Transcription
What's going on, y'all? Welcome back to the channel. Uh, in today's video, or really today's live stream, we're going to be talking about several things. We have several things to talk about in today's live stream. And I guarantee you that as always, if you take the information that I'm going to give you in this video, you could implement it today and then start seeing results based upon the information that you're going to get, as always.
So, before we get into it, we'll give it a little bit more time and then we'll talk about the subject matter of today's live stream because we're going to talk about five bottlenecks that are holding people back in their striping business. But before we get started, we're going to give people a little bit more time to hop in the live stream. And so, really, just want to update you guys. We're coming in off of PayX. Payex 2026 was absolutely amazing. Uh, I had a great time. I went there with six of my friends and we got a massive two-story Airbnb, heated pool right in the city. It was absolutely amazing. And I'm very excited because we're going to go next year. And with that being said, if you guys have not went to a Payex event, I highly recommend that you go. Uh, we've went every year since they started. And I'm telling you, it does not disappoint. You get to see a lot of people that you've never met. You get to see people that maybe you've been talking to online, uh, for a couple of years. Nevertheless, it is a really fun event. And, uh, hopefully, we get to see you guys next year.
But, uh, anyways, so before we get started, we're going to give it a couple more minutes and let people in. But I promise you, today's video, you're going to want to watch the entire video because the very thing that we're going to talk about in this live stream is what several people are dealing with right now, currently at this moment, uh, in their business, especially since I've surveyed people, talked with a lot of people about it, and, uh, I highly recommend that you watch it. So, give it a couple more minutes.
But anyways, y'all, like a life update. If I could say it this way, y'all, life is going so good for me right now. Um, it, and it just keeps getting better. I just, I have nothing to complain about. I have everything that I need. And, uh, I'm really excited. So, uh, you know, I mean, it's just work's coming in. Work's going good. Family's going good. My wife told me, uh, a great surprise last night at our Bible study. Uh, and I can't say it now, but I promise you I will say it later on, but the wife, she gave me a good surprise. And I was just reflecting on life in general that, uh, I have nothing to complain about, y'all. Uh, the Lord's been good to me. Everything's been good. And I just want to, uh, express my gratitude for everything that he's done for me and so far in life. And I hope everybody's having a good start to the season. I know that we are. So, okay.
Now, with that being said, let's start today's topic. Now, what I want people to do for those of you that are watching the live stream, I want you to engage. Put your, uh, put your comments down in the comment section because the second half of the live stream, I'm going to get to the comments. I promise you, you're going to want to ask some questions, uh, in these videos.
So, first, I want to talk about the five bottlenecks that are holding you back in your striping business. This is very, very important because when you're bottlenecked, you're not able to grow. And we want to continually be growing. We don't want to just stay stagnant. Well, well, some people do, but I'm not the kind of person that wants to just stay where he's at. I want to continually be growing, pushing forward, and, uh, building and doing better. Some people are complacent with where they're at, how things are going, so on and so forth. Uh, and not that I'm ungrateful, but I like to continually keep going forward.
So, first, I want to talk about these five bottlenecks. Now, this is from having conversations with people, okay? Because this is all that I do. I mean, all I do is talk about striping. If I'm, if I'm not on a machine painting, all I do is talk about striping. I have a lot of customers where, you know, it's just, it's something that we all talk about. So, I, I, I surveyed a bunch of people, especially like solo operators who don't have anybody on staff right now. Maybe it's just you and maybe a part-time helper, whatever the case may be. And what I have found is the number one bottleneck for people who are in that category is that they do not have the bandwidth to increase their sales.
