Reevaluating Your Time and Business Worth with Jonathan Pototschnik at Equip Expo

We are bringing you an exclusive interview recorded live at Equip Expo's Morning Show with Jonathan Pototschnik, the Lawn Care Millionaire. Jonathan dives into how to accurately value your time and the necessity of reevaluating business metrics. He discusses practical advice on transitioning from day-to-day operations to focusing on growth and profitability, offering crucial insights for lawn care professionals aiming to significantly scale their business operations. 🎟️ Equip Expo 👉 Save 50% off Equip Expo Ticket w/ Promo Code PAUL: Register Here https://go.equipexposition.com/promocode-paul 📚 Level Up Your Money (New Release) 👉 Get Your Paperback Copy! https://pauljamison.org/book 🎧 Level Up Your Money (Audiobook) 👉 Listen on Audible https://pauljamison.org/audiobook 📲 Connect with Paul - Visit Official Website https://www.thepauljamison.com/ 🛠️ Paul's Recommended Tools & Professionals Try the CRM Jobber - Click Here https://pauljamison.org/Jobber 📞 CallRail – Track where your leads are coming from: callrail.com https://partners.callrail.com/cc4gs529efdp 📚 The Landscaping Bookkeeper – Know your numbers, stress less: thelandscapingbookkeeper.com https://thelandscapingbookkeeper.com/ The Lawn Care Bootcamp - Click Here https://pauljamison.org/bootcamp 📈 Lawn Care Launch: Click Here https://thelandscapingbookkeeper.com/lawn-care-launch (new program for business owners) 🌐 Footbridge Media – Get a pro lawn care website: footbridgemedia.com https://www.footbridgemedia.com/paul-jamison?ref=pauljamison 📦 Business-Building Resources by Paul Price Increase Letter Template https://www.thepauljamison.com/resource_redirect/landing_pages/2150230978 Contract Templates https://www.thepauljamison.com/resource_redirect/landing_pages/2150230978 📚 Paul's Most Popular Business Books How to Build a Thriving Lawn Care Business: Buy on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4K835L4 Cut That Grass and Make That Cash: Buy on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SP7MQ13

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

  Hello and welcome to the Green Industry Podcast, your go-to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host, Paul Jameson, is the author of five bestselling books, including Cut That Grass and Make That Cash and his latest, Level Up Your Money, all available on Amazon and Audible. Now get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jameson.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  Welcome to sunny Florida. I am Paul Jameson and I am getting ready for Louisville, Kentucky for the big Equip Expo right around the corner. And on today's podcast, we're going to go back in the archives to when Jonathan Petoshnik himself, the lawn care millionaire, came to Louisville and was a part of our morning show broadcast where he did a live podcast from the Equip Expo. So this is your first time ever listening to the Green Industry Podcast. Welcome aboard. I'm Paul Jameson. I started my first lawn care business back in 2011 and I made about every mistake a lawn care business owner could make.

• 1:45Speaker 00

  And thankfully around 2013, I believe it was, I found YouTube. Well, I mean, I already knew what YouTube was, but I found the lawn care community on YouTube. And I started watching this guy named Greg Chisholm, Geek the Freak. And I would, he would put out a new YouTube video and I was like, this is the greatest thing ever. I couldn't click fast enough to watch the video and I would just consume watching him out there mowing grass and talking about his business. And it gave me a resurrection as a business owner that like, man, I'm, I'm thankful that I get to be a lawn care business owner. I don't have to go, um, you know, work a nine to five. I can go cut that grass and make that cash.

• 2:26Speaker 00

  And then the YouTube algorithm back then, on the right side of the screen, I was on my desktop, it would say, you may also like, and there was this guy called Lawn Care Millionaire. And I click on his videos and this guy never cracked a smile and he talked real monotone and he was just down the business. He was just, here's, here's A, B, C, D. I mean, but the stuff this man was saying was so on point and straight to the point. And I couldn't get enough of this guy. So I watched every one of his videos I could. He's called the Lawn Care Millionaire, Jonathan Petoshnik. And little did I know that one day my friend, Naylor Taliaferro,

• 3:10Speaker 00

  who is just, when it comes to networking, he is so skilled and thoughtful and intentional. And he's just very, very, very, um, good at connecting with people and connecting people. Anyway, Naylor ended up getting me the opportunity to go on the road to both Greg Chisholm's home in Missouri and Jonathan Petoshnik's home in Texas. And I got to do a podcast live from those gentlemen's homes. And, uh, so anyway, that was, that was pretty cool. But I say all that to say,

• 3:51Speaker 00

  Jonathan Petoshnik, uh, it was such a big deal to have him come to Louisville and be at the Equip Expo because he had been out of the industry for a while.

