The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Starting (and Fastlaning) a lawn care service business

Two Dog

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
142%
Feb 15, 2022
436
620
Oof, rough start yesterday.

Something got mucked up with my saved credit cards in Chrome. Most of the services I purchased got flagged for potential fraud that now requires manual approval to get running properly. And since everything nowadays uses a verification process that points to something else not completely setup - verify a phone number from a text message, verify a bank account from an email link, verify an entity from a phone number - today is now pretty much about getting things sorted.

Everything will get fixed, but it's a long ways from watching a five minute You Tube tutorial. ;-)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Two Dog

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
142%
Feb 15, 2022
436
620
OK, got yesterday's nonsense all sorted. Now I'm working on wiring together the marketing system.

God, it's been a long time since starting completely from scratch. I'd forgotten how many endless little steps are involved. At least I don't have to think much about strategy. It's all tactics at this stage. By tomorrow afternoon, we should be ready to meet with prospects to sell a service that has't been fully defined, fulfilled by people that haven't been hired, using equipment that hasn't been purchased using funds deposited into a bank account that doesn't exist.

Good stuff. It's been fun doing another startup along with teaching my older daughter along the away.
 

Two Dog

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
142%
Feb 15, 2022
436
620
OK, one last update. Will likely move this over to a standalone progress thread when I get a moment to regroup.

On 5/25/22, I launched Two Dog Lawn Care. Over the last thirteen days, I have...

...done industry research, read through lawn care forums, watched YouTube videos, spent Memorial Day Weekend driving through potential services areas, wrote a summary business plan, created financial projections, established a Virginia LLC along with multiple DBAs, hired a registered agent, setup bank accounts, established credit lines, registered multiple domains connected with Two Dog services, decided on marketing channels, identified target markets, developed a logo and brand identity, published a website, configured SSL certificates, purchased iStock images, wrote website copy, configured Google My Business, got banned by Google Ads, appealed Google Ads ban, contacted local lawn care companies for competitive research, got bids from multiple lawn care services, figured out pricing, learned how to do estimates, took a one day gig mowing lawns for $15 / hr to learn how to operate giant commercial grade lawn mowers, researched licensing, insurance and bonding requirements, setup a sales system, evaluated several hiring models to attract reliable workers, interviewed three experienced lawn care people and found local retailers for commercial grade equipment.

Curtain goes up in three days to start onboarding new customers.
 
Last edited:

giochavez017

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Jun 7, 2022
3
6
21 and currently selling cars at the moment. I’ve got some money to throw at something. I just bought a used trailer and have some lawn equipment.

Got a pro website, branding, and I have decent copywriting skills for posting ads. Started with craigslist, Google AdWords and I’m on yelp and google maps. I posted just a single craigslist ad and in a couple hours had jobs booked for $200 for a few hours of work. I got 4 of them within a couple hours. I did this to test my market. (I bought the tools and trailer after this btw)

I’ll be hiring on some young guy for a summer job. I’ve got the LLC, business insurance, and I’ll be picking up a cheap truck from an auction (working in car sales helps).

I did a couple jobs myself on my days off, just to see how long it took and if there would be any problems, it was easier than I thought.

Once I hire on the kid, I’ll go with him on my days off from work until I can justify hiring another person.

My goal is to take over the local market with superior branding, smooth and time saving process, reliability and quality, all while being a fair price. Not cheap, just worth it. The first place I showed up to said “wow, you’re the only person out of 5 that responded and actually came...and your name isn’t Jose!” Haha!

I’ve calculated with driving around and dumping out the grass and time for breaks, the crew will be bringing in about 300-600 a day in revenue while costing me 130-260 depending on if I’ve got 2 guys or just 1, including gas. Subtracting other costs like insurance and everything else like expected repairs, I should be bringing in at least 100-300 per day worked per crew. 5 trucks = $1000 profit per day.

I advertise for all sorts of services in order to justify a higher “full service” price and upsell people that just want their lawn mowed. “Hey that concrete looks kinda gross, we offer pressure washing..and have you cleaned your gutters this season?” It REALLY helps having sales experience as I get started in this.

