In this episode, Keith explored the crucial skill of discernment in business decisions. He shared insights from his experiences in the landscaping industry, emphasizing that saying no can be more beneficial than saying yes to everything. He discussed the importance of focusing on core services, understanding the risks of overextending, and utilizing smart subcontracting. Success lies in mastering what you do best and making decisions that align with your expertise and capacity.

When you narrow down what you offer, you’re not only cutting out stress but also boosting your profits and efficiency. It's about breaking free from those nagging fears and old stories in your head and realizing you don't have to do it all to succeed.

And hey, there's more! Keith’s got some exciting updates on what's brewing with the Untrapped Podcast and other projects that are in the pipeline. So, if you’re here for no-nonsense stories and solid tips to make running your biz a breeze, you’re in the right place! Stick around, and let's jump in!

Check out these episode highlights:

00:00 - Optimize Landscaping Business Strategy

03:19 -  Launching a Landscaping Business

07:12  - Transition to Quieter Battery Trimmers

10:45 - Effective Equipment Management Tips

13:57 - Skill Building and Pricing in Landscaping

18:50 -  Unlocking Business Success Mindset

20:04  - Commitment Yields Significant Revenue Potential

 

Key Takeaways: 

Market Research and Strategy: Begin by analyzing successful local businesses and defining your service area to target the most lucrative neighborhoods. Use tools like Google to research and map out income per zip code.

Invest Smart in Equipment: Start with affordable, used equipment from places like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. As your business grows, reinvest in new, reliable equipment. Remember, "buy nice or buy twice."

Pricing and Profitability: Ensure proper pricing strategies by charging enough to cover costs and desired profit margins. Aim for at least a 50% gross profit margin by multiplying your cost estimates by two. 

 

Resources and Websites: 

Here's the video and story about our Window Cleaning brother in the UK I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_pxfE8A4k

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7QgzAauFCQ 

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILGSn9Rx8f8&t=0s

The Time William and I climbed 115ft. in a tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVmT_Nhohjk&t=0s

Tree Work and Arborist Videos playlist:   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLub0_q7i2mDRR3pk7GpX3k8JhZiE2IvYm

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇 Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

Transcript

(Note: this was transcribed using transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

 

Keith Kalfas 00:00:00 - 00:00:48

How to start a landscaping business in 2025. Let's go. So, before we get started, I just got a comment on my YouTube channel. There's a guy who's trying to start his landscaping business, and he found himself on another YouTube channel that talks about how to become a millionaire and wealth and abundance and all that stuff, which is great. He left that channel, and now he's binge watching my videos because he specifically wants to learn how to start a landscaping business right now. So that's step number 1 because you gotta cut all the other fat of all this other information that's not helping you get your business to the next level. Step 2 is do market research. We're gonna talk about the equipment you need in a minute, but this is really important.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:00:48 - 00:01:41

1st, go on Google and type in landscaping businesses near me and look at the most successful ones and analyze how are they running their business how are they marketing their business. You can learn a ton just by doing that. And I want you to go on Google Maps and create your service area, right? So ours is a 6-mile radius from our home base. And what I also want you to do is go on Google and type in income per zip code in your area and find out where all the money is at, and then you'll know where to market. I like to go in specific neighborhoods, market, and advertise repeatedly. You drill deep in specific neighborhoods, and that's where the most potentiality, the most amount of clients, the fastest is, and make the most amount of money. Let's go to step 3. Step number 3: you gotta get your business legitimized with something like an LLC.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:01:42 - 00:02:10

And open up a small business checking account, which is exciting because now this is official. You can go online. There's tons of options. I have some in my resources below. What I did was I went to my accountant.  How do you find an accountant? You basically ask people who own small businesses around you. You say, where can I find an accountant? And they'll be like, oh, my guy Bill. You know what I mean? And you find an accountant, and I asked him, dude, I need to make my business legit. He's like, oh, easy.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:02:10 - 00:02:37

Paid him some money, fill out all the paperwork, Boom. I was an LLC, and I went to the bank with that paperwork opened up a small business checking account. I was in business. Now, all the money that comes through your business flows through the checking account, and now you legit, daw. Number 4, you need a truck. Don't despise small beginnings. I don't know where you're at, but I literally Facebook or Craigslist for sale by owner. Look at this.

Keith Kalfas 00:02:37 - 00:03:19

2008 Ford Ranger Super Cab 4 by 4 185,000 miles, $29100. 2,003 Ford Ranger. You're like Ford Ranger. I want a brand new, then go buy one if you can afford it. I don't know where you're at. 2,009 Chevy Silverado, 2,002 Dodge Dakota, 2009 F150. So anywhere from 2 to $7, you can get a smaller series truck used that will get you making money now. Now, when you go to buy a truck, obviously, you wanna pull the dipstick and check all the fluids, test drive it, turn it all the way to the right and to the left, check for any bumps or grinds or vibrations. Anything going on that doesn't feel right that could be an issue, and you might be able to get it fixed cheap.

Keith Kalfas 00:03:19 - 00:03:59

And that's why the person selling it, and if you're mechanically inclined, it's gonna be amazing. But definitely don't buy something that's gonna blow up on you. That's why you wanna take it on the freeway and run it through all the gears and make sure the transmission shifts smoothly, and then you're in business. There's a lot of great trucks out there you can get for cheap and literally go make a $100,000. Real quick, we're about to go to Weingartz and look at some equipment, but I wanna tell you I started my landscaping business out of the back of the trunk of my wife's car with debt collectors calling me. I didn't have a truck and didn't have anything. I was terrified working a dead-end lawn care job at during the day and going out at night and on the weekends to get my business off the ground. I made enough money to dump out change to get a piece of crap.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:03:59 - 00:04:23

Well, actually, I love this truck. It's called the Blue Goose. It was a 1991 Dodge Dakota with a quarter 1000000 miles covered in rust, and that thing actually drove like a dream. So we started with nothing, bro. It was terrifying, and I pulled it off. Let's go. And the most important piece of equipment you really need to even get started is I'm just playing with you. Step 5: you need equipment right away.

Keith Kalfas 00:04:23 - 00:04:51

Of course. But you can go on Facebook Marketplace and buy equipment used. I got my stuff from pawn shops, Craigslist because I couldn't afford any brand new equipment. The problem with used equipment is it's beat up. It's gonna be gunked up. Like, the carbs, the carburetor inside of it, you're gonna have to pull it 20 times to get it started. Sometimes, you have to do a tune-up by yourself, but you can get lucky. But as soon as you possibly can, you need to get brand new equipment, in my opinion.

Keith Kalfas 00:04:51 - 00:05:22

I'm gonna walk around and show you some of my favorite stuff. I've been doing this my whole life, so I know what all the good stuff is. Now, the new battery-powered technology is amazing, but it's crazy expensive right now, so you probably won't get started there. But my favorite equipment always comes down to, well, steel because it's just a powerhouse. Steel's expensive. It's heavy-duty. This literally could last you 5, 6 years of beating on it. Right? This edger, if you're doing lawn care, everything's steel, by the way.

Keith Kalfas 00:05:22 - 00:06:00

It's just heavy and expensive. The next step that's a little bit cheaper is echo. Check this out. I've actually toured the Echo factory in person. I've seen all this stuff. And the echo power tools, like here, you got articulating hedge trimmers for trimming bushes, and this is a power pruner pull saw. Dude, Echo stuff doesn't have the power of steel, but you can just beat on this stuff for dude, you can just beat the hell out of an Echo trimmer, and that mug will always start every single time. Let me know in the comments.

Keith Kalfas 00:06:00 - 00:06:29

They just keep a licking what? They'll take a licking and keep on ticking, bro. Echo stuff. I have all this stuff, so I never really liked echo weed whips. Some people love them. I don't know why I don't like it, but I really like echo edgers. The reason I don't like an Echo weed whip is I know something about the way it's balanced. I don't like it. Blowers over here, echo blowers are good, they're decent. Redmax are over here.

Keith Kalfas 00:06:30 - 00:07:11

These are amazing. I've had all these backpack blowers. It's a phenomenal blower. My favorite backpack blower again comes all the way over here to the steel backpack blower is my favorite. So the BR 430 is it's like more like a homeowner's blower. I wouldn't get anything less than the BR 600 in any type of landscaping, but I've got the big ones. This is the 800 model. It's the steel is powerful, extremely powerful, but it's also quiet compared to, like, a Shindaiwa, which is that's, like, was the industry standard for a long time because they're so powerful, but they're so much louder.