Now, why is this important? It's important because your phone is continually ringing. I mean, non-stop, our phones are always going off. I know that mine is. And what happens is, is when you do not have the bandwidth to increase your sales, then it begins to bottleneck you in your business because you're not able to continue to grow. And I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, especially whenever it was, whenever we were at Payex. And all throughout the event, he's getting calls non-stop. I mean, he probably got 20 phone calls within the course of about three, three and a half, four days. And I kept telling him over and over, I said, "You need to hire someone. You need to hire someone." And he said, "Man, I, you know, it's just, I'm just nervous. I really don't have the money." I said, "You need to hire someone. You're looking at it all wrong because you take the income that you have and then you invest it in other people so that you can then begin to leverage their time. You get to a point in your business where you have to begin leveraging other people's time if you want to grow because your time, which is the most valuable asset that you and I have, that's intangible, that we can never get back. We have to then take our time once it's maxed out and then use the resources that we get to buy other people's time. I.e., you need to hire people." And I kept telling him that. I said, "You need to hire someone." Every time he'd get a phone call, "You need to hire someone. You need to hire someone." And I kept telling him that over and over again. And he kept, and, and what happens is, is, is you bottleneck and you don't have bandwidth because you're wearing too many hats. And I know people that they miss calls because they're so busy. They miss emails because they stay awake all night long and then come and then work. They miss emails, phone calls, text messages, and prospective customers that are trying to seek out their service, but they're maxed on their time. And what happens is, is when you're maxed on your time, it's going to bottleneck you because you cannot continue to increase sales. And I know this from personal experience because that's exactly where I was. And so what I did was, is I just hired somebody. I just brought on somebody full-time to start making calls with me, to start going out in the field and striping with me, to start implementing the same exact things that I was doing so that I can free up my time. And so when you're doing too many things, you're not going to have the appropriate amount of time it takes to grow. So, for example, let's say that you don't get a lot of organic traffic, but a lot of your business just comes from word of mouth. Well, if a lot of your business comes from word of mouth and you don't have a lot of organic traffic, what's going to happen is those referrals are going to come in, but now you're having to book calls. You're having to keep, um, you're having to book calls. You're having to schedule. You're having to mobilize. You're having to keep up track with your paperwork, all that stuff. And what happens is, is it demands hours and hours and hours of your time and your life. So, I knew that I invest a lot of time in field work, cold calling, whatever the case may be. So, what do I do? I take the resources that I have, I invest that into other people, and then I begin to buy their time. You have to start buying other people's time if you want to make more and not bottleneck.
So, here's a good example. Processing checks and payments and all that stuff. Bookkeeping, receipts, mileage, all, all that administrative work, making sure invoices are paid, whatever the case may be. If I'm focused on all of that, it's going to take my time from other areas that I can implement to do income-driving activities, which is sales. So, what do I do? I hire someone else and I bring them on board. I begin to use their time so I can maximize the amount of time. And so what happens is, is what people don't understand is when you start to leverage other people's time, you get your time back. And so think about how powerful it is. Like, if you're a business owner, what if I came to you and I was like, "Hey, I could give you about 60 more hours of your time back every single week." What would you do with that time? A lot of people that, you know, whenever you have a full-time job, a lot of times I was scared to go full-time whenever I first started because I thought, man, you know, I have this steady income. But little did I know back whenever I had a paycheck mentality, that once I had that time available with myself now, I could take that time and invest it into other areas and avenues that generate income. This is extremely powerful. And so I told him, you need to hire more people. You need to hire more people. And so you miss calls, you're slow to responses, bids, all that stuff, and you're essentially responsible. So, like, let's say that you're in the field all the time. Well, what are you doing with your marketing strategy? Ess, now, especially, you know, your, your paid ads or, or your website, your SEO, what, what are you doing with that? And so, or whenever you're focused on sales, who's doing your operations? And what happens is, so many people are booking jobs and then they're going out and performing the jobs, but then they're missing other opportunities because they're investing too much time in whatever area that they are. So, now we have several people. Sorry, I'm getting texts. Now we have several people, right? Um, the guys right now, I got the guys out in, uh, they went to Nebraska, Little Rock, and now they're going to Joplin, Missouri, and they're on the road traveling, getting jobs done. And that's what I'm talking about. And so, not the fact, not, not that I don't have to go out in the field sometimes because I do, but what happens is, is now I'm, I'm able to use other people's time to save mine because my time is more valuable. And whenever you're running a business, your time is more valuable than the people that you hire. It just, it is what it is. It's not a negative thing to say that. But when you know that your time is more valuable, you're able to generate more income by leveraging the time of others. So, that's the first thing. Bottleneck number one is when you, whenever you do not have enough bandwidth to increase sales.
Okay. Now, if you do not have enough bandwidth to increase sales, you have to first generate the income to invest that income into other people's time. You have to buy other people's time. And then the second thing is, and then the second thing, once you buy those people's time, then you need to double the income that you had before. So, I was capped in my, I was capped in my, uh, my ability to generate income, and then I leveraged other people's time, and then it doubled the productivity in the income that I had. That's what I'm trying to get people to understand is, is it doubles your productivity. So, now we're to the point where I'm beginning to be capped again on my time. So, what happens is, I need to bring on more people so I can continue to build and grow. All right. So, first bottleneck is whenever you don't have enough bandwidth to increase sales.
Now, the second bottleneck is whenever you're guessing at your marketing and not necessarily running a system. And this is really, really important. I mean, I don't, I don't watch football, but it's organized, it's structured, they run plays, right? So, even if we just used it as a worldly example of football, people run plays. So, the quarterback backs up. He knows where he's planning on throwing the ball. He knows which way the wide receiver's going, which way the tight end's going, how the offensive line is going to block. They, they know the direction they're going. And a bottleneck in a, in a lot of people's areas in their business is they guess at their market. They just throw the ball up in the air and then hope that somebody catches it. I mean, so, so what I'm saying is, is like a bottleneck for you is not having a clear understanding of your Google Maps or your organic SERs. That's a good bottleneck, right? And, uh, what happens is, is instead of trying to self-perform and do those things yourself, you can have other people do that for you. So, I don't have enough time to sit and, you know, do things anymore. More like whenever I first got start, whenever I first got started, I had to build my own site. I had to run my own ads. I had to do all of my own marketing and all that stuff. But now, since I no longer have the time to do those things, I have other people do them for me. So, now I save time in areas like that. I save time on my bookkeeping. I save time on my calls. And, I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's awesome.
