And welcome back to the Lawn Hustle podcast.
I am your host, Andy Wilson. I have 16 years
of experience in the green industry. And the
sole purpose of this podcast is to help lawn
care businesses legitimize the green industry.
We want to do our part in taking us from the
chuck in the truck to a legitimate thriving industry.
Tonight I have a special guest, John Grant with
Grant Sons Lawn Care. John, welcome to the Lawn
Hustle. Thank you for having me, Andy. Well,
a few months ago, you and I had the privilege
of attending the LCR Summit and Equip Expo in
Louisville, Kentucky. Tell us, what was your
biggest takeaways from both events? Let's see.
I would say from the LCR summit I was really
kind of recognizing a lot of my learning. I was
being a student but not as much putting it into
practice as I should have been. And that's something
we're really trying to work on. That I I would
say I struggle with I you get a lot of education
you get a lot of learning You hear how you should
be doing it, but are you really putting it into
practice and I would say I was struggling with
that and that was something I was having a hard
time with getting Stuff into play that I should
have been or holding back, you know, maybe afraid
to step out sometimes move forward with that
stuff. I came to the realization that I need
to put more things into play and utilize the
stuff I'm learning more and be able to grow the
business. What about Equip Expo? Was this your
first year to attend Equip? This was our third
year at Equip. Okay, 23 was our first year there
so I would say equip was good More trying to
find maybe the new piece of equipment or the
new Thing that'll piece of equipment that'll
help us to grow our business or Be able to Be
more efficient in what we're doing So we are
looking at again checking mowers out Checking
out the new Ferris stuff the new Billy goat stuff
To see what how we can grow with maybe those
Brands and be able to Increase our efficiency
with different piece of equipment Where you're
at, tell us about your business, how long you've
been in business, what services you offer. Introduce
us to Grant's Sons Long Care. So I'm the owner,
John Grant, of Grant and Sons Long Care. We're
out of Fishersville, Virginia. This will be our,
I would say our... ended our third full year
this last year. So this will be our fourth full
year doing lawn care. We started and opened doors
in September of 22. And we started with leaf
removal. So this was our fourth year doing leaf
removal. And then we went into lawn maintenance,
seeing that we're gonna continue to grow this.
We need to be... able to offer other services
such as lawn maintenance, landscape enhancements.
So that's kind of where we stick with right now.
We'll do some design install. Nothing massive,
but we do plantings and installs like that. We
don't do any hardscape right now. We're holding
off on that. We really want to be able to grow
our lawn maintenance side and get that. Get some
more clients on that end of the business. So
really we're This will be our fourth year going
into this coming spring. So we're excited for
some a new season This will be our 17th season
since I got into the business and We are probably
going to eliminate a couple services. I've spent
some time this winter evaluating my business.
Right after I got home from Equip Expo, I was
drilling some holes for a privacy fence build
and hit a tree stump underground, locked my auger
up instantly, threw me across the yard. And I
ripped this rotator cuff in three places, tore
that main ligament completely in half, created
a bunch of bone spurs on my collarbone that was
digging into the rotator cuff. Six weeks ago,
I had surgery on this rotator cuff and I'm going
to be down until April. So I got a lot of time
to reevaluate my business and look at things.
So I've been looking at What services are making
me money? What services are costing me money?
And what services can I eliminate? So I want
to eliminate probably my fertilization aspect
of the business because I really don't do enough
of it to justify having the Burma Greens and
all that equipment. So we're going to downsize
that. And I want to really try to grow the lawn
maintenance side of my business. We're at 140
clients a week right now, but there's room to
grow. So I want to do that. We had a webinar
a few weeks back on what to do in the wintertime
to help your business be ready to go in the spring
because you and I both know we heard nailers.
lesson at LCR about nature. And we know that
if you wait till spring to get going, you're
already behind. So I want to put forth the effort
now to help this year be the best year of my
business. So let me ask you, what are you doing
in the winter months to help your business be
ready to roll when it's time to roll? Sure So
right now we're we just actually talked a little
bit about it today me my wife and my son really
just working on Right now we're looking at all
our Some of our marketing we did last year and
really kind of we didn't have the time and didn't
really look at where that's What the What do
you call it? Oh, how well that did, you know,
we're gonna break that down and revisit it and
see what we were paying for leads, what that
cost us, was it benefiting us? We've done some
marketing with some other places. And I just
really haven't seen the return. It may be brand
awareness, but I haven't really seen, I haven't
got a call from all those, which is just fine.
