July 9, 2025 • 28 mins
This week on the Blue Collar Business Podcast, I’m bringing you something a little different—a live Q&A session straight from TikTok and YouTube. I took your real, raw questions and gave honest answers based on what I’ve lived and learned in the trenches. We hit on everything from scaling family-run excavation businesses to figuring out margins, systems, and when it’s time to get out of the machine and into the office.
If you’re maxed out on labor but still hungry to grow, I break down how to lean on inside accounting, use your P&Ls to make smart calls, and build training systems that let you step back without losing control. We also get into bidding commercial jobs, navigating that jump from residential, and using tools like PlanSwift to help you compete and win in this space.
I opened up about some of the tough stuff too—like communicating with your spouse when the business grind starts to weigh on your home life. It's not easy, but if you’re building something that matters, those conversations matter just as much as any estimate or invoice.
This episode is packed with the kind of blue-collar business advice I wish I had years ago. It’s gritty, it’s real, and it’s all about helping you find clarity in the chaos. If you missed the live, here’s your shot to catch up—and if you’ve got questions of your own, send ‘em in at bluecollarbusinesspodcast.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast brought to youand sponsored today by
podcastvideoscom and all theirteam here.
We've been aligned with them,had the show over here for a
little over a year and thethings they're doing with this
(00:55):
platform I'm really excitedabout, and we have got some
crazy guests coming here in thenext and some events that we're
announcing, and so stay tuned.
But this week's episodedefinitely a little different.
I did a live stream last weektrying to answer some questions
and a live stream, basicallyplatform.
I think we were live on Tik TOKand we were live on YouTube.
(01:17):
Uh, apologies if you missedthat one, but go ahead and send
in your questions into thewebsite
wwwbluecollarbusinesspodcastcomand get those questions in and
hopefully I'll get them answeredon this next live stream.
So be checking out our TikTokand our socials to find out when
(01:40):
the next live stream is.
And or YouTube.
We were also there and you guyscan jump on and hopefully we
can answer some questions foryou guys.
So I can't tell you guys howmuch the support means to me,
this idea that came out ofnowhere and this resource that
we have tried to create as we'reall learning.
(02:02):
So I hope this has been ahelpful tool and resource every
week through over this last year.
And happy July 4th I know wejust came through that holiday,
so hope you guys have had agreat weekend through July 4th
holiday, middle of the year, andwe've got a long six months
(02:25):
ahead of us.
Guys, it's been a little brutalin my neck of the woods, as you
may hear in my tone of voice,but doing what you can to keep
on moving.
But had some switch-ups whereI'm at with PsyCon and doing a
little bit more than justtransitions.
So here's a live stream fromlast week.
(02:46):
Guys, I appreciate your support.
I appreciate every one of youthat's reached out and shared
your insight.
It means more than you know.
I'm going to roll on here tothis next question from Spencer
from Florida.
Hit us with if you run afamily-grown landscaping and
excavation business with stronglocal momentum, how do you
(03:10):
decide whether it's time toscale further, especially when
labor is maxed out and you'restill handling most of the heavy
equipment work yourself?
Let me kind of paraphrase thatfor you, spencer if you run a
question is, if you run a familygrown landscaping excavation
business so essentially I'massuming there's a couple of
(03:33):
family members running thistogether um, with strong local
momentum, how do you decidewhether it's time to scale
further, especially when laboris maxed out and you're still
handling most of the heavyequipment work yourself?
I don't know if he means byheavy equipment work like as in,
he's actually out thereoperating or.
Hey, thanks for that, follow myguy.
I'm going to try and hit all ofthese through this process as
(03:58):
well.
But literally, if I'm going togo back to inside accounting, if
you were sitting there andyou're inside accounting and
your reporting is telling youand you're getting a P&L and a
balance sheet and I know thatsounds super high level, spencer
, at this point, because I was afamily owned and operated
business still am I understandand sympathize working with
(04:21):
family, because it's different,for sure.
But at the same time, if you'rein the machine all the time, I
(04:42):
would concentrate more on atraining and onboarding process
for your operators so you canget yourself out of the machine,
because that right there youcannot work in the business
while working on the business.
There's no way to do it.
I speak about it on the showall the time.
It's too hard.
One area is going to have slackand lose momentum and it
doesn't sound like that's whatyou guys are looking for.
You're looking to keep yourmomentum going here, but there's
(05:05):
not a real sweet spot, point ofoh, this is the time to do it.
But if you're watching yourinside accounting reporting
which I haven't always been thebest at either and we've really
focused on that over last year,especially through the election
year things got very hard todeal with from all aspects and
(05:28):
variables, but essentially wefocused up on inside accounting
and then this year we have beenpushing even more and I can tell
you the difference of me havingconsistent, accurate reporting,
what it can do for yourbusiness, especially as the
owner, because it's like takinga test but not really ever
(05:48):
having the answer key right andme and my estimator were talking
about that because he's sittingthere from the front of the
house.
We've been so much work We'vebeen dragging through this year
too.
I mean, this year hasn't beenan overabundance from the
residual of last year and we'rewaiting for work to just
absolutely pile, drive us andturn on and hit Spixen 2.
(06:09):
There's no doubt.
But we need that data from theproduction side to basically
give him that answer key to findout if these jobs are staying
unprofitable.
Is he estimating right from theget-go Jobs are staying
unprofitable?
