Problem-Solving Mindset as a Landscape Company Owner - Vinny Machado - Maple Tree Landscape

Vinny Machado, owner of Maple Tree Landscape, shares his journey from Brazil to the United States and his path to becoming a successful landscaper. He started his landscaping career working for a company and eventually decided to start his own business. Vinny initially used creative marketing strategies, such as putting flyers in newspapers, to attract his first clients. Over time, he learned the importance of business coaching and implementing new strategies to scale his business. Today, Vinny's company has 15 employees and generates close to two and a half million dollars in revenue. Vinny Machado shares his insights on growing a successful landscaping business, emphasizing the importance of knowing your worth, providing excellent customer service, and continuously improving. He discusses the strategies he uses to streamline operations, such as using CRM software and creating videos to communicate with employees and customers. Vinny also highlights the value of offering additional services, like 3D designs and power washing, to differentiate his business from competitors. He emphasizes the need for problem-solving and a positive mindset when dealing with challenges. Vinny's advice for aspiring landscapers is to start small, work hard, and gradually increase prices as the business grows.

Takeaways

• Starting a landscaping business requires hard work and dedication
• Creative marketing strategies can help attract clients
• Investing in business coaching and learning new strategies is crucial for growth
• Setting minimum pricing standards can help increase profitability
• Implementing new ideas and being open to change is essential for scaling a business Start small, work hard, and gradually increase prices as your business grows.
• Invest in CRM software and use it to streamline operations and improve communication with employees and customers.
• Offer additional services, such as 3D designs and power washing, to differentiate your business and provide more value to customers.
• Emphasize problem-solving and a positive mindset when dealing with challenges.
• Focus on continuous improvement and always strive to be better.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Background

03:03
Starting a Landscaping Business

09:00
Creative Marketing Strategies

15:52
The Importance of Business Coaching

19:06
Scaling the Business

23:13
Setting Pricing Standards

25:21
Implementing New Ideas

26:23
Establishing Prices and Closing Deals

29:40
Streamlining Operations with Video Communication

34:24
Differentiating the Business with 3D Designs

37:07
Focus on a Specific Area to Make More Money

39:25
Offering Additional Services: Deer Repellent and Power Washing

45:01
Work-Life Balance and Structuring the Day

49:07
Starting Small and Knowing Your Worth

53:53
Continuous Improvement and Increasing Prices

55:21
Conclusion


keywords

landscaping, entrepreneurship, business coaching, marketing strategies, scaling a business, landscaping, business growth, customer service, CRM software, additional services, problem-solving, positive mindset

If you are in need of marketing help for your landscape and hardscaping company, book a 1 on 1 call with me here:

https://calendly.com/landscapemaverick/discovery-call

Transcript

Enmanuel (00:10.418)
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the digital toolbox podcast. I am your host Emmanuel Tahara I'm the owner of landscape Maverick. We're a digital marketing agency for landscapers and hardscapers And I'm also the host here on this podcast and today we got a special guest for you guys. We have Vinny Vinny, what's up man? Introduce yourself

Vinny Machado (00:27.949)
Hi, how are you guys? My name is Vinny from Maple Tree Landscape. We are in the northeast, like 40 minutes from Boston. I am married, have two kids, so trying to grow my business with all the family, all the little kids around. So it's been very grateful to have the experience.

Enmanuel (00:49.938)
That's awesome Vinny, that's awesome. Thanks for that background too. Dude, let's get into it. mean, before you were in landscaping, I mean, who was Vinny? Like, cause you know, of course people know you today, but who was Vinny before?

Vinny Machado (01:01.101)
Yeah, so I am originally from Brazil and I came to United States when I was 18. So I used to work with my daddy as a bakery in Brazil. And then I always want to start my own business like an entrepreneur. And then I had a cousin who used to live here for more than 20 years. So I said to my daddy, I want to go to America, work, have America dream, get a lot of money, buy a farm in Brazil.

And then I didn't like to go to high school, study that much. I always like to buy, sell, like have my own thing. And then my dad say, you young, you can go. If you don't like, you come back. We are here. But if you go, come back better than you were here. I said, OK.

Enmanuel (01:50.674)
Yes, Yes, sir. Dude, I love it. I love that. I love that because it's pushing you, but also reinforcing you that you got this, but if anything, we're here for you. I love that. And what part of Brazil are you from, by the way, Vinny? I'm familiar. Are you from Goiás?

Vinny Machado (02:04.337)
No, I am from Minas. Minas de Rias is like three hours, four hours from Rio, no, six hours from Rio and São Paulo is like almost in the middle of the country. yeah, they state I was, I had a lot of like when Portuguese go to Brazil, they go into Rio and then went to Minas for like a lot of crops of coffee and a lot of mines. That's why my state called Minas is like mines.

Enmanuel (02:30.888)
Minas. yes.

Vinny Machado (02:32.37)
a lot of gold, lot of diamonds over there. So they had all like all these slaves there working, get all the gold in the mines. And they have a lot of the, do you call it, the highways over there. They call like a real, like a real, like a real family states. Like when the slaves used to grab the gold and go walk all that back to Rio to put in the ships and go to Portugal. So have all the historical thing there.

Enmanuel (03:02.16)
awesome. The history there is pretty interesting actually in Portugal. Those two countries, know, Portugal and Spain conquered a lot of the world. Quite interesting man. But Vinny, dude, you have an amazing story man. I want to get into it and I know that you started your landscaping journey in Massachusetts, which is you're still there, right? Awesome.

Vinny Machado (03:05.722)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (03:10.224)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (03:21.193)
Yes, I'm still in Massachusetts. Now, our company is based in Whalum. So, we serve a five mile ratio from the zip code there. So, Whalum, Sudbury, Western, we do a couple more cities, but we concentrate only on the area. And I've been there since 2001.