I think it's more brand awareness, marketing
we do, but I'm probably looking at pulling that
so I can put it towards more either Facebook
marketing, maybe doing some more flyers. We've
already been out this year putting outdoor hangers
to get ready for fall pruning, fall slash spring
pruning, you know, and get that all lined out
and try to get some more customers in all the
subdivisions we service. But we've been sitting
down and really looking at, OK, here's our goals
for this year, doing some goal setting, how we
want to grow the company. We just feel like right
now we really need to also grow our lawn maintenance
side that needs to be built up. We need probably
about another 50 mowing customers this year is
where we want to go. We hired a guy right after
quip. mid -November there, which kind of off
-season, but hired him to get him in, see how
he does in the fall here. And we're doing some
training this winter with him to build him up,
get him ready for the spring. And the goal will
be hopefully to have him, he'll be running a
truck with Kaden and possibly me and maybe hiring
another guy this spring to be more of a trimmer
guide and starting out. They'll both be learning,
but the goal will be for him to grow and be able
to take over a truck at some point. I would say
the biggest part we're doing right now is really
doing the goal setting, planning out our year
for, like Nailer talks about, the different seasons
that you do different stuff. You need to... um
really train your customers to know that hey
this is the time that we do this service because
come summer we're we're slammed with mowing you
know um our long -term goal would have be able
to be have a truck here maybe by this year or
maybe out doing um um more landscape enhancement
stuff and being able to go out and do quotes
and estimates easier last year i was so uh me
and kaden were so slammed and so busy That and
we didn't hire a guy. We had we hired a guy midsummer
and he didn't work out He was a great guy, but
he just kind of ghosted But um So we were trying
to it was but hiring hiring seems like a huge
frustration sometimes, you know I mean, it's
a lot of work to to know The right person that
you have to train them no matter what you got
to train these people and put the time in and
be able to do that. So having a way, but having
a, sorry, jumping, I get a little squirrel here.
Building a landscape enhancement service so we
can be out doing mulch and different things like
that and taking care of properties, regular maintenance
on their shrubs and bed maintenance is a goal
of mine to have and to be able to fill that,
have a truck that is you know staying busy doing
those services just so we can grow that revenue
and grow the business and provide those services.
Well you are on the right track you know people
that wait till spring to start thinking about
spring they're so far behind because once that
spring rush hits you know like I know it's Go
go go go go go because the grass is growing so
fast you can barely keep up with it and then
you get two or three days of rain and By the
time you get back to that property the grass
is knee -high So, you know now's the time to
really start setting your plans setting your
goals and Putting your plan into action to where
your goal can become a reality So you're on the
right track. I follow you on Instagram and you
have 9 ,068 followers on Instagram. I love your
content. Since you've been in business for the
last three or four years, what has been the biggest
challenge for you and how did you overcome it?
Hmm See I Would say It's probably right now with
hiring. I was so afraid to hire Just stress you
get a couple guys and I've hired a couple guys
over the years and Just nobody ever can either
cut it or they know it all and you find out they
don't or they can't really do the job. They're
not as good as they said they were. They don't
have the experience. Or then you find somebody
that's great and they may ghost you, you know?