Is he estimating right from theget-go or were we taking a bad
(06:30):
number and trying to go make ita good number out in the field?
Because you cannot take a badnumber off the desk and try and
go make it a good number butthat sweet spot, I would tell
you, is number one.
You need to focus on systemsand processes and procedures
because if you're still outthere, I'm telling this to
myself five years ago I was inthat machine still at the same
(06:50):
time process, implementation andexecution of what we're doing
every day, so that somebody elsethat hops in the seat can just
pick up and run with it, becausenobody's going to sit there and
take this out of your head.
Unless you stick it on paper,they'll never be successful.
(07:11):
They're always just trying toread your mind right.
So it's very hard for anemployer to hire another guy and
stick them in that operatorseat and go.
Well, you know that guy rightthere.
He's not doing it the way Iwould do it, or his production
is not as much as I would do, etcetera, et cetera.
Well, he's never going to be.
Look up the book, buy back yourtime.
(07:32):
A shout out to T-Dog T-Money,old Trent Harris over at Boot
Caller.
He says I say things out ofthat book all the time.
It's on my ad list, but 80% ofyour time?
Okay, if you can do something100% effectively, if somebody's
out there giving 80% of what youcan output as an owner of a
(07:55):
business, I'm telling you youbetter be thanking them because
they're doing everything theycan.
The 20% they don't even haveknowledge of because you haven't
shared with them out of yourhead yet.
Trust me, I know I've done itand the more transparent you get
with your team I know I may begoing a little far off here from
your question here, spencer,but the more transparent you
build with your team, the bettersuccess chance that they have.
(08:18):
Whether it's good, bad orindifferent.
It may not be good, it may, youknow, financials may be rough
and you may be going through adowntime and um, but you got a
band together and everybody'sgot to see where we're going as
a, as a target goal.
So I would get your familytogether, look at your P and L
and balance sheet together.
Hey, are we?
Um man, we're getting an influxin landscape, hardscape
(08:42):
projects.
Maybe we don't go by the 285skid steer, but maybe we um go
buy another dingo to make thelabor side of it um a little bit
easier.
On the labor that say, we gotfour or five guys out there.
If we can have a piece ofequipment, help and have two or
(09:04):
three guys out there, that'skind of the things I'd be
looking for to start elevating.
Number one thing is sales andkeep sales coming in.
I know you say momentum, butbefore you start scaling you
better have consistent monthover month over sales and
conversion rates to look at.
I didn't do that.
(09:24):
I had consistent sales, but Ididn't have the conversion rates
to sit there and look at when Iwas scaling.
I took a big risk and you cando that too, I mean you
absolutely can If you've built alittle bit of reputation around
.
I would definitely give it twoor three years and set up these
processes and systems and getyour inside accounting to where
it's spitting out reports every30, 45 days so you can make a
(09:46):
good judgment call and thosereports said all that to say.
Those reports will tell youwhen it's, give you a good
inclination of when it's time toscale.
There's also a lot to be said tobeing an entrepreneur and
having the vision that nobodyelse gets.
(10:06):
Your CPA doesn't get you a lotof times.
Your marketing guy and CPAsthey're never going to jive.
It's those kind of equationsthat you don't know of yet.
But hopefully that helped yourquestion there.
Spencer, you got a question forme, jeremiah's in the comments
down below.
What's going on?
Ashton?
Thanks for joining us.
(10:27):
Dustin mainly needing to learnmore about bidding commercial
work.
Okay, let me finish readingthat here.
Dustin said mainly needing tolearn more about bidding
commercial work.
We have been residential agprimarily.
Well, um, my first questionwould be what style of
commercial are you going intothe retail space?
(10:51):
More restaurants are we talking?
You know, multi-family?
Are we talking?
Subdivisions, what are are wetalking and that is a question I
didn't know either and I didn'thave the answer to my guy but,
um, I would find something sohard to cut your teeth in.
But making that jump fromresidential to commercial
(11:13):
earthwork is a huge, huge jump.
But hopefully you guys do alittle bit of pipe or maybe some
septic work.
You've got to find somethingthat holds down the residential
cashflow I'm sorry, theresidential thing that you're so
good at right now.
You've got to find a way tokeep it, to start stepping off
(11:33):
and, honestly, you're going tolearn by mistake and by
experience.
Bid that commercial work, maybefind somebody in your area.
I understand that they're notreally too quick to give out
information.
Neither is this area, I canassure you.
But that's literally why I'mdoing what I'm doing currently,
sitting here right now.
(11:54):
So, planswift I just did a videoon our YouTube channel about
all the softwares.
Uh, just check out PsyCon.
Um, I think it's a two week,last week's video anyways, but
it'll say playing Swift andbuilders trend over my head.
Go check that video out andsome of the softwares that would
help you kind of get from pointA to point B.
(12:16):
I think you'll find some valuein that video and things that
you're looking for.
Planswift is a number one toolfitting into the commercial
space, but that's a totallydifferent rabbit hole.
You guys don't want to sit hereand listen to that.
But get PlanSwift.
If you do utilities, man, startwith PlanSwift and start
(12:37):
venturing out a little bit inthe pipe commercial world.
My guy, that would be the firstthing I would be doing.
Maybe find a 100-foot, 200-footextension on a retail
establishment that's coming totown.
Maybe get in front of a coupleof these GCs that you kind of
have an idea about that's localto your area.
Maybe you have somebody thatworks there that you know.
