00:00 – From 1 Truck to $1M by 24
00:00
Jack Jostes
I remember talking to you about buying your second truck. So you were going from a one truck organization. You broke a million dollars, right?
00:09
Jacob Peffer
Yes.
00:09
Jack Jostes
When you started four years ago, were you thinking that you'd break a million at some point?
00:14
Jacob Peffer
I was just a frontline employee and I bought a mower and I was driving around in a Jeep Liberty. I just said, you know, if I'm gonna do this, I should just go in all the way. And I invested in a truck, a website. I dabbled into the snow. And now that I'm here, it's just the amount of revenue that we've built over the years.
00:31
Jack Jostes
Remarkable. So how many trucks do you have now?
00:34
Jacob Peffer
We have…
00:37 – Meet Jacob Peffer of Greener Concepts
00:37
Jack Jostes
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Landscaper's Guide Podcast. Today I'm on the SIMA Symposium Podcast Central Stage with Jacob Peffer from Greener Concepts. This is his third time on the show.
00:50
Jacob Peffer
Third time. Yeah.
00:51
Jack Jostes
And so for folks who are maybe this is the first interview that they've seen between you and me. Tell people a little bit about yourself and what do you do?
00:58
Jacob Peffer
Yeah. So I started the business about three and a half years ago, and I won the Alan Steiman Scholarship in 22, and I got the free, you know, free trip here. And I just wanted to take in all the knowledge that I could. We do landscape maintenance primarily. And then that first year I came here and I won was the first year I started doing snow. And then it's just, you know, snowballed effect.
01:22
Jack Jostes
What percentage of your revenue last year in 2024 was snow?
01:27
Jacob Peffer
Roughly, I would say 10, 15%.
01:31
Jack Jostes
And is that roughly what you want moving forward? Are you looking to grow snow to be a bigger part of it or what are you thinking?
01:37
Jacob Peffer
I would like it to be. I do enjoy a lot of the landscape maintenance. If we could get, you know, we're in PA, so it's either it doesn't snow or it snows a lot.
01:47
Jack Jostes
Yeah.
01:47
Jacob Peffer
And I think the last year we got really lucky with the amount of snowfall we got, and it actually boosted up our percentage.
01:58 – Winning the SIMA Scholarship
01:54
Jack Jostes
Good. Well. And so tell us, what was that scholarship? So, for people listening, this is one of the coolest parts of the Snow and Ice Management Association. SIMA, I think, is that they have. They have this, and it's like a legit scholarship. So tell us a little bit about it.
02:08
Jacob Peffer
So you get free travel, you get a travel stipend, and then you get to come here and attend a bunch of classes and, you know, expand your network and just gain so much knowledge and actually apply stuff to the snow. Industry, which is what I love. It's helped me grow exponentially.
02:26
Jack Jostes
And so are you like 25 now?
02:28
Jacob Peffer
I just turned 24.
02:29
Jack Jostes
24. Oh, wow.
02:31
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
02:32
Jack Jostes
Okay, so. So you started this though, when you were like, 2020?
02:35
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
02:36
Jack Jostes
Okay, so you just turned 24. You're in your fourth year of business. I remember talking to you about buying your second truck. So you were going from a one truck organization to two trucks. And then we've been texting and you broke a million dollars, right?
02:54
Jacob Peffer
Yes. So we have about a million in sold work currently, and I think, you know, sales keep going. We should get around 1.1 to 1.2 this year.
03:04
Jack Jostes
For 2025.
03:05
Jacob Peffer
For 2020.
03:05
Jack Jostes
That is so cool.
03:06
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
03:07
Jack Jostes
That's incredible. You started four years ago. Were you thinking that you'd break a million at some point or like, were you thinking it was just like, what was it like when you just started out? Was it just a hobby or was it like?
