Under the Hood - ProLawns Matt

06/08/2026

What would you have done?

Today was our first service with a new account. We notified him we were coming. We asked for specific property notes prior to our visit.

The client blocked in our guy. Yelled at him. Cussed at him.

We dropped the client before the end of the day. We even gave him his first service today for free just to close the ticket. No drama wanted. 1,400 clients and 6 awesome technicians means we don't deal with bad clients.

If you block in my team, you lose your slot.

05/15/2026

Boom. Another Quarterly in the books. If you’re not on EOS, your business is flying by the seat of its pants and the only thing holding it above water is the owner’s will and owner’s tolerance for pain. It doesn’t have to be that way. We tried “self implementing” for years - leading ourselves. We’re boot-strappers after all. That wasn’t money saved. It was time lost. You can’t captain a ship to port if you’re in the engine room thinking about the propellers.
ProLawns now knows exactly what it needs to do over the next 90 days to get to the next level and we’re all excited to get there. John is the man. He helps us quarterly to determine the exact direction we need to row and what we need to do to get everyone rowing that way.

05/08/2026

I spent a day in the field. I realized my team is fighting processes that don't make sense or even exist yet. My role isn't to do lawn apps; it’s to ensure the crew has zero friction when they do.
One day of observation exposed four days of work trying to implement necessary improvements.
We need to fix the "missing supplies" issue asap. We are refining the "critical steps" in the next few days. We don't hire people to struggle with bad workflows. We hire them to execute professional ones.
1:4 ratio. One day of field work for four days of optimization.

04/28/2026

Update on “don’t put another dollar into it”: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GcmWdiRkx/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The repair bill was higher than the purchase price from five years ago. They advised against fixing it but… Pro-Tech Auto Repair performed miracles. They called it a “resurrection” 😂
Resale value is effectively zero. It wasn’t a smart move vehicle-wise.
However; the cost to source, buy, and outfit another truck today is a 10x multiplier not only on the money but on TIME. We’re already 2 weeks into the season.
If this truck runs for 3 days this summer, the bill is covered. Hopefully it’s a smart business move.
Like a phoenix from the ashes. This thing is resurrected. Also hopefully my frequency of posting is as well.

04/16/2026

04/16/2026

MONDAY WAS EXPENSIVE {Week one of having the whole team back}. I'm catching up with posting. There's been plenty to share but not enough time to keep up.

Monday was the kickoff of taking care of the team...

Meeting 1: AT&T was in getting brand new (top tier) phones for our legacy team, and burner phones for the new guys so communication is not an issue. Awesome customer service from At&T.

Meeting 2: Our Insurance rep Kevin from National Insurance Brokers spoke: "what do you do when"? preventing accidents and injuries. What do you do if there is an accident. What do you do if you're injured on the job. What do you do if you don't know about the situation. Amazing information. Kevin has far exceeded the financial savings he provides us with his guidance and experience. Let me know if you want to talk to Kevin; I'll give you $20 if it end up not being worth your time.

Meeting 3: Benefits. With Aflac Duck and Ryan we're able to be very generous. 60% of healthcare plus an unheard of "deductible buy-down" where ProLawns covers the later 60% of employee deductible. The other one: as long as you're working for ProLawns we pay 100% of a significant life insurance policy. This is a personal prerogative of me, ProLawns owner; Nobody plans for something bad to happen but bad things sometimes happen. Financial burdens in these situations are salt poured into a wound for the people who the victim cares about. They're experiencing enough loss. We are in a position to mitigate against this... so we will. On a lighter note: super valuable and economical eye and dental plans too!

Meeting 4: Moles & Voles! We brought in a company that specializes in an issue that is front of our client's minds this time of year - voles. We got an incredible education from Metro Mole Control on how to be an incredible resource for our clients. What you do for lawn pests is amazing, Rick!

Meeting 5: 2026 Company Outlook and Strategy. You can imagine that if we put half the effort into ProLawns success as we do into employee growth, value and benefits that we have some solid ambition here. More to come...

Meeting 6: 401k Jay! We match significantly for our team's retirement and Jay at Dworsky Wealth Management is our steward. I'm proud to tell all new young people who join us "if you max out your ProLawns match and the stock market stays consistent with the last 150 years, you're a millionaire when you retire. congratulations".

It's worth it and I strive to do more.

04/09/2026

“Don’t put another dollar into it.”
That’s a death sentence from the shop. This rig has 98,000 miles. It is 28 years old. I bought it for $4,000 five years ago. It has made at least 200X its purchase price.
It owes me $0.00.
I am nostalgic for the lean, mean operation it represented. It was the "shoestring growth" phase. It proved you don’t need the $80k truck to succeed. We are moving into newer rigs now but I don’t want to loose site of the scrappy resourcefulness that we used to get to where we’re at. Rest in peace old girl.

04/07/2026

"Get in the truck. Jose' will show you what to do when you get there." Most owners use this method that Tony Bass mocked in the E-Myth Landscape Contractor when they hire someone new. They prioritize immediate labor. Then they complain when turnover hits 50% in July.

We had two new hires start today. 90% of our first day is sitting down. For our onboarding we prioritize culture mesh and operational support. Then after a couple day we start learning about technical concepts. Then we spend a few weeks on practical application. We don't even look at output, efficiency or speed until Month 2.

I’ve been running this system since I had the E-Myth Landscape Contractor on CD - for that long!
10 years later, we're still happily onboarding overhead heavy. It's far easier to dial in speed when quality is cemented as paramount and the new hire feels supported. Just try dialing in quality after speed has been emotionally beaten into a new hire's head from day one.

03/27/2026

Went to an education seminar with a few of the guys to learn more about fertilizer and w**d control from a vendor SiteOne Landscape Supply. It’s easy to brush these things off with the logic that the vendor is just trying to sell you their product and that “I’ve been doing this for over 20 years so what are they gonna teach me?”

I’m always glad that I go. I might know about the Minneapolis market, but these vendors know about the surrounding states and what trends are coming. they know about what products are coming and what patents are expiring. They know about what works for other companies and what doesn’t. Their relationships with the vendors are invaluable, and the education for me and my team is worth even more than that.

03/24/2026

Update: third operation we talked to is making it happen even better than I expected.

Original post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ARVKt5Uss/?mibextid=wwXIfr