Millionaire University

Off-Season Cures, Performance Incentives, and More: Growth Strategy for Home Services | Mike Andes

Jan 28, 2026
Mike Andes, founder of Augusta Lawn Care and coach for home-service firms, scaled a lawn-care franchise to 200+ locations. He discusses off-season cures like winter services and inverse-demand add-ons. He explains pay-for-performance compensation, open-book management with profit sharing, and a copy-and-paste growth approach that favors profitability, pricing power, and capacity limits over endless expansion.
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ANECDOTE

From Mowing At 11 To Franchising 200+

  • Mike Andes started mowing at 11, entered college at 13, and dropped out of medical school at 18 to run lawn care.
  • He used an MBA to systemize his struggling location and later franchised to 200+ locations.
ADVICE

Pay Technicians For Performance Properly

  • Implement pay‑for‑performance by giving technicians a percentage of labor revenue and the higher of that or a base hourly rate.
  • Track hours, respect overtime law, and use software to fairly allocate bonuses across multi-person jobs.
ADVICE

Make Mistakes Costly With Yellow Slips

  • Use 'yellow slips' to force callbacks and attach a real time cost to mistakes so technicians fix issues rather than rush.
  • Make callbacks visible in team meetings to teach prevention and shift techs to owner-style thinking.
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