Roots to Revenue

How Shaun Left a Franchise to Build Lawn Right and Win on YouTube

• Robbie Lynn • Season 2 • Episode 5

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Thinking about going solo? This is the reality of leaving a franchise and building something of your own.
In this episode of Roots to Revenue, we chat with Sean from Lawn Right — a business owner who left a franchise to go independent and now uses YouTube to grow his brand.

We cover how he found his first clients, used Facebook ads to generate leads, and turned a lawn care job into a trusted local business. You’ll hear what worked, what didn’t, and the real behind-the-scenes of building a business from scratch.

If you’re ready to take control of your career, or just want to learn how content and consistency can grow a business — this one’s for you.


Try out Jobber for FREE with a 14-day trial and then 20% off for your first 6 months, use this code - https://go.getjobber.com/robbielynn592

Watch how I run my own business with jobber - https://youtu.be/Q1wyBRIhJx0?si=aR9EiBCHPUDR4CFU

Would you like to appear in the podcast, do you have an interesting story to tell?
Connect with me on linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-lynn-22435156/

00:00 Taking the Leap: Leaving Work for Lawn Care
00:32 Introduction to the Podcast
01:42 Sean's Journey into Lawn Care
02:59 Working for a Lawn Care Franchise
05:52 Starting His Own Lawn Care Business
08:12 Building a Client Base
09:42 Challenges and Growth
14:09 Branding and Marketing Strategies
16:34 The YouTube Journey
18:47 Trends and Future Plans
20:01 The Struggle of Recreating Viral Content
20:20 Copying Successful Strategies
20:47 Balancing Creativity and Seriousness
22:10 Impact of YouTube on Business
23:23 Editing Tools and Techniques
24:58 Dealing with Fan Interactions
28:28 Customer Education and Lawn Care Tips
31:48 Advice for Aspiring YouTubers
35:47 Future Plans and Product Launches
36:20 Conclusion and Contact Information

Try out Jobber for FREE with a 14-day trial with your exclusive discount Root to Revenue https://go.getjobber.com/premierlawns

Shaun:

I made the decision to leave work. So I left work and I went full time, didn't know what to expect. And the first few years were very scary, especially in winter. I was at the point of thinking I'm going to have to get a job. You can only learn so much when you're working for someone else, because there's no pressure on you to force you to learn out and about in nature. You just can't beat it. And some days you're in a garden, you can see the sun coming up. You can hear the birds. It is absolutely beautiful. We try and take people who have got messy lawns with weeds, moss, other problems, or just bare patches of soil. Just press record. Don't worry because nobody cares about you.

Robbie:

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make whenever they're starting a YouTube channel is what about you and welcome to another Roots to Revenue podcast. You've seen his lawns, you've watched his videos, but how did Sean from Lawn Right actually get started? Today we're diving into his full story. How he left lawn care franchise, took a gardening job. and then started building Lawn Right from the ground up. Now before we get into the podcast, let me tell you about the sponsor. The channel is sponsored by Jobber. Jobber is my go to software. Not only does it get me paid faster and my customers like it, it also frees up time in my business. There's so many things within your business that can be automated and that's where Jobber comes in and it frees up time so you can earn more money.

Jason:

To get your exclusive Premier Lawns link, it is premierlawns. link. And it gives you a 14 day free trial as well. We'll talk about those early struggles, how he got his first 20 clients, business lessons he's learned and how YouTube has changed everything for him. If you've ever thought about starting your own business, or you just want to hear what really goes on behind the scenes, this episode is for you. Let's get into it. Sean, would you like to introduce yourself?

Shaun:

Hello, I'm Sean. Um, And I'm from Doncaster in South Yorkshire. And I've been running my own lawn care business now for about 10 years. And in the area, we treat nearly 600 customers every 10 weeks. And we try and take people who have got messy lawns with weeds, moss, other problems, or just bare patches of soil. And we help to turn it around and make it into a nicer, greener place to enjoy.

Robbie:

How did you first get into lawn care?

Shaun:

So I just fell into lawn care really. I'd always helped out in the garden. My dad was always cutting grass and doing the borders and I would help my dad quite a lot. And as I got older, my granddad requested my services. So I'd go and help my granddad in his garden. And I was doing that every two weeks. And as time went on and got into employment, it was deciding what to do. And eventually lawn care came up as a job and I got into that as a job. And that inspired me to go out and have a go myself and see what it's all about.

Robbie:

So tell me, let's go back to the early days. You could end the lawn care. Did you work for a company, a franchise? Tell us a little bit about that time spent.

