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The Wash Bros Podcast
Join The Wash Bros, Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, as they talk friendship, business, and how working together as owner/operators of competing businesses has helped them achieve even greater success.
The Wash Bros Podcast
Season 2: Episode 3: Finding Balance: Preventing Burnout and Achieving Sustainable Success in Business Ownership
Have you ever pushed yourself to the brink of burnout chasing financial success? We share candid stories from our entrepreneurial journey when the relentless pursuit of growth overshadowed the importance of self-care. Listen as we unpack strategies to reclaim balance, set boundaries, and utilize tools like the "Do Not Disturb" feature to fend off the constant bombardment of notifications. This episode promises insights into the real costs of glorifying overwork and offers practical advice on safeguarding your mental and physical well-being amidst the chaos of peak season.
Navigating business ownership can be a minefield of stress and setbacks, but with a supportive partner and clear personal goals, you can avoid common pitfalls like burnout and strained relationships. We discuss the dangers of unhealthy comparisons and the power of defining a path that aligns with your unique aspirations. You'll hear about our own experiences with managing expectations and the critical role of self-care and community support in achieving both personal and professional success.
Our conversation extends to the world of pressure washing, highlighting the importance of understanding business trends and planning for sustainable success. We explore the art of balancing work and family life, offering perspectives on setting a lasting example for future generations. With the launch of the Wash Bros Group, a new online community for pressure washers, we invite you to join us in fostering industry connections and sharing insights. Whether you're an industry veteran or just starting out, this episode offers valuable strategies to maintain long-term success and well-being.
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Hey, hey, hey. What's up guys? It is Matt Jackson, clay Smith and we are the Washburns. Welcome to episode three of our second season, and for this one, we're going to be talking about balancing our work-life balance with the busy season and how to manage our stress and our emotions during the season, because it's pretty hectic and usually when the season's here, you barely have enough time to breathe. So what we do as individuals to prevent burnout and to stay fresh as we continuously grow our businesses and be consistent. So you ready to kick this one off, clay?
Clay Smith:Let's do it. So the balance in life and work to prevent burnout during peak season very important. A lot of things that people don't really think about, especially starting out, because I know that that's not something I thought about even when I started. I was just focused on the money I need to get the money I want to be a millionaire tomorrow type thing.
Clay Smith:And the biggest thing is we don't realize we need to focus on ourselves more than we do the business. The business is important. Taking care of your family is important, but also you need to make sure you're taking care of yourself in the meantime.
Matt Jackson:Absolutely.
Matt Jackson:Yeah, I started the same way and I started it as a side hustle, so I was kind of used to like, oh, I have to grind myself, I have to grind my way out of my corporate job and then you get used to working two jobs, so it's one of those things you get used to never turn it off and then you're just like push, push, push, but three, four years down the road like if you're continuously doing that you might be starting to experience burnout and you're not putting your best self forward and being there for yourself, your business.
Matt Jackson:But not only those two things, but your family, which is we both have families. We got kid, I have a kid, you have kids, and then we're both married. So it's like you can be on your own Island, hustle, hustle, hustle, 24, seven, like not taking care of yourself, and then your wife is upset, your kids are upset. Uh, that's just added stressors to your life that you don't need. Uh, because it's stressful enough to grow a business, especially businesses that are really hectic like the ones that we're in 100.
Clay Smith:So, like when I was in the sales industry, in the car sales industry, I would work and never, honestly, sometimes not even take a day off. It wasn't physically demanding, but it was mentally demanding. So there comes a time where you got to learn to turn your brains your brain off too, because I mean, like mine, believe it or not, it still goes on if I don't, if I let it. So the biggest thing is put your phone down, turn your phone off, put it on do not disturb. I know that I have the option, I know that you use yours because I see it all the time. But, um, I that's. That's. The biggest key for me is I can never get away from work and when it's time for me to turn work off, I always make sure I use that. That's the best thing that iPhone ever come out with was that do not disturb button. So basically, I will not get anything.