• 4:02Speaker 00

  Social media wise, and he was, um, he took a few years off from work, um, for a sabbatical. He had amassed enormous amount of wealth because he sold, um, another business that he built Service Autopilot for a gigantic amount of money. So anyway, he took his wife on basically a three-year vacation, traveled around the world, stayed at five-star resorts and eating good food and getting fat and happy. And then, um, anyway, he got, he got fat and happy. He's all right, I'm back. And then he came to Louisville and hung out with us at the Equip Expo. And now he's back to making content again on a channel called Five for 50 on YouTube. And of course he runs his lawn care business in Dallas, Texas. It's like $15 million, $20 million a year business.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  It's called City Turf. So anyway, all that to say, uh, at the Equip Expo, we were blessed to have Jonathan with us at the morning show, which is a podcast recording that we do in front of a live studio audience on the Thursday morning at Equip Expo. It's always in room B103 at eight o'clock AM. And it's so much fun having so many of our friends in the room with us as we just podcast. So this is Jonathan at our morning show podcast. I'm up on stage there, sitting in a chair. Naylor is, is, um, is quarterbacking this episode, asking the questions. So sit back, relax and enjoy JP from Louisville, Kentucky at the morning show.

• 5:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, that was, uh, what, what an epic intro, right? I mean, how can you not, um, get pumped after hearing Metallica? But what a, what a great intro. I usually do all the pleasantries, but Mr. Producer took care of that. That was an epic intro. So thank you, Mr. Producer.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  You're welcome, Naylor. Thank you for having me this year. I hope that wasn't over the top, but we are definitely ready to rock the Equip Expo position.

• 5:58Speaker 00

  Is that Mr. Producer? Let's give it up for Mr. Producer in the back.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  The invoice is headed your way.

• 6:07Speaker 00

  Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, guys. How do we follow that up, right? Well, we have, um, well, okay. So the pleasantries, so now I got to rethink. Pleasantries are all good, but one important note, has anyone, has everyone gotten a raffle ticket for the Relco giveaway at the end of the show? Does anyone need a raffle ticket? Okay. Keep your hands up. Keep your hands up. The Relco team's going to be coming around giving, because they're going to be raffling off a lot of great things after the show, but you have to be here to win. Makes sense? Cool. All right. So we're just, yeah, thank, cool. All right. All right. We're pumped. It's been an awesome week. Who's been having a fantastic week so far?

• 6:52Speaker 00

  All right. I usually, I usually ask this every time. Who's here for the first time?

• 7:00Speaker 00

  Awesome. A lot of newbies, but not it, but a lot, lot more returning. So that's fantastic. Fantastic. All right. Well, without further ado, I wanted to, well, welcome back to the LCR Media Podcast. I almost forgot we're recording live for the live studio audience, right, Paul? Um, I'm your host, LCR Naylor Taliaferro. This has been three, four years in running something awesome like that. It's been a, a vision and idea to bring more quality content and opportunities for you guys to network and learn and, and grow this community. So thank you all for coming out this early on a Thursday morning after a long week and probably a late night, right? So thank you. So my, my guest here is Jonathan Petoshnik, the Lawn Care Millionaire.

• 7:46Speaker 00

  For, for those of you that don't know him, I will let him do a quick intro, but, um, I, I invited Jonathan to come here. So thank you very much.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  You're welcome. Good morning, everyone.

• 7:57Speaker 00

  Good morning.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  All right. So let's, let's just get this party started. Um, reminder, think of some questions that you might have for the one and only original Lawn Care Millionaire. And John Payjack will be out there. Payjack, you out there?

• 8:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  Damn, you got an epic mic up. So just make sure when you start thinking of questions, probably in about 15 minutes or so, just start raising your hands and so we can, we can get those questions answered for you. That's how we roll here. So Jonathan, can you go ahead and give everyone a little bit of a backstory, like who you are, how you started becoming the Lawn Care Millionaire, like on YouTube and how you got into, to the whole community with that start?

