Ponds - The Biggest Money in landscaping

All right, what you guys are about to see is probably one of the worst ideas I've had in a long time. And on top of that, I convinced Greg Witstock from TV's Pawn Stars to do it with me. See, I wanted to do this big dramatic opening where Greg and I jump off from one of his custom waterfalls into the pond down below, but the water was 40° and he warned me that as soon as I hit that water, I was going to be dead meat. There was no way I was going to be able to say anything. And he was 100% right. All right, I'm at Aquacape headquarters today. We're going to teach you guys how to install a pond step by step. And we're taking all of the guesswork out of this. We're going to show you how to make $253 per hour day after day. And if we can do it, and all of those guys over there can do it. You guys can do it as well. But we're jumping together. Take it up. Take it up. I've never been in water that was this cold. I could not talk. Today breathe in my world. Huh? Created a stepbystep paint by number system that allows any contractor with even with zero experience to install a pond and make at least 50% profit margins. Now, in his own business, he's improved that by increasing his efficiency. And he's up to 76% profit margins on a per project basis, and he's going to show us how to do that today. And in the next video, we're actually going to go out and do the actual install. There is absolutely no guesswork when you're installing one of these ponds or water features. how many hours for every project has been calculated, the cost of every material right down to how many stones you need to complete a project. You're going to see that. And in the next video coming up, we're actually going to do an install showing you exactly how these things get done. But before we get into these systems, I wanted to hear a little bit about Pawn Stars. So, why was Pawn Stars so difficult? Why was you said that was one of the four worst things in your life. Sure, but of course everything happens for a reason, right? But the reason was it wasn't real. It reality TV is not real. Reality TV is whatever the showrunner and director want to make it. So every morning we would wake up for a pond and we're building a pond. This is what we do every day. And they would tell us, "Here's how you're going to do this. Here's how you're going to react. Here's this fake drama that we're scripting into this thing." And I'm like, "But we wouldn't do this." It's like as though it wasn't J. This is in real life. So, what I wanted to find out next is if ponds are so profitable, why aren't more people doing them? How complicated can ponds get? And they can get you can do million-doll pond projects and million dollar one here and another one at his company headquarters just down the road. My goal today, guys, is to help you understand that ponds can be one of the most lucrative niches in landscaping. And you guys can do it. And where a lot of guys have problems with ponds is they go too big too fast. Stick to the basics. The elementary school is your fountain scapes. Your junior high is your pond list. Your high school is your ecosystem ponds. Your college PhD level is your million-dollar water feature. A contractor who's an opportunistic guy will go out there to do two or three small elementary school pondless waterfalls or uh fountain scapes and then he'll get an entrance way to a subdivision for 100,000 bucks. Think he's made it rich and then it'll cost him 150. And they'll never want to touch water features again because he went straight from elementary or junior high school to college or PhD. Crazy. Have you been up to it yet, Stanley? Uh-uh. This is a retail store. This is kind of like the most basic pond. Now, we have fountain skips less, but $59.99 installed. So, this pond right here, I can put in any patio next to any any landscape. I can get four guys to do this in 30 man hours. And here's the price right here. So you can either finance it for 120 a month or 6,000 bucks installed 7 by9 foot pond and I can do that in 30 man hours and you're going to make if you if that's 8,000 bucks you're going to put 4,000 bucks profit in your in your in one day with three guys. All right, let's clarify something. This is a $6,000 pond. A typical company will profit about $3,000 on this project, but Greg's company at a 76% profit margin will make $4,500 on this one single job. And he'll do it in one day. $4,000 profit, one day, three nights, not a problem at all. All day long till the couch's home. And then what we want to do is we want to show people good, better, best. So here's good. Walk over here. That's the same size pond, but now we got a 6ft stream onto it. So 7t by 9 ft pond with a 6 to 7t stream. $74.99 150 bucks a month. And then you have the best. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is the material cost on this pond? For a 7 by9 pond kit, you're going to probably look at about 1,200 bucks. And then the only additional expense you're going to have on that is is rock, which varies between 10 bucks a ton and 150 bucks a ton. What's the profit on this pond? Uh, if you're doing a one for 75, it's 50% gross profit margin is what our customers are getting. They're earning a 50 minimum gross profit margin. We're at Aquacape at 76% because we've been doing it for 26 years. Where can you make 70 where can you make 50% steady or let it alone 76%. And then here's the best. So for $9,000 you can almost get twice as big a 10 by 14 ft pond for just a little bit more cuz once our guys are out there now this is going to take us a 10x4 ft pond that sells for 9 grand. That's going to take 40 to 50 man hours. So four or five guys you know an 8 to 10 hour day one day. One day and you're going to end up making you know 4500 5,000 bucks easy. Everybody brings me their turtles as the pond guy. So, I keep having to build ponds to hold them. So, I got like seven turtles in this tank. You do love turtles. I like turtles. I like turtles. We started off with this is freshman year, maybe junior year by the big one. This is college level. 