03:19
Jacob Peffer
Not a hobby, but it was more so I was working for a franchise landscape company and I just enjoyed cutting the grass. That's all I did. I was just a frontline employee and I bought a mower and I was driving around in a Jeep Liberty with a trailer and a mower, and then I just said, you know, if I'm gonna do this, I should just go in all the way. And I invested in a truck, a website. I started doing door hangers, and it just kept. It just kept building and building, and then I dabbled into the snow. And now that I'm here, it's just the amount of revenue that we've built over the years.
03:51
Jack Jostes
Remarkable. That's cool, man. So how many trucks do you have now?
03:56
Jacob Peffer
We have five.
03:57
Jack Jostes
You have five?
03:59
Jacob Peffer
I just bought my fifth one last Monday and it was the first one I could get approved for with just the business.
04:07 – Why Being Coachable Matters
04:07
Jack Jostes
What did you learn from the mentorship that has paid off that you implemented? Were there any specific ideas or ways of thinking that shifted for you?
04:17
Jacob Peffer
That I think not being afraid to ask for advice, being ignorant in understanding that you don't know a lot, and just swallowing advice from people that are better than you know, or at least are doing more and just taking all the information they have and applying it.
04:40
Jack Jostes
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So being coachable, I think, is what you're talking about. Yes, in some ways. And that requires being humble, to meet with people and be like, okay, there is another way. I'm open to feedback. And then also you gotta then decide. So that's been the Thing for that I found in business is that being coachable and always learning. I'm always reading books and listening to podcasts and I have various mentors. And then there's a lot of stuff where like, okay, here's some information I need to decide now what I'm gonna do next.
05:13
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, there's definitely some discernment in that because there's some folks here that, you know, I respect and they might do things a different way that, you know, maybe not works for me or that I've actually tried doing and it didn't, you know, it's not applicable to how I want to do things. But asking good questions to everybody here because, you know, they all know something I don't.
05:37
Jack Jostes
That's good. So what are you working on now in the business?
05:41
Jacob Peffer
I'm still juggling everything from sales, operations, marketing, the day to day stuff and it's extremely frustrating. I believe I'm hitting a ceiling. I know the ideas and where I want to be and figuring out where that is sometimes hard to grasp. So really I think the most important thing now is trying to build up a team so they can actually help me with some of that workload. And the operations manager is something I still remember last year we talked about that.
06:12
Jack Jostes
Yeah, that was my number one tip was, hey, you got to get in operations first. I know that takes a lot of money too and that, you know, growing past a million is so hard. It's so hard and like taking on loans for five vehicles and all of the equipment that comes like, so there's a lot of overhead and it sounds really simple to, oh, why don't you go hire an operations person? It's like, well, now you've got the payroll of somebody that maybe isn't billable.
06:41
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
06:42
Jacob Peffer
Not producing revenue, but is helping, you know, get the work done.
06:45
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
06:46 – Running Better Meetings with Traction
06:46
Jack Jostes
So how often are you meeting with your employees?
06:49
Jacob Peffer
I'm at the shop every day. I think the big problem is I don't really have team meetings.
06:56
Jack Jostes
You don't have like a daily huddle?
06:58
Jacob Peffer
No. So we, if there's important, really important, time sensitive things, we'll have a little huddle. I haven't had a structured meeting, but that is something that I am going to start doing because I went to a class today about the structured meetings and I'm like, I need to do this.
07:14
Jack Jostes
Yeah, I'll share with you, man. I used to run the worst meetings and some one of my employees probably listening and they're like, they're still not that great. No, they're actually. They're actually pretty good. But I used to bring everyone together. I knew we needed to meet, and I didn't have an agenda, and I didn't know what were meeting about. It was unclear who was leading and when was it ending. And, like, eventually, like, some of the people working for me were like, why? What are we doing?
07:40
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
07:41
Jack Jostes
And they were really frustrated with me, rightfully so, that I wasn't leading the meeting.
07:46
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
07:46
Jack Jostes
And then I read the book Traction. Traction. And Traction is a. Have you read it?