Clay Smith:You know, because a lot of people, if you have the systems in place, like we do, they go to your website, they go on Google, they go wherever and fill out a web, you know a lead on your website and you get those notifications. Well, hell, all you're thinking about is oh crap, I gotta get this job. I gotta get this job, I gotta get this job. You never turn your brain off. All you're thinking about is that you're stuck in your phone and, before you know it, it's 10, 11 o'clock at night. It's time to go to bed exactly.
Matt Jackson:And then you're not able to be fresh for the next day, you're not really able to sleep that good that night, and even if you think, oh, I'm fine, I don't need to do this like every guru talks about, like waking up at 5 am and hustle, hustle, hustle yeah, that's great. But like when you've proved yourself in a business and you're in a stable, stable situation where, like, you're not going to fail at this point, it's's up to you to like, just as we maintain our equipment and our machines, to maintain our bodies and ourself and our mind and our spirit. So it's like I see it a lot on the Facebook groups. Or I see it a lot with guys that I know and they like hit it so hard, so aggressively, and then, five years down the road, they're doing something completely different because they're like, oh man, I just, I just can't do it. Or like I got divorced, or like I got injured or something like that. They're not, they're not really making sure that they're set up for the long run of their own success, whether it be like their mental health or their physical and stuff like that. And then you see, guys too, they'll, they'll wear, like, the lack of mental health as a badge of honor, of like oh, look at me, like I work so hard, like I put myself to the ringer and at the end of the day it's like cool, bro, but like don't kill yourself here.
Matt Jackson:Like, if you want to continuously level up and grow and not hit these barriers that we put on ourselves, you got to really focus on taking care of yourself first and then, like you say clay, put stuff in like we got our uh, like when, when we're getting our leads, we we figure out like how can I give myself time and how can I like schedule out my own time and peace during the day?
Matt Jackson:So I'm not just responding to constant stimulation of like quote requests, customer requests, facebook notification. And I've learned that I had to get a virtual assistant to help delegate stuff. So my phone is routed through like ring central, which is a voice over ip system, so I can, if I want to enter the phone, I can, but if not, my virtual assistant's going to pick it up. And I've also learned to time block stuff where like hey, certain hours I'm going to work and answer my phone and talk to customers, but other hours it's going to go straight to the virtual assistant and if it's necessary I'll hop in and get it. But more times than not I think we hold ourselves to a standard that's not necessary for our business to run smoothly and efficiently, and we almost be like that choke point in our business by trying to do everything ourselves and not having the ability to delegate, which is what I've learned. To make my mental health a priority is to delegate.
Clay Smith:Right, yeah, I mean, and your family sees it, they see you eventually, you know, especially starting out, and that's that's the whole thing with with while we're talking about this, and it may be somebody that's that's four year, four year, five years in they're doing it part-time with a full-time job. This is not something that you think about or see, especially when you get busy and as you continue to grow your business. I think that we, we picked our business up pretty, pretty, uh, pretty fast in the in the four or five years that we've done it, we do a lot of volume. So obviously that's a lot of work, a lot of moving pieces, a lot of things you're thinking about and it's very important.
Clay Smith:Like I know, a lot of people mentally just can't do it. Eventually, when you get the stage that we're at, you just can't do it. And luckily I had the experience with dealing with a high volume type demanding job before this and it grew me to do this and it's really nothing. It's just the fact of I'm spending more time with my family. But now I have to learn to. When I'm at home, when I have my free time to catch up on them office things, I have to kind of delegate what when I'm doing it, because if I'm always working, then what good is it?
Clay Smith:You know we all go out and we're self-employed for a reason. We have businesses. For a reason we go out and we don't work for Uncle Sam anymore. For that reason. You know we don't work for your regular job. We don't have a regular job. We do this for a little bit of freedom and a lot of guys quit their regular jobs for the freedom. But you never get the freedom and then they can't figure out how to get away from being stuck in it all the time, so they just go back to regular jobs. So I think it's very important. You gotta. You gotta know when to put your work aside from the family, because the family I mean it takes a mental toll on you and then your family has to deal with the consequences of it.