Keith Kalfas 00:07:12 - 00:07:49

So with steel and all this stuff coming out of homeowners getting upset about loud equipment, that's why they're trying to move over to the battery-powered, steel is a little bit quieter. But when it comes to shrub trimmers, I don't like steel. Ain't that weird? Check this out. The industry standard for a long time, the most common are these are just the powerhouse steel HS 40 fives. They're $300. They've pretty much always been $300. They start right up either they'll mow through anything, but I'm telling you, these things are loud. They're like miniature tanks, and that's part of the reason I don't like them anymore.

Keith Kalfas 00:07:49 - 00:08:13

It's just they're almost overkill for doing residential shrub trimming because they're so powerful and so loud. For instance, come over here. I've used all different types of trimmers. My favorite are the Redmax trimmers, and it's different different brands for different things. These trimmers are amazing. I actually got the shorter ones. I bought all of them. I don't like echo trimmers, by the way.

Keith Kalfas 00:08:13 - 00:08:47

I don't like them at all. These are the best because the way that they're balanced. It feels like a gyroscope in your hand, so it's easier on your back. RedMax, not the homeowner versions. Anyway, is this a I bought both, and they're both great. So these are my favorite. So I've owned tons of chainsaws by all different brands from Husqvarna to Stihl to Eko, And the best chainsaws, in my opinion, are steel. But here's something you have to know. When you look at all the prices, I'm not gonna get into the different models.

Keith Kalfas 00:08:47 - 00:09:10

I don't wanna overwhelm you. Any chainsaw that's, I'm saying, any chainsaw that's underneath $250, don't even waste your time buying it. Don't buy it. Like the cheap homeowners might, oh, this is a good saw. I'm gonna use this. Don't buy it. Trust me. You're better off spending 1 to 200 extra dollars and getting a pro series.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:10 - 00:09:28

It's a completely different machine. You'll find out. You can find out the hard way. So buy nice or buy twice. So this is the MS 194 T Top Handle Ergonomic Saw. You could take it up in a tree, which you probably shouldn't do in the beginning. And it's got all the safety switches and bar and lever and everything. I mean, this is a phenomenal saw.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:28 - 00:09:53

And over here, the 251, it's all locked into place. I mean, these things are just, they're beautiful saws. So steel is the way to go with the chainsaw and make sure you pick up all the safety gear as well. Don't operate a chainsaw unless you're wearing all the safety gear. Alright. So, if you're getting into lawn care, which I did lawn care for 15 years. I started out my business with lawn care, and it gets you access to tons of property maintenance installs. Lawn care is the bread and butter.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:54 - 00:10:24

You probably won't be able to afford if you're just getting started. You might not be able to afford an expensive, beautiful dream machine like this. I actually have a Radius X 48-inch riding mower. It's their tanks. These things can cut grass, suck up leaves. They're almost indestructible, and they're expensive for a reason because: they make you money, and they last for years, years years like the BMWs. But get a mower anywhere you can. Used off Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, you're gonna start out with a walk behind, but I think Exmark's really the way to go.

Keith Kalfas 00:10:24 - 00:10:45

The top brands, like Exmark. When it comes to doing snow removal, I plowed snow 15 years. Toro makes some of the best snowblowers you can ever get your hands on. These things are beasts. Now, they're not indestructible if you beat on them. They will need parts. I mean, snow is really tough, but get a Toro. They're phenomenal.

Keith Kalfas 00:10:48 - 00:11:45

Look at this over here, a quick tip. You can get a couple of these with a couple of guys. You don't even need a blade for doing residential, and you can literally take these in a couple shovels and just bang out residentials and make a ton of money without an actual snowplow. But when it comes to stuff like this, like all these cool ergonomic things, they might have upgraded the technology by now, but sometimes if there's all these cool bells and whistles on a snowblower, just know you gotta be extra careful when loading and unloading onto trucks or anything because that's more stuff that could get broken and compromise your equipment. So keep it simple. Here's a quick tip that served me really well when growing my landscaping business is don't ever buy a piece of equipment until you are on the way to that job, that morning where you sold that job, where you need that piece of equipment to do that job. Right? Don't just buy pieces of equipment cause it's nice to have. And that way, you're making your ROI, your return on investment, back immediately.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:11:45 - 00:12:12

And when it comes to loppers and pruners, like, these are $20. That's good. There's pruners by Felco. You can spend $200 on a pair of crazy expensive exotic pruners. And if you lose them on a job site, because it's easy to lose them or an employee loses them, it's not fun. I've done all this stuff. So I try to just. I'd rather buy more pairs of just decent pruners for 20, $30. But when it comes to loppers, you definitely get what you pay for.

Keith Kalfas 00:12:12 - 00:12:47

You should be spending 60, 70, $100 on a pair of good loppers because the cheap ones suck. Don't buy the cheap ones. You will just trust me. The powerful tip to protect your investment: I only put premium fuel in all of my 2-cycle power tools and use the proper mix, and I only use steel oil. If you find something better, let me know. But whatever you do, do not use cheap 2-cycle oil, and always use the proper mixture to protect your investment—learned that the hard way. And also with, the gas cans have different gas cans.

Keith Kalfas 00:12:47 - 00:13:20

If you got 2-cycle or regular gas, make it incredibly obvious that you don't ever put regular gas in 2-cycle. I made that mistake, too. It blows up your equipment in 2 seconds. And final tip, this is so important. Like, this is a sod cutter machine. You might get jobs doing sod, and you can make really good money ripping up and replacing sod and doing lawn repair. But are you gonna go out and buy a multi $1,000 machine when you don't do that every day? No. Find a local equipment rental place.

Keith Kalfas 00:13:20 - 00:13:56

 I have done the math, and I have actually saved and made more money by renting equipment and renting dingoes and stuff like that. So you can rent all the equipment that maybe you can't afford to buy right now, and you can go make money today by renting equipment. Really smart. Step number 6: build your skills and your knowledge. Now cutting grass, trimming bushes, pulling weeds, spreading mulch, that's all easy stuff. You never wanna do anything that would dishonor your client, and don't bite off more than you can chew. But there's a saying that I heard that this is powerful. Make a big promise and then grow into that promise.

Keith Kalfas  00:13:57 - 00:14:38

So you can take on jobs that are bigger and outside of your comfort zone, and that's good because now you got time to close the gap by making phone calls, watching videos, and doing the research, and learning how to do that job the right way. Or you can make friends with other landscapers who are doing jobs you don't know how to do and go work with them for free or offer to work for a day or two and learn that. So now you're really proactive in those bigger jobs. And when you start getting bigger ticket jobs, that's how you're gonna learn and build your knowledge and your skill set. Let's go talk about pricing. Step number 7 is pricing. How much should you charge to do landscaping services? Well, check this out. Let's say the absolute bare minimum you wanna make is $25 per hour.

Keith Kalfas  00:14:40 - 00:15:30

You wanna times that by three and charge $75 per billable man-hour. Right? So let's say something takes you 2 hours. You should charge no less than a $150, just labor to do that. So there's something called t and m. That's time and materials. Right? So if something takes you 2 hours, 75 times 2 is 150. And let's just say you got a $150 in materials like overhead to your kind of cost of goods sold. You should charge 150 times 2 is $300 to do something that'll take you 2 hours. So if you wanna make $25 an hour pure profit, which is gonna be pretty low, you're gonna make a lot higher than that if you're just by yourself solo.

Keith Kalfas 00:15:31 - 00:16:16

You times whatever you wanna make by 3. You don't tell your customer it's $75 a man-hour. You just give them a price in a line item. And then you add the materials. Let's say there's mulch or whatever it is, and you put those two numbers together, and that's how you get your price. That's called a 50% gross profit margin, or 50% GPM, or a 100% markup. What that means is you figure out all the costs of what it takes you to do this job to the best of your knowledge, and you want to get a stopwatch and start clocking your jobs. And say if something's going to cost you about $500 to get this all done, you wanna times that number by 2, and that's what you charge is $1,000.

Keith Kalfas 00:16:17 - 00:16:43

So that way, when the job is all done, you made half a 50% gross profit margin. And something that's really cool there's a software that'll help you do all this stuff in your billing and invoicing. I'm an ambassador of a software called Jobber. You can get a huge discount after a free 2-week trial. Plug it into your business, and my exclusive link is getjobber.com/kalfus. Click the link in the description below, and you can sign up for Jobber. That'll help you tremendously.

