1035. The Fall Squeeze: The Busiest Transition in Lawn Care

Speaker A: Foreign. You're now listening to the Fullerton unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on

Speaker B: filtered.

Speaker A: Grow your business, grow your life. Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton.

Speaker C: All right, gang, well, let's jump back on into it here. Again, super excited about all things going on this fall, including launch Entrepreneur Academy Live. Make sure you get your ticket. And also I, uh, know a lot of you guys are looking to make the transition to LMN and graduate to that platform this fall. We're going to do a demo here in just a couple of weeks. Uh, let me see the date really quick. Maybe it'll save the day. It'll be November 14th, Saturday morning as well. So if you guys have, uh, not had the chance to check out Equip Expo at the booth and, or sign up with the fall promotion or at LaunchPreneur Academy live or whatnot, or some of the recent webinars that we're doing. A lot of webinars here with element. Lot of end of year, like, education stuff that they're, uh, really pushing, which is really good actually. Uh, or if you guys want to do a demo with us on the 14th, just promo code, Brian, you get the fall savings. A lot of great stuff going on there with, um, like huge savings, like several thousands of dollars. And you get tickets to one workshop, like the Break Records tour, the budget, uh, workshop, or a, uh, boot camp. And uh, we've been to all of them. Uh, they're all really, really good. I haven't done the budget one yet with Sarah, uh, Linneman. That's a new one. But the workshops and the boot camps are fantastic. And the Break Records tour obviously fantastic. So a lot going on this time of year. A lot going on this time of year. I was actually talking to a gentleman yesterday who came, uh, over from the attentive, uh, ecosystem. And he's using a different CRM out there. Uh, and they actually do like $5 million. This company just local to, uh, me in Plymouth. And they were talking about One of the CRMs that they use, which admittedly I had never even heard of, which is, uh. The guy said, well, that's reassuring. And he, uh, said, well, management or, uh, ownership decided to do this, but management wants to go a different direction and adopt lmn. And so, uh, attentive, linked me over to this gentleman to have me do a demo, I guess. And uh, I was like, yeah, like, hey, this is a great platform. We're talking about it. And he goes, it seems like there's A lot of, like, community involvement, and they're like real people. And, like, you're using it. Uh, most companies, like 2 million to 10 million, or I really a half million to 10 million adopt, uh, LMN. I said, yeah, it's basically where it's at. And, uh, he goes, we can't get anybody on the phone over here pulling any data or any reports from this other CRM or, like, a struggle. And, uh, he goes, we're definitely looking to make a switch this fall. Uh, so again, if you guys have not seen the Element platform, uh, again, I just got to take it from the top. I literally did not know what I didn't know. And I thought seven or eight years ago, uh, it was all about card scaping and landscaping software and tracking hours. And I'm like, I don't even know what that means. But, dude, it's literally the furthest thing from the truth. If you guys want to know your numbers, build real budgets, real price lists, real service estimates, and know that you're pricing your work profitably, uh, that's where it's at. Uh, and again, promo code. Brian, anywhere, uh, you guys go do make sure that you mention that, because we do earn a kickback, and a lot of that, uh, goes right back into what allows us to create content for a living for you guys. So I can't thank you enough. Also, if you do sign up with Element, shoot me a dm, shoot me an email. Like, I'd love to know, uh, that you guys signed up with that, and, uh, that way I can track it. And then also, uh, we're going to have some perks going into, uh, 2027 with folks that are using our code for a couple different platforms like that. Uh, more to come. Uh, all things being said, I want to talk about the, uh, the fall squeeze. There's a lot going on here. I'm sure you guys can relate to a lot of this. A little bit of a. Of a brain dump, you know, if you will, over the next 20 minutes. But, uh, first things first, it's like you got to walk and chew bubblegum this time of year. And for us, right now, we're finishing up our regular mowing season, and it's bittersweet, to be honest with you, uh, at this time of year. It's a, It's a great discussion, you know, to look at the, and reflect on the season. You know, what went right, what went wrong. Uh, you know, final customer, you know, mowing visits, any final enhancement work that we can sell, actually had, uh, 12 different sites that we're looking to maybe upsell some fall pruning and cutbacks that aren't part of like a fall cleanup. Um, that way if we can sell 10, 20, 30 grand of uh, fall pruning and cutback work, ah, we can put that right on the top, uh, line as we wrap up our sales number here in the next five or six weeks or eight weeks, which is a really exciting, uh, conversation. Uh, this is a great time to look at any fall, uh, landscaping projects that can still get in the ground. Like we're doing this. We're still ramroding as much, uh, you know, maintenance work going into the, the final couple weeks of the season while the weather is still, uh, unseasonably warm. I'll just say that, and I know a lot of you guys feel the same way. I was talking to a couple different friends and peers and uh, Midwest in Canada and they're still trying to get work in the ground through, you know, mid to late December. And you know, ironically enough, like it's December and we're talking landscaping know you think this would all be discussions for uh, April, May, June, July. But I'll tell you what, the serious guys out there are doing everything they can to still do some final plantings, some final enhancement work, some final cutbacks, some final landscaping, uh, retaining walls, p, you know, paver patios, et uh, cetera, et cetera. Um, a buddy of mine just the other day, he's like, hey, we're pouring concrete, we're doing a pergola. And uh, I'm like, dude, it's almost freaking, you know, Thanksgiving. But hey, when it's 60 degrees out in Michigan, we will make hay with that weather. Amen,