2500 bucks. He meant 25,000, not 2500. And what we don't want to do is having people start installing these after they install two or three aqua basins or or ponds or pondless waterfalls. This is, you know, when you're going to college, then you can do these like this. So, you work your way up to this pond. You do. But the problem with contractors, and you know this, they're opportunistic. They get greedy. They get greedy and they take they take on a job that they can't do and then it costs them their shirt. They're not making their 50% gross profit margin. It's harder to make 50% gross profit margin on a $2,500 one than it is on a $7,500 one. Now, it's important to listen to that last warning very carefully. Greg's company's done over $300 million in business just in the last 10 years alone. And what he's telling you is it's easier to make a 50% profit margin on the smaller projects when you're just starting it out than it is on the bigger projects. Don't go too big too fast, guys. Too many things can happen. God, that is a gorgeous koi. Aren't they beautiful? Not to switch the topic, but they're all cool. And they come right up. You eat my turtles. You know, this is what this what inspired me to get into this hobby right here. I like turtles. The easiest way to be successful in life is to find somebody doing what you want to do and what? Do what they did. Now, a survey was done over 70 different companies trying to determine what their typical profits per hour were. For a design build company, a hardscape company, they're making about $51 per hour. A commercial mowand blow guy is making around $30ome per hour. A residential mow and blow guy, his profits go up just a little bit. He's in the $40 per hour category. An irrigation guy, his profits, since he's more niche, will be hitting it closer to the $50 per hour range. But a certified aquacape contractor doing custom pond installs is up to $260ome dollar per hour. But now a certified aquacape contractor just doing average pond installs, nothing special, is still at $253 per hour. And this is something that you guys can do. I physically get ill looking at this number. $265 per manh hour produced by our custom crew. Why does it want to make me bob? Go ahead, Kim. Because all the other people could be making $265. So, my frustration in life, why a contractor? And you know what? What is the number one response I get when I talk to a mowand blow guy or a hardscape guy or an irrigation guy of why they don't want to get into this category? You tell me why. What's that? Ponds leak. Oh, I don't want to mess with water. They're a lot of work. I don't want to do that cuz I had one bad experience. Sure, boss. Okay, the reality is this is why Aquacape does what we do. Stay in elementary school, put an Aqua Basin in. Oh, let's see how profitable Aqua Basins are. Would you guys like to see what the Aquacape standard installation crew numbers are? Yes. Installing small pondless waterfalls, aqua basins, everything else. Go ahead. Survey says $253 per manh hour with the high expertise of digging a hole and putting in a square box and plumbing up a pump and putting gravel on top. Don't forget the gravel. Would you guys be happy to produce this in your business? Yes. Okay, I'm going to tell you today, we're going to show you today the business model operation manual of how we actually produce those numbers. All right, guys. Now, I couldn't take you along with me on this 36-hour training course, but I tried to break this down as much as possible. So, today I wanted you to just see the opportunities that lie out there for you guys if you choose to pursue it. On the next video, you see me with Greg, we're actually going to be doing an install step by step and learning his 20 system program. And then the last video in this pond series, Greg and I are going to be heading out to California to do a pond install at Logan Paul's house. So, make sure that you guys stick around. You're going to see every step of the process and hopefully take something away from this. Next, I want you to meet Carl and hear his story. Carl, just real quick, you started out with nothing. Zero. Literally nothing. Literally nothing. And in 2 and 1/2 years, right, you grew this from not knowing how to put a pond in to doing about how much? Roughly, we're going to do just under a million dollars this year. And if I get a yes on a project we're bidding on right now, we're it'll take us over to about $1.2 million. And $1.2 million. Yeah. 2 and 1/2 years ago, he didn't know how to dig a hole in the ground and fill it with water. Now he's doing $1.2 million if you get a yes. Otherwise, it's still 900 9 something. Think you guys can do it? Do you think you guys can do it? Let me tell you something. A guy that worked 20 years in the car business, if I can do it, you can do it. This pond was installed by two ladies, two guys that never touched a pond before today. They did this this morning. Look at this. 2 and 1/2 hours. Took them 2 and 1/2 hours to do this. And then over here, this one was installed by a professional. Same kit. gives you different results, but you can see that you guys don't have to be a professional to get amazing results. Professional built this. He's done hundreds and hundreds of ponds. And over here, two ladies, two guys, never touched a pond before. Did this in 2 and 1/2 hours. You guys can do it. Now, videos like this help you guys out. Let me know in the comments down below or hit the like button. But today's video was not my story. This is Greg's story. This is Greg's obsession. So, do me a favor and go check out his channel and subscribe over there because he's going to be bringing information to you guys that will hopefully help you out. God bless. Go get them and go subscribe to Greg's