Jobber Ad 00:16:44 - 00:17:35

More of the untrapped podcast right after this. Hey. If you're looking for what is probably the greatest software ever to run your business on, go to get jobber.comforward/Keith. You can create proposals, invoices, collect payments, even track your entire business directly on the Jabber smartphone app. And if you wanna get a totally free trial of Jabber right now, open your browser, type in get jobber.comforward slash Keith. And if, after the trial, you decide you wanna sign up with Keith's link, you'll automatically get 20% off your 1st 6 months. So what are you waiting for? Go to get jobber.comforward/Keith. This is untrapped with Keith Kalfas.

Keith Kalfas 00:17:36 - 00:18:00

So rewind the video if you have to and, watch this, and make sure you're charging properly. Let's go to the next step. So step number 8 is you have to learn how to market your business and you have to learn some advertising. I've written books about this. This is my latest book. This one's all nuts and bolts; how do you get more landscaping customers? This book these are on Amazon and Audible. You can listen to this while you work.

Keith Kalfas  00:18:00 - 00:18:50

This will help you overcome a lot of the challenges as sticking points and grow your confidence in your business. And then also, there's a lot of free information on the internet but you can also get really specific by getting into group coaching or online courses. I just launched the untrapped alliance where you can get on Zoom calls with me and a tight knit group of people that will literally walk you through the sticking points in your business and help you get to the next level. But, nonetheless, I want you to get out there and crush it, and I wanna hear about your success. Leave a comment below. And one more thing, I wanna be a 100% real with you. Starting and getting a landscaping business off the ground is not easy. It's really challenging because you have to take a lot of other stuff that was going on in your life and kinda like push it to the side and focus to get the plane off the ground.

Keith Kalfas 00:18:50 - 00:20:04

And there's gonna be really challenging moments, but there's this sweet spot that you get into, and it's freaking unbelievable. It's where you start to learn the way that this thing works, and your subconscious mind starts reshuffling the deck and neurons that fire together wire together. Right? When you start getting some successes and making more money in a day than you used to make in a week, something like it's like you come online. You're like, you start connecting all these dots, and this that for me, it changed my life because especially when I started learning up, like, how to do ornamental tree trimming and landscaping installs, I was on fire, bro, and I still am. But the sweet spot is where you start seeing, like, customers and money everywhere and all these people that you can take care of. And when you do what you say you're gonna do when you say you're gonna do it, whether you feel like it or not, and you take your business serious, the moment you take your business serious, and you take yourself serious, that's when all these customers will take you more serious, and you'll start getting the money that you want. But if you're kinda half-assing it and you're on the fence and you don't feel it, people are smart. They'll pick up on it, and they might hire somebody else instead of you.

Keith Kalfas 00:20:04 - 00:20:39

 

But when you're a 100% committed, that's when the right employees start showing up because they can feel your commitment. So when you go all in, I'm talking, you can make 5, 6 grand a week. I literally have you can make I don't know what it is for you. If I said $10 a month, is that a good number? You can make 15, 20, 30, 40, $50,000 a month. Now that's revenue. It's not all profit. Right? Of course, you're gonna have to reinvest back into your business. But I'm telling you, you can do such a good job and make so much money, and you got this.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:20:40 - 00:20:50

This is the year. 2025 is the time to get it. This is your time to shine. I'm rooting for you. Hit the subscribe button. Let me know what's up in the comments below. I'm Keith Kalfas. Much respect to you.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:20:50 - 00:20:51

Peace.

Keeping your landscaping and service business on track can be challenging, but Keith has some great tips and stories today.

In this $13,000 project, he and his crew dealt with everything from chopping down massive arborvitaes to detecting hidden PVC pipes. Keith explains the importance of saying "no" to things that aren't in your wheelhouse and why sometimes you need to learn the hard way.

In addition, Keith shares some insights from other successful businesspeople who have discovered that streamlining your services can transform your business. It's a proven fact that focusing on your team's strengths will save time, reduce costly errors, and increase your bottom line. The key is letting go of the mental blocks and old stories that make you think you have to do everything when focusing on what you're good at is more efficient.

We've covered you with real-life business stories full of practical advice to help you run your business more smoothly and efficiently.

 

Check out these episode highlights:

00:00 Focus on big jobs; skip tricky extras.

06:05 Stick to core job duties and skip extra work.

07:14 Turning down a stressful job taught lessons.

12:36 Identify what you enjoy and focus on that.

16:30 Join for business advice and expert insights!

17:12 Want to chat? Hit me up at keithkelphus.com/call for some business advice!

Key Takeaways: 

Discernment in Service Offerings: Knowing when to say 'no' to client requests outside your expertise is vital. This protects your business reputation and helps avoid unnecessary complications and delays. As tempting as it might be to take on every opportunity, focusing on what you excel at brings better results and client satisfaction.

The Power of Specialization: Concentrate on a select few services your team performs exceptionally well. This approach not only streamlines operations but ensures consistent quality and efficiency, allowing you to train new employees and serve your clients with excellence quickly.

Embrace and Overcome Mental Barriers: Understand that many perceived obstacles in managing a business, such as controlling quality and needing to be physically present, often exist in your head. Trusting and empowering capable team members can lead to broader success beyond individual efforts.

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

Durable AI Website: Durable AI Website Builder and Small Business Software

Here's the video and story about our Window Cleaning brother in the UK I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_pxfE8A4k

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7QgzAauFCQ 

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILGSn9Rx8f8&t=0s

The Time William and I climbed 115ft. in a tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVmT_Nhohjk&t=0s

Tree Work and Arborist Videos playlist:   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLub0_q7i2mDRR3pk7GpX3k8JhZiE2IvYm

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇 Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

 

Transcript

(Note: this was transcribed using transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

 

Keith Kalfas - 00:00:10 - 00:01:02

But when I'm going through my notes thinking of what content to create for you, I always go back to what's valuable and its mistakes to avoid. In the landscaping business, or any business for that matter, every time you take on something new, there's a learning process where it could be easy, could be really hard, and expensive. And so, like, we took on this job, and I wanna tell you a couple of stories and mistakes to avoid. This is so valuable. This job was, like, $13,000, and I always think of that song, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, from like the eighties because every rose has its thorn. So a job that is like, yes, it's a jackpot job. It's gonna have something in there, and you feel like you have to say yes to that thing, or you might have to do that thing. It's just you have to have discernment here.

 

Keith Kalfas  00: 01:02 - 00:01:55 

For instance, we removed these huge arborvitaes that were growing up as part of this $13,000 job. These huge arborvitaes were growing up behind the house and we had to cut them down and grind the stumps because the customers wanted them gone completely. And after we dug out all of the arborvitae trimmings, all the dead stuff, there was this white PVC pipe with the, basically the roots growing right up against it, and we had to grind it. And I told my guy, I was like, dude, you have to be so so so careful. Use a sawzall, chip around, cut around, whatever you do, do not hit that pipe. And I can't say that I wouldn't have hit the dang thing because he's extremely careful. He's on that thing for 3 and a half hours grinding around up against the house, and there's this pipe that was hidden, and he nicks the pipe. So we had to get this PVC repair stuff, and luckily, it was just like a drainage.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:01:56 - 00:02:40

It wasn't anything crazy. And we were able to completely repair it with this PVC stuff and then smooth it over and sand it. And the moment the question mark comes up, you're like, So that's what you do, you get paid to solve problems. I have a friend who, I can't say his business, but he told me, once he started standardizing his business and saying, this is what we do, this is what we don't do. It could be a $50,000 job, and the customer could be like, well, can you repair the railing on my steps? Because I really need it fixed. And in the moment, you might feel like you have to say yes because this whole $50,000 job is hanging on it. But you will eventually get to the point where you can confidently say, oh, no. I'm sorry. We don't offer that service.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:02:40 - 00:03:28

We can do the $50,000 job. We're experts at this, but we're not going to repair your railing because we're not experts at it. Right? And the customer, my friend, told me, he said that he was afraid to say no, and once he started saying no because he said it's the little tiny; the devil's in the details. It's those little tiny things that will snag you and mess up a whole job because then you try to fix the railing, and you realize it has parts that are discontinued. Now you have to special order them. Right? And it's part of the job. It's on the service contract. So then it takes 4 weeks for them to arrive, and it's the wrong dang parts, and then you have to reorder them from somewhere else, and you have to fine them. And you're waiting on a $50,000 check being held up or your final deposit because of some stupid little parts from a railing coming off that you're not even supposed to be doing anyways, but it's part of the job.