• 8:41Speaker 02

  When I was 14, I wanted to make money and I didn't know how and I didn't have any examples. And I started mowing lawns and I stopped mowing lawns my freshman year of college and I thought, I'll never do that again. I enjoyed it and I made really good money, more money than my teachers, but I just thought I was going to move on and do tech stuff the rest of my life. That's what I was going to college for. My first tech business didn't work out and I accidentally ended up back in the lawn care business and it went really well. It didn't go well at first though, and I learned a lot of lessons. So along the way, I've ended up building this outdoor services company. It's arbor, pest, lawn, irrigation, all that stuff. Ended up building a software company called Service Autopilot. I sold a majority stake in that in August of 2019.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  And the way Lawn Care Millionaire came to be was really simple, actually. I was just trying to figure out if you wanted to, if you were a potential client of mine at Service Autopilot, what was it that you needed? I just started this little channel to be able to have a conversation with you. And my idea was just give me a question and I'll answer it. And that's what I did. And that became Lawn Care Millionaire and that experience combined with Service Autopilot and later some coaching I did in the industry changed my world in that I got to know tons of you guys. And it's been an incredible experience. I love this industry. I love the home services industry and I'm incredibly positive on where we're all going as an industry

• 10:07Speaker 02

  and what that opportunity is for all of us. And so this is the world I live in.

• 10:12Speaker 00

  Yes. Thank you. Thank you for being a part of our world.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  So you kind of queued me up for the next one, but you talked about, okay. Let's talk about some of your humble beginnings. We all talk about that in the industry and content creation because it's important to know where everyone starts, especially when you don't, you know, you see the iceberg breaking the surface, but you don't always see everything below. So we know the lawn care millionaire and service autopilot, all the things that you've done throughout the years, like a decade now. What were those humble beginnings that you kind of alluded to in your business in lawn care?

• 10:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. Okay. All right. So I'll tell you a quick story. So as I told you, I never thought I was going to be back in the lawn care business. I was doing this other business with some, some individuals and my partners were always starting other businesses. And I had another separate thing I was doing as well. And I never wanted to be part of these other businesses that they were building. We, I just wanted to focus on this one core business with them, which was we were cleaning movie theaters around the country. And one day my partner comes in and says, Hey, there's this lawn care company for sale out in the Dallas area. Let's go look at it at lunch. Cause he knew I mowed lawns in high school. Like nah, I have no interest in this. He convinces me, we go to lunch and this fella,

• 11:30Speaker 02

  probably 65 year old guy is selling his business. He's doing about $50,000 a year in gross revenue on an old Cushman rider. I don't know if anybody knows what that is. I never knew what it was. Old mower. And he sold his old Dodge truck, his trailer, his Cushman mower and 50,000 in revenue mowing these warehouses for 7,000 bucks. I got convinced to buy this thing. I didn't want to buy the thing. We bought it and within three weeks, my partner wanted zero to do with this thing. And that's how I ended up back in the lawn care business. And so now I have 50,000 in revenue. I also am doing tech consulting. I also am part of this other thing. I've got way too many things going and tech stuff takes you to like two o'clock in the mornings, kind of your work schedule. Now this lawn

• 12:13Speaker 02

  care thing starts it. It's all commercial and you gotta mow before all the cars show up. So that's like a six o'clock in the morning. It was a mess. That's the point. And I didn't know what I was doing. But, and so I start looking for team members. I start looking for accounts. I pretty quickly built that business to about three or about 400,000 in revenue. And I very quickly realized I hated every single thing about the business and we made no money. I didn't know how to hire employees. Sometimes they just go home at one o'clock in the afternoon when they were supposed to keep working. I sold my work at the wrong prices. One time to an HOA, I sold a job and they said, Hey, can we sign the three-year contract instead of one-year contract? I thought, heck yeah.

• 12:57Speaker 02

  They knew something I didn't know. That hurt. I can just go down the list. And so this is where this stuff came from. I went through all the pain everybody else has gone through and I hated my world. I mean, why did I have to start spraying lawns at five o'clock in the morning when I was trying to do all these other things? Well, because I lost that employee too. And we didn't know what we were doing. Like, so I could rattle on and on, but I went through all this same stuff. And through that pain, through that frustration, I started to learn, hey, there's a different way to do this stuff, a better way to do this stuff. And it took me a while to figure it out. But then once we figured it out, things started going.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  So the next segue, what helped you start figuring it out? Like it didn't just happen, right? Was there some intentionality there? And then obviously trial and error, a combination? Like what were some key factors to help you figure it out?