So, put, here's, here's, here's a perspective that I want to help you guys understand. Um, when we brought on Jacob, okay, Jacob, Jacob is, uh, one of the guys. He's actually striping right now out of state. So, we bring Jacob on. I give him our SOP for, uh, you know, for selling and, and, and all that kind of stuff, right? So, I give him all the material necessary to replicate the process of what I've, what I've done, right? So, he, he gets in contact with a real estate agent that has 30-some properties and Tuesday, we're having a, a meeting with him. This will be the second meeting about an asphalt job. We're going to subcontract it out. And so, what I'm saying is, is we're going to make a very, the return on the time that I invested in him is like a 200x plus, just off of that one job. They got 33 properties. They already love us. We're just going to kind of finalize the deal. So, I sell that to say this, that's a lead that he called that we get because I leveraged his time. And that's what I'm trying to say. So, you know, and that has to do with marketing, sales, and marketing. Same exact concepts.
So, not only that, but people undervalue the importance of properly optimizing a Google Business Profile or websites. You know, I talked with a guy the other day. He's just getting started. He came out for in-person training and, um, you know, I told him, I was like, "Yeah, I mean, obviously, you need to call Matt. I mean, you need to call Matt." And he was like, "Well, that's kind of, that's kind of expensive." But what happens is, and I had the same exact sort of mentality and mindset. Like, I, I had the same thing, the same thinking. I was like, "Man, I'm going to lose money here." And I was looking at all of my outflow, but I wasn't taking into consideration that doing things a better and more proper, faster way was going to get me better results. So, if I would have done that in the very, very beginning, like, like a significant bottleneck that hindered me for a long time was guessing at my marketing. I was just, I was kind of guessing at it. Now, what I was doing was working, but it wasn't necessarily consistent to the point where we were growing faster. And now we're just growing every single week. I mean, even in the off-season, I'm still growing, and that's because we're not guessing anymore. And so, you know, I talked to that guy and he was essentially guessing at a lot of what he was doing, and he was like, "Well, I'm not able to afford that right now." It's like a couple hundred bucks a month. And so, what I'm saying is, is you end up losing more because you don't make the necessary preparations to not be bottlenecked in a particular area. So, bottleneck number two is when you start guessing at marketing and not necessarily running an efficient system.
Now, that's, those are two things, and those are very, very important. Okay, so here's another thing. Bottleneck number three is poor bookkeeping and financial control. The aspect of your finances within your business. You would be surprised at how many business owners that are out there who might make money, but they do not factor in profitability. There's no profit. Like, I have no, I have no idea what a profit and loss even means. They don't keep money back for taxes, and it's just kind of floating at the whim, and it's disorganized, and they don't necessarily know how to function properly. And that's one of the reasons why small businesses fail is because of bottleneck number three, is poor financial bookkeeping and in control, really. There's no real tracking on profit margins. You know, someone texted me the other day and they asked if I would go do a job for him and, [clears throat] it was like an hour and a half away. And, uh, I said, "I can't because the guys have the equipment. They're out of state." You know, I would just to kind of help him out. Not because I need the money, but because I would just do it to help him out. He's my brother. I love him. I mean, I really do. But, but whenever I look at it and I assess, there's no profitability there because it costs a certain amount of money to get paint, a certain amount of time to mobilize the crew, a certain amount of time to get the crew out there, then the time to drive back. And when you don't factor all those things, all you have is just a couple hundred dollars at the bottom line. And, you know, and a lot, a lot of what causes people to go under is they'll spend $2,000 to make $2,500. Now, think about that for a second. To make a couple hundred, you'd be surprised at the thousands of dollars that you spend to make a couple hundred bucks back on, on a profit on a job. So, in my thinking, I would rather have that $2,000 of expendable income readily available to spend however I need it, than to spend the money, not have it, and then wait 30 to 60 days to make $500. And that's what I'm trying to say is, there's no, there's no understanding of tracking your profit mark. You have to know how much money that you're making. And that's very, very important. And that's why I'm saying bottleneck number three is just poor bookkeeping in general. That's why I, it was taking up, demanding a lot of time for me sitting there, have to sort out receipts, plugging them into QuickBooks, reaching out, doing this, making sure invoices are paid, all that stuff, right? And what happens is, is it takes up your time, and a lot of people just put it out of their mind in general, and then whenever the end of the year comes up, trying to scramble to get it all figured out. Well, now, instead of doing that, I just leverage someone else's time and I have them do it because they're more effective at doing that, which their, [clears throat] desk is right over there, than I am because I need to take my time and invest it in other things.