 

Keith Kalfas   00:03:28 - 00:03:48

You agree to do it. So you gotta be really careful. My friend told me when he started saying no, the customers just went, “Oh, okay. No worries. I guess I'll have to find somebody else to do that”. He's like, boom. It was all in his head. Another friend of mine said that he got completely out of all the labor in his business, and I'll tell you some other stories here.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:03:49 - 00:04:31

He subcontracts only. Right? But it's a type of higher profit industry that allows you to subcontract and to standardize its commercial work. And he said, I said, “Wait a second. How do you control the quality if you're not there inspecting everything?” And my friend starts laughing, and he goes, “Bro, all the stories we told ourselves all these years as service business owners, a lot of it was just stupid stories in our heads of what we're afraid of. It's all in your head.” And he reiterated it. He's like, and you're so stuck on the story of, like, I have to be there to control the quad, I have to be there. He's like, when you find the right people, or you have the right people or people that are accountable or have an invested interest, it's all completely in your head.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:04:31 - 00:05:03

And so the most successful people know that you don't have to be there. Right? You just have to find somebody who's, like on and on. A hundred examples. So anyways, this PVC thing, we fixed it and repaired it when removing these large arborvitaeys from behind this house on this $13,000 job. There was a hidden PVC pipe. We had to grind it and cut it around it with a sawzall to get the roots out and accidentally nicked the pipe and had to fix it and we did. And then we're removing these pine trees. They have very shallow roots.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:05:03 - 00:05:27

No big deal. Grind them down. Topsoil, grass seed, done. We get called Miss Dig. There's electricity, high voltage utility lines running directly underneath them. So we have to, like, change our approach and do a surface grind. I think we only went, like, 4 inches deep, and we had to cut and pull the roots up by hand. That took an extra few hours.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:05:28 - 00:06:05

Here you go. So you feel like you have to say yes to some stuff, but other stuff you can just outright say no to. This one customer, awesome customer, do every different type of property maintenance, but she's like, come in the backyard, look at my garden. I want you to delineate the garden beds and separate them from the grass. So there's the bushes and the garden beds, but then the grass is growing into the garden bed. She's like, “I want you to create a brick retaining, like with brick pavers, a retainer. And I also want you to install a whole patio next to my patio to install it.” Right? To extend it.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:06:05 - 00:06:50

And I looked at it, and I was like, we can definitely do that if I'm here because I know we're gonna dig, and we're gonna end up cutting sprinkler lines. It's gonna be some work. I said, but I don't have time to be here because my job is to keep the calendar full. I'm mostly out of the field now. My job is to do sales and marketing and, talk to customers and, collect money, and make sure the guys have all the materials that they need so that they can bang out jobs. So you might have to say no and reduce some of those extra services that you were doing when you were there because you're so focused, and you know you can pull it off even if you're not totally experienced. You just have that capacity because, frankly, because your ass is on the line to do a phenomenal job. So these things tie you to the job.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:06:50 - 00:07:13

So I very confidently. Well, actually I wasn't confident, 'cause I wanted to do it so bad, 'cause I wanted the money. It was another It could be another $3 or something or $4. I was like, we're not experts at this, so I have to decline that. And the customer said, “Oh, come on. You can do it. I know you can do it.” And I said, “Oh, let me think about it. We might be able to do it.”

 

Keith Kalfas  00:07:14 - 00:08:17

So I walk away from the customer and now I have this thorn in my side, and I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. I already know that it's a no. Days go by, and the customer is messaging me, “Hey, are you gonna give me a price to do this garden thing and the little patio extension with the brick pavers?” I'm so stressed about it because see what happens is you learn from your mistakes. When you say yes to something that you know you should have said no to, but just because you want the money or you need the money, and then you're stuck on that job when you're supposed to be doing other things, and now you're stretched so thin that you're out there behind, you're on Sunday, then you tell yourself a story. Well, being crazy busy like this, this is where I make the most money is when you're up to here, and that's also true. When you're so busy, you're up to here, where you don't have you're on the run constantly. That is where you make the most money, but is it? Or is it just a story? So you learn all these little lessons, and I basically messaged the customer back like, I got on the phone and said, “Hey, I did some research, we're not gonna be able to do that.”

 

Keith Kalfas 00:08:18 - 00:08:33

No. No. No. No. No. No means no. And the customer says okay. And then what happens? Very same day, we close another 6 to $12,000 in work doing this stuff that we're good at, which is property maintenance.

 

Keith Kalfas   00:08:33 - 00:09:02 

This is what my employees know exactly how to do. They can trim the shrubs, and pull the weeds, and edge out the garden beds. They can put in mulch. They can do decorative stone. They can do all the stuff that we do every day, and I don't have to be there at all. I just send them the work order on Jobber, and they can just do, oh, go to get jobber.com/kalfas. I'll put a link in the description below because I'm a Jobber ambassador. You can save you get just basically a huge discount with my exclusive link when you sign up with Jobber.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:09:02 - 00:09:42

So anyways so you have to reduce the services that you offer. So you can cookie cutter your business, so it becomes more predictable. So I remember when I first started my landscaping business, I would look at other companies, and it's called copycat marketing when you first start running your business. You see what other people are doing that appear confident, and you just kinda copycat what they're doing. But sometimes the truth is, they don't even know what they're doing. They just copycat it someone else. And if it seems to work, it seems to work. But this one landscaping company in my town, they have like 20 services listed all over the trailer.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:09:43 - 00:10:40

It's like tree trimming, landscaping, shrub trimming, mulch, decorative stones, sprinklers, this, that, patios, pergolas, and it went on and on to all the like, oh, fertilizing, dethatching, aerating, there's a whole list. And I was like, oh, that's genius. Because then customers are gonna see it, and they're gonna look for the service that they need. So if it's a bigger company that has different divisions or different times of the year and they specialize, like, for instance, we would do gutter cleaning only in the spring and in the fall. We'll get a huge list, and we bang them all out and we bang them all out. When we have a gutter cleaning randomly in the middle of the like the late late late spring or summer, it doesn't even fit. So if you have these services like dethatch, aeration, combo special, they're like $500, you'll come out and do all this. You just do it in the spring, right, or in the fall or something.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:10:40 - 00:11:16

And you segment it and you black it off and let all your customers know, hey. We're gonna be doing this for this month, this service, and you could kinda tie it into maybe when you're a little bit slower. That's what I love about doing ornamental tree trimming. That's why we do spring and fall cleanups. That's why you do snow removal. 

 

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Keith Kalfas   00:12:22 - 00:12:36

But when you have this hodgepodge of services, it makes it very difficult. So the more refined you get and say, hey, we just do these few things very, very well, and we do them over and over and over and over again. That's so amazing because whenever you have a new employee come, you can train that employee quickly to do these services.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:12:36 - 00:13:55

And then you can leave, and then they'll know exactly what to do. But it's hard in the beginning when you need money because you'll say yes to all these different random things because you could just swap yourself with months of work and make literally 100 of 1,000 of dollars in revenue by just saying yes. But the problem with that is, again, to reiterate, is once you start getting employees, if you don't have if you don't have a training system and you have all these services, you might have to have all these different types of tools. So if Tuesday the guys turn in bushes and on Wednesday you got the guy pressure washing, how do you expect that guy to even learn and do a good job? That's your fault if you don't teach him. And if he doesn't do pressure washing again for another 2 weeks and randomly on a Thursday, he's doing pressure washing, how can you expect him to do a great job? Now you're gonna be walking on eggshells, afraid that something goes wrong. It's you could tell I've been through this crap. Right? So it's like, I think it's very important to get very clear about the services that you offer. And if you've been in the business for a while running solo, you can look and say, okay, What are the highest profit margin services that you do? What services do you love to do? What services do you absolutely hate doing? And try to narrow it and move it around and be like, you know what? I really like doing this.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:13:55 - 00:14:41

One of them could be a landscaping installs anywhere from 75100 to 15000, like installing stuff. And moving up with inflation, the bigger ticket jobs you get that are more kind of luxury, where customers have disposable income is, the higher the profit margins can go. So if you have a 50% gross profit margin on a, let's say, just a $10,000 job, 5,000 gross profit. And the one thing I like about doing bigger jobs, which is a whole another video, whole another piece of content, is that it's big rocks in your calendar that block up more time. So anyways, if you like these types of stories, let me know in the comments below. I appreciate you. I see and I read all of your comments even if I don't respond. It's because I just get so many messages.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:14:41 - 00:15:20

And again, I'm Keith Kalfas. This channel is called the landscaping employee trap. And if I say that in my older videos, you can look and see. I also have some announcements to make, so keep listening. If you go down and you see playlist or my older videos, I would say, what's up? It's Keith Kalfas with the landscaping employee trap. It's because when I first started this channel, I was a landscaper who was stuck in what I call dead-end landscaping jobs because I wanted to start my own business. So I said, let me make some videos for guys who are stuck in the landscaping employee trap, and the channel kinda took off. And so we also I created a podcast called The Untrapped Podcast.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:15:20 - 00:15:52