I’m doing this because I’ve got the money and nearly everything can be sold for at least what I paid for it. I can take phone calls and schedule things at first while I sell cars. Most of the day in car sales is doing very little.

The goal is to have multiple trucks, a physical location with an office, and a team for running the business while I’m off somewhere else, checking in every once in a while. I will NOT turn out like the 50 year old losers still selling cars here at the lot.

Anyone else do the same type of thing here? Did you struggle with employees being shitty? Did you struggle with difficulty getting jobs? Any experienced people with advice is helpful.

Not looking for permission or approval..I’m either looking for advice from people who’ve done it already or just giving a couple people something to think about if they’re on the fence about doing something similar.
I believe it’s about proactively seeking opportunities. Finding solutions is better than just sitting there doing nothing expecting different results. The more I read books the more I understand it’s important to do what the majority aren’t willing to do. You’ll be a success!
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Hey @Johnny boy, these gas prices affecting business at all?
It makes up 5% of our expenses while labor takes up 80%.

That means a 5% increase in the cost of labor, so literally only $1 an hour more per employee, is the same as if CURRENT gas prices double.

I am more scared of UBI than I am of gas prices.
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
I am building an app. Myself. One that will be for mobile and be on the app store and google play, and another on our website for desktop users. Same back end database so it's basically the same app just usable in different places.

It's already cool as F*ck.

All customers will be setup with it during their signup process as part of their onboarding. All current customers will login with their email address and phone number as password, and will get an email code for verification.

On the app there will be the ability to submit visit requests but in a controlled way with checkboxes and submitting optional photos, without any text boxes to harass our customer service with. They'll be able to see their upcoming visit dates for each property. They'll be able to get answers to all of our 50 most commonly asked questions or concerns. They can also cancel their contract by paying their 2-month early termination fee.

There will be no number to call or text, no email to contact, no person to chat with.

Vast majority of our customers don't take up much of our time and some people would prefer the 24/7 automatic ability to submit requests and review their agreements without calling or messaging us.

Some small minority of people are insanely annoying, which this will solve.

We will have one phone line for sales. It gets received by our answering service, and all current customers will be forwarded to a voicemail telling them "use the app or go to our website to manage your account or submit visit requests".

Only calls that will be taken by our employed office gal will be legit, new sales leads.

Will cut down on hassle by 50%. All requests will be created as tickets, tickets will pop up on her end in her version of the app. It will just be a list of them and it will have options for her to select from a list of responses and to mark them as done. The customer will see it on their app without any calls or texts, and it will go into our dispatching system for the employees.

Spent all night working on it. I'll probably spend a week on it to get it ready, maybe more.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

jdm667

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
216%
Jan 27, 2020
357
770
Boston, MA
Will cut down on hassle by 50%.
Streamlining your business with this app might be just the beginning. Is there any chance you can license it (or a slightly modified version) for a monthly fee to other similar businesses?
 

srodrigo

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
129%
Sep 11, 2018
792
1,024
I am building an app. Myself. One that will be for mobile and be on the app store and google play, and another on our website for desktop users. Same back end database so it's basically the same app just usable in different places.

It's already cool as F*ck.

All customers will be setup with it during their signup process as part of their onboarding. All current customers will login with their email address and phone number as password, and will get an email code for verification.

On the app there will be the ability to submit visit requests but in a controlled way with checkboxes and submitting optional photos, without any text boxes to harass our customer service with. They'll be able to see their upcoming visit dates for each property. They'll be able to get answers to all of our 50 most commonly asked questions or concerns. They can also cancel their contract by paying their 2-month early termination fee.

There will be no number to call or text, no email to contact, no person to chat with.

Vast majority of our customers don't take up much of our time and some people would prefer the 24/7 automatic ability to submit requests and review their agreements without calling or messaging us.

Some small minority of people are insanely annoying, which this will solve.