Speaker D: Ms. Durlyburg. No worries, we've got you covered. You and a friend can now attend LAL 2026 for 499 a uh, savings of almost $300. If

Speaker E: it wasn't for LaunchPreneur Academy and Brian Fulton, I definitely would not be in business.

Speaker D: We know the importance of getting around the right environment, the right room and the right education.

Speaker F: The reason why I come to LAL man is to get around like minded people.

Speaker D: That's why we want to make this offer available to you. Almost all of my biggest breakthroughs in life came because of an from a friend. And today we want to do the same for you.

Speaker A: Mentorship, camaraderie, peer to peer learning. This is the place for you.

Speaker D: Lock your tickets in today@launchpreneuracademy.com.

Speaker C: uh, first things first, it's just, uh, doing a little bit of a recap and debrief that, hey, the final, uh, you know, mowing season. The uh, final weeks of the mowing season are upon us. And uh, you know, maybe even if you guys have a little bit more, uh, high touch with some of your clients and you're able to get a couple extra weeks on the schedule with them, you know, there could be some other revenue opportunity for you there. Most of the work that we do is contracted with commercial seasonal contracts, as you can imagine. So it's going to be hard to go back and say, hey, do you guys want to do one extra mow or two extra mows? Um, usually it's not in the budget. Nobody really cares. And we, uh, already got them for snow and they're already getting uh, some hefty invoices in November for the first installment for snow. And so they're like, hey, we tap. But if you have a residential business and you have a hundred, you know, residential clients, or 300 residential clients, if you want the work, right, if you want to keep your guys busy and you guys aren't maybe transitioning to fall cleanups and you don't have any extra enhancement work that you can do, uh, absolutely. It's a practical conversation to blast out, uh, you know, an email to, uh, newsletter to all your clients and say, you guys want an extra mo. It's unseasonably warm. We're going to skip this week, but the next week we can, and I don't know, 50 bucks a cut times 100 customers. What is that, five grand? You're going to have, uh, you know, 1500 in the payroll, running two guys that week. Like, why not go put another 30 $500 gross profit on the board into your pocket. I mean, you're going to net, you know, half of that or 10% of that if you're, if you're smart, why not go put the cruise out there for one more week and upsell some extra residential mows? Uh, I just think that's a no brainer out there. Uh, and that's something that we've looked at logistically. We got about 35 residential customers left at this point, down from 120, uh, just four years ago, which is funny. Uh, it's just the juice isn't worth the squeeze for us, to be honest with you, to go send out one or two guys. But maybe you guys, uh, have um, you know, uh, clauses in your contract that can extend the season by an extra week or two if the weather stays nice. And that's a practical conversation. Like, I know this time of year everybody's trying to put, um, you know, store as many nuts, you know, for fall if you will, like the squirrels do. And uh, nature is a, ah, pretty smart cookie, so maybe we can take a page out of their book. But again, I'm just trying to give you guys some ideas to turn over some rocks to still bring in some revenue in the door and not just throw all the equipment in the shed, in the barn, in the garage and say, well, Bowen, season's done. Time for leaves. Like no, dude, there's still an opportunity to still get some final cuts in and some uh, pruning and some cutbacks and maintenance, you know, type work before we think totally about snow. Um, that being said, let's continue this conversation. Uh, this is an interesting time of year as well for, for people and uh, in training. This is, you know, believe it or not, even a time to start flexing up for fall cleanups and into uh, on call hourly or salt hourly, uh, snow help. And we're doing that. We have a, uh, one of our guys actually coming back. Starting this uh, upcoming week. We're flexing up with another guy. We're going to run two fall cleanup crews, uh, two teams of three, two teams of four ish, if you will. And uh, we've got the XMARK turbo blower coming. We've got the dump trailer set up with the billy goat ready to rock and roll. Uh, this you know, transition, uh, season for fall cleanups specifically is a, ah, very important three weeks. It's a very critical three weeks, especially if you have contracted work. We do have a couple a la carte options for uh, fall cleanups with one or two sites and usually the hourly stuff or the seasonal, uh, one off cleanup stuff we reserve to the end of the uh, know fall cleanup schedule. But one or two came through. Like for example, one's a, a cylinder refilling propane, um, CO2 tank, uh, place that we do. And they uh, just want the backyard cleaned up. And so I'm going to give them an hourly rate for uh, the crew and just say hey, you're probably looking at 2 to 4 grand if you really want 6, 7, 8 guys back there with a debris loader and to do a giant cleanup. And they do. Uh, and I don't want to say it this way, like blank check money. Like we're taking advantage of the situation, uh, hardly from the case, but um, the reality is that they don't want Any debris, material, flammable items, I. E. Leaves right in between all these cylinders, the big metal cages, the pallet rack cages that they're on. Uh, the place just looks like a