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. So that particular business I'm describing really started as a commercial business because of the warehouses. And I just did not know how to get accounts. In the commercial cleaning business, we would go out and sell. So it was more sales driven, but not marketing driven. And so it was scary. I hated it. I procrastinated all the time. But what I would do is I'd walk into businesses and say, Hey, you know, I don't remember my little spiel, but basically you're asking if they need service. And if not, when are you going to put your contract up for bid again? And that's how I got a bunch of that work. The transition or the turning point for me was that that same business partner had zero to do with the business. I'm whining about this thing. And I'm, I'm probably whining about it because I've got all this other stuff that actually is much

• 14:30Speaker 02

  more important in my life. And he said some things like, well, if you don't like it, you can just fix it. And that was just an offhanded comment. And that did get me thinking. And so what ended up happening was I said, who are the best clients? Who are the best team members? I think we had three trucks. What's my best truck? What's my best equipment? And we chopped that business from about 400, if I remember correctly, to I think 225. I kept three employees, one truck, one set of equipment, the very best accounts. And no joke, we made a hundred grand profit on that business, on a 225 business the next year. That would not have lasted because you'd have to reinvest in, in a equipment at some point, trucks. And also you, you're going to lose accounts. You got to go sell

• 15:14Speaker 02

  new accounts. It wouldn't have lasted, but that was a aha light bulb moment. And then I started thinking, what if we went into residential? And I started running my numbers in a spreadsheet. And the next transformation was, well, how in the world am I going to get lots of residential clients? And I started studying marketing. And that drove me to start going to marketing events and conferences to really learn how to market. So those were probably the two single biggest defining events in that business. And those events ended up impacting everything else I've ever done.

• 15:52Speaker 00

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• 16:08Speaker 04

  Hi, thanks for calling the pest patrol. I'm Betty, a virtual assistant. What's bugging you?

• 16:13Speaker 00

  Hey Betty, I wanted to see if you could schedule somebody to come out, take a look at my property and give me a quote for pest control. I was looking for yearly service.

• 16:21Speaker 04

  Sure, I can help with that. Do you have any questions about our services before we get started collecting some details?

• 16:27Speaker 00

  What would it cost to come once a quarter?

• 16:30Speaker 04

  We offer a quarterly service plan with four treatments per year. The cost typically ranges from $350 to $480 annually. Keep in mind, final pricing depends on an in-person evaluation.

• 16:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, let's get one scheduled.

• 16:43Speaker 04

  Can I have your first and last name, please?

• 16:45Speaker 00

  Paul Jamison.

• 16:46Speaker 04

  I've got several openings. For example, on Thursday, March 19th, we have 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and more throughout the afternoon. Would any of those work for you?

• 16:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, 10 a.m. works.

• 16:58Speaker 04

  Your appointment is confirmed for Thursday, March 19th at 10 a.m. and a confirmation email has been sent. Could you share the address of the location where you'd like the service?

• 17:07Speaker 00

  Sure. It's 1234 Main Street.

• 17:10Speaker 04

  Is there anything else I can assist you with today?

• 17:13Speaker 00

  Oh, that's it. Thank you so much, Betty.

• 17:14Speaker 04

  Thank you for your call.

• 17:16Speaker 00

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• 17:59Speaker 00

  Media transform your online presence.

• 18:02Speaker 03

  Nice. Thank you. Kind of wrapping up this part of the, of the topping conversation. We had talked off air probably like a month or so ago when we were in Dallas and we were, you had shared a story how you were, is basically in my terminology is like bootstrapping where you and your wife were like going to neighborhoods and putting out flyers and everything in the early days of CityTurf, right?

• 18:27Speaker 02

  Not my wife, but she was doing some different stuff.

• 18:30Speaker 03

  Right, right, right. Yeah. She was helping with the, she was like doing stuff with further flyers.

• 18:34Speaker 02

  She was, yeah. She was folding invoices. She was folding these lead, we would mail these lead letters to neighborhoods. And so she was doing all the folding, the stamping and the hand addressing envelopes. But yeah.

