Sod Basics

It's all about the sod today. We're going to talk about what it takes to have a successful, instant green backyard. We are going to go over grading, we're going to go over the depth of black dirt and to dispel a few myths there. We're going to talk about the watering schedule; when to water, and how much. We're also going to go over when you can mow the sod. We're going to teach you how to peel back the sod and determine how healthy your sod is and then the scourge of sod, fighting the Japanese beetles. What to look for, so you can cut them off before they become problematic, so let's get into it. The first thing I want to do is to dispel a myth that you've got to have four inches of pulverized screen black dirt. If you actually put that much black dirt on top of your subgrade, this soil, this black dirt is going to compress and cause uneven waves in your sod. The four inches isn't necessary and sometimes incorporating it can be a little difficult like tilling your entire...

All right I’m with Greg Wittstock. Some of you may recognize him from the Tv Show "Pond Stars." Greg is the number one manufacturer in North America of pond products. We just got done doing a podcast, and Greg literally told us how he went from having absolutely nothing to owning a $60 million a year corporation with 95 employees. He has been in the Fortune 500 top fastest growing companies four years in a row.

Greg Wittsock

Thank you for coming on. Today we talked about something that I think is a critical element. We talked about manufacturing, distribution, leadership management, and your new academy.  You touched base on were how you grow from nothing to something and gave us four strong points in leadership and management. Can you go over that with us?

Different Stages of the Business

Greg: When I started off, I was in the field working directly with the guys. Then I developed the 20 step way of building water features and that was our system. Stan: So you...

I'm meeting with Brian right now. We are going to be re-landscaping, and so I make sure we are on the same page.  What we’re going to be doing is we will be getting rid of these trees and bushes. I’m going to cut all of the bushes down.  We’re going to haul that out.

Think Outside the Box

If you guys cut grass, I want you to start thinking a little bit outside the box and expanding your services.  I’m going to take you step by step through this $2,400 dollar job. It took us two days to complete with two guys and a minimal amount of materials.  Now you see me running a skid loader right here. You don’t need a skid loader to pop trees on the ground. Keith Kalfas has an amazing video where he shows doing the exact same work with a pickup truck. But I want you to understand that this project was done in two days.

2 days = 60 Lawns

It would be equal to cutting 60 lawns over the course of a summer. The profits are immense because of the...

Landscaping Legal Help

Today we’re going to talk about the legal problems. I am by no means an expert on anything legal, but I do have a lot of unfortunate experiences.  I’m gonna share two horror stories out of the fricking catalog of horror I have. Hopefully, this will help you guys out.

Unauthorized Retaining Wall Repair

The first horror story I am going to share with you something some of you may be familiar with. We did a giant boulder retaining wall, and during that process, something happened to the neighbor's retaining wall. My customer asked me to go out and fix the neighbor's retaining walls. He was just nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs that the next door neighbor was going to mad at him. He wanted me to help them out in some way. Because I was doing such a big project for him in the first place, as a kindness to my customer, I went to the neighbor’s house and fixed their retaining wall. That guy is suing me...

Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn care #1

Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn care #2

And once you start to learn how to do it over and over again you will always get better and you gotta realize this Francisco somebody is being you learn I love this.This is best part of it somebody is paying you to learn.

Three, two , one

Your last question was about grading how do you get grading the right ?

Franciso; yeah

you know is that what you want to find out perfect I know now you are in my neck of the woods this is what I grew up doing and I can tell you that there are not going to be any two grading jobs are like heart skipping just like everything else there's never going to be two projects alike and we really got to focus on learning how to bid not necessarily just by going by the numbers but how to interpret those numbers.

How to interpret those sites and use your past experience you're going to build up a wealth of...

Stan:

Here’s my buddy Sham McCarthy. He’s the Manager of a Lumber company and he is suffering from a classic burn out. I'm going to tell you guys and girls out there that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and you have to treat your employees like they're going to be around forever. Shawn stuff because he's feeling them burn out.

Shawn:

I work Monday-Friday on a normal basis and every other Saturday.

Stan:

The point that I want to make is, 6 days on a week, 1 day off is just going to lead to burn out. You guys need to know that you have to give your people in the least 2 days off. Here's the typical scenario when you give a person 2days off (a Saturday and a Sunday). They're going to take Friday night and they're going to decompress and come down from the job. They're going to start to relax and have fun. Saturday, they're still feeling their decompression, but they're starting to come back to life. Saturday is their day off. Sunday morning, they transgress into still...

How to Bid Mulch

Money is in the mulch, you guys know that I do demolition, excavation, I do all these massive retaining wall projects but there is a reason why I built and developed a course specifically on mulch. Every time you see the mulch, you should be able to see dollar bill certain on the floor in front of your eyes, so get ready and check this out. The reason I built a course directly on bidding mulch is because the profit potential in mulch is absolutely amazing. We are talking about incredible profits of 80%-90% on a job. But there is a rhyme and a reason to achieving those profits. At Dirt Monkey University, I created a course specifically to help contractors like you understand how to format your most proposals to have guaranteed profits every single time. There is no magic mystery number.  I show you how to calculate mulch up and break it down in a per cubic yard or a per ton basis. Whether it's hardwood, rock, or even rubber mulch,  we build profits into...

Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #1

Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #3

Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #2

Q & A Decoding Estimates for Construction, Landscaping and Lawn Care #3

I'm going talk about ways that you can tackle bidding when you're not familiar with the job. You don't want to walk away and you go, "Oh yeah, well you know, I lost money." And you forget about it. You're going to keep repeating the cycle over and over and over again. We have Francisco from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the line today.  He has three questions about bidding. What is the process for cutting down trees? I'm not a tree removal or tree trimming company, but what I'm going to do is talk about ways that you can tackle bidding when you're not familiar with the work. so Before we get into it. I need to know the level of familiarity you guys have with tree trimming and tree removal.  Have you've done it before? I'm just doing. How is he done it in the past?  What formula has he used for getting the tree removal?...

I try to learn from every single person I meet. Every person. Andrew, I can learn from you. I can learn from the neighbor or the milkman because every person in this world has unique experiences that have taught them things that I can benefit from

University of Hard Knocks

I've never taken a single class on any of that, but I did get a Master's degree at the University of Hard Knocks. So, I'm probably the living example of just good old get it DONE. DO IT. DO IT. Learn from everything that you've ever done along the way. I'm constantly talking with people and seeking out experts. Always looking for people that have skill sets that are outside of my skill set. Sometimes it's just crazy. My wife says, "I can't believe how you talk to that person!" Because I literally will go crazy trying to learn everything that they know. It doesn't matter if they're within my profession or outside of my profession.  I'm actually even more aggressive in real life than my podcast. I’m in...