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How to Start $58K/Month Landscaping Business (Pt. 1) - YouTube
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do you guys want to make 58 000 a month
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having your own landscaping business
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that's the life of brian linson
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founder and owner of bl landscapes who
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started his company with a two-man crew
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and is about to break a million dollars
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this year
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on this episode we're going to talk to
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brian about his keys to success
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he's going to share a little bit about
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how he built his client list
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and also tips and advice on managing
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hiring staff
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all these things are really crucial
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aspects for really any business
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so you'll want to stick around to hear
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his tips and advice
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what's a good day for you financially
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about four thousand dollars
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in a day in a day which is nice what's
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the secret to your tremendous growth for
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the company
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one of the biggest factors of bl
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landscaping success and growth
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is their strong customer and community
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engagement not one
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single customer complaint in the last
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six years brian's advice and tips on how
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to keep customers happy
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and have them come back is going to help
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you as well have the same
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customer satisfaction rate you should be
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making a good 50
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profit margin that's really i think the
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key to our growth and our success
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brian has some very helpful information
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for aspiring landscapers as well
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he's going to talk about what kind of
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equipment you need choosing your
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services pricing etc
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and most importantly how to market a
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brand new landscaping company
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if you can't afford to buy a 2500 saw
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and you can rent this saw for a hundred
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dollars a day
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we buy the tools we need for the job
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because then the next time
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that's all profit if you guys like the
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sound of this interview
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make sure you like the video and
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subscribe to our channel
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that way you don't miss any of the
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stellar uplift content that we've got
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coming for you
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let's go meet brian
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brian it's good to be here with you
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thanks for your time and we can't wait
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to share your story and good to hear uh
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tell us
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a little bit about yourself why you
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started a landscaping company
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and a little bit of backdrop on that
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sure i
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started a landscape company um just
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after years of working for other people
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and and uh doing essentially what i do
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here but not really reaping the benefits
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of that
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my first couple jobs were working at
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nurseries and
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public gardens and florists and stuff
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like that and
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it's just always been a passion of mine
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and it just finally got to a point where
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i needed to step out on my own to
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achieve anything more than just average
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you know to
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actually take it to the next level right
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so you were doing this for somebody else
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at 15 bucks an hour
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yes you figured out i could probably do
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this on my own
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that's where it really hit me the most
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is that i
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i was doing all the estimating
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making sure all the materials were there
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on time doing all the work
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running the cruise and everything and i
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finally realized that the only thing i
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wasn't doing was
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collecting a paycheck that was decent
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[Music]
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how do you decide on pricing estimating
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can you walk us through that process a
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little bit i kind of break down i
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when i go out and i look at a project i
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i walk around i kind of measure
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materials get an idea of how many
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materials i'm going to need of each
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thing
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soil plantings rocks gravel whatever it
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may be
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and then i kind of figure out separately
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from that how long it'll take me so i
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break each project down
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into separate sections and then i
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figure out how much time each section
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will take me and how many materials
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that'll take
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and the customers like that too when i
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write my estimates out i write my
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estimates out like that
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so so that they see the fences separate
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from the paver patio
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or from the retaining wall or from the
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gravel pass or from the planting that
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way they can
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look at it and i don't break every
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material down
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separately for them but we give them a
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a good idea of what each little
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individual project costs that way
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two things that serves they can actually
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see where that money is going
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and being divided up and they can also
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cut sections out if they want to without
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me having to rewrite a whole new
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estimate
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[Music]
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so brian we're here in one of your sites
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residential property
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place looks amazing the things you're
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doing are really cool so walk us through
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kind of
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everything that we see here sure so this
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site started off as a
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kind of a blank slate with a bunch of
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great issues
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one of the first things we did was come
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in and get all the grade established get
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everything cut out
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build the rock walls and the block
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retaining walls
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to correct all that um you know other
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than that we've got
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we've got these gravel paths that are
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compacted gravel past with
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welded steel borders these are all fully
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welded and fabricated on site
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um and this is above and beyond what
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i've normally seen i mean metal for
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borders
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yeah stuff lasts forever and the nice
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thing is it does it lasts forever
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um it will get a little thin coating of
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rust on the surface which will
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blend in really well with the landscape