bomb went off. It hasn't had a proper fall cleanup back there, if ever. And so that's something where I'm going to say, hey, you know, 2500 bucks for the day. Uh, you know, three grand for the day. We'll see what the number comes to on a eight or nine hour day. And, uh, again, even if you're just covering costs in payroll, you know, for a day or two, like, that's okay. Like, look, I'll be honest with you. There's times when I'm just like, shit, man, that's all we got is a thousand dollar cleanup for the day. All right, six guys, 200 bucks a day. Like, let's just go cover payroll, uh, if you will. And, uh, it's better than, you know, just everybody sitting around doing nothing. Um, and we gotta, you know, at least take care of payroll for the week. At least we can break even on cost on some of our sites or some of our jobs. Like, that's just the reality of sometimes with fall cleanups, especially if the weather doesn't work in your favor, the wind's not working in your favor, and it's, uh, like going through, uh, molasses, you know, just like, what are we even doing out here? Uh, sometimes that happens. And so, uh, this time of year, getting ready for, you know, hiring maybe one or two extra guys, believe it or not, people like, well, you can't hire somebody for three weeks or four weeks. Believe it or not, there's people out there. There's high school kids, college kids, uh, folks that are in between things. Maybe, uh, other landscapers already getting laid off. And you decided to add fall cleanups to elongate, you know, your season, spring or fall. Uh, I've got just a job application yesterday, you know, so anybody who says stuff like, well, you can't do that, or it doesn't work, or, yeah, that would be nice, right? Like, I'm like, all these narratives, I can poke a hole in it and pop your bubble in 10 seconds. Anybody's like, well, you can't hire somebody for three weeks. Not true. Had one of my team members call me like, hey man, you got any fall work? Like, we actually do, and he wants to be on call for snow. Believe it or not, we had a team member come back just in the nick of time to help flex up a little bit with Fall cleanups and fall cleanups to me are like snow. It's all hands on deck. Uh, there isn't a budget for it. Just get it done. Right. Like we'll double up our, our uh, roster if we need to for cleanups and snow, uh, because we have such a small window to get them both done. Cleanups a couple of weeks, snow, obviously a couple of hours. But not only do we have a team member come back to flex up for some on call hourly, uh, or, uh, should say hourly leaf work, but on call hourly snow work. We had a job application coming just yesterday. He said, hey, I just got laid off of my company. They're closing down for the season. It's October 26th or whatever. the time of this recording, I'm like, that's a little early. Uh, but I'm like, hey, that might be a guy where I can offer some hourly work or fall cleanup and then maybe on call hourly for snow. And if he's a good talent, that might be something that we want to look at, offering a full time, you know, hourly position, uh, going into the spring of 2027. So you might find some of your best talent this time of year. Also, maybe they're, you know, laying off their weakest links. So uh, a little caveat there. Be, uh, careful what you uh, look at and who you interview. So go through the process. Right. Uh, but this also may be a great time to do some more training with your guys. Like next week, Wednesday, uh, we're going to have a snow kickoff. We had a little internal snow kickoff on Monday where we just powwowed for about two hours about our snow schedule, our routes, our, our sales, uh, where we're at on our sales number, um, et cetera, et cetera. I mean it was a good two hour discussion. Well, next week, Wednesday, we're doing like our macro team discussion. Right? You always, uh, practice private and then play uh, uh, publicly. Right. One of those deals. And so we're bringing in a couple of our subcontractors on Wednesday for training day. Uh, we're going to do uh, our circus rounds where the circus goes to uh, every site, so everybody sees every site. It's a huge investment of, uh, time, labor, dollars for sure. Uh, but everybody's gonna go out there next week, Wednesday and uh, see every site, make sure everybody can use crew, make sure everybody uh, is upgraded on crew to log in correctly, uh, to grab our snow routes, learn how to go through the snow routes, learn how to punch in and out of the app correctly with Selecting tasks for work completed in the snow, uh, or in the crew app for snow sites and snow tasks. Right. Like this is all stuff that, you know, you cannot do your training at, you know, 9:00pm the night before when everybody's going out there to get, you know, that first round of three to four inches of, of uh, snow. Right. That's not the time to do training. Yes, it's going to cost 1,000, $2,000. And I'm doing paid training for the other crews that are coming on in for the companies that are subbing out. Like it's a paid training day for us. We make that investment into the folks around us. Uh, but it's an investment I'm absolutely willing to pay to make sure that when snow hits the ground, everybody is ready to go. Uh, outside of that, it might be a great time to watch some training videos, maybe look at, uh, some of your greenest training videos and uh, get everybody up to speed. We're definitely going to do that on that training day Wednesday. Everybody's going to watch how to plow a driveway. Everybody's going to watch how to plow a parking lot. Everybody's going to watch, uh, you