So if you don't have time to watch the videos, you can also go to Apple or Spotify, The Untrapped Podcast, and you can listen to it while you work. We just crossed 850,000 downloads. And then also, I have a whole much more announcements. If you need a great website, go to durable.co. Durable uses the power of AI to give you an amazing website to market your business. And with AI, it'll templatize your whole website out quickly. You just type in, like, make me a lawn care or landscaping website. And then you go in and you fill in all the blanks.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:15:52 - 00:16:30

And then, with my unique code, because I'm a durable ambassador, I'll put a link in the description below. You can click it, and you get a huge discount with my link. So next thing is keithkelphus.com is my website. You can get access to all my resources. If you go to keithkelphus.com/resources, you get access to everything that I talk about in my videos. If you need software, you need equipment, you need help with your business, I have also started something. We're beta-testing the untrapped alliance, which is a biweekly coaching group. So you can get on a Zoom calls with me and a few other people.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:16:30 - 00:17:12

It's a community where you can get your questions answered, and we can walk you through your business sales and marketing. And really excited about that. I'll also be having, from time to time, other experts come on that are have profound knowledge in running a service business, and then they can answer your questions too, so we have more diversity. So, I'll put the links to everything that I'm talking about below here. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and turn on notifications. If you wanna get on a call with me, it's keithkalfas.com/call. Sometimes people try to get a hold of me and I can't. I'm busy running a couple businesses and I'm married and I have so much stuff going on that I can't get on the phone with people anymore. And sometimes people are getting upset.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:17:12 - 00:17:40

They're like, yo, I wanna talk to you on the phone, bro. How come you won't talk to me? And I was like, I just can't. I spent a few years talking to people all the time on the phone and for free in Facebook, chatting and messaging, helping them the guys who are trying to start their businesses. And that's my favorite thing to do. That's what this whole channel is about. So I created keithkelphus.com/call. It's a paid 30-minute or 1-hour call you can get on the phone with me. And I also offer higher-level coaching because I'm completely obsessed with marketing.

 

Keith Kalfas  00:17:40 - 00:18:18

So Yeah. That's it. What up, though? My studio, I am remodeling a part of it. And I'm gonna be taking the podcast to a next level, and it's gonna be sweet. I can't wait for you to see it. Oh, also, another announcement. We just finished traveling around the country doing a season 1 of our shop tour series. And we've done amazing interviews with people like coach Carroll, Tommy Mello, Kirk Kempton from ResponsiBid, Ryan Johnson from Reach at Window Cleaning, we've done Troy Klog, and we've done, I said Tommy Mellow, a one garage doors.

 

Keith Kalfas 00:18:19 - 00:18:34

So that'll all be coming out soon on my YouTube channel here. I'm so excited about it. It's gonna be totally free. They're like full, almost like a TV show of amazing epic interviews. And that's it. Stay blessed.

 

In today's episode, Keith dives into a pretty intense story that could really make you stop and think. 

A few years back, in 2021, Keith had a near-miss that none of us would ever want to face—he almost got seriously hurt while working on a tree job near some high-voltage power lines. And he's shared why that experience serves as a major wake-up call about the realities and risks of working close to electricity. Keith's not just telling this story for kicks—he hopes it opens eyes and might even save a few lives. We'll hear how important it is to be cautious and learn about electrical safety so that nobody finds themselves in a similar scary situation. 

So, if you're in the green industry or know someone who is, you'll want to stick around and listen to this one!

 

Check out these episode highlights:

00:00 Trimmed branches with a telescopic pole saw.

03:17 Felt weird after a close call with danger.

07:13 Firefighter calls it a miracle: mild injury.

10:09 Assume wires are live; check safety videos.

 

Key Takeaways: 

• Keep Your Eyes Peeled: Power lines might look like they're far away, but give them respect and distance—always.

• Assume Every Wire is Hot: Whether it’s an electrical, phone, or even a cable line, treat them all like they’re live. Better safe than sorry, right?

• Know Before You Go: Watch safety videos on electrical hazards and tree work. A little knowledge goes a long way toward keeping you safe.

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

Here's the video and story about our Window Cleaning brother in the UK I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_pxfE8A4k

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7QgzAauFCQ 

Tree Work Electric hazard awareness:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILGSn9Rx8f8&t=0s

The Time William and I climbed 115ft. in a tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVmT_Nhohjk&t=0s

Tree Work and Arborist Videos playlist:   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLub0_q7i2mDRR3pk7GpX3k8JhZiE2IvYm

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇 Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

 

Transcript

(Note: this was transcribed using transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

 

Keith Kalfas 00:00:05 - 00:00:49

So this goes out as a warning to everybody in the green industry. I almost died a few years ago at work, and I keep avoiding making this video because of my ego is afraid of looking stupid and getting criticized, but I believe that what I'm about to talk about can very much save lives, and so I'm gonna tell you the story. I can't believe I'm making this video. So I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for the safety of others. Alright. So 2021, we're doing a tree job, and I'm removing a jack pine tree. This tree was maybe 25 feet tall behind a shed in a backyard. And so I'm actually pretty experienced doing tree work.

Keith Kalfas 00:00:49 -00:01:53

I just don't post it on social media, and well, there was primary power lines, but they were 15 feet away from the tree and way high up, so they're about 10 feet away and then another 12 feet up. I mean, they were so far back and up in the air that once I was up in the tree and I started removing branches, they're behind me. I stopped paying attention to them because they were literally really far away. Right? Well, there's this thing I needed to trim a branch in front of me that I couldn't reach and get out to. So I'll tell my guy on the ground, I'll be like, yo, hand me the Stihl PP 800. It's a telescoping 18-foot aluminum pruning telescoping pruner pole and with the saw head on it. Right? You attach the saw head. And what I'll do with it, I'm up in the tree, is he'll extend it all the way out and then push it up to me, and I'll reach down and grab it, and then I'll fish it up behind me, and then I'll collapse it back down and just trim what I need to trim.

Keith Kalfas 00:01:53 - 00:02:23

Well, in this instance, dude, I got my gear on ropes, I got my gaffes, which are my spikes, I got my saddle. I got my buck strap my lanyard around the tree. I've got my pruning saw. I'm fully geared up, and I'm in the tree. It's a dry, hot July day. Very hot, very dry out. And as I'm fishing, the saw up, and it's going higher and higher and higher behind me because I stopped paying attention to this wide-open aluminum primary line. I don't know how many volts it is.

Keith Kalfas 00:02:23 - 00:03:16

Like, let me know in the comments. 12,000 volts. And I've watched a lot of electrical videos. Like, you should just stay the hell away from electrical lines because you could touch something that's touching something that's touching something, and it'll take a full Thanksgiving turkey and set that mug on fire and fry it in like 20 seconds. So anyways, as I'm fishing it up, my hands on the aluminum, bare hand, and I take my hand off the aluminum because that's where, like, there's a rubber grip, and it's not insulated for electrical safety. Soon as my hand goes off the aluminum, I push up one more time, and I grab the rubber grip. I hear tink, and I felt a buzz go through me, and my hair stand on end. And I look behind me and I hit the primary line, and it swings back and goes pink and hits again. It goes bzzzz, dude. I pulled the pole away from the line.

Keith Kalfas 00:03:17 - 00:04:14

Right? Real quick. And my just whole heart my energy dropped. I got rid of the pole real quick, put it through down on the ground, rappelled to the ground, took my gear off, and immediately just walked and sat in my truck. So, as I'm sitting in my truck, this sounds really weird, like an out-of-body experience, and I'm still freaked out about this. There was a part of me that believed that I had died and that my spirit walked over and was sitting in my truck waiting for, like, the ambulance to come and watch my body get carried away and that I was just a witness. Because when you touch an electrical line, aluminum line with an aluminum pole, you don't just not get injured. It either sets your body on fire, your organs explode, your legs explode, you get stuck on it. You're toast.

Keith Kalfas 00:04:14 -00:05:02

You don't touch an electrical line without, first of all, dying, having an instant heart attack, being set on fire, or having severe injuries. And one of our brothers, he's actually in UK, is a window cleaner, and he's water-fed pole. He's cleaning windows two-story building, working hard, and building his business family at home. There was an airline, and the water, it was windy, was like misting off in the air because there's water jets when you clean windows. It's a really cool window-cleaning system, and this could happen to anybody. It arced, and it traveled along the water, ran down the pole into his hands, blew this guy back, like, 10 feet, and left burn marks in the grass. And this guy is I think he's just getting out of the hospital. He's had, like, 20 surgeries.