Shaun:

Yeah. So I saw a job opening with a franchise who are a main organization in the UK. And a job came up and I went and applied and I got the job and I enjoyed it. There were six of us there, all employed. And I think the customer, the company had got 3000 customers at the time.

Robbie:

And what sort of training did you get whenever you started with the franchise?

Shaun:

So in the beginning it was all very much hands on, so the boss who owned the franchise would come out with me in the van, he would give me hands on training on strips of grass at the side of the units, and we'd go out to customers properties and we'd train on the customers properties. It also put me through courses, so obviously your PA1, your PA6A. And other courses which were made available by the likes of the S. T. R. I. And organisations like that.

Robbie:

Did the franchise itself have a training programme? Did the main body have a, like, a training

Shaun:

No. This is quite some time ago now. In fairness,

Robbie:

there's not that much training you can do for lawn care.

Shaun:

Yeah. It's very much hands on. The guy that owned the franchise would come out with me on a regular basis for several months. and pointing weeds out and talking about moss and what causes moss and what you can do about moss. A lot of the, a lot of the knowledge that I've gained has actually come since then.

Robbie:

You learn so much more whenever you're working for yourself.

Shaun:

Yeah, you do. You sort of have

Robbie:

to and YouTube as well educates you. So a lot of people think that if I'm going to be making a video about lawn care, I'll go away and research it. I always want to make sure that I'm putting out factual, correct information. So before you open your mouth that you want to go away and research stuff. I don't know if you do the same, but since I've started YouTube, what I've learned about lawn care has just totally skyrocketed.

Shaun:

Absolutely. Yeah. You can only learn so much when you're working for someone else because there's no pressure on you to force you to learn. But like you say, when you work for yourself, you have to find an answer because the customer wants to know what's going off with the grass. So you have to find the answer.

Robbie:

Yeah, to be professional. Yeah. Of course, it's something you don't want to say, I don't know.

Shaun:

And like yourself, you find yourself that you're knowledgeable about certain things and very knowledgeable about another things. It's like, yeah, okay, so we'll have a skip over that or we'll do a bit of research.

Robbie:

Tell us this, your early days in the franchise, what was that experience like? Was it good or bad?

Shaun:

It was, uh, Tell us the

Robbie:

good bits.

Shaun:

It was definitely a mixed bag. Tell us the good

Robbie:

bits, what did you enjoy?

Shaun:

I enjoyed the lads. I enjoyed being outdoors. I enjoyed talking to customers. Really enjoyed doing that. Out and about, in nature, you just can't beat it. And some days you're in a garden, you can see the sun coming up, you can hear the birds. It's absolutely beautiful. And that makes it all worthwhile. It really

Robbie:

does. There's a lot to be said about working in the great outdoors. As long as you don't mind a bit of rain.

Shaun:

Yeah, you want to be, you want your inner peace to be nice and calm.

Robbie:

So tell us this here, why did you decide to leave the franchise?

Shaun:

So it was the pressure of the jobs getting more and more, I would never have any spare time, dinner breaks were never a thing. You would eat in between jobs. So there was that pressure. The fact that my marriage was coming to an end and the fact I also found always fancied working for myself. So that's gathering data. yeah,

Robbie:

I'm

Shaun:

standing on disclosure. It was quite obvious. They got lists of suppliers and things like that. I wasn't like going into anything bad, but I was just finding out who suppliers were and generally how they structure and what sort of software they use and things like that. And so I gathered some data and I thought, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. But then my marriage came to an end. So it was a bit of a funny time for a few months. I left that job. I went to live at my parents house. And while I was there, I joined a gym. I lost 70 pounds in three months, lost a lot of weight and I reinvented myself. And, and that's when I met my now wife. So I met her, I moved to Doncaster, moved in very quickly. I thought I've got to have somewhere to stay.

Robbie:

No,

Shaun:

but it was lovely. It was meant to be. So I moved in and I was doing a few side hustles at the time, making a bit of money on the side. I thought,

Robbie:

what were you working on then whenever you moved?

Shaun:

I was doing a few side hustles on the internet and I was making a little bit of money. But I also got a job with the same franchise, but at a different branch near to my parents. And for a few months I was driving to my parents house every single day from my wife's house in Doncaster. So it was like an hour each way, but it became too much.

Robbie:

That's quite far to travel for itself.

