Frustrated With Your Lawn Care Company? A Word of Encouragement for 2013. (and 2014!)

Hey, it’s Jonathan. I’m recording this video in December of 2012 and, at this time of year, I talk to a lot of companies that have big plans for the following year…in this case for 2013. I do exactly the same thing in every business I’m a part of. We have made plans for what’s going to happen next year. We’ve decided what we’re going to spend, what we’re going to execute, and exactly where we want to be by the end of the year.

In my conversations, one of the things I’ve come to learn, and a lot of this is from personal experience, is that a lot of companies in the prior year or years might not have experienced a lot of success. They might have had some disappointments and some frustrations and they didn’t get to the level they thought they’d get to.

In planning for the following year, they think the magic solution will be (keep in mind that I’ve been in this exact same boat) to add another service offering or even to get into a new company.

I’ve been in janitorial and carpet cleaning and lawn care…all of them were good businesses. I’ve been in software, which is a great business but the most expensive of all of them if you want to build a company. I’ve done consulting in all kinds of different industries, in and out of technology. So, I’ve been very, very, very fortunate that I’ve seen a lot of different things from a lot of different perspectives.

If you buy into the stuff I say, and you think that I have any level of credibility, then you can take this for what it’s worth. I have really, really come to conclude that it doesn’t matter what you are in. Yes, you can put yourself into a better business or maybe a different industry. There are businesses that are better than others. But, if I was starting over in a service industry, I would start over in lawn care.

Lawn care isn’t perfect. There are problems, concerns and frustrations. There is labor, insurance, chemical usage and regulations, H2B visa labor and a million other things to be worried about. But, I used to be in a cleaning company that was significantly bigger than even my lawn care company is now. I can tell you from that business that there were a million concerns in that company.

I used to be part of a software company in the health insurance industry. It was a really interesting business with significant potential. But, the entire health insurance industry is different today in 2012, due to new government regulations. Something that a million dollars of investment capitol built…has changed because of government regulation.

I say all of this because a lot of companies will say that if they were just in the (____) business, it would be better. I’m here to tell you from over 1,000 conversations with other companies in Service Autopilot and with my experiences in consulting across lots of different industries, if you’re in lawn care, stay the course.

Part of this is a word of encouragement based on what I’ve learned and seen. I have a pretty broad perspective. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have these opportunities. Stay the course. We’re in a good business. It’s frustrating and it’s hard but it’s a good business.

The problem is with the business but, it can be fixed. I used to have cash flow issues and frustrations with collections and certain kinds of clients. I used to have a million different things that almost drove me out of the business. In year two, I really questioned whether I should be in this company.

I was already doing well financially elsewhere in other businesses and I thought, “Why am I doing this? Why am I even in this industry?” I almost got out. Today, I couldn’t imagine if I had gotten out. It would have been a huge, huge, huge, huge financial mistake for me. But, I was basing my opinion on the problems I was having in the moment.

I fixed those problems and today it’s an awesome business that I have no desire to sell. Hopefully this is encouraging for you as you’re planning your year. If you’re doubting the industry, or your doubting your business, don’t. Instead, look at your business. What can you do?
I would highly encourage you to question industry norms. There’s a guy that I’ve learned a lot from, his name’s Jay Abraham. One of the things I learned from him was a saying, I could be miss quoting this but, basically he said that all industries are incestuous. Meaning, and I did the same thing, you get into the industry and you look around and you copy everything everybody else is doing and you apply it to your business.

We as an industry tend to do one or two things that don’t make any sense. Well, the rest of us get into the industry and say, “Well everybody else is doing it, I should do it too”. I would encourage you in 2013 to question everything. Just because the industry is doing it, doesn’t mean you should.

Case and point, in my business we have at this moment about 4,000 regular weekly clients. Full maintenance clients. One of the things that I questioned years and years and years ago was, why is it that in my cleaning company I can get paid in the moment? Why is it that a plumber goes out and fixes a pipe and he gets paid that day? But, if I’m in the lawn care business, I have to send you a bill in 30 days and hope you’ll pay me in 60? Why is my business, the lawn care business, different than all these other industries?

I questioned this. Our company, went out and said, “This is silly. We’re going to autocharge credit cards the day after we do the work or the week after we do the work. We’re going to start getting paid immediately.” It was a massive change in our business.

Through Service Autopilot, one of the things I see that we questioned early on in my lawn care company, was a lot of companies have an annual contract with their clients. They renew those contracts every year. In my business, we eliminate all of the contracts. There are no contracts for residential clients.

Nobody’s stuck with us. Nobody’s locked in. We don’t make anybody sign. They auto renew every service year to year. In year two, they get everything we gave them in year one unless they call in and say, “We cancel”. It’s been huge! I’ve got 4,000 clients and nobody gives us any trouble over that.

Yet, I see companies every year running around renewing contracts and they get frustrated because they can’t get certain people to call them back. They wonder if the client canceled and no longer wants services. But, the reality is that some of those people are just so incredibly busy they never got a chance to get back.

You end up losing business because you didn’t get a contract signed with somebody that fully intended to keep using you but, they were too busy to call you back.

Going into 2013, if I can encourage you to do anything, stay the course. Figure out how you can improve the business. Figure out how you can use technology to simplify it. And then, question everything.

We do a lot of awesome stuff in this industry. But, what is it that you’re doing in your business that you copied from somebody else that you don’t even know why you copied it? I’ll give you a case and point. Because of Service Autopilot, my lawn care company’s got a little publicity that we really never had any desire to have. I try to be private about it. Unfortunately, a little too much publicity has come to that business and now we have a lot of companies that blatantly copy our website, our guarantees, and steal the stuff off our website.

I make an incredibly bold guarantee in my business that says that if you are not 100% satisfied we will not only refund you, we’ll pay a company of your choosing to fix it. We’ll pay our competitor to fix the problem and make it right for you because we couldn’t do it. That’s a really gutsy guarantee! I can only make it because we have an entire company that has excellent customer service and our management and staff have had extensive training in working with clients.

Yet, we have all these companies that are copying what we do. They don’t have the faintest idea of why I do them, why they work or how to implement them.

My point is, that is what we do in the industry. When I first got in, I looked at somebody’s postcard in my local market and I said, “Oh, I should offer every service. Oh, I should be billing 25 a man hour”. “Oh, I should be doing this and that”, and I copied them. Not blatantly. But, I swiped some ideas and I did the same things. They didn’t work.

My postcard marketing didn’t work. My pricing was way too low. All of these things didn’t work. I see others copying what I’m doing and if they don’t know why they are doing it or how to implement it, it can get them into huge trouble.

I’m saying question everything. Figure out why something works for you. Look at other industries and think about what you can implement into your lawn care company. Don’t think just because everybody in your market is doing something one way means you have to do it the same way.

Don’t think that your clients will only buy from you if you follow the industry norms. I can tell you at this moment, with 4,000 clients, that is not the case. You can do things differently. You can get clients to completely buy in and do business with you. In fact, they will be refreshed that you’re not like everybody else.

My word of encouragement, as you are planning for next year…stay the course, don’t doubt the industry, and take a look at why you have certain standards and procedures in your business. And, don’t forget to look outside your industry. I think looking outside the industry is one of the best business strategies that exist.

Simply copying what everybody else is doing is a massive mistake. If you want a better, more enjoyable business than everybody else, you can’t do it like everybody else.

I hope next year is the best year you have ever had in your business. I also hope that it is the best year financially for you personally and for your family. I think I have given you a couple of strategies that, if you keep them at the top of your mind as you are budgeting and planning, you will find that 2013 is one of your best years yet.

Good luck.