Keith Kalfas 00:05:02 - 00:05:41

It's affected his kidneys. He has burnt necrotic tissue, several infections, blood clots. They've had to remove part of his forearm tons of muscle tissue in his legs, and this is permanently negatively affected this guy for the rest of his life. And if you're part of, like, the tree care safety and being a certified arborist, which I'm not, and what is it? The ANSI standards and all this stuff. There's reports that come in every single week about all the injuries that happen across the United States. Most of them are actually homeowners with chainsaws trying to do work themselves or people getting electrocuted, people getting injured, people could it's like it's such a high severe risk.

Words From Our Sponsor 00:05:42 - 00:06:36

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Keith Kalfas 00:06:37 - 00:07:13

But especially electrocution. So I got on the phone. I instantly called one of my landscaping clients who climbs power poles and works on electrical lines, and I told him immediately what happened. I was embarrassed on a care. I say, “Hey, Mrs. Jones. Can I talk to Mr. Jones? I know he does this for a living.” I'm I'm the land “What's going on, Keith?” And I was like, I tell him what happened, and he says, “Brother, all I can say is that the good lord was on your side today, and that's a miracle that you are not burnt, and you are still here with us. The good lord is on your side.”

Keith Kalfas 00:07:13 - 00:08:00

I get on the phone with a retired firefighter lieutenant, and I tell him the story. Firefighters are highly trained when it comes to electricity. And he says, “Brother, what happened to you today was nothing short of a miracle. That you were okay.” Now, I did have some back pain for about 2 weeks. It wasn't too bad, but I felt like I had some kidney pain going on. It could have been from the saddle that I was in, just like a muscle. I can't tell. And I was very shaken up, but I talked to somebody else. I don't wanna throw them under the bridge, but I talked to one of my best friends who does tree work for a living. And he's, like, basically, well, he took it very serious, but he was also, like, I was overreacting.

Keith Kalfas 00:08:00 - 00:08:29

He's, like, “Quit being a wuss. Bro, what are you afraid of a little bit of electricity? I mess with electricity every day.” So, anyway but, I'm just trying to joke around to lighten it up a little bit. It's not funny. Oh, yeah. Here's the weird part I'll share. You know how, like, parallel universes? Sometimes, when I'm around my wife, I will think about that moment, and I feel very blessed. So if you're sitting around your house and you're bored and it's like a Sunday, you got no reason to be bored.

Keith Kalfas 00:08:29 - 00:09:08

If you are healthy and you're still here, you won. Okay? But I look at my wife sometimes, and I go, like, what if I really didn't make it that day, and it split off into like an alternate reality? I know that sounds crazy and like don't think that, don't think that, that's crazy thoughts because you know, it's like some.. Anyway, so here's the moral of the story, man. Stay the hell away from electricity and electrical lines. If you see a downline, don't even go near it. Don't even pick up branches. Dude, there could literally be. Oh yeah, also, the power line guy said maybe because it was so dry out that it didn't have anywhere to ground. My spikes were in the tree.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:08 -00:09:35

Right? If I would have been touching the aluminum, it probably would have fried me. But I was touching the rubber grip. The rubber grips and not insulated for electrical protection. Like, so You know, I was barehanded. It was dry out. My spikes, I was wearing long pants, and I was wearing gaffes that were coming off of rubber boots going into the tree. The electricity didn't have any place to go through me and ground. So it allegedly, I think, it kinda went in me and just went back out. It didn't have anywhere to ground.

Keith Kalfas 00:09:35 - 00:10:09

Say if it grounded out of my right gaff into the tree, it would have blown a hole in my leg or set my leg on fire. Right? So I was, like, so extremely lucky. I don't know what I would. I guess my gut says that was probably less than a 10%, maybe a seven, or as low as a 3% chance. 3% that I didn't get injured at all. Freaking unbelievable. So I feel incredibly blessed. So stay away from electricity. If you're trimming some tall shrubs and there's lines going through it, I don't think you should do it.

Keith Kalfas 00:10:09 - 00:10:53

There's phone lines, cable lines, internet lines. You should treat every single wire as if it's live and active. You know, I'm gonna put some links in the description below to electrical safety training videos. That wasn't the next thing I'm gonna say. Spend an hour watching videos of tree workers failing, dropping trees on houses, crushing vehicles, getting injured, being projected, you know, like a projectile 30 feet their whole body because they get hit by a branch. Literally, them being set on fire and being fried to death like a roasting marshmallow. Watch electrical safety training videos of where, like, they'll have like a wagon and then a pole and then something else and then they'll touch a stick with these big rubber gloves to a hot dog—five things touching the wire.

Keith Kalfas 00:10:53 - 00:11:17

Five independent things, and then they touch a hot dog to it, and the hot dog freaking sets on fire. So it what it is. It's a silent unaliber. It's a silent. You don't know that it happened until it happened. So you could just be walking up, and it's totally quiet. Just watch all the videos, man. Alright, I'm going back to running my Saturday errands. I got that off my chest. I hope that saves someone's life or protects somebody.

Keith Kalfas 00:11:17 - 00:11:22

I'm so thankful that I'm here and everything's okay, and I ain't never doing that ever again.

 

 

 

In this episode, Keith Kelfis shares a personal story about cutting corners on a landscaping job due to fear and lack of confidence. He recalls how he started his landscaping business with an obsessive focus on quality and customer care, only to land a wealthy client whose massive property overwhelmed him. Keith recounts undercharging for extensive landscaping work and making a critical error by not using enough weed barrier fabric. This mistake haunted him for years, teaching him valuable lessons about knowing his worth and the importance of doing the job right the first time. He emphasizes the significance of providing top-notch work and charging appropriately, highlighting the stress and emotional toll of undercharging and cutting corners. Keith also touches on using Jobber Software to improve his business operations. With a focus on continuous improvement and learning from mistakes, Keith aims to inspire landscapers to deliver exceptional results and run healthy businesses.

 

"True mastery in business comes from the pain and suffering of lessons learned the hard way. Charge what you're worth, commit to top-quality work, and never let fear drive your decisions. Build your confidence, stay connected to your heart, and you'll create a business that serves both your clients and your dreams."  - Keith Kalfas

Topics Covered:

• Establishing the Landscaping Business
• The Wealthy Client Experience
• Financial and Emotional Struggles
• Examples of Other Business Challenges

Key Takeaways

• Undercharging and Low Self-Esteem: Starting out with low confidence led to significantly undercharging for services, which resulted in cutting corners and causing long-term stress.

   

• Learning from Mistakes: Hard lessons were learned about the importance of charging appropriately for work to ensure quality and avoid future stress and financial strain.

   

• Importance of Self-Worth in Business: Understanding and valuing one's worth is crucial for running a successful business, delivering high-quality work, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

Keith delivers a profound narrative on navigating life's darkest moments in this compelling episode of The Untrapped. He recounts his experiences of financial hardship and emotional challenges, illustrating how he discerned a faint glimmer of hope amidst seemingly insurmountable despair. Keith emphasizes the importance of developing resilience and the readiness to receive life's blessings when they eventually appear. He invites you to consider the broader aspects of success beyond material wealth, challenging them to cultivate inner peace and purpose. 

Join us as we uncover the significance of being prepared to emerge as guiding lights for future generations, reinforcing the enduring truth that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.

 

Check out these episode highlights:

00:00 Patience and perseverance build the readiness needed for responsibility.

03:10 Embracing inner peace invites blessings; firmly resist negativity.

 

Key Takeaways: 

• Embrace the Journey: Success doesn't happen overnight. The challenges we face today are preparing us for the responsibilities of future blessings. Develop the skills and resilience needed to handle what's coming your way.
• Internal Peace Leads to External Success: Sometimes, the breakthrough comes not from what's happening outside but from maintaining peace and surrender. Let go of the need to control everything and focus on your inner tranquility.
• Persevere Through the Dark Times: Even in the darkest moments, there's a light destined for you. Keep taking action towards your dreams, regardless of the naysayers, and remember that others count on you to reach your potential.

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

 

Transcript (Note: this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

 

00:00:00

Bro, I want to talk about a time that I was in such a pit of despair and depression that I couldn't even see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was so small it was like a pinhole. It might as well been a whole black sky and me looking up at one single star. I was broke, I was in debt, I had debt collectors call me, and I would go out to the park at night, look at the sky, and get on my knees, and I would pray to God, and I would say, "God, please let me be successful. Please. Please." I was begging him, and I felt God say, "No, you got a long way to go. It's gonna happen, but you got a long way to go."