So, not only that, but then being behind on taxes. Like, not too long ago, I was holding a class with a group of people. I was holding a class with a group of people, and they told me whenever we were, I was asking all of them, well, how much, how much money did you spend on paint last year? What was your profit for last year? You know, what was your, you know, and I'm not saying like they should have those numbers, like, you know, obviously we go into a new season and, but like, you know, you should be able to pull out your statements and kind of have an idea of where you were at. And, and dude, people don't. You know, I mean, 1099s being filed. I mean, people are lay, it's just, there's all sorts of stuff that goes into it other than just painting lines or applying sealer, laying asphalt on the ground. And so, a lot of times people's decisions are based, this is important, it's they're based upon how much money they have at the particular moment. Like, like my friends joke around with me and they say that I blow money on stupid stuff. Like my wife tells me all the time, she's like, "You blow money on stupid things." But, but I really, really don't. And honestly, I'm really tight on how we spend our money because I might think about something for months before I just go off and buy it. There, there, there might even be a way to generate income. Think about this. Uh, there might be a way to generate income. It could be a couple extra thousand dollars and an opportunity might present itself for me to do it, and I still won't do it. Because what happens is, is when you move too quick, when you move too quick, what happens is it causes you to make mistakes. And, uh, Randy says, "It's not stupid if you're getting an ROI." That's true. But, like, you know, if I put, let's, like, if I put $2,000 in ad spend and I make $2,100, you know what I mean? So, the ROI, yes, that's true. It's not stupid, but the ROI needs to be worth it enough to invest the income in order to generate a return. So, what I'm saying is, but we're, we're in bottleneck number two, and we're talking about the, you know, financial poor decisions, and what happens is, man, is, and this all works together in tandem. Like, if you don't, if you're perpetually not generating enough income and your back's constantly against the wall, you have to do things that help you generate leads. You have to bring in more leads. And so, you can't just relax because it puts you in a constant state of panic and all that, so on and so forth. So, bottleneck number three is poor key, poor bookkeeping essentially.
Uh, bottleneck number four, this is important as well, is not having repeatable systems. So, there's no estimating process. There's no SOP there. There's inconsistent quality from job to job. New hires don't know what to do. And it's kind of just one of those things where it's just, you hop on the trailer and you learn. Now, for in-person training, that's important. But for the day-to-day, people got to know what they're doing. My guy's texting me. Let me call him real quick. And so, you have, they have to know what you're doing. The, the crew, the people that you bring on, they have to know. I'm doing it live, y'all. But my guy is leaving.
>> Yo.
>> Yeah. Man, them pictures look good.
>> Yeah, we're on the road.
>> On the road. Y'all going to Joplin?
>> Yeah.
>> Man. Y'all coming home tonight?
>> Hopefully.
>> Dude. I'm hoping to send me the, the blueprint layout of the park. I talked to him about, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes ago. He ain't sent it to me yet.
>> How big is the job?
>> I don't know yet. You can't look it up. It's new. It's new layout.
>> Okay. Okay. Well, uh, I just wanted to check on you. I seen that y'all were driving, so you keeping up with how much you're spending?
>> Yeah, that's all that.
>> Okay. All right. Well, good, bro. If you get back late, if, well, you're probably going to get back late anyways. Just come by the house when you get done.
>> All right.
>> All right.
>> All right. Bye.
>> Bye.