07:51
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
07:52
Jack Jostes
Okay. So Traction has their level 10 meeting format, and that helped. But I also found that was a little too rigid because I like to have some time. Partly. We're meeting to talk.
08:02
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
08:03
Jack Jostes
And, like, we need to have some space to, like, hey, what do you think about this? So it's a balance because you've got people, and I've heard many people. What did you learn about meetings, though, today? What were they saying for. For snow and landscape companies, we're just.
08:16
Jacob Peffer
Having, like, something that's structured that the employees know that's happening on a. Like, this day. It's happening this day. You need to have an agenda. You need to have, like, a timekeeper so things don't go astray. And then if something is off subject, you put it in the parking lot.
08:32
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So we. We have a Google Doc for our company meeting, and I have company headlines. These are announcements people also add when they're out office. That's not how we actually track paid time off, but it's more of like, hey, guys, by to be out of town, so people know. And we're like, oh, so and so is out of town. Like, we got a plan for that. People can add headlines to their, like, discussion topics. And so. Or one of the headlines is, hey, we're going to the SIMA Symposium, and we're going to see clients A, B, C, and D. Are there any things we should know before we see them? Like, oh, yeah, this is off track. Or this is really on track. You should ask them about that.
09:12
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, yeah.
09:12
Jack Jostes
So people are generally aware. And then we have our core value announcements. So we nominate. We have a game. It's a bingo board where each week you can nominate someone for the core value. You're making it fun. I'm making it fun. And then at the end of the month, if you have won the most nominations, you get to pick a prize. And these prizes are in the, like, 150 to $250 range.
09:36
Jacob Peffer
Wow.
09:37
Jack Jostes
They're like gift cards to Cabela's they are a Massage Envy gift card. There's a Visa gift card. There is restaurant stuff. So they're like, that's kind of cool. I just got a pretty cool little spiff from work. And it's positive, so it has some positive work. And then we do move on into our sections of clients. So we have sales and marketing, what's coming through the pipeline. Then we have our projects. These are our clients in the first build phase. And then we have our ongoing clients and we have them rated red, yellow, green. So that's where then the issues come up. Like, so for you, like the Smith residence is in the red because we didn't blow their. We didn't blow their sidewalk.
10:23
Jack Jostes
There's a complaint and there's a complaint, and maybe you don't need to wait a whole week to deal with that, but you could at least tell people how it was handled.
10:32
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, Adding scorecards to.
10:33
Jack Jostes
We have a scorecard.
10:34
Jacob Peffer
Something that I need to incorporate. So I hit a ceiling where I actually need to build more process behind my operations because there's too much going on that I'm not tracking and I need to be doing it now.
10:48
Jack Jostes
Well, and so part of Traction is everyone has a number. And I'm currently revamping my numbers for people because I've been doing it for seven years and I had. It took years, by the way, to like, get this agenda to what I just told you in like four minutes. That took a long time to figure out. And I'm pretty happy with it, partly because I can look at that agenda and have a pulse on the company. These clients are in the red, yellow, green. Here are these numbers. Like I, the. The fact that people need to help prepare, that helps everyone see. All right, here's how we're doing this week.
11:23
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
11:24
Jack Jostes
And so I like the weekly meeting because a lot can go by in four weeks. But if we're looking at it every week.
11:30
Jacob Peffer
And I think also with the. I'm going to start with like weekly. Weekly stuff and then start doing one one because I think it's difficult to kind of gauge the culture in a sense, for. In a team meeting, because a lot of my guys are younger, they might not speak up in a team meeting.
11:47
Jack Jostes
A lot of my folks are older and they don't speak up. So a lot of people are not going to speak up in the team meeting.
11:54
Jacob Peffer
So I think the one ones would be really beneficial for them.
11:58
Jack Jostes
Well, I totally agree. I think that you need to have. And this is How I do my own marketing. Multiple ways to respond. So. Meaning some people might want to meet one one and talk. Yeah, Some people might want to fill out a document ahead of the meeting with some questions, some they might want to type, they might want to write some stuff.