Enmanuel (03:40.83)
Amazing dude, and and so what was the beginning like for you? Like what made you even want to get into? landscaping and on your own in your own company

Vinny Machado (03:50.665)
So when I came to the United States, my cousin used to be, he's still there, worked for the same company after 23 years. So he's a manager there. So when I came here, he said, you want to work with us in landscape? said, sure. And so I started work there when I was 18, and I learned all these skills. So when I worked there, the company had only 15 employees.

And when I left the company in 2009, they already have like 70 employees. They grew very fast from 2001 to 2010.

Enmanuel (04:31.291)
And what were you doing there? Was it landscaping and hardscaping as well?

Vinny Machado (04:34.694)
Yeah, so when I got there, I learned to do maintenance, sprinkling up, falkling up, lawn mowing, and then they had tree work. So I learned tree work as well, like climb trees, take trees down, chip brush, stump grinding. And then I told the owner of the business, I don't want to be like always a laborer. I want to be like a former, so he started to give me a bigger job. So I got to these kids there and started doing lawn installations.

like leveling areas, help people do the hardscape, like dig everything, put the crushed material there, crushed stone. And then after six years I was on that company, I decided to open my own. So I talked with the owner, I said, I want to go to my own, I want to start my business. In the beginning, they got very mad because I used to run all the company. But I said I have

follow my journey, you

Enmanuel (05:36.454)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And it's a scary journey at that. It's not easy being an entrepreneur. So dude, mean, how was it? How did you get your first couple clients? How did that go? When you get your first employee?

Vinny Machado (05:47.792)
So.

Yeah, so my journey was very hard work. Everybody knows immigrants, they come here, they work like 100 hours a week, they want to make it happen. So when I decided to quit the company, I used to deliver a newspaper in the morning. So I used to wake up every day, four o 'clock in the morning, deliver newspaper until seven, and work landscape until seven to seven. And I used to do

Enmanuel (06:02.259)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (06:19.653)
limousine cleanups after I work for like a limousine company from 10 at night until 2 in the morning. And sometimes I would go straight to newspaper again. So was very tough.

Enmanuel (06:37.278)
Wow man, talk about work ethic and hard work man. Holy shit, and people think it's easy, know? People think, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur, I'm my own boss, I'm gonna work no hours, and you're gonna make zero fucking money at the same time. But dude, that's amazing what you had to do.

Vinny Machado (06:40.908)
Yeah.

Vinny Machado (06:51.702)
Yeah. But the limousine, used to work like a Monday to Thursday, I worked four in the morning newspaper until seven in seven to seven landscape. And then when was Thursday to Friday, like I think was Friday, it was only two days. So Friday, I would take up four o 'clock in the morning, they leave a newspaper until seven, seven to five, six landscape, go home, sleep a little

Clean limousine 10 a night until 2 in the morning. And then I would sleep a couple hours in the car and go get the paper, deliver and go landscaping again on a Saturday morning until 1, 2 o 'clock. Saturday I never worked like crazy until 1, 2. And then after that I go home and sleep until 10 o 'clock at night. And 10 o 'clock at night I clean limousine again until 2 in the morning. Then I deliver the newspaper Sunday morning.

And then I had the rest of the day on Sunday off. But I did that like for four months when I started my business because I was afraid because to don't have money to pay the truck because I bought almost a brand new truck when I started. So I did different than everybody else. I met a guy who was trying to, he was gonna divorce his wife and they bought two brand new cars. He had a brand new truck and a brand new Mercedes.

And he said, oh, my wife don't want the car, so I'm going to take the Mercedes and I'm going to give that truck for you, just make the payments. So we went to the bank and he just transferred the truck for my name. So he was paying like 500 bucks back then on the monthly for the truck monthly payment. And I was afraid how I'm going to pay this, pay my rent, this and that, and no work.

So I worked there for four months and after four months, I say too much work. Now I have a couple clients. So I'm going to just be newspaper and landscape. No more limo.

Enmanuel (08:56.071)
no more

That's awesome, bro. And so how did you get your first couple clients? How was it, especially, you know, so long ago?

Vinny Machado (09:02.69)
So my first clients, I used to deliver newspaper. I had a newspaper route with, I think, was almost 200 newspaper. So I made some flyers and I put inside the newspaper.

Enmanuel (09:19.23)
you sneaky bastard, you. And people would call you and say, hey, I got the newspaper and I also got your flyer. Come out and give me an estimate.

Vinny Machado (09:28.805)
Yeah, yeah. And then I did that like for almost three years when I was in the newspaper and then to the manager say, hey, you cannot do that because you should pay newspaper for advertisement and this and that. But by then I already had 50 customers on my newspaper route. And the area I used to do is Western is one of the richest towns here. So I had a lot of good customers. So that's how I grew

Enmanuel (09:54.942)
Right. That's awesome. Holy crap. And when you say you had 50 customers, those are what? Lawn care or landscaping or project work or what was

Vinny Machado (09:58.228)
Fast.

Vinny Machado (10:05.758)
Yeah, so back then when I started the name of the business called Vinny Construction and Landscape. So I used to do like lawn installation. I had some friends of mine doing irrigation, so I subbed that for them. So I used to do like a big lawn installation and irrigation. And I did all the other services like sprinkling up, flocking up, mowing, pruning, take some trees down, snow plowing in the winter.

I used to tell the clients, I I will plow your drive in and deliver the newspaper at the same time. Because I used to go deliver the newspaper with my truck with the plow on it. And all my customers, I plow and the other guys, just throw the paper.

Enmanuel (10:51.934)
Hahaha

Vinny Machado (10:54.87)
Yeah

Enmanuel (10:55.934)
story Vinny what the hell man this guy's making the best out of you're making the best out of your time you're doing two jobs at the same time that's amazing man wow and then today Vinny what who are you on what level are you guys at today because I know you guys have came so long you put in so much work and your business is flourishing so tell us about you guys today

Vinny Machado (11:01.393)
Yeah. Yes.