We will have one phone line for sales. It gets received by our answering service, and all current customers will be forwarded to a voicemail telling them "use the app or go to our website to manage your account or submit visit requests".

Only calls that will be taken by our employed office gal will be legit, new sales leads.

Will cut down on hassle by 50%. All requests will be created as tickets, tickets will pop up on her end in her version of the app. It will just be a list of them and it will have options for her to select from a list of responses and to mark them as done. The customer will see it on their app without any calls or texts, and it will go into our dispatching system for the employees.

Spent all night working on it. I'll probably spend a week on it to get it ready, maybe more.
Out of curiosity, what are you using to build it?
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Streamlining your business with this app might be just the beginning. Is there any chance you can license it (or a slightly modified version) for a monthly fee to other similar businesses?

Best long term strategy is to just have a 100m company doing what we do best, but in the short term it would be fun to build out these systems for small companies for 10-20k with my free time when it’s not the busy season.

Debating on how I should use my time this year. Probably will try to get more people on board for opening locations next spring.
 

wyattnorton

Bronze Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
209%
Jan 15, 2019
190
398
Northern IL & Southeastern WI
LOL

You see guys? This is the competition. NON-EX-IST-ANT.

The bar is so low.
Same thing with contractors.

Called a guy to paint the interior on one of my flips and explained I want it sprayed not rolled because it is faster.

He said, "Seems like you got it all figured out. Why don't you just do it yourself?"

Because Im too F*cking busy and need you to do it otherwise I would have done everything myself...


I am also realizing by reading through this thread that the real money in business is not some grand, new idea or some new technology company or even an online marketing/website bs company.

The real money is providing something that people want for their convenience or "happiness" to get rid of their pain, and then you systemize that shit to make it so easy for employees and do that at scale.
 
Last edited:

ALC

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
99%
Jul 19, 2017
506
502
27
France
Same thing with contractors.

Called a guy to paint the interior on one of my flips and explained I want it sprayed not rolled because it is faster.

He said, "Seems like you got it all figured out. Why don't you just do it yourself?"

Because Im too F*cking busy and need you to do it otherwise I would have done everything myself...


I am also realizing by reading through this thread that the real money in business is not some grand, new idea or some new technology company or even an online marketing/website bs company.

The real money is providing something that people want for their convenience or "happiness" to get rid of their pain, and then you systemize that shit to make it so easy for employees and do that at scale.
Slowly learned this this year and past year when i had the same exact problem at my shop.

Got aluminium panels of the facade that i need sprayed and not rolled, i called 20 (20!) locals and kind of big names, 50% didnt answer and the other ones were either unbearable at the phone nor did they wanted to take the time to do it.

Good old physical gigs with added value skew could go a long way, mixed with new technology.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

wyattnorton

Bronze Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
209%
Jan 15, 2019
190
398
Northern IL & Southeastern WI
Good old physical gigs with added value skew could go a long way, mixed with new technology.
I've been telling my friends that the upcoming two biggest value skews for my generation Z is effort and hard work. By hard work, I mostly mean physical labor and pulling up your big boy pants to do the work.

I know almost no one of my age that does what I do. This is an attempt to be arrogant free because I only look to state the facts.

In this upcoming recession/depression, the best businesses are going to be the ones that nobody wants to do, but everybody needs to have done. Plumbers, electricians, landscapers, etc. because the kids my age will NOT do it, no matter how much they need the money.
 

ALC

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
99%
Jul 19, 2017
506
502
27
France
I've been telling my friends that the upcoming two biggest value skews for my generation Z is effort and hard work. By hard work, I mostly mean physical labor and pulling up your big boy pants to do the work.

I know almost no one of my age that does what I do. This is an attempt to be arrogant free because I only look to state the facts.

In this upcoming recession/depression, the best businesses are going to be the ones that nobody wants to do, but everybody needs to have done. Plumbers, electricians, landscapers, etc. because the kids my age will NOT do it, no matter how much they need the money.
I totally agree with you and i'm myself interested in these to make & save more money or even possibly scaling as the opportunity is there....but.