12:22
Jacob Peffer
I'm already thinking of people that are more like, they're more rigid, more hard headed. Some of them are more softer and they want to have a more emotional conversation. You know, some people just want to be like, do this and then go do it.
12:34
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So I, that's probably been the biggest thing I've learned in management is that, yeah, people are different and they're going to want to. You kind of need to adapt.
12:41
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
12:42
Jack Jostes
To how they'll want to communicate. You still need to do what you need to do.
12:45
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, that's what I'm struggling.
12:46
Jack Jostes
There's like a give and take there.
12:47
Jacob Peffer
I want to talk to everybody. And there's some, you know, some of the guys love them to death, but they just don't want to talk.
12:54 – Getting Honest Employee Feedback
12:54
Jack Jostes
Well, so one of the tools we use is Team Engine. We're a partner with Team Engine. Have you met them?
12:59
Jacob Peffer
I've heard of them.
13:00
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So they have a booth here and one of the things that they do that I do this quarterly. I get a how are you feeling about working here on a scale of 0 to 10? And then the follow up question is, why did you share that number? And the purpose of that is always to start a follow up conversation.
13:19
Jacob Peffer
Okay.
13:19
Jack Jostes
Meaning like, I'm getting some feedback, I'm getting a pulse on how people are feeling. And like, hey, you're feeling a six. Like, tell me more.
13:28
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
13:29
Jacob Peffer
And then after they tell you what's your approach after that fact of having that fall?
13:33
Jack Jostes
Well, I, I think part of it is sometimes the conversation alone is just acknowledging it. Just acknowledging and helping people feel heard and listened to and giving them a forum to let them know, like, I want to hear from you. We actually have a paid benefit during the summer where we have a paid Monday off. So for us, our busy season is actually October through March. Like, we are slammed. Yeah, that makes sense because everyone wants to hire us to get ready for the spring in their off season. This time of year, like clients meet with us, but like they're way less interested. So I was like, well, people are really putting it in during the fall and winter, so I'm gonna have this paid perk in the summer.
14:18
Jack Jostes
And I rolled out the four day work week and one of my employees I think he gave me a five. And he's like, I don't like that I'm making 25% less during the summer. And I called him and I was like, hey, what do you mean? And he's like, well, you're not going to pay us for that fifth day. I'm like, no, it's a paid day off. You just got 12 extra paid days off. He's like, holy crap, that's amazing. So that was like a one, like a four minute phone call. And had I not done that guy probably would have quit. Yeah, he was probably getting ready to look for a new job. And the fact that we had a four minute phone call because there was. I didn't communicate clearly enough, obviously that it was paid. Now we had a call.
15:00
Jack Jostes
So I think it leads to those types of things. Or maybe somebody's really feeling overworked or maybe they're in the wrong seat on the bus.
15:10
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
15:10
Jack Jostes
You know, maybe you have like, I don't know, as you grow, there's people work and then there's the task work. And some people want to be in the people role and some people really don't. And like, so I had somebody that was feeling that four or five out of ten and it ultimately realized like they were in the wrong position at the company.
15:32 – Setting a 3-Year Vision for Growth
15:32
Jacob Peffer
What is one thing that I may not realize or I might be looking over?
15:39
Jack Jostes
I don't know. I think you're doing, I mean, you're doing great with marketing. I think you have to get the operations person. I think having a clear goal and having a vision of where you want to head. Because I think in the first five years of business, I don't know if it was like it seemed like you did something well, like you got mentors early. Whereas like I was just running and gunning selling thing. I had no idea what to charge.
16:07
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
16:08
Jack Jostes
I was so undercharging and I caused so many problems. But then eventually I figured out what I wanted to do. I just think, keep going. And then I like to like, I like traction partly because there's something in there. There's the 10 year target, which is like, hey, here's where we're heading. 10 years from now.
16:28
Jacob Peffer
Yeah 1, 3, 5 and 10.
