Hey, what’s up guys. It’s Coach Carroll. Hope you enjoy this way back Wednesday. I actually just finished watching the video myself and I got to tell you there’s some things where I was just like, DJ, come on, bro. Chill out. What are you thinking? I almost, I literally caught myself a couple of times being like, all right, I need to tell Andy that we can’t, we can’t post this thing, but in the form of transparency for the cause of transparency and honesty, I’m going to post this thing up.
This was, I remember this day, like it was yesterday, I just fired my lead guy. Literally the only people I had left in my company was me and my mom. And I like, I just couldn’t get the thing reset. I was coming off the backside of about a year and a half past losing my fitness center. And you know, it was just a really dark place. We had tried to sub out our QuickBooks, that guy screwed it completely up and just, I was in a really, really bad mood, and a bad place. And I know you guys get there as well. It’s so funny because when you’re in these dark places and, and it’s funny in the video, I say, you know, I’m documenting this because I want to know where I come, where I go, what’s the solution. And in the, in the video, I want you guys to listen for this. I say, you know, I’m not all about those company cookouts, and company culture bullshit, and all that fluffy stuff. And I’m about to walk in. I just got back from a lunch meeting and I’m going to show you guys. It’s kind of funny because you know, I’m like, oh, I’m not about that company culture stuff, but I didn’t give up. We continue to push forward. I’ve built an awesome team. And it was because my mindset wasn’t right. So on this Way Back Wednesday, I’m talking about, you know, how company culture sucks, and how it’s all terrible. But now in our new office here, you’ll notice there’s our core values. So we are all about the company culture stuff. I just hadn’t learned it yet. I think later that year, I actually went to a seminar where one of the guys was talking about company culture and he kind of taught it to me the right way. So you can see we’re in our new office. Now we’re in growth mode. We’re up 25% over last year. And so I just want you to know, as you’re watching this video, there’s some things in here that I say that almost had me to the point where I was like, Ugh, we can’t repost this thing, but it’s truth, man. It’s transparency. It’s what I went through. And so hopefully you guys can see this and learn. We do have the easy pro certified program that you’ll hear me talk about in there. And you know, we’re building the team, building the company culture, doing business the right way, just took me a couple more years past where I was at in the point in this video to figure that out. So here goes…
Hope you’re doing well, Coach Carroll here. Why is it that, businesses are supposed to run on systems? Everyone wants to sell you the idea that it can be automated and, and that you can put these things on autopilot. I have to disagree. I just, I, after 12 years of doing this, I just don’t believe that your service business can be automated. And let me take that back. I don’t believe the service business can be automated in the, in the, in the fact, or in the place that your still making enough money as the owner, right? I don’t understand how to remove human thought, and human error from a business. That’s it, like when you’re in a service business, you are supplying people to perform that service, right? And so in this window, cleaning power washing, like I just don’t see it. I don’t see, I think the most profitable, now I’m not saying gross revenue, right? Like to get to that half a million a year, 750 a year, a million a year. Cause I did it with the lawn and landscape business. It takes people. You can’t do that with those types of numbers by yourself. It’s, it’s simply impossible to do that volume of work.
But here’s my problem, here’s the headache. The lack of margins, the stress and anxiety that you will face as an owner, dealing with these people-I think it just truly has to be your passion. That’s the only way it worked. And I’m not passionate about power washing, or window cleaning, or lawn care, or landscaping, or any other type of blue collar service. It’s it’s just not something that’s interesting to me. Now, if you love it, good for you. That’s that’s all about following your passion. And I talk about that on this channel is, you know, believing in yourself when no one else will, but believing in yourself when no one else will when you’re following a hustle, versus following a passion is a little bit different. Okay?