Vinny Machado (11:14.782)
Sure. Yeah, so back then, then back then I had one employee who used to work with me like 40, 50 hours a week. So only me and him. So I used to do all the estimates. I used to mow lawns. I used to do cleanups. I was the guy who climbed the tree, go on the machine, do the lawn installation. So I only had much time to do what I could. So when I

Enmanuel (11:35.453)
Mm -hmm.

Vinny Machado (11:42.238)
back to Brazil in 2009 because 2008 was the big crash on economy. So I used to mow alone and the guy said, oh, don't mow today, mow in a couple of weeks. And then I was going to give a price for cleanup, 500 bucks. And they say, oh, no, too expensive. And I say, I'm not going to make that much money like before. So I had a friend of mine who would like to buy the business. And what happened too is,

When I came in 2001, I said I'm gonna stay 10 years and go back. And then when I was nine years, I went to a Jiu Jitsu competition because in the winter I wouldn't have that much work. just did newspapers, plowing, wind, snows. When didn't have snow, I stayed home because I couldn't have no work on the side like a restaurant or delivery because I had to have my time free for plowing.

So I just did paper and plowing. So I started doing jujitsu. And then I went to a jujitsu competition in New York. And then I got first place because when I was little in Brazil, I used to do judo and I was very good. I was like almost first in the state. And when I came here to do jujitsu, I learned how to throw the guy down, it, and I win the fight.

Enmanuel (13:10.174)
Ujitsu is a big part of Brazil, Brazilian Ujitsu. By the way, do you know the Miao Brothers?

Vinny Machado (13:12.302)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (13:17.284)
No.

Enmanuel (13:19.015)
Is that I forgot their name, but they're two brothers. They're very famous from Brazil They have like a million followers each on social media. I actually train with them at their gym. It's pretty cool

Vinny Machado (13:28.764)
I remember back then they had the Gracie. The Gracie Jiu -Jitsu in California. they went even to the MMA before when UFC started like 10 years ago. They were big and now I don't follow anymore. So then I won that tournament and then the guys say, let's go to the national in Brooklyn.

Enmanuel (13:34.397)
Mmm.

Enmanuel (13:46.77)
Gotcha. So what happened at that tournament? Did you meet somebody?

Vinny Machado (13:56.123)
like a month after and I had to drop like 10 pounds to go to the national because I was champion all the weights like middle heavy so I got that. They all let's bring you down and you're gonna be fighting people like I think 200 pounds not like 220, 250, 270 only up to 200 and then I lost that weight I went to

Enmanuel (14:08.146)
Holy shit.

Vinny Machado (14:24.314)
The competition very good and by the final, the guy jumped on my waist and I twist my knee and tore all the ligaments on my knee and it was done. And then I had to stay like almost a month on the bed and do the physiotherapy. I had to do surgery and that surgery here was like almost $60 ,000 to do

Enmanuel (14:37.871)
my goodness.

Vinny Machado (14:51.417)
And my insurance, wasn't going to pay in. said, oh, no, I'm going to sell my business, go back to Brazil. It's already almost 10 years. I want to see my family. My parents just came here a couple of times. But my brother and my sister one time to see me. So I say, I want to see everybody. So I sold that business, went back to Brazil in 2009.

Enmanuel (15:14.878)
How difficult was it to show your business at that

Vinny Machado (15:18.545)
to sell. It was easy because back then I just sold the truck, the equipment and I gave all the customers for the guy. So I sold like for $45 ,000 all the equipment and everything and we used to make almost $300 ,000. So I sold for him only the equipment and they say you can keep everything and you just pay me the $45 ,000 is

Enmanuel (15:20.006)
Yeah, how difficult was it to film?

Vinny Machado (15:46.242)
So I didn't have that much knowledge how much a business is

Enmanuel (15:50.888)
Wow, that's amazing, man. Holy crap, what a story. And what about today? How many employees did you guys have? How did you start another company, pretty much? Because this is a new company.

Vinny Machado (15:57.259)
Yeah, well then, then

Yes. So when I planned to come back to the United States in 2017, I married my wife in 2016. And we were talking and I said, oh, I lived in the United States 10 years. I like there very much. My English, I have communication with everybody there. I have a profession there. I'm a landscaper. know how the economy and how everything works there. Do you like to go there and...

see how is the life and say, okay, I would like to, never left Brazil to enter another country and say, okay, let's go. So then I came back in 2017. I worked for the same company I worked in the beginning in 2001, but that company was like huge, was like 120 employees, like a hundred trucks. They dominate the area.

Enmanuel (16:56.061)
Holy shit.

Vinny Machado (16:56.983)
Yeah, so then I worked for them one year. And then after one year, I was the mentality of mine was when I used to work for them, their job was like 30 employees, 40 employees, they used to do like a very fine work. And all the work I learned with I learned all the landscape techniques I learned was with the owner. So the owner was over there, but it's 100 employees and they never

could teach the 100 employees how to do their way. So I used to go to one job, I would like to do the job finer and they say, no, let's go, do this and let's go. So I say, do this. So then I decided to open my business and I talked with my wife. I had some money saved and I said, if I go to Ford and they can finance a brand new truck, I'm going to start my business. And then I went there.

I got the financial for a truck and a plow. And I always thought to open my business on the fall, not on the spring, because fall is the best time to open a landscape business, because all these leaves are to drop before Thanksgiving. And a lot of companies, have 700 customers. They're never going to make these guys happy, because a lot of customers, want the fall cleanup done before Thanksgiving. And some companies, they do cleanup until

Enmanuel (18:23.656)
No.

