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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello, I'm Mario Tonigüzi, managing editor of Canada's podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_02: Joining me today on Calgary's podcast is James Soika, who is founder of Yard Dog's
[00:17] SPEAKER_02: Long Care.
[00:17] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today, James.
[00:20] SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, I'm Yard Morgan, I'm looking forward to sticking with you.
[00:23] SPEAKER_02: All right, let's talk about Yard Dog's.
[00:25] SPEAKER_02: And tell me how well, first of all, what do you do and what you do?
[00:33] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, so we are a residential company here in Calgary that focuses on residential
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: lawns, doing fertilizer and weed control services.
[00:40] SPEAKER_00: So we help homeowners achieve green, healthy and weed-free lawn.
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: We've going into our decade of business, so that's a very exciting, it's been 10 very
[00:49] SPEAKER_00: fun and very exciting years.
[00:51] SPEAKER_00: And we operate this upcoming year for 2024, we'll have 17 trucks on the road and taking
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: care of all of Calgary and area.
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: So tell me how we started this.
[01:01] SPEAKER_00: Well, it was after the first year of university, I went to the Haskeん School of Business
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: here and finished my course, I saw my tuition bill and said, Frank, I got to do something
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: about this, starting there.
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: I got invited to this meeting, it was a lawn care meeting where they would give you
[01:17] SPEAKER_00: a machine called an aerator, that's the machine that plugs those holes in the ground
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: and leaves the course there.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: And I remember they'd give you the machine and you'd go door to door with it and you'd
[01:25] SPEAKER_00: make a 30% commission on the job that you would do.
[01:27] SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, huh, if I'm doing all the sales and marketing and I'm doing all
[01:32] SPEAKER_00: the work, I kind of would like 100% commission.
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: The only thing stopped me from doing that is buying this machine, which was worth about
[01:38] SPEAKER_00: $3,000 at the time.
[01:40] SPEAKER_00: I didn't have $3,000, but I had my buddy named Liam who I'd known since kindergarten.
[01:45] SPEAKER_00: I gave him a call and I said, man, let's buy this machine, there's a thing called an
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: aerator.
[01:50] SPEAKER_00: I don't know exactly what it does, but I know people pay $50 a house and we'll go door
[01:54] SPEAKER_00: to door.
[01:55] SPEAKER_00: It'll be an overnight success and we'll have a great time.
[01:58] SPEAKER_00: And he said, yeah, man, I'm in.
[02:00] SPEAKER_00: So we borrowed money from our siblings, we bought this machine and we went door to door
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: and we were so bad.
[02:06] SPEAKER_00: We were so bad at sales and how to like learn how to sell things like we were studying every
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: second word.
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: We had never really used the machine before, but we were very honest about that and we
[02:17] SPEAKER_00: were willing to be really bad at the start, Mario, to get a little bit better.
[02:21] SPEAKER_00: And people really loved that we brought a lot of professionalism to the lawn care industry.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: We showed up when we said we were going to, we charged them what we told them we were
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: going to.
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: We weren't swearing every third word, we were dressed professionally and people were like
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: that.
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: They started to offer, ask us, do you do this kind of a service?
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: Do you do power raking?
[02:41] SPEAKER_00: Do you do mowing?
[02:41] SPEAKER_00: And when somebody's off your money, when you just first start off, you say, yes, I do.
[02:45] SPEAKER_00: And then they'll say, so the first time that happened, someone asked you to do power raking.
[02:49] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yes, and he asked how much?
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: I'm like $130.
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: What can you do it?
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow at 10 AM, sounds good to you then.
[02:56] SPEAKER_00: And then I'd go home on YouTube.
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: What is power raking?
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
[03:00] SPEAKER_00: It's this machine that rakes the lawn very fast.
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: Oh, but like they're $4,000.
[03:04] SPEAKER_00: But there's one on Kajiji for $2,000 and medicine hat.