know, blade cutting, safety to open up a bag of ice melt. Right, like this. This is important stuff. And so these are some of the training things that we do here next week, Wednesday. So think about your team, think about your folks. Uh, this is a great time to capture, catch uh, up with everybody and uh, make sure everybody's on the same wavelength with people. Um, I'm gonna just kind of wind down the plane here a little bit or wind up the conversation with uh, equipment and then even finances. Uh, as you guys probably know, this time of year, uh, I think the old quote and uh, saying was like logistics wins wars and communication wins wars. Like there, there is no more important thing you can do probably this time of year besides selling the actual damn contract of snow. Seriously, like getting it over the finish line, sign contracts, approvals, not verbals, uh, actual approvals than to, uh, communicate excessively with your team about what's going on weekly, daily, and dare I even say hourly. Um, this morning I had a morning rollout phone call with my guy Rob. I can't make the rollout at a 15 minute debrief. We've got so much going on with potentially scooping up a loader that might be on order, picking up a new, uh, Ford Maverick truck, uh, from a dealer out in Ohio, uh, transitioning salters in, getting plows ready, uh, building leaf boxes, fixing the door on the leaf box, uh, all these little things. There's a lot of transition. That sounds really easy to just decree as an owner or as an operations manager. And folks, uh, we've got a tiny company, right? Comparatively. You know, some of you guys have 50 trucks on the road and you got 30 salters and 45 plows and uh, five dedicated salt mule trucks, right? Like, like know four loaders and five skids and whatever. Like there's a lot of iron that takes time to move and if you want to move it safely, it will take time. And you know, getting all these things on site and getting them everywhere, they need to be making sure that everything's wrapped and has graphics on it and signage on it. It's, it's absurd to me how many folks will run a loader, run a truck. And it doesn't even say like authorized contractor or subcontractor of grinds on maintenance or uh, no stickers, no trucks on anything. Just random, you know, white square body trucks plowing parking lots at two o' clock in the morning. No beacon, no light, no signage. Barely four by two, you know, trucks with you, uh, know a yellow 20 year old Myers plow. Ask me how I know and uh, I'm like, that's the guy I'm competing against with the Chipotle? No, no, that's the guy who subbed out a sub out of sub. And that guy's getting 62 to go plow $175 parking lot, right? So, uh, another conversation for another time. Why? I don't even bother with those discussions. I don't compete with those guys. Uh, we sell a great product and a great value and a great package with who we are and what we do and the professionalism of what we do. But this is a time to invest in that type of stuff. So when your trucks do show up, people go, that's our guy. That's our guy. For sure. We know that we're ready. Uh, the vehicle wrap says so. The, the training says so. The efficiency, uh, on how they plow says so. And this is a great time to make sure that your equipment is ready to rock and roll. Uh, it is not, uh, the time to install your salters the day before assault run when you see flurries on the schedule because you've been so busy with leaves. Get your shit ready to go for snow. Now. Don't take a day off from leaf cleanups and pruning. Take the day off. Take a, uh, day off. Take a half a day and get your stuff ready. If you've not hooked up your plow yet, you've not put your salters in yet, you've not done a plow checker and a spinner check, an auger check. Like, this is the day to do it. Not the day or two days before the storm, snowstorm. And you're running up to your local dealer, you know, looking for habibi to, you know, bail you out, okay, that's not their problem. That's your problem. And if your stuff's not working and your plow doesn't have a wing that's moving in and out because, uh, some hydraulic issue, and you had, you know, only seven months to figure it all out from April last year when you put that thing in the garage and you threw it in there and didn't do any kind of, you know, winter prep, you didn't do any kind of mid season prep, and you're not pulling it out just yet until the day of the snowstorm or the week of the snowstorm or salt run. Like, bro, I'm not sure what else to tell you. Uh, I'm telling you right now, logistics wins wars. All of our stuff has already been serviced by weingarts and snow power. Everything. We took our trucks up to snow power three weeks ago. Everything is like checked fluids changed as working order as it could be now. We're still human. It's still equipment. Stuff's going to break. We know that. You know that. But everything we can do, preventative maintenance to make sure that we're ready to go for snow has already been done. We leapfrog seasons at this point, right? Like, we get ready for snow before we start tackling anything leaves. And let me ask you this, uh, pop quiz. When do you think we started talking about our leaf cleanup setup? How the crews are going to run, making sure the equipment was ready to go November 1st, October 1st. No, these were August and September discussions. And so you always have to be 6, 8, 12 weeks ahead. One season ahead, one queue ahead of the season. So you can start planning people, logistics, finance, and equipment to make sure you tackle these seasons correctly. All right, let's do this really