(12:59):
And hey, man, I'm just lookingfor some small utilities.
And guys like myself, whenwe're bidding utility package
one at all, right, we, wesometimes, especially when we're
busy, we're not really going tobe looking for that 80 or 100
foot, uh, because it's reallyhard to pull a full crew off of
a three, four or five month jobto go do a day or two job, right
.
So hit your gcs up and startvery small on the utility side
(13:26):
and see where that lands you, myguy.
But I'm gonna keep rocking androlling here.
I'm gonna give me a little swigof sweaty tea.
There's two parts to thisquestion.
Sam's probably screaming at me.
There's another part how do yougrow in a heavy equipment
operation when the person youwant to promote is irreplaceable
and it's hard to find someonenew who cares about as much
(13:50):
about quality as I do?
No-transcript.
(14:21):
Essentially, you've got tobuild systems and processes to
get what's in your head and thedirection and where you're
wanting to go.
That's exactly.
You've got to get it on paperso somebody else can pick it up
and read it and go oh, that'swhat he means by quality control
(14:42):
.
It's the little things that youdon't think about, but the
little things are what carryfrustration points for yourself,
and I don't know what quoteunquote makes them irreplaceable
.
I understand, being anentrepreneur, there's quite a
few people here that I thoughtwere just completely
irreplaceable, but throughsystems and processes and
(15:04):
procedures I'm not saying thatthey are by any means Love my
people to death, hope they nevergo anywhere, but I think,
spencer from Florida, you've gotto work on some systems and
processes.
Work at it as a family unit,right, and don't just stick it
(15:28):
on yourself.
But, man, you're asking theright questions, so keep
steadfast there, dude.
All right, we'll go to Nick here.
How do you determine 10% margin, say 30 margin?
Is this market driven?
Nick from tiktok dude,excellent question.
Um, a question that I actually,uh, should have been asking a
(15:49):
lot earlier in business myself.
Um, our bids are not.
Market is a part of theequation, but you cannot let the
market drive your price.
Right now, especially comingoff the residual of the election
(16:10):
and high interest rates andeverything that we're dealing
with, there's a lot tariffs Like.
There's so many differentvariables that we're still
dealing with and the cost hasn'treally redacted right.
So there's a lot of people outin the marketplace and there's a
lot of new guys out here tryingto just jump into the
commercial world or jump intothe residential world, or you
(16:32):
know, the market oversaturationis something to also take away
from this.
But how do you fluctuate thatmargin?
Well, crew availability.
Okay, how busy are your crews?
How much do they want to payyou to get the job done?
Because you know, I mean, ifyou're talking pure profit at
(16:54):
that point, because a lot ofpeople get in our heavy
equipment world, get 10, 30margin, but they're not even
equating for indirect oroverhead costs.
I promise you, I was theremyself until I went to a cpa
that's industry, that knows myindustry, and go hey, dude, what
are you doing with?
(17:14):
Where's your indirect?
Where's your overhead?
What's going to happen when, uh, that dozer slings a sprocket
and you got to spend 25 grand?
Where's that money going tocome from?
Like, that has to be worked inand and they teach you how to do
that.
But, um, crew availability whatkind of engineer are we dealing
with?
Are we dealing with a crappyengineer that's going to be
freaking?
(17:34):
Uh, change ordering.
You know, from the last projectit wasn't drawn worth of crap.
So then you change ordered itout, or, um, is it client?
Is this just a client that youdon't like working for?
Like, have you done any workwith them before and it just
went crap?
Did it take you forever to getpaid?
Um, did they?
(17:56):
You know those are the types ofthings that are going to
directly affect your margin.
But we kind of have a go no-gomatrix.
But also, too, if you're needingwork, you know your backlog
also drives that margin.
If you don't have as much work,you're going to have a lower
margin.
But where a lot of folksincluding including myself get
(18:18):
into a trap is they don't reallyadjust that margin.
So you already had a game here,nick, by asking the question
like straight up when you do geta bunch of work, adjust that
margin so that way you're nothaving to pull this guy off of
here, pull that guy off of hereand you're just making the same
amount of money.
But that's kind of the way Iwould look at margin adjustment
(18:43):
it's you know, do you have to gorent a bunch of equipment to go
do this high dollar paying job?
Does it really wash out?
Do you have enough rental inthere?
You know it's things like thatthat all sway margin.
And of course rental is notpart of margin.
That's way up here in the lineout of expenses.
But bidding a project withmargin on it, man, you have to.
(19:06):
And a lot of guys right now Isee things getting literally the
term buy-in work, gcs, generalcontractors, calling me up going
hey, man, we bid like 62projects this year.
We got one.
I'm like, oh, what are youseeing up there on the dirt side
, like is a bunch of stufffitting to kick off?
(19:27):
I'm like, well, yeah, but notright now.
We still got 60, 90 days.
There's some stuff kicking off.
Don't get me wrong, guys, we'vealso had 75 days of rain.
But I hope I answered yourquestion there, nick.
Yes, the market is a part ofthat equation.
But if you know your cost,don't ever price yourself to the
(19:50):
market.
Price yourself to your cost andtake some time.
Know your cost, you have to.
That's how you're ever going toeven know what's happening at
the end of the job, right, andwhat's left for you and your
team, or however that's supposedto.
We just had K likes.
(20:15):
Let me hit one more here off myrandom running gun.
How do you carve out time forstrategic planning when you're
stuck in the day-to-day grind ofbilling phone calls and being
on the job site?