16:30
Jack Jostes
And I found that really getting clear though on three is important. Okay. Because I think three is actually more. It's more attainable.
16:38
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
16:39
Jack Jostes
Like five years ago Covid happened. Can you believe that was five years ago? You know, so like that was five years ago. So When I think about anything greater than five years from now, I don't know what kind of really big shift could come within the time. And hey, there could be another Covid or something in three years. But I don't know. Focusing on three years has been meaningful to me because then when I share that with my team, they see if I have the right people, they're like, oh, I want to help us get there. And I've found that you need to over communicate. And that means I'm gonna have a different position open. Yeah, because they're like, oh, I was about to leave because I didn't think.
17:23
Jacob Peffer
We were growing easier buying if it's closer.
17:26
Jack Jostes
And I think it's, this is some of the like visionary stuff that I personally and I see many snow and landscape companies overlook as like business consultant speak. But in reality, your employees want to know, like, is there a career path for me? I understand that I need to mow these lawns this week, but like, what are we doing next year?
17:48
Jacob Peffer
Give them a, give them a plan, so to speak.
17:51
Jack Jostes
And so the way that I do that, and I need to do it for this quarter because right now it's June and our next quarter starts in July. And so I have this document from Traction called VTO. It's a visionary or vision traction organizer. So I just, I built mine in Apple Keynote. Do you use Apple or PowerPoint?
18:10
Jacob Peffer
Powerpoint.
18:11
Jack Jostes
Okay, so basically you make a PowerPoint and then I update it every quarter and I show people the vision, the 10 year target and then I also show them, by the way, here's one that we did three years ago and check out all the things that we've done. And then people are like, oh, okay, so like you've grown the company in the way that you said that you would and you did hire these people that you said you would. And like I believe you.
18:38
Jacob Peffer
It builds trust with you.
18:40
Jack Jostes
Because I'll tell you man, like, I think this year, right now the hiring market is kind of soft. Meaning there's like the pendulum has swung a little bit back in the employer's direction as far as hiring. But that's going to change again and it's going to be hard to recruit and hire and retain. It's kind of like this swinging pendulum and it's like, well, how is the economy? And it's like, I agree with that. Is that kind of how this year is?
19:04 – Leading Older and Younger Employees
19:04
Jacob Peffer
Honestly, I've had better luck hiring the younger generation. You know, a lot of guys, a lot of people, at least in my industry, I can't find guys at work. And it's. I have had, I guess, tremendous luck finding really young employees that would just work. I've had bad luck with the ones that are older, actually.
19:26
Jack Jostes
Was there any hesitancy for you to manage them because they were older than you?
19:30
Jacob Peffer
I would say my first and second year there was. I honestly think that my confidence grew as. As, you know, I know what I'm doing and this is how I want it done. And if you're not doing it, we're gonna have a conversation.
19:43
Jack Jostes
Good. Love. I love hearing that.
19:45
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
19:45
Jack Jostes
I started my company when I was your age. I was 23.
19:48
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
19:48
Jack Jostes
And so I went through hiring people who were 18, 19, 20. I also had people who were 60 plus. And I was like, I had head trash for a while. Like, oh, I can't manage this person. They're older than me.
20:00
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
20:01
Jack Jostes
And similarly. Oh, I can't manage this person.
20:03
Jacob Peffer
I'm.
20:03
Jack Jostes
I'm like the same age as them, so I'm their buddy, even. And that's nonsense.
20:07
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
20:08
Jacob Peffer
Even in that second and third and last year, I would sometimes not hire them because. Because they were, you know, older. But I did hire people that were older than me. And, you know, some of them are still here.
20:20
Jack Jostes
Good.
20:20
Jacob Peffer
I think I can have more difficult or more open conversations with them because they're a little bit more mature. The younger guys, again, they tend not to speak up as much as I would like to. And that might be, you know, that's probably my fault. Maybe.
20:33
Jack Jostes
But. Well, and I think that. So you're. If you start building in ways for them to speak up.
