An average Day During the Spring Rush landscaping

it's a rain day today it rained all day yesterday it's planning on raining all day today and tomorrow so I have crues that can't do anything and we're going to go over what we do on a rain day because for you the business owner for you the guy that's getting your business started there's never a rain day first thing I got to start out with something for my brain I can't get that thing firing for nothing sometimes so I use this stuff right here it's called food p h o o d man it's just like a gets everything going I love it take some vitamin B along with it and then this stuff I got from a guy named John Gray Men Are from Mars Women Are from Venus website super minerals for men works it really does work let's get started with an average day next is D bomb double caffeinated coffee yeah I love this stuff it's just enough caffeine to get you right to the edge without going over good stuff mayard so in my coffee I stick butter yep I mix butter into my coffee and then I put in something called brain octane upgraded brain octane it's nothing but coconut oil okay and you don't need this stuff this is that bulletproof guy stuff I think that guy's full of Hoya most of his stuff personally but I do like having the brain octane or the coconut oil in my coffee I have noticed the difference I wouldn't keep doing it so this is the this is the brain food that really get things fire and I fed my brain with the food pH h o o d to get it woke up and now I'm putting the bomb the double caffeinated coffee I'm mixing butter into it a little bit of milk personal choice and on a just a drizzle of the upgraded rain octane or coconut oil and that really gets you to that point where you're ready to go for the day you feel good you don't feel like you're going to be Psycho though it's a huge difference I've been both so what I know we have to do today is we've got to look at one yard cleanup job we've got two retaining wall installation projects we have to go bid an estimate we have two houses to to look at uh to estimate knocking down and then we have one PA driveway project so that's where we're going to be heading today before we can get any of that going though we've got to make sure that each and every employee has their information turned into the accountant so the accountant can process their payrolls this week and I can get them paid down the line so that's a priority first thing this morning before we even head out the door and get going I make sure my guys are taken care of cuz I love you guys I want you guys to be taken care of these videos are are made for you to learn to grow I take care of my own guys as well okay I just got an email that came in this morning from one of the guys uh Brent Keller uh he's a fan of the podcast he emails me back and forth he suggested Charles vandercoy as the next guest that's a phenomenal suggestion who do you guys want me to interview I need help a plain andm will be Co totally honest with you I don't know who you guys want to hear and I only know so many people if you have a suggestion please send it to me because I need people to interview for the podcast I think the show's going great we're all gaining so much information from it but I need to know who's next another thing Keith cast emailed me a copy of his new book the um what is the name of his new book how how to start a landscaping business right now I'm going to listen to that while I'm driving around in between in between projects today so let's get going let's get out let's go look at some job sites I owe I owe so off to work I go would I rather stay home oh hell yes cuz I'm a lazy guy but I got to work anyway here's something kind of funny see this truck right behind me I bought this thing back in December and I still haven't put any license plates on it I I'm just doing it because I want to see how long I can go with this thing with just that tag in the window before I get pulled over and it's may now it's been 5 months yeah that's a weird Quirk of mine I like to do stuff like that just for fun and you're like H that don't sound like fun well you know it's fun to see how long you can get away with stuff sometimes but anyway rain day as you know so guess what no Mustang it's the minivan yep heading out to my job sites in the old in the old rust bucket but you know what it isn't uh isn't so much about that as it it's a little bit of a hurdle when you get out of a car like this and you're going to do an estimate but if you know what you're doing you're competent you're confident and then you have a story so I'll use this as a story I'll use it you know let people know that the trucks are working let people know that uh my other vehicle isn't available and I'm using this today because I needed to get out to see them and that helps them overcome the fact that I'm showing up in what something that they probably wouldn't expect to see me in and it it warms up uh it just start as a conversation starter so long story short let's go get some J driving down the road and this is the perfect time to make phone calls the radio in my car never goes on because I'm always on the phone talking to customers getting permits getting everything lined up for the next job site I don't have time to listen to music so as you're driving around that's a great time to get some of your office work done you don't have to sit in front of a computer to do it it you can sit behind the wheel of your car and get almost as much done just be careful behind me see that big old where is it right there big old tom turkey can't see him see if we can sneak up on them we get these things all over in Minnesota now back when I was a kid we never had turkeys like this roaming around look at that sucker that thing it feed like 10 people we actually can hunt them now there's a going he's not even afraid of me how close I get there he's off anyway point to this I had I literally have 12 minutes in between appointments am I going to park in a parking lot could could return phone calls but I happen to have a job site running we're going to drop by for a surprise visit we're going to see the boys they got everything set up in the street there's my equipment trailer there one of them looks like they got all the aggregate ConEd off good job good job boys everything's clean and tidy on the street love it t180 not the best machine for working off a street but we can't damage any yards out on this project we got all the block lined up in this case we're rebuilding all the retaining walls in this development looks like we've got one of the management trucks and then our dump truck let's