• 18:45Speaker 03

  That's what it was. And you guys were putting them all out and like, just like literally boots on the ground, doing it to build.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  Trying to figure it out.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  Right. So what kind of, what kind of mental shift had to happen from, because I say all this because again, the tip of the iceberg, right? So without knowing those stories, you just, you think like, you know, you have it all figured out and you know, the things, the nice things that you have and your wife's not putting anything in, putting invoices or anything in envelopes. Like it's like a totally different relationship now with your business. So what kind of like mental shift, what kind of mentality did you have to go through from that kind of bootstrapping all the way to have higher level things to do? Or does that never really change?

• 19:32Speaker 02

  What do you mean by it doesn't ever really change?

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Like, you know, like, what is the, is there a transition to be able to then get to the million dollar mark and above and gets the eight figures and all that? Or is it similar, but you know, just looks different as you grow?

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Two parts to that. So one thing that I did have going for me in that scenario was we had this other business and that was a multimillion dollar business. And so I had seen a vision of, and when I was a kid growing up, I had no examples of anybody had money. I didn't know anybody was an entrepreneur or my dad was an artist. So that gave me the belief I could do my own thing, but I didn't have any examples around me of how do you create success? I just knew I wanted this thing. But I did have this fortunate outcome by that time in my life where we were running a business, it was a different business, but it was bigger. And so my mindset, and this is very important, that we, you can come to a point where you believe you are capable and deserving of being able to build a bigger business. And everybody in here is 100% there.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  And so I had at least had that experience. So that was helpful. But there was a massive knowledge gap in my life, especially going from commercial to residential. I had no idea how do you get clients affordably? Cause I can't go knock on all these doors. And so that's where a lot of shifts happened where it's, you've got all these problems. There are people problems, like how do I get team members? How do I get clients? How do I even figure out how to do fertilization? We control correctly and not burn the lawn. There's a million problems. I mean, it feels like literally a million. And so to answer your question, we'll start with the marketing. I don't know how to go get accounts. In fact, I hire a friend of mine, she's a designer. We designed this beautiful, beautiful door hanger.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  And we put it out and we spent tons of money and it doesn't work. And so now it's just used up, call it 20,000 bucks or whatever the number was, that's pain. There's all these examples of where you've probably felt pain like that. So what does, what do you do? Well, I'm like, well, I gotta figure out how to do this right. And so that's where I said, okay, well, who would have the answer? And I started reading books about marketing. Then I went to a conference, back to what I said earlier. Well, now just think about each additional problem. How do I get employees? Okay, well, who has that answer? What could I, how do I learn that? And then I, then it's like, okay, well, this fertilization we control, we're jacking this all up and then we lose the client. So back in the day, I go to Lesko and say, can you guys teach me how to do this? What if I pay you, which I didn't have to, will you come to my company or a couple of yards?

• 21:59Speaker 02

  Like you just go find the person that has the answer and you ask for the answer and then you do the thing they tell you. And then when you go back to them, they'll be like, oh, this guy actually does what we tell him. Yeah, we'll keep helping you. You know, it was that and it was just stacking over years, that kind of thing that led to lots of breakthroughs.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  Awesome. Thank you. So as we start to segue into Q and A to leave time for all of you, anyone have questions? Yes. Okay. So when we segue into that, before we segue into that, I wanted to ask you two final questions, Jonathan, and thank you for your time and for coming out here for us and sharing everything. What's one piece of advice for the solo owner operator that doesn't want to necessarily get bigger, but be more efficient, more profitable, things like that, right? Cause we could always still grow in different ways without being a huge massive business.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Well, you don't need to be a huge massive business, but I won't spend much time on this. I would encourage you to consider going a little bigger than you are, or whatever that number is, simply because you can build a really nice business. And if it's just you and a couple of people, you have tremendous risk. I've known several individuals over the years I've become friends with, that something's happened. Like one of them, for example, got in a head on collision and he was gone from his business for a year. Another one had a medical condition, just like this really weird sudden thing that popped up. And in all those cases, it destroys businesses, incomes, families. So usually going just a little bigger to find that one really good key person can make all the difference.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  But to answer more directly your question, if you're going to keep it small, you have to have really great people. You really do. And so I would focus really hard on getting good people and learning what good people is, that's an evolution. We learn what good work looks like. And then this is really hard, having the courage to say, I've got a good person, but they're not the right person and letting them go to bring in the next person. You just, I, most of us spend way more time thinking about getting good clients and we don't put nearly the effort into getting the team. And the team is actually the magic. It's not the clients. And I would encourage you to learn everything you can about finding, how to find, how to

