How to do Big Lawn Care & Landscape Jobs for Big profits

you know what we're going to do today we're going to talk about changing from La maintenance to Landscaping we're going to talk about allowing your company to grow by taking on bigger projects and the Natural Evolution of a company as it grows one of the things that I want to focus on today is bigger projects mean bigger problems but it also means bigger profits um and one of the things that I noticed right away that if you're in lawn maintenance and you're looking at getting into Landscaping go for it do it but I want you to understand there is a fundamental difference between lawn maintenance and Landscaping that goes beyond the work you do and it's in the pricing structure now with lawn maintenance itself it's a very Cutthroat business it's about the bottom dollar people don't like to spend a lot of money to have their lawns cut their grass looking green they want to try to save every pinch every penny but when it comes to Landscaping the exact opposite is the truth you see this staircase I built behind me this is a great example where a customer will pay extra to make sure that they're in good hands they want to feel comfortable about the who they're hiring to do the job we're going to go we're going to run through the gamut I'm going to show you some pretty big projects today I'm going to walk you through it it's a I know it's a long video but it's going to be well worth it and in the end I want you to understand I want you to find the right fit for your company this job here this is my own house but this is a great example I want you to understand that a lot of times I try not to be the lowest bidder in fact I've lost more jobs than I can count because I was a low bidder a lot of times a customer doesn't feel comfortable with that in fact uh city government offices don't feel comfortable with the low bidder that's why they have on all their bids they they have the right to choose who they're going to hire and a lot of times that low bid means that you miss something and when you miss something and you're the contractor what's going to happen is the customer is going to get bit in the end contractors we don't have a great reputation so what they the customer really wants to feel like they're in good hands that's a huge Point much different than lwn maintenance where it's about paying the least amount to get your grass cut in this case a customer will pay the medium guy but that's not the point to this video the point to this video is the evolution growing your company what that means the level of responsibility you're going to be taken on I hope by the time this video is done today you've gained something so let's take you on that Journey let's get the ball rolling hey boy where are we off to today that's right we're ride bike to school we can't do this nine months out of the year but the other three weeks we can right yeah we're at school like 20 minutes early hey you know what if he's pumped and excited about riding his bike to school that helps him get involved academically that's fine cuz I know boy takes a little bit after me not a big school fan but uh we're here and I want to talk to you about what we're going to be doing today it's all about engineering it's all about taking your business to the next level and what that means if you're in lawn care if you're Landscaping you will have bigger projects as they grow you're going to find you're going to make me dizzy in the background colon you're going to find that you have more and more responsibility and um I'm going to walk you through that Journey today it's going to be an interesting one it's going to be different than maybe what you're used to seeing so let's go on adventure it is a jam pack day today before I can get anything done I got to go to the dump look look at all this crap this is just it's not even a start of all the stuff I've collected from different houses and places and the for instance the two bikes I was riding in on this morning to school I pulled them both out of houses I'm so running far behind right now I'm at the dump dropping this garbage off you know I tell you to connect with every person possible well the reason I'm so far behind is because one of the guys that I've connected with he's works at the dump here but he also owns his own landscaping lawn care company and um we've been trying to hook up well we ran into each other here and uh he does a lot of residential and commercial lawn maintenance and that's a strong connection my competition yes I but I work with my compet Ian you guys know that and uh he knows that and he's asking me hey what kind of jobs can I throw your away and I'm telling him what I'm looking for and I he I'm asking him of course how can I help you out and um unfortunately this is putting me behind so what's next on the list is now we've got a 45 minute trip up to uh Maple Grove because we've got a big project we're a strong Contender now we don't have a signed contract by any means but we're a very strong Contender and it's probably about an $80,000 repair job on a retaining wall for an association this is what I want to talk to you guys about um is what's going to happen as your business grows you're going to find yourself involved more and more with bigger more complicated more complex projects and so I'm just going to prepare you for what to expect as your company grows and you get to that point now let's let's talk through what we've got going on this is a pretty typical Monday okay this is what we've got happening today we've got a $90,000 retaining wall replacement project Boop in Motta Heights um and how did I land that I landed that by going to committee meetings and uh I was asked if I would be willing to meet with the committee on Valentine's Day at 6 o' now as soon as I heard that I told them ah yes I will be there with the candy and the flowers you don't hesitate doesn't matter if it's Valentine's Day 6 o'clock you always got Valentine's Day at 7 and 8:00 to make up for it with your wife and so you've got to sacrifice some of those things as you get involved in it today we're going up to Maple Grove to meet with the engineers for the city as well as a private engineer as well as a developer as well as two town home associations because this project affects multiple people across different boundaries and this is what you're going to run into and I want you guys to be prepared I want you I don't want you to think that a landscaping a $3,000 job is going to be the same as a $33,000 job which is going to be the same as $13,000 job as you move up you're going to have bigger responsibilities