From Solopreneur to Business Owner: How to Scale Without Going Into Debt

What does it really take to grow a small business into a scalable company?

In this episode, we dive into the challenges of scaling a service-based business—from acquiring customers and managing cash flow to pricing, hiring, documenting processes, and preparing for long-term growth. Learn how to build a sustainable business without relying on excessive debt while creating systems that set you up for success.

Whether you're a new entrepreneur or looking to take your business to the next level, this episode is packed with practical insights and real-world strategies.

Website: https://www.theharrowandjettshow.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

How are you getting ready for that growth? Like do you think you have people to help you out, like on boarding new clients? Does that take a lot of a long time? Or how do you think you'll be able to handle a bit?

SPEAKER_05 0:09

I think that given the current like number of customers we have, it's something that him and I can um handle just the two of us. Uh and having the right equipment. Yeah, having the right equipment.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

That was the one thing that when we did start in the fall last year, we wanted to make sure we went ahead and got stuff that's gonna help us succeed and finish.

SPEAKER_06 0:26

Uh yes, sometimes you have to start out the hard way, but there are certain things that I think if you can sacrifice and get certain pieces of guys, uh you were mentioned at the beginning, one of the first things you said is that you know in some areas you're growing so fast, in other areas you're growing so slow. Which guy can you dig deeper into that? Which areas of the business you feel are growing really fast, and which other areas are not are just not growing as low?

SPEAKER_05 0:59

Um I think we're we're bringing on new customers at a good rate. So like and retaining them well. So I mean I'm happy with how that's progressing. Um I think just getting to the point where we're more profitable to where we can take care of ourselves and not have to work the part-time jobs and you know, both be there to do production, like that I guess is a bottleneck, maybe not having us both on full-time.

SPEAKER_06 1:24

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 1:25

What do you mean when whenever you say to do production, it's not just going out to the yellow and doing the actual that's like you can get all the clients you want, but if you're not treating their yard, like you actually have to make sense, yeah, go and treat the yard and fulfill that contract to them.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

Uh one thing that helps though is like prepaying. So like to like so like to your point of uh I'm sorry, what was the what was the word you could do?

SPEAKER_06 1:48

I guess what is so you said so fast, client acquisition is going fast, but so slow is like profitable it is not catching up.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Right, and so that's that's kind of what it would be like you you get a bunch of customers up front or you get a bunch that prepay right away, and all of a sudden now you've got this like this fat not fat sack, but you've got just a uh a nest egg that you can use to spill it with, but then you have to budget the rest of that budget the rest of that, and then also you're gonna be getting paid from the people that didn't prepay. So prepaying's great, but at the same time, if everybody were to prepay, you really gotta be a good budgeter because you're budgeting your entire year off of that. And it's and so and I feel like it's it's kind of in a wave. I feel like it comes in waves where all of a sudden we're getting a bunch of customers, we're getting a bunch of money, and then all of a sudden it's like, okay, we're gonna be able to get it. Everyone's prepaid. Yeah, we we everybody's prepaid, we spent all that money, like we're still rolling in customers, okay, we're offering another service, boom, a bunch of people pay. So, and it kind of just goes in fluxes, which I feel like is a very easy way to jump the gun sometimes when you get overwhelmed in a situation like that where you could just be in a season versus the new way of doing things, and and I think that mindset helped us kind of just not get too overwhelmed and be like, oh, we gotta go get like to like your point of being like, Oh, I I we got so busy, I had to go hire this piece. I hired the wrong, you know, this, this, this, it was it was just like, well, it comes and it goes, and so it's the hard times, you just get through them, and that's what we have each other for. You get through the hard times, and then within a week or two, it'll chill out. That makes sense. But it it just it kind of goes on and off, and and and it's and it's it's timing. I mean, the applications we do seven applications on our basic program, and then we have 10 total on our premium. Well, three of those or four of those are disease apps, and those are have to be every 30 days. So then you're also like, you know, you might not be busy now, but then all of a sudden the 30-day mark hit, and now you have to get all these people knocked in in those 30 days because they've paid for it and that's what the service is. So it just I think it just comes and goes. There's it's it's all of a sudden you get a bunch, and then you know, then it kind of slows down.

SPEAKER_05 3:54

And I don't know if that answered your question or not, but that's I think another area that's like I guess like slow growing is like just when it comes to getting equipment and like you know, getting the proper equipment for your business. Like you sure, you can go out, you can take a loan, and you can buy everything that you need, or you can kind of do what we've done and you buy some of the essentials. Bootstrap it. Yeah, you you know, you work with what you've got, you you know, get loans for um the equipment that is like an essential thing, but then you know, we're not like currently. We're not to the point where you know we're operating in like the way that I want us to, like with like all the equipment that we need. Like there it can be done better. We're just making do with what we have right now.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Um and we kind of agreed that we really wanted to try to pay everything off before we started paying ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

And I think because I love that because no to low debt as a new business. Like, I think what what was it? Like you're eight times more likely to survive through three years with um low or no debt.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

Well, and that's what and that was the I mean I didn't know that stat, but like that was our mindset was like let's just tough it out, get through it. That way, when we are ready to pay ourselves, we're able to give ourselves more than than just a bunch of little like baby spoons, you know, through the time to build and it'll help your business survive, especially if we have a downturn in the economy, because again, like lawn care, I mean you could live without it, right? Essentially, it's not that you definitely we were through what was it, was it 20 whatever the last kind of like little recession type thing was back in like 14 or no, it would have been like 18 or like stuff like that. But surprisingly, lawn care we were thinking we were gonna get a big hit, but there's other costs that people will cut first sometimes, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

People are vain, especially especially here in America.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

So, right, right, right. But that's that's the one thing that I've also I also took note on when we were going through that situation was I was kind of like, well, is this how all it ends? Like, yeah, but but but in reality, we didn't really have too many people drop, and so you're kind of like, okay, there's other things that people are like, I like having this, and that's you when you realize it's so important.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Sometimes they probably forget about it.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

Right, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Um, so something you said that I want to dive into, and this is us being a little critical here. So you mentioned when people prepay, they they pay that lump sum and you have that money to spend, right? So we talk about robbing Peter to PayPal on here all the time, where like you use that money then you have to, right? I say that, yeah. So that being said, so like have you ever used that money? How do you use that money? Do you store it away and then take it each month, like into a different bank account? What happens, and are you ever afraid that you're going to use that and not be able to treat a customer?

SPEAKER_05 6:24

So I that's why I spent a lot of time trying to budget the entire year and like looking at what we did last year in revenues, and what's great about the software that we use is like when somebody signs up, you know, granted they don't cancel, you can project how much money exactly they're going to spend on you guys that year.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So But what if they give you that full amount right away? Like have you experienced or are you afraid of that? Like where they give you that money right away, and then later you can't afford to buy their product and do their yard.