Matt Jackson:Exactly If you're like a small business owner, you're literally like married to your business, so it's your wife's like, you're married to me, we have a family together, but you're also married and have a family with your business. So it's important that you're not prioritizing that business in the eyes of your family and your wife, where she's going to get resentful, or you're just going to run into issues where, like, you're both on the same page because, like in the beginning, the first couple of years is like, oh yeah, I'm so excited, proud of you, babe, like you're killing it, I'm proud of you. But what are you going to do, like four years in, when you're you've got a multiple six figure business and she's like well, is this going to be the new normal? And like I think it's all. Like I'm just prioritizing phone calls, I'm prioritizing the business, I'm prioritizing work, and then you're going to hit that limit and you're either going to not accept, like, okay, I have to figure out how to delegate things and I have to figure out how to like keep my life in check and prioritize my mental health and my like emotional health, or I'll never get past this point.
Matt Jackson:And then to me that was kind of a hard, like a hard pill to swallow, because, like you and I are both the same. We like the OCD, like, hey, we, we wanted to run this way. Nobody's going to run as good as us. But then you hit that threshold and I think this year you're going to find out that threshold where you're just so slammed that you're like I, I have to like, allow people to come in and have another truck on the road all the time and then have somebody help me with the phones and stuff like that. Otherwise there's a limited time of day and you don't want to sacrifice yourself above everything else. And then it reflects in your job and then you burn yourself out and your business is burning itself down and it's doing nobody any good.
Clay Smith:Yeah, that burnout comes quick. I think I went 20 something days last year without even taking a day off and I just I literally was working and I was so burnt out. I called my wife, said hey, I'm booking a cruise I'll let you know what date it is.
Clay Smith:and we ended up going on a cruise a few days because I just had to separate myself from the everything going on. I had to get away for just a few days. That's all I needed so I could reset my mind, and that that I mean it's real. Um, especially when you're overwhelmed work's coming in, the phone calls are nonstop, the quotes are nonstop. You're watching the house. You're getting phone calls left and right. They don't stop. You're having to enter in all their information, cause if you don't, you're going to forget about it. You're going to have to remember to do those quotes.
Clay Smith:When you get a minute and definitely got to take care of yourself, Burnout comes quick. You definitely don't want to get to where you hate it, because then you're not going to do good quality work for your customers and then you're just I mean, you're not doing any good for yourself at all whatsoever. Eventually it's going to all catch up to you.
Matt Jackson:Exactly. And everybody starts out like doughy-eyed, like I have this dream. I have like an entrepreneur, I'm doing my own business. This is freedom, this is like I can control and do what I want to do. And if you don't allow yourself to like, prioritize yourself first, you're not going to have any control or freedom and it's going to be way more of a prison that you built for yourself than just working in a nine-to-five job where, yeah, your boss may suck, but for 40 hours a week you just have to tolerate for that. You're not having to to carry it for your entire like waking hours, pretty much, and then go home and think about it, and then your wife's not able to spend time with you and your kids aren't there. So, like you hit a point.
Matt Jackson:I think too, like where you're making enough, where you're like, okay, I'm comfortable at this level, I'm not going to kill myself like crossing this line, because you could just pour all the money in the world into Google ads or social media ads and just crank it up and say I'm going to just obliterate it this year, but what's the cost of that? You don't want to say, oh, I made so much money but I had a nervous breakdown or I ran into health issues or you could get divorced. It's funny I my previous life I actually I was married, not for very long, but I got divorced, and a lot of that was due to me being focused so much on growing my business, whereas, like I was prioritizing my business over everything. So, going forward, like my life now, I've always like created a boundary there because I say, okay, know what that relationship wasn't supposed to work out.
Matt Jackson:However, going forward, I won't allow that to be a chance in this one and this is a very real thing. Like you see, guys in the industry, they'll post something and they're like I'm killing it hustle, hustle, hustle my business and then all of a sudden, it's like feel sorry for me, I got divorced. Well, what did you do to allow yourself to be in a position to get divorced?