• 24:13Speaker 02

  train good people. Cause that will make all the difference in your life. And all the problems you associate with having a bigger business, they're generally because you have the wrong people. And so you, we all think that if my thing were double the size, I'd have double the problems because of all the pain you're feeling with the people. And that's not true. Actually, as a business gets bigger and we learn how to get better people and get the wrong people off our team, the business gets massively easier. Because all the stuff you were having to do, now your awesome team is doing a lot of that. And it's exact opposite of what most of us believe. And so just spend all your time thinking about people.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  Kind of my way to end that one. Thanks, Jonathan. Thank you.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  Well, I think we're going to end it on that note and go straight to Q and A. What do you guys think?

• 25:05Speaker 03

  Do we have, we have anybody?

• 25:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, we do.

• 25:06Speaker 03

  All right, let's go.

• 25:08Speaker 02

  Good morning, everybody. Here we go. Our first question's from Kayden.

• 25:14Speaker 05

  Hi. I had a question for anyone, but kind of Jonathan. So we have some clients who they want mowing or they want bush trimming, or maybe they want fertilization and overseeding, but they can't afford it in the, you know, like the quick spurts because it's just too much in one chunk. So we were thinking that maybe a 12-month billing process would be able to spread that out for them, but I haven't heard anyone that does that. So I was going to ask, what would you, have you heard anyone that has done that and has had good results with that? Or would you not recommend that?

• 25:52Speaker 02

  Oh, that's incredibly common. When I started in my industry, that's, when I started in my market, that's how everybody did it. And that's how I did it at first. And the big, so our company has 12,000 clients. And the big breakthrough for us was to actually leave that model. And we went to a model where we would sell over the phone and we would get your credit card and we'd charge your credit card right after we do, did the service. And that was exact opposite of how everybody else did it in the market. And it's one of the ways that we were able to go, grow so fast. Now, the reason why that approach is perfectly okay, it doesn't matter if you do a 12, they call that installment billing. It doesn't matter if you do it that way, but what I would encourage you to do is get paid

• 26:37Speaker 02

  immediately. So normally under that model, what you'll do is you'll send them the invoice and you'll get paid sometime after that. And so you're usually floating your money for at least 30 days. You're waiting at least 30 days to get paid from the time you do the work. Don't do that. You will always find it to be very difficult to grow your business because you'll never have enough money.

• 26:56Speaker 02

  Tons and tons and tons of companies charge credit cards. Do that right now. It will change the rest of your life. A lot of people push back on that. Tell me who, I don't, when I travel around, I was just telling somebody, I travel all over the world. I never take cash. Maybe I'll be in a country for five weeks. Doesn't matter what country we're talking about, Asia, it doesn't matter, Eastern Europe, anywhere, I might get $200 worth of currency in that country for the whole five weeks. In the United States, I have no cash when I came here. Nobody does. We all use credit cards. Your clients want their 2% back on their credit card, charge, charge credit cards, it will change your life. Also, one other little quick thing, if you find that a lot of your clients aren't able to buy more than one service, really start to think about where, where are all the clients

• 27:41Speaker 02

  that have the money and go to them and build in that market? Thank you.

• 27:46Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 27:47Speaker 02

  All right. Great question. Great question. All right, we got it.

• 27:57Speaker 05

  Hi.

• 27:59Speaker 02

  Hey.

• 28:01Speaker 05

  My question kind of has some context before it. I work full-time. I'm running a lawn care business, three days a week, part-time. So my business has full-time expenses, part-time income. And I'm trying to get it to the point where I can scale it a little bit more so that I'm not necessarily needed in the day-to-day, just in case something happens, I get hurt, sick, something like that, so that my family still has that passive income through my business. I'm solo right now, but I am trying to bring on some new guys that I trust and that I can depend on to go out there by themselves. Can you give me some pointers on just how to start scaling that to where it can kind of snowball effect to where, to the point that I want it to be to?

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Well, from a scaling standpoint, do you feel like your problem is more getting clients or getting team members? Which one is most important?

• 28:48Speaker 05

  So the, the clients are coming, I mean, as, as they always do. I mean, the calls are going to come in, I'm, I doubled last year, but the, the problem that I'm having is kind of on the back end where I want to start bringing guys in that I can trust. I just don't know really how to go about doing that. And at what point in my business's financials, is that going to be a suitable, you know, suitable thing for me to do, like income-wise over expenses?

