And welcome back to the Lawn Hustle podcast.
I am your host, Andy Wilson. I have 16 years
of experience in the green industry. Today we
have a special program with special guests, Peter
and Courtney with Earth a Pro. Eartha Pro is
a software designed for lawn care, the solo operator
or the smaller business. We've had Peter on our
show before, so welcome back Peter and Courtney.
Welcome to the Lawn Hustle. Thanks for having
us. Well, let's start today's show by asking
you If you can tell us your background, where
you're from, where you started, and what led
you to Earthapro. Sure. So we're from Northern
Virginia and my background is I've been a software
developer for most of my career. And my wife
here was in the lawn care industry for a while.
And do you want to tell them how you came up
with the idea? Yeah. So I'm from Virginia. I
was raised in central Virginia. I lived all over
the state. I went up to Northern Virginia for
work. And I was working at Pepsi, like driving
routes and stuff. Then I started working at a
chemical company. sold in like, you know, Home
Depot's, Lowe's, Ace Hardware's, and I would
travel all over the US going to like, you know,
anything from like small mom and pop lawn care
business to independent garden center to Lowe's,
Home Depot, et cetera. And I saw that there was
an issue where like a lot of small businesses
didn't really feel like there was a software
meant for them because they felt like they had
to sacrifice quality for price. There wasn't
really like a incredibly high value software
where they could just get the things that they
wanted out of it and they didn't feel like they
had to pay for things they didn't need. So that
was the idea for Earth a Pro. I talked to my
husband and he said, wow, let's do something
about it. Yeah, it was exciting because she was
talking about an industry that Seemed like there
wasn't a good solution for you know, the smaller
lawn care companies and she has all she knows
so much about the industry and we were like Let's
just let's just do it. Yeah, and also I love
the industry like everyone's like there's such
an abundance mentality like instead of the scarcity
mentality when people think like Um, there's
not enough to go around. Everyone in lawn care
just wants to help each other just for the sake
of helping each other. And I think that's so
special and you don't get that in a lot of industries.
So I thought, I just want to stay, I want to
stay in this industry. How can we do that? And
I saw the issue and I thought, let's, let's make
something. So was that the aha moment that helped
you realize the need and maybe stirred up the
desire? to create Eartha Pro. Yeah, that was
definitely the aha moment. And also working with
your significant other. I mean, our goal, we
have two goals for Eartha Pro. It's to help our
customers, genuinely help our customers. And
then the second goal is working together. Yeah.
We have a lot of fun working together. And we
learned early on that this was a good Next step
for our relationship because our communication
was always good But it had to go from good to
great right so we can be on the same page Not
just in our relationship, but also with the business
from building together Yeah I mean being on the
same page with like life goals that we wanted
for ourselves like not just you know for our
careers, but financially and We are really forced
to communicate. Yeah Better than we not like
we were ever bad at it, but like communicate
or to go from good to great. Yeah, to go from
good to great communication. Well, for someone
hearing about Earth a pro for the first time
on this podcast, what does it do in simple terms?
You know, you got it. OK, I was I was saying
he please you got it. Yeah, it's a probe does.
everything that a small business, a small lawn
care landscaping business needs it to do. So
you can see all your revenue on the dashboard.