SPEAKER_05 6:52

Um so no, we've never we've never been put in that position, and I'm never going to I'm hopefully you know never gonna put us in that position just because you've really got to take the time to figure out what your costs are of that year. So like I knew what the material costs were last year. That's why he's a G. You project how many customers you're gonna grow by, and like that's you know, a hard number to figure out because you never know how much new business you're gonna get in a year, but you do the best you can with those project projections, and um, you know, I always made sure that like you have the basis covered. So it's like I'm not gonna pay us if we don't have the materials covered. So you gotta do that. Or the OCRAP fund. Yeah, or the yeah, or the savings. So it's OCRA fund making setting aside money. An emergency fund, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

That's why we want air cells, it goes into there.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So emergency, so the way you guys are preventing that and kind of keeping track of that is emergency fund for emergen for things like that, an OCRAP fund, right? And then and you said you're you're doing forecasting, projecting your needs, estimated clients, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I like it. Another suggestion for other business owners out there who do take deposits like that or take full advance, and for you guys too, there's stuff you can make a deposit bank account where you put that money and you kind of hold it in there, and then you have a transfer auto or do it yourself of what they would have paid monthly for that service into your like your operating or whatever you're using. That way you're not spending the money to do that. So it's almost like a DP. Exactly, exactly. But there there's different options there, but that's definitely one for those who can are not doing it as aggressive as you guys are of planning. I think that that's a really good uh strategy.

SPEAKER_06 8:25

Can you make a that prepaid non-refundable or how or how why are the we try to be we try to be good about it?

SPEAKER_05 8:32

I mean we don't have words in our in our in our it's not a it's not really a contract, like you can cancel it anytime with us, like if you're not happy or and we and maybe we change that in the future.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

And maybe that's something that we look at and we're like you know what? If if if you prepay and just because you know you you paid for us to treat your yard, but then after the fourth app your wife didn't want anymore, that's not our fault, you know. And even though we give you your money back, maybe we shouldn't, you know? And it's and and so but those are things that like we have to learn, and that's part of a business, and that's that's that's how it goes. Now, I lean on giving the money back because at the end of the day, that's what I would want. Same.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

And if I had a business-cause someone fell on a hard time, something 100%. And maybe they weren't unhappy with you guys.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

Or they moved, like something happened, a death of the family. Like I we're we're like operating now where if somebody prepaid and it's only happened once. Yeah. Once or twice, like if somebody prepays and like something happens and you know they don't want the rest of those applications, we'll give you your money. We'll give you your money back. It's not that big of a deal. Yeah, the the amount of people that are like canceling or doing that, it's uh it's very small. So it doesn't really affect the budget and stuff in the grand scheme.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

So you said that you write and have all of these processes, right? Do you have that in a policy or process right now? For for if that happens.

SPEAKER_05 9:50

I don't know if it's in our terms and conditions. No, it's it's not, but um we could definitely put that in the back.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

And then do you have a process so that way when your employees eventually when you have a team who handles that?

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Um like tell them what to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Like, do you have a process that written down? Because you mentioned earlier that you write down processes.

SPEAKER_05 10:08

No, no, I haven't written down that process.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Another encouragement from me, I'm gonna encourage you to write that one down. And I say this with love because I I wish I would have done some of these things too. Like that these are things that I learned by not doing them.

SPEAKER_06 10:20

Yeah, it's interesting. And then tell me through this. Let's say, you know, I have an average size house. Like, what what is your loaf for like? Is it like is it like for how long? How long do I need your service for? Like, the rest of your life, hopefully. We're trying to build a customer's. How do I how do I pay you? Like once a year every month, if I'm prepaid, how much is it? Yeah, so which is a prepayment?

SPEAKER_05 10:43

So you can either prepay for services right then and there for the rest of the year. So much how much would that be from?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Well, I think I think price-wise, you guys probably don't want to sell your problem. I mean, I don't know. It just varies.

SPEAKER_06 10:53

That depends on the size of the yard. What is in the industry? What is the average price?

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Uh, I mean for like for a 5,000 square foot yard. Just use mine as an example.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Okay, so for like her yard, 5,000 square foot yard, you're gonna be anywhere from I would say you'll have before discounts, you're looking in 60s, probably somewhere in the 70s. Um, maybe somewhere in the upper fifties.

SPEAKER_06 11:15

Uh per application.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 11:19

People pay if they're not prepaying right then and there for the rest of the year. So maybe it's like at this time of the year, maybe it's $300 for the rest of the year from now till the end of December. Um, or they can just put their card on file and get charged at service completion when we do that job. And it's not in every it's not perfect, like it's not every single month. Like there's only seven apps on the basic one, so we're not gonna be there every 12 months, so there's seven apps. But um, yeah, either bill upon completion or they just prepay for the rest of the case.

SPEAKER_06 11:50

How long does it take to do an application?

SPEAKER_04 11:52

That's where you have to be careful because everything's calibrated. So everything's you're you're on a piece of equipment that's driving five miles an hour. So on a yard like hers, it's gonna take less than 10 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so that's that's one of the things where I try to like take my time when I get to smaller yards because one, I want to be seen, but two, I want to also I want them to know that I'm there to take care of like I'm there to care and I I take my time. Yeah. Because oftentimes you, dude, I well, what happens is you go treat the backyard first, and so they see the applicator in the front yard, and then they see the applicator in the front yard hop in the truck and drive away, and they say, Well, I never treated the backyard. It's like, no, you just didn't see them until they got to the front. That makes sense. And so, um, but it typically it's almost a dollar a square or uh a minute a square foot in theory. So if it's a 5,000 square foot yard, I'm pulling hose or I'm on whatever, I should it technically it takes me about five minutes.

SPEAKER_05 12:47

Oh wow. Um so it can be really fast. You can be really fast.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

And so it just depends on what what you're applying or how thorough you're gonna be, and that's where that's where the details come in. It's like anything. You do the details, the the big things just fall in place.

SPEAKER_06 13:00

What is I guess if you're not a numbers and not hold on to us, but like what is the profitability? I think per application it's and you can tell us a percentage, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

I maybe 50, 50 percent. Yeah, it's this industry.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Is that including though your time for your employee and your product?

SPEAKER_05 13:19

Without us having employees that are salaried right now, um, I think that it would end you know around 50%. Like the margins in this industry are very good. They're pretty high, like I think they're unheard of. Like most industries are not.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

That's why you see a lot of people getting into it, like lighting companies and other these people that are like, ooh, I want to grow grass too. Let's let's hire somebody to grow grass for it doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

So then you're you're saying right now it's fifty percent gross profit after cost of goods and people spend.