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: Let's call him, but it's 11 o'clock at night.
[03:10] SPEAKER_00: Just call him anyways.
[03:11] SPEAKER_00: We get the sky in Bussano.
[03:12] SPEAKER_00: We picked up the machine, brought it back to Mom and Dad's lawn at like 1 or 2 AM.
[03:17] SPEAKER_00: Did a trial run?
[03:18] SPEAKER_00: Was that the guy's house the next day to do the job there?
[03:21] SPEAKER_00: So that's how we started.
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: But it got a little bit out of hand.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: We were doing, we were saying yes to the way too many services at the start.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: But what was good about that is we started to learn about what we're good at,
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: what we're not good at, what's profitable, what's not profitable,
[03:33] SPEAKER_00: and what has the most demand.
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: And we decided after about four years to really go all in on a niche for us,
[03:40] SPEAKER_00: which was fertilizer and weak control, aeration services.
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: So like I said, making lawns green, healthy and weed free,
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: and then five years from there, we've been going all in on those services.
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: And like I said, we now have 17 trucks on the road for the 2024 season.
[03:53] SPEAKER_00: And we'll be taking care of close to 6,000 lawns or 6,000 homes this upcoming year.
[03:57] SPEAKER_02: I'm the employees to you have.
[03:59] SPEAKER_00: There'll be 24 of us.
[04:01] SPEAKER_00: Wow.
[04:01] SPEAKER_00: There'll be 24 of us for this spring.
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: So 17 of those people will be technicians in the field.
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: Then there's their service managers and operations manager.
[04:08] SPEAKER_00: And then in the office, there's myself and Liam as well as a couple customer service representatives
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: and a couple sales reps as well.
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: And are you solely in Calgary?
[04:18] SPEAKER_00: We're just in Calgary, but we do the areas as well.
[04:20] SPEAKER_00: So air-dry, Chester Mirror, Oak Toaks, Cochran.
[04:23] SPEAKER_02: OK, super.
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: You know, actually, just a fact, for a second, what were you taking at university?
[04:31] SPEAKER_00: I was taking business there and a Liam Fieded Engineer at UFS.
[04:34] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, did you go through it, but the business screen and all that?
[04:39] SPEAKER_00: I did finish it the four years there.
[04:41] SPEAKER_00: I got to say, though, like you learn so much more doing it.
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: So like doing yard dogs, that was my MBA.
[04:48] SPEAKER_00: That was my master's program.
[04:50] SPEAKER_00: Doing school was great.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say it was needed though.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: It was doing business.
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: It was the best way to learn business.
[04:56] SPEAKER_01: Join our thriving community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for success and innovation.
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[05:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, it's funny you mentioned that because I, Bob, we said that to people about myself,
[05:11] SPEAKER_02: my career, right?
[05:12] SPEAKER_02: And as a journalist, so you know, I went for four years at the university at Carlton,
[05:17] SPEAKER_02: but man, that first few months, even when I went to my first job was in Nelson, BC,
[05:25] SPEAKER_02: I learned more those first few months and then I did four years of university, right?
[05:31] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
[05:33] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[05:33] SPEAKER_02: Nothing learned, like learning it off on the streets, right?
[05:37] SPEAKER_02: So to speak.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: There's nothing like it.
[05:38] SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's also real.
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: It's the real world and gosh, like we made so many mistakes,
[05:44] SPEAKER_00: but we learned every single time and we just committed to getting a little bit better every day,
[05:48] SPEAKER_00: and that served us so well.
[05:50] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how important, you know, as from a business standpoint,
[05:54] SPEAKER_02: you mentioned, you know, finding the niche.
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: How important is that to have a niche, to have a, I guess a clear focus,
[06:05] SPEAKER_02: as opposed to having doing this, that and everything and maybe not doing each one well,
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: but just doing them, right?
[06:13] SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
[06:14] SPEAKER_00: So like I say, whenever someone starts business, they ever ask me, like, what should I do?