So it's like it's to me it was so stressful to
hand over reins to and say, hey, I'm going to
trust you to do this because I'd say that's one
of my biggest struggles is letting go of being
the main in charge like in the you know out in
the field being the one who's doing the work
like I want to jump in and just do it rather
than teach when I know that I need to teach and
step back and say let them figure it out let
them fail or let them learn because you can't
learn from your mistakes if you don't make any
mistakes and So I would say hiring and then giving
control over to those employees to like us. I
mean, not, not all full control, but you know
what I mean? Like giving them, um, um, some responsibility
to do the job. Yeah. Giving them the responsibility
to do that job and, and letting them do it without
jumping in and being like, Oh no, don't do it
that way. Oh no, don't do it this way with them.
figure it out and then when we come back and
look at it okay next time I would have done it
this way it looks great but next time let's let's
do this this way and teach from how you want
it to be done but I mean give them instructions
right I feel like training is a big thing that
doesn't happen a lot anymore in our not necessarily
in our industry but in the world like I feel
like people are just thrown into positions and
expected do your job you said you could do this
do it you know um rather than um teaching and
um like like an apprenticeship used to be back
in the day you know you go into a job and you
were trained to do that job you know so i feel
that training is a big thing and that's something
we're really trying to push forward with this
employee um so already sending i i talked to
him i said i'm sending you to a class for a landscape
class to learn about landscaping, him and Caden
will both be going to it. Paid class, you'll
get paid, go on a Saturday, some extra hours
for you, and it's a chance to learn, and I'm
investing in him so that he knows that this is
worth it to him too, you know, that he gets to,
that I'm investing in him, not necessarily just
expecting him to come to work and you know provide
you know or when you invest in your employees
you're actually investing in your business as
well because if you can make them be better employees
it benefits you as the business owner and it
works together and i found another thing not
only teaching but sharing my vision with employees.
So they know where I want the business to go.
And we hang big banners and big flyers and stuff
inside the shop. So when they walk in, they see,
you know, our financial goal for this year is
300 grand or 400 ,000, whatever. They know where
I want to go. And when I share my vision with
them, share my dream and my passion with them,
they buy into the business because they feel
like they're not just cutting grass. They're
a part of a legitimate business. So sharing that
vision, sharing that dream, sharing the goal
and teaching them how to do the job will only
benefit me and benefit you as the business owners.
So I appreciate what you're doing with with your
son and this employee investing in them. I really
feel like you have to invest in your business
as much as you invest into your equipment because
the reason why I say that is when I invest in
myself by going to equip or going to LCR or going
to you know Brian Fullerton's meeting whatever
it is, or buying books, joining mastermind groups,
I'm investing in myself to make me a better man,
a better husband, a better business owner, because
it all works together. I can't be a good husband
and a lousy business owner. And I can't be a
lousy business owner and be a good husband because
it bleeds through. And one thing I had to learn
is I never bring business home with me. At the
end of the day, when we're finished unloading
the trailer, I have some nice lawn chairs inside
the shop. I'll sit there for 10, 15 minutes and
just unwind. Let everything from the day, the
stress, the pressure, the success or the failure,
just roll off of me so I don't bring that home.
because my family don't deserve the stress and
the pressure of the business on them when they've
had a busy day, or maybe my wife had a bad day
teaching school that day. So I just learned a
long time ago, when you shut down, shut down,
don't bring it home. And, you know, there's a
lot of learning that's involved in running a
business. If John Grant today could go back to
when John Grant started, what would you tell
yourself then? I probably would have done a little,
well, it's hard when you're starting out, I think.
I would probably like to do a little more like
what you're talking about, you know, that de
-stressing or leaving. That they're at the shop
My only problem was this was home is was my shop,
you know until until this I'd say this November
when we hired this guy we just started got a
storage unit and started out of that so and I
probably would have tried to I Know starting
a business. It takes a lot It's a lot of your
time. It's a lot of extra time. I feel like The
reason I started it was to buy back my time with
my family, my kids. Um, and I feel that the last
three years of starting the business, I probably
had less time with my family and my kids. Um,
so that's a frustration for me because my goal
with this was to have more time. I mean, I've
had great more time with Kayden and we've had
some time together, me and Noah was in the business,
but I just feel like the goal was to buy back
my time. after hours, which I didn't. And we're
working towards that now. That's the goal now.
That's one of the things I'm really working on
is trying with the new employee, I'm able to
be home. We're done by 4 .15. We got to shut
off time. Maybe here and there, a job, we don't
plan to go further, but it goes over a little
bit. And that's gonna happen here and there.