SPEAKER_05 13:45

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

It's I mean it's good margins. It's it's pretty good, but that's why it's also one of those where it's like you have to, in my opinion, you have to put in that that that effort and you have to show those people because they'll if you show up and you're gone in three minutes, they don't they don't they're not gonna believe you did anything or or how did he do that in three minutes? That comes back to the calibration. Well, the hose is calibrated to my steps, so when I'm walking, I know how much I'm putting out because we calibrated same with the ride-on.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

So then while we're on the topic of discussion, so right now, how well do you guys know your numbers?

SPEAKER_05 14:18

Not super well right now. I feel like I knew them much better, like at the start of the year, or like when we were planning like budgeting and stuff, and my other friends that are in accounting, he was asking me what my margins were, and I I think that I went through it with him, but I don't remember off the top of my head right now.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

So do you think that though I guess what what am I asking? The way that you understand or know that your numbers right now, do you think that is helping you or hurting you?

SPEAKER_05 14:43

It probably might hurt a little bit, but when we went in and like at the start of this, when we decided this is what we want to price per thousand square feet, like we took the time to figure that out and set the groundwork. Yeah, exactly. And like we weren't just going into this like blind, like uh we have no idea what we're gonna charge for a yard and if it's gonna be profitable, but no, we we know what our competitors are doing, we know that we're fairly priced and that the margins are good, but I haven't revisited those numbers recently.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

And he puts it all on a spreadsheet though, like he'll send it to me and be like, hey, here's this, here's that, look at this, look at that.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Like it sounds brutal, but no, Kyle, like you are very like proactive.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Like you're no a hundred percent. I don't know. This lawn pursuit would not be val uh here if it wasn't for him.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So I have your financials in front of me and I'm looking at them right now. So from June to 2025. Okay, so so we have we have almost a year, June 1st, 2025, to May 31st, 2026. What do you think your cost of goods percentage or gross profit? So the cost of goods, what goes into that is just going to be like your cost of materials. Um percentage-wise, where do you think that you're gonna land?

SPEAKER_05 15:54

Ooh, I think that materials would be better than the number I gave you earlier.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

Maybe 60.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

So you think you're profiting 60%?

SPEAKER_05 16:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Gross profit. Yeah. So right now, drum. What about it?

SPEAKER_04 16:12

I don't want to say anything. I just hear um. Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna ride, I'll say 60, I'll stay with him.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Okay. You ready?

SPEAKER_04 16:20

Yeah, I should say like 12.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Okay. It is 77.91%. 78%. Cool.

SPEAKER_06 16:26

That's pretty good. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So how much do you guys have do you guys have an excess of uh supplies on hand?

SPEAKER_05 16:31

Oh a little bit. We try not to order too much. Like we try to order pretty much like for the customers that we have, and then if we run out of product, we'll you know, we'll see that ahead of time and then get with our supplier and get it.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Because you guys have a software that's planning, right? So you so you'll know when you get low, or or how do you think it's a good thing?

SPEAKER_04 16:48

No, usually we go to the shop and then we call the plug, we're just like yeah, we need some more.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Okay, so so how do you buy that? Obviously, you're buying in bulk so you get better rates, but how are you doing that? Is it how how long does it take you to like procure? How long does it take you to get it, the whole thing?

SPEAKER_05 17:01

So we use it, we buy our materials based off of how much square footage we have. So he makes a program. We know that we need X amount of pounds of material uh for like a thousand square feet or something, and then you multiply that by how many thousand square feet we have throughout all of our clients. So you can project you know what you're gonna spend on an on a materials for application like pretty easily just by looking at the total square footage that you have in clients right then and there.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:28

That makes sense. And then for now, it's just been we've been trying to do the overbuy, not overbuy, but just have a little extra. Yeah. Because in that way, like we have been uh accumulating these commercial properties, and they're not just like a yard, it's like uh acres and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

And you'd rather have leftover than a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Well, and it's it's not like it's spoils, it's not milk. So like it it's it'll stay. You can use it next year. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

So then the way you're doing it right now and managing inventory and and and how you're buying product, is that scalable, do you think?

SPEAKER_05 17:58

I think so. I mean, this the way that we're doing it now, I saw it done the same exact way at the company that I worked for previously. I don't know how else you I mean, I'm sure there's a way in your software you could implement like keeping track of materials that way, but I just like to look at the um the total amount of square feet. I don't know. Like even as an owner, like if we had 10 employees underneath us, if I'm the one still buying the product, like I can just very quickly open up in our software, put the total amount of clients and look at their square footage and then.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

But at least you're using a software to kind of so do you have that process written down?

SPEAKER_05 18:32

No, I don't have that written down.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

So so at the beginning we had a lot of processes written down, but now no, that it it's a good stuff.

SPEAKER_05 18:40

Because then we started rocking and rolling and I don't have them written in the state.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

We're like, wait a second.

SPEAKER_05 18:43

Yeah, they're just in the mind, but I should write them down.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Yeah, so so yeah, anything that stays here dies here, you know. So if something ever happened, like um we just had I mean, I know you guys are the partners, uh so but we just had another client who they lost a major key employee who's been employed there since almost the start of the business, right? And before that we're like, hey, get them to write brain dump, right? Everything that they know. They let they're leaving, and now you have two weeks to get everything out of their head and they're ready to go, right? So are they gonna write everything? No. I hear that. No, and like same for business owners, sometimes you forget, sometimes you end up maybe speed growing and you're you forgot a couple things because you were writing it down being fast, right? Or you're trying to bark out orders. So I would say, yeah, write that down, read it, use that, go back to it, check it.

SPEAKER_04 19:28

No, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Uh because eventually, like like it's not scalable you doing it or you doing it. So eventually either someone's gonna be replacing you and doing it, or there needs to be some kind of automated system that you guys put in place.

SPEAKER_05 19:39

No doubt. Yeah. I just haven't even like I haven't given that the time of day because I know because we're not like in my mind, we're like a couple maybe a year or two from hiring somebody, but you're right. It could it could help us like maybe find flaws in the way that we're thinking about something just by writing it down.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

And honestly, like even if it's a year or two down the road, I don't think it's ever too soon to start writing stuff and having processes put in place. That's like one of my biggest like regrets or something I know that I did terribly wrong is I didn't write processes. Which I hate doing that anyway, but right, right. Okay, so so next question on the PL. Okay, are you ready for this? Yeah. Do you know how much you guys are spending on advertising, marketing? How much or percentage?

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Either way.

SPEAKER_05 20:31

Maybe five. We did a couple of cheer or a couple of cheerleading. Yeah, the sponsorships.