And so here, here’s where I’m going with this. I just laid off, didn’t lay off-fired, a guy who had been with me for a year and a half. When I hired him a year and a half ago, he was my rock star, man. This guy was smart. He could weld, he knew maintenance. Wasn’t afraid to get dirty. Nice clean appearance, could talk to customers, could sell… the guy was a rock star, right? And I was like, wow, man, this was it. I just had to get out of Carrollton, get into Louisville and I could find good people. So I hired him, I hired another guy. Right. Came from a job. Great, great guy. Everything worked out, going to the winter last year, the second guy that I hired, I have to lay off, right? Because winters get slow. We don’t do snow removal anymore. And I said, look, man, I’m gonna have to lay off for a couple of months. Fast forward to the end of April, it was still like 30 degrees outside. So we hadn’t brought him back yet, bring him back towards the beginning of May. And I told the guy, I’m like, Hey man, you know, are you good to go? Are you good to start? He’s like, yeah, no problem, man. I’ll be there. Doesn’t show up. No call, no show, keeps my company phones, steals it, keeps all of his uniforms, and just basically ghosted the f**k out. So I was like, Ugh, here we go again.
You guys have to understand when I had my lawn and landscape business, I went through over 300 employees and it’s not easy. This is not a business that people grow up and want to be a window cleaner or a power washer. And it’s, you know, it’s difficult to provide and compete with the other companies out there, right? The other businesses, especially now with the unemployment rates so low, but I digress on that. That stuff’s not important. What’s important in business is your net profit because you have to like, I don’t buy into this like, oh, company culture, and cookouts and all this kind of sh*t, because none of that stuff matters, if you’re not making net profit. And that’s why I got out of lawn and landscaping. It was because I was looking month to month, you know, 15 to 17 guys, when we’re in season, I’m looking at my numbers and I’m like, f**k man, I’m not making any money. I’m not making any profit, the fucking reason I’m in business to make profit. And so we shifted. We’re like, all right, cool. We’ll go to power wash, when we move to Louisville, profit margins there, right? Everything’s looking good.
Start the season. We’re hiring, first guy, we hired, he goes through two weeks of training, He’s about to start his first day. No, just doesn’t show up. He actually came in and falsified his time card, left, and then we caught him and he’s like, oh, I’m sorry, don’t worry about it. Like no shit, I’m not gonna worry about it. Second guy, we come in, we train him. And it’s like, it’s this never ending cycle. And I, and I’m paying guys good. Like we’re $17 to $20 an hour when you’re starting out, to spray water. Right. I don’t see where the automation comes in. This like, pie in the f*cking sky dream that you’re going to start a service business automated and, and be out, and not have to run service calls, not be in the field, not do the work and then still make money, that’s worth it. Right? Like, cause here’s the thing. If you’re going to tell me like, oh DJ, but you got to get to 25 people, you got to have a service manager, you got to have an operations manager, got to have an office manager. And then those people have to have people under them. And those people have to have people under them. Like you just got to grow to that size first. Here’s the problem with that, is when you grow to that f*cking size, if you have 50 to a hundred employees, you better be doing several million dollars a year just to make payroll. Why, why on f*cking God’s green earth do I want to deal with all of that, to make what, 20,000 a year, 30,000 a year? It’s just not a lot of meat left on the bone, and you’ve got equipment that always depreciates.
Here’s my thing that I’m learning with the power washing industry. I think the bread and butter money, the best margins, the best profit, is in an owner-operator. Right? And I know that like, defies everything in business, because you’re supposed to get bigger. You’re supposed to grow. You’re supposed to get out of the field, replace yourself. I just don’t think it’s feasible. I don’t think it’s doable unless you just truly have just a dying passion for like, cleaning sh*t. Then if that’s you good, man, that takes self-awareness to know that, I’m self-aware enough to know, that I don’t want to fuck with it. I would rather be on stage speaking or coaching people and making a difference in their lives or building that legacy because I truly believe that that’s my talent and I’m coming to a crossroads right now, this making these videos is really, it’s a way for me to not only help you guys, because I think some of you may be going through this as well, but also just to journal for myself because it’ll be cool to come back to this video in 30 years and be like, man, I remember that point. I remember how aggravated I was. And then I remember how I overcame it. Cause I don’t know that right now. Right?