see let's see what they're doing all right so we got one of our pickup trucks which is the service Fuel and support truck get tools and then one of the dump trucks this is how we get all that rock out to our sits when we demo houses this is what we do something I want to show you see what s sits on the side of my truck 24/7 now hiring how do you recruit you never stop never stop all my trucks even my pickup truck look in the back of that I know you can't see it right now but there's right there is a little sticker says Now hiring accept phone calls all the time interview people all the time even when I don't need them how they're doing looks like they got the road coming in tarped off mini ex going I hear concrete saw running what are they doing they're actually working awesome got another skid loader there look at Tim look at Timmy down in the trench Timmy's the general manager he runs all the sight mun's cutting blocks we got a retaining oil that's going to go in off this house all the way around and we're going to totally change this person's yard I know you can't hear me I never say anything important anyway so there you go you can maybe see it a little bit better I got 11 minutes left before I got to go to my next meeting so been called out to this project they need to level this yard it is a steep incline going down looks like they have a boulder wall that's just about falling apart but the beauty of these Boulder walls is the materials can be reused over and over again so we'll put together quote for getting this all fixed up and making this a usable backyard project one left the site we started out with a $5,000 budget and a dream and we turned it into a $10,000 budget in a reality she was referencing Home and Gardens HGTV all these resources which are great I it gives me something to build off from and a perspective to go off from and I explained to her what could happen for her budget of $5,000 where it would be at and then she asked the question if we upped it what could we get and that's when I was able to actually create something that fit her vision was able to create something that fit her budget the first go round create something that fit her vision and her dream the second go round that's where we're Le in this one and we'll see if she follows through on it or not either way at least she's better off she now has an understanding of how things go job number two is we're going to remove this driveway it's about 550 Square ft we're going to saw cut inside the patio get that cleaned up and removed we're going to yank up Out The Chain fence along the the fence the property line then we're going to cut all this out of here install steps right here and then we're going to put in a sidewalk alongside the garage and wrap it around to the back side so total square footage we C we base it off that which we know which is 550 Square ft we're going to have one number for the removal of the concrete and we're going to have a number for the removal of the uh or the ex avation and that's how we're going to base this proposal um so that's we're going to break these jobs down into their simplest format what do we got to do how much does each part of it cost on to the next one between going to job sites well I've lined up a labor that's meeting with an engineer tomorrow to go out and do a test dig on a retaining wall that's in a state of failure the it's a 20 I think the retaining well is over 20 ft tall and three tiers about 500 ft long so we're meeting an engineer firm and um getting uh test pits dug for them uh also in between job sites what I'm doing uh on the phone is I reached out to Tom with motorart podcast that's a program I want you guys to go check out I'm going to be on his show next week um and then I'm going to have him come on my show and he's a contractor that does Consulting and helps contractors run and improve their businesses he's got a great show and I'm pumped to uh to let you guys know about it and I'm pumped to to be on his program next week so those are a few of the things that I do in between visiting sites it's never ending there's radio doesn't play it doesn't go on it's there's not a moment's not not a moment's rest next we're going to go out and check out a couple yard an easy one this job what we've got to do is come in it's all hand labor we're going to be coming in and removing the fountain removing all the Rocks getting it set up so it goes back to a yard um we've got a hand carry the stones out this patio down the Gateway throw it in a dumpster $3,200 is what I quoted it it's uh it's just a day or two's worth of labor for a few guys and the dump fee it's as simple as calculating it as that really nothing too special about it we're looking at this lawn front yard side yard that's about it not much lawn this is a lawn mowing job lawn maintenance we're looking at today uh it's just a little bit off the beaten path this is going to be about a $35 yard to cut uh just to kind of give you a perspective it's literally probably 20 minutes worth of work if you're taking your time next let's go check out some houses we got to tear for lunch it's 12:30 cold piece of corn on the cob I pulled out of the refrigerator and a beef jerkey stick that's it that's the breakfast and lunch of Champions ma'am whatever fills a hole and forms a turd what all that matters days like this you got to keep going you can't slow down even to eat cold corn on the cob it's not that bad after all wish I had a meteorologist job you can be wrong 50% of the time and still get paid so you know what I'm saying screw this it's supposed to be pouring rain all day today I took the minivan out because what the hell I can't drive the Mustang in the rain I don't want to do that now it's sunny out what the off to look at a couple house demos taking the Mustang a look at this cute little house that we're going to knock the out of first thing I look at when we come into a place like this for an estimating purposes what's our access like how do we get in here's the Main Street clear front yard no trees next thing I look at how close is the house next to it pretty far away how close is the house on this side pretty far away this job easy cheesy lemon squeezy now the next step in bidding and estimating a house like this is how big is this this is just a little baby house there's a little teeny tiny just a cute little sucker we're going to knock it down and probably three hours we're going to load it up now I this is the first time I've ever seen this house we're going to load this bad boy up into one 240 yard dumpsters 240 yard dumpsters cost us $800 takes us an afternoon to