SPEAKER_04 20:37

Uh Lawn Pursuit, T ball, six you, woohoo! Uh little things like that. Um but that's I mean, that's uh maybe a couple grand, because it's typically about five hundred dollars per so you know, per couple. I mean, yeah, I don't know, a couple percent.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, 1.2%. Very good, very good. I'm the numbers guy. I'm the numbers guy. You guys are doing pretty good at this quiz here. So then um we talked about this, like profitability and things like that. Like you're thinking 50% after everything, or you're thinking 50% after just employee and cost of goods.

SPEAKER_05 21:13

Um I'm thinking after that number might have just been for labor and okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

That's that's good to know that number. And right now we don't have that information of labor, right? Because you guys are doing the job and we're not tracking labor costs, right? Which is fine. Um so that being said, after your operating costs, which includes obviously marketing, insurance and bank fees, accounting, all the things. Um where do you guys think you are percentage-wise? Is it a percentage of revenue?

SPEAKER_05 21:49

Um

SPEAKER_01 22:01

So you guys are at 34.41%. So then that brings you guys' net income to who did the who did the math? Anyway do the math. Okay, your net income right now for this is remember this is for the entire year. So June 1st to May 31st. And there has been, you have to remember you guys obviously put some money into the business, etc. So that being said, you're at negative 34.81% for net profit this way.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

So guys, let me ask you these tough questions though. You know what I mean? Let me ask you this question. Okay, so so something with me, I'm all about growth and growing, you know, and kind of sustainable growth. So why do you think like why, you know, and to grow, I feel like you need people, you need more clients, you need to make investment. Why do you want to hire somebody in two years and not like now? Um why is that? Why in two years and not now?

SPEAKER_05 22:57

I would just without having to like take out, I guess, like any more loans to like pay like a new employee because we're not even really paying ourselves that much right now. So I'd like to get us to the point where we can put ourselves on a salary and then, you know, when the work becomes too much for us to both handle by ourselves, then get that third employee.

SPEAKER_06 23:15

So what would the first employee be doing for your I think they would be doing production.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Yeah, they would be treating yards and doing that stuff, and they would just we don't really typically have any set like service like routes, so to speak. So eventually we would start building routes and you would have routes, and then they would be like, All right, you're handling this route. And then they would just every day spray their route, come back to the shop, you know, and you know, we we keep them rocking and rolling. But I at that point we would still be I assume treating.

SPEAKER_06 23:46

If you bring somebody now full time, can you keep them busy? Um for 40 hours. How many hours can you keep them busy for?

SPEAKER_05 23:54

I feel like we have like maybe like 14 or 15 no no no no no. Trying to think how many spray days we have.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

And a spray day is basically like a full route. Yeah. And then you just figure out how many customers it takes to complete that, and that gives you X. We probably have like what, like seven or eight.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

Yeah, like days out of the out of the months. Yeah, like seven or eight, maybe it might be ten, I don't know. That's a good question. We need to look at that again. But I don't think that we'd be able to keep somebody busy. There's no way we'd be able to keep them busy 40 hours a week right now. Um just because like we, you know, in a perfect month where you have 30 days of being out, or not 30, but like let's say 25 days of going out to treat lawns, um we're not doing stuff the entire month. So we might actually be like working like full scale, like eight hours a day, like 10 of those days, like I said.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

So that would be the goal eventually, it would be to a point where you have a couple days or a week in the month where you're like, all right, let's go ham for the first two and a half weeks, and now I have a week and a half to if I wanted to sit at home, you know, or something like that, where it's like, or or figure out how I can grow the business and whatnot. But but like that's the that's the goal and the mindset that I feel like we would be working towards is to be able to knock it all out, boom, we knocked it out in two weeks. Well, shoot, we have another week and a half or or whatever before we have to go do something else.

SPEAKER_05 25:20

So that makes sense, and then that's where that's where you get to just enjoy and you know, just kind of like so to go back to your question of like how long could we keep somebody busy right now? I guess we could keep them busy for like 10 to 14 days out of the month, and then the rest of the time, like they would have nothing to do. So that's kind of why it's like we need to grow to a point where um A, we're paying ourselves, but then B, like I think we need to grow to a point where you know we physically, him and I cannot handle the production anymore. Like we just need to step to the side and like be more owners and then fill somebody into that production role for us.

SPEAKER_06 25:55

That makes sense. So I guess now it sounds that what you need to score the business is you need your you need better route, more client, more customers. How efficient are you from are are your routes now? Do you have all the houses together close by or you're spending a lot of time on driving? How does that work?

SPEAKER_05 26:11

Yes, drive time, it just depends on the route. But there are some routes that are great. It's like you might not leave a leave my garage. Yeah, you might leave a neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

When I'm spraying my neighbors, I just I operate from my garage.

SPEAKER_05 26:21

Yeah, you could drive like 30 minutes in one day and that that'd be his drive time. Or you're gonna have another route, like you know, we have some like up like South Nashville where it's like I have three hours of drive time, not an hour of drive time.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

We're going to Madison all the way down to Columbia.

SPEAKER_05 26:35

Yeah, our software helps us route them as efficiently as possible. It does it for us. Um like you just have to circle these little guys on a map, and then it's like boom, this is the order in which you should drive to them. Okay. Um, so that's efficient. It's just like growing in those areas to where it's not just like, oh, I have one guy all the way out in Fairview. Let's make you know him five stops instead of just one stop. So just getting more customers right now, I think, is what's you know slowing us down and holding us back.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

But to your point, we're picking up the customers of the neighbors. So when we are going to a Fairview or we are going here, we're picking, we're not just doing the one guy, and you're like, oh yeah, I just spent so much money to get out here. It's yeah, well, at least I got these other three. And it's, you know, and and that's that's how you start to Yeah, the snowball form is also. So so like you'll often see like we've got our couple routes throughout Fieldstone where it's like you park one spot and you're doing all four or five of them in the cold sack or something. You just go up the street and it's like so that's awesome. So that helps. That helps.

SPEAKER_05 27:32

But market short answer, it depends. Like, there are some routes that are great, others that aren't right now. And you know, we'll get to a point where you know you have you know ten perfect like routes because you can send a guy there, he can do 10 to 20 jobs and knock it all out.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

But to that point, we refaced or redid, however you want to say it, completely redid a whole route, routing system in our previous company, and they had over a thousand customers, and so we sat down for three days and went through every single route and redid them so that they would be quicker and better like that. That makes sense, and it's efficient you saw in real time how much more efficient and how much more they were knocking out in real time, and it was nice because you were able to go and say, Look, see, this this works. Yeah, um, and and once again, it's just those things you start to learn that we're gonna start incorporating.

SPEAKER_06 28:26

So you said now you have around 120 clients?

SPEAKER_04 28:30

Yeah, 120 residential, about 150 total, roughly.