time commitments conflicts in schedule and a lot of times you got to say yes just to get your foot in the door you've got to say yes to show that you're serious about getting this job hey there's something that I got to point out I don't tell you the size of the jobs that I'm working on to brag about how big of a projects we can handle that's not the point I want to show you the pattern and what to expect as your company grows right now you may be starting out and you may be doing five or 10 $30 jobs and in a year or two years from that point you may be doing five or 10 $300 jobs I remember the first time 20 years ago that I got2 $4,000 jobs I literally sat on the end of my bed and I couldn't believe it I my I was holding my head in my hands I was so excited that I'd gotten not one but two jobs and each was valued at over $4,000 but from that point from 20 years ago right now a good example is we have two projects one's 90,000 one's 80 ,000 and I'm going to look at another $90,000 job even as we speak 20 years ago I would have never even comprehended that that would be a possibility and it's going to be a possibility for you you are going to experience that kind of growth I guarantee it if you stick in this business if you stay with it you may it may not seem feasible right now if you're doing lawn maintenance you're doing residential lawn maintenance and you're mowing a bunch of $30 Lawns trust me you're going to have an opportunity to do a commercial account that commercial account is going to lead to another commercial account those commercial accounts are going to lead into snow plowing into bigger projects into Landscaping on those commercial accounts you may be asked your opinion on things you may be called in to do Consulting it doesn't matter the longer you stay in this game the bigger the projects are going to grow that's what I'm going to teach you today I want you to be able to handle that I want you to prepare for it so you may think that it's not even within the realm of your capabilities but you're wrong because it will be it eventually you will eventually lead down that road where you will be doing what I'm doing today I'm not always going to be around doing this stuff somebody's going to be taking it over in 20 years I'm going to be dead and gone you're going to be taken over you I want you to be prepared and ready to know how to do it let me put it to you this way big projects will always exist look around your neighborhood you're going to see big retaining walls you may see strip malls you may see different areas um commercial sites where they've had a lot of uh Landscaping done on it yes there's already companies in place doing them but those companies not necessarily going to be around in 5 10 15 or 20 years you're gaining The Experience right now and I want you to start preparing your mind to understand what it takes to get to those points to that place where you can take over those jobs because you are the natural predecessor even though you may not think that you can do it at this point you really are gaining the Val the experience the basics that will lead you down that road to be able to uh take on those bigger projects and they are around they're everywhere just like the little projects exist so do the big ones and that may be your door to growth okay I just got out of a meeting with uh the engineer for the city of Maple Grove um the Town Home Association board three members of the board and the developer for the association we're here because of this retaining wall I built this wall probably 9 years ago or so and the bottom tier here is what 4T tall roughly the top tier is closer to seven or 8T tall and it wraps all the way down and you can see it going all the way around the block right there that wall is about 16 ft tall and it continues to go around the block 30,000 square ft in this project but nobody's maintained it nobody's done anything to keep this wall in shape just because we build them right in the first place doesn't mean they're going to stay that way if you don't take time to do maintenance and I want to talk to you about that every issue has a potential to to become bigger if we take a look doing some main if you take a look you can see where the grades behind this wall have dip down it's going to blow that wall out in fact we had one catastrophic wall failure on this project last year we had to repair it with $6,000 we got another one coming up this this one's going to be probably $80,000 it's a bigger issue we've got to pull two tiers apart and completely reconstruct this entire Hillside and re-engineer it I'm going to show you what I'm talking about doesn't look like much from here but this retaining wall it's probably I don't know 6 feet tall can we see that can't really see it but you can see the belly in the wall can you see that distinct curve where it's just completely is just completely shot right there that's from drainage it's from not maintaining it you can see where all the grades have drop down in here and now we've got big sink holes behind this retaining wall I can literally stick my leg down in here up to my knee this entire wall has to be rebuilt in this area it's about 1,000 square ft it's got to be pulled apart it's it's got to be redone to correct it you can see you can see the distinct angle right there where it's just shot it's all bowed out pulling this one apart we got to pull the bottom one apart to get to it then we've got to go through all I think there's like 2,000 linear feet of retaining walls out here we got to fix all those grades you see that see where the grade is down that's supposed to be flush all through there supposed to be right up to the back of the Caps not down there between all the work out here that's about an $80,000 fix put it in perspective a little bit this portion of the retaining wall last year blew out just like the last portion we just looked at because right above us they decided to grade this lot out they created a Swale and instead of reestablishing vegetation they just let all the mud flow right into the drainage zone of this wall this whole thing came down last year right onto the road where the truck is parked blew out covered this entire roadway and you could see where the entire wall was uh suffered from it so a lot of times we'll wrap up a retaining wall walk away from it and following year find out that somebody's changed the grades somebody's done something new to it check these out we up we built all of those every single one one of them in this development I want to show you something this wall over here has not suffered any failures yet but they're not