quick. Uh, last but not least, I'll wrap up with, um, we've already talked about, uh, equipment, we've talked about logistics, we've talked about final mos of the season. I just want to talk about this was the, the financial transition. Um, this is an interesting time of year. Like, how is your cash flow? Is, is things strong? Are things weak? Have you guys been Collecting outstanding invoices. I'm telling you what, man, it is so hard to collect snow invoices in April, May, June when the grass is green. It's so hard to collect landscaping invoices in January and February when it's cold as it's 10° out. And, uh, that emotion, that feeling, that is sight out of mind. Nobody's been on their back patio. Nobody knows the last time you actually mowed during Halloween in October. Right. It's, uh, hard to collect those lawn care invoices in January and February again. Maybe it might take you a day in the office to get all your equipment ready to go and make sure all of your receivables are shored up. This is not, this is not hopefully a time, and if it is, it's fine. Uh, to where you find out that nobody's been paying their bill since July on some of your accounts, God forbid. Hopefully you're reconciling this monthly and you got a good bookkeeper, like cycle cpa, uh, who I love and use and promote all the time. Uh, mention our name, they'll save you a bunch. Signing up. I was just talking to a buddy yesterday on in Facebook messenger at 11 o' clock at night. And, um, he's like, dude, cycles, like, literally changed our life with what they're showing me with our books. And I go, I, I know, I know, I feel you. Um, but this is a good time to look at your receivables. Do you have anything over net 30, anything over net 60, anything over net 90 that's still owed to you? This is a time to pump the brakes and collect on that stuff today. Do not start chasing your dollars when you have some time to breathe after cleanup season as you transition in the snow, you will be exhausted. Right? Like, don't be so worried about also the future where you're not collecting and getting paid today. You will not collect on your maintenance money in January. You will not. You will not. Trust me. Ask me how I know. If you do not get it by Halloween, if you do not get it by Thanksgiving, you will not get it. And you're going to waste more time. I'm going to be honest with you. You're going to waste more time like chasing late fees or NSF fees or, uh, $10, you know, whatever fees. It's just not worth your time as an owner. You should be doing 50 to 100, 200, 500 an hour per hour work. It's not worth your time to go get 5, 10, $20 on some of this stuff. And you're not going to worry about your hundred dollar maintenance, uh, you know, money from October for two extra cuts that you did, or 200 bucks for the four cuts you did that month, when you're gonna go make two, three, four grand that night, plowing snow. Do you know what I'm saying? And so it makes sense now. It will not make sense as you're going into doing fall cleanup, uh, work at, you know, 2, 300 an hour and snow at 100 to 500 an hour, depending on who you are and what you're doing. Does that make sense? So the last thing I'll just say is the financial transition, uh, for us, like, we're putting a lot of capital into the business. I was hyper clear with our guys on our internal, uh, pre con meeting just the other day for, for snow. I was like, guys, this is the time to recharge the bank account over the next six months. Uh, we had a great balance, uh, you know, all the way through June, July maintenance. We kind of, you know, break even, stay steady, earn a good 10 net. Um, we are under on revenue of where we should be. So we're kind of like a break even a little like, you know, 10, 15. That through the summer months, we're about 70 capacity on maintenance of where we need to be. So we have to upsell more work or break up a happy home. I decided to take the hit on the p. L. And I want to keep my guys training as we're making an investment into growing multiple teams in multiple right hands. And we could honestly blossom into five or six crews next year if we have the work. So I'm okay with the, uh, investment we made into payroll, but once we shore up that 20 to 30% more maintenance work, another 100 to 200 grand in maintenance work, we'll have some solid, solid net profit growth months with the bank account, uh, in Brian's all maintenance. But that being said, we. We kind of backslid a little bit the last couple of months on cash, uh, on hand, and obviously making some huge capital investments into what may or may not be a loader, uh, an arctic sectional, uh, another five grand in wraps for all the above. Uh, a new truck that we're scooping up and, uh, trying to think of anything else that's major on the horizon. But I just put five grand into a quick backspo that Brian's paid for, uh, taking three guys down. Eleven hundred bucks for three nights for hotel rooms each. That's insane, dude. Like 3300 bucks. Or 3, 600 bucks after taxes, uh, just for, for that five grand into taking three guys down to equip expo for a week, right? Plus, plus payroll, uh, there's the real capital outlay right now. We put 42, $43,000 cash on the barrel head to pre buy our bulk salt, uh, 80 of our bulk salt that we're going to need for the season. So the bank account went from big numbers to a third of that, right, in a, uh, 75 day period. Well, we prepaid our salt. So as you can imagine, we're keeping the house on all the uh, revenue that comes on in, minus payroll, minus overhead. Right. So all of our costs for the most part besides payroll, uh, are factored