SPEAKER_06 28:34

So, how many clients do you need to pay yourself?

SPEAKER_05 28:36

I think we'll probably hit that. And again, it depends because you know, one client could be a tiny yard, and you can gain another client who has two acres of property that you're treating. Makes sense. So not all quiet clients are like equal in that regard, but I think once we get to around treat all quiet clients, yeah. Once we get to around maybe 200 customers to 200 to 250, I think, would be where we're like comfortably like paying ourselves. Yeah. Not that we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

So we're about halfway, I mean a hundred away, and and I don't I've got a hanker in that start a new next year, there's just gonna be a flow of people where it's just like all of a sudden it's like boom, like how do we get so many all of a sudden? Why could you say you looked out to your yard one day and you're like, oh there's grass! It's like where'd that come from? It's like the same thing. It's like whoa, where all these customers come from? But it's it's because we're just we're putting out that product right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

That first year you have to show like hey, we're here in order to do that.

SPEAKER_05 29:29

Yeah, if it was just one of us, I think that person would have enough clients to you know pay themselves an okay amount right now, but we gotta get us to the point where we're both, you know, making the same. So I'm gonna for sure.

SPEAKER_06 29:42

How I guess what does it do what will it take for you to get to 250 clients? What does that take? How do you think you can get to 250 clients? Yeah. Oh or how long it sounds like you said it would probably take six months.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

So this is so this is this is a this is being not I'm not gonna use the word lazy because we're not lazy, but this is I'm gonna say poor man's marketing scheme. And that thing's the biggest kicker where I think if we were to hit up we don't do mailers, we all know where they end up. Like we we don't there's no reason to contribute to the heaps of trash that are on on this planet. So we we we right now we're a word of mouth. Um but I think if we were to put out mailers or certain things like that, like you would see with all these other companies right when you move in, and I still get them every like like quarterly. Yeah, if we were to do that, I think we would pick up a lot more. Um but at that point too, then it's then you're kind of in my mind counteractive because then all of a sudden you got one here, one there, one here, one here, and it's like, yeah, we got five more customers, but now we have to drive 50 extra minutes just to go treat them.

SPEAKER_05 30:47

Where it's like doesn't make sense, you know, and and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong for thinking that where but like you know, that's in the past what we learned at the old business, like he didn't do any of that, and like naturally it was a process, like um, so you know, your customers are going to talk to their neighbors and the neighbors are gonna talk to friends and all this, and it does snowball, and we're seeing it like live right now. Like just the fact that we went from 60 uh residential customers at the start of this year to 120, 130 now. So like that's pretty good. It doubles, and like I hate to say like time is just gonna help with that, but like literally, like time, like when springtime hits, everyone they're like they want to get their lawn done. And so you have busy seasons literally with the seasons, and so spring and fall, busiest times of year, that's when you're gonna see like the biggest growth in your business.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

And that's when you gotta be really attentive to because I mean people it's it's it's ridiculous. He had one the other day, they sent in an estimate, and he called them, I think, within like I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 31:40

I called them within the hour.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

Yeah, and they were like, Oh, we already have somebody else. We already signed up with somebody else. And it was like Yeah, okay, wow, so it's just it's weird sometimes, but it's like it's nice though, because when it is word of mouth, you can almost I'm I'm gonna say you probably have a 90% close rate on those people because they already are searching for a product and they already they know what they want, and you're the one for them. So more times than not, it's just a matter of showing up, meeting with them, and you're ready to go, I'll send it to you. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

So for wasn't say for the mailers, I think it might be beneficial for you guys that do targeted mailers, so like some of the neighborhoods that you're already in.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

No, that's that that could be or I mean or the old-fashioned door knocking, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 32:20

Yeah, but uh I did that uh in one neighborhood and I spent 75 bucks on printing these little door hangers, and it it got it got a client. It paid for itself. It did, it paid for itself immediately. It got a client and then they referred their neighbor. So it worked. I only did that one time, and we've just been, you know, trying to survive like with part-time jobs and stuff like that. So but that's an excuse. Like I could we could do that again for sure.

SPEAKER_04 32:43

Well, and and I'm pretty sure too, like we wouldn't even have to go out there and do it if we wanted to. I'm pretty sure you can like do targeting mailing, can't you, or something like that? And then the the post office will do it as well.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

That's probably more pri like pricier, so that's probably the best option to go with is you say, hey, yeah, let's do that. Or I mean, have you guys done door knocking?

SPEAKER_05 33:02

Uh no, I just I just it it's not good brand.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

You'd think it's not allowed with your brand.

SPEAKER_06 33:09

I think we'll be pretty good at it.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

I'm gonna get stuck at one day talking. But they would pay for it though.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Like, that's my problem. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_06 33:24

You're getting a clan for it, so it's it's a trade though.

SPEAKER_04 33:27

I'm not opposed. I'm I'm more of I'm more of the guy that likes to like, for example, we did the uh the Christmas parade this past year in downtown Franklin. I wore a ghillie suit, I called myself Grass Squatch. I was walking through the streets, you know, like being being silly and whatever. Like, I would prefer to do that than go knock on a door. One personally, because I I mean most neighborhoods say non-soliciting anyway, and I get it. And I get frustrated when they come to my board.

SPEAKER_05 33:53

He's also done a great job, though, of reaching out to those local like social media groups.

SPEAKER_04 33:58

So like Spring Hill, like he's done really well, and uh, we've got a lot of leads and that's from people like I mean that's just people that throw but yeah, I mean I'm involved, but I mean that's just people, I need this, and then all of a sudden people, three or four people just lawn pursuit, lawn pursuit, lawn pursuit.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yeah, because they know it's good quality work.

SPEAKER_05 34:15

So I mean, then that's a free thing to do to like either ask your friends or family that are customers to give you a shout-out on you know a platform. Um but I don't know if there's a if we should like incentivize that. I mean, we do have a referral program, so we could definitely like um you know blast that on social media and stuff like that, or you know, to people.

SPEAKER_06 34:35

I will give you this idea and and if you do it, let me know how it goes. I would say like uh hang grind a letter to the client. And then like I would say like I would just go about the jar and say, hey, I saw this on your jar. I think this is what I can do. Like look at these photos I did on this client and hand grinding a letter and kind of send it individually to people. And I think like right now, like that makes people open and are like, who is who is now hand grinding me a little to me? And then he took the time to not only hand grind but also to provide a solution right away, and like he knows what this guy is doing, you know? And and I think like there is a lot of of value in that, and more with the home services industry, like home to home, like hand grind something, make it look like hand grinding. Yeah, and a lot of big companies have gotten small that that like they send you a letter and it seems like like it is hand grinding, but you you open it up and like man, I was so excited for this next. But I feel like if you really like hand grind it, like and you kind of maybe do do something intentional for it. I th I think that may be a lot of that makes sense, no hundred percent. That that probably a lot of value, but it it just takes time.