Clay Smith:Yeah, I think it's very important If you're married, if you're in that engagement stage, if you're in the pre-engagement stage. You just need to lay it all out there and make sure that you guys both have an understanding of what's going on and what you both think is important, because you definitely got to be on the same page If it wasn't for my wife I mean, there's no telling what all I'd have been through and you know where I'd be right now but she definitely has helped me out a lot. She's not very business savvy, but you know what I mean. She's a good support system and that's something I believe that anybody needs, especially with high stress, strong top business type thing. I don't care who you are, it's stressful being a business owner. There's always going to be something. When it's good, it's great, but when it's bad, it's terrible.
Matt Jackson:Very much so. Yeah, and that's true. It's like just because they don't have that like business acumen doesn't mean they're not a valuable resource to have in your corner. If anything, it's probably good because you're not like talking business with them all the time, like you can turn your brain off and be present and be like in a completely different emotion than say, oh, let's talk about business when we're together.
Clay Smith:Oh yeah, it's awesome. I mean, everybody's got that same story. They had a regular job, they were broke and they had a dream and they started a business and then they had a success, and I think that's what I see. A lot of the repetitive type stuff on the other podcast is, and we're all about the same. You know, it's all about how much effort you want to put into it, how much you want to build and how much you want to grow and what your goals are grow and what your goals are Like. I want to be retired when I'm 40 years old, so I got some work to do, but that's a goal that I have, you know. So it's all about how hard you want to work and what your goals are in life.
Matt Jackson:Exactly. And and that's why, like, if you're just blindly following people on social media or in different businesses, whether it's like hey, this is the guy down the street, like everybody has a different goal, so you shouldn't be like, oh, I, I feel less because I'm not doing what that guy's doing, you're not seeing what's going on, like in between his ears, whether it's like mental health or like what's his family life like, or like it's just, some people are different stages of life. I was a different stage of life when I was like single. Then now, when I'm married and I have a son at home, and it's like not fair for my wife for me to be like on that constant grind where I'm out of the house all the time when she has a job too and we're juggling raising our son. So it's not, I'm not out there.
Matt Jackson:Like pounding my chest saying, oh, I'm going to be like gone 12, 14 hours a day because it would be worse. It would be worse than having a successful business is like hey, not having having, not being the dad to your kid at the end of the day, it's like your, your kid doesn't care if you're doing those extra jobs, he's more just trying to spend time with you and your wife. You don't want your wife to leave you for the amazon guy yeah, right, because the amazon guy comes to my house way too many times yeah, the kid and the kids they notice it too.
Clay Smith:Man, they notice it especially. You know, mine are eight, eight and five now. They'll be nine and six this year, so they definitely notice it. They know that I'm all about pressure washing. They see, they notice what you're doing, how you're doing it, the things you're saying, um, and they know what's important. You know, when they're older they'll understand a little more, but um definitely want to make an impact on them while they're kids, because that childhood man I remember a lot of a lot of the main stuff when I was a kid and what my parents went through as business owners themselves.
Matt Jackson:So I think that's cool. Like you're. You say like your parents were business owners before and then you can be the same version, pretty much, to your own kids and like, lead them with, like the lessons that you've learned from them slash like how you've grown and what you know now, so like you're putting your kids on a pedestal even greater than what you had.
Clay Smith:It's like third generation right there well, it's like uh, my oldest came home with his report card the other day he had a's and b's he had one b, which was math. I'm not even if he had an f, I wouldn't even be mad at that, because I sucked at math. But anyway, he had a, b in math and he had like a 98 and three of his scores were perfect hundreds. So I feel like if you set those expectations when they're young, all you're doing is setting them up for success.
Matt Jackson:Exactly.
Clay Smith:Yeah, way to go, son. I could never do that Right.
Matt Jackson:Yeah, I mean and that's true that they see that you're pushing and driving and successful and that's a value that's important to you, like hard work. They're going to want to like, hey, that's, that's my dad's my hero. I want to do what he does because he's my hero. So you're setting that good example and by being a business owner, like you said, yeah, you're working a lot of hours, but we're able to be at home with our families more than hey. I'm working a lot of hours in a desk in an office somewhere where my kids can't see it.
