So if we're going to grow, it's going to take, it takes the team. It doesn't take me. It takes me finding the right people to help with the growth and people to be responsible and to take ownership and leadership of different things and take things off my plate so I can focus on how we're going to grow and where we need to go. And those are all things that as we go along here, are exposing themselves. And then of course, we have to have the work right, we have to be able to sell the jobs and we need to continue to install phenomenal landscape work for people and maintain it as best we can. And it's just business is a cool thing, it's a fun ride. And I pray that I can continue to be a blessing to my team and to our customers and serve them well. And then as a result with our team, that they can bless their families and their children and, you know, just continue to do it. So, yeah, I, again, is there anything I would have changed when I started my business? No, I don't think so. I worked for somebody else for 13 years doing landscaping, and then I started this just kind of on the weekends as. As I could on nights and weekends, and then went full time. And sometimes I think back of that and I think I'd be more nervous to do it now than I was back then. I was kind of naive, but I was really nervous. I mean, I had a newborn at home and a wife and a house payment. And it's scary, right? I left somewhere comfortable job that I had worked at for my whole life. Up to that point, I did not have. I had a summer job working at a camp and then I. On the maintenance team there. And I worked with my grandfather for a little while doing some lawn mowing before that. And then I went and worked for this landscaping company right out of high school. Right. Sophomore year of high school, Saturdays and summers. And then after high school, I went full time and stayed there until I started this business. So I've been doing this now for 25 years of my life, which is wild to say that I've been doing this for 25 years. I feel like I'm still 25. And I'm being honest. I'm turning 40 this year and I don't feel 40 at all. And I guess that's good. I don't know. I have been trying to lose weight and eat better this year so far. I have not eaten McDonald's since December. And that's. That's a big thing for me. I've lost £20 and that's amazing. So my goal is to actually lose. I haven't really said this on Instagram, but I have or on the podcast. But my goal is to lose 40 pounds by the time I lose by. By the time I turn 40. And so that would make me. I was 239 when I started this little weight loss journey at the beginning of this year and I have done it by just stopping eating junk and I stopped drinking pop completely and I don't eat fast food anymore and I take my lunch every day and just try to eat better. I just was eating so bad, so bad it was embarrassing. I'd be embarrassed to say how I, what my eating habits were before this. It was literally like I felt like I had like an addiction to stopping at the gas station and stopping at fast food and breakfast, lunch, whatever. We were always eating out and like I was just sick of it. I just, I just couldn't do it anymore. And, and also I'm, I'm turning forward this year and my dad died when I was 60 and it's like dude, I gotta change whatever I'm doing because this is not going to be a good trajectory. Trajectory. I, I, I want to be here for a while with my children and see my grandkids and play with them and do all kinds of stuff and like I'm not going to do it if I'm feel like junk all the time. And I keep putting junk in my body. So C staff 65 says, what are you guys charging in your area for Boulder walls? I don't, what do you mean what am I charging per face foot? I don't charge per face foot or per square foot or anything. Every job is bid per job. Every job is different. You shouldn't be charging per face foot or per per square foot for anything. In my opinion that's going to bite you in the butt at some point. Every job is different. Every site access is different. Every time of the year that you do the job is different. There's just no two jobs are the same. And so I couldn't even tell you what my per face foot price is or my per square foot prices for pavers. I have literally no idea. Every job is bid as a one off and materials are different and how do they have to get, how does the material get to the job is different and just everything, it's all different. So. Johnson Construction Coast. I just saw the brunt slip on absolute fire. I thought it was an April Fool's joke. Yeah, no, I thought it was too. And then I went on the website and I'm like wait a minute, those are real. You can literally order those. And I immediately ordered them. They're sick. I'm. They're just, they're sick. They're a slip on boot and you can get compto. I don't know if they're any available anymore. They were, it was Just a limited edition and I think they might have sold out already, but. Sledneck91 preach. Yeah, man, for sure. He's talking about probably about square foot and face foot and all these different things. I'm assuming that's what you're talking about, dude. Yeah, it's just, yeah, don't. Don't bid things by the square foot or by the face foot in landscaping or hardscaping. It's just never going to get there. So, yeah, trying to think if there's anything else we should talk about. If there's any of the questions, guys, let me know or we'll probably wrap this one up. We're coming up on an hour here. We did start a little bit early, so. So, yeah, I cse says yes, I understand what you're saying, but you have to have a baseline. I don't think I need to have a baseline. Why do I need? I. My baseline is what it cost me to do a job. And what it cost me to do the job is my overhead, my hourly rates, my equipment rates, what it cost me to get the material there, all of these different things, my overhead. All. Basically all that stuff is my baseline. And then what I want to make on top of that is strictly up to me. And what I need to charge to my business to make a. For my business to make money, for my team to make money for me to cover everything. I guess that is your baseline. That's why we run a program like, like Synced up or the other kind of estimating softwares out there. If you don't know what that is, check out Synced Up. It'll help you with finding what your baseline needs to be. But my baseline most certainly doesn't come from a face foot price or, or industry standards. I could give two crafts what industry standard pricing is. I think the industry standard pricing and Profit margin of 10% is a complete joke. And, and that's how landscapers basically just own their own job for the rest of their life. And, and, and they don't ever really get ahead because they think that the bare minimum is, that's 10% is, is normal. And I, I just don't think that that's what we should be striving towards in this industry. You should be driving towards 25, 30, whatever you think your market can handle. You know, you want to make money, you want to improve your team's life, you want to improve your business's life and your own life and all these different things, and you can't do it at 10% net profit. That may not be the case for a company that's got a 500 employees. And that's fine. But I don't want to be a company that's. I see no point in running a business that does $15 million a year. And I make the same amount of money that maybe I make now. Right. Like with six people. It's just. Why, like, for what. What am I gaining except more headaches? So just think about that, I guess. So slight. Am I ready for a pretty new roof? I am. I. I hope you're coming soon, Tom. Tom's putting a new roof on our house. We had a big storm come through a couple weeks ago and ripped a bunch of shingles off my roof and I need to get a new roof. So shout out to Anonyburg exteriors coming to do our new roof. Thank you, Tom. Plan on doing some drone footage. Yeah, dude, get it. All right, guys, I'm going to. I'm going to wrap this one up. Great talk tonight. And oh, Johnston construction said, is there a shop update? Yeah, we talked about shop update in the beginning of this episode. You'll have to listen to it. This episode will go live on Wednesday on podcast. And so we talked about that for a little while, man. No worries. All right, guys. Well, yeah, thanks for tuning in tonight. Big shout out to synced up project management software. Syncedup.com go check them out. Be sure to sign up. And also CMP attachments. CMP attachments.com Go check them out. Grapples, hydra buckets, side dumping buckets. All kinds of different attachments for your. For your excavators or skid loaders or mini skids. They make awesome stuff. And so I thank you to both of those companies and also thanks you to Encon Tilt Rotators for being our studio sponsor. We will catch you on the next one. Thanks.
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This has been a molder outdoors and Mr. Producer production.