SPEAKER_05 35:45

Yeah, who's in a state farm? They send you birthday cards and you think that it's like a handwritten birthday card and it's just printed.

SPEAKER_06 35:51

Yeah, and I'm like, meh, like who's good khakis? Come on, something that's intentional, Nina.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

Yeah, that makes sense, and I'm bad, not bad. I guess it's a good thing, but like I'm the kind of guy that I'll pass people mowing yards and I'll stop my truck and hop out and be like, who owns this? And then I'll give them my cards.

SPEAKER_06 36:07

That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

And so there's there's a guy they mow our, there's a couple guys at mowing in our neighborhood the other day. They're free shout-out, magic lawns. Um, so those dudes were mowing the other day and hopped out, and I have to walk up to Josiah and I met this guy and I gave him my card, and he's already sent me four properties. So it's just a matter of just like always just being like I do this, you grow, I grow, you mow, all right? And like, and I'm the guy that I'm I'm literally at the gas station walking up to guys with mowers. You mow, I grow. Here's my card. You know, and so it's like a businessman, this guy. But you have to. I mean, it's just it is what it is. I don't know. But that's just the types of stuff like for I guess for not advertisement, but like that's marketing. I'm not there just trying to do whatever or well it's building a funnel.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

So you're building rather than going to one person, you're going to a company that can send you multiple and continue. For sure. Yeah. Building funnels is definitely a huge thing. And that's how you build an enterprise, right? You can't build an enterprise door knocking, getting two or three. I mean, you can, but not getting one or two or three or four. Right. You build it from getting a company that can send you twenty every year. Yes. For sure. Multiple of those.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

For sure. We we do have that currently, like somebody subs out their weed control fertilization stuff to us, and that grew pretty significantly at the start of this year too, which was great. Um they gave us, you know, five or six properties last year to I guess like just test the water with us to see how we were gonna do, and we did a good job, and like they like four times that number now. So yeah, having uh like a commercial like connection um to sub U work was I think a really good moment for us.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Um is the sub work? Do you think that's scalable to the enterprise level? Or do you think it's something just helping stay afloat for now?

SPEAKER_05 37:48

I think that it's it's scalable if you're pricing the jobs correctly. As long as you are like being true to your prices and stuff like that, and like yes, you give these people discounts because they're giving you 20 like properties, um, so you know you're gonna give them more of a discount. Um but as long as like at the end of the day you run those numbers and you know that the the money's still good and you're not losing money on doing that job, then yes, I think it is scalable.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

So how do you price? How are how are you pricing right now?

SPEAKER_05 38:14

Based off of the square footage still.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Okay, based off but you're pricing off the square footage, but I mean how how do you make sure that you're making money? So we know that you know cost per app, basically, of like what like so you know your labor and then your expenses, right? Are you considering any of the overhead or like any of the like owners pay, admin pay?

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Uh probably not.

SPEAKER_05 38:36

No, I guess not, but like I I thought that in the beginning that when we determined the prices for lawns and stuff like that at the very beginning, when we spent more time on that, that like we know that we're in the same ballpark as other companies doing this, and we see that they're scalable at that price point, so we know that we can be scalable at that price point as well. And they have more overhead than we do right now because they're a giant company and we're just two guys.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Um but a lot of times they can afford to lose some money on a couple clients. Yeah. Whereas you guys may not be. For sure. So that that would be another thing. I would say revisit, and that's something we did recently. You know, we didn't realize we were losing money in some areas until we revisited pricing and we did a huge like analysis of that. So that's something I would say I would I would revisit that and even once a year. But I would revisit it now that you're coming on a year and look at everything. So look at your all of your expenses and say, say your total expenses is a hundred thousand for the year. Like you're after not including your cost of goods, but operating, right? So say a hundred thousand, well, how many customers you have? 120, divide that and see see what that number is. Right? And then can you operate at 100,000 a year if you have 250 clients? And if so, then okay, divide that by 250. And if not, then then how much is it gonna take operationally for you to get that 250? Because that's the goal, then you want to be factoring that number into the price.

SPEAKER_04 39:59

That's a good point. Okay. Good to know.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:03

So uh so you are expecting a lot of growth, I assume again in the in the fall now, right? The fall, yes, it's gonna be really busy. Aeration and seed, holler at us. How how do how are you getting ready for that growth? Like, do you think you have people to help you out, like on boarding new clients? Does that take a lot of a long time, or how do you think you'll be able to handle it?

SPEAKER_05 40:24

Because um so last year during aeration and seed, I was working part-time. I've since like quit my part-time job in preparation for this fall. So like I'm going to be putting more man hours in. Um I'm sure that you'll probably be putting more man hours in than you did last year too. So um, I think that given the current like number of customers we have, it's something that him and I can um handle just the two of us. Um and having the right equipment. Yeah, having the right equipment.

SPEAKER_04 40:53

That was the one thing that when we did start in the fall last year, we wanted to make sure we went ahead and got stuff that's gonna help us succeed and finish. Yes, sometimes you have to start out the hard way, but there are certain things that I think if you can sacrifice and get certain pieces of equipment, they're gonna help you. And like a stand-on air raid or certain things like that that are gonna help us uh execute more. Yes, it costs more up front, but we're gonna be able to go from five yards a day to twenty yards a day because of that, you know, type stuff. And and so I think that that like just having the right equipment for the right tasks at hand is gonna help um with all that. And I'm pretty sure we've we've bought all that.

SPEAKER_05 41:32

Like we invested in like the equipment that's going to help us get jobs done efficiently and quickly last year. Um, and uh, you know, I could be wrong, but like I don't think that we're gonna be overwhelmed just him and I, but I don't know, I could be wrong. Like we could call Mason. Way too many people like wanting air agency jobs this October, and just the two of us can't handle it. So if we get to that point, then we're gonna have to look into hiring somebody part-time for sure. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Something that you guys said that is like really key to being able to bring your business from soulpreneur to an enterprise that you guys have are doing is you forfeited like paying yourself one to create that oh crap emergency fund, right? But really more than that is to set yourself up foundationally for success, for growth, like buying the area, like buying all of the tools and the equipment that you needed versus paying yourself. So a lot of business owners, they rather than that setting up for next year, they're paying their self and then next year they have the oh crap moment, right? So that I think that's really good stuff.

