- The four seats: sales, production, office, marketing
- The 10-area scorecard
- Read your P&L like an owner
- Overhead per crew hour
- Sam's story: from cleanups to designed backyards
- Pick your three moves
For landscape & hardscape owners already running crews
Get off the job site. Run the company.
Price it right, sell it with a design, fill the calendar, and run the company without standing on every job. An 8-week live course taught by two owners who do it every day.
Join the interest list
Round 1 starts Tue Dec 1 · enrollment closes Nov 27
8 weeks · Tuesdays 7:00 pm ETDemo Day Jan 19
Chapter 2 · Price for Profit
Markup isn't margin. Drag the numbers.
Most owners say "30%" and mean margin, then price with markup. Set the sliders to your own jobs and see what the gap costs you.
This is lesson 2.3, built on Sam's worked example: $5,400 ÷ 0.70 = $7,714.29, not $5,400 × 1.3 = $7,020.
Cost × 1.30 (markup)$7,020
Cost ÷ 0.70 (true margin)$7,714
Left on the table each year
$17,357
$694 on every job, before anything else goes wrong.
Fix it in Chapter 2
Example math to show the difference. It isn't a forecast of your results.
Who it's for
You already have crews. You're still the bottleneck.
This is for you if
- ✓You run a landscape or hardscape company with crews in the field.
- ✓Pricing lives in your head, so nobody else can quote.
- ✓Estimates and missed calls pile up while you're on a job.
- ✓You want spring booked before the snow melts.
- ✓You want the company to run when you're not on site.
This isn't for you if
- –You want a promise of a number. We don't make income promises.
- –You're looking for install technique videos.
- –You won't put in 3–4 hours a week for 8 weeks.
- –You want results without changing how you work.
The course
10 chapters. 4 phases. Every one ends in real work.
You carry one real job through every chapter, so the price sheet, the design, the job packet and the plan all connect. Tap a chapter to see its lessons.
- Price the man-hour, not the task
- The price formula
- Markup vs margin, with Sam's worked example
- Three ways to price, plus the overage clause
- Raising prices without losing the good clients
- A second opinion on every quote
- Walk the site like an estimator
- Base built for freeze-thaw
- The patio and walkway takeoff
- Retaining walls and steps: where bids go wrong
- Price the unknowns, and when to walk away
- Job teardown: estimate vs actual
- The leak math: what a missed call costs
- The intake that books
- The four-touch quote chase and invoice chase
- Speed: same-day callback, next-day price
- An AI receptionist as the office's backup
- Five automations every crew company should run
- Why a design sells the job before the price
- The site visit and the vision talk
- Building the 3D design: what to show
- Charging for design and crediting it back
- The presentation meeting
- From approved design to price, schedule and crew packet
- The lead ladder: grade sources on booked jobs
- Target the neighborhoods that buy
- Local Services Ads and your Google profile
- Google Search for hardscape
- Meta ads that sell a backyard
- The neighbor play: hangers, signs, flyers
- Audit your agency in 20 minutes
- The job packet
- Pre-job: materials, equipment, crew, load lists
- The install-day standard
- Change orders: crews can't approve, clients sign
- Quality checks, photos, closeout walk
- Capacity: signed designs to a real schedule
- The cash spine: deposits, progress billing, terms
- The 13-week cash view
- Paper that protects: agreements and change orders
- Your season calendar from your own job history
- Winter: sell spring in December
- Rent, buy or wait
- The hiring system: screen, paid working interview, 30-day trial
- Pay ladders and promoting from the crew
- Finding and building a foreman
- The morning huddle
- Keep them through winter: guaranteed hours
- Hard conversations
- Build the machine: the owner's real week
- The one-page weekly numbers
- Apps that run the day: routes, clock-in, the morning board
- Dashboards that show exceptions, not noise
- AI drafts, humans approve
- Sam's step back: from the field to ops
- Your 90-day plan
66 lessonsabout 7 minutes each7.4 hours totalplus Start Here, a template hub and a starter shelf for newer owners
All 10 chapters, live, with your pod.Round 1 starts Tue Dec 1. Enrollment closes Nov 27.
Save my spot on the list
Your first week
A real win in seven days.
Week one makes money from what's already sitting in your inbox: your open quotes. About 30–45 minutes a day. Drag to scroll.
Get your baseline
Watch the welcome, send in your Owner X-Ray and meet your pod of five.
Baseline on fileFind your real rate
Run the Real Rate Calculator with your own payroll and overhead.
Real rate vs what you chargePull the quote pile
List every open quote from the last 90 days. Most owners are surprised by the total.
The quote pileChase every one
Send the four-touch chase to each open quote. The scripts are included.
Quotes chasedReprice one job
Reprice one open quote or your next job with the price formula.
One repriced quoteClose one leak
Make "how did you hear" required, turn on quote follow-ups, or set up missed-call text-back.
One leak closedPost the win
Share what you fixed with your pod. Owners who start fast finish far more often.
A public winStart with your own open quotes.
Join the interest list and you'll get the Real Rate Calculator the day it opens.
Join the interest list →
How the cohort runs
Live every Tuesday. Built around your company.
8
Weekly Build Sessions, Tuesdays 7:00–8:15 pm ET. A founder fixes a real student's numbers live.