Sorry, y'all. He was sending me pictures, so I need to call him and see what was going on. Anyways, what I'm saying is, I'm trying to get us to understand that we need to make certain changes. Essentially, that's the whole, whole aspect of the live stream. It's just to give away free content to help people make changes. So, repeatable systems, we're talking about bottleneck number four is, you have to be able to replicate the process. You know, Matt, my buddy Matt would tell me this for the longest amount of time. You know, I'd pull up, there wouldn't be any, there'd be a screwdriver and, uh, stencils in my trailer and some piston lube and that's it. I mean, literally, that's it. And Matt would tell me all the time, he's like, "You need to make systems. You need to make systems. You need to make system." I'm like, "I don't care about making systems." I'm just trying to put paint on the ground. And, but the thing is, is what you don't know, you just don't know. You just don't know. You don't know what you don't know. And so, as I, as we continued to grow, there wasn't, there was no organized structure. There was nothing that I can hand people any material. A customer onboarding process, right? So, how do you onboard a customer? Well, I don't want to spend three and a half hours trying to teach somebody how to onboard a customer. So, you know what I can do? I can sit at my desk right here. I can hand somebody our SOP of how to onboard a customer. And that way, when a customer calls, I don't have to be the guy that picks up the phone every single time because now someone else can pick up the phone and then read the SOP of how to onboard a customer. And guess what? That saves your time. That's what we're talking about. And when you have those repeatable systems, you can, if you lose someone tomorrow, let's say that I lost someone tomorrow, one of my, one of the people quit or whatever the case may be, they go get another job. That's fine. But to today, I could take the SOPs, give them to them today, and then replicate and repeat the process. That's what I'm trying to get us to understand. Quality control. I mean, like, when you, we logistically, we have a lot of jobs that we do out of state, and we're coming up to the 30-minute mark. So, when we're at the 30-minute mark, uh, you guys start posting your questions. If you have any questions, be sure to post them in the chat because I'm going to start getting to them, and, uh, I hope you're getting a lot of value out of this live. So, we do a lot of work out of state. The logistics on it are brutal. So, if we get, if we get, let's say that, you know, uh, we use an incorrect, here's, here's a perfect example. We use an incorrect paint. Okay? Let's say we use an incorrect paint at a wrong temperature, which we did that three weeks ago, and it flaked up, right? So, we didn't follow the procedure for the right kind of paint for the right kind of temperature, you know, and you're out there, you know, going and, and, and obviously nobody's perfect, but what happened? It caused us to have to mobilize, go eight hours south to go fix jobs that we messed up on because it's a big customer. And so, I settle, I said all that to say this, that when you have those processes, it's repeatable for other people to follow. Think about it like this. Before I started doing parking lot striping, I was, uh, I was working for a land surveyor, and we would have to cut through thick trees. I mean, I would, the, the brush in the trees would be so thick that I could not make my way through the woods. So, what would have to happen is, I would have to either, we'd have to get a bush hog and cut a path through those trees, or I would have to cut it with a machete. But no, no matter what, I got to go find that pin back there. So, since I got to go find that pin back there, somebody's got to walk through and I got to cut it. That's all that it is. I mean, SOP formats are just paving a road that other people can follow and drive on. That's simply it. We don't have to overcomplicate the process. Okay. So, Matt was telling me over and over again, you need to get systems. You need to get SOPs. You need to make it where people can follow those things. And he was right. And I would laugh at it at first because I just didn't understand because I was just factoring in, I'm just painting parking lots. I'm just painting, you know, I was just, it was just a day-to-day thing. It wasn't important. So, bottleneck number four is, you have to have repeatable systems.
And then bottle, or bottleneck number five is that you're underinvested on equipment that enables growth. This is something that I get all the time. This is something that I get all the time. People text me, and I don't mind, like, I really don't mind, like, whenever people text me. Uh, I have 330 missed text messages and 169 phone calls. So, like, I get a lot of text messages. People reach out to me all the time. But the thing is, is what happens is, is that's what people ask for. It's a predominant, predominant equipment question. And people will ask me, they're like, "Hey, Chris, should I get this machine?" And it's like, and it's like, "Yeah, I mean, if that's all you have, get that. But try to find other options and avenues to which you can generate income, right? Try to find other ways that you can generate income because if you, if you buy a machine, let's say you buy, um, a new Stripe 4250, which is a good starter machine if you're doing like small parking lots, you know, I wouldn't recommend it, but let's just say that you bought a new Stripe. Well, what if you land a parking lot for 400 lines? What are you going to do? You're going to stripe that parking lot with that tiny baby machine? No, you're not. So, then you have to scramble away to how to get equipment. And so, when you're just getting started, dude, save up money. Don't be impatient, you know, or use your credit. Get an equipment loan, whatever the case may be. But use, use credit and the financial resources you have available at the time to get a better setup. That's what I did. I mean, we've got several machines now, but now we got better setups, but it takes time. And so, there's nothing wrong with that. I see people are posting their questions in the chat. Just keep on posting. Keep on posting your questions. And, uh, we're about to get to it. So, man, people are hitting me up. Okay, so we talked about line stripers, um, underinvested in equipment. You know, here's what I would recommend. When you get money, let's say you get a, let's say you get a check, and this all, this works together because it ties back into profitability and, and all that stuff, right? So, like, when you get money back, set money aside for taxes, for equipment, for unexpected things. Don't just get cash and then spend it and then go to spending money. I mean, whenever I get paid, y'all, whenever I get paid, like, no doubt about it, we spend money, but all throughout the year, I'm just putting money back, putting money back, putting money back, putting money back. I mean, all throughout the year. So, and then let's say you're, you're slow for two months because you're having crazy snowstorms, you're not tripping because you got reserves. A lot of you guys need to get reserves and put reserves back in savings so that whenever you, you are in the slow season, you can have something to go back on.