Shaun:

So I ended up getting a job with the council and I became a gardener at the council. And while I was there, I'd do my job in the day and then I'd have my uniform. I'd have my uniform and I'd put that on at the end of the working day. And I would go out and do some jobs in the evening. And typically it's out until it gets dark. So in the summer, it was always nine o'clock, but no machines at that time. But I'd be doing borders and things like that.

Robbie:

How did you get your first 20 clients whenever you worked on the side? So how did you get your name out there?

Shaun:

I started off just putting a little post in a Facebook group. These buy and sell groups, local groups. And I just bought lawn treatments, friendly, reliable, cheap prices, all that sort of thing, but I wasn't getting much. And my wife said, why don't you do a bit of gardening? You already do gardening. I said, okay, I'll have a go at gardening. And I'd already done gardening for my mom, my dad and my granddad. Why not? I've got a mower, a 10 year old mower. So, I started doing a few, and in the Facebook groups, that was working really well. And I was getting customers all the time, and they were recommending me to others. And after a while, they got to know me and trust me, and because of that, I then said to them, I also do lawn treatments. And the first 20 customers literally came from that, and it was easy to get the first 20. Then moving on from there, I would continue to put ads in the groups. As the business was growing. So we'd probably got under 200 customers at this point,

Robbie:

but it was you 200 customers and you're still doing a full time job. Yeah,

Shaun:

I've got a hundred gardening customers and that was busy. So, but while you're there, you've done the garden and you just run over with putting a treatment on which takes very little time. Saturdays, Sundays, as you're building it up. And it reached a point where it was getting really busy. So, I made the decision to leave work. So I left work, and I went full time, didn't know what to expect, and the first few years were very scary, especially in winter, I was at the point of thinking I'm gonna have to get a job. Very close. My

Robbie:

first wonder, a self employed, I got a job. You

Shaun:

got a job?

Robbie:

Yep, 100%.

Shaun:

I don't know how we got through. I think we borrowed a little bit of money from my parents.

Robbie:

I don't think there's any shame in saying you got a job. Yeah,

Shaun:

yeah.

Robbie:

I, like yourself, I wanted to work for myself for a long time, and I didn't have the courage, and then whenever I eventually did, and I found myself in a position that I could work for myself, whenever it comes to your first window, there's no work, and you're just like, I'm not giving up.

Yeah.

Robbie:

But I just have to get through.

Shaun:

Yeah.

Robbie:

No shame if you're watching this and you're thinking about starting for yourself.

Shaun:

So, so moving on from there. We tried advertising once using Facebook ads and that worked really well.

Robbie:

How did you structure the Facebook ad?

Shaun:

I think it was just fluke. I think it was lucky, but there was some methodology.

Robbie:

Tell me a bit how you did it.

Shaun:

It's been a few years since I've done it, but I would, so in terms of area, I would type in the names of all the villages and towns very close. So targeting people that lived in those areas, but also the interest that those people had got. So it'd be like names of magazines, like house and home gardening magazines and anything, anybody with similar interests, like gardening, like outdoors, I would target those. And that works really well. So we got a hundred customers very quickly that way in one year. And we let the dust settle and we left it a

Robbie:

year. How much money did you spend on the Facebook ads back then, roughly?

Shaun:

I can't remember.

Robbie:

But it wasn't much. Was it 50, 100, 200, 500? 50,

Shaun:

100, something like that. It was very good. Maybe 5 a day or something. It wasn't much at all. So,

Robbie:

so building this business up. You must have been really working your arse off back then.

Shaun:

Yeah, I still do. I still do.

Robbie:

I

Shaun:

still work six, seven days a week now. I don't know when to stop. My trouble is I can't sit down and relax. I'm always on the go doing something. So, so we got to the point where we got these 400 customers, but now we haven't advertised for about five years. And every year we probably get 50, 60 new customers, but we might lose 20, 30. So it's just growing nicely on its own, but we're at the point where do we take staff on, don't we take staff on. And we've been at this point for about two or three years. And I'm quite happy where I am not having to deal with staff, but I'm not saying it's a no.

Robbie:

Good staff can be a godsend, but sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you find the prince. My princess.

Yeah. I've never thought about it like that, kissing a few drugs.

Robbie:

Yeah, so getting employees is tricky, although I've always been quite fortunate to have pretty good employees, but every now and again a bad one comes along, but that's just, sometimes it just takes a while.

Shaun:

He's nodding.

Robbie:

But it makes our life so much easier. Having an employee makes our life so much easier.