4
Office hours: estimating and production with Sam, ads and remote ops with Trent.
5
Owners per pod, matched by size and trade. Never two from the same market.
4
Pieces of your work we review by hand, ending with your 90-day plan at Demo Day.
Ways in
Pick how much help you want.
Round 1 enrollment closes Friday, Nov 27. We open a new round about every 6 months.
Enrollment closes Fri Nov 27, 2026
Free$0Real Rate Calculator + 5-Day Challenge
See your true hourly rate and minimum job. Then join the live Price & Close Challenge, Nov 16–20.
No card neededJoin the listFoundations$497Self-paced · 24 months access
Start Here plus Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8. Worksheets, checks and the week-one sprint.
No live callsJoin the listPick Your Chapters$597+ $297 per extraSelf-paced · 24 months access
Start Here, the template hub and one chapter you choose. Add more any time. Try the builder below.
No live callsJoin the listThe core programBusiness Builder$1,9978-week live cohort + 24 months access
All 10 chapters, weekly Build Sessions, office hours, your pod, our review of your work, and Demo Day.
5 seats already claimedJoin the listElite$$$$by application90 days · priced after your call
A Builder seat plus 6 private calls with us, 2 written reviews of your plans, and weekly questions answered.
1 seat already claimedApply for EliteFounders' Table$$$$$by application3-month intensive · priced after your call
Everything unlocked, weekly 1-on-1s, and 3 systems built with you, like an AI front desk or your ad accounts. Light check-ins through month 6.
1 seat already claimedApply for Founders' TableElite and Founders' Table both start with a short application and a 20-minute fit call with Sam and Trent. We turn people down when it isn't a fit.
Chapter builder
Only need a few chapters? Build your own.
Your first chapter comes with the $597 entry. Each extra chapter is $297. We show the full math up front.
Who teaches it
Two owners. Both still running crews.
We split every lesson by who actually does the work. Field lessons are Sam's. Screen lessons are Trent's. Both of us run every live session.
Sam Kale
- Builds patios, retaining walls and outdoor living spaces.
- Sells every job with a 3D design before the price.
- Teaches estimating, the design close, production and crews.
Trent Lincoln
- Built the AI receptionist, crew apps and dashboards his company runs on.
- Runs his own Google, Local Services and Meta ads.
- Teaches pricing, leads, AI and running crews remotely.
Learn it from two owners who run crews today.Both of us are on every live session.
Join the interest list
Available now
Can't wait for December? Start with our playbooks.
While we build the Academy, you can get the playbooks we've already written. Each one comes from the founder who wrote it.
By Trent Lincoln · Desk
Get Out of the Truck
The home-service playbook: pricing, leads, hiring, and getting the company to run without you. The Complete System adds 60 contracts, forms and worksheets.
$97 Book$147 Complete System
Get the playbook
works The hardscape playbook
By Sam Kale · Dirt
Sam's hardscape playbook
Sam is writing his playbook on estimating hardscape, selling the job with a 3D design, and running install crews. Join the list and you'll hear the day it's out.
Coming soon
Tell me when it's out
Round 1 dates
Done before the spring rush.
Now
Interest list is open
Join the list. Elite and Founders' Table applications are open too.
Nov 16–20
5-Day Challenge
Free and live, 45 minutes each evening. The Real Rate Calculator opens with it.
Nov 20–27
Enrollment open
The interest list hears first.
Tue Dec 1
Week 1 starts
First live Build Session with your pod.
Tue Jan 19
Demo Day
You present your 90-day plan.
Enrollment opens Nov 20.The interest list hears first, before anyone else.
Get on the list
Interest list
Get first word when enrollment opens.
- 01The Real Rate Calculator the day it opens.
- 02Behind-the-scenes notes from Sam's job sites this fall.
- 03Your invite to the free 5-Day Challenge, Nov 16–20.
- 04Enrollment opening before anyone else.
Applying for Elite or Founders' Table?
Pick it in the form and answer a few more questions about your company. Sam and Trent read every application and call the owners who look like a fit. Pricing for those programs is set after that call.
You're in. Watch your inbox.
We'll send your Challenge invite and the Real Rate Calculator before Nov 16.
Questions
Before you join.
No. The course and live sessions are online. Founders' Table members can swap two 1-on-1s for a half-day on site with Sam in northwest Ohio, and pay their own travel.
Plan on 3–4 hours a week for 8 weeks: one 75-minute live session plus your lessons and worksheets. The cohort runs Dec 1 to Jan 19, so you finish well before spring gets busy.
Foundations includes a starter shelf for newer owners. The live cohort works best if you already have at least one crew in the field.
Pods never put two owners from the same market together. Founders' Table members are approved by both of us.
Foundations and single chapters: 14 days. Business Builder: through the end of the week 1 session. Elite and Founders' Table: a full refund until your first private call.
24 months of lesson access from enrollment. Templates you download are yours to keep and use in your own company.
We don't promise any income or result. You'll work with your own costs and your own jobs. What you get out depends on what you put in and on your market.
Round 1 enrollment closes Friday, Nov 27, and the cohort starts Tuesday, Dec 1. We meet every Tuesday through Demo Day on Jan 19, including the holiday weeks. We open a new round about every 6 months, so the next one starts around June 2027.
Both are