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: I do believe at the very start, it's okay to be a little bit broad because you don't know what you're good at.
[06:24] SPEAKER_00: You don't even know what's out there and you don't even know what's profitable quite yet.
[06:28] SPEAKER_00: So at the start, it's okay to be a little bit open about what you do,
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: but it is crucial, Mario, to niche it on something because you need to learn how to become the best.
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: The world doesn't even have other jack of all trades.
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: It needs another person that's a master of their craft,
[06:44] SPEAKER_00: so that you can start to build a brand and you can start to be a company that people,
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: whenever they think of, they see a dandelion, they're thinking of yard dogs.
[06:52] SPEAKER_00: They're not thinking of all the other options out there.
[06:54] SPEAKER_00: And the best companies, they give McDonald's, they're not selling ribs,
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: they're not selling, you know, apple slices and things like that.
[07:00] SPEAKER_00: They're selling cheeseburger from his milkshakes and they focused on just those things
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: and they built a model just focusing on there.
[07:06] SPEAKER_00: So if a company is going to make it big, they're going to really start to niche it on things.
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: And then once they get quite large from there, it's okay to start to add a service space,
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: a large clientele. That's why tell us now offers home security.
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: It was just why I thought cellular, then it was Wi-Fi,
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: and then home security, now there's healthcare.
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: They can do that because they have hundreds of thousands of clients,
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: but they didn't do that from off the start.
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: They just focused on cellular Wi-Fi for such a long time and built an empire doing so.
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: So building your own little empire.
[07:43] SPEAKER_02: Do you find now that, like basically,
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: you're just running in the business, like, are you out doing the grunt work at all anymore?
[07:52] SPEAKER_00: So I was blessed by Godmariol with the allergies.
[07:56] SPEAKER_00: I was super allergic to grass.
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: So only lasted in the field for maybe five months.
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: And after June, I'm like, I totally make a listen.
[08:05] SPEAKER_00: I want to do this, but I can't.
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: I'm up every night coughing and sneezing along with me.
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: I'd love to focus on the business things and let's keep this going there.
[08:14] SPEAKER_00: So no, I haven't.
[08:16] SPEAKER_00: I go in the field a couple times a year just to make sure I'm everything staying relevant.
[08:20] SPEAKER_00: And I can learn so many things from there and just see how things are on in the field there.
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: But no, I right now I'm really focusing on the business.
[08:27] SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to grow Canada's largest lawn care company.
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: So that's through yard dogs.
[08:32] SPEAKER_00: And then I have the YouTube channel, The Dirt Life,
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: which really focuses on teaching other people how to run a lawn care company.
[08:38] SPEAKER_00: Oh, my aspiration with that is one.
[08:41] SPEAKER_00: I enjoy doing it in the off season.
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: It's a great way to spend some time in the winter when of course it's minus 30 Celsius outside.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: But I would love to actually build a network of and elevate our industry to focus on maybe acquiring some other companies in different cities as as as we grow.
[08:58] SPEAKER_00: But also I really enjoy talking to my favorite part of both this industry are the people.
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: There are such hard workers in what I call the dirt life.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: You know, the landscape industry.
[09:06] SPEAKER_00: I love networking.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: I love me and people like that.
[09:08] SPEAKER_00: And we're trying to build large Canada's largest lawn care company.
[09:12] SPEAKER_00: So this guy's the limit there.
[09:13] SPEAKER_00: And I think we're just getting started.
[09:15] SPEAKER_02: So tell me, you know, in this journey of being an entrepreneur, what do you think your biggest challenge was?
[09:25] SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: And the biggest challenge is sometimes I think the whole entrepreneurial journey is a roller coaster that people will describe it that way.
[09:32] SPEAKER_00: And it's sometimes you're doing things.
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: And the hardest part is wondering is this actually worthwhile?