into the next five months of what we're going to recoup and re, uh, recover. So if we're doing 67, 80, 100 grand gross months, minus payroll, the 30, 40, 50 grand gross that we make minus overhead should put 30, 40 grand net months back into the account and refill the coffers. Does that make sense? But I, you got to be clear with your team like hey, this is not a time to squeeze payroll. This is not a time to not have us do fault pruning, uh, and cutbacks. This is not a time to not go upsell 2, 5, 10 landscape jobs. I've got a local mall that has uh, uh, about a 1500 pre approved budget for some mulch and some uh, mowing. I'm gonna go take a look at that here today. We're not too big to not go get 1500 bucks and make, you know, 750 gross and uh, you know, 500 net on that. You're out of your, you're out of your damn mind. Like every dollar into the cough for this time of year just makes the squeeze feel that uh, less right this time of year. It just pads stats, it puts money back in the bank. And normally, uh, now we prepaid our salt, so that's good. But if we were cash flowing, we'd be just fine. But I want to make sure we're putting as many dollars back into the, the till as possible, uh, to have that buffer for payroll for that, that buffer bringing additional, uh, capex investments that we're making into the business. Does that make sense? So monitor your cash flow. I don't, I'm not here to tell you you should have 100 grand in your bank account or 20 grand in your bank account. 5 grand in your bank account. I'm not saying you should pre buy yourself. I'm not saying you shouldn't cash flow yourself. I'm not saying you should do seasonal contracts or not. I'm not saying you should keep your guys on salary and top them up for 40 hours for crew leads through winter and on call hourly at an inflated rate. $5 premium per hour for the guys for winter. Maybe we're doing all the above. But I'm not telling you what to do with your business. What I would just tell you is where's your cash flow? What's your receivables? Do you know your costs going into the next five months if you don't do an ounce of snow work and Your company costs 20 grand a month with overhead and payroll? Do you have, I don't know, 60, 80, 100 grand saved up in your winter fund to not have to move, uh, one ounce of work over the next four months because it's the off season? I don't know. I don't know. But you should know where that number is for you. So you have a plan. Just get some kind of fricking plan. And your plan might be, I'm going to go lay off, my guys are going to be on call hourly for snow and I'm going to go get a job at Amazon or UPS or local factory at, ah, 20 bucks an hour for 40 hours a week. There is nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. You will never get permission from me man to man for you to go sit on your ass for four months and not work and just guys it under the, I worked hard for eight months and uh, I deserve this. And I'm a construction worker, blue collar guy. I get to take three months off. I'm a lazy bum. Because that's what you are if you do that. That's like, factually that's what you are. Especially if the little wifey's working. Especially if the little wifey is concerned about finances. Especially if you tell a little wifey, hey, we got to cut back on Christmas this year because dad, uh, didn't, you know, bring in the, the bacon, didn't cut the mustard here on the year that he thought he had or was going to, uh, produce or deliver. Now if you put your, you know, 100 grand savings account together for your winter fund and you guys, you know, ran a, uh, a 20 in that business for the year and you pulled 80 grand out of the business and you got 40 grand in your savings account and you and the wife are on the same wavelength and like, that was a great prosperous year and you guys are going to take three months off, have family time, and, uh, you know, do a little bit of camping and traveling all across the country and, you know, uh, all that fun stuff. Dude, you got my blessing. But if you did not do that, this is not a time for you to say, I'm, um, blue collar. I'm a contractor. Oh. It's bow season. It's hunting season, it's rifle season, whatever season. It's, uh, your fucking joke season. If you're doing that, you don't have your finances taken care of. How about for. For once in your life, you figure out the financial, uh, puzzle piece, and instead of begging and selling and convincing your wife to go hunt or just doing it anyway, because you're, you know, you're a real man. How about your wife pushes you out the door and says, why don't you go upgrade on that blind that. That bow, that gun. And you deserve it, honey, because nobody crushed it this year. I know. And I saw how hard you worked, and you deserve it more than anybody. And she's rallied behind you, pushing you out the door with a little bit of, uh, you know, some cash in the pocket to go upgrade something fun in a new freaking crossbow, whatever the hell you guys use, instead of, like, you know, begging and selling and telling her, this is just what men do. And if I don't get my hunting trip, then, uh. Then I don't even know if this thing's gonna work for us. Don't think I don't know. Those conversations happen. Been there, been there, done that. Not many of them, I'll tell you that. Not many. I'll tell you that. People like, why do you. Why are you so psychopathic? Why are you so crazy? Why are you so motivated? Why do you work so hard? Why do you. Who told you to do this? I had a friend. I was talking to him for an hour and a half the other day. Every phone call starts with, bro. Bro. You