maintaining it really when you come into to do the lawn maintenance in an account like this it's just a simple fact of making sure that the grades behind the wall are set and established so that you're not getting any water trapped like I showed you in the prior video and that's where I'm going to come in and correct in this case I've given the association a proposal to come in and fix every wall on this site and to correct it that portion of the work is $118,000 alone because they've let it gone for 10 years where you could sell yourself as a lawn maintenance contractor you can sell yourself you could sell the fact that you are that company that as you're working around retaining Wells as you're working around hardscapes and other surfaces and other structures that you're committed to do the maintenance where you're committed to check to make sure every everything is working the way it should be and you'll be the person that contact the association and let them know if you see something out of um out of compliance in this case if that had been done on this retaining wall there wouldn't be any issues they wouldn't have $18,000 worth but the maintenance company that was working here didn't do that maybe they weren't informed of it or whatever happened doesn't matter it just wasn't done plain and simple so there's a there's an opening for you as a bond maintenance contractor if you get into these retaining walls check them there's potential work is what I was trying to say every problem has the potential to become work for you and you got to understand a lot of times contractors lawn maintenance contractors Landscaping contractors they make the mistake of assuming the mantle of responsibility and eating things on their jobs when really it's a valid change order something that they should be compensated for they should be paid for there's another retaining wall we did man we did a lot of walls in this site between retaining wall projects I stopped out take a look at this look at this gorgeous swimming pool I quoted gave her a quote right over the phone without ever seeing this project and it came out she has a deposit ready for me um this one's going to be Signed Sealed Delivered added into the schedule simply going to be removing this swimming pool filling it in taking out the fence and then turning this pool area into uh a grass area not everybody likes these swimming pools especially in Minnesota you only get three months of the year out of them so that's this project uh this was just a side note during the busy day you know a lot of times I try to show you things that you can actually see things that uh you can picture in these videos a lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes that I just don't tell you about because how do you describe it so I'm going to attempt to do that right now what's happened today I showed you some pools retaining walls things like that just standard typical stuff what I haven't told you was uh couple uh 3 4 days ago on Friday one of my dump trucks was sitting out on a site not running just sitting there burst into flames just caught on fire okay there's something that I have to deal with then this morning my truck driver one of my truck drivers decided to off to the uh project foreman and both of them they didn't get in a fist fight but they got in a verbal fight both of them left both of them took off and just instead of showing up to work they just took off so now I've got to talk to the customer and let know hey you know what we're going to be delayed by a day and and you know what's going on and um now while I was uh just driving down the road I got a call that my second second or third truck driver he's quitting and not two weeks notice more like two days notice so now I've got a truck on that one that's on fire I've got another truck that the truck driver cocked off to the project Foreman so I got to fire him he's gone I got to get rid of him you can't disrespect people in a company it's what is it quick to fire slow to hire you got to pick good guys so you don't have these issues okay um and then the third truck driver who is going to be getting bumped up and getting a lot more hours and things like that CU I was going to fire the other one uh decided he's gone he's he's moving to I don't know he's moving like 700 miles away didn't let us know about it so this behind the scenes stuff none of it's unusual you're not going to see me freaking out about it because as your business grows as you take on bigger projects and you have more stuff going on it's always going to be something you let this get to you it'll drive you insane but don't let it stop you okay I don't want just because I'm telling you about all the problems and all the issues and things like that I don't want it to slow you down I want you to go out and pursue your dream because running a bigger company is for some people that's why there are bigger companies out there and running a smaller company is for some people neither one is for me I like a mediumsized company I like having just enough that I can manage it without going crazy that's my comfort zone so two to four crews that's where I'm comfortable at I've ran more crews and it sucks it's not for me I've ran less Cruz and I just I don't feel like running less Cruz I like that I like that happy medium find your comfort zone wherever it is keep that in mind that's all I wanted to share with you on this one you know when I started this day off the point was to get you used to just what it takes to do bigger projects level of responsibility I wanted to get you familiar with it I wanted to encourage you to take them on I did not mean to go down the road of possibly scaring you and talking to you about problems and issues that can occur but in reality big jobs often times mean big problems big headaches but big payoffs as well and that's the lure of doing those bigger jobs you know I want the absolute best for you guys out there and for some of you doing bigger work that's the ticket you're going to be able to handle it awesome but for other people St small is where it's at and that's just as good because at the end of the day it's about the peace of mind and being able to walk away from the job and enjoy life now my company's been everywhere all stages in between what works for me isn't necessarily what's going to work for you and I want you to understand that but as your company grows you're going to have those opportunities they're going to be there you can say yes or you can say no it doesn't matter because what happens next is completely up to you guys I love you guys for me you know what happens next…