But the goal is to be done at 4 .15. We're out
for the day and I'm home and I go to my son's
game. I can do whatever. So we having that extra
employee has really let me do that already. Um,
and that I would say that's, that's the thing
I wish I could have done maybe earlier, maybe
hired a guy earlier and not been so afraid to
hire. Cause I mean, I think we could have, we've
probably could have grown a little quicker or
grown a little bigger if we had that, that other
guy. Cause me, me and Kaden did probably. 60
hour weeks last year, you know And I would say
don't be afraid to hire I Love that And I love
that you're buying back your time and yeah when
I started It was daylight to dark. I went every
day And I was missing birthday parties family
cookouts family reunions You know special occasions
at friends houses. And my wife had come home
and I would say, well, who was there? And she
would say, well, Tim was there. Kirk was there.
They ask, you know, where you were. And then
they just started saying, is Andy working? Because
they knew that's what I was doing. It was a day
and there was sunshine. So I was working. But
I got tired of that because I realized I was
so busy trying to build a business. that I was
failing in building a life. I was failing my
family. I was failing my friends. So I had to
come to the same conclusion as you. You know,
I got to shut down at this time. If I get done
early, great. If I quit at 4 30, if I'm starting
a job and it's going to take me 35 minutes to
do it. And it's 410 already. That job's gonna
wait till the first job in the next morning.
Because I shut down. The banks don't stay open.
No. Just because, you know, you're running late
and you get there. If you're not there when they
close, they're closed. You have to wait till
the morning. So, you know. And then another important
thing is to know your price. Price your properties
according to your value. and according to that
client's expected outcome of the job. And when
you do that and you stick to it, it's going to
make you more profitable. It's going to build
a better relationship with your client because
they know you're going to show up, you're going
to do the job. It's going to look great when
you're done. And I had one lady tell me, well,
you're high. Last guy done it for $25 Call the
last guy have him come back because I've got
a minimum and your property falls in that minimum
and It's gonna be this price, but I promise you
you get the best job that you can buy in Newcastle
Because I'm gonna do the job. I'm gonna show
up. I'm gonna show out and Your job is gonna
be done with professionalism, it's going to be
done with integrity. And I'm going to do it with
a spirit of a servant because I feel like we're
servants to our clients. You know, not that there
are boss ruling over us, but they do hold the
paycheck or the credit card. They're paying us.
So we are their servant. and we do it with a
spirit of excellence in all that we do. So let's
take a short break. Let's hear a word from our
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I look forward to hearing from you guys. Thanks.
We'll hear from Arthur Pro here at the end of
the show. That was Joey Koberle, the Landscaping
Bookkeeper. If you need bookkeeping services,
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that free 15 minute call. Okay, let me ask you
this. Where is your business today and where
do you see it in two or three years? As far as
number of employees, number of clients, what
are your goals and where you're going? So two
to three years. Hmm. I hope to have at least
three maybe four trucks doing at least lawn maintenance
We're trying to get into fertilization that'll
be I'm probably gonna have to end up hiring a
tech with The way my situation is here, Virginia.
It's a little different than most you can't just
go test you have to have worked under a prior
company and have your commercial pesticides licensed
or somebody else applicators license. So I will
have to hire a pesticide and fertilization applicator,
a commercial guy to do that. That's my goal here.
Maybe this year, maybe next year, pushing, we're
gonna try to push that fertilization. with our
clients. So the goal would be to hopefully have
a truck running full capacity doing fertilization
within the next three years. And then I hope
to have at least a landscape enhancement or even
design truck out doing landscape installs and
enhancement work. Probably two to at least two
at least three mowing trucks. Maybe four right
now. We're looking at whether the best thing
is There's a lot of debate on this so whether
two guys in a truck or three guys in a truck
I know with me and Caden last year two guys in
a truck. We're pushing on our size properties
In our area we're pushing 20 a day is pushing
it. It's pretty it's pretty um that's a tight
a long day um and we had had a guy through july
and august um and we were finishing by two one
thirty two o 'clock so i was you know and i had
picked up some more we were up to about 21 or
22 on that day and we were still finishing at
130 or two we could add another 10 jobs or you
know We could have 30 jobs, 28 to 30 jobs on
that route per day. It'd be a little much, but
probably 24, 25 would be perfect. So figuring
out that your guys aren't as worn out, right?