You can see any kind of invoices that haven't
been paid yet. You can see all your equipment
maintenance. Beyond that you can see all your
customers and then you can see them on a map
view. You can schedule recurring jobs super easily
and then you can send out invoices and or payment
links through your phone. So you can send it
to your customer and then they can pay it on
their phone. So it makes it super easy for the
lawn care guys and then also the customers. Yeah,
so we help customers get paid faster manage their
customers in a CRM and just really Make it so
that they don't they don't need to worry about
all of their back office work Well, I think it's
very interesting that your software Includes
the small guy or the solo operator because a
lot of times Until you grow, you get left behind
with some of the other programs or CRMs that
are available. So I think it's very unique that
you created the software with the solo operator
or the smaller business in mind. Would you like
to elaborate on that? Yeah. Whenever I go to
a trade show, Because I went to several trade
shows in the industry before we even thought
of Earth of Pro. I'd always think to myself,
all the exhibitors and stuff, they're not really
meant for the small guy. Not to say that the
small guys can't eventually grow to become a
multi -million dollar company. I think that's
wonderful. But really starting to help the daily
maintenance guys who maybe Maybe they don't want
to scale immediately. Maybe they're a part -time
person. Maybe they only do weekends. Maybe they're
a college student and they're working on Earth
Pro or they're one of the many people who are
thinking about starting a company but don't really
know exactly how to do it. Well, we'd be happy
to walk them through our software and help them
at least understand their overhead. back office
stuff it takes to run a business because the
businesses don't fail because of the outside
work. It fails because their back office isn't
organized. But anyway, I saw all these businesses
at the trade shows and I think like, wow, there's
nothing really here for small businesses, specifically
the softwares. We're one of the few small softwares
for lawn care and landscaping that are actually
just showing. Actually, I think we are the only
one that's showing up for the small businesses
at Equip. which is really crazy to me. Like a
lot of the software showing up are like, you
know, meant for, you know, huge crews and stuff.
And I think that's great, but there's nothing
for the small guy. Yeah. We, we really want to
like, we're, we're very happy and excited to
work with the smaller companies and we just,
we want, we built Earth to Pearl alongside several
other small companies because we wanted to make
sure that we were making something that was easy
to use. it was just what they needed. So they
were paying for only just what they need. Because
running a small company, well running any business,
cost is important. And we really keep that in
mind when we built Earthapro. Well, let me ask
you this. And you both can take a turn answering
this question. What feature on Earthapro are
you the most proud of? And why I have one. I'm
so excited. So we just we just built this feature
because one of our customers was telling us they
really wanted this. You can text invoice. You
can text invoices straight to your customer from
the web app and the mobile app. And the texting
invoices is super cool because you can text them
and the invoice PDF. Or you can text them just
a payment link. So depending on how you want
to run your business, you can text the invoice
PDF to your customer, or if you just want to
send them a payment link, make it super easy
for your customers. They just get a text message,
click here to pay. So streamlined. And I was
super excited to release that because right after
we released it, one of our customers told us,
oh my gosh, this is my favorite thing in Earth
for right now. Oh, I almost cried. Yeah, so it
was so heartwarming. It was like, oh my gosh,
like, I know everyone's built like a lot. There
are a lot of entrepreneurs and stuff in lawn
care. But when someone says they really like
what you did, it's always like, oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, sorry. Sorry. And the last thing to say
about it is it just works. Like you don't have
to set up any any account with with the phone
company. You don't have to manage the phone number.
Literally, when you log into Eartha Pro, you
can just like click a bus and it'll send. Everything
just works. Well, I think it's important for
us to let our listeners know tonight that when
you're starting a business, it's not too early
to connect with a software like Eartha Pro because
when you're starting, you're wearing every hat.
You're the you're the worker. You're the estimator.
You're the secretary. You're the financial officer.
You're everything. So if they can take a program
like Earth and Pro and put it to work for them,
then they continue to do the outside work while
you do the inside work. And I think it's important
for our listeners to know that because I think
that's the reason why some people get so frustrated
in trying to start a business is they get physically
and mentally wore out trying to wear every hat.
So I applaud you and your program for focusing
on that solo operator or that small business.
I think that's crucial. Yeah, thank you. That's
great to hear. Yeah, it's great to hear. So my
answer to the feature I was most excited about
was how you can create recurring jobs. So with
Earth a Pro, you can create these templates.
It's a template you can make. You can import
whatever materials or employees and equipment
you want into that. And then all you have to
do to make a job is select the template and then
add your customer into that template. and then
say like what frequency do you want to go like
you know every Monday for the next you know every
Monday from March 1st to November 1st and then
you can set the time and then you can go into
each one of those jobs and you know adjust it
as needed and I think that's I think that's so
wonderful you can you can even like say if your
jobs are on like Tuesday Thursday you can even
ship them back all like all back one day so it's
Monday Wednesday or like Wednesday Friday. And
that's something that I'm really proud of because
a lot of softwares don't make it easy to manage
a project. Just even shifting days or even changing
one thing about a job can just take much longer
than it needs to be. So us having that, our customers
are really, really happy that we had that. And
again, we knew to build that because We're working
alongside our early customers and they're giving
us great feedback and we build everything with
their feedback in mind. So it's really catered
to how they would use it. Yeah. And also just
some more background information. We officially
launched January 2025. Everyone that has signed
up has stayed on with us. So we've actually had
zero turn or like zero people who have used Earthapro
have actually have left. Like no one has left
since they've started using Earthapro. That's
good. Whoever signs up, we're happy to walk them
through anything. We're happy to work with them,
listen to them about new features or things that
they think would be really, really cool to add.