Clay Smith:Oh, the desk in the office sucks too, man. Hey, I tell you, the first year in pressure washing, after sitting at a desk for five, six, seven years, I was just like I was so exhausted, my body was so sore and, believe it or not, I mean you would think, going from a regular job to doing this, I was, uh, would be a little more stressed out, but it was actually less stress. I was more stressed at my regular job than I was on in the business. So, uh, actually I went from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day to nothing. So, uh, but very slowly about the second year in business I finally got to quit. But uh, definitely, you know, when you start getting out there, spending more time with your family and have the freedom, you start thinking about stuff and your physical health, your mental health and stuff like that. So, and I put on a little weight since then, since I quit smoking.
Matt Jackson:So well, you're the daddy, so you got to be a little thick I know that's right yeah, I'm still small though, but uh, my wife gives me hell about it.
Clay Smith:But anyway, yeah, the, the preventing burnout man, I think I mean all of it's important, but the burnout, the burnout, I think, is the most important, just because if you burn out, you're done like it once. It's caught up to you. It's caught up to you I, it's caught up to you. I think there was a day that I actually got dehydrated. It was a few years ago just being stupid, just trying to get work done, not taking care of myself, not taking that 10, 15-minute break to hydrate myself. Now I've gotten to the point where I'll drink one of those big bottles. I'll spend $100, $200 on Pedialyte that every week and just keep myself hydrated, and uh, that's just a little tip tip that I do to stay hydrated when it's a hundred degrees outside. I'll drink one with ice at night and then I'll take one with me during the day and, uh, I don't even feel the heat.
Matt Jackson:Heck, yeah, that's. I mean that's it's important because I mean I I had health issues this past year that like almost killed me. So it's important to uh, take care of yourself. And it's like it's like a man a healthy man has like a million wishes, but a sick man only has one. It's like to to get healthy.
Matt Jackson:So, whether that's a physical illness or a mental illness, a lot of guys like you like we suffer like on this self-imposed stress for no reason at all and it's like why are we setting these huge expectations on ourselves and over our heads?
Matt Jackson:And it's like kind of a silent battle that affects a lot of us men and I feel like in the business owner community it's really prevalent because it's like, oh, I'm going to do this, this is going to be like I'm forging my own path here, but we isolate ourselves and then we get stuck in our own head and then, like before you know it, you're like I'm I'm getting to the stage of burnout or I'm drinking too much alcohol to calm down at night and stuff like that.
Matt Jackson:So like how you say you like you you'll hit these points and then you'll like I'm going to book a cruise and then you'll do like a week cruise in the Caribbean and then you come back super fresh. Meanwhile that guy who didn't take that week off is just kind of dragging his ass to the rest of the season and you're able to hit it really strong. So it's important that you're able to like notice, hey, I'm at that point, like I'm a hustler, I'm. I'm at that point where I could keep pushing, but it's best for me to not to recharge and then to hit it hard again.
Clay Smith:Well, the coolest thing about the longer you're in business, you see the trends of business. You know what's going to be busy, you know what's going to be slow. You know what it's going to be kind of uh, just kind of. You know what I mean. Just kind of right there in the middle, um, where it's kind of chill for a minute and then it'll get back busy again. You just see the trends. You have the data from the past few years that you've been in business. You're actually able to know when you when do things.
Clay Smith:So what I do is I try to plan my year out Like, okay, january, the first three weeks of January, I know there's not going to be shit going on, so I'm going to take a vacation and take it easy and do whatever I need to do. Then there's nothing at all going on, it's crickets. So during the spring, what I'm going to do is I'm going to work my ass off. I'm going to work my ass off. I'm going to put a bunch of money back to get ready for that winter all the way through the year, starting in the spring. You're going to do as much of that as you can during the spring and in the summertime.
Clay Smith:End of May, beginning of June, you're dealing with graduation, so nobody's really thinking about you. So it's going to be kind of chill, still going to be busy, but it's going to be chill. Then June is a pretty good month. July, it's pretty decent. Then at the end of July, everybody's getting ready for school. Beginning of August, everybody's getting ready for school it's chill.