[09:37] SPEAKER_00: Am I wasting my time doing this right now?
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: What's great about being entrepreneurs and everything you do is building a business that you own.
[09:45] SPEAKER_00: Therefore the upside is so large.
[09:47] SPEAKER_00: But there are so many times where that voice in the back of your head is you're doubting what you're doing.
[09:52] SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even matter.
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: Is this relevant?
[09:54] SPEAKER_00: Should I have just gotten a job?
[09:55] SPEAKER_00: Is this going to work?
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: Is some.
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: And what gets really tricky Mario is that the longer people wait to get into business, the larger that voice gets.
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: Someone asks me, I'm thinking about starting a business.
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: What's the number one piece of advice you can give me?
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: Well, one piece of advice is hard.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: But I always say start as early as you possibly can because over time you have more to lose.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: We were 19 when we started.
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: We had nothing to lose if it didn't work out, whatever.
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: But like once you start to have you get married, you have children.
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: I have three great kids right now.
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: I've been married for five years.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: And it would be, it would be a different conversation if you told me to start a business today.
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: You said, James, you need to start business today.
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: I would have, I would be a lot more scared because I need to,
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: my wife and I, she stays at home and she takes care of her children.
[10:36] SPEAKER_00: That's the, the life that we really want to keep thriving in.
[10:39] SPEAKER_00: But it'd be scary.
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: So starting early is important because when you're doing things, you have your adults and you do make a ton of mistakes.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: We've been in business for 10 years, but I say the first five years was just another university degree.
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: We were making a ton of mistakes, learning as we're going committed to being great.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: But to be good, you have to be bad and then you become fair and then you become okay.
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: And then you can really start to excel at something.
[11:01] SPEAKER_01: So you can go discover the latest trends, strategies and success stories in the ever evolving world of business.
[11:10] SPEAKER_01: Canada's podcast dot com subscribe now.
[11:13] SPEAKER_02: And starting early too, you're more willing to take risks, right?
[11:19] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[11:20] SPEAKER_02: As he just said, now you've got, you know, you've got family and all that stuff, a house or whatever.
[11:25] SPEAKER_02: Whatever, right?
[11:26] SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, taking risks.
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: And never take, never take a risk that it could put you bankrupt, but take, take a risk that scares you because it's important.
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't scare you, the question is, is there, is it really a risk then?
[11:41] SPEAKER_00: There has to be a little bit of a potential for it to go bad if it's going to have a return on it.
[11:46] SPEAKER_00: So you got to be mindful.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: You got to really know how to wait pros and cons and ask yourself if this doesn't work out, will I be okay?
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is yes, do it.
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: And no matter what Mario, as long as you learn and you don't give up, you can't.
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: You only lose when you quit, but if you keep going and you make mistakes along the way, but you don't give up, even if it went bad, you've learned something and you've actually gotten more ahead.
[12:10] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
[12:11] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[12:12] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, before you got on to this path, what did you think you were going to end up doing as for your life of your career?
[12:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was really looking to going into the financial planning industry.
[12:28] SPEAKER_00: I was on that for a while and I really liked doing that.
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: I liked the idea of growing wealth, not only for myself, but doing it for others and building a career from there.
[12:38] SPEAKER_00: That's junior university, that's what I thought I was going to do.
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: But both my parents were entrepreneurs at the end of the day.
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking no matter what I was going to do is going to be entrepreneurial.
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: That was in my house, of most families, it's normal to get a job in my house.
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: I thought it was normal to start a business.
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: I didn't even really think of another way there too.
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know what I would do, but I knew for sure that I was going to start a business.
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: And I knew for sure I would knock it up.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: I would keep doing whatever it took to make something work.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what it was.
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily lawn care that I'm passionate about, but I'm passionate about the entrepreneurial journey.
[13:13] SPEAKER_02: What do you think speaking of your past, what do you think you learned from them?