• 29:18Speaker 02

  Sorry, one more. Are we talking about a field team member or somebody help you in the office?

• 29:22Speaker 05

  A field team. So I can do all the office stuff. I'm thinking if I get hurt or something and I can't go out there and ride the mower. Or you know, edge of the yards or anything like that anymore. I still want to be able to make that income.

• 29:32Speaker 02

  Okay. Well, I'll first tell you, you're thinking about correctly. The other thing I'll tell you that I've observed, it's kind of interesting. So my business was always a part-time business for me, as I described, I had other businesses. I used to own this coaching business and also I've met thousands of people in the industry. I've met a number of people over the years who had, I know you don't, you're a full-time in your business, but they had full-time jobs and they were forced to build their businesses kind of on a part-time scenario. And what that forced them to do is very early in the business, do exactly what you've just described, which is, which is not the way most people think about it. They were forced to have to build where they're not out in the field doing the work. And it's amazing how well that has turned out for so many. So I just want to say, the way you're thinking about

• 30:15Speaker 02

  this is exactly spot on. You want to be off the truck out of the field as fast as you can. The challenge is the, the affording of the people.

• 30:24Speaker 05

  Right.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  And so, uh, I hope I'm answering what you're asking. The way I think about this right now is you need to be hiring driver capable individuals. So as an example, let's say you've got a crew and really you could fill a role with a, with a, an individual doesn't need a driver, doesn't need to be a lead. And so you could save some money by doing that. I would encourage you to spend the extra money and staff that truck as an example, with an individual that could be a driver and a lead, even though it's going to cost you more money, because that individual will, it'll make it much faster to split that person off into the next truck. And that's the way I would approach that. Um, add just a little more context if I'm not fully answering your question.

• 31:09Speaker 05

  No, that, that helps a lot. I'm, I'm just trying to get to a point where I can have somebody go out on their own and I can just kind of, that way, that gives me an extra day, basically, so that I can continue to grow and kind of do that. I just don't know

• 31:24Speaker 02

  Perfect.

• 31:24Speaker 05

  How to do that. I'm at the stalling point.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  Perfect. For, for, for many of your next crews, you hire that person and as I described, not just a, a worker on the crew, you're hiring what could be a lead. Oftentimes the lead won't work out. You'll be disappointed, restaff them with a lead, but that will keep, that will speed up this entire process of building enough work so that you can afford to not ever be in the field again.

• 31:47Speaker 05

  Okay. Thank you.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  You bet. Good luck.

• 31:49Speaker 00

  Thank you. Next question?

• 31:51Speaker 02

  All right.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Sorry.

• 31:57Speaker 06

  How's it going?

• 31:58Speaker 02

  Good.

• 31:59Speaker 06

  My name's Zach. Um, my question for you is, as you grew this business, it sounds like you were also growing other businesses at the same time. What did time management look like for you and your day-to-day life if you're growing multiple businesses at one time? Obviously, you're kind of in the treadmill operator stage, as we kind of call it. You're bootstrapping it. You're kind of having to figure everything out, how you want things to look in these businesses. So how did you navigate your day-to-day life in order to be productive and kind of grow the businesses at the speed that you want to and put people in place?

• 32:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was, that was difficult. I also had two little boys at home and I was married, so it was a lot. Too much, actually. Um, there was a fella that I started learning marketing from, his name was Dan Kennedy. This goes back quite a ways. And he wrote a book called No BS Time Management and I read that book four times at least. And I applied and he is ridiculously hardcore. To this day, I have no social media on my phone. I got so trained to try not to waste time and be distracted. I even got to a place where at one point at one of my companies, I would notice when I go to the, I'm not encouraging you to do what I'm about to say, but it does make a point. I noticed that when I went to the company, everybody would ask me questions. And if I didn't go to the company, everybody just figured it out. So I rented an office by my house and I worked

• 33:23Speaker 02

  in that office by myself and didn't go to my other office. And not that that's what you should do. I wasn't running for my company. I was very involved in the company. I would show up, but I wouldn't show up every day. I don't think you should do it this way, but I want to make a point. What you start to think about is how do I protect my time? And so, for example, with my team members, how do I have them batch their questions and come to me? Or when they do come to me, there's, I try to first think about, well, how would you solve this? Like asking them the questions. And I try to put things back on the team. That creates this gap where, or maybe a better said, it creates a situation where they start to solve way more of their own challenges and you find that you get a lot of your time back. So start thinking also in terms of batching. If you've got

• 34:05Speaker 02

  lots of things going, today is finance day in the company, today is marketing day in the company. And that way, when you get into a train of thought, you can go deep that day on all marketing and stay in that mindset versus jumping, like now we're doing invoices, now we're doing marketing, now I'm dealing with this. You're still going to be pulled in lots of different directions, but try to think about it that way.