might know who that is. And, uh, he goes, where do you. Where do you. Where do you subscribe? Like, what? What. How. Who told you to do this? Or to think this way or to act this way? And I said, nobody. I said, I'm opting in to subscribe and hold myself to a higher standard. Nobody's told me what to do ever. At least not that I know of. But I will tell you, I subscribe to a higher level. I purposely put a standard higher in front of me for me to reach and subscribe and to subscribe to. And you should as well. I shouldn't have to tell you that it's not fair to the family if you are broke this fall to not go hunting this year. You don't deserve it. I'm not the bad guy. You're just a, uh, toddler. And you need to grow up. You're 35 and you have no money in the checking account or the savings account. And your answer to that is I'm going to go cover myself in deer piss and go sit around a tree to go shoot freaking animal. What? Well, that's what I've always done. That's what me and my daddy do. Your daddy did it because he most likely brought home the bacon. And it was a different time. And today because the wife works and makes 45 grand a year and your net on your profit for your business this year was 26 000. Somehow you think it's the same conversation. It's not. Dad was a factory worker, made 60 grand, take home, took care of mom, who's a stay at home mom, and had the blessing to going out there and go hunting. Different times. Sure. So sorry. So what, what do you want to tell you. Figure it out man. Figure it out. Grow up, be better, learn more, do more. Come to lal. Come to what? Whatever your thing is. I don't know why I'm even talking about that. Not. That's not my notes. Uh, so that message is for one of you guys out there. Don't be mad at me, bro. I am just. I'm your friend. I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you what people have told me and I'm just telling you how I see it. Don't. Do not get mad at me if I, if you, if you're pissed off because I just shared all that. That's called conviction. And so you problem to you problem. Balance out your cash reserves with opportunities to grow this winter. I'll tell you guys that are trying to grow into snow, this is the time to put money into the business, not pull money out. I have about a hundred and ninety thousand I'm committed to just in the last 48 hours to grow our snow business. I am absolutely moving in the wrong direction on the spectrum of getting my Lamborghini, if you know what I'm talking about. Or am I, or am I right? That's the, that's the antithesis to that statement. Or am I? Because the, the investments we're making into the business ideally should get me closer, right? Closer to the goal of getting whatever the wants are, uh, that are Just frivolous and stupid materialistic things, right? And I jokingly use the Lamborghini because it's an out. It's a, it's an out there goal. But if I'm committing 200 grand into the business this time of year, uh, I'm serious about growing snow. Uh, I'm about to sign on a lease here, uh, this next week. That scares, uh, the snot out of me as well. For, uh, a big, big, big, big, big next chapter for brands. Law maintenance. Big chapter for brands on maintenance. Scares the snot out of me. I'm like, we're doing this, we're doing this. We're doing this and that, and we're gonna do that. I'll tell you what, uh, I don't know if we've ever been this far out, uh, in front of our skis with what I'm trying to commit to. And I don't mean, like, making bad decisions. I just mean, like, financially. I just mean, like, odds. Uh, man, we're going for it. We are literally doing the thing. Like, we. I am working 12 and 14 hour days right now. I'm telling you, I'm telling you to do everything I can to make everything happen. Like, we are pushing. My guys are pushing. We are all rowing in the right direction, dude. And so this is a good time to look at your cash reserves and look at opportunities or snow equipment, snow machines training, new hires, bringing in new guys. This guy wants $2 more an hour if I can pluck him from another company. He runs a team of five guys. He'd be a great crew lead foreman. I don't even know if I can commit to that guy. Might be the time to do. Just might be the time to do it. All right, that's what I'm gonna, uh, let's see. Just here, look at my notes here. Uh, had more about snow logistics. I had more about finances. Uh, I had more about, oh, winter staffing. We can do all this for, uh, more episodes at another time. What I will just say, uh, if you guys go on to, uh, Instagram stories, uh, I have got a, uh, question poll there, whatever you call it, uh, for podcast topics. I'd love to hear what you guys are struggling with. Love to hear what you guys are looking to get some clarity about, uh, you know, different topics that relate to all different folks out there listening in. All different revenue size, business size, different, uh, journeys of, uh, personal development, leadership, finance, uh, marriage, you know, relationships, etc. If you guys have any topics you do want to hear, uh, go Hit the question, submission, whatever, thing on my, uh, Instagram stories, and put in a question, put in a note, and maybe we'll pick your topic to do as a podcast episode. I love hearing what you guys are looking to learn more about what you guys are struggling with. Um, usually it's just one or two nuggets or information pieces or perspective changes to really, uh, overcome some of these things. And again, uh, if I can glean any of this insight, uh, from me to you to help you guys grow, I want to know. I want to know so I can help you