SPEAKER_06 42:36

Yeah, something business w what I like to do is is like I like to forecast what is coming and I like to be prepared for any options. Okay, if I get overwhelmed, like how do I know if I'm going to get overwhelmed? Like, you know, what do I do? If I'm going to get overwhelmed and and kind of be preparing for it, yeah. Because as as we did, like you don't want to be hiring out of nowhere, and you don't want to be like uh scroll uh you you don't want to be struggling to be able to do uh the work and only if you don't have the hours to do it, but but also if you think you're going to be busy and you're going to need help, it's better to bring it, it's better to bring that person early in the season that way you can train them, you know, because you probably don't want to train them in the middle, in the heat of it, and they're going to slow you down and all of that. So just making that investment. Like starting out like part-time people help us out a lot.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Yes, yeah. If you can find somebody part-time, 1099 and you can do it that way rather than having to the whole payroll system.

SPEAKER_06 43:37

The system, so that really that really helps helps a lot. But I really encourage you to go through different scenarios. Okay, what happens if we get really crazy and we need to bring some people? How are we doing this? Do we have a plan? Are we ready? Like, when are we deciding? Like and then how do we decide if this business is only like two, three weeks and we just have to suck it up and work seven, eight hours a week. Yeah, yeah. Saturday, Sunday, and just do it.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

And ultimately, like growth exposes problems, you know. So that being said, what problems do you think is going to be exposed in the fall for you guys?

SPEAKER_05 44:10

Um, I guess just if we forecast it correctly, like if him and I can handle all the work together, um, because it's right now it's a question mark. Like, I know how many jobs we did last fall and I projected for that with like, I don't know, maybe like 10% growth or something like that. But um it's hard to tell. So that could be an issue, like if I if I forecasted correctly, like the amount of jobs that we're actually going to have to take on in October, and then yeah, the next problem is okay, crap, where do we hire the part-time person from? How can how can we get somebody that we can trust that's gonna do good work with us?

SPEAKER_04 44:43

But yeah, so in reality, it's not and that's where it's gonna be one of those things where you see, and once we start, I think it's you can I guess you can make a projection, but until you start to see those actual numbers, then you can really start to like put it to to to work because you're like, okay, now we can break it down. We'll do this one's uh that's the hard part. Right, this one's a hill we need to do it. Right. So I guess it's just forecasting and pro yeah, and trying to taking notes on stuff.

SPEAKER_05 45:13

That's that's really important. Like doing the work now, like measuring gates and stuff. That's what I try to do now when I go meet new customers, is I will I have a measuring tape in my truck, I measure the gate, I'm like, okay, I know that this piece of equipment can't fit in here for aeration and seed in the fall, so I'm gonna write in the property notes now so that when we schedule it, I don't show up and waste my time.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Dang it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:33

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:36

Some people have short gates, and so that was one of the yeah, there's certain ones that just require certain pieces of equipment. Um, but ideally we we do it all with you know what we have.

SPEAKER_05 45:45

But your initial question was what problems do you think like growth is going to show us? Let me think on that for a sec.

SPEAKER_06 45:53

I don't hey we really do not know about it. We had a growth.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

I mean like pricing, employee.

SPEAKER_04 46:02

I mean that's the one thing now that you mentioned it. I bet we could reevaluate our price points and like kind of not necessarily raise the prices of current customers, but going forward, start out at a different price point or something like that, because like we want to be affordable and we are affordable, but we also like the more I think about it, I'm like, are we underselling? Are we underselling our product because our product is so good and we're charging like a fair price? But it's like are we you know I'm saying like it's like maybe we could go up a little more or something just to like but you know those are the types of people.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

Well, you can't stay in business and give them the product they love if you're losing money, right? So so so you need to make sure that at every point you're making something.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

Right. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

So, like, I mean, you know, everyone wants to make a million dollars, but what's making a million dollars if you have a million and one hundred dollars in expenses and you're making a negative a hundred, you know? Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 46:52

I uh something mentioned at the beginning is that sometimes clients, few of those clients, they want to see you there. They want they want you you to be the one doing and the work, and you know, and we said that that is not scalable. Yeah, you cannot scale that because you know, as you build a company, hopefully it's going to go up. So but with that being said, like to for those type of clients, they see value in you doing the work, you know. And you can also sell like you you don't only you the only selling point is not price, you know. You can also sell on quality and what you bring and who you are, and I'm like, hey, I'm giving you better communication. And all of these people are like, you're getting me. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 47:33

I'm getting I'm getting gradually like yeah, you're getting me to overseeing it though. That's the like you're getting me creating the package for you, creating like the I don't know, the the mechanics, the process. Yeah, for sure. You don't necessarily have to be the one to do it, but like you're creating the mind, you're creating the plan for their yard. For sure. So they know it's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_06 47:52

And yeah, and then you it make sure like you know you're selling yourself, you know what I mean? Like you you sell that, and then like if they want you to do the work, I'm like, hey, look, my time is really valuable. If you really want me to come here and do this work, it's going to be like instead of $60, it's going to be $150 for your dad. And some people will pay for a job, bro. I trust you.

SPEAKER_04 48:11

Yeah, and I trust you.

SPEAKER_06 48:12

I want you here, like come here, I'll pay you that amount of dollars. So always keep keep that in mind because as you grow, your time is going to become more valuable and you cannot be spending for sure. You know, it doesn't it would not make sense for the basics. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 48:25

And that's one thing I do tell com owners when they're like, well, what would like why why would I choose you over them? And I'm just like, to literally everything you just said, I'm like, you're getting me or my partner. I'm like, you're not gonna get Bobby, Timmy, and and Tommy every time, and you ask them what they're doing, they're like, I don't know, I'm just here to get a paycheck. I was like, I you know, I'm I'm very passionate about this stuff. I'm like, I will I will sit here and talk your ear off all day about grass if you want to. Like, that's that's what you get with us. You're getting me and my education, my knowledge, my partner's knowledge, and his like that's what you're getting, versus okay, I want to talk to your manager. Okay, well, it's this guy, then this guy, then this guy, and he might call you back.

SPEAKER_01 49:05

But eventually you will have this guy and this guy and that guy. So I think setting that expectation now to keep that client in 10 years, you say, hey, you're getting me, I'm the expert behind this, and anyone I hire is gonna be trained by me, right? And then if they're trained by me, then the person behind me who's learned from me, right? For sure, 100%. And they're gonna know these this like industry secrets, right? Trade secrets that other people don't have. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 49:28

I said, remember, like you can either go and enter so I guess while like whenever you started the business, what was your like do your job? Like whenever you started this business, what do you why what was you like?

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Like, what did you want to be doing for the business?

SPEAKER_06 49:42

Yeah, for the business, like long-term. What is your like what what do you want to be doing for the business in three years, in four years? You want to keep doing production, or you or you would like to be CEO or COO or he's the CEO chief marketing officer, or you just want to be selling the beach and selling the business in better.