Okay, so anyways, five bottlenecks. Now I'm fixing to start getting into questions. So, number one, first bottleneck, you do not have enough bandwidth to increase sales. Bottleneck number two is you're just guessing at your marketing. Number three is you're not keeping track or having good financial control, whatever the case may be. Uh, number four is you do not, you don't have repeatable systems. And number five, you're underinvested in equipment that enables you to grow. You're just not making the right choices as it pertains to equipment. So, there you go. Five bottlenecks. That's just information that you could take, uh, today and, you know, and if you're in one of those categories, all you have to do to get unstuck is you just make the changes.
So, now, as the custom in the live stream, we're going to get to questions in the second half. So, uh, here we go. John Sam says, "Chris, I just started my process with Matt last night. I'm really glad that I can finally get started." Yeah, John. Um, I'm glad, bro. We're, we're happy to have you. I'll tell you this. If there's anybody who's good at what he does, it's that guy. It's Matt. I mean, like, he'll, he'll, Matt'll give you in perspective like how Matt is. Matt and I are two totally different people. Like, he, he'll, the way that he analyzes stuff is completely foreign to the way that I, that I analyze stuff. But that's why he's good at what he does. That's why he handles all the marketing, all the website development, local SEO, blah, blah, blah. And like, he's not grimy, too. Like, that's what I like about Matt. He just tells you like it is. He's not grimy. Like, we had a phone call today here. Like, we had a phone call today, and I asked Matt, I'm like, "Hey, what do you want to do about this situation? There's somebody that needs help." And we try to cut people deals. Like, we really, really do. We try to do good by people, right? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So, Matt and I were talking right before I hopped on the line, and he said, "What do you want to do?" And I said, "I'll do whatever you want to do. Let's just, you know," and he said, "Well, let's look at these options." And I said, "Okay, I'm down." And we come to the realization that we're just going to pretty much help somebody and kind of discount the offer, just not because we're desperate to make the sales, but because we really want to help people and give them offers. So, I'm glad that you started your process with Matt. If you guys need a good website, local SEO, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you need to call Matt. You need to call Matt, uh, because he's the guy to call. And if you're interested in that, I don't have Matt's number right off hand, but just send me a text message, and I can get you connected with Matt. So, I'm glad you started that process. Oh, that's a good guess. That's a good guess. I'm telling y'all. Look, y'all. Man, look. I got to, I got to close this out. But, uh, I can't really say, but I'm telling you. I mean, like, I'm just happy about it. Let me just say that. I can't tell you yet. My wife doesn't want me to tell anybody until like, it's, you know, uh, past a certain time limit. But let me say this, y'all. I'm super happy. She, [snorts] handed me this paper. I almost cried last night. Um, anyways, it's hard for me to talk about it. Okay, let's go. Military Mike. I appreciate the compliment. You know, uh, you know what it is. Randy says, "It's not stupid if you're getting an ROI." That's true, Randy. It's not stupid if you're getting an ROI. It just matters how much of an ROI you're going to get on the eye, pretty much. So, um, keep it real. G says, "This is Fresno striping bros from Fresno, California. I just put half down for the Graco 3400 line laser." Heck yeah, bro. Listen, that's how I started. I mean, that's exactly how I started, you know, like, you, you know, some people are different. There's everybody from all ends of the spectrum. Other ends of the spectrum, you got people who've done well financially and are well off and they have expendable income to invest to be able to grow fast, and like, that's cool, right? You have people who are buying their first machine, and that's all they got, you know? That's the only, like, that's all they had. I mean, whenever I bought my first machine, it was all that I had. And, you know what? I had people laughing at me. I had people making fun of me. They'd be saying, "Well, who's going to buy from you?" And, you know, "Why would you do this and why would you do that?" And, uh, you know, and, and I'd have people telling me, "I've been in the industry for 25 years." And, you know, and, and just, it's just not as easy as everybody thinks that it is. Listen, let me say this, y'all. Look, I'm being for real. Look, anybody can start doing the hard part's not painting. The hard part is not painting lines on the ground. And I, it's just crazy. Like, you know, people brag about striping for 25, 30 years, and it's like, dude, paint striping ain't even hard. It's really not. Like, it's really, really not that hard. The hard part is not striping. It's striping five to seven days a week. That's the hard part. And I can tell you this, somebody with zero