Boy howdy, that is a question.
Literally I'm living the sameum scenario um, non-negotiable
time, non-negotiable meetings.
(20:35):
You have got to set yourself.
Those meetings are important.
Those planning meetings arelike everything happens in our
world in 90 day cycles, right?
So if you want to startsomething right now, 90 days
from now is when you're reallygoing to start feeling the
effects, and it takes time andit takes a lot of time.
But billing it sounds likeyou've got a couple billing
(21:01):
phone calls of being on the jobsite.
It sounds like you may need topick somebody out and maybe sit
down and go.
Okay, this is everything I'vegot on me, just literally going
through myself right now, andthis is everything that's on me,
what needs to be on me.
I need to be handling the phonecalls with production.
I need to be out there on thejob site to make sure we're
(21:22):
staying on our estimate.
But do I really need to bebilling the work?
Is that maybe somebody in ouradmin office?
Or maybe we can create aposition if there's a couple
other things that we can get offof you?
So delegate number one delegatetasks so we can actually take
(21:45):
time for that hour meeting.
Because I understand that firstcouple of months trying to fit
in strategic planning meetingsand you're out there and your
phone's on the freaking tablethe entire time.
You've got to hit it.
Do not disturb for 45 minutesand give them your undivided
attention, because the strategicplan for your business needs to
(22:08):
come out of your head and ifyou're asking these people to
help you, well, you've got togive them the time to do so,
right?
So, um, last question here howdo you communicate to your
spouse or family that long hoursare temporary sacrifice for
long-term freedom when they'refeeling neglected.
(22:29):
Now, man, that's a deepquestion.
That is literally a deepquestion, especially for myself,
because I've been probably 10years, starting our 10th year in
August.
It's hard, it's hard tocommunicate that, even if it's a
temporary job, well, I wouldsit down and go.
(22:53):
Hey, I did this yesterday,actually.
Actually we went down and willwent with me to go look at a job
, and this is kind of how Iwould, how I view this.
But the job's way off in thewoods, and I mean way off in the
woods, no phone service, nointernet, no casey's gas station
(23:18):
within 10 minute trip, tripthat our guys are used to
dealing with, right, and I'mlike man, I'm going to have to
stick an office out here.
It's eight and a half milesfrom a highway, on dirt road,
nine creek crossings, this ispretty intimidating to look at
just to communicate.
And then I've got to ask a guyto go work out here and then I'm
(23:39):
going to have to put an office.
Anyhow, what I'm getting at isI didn't even want to ask my
guys to put themselves in thattwo-hour, it just didn't fit.
What we're trying to do, but atthe employee level, is where I
was trying to cover that.
But as the entrepreneur level,if you're man, me and Sarah have
(24:01):
actually got a four-part, uh,exclusive little uh only here.
I guess me and sarah are goingto sit down and do a four-part
series on marriage and businessand how we kind of walked
through it, navigated it,because it was extremely tough.
It wasn't freaking rainbows andunicorns a lot of the time, it
(24:22):
was hard stuff and it was twopeople trying to not give up on
each other and it was difficultand it was very hard for me to
communicate.
Hey, look, because your spouseis sitting there.
Oh, this is more important thanme, so you have to communicate
(24:44):
the importance.
As a man, I kind of had to do itwith my wife.
Look, my main job is to provide.
So I'm out here this is meshowing my love to you and you
and the family.
Like, yes, there is some timethat they deserve from your
schedule and they should setyour schedule right.
(25:04):
So like, yeah, I get it, you'reworking super, super long hours
, but you have got to find onenight a week or on weekend and
set some non-negotiable familytime.
And I have been trying to dothat, especially since the start
of this year for Tuesdays andThursdays trying to be home for
five o'clock.
I don't care what's going onDaddy's home, we're going to
(25:25):
hang out.
Me and Sarah, over the years,have been more business partners
, more time spent as businesspartners, than husband and wife,
and that's extremely tough, Igot to say.
And so communication andcompromise is the number one
(25:45):
thing.
It's sitting down and going hey, I need to tell you how I feel.
And if that's not comfortable,heck.
I can't tell you how many timesI've communicated to Sarah and
this may sound absolutely silly,but within an email of how I'm
feeling, about how a meetingwent.
Maybe you and your spouse don'tcommunicate great face-to-face
and texting is more of your formof communication.
(26:07):
I understand we're in that 21stcentury and that's how a lot of
people I mean do whatever yougot to do to get the emotion out
, to ensure that they feelimportant.
But they also understand andsupport what you're doing over
here.
For them, is for them, is forthem.
At the end of the day, all foryour family, right?
So I hope those are somequestions that helped you guys.
(26:30):
A few quick call to actions.
Come on back, go, subscribe tothe Cyclone YouTube channel if
you wouldn't mind.
And while you're over there onYouTube, check out Blue Collar
Business Podcast.
We're on YouTube.
I think we fit 5K subs on thatside of things.
We're here on TikTok, facebook,instagram,
(26:53):
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
You can sit there completelyfree.
You don't have to have asubscription.
Completely free.
You can listen and watch fullepisodes from there.
Read all the blogs on who I'mbringing, why I'm bringing them
on.
But if you have a subscription,please drop a follow on a
rating on the show on whateverplatform you've been listening
(27:14):
to us on.