SPEAKER_04 49:59

And I would like to be paid as an owner. I'd be willing to take like versus like doing both and getting both paid for operating and owning. I would prefer that I'm an owner, I assume that's probably his goal. Yes, long-term goal.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

So is that making decisions though, or like being like oh, is that completely possible? Or is that completely possible?

SPEAKER_04 50:18

I mean, I would no, I mean I would still be, I like would like to think I would be involved, like I would still be there on a daily basis, or I would still be in and out every other day, or or however we would do it.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

You have too much energy, not to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

I'm gonna be involved, and I want to be involved, and it's it's something like as we've created it, like it's I'm proud of it, you know, and the more we do, like like I'll enjoy that. But yes, I do look forward to days where I can just take a couple days to just chill, or just be like, hey, if you have any problems, call me, you know, and let my guys ideally you yeah, like to everything we've kind of covered, you would have somebody running it that is trusting, and you have you know they want to do they're doing it your way, you know, and they understand that.

SPEAKER_05 51:00

We saw like we saw how it can be done at our last company. Like he hired the right people to take care of his business so that he could go take time to himself and be on vacation like two weeks out of a month or something like that, and like that's something that I look forward to eventually is like having production managers and the managers in place so that yeah, we're not the ones doing the grunt work anymore. Um, I know that's like a long-term goal, but I think that it is something that we can definitely achieve. Um, and I don't know, maybe like you were saying, if it's is it passive or is it um you know you're still making decisions like for the managers there? Like, I'm not sure yet. I don't know how involved I would want to be like 20 years from now or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 51:40

Oh no, I'm not 20 years is a while. We're talking five.

SPEAKER_05 51:43

Yeah. Or no, like when I'm like, you know, old man and I don't want to move around, I don't know. Or if I wanted to do like uh like start another type of business, like ice cream or something. I have no idea, but like I don't know what my interest will be way, way, way down the road.

SPEAKER_06 51:58

But um I think with that, I feel you have to put a set date for when you want to achieve that. Like figure out, really sit down, figure out what is your ideal position and by when because you said five years, you know, like is it five years from today or five years since you started the business? Right. Right now you're all in GR like if if it's since you started the business, it sounds like you're all in GR one of those five years. Like sit down and always ask yourself is the I is the decisions I'm making today is setting me up for that goal. For sure. Go opt on your future self. Yeah, like my goal was like when I would start the business and I always did this to hope. I'm like, hey, I'm going to work hard for three years. After these three years, I want managers, CEO, CFO here. I'm not going to be as I'm not going to be on the grind on the day to day. You know, and like and all the decisions we make, and I think that's also why we have grown so fast. It's like, okay, is this decision allowing me to achieve this three years goal? You know what I mean? For sure. And so I think that puts a lot of perspective into it because if you want that, you need to start bringing people, you need to figure out marketing, you need to figure out to have more control for how to grow, you know, to feel in control of that.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

So now we're going to do a if I were the CEO segment. So I'll say what I would do if I became the CEO today, and then Jet will give his piece. Okay. So if I became the CEO today, the first thing I would do would be revalue the pricing completely. Redo pricing. And then the second thing that I would do is I would schedule you guys' days. So what I would say, okay, we need process because you guys, it's not full, you're not you're not working on yards every single day, right? Because you have like what seven to ten days.

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Yeah, but we space it out though. I feel like it's not like we get it done in seven days. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

So instead, that's what I would say, let's be efficient. We're we're working seven to ten days on these yards, and then the next week, right? The next rest of that week, you're doing like these process admin thing, you're doing these sales, like here's the neighborhoods we're gonna go to. I would schedule out those, schedule out your entire month and say, here's how we're going to get there to 250 people, right?

SPEAKER_06 54:04

Okay, yeah. And yeah, and to the outside of that, remember, like both of you don't have to be doing the same thing, you know. Like in our business, uh Hope is the one that spends the most time in business development, and she does a great job at that. Like, I sometimes I spend most of the time inside the business because, you know, I'm doing the tax returns and all of that and overseeing the stuff, you know. Make sure both of you are taking advantage that both of you are two, you have different skill sets that combine, and make sure like you are you are realizing that to the mass. So if I were the CEO, uh what I would do first is to make sure I have clear goals, you know, like three GRs. I will I will I wouldn't even think five years, like three GS from today, have clear goals, be ambitious about them, you know, and and it all depends what you want to do, and then start asking, okay, is this getting me closer to this goal? And definitely I feel if you can do it, I feel like to really get the most out of a business, you gotta be all-in. So if I'll be the CEO is like, hey, let me be all-in here, like you you will figure it out, you know, you will have more time to do business development, more time to do production, more, more time to figure out processes, more more time to figure out route. I I feel if if one of you, both of you go all-in, your business could be differently in the six months. Like, be smart about it. I it sounds like the fourth season is coming up well. I don't know how it's December, January about it, but figure out when when will be the best time to go all in and then make sure you're making the most out of it. And don't be afraid to bring employees, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to bring a bad higher, but you loan with it. You know, you loan, grow, you set up processes. So I think I would go more link, put goals and say, hey, this is it. You know what I mean? This is it.

SPEAKER_04 55:51

So it makes sense. No, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_06 55:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

So then that being said, now we want to hear from you guys. Now that I mean, you guys have watched some of our episodes, right? But now that we've kind of walked you through some things that we would do and we talked through the episode, um, things going from soulpreneur to enterprise, we want to hear one sentence from each of you. What is the difference between the soulpreneur and enterprises?

SPEAKER_04 56:13

Well, I guess the biggest thing that are least you are the puppeteer at that point. You go from the puppet to the puppeteer. Orchestrating it, I guess I forgot the word, yeah. Orchestrating it to where you're still moving the parts and you still have the things doing what you want it to do, and you're just not the actual one down there doing it.

SPEAKER_05 56:43

Um I think you need to make sure that you're creating scalable processes and writing down your processes. That seemed to be my biggest takeaway was the writing.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

You did start off by mentioning processes, so I just I just had to use that to my advantage this episode. Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 57:01

That's awesome. That was fine. Alright, yeah, that was that was a good time.

SPEAKER_01 57:04

Let's close it in. Yeah, let's close it out. All right, this was Harrow.

SPEAKER_06 57:08

This is Jed. Uh guys, for real, thank you so much. Y'all did awesome. Guys, if you need your loan taken care of to grow it, loan pursuit got you.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

We're going to put in the in the description or the link to your they they seed it, they inherit the whole thing, and then they help it grow.

SPEAKER_06 57:23

Yeah, we we're going to make sure we uh let's make sure on uh on all of the bioses and everything, we put the loan pursuit link, link for the week that the episode comes out, and then we're going to have a lot of shorts. Let's go. Thank you. Hey, hey, you grow it somebody else more wet.