experience can do it. So, uh, I'm glad, bro. I'm glad you put half on the machine. I'm, that makes me happy. Uh, Recoup says, "Yo, I appreciate it, dude. I hope everybody's doing good today." Keep it 100. G says, "I'm soaking in everything." Let me say this. I'm glad that you're soaking in everything. Look, that's what I would do. I would just self-educate. I mean, I would just watch people's YouTube videos and channels. I mean, I don't know if you guys know, but, but that's how I got started is I would watch videos on YouTube with people that would make videos like, "How to make 5K a day parking lot striping." And I would look at those videos and I would say, "There's no way they're doing that. They're full of it." Guess what? They're not full of it. You know what I'm saying? So, there's Matt texting me. Let's go. Mike. Hey, listen. Mike. Mike is a real one. Look, he just reached out to Matt. Mike, you know, I mean, I think Mike came out, you know, Mike came out and we did in-person training and didn't charge him a penny. Anyways, look, what I'm saying is, is I appreciate you, Mike, from reaching out. So, um, man, I forgot what I was saying. So, oh, soaking in everything. Okay, when I first got started, I would watch people's YouTube channels and I would watch, I'd take notes. I still work a full-time job. And, um, what happens is, over time, the application of information turns into knowledge. And then the knowledge develops a skill set for you to go out and produce results. Ultimately, we're just developing our skill set to produce results. That's all we're trying to do. Okay? We need to develop skill sets. So, thank you for soaking in all the information. Uh, that's what I do, too. Let's go. Y'all, dude, y'all are coming with some good questions. Listen, y'all keep coming with some good questions. If not, if y'all don't come with no good questions, then I'll just, you know, I'll end the live after an hour. Okay? So, we got about 20 more minutes. [snorts] Um, so he says, "I would like to ask about pricing for an annual contract covering 800 to a,000 parking lots. What would be the appropriate pricing strategy, standard rates, and provide a discounted rate?" That's a very good question. A thousand parking lots. It's got to be like a 7-Eleven or a Shell gas station or some sort of big chain. Could be fast food restaurants. Um, I tell you this, you land a customer with 800 parking lots, an annual contract, you got it made. Um, hang on one second, and we can, uh, I will cover that. That's a good, that's a good question. Um, so first of all, if it was me, what I would do is I would give them discounted bulk pricing and then I would make up the work in volume. That's, that's what I would do. I would make up the work in volume, number one. So, I have a customer with different sized parking lots, uh, covering seven different states. And what we do is we give people a bulk price, and then after that bulk price, hang on one second, let me look, let me look. And then after that bulk price, what we do is, because some jobs, some, I'm not one of them people that I, I don't like to sit around and estimate and waste hours and hours and hours. I'm just, I'm just, I don't like that. So, what we did is we offered a bulk price, and jobs that are far, jobs that are far or further, we increase them not based on the size of the parking lot, but based on how far it is from our centralized location. So, a lot of people, Cooper, Christopher, let me see, I'm doing a live stream, y'all. Let me see what this is about. Hang on.
Hello. This is Chris.
>> Hey Chris, how you doing? This is Chris Cooper. How you making out?
>> I'm doing good, bro. How are you doing?
>> Good, good, good. We spoke, but you were traveling up in town when we spoke last week.
>> Yeah, bro. I've been, I've been slammed.
>> That's a good thing, right?
>> It's good. I can't complain, man. The Lord's good to me.
>> Well, I like that, that I like that word you said, the Lord. So, you know, it's not all about you.
>> You know.
>> That's true. You acknowledge where all of it come from. But nevertheless, I wanted to speak to you about the training that you had.
>> Ah, okay. Um,
>> Yeah.
>> Well, let me, let me ask you this. I'm, uh, I'm doing a live stream right now, bro. Is there any way I have a, I have a coaching call at 2 p.m. I'm doing a live stream now. Can, can you call me at 3 p.m. Central Standard Time?
>> Yeah. What time is it now by you?
>> It's 1:20 p.m. CST, but I have a, I have a coaching call at two. At three, at three, I'm leaving my office. And then from three to four, I have time to talk on the phone. And then at 4:00, I got a sales call. So, um, I got a tight squeeze. But if you just hit me up, bro, we'll, we'll talk.
>> Thanks, man.
>> All right, bro.
>> Can you text me your website? I can go on there and look at some of the stuff you got, your offer for the training.
>> Man, I, bro, if I were, I'm right in the middle of a live stream. Just go to any video. Go to any video. Just click the links in the description, and then it'll take you to all those sales pages. It'll take you 20 sec. It would take you 20 seconds. It would take me about five minutes.
>> Okay, got it. Thanks. Yeah.
>> All right, brother. Sorry. My bad, y'all.