If you're two guys pushing. So that's something
we're playing with. So how many trucks and how
many routes will depend on which way we go with
whether two or three guys in a truck. Well, we
hear a lot about people transitioning to battery
powered equipment. Are you using gas or battery
powered and do you plan to transition to battery
powered? Good question. I would like to transition
the battery. And we do. We don't do any of our
moving stuff with battery, but some of our are
trimming right now we're using Milwaukee that's
what we have right now only using them for doing
shrubs and stuff but we like the electric I guess
with it really depends on on the cost of it all
you know setting up a truck what what is the
cost and I I see the investment with the the
savings and the time, just with not having to
deal with as much maintenance on the gas side
of the engine side. I see that just with, you
know, you get a trigger after a little while
it starts, you're yanking it two or three times
to get it started or maybe four or five, you
know, and then that thing doesn't start and you're
on a, you know, so I see in that way it's beneficial.
we would like to move to battery. It just really
depends on the cost. I know getting set up with
a truck, we really like the Crest stuff. Our
biggest problem with the Crest stuff is there
is no dealer close to us. So it's, I mean, not
that there's gonna be any major repairs that
we probably couldn't do ourselves, but it's just
getting stuff. There's an hour and a half away.
for the nearest dealer and that's and I don't
even know if they're necessarily still a dealer.
I'd like to see some of the robotics with the
mowers more I don't know that I want the autonomous
itself but the but the autonomous maybe the smaller
scale stuff that's you can set and leave I really
thought that was um beneficial because you could
have a guy in a truck that's literally going
out doing trimming and maybe a monthly maintenance
on that piece of equipment that's on the yard
and then he's not actually carrying a mower and
you only need one guy in a truck so your profits
could be higher but um with trimmers and stuff
I'd like to move that route and blowers um it's
just really finding if we can get a dealer close
or we may look at Milwaukee I don't know and
see Well this year to quip I connected with cynics
tools Okay, and they have brought me on as a
brand ambassador for cynics tools. They've sent
me a blower Hedge trimmer and a trimmer and Four
or five batteries and three different chargers
and I used them there at the end of the fall
season before I got injured And I am really impressed
with the balance of the trimmer, the weight.
It's so much lighter than my steel trimmers that
we've been using. And the battery life works
really well, especially on like the hedge trimmers.
I can trim with that thing all day long. And
I mean, I'm trimming a lot of bushes. in a day's
time. So my biggest fear of transitioning from
gas to battery was that the battery life, would
they hold up for all that we put them through?
But so far, I'm impressed with Cynics. It's a
great piece of equipment. The trimmers last great.
They have great balance. I don't smell gas. I
don't smell like gas. And so I'm thankful for
that. And it's a process. We're transitioning
slowly. But I'm 60 years old, so I don't have
too many more years active in. the business.
I have a guy that's wanting to buy me out right
now. So we'll see how that goes. But let's talk
about your Instagram for a minute. I was following
you when you had just a handful of followers.
And then the next day I woke up and you had 5
,000. And then the next day you had 8 ,000 and
now you're up to 9 ,068. What is your secret?
Having a teenager I'll tell you what when I started
that Instagram I got I had up to about 350 maybe
followers and we went to nailers event last year
and They talked a lot about social media at that
event and growing your social media platforms
to be able to grow your audience. Our audience
necessarily isn't everybody else out there in
the green industry and that's not what we're
shooting for. We're shooting for B2C which is
business to customer instead of business to business.
We have a lot of business to business. But from
that we get a lot of business we get we can get
business customer Because it kind of spreads
out So at that summit we were they'll see our
summit They were talking about How to set up
your Instagram and how it needs to look on your
on your platform there When you when you do it
and how to set those different things up And
I looked over at Kaden and I said, we need to
make that, we need to change that. And before
he goes, he goes, I already did it. I was like,
what? And sure enough, I'll pull it up and he's
got it, he's got it edited already. And, and
so they're just talking and I was like, Hey,
we need to change that too. He's like, I already
did it, you know? And I think by the time we,
I don't even know by the time we got back from
a quip, I think we'd already, tripled, you know,
within the next like two weeks after equip we
had already tripled in the amount of followers.