Shaun:

Yeah, I don't know why I'm so resistant. I guess I'm worried about getting the wrong ones that are always on the phones That ring up after a hangover and they don't want to come in and then there's headaches and this that and the other and pensions It's just because it's an area. I've never really gone into.

Robbie:

They're also an expensive hobby And it's not gonna any cheaper there's labor government that they're not making it any easier for small businesses, but that's a different

Jason:

That's a different conversation If you was to start again, what would you tell your younger self to do differently? If

Shaun:

I was to start again, I would absolutely run Facebook ads straight away and give that a go. Even if you've got to pay someone in the beginning, it's a good investment. At least at the time, it worked really well for me. If you need to get going fast, but years ago, it used to be all about leaflets and massive amounts of leaflets, but I never did that. I might have hand delivered a few, but you've got to get them out in big numbers. Always be polite. Always spend time with the customer if they want your time. Always close your gates, leave it neat and tidy. As long as you do that, you will always get word of mouth referrals without a doubt. And that's literally all I can say. Just be nice, friendly, and knowledgeable.

Jason:

Subreddface. Lorne Wright has become a well known name. How did you go about building that brand?

Shaun:

I was always aware from the beginning that if you've got a strong image brand, it'll help your business grow. So I had my logo designed. On a website, I think it was called 99 designs. So you submit the idea of what you want and random artists and designers, graphic designers will compete for your business and you'll tell them what you're prepared to pay. So let's say you say it's 500 pounds. So you put 500 pound in the pot and as many designers as they want, we'll come and design. Your logo, and then you just pick one, and award them with the money. So I got this designer, and they created the Lornwright character, so it was a full length character. Uh, with the trousers, and several different versions, with the backpack on. It's really good. But in the end, we just settled on the top half, with the logo, and the sort of face, and the A OK symbol. So, that's literally all we've done. And all that's done, that's gone on everything. It's gone on the company van.

Robbie:

Very good logo.

Shaun:

Yeah, yeah, well, I had very little to do with it other than what I wanted, and it's on everything. It's on all your, sort of Invoices, paperwork, it's on the van, and it's on my uniform, so it's just about getting that first impression, really. If you come in with an unwritten van, a pair of old jeans and a manky t shirt, they're just gonna think, Who's this guy? That you look professional if you play the part.

Robbie:

100%. Um, whenever you're going to do quotes, would you generally, would you do them during your day, or would you try and do the first treatment on the same day?

Shaun:

So I have this survey sheet designed, and I get those printed out on these duplicate pads, and we just go out with them. So it looks professional. I've had a leaflet designed, which is an A4, double sided, and it folds into three. So we give them one of those on the survey sheet, and I'll measure, and then we'll leave them a quote. So we just turn up, we look professional. The paperwork looks professional, as long as you go in with a cheery disposition, and you're knowledgeable.

Robbie:

You are quite a cheery person.

Shaun:

I

Robbie:

don't want to

Shaun:

stop, that's the truth.

Robbie:

I'd imagine you don't need to work too hard. You've seen some of my videos

Shaun:

where I'm dancing. I cringe,

Robbie:

I

Shaun:

cringe honestly, looking back at some of those.

Robbie:

So tell us this here, why did you join YouTube? Was that to brand your business or was that for, I don't know, a reason?

Shaun:

A bit of everything. I've always been entrepreneurial, shall we say, like you guys. You want to earn a bit of extra money and you see it as a way of making extra money, but also there is a market for people out there who want to do it themselves. Rather than just me doing it. My wife was worried that we'd lose all our customers and I'd know how to do it, but that's never been the case. So I thought, you know what? If I can do it, I'll enjoy it, and I might make a little bit of money out of it at the end.

Robbie:

Whenever I first started, I'd never seen it as a way to make money. I just tried to, uh, I tried to make a video to promote

a

Robbie:

service in my business and then realised that my videos weren't very good and then I started to make videos and then I found a little community of gardeners online and we were nearly making videos just talking to each

Shaun:

other. I had this idea as well thinking actually I can make some money over winter that some of the videos might actually be evergreen but don't really go that way does it? Let's be honest, a lot of your videos just literally drop off a cliff in winter

Robbie:

on

Shaun:

YouTube.

Robbie:

We talked about that off camera, so this year I didn't publish anything in November, December, January, because there's just no point. Nobody sees it. Videos take so long to make that instead we make business related podcasts instead. Yeah, people think you make a fortune off YouTube and you actually don't. And we would spend, so on average we would spend, if we turn up at a job and it's a half day job like doing a renovation job, That half day job turns into a full day, the time you're also about filming. And then, and then it's another full day to edit it from picking a title, thumbnail, getting it edited out. That's two days work. And sometimes the video makes 50 and you're just like, I actually did.