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and it and it's nice and solid it'll
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keep the gravel out of the bedding areas
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and the mulch
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from the bedding areas out of the gravel
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pass
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let's talk about your client base when
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you got started how did you build your
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client base
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and what are some tips you can share
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with our viewers and advice on how they
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can follow that strategy as well
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so i mean one of the first things that
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we did when we were looking for our
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first clients was
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reach out to real estate agents
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they are constantly dealing with people
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that
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are purchasing new homes or moving into
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a home
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and uh you know want to upgrade their
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landscape
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the other thing we did was your local
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suppliers
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build a relationship with them most
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nurseries
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home depot places where you can buy soil
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and materials
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go in there get some business cards when
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we started we had some
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cheap business cards made um who cares
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about what and uh
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you know go put those places and and
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start telling people
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and throwing your name out there i mean
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really that's the biggest thing is
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just get your name out there to anyone
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you can make yourself
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a facebook business page and and just
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start going at it there's going to be a
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lot of times where
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you know the work isn't coming in as
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fast as you want it to
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and you'll doubt yourself and wonder if
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you are doing the right thing
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but to be successful i mean just keep
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pushing at it just keep
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trying and and reaching out to more and
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more people and and
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as you go you know keep your quality
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consistent and high quality and that
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will
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in itself will sell more projects
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i see you got a lot of equipment brian
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tell us a little bit about each how much
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it costs maybe and
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the best way to source it so we have a
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lot of different tools that we use for
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cutting our pavers especially this
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uh this is a water table saw
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this is nice for doing straight cuts
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this saw
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is an invaluable tool to us
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cost about twenty five hundred dollars
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new um
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but like i said you really can't be
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having a saw
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like this we also have a demolition saw
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that we use
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which the handheld's on we cut our
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curves in the pavers with that
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compactor this is for compacting our
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base
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to lay our pavers in we compact all our
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gravel paths with this
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our generator um is pretty important to
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us because
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a lot of the stuff we run these big saws
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for the
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cutting the pavers and the welder that
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we use for welding all their stuff it
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draws
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too much current on a new construction
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house sometimes they don't even have
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power ready
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so we can just set up our stuff and go
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but you can live without that when
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you're starting out right now yeah so
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that's one of the tied on your budget
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no the nice thing is there's a lot of
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this stuff too when you're first
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starting out you can rent this stuff
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so if you can't afford to buy a 2500
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saw um you can go to a rental equipment
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store and you can rent this saw for a
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hundred dollars a day
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factor that into your budget yeah you
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know and you just kind of factor that
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into your estimates so you're not
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limited when you start out with
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landscaping almost all this stuff
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you can rent
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[Music]
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you know for landscaping business it's a
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really visual
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product so the more pictures make sense
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you can put up i mean
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facebook is a great tool instagram is a
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great tool
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um for us because it's such a visual
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product
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that you can post pictures every day and
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people can see it and then they can see
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what they want it's just like pinterest
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homeowners love
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pinterest it's because they just get a
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bunch of ideas and that inspires them to
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do things on their own home
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and it's the same thing with our
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landscaping business you don't have to
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spend a lot of money on it
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get a page built or or do your own page
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and then
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just advertise i mean you don't have to
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spend money on it
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advertise it on your own friends list
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get people to share it the more
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people that see your content the more
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uh exposure you'll get and that will
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translate into more work
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that makes sense people love before and
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afters
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so anytime we start a new project i walk
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around the whole job before we touch
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the ground and i take pictures from all
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different angles and that way when we're
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done with a project we can take those
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same pictures
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because uh that really can show people
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what a dramatic difference whatever
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you're doing is whether we're just doing
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a cleanup or we're doing a complete
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landscape surprise before and after
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pictures people love those
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[Music]
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what's a good day for you financially
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income revenue-wise and what's a bad day
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if you can share that with us you know
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we have good days where
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where we might i we just did a project
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where we
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bid to do assad projects seven thousand
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dollars all said and done we me
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i after the guys were paid materials
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equipment paid for
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about four thousand dollars in a day in
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a day which is nice
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so that's about a good day that's a
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really good that consistent would be
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nice right it's nice to