It means more than you know andI look to do these, hopefully a
couple of times and, uh,definitely get these out there a
little bit more and get somemore interactive comments going
back and forth and hopefullyhelp some folks.
So, um, what else we got?
I think that's about it fortoday.
(27:35):
I have got a podcast EveryWednesday.
5 am comes out every singleweek, but I film at 3 o'clock, 4
o'clock on Wednesdays in theafternoon and we've got a pretty
cool little podcast coming uphere in about 15 minutes.
So I'm going to jump off here,guys.
I appreciate you guys so muchfor hanging out and until next
time we'll see you.
(27:56):
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like.
Share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Until next time, guys.
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast brought to youand sponsored today by
podcastvideoscom and all theirteam here.
We've been aligned with them,had the show over here for a
little over a year and thethings they're doing with this
(00:55):
platform I'm really excitedabout, and we have got some
crazy guests coming here in thenext and some events that we're
announcing, and so stay tuned.
But this week's episodedefinitely a little different.
I did a live stream last weektrying to answer some questions
and a live stream, basicallyplatform.
I think we were live on Tik TOKand we were live on YouTube.
(01:17):
Uh, apologies if you missedthat one, but go ahead and send
in your questions into thewebsite
wwwbluecollarbusinesspodcastcomand get those questions in and
hopefully I'll get them answeredon this next live stream.
So be checking out our TikTokand our socials to find out when
(01:40):
the next live stream is.
And or YouTube.
We were also there and you guyscan jump on and hopefully we
can answer some questions foryou guys.
So I can't tell you guys howmuch the support means to me,
this idea that came out ofnowhere and this resource that
we have tried to create as we'reall learning.
(02:02):
So I hope this has been ahelpful tool and resource every
week through over this last year.
And happy July 4th I know wejust came through that holiday,
so hope you guys have had agreat weekend through July 4th
holiday, middle of the year, andwe've got a long six months
(02:25):
ahead of us.
Guys, it's been a little brutalin my neck of the woods, as you
may hear in my tone of voice,but doing what you can to keep
on moving.
But had some switch-ups whereI'm at with PsyCon and doing a
little bit more than justtransitions.
So here's a live stream fromlast week.
(02:46):
Guys, I appreciate your support.
I appreciate every one of youthat's reached out and shared
your insight.
It means more than you know.
I'm going to roll on here tothis next question from Spencer
from Florida.
Hit us with if you run afamily-grown landscaping and
excavation business with stronglocal momentum, how do you
(03:10):
decide whether it's time toscale further, especially when
labor is maxed out and you'restill handling most of the heavy
equipment work yourself?
Let me kind of paraphrase thatfor you, spencer if you run a
question is, if you run a familygrown landscaping excavation
business so essentially I'massuming there's a couple of
(03:33):
family members running thistogether um, with strong local
momentum, how do you decidewhether it's time to scale
further, especially when laboris maxed out and you're still
handling most of the heavyequipment work yourself?
I don't know if he means byheavy equipment work like as in,
he's actually out thereoperating or.
Hey, thanks for that, follow myguy.
I'm going to try and hit all ofthese through this process as
(03:58):
well.
But literally, if I'm going togo back to inside accounting, if
you were sitting there andyou're inside accounting and
your reporting is telling youand you're getting a P&L and a
balance sheet and I know thatsounds super high level, spencer
, at this point, because I was afamily owned and operated
business still am I understandand sympathize working with
(04:21):
family, because it's different,for sure.
But at the same time, if you'rein the machine all the time, I
(04:42):
would concentrate more on atraining and onboarding process
for your operators so you canget yourself out of the machine,
because that right there youcannot work in the business
while working on the business.
There's no way to do it.
I speak about it on the showall the time.
It's too hard.
One area is going to have slackand lose momentum and it
doesn't sound like that's whatyou guys are looking for.
You're looking to keep yourmomentum going here, but there's
(05:05):
not a real sweet spot, point ofoh, this is the time to do it.
But if you're watching yourinside accounting reporting
which I haven't always been thebest at either and we've really
focused on that over last year,especially through the election
year things got very hard todeal with from all aspects and
(05:28):
variables, but essentially wefocused up on inside accounting
and then this year we have beenpushing even more and I can tell
you the difference of me havingconsistent, accurate reporting,
what it can do for yourbusiness, especially as the
owner, because it's like takinga test but not really ever
(05:48):
having the answer key right andme and my estimator were talking
about that because he's sittingthere from the front of the
house.
We've been so much work We'vebeen dragging through this year
too.
I mean, this year hasn't beenan overabundance from the
residual of last year and we'rewaiting for work to just
absolutely pile, drive us andturn on and hit Spixen 2.
(06:09):
There's no doubt.
But we need that data from theproduction side to basically
give him that answer key to findout if these jobs are staying
unprofitable.
Is he estimating right from theget-go Jobs are staying
unprofitable?
Is he estimating right from theget-go or were we taking a bad
(06:30):
number and trying to go make ita good number out in the field?
Because you cannot take a badnumber off the desk and try and
go make it a good number butthat sweet spot, I would tell
you, is number one.
You need to focus on systemsand processes and procedures
because if you're still outthere, I'm telling this to
myself five years ago I was inthat machine still at the same
(06:50):
time process, implementation andexecution of what we're doing
every day, so that somebody elsethat hops in the seat can just
pick up and run with it, becausenobody's going to sit there and
take this out of your head.
Unless you stick it on paper,they'll never be successful.