The only downside to these jobs are the difficulty to automatize it for the same reason.
Finding employees, unless the pay is really above average then they tend to stay a bit longer than usual.

I see it on a daily basis unfortunately here in France, lack of hands to get the job done in "dirty jobs" because of a lack of interest.

Its way too degrading for their image & ego to make sure the Toilets get water flowing & the shower is working....lol
 

wyattnorton

Bronze Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
209%
Jan 15, 2019
190
398
Northern IL & Southeastern WI
I totally agree with you and i'm myself interested in these to make & save more money or even possibly scaling as the opportunity is there....but.

The only downside to these jobs are the difficulty to automatize it for the same reason.
Finding employees, unless the pay is really above average then they tend to stay a bit longer than usual.

I see it on a daily basis unfortunately here in France, lack of hands to get the job done in "dirty jobs".
We’ve got a ton of South/Central Americans crossing our border here in the US. They work harder than anyone Ive ever met… except us Polish & Germans!

I get what you mean. Europeans like the French, Italians, Spanish, are inherently not hard works in the ways we are in the US. With the changing economy, I can see some big opportunities pop up for you.

Workers will always be tough if you’re looking for the same old workers. Here in US, even the illegal aliens don’t want to work.

That’s why we need recessions, to kick people in the a$$ to work again.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ALC

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
99%
Jul 19, 2017
506
502
27
France
We’ve got a ton of South/Central Americans crossing our border here in the US. They work harder than anyone Ive ever met… except us Polish & Germans!

I get what you mean. Europeans like the French, Italians, Spanish, are inherently not hard works in the ways we are in the US. With the changing economy, I can see some big opportunities pop up for you.

Workers will always be tough if you’re looking for the same old workers. Here in US, even the illegal aliens don’t want to work.

That’s why we need recessions, to kick people in the a$$ to work again.
Totally man ! Trying to find some field to arbitrage that some of you folks doing in the US that either doesn't exist here or its being done poorely so i can get the ball going.

Always difficult to find something worthy of our time, even if its a temporary slowlane to fund something bigger in the future who knows. (Mainly due to not being from these industry i'm looking at)
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
This year we hit our goals again.

It was a great chance to feel out our new systems, automation, having managers, salespeople giving quotes.

I stopped introducing myself as the owner. No one needs to know I'm the boss, it just creates customer entitlement.

This year was great for seeing which things break down in our new systems. People take shortcuts and it's important to watch their behavior to trim the fat out of any procedures you have.

For example it's tedious to use our CRM and change peoples' lifecycle stages manually.

It's tedious to onboard someone manually into your app database, but letting people do it themselves will create a disaster for having every account match information across systems.

I vividly remember being lazy in school and lazy at work. For anyone that comes into the company to work here, it would be delusional to expect them to have a different attitude and not look for corners to cut. So I build things with that in mind.

I've been using API and automation so things get done automatically as much as possible.

I've noticed if you have 2-way texting for customer support it almost always get's messy. I caught myself yelling at the customer service rep "why didn't you respond to that customer?" and she said "I had to check x first before getting back to them and then I got a sales call and didn't remember to put it in my reminders" and things like that. I want to keep it simple, she needs to be able to handle 10x more customers without breaking a sweat. She can't be relying on memory, her job should allow her to have the memory of a goldfish and still do a great job.

So customer support, requests, complaints, etc. will be handled either through our app we are rolling out soon, or a phone call. No email, no texting. It either get's done all at once on a phone call, or it's in one place as a request made through the app.

Ads will be changing. It will pull the lead into a form that adds them to our CRM for us to call, or they can call us, or they can use our instant quote software that we will be rolling out. No more messaging back and forth and digging through messages.

Our phone system is getting redone. I don't like the current call quality and to use our answering service I had to route it through them first and then send calls to us because the current system didn't have an option for forwarding only calls we missed. I can do that with our new system, plus everything will be on one number. Missed calls through the sales extension will forward to the answering service but not for support.