You have to understand that when you’re running a business, it’s like a constant learning process, man. And I think that’s why I like it. Cause I’m a, I’m a junkie for information and learning. But at the same time, I just don’t see where growing this business is feasible. Market size. You’ve got geographic boundaries. We’re trying some things right now to where, we’re rolling out a certified pro program to where, we’ll give free training. We get other owner-operators, and we try to get them to work big apartment jobs. If that works out, that’ll be cool as sh*t. But that’s like my last straw, if that doesn’t work, then I just don’t believe that a service business can be automated. And also just, I’m also just not willing to keep going, to keep trying. And I, part of me feels like that’s me giving up. But the other part of me is just realizing that it’s not my passion. And I know what my passion is. I know what my life purpose is. And I think it’s just like the launch pad man is getting built and I’m to the point where I’m ready to go. Like, I don’t even give a sh*t if like my income has to drop because, my mental health, my mental wealth, so to speak will be better because I won’t be as stressed out. I’ll be doing something that I love. And I’d rather be broke doing something that I love, than rich doing something that I hate. That’s why I preach all the time to people that are in dead end jobs that hate their f**king job, that b**ch and moan about it all the time. But then they don’t do anything.
You have to take action. You got to get yourself out of that rut. That only happens through action. So I’m a, I dunno, man. I don’t really know what the point of this was. I just, I needed to vent to somebody, it’s been stressful. I’ve spent the last three hours doing reconciliations and you know, our bookkeeping’s all screwed up right now because we outsourced our bookkeeping earlier this year and that completely got f**ked up. So, you know, it’s, it’s always growing pains and, and I don’t think there’s a lot of guys online that share that with their audiences. And I know my audience, isn’t huge right now, right? We’re like 450 subscribers, which is crazy. Cause I don’t really put a lot of time into pushing my YouTube channel. It’s mainly Facebook and Instagram, but for those of you that do watch this, and you know, leave me words of encouragement, or, you know, disagree with me. It doesn’t matter. Just engaging and being here with me through this journey. I really appreciate it. And hopefully some of the information that I share with you, helps you in your journey because that’s all I really want to do in life, is to help other entrepreneurs, help other business owners, because it’s a f**king struggle, man. Anybody that plays it off, like it’s easy, they’re kidding themselves. Or they haven’t been doing it long enough to figure it out.
So hope you guys have a Happy Memorial Day, weekend. Oh wait a minute. Labor Day, weekend. I hope, you guys have a happy Labor Day, weekend. You know, if you got, if you got some words of encouragement or if you figured something out that I haven’t, you know, put it in the description below, I just wonder if the universe is kind of opening up and, and leading me down a different path because it knows that that’s truly what I desire out of life. Right. And I’m always telling people to go chase their passion, go after it, hustle, grind, get yours. It’s just sometimes, you know, we get into the grind and not really passionate about it. True, like full on transparency. The reason I started my first business, is because I was making money. I was broke. My dad couldn’t really help me a whole lot. My mom couldn’t help me a whole lot. They were, I mean, they were trying to get by themselves and you know, it was a way for me to make money, so that I could provide for myself. And then once I found power washing, it was like, sh*t man, I’m going to make three, four or 500 bucks in an hour. This is crazy, washing houses. And it’s just kind of been that hustle, right? It’s no different than the dope game. Like it’s just you do it because the money’s good. And, but eventually you get to a point, where that doesn’t matter anymore. Right?
Ed Mylett, says, you can’t sell your dream. There’s no price that you can put on your dream. And my dream is to change the world by speaking on stages. Or maybe even just speaking virtually, I don’t know. There’s a lot of things that have been going on in my mind lately. I’m like maybe I don’t need to go city to city and sell $200 tickets. Maybe I could do it right here online virtually, for like $35 a ticket. So instead of putting a hundred people in a room, I can put a thousand people in a virtual room. So I dunno, just venting and digressing now. I appreciate you guys watching.
Here’s to your success