• 34:27Speaker 00

  I'm bringing back some good memories there. Well, my friend, if you are not planning on coming to the Equip Expo this year, and you still got a chance to come, I would encourage you to be there. I know some of you are listening. You're like, it's, it's, it's a lock for me every year, Paul. This is my family vacation. This is something I look forward to every year. It's kind of like, because it is in October, this year, the dates are October 20th through 23, how did I say that wrong? October 20th through 23rd. There you go. Year 2026. A lot of you are like, Paul, are you kidding me? I'm, I'm going to be there. I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. But we have a lot of new listeners and you're like, I hear everyone talking about this Equip Expo. Is it really worth all the hype?

• 35:11Speaker 00

  And I would say it is what you put into it. So what it is, Equip Expo, is the largest trade show in the lawn care and landscaping community. It goes between Louisville, Kentucky and Orlando, Florida. This year, it's in Louisville, Kentucky again. It's going to be moving to Orlando, Florida soon, while they do major renovations at the Kentucky Exposition Center. So there's about 1,000 exhibitors there. John Deere's there, Toro's there, Kubota's there, Exmark is there, Jobber's there, all your softwares. Of course, Crest Commercial's there, your battery-powered companies are there. Um, and you have the opportunity, uh, to go outside if you want to demo the new Vermeer Skidsteer or Mini

• 35:56Speaker 00

  Skidsteer, uh, rather, um, all that stuff's outside. There's about 30 acres outside with mowers and power equipment and skid steers and, or mini skid steers and all kind of landscaping equipment that you can demo. And then inside is all the latest and greatest equipment, but it's inside, so you can't really drive it around in there. But you can touch it, see it, feel it, talk to the person who made the product. I mean, a lot of the engineers are there and the, um, the booths are just full of like top-level people from these companies. And that's one reason why to go to Equip. But the other reason is just the networking. There's so many friends that I have made in this industry and this is kind

• 36:37Speaker 00

  of like our reunion throughout the year because we all have, um, responsibilities running our businesses. It's not like we can all say, why don't we go meet in this city this weekend? Hey, what are you guys doing next week? Let's take, I mean, we're all in different cities, states, countries, and some have, you know, two kids, three kids, four kids, five kids, six kids. A lot of folks are, you know, busy, running a business, leading a family, and it's not the easiest thing to travel as we get, you know, uh, more responsibilities on our plate. So this is kind of the, uh, event that so many people prioritize and so many people, uh, attend every year. So, uh, you can, uh, get your ticket for 50% off.

• 37:20Speaker 00

  That's half off with the promo code PAUL when you're, uh, registering for Equip Expo. Do not pay $120, which is full price. Um, you can get half off of your ticket. And depending on when you're listening to this, they have early bird pricing, which is even cheaper. It's like 30 bucks until Labor Day. And then you use the promo code on top of that, you can actually get your ticket for $15 for a limited time with promo code PAUL with early bird. And then as you get closer to the show, the prices just keep going up. But you can always get half off no matter where the price is at with the promo code PAUL for Equip Expo. And then, uh, while you're at Equip, of course, hang out with us at the morning

• 38:00Speaker 00

  show, which will be on Thursday this year, uh, in room B103. That's in room, room B103 the last few years, which is awesome. It's the main ballroom there. Uh, and that's Thursday morning of the week of Equip Expo at 8:00 AM. Uh, Naylor's going to be interviewing Eric Triplet. I'm going to be interviewing John Payjack and Caleb and Brittany Allman are going to be interviewing each other. Um, husband and wife duo there. So, look forward to seeing you in Louisville at Equip Expo. Uh, don't pay full price, get half off your ticket with the promo code PAUL.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  Hey, it's Marty, producer of the Green Industry Podcast. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services that you heard about during the episode. And thanks for listening.