Well, let's talk about that onboarding process.
What is the onboarding? If someone wants to sign
up for Earthapro, do they go to earthapro .com
and fill out a entry level application? Or what
is the onboarding process? Sure. The onboarding
is so straightforward. You can go to earthapro
.com. You choose what subscription you want.
Purchase the subscription. and it's all done.
You'll get an email with your login information.
Log in, you'll change your password to make it
unique, so it's your own personal password. And
right when you get to Earthapro, we have an FAQ
section where we have all these tutorial videos
about how to get started, how to send a payment
link. We know what you want to... to immediately
know right when you join. So there's videos for
everything. And we also give our phone number
out. So you can give us a call anytime. We'll
help you with anything. And we also send you
a welcome email with just like, check out this
video. This is how you can quickly get started
in under five minutes. Reach out if you have
any questions. And we also see when people sign
up. So I immediately like. Within a few hours,
I try to reach out and just give them a call,
send them an email, just like a personalized
email and just say like, hey, I saw you signed
up. We'd love to help you with anything. If you
have any issues or any ideas on how to make this
better, I'd be happy to talk with you. Yeah,
and something about like when you purchase Earthopro,
it's extremely clear what the price is. There's
no like set up a meeting and we'll tell you how
much it costs. The price is right, it's on the
web app, it's right there on the page, and you
quickly and clearly see what it is and how much
you're paying. Yeah, okay, this is the last thing
I'll say right now, but when it comes to our
price, we purposefully put it at the price we
have it just because we want it to be accessible.
and affordable and also a high value for our
customers. We're not trying to like price gouge
or anything. And we have some features that in
other softwares belong in products that are like
$200 to $300 a month. One of our features that
we have is the QuickBooks integration, and that
typically isn't introduced for other softwares
until like $200, $300 per month. So we're really
proud to have that. Well, when you were designing
Earth or Pro, did you see a gap in lawn care
software that you wanted to feel, that you wanted
to eliminate? and make it work better for the
customer. And what was that gap? So the gap that
I saw initially was there are some lower tier,
cheaper, if not free softwares out there that
are long care specific, or maybe they're just
generic invoicing softwares. So basically, you
have those softwares, and then you have the super
high -end softwares where like, you're going
to get all the bells and whistles, all the sales
people that reach out to you are like, oh, it's
going to take a year or two to feel comfortable
using this. And I was like, what do you mean
it's going to take a year to feel comfortable
using a software? Shouldn't you just be able
to look at it and have an idea of the next step
when you're using it? And so it didn't feel like
there was a software out there that was didn't
have any bugs in it that had genuinely what people
wanted and very little else. Some of the softwares
are also increasing their price significantly
month to month. And so it's not that that's a
bad software. It's just that the people using
it, the lawn care guys using it, don't feel as
much value as they used to. Well, how does Earth
a Pro save lawn care business owners time and
money? So EarthPro saves time and money because
we make it super easy to create reoccurring jobs.
You can download our mobile app, which comes
with all the subscriptions, with any subscription
you get. You can easily see what your tasks are
for today. And when you're done with the job,
you can just complete the job. It'll automatically
create the invoice and send the text to the customer.
So you don't have to worry about going back to
your office, your home office or office or whatever
it is, doing paperwork, sending out payment links.
You can just do everything at the click of a
button. And I'm so excited to talk about texting
payment links because we made it super simple.
Again, it just works out of the box. And it was
so rewarding to hear our customers say, One of
them said, this is my favorite feature already.