And the biggest thing with it was learning to
post consistently. The consistency is what gets
the algorithm working, which moves you up and
spreads your and sends your stuff out to more
people. the more you're consistent and post on
the regular. It's not like you get to post every
day. Hey, that's better. But if you can post
once a week, you know, and be consistent at that,
it notices that. It sends you out more. So you'll
get more coverage. But if you're not being consistent
with it, then you're not gonna get that. So he's
been really consistent with it. We made more
of an effort to make more videos. make more content,
record more, which takes more time in the field
when you're doing jobs. So, but, you know, that
gives us that ability to be able to have content
to share about who we are, what we do, you know,
what we're about. Let's our customers see that.
And through being able to grow that like that
is all I would say. 99 % him, you know, Kayden
has been the one who has been able to do that.
I mean, I'm there helping make videos and doing
videos, but in making the content, I mean, the
posting part and being consistent with it and
making and preparing the content and building
it, you know, has been him. So, I mean, it's
been it's been huge to see some of our videos
getting the views they get and that's been really
awesome i was working here at my house in the
front yard cleaning up some leaves and i'm on
my grasshopper mower and i thought well i'm here
i'll just throw a camera up and i just filmed
myself mulching up some leaves posted on facebook
and got 463 000 views and i thought i didn't
even try I just stuck a camera on a tripod in
the front yard, didn't do anything special, and
it blew up. So I thought, you know, the ones
that I think are going to be great videos, they
turned out to be duds. And then the ones that
I think are not going to do anything, they'll
blow up and I'll get, you know... I got one that's
got like 63 ,000 views or something like that.
So, when you post, are you posting on the same
day every week? Or are you recording on the same
day every week? Or tell our listeners, how many
times a week do you post? What days do you post?
Are there days that are better to post on? I
think it's daily is the best. If you're going
to do it, daily is the best. And there's times,
you know, you can post a six. It depends. You
got to hit those different times when people
are active. People are getting up or getting
ready. You got a six o 'clock post. You got a
nine o 'clock post. You got an 1130 post right
before lunch. So it's hitting at lunchtime. You
got a post right after lunch for those people
who are maybe taking a break, you know, two o
'clock. Three five six somewhere, you know in
those time frames when people are getting off
work. They're wanting to get on their phone They're
wanting to look at that kind of content. They're
looking for an outlet, you know And then I think
towards the evening time too. We don't post that
often But those are those are your time frames,
you know there I mean you can find that stuff
online but um Those are the beneficial time frames
when you should be making a post and putting
one out and if you do it every day at nine o
'clock every morning you know once one person
looks at that and they see your post again and
they start following you well it's gonna the
algorithm is going to push it out to them that
algorithm is going to continue to push that post
to them and it's going to push it to other people
you know if you're consistently posting you don't
have to post all the time it's just it's about
the consistency it looks for that consistency
of posting once a day once a week you do it at
the same time or um it's really I would say that's
the biggest thing is if you could be consistent
with your posting. Like you were saying, you
just threw a camera up and made a video. I think
sometimes the videos that are more natural, you're
not trying, you're just doing what you do. They're
the videos that hit. And sometimes when we try
and we try to make a good video and you're trying
too hard. So making that video that's just natural
and it's just what you're doing, this is what
we do. And I think those sometimes are your ones
that hit the best. I hope you take his advice
on your social media because he's done it and
his platform has grown 9 ,068 followers. If you
take my Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn,
X, all of them, and all of my followers up, I
would be lucky if I hit his Instagram number
because I just haven't, like he said, I've not
been consistent enough, but that's going to change
this year. I'm going to set a day and I'm going
to record every day and then I'm going to post
videos at least once, maybe twice a week. on
the same day, same times, every week. And I'm
going to try to catch you. All right, sounds
good. Well, let me ask you one more question
here before we wind this down. Sure. What is
the one piece of equipment that you have gotten
the best ROL on, ROI on, return on your investment?