Vinny Machado (18:26.952)
almost Christmas. So I said, I'm gonna open my business again. And I did the same technician. I got the truck and I talked with them and I say, gonna open my, I told them if they're gonna give me a raise, I would stay with them. But if they not, I'm gonna leave because there was raise on everybody else, a lot of money and they didn't give me no raise there. And they say, we cannot give a raise right now. I say, okay, so I'm gonna.

leave and they ask me are you gonna open your your comp again and I say yes I am I'm gonna open

Enmanuel (19:00.06)
Hahaha

Enmanuel (19:05.01)
you did holy shit and so so wow man what a story so you opened up two landscaping companies one of them you sold took some time off started up another one holy shit that's amazing so let's get into it Vinny I mean where are you guys at today like how many employees do you guys have right now how successful like financially or you guys how does everything look for you

Vinny Machado (19:23.347)
sucks.

Vinny Machado (19:28.691)
So right now, when I started my business, I worked only myself again. I used to do the same thing, get the flyers. I didn't do newspaper, but I put the flyer on the tree rocks, go throw in the neighborhood, put some door hangers, and I started pick one, two, three, four, and then I started in September 15, 2018.

and I started getting pick up a lot of fall cleanups, lot of snow plowing. So I did that me and one guy and the next year I changed my mentality and I said, if I keep working like this, I'm never gonna grow up, grow my business. So this time I had three employees, I used to give estimates and then I made a minimum for my business. So I had two guys working 10 hours, $500.

20 hours, $1 ,000. So I leave these two guys doing their work and I was getting new work. And that work for the first year, we made almost $400 ,000 on the first year, me and two guys. I was helping them all and then doing everything. And then me and my wife started doing some business coaching. And then we started knowing numbers and knowing all the breaking of the point.

how much we need to make to grow up our business, how much each truck and each employee can bring revenue to us. The mentality. And then that's why now we have 15 employees, more than 200 customers that we do everything snow plowing, fall cleanup, spring cleanup, all the maintenance. And we raised from 300 ,000 now this year, close to two and a half million in revenue. Yeah.

Enmanuel (21:00.766)
So at first you guys were kind

Enmanuel (21:24.63)
So it sounds like at first you guys were not running blind, but you guys were making money, but not necessarily knowing what you needed to scale, what the KPIs, the trackable things that you guys should be doing. So wow, man. And what type of business coaching was that that you guys were able to invest in too?

Vinny Machado (21:44.624)
Yeah, so we invested in, was a business coach and we start change our mentality in Brazil. They have a called Febra Sis in Brazil. They have it and they have it here in Boston, one of the place you go and they have one, two in Orlando, Florida. So they have two here and they have like more than 50 in Brazil. So it's

It's like Tony Robbins, but the guy there is Paulo Vieira. And then I learned with him all the skills. I changed my mindset, the way I communicate, the way I dress, the way I show up in a customer's house to sell our product. And I start following some new guys in the industry, in the landscaping industry. And then I start learning more techniques and I

check the results. I implement on my business, check the result. If it's good, we keep doing it and get better. If it's not good, we take it out and put something new. Always trying to learn different skills to scale our business.

Enmanuel (22:58.5)
so freaking cool man because you guys learn and then implement learn implement where it just stays if it doesn't work it doesn't stay I like that mindset a lot because you know it's very typical for a lot of smaller landscapers to just

Vinny Machado (22:59.902)
Yeah. Yes.

Enmanuel (23:12.124)
go around and do the same thing every single time, you know, and they might be cutting it close, making a little bit of money to be able to pay everything off and make some profit. But instead of trying new things, they keep doing that same thing, you know, because there's a chance that you might try something new and it might fail, but there's also a chance that you try something new and it takes you to the next level. But people just want to stay the same. And that's kind of what you broke through yourself, it sounds like.

Vinny Machado (23:31.669)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (23:37.133)
Yeah, a lot of people say the successful people is the people that tried more things and fell and the things they got better, they got to the next level. So I mean, always trying new things to bring my business to the next level. Because when I started this time, I didn't want to get that much mowing customers because if everybody knows mowing, you don't make that much money anymore because in 2001, I used to mow a house for $50.

Now the same house is $80. And some landscapers still mow the house for $50 or $35. How they can make a living with their money? Gas, employ. Back then I used to make $8 an hour. Now the guy who mows alone make $25 an hour. And how he still keep charging $50. So when I changed my mentality, I said, my minimum for mowing is $80.

people who wants us to move, their house is going to pay 80. If they don't pay 80, we're not going to go. And when you

Enmanuel (24:40.094)
Really? You're paying $80, people pay $80 to get their lawn mowed? Really? And now that's regardless of the size or what?

Vinny Machado (24:44.008)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (24:48.043)
Minimum if it's gonna be the size of a pickup truck is gonna be $80 is if it's gonna be like a half an acre or two acre it will be $80. The price is like a standard because the guy is gonna have to drive get there mow the house with whack and blow is gonna be like 30 minutes and if two guys go and mow half an acre and blow and trim is gonna be almost the same

Enmanuel (24:59.612)
Wow, that's interesting.

Enmanuel (25:20.37)
That's true. So you might as well get paid for the time that you guys are there. Yeah, I like that. And so what about, what about the card game too?

Vinny Machado (25:26.379)
And when you change the mentality, people don't know the, they call like a physics, how you call in Portuguese, I know, but physical quantity. So when you change your mindset, I'm only gonna mow houses $80. I've been doing that for three years. Nobody called me and say, Vinny, can you mow my house for $30, 35, 50? No, everybody when calls

I say, the minimum is $80. We charge 26 cuts, time $80, three payments. We don't do monthly payment. You do first payment May, second payment July, and third payment September. So only three payments for the whole season. So when I've been doing this so much and $80 and that is our standard.

We 90 % of the people call we close because we already have the price established. You know what mean?

Enmanuel (26:30.942)
I see what you mean and I think I know that word. I can't think of the word but I know what you're talking about. It's like if somebody told you to see, oh think of a red car and then when you go outside, oh you see his red car. So now when you guys know what you're gonna ask for, all your customers are $80. There's no problem. Wow, amazing. And so that's on the lawn care and landscaping side of things. What about when it comes to project work? Cause I know you guys put in some beautiful patios, outdoor living type of hardscapes.