Shaun:

So I couldn't do it.

Robbie:

I couldn't do it without sponsorship. I'm fortunate to be sponsored, but we couldn't do it. We couldn't make the videos the way we could without sponsorship. Have

Shaun:

you seen Ben at Flawless Cleaning Services?

Robbie:

Yeah. Lovely guy. He's smashing it.

Shaun:

He's lovely. Yeah. He's smashing it. And I thought maybe I could do something like that. I'm thinking of a content for winter for that all year round income. And I did a renovation for free and it took a year to just about cover it what it made.

Robbie:

There's a real fashion on YouTube at the minute. I've been doing content, it's going jobs for free and then label as jobs for free. And it actually came from America. There's a lot of American channels blew up. American Australian channels blew up over COVID guys started doing jobs for free. I tidied up this garden jungle. It's violation and no city planners are coming to find me and whatnot.

And it's really

Robbie:

all over the top. And you can see that starting to now spread into the UK. You're going to see this year. There's a channel that did pretty well out of it last year, Acres Lawncare. Alex is a really good bloke, the fellow that runs that

Shaun:

channel. I've seen his, yeah.

Robbie:

Yeah, he's totally, he's off to the moon on it. And he's really leaning into the free content. And I can see the rest of the community starting to go, Oh, I'm going to do that. And you're going to see, you're going to see that really blow up this year.

Shaun:

I might. If I structure my business a bit better, then I may do something similar myself. Because I quite fancy it, and all the kind of things, what they do, where they clear in brambles and overgrown stuff, is stuff I've done before.

Robbie:

Damn right, I don't do that type of work. So it doesn't really work for my channel.

Shaun:

I did one renovation, it was just half a day's work, but it was in a shady garden, and that got like half a million views

Robbie:

really fast. But I bet you can't give them, I bet you've tried to make that video again and it hasn't. Yeah. And I bet you've tried ten times to do that again and it's never been that popular. It's just potluck. I have a video 1. 4 million views about how to fill in holes in the lawn and I've tried countless times to redo it and all the other videos have flopped. Or haven't done it anywhere near as well.

Shaun:

Can I let you into a secret? Don't fall out of me.

Robbie:

Go ahead.

Shaun:

I did a video last year, fixed lawn dips. And I was literally just searching through and yours came through as one with the most views. And I remember somewhere, somebody saying, well, copy what the successful are doing. And so I even used the same colors on the title, red, green, and blue. And then it took off.

Robbie:

Red, green, and blue, right? Red, green, and blue. Make sure you check out Robbie's channel. So, would you also say you're creative, or you're not creative? for your YouTube videos? Because you do, you do have some good crack on your videos.

Shaun:

Yeah, I'm

Robbie:

Is that you or is that No, that's

Shaun:

me. That's me. I'm always acting silly. At home, I'm always acting silly. My kids don't find it funny at all. My wife actually still laughs, but she's the only one. But yeah, how you see me is how I am. I talk about grass a lot. My wife rolls her eyes. And when you've not been on for a while over winter and then you get back and you do a little dance, like, because it's exciting, you'll get a few people laugh. But Sometimes you think, shall I be serious? And then when you're serious, it does better. And that annoys me, because I'd like to be myself.

Robbie:

We try and bounce off each other as well.

Shaun:

Yeah, I've noticed you have a good crack together. Sometimes it doesn't work. So what do you do? Do you just carry on being yourself and saying, tell with it, and wait and see what happens?

Robbie:

If you're making videos in the long term, you can maybe hide for a while. But if, as you grow your channel, you can't hide. You've got to be yourself. Yeah, there is no hiding. If you hide, then I think, if you come across as really like, you know They were. I know. And people aren't going to watch that, so people lean into it. We fully lean into loads of stuff.

Shaun:

Yeah. People like other people and other people's stories, I think. I

Robbie:

think you've just got to portray your genuine self.

Shaun:

Yeah.

Robbie:

In terms of scale of 1 to 10, how good has YouTube been for your business with 10 being the best and 1

Shaun:

being the lowest? It's, I really don't feel it's had a big impact on my business because my business was already at the point where we've got enough customers and I wasn't wanting more. We still get people ringing up saying I've seen your videos. I went to one in Lincoln last week. Hey, oh, oh, shaking your hand. Yeah, I've seen your videos and, uh, I'd like a quote. We've had this other company and this is their price. And I was shocked at the price and so I gave him my price. And, uh, he said, yeah, we'll go with you and thank you very much. But yeah, it's not had a big impact in that way, but it's opened my eyes up to new ways of being creative and teaching lawn care.