Clay Smith:And then you know just a trend. See, I know it off the top of my head, just because I've been through it, I know what to expect. But the biggest thing is I think that where me and you see the most success is, we focus mainly on pressure washing. Find that one good, good service that you can do, that you can ace, that you're really good at and that you can structurally structure your business. Structurally structure your business where you can structure your business numbers wise to, where you can be successful, where you can make your money and where you can set yourself up for winter. And then, once you've done that, you just do exactly what I told you take the first three weeks of january off and then focus on the spring. Like I said in the last episode, in the spring you're getting ready, you're prepping yourself for the winter and then the winter, you're prepping yourself for the spring.
Matt Jackson:So if you could do both of those and figure out how you can do both of those successfully, you're gonna have a successful business, and that's my secret formula exactly and and just by knowing that and knowing, hey, look, I don't have to like run around like a chicken with my head cut off to try to make money or I'm not gonna make it. Like it's just having a plan and by having a plan you're not just relying on like that hustle and grind. And then that's when we get in our heads and it's funny, funny, like cause you see pressure washing, everybody jumps into pressure washing, cause it's like a oh, how to make six figures and get out of your, your day job type of thing. Everybody views it as like such a get rich quick scheme. But they don't understand that once you're in it, what do you, what's, what are you going to do? Like, how you got to zero to a hundred thousand dollars a year is a completely different muscle than how you're going to take yourself from $100,000 to $300,000 or $400,000 or $500,000 plus.
Matt Jackson:You can't just view it like oh, I'm just going to outwork the guy next to me. You got to say, okay, how do I take care of myself? How do I know when's the busy season? So I know where and when to push really hard. And then I need to know when I can plan my break so that three years into the business you're not. Oh, I hung it up because I can't do it. And that's the failure I see in pressure washing businesses isn't to make a hundred thousand dollars a year, it's to be in it past three to five years, like you. Look at the failure rates of these businesses and they're huge because people don't plan the seasons, they don't plan for breaks, they don't take care of themselves, they're kind of just going blindly into it. They're saying I can make so much money in a month during the busy season and then they go back to like stress and starve and the ups and downs without having a proper plan in place.
Matt Jackson:And once you get one or two seasons down, you kind of figure it out. So it's like having having a fair uh to yourself like goal and just go about it every year and not try to kill yourself and do too much in one year.
Clay Smith:Well, I think a lot of guys with regular jobs and I'm guilty of it because when I first started I was the same way, but I could literally do two or three jobs and make what I was making at my regular job. So I think that's what draws in a lot of people and what really lures them in to starting their own business. But as I sit back and I think about, when I started my business, it was really just all people that I knew. It was all people you know, kind of like a word of mouth type thing. But eventually you run out of everybody that you know like you, and then that's another kind of stress.
Clay Smith:Now you're like oh shit, I've done, quit my job, I've done everything that I need to do and I don't have any work coming in. Like what am I going to do? So then you have to find ways. Okay, do I need to spend all my money that I have a little bit saved up to advertise? And then you have to find ways. Okay, do I need to spend all my money that I have a little bit saved up to advertise? And then you don't even know if your advertisements are going to even be structured properly to convert, you know, to get more customers and bring them in. So then you've got to pay somebody to set your ads up. You've got to pay somebody to help you with your marketing, to give you the knowledge.
Clay Smith:It's not easy, it's really not easy, and I think that's why we see a lot of people come and go in this business. But and I think that what a lot of people need to understand, especially for anybody new that's listening is you need to probably make at least triple your income, starting out weekly, to be successful. Doing this. So could structure, structure, a number, game out, um, to where you can afford the, the proper marketing and the things to do to, to get to like we're kind of like where me and Matt are at then, uh, it's, it's definitely easy to be successful. Now, it's not easy, it's not perfect. There's no blueprint. You just kind of got to take the kind of take the knowledge that, uh, we've given you or wherever else you're getting knowledge, and kind of put it in your own spin. And that's where I see a lot of people fail is they try to follow these blueprints and they don't work in certain areas, like every market's different.