And all of them have been saying that this is
a huge time save. They can just click one thing,
their customer gets the invoice. And they were
saying that even though emailing invoices works
well, so many people get so many, so much spam
email now that our customers were saying that
they think they'll get paid faster if they can
just text the payment link. So not only are they
saving time, they're getting paid faster. Yeah.
And also, I mean, a lot of the guys that we've
worked with used to have a full admin day. So
they'd be like, Monday is my full admin day or
something. Or Friday or Thursday is my full admin
day. Or they'll do their admin after their long
day of work outside. And what used to take them
like a full day is now like one or two hours.
So it's not just like, you know, the mental cost
of like doing extra work. It's also like the
opportunity costs. Like you could be out there
doing other jobs, you know, sending out an email
campaign, you know, creating content for your
for your for your business. So I find that really,
really exciting. Well, I can see. Your passion
in both of you. for Eartha Pro. It just radiates
from you, which that lets me know you're sold
out. And if you're sold out, people should not
be inhibited to sign up for your service because
they have someone that believes in their product.
So I appreciate that about you. Let me ask you
this. Where do you see Earth a pro in five years
in five years? We want to keep this a family
company and as we as we get more customers We
can start hiring as we grow, you know, we'll
need more employees. It's so important to us
that To hire in the USA. We're proud. We're proudly
a maid in the USA company We built everything
we did not outsource any work to other countries
and as we grow we're going to hire in the USA,
we're going to be made in the USA. And growing
up, I feel like that was such a powerful message.
And it was sad to see that kind of not be as
prominent as it used to be. The reason I was
so amazed with the lawn care industry, Courtney
was in it for a while and she brought me into
it. I brought the trade shows. Yeah, she taught
me a lot about the lawn care industry. And it
was so refreshing to see so many people start
their own companies, run their own companies.
And these are proud, proud American companies,
proud American small companies. And it's, it's,
it's very that that's very, it's very rewarding
to work with people like that. And we're, we
have a lot of the same principles as them. So
in five sorry to answer your question in five
years we're gonna we want to have a thousand
customers we're going to be made in the USA and
we're going to hire in the USA. Yeah being being
made in the USA I can't emphasize how important
that is to us. I think we probably are the only
software in the space that was completely made
in the USA. It's very expensive. No, I think
you're right. I think you're right. Well, how
does Eartha Pro help with quoting and pricing
and scheduling jobs? Can you walk us through
the process on those three things? Want to talk
about templates? Yeah, so the templates help
a lot. So in the template section, this is where
you can create these like pre -made you have
template jobs that you'll be doing like say like
one of them could be like a I don't know a quarter
acre lawn mowing or an eight like an eight half
an acre lawn mowing or like full acre lawn mowing
and then you can determine like you know maybe
like one. Anyway, you can sort them like that.
In each one of those templates, you can import
whatever employees you want, whatever materials
you need, and then whatever equipment you're
going to bring. And then that template automatically
will account for those items, how long the job
is expected to be, any kind of overhead that
you have, usually anywhere between an added $1
to $10 per job, depending on how many jobs you're
going to do that year and depending how large
your overhead is, like your fixed costs. You
can even add your tax percentage if you'd like
to and add any kind of additional fees. And then
at the end of creating a template, you'll see
your margin percentage. So if you do this job,
are you going to make 10 % margin or 40 % margin?
And I think just having the knowledge of what
is normal for this kind of job, am I underpricing
my job and am I actually running ragged and not
making any money? Or am I overpricing it, but
are people still willing to pay? So I think it's
incredibly important to know your numbers in
that sense. Anyway, that's how you can see your
margin there. And you can give a better idea
for quoting. And then we have the recurring scheduling
that you can use the templates for. Does that
answer your whole question? Yeah, so I guess
to add on to that, Courtney, from the templates,
you can just select any template. So maybe the
half -acre lawn. You can say create jobs. And
you can choose your time range. You can choose
your frequency. So it can be like, make a calendar
event every single Monday. you know for the next
five months in this time range right so maybe
march to september and at the click and you just
say you just say create you go to the calendar
in earthapro and you'll see that there is a new
calendar entry for whatever you know whatever
you want wherever you want it to be like every
monday march through september and that's really
cool because depending on which employees are
assigned to it. It could be yourself, or if you're
a larger team, it could be one of your coworkers.