Robbie:

Enjoy the teaching act. Do you enjoy the teaching aspect? I do.

Shaun:

Yeah, and I think it's a bit of a laugh actually. It's not work. I don't feel like it's work.

Robbie:

I often say that some people have to work for a. Sometimes, you know, we're just messing around with Camtasia. And how have you, like, do you enjoy, like, learning the editing and doing the editing of videos? I do. Do you enjoy all that stuff? I

Shaun:

do. I actually really enjoy doing all that. Do you do

Robbie:

that, do you do everything yourself?

Shaun:

Yes. I used Camtasia for years and years, but found it quite limiting in certain areas. Then CapCut came along and I tried it for a while and then for about a year I used both. So I've still got Camtasia, but I only ever use that if I want to do a full screen recording. You might actually be able to do that on CapCut, but I'm not sure.

Robbie:

I think you can, I think they've just released something where you use CapCut.

Shaun:

That's all I use now

Robbie:

is CapCut for everything. CapCut's nice and easy. In the past, I tried to learn Adobe Premiere Pro and it just totally melted my head and I couldn't.

Shaun:

DaVinci Resolve as well.

Robbie:

Yeah, down to the Hema Grasscutter. I'm not a, I'm not a fan of Hema Grasscutter. I know my place in life. I'm never going to use those platforms because they're, unless you're going to be doing it 24 7, in which case I'm never going to be. There's no, that's a, yeah, that's, that's Rick's job. He's the cameraman behind the scenes. He's the good looking one. What do you use Rick, shout out. Final Cut Pro. No, he's an Apple man. You're a professional.

Shaun:

You're the professional. If

Robbie:

anyone didn't catch it, that was Final Cut Pro.

Shaun:

Final Cut Pro. That's the English

Jason:

subtitle.

Robbie:

I think

Jason:

CapCut is really user friendly. It

Robbie:

really is. Dead easy. Like, if you want to adjust noise, you just have one button and it's gone. So where we film in the main garden, there's the garden, there's the lawn, and then there's a hedge and then there's a 60 mile long road and it's really noisy.

Yeah.

Robbie:

But most of the time now we just hit a button and the sound just disappears. It's like magic. It's unbelievable.

Shaun:

CapCut. CapCut. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is, it's so much fun.

Robbie:

You haven't had any negative effects then from doing your YouTube channel?

Shaun:

No, I haven't been chased down the street by any adoring fans as yet. I've had no ladies throwing the knickers at me. I've had some old grannies smiling at me, but nothing else.

Jason:

I can chase you if you want after this.

Shaun:

I'll put that on the end of the video.

Robbie:

I had to take the phone numbers off my website because people have watched the videos, so you must get tortured.

Shaun:

Yes. All the time.

Robbie:

Is that, on a scale of 1 to 10, on a scale of 1 to 10, how annoying?

Shaun:

That is the most annoying thing. All they want to do, they want to hear from Sean. And they'll ring up. Oh, I've seen you on YouTube and I've got this question. Can you give me some advice about my lawn? So we've got these standard responses now. So, my wife will just say, look. We keep the business and YouTube completely separate. It's a separate thing. If you need to speak to Sean, ask on his channel. And he'll answer you there or go into his Facebook group. But we don't answer over the phone, it's completely separate. And same with the email, we'll send them directly to YouTube or to the Facebook group.

Robbie:

I funnel everything through Jabra, so I had to take the phone numbers off my website. Because I had the phone number going through the house phone. And I got to the stage where I couldn't pick it up. Because like yourself, people just continually phoning up. Can I watch one of your videos, can you, and you'd be this blind for business use only and they'd be, but only have, it'll only take a minute and you'd say, look, honestly, unless you want to quote,

yeah,

Robbie:

we can't give you advice. And they would just talk over the top of you and I got the stage. We couldn't pick up the phone.

Yeah.

Robbie:

So we took the phone numbers off and we funneled everything through. There's a request to quote feature on jobber. So somebody is on the website. There's a get in touch now. And that starts the journey on YouTube. So I capture their name, address, phone number, a bit about the problem. I ask them lots of questions, pre qualify them beforehand, and they can post pictures of their garden, which is a real game changer for me.