(07:11):
They're always just trying toread your mind right.
So it's very hard for anemployer to hire another guy and
stick them in that operatorseat and go.
Well, you know that guy rightthere.
He's not doing it the way Iwould do it, or his production
is not as much as I would do, etcetera, et cetera.
Well, he's never going to be.
Look up the book, buy back yourtime.
(07:32):
A shout out to T-Dog T-Money,old Trent Harris over at Boot
Caller.
He says I say things out ofthat book all the time.
It's on my ad list, but 80% ofyour time?
Okay, if you can do something100% effectively, if somebody's
out there giving 80% of what youcan output as an owner of a
(07:55):
business, I'm telling you youbetter be thanking them because
they're doing everything theycan.
The 20% they don't even haveknowledge of because you haven't
shared with them out of yourhead yet.
Trust me, I know I've done itand the more transparent you get
with your team I know I may begoing a little far off here from
your question here, spencer,but the more transparent you
build with your team, the bettersuccess chance that they have.
(08:18):
Whether it's good, bad orindifferent.
It may not be good, it may, youknow, financials may be rough
and you may be going through adowntime and um, but you got a
band together and everybody'sgot to see where we're going as
a, as a target goal.
So I would get your familytogether, look at your P and L
and balance sheet together.
Hey, are we?
Um man, we're getting an influxin landscape, hardscape
(08:42):
projects.
Maybe we don't go by the 285skid steer, but maybe we um go
buy another dingo to make thelabor side of it um a little bit
easier.
On the labor that say, we gotfour or five guys out there.
If we can have a piece ofequipment, help and have two or
(09:04):
three guys out there, that'skind of the things I'd be
looking for to start elevating.
Number one thing is sales andkeep sales coming in.
I know you say momentum, butbefore you start scaling you
better have consistent monthover month over sales and
conversion rates to look at.
I didn't do that.
(09:24):
I had consistent sales, but Ididn't have the conversion rates
to sit there and look at when Iwas scaling.
I took a big risk and you cando that too, I mean you
absolutely can If you've built alittle bit of reputation around
.
I would definitely give it twoor three years and set up these
processes and systems and getyour inside accounting to where
it's spitting out reports every30, 45 days so you can make a
(09:46):
good judgment call and thosereports said all that to say.
Those reports will tell youwhen it's, give you a good
inclination of when it's time toscale.
There's also a lot to be said tobeing an entrepreneur and
having the vision that nobodyelse gets.
(10:06):
Your CPA doesn't get you a lotof times.
Your marketing guy and CPAsthey're never going to jive.
It's those kind of equationsthat you don't know of yet.
But hopefully that helped yourquestion there.
Spencer, you got a question forme, jeremiah's in the comments
down below.
What's going on?
Ashton?
Thanks for joining us.
(10:27):
Dustin mainly needing to learnmore about bidding commercial
work.
Okay, let me finish readingthat here.
Dustin said mainly needing tolearn more about bidding
commercial work.
We have been residential agprimarily.
Well, um, my first questionwould be what style of
commercial are you going intothe retail space?
(10:51):
More restaurants are we talking?
You know, multi-family?
Are we talking?
Subdivisions, what are are wetalking and that is a question I
didn't know either and I didn'thave the answer to my guy but,
um, I would find something sohard to cut your teeth in.
But making that jump fromresidential to commercial
(11:13):
earthwork is a huge, huge jump.
But hopefully you guys do alittle bit of pipe or maybe some
septic work.
You've got to find somethingthat holds down the residential
cashflow I'm sorry, theresidential thing that you're so
good at right now.
You've got to find a way tokeep it, to start stepping off
(11:33):
and, honestly, you're going tolearn by mistake and by
experience.
Bid that commercial work, maybefind somebody in your area.
I understand that they're notreally too quick to give out
information.
Neither is this area, I canassure you.
But that's literally why I'mdoing what I'm doing currently,
sitting here right now.
(11:54):
So, planswift I just did a videoon our YouTube channel about
all the softwares.
Uh, just check out PsyCon.
Um, I think it's a two week,last week's video anyways, but
it'll say playing Swift andbuilders trend over my head.
Go check that video out andsome of the softwares that would
help you kind of get from pointA to point B.
(12:16):
I think you'll find some valuein that video and things that
you're looking for.
Planswift is a number one toolfitting into the commercial
space, but that's a totallydifferent rabbit hole.
You guys don't want to sit hereand listen to that.
But get PlanSwift.
If you do utilities, man, startwith PlanSwift and start
(12:37):
venturing out a little bit inthe pipe commercial world.
My guy, that would be the firstthing I would be doing.
Maybe find a 100-foot, 200-footextension on a retail
establishment that's coming totown.
Maybe get in front of a coupleof these GCs that you kind of
have an idea about that's localto your area.
Maybe you have somebody thatworks there that you know.
(12:59):
And hey, man, I'm just lookingfor some small utilities.
And guys like myself, whenwe're bidding utility package
one at all, right, we, wesometimes, especially when we're
busy, we're not really going tobe looking for that 80 or 100
foot, uh, because it's reallyhard to pull a full crew off of
a three, four or five month jobto go do a day or two job, right
.
So hit your gcs up and startvery small on the utility side
(13:26):
and see where that lands you, myguy.
But I'm gonna keep rocking androlling here.
I'm gonna give me a little swigof sweaty tea.
There's two parts to thisquestion.
Sam's probably screaming at me.