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: My parents, oh gosh, well, I'll talk about each one of them individually.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: If there's one thing I've learned from my dad, it is never, never give up.
[13:27] SPEAKER_00: I remember my dad, he worked, there's a period of life where he was working at the office.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: There's a period of life when he was working at home.
[13:33] SPEAKER_00: And I remember when I'd wake up in the morning, my dad was on the phone making calls.
[13:36] SPEAKER_00: And in the evening, he was making calls and on the phone and in meetings and stuff.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: And I remember my dad had some businesses that were successful.
[13:43] SPEAKER_00: My dad had some businesses that didn't work out.
[13:45] SPEAKER_00: And I remember he never gave up.
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: And I learned my work ethic for sure came from my dad.
[13:50] SPEAKER_00: And when I learned from my mom, for sure, was definitely the people side of things.
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: How to be very empathetic with people.
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: How to definitely build a relationship and how to focus on people and attack problems, not people when adversity does come your way.
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: I think that combination of work ethic and ways to work with people because as an entrepreneur,
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: I don't believe you're meant to just be building yourself a job.
[14:14] SPEAKER_00: And so many of us sometimes build ourselves a job and they're doing it all yourself.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: I believe an entrepreneur solves a problem by finding people to solve the problem building a team.
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: I am not the best long care technician.
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: I am not the best customer service rep.
[14:27] SPEAKER_00: I count teams on how I'm strong to all these things.
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: But as an entrepreneur, I'm looking for people to be on my team to do that.
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for people that are better than me, and I don't want to be the hero.
[14:36] SPEAKER_00: I want to find people and make them the hero of your dogs.
[14:40] Speaker UNKNOWN: Yeah, exactly.
[14:41] SPEAKER_02: Now in the journey of being an entrepreneur,
[14:46] SPEAKER_02: were there any, you know, I guess examples or role models or mentors that you saw,
[14:53] SPEAKER_02: they're not necessarily on a personal level, but people you see out there in the business world.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. So moral here's a huge business hack.
[15:03] SPEAKER_00: If you're in any industry, doesn't matter the industry,
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: one of the best things to do because this is one of the best things that we did was to one,
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: find a mentor and two find it peer group.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: So let me talk about each one of those individually for mentorship.
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: What we did is that I would go on YouTube all the time, I'd go on LinkedIn,
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: and I'd find people that have done what I'm trying to do.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for people that have built long care empires,
[15:27] SPEAKER_00: and I found several of them, and I would call them.
[15:30] SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, my name is James, and we've never met before.
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: I'm actually Canada right in the log your company too.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: I've been watching your videos on YouTube,
[15:37] SPEAKER_00: and I'm inspired by what you're doing.
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: I would kill for an hour of your time, or more of your time,
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: just to meet you and learn your story.
[15:44] SPEAKER_00: And what's really cool about entrepreneurs, especially ones that have made it,
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: they are so generous with their time that I never believe almost all of them said,
[15:51] SPEAKER_00: yes, sure.
[15:53] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't, I wouldn't count the costs.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: I would buy a plane ticket and I'd fly to them.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: They're usually in the US, as I found in our case,
[15:59] SPEAKER_00: because if you're too close to somebody, if I'm talking to the owner of a long care and cougarie,
[16:04] SPEAKER_00: they might not share all the secrets with me, because I'm competing with them.
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: But if they're in Ohio, if they're in Texas, if they're anywhere in the States,
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: they can spill all the beans because they have nothing to lose,
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: and they just want to sort of pay it forward.
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: So I'd go there and meet them, and I would come very prepared.
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: I'd have all like questions ready, and I'd ask every single question I can do.
[16:23] SPEAKER_00: And that morning saved me decades of the stakes.
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: And I would do that mentor after mentor.
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: And some of them, I would actually engage in more formal mentor, mentor,
[16:31] SPEAKER_00: mentor, mentor relationship, where we'd do a call every two weeks for an hour,
[16:34] SPEAKER_00: and things like that.