Shaun:

Okay.

Robbie:

So even before I pick up the phone to them, I know what their garden looks like. If they don't fill in the form or they don't post the pictures, well then, if they can't make that effort at the start, well then, I'll not actually contact them. And then if they fall outside my area,

Yeah.

Robbie:

Okay. Whenever you fill in that form you get an email to say that the request has been received and it lists everywhere where we cover and everything we do and then if it's outside of postcode we cover because it clearly says my website where we cover and where we don't then that's the last time we'll contact them and that's been a game changer for me.

Shaun:

And would you occasionally look at the photo and say, don't fancy

Robbie:

that

Shaun:

one?

Robbie:

So this year I've come to the conclusion that we're not taking on any work. I've turned down some really nice projects in the last couple of months, some really nice gardens. I'm just going wrong, we're doing the right thing here, but I just need to focus on the videos and we're going to be launching a new product soon. So By the time you watch this video the product will be out. Don't need to leave time for that.

Shaun:

And me and Robbie's going into partnership. We're actually coming out with a range of leggings and jumpers and things. Slippers.

Robbie:

For the person with that nice build. A logo on each side.

Shaun:

Yeah. Sorry.

Were you not aware?

Shaun:

I've got some samples for you. Anyway. We've

Robbie:

had

Shaun:

a laugh.

Robbie:

What do people get wrong? So, from your YouTube channel, what do you think most people get wrong about long hair?

Shaun:

Easy. Easy. They cut it too short. And they don't cut it enough. It's dead simple. They're always the first two things I say. You're scalping your lawn, so I have this one customer, and you'll hear me say this a lot, I have this one customer, I have this one customer, and she has all the treatments, she mows once every two weeks. Next door neighbour, no treatments whatsoever, and his lawn looks way better than hers, and he cuts it higher, but he cuts two or three times a week, so she's started doing the same now, and now hers looks better.

Robbie:

I always say to people, we come and we're only, we only see you once every damn weeks. Yeah. What you do in between has got a far bigger impact on your lawn than

Yeah.

Robbie:

Everyone believes, or most people believe, and it's just educating the customer that if you cut your lawn down with an inch of its life, then you're taking away its ability to make and store energy. And it's all you're doing. So many customers say, Oh, cut it really short because I want to take off the heads of the dizzies. But what they're really doing is creating the conditions for the dizzies to grow. So it's just a way to educate them and that.

Shaun:

Yeah. They're hoping they can get away with it for another two weeks, aren't they?

Robbie:

Yep. And tell me this here. So we've touched on this before. Do you see yourself hiring any staff in the future? Or do you think you're going to carry on?

Shaun:

I'm open. I'm open. I guess if my health deteriorated I would take someone on. But it would have to be the right person. Right now I'm quite fit and healthy. It's nice. It's got its benefits hasn't it.

Robbie:

Have you thought that while you're fit and healthy now is the time to bring someone on?

Shaun:

Yeah.

Robbie:

Whenever you bring, if you wait until you're ill then you're going to have a

Shaun:

learning curve.

Robbie:

A learning curve. You're going to have a lot of things in your way and it's going to be a lot more challenging now would be that you'll bring someone on before you actually need them.

Shaun:

I know and I've had friends help me out on the odd days here and there and it is so good. It makes life so much easier. In fact my son's helped me on a couple of renovations.

Robbie:

You think your son, you think your kids will come into the business?

Shaun:

Maybe

Robbie:

would you like

Shaun:

them to come in maybe not that I don't mind him coming in, but it's, I want him to be happy and I want him to know that it's something he wants to do is got a lot of interest in life is really good at football, really good at football, and it could have gone far, but it's come out of college. And he's also got a flair for cooking, it sounds ridiculous, but he's always messing with food and putting spices in. And he's just got a job in a kitchen at a new little tea room that's opened.

Robbie:

You want to see your kids as well. Yeah. Making their own way in life. Yes,

Shaun:

yeah.

Robbie:

If he made his own way in life and then decided in a few years time, I want to come and work for you after he's got his genome.

Shaun:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's really happy, but he's aware he's going to come and help me on a few renovations this year. Because we've got a lot to do this year. So if if jason's not too busy, you know, what's what don't

Robbie:

you? I'll pay for your flights If you pay for mine i'll come too It's not a bad idea I come and hold the camera. Don't be looking for me to do too much work. Somebody has to hold the camera Yeah, but i've got space for you on the aerator Well, YouTube's been pretty good for your business. If anybody was watching this, would you say to have a go at starting YouTube and what tips would you give them?