20:38
Jacob Peffer
Yes.
20:39
Jack Jostes
Of like. So this is the weekly meeting. And like, if you have a weekly one one with people, man, that's the best. I do that with all the people who are. My direct reports. We meet every week.
20:47
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
20:48
Jack Jostes
We actually meet for an hour.
20:49
Jacob Peffer
Wow.
20:50
Jack Jostes
But. But we're also. I mean, I don't know. That works for me. You figure, maybe it's 20 minutes. I don't want to get hung up on the time. But having that time to talk is so important to partly just build a relationship. Like, hey, man, how was your weekend? Genuinely getting to know people. Because when you're just grinding through the work, you kind of miss that stuff.
21:11 – Why Recruiting and Onboarding Matter
21:11
Jacob Peffer
Because there's one employee I have, and a lot of the guys have come from referrals. And the one, I hired him and actually I didn't even interview him. Like, my buddy said, hey, he's a great worker. I said, cool, he can start. He can start tomorrow.
21:25
Jack Jostes
That sounds a little risky to me.
21:27
Jacob Peffer
It was. But at the time this year, I over. I way overbooked our routes, and I needed somebody. And he's here still kills it.
21:36
Jack Jostes
So this is another thing now that you said that. So you're not alone doing that. And I've done that. And I think the landscape industry is notorious for that. They're like, hey, you got a pulse? Can you show up on Monday? Like, great, here's. Here's, you know, 20 grand worth of equipment, and one of my clients. Why don't you go mow the lawn?
21:58
Jacob Peffer
But the employee that was working for me, you know, it carried some weight because he had a good employee.
22:05
Jack Jostes
Okay, all right. Well. All right. So I would create a recruiting and onboarding system. You need an operations person.
22:13
Jacob Peffer
I do.
22:15
Jack Jostes
Look, that's still the takeaway. You got it. Because you got to have somebody does that. Somebody who would enjoy doing that.
22:21
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
22:21
Jacob Peffer
And I don't like doing it.
22:22
Jack Jostes
For sure. You don't? I don't either. But I'll tell you, man, I just. So I'm in 16 years this year in business, and.
22:29
Jacob Peffer
Congratulations.
22:29
Jack Jostes
Thank you. And I also. I made some big mistakes last year, and I realized that my onboarding for a certain position was, I don't know, 10% of what it needed to be. And here's what it cost me. I had several people come through who failed in the role partly because they weren't a fit, but partly because they didn't have the resources they need. And I had a lot of clients leave, and I'm like, yeah, you should have left. Like, that was. We did a terrible job. To me, that's also what's humbling about business is, like, even 16 years in, you're like, wow, I just got my ass kicked by something I didn't do. That's really obvious. Like, of course I should have had a better onboarding for this position. It's, like, super important. So that's been my focus this year.
23:15
Jack Jostes
And I actually did that job for a number of clients, and I had some of my managers do the job, and we collaborated on the management system and onboarding for that role, and it's better than ever. But it also meant, though, I've got some people I gotta call and be like, hey, last year when you fired me, like, thank you. One, good job for firing me. And two, here's what I've done about It. And I think that I will potentially get some of those relationships back.
23:42
Jacob Peffer
But it's awesome that you called them after though, too. That's cool.
23:47
Jack Jostes
Well, it's partly as your company grows, you're going to have customers that you don't ever meet and they're going to have this experience with somebody that you hired and they're going to screw up at some point and they're gonna fire your company. And at some point, like, you gotta call them and have a slice of humble pie on the phone and be like, hey, I'm sorry that this happened and here's what I've done about it. I'm so grateful for this industry and, you know, I just love coming to this show and meeting you. I was looking forward to interviewing you and the industry. I mean, it's, and the mentorship that you're talking about, the people who give so much. It's an incredible industry.
24:25
Jacob Peffer
Just before this podcast, I was just picking someone's brain for about a half hour. Just I'm at this stage, what do I do? What do I do next? What's the next thing I need to focus on? What am I missing? And then how do I get to your stage? You know, and it's just like they just want to help, so it feels good.