[16:35] SPEAKER_00: That fast-tracked the path so quickly.
[16:39] SPEAKER_00: So then in the next five years, we could add some talks to our fleet.
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: The second thing I mentioned was peer groups.
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: So peer groups is sort of like mentorship, but more as a collective.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: I'm finding four to five other people that are in a similar business to mine.
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be the same industry, but the closer it can be to your industry,
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: the better, because it can be more relevant.
[16:57] SPEAKER_00: And we all meet twice a year.
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: In fact, in two days from now, I'm going to fly to Florida,
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: because I'm being with my peer group that I'm in.
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: And we meet twice a year, and we're just sitting down.
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: We're going to say all of our wins and losses of the year,
[17:07] SPEAKER_00: then we're going to spill all the secrets that have worked for us.
[17:10] SPEAKER_00: And because we're not in each other's competing areas,
[17:13] SPEAKER_00: we have nothing to do but gain from these kind of conversations.
[17:15] SPEAKER_00: And we all meet each other's games.
[17:17] SPEAKER_00: And you are that average of the five.
[17:19] SPEAKER_00: You'll be hanging around.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: Those people, they all have larger businesses than I do.
[17:22] SPEAKER_00: So I take away so much of those conversations,
[17:24] SPEAKER_00: and I give as much as I can to them as well.
[17:27] SPEAKER_01: Canada's podcast is your gateway to success in the world of entrepreneurship.
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[17:36] SPEAKER_01: Excellent. Right?
[17:38] SPEAKER_02: Now James, obviously you're quite busy with the business.
[17:41] SPEAKER_02: And you're also quite busy with family like the three young kids.
[17:45] SPEAKER_02: What do you do like personally to relax and maybe just chill out?
[17:52] SPEAKER_00: Well, exercise is very important for me.
[17:55] SPEAKER_00: I am I try to go to the gym out of four times a week.
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: I enjoy playing golf in the spring and summer when I have time.
[18:01] SPEAKER_00: Because I've done kids in a business,
[18:02] SPEAKER_00: the only time that works is going at the cracket dawn.
[18:04] SPEAKER_00: So those six AMT times are definitely hit up on my self a lot of the time.
[18:09] SPEAKER_00: I'm excited because I call for the fantastic game.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: I'm also a man of faith.
[18:14] SPEAKER_00: I really find a lot of graces and my anxiety is relieved by the fact that I believe in God.
[18:19] SPEAKER_00: And I believe that we are building a kingdom on earth.
[18:22] SPEAKER_00: So like putting my faith in God,
[18:24] SPEAKER_00: like that saying that people say often is very true where I pray like everything depends on God.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: But I work like everything depends on me.
[18:31] SPEAKER_00: That's very important that takes away so much anxiety from me.
[18:34] SPEAKER_00: I just know that at the end of the day,
[18:36] SPEAKER_00: everything we're doing right now on earth,
[18:38] SPEAKER_00: it doesn't really matter as long as we have our counting straight with the boss upstairs.
[18:44] SPEAKER_00: I think that's important.
[18:45] SPEAKER_00: But spending time with my wife and kids,
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: I try to be home as much as I can.
[18:50] SPEAKER_00: And I think I do have a pretty relaxed schedule like,
[18:52] SPEAKER_00: yes, there's a time to work.
[18:53] SPEAKER_00: But like, for example, we don't do snow removal.
[18:56] SPEAKER_00: It's the winter time right now.
[18:57] SPEAKER_00: And I'm spending as much time as I can with my kids.
[18:59] SPEAKER_00: Because I know sometimes in the spring and summer,
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: I don't get to spend as much time with them.
[19:02] SPEAKER_00: But being home, being present,
[19:04] SPEAKER_00: I think it's so important with them.
[19:05] SPEAKER_00: So just being with my wife and kids,
[19:06] SPEAKER_00: I find it extremely relaxing too.