 

00:00:35

But here's the thing: even in the pit, I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel because I could see it. I could see it. Even though it was this small, there was still a light. So all I had to do was just put my focus on it and put one foot in front of the other. I was walking the line. And bro, it took another 15 years. And here's why because: if God gives you what you want, that you say that you want, that you're praying for, that you're begging for, that you're asking for, if he gives it to you right now, you have not developed the skill set. You hadn't been through the real hard work and actually got the stars and stripes to be able to deal with the responsibility of what you're asking for.

00:01:15

Are you ready for all that? You better be careful what you wish for because you might only get it once and you squander it, you mess it up? No. So I'm asking god, "Please delay my blessing until I'm ready for it because I see the light at the end of the tunnel." This is a blessing that I'm going through the pit right now in despair because now I got all this time to walk it out. So when I do get there, when I do get there, when you do get there, you'll be ready to walk into your blessing. And you can handle it because you're a good steward of your blessing. And it's not just about money. If you read the book, The Wealth Money Can't Buy by Robin Sharma.

 

00:01:58

Bro, he talks about how wealth is just one little tiny piece of the pie. There's all these other things you got to learn. Some people who make a lot of money are complete failures. No amount of financial success can compensate for failure in the home, and no amount of worldly success can compensate for failure with your relationship with your creator. So, if you're not yet where you say you want to be, I want you to take a minute and think real clearly about where you're at and get humble. Get humble. And then, I want you to think about who are you honoring and praising right now and who are you gonna continue to honor and praise when things are good. Because they're gonna get good.

 

00:02:46

Your blessing is coming, and when it comes, it's gonna come quick. I remember very clearly each level up in my life. It was when something changed inside of me. I had to get to the point where I was like, you know what? I deserve better than this. I'm worthy of this. I put in the work. It still didn't happen. It was when I finally threw in the towel, and I surrendered, and I said, you know what? I'm done.

 

00:03:10

I'm done being so upset about what's not happening on the outside. I'm gonna maintain peace on the inside. So that's when the blessing just went right into my life. And one thing, the naysayers, the toxic people in your life, and I know you got one because I know I got one too, you have to go to war with these people, not physically. It could just be drawing new lines in the sand and staying in your square and saying, "You know what? I have a huge dream, and I'm gonna keep chasing that dream and taking action every single day towards that dream," despite if you're in depression, if you're in the pit, no matter what. And I'm telling you, I'm a walking testimonial. I'm a walking testimonial. I've watched it happen in my life.

 

00:03:53

I went from being broke and debt all of it. Right? And scared to literally walking into having multiple business, being a keynote speaker, having millions of views on social media, having a happy marriage, being able to literally go all over the country and do what I want, when I want, how I want, and have multiple streams of income. I'm a walking testimonial. I'm I'm so serious right now. If I can do this, if I could do it, if I could do it, if I could do it, then you can do it. I want you to not give up. I want you to keep trying. I want you to keep fighting.

 

00:04:23

I want you to give everything that you've got. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't ever compromise, and you will watch these blessings open up in your life. It is going to happen for you. And if it ain't happening right now, that's fine because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And how dare you? How dare you put your head in the sand and avoid sick? Because you know how the time's gonna go by, and you're gonna wake up in regret.

 

00:04:50

Regret. Now, wake up in regret. The light is at the end of the tunnel, and it's real. And I wanna leave you with one last thing. Who better to be a testimonial to others than somebody who's gone through it themselves? I'm telling you right now, if you have a vision and you have a dream, stick to it. There is a light at the end of the tunnel because there are people waiting for you on the other side that are gonna need your help, they're gonna need your mentorship, they're counting on you—people that you don't even know yet, maybe people that haven't even been born yet. There are people that are depending on you.

00:05:33

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. You got this, bro. You got it.

 

In his inspiring speech at the 2024 Lawntrepreneur Academy, Keith Kelfas discusses the importance of grit in overcoming professional and personal challenges. Drawing from his own experiences in the landscaping business and his faith in God, Keith shares powerful stories of perseverance, emotional growth, and the journey through highs and lows. He emphasizes the significance of honesty in business, the importance of setting expectations with clients and staying composed under pressure. Keith underscores that success comes from within, staying true to oneself, and always honouring God. Through anecdotes and practical advice, he motivates the audience to rise above adversity and carve their own path to success.

 

"No matter what you're going through or how a customer treats you, it's never, ever, ever admissible or okay to have a negative energy with the next customer. It's not their fault. "  - Keith Kalfas

Topics Covered:

• Overcoming Challenges and Finding Grit
• The Landscaping Business Journey
• A Difficult Client Encounter
• Personal Struggles and Resilience
• A New Opportunity
• Unexpected Offer and Integrity
• Detailed Job Breakdown
• Communication and Customer Expectations
• Job Interruption and Resumption
• Payment Dispute and Resolution
• Faith and Personal Reflections

Key Takeaways

• Finding and Maintaining Grit: Grit is essential for overcoming challenges in life and business, especially during discouraging times when resilience can feel out of reach. Maintaining determination helps navigate tough situations, allowing for personal and professional growth despite setbacks.

• Honoring and Putting God First: Faith plays a significant role in finding strength and maintaining resilience, offering peace and guidance during times of stress and emotional turmoil. Honoring spiritual beliefs can have a profound positive impact on both personal and professional life.

• Customer Interactions and Professional Integrity: Interactions with clients highlight the importance of professionalism and integrity, even in challenging situations. Transparency, honesty, and assertiveness are crucial for build

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

On this episode of The Untrapped Podcast, host Keith Kelfas talks with Cornell from Mack Landscaping and Lawn Care, currently attending the Lawntrepreneur Academy event in Novi, Michigan. Cornell shares his journey from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he grew up learning lawn care from his grandmother to starting his own lawn care business in 2016. They discuss the importance of having commercial auto insurance, leveraging online platforms like Google for business growth, and the significance of investing in oneself through continuous learning. Cornell also highlights the value of creating a supportive network and taking action to overcome excuses and setbacks. The conversation provides insights into both the personal and professional development necessary for running a successful business in the lawn care industry.

 

"Know your worth and embrace it. You’re not just valuable to your industry, but to yourself, your family, the world, and to God. When you truly recognize your worth, it elevates how you see yourself—and that confidence fuels your growth."  -Cornell Mack

Topics Covered:

• Cornell's Lawn Care Journey
• Starting a Lawn Care Business
• YouTube and Podcasting Success
• Networking and Personal Growth
• Tips for Lawn and Landscape Business
• Avoiding the Trap of Comparison
• Recognizing Your Worth
• Overcoming Challenges and Self-Doubt
• The Power of Knowledge and Mentorship
• Investing in Yourself
• The Importance of Insurance

Key Takeaways

• Network and Build Relationships: Always be willing to introduce yourself and connect with other industry professionals. This can open doors, create opportunities, and facilitate personal and business growth. Attend live events, conferences, and expos to meet and learn from others in your industry.
• Self-Belief and Determination: Believe in your vision and stay dedicated to it, even when others don’t understand or support you. Use your self-belief to fuel your persistence and overcome obstacles.
• Value Continuous Learning: Leverage free resources available online to gain knowledge and improve your business skills. Consider investing in paid content, courses, or coaching if free resources aren’t sufficient.

• Embrace Innovation and Adaptability: Be open to trying new things and be adaptable in your business approach. Don't see change as a threat; rather, see it as an opportunity for growth.

• Prioritize Organization: Use CRM tools to manage your customer relationships and optimize your operations. Stay organized to maximize efficiency and reduce unnecessary stress.

 

Connect with Cornell Mack

Youtube: @mack_landscaping412 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mack_landscaping412 Website: macklandscaping412.com

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

LevelUp Your  Landscaping Business to $100K and beyond: https://www.keithkalfas.com/LEVELUP

In this episode, we dive into the psychological and financial struggles of running a service business, especially when undercharging creates a cycle of stress and low profitability. Keith Kalfas, shares personal strategies for escaping this 'doom loop' by setting boundaries, improving communication, and learning from successful entrepreneurs. We also discuss the value of staying positive, organized, and building a high-performance mindset, supported by strong personal relationships. Plus, stay tuned for upcoming content featuring successful business tours and interviews.

 

"Break free from the 'doom loop' of undercharging by valuing your work, setting boundaries, and treating each challenge as data rather than a personal failure." Keith Kalfas

Topics Covered:

• The Doom Loop of Low Profit Work
• Emotional Toll of Running a Business
• The Importance of Emotional Detachment
• Personal Insights and Support Systems
• Learning from Successful Entrepreneurs
• Effective Communication and Client Management
• Navigating Economic Challenges
• Engage with Your Business Community

Key Takeaways

• Avoid the Doom Loop: Undercharging for services can lead to a cycle of low profit, high stress, and client relationships that lack loyalty. Breaking this pattern starts with valuing your work and charging accordingly.