We will be having another office worker help us with sales next year, and we will likely have 3 or more salespeople helping us with the in person quotes and managing operations day-to-day at our locations.

We are setting a minimum goal of doubling revenue again to 1.2m but I'm going to try to go much harder and get well over that. We are setting up the foundations for a national franchise.

Every week has just been adding some small refinement to the business. I have changed as a person in the process. I remember how disorganized I was and I am moving away from that. The change has reflected itself in my personal life as well. I maintain things better. I'm tidier. I have a coffee table with a hardcover book on it. A low-maintenance and loyal woman is a great teammate for keeping things steady.
 

mikecarlooch

Apprentice & Student Of The Game
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
343%
Jan 28, 2022
888
3,047
Florida
I vividly remember being lazy in school and lazy at work. For anyone that comes into the company to work here, it would be delusional to expect them to have a different attitude and not look for corners to cut. So I build things with that in mind.
Interesting. Have you noticed that communicating you being cool about them not being super disciplined in their jobs has increased productivity?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Two Dog

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
142%
Feb 15, 2022
436
620
I've been using API and automation so things get done automatically as much as possible.
Hi, JB. The goals are spot on, but I'm wondering about the implementation.

Aren't there any number of established platforms that would allow you to automate without building them?
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Interesting. Have you noticed that communicating you being cool about them not being super disciplined in their jobs has increased productivity?
Increased productivity and increased scalability are not the same.

McDonald’s is scalable because you can put a lazy 17 year old in it and still have a functioning business.

I don’t expect my employees to be super geniuses or exceptionally loyal or motivated. I offer good pay, make the jobs easy, and don’t micromanage. It results in less stress for a manager as well, which makes it easier to hire managers since they have an easy job, which makes it easy to open locations, since people enjoy working here and we can get workers somewhat easily, which makes it easy to find franchisees since they don’t have to micromanage the locations and turnover is lower, etc. see how it works?

Make everything easy

We could squeeze more out of them but you get other problems when you do that
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Hi, JB. The goals are spot on, but I'm wondering about the implementation.

Aren't there any number of established platforms that would allow you to automate without building them?
Yes we use QuickBooks, hubspot, housecall pro, RingCentral, Mapline, JotForm, google sheets and calendar, and api’s to connect things.

I hate jobber, workiz, or any other “all in one” system. Anyone that does wish to use those systems I hope they succeed but it’s not for us.

I’ll make a video showing the guts of how it works and I think people will be impressed and understand how we’ll handle 50 locations and offer an excellent customer experience with everything running out of one central office.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
We are just a short bit away from the following experience

1. You can get an instant quote and signup for it immediately. Automated bot with square footage calculations and everything.

2. You can call us and schedule an in person quote for free if you like talking to a person and meeting someone in a company polo and you can shake their hand

3. When you call for a quote, you get someone 24/7/365

4. Handle requests and manage your plan on an app.

The real value is that on top of all of this, you’ll have a consistent company show up on the regularly scheduled date, trained W2 employees with professional company equipment will show up, and it won’t be some subcontracted bums.

I’m doing all this myself and it’s how I spend a good chunk of my mid mornings or late nights on most days.

The thing is we are not offering services to millennials or college students only where they just want an app. We offer services to people who’ve never used a cell phone and it still works. The app is also sharing the database with our web app so you’ll be able to use our website to manage your account too. Or if you want to use the phone to call us it works just as smoothly. There’ll be a 20 something soft spoken polite female answering the phone and taking care of your requests.

All of this with as much automation as possible. The experience is smooth, leads are consolidated, the system doesn’t have gaping holes in it when we try to scale, it allows for flexibility for our business model to work the way we really need it to. And it’s easy to work with us, whether you’re a 73 year old grandma who hates cell phones, or you’re a developer at Facebook.
 

MattR82

Gold Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
178%
Oct 4, 2015
1,394
2,480
41
Brisbane
One million percent agree on the "make it easy" concept for your employees and managers. It's a service biz employee so like you say, have to expect turnover, but who needs the stupid added stress of dealing with unhappy, unmotivated workers that you're trying to squeeze, burn and churn.