There's another part how do yougrow in a heavy equipment
operation when the person youwant to promote is irreplaceable
and it's hard to find someonenew who cares about as much
(13:50):
about quality as I do?
No-transcript.
(14:21):
Essentially, you've got tobuild systems and processes to
get what's in your head and thedirection and where you're
wanting to go.
That's exactly.
You've got to get it on paperso somebody else can pick it up
and read it and go oh, that'swhat he means by quality control
(14:42):
.
It's the little things that youdon't think about, but the
little things are what carryfrustration points for yourself,
and I don't know what quoteunquote makes them irreplaceable
.
I understand, being anentrepreneur, there's quite a
few people here that I thoughtwere just completely
irreplaceable, but throughsystems and processes and
(15:04):
procedures I'm not saying thatthey are by any means Love my
people to death, hope they nevergo anywhere, but I think,
spencer from Florida, you've gotto work on some systems and
processes.
Work at it as a family unit,right, and don't just stick it
(15:28):
on yourself.
But, man, you're asking theright questions, so keep
steadfast there, dude.
All right, we'll go to Nick here.
How do you determine 10% margin, say 30 margin?
Is this market driven?
Nick from tiktok dude,excellent question.
Um, a question that I actually,uh, should have been asking a
(15:49):
lot earlier in business myself.
Um, our bids are not.
Market is a part of theequation, but you cannot let the
market drive your price.
Right now, especially comingoff the residual of the election
(16:10):
and high interest rates andeverything that we're dealing
with, there's a lot tariffs Like.
There's so many differentvariables that we're still
dealing with and the cost hasn'treally redacted right.
So there's a lot of people outin the marketplace and there's a
lot of new guys out here tryingto just jump into the
commercial world or jump intothe residential world, or you
(16:32):
know, the market oversaturationis something to also take away
from this.
But how do you fluctuate thatmargin?
Well, crew availability.
Okay, how busy are your crews?
How much do they want to payyou to get the job done?
Because you know, I mean, ifyou're talking pure profit at
(16:54):
that point, because a lot ofpeople get in our heavy
equipment world, get 10, 30margin, but they're not even
equating for indirect oroverhead costs.
I promise you, I was theremyself until I went to a cpa
that's industry, that knows myindustry, and go hey, dude, what
are you doing with?
(17:14):
Where's your indirect?
Where's your overhead?
What's going to happen when, uh, that dozer slings a sprocket
and you got to spend 25 grand?
Where's that money going tocome from?
Like, that has to be worked inand and they teach you how to do
that.
But, um, crew availability whatkind of engineer are we dealing
with?
Are we dealing with a crappyengineer that's going to be
freaking?
(17:34):
Uh, change ordering.
You know, from the last projectit wasn't drawn worth of crap.
So then you change ordered itout, or, um, is it client?
Is this just a client that youdon't like working for?
Like, have you done any workwith them before and it just
went crap?
Did it take you forever to getpaid?
Um, did they?
(17:56):
You know those are the types ofthings that are going to
directly affect your margin.
But we kind of have a go no-gomatrix.
But also, too, if you're needingwork, you know your backlog
also drives that margin.
If you don't have as much work,you're going to have a lower
margin.
But where a lot of folksincluding including myself get
(18:18):
into a trap is they don't reallyadjust that margin.
So you already had a game here,nick, by asking the question
like straight up when you do geta bunch of work, adjust that
margin so that way you're nothaving to pull this guy off of
here, pull that guy off of hereand you're just making the same
amount of money.
But that's kind of the way Iwould look at margin adjustment
(18:43):
it's you know, do you have to gorent a bunch of equipment to go
do this high dollar paying job?
Does it really wash out?
Do you have enough rental inthere?
You know it's things like thatthat all sway margin.
And of course rental is notpart of margin.
That's way up here in the lineout of expenses.
But bidding a project withmargin on it, man, you have to.
(19:06):
And a lot of guys right now Isee things getting literally the
term buy-in work, gcs, generalcontractors, calling me up going
hey, man, we bid like 62projects this year.
We got one.
I'm like, oh, what are youseeing up there on the dirt side
, like is a bunch of stufffitting to kick off?
(19:27):
I'm like, well, yeah, but notright now.
We still got 60, 90 days.
There's some stuff kicking off.
Don't get me wrong, guys, we'vealso had 75 days of rain.
But I hope I answered yourquestion there, nick.
Yes, the market is a part ofthat equation.
But if you know your cost,don't ever price yourself to the
(19:50):
market.
Price yourself to your cost andtake some time.
Know your cost, you have to.
That's how you're ever going toeven know what's happening at
the end of the job, right, andwhat's left for you and your
team, or however that's supposedto.
We just had K likes.
(20:15):
Let me hit one more here off myrandom running gun.
How do you carve out time forstrategic planning when you're
stuck in the day-to-day grind ofbilling phone calls and being
on the job site?
Boy howdy, that is a question.
Literally I'm living the sameum scenario um, non-negotiable
time, non-negotiable meetings.
(20:35):
You have got to set yourself.
Those meetings are important.
Those planning meetings arelike everything happens in our
world in 90 day cycles, right?
So if you want to startsomething right now, 90 days
from now is when you're reallygoing to start feeling the
effects, and it takes time andit takes a lot of time.
But billing it sounds likeyou've got a couple billing
(21:01):
phone calls of being on the jobsite.