Matt Jackson:That's a very good point. You'll look at guys who maybe they're in Canada, where stuff's more expensive, or they're in California, or they're in New Jersey, new York, and they're like oh, I charge 20 cents a square, 30 cents a square for soft washing, and in our market you're at like 10 to 15 cents a square. So, like, if you're trying to copy numbers of people who are in these places that aren't your local market, you're probably setting yourself up for unnecessary stress and failure. And, like you say, we always like under, like we're setting our goals. Oh, I need to make a hundred thousand a year. Well, if you're making a hundred thousand in revenue, you probably should still do this part-time because that's going to give you maybe an extra like 40 or $50,000 left over If you're doing all the work yourself and you're pretty lean on marketing and all that stuff. So people run into issues because they look at that revenue number and they're not realizing well, this is what it's actually costing me. This is what I'm truly taking home.
Clay Smith:At the end of the day, you're probably making 30 grand on a hundred.
Matt Jackson:Yeah.
Clay Smith:Yeah, I mean that's. That may be a low number, but starting out because you have to. Literally everything you make you have to put back in your company.
Matt Jackson:Start now Exactly yeah, I mean you got, you gotta buy your trucks, you gotta buy all that you gotta. And then, if you're not starting out with fancy equipment, just think about like how it was when you had your four gallon a minute compared to where you got your skid. Now it's like yeah, you can bang out, work with a four gallon, but it's nine day from where you're at now.
Clay Smith:Yeah, I mean we went from what a $600, $700 machine to a $30,000 rig set up, you know. But I mean we got other stuff, but just very important, balancing life and work and preventing burnout during peak season. I mean that's just something I think was great to go over. It's something that you just it just doesn't cross your mind because you're so busy trying to figure out how you're going to get work, how you're going to get these customers rolling in, and then, year after year, it does get easier, but you got to. I think you got to get over that two or three year mark.
Clay Smith:I think those are the toughest, especially just trying to grow and create value in your company. You know, create value for your brand. You know the google reviews I cannot stress, stress enough how important those are because I would say, 85 of my customers come from google. So, and that's just having a a very strong google profile. As you know, me and you both, we do have those. We're about to hit 300 reviews. I think you're pushing 500 reviews. So, uh, and that also helps with seo, because google all they're doing is looking for the most active profile yep, yeah.
Matt Jackson:And then, yeah, like regular postings on google my business with the relevant keywords and locations. So you post a picture saying hey, uh, here's a, here's a commercial pressure washing job. I did say like commercial pressure washing in sim, did say like commercial pressure washing in simpsonville, something like that. You, you want, you want to find like these search keywords that people are going to use. And uh, same thing with website pages. Like if you have a website page you're like pressure washing in simpsonville that's going to rank, and then you have a blog that ties to that website and then google is just saying oh, and then you post to your page with pictures and you google my business saying like pressure washing Simpsonville, they're going to make a lot of connections there and you're going to have good SEO.
Clay Smith:Yeah, the SEO is very important.
Matt Jackson:And, too, that comes with time, like we're saying, and then your cost per customer acquisition is lower because you got a lot more organic stuff flowing.
Clay Smith:Yeah, those are more for advanced, more people. Uh, if you're new or listening to this, you'll eventually learn about all that. But if you haven't yet, go ahead, set up that google my business, set it up properly, don't cut any corners on it and take it very serious, because in the, in the long game, it's very important.
Matt Jackson:Yep yeah, that, and all your directories, like yelp, all those set up, set up um, your like name, your address and your contact. If that all lines up, those are good things to help keep your, your uh, google, my business map pack good. I I'm running into issues of trying to rebuild my map pack because I had my profile unfortunately removed for like a month last year and then so when I recreated it, it wasn't under my personal address, it was now under like a month last year and then so when I recreated it, it wasn't under my personal address, it was now under like a generic, like service area, so it's like going back yeah, it's not as terrible starting over, but I went from ranking fairly well in the maps to like not really ranking, so it just takes time.
Matt Jackson:But I don't know if any any of you guys on on here ran into issues with getting your business profile on Google suspended. But it's kind of a bitch in itself and you just have to keep reaching out to Google and hopefully allow them to restore it. But the issue I ran into was because I used my personal address and and google said, since it wasn't a business place where customers went, I couldn't have that. I had to have a service address. So that was kind of the bullshit reason they had to suspend my account.