Vinny Machado (26:44.75)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yes.

Enmanuel (26:59.278)
What's that looking like for you guys?

Vinny Machado (27:01.936)
So for the hardscape part, I've always been trying to get more hardscape work and get more yard transformation work like we've been doing. Like we go over there, the guy have a pool, we rip everything out, put a solid irrigation, put a patio on it. Those jobs, I have to kind of have more time to focus on it. So since I'm the only one now doing quotes, and I do quotes for everything, tree work.

mowing, cleanups, irrigation, paddles. So sometimes I think I should have more time to get more projects like this, because those projects take time. You have to go over there, talk with the customer, bring the samples, go on the computer, put a software, make the paddle, fire pit, maybe a pergola. I've seen a lot of guys, they start the business and they go to the mentality.

they get so much work and they grow so fast because they bring different things to the landscape that nobody does.

Enmanuel (28:09.704)
That's very true. What are some examples? Like there's like a 3D design here or a different style

Vinny Machado (28:12.918)
like a 3D design, yeah, like a picture, like you take a picture of the area and you can design on it and you show before and after. So this is gonna be look like, and this is gonna is all the way it is. And I know that works because for my landscape, the only way I could scale my business is clone Vinnie. I had to clone myself to all my employees. And people say, Vinnie, how you did that? I grabbed my iPhone.

I go make a video and I say, hey, you should trim the plant right here. When you prune, take down from the window the customer want to see outside. When you trim these bushes, you clean all these weeds here. You see down on the corners of flower, don't take that one. So I make that video when I talk with the customer, giving the estimates, I have a CRM on my phone. They record everything the customer said to me and I take picture all the property in video.

So my employees are going to go to do their work. They're going to do the same way I talk with the customers and all the video and all the ways to do it. So it's the same venue as they are doing

Enmanuel (29:23.996)
Wow. Wow. That's smart actually. Yeah. Because that video that you're trimming, you're going to say to the customer, Hey, is this exactly what you want? They're going to say, yes, that's what we want. And then you just assign somebody from your team. They watch that exact same video, which is what the client wants. Wow.

Vinny Machado (29:40.748)
Yes, and then when the guys finished their work, they recorded everything to be and they say, hey, Vin, you see this here, you told me to bring low from the window. We did all this. This one here, I took a little bit more because the customer came outside. We never touched the plant because it's very sentimental to the customer. We didn't pull out like the last landscaper. We clean all the weeds, everything is done. We go into the next one and they click, go to the

And then from the office over there, the girls in the office just watch, everything is good, they go to the next one. So I just go to customers to give the estimates and I take all the data and then I don't need to go there anymore. Maybe in 10 years, I have all the data. Every time they're going to go to the property, they make a video, take a picture, record it. We have all on the customer's folder.

Enmanuel (30:33.886)
Wow, that's beautiful. And what CRM is that by the way that you're using? Is it Jabber?

Vinny Machado (30:37.667)
So it's a company camp. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so the company camp now is like, I call like a CRM because I have all my customers information there too, like name, email, phone number. Now you can do payments here. Now we can do worksheets. You can do a work order all through them. So, and they connect with Jobber. So when I get a new customer,

Enmanuel (30:39.57)
Company cam, yes, I've seen their ads too. Wow, that's awesome. So is that a PRM or is it more just for documenting what the property is like?

Vinny Machado (31:07.752)
on job or on a CRM, automatically they generate the customer, the same customer at company camp. So when I go to customer, I just open my company camp, they get the location and the name is gonna be there. And then I just take the pictures and put all there.

Enmanuel (31:27.24)
It's an awesome process. So you guys are using both jobber and company cam and they're integrated together Wow, beautiful and let me ask you this so what you just described there was what you're doing for long -care landscaping if it's a hardscape in project It's the same process. Do you go out with the phone? Hey the customer wants this same process Wow, and it's always you doing those videos or is it do you have like a project manager that does the estimating for you?

Vinny Machado (31:33.211)
Yeah.

Vinny Machado (31:43.158)
Everything, yes.

Vinny Machado (31:49.986)
No, I do the videos. I go there, do the videos, take the pictures. And like I said, every day I'm trying to get better. So I hired one girl in the office now and she's learning my skills because before I do 10 estimates in a day. So I have to make 10 video, 100 pictures. And by the end of the day, I have to mark everything for the customer. Like I said, I go to a property.

And then I take a picture on the front of the house and the customer say, just prune those two shrubs. So on company cam, I can mark the shrubs. So I put it like a marker, prune this shrub, prune this shrub, don't touch this ones. So now I have a girl the officer that I trained it, she does that for me because it's 10 estimates in a day. So she's doing all the marking all the pictures, marking everything. And when I'm going to send a quote for the customer,

I make a link and then I put that link inside the quote. So these are the pictures of your project. So when they're gonna open the quote, they see all $10 ,000 worth of work, or they're gonna prune this, they're gonna do the fall cleanup, they're gonna mow the lawn, all this area, they're gonna plant these plants, it's gonna be all there. So that's a game changer, will bring value to our service.

Enmanuel (33:08.126)
That's a beautiful

Enmanuel (33:12.542)
That's beautiful. Instead of it just being like a you talk and then hope that they can picture it in their mind. You have those pictures, it's gonna have the lines on it. This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna do this and that. Wow, that's beautiful, man.

Vinny Machado (33:18.4)
Yep. Yep. And that's why I said we like so close to start doing the hardscape. So next year, my goal is to hire a new salesman to do the job I'm doing. We're going to have to train him. Then I can focus more on hardscape and do like a different 3D projects like for like a patio with pool

firepad and then I have to learn first how to do all the sketches and then I can pass that to the office to do it for

Enmanuel (33:55.038)
Yeah, 100 % and you're absolutely correct that is a game changer to to have those 3d designs because like I do the marketing for a lot of the top guys in the industry and all of them that 3d design man, it's just it just does something for the client when they can actually see their property in a 3d rendering it just it's Unbelievable what you can do like it makes the sales process easier because you're not just telling them hey, we're gonna do this We're gonna do that. You're actually showing them their home

in a 3D world moving around and it just it's amazing what that does.