Sure. Oh, let's see, I would say Probably right
now our our leaf back has been our best return
on investment with our I would say it's kind
of a combined with our dump trailer I Would say
spending the time I see some people spend Unloading
a lands a basic landscape trailer with no dump
Yeah, you're saving some money, but if you got
two or three guys doing that unloading You're
losing money when you could pull up and dump
and yeah, it's a big investment I understand
that and it was an investment that I saw that
I need to make from the beginning was that dumb
trailer and I would say it's paid for itself
because if I had a If I had to get them out of
leaves out of the back of that thing that I had
of a landscape trailer I'd be there for I don't
know how long but we can carry almost 26 cubic
yards in that thing. And that's a lot of leaves,
you know, I mean, so the and the debris loader
itself being able to vacuum up the leaves and
not having to we had to do a job last year and
hand load them because we had already taken our
setup down and I messed up and didn't do a cleanup
or got to get it on the schedule. And the guy
was like, are you still coming to do my cleanup?
And I was like, oh, my goodness. and we had to
blow it and then we had to rake it and we had
a full dump trailer. I mean of unshredded leaves
but I had a full dump trailer of of leaves and
I was just like never never again like I couldn't
imagine like I hadn't had to do it and I had
to do it that way and I was like these guys that
I've seen bigger companies than me in my area
hand loading because they didn't have a debris
loader like four or five guys and they're just
loading the truck and then they're standing there
while that truck goes to dump And there's nothing
to do because they've already blown all the leaves
and waiting for them to go dump and come back
And I thought look at the money Being wasted
there, you know, so it's a it is a fusion. It's
a big investment Yeah, it's a big investment
it is and but I think it pays for itself so fast
Couldn't agree more. There was nothing like I
bought two dumb trailers and we have the brand
of our leaf loader or highway it's called it's
highway brand and it's big yellow it's got a
14 inch hose and nice it'll it'll suck through
a pile of leaves in no time and we we would fill
those trailers up and i got a strawberry farmer
i take all of my mulched up leaves out to his
house and dump them And he uses it for compost
for strawberry fields. So it helps him and helps
me because I'm not paying to dump my leaves somewhere.
And then he gets free compost. So it helps us
both. And it's so nice to have friends like that
and people in your community that you can work
with. You know, I think a lot of people make
business more difficult than it should be. you
know when you when you build a community and
you have people in the industry that's why i
don't look at other lawn care businesses as a
competitor i look at them as a friend yeah and
we'll get together on a rain day at a local restaurant
here in town sit around the table and talk about
you know what are you doing how's business going
this year what's your growth what are you eliminating
eliminating what are you doing today to help
your business tomorrow. You know, just brainstorm
and talk. And it is so nice to have a community
of people that you can, anyone in my town, if
I had a down day with equipment, someone would
call me and come and help me finish up. you know,
I wouldn't have a complete loss because there's
friends that we build in the community and in
the industry. And this farmer, one day he just
called me out of the blue and said, Hey, I need
compost for my strawberry fields. He said, in
the fall of the year, would you be interested
in dumping your leaves in my house? I said, I
would love to, because I was paying dump fees
every time to get rid of them. And it doesn't
mean I took the dumb fee off of the price for
the customer because I'm still driving out to
his house and still have an employee in the truck
with me and we're dumping them. So, you know,
we're still dumping them. I'm just not paying
to dump them. So there are still some expenses
involved. And so working together and I appreciate
you. coming on the show. I think you gave our
listeners some very usable and actionable content
and some information tonight that will help them
legitimize and grow their business. So John,
I appreciate you being on the lawn hustle and
I hope this year is your best year ever. You
find more success than you've ever had before.
I appreciate that. Thank you very much. And thank
you for bringing me on the show. Oh, you're welcome.
And we will do it again. I will be contacting
you sometime and maybe we'll get your son on
with us the next time. And I was teasing with
him at the LCR Summit and asked him if he wanted
to be my social media manager because I'd heard
you say that he was the reason why your social
media took off. Man, keep putting out the content,
keep working, keep grinding. And until we talk
again, we wish you nothing but success. Thank
you for being on the lawn hustle. Thank you.
All right. All right.