So, pricing for an annual contract, dude. I wouldn't price per linear foot on each job, personally. I would price per location and how far it is from the centralized area. That's what I would do. Um, and I would provide, you know, a rate, uh, that's very discounted. But if you have good customers, you don't have to just give cheap prices. Like, all it takes is one good customer and you're in there. So, Muhammad says, "Let's go." Muhammad, what's going on, bro? I hope you're doing okay. So, uh, Ramoodi 72 says, "Do you add the price of your paint within the quote?" Uh, man, I factor in a lot of things. So, whenever, whenever it was just me, yeah, I would factor in, uh, paint in the quote. Um, but like, it's not just me now. And so, we've increased our overhead, you know, so we've added more people on the team. Um, obviously, you know, we have increased our spending. You know, we're ordering paint in bulk now and not necessarily, you know, a couple five-gallon buckets at a time. We're just growing, right? So, since we're growing, the way that I structure my estimates are a lot different. So, a solo
Operator, you know, a solo operator with not a lot of overhead is going to just think, "Okay, I'll do it for this per linear foot, this price, maybe this flat mobilization rate, and then I'll add my paint cost to it." Which is fine, and that's how everybody should do, right?
But like when you add more people, you're not thinking about what's the price I can get per linear foot on jobs. You're just not. You're just you're not. And it just depends on your lead flow and stuff like that. Not to say that you don't factor in to take those things into accountability, but that's not your predominant focus like as you grow.
So when you got people who are who who are working with you and working for you, like these jobs, these $500 jobs, you're you're going to go, it's just you're not going to do these $850 jobs for 50 lines anymore. You're just not. Now, if your calendar is dead slow to keep people busy, then yeah. Or if you're getting 30 calls a day at $850 or $1,000, you know, on minimum mobilization jobs, and then you can stack multiple minimum mobs on one day. So, like, if I got a job for 850 that's going to take an hour and a half, I'm going to try to put them on a couple of jobs for that day to keep them busy. So, like I'm not ever going to try to just take a minimum mobilization job or a job for $850 or $1,000 just to stay busy. You know what I mean? Because I can I can invest our time and effort into other things that are going to generate more income.
But you didn't necessarily ask that. But what I'm saying is even though you didn't necessarily ask that, I'm just telling you yes, I factor in the paint. I factor in the cost of the paint. I factor in my taxes. I factor in my pay for the people. I factor in my overhead. I factor in how long it's going to take. And I factor in if it's profitable. I mean, I there's six things that I'm thinking about whenever I'm looking at a job. And and and let me say this. If you're looking at a job and you're not taking those things into consideration and you're just looking at a particular project going, "How much money can I make?" That's the wrong way to think about it because money in, money out. You'll think, "How much money can I get?" And then you'll immediately think of how much money can I spend once I get it. And so you have to you have to be able to factor in multiple things if you're going to operate properly. So I hope that answers your question. [snorts]
John says, "Matt also emails back within 30 minutes as well. He's always quick about responding. That's what it means to stay on top of business." Yeah. I mean, dude, he's great. I mean, he's great. I, you know, I have so many close people in my life. Um, you know, a lot of people say that, you know, I don't know, how can I say it? I don't want to say it. And like Matt's just a really close person in my life. Um, I appreciate him. So, yeah, he's super solid. And if you guys aren't working with Matt, you're you're just you're wasting time. So, till Rudy is pronounced Randy H. Bob Barker. Okay. And so, keep it G 100 says, "Haha, for real." They say that. All right.
This is the last question. I'm not getting a lot of questions, so I'm not going to keep the live. Also, it is Friday, too. You know what I mean? All right. So, he says, "Hey, Chris. I have my first big hot pour and seal coating job. I'm quite nervous. Any good tips?" Um, yeah, man. I got I got some good tips. Uh, [snorts] man, just do your prep work, really. I mean, prep work's like essentially the most important thing because if the ground's not prepped properly, it's not going to adhere. So, I think that prep work is is your most important factor. Um, it's not hard to spray and and edge and you know, you might you don't want to be sloppy when you're edging, but I think your most your most important aspect of your job, your first job is you want to uh obviously prep. So, make sure you prep the surface, clean the cracks, you know, graze out any sort of deep cracks. You know, if they're real real deep, you need to get sand. And if it's too deep for sand and sealer or sand and blah blah blah, you need to get some mastic. But uh I think prep work is the number one thing. Like I know you guys see me on like our shorts. We'll kind of make jokes about, oh, we didn't prep or we messed up on this job or whatever. But like that's like for YouTube content in all reality. Like we're, you know, we're we're we're kind of good at what we do. So we don't just jack around and and mess up and and not fix it.
So anyways, y'all look, I'm not seeing any more questions. So I'm not seeing any more questions. And uh but I'll say this, you know, it's Friday. I'm taking the day off here in a minute. Uh probably about 3 o'clock. I'm gonna leave the office. So about an hour and a half. Anyways, y'all look, five bottlenecks that are holding you back from growing your striping business. And I think that if you take these areas, you identify what they are, implement implement a strategy to fix what is messed up, and then you'll get unstuck. So anyways y'all, if you're new to the channel, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and that notification bell icon and we will see you in the next video.
John Sam John Sam says, "Thank you, Chris, for another great live. I always love to stop by and show the love." Thanks, John. I appreciate it, bro. All right, y'all. Amen.