Vinny Machado (34:28.542)
Yeah, and that how you can be different from the others. So we just closed a job in a condominium. We're doing like a metal wedge. The job is like almost 500 ,000 for the job. Yeah, it's the biggest project we ever had on Maple Tree. And the only reason we closed that job is because Company Camp

I went over there in February, it was freezing, like I almost froze my hand, but we took picture from the 70 properties there. I marked everything, lined up everything, this metal edge, this gravel, this metal edge, no gravel. And over there are like four streets and 70 buildings. So no, no, no, 30 buildings with 70 houses.

Enmanuel (35:22.131)
for a while.

Vinny Machado (35:25.596)
because it's like one building have three houses on it. So we market everything and they say, build the one unit, 10, 11, 12. And I market all the pictures, building two units. So they just closed the contract with us because nobody, all the other people that did the project, they didn't have that. And we had...

Enmanuel (35:48.276)
All they say is, we can do it, but you say I can do it, and here's the breakdown, here's this. Wow, that's amazing.

Vinny Machado (35:53.786)
Yeah, and the landscape committee of the condominium, they printed, so they made a book with like 100 pictures. All the pictures I had, all marked, all lined up. And when we go to the building to check the result, and she said, hey, Vin, your picture here, this is the map, good. All you have over there, and you have all this. And my guys have on their phone all the areas they have to do it, so they check.

Enmanuel (36:05.768)
Hahaha.

Vinny Machado (36:22.533)
We're gonna do this, we're gonna do this, this. So it's so easy to scale and delegate.

Enmanuel (36:29.458)
Wow, that's beautiful, man. Holy crap. You definitely differentiate yourself from other, you know, one, two, three landscaping down the street that just has one van and doesn't have all this technical ability like you do. So that's awesome. What about things like...

What should smaller contractors, landscapers and harscapers, what should they focus on to make more money for their business? Right? Because of course you guys have scaled from zero to 2 million. And of course you have an amazing ability to implement things into your business. What do you think is the number one game changer that somebody can implement right now to make more money?

Vinny Machado (37:07.416)
Yeah, for them to make more money or their business, they have to know what kind of area they want to be working on. let's see, they want to do power washing. So they have to have all the software, like a CRM, to send the prices, maybe three prices, or this is the minimum, this is the basic, this is the top service, and they have to have the company cam to take all those pictures, line up the areas for the product he's going to use.

On Maple Tree we have like, with Jobber it's so easy, right? When they sign, they make the deposit. When they finish, we send the rest of them. On Jobber we have now the Google review on it. So when we finish that job, they go over there, give you the review. So now, before I spent like $50 ,000 a year with marketing people who like say, you crazy? Yeah, I spent 50 grand. My name is everywhere on the town. But

This year I spend maybe 10, last year I spent 50. And people say, I say, hey, do you estimate I go? ask, how did you hear about Maple? And they say, oh, I see on Google your reviews are great. how did how did you hear about Maple? Oh, I see your trucks everywhere. Oh, how did you hear about Maple? The yard signs, all the time when we do York, we put the yard sign on customer's house.

Enmanuel (38:09.629)
Mm.

Vinny Machado (38:34.626)
So like, thank you for your business. We appreciate your five -star customer. So you have to go different than everybody doing it. So like on the coaching when I learn is if everybody going to the right, doing the same thing, you'll go opposite. You're going to do different than everybody else. So that's what we've been doing on Maple. Everybody doing one thing, we're going to the another direction.

Right now, there another direction I'm going. We start doing power washing in the summer. We're doing mosquito etix spray. And now we're going to do deer repellent for the fall and winter, all organic. Mosquito is organic and deer is organic. So those are two things that a lot of landscape doesn't do it. They never got the...

Enmanuel (39:24.242)
Yeah, I've never heard of deer repellent. Never heard of that. So how are you going to sell that? Are you going to call them? Are you going to email them? Are you going to text them? How does that

Vinny Machado (39:32.095)
Yes, so we're going to make a campaign. We're going to send for our customers selling. The first application is free for our customers. So if they want to sign up with us, first application free, then we're going to sell the other ones. The mosquito is free for first application. But next year, since I want to escalate more my services, everybody who sign up with Maple going to get free mosquito and take spray for the whole season.

everybody. Yes, I'm gonna increase my price a little bit on my customers and new customers, but we are already there. So I'm gonna go over there to mow the lawn. I just grab the machine and spray. mean, there takes me five minutes. So why I cannot give something like more value for my customers? They won't have ticks and mosquitoes. And since I'm already

Enmanuel (40:03.036)
Are you going to have to increase your price to do that or no?

Vinny Machado (40:28.511)
So why are going to change the landscape and nobody's going to do for free for them and we're going to do

Enmanuel (40:36.584)
I like that. I like that a lot actually. I've never heard of anybody doing that. That's pretty cool. Maybe you could even trade it, hey listen, if you leave us a good review, we'll do this for free. And then you were gonna do it anyway, so now you have a review. So that's awesome.

Vinny Machado (40:46.431)
Yeah. And the power washing is a great thing to have because a lot of the houses here are in the shade. They have so much moss. So we do a lot of power washing now in the summertime. So now is a lot of people only mowing and do a little trimming and weeding. And we have the power wash going on and hardscape. And we're going to try to get more services.

for maple to get through this summertime.

Enmanuel (41:19.634)
Amazing amazing amazing amazing and can you remind us again? How many employees do you have?