[19:08] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[19:09] SPEAKER_02: I think it's just something that crossed my mind,
[19:12] SPEAKER_02: considering when we're taping this show,
[19:15] SPEAKER_02: where it would minus 30 outside and there's snow, etc.
[19:19] SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of those lawn care businesses have the winter business, right?
[19:24] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[19:24] SPEAKER_02: They do that.
[19:25] SPEAKER_02: You've never done that.
[19:27] SPEAKER_02: You don't want to do that.
[19:28] SPEAKER_00: I did do it actually.
[19:30] SPEAKER_00: So when you first two years,
[19:31] SPEAKER_00: we are doing a ton of commercial snow removal.
[19:33] SPEAKER_00: But it is a completely different business Mario.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: And you have to think of it this way.
[19:38] SPEAKER_00: I mentioned before, you have to go in all on a niche.
[19:41] SPEAKER_00: The riches are in the niches.
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: It's a good saying.
[19:43] SPEAKER_00: But you need to focus all in one thing.
[19:45] SPEAKER_00: So we just focus on lawn care in those spring, summer fall months.
[19:49] SPEAKER_00: And in the winter, we're taking time to relax, be with our family,
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: and plan next season.
[19:54] SPEAKER_00: Because you need it.
[19:55] SPEAKER_00: You don't want to burn out.
[19:56] SPEAKER_00: If you have to be very careful, the burn out is a very real thing.
[19:58] SPEAKER_00: Now we used to do snow removal.
[20:00] SPEAKER_00: And we always promise ourselves,
[20:01] SPEAKER_00: we'll do snow removal for as long as we can and can till we can afford not to.
[20:05] SPEAKER_00: And one of my mentors taught me like,
[20:07] SPEAKER_00: snow removal is a distraction for your business.
[20:09] SPEAKER_00: And I was so weird.
[20:10] SPEAKER_00: But Jim, like, snow removal brought over $300,000 to your to our business.
[20:14] SPEAKER_00: And revenue, like, what do you mean it's distraction?
[20:15] SPEAKER_00: He's like, I bet you if you give up snow and you focus on just making your lawn care services more profitable
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: and how to acquire more clients and stuff,
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: you'll make more than double that in the first year you focus on that.
[20:25] SPEAKER_00: And that happens.
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: So it was a distraction.
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: So now we can focus on making next year better for lawn care.
[20:32] SPEAKER_00: Let's upgrade our routes.
[20:33] SPEAKER_00: Let's make sure that we have a truck in a community for longer.
[20:36] SPEAKER_00: We have more route density.
[20:37] SPEAKER_00: Let's get let's upgrade the fertilizer program.
[20:39] SPEAKER_00: Let's research the best we control.
[20:41] SPEAKER_00: Let's increase our safety practices.
[20:43] SPEAKER_00: Let's focus on getting our marketing costs down.
[20:46] SPEAKER_00: All those things are things that have to happen.
[20:48] SPEAKER_00: And it's the by the time spring comes around,
[20:51] SPEAKER_00: it's too late to make those decisions.
[20:52] SPEAKER_00: So those things have to happen now.
[20:54] SPEAKER_00: And like I said before, now is a great time to spend a lot of time with your family.
[20:57] SPEAKER_00: And make sure that you know, the reason why you're working so hard building business is probably for them.
[21:02] SPEAKER_00: It'd be shame if you never saw your family.
[21:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's true.
[21:05] SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks very much James for joining us today.
[21:08] SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was my pleasure.
[21:10] SPEAKER_00: I can't believe it's already been as long as it has.
[21:11] SPEAKER_00: It felt like it's been three minutes.
[21:14] SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
[21:15] SPEAKER_02: Okay, that was James Soika, who is founder of yard dogs lawn care in Calgary.
[21:21] SPEAKER_02: I'm Mario Toniguchi, managing editor of Canada's podcast.
[21:24] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today.