It sounds like you may need topick somebody out and maybe sit
down and go.
Okay, this is everything I'vegot on me, just literally going
through myself right now, andthis is everything that's on me,
what needs to be on me.
I need to be handling the phonecalls with production.
I need to be out there on thejob site to make sure we're
(21:22):
staying on our estimate.
But do I really need to bebilling the work?
Is that maybe somebody in ouradmin office?
Or maybe we can create aposition if there's a couple
other things that we can get offof you?
So delegate number one delegatetasks so we can actually take
(21:45):
time for that hour meeting.
Because I understand that firstcouple of months trying to fit
in strategic planning meetingsand you're out there and your
phone's on the freaking tablethe entire time.
You've got to hit it.
Do not disturb for 45 minutesand give them your undivided
attention, because the strategicplan for your business needs to
(22:08):
come out of your head and ifyou're asking these people to
help you, well, you've got togive them the time to do so,
right?
So, um, last question here howdo you communicate to your
spouse or family that long hoursare temporary sacrifice for
long-term freedom when they'refeeling neglected.
(22:29):
Now, man, that's a deepquestion.
That is literally a deepquestion, especially for myself,
because I've been probably 10years, starting our 10th year in
August.
It's hard, it's hard tocommunicate that, even if it's a
temporary job, well, I wouldsit down and go.
(22:53):
Hey, I did this yesterday,actually.
Actually we went down and willwent with me to go look at a job
, and this is kind of how Iwould, how I view this.
But the job's way off in thewoods, and I mean way off in the
woods, no phone service, nointernet, no casey's gas station
(23:18):
within 10 minute trip, tripthat our guys are used to
dealing with, right, and I'mlike man, I'm going to have to
stick an office out here.
It's eight and a half milesfrom a highway, on dirt road,
nine creek crossings, this ispretty intimidating to look at
just to communicate.
And then I've got to ask a guyto go work out here and then I'm
(23:39):
going to have to put an office.
Anyhow, what I'm getting at isI didn't even want to ask my
guys to put themselves in thattwo-hour, it just didn't fit.
What we're trying to do, but atthe employee level, is where I
was trying to cover that.
But as the entrepreneur level,if you're man, me and Sarah have
(24:01):
actually got a four-part, uh,exclusive little uh only here.
I guess me and sarah are goingto sit down and do a four-part
series on marriage and businessand how we kind of walked
through it, navigated it,because it was extremely tough.
It wasn't freaking rainbows andunicorns a lot of the time, it
(24:22):
was hard stuff and it was twopeople trying to not give up on
each other and it was difficultand it was very hard for me to
communicate.
Hey, look, because your spouseis sitting there.
Oh, this is more important thanme, so you have to communicate
(24:44):
the importance.
As a man, I kind of had to do itwith my wife.
Look, my main job is to provide.
So I'm out here this is meshowing my love to you and you
and the family.
Like, yes, there is some timethat they deserve from your
schedule and they should setyour schedule right.
(25:04):
So like, yeah, I get it, you'reworking super, super long hours
, but you have got to find onenight a week or on weekend and
set some non-negotiable familytime.
And I have been trying to dothat, especially since the start
of this year for Tuesdays andThursdays trying to be home for
five o'clock.
I don't care what's going onDaddy's home, we're going to
(25:25):
hang out.
Me and Sarah, over the years,have been more business partners
, more time spent as businesspartners, than husband and wife,
and that's extremely tough, Igot to say.
And so communication andcompromise is the number one
(25:45):
thing.
It's sitting down and going hey, I need to tell you how I feel.
And if that's not comfortable,heck.
I can't tell you how many timesI've communicated to Sarah and
this may sound absolutely silly,but within an email of how I'm
feeling, about how a meetingwent.
Maybe you and your spouse don'tcommunicate great face-to-face
and texting is more of your formof communication.
(26:07):
I understand we're in that 21stcentury and that's how a lot of
people I mean do whatever yougot to do to get the emotion out
, to ensure that they feelimportant.
But they also understand andsupport what you're doing over
here.
For them, is for them, is forthem.
At the end of the day, all foryour family, right?
So I hope those are somequestions that helped you guys.
(26:30):
A few quick call to actions.
Come on back, go, subscribe tothe Cyclone YouTube channel if
you wouldn't mind.
And while you're over there onYouTube, check out Blue Collar
Business Podcast.
We're on YouTube.
I think we fit 5K subs on thatside of things.
We're here on TikTok, facebook,instagram,
(26:53):
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
You can sit there completelyfree.
You don't have to have asubscription.
Completely free.
You can listen and watch fullepisodes from there.
Read all the blogs on who I'mbringing, why I'm bringing them
on.
But if you have a subscription,please drop a follow on a
rating on the show on whateverplatform you've been listening
(27:14):
to us on.
It means more than you know andI look to do these, hopefully a
couple of times and, uh,definitely get these out there a
little bit more and get somemore interactive comments going
back and forth and hopefullyhelp some folks.
So, um, what else we got?
I think that's about it fortoday.
(27:35):
I have got a podcast EveryWednesday.
5 am comes out every singleweek, but I film at 3 o'clock, 4
o'clock on Wednesdays in theafternoon and we've got a pretty
cool little podcast coming uphere in about 15 minutes.
So I'm going to jump off here,guys.
I appreciate you guys so muchfor hanging out and until next
time we'll see you.
(27:56):
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like.
Share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Until next time, guys.
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