Vinny Machado (41:24.949)
So we have 12 on the field and three on the offices, so 15. And plus me and wife, 17.

Enmanuel (41:30.558)
15 total wow and then throw 7 feet okay cool oh what's your forgot your wife is also involved what's your wife's role in the business?

Vinny Machado (41:40.884)
So my wife rules on the business is count the money and don't let me spend and invest too much in the business.

Enmanuel (41:48.606)
Hey, that's the perfect role. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. And so she's been helping you pretty much since you started the business pretty much, right? Because you guys started it together, by the

Vinny Machado (41:58.245)
Yes, yes. She started with me and then she always did like the payroll. She used to do all the estimates for me. And then after that we hired a couple of girls at the office. And now she just go over there, check everything's going the way

So.

Vinny Machado (42:22.587)
I'm putting it forward. So my wife makes all the payments, go over there, check all the invoices, if everything is doing good, check the numbers, check all the data, how much you spend on gas, how much employees, see how much work is coming in. So she goes to the office two days a week to do all that.

Enmanuel (42:44.604)
Wow, awesome. And then one thing I'm curious too, I think a lot of people will find value in this. You as the owner of a company that you're no longer in the field doing the work yourself. How does a typical day look like for you? How do you usually structure your days?

Vinny Machado (42:59.155)
Sure, so since I have like now four crews, so we have on Jobber all the crews have the app on the phone, they know what to do. I wake up every day five o 'clock in the morning, come down, yeah, wake up, I get all my things ready, I pray, get my things, go to the, sometimes I stay home until, because my house is like 40 minutes to the

So I go over some numbers, check the estimates, I have to do it. Go over there, sometimes I, every Monday I go to the office, to the shop, talk with the guys, we pray, say good, they have a blessed week, everybody's safe, and they go to work. And then I go to the office, I try to do now, because they only, I have two kids and a young, so I have to pick up and they care, drop off.

Enmanuel (43:54.408)
Yeah

Vinny Machado (43:55.633)
So I've been doing 12 estimates per week. So I work Monday afternoon 1 to 4. I have like three times for estimates. Tuesday, I have I think four times for the estimates. Wednesday, I don't work. It's been three years I don't work Wednesday. I took the Wednesday off to stay with my wife and my family. So me and my wife go to lunch. We have to do something.

I like bring her kids for the doctor or stay home with her and talk about something else. So Wednesday I take that day off for her. It's very important because those days is where we bring more ideas to our life and the business.

Enmanuel (44:40.496)
Ooh, that's key right there. That's key right there. I'm actually reading a book right now that mentions that, that, you know, taking time to think, like it's cool. You know, it's important to work, work hard too, but you also have to think and sit back and strategize instead of every day just hit, hit, hit. It's good to sit back and say, damn, how do I do it? And then once you have something formulated, then you go and attack it. I'm a fan of that actually. Wow. Awesome, man. And so you're pretty much like four days a

Vinny Machado (45:01.983)
Yeah. Yeah, so I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. I don't work Saturday. I don't work Sunday. On my business, we had the mentality we work Saturday, the team work Saturdays only until before Memorial Day. And then Memorial Day until Labor Day, we don't work Saturday so they can have some time with the family.

A lot of guys are single, they can wash their clothes, go to the supermarket, they spend lot of hours, so I don't make them work Saturdays and Sundays.

Enmanuel (45:40.54)
That's awesome, man. So it sounds like you guys really have a lot of work -life balance and you mentioned that you guys pray together. So it just sounds like it's very tight -knit group of people that are doing amazing things, dude. So I really love that. I love that. And so right now, how old are you by the way, Benny?

Vinny Machado (45:57.678)
So I am 41.

Enmanuel (46:00.45)
41. Wow, that's amazing, man. You look like you're 21.

Vinny Machado (46:03.278)
Yes, I look young, it can come, you know.

Enmanuel (46:07.646)
Hey, yeah. But that's amazing, man. You really have an amazing story. And what you mentioned this, like, I'm still thinking about it, like imagining, because I had those types of days too, where it's like, you barely get any sleep, but you were going from job to job to job, a little bit of sleep, repeat.

and no complaints and look at where you are today. Your company's doing two million, you're doing great, you have work -life balance, you have time for the family, time for the business. People love working for you, your customers love the work that gets done for them. It's amazing.

Vinny Machado (46:41.069)
Yeah, we really good with just like when my customers or when my employees come with problems and I say, hey guys, because sometimes like I deal with 12 employees and 200 customers. Of course I have problems not all the time, but I have problems. Well, then don't focus on the problem. Let's focus and resolve the problem. So what's the problem? The guy's complaining because he went to the truck.

Enmanuel (47:01.351)
Yes.

Vinny Machado (47:10.526)
and don't have gas on the truck, the truck almost die on the road without gas. So go put the gas and go over there in a group we have and say, hey, truck number five, somebody didn't put the gas on it. Next time check and let's put the gas. So why you guys are gonna keep focusing on problem? Who did, who didn't? They have to do, they don't have to do. You guys have to focus and get the job done. Just go and fill it up the truck. The same with customers.

before customers used to complain about, oh, your guys didn't come here and prune the tree. And before I was getting very mad with customers because on my mind is Vinnie never had the complaint. I used to work for Landscape for 10 years, I never had the complaint and I never let the job down. If we started 20 yards a mulch, four o 'clock in afternoon, we're going to finish that thing if it's going

have to stay over there until midnight. We're gonna finish. We have to finish. So we're gonna do to finish. This is Vinny. He's not my employees. So I have to learn that. So when a customer call and complain, hey, the guy didn't prune the shrub. Okay, I understand. Please send me the picture. Let me see how we can help you. And the customer say, what do you mean? the top you want to take how many? Two feet? Okay, I'm gonna send another crew. We're gonna fix that for you. No problem.

Enmanuel (48:36.465)
I see.