guys out. And, uh, let's keep moving, uh, forward and growing together. That being said, uh, that's where we're gonna leave it. Man. Uh, what a great show today. This is a great discussion. If you guys have any, uh, questions, comments, concerns, Instagram, DM M. One of the best ways to get me, shoot me an email. Second, uh, best way to get me, don't, uh, call my phone. I don't pick it up. Haven't picked it up in seven, no, nine years now. Uh, but if you guys have any questions, man, should be a dm, shoot me an email. I answer my emails, I answer my DMs. Uh, literally, literally, you can get access to me. I'm. I'm the easiest person to get access to. I know other folks, like dm, text, you know, whatever, like, other influencers or dm. You know, people on Instagram M. And they're like, no, nobody ever answers back. I'm like, I don't understand that. I don't understand that. Like, I am literally here to, uh, make friends, get to know you guys. See, uh, an event, high five, fist bump. Let's learn, let's grow, let's share ideas, and, uh, let's just make more money, dude. Make more money. Solve more problems for us, ourselves, our company, and obviously for our team. Right? Like that. The end of the day, that's, to me, what it's all about. Figure if we can solve the financial puzzle piece for, for most of you guys out there, uh, I have noticed that the more money I make doesn't make problems go away, but a lot of the problems I can solve with more finances. And so that's one of my big passion projects. That's why we talk extensively about growth, extensively about profit here on the show. Uh, again, one of the things that can help you do that is element, uh, promo code. Brian, if you guys want to sign up for the fall promo, uh, that's going on. Let me know if you, uh, need Help with that or want to do a demo? I can get you in touch with some of our sales guys with uh, the Element team. They're super fantastic. They don't bite, you know, the great guys and give you some perspective on the platform. And then also we'll do that demo here on 10, 14. Last uh, couple days to get your LAL ticket. Guys, move 20, 30, 40 tickets for me over the weekend, would you? I'd love to see you guys there. Plenty of room at the backup hotel, the host hotel. Sold out in an hour the day of. You guys know how it goes. Plenty rooms at the backup hotel. Plenty of rooms at hotels all across, uh, Novi, Michigan. But the vibe show place, we're uh, ready to rock and roll. The tables are set, the banners are ordered, the placards are ordered, the swag is ordered. We got some new swag that we're going to be giving out to you guys, uh, which I spent $5,000 on. Like I am going all in uh, with this event and I'd love to see another 20, 30, 40 tickets move this weekend. Make a note, uh, to, to, to get your ticket today. Teams of four and above, we have a checkout for discounted rates for teams of four. Check out for discounts for teams of five. We got a couple folks that are bringing their teams of four, a couple of people bringing their teams of five. The Bring a Buddy promotion. It's 500 bucks for two tickets. It's 100 plus dollars off retail for each ticket. Better than Early Bird. So if it's you and a buddy, grab the bring a friend promotion. Outside of that, shoot me a DM. I'll get you a $50 off coupon. Like whatever I can do to get you guys there. We're going to feed you, we're going to educate you, you're going to make friends. It is going to be a fantastic time and you're going to get some serious breakthrough with your business and you'll be so glad that you made the investment and that you did. Tickets@launchpreneur academy.com and um, that's what I got for you guys in today's episode. Man, I love you. I appreciate you. Have a great day. We look forward to catching up with you guys here on the next one.

Speaker B: We wanted to take a quick minute to introduce you to some exciting news

Speaker G: from lmn. They've recently announced new tiers and pricing for their world class software, making it more accessible for companies on the grow. LMN starter is only $2.97cents a month and provides all the essential tools you need to grow. From building your company budget to taking control of your estimating, streamlining your invoicing and taking the guesswork out of how to price your work, LMN is here to help create a predictable and profitable business. If you're running revenues from a quarter million to half a million or more, then it's time to invest in software to meet your growing business needs that was designed by landscapers for landscapers. Mention Code Brian when you sign up to receive the white glove once onboarding experience and lock in the best pricing available. Take control of your future today with lmn.

Speaker H: Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast with Bryan Fullerton. We hope you enjoyed this production. If so, please consider leaving us a five star review for the show. While the techniques and ideas presented here are designed to help you grow a more successful and profitable business, no one can guarantee these results for you. We want to emphasize that entrepreneurship is not easy and the ideas presented here are just the opinions of Brian Fullerton and his respective guests. No one can guarantee success for you. That being said, we hope the ideas presented here help you and motivate you to go on out there and crush it with your own business.

Speaker A: Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast

Speaker H: thanks for listening and we hope to see you on the next episode.

Speaker G: This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.