24:45
Jack Jostes
Cool, man. Well, Jacob, what are we going to talk about next year? What? So are you going to have a manager? Are you? We're going to have.
24:52
Jacob Peffer
I got to get one. I'm making the promise to you now. I'm going to have an operations manager.
24:57
Jack Jostes
In place and how about an onboarding?
25:00
Jacob Peffer
And I'll have an onboarding process, a good one, because I have it. Just never follow it.
25:04
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
25:05
Jacob Peffer
Because again, I'm just too, you know. Yeah, you're hired.
25:07
Jack Jostes
Come on.
25:07
Jacob Peffer
And then that's it.
25:09
Jack Jostes
Well, and. Well, there's got to be more to it than that, though.
25:12
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, there is.
25:12
Jack Jostes
I mean, there's. I mean, I, I just don't like.
25:15
Jacob Peffer
Following like a reading on a piece of paper. Hey, can you tell me about yourself? I just don't think it's genuine. So I try, if they, when they come in and have an interview, I just try to have a simple conversation and just get to know them.
25:29
Jack Jostes
The number one thing that worked for me was adding in a skills assessment.
25:33
Jacob Peffer
A skills assessment?
25:34
Jack Jostes
Yes. So for me, I do digital work. Right. We work in Google Drive.
25:39
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
25:40
Jack Jostes
So that is a requirement to work at my company. And so my skills assessment is kind of basic stuff, like in an account facing role. I Need people to listen to what's an unusual town that you were. It's like hard to spell. What's a town in your area that. Are there any that are. Like, if you didn't live there, it'd be difficult to.
26:01
Jacob Peffer
Zelienople.
26:02
Jack Jostes
Oh, that's so weird. Right? So Zelienople. Okay. I would have them listen to an interview with a client and be like, yeah, we want to rank in Zelienople, Pennsylvania for landscape design. And so they need to learn how to find that word, spell it correctly, share a Google Doc with me and type up a follow up email to you that's like, hey Jacob, great meeting. We're going to be building out your next webpage on Zelienople Landscape Design and it's going to be done by this date and please let me know if you. Whatever. So I'm testing. Can you, can you at least Google Zelienople? Like if you couldn't Google Zelienople, like and figure out something, you wouldn't believe how many people come through that wouldn't put two and two together and Google it and like be resourceful to find it.
26:53
Jacob Peffer
Right.
26:53
Jack Jostes
And like spell it correctly and click spell check. Yeah, like if you can't do that, I can't. You can't hang.
26:59
Jacob Peffer
You're not being hired.
27:00
Jack Jostes
Right. And then share the Google Doc with admin@ramblinjackson.com. Well, did they share it with jack@ramblinjackson.com? Or did they follow the share it with admin@? Because those little things in my world create a world of hurt. Like if you can't share the Google, if you can't share it with the right team member, like, I don't know, a whole day could go by before that person can then do their job of building the Zelienople page. So that's. I, I've heard, you know, some people have like a working interview. So I, I don't know. For me, like I, I just, I found like I used to do the beer interview. I used to meet people for beer and if you were cool and I liked you, like I would hire you. I'm not kidding.
27:42
Jacob Peffer
Wow.
27:43
Jack Jostes
I, I made a lot of problems for myself by yeah. Basically being like, oh, gut feel. Are you cool? Like you're, oh, you're cool. Like you're cool and which honestly, it's.
27:53
Jacob Peffer
Like I have questions that I'll ask, but it's not structured. Like I'll start a conversation, you know, build a little Bit of a relationship.
27:59 – How AI Is Changing Hiring and Management
27:59
Jack Jostes
The other amazing thing that's changed so much even since you and I met is Chat GPT.
28:04
Jacob Peffer
Oh my God. I use it all every day.