Shaun:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Do it. Just start.

Robbie:

The hardest bit is pressing record.

Shaun:

Absolutely. And everyone thinks they haven't got a face for YouTube. What's it used to say, Robbie? A face for radio? Aye.

Robbie:

I've choked on a few podcasts I've done recently. I say, do you think if I was better looking I'd get more views? Do you know, I think if I was easier in the eye, do you know where to get more views?

Shaun:

I don't know. I would absolutely say start on YouTube because it is a long journey. Some people just break the mold and then they really take off really fast. Others, it takes a while, but you start to get the impressions first and your first few videos will get absolutely nothing. Just press record. Don't worry because nobody cares about you. Nobody cares about you at all. Press record. Don't worry about putting makeup on if you're a girl or a boy. Uh, did you put any makeup on this morning? Me? Yep. I left it. Yeah, I forgot. Sorry. I thought you'd have a little room here. Get powdered up. Or fertilizer dust.

Get some of that spring summer on

Shaun:

you. But yeah, just start. In the beginning, all you get is, you'll get a few views on one video, and then your next video will get nothing. And then, following on from that, it'll just keep happening a bit here and a bit there, and then as it grows, you'll get the odd comment. Subscribers will come last, and they always come last. And it'll work like that, but it'll go up and down all the time. So you'll have good days and then a few days of rubbish, but remember that's going up and down and those will get closer and closer together the more you grow. And as you get there you'll get a more average sort of level of views and that will just continue to grow until you get to that point where you're monetized and then you'll start earning and then that'll take off as well.

Robbie:

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make whenever they're starting a YouTube channel is they share it with their friends and their family. You're actually better not sharing it with your friends and their family. So if your friends, if let's say you make a YouTube channel and you make three videos. And you say to your cousin and your mom and your auntie and your sister, go and watch that video and subscribe. Well, they'll probably go and watch the first one or two, but the second or third one, they'll not watch. So YouTube will see that as being the audience. And if they're not watching future videos, so you nearly want to let YouTube find the videos in itself. YouTube will always find the audience for you.

Shaun:

Yeah, that's why you've got to get really specific with what you're doing. Lawn care and not dancing and stuff like that, I suppose.

Robbie:

And would you advise anybody to do like dancing lawn care videos? Has that been there?

Shaun:

No, I think a little bit of humor every now and again interjected is totally fine. I've joked with my wife about, well, she's joked with me about doing Topless lawn care. And obviously that was a no.

Robbie:

I think people, I think they'd pay me to put the clothes back on again.

Shaun:

I mean, not only that, you don't want fertilizer dust going all over you. Top of your body. Oh, come on, Robbie. We've had to do this three, ten times, haven't we? I'm only kidding, mate. Maybe just leave that

in.

Robbie:

For anyone thinking about starting their own business, what advice would you give

Shaun:

them? First and foremost, they're going to look at you as a person. and they're going to look at your business. So you as a person, first of all, is how you treat those customers, how you talk to those customers. In our line of work, it's always close the gate, always make sure you leave it neat and tidy every single time. Even if the gate's open, close it. They might have a dog, postman might have left it open. Please close the gate, no matter what you do. A

Robbie:

blower's my most used tool. Out of all my tools, a blower. Like I say, I always try and leave the job tidier than whenever I got there.

Shaun:

I find I do sometimes get it onto PAF's fertiliser. I try not to, but some days you just can't help it if it's windy and things like that.

Robbie:

But

Shaun:

yeah, I go down with the blower.

Robbie:

Tell me this here, any big plans for the future? What's next?

Shaun:

President? I do, I would like to bring out a couple more products. It's not the big dream, but I think you'd be foolish not to have What products do you have at the minute? Just my emerald green. And what does it do? It's a lawn tonic, so it's got a wetting agent in and a few other secret ingredients.

Robbie:

Where can people buy that?

Shaun:

They can go to my website, lawnwright. co. uk forward slash shop, and that'll keep the lawns nice and green in the summer.

Robbie:

Where can people find all the different channels that you're on, what, tell us the best places to contact you.

Shaun:

So we're on YouTube, Lawnwright Lawn Care. We have a Facebook page, obviously Lawnwright, we've got a website, lawnwright. co. uk. Okay.

Robbie:

Thanks very much, John.

Shaun:

No problem. Thank you.

Robbie:

Good man.

Shaun:

Bless you. That went quick. Yeah, it's almost a shame it's finished.