do this job it's probably going to be I'm going to probably estimate it at about 5 to six grand is going to take this bad boy down and out I'll let you know if I get the job but at this point this is a pretty simple one I've got it include time for mobilization and the basement I've got to dig that out so this is a multiphase project phase one is tearing the house down phase two is going to be digging the basement now in this case I know from the blueprints that were emailed to me that I got to dig this basement down an extra three feet so when I dig this basement down three feet I'm going to be generating about 90 extra cubic yards of soil I have to haul that out that'll go into the excavation bid I'm going to break this bid down as follows demolition disconnecting any sewer and water lines that's going to be a line item excavation and then soil removal I'm going to break it down into its simplest components I'm going to compartmentalize each part of the job and I'm going to build profit into each section of the job that way if I only get one part of the job if I just get the house demo I don't get the excavation I've got profit if I don't get the house demo and I get just the excavation I've got profit I've had it happen I've bid the entire project and only gotten a small piece of it and still made a ton of money that's how you're going to do it every part of the job I want you to make money on remember that so this one easy all right I got every moment of this rain day damn meteorologist planned out and I forgot one important thing I got to pick up a permit we're out demoing I got a crew demo in a swimming pool right now the permit is in the office but it's got to be in my hand don't tell anybody so I'm going to quick run in and grab it and get it out to my swimming pool and my I can tell my operator's not here at the moment but I know he's been working today cuz he's left soil in the street I hire guys that I don't babysit I hire guys that want to work that want to be left alone and work that's why I don't have to sit out here and wonder what they're doing or how they're doing it we're going to be looking at a pool demolition project I grabbed the permit um which I just went to lo and behold found out we did we'd already pulled that permit 6 months earlier um before the winter time rolled in so what he's doing right now is he's trying to build a safety zone to get down into the bottom these pools are dangerous you can't just go driving into the bottom of them so he's ramping down and in once he gets to the bottom then he can start lifting everything up and Hauling it out but until he can get to the bottom he can't be safe on operating so we create that safety zone down and then we start doing the removals after that permit is dropped off now it's hustle bustle time I got 20 M to go it's 2:00 in the afternoon I still have three jobs to look at and I don't want to take up too much time so I want to to get this show on the road in between I'm listening to Keith cast's new book the landscape employee trap it's another easy house demo I never seen it where we get two easy ones right in a row it's a little bigger house everything goes in this case but there's no obstructions on the side giant wide open yard easy cheesy lemon squeezy we're going to be talking about 10,000 bucks for a project like this I'll go over numbers with you I'll put them in the show notes maybe but simply we're just going to take this out we got to take the basement out we're going to dig it out just uh met with a customer we have a $600 yard cleanup project confirmed and booked we're going to have to get to that within the next week or two we're going to be cleaning up this Garden here for her and we're going to go around the backside we've got a big pile of leaves to haul out and then we go along her opposite fence line we've got another pile leaves a haul out bing bada boom we're in we're out afternoon's worth of work we're down the road so now we're going to go out and look at a 1000t retaining wall next Double tiered we got to get built up there's some more of the leaves on this job site but off to the next one we have a $28,500 budget established by the customer on this project and she's got all these Timber retaining walls in layers that we can't re we can't do it for that budget so we came up with a solution a little more creative solution that fits her first off apologize my camera cut out while we were filming that last job site we were talking about a budget of $28,500 and if you walked into that backyard you would quickly realize that her retaining walls could not be replaced at for $28,500 we've got over 1,00 Square ft of Timber retaining wheels that have to be ripped out then you've got a dig for geogrid and then you got to build all new retaining walls we're talking about a project that would take at least two to three weeks maybe even a month with a full-time crew excavators dump trucks running not possible to rebuild it but it is possible to complete her project you got to understand the customer has two things they have a problem and they have a budget and when you need what you need to do is establish what their budget is so I don't I don't go out and do these jobs where I just start throwing numbers at the board I don't do that anymore that is long gone if a customer is not willing to share with me their budget I can't come up with a solution that matches their budget and I let them know that very frankly nine out of 10 customers will share with me whatever budget number they have in their mind which gets them Further Along on their job site and then I design a solution that they can live with not only with their budget but what's going to happen on their site that's what I did for Jean I took her budget so that's what I did for Jean is I took her budget and I created a solution that fit her budget wasn't replacing those retaining walls that couldn't be done now today we did eight job estimates we looked at a couple sites um we also scheduled a few podcasts uh set programs up for the next day or jobs for the next day and it's getting late and it's time to end the day this is just an average day in the spring this is what you guys are going to be getting to into when you're starting your company expect to start when the sun comes up and expect to stop after the sun goes down it's what you got to do it's what I do every day 43 years old I'm still doing it I'm making a good living I want you guys to make a good living I hope this has been helpful to you in some way shape or form that was the point to sharing this with you so that you knew what to expect as you're setting…