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have good days like that yeah and what
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about i mean
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if you have any bad days i mean so i
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mean
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we finally we've gotten kind of far
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enough along in the game where we're
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efficient and we know what we're doing
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and
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we don't have a lot of really bad days
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but for me personally
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if i can pay my guys pay the taxes pay
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all that
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stuff and if i still get to walk home
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with three or four hundred dollars in my
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pocket
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um that's a good day you know all the
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bills are paid your guys are all paid
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and you still made profit which is like
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i said that's about
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as worst of the days as it gets it's not
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like you have bad days all the time yeah
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no
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[Music]
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you've got a pretty clean trailer here i
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gotta say so uh
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cahoots to you is that what they say i
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mean organization is everything but tell
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us a little bit about what we're looking
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at and
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what's most important kind of how the
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tools are used too so really for
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us it's important to keep everything
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organized because we have to cram a lot
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of different tools into one area
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so the way our trailer is set up
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we have these spaces where most of our
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big saws and stuff sit
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um these boxes here you know these are
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filled with battery-powered tools so
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battery-powered drills and saws and
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grinders you know we have uh
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our our laser transit setup that we use
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for getting our grades perfectly level
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for all of our um pavers and sidewalks
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and stuff like that
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a little hand tools and stuff that are
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easily accessible that we use all the
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time pretty straightforward they're
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gonna keep all those up
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for a normal landscaper these are what
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you need the most right i mean these are
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the most valuable tools we have and they
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cost the least amount of money but
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um you know we we spend a little bit
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extra money to get tools of fiberglass
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handles
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because the guys last a little longer
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they can use the heck out of them
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shovels rigs pitchforks having them all
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easily
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accessible that's a big thing for us
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we buy the tools we need for the job and
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when you sign another job
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you take some of that money and buy the
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tool that you need for that job
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and that way you just keep building up
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and tools wear out so it's a
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never-ending thing we still
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we buy new tools all the time because
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they usually get worn out yep and you
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just have to kind of factor that into
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your prices but
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yeah that's what that's how we grew was
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by um
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buying the tools that we needed for the
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next job that we signed
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you know um it's sometimes it's tough
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you're like i'm only going to make a
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thousand dollars on this
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job and i need a 500 tool but you go buy
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that 500
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tool because then the next time that's
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all profit
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[Music]
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what's the secret to your tremendous
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growth for the company i mean two man
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crew when you started out
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and this year you're about to break a
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million dollars in revenue
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if you were to boil it down to two three
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things what would it be
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the biggest things are just um marketing
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the company
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and then as far as on the actual site
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just the quality of work and and really
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just striving
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and not being afraid to dream that's the
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biggest thing is uh elaborate on that
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you can really limit yourself in your
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own thoughts so
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when i come to look at a project a lot
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of times clients don't really know what
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they want or the extent of what they
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want
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right and what i've found has helped us
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grow a lot is
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just being able to dream bigger you know
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with your client
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yeah so when you go to talk to them
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don't be afraid to
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to tell them um you know well what if
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you did a
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you could do a water feature over here
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or you could
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instead of just making that grass you
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could do something really cool there
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that's uh and that's one of the things
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i've really found is that
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a lot of times people are a lot more
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open to that stuff and the only reason
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they haven't brought it up
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is because they just didn't think about
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it i mean you can never dream too big
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you know just uh you can always down
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you can always scale down your project
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but you can't it's harder to make it
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bigger once you've started so
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start big and just keep pushing for that
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and
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that's really i think the key to our
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growth and our success is that
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as we get further along bigger projects
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then um you know it requires building
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the company bigger
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right i hope you guys enjoyed part one
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of us sitting down with the owner
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of bl landscapes brian what an
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incredible journey
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it's all about taking care of your
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customer the money's the byproduct don't
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think about that think about what the
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customer wants
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and think big when you're out there
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estimating help the client see what they
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most
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most of the time they don't know what
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they want so you as a landscaping owner
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you can help them see the big grand
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picture this is part one make sure you
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check out part two it's right there
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and check out our blog there's a lot
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more information there
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for you guys thank you for watching if
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you haven't subscribe to our channel
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do so right now smash that subscribe
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button and like this video
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thanks for watching see you next time
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