Hey guys, good morning Jack Jostes here. It's a rainy day, I think it's Thursday, kind of lost track of what day it is, but I feel really grateful, I ate some bacon today, I'm drinking coffee. I'm going on a walk and, I've got three tips for you, if you run a lawn and landscape company, to get through this weird coronavirus. It is certainly a weird time. And, hey, I'm shooting this video right now. I'm out on my morning walk and it is raining... Which is unreal. It's really a beautiful thing because we've been in a drought here in Colorado for about 10 years, but look, there's hardly even any leaves on the trees here. Everything's Brown. It is going to green up, spring is here, it's happening, coronavirus or not. And so if you're open, if you are still able to work, you've got to let your clients know that.

So that's the first thing is to communicate with your clients that you're open. You should call them on the phone, text them, email them. For our clients at Ramblin Jackson, we're putting a pop up on our client's websites. So when people get there, we've got a little thing on the website saying "Yes, we're open." So that's the first thing is if you're open, you got to let people know because a lot of people are at home spending more time than ever on the internet and realizing that their yard is going to be overgrown. They need spring cleanups. I had my Landscape Executive Mastermind this week, and all around the country, my clients are killing it. Honestly, people are still buying landscaping and I hope that that continues, power through work, power through this.

The second thing you're going to want to do is start accepting payments over the phone or getting paid online. If you haven't set this up, now is the time, whether it's service autopilot, or QuickBooks online is what I use at Ramblin Jackson, and being able to accept payments over the phone and letting your clients know that, hey, you can sell to them over the phone. You can scope out their landscape without even visiting them in person. It will put them at ease and then to make it really easy to get paid over the phone, accepting credit cards or ACH or whatever payment method you're doing, is critical. I know way too many contractors that are still mailing print invoices. Mailing a check is very labor intensive for your client. Collect payments over the phone or on the internet and you'll get paid faster. It'll improve your cashflow.

The third thing is that you're going to need to start learning to make video. I'm straight up making this video on my iPhone without any microphone or anything else extra for a couple of reasons. One, it's easy. You all have a smartphone, you just got to get out there and start making it. And there's also a real increase in need for video conferencing. You can use this to sell to clients, show them the proposal over your computer, scheduling an appointment with them. People are online at home and they would welcome a video meeting with you. You can also lead a team meeting virtually without having people coming into your office.

But keep that sense of community, keep rapport, keep your management up. And then also one to one videos. I use soapbox here at Ramblin Jackson and a lot of people ask me, you know, what hardware do I use? What software do I use? How do I make videos, how do I write them? And I'm going to be putting together a live training and a recording of it, about how to sell landscaping services using video. And if you want that recording, just send me an email to jack@ramblinjackson.com

It's going to be a free training. I'm just trying to help you guys get through this. And video is something that I've been doing for 10 years. I've run a mostly virtual company. I feel really blessed that right now we're able to keep working pretty much without interruption because we're already set up to run our company remotely and I want to share with you the things that I've learned and that we're doing because I believe they can help you lead your team and close more sales during the super weird time. 

I hope you and your family are safe. Stay strong, stay healthy, and keep selling. Thank you.