I'm still on step one with my service business while you're on step 37 so I'm super grateful for you sharing all of this.
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
I've built our customer portal app. It has one database but has a desktop app and a native mobile app that will be on the app store and google play store soon, so anyone including our old customers will be able to access it and login and manage their account.

We are taking away SMS and email support, and going exclusively to phone calls or our app.

On our website, it conditionally shows you our "sign in" button based on browser width so if you are on a phone it links you to the app store to get our app, if you are on a desktop it links you to our desktop login page.

All users are automatically created when they fill out our signup form. I had to build all of this with api, webhooks, etc.

It supports multiple property accounts so even a user with 30 accounts with us would still easily be able to use our app. When they submit a request it sends their account info through so all they need to manually fill in is the request specific form. When the request form is submitted it automatically gets uploaded and formatted in the proper folder for which location they belong to so our customer service can keep requests organized, photos are uploaded to their request if they included any in their submission.

Our instant quote system works really well too. It's all automated.

Our pricing is formulaic finally. Our office will be able to give many quotes over the phone using our instant quote system. Our in person sales appointments will be able to do it too but can still do it manually if there's no data in the area or something.

Our CRM and all of our systems together are working like clockwork. Once I activate our answering service for the spring, you'll be able to call in 24/7. You'll either get our in house rep, or the answering service if she's not available. Either way you'll be automatically input as a lead. If you do our instant quote online the same thing happens. Our rep's job will be to call all leads and ask if they want an in person quote or an instant quote. Once you fill out the signup form it automatically updates you as a customer in our system.

The goal of everything is a pleasing, easy experience. You can talk to a person right away. You get a call back quickly if you aren't immediately chatting with our rep. You can get an instant quote and complete the signup process right away if you prefer. Services are scheduled, you receive notifications, you can use a nice looking customer portal or call if you prefer. The services are done by our trained employees, not contractors. Payments are automated. A single customer service rep could handle a thousand customers easily. All of this will be handled in our headquarters. We will only need one office to handle the entire country.

We opened up some locations this year with "partners" who are like franchisees. We will be signing official franchise docs soon and making it official, using our new entities and new brand. They will be official franchisees at that point.

The attractive point of our franchise is that the owner manages nothing unless they want to be employed as the manager and receive a salary as well. They can say "I want to open up in portland" and we can do that, they would never have to meet the employees. One of our partners has never met the employees at his location. He has never spoken to them, and they don't know who he is either. Because of that unique setup, instead of taking a franchise fee, or taking a royalty, we are split owners with each location and get a share of profits. We handle everything, it makes for a uniform, standardized, repeatable system and the franchisee doesn't have to focus on all of the annoying parts of running a business.

Again, "make everything easy" is the idea.

We've got about 4 more people who are interested in opening a location up. They are waiting to see the numbers on how we perform with our initial partners.

For the last couple months I've been grinding all of this stuff out from morning to night. It doesn't feel like work, so each day has been around 12+ hours of this stuff 6-7 days a week.

My closest friend moved in to a house across the lake, so we've been lifting at 630am and going to MMA at 6pm and working a lot. I've been in a great rhythm lately, very productive, lots of energy.

I've been creating some systems for how we'll manage a ton of locations when it comes to fleet management, taxes, entities, banking, onboarding franchisees, training managers, etc.

I've never been an organized man. I always said that I was too creative to be organized, but when I realized I would be responsible for handling things at scale, I changed that. You have to put your life in order if you want to grow something. You have to clean everything up and learn how to handle life's maintenance in a new way. I used to just throw papers on my desk, now everything is in a proper folder, important docs are scanned and organized. My calendar is used religiously. I use notion for a lot of stuff. All the way down to things like cleaning your room. Everything has a place. I understand that the gap between where I am now and having national locations and many millions a year in profit is how organized I can become. Lots of cleaning, throwing away, categorizing, drawing things out, etc. It's a constant fight between complexity and simplicity. A new system for something is adding complexity in a way, so it better be as simple as humanly possible to keep it lean.