   

• Set Clear Boundaries: Clear communication with clients and setting boundaries are essential to maintaining profitability and avoiding burnout.

   

• Surround Yourself with High-Performers: Learn from successful entrepreneurs, stay organized, and build a high-performance mindset supported by strong relationships to elevate your business and personal resilience.

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

Build Your Website: https://durable.co/    Promo Code: keith30

In this episode, Keith Kelfas offers crucial advice for landscaping business owners facing economic uncertainty. He emphasizes the importance of staying strong, learning new skills, and maintaining a positive mindset. Keith shares insights from books like 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' and 'Guerrilla Marketing Tactics' to highlight resilience and strategic thinking. He also introduces a new sponsor, Durable.co, showcasing its AI-powered website-building tool tailored for landscaping and lawn care businesses. For a detailed understanding, tune in and get inspired to keep hustling and growing your business.

 

"If you focus on what you can control, you’ll feel more empowered. Start by spending less time with negative, victim-minded people."   Keith Kalfas

Topics Covered:

• Understanding the Current Market Frustration
• Advice for New and Experienced Business Owners
• Survival of the Fittest: Thriving in Tough Times
• The Power of Focus and Positivity
• Sharpening Skills and Staying Resilient
• Promoting Continuous Learning and Resources

Key Takeaways

• Stay Resilient and Focus on Self-Improvement: In tough economic times, continue learning new skills and sharpening your saw. Your resilience and hard work will pay off when the market conditions improve.

   

• Control What You Can: Focus on aspects within your control and avoid spending time with negative, cynical people. Surround yourself with successful, high-thinking individuals to stay motivated and inspired.

   

• Utilize AI Tools for Efficiency: Smart tools like Durable.co can help you quickly build professional websites for your business, saving time and resources while maintaining quality.

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

Build Your Website: https://durable.co/    Promo Code: keith30

In this episode of the Untrapped Podcast, Keith Kalfas shares the hardships and unpredictability of the landscaping business, focusing on the importance of resilience and gratitude in the face of challenges. He discusses personal anecdotes and those of others in similar businesses, illustrating how perseverance through difficulties can lead to greater growth. Keith emphasizes learning from mistakes, maintaining faith, and the significance of managing stress and uncertainty. 

 

" The pressure turns you into a diamond, people who don't have any pressure on them sometimes they just become very lazy and lackadaisical and they don't amount to anything. "   Keith Kalfas

Topics Covered:

• The Struggles of Running a Landscaping Business
• Real-Life Challenges and Stories
• Dealing with Business Stress and Uncertainty
• Success Stories and Faith
• Upcoming Events and Final Thoughts
• Free Resources and Tools for Your Business

Key Takeaways

• Running a landscaping business is extremely challenging, especially in the first few years. Small business owners face a variety of issues such as negative reviews, unreliable employees, equipment breakdowns, and personal sacrifices.

• It's essential to anticipate problems, manage stress, stay positive, and view challenges as opportunities for growth. Faith, integrity, and prioritizing family and customers are crucial.

• Overall, the message is to stay motivated, work hard, and seek inspiration from others who have succeeded despite difficulties.

 

 

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

Build Your Website: https://durable.co/    Promo Code: keith30

In this episode of the Untrapped Podcast, Keith Kalfas interviews Dan Platta, the Home Service CFO and founder of Best Dan Bookkeeping. They discuss key topics such as managing chaos in business, the importance of having the right team, effective organizational strategies, and Dan's journey from the corporate world to entrepreneurship. The conversation touches on the significance of recruiting top talent, leveraging checklists for operational efficiency, and the biggest lessons learned from past mistakes. Dan also shares his vision for future ventures and insights on balancing business and personal life. Throughout the episode, actionable advice is provided for small business owners aiming to scale and improve their operations.

 

"Find good mentors and learn from their mistakes"   Dan Platta

Topics Covered:

• Revenue and Services: Dan's Business Insights
• Organizational Strategies for Success
• Recruiting the Best Employees
• Top Influential Books
• Overcoming Entrepreneurial Fears
• Advice for New Entrepreneurs
• Short-Term Goals and Business Philosophy
• Customer-Centric Business Philosophy
• The Importance of Zero Attrition
• Big Hairy Audacious Goals
• Overcoming Business Challenges
• Lessons from Business Mistakes
• The Value of Good Bookkeeping

Key Takeaways

1. Revenue Achievement and Service Diversification:

   • Dan Plata discusses achieving nearly $4 million in revenue, emphasizing the importance of offering diverse services such as window cleaning, pressure washing, maid services, bookkeeping, recruiting, and marketing.
   • Key takeaway: Diversification can lead to higher revenue, but managing multiple services requires robust organizational strategies.

2. Importance of Support Systems:

   • Dan highlights the critical role his wife plays in his success, even though she isn’t directly involved in the business.
   • Key takeaway: A strong personal support system can significantly boost business performance and personal well-being.

3. Organizational Strategies:

   • Dan stresses the importance of checklists and to-do lists to maintain accountability and ensure that employees stay on task.
   • Key takeaway: Simple organizational tools like digital checklists can streamline operations and prevent errors in repetitive tasks.

4. Recruitment and Quality of Employees:

   • Dan learned to recruit high-quality employees rather than hiring quickly to fill positions. By finding the best candidates in advance, he ensures that he can select from the top talent when needed.
   • Key takeaway: Continuous recruitment and having high standards for employee selection can improve service quality and business growth.

5. Influential Books:

   • Dan recommends "The E-Myth Revisited," "Peak Performance," and "Leadership and Self-Deception" as pivotal books that have impacted his business approach.
   • Key takeaway: Reading and learning from comprehensive resources can offer new perspectives and practical strategies for business improvement.

6. Facing and Overcoming Fears:

   • Dan reflects on his fear of leaving the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, but realized the risk was worth the learning experience.
   • Key takeaway: Overcoming initial fears and making calculated risks can lead to greater opportunities and personal growth.

7. Mentorship and Learning from Others:

   • Dan advises new entrepreneurs to find good mentors and learn from their mistakes to avoid common pitfalls.
   • Key takeaway: Leveraging the experiences of successful mentors can shorten the learning curve and provide valuable insights.

8. Prioritizing Customer and Employee Satisfaction:

   • Dan’s goal is to build a business driven by customer demand and employee satisfaction rather than solely focusing on financial targets.
   • Key takeaway: Focusing on creating value for customers and providing a great work environment for employees can lead to sustainable business growth and profitability.

9. Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG):

   • Dan's major life goal is to combine his passion for business with his love for outdoor activities by creating a mastermind group for business owners that includes outdoor adventures.
   • Key takeaway: Aligning personal passions with business goals can lead to a more fulfilling career.

10. Handling Mistakes:

    • Dan admits that growing his business too rapidly and spreading too thin were significant mistakes but valuable learning experiences.
    • Key takeaway: Learning from business missteps is crucial. Scaling should be done thoughtfully to avoid overextension and operational disarray.

11. Understanding and Leveraging Financial Data:

    • Dan emphasizes the importance of having impeccable bookkeeping to make better business decisions and ensure financial clarity.
    • Key takeaway: Accurate financial data helps in making informed decisions, which is essential for managing growth and ensuring long-term success.

 

Connect with Dan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-platta-30736b31

Connect with Keith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keithkalfas/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelandscapingemployeetrap Website: https://www.keithkalfas.com/resources Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keith-kalfas

 

Resources and Websites: 

🙋♂️Get My Free Landscaping Business Startup Video Series Here👇  Here https://www.keithkalfas.com/Landscaping-Series

Landscaping Course https://keith-kalfas.mykajabi.com/store/8bFERMcs

LANDSCAPING BUSINESS  How to Guide: https://www.keithkalfas.com/16

Get Jobber: https://getjobber.com/im/ambassador-referral/?gspk=a2VpdGhrYWxmYXM4NTIx&gsxid=Rs6pwtznLDcs

Get Ballard: https://www.ballard-inc.com/

Easy Budgeting Blueprint: keithkalfas.com/budget

Smartphone Video Creation Guide: Keithkalfas.com/smartphone

Identifying Your Superpower: Keithkalfas.com/superpower

Become An influencer And Monetize Your Expertise: https://www.keithkalfas.com/influence

Multiple Ways to Monetize: https://www.keithkalfas.com/multipleways

Build Your Website: https://durable.co/    Promo Code: keith30