Whoever is assigned to it, when they log into
their mobile app, that person will see that on
this Monday, this is the job I have to do, this
is the address I have to go to, and whatever
details about the job will be in there too. Yeah,
and then whenever they're done with that... particular
job, all they have to do is go on the mobile
app, is go to that job, select complete job,
and then the invoice and the payment link will
automatically just be sent to the customer. And
it's so good. I really like the part where you
were talking about. It sets up the calendar for
you. I know guys who try to run a business just
by running around all over town, checking properties
to see if they need mode. They have no schedule.
They have no plan. So they're wasting a lot of
time, wasting a lot of gas money and employee
money because they don't have a clue where they're
going. I got my schedule set up every day and
I know I have timed every property for the day
so I can tell you within about 30 minutes when
I'm going to be pulling back into my driveway
in the evening. Because I've timed myself on
every job. I got one job takes me seven minutes
from start to finish and I'm done I had another
job. It takes me four and a half hours So when
someone's like onboarding into Earth a pro there's
another option they can choose they they can
choose their speed So this will affect their
hourly rate which affects their template Um,
what's the effects that, um, the preset templates
we give them that they can edit later and they
can add later. They can get rid of whatever they
want. We have, uh, we have pro speed, which you
would be pro speed people that know their route.
They know their stuff. They're going to be in
and out like 10 minutes. Like getting started.
Yeah. Getting started templates. And and like
what you said in the words of the great Taylor
Swift She says if you if you fail to plan you
plan to fail Right you seven minutes. Do you
know anyone that can do a lawn quicker than seven
minutes? Not that I know of That's pretty quick
Yeah, you should get it get a camp what next
time next time you do it you got to set up a
camera Well, I set up a time lapse video one
time but it was so fast it was a long enough
for a clip Well, let me ask you this do you have
a success story From a client that you could
share with us. However, the pro has changed their
business or how Earth a Pro has turned things
around for them and helping them finding more
time to be in the field and working instead of
in the office doing paperwork. Yeah, yeah. One
of our early customers, he's been so great to
work with because he joined us at the beginning
and he's always giving us feedback on what he
would like. He's grown with us, which has been
really cool to see. But the past two features
we released, when we released the templates that
you can create reoccurring jobs, and when we
released the ability to text payment links from
the mobile app, he was telling us that he now
has time to pick up more customers. It's never
been easier to get paid quicker. He's just like
he's saying his whole business has been turned
around this. This is the customer I was meant
I mentioned earlier when he was saying Texting
payment links is his new favorite thing like
he's like we talk all the time And he's saying
like he's never been so excited to like talk
about a software before Because he's just like
this thing like he was like this is just completely
Changed my business I get paid faster, and I
have so much less to worry about like he He he's
he's wonderful He's wonderful. We're so happy
to work with him. We're so happy to get valuable
feedback from him. And it's also incredible to
see that the service we're providing has completely
changed his business. From his own works. And
he can watch more football and basketball. Well,
I have learned to shut my TV off. As a matter
of fact. We are talking about just eliminating
TV from our home because my wife does a podcast.
She's a school teacher. Her podcast is called
The Education Connection. I have a podcast. We
both run businesses. She has a teachers pay teachers
store where she sells resources to teachers all
across the United States. And we're just so busy.
Why have a TV? So we're at the point now where
we're thinking about just eliminating that distraction.
Now, I would miss Notre Dame football. Because
I'm a big Notre Dame fan doing this before, like
right now, before football season kicks on. We're
talking about it. Pray for me. You have a laptop.
You'll be able to watch there. That's right.
Yeah, I fully support, you know, like removing
a TV, social media, whatever people need to.
But my goodness, I'm so excited. Posts and stuff.
And so now he has a LinkedIn, but I do all the
socials. Well, when it comes to social media,
I am a content creator, not a scroller. I don't
sit there and just scroll looking at videos.