A great asset is that I like what I do (working ON the business) and I set it up in a way that lets me spend 100% of my time doing that instead of working IN the business. I get up, hit the gym have my coffee, and sit down to work...girlfriend brings me lunch, and I keep working until dinner or MMA, then work until 1am when my eyes get heavy. Then I do it again the next day. It's all just part of a season. It's a good time to be doing this stuff, I won't have to do it twice. There'll be a season where I don't work at all for months, but that is not now.

Down the road I'll show some more detail about our systems and how to create some robust automations and app building.

I owe a big thanks to @ZCP for convincing me earlier this year to take the jump and think differently about how to grow. I owe him some sort of deal for being on my side and seeing potential in this.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Two Dog

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
142%
Feb 15, 2022
436
620
Great stuff. You've always been really good about taking immediate action on things. That goes a long way.

It's great to hear about the progress you've been making and interesting how differently we approach the same problems. I love the idea of passive investors (easy deal to sell), but it doesn't seem possible to open a new location without having anyone in place there already. Staffing, equipment, space, all of that.

That can't all be done remotely, right?
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
Great stuff. You've always been really good about taking immediate action on things. That goes a long way.

It's great to hear about the progress you've been making and interesting how differently we approach the same problems. I love the idea of passive investors (easy deal to sell), but it doesn't seem possible to open a new location without having anyone in place there already. Staffing, equipment, space, all of that.

That can't all be done remotely, right?

Manager.

staffing: HQ filters resumes and video interviews, potential new hires meet with manager for in person interview.
equipment: manager picks up and maintains local equipment. It's cheap stuff we don't mind throwing away if necessary.
space: we find a lot to rent, rent it, done. That's remote.
training: train the manager and he can train the workers. It's not brain science or rocket surgery. "Here's how to use a weed whacker. Make sure to read the notes at each job". I'm sure we can fly one out to do an in person training day.

Day to day: the workers show up, park, get in the trucks and go work and read the notes. They call the manager for random issues "hey the weed whacker won't start" or "Bob's gate is locked". Admin stuff is passed along to head office and the rep would call bob real quick, if no answer they snap a photo of the locked gate and leave. For the weed whacker not working the manager would have them use a backup or go swing by home depot to get a new one. Old one is either worked on or thrown away. It's not a big deal. We can leave broken equipment on customers' lawns who owe us money.

We can open a few locations nearby and share managers in case of emergencies. Its a super cozy part time job because I've been doing it for years.

Greatest benefit of having the partners has been pressure. "You better be ready for 4 crews this next spring, will your sales process be able to handle it?" It forces me to improve. It's been great.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZCP

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
336%
Oct 22, 2010
3,952
13,267
Woodstock, GA
I owe a big thanks to @ZCP for convincing me earlier this year to take the jump and think differently about how to grow. I owe him some sort of deal for being on my side and seeing potential in this.
I'm really proud of you!

And the really cool part? You are JUST getting started. This is going to be truly amazing!
 

WillHurtDontCare

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
305%
May 28, 2017
1,986
6,051
32
USA
I've built our customer portal app. It has one database but has a desktop app and a native mobile app that will be on the app store and google play store soon, so anyone including our old customers will be able to access it and login and manage their account.

Make sure that you have good logging set up. Your shit will break and the reason's won't always be clear without good logging.

Install Microsoft Clarity - Free Heatmaps & Session Recordings on your portal. It's big brother spyware by Microsoft that gives you video recordings of how people use your website. It's sick, though I've heard it can slow page load times a little bit.

And test your customer portal on a variety of systems + browsers. Your features can vary a lot by browser + device, so you want to be sure that critical features work under every circumstance.
  • Mac OS + Safari
  • Windows + Chrome / FireFox / Internet Explorer (if your customers are older, then they use internet explorer)
  • iOS + Safari
  • Android + Chrome
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top