Entrepreneurship Lessons | Mike DeJong on Escaping the Operator Trap and Building Business Freedom - Late Night Happy Hour. Episode 478

Hourly vs Commission - How Should Home Service Owners Pay Technicians? - Turf's Up Radio. Episode 481

Hey there, Home Service Heroes! In this episode, we dive into technician pay structures, performance pay, overtime, commissions, and all the fun ways business owners accidentally make payroll more complicated than it needs to be. We talk through hourly pay, production-based pay, job ticket hours, and why the math has to work for both the employee and the business. If you have ever changed a pay plan and immediately thought, “Well, I may have just screwed that up,” this one is for you. We also get into real stories about payroll mistakes, broken commission systems, sales follow-up, AI-built estimating tools, and what happens when employees do not fully trust a new pay structure yet. The big idea is simple: you want to pay your best people well, but the system still has to protect profit, reward production, and stay clear enough for the team to understand. So grab a drink, check your pay structure, and make sure your business is not lighting money on fire.

Scaling Pain | Cole Sickafoose on Growing a Home Service Business - Late Night Happy Hour. Episode 480

Hey there, Home Service Heroes! In this episode, Cole Sickafoose joins us in the bar, and we get into what it really feels like to scale a home service business when the easy problems are already gone. Cole talks through aggressive growth, hiring from competitors, adding new services, running out of cash faster than expected, and learning that every new level of business comes with a brand new set of headaches. We also get into the personal side of growth, from changing goals to marriage, family, hunting trips, and figuring out what freedom actually looks like as the business gets bigger. If you are trying to grow past the owner operator stage, build a stronger team, or decide whether you are in growth mode or profit mode, this one will feel pretty familiar.

Payroll Rules | Home Service Owners Need To Know This - Turf's Up Radio. Episode 479

Hey there, Home Service Heroes! In this episode, we dive into the chaos of running a home service business when life, growth, employees, and payroll rules all hit at once. We talk through office fires, record-breaking weeks, team changes, client transitions, and what it really looks like to keep pushing when business gets messy. If you own a home service company, this one is a good reminder that growth is fun, but it also comes with problems you better be ready to handle. We also get into employee pay rules, overtime, commissions, travel time, on-call hours, and some of the labor law details that can sneak up on contractors. Some of it is simple, some of it is clear as mud, and some of it might make you want to check how your payroll is actually being handled. Grab a cold one and listen in, because this is the kind of stuff home service owners need to understand before it becomes an expensive lesson.

Entrepreneurship Lessons | Mike DeJong on Escaping the Operator Trap and Building Business Freedom - Late Night Happy Hour. Episode 478

Hey there, Home Service Heroes! In this episode, Mike DeJong, the master of the operator to owner transition, joins us in the bar, and we dive into the journey from working in the business to truly owning it. Mike shares how he went from pilot and engineer to franchise owner, and the hard lessons he learned about scaling, delegation, and building systems that actually work. If you've ever felt stuck doing everything yourself, this conversation will hit close to home. We also get into financial literacy for business owners, why SOPs are the foundation of growth, and how to find people who are better than you at key parts of the business. Mike breaks down the mindset shifts that helped him build multiple successful businesses and create a lifestyle centered around freedom and travel. Grab a drink and pull up a barstool because this episode is packed with practical lessons you can use to grow your business without burning yourself out. To know more about what Mike does, visit: https://mikedejong.com/ [https://mikedejong.com/]

Scaling Purgatory | How to Grow a Service Business Without Breaking Your Culture - Turf's Up Radio. Episode 477

Hey there, Home Service Heroes! In this episode, we dive into the highs, lows, and hilarious mishaps from a Boundary Waters adventure while uncovering some powerful lessons about entrepreneurship along the way. From tipped canoes and lost fishing gear to teamwork, resilience, and problem solving under pressure, the stories from the wilderness sound a lot like what happens when you're growing a business. Sometimes the best lessons about leadership come from figuring out what to do when things do not go according to plan. We also get into the realities of scaling a service business, building a leadership team, protecting company culture, and navigating the growth stages that every owner eventually faces. I share a behind the scenes look at our bookkeeping business, the investments we're making in people, and why developing leaders from within is the key to breaking through growth bottlenecks. If you're working through the challenges of growth, hiring, profitability, or creating opportunities for your team, this episode is packed with lessons you can apply right away.