It just, it kills so much time. And I've got
a lot of things that I'm wanting to do, creating
some training videos, step -by -step guides on
how to build a privacy fence or how to correctly
service a property when it comes to mowing. You
know, I want to do some of those videos and I
just don't have time to sit and scroll. through
tiktok and instagram and facebook a whole lot
so it's just a distraction but let me ask you
here before we start wrapping things up at what
stage in a person's business do you feel like
they should sign up with earthapro honestly i
feel like people when they actually think that
they need to sign up it's too late Because as
soon as you have a customer, you should sign
up for something, you know, something or whatever
it is. And it shouldn't just be Excel because
there's a whole lot of moving parts to a business.
And you want to make sure your foundation is
set right. Because if your foundation is not
set right at the beginning and you're not reading
the right materials or seeing what's out there,
then you're going to miss something. you might
end up just pricing your jobs wrong from the
very beginning, not understanding, having a mental
map of where all your customers are. You might
think you do, but establishing basic routing,
I think, and also learning how to, it sounds
silly, but remember who your customers are and
remember where they live. So I think, because
you get one customer and then you get 10 and
you get like, You know 25 you get 50 and then
suddenly you have 50 customers and you haven't
serviced half of them in six months And then
you have all these people who have used your
services, but you never reached out to again
And then you forgot who they were Yeah, and like
you was saying at the beginning of this All like
a lot of these companies they're there the guys
running these companies They're wearing a lot
of hats rather the they do financing. They do
the accounting. They do the physical labor they
do marketing, they're doing a lot of stuff. So
I really, I really like the way you put it, Courtney.
If you think you need a software, it's almost,
it might be, it was never too late. But I like,
I like the saying, like it's never too late,
but it's, uh, it only gets harder to move to
a software because you, when you start a business,
there's a lot, you know, there's a lot you need
to do. so why not make your life easier? Yeah
and also the cost of Earthapro is so um like
it's it's like the cost of a missed job like
it's it's like the cost of like missing one job
like a month or like forgetting to invoice someone
like once and I think the the cost you would
use the the price you would pay with for not
using a software um would probably greater than
just paying Well, if you could give one piece
of advice to someone who's listening in the green
industry, what would that piece of advice be?
Oh, oh, get into some community. Like start listening
to a podcast and like, you know, like search
around, find someone who you like listening to.
Um, and you like their content on YouTube, Instagram,
whatever it is. And then, uh, like, don't think
that you're alone. Because it can feel like if
especially when you're starting a company you
can feel kind of Like you're on you're on your
own. You're really not on your own. There's so
many people Like once you connect with them on
a Facebook group or you go to equip that Are
kind of going through the same thing that you
are Yeah, just just reach out reach out. Don't
be afraid to reach out to people Well, are we
leaving anything out that you want to share about?
Earth a pro the updates anything that we're missing.
Well, while we are going to Equip Expo, it's
at Louisville, Kentucky. It's the landscaping
industry, lawn care landscaping industry for
Union show. I think it's the sixth largest trade
show overall in the U .S., which is crazy. There's
like 40 ,000 attendees and exhibitors or something
crazy like that. Louisville actually like structures
the city. off of this trade show alone because
it brings in so much revenue for them. But anyway,
we are exhibiting, we're gonna be in the West
Wing at booth 42400. It's right when you walk
in from the stadium. So you'll see us, we have
a nice little corner booth, so please say hi.
We'll have Earthapro bandanas and we'd be happy
to just chat with you, learn more about your
business, and you know. We'll give you a demo.
We'll show you how cool and easy it is to text
payment links and voices. I'm so happy with that
feature. I know. I know. I want to encourage
all of my listeners, especially those who are
solo operators, or you run a small business,
maybe 10 or less employees. Check out Earthapro
at earthapro .com. Sign up for their service.
Use discount code the lawn hustle 11 to get you
a $50 Amazon gift card and some onboarding help
I appreciate you listening to the show. I appreciate
Peter and Courtney being on the show tonight
and I'm excited for you, and I can't wait to
see you at equip and We'll go to lunch or breakfast
one morning or afternoon and just be able to
sit down in person and talk. But I encourage
you to sign up for Earth a Pro.