Vinny Machado (48:36.521)
So, yeah, we start bringing a new mentality because I have 12 employees. I'm training them to do the way I do it, but they're never gonna be Vinny, they're doing no complaints. So a lot of people, I think they get frustrated in business is because they get reallable on other people. And if the people don't do it, they think they are them and they say, oh, fuck this customer, I'm not gonna come back there and prune it. It's good.

So,

Enmanuel (49:07.538)
That makes a lot of sense, yeah. And I love the fact that you're training your employees to have that kind of problem solving mentality instead of just reacting to things. It's like, I understand that you're upset, let's fix it. Instead of saying, why are you upset? But just let's find a solution and let's get past it.

Vinny Machado (49:24.297)
Yeah, yeah, like another day they went to do a garter cleaning and now here is raining a lot. So maybe the garter was full of water and they come over there, they blew all the garter, cleaned it, but splashed mud on the side of the house. And the guy could grab the hose and wash it. He didn't wash it. And here we have those wires to melt the snow on the garters and the wires was hanging and they left. And then they very upset and I went over there.

And I say, what's good and all. I had to grab my water hose, wash over here. I got very upset. I have all these wires hanging. Can you guys come here and fix it? Before, we should get very bad because I never did that such a thing. So I grabbed the phone, called the former. Hey, how are you? Good. So you guys did the gutter cleaning in this house. What happened? Nothing. We did a good job. say, I know, but the customer said you guys blew it. There's mud everywhere. The wires hanging here.

send you a picture for the wires the mud she clean it but the wires is hanging and the guy all this woman's crazy we didn't do that I say yes but you guys did the wire is here so when you finish the next job you guys grab the truck drive here and fix right away because you're upset I cannot we are here to make our customers happy and next time don't happen again if he splashed mud you grab the water water get the hose and wash down if you cannot wash down

Call the office. If the water is off, call the office. We're gonna have to fix it. Problems are here and we are paid to get fixed it. And he said, okay, I'm sorry. And they went over there, put all the wires back together, took a picture, sent to the office. The office say okay. We call the customer okay. They left. Job's done.

Enmanuel (51:09.714)
Job is done. Yeah, it's not like you called them to yell at them. Why the fuck you said hey, no, let's just fix it and Yeah, man, dude. I love that cuz you're actually doing the right thing You know, you're not blowing up on the customer because at the end of day like you said you're there to make them happy So that's that's awesome

Vinny Machado (51:24.718)
Yeah, yeah, and I tell them, now you learn it. Next time you blow the gutter and make mud on the side of the house, get the water and wash it. If the water is closed, call the office, take a picture. Let's tell the customer the water is closed. We can all take the water or you can even unclog the gutter first before you blow it, right? So sometimes you have to think for the employee and you have to think for the customer, but that's why you get paid.

Enmanuel (51:50.876)
figure it out. Wow man that's amazing Vinny and I want to be respectful of your time and you've been an amazing guest Vinny. One last question if you can give one piece of advice to a landscaper young landscaper that wants to get to your point where you are right now breaking the two million dollar mark what's a piece of advice that you will give for them so they can grow their business?

Vinny Machado (52:12.389)
So two things, on the beginning, you're going to have to work like your ass off, like you're going to have to start mowing grass for 50 bucks, for 30 bucks, and to start going up and up. You're never going to start mowing grass for 80 and be successful, everybody does for 80. All the big companies get 80. Why a customer is going to change 80 if they get another guy to mow for 80?

You start slow, know your numbers. If you're work yourself and say, oh, I'm gonna make 20 bucks an hour, you mow 10 houses a day, 500 bucks, you take your pay, 300 for the business. Put on a side, work again. Always buy brand new equipment is the best thing you do. If you cannot buy brand new equipment, when you beginning, it. Go and rent it. You get like 10 houses, you can do it with a push mower, buy a brand new push mower, do it. If you get 20 houses,

you cannot buy a brand new stand on 10 grand, rent it for like 150 and get the 20 done. Then you won't have the liability until you buy a brand new equipment and you're going to get like equity on it. You know what I mean? And then when you know your worth, on the beginning, you know you're going to have to work harder than everybody, but you're always going to know your worth. You're going to do a good job. You're going to be fair with customers, always give a good price, have a good relationship.

and then you can scale your business and teach your employees to do the work you want them to do it. I always explain, I want you to do this way, this way is professional.

That's the best thing to do it. Like I said before, when I started Maple Tree, I used to charge 50 bucks an hour. And then next year, 60, next year, 70, next year, 80, next year, 85. Now next year, maybe 90. So we go little by little. I didn't start Maple 90 bucks an hour. 90 bucks an hour, all the other big companies around me charging. So if I charge 85, sometimes a customer got upset and they're going to call, hey, Vinny, how much you charge?

Vinny Machado (54:22.307)
85 or this guy charged me 90. Let me try Vinny. He's a little bit cheaper. He have good reveals and then we get a good

Enmanuel (54:31.678)
1000 % dude, I love it and and I appreciate all that those golden nuggets anybody that's listening in definitely apply that because Vinny is definitely in a great position and that's where you guys want to get to ultimately so Vinny if anybody has any questions or wants to reach out to you that's listening to this podcast or whether there are future client of yours that are in the area How can they get in contact with you?

Vinny Machado (54:52.545)
Sure, they can get in contact with me at Maple Tree Landscape on the Instagram and Facebook and you guys can shoot me an email to vini at mapletreelandscape .net I'm here to help anyone who wants to grow the business and to grow your business first you have to grow yourself, be better each day and then you're gonna do the same with your business and your whole life.

Enmanuel (55:20.07)
love it Vinny and I love your energy. love what you're doing. Thank you so much for being a guest here and for dropping those golden nuggets for us brother. Have an amazing rest of your day.

Vinny Machado (55:25.13)
Thank you.

Thank you. Have a great day. It was a pleasure to be with you guys.

Enmanuel (55:33.106)
Yes, sir.