Matt Jackson:So all the fun things yeah, but that's kind of one of those dickhead things that somebody can do if you're not running it correctly.
Matt Jackson:But like clay and I say, sometimes stuff happens and we like I wonder if that was a malicious act or that wasn't a malicious act it definitely makes you wonder it was funny too, because I was thinking I was looking at your website to try to get an idea for like, uh, like adding pages of stuff like that on my website, because I saw you recently added like a roof washing service on your website and uh, I was like I typed in c3washprocom and it didn't come up to any website and I said, oh, I forgot the s. But uh, a dickhead move could be to buy c3washprocom for like seven dollars a month and redirect that to matt the driveway guy.
Clay Smith:hey you could do it.
Matt Jackson:I know, I'm just saying it's like, oh, that's something, that's something that would be funny.
Clay Smith:But that I mean, that's something, that, that that you can do to your advantage.
Matt Jackson:It's just things that like you got to view it Like what was somebody, what could somebody possibly do so I can protect myself in situations Cause, like we both know that like people can be shitty, like like myself. In situations. Cause, like we both know that like people can be shitty, like like people get weird and they get stressed out. It's like, hey, if they don't have good peace in their life and they're not confident confident in themselves they look at somebody who's successful and they try to tear them down as opposed to being like that guy's doing his own thing.
Clay Smith:Respect A hundred percent. So you got to figure out how to get funnel people to you.
Matt Jackson:Yep, yep. And then, once you're funneled full of people, you got to figure out how to find peace and not kill yourself by like, like, facilitating all that work, whether you got employees that you're sending out like. My stress now isn't am I going to get burnt out this year. My stress is like am I going to have the right employees in place to be able to like facilitate work? And then am I going to have enough jobs coming in so I can put the employees with enough work? So it's kind of like a different level of stress but, and then how to minimize heat cases Exactly?
Matt Jackson:Yeah, and then hey, when, when stuff happens cause when you got employees, stuff happens you say all right, well, when do I cut this guy and how much reputational damage is he going to do to me?
Clay Smith:100. That's what I've been struggling with myself, so yeah but yeah, I mean, it's one of those things.
Matt Jackson:Everybody's got their own way of doing it. I've I've kind of ripped off a band-aid to scale and it cost me some money and I ran into some cash flow issues that I'm catching up now. So it's like, hey, you could be like, oh, look at this guy, he doubled his business. I was like, yeah, but it costs money to double business. And then there's also things that are unnecessary stressors. So if you want to be like lean, mean and be like I got a ton of cash in the bank, or you want to be like I'm going to rip off a band-aid and scale quickly and not have a lot of cash in the bank, what stress do you want?
Clay Smith:Either way, it's going to be stress.
Matt Jackson:Exactly. But I guess that's the beauty of business, as long as you pick out your stress and you can dictate hey, this is my terms, I'm picking this out, this is what I'm going to do. That's where you're winning.
Clay Smith:Definitely art itself.
Matt Jackson:Yes, but you got anything you want to add. We're about 33 minutes.
Clay Smith:Yeah, I don't think I have anything. I appreciate everybody following us, listening, downloading our podcast episodes. Definitely want to keep pushing these out. Appreciate everybody. If you have any questions, anything of that nature, please be sure to comment and we'll be sure to answer anything that you may have. So just keep following along. We're going to keep giving great advice and try to set you guys up for success.
Matt Jackson:Yep and check out the group we just made, the Wash Bros group. This is going to be something. That way we can interact with everybody, and what I like to do is just kind of, when we're in the field, post about hey, this is a job we're doing, like information, and just share and introduce yourselves. There's so many groups on facebook with pressure washers in it, so like, if you guys want to be part of the wash bros group, make sure to give us a join and follow, and we'll appreciate that. So, but yeah, if that's everything, I guess we can kick this off and I'll uh, go through the, uh, the outro and then we'll see you guys next week.
Clay Smith:We'll see you in the next one.
Matt Jackson:Sweet, appreciate it.