28:06
Jack Jostes
Yeah. So like, so like in hiring like you can build out a job description. I've interviewed questions, here's how it went. What do you think? Like, so chatgpt is this amazing.
28:18
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, it's built interview questions for me and it's actually helped me build my employee manual, my employee handbook.
28:26
Jack Jostes
AI is changing everything. In my opinion. It mainly just frees up to me. Like the way I'm using it is to free up time for the people stuff.
28:35
Jacob Peffer
Yes.
28:36
Jack Jostes
So the one one meetings and that like everything you're talking about is so on track.
28:39
Jacob Peffer
Yeah, I'm trying. I just feel behind still.
28:42
Jack Jostes
And that's, I think that, you know, that's just the feeling.
28:45
Jacob Peffer
It's just the feeling.
28:46
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
28:46
Jacob Peffer
It's just frustration because that, like I said, I'm at a ceiling.
28:50
Jack Jostes
Do you track your renewal rate for customers?
28:55
Jacob Peffer
I did in the beginning of the year, but I forget what the number.
28:58
Jack Jostes
Is because I, I would, I'm obsessing my company around that number 10. And the re. The reason is in order to get retention, we need to do quality work.
29:07
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
29:08
Jack Jostes
There's like a lot of basic stuff like our invoice issues handled promptly. A lot of people get frustrated. Like everyone knows that, oh, this is the company goal is to renew and retain clients.
29:19
Jacob Peffer
I think we had about a 60. I think it was like 65 or 70% was our retention. Off the top of my head, what.
29:29
Jack Jostes
What happened to the 30 or 40%?
29:32
Jacob Peffer
Some of them moved.
29:33
Jack Jostes
Okay.
29:34
Jacob Peffer
Unfortunately, some of them passed. Some of them actually passed away. I think three of them passed away. And then quality. And honestly my, it was, honestly my ability to communicate to customers was the biggest thing.
29:50
Jacob Peffer
Yeah.
29:51
Jacob Peffer
And it was because I was in the field constantly and I changed once. One little detail that takes five minutes of my time is if we have a service delay or if there's a hiccup or if we're at this SIMA, you know, the show, one bulk email to our maintenance customers. I'll just, I'll let them know what's happening on that specific week. And then all of those problems where people were texting me, where you're at, you know, this happened this week went away. And it's remarkable the amount of people that have actually emailed me back saying I've never experienced somebody in your industry. Email me.
30:29
Jack Jostes
Well, that's communicating. I agree with you. And we track when a client doesn't renew. Why? And some of them are valid reasons like they retired or they moved or they went out of business or they sold their landscape company. But when there's a quality issue, then that's when I review that very publicly with my team. Like, hey, this customer had this experience and how can we do better at this?
30:57
Jacob Peffer
And yeah.
30:57 – Final Thoughts and Next Steps
30:57
Jack Jostes
All right. Well, Jacob, hey, it's been really fun and I look forward to talking to you next year and keeping in touch with you. You're doing so many things. Great.
31:05
Jacob Peffer
Thank you.
31:05
Jack Jostes
And keep learning and growing and talking to people.
31:09
Jacob Peffer
I will, certainly.
31:10
Jack Jostes
I'm excited for you, man.
31:10
Jacob Peffer
Thank you.
31:11
Jack Jostes
Thank you. Hey, it's Jack Jostes and you've been listening to The Landscaper’s Guide Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, make sure you give us a five-star rating and share it with somebody in the industry. And make sure you subscribe at landscapersguide.com/podcast, where I'll instantly send you our top three episodes plus invitations to our upcoming live and virtual events. I hope to see you at one of them again. It's Jack Jostes. Thanks for listening and I look forward to talking to you next week on The Landscaper's Guide.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode + read the transcript: https://landscapersguide.com/podcast/
Get free marketing resources + beef jerky: https://landscapersguide.com/toolbox
GreenerConcepts: https://www.greenerconceptslcs.com/
Connect with Jacob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-peffer-052202197/
Join us at an upcoming event: https://landscapersguide.com/events