Who Makes the most Money in the GREEN industry

Our overhead was a F-150, pretty beaten up F-150 truck, and that was it. We didn't have a trailer, we didn't have a side cutter, we didn't have a dingo, we didn't have excavators, we didn't have skid steers. We had shovels and wheelbarrows. And 5 days a week we would build five ponds. Pond a day, 5 days a week, from April May till mid-November. You're new to the green industry, and you're wondering which direction you should go in. Hardscaping, landscaping, excavating, softscaping, patio installation, retaining wall installation. Should I buy a skid loader? Should I buy a lawn mower? Stop. Slow down. Let's do some research and watch this video because today I'm going to pretty much blow your mind with the numbers that I'm going to show you because I'm going to show you what they charge for a project, how long it's going to take for a project, and what the material costs are, and the profit margins on what you're going to see today are going to be unlike anything else that you'll see anywhere else. And on top of it, I'm going to show you projects that you should absolutely not do. Like this. Hello, fishies. This is the kind of stuff that gets contractors in trouble. Big dreams, but they don't have the skill yet to take on and tackle stuff like this. This is something that guys should only work up to after they've done everything else that I'm going to show you in today's video and have mastered all of the beginning components. Cuz your money doesn't lie in that. Your money lies in what I'm going to show you next. It's going to change the way you think. Let's dive into it and let's meet today's guest. Trevor. Danny. How are you doing, man? >> Good. How are you? >> Good. All right, guys. This is Trevor. Trevor, will you tell them what you do for Aqualand? >> I do all kinds of things, but predominantly I'm doing working for our contractors to help them spec out projects, to figure out problems, and also to get this stuff installed in the ground. So. So, I didn't know how at first to do pond installs, and you guys have one of the most phenomenal training systems I've ever seen anywhere in the world, hands down. I mean, just for business training alone, >> Yeah. the academy in the wintertime is perfect. But here, let's start I want to get right into this like imme- immediately, Trevor. I want these guys to see this information. We're going to look at This is the starting point. Here's how you guys have it advertised. Starting point 14 5, but the what we're going to see is going to be 17 grand out the door verbatim. Yes, 17 grand out the door. Okay, so >> Minus the skeleton. Mine minus the skeleton cuz it's about round Halloween. So, everything they see here, no patio. No patio. Patio separate. >> Patio is separate, not the retaining wall, but we're talking about the rocks, the liner, the the fall, Mhm. the spillway bowl, everything right here is $17,000 is what a contractor will charge a customer. Contractor needs to charge a customer the $17,000, and they're still going to be making okay, 50, 60% profit on that. Okay. How long will this $17,000 project take a contractor to do if he's working with three of his best guys? Three of his best guys, you're going to get it done in a day, typically. So, let's say 40 man-hours, depending on how many hours you work, stuff like that. >> Okay. >> 40 man-hours. So, we're looking at 40 man-hours, and you sell the entire kit. So, if a guy says, "Hey, I want this kit," which is what What is this kit called? So, this is going to be equivalent to an 8 by 11 pond kit. Okay, I want this kit that I'm selling to my customer for 17 grand. What is a contractor going to pay out the door to have this kit delivered to his door? Yeah, just under 5 grand. And that's MSRP, so contractor pricing is going to help that a little bit, too. >> Okay, so that's retail price. So, if a guy came in and he wasn't a contractor, he's doing a one-off, he was going to do it himself, he's going to pay 5 grand. A contractor is going to get a discount off from that, 10, 20%, 25%. >> Yep, yep. Okay, some somewhere in there. So, it's going to cost you roughly around 4 grandish. >> Yes, exactly. So, you have 4 grand in materials, pond liner, pumps, everything else. >> Mhm. You have 40 hours or 1 day with your three guys. So, we're looking at a grand total of making $17,000 in a day minus material cost. Now, we've also got to add in stones. >> Stones, yep, yep. And what about equipment? Are you digging this by hand or are you digging this with a machine? >> This is going to be 100% done by hand, wheelbarrow, strong back, a few buckets, and some shovels, and that should be all you really need to do this. There's some sizeable boulders, right? But at the same time, nothing that's machine set sizing, really. Like those are that's another step that we don't even want to get into at this point. Okay, so he says a very good point. Your guy, we're Let me show you something. Where's Brian at? Right here. Brian, right here. Okay, I need to point this out. This guy right here, Brian, traveled the country and he was doing pond after pond after pond, actually doing the installs for contractors to show them physically how he could do it, and he did every single one of those ponds. He did 50 ponds traveling the United States. He did every single one in a day, and that included hand chipping out granite, hand chipping out rock in certain situations without an excavator, without a skid loader, without any special equipment other than what you just laid out. So, it doesn't require a massive expenditure in overhead and equipment to get started doing this. Exactly. That's exactly right. >> Remember the guy from the picture I was showing you, Brian? This is Brian. >> Hey, what's up, everyone? Okay, Brian, tell me the story. You had an F-150 pickup truck. When I said you don't need equipment, tell me about this season and what you guys used and what you did, will you? So, what's crazy is when I first started with Aquascape back in 1995, and that's really aging me, but so does the gray and everything else. Um it was myself, Greg, Ed the Pond Professor over there. And Greg was loosely on the crew. So, it was Ed, myself, and a few other guys. And that year we built 130 different projects. Across the nation? >> No. In the Chicagoland area. >> minute. I thought you were traveling across the nation. >> That story you're talking about was when I was teaching people how to do stuff. >> okay, okay, so >> So, so our my first year we built 130 ponds. Greg designed and sold every single one of them. Skimmer box on one side, biofalls on the other side, and some rock and gravel in between. And they ranged from this up to like an 11 by 16 pond, but every project was a one-day project. Our overhead was a F-150, pretty beaten up F-150 truck, and that was it. We didn't have a trailer, we didn't have a side cutter, we didn't have a dingo, we didn't have excavators, we didn't have skid steers. We had shovels and wheelbarrows. And 5 days a week we would build five ponds. Pond a day, 5 days a week, from April May till mid-November. And that's you know, that's how we used >> why That's why I say this is a wash, rinse, and repeat repeat duplicable process because you did it. And then, on top of doing 130 in a season with with Greg and Ed, you did the training where you traveled across the >> So, that next year, because obviously after you do all 130 of these things, you have an idea of how to do it, right? And you really don't need that many to learn how to do it. You could do it three times and you get the process. Dig the hole, put the skimmer in, flip the dirt over here, etc., etc. So, Greg at the age I was um 19, sent me out on the road to go teach contractors all over the country in different parts of the world on how to build these ponds. So, I would show up in San Antonio, Texas. I'd have 60 people sitting there watching myself and Chris Wilson, Yeah. >> with me. We would teach contractors on how to do this. And the reason he sent us out there is because people in San Antonio, people in Massachusetts, people in Texas, you know, Florida, didn't matter where Arizona, said, "Listen, I understand you can do that in the Chicagoland area. There's no way you can do it in our area." Right. >> Now, so he sent us out working with rocks we've never worked with before, with people we've never worked with before, and in digging conditions that we've never seen before. And he Greg literally put the fear of God into us like, "Do not fail me." So, we worked our butts off to get some of those done, and I'm telling you, San Antonio, Texas is much harder to dig in You were picking rock. I remember telling me you still didn't have an excavator, you didn't use equipment, all sites are balanced, and you were chipping rock. >> I will tell you, San Antonio, Texas, there's not rock in the soil, there's one stupid rock that covers that whole town, right? So, that pond, it was three guys on jackhammers. Okay. You jackhammer out the pond, and then two guys would get in there, throw the stone out, and then repeat, and you just did that. Now, our deep spot might have been a little smaller, our shelves were probably a little bit wider, but most importantly, in one day, we got an 11 by 16 foot pond done in a day. In rock. And rock, water It was up and running and finished in one day. And And that's what I'm bringing to these guys. The belief, the understanding that if you could do it as a 18-year-old kid did 130 of them. Yep. >> And then as a 19-year-old traveling while you're And I'm 19, you know. >> 19 and you got to stop and talk. You got to do what we're doing right now. You got to stop and explain the process. >> Explain the process. Now, really, if you study this pond, like I'll even try to convince homeowners that they can do this. And usually homeowners get afraid with the whole idea of digging the hole and everything else. If you look at this pond, you can count how many rocks are in here. There's like 25, 30 rocks. I'm just guessing, Yep. >> right? But there's not that many rocks. Yep. So, if you can imagine moving 25 rocks, which any contractor of the world can move like with wheelbarrows and tree dollies and stuff, the hardest part of this project is bringing the rock back there. Digging the hole is not that hard. It's putting the rock in. And it's 25 to 30 of them. It's not a big deal. Yep. And this This one is your biggest, but you still move that size by hand. That's easy. That's lighter you Every contractor watching this has probably moved a big ball and burlap tree way bigger than that rock. I'll put my shoe in there for scale. There we go. All right. All right. It's doable. It's wash, rinse, and repeat repeat doable. So, come to the Aquas Aqualand training and Brian will teach you, Chris will teach you. We got all kinds of good stuff this year. We have a We have a foreman specific class, not for owners. It's really hands-on for foreman. And so, it's foreman responsibilities and the build. So, that's a two-day class. Um what we expect out of our foreman and And then after you see building the water feature itself. We have a two-day maintenance class, which go is more for your crew. So, we're going to show how to clean and and power wash, you know, do the whole spring clean-up system and everything else from pulling the fish out and power washing the pond and all that kind of stuff. And then a classroom day. Um I think there's some advanced classes that Ed and I are doing. >> Those will be fun. Uh and then a bunch on business. Yeah. Yeah. So, kind of like you were saying, Stan, where everyone is like we like to teach everything. So, those contractors are ready to go out and do it. All right. All right. Well, thanks, Brian. Appreciate it. >> you. And so, it's great, too, because then that gives you the opportunity to not have to invest in that machine, not have to invest in knowing how to operate or being worried about that, right? So, if you're an entry-level contractor, this is a game changer. Like this is the easiest thing you can do. You buy a kit, you're able to do it by yourself, and also do it by hand where you don't need that machine. Let's keep going. I want to show these guys everything. I want to give them every option that they can they can have. Now, if you guys are worried about how you do this, you put on what, four or five trainings a year? This year, we actually have six different academy trainings. So, there's all kinds of opportunities. I've gone to them every single year and I know guys that go to every single training every single year. Nick the Pond King goes to everyone. And I've gone to them without even being a master at pond building because the business side of it that you guys teach is the best in the green industry anywhere of any private organization I've ever been to. And I've been to a lot of them cuz I get invited to all these trainings, these private seminars, these high-end monthly clubs that they charge you 500 to 1,000 bucks a month to be a part of. And then they charge you X amount just to go to this one special event. And you walk out with an empty feeling, but here you walk out overwhelmed with the amount of information you have. But what's the next time you're going to show us? What's the next feature? >> next I want actually let's while we're walking by, we're not really going to get into these guys, but I want to showcase what's possible in regards to, you know, like what can happen in the pond world. Once we step beyond those kits that we're looking at, what do we got here? And so, as we walk by, you can kind of see, you know, we have a fountainscape thing with the different components we sell, you know, and there's a price tag on it, too. So, we can kind of start to apply the same logic to, you know, that we've applied with the pond that we talked about first. But again, bigger scale, we have different fountain components, a more complex system outside of the kit. But it is possible. So, you this display is 20 grand? 20 grand. That's For that display, just like you see it right there. Just like we see it. Yeah. And you guys and you some of you guys are going to be saying, "Oh, you can't do that." We're in St. Charles, Illinois. I know guys that are in the middle of Iowa where there are no homes but cornfields as far as the eye can see doing this and still getting these exact rates. This is not an upcharge for a fancy neighborhood. This is not a fallacy. You guys have done this time and time and time again year after year. And you're so analytical about your process when you do these things. You actually have it broken down to the amount of profit per hour per man on a job. And you've compared it industry by industry where the average mow and blow guy is coming in and they're scraping my $25 an hour. And you guys are coming in on average historical records show $253 an hour. Yeah, sounds about right. Yes. And And not only that, the other thing I liked that you worked the word systematically in there. The 20 products, 20 steps. So, one thing we should have talked about on the pond earlier is there is a very systematic approach to everything we do, which is what helps to make everything so profitable. And so, regardless of it's something crazy unique like this or something more simplistic that's done in a kit, it's always going to be in a systematic approach, which makes everything much more user-friendly as far as the contractors installing it, but also profitable. And you actually break down how to do this. So, when you If a contractor came and I want to get I want guys to come not because I'm going to get anything out of this. Greg didn't know I was coming. They had no clue I was coming till yesterday I called up and said, "Hey, I want to come out and I want to film here. I want to get this in front of guys." So, I get nothing out of you guys coming, but I want you guys to come so that you can actually see a team different teams of guys working side by each cuz you have a setup out here where guys can get the physical hands-on we're going to do this. It's not theory. You're not sitting in front of a book. And you come here, bring your work boots because you're going to work. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to get dirty. You're going to move rocks. You're going to move boulders. You're going to build a pond and it's going to run by the time you're done that very first day. Yep. It's un freaking real. As we look at this one now, we've got the fog machine going, but this is all pure water underneath here. What are we looking at for a price tag on a setup like this one? >> here is kind of a little more ambiguous. Um so, with the machine-set boulders, it's probably going to be more than what's, you know, listed here. Um because once you got the machine-size boulders, you got to bring in the machine. You got to know how to place those. You got to buff up the liner, the underlayment. It's all this the components, right? Um but with that said, the foundation of this is going to be like an 11 by 16 pond kit, right? And so, with that, it gives you a general gauge of the size and kind of what you'd be looking at. And again, we go back to the machine-size boulders, which increases complexity. Looks nice. Some people really like that. But that's something that you would graduate to, right? You don't want to do that on your first project. You don't need to. You can make a great-looking water feature without doing any of this, which is what our team was doing across the country, 50 ponds in a year, you know, um and plenty plenty to look at from there. So. What is What is the breakdown on this one, then? Yeah, so overall, the pond kit's probably going to be around $5,000, give or take. Uh it's a little bit Every time you step up in size in the pond kit, it's going to jump price a little bit. Um man-hours, we're probably going to be looking at somewhere around, I would say 60-ish, so a day and a half, two days, depending on your crew size and what you're doing there. Um and that's not to say that a advanced installer couldn't knock this out in a day, right? Um again, minus the machine-size boulders cuz complexity increases there, but still, it's really cool to showcase kind of what's possible in the pond world. So, when we're looking at machine-size boulders, we want to be very realistic. These guys are lifting heavy boulders by hand. But that one will not be moved with a piece of equipment. It will be moved by hand. Yep. That boulder, it looks heavy, it was moved by hand. It was It is. I watched one of your guys pick a boulder like that up to prove it, carried it, set it down, did it, and then he kept doing it all day long. These are not This is not fluff work. We're not saying that you're not going to go home and get uh you know, not have to put ice on your back. You're going to be sore after the first couple of them. >> of them. You're going to have a few more dollars in your pocket, but another great thing about pond building is it gives you this excitement and this this refreshing energy from building and, you know, creating something so artistic, but also, you know, so organic, right? Every rock is different. So, you know, I'm an artist. That's kind of my background before aquascape, and that's a really big thing when it comes to building water features. It's just such a engaging process that you you wake up the next morning, you just want to do it again. So it's really crazy, but it's that, you know, labor of love thing. >> It's not like going under fluorescent lights and pushing a piece of pen, you know, a pen pencil and paper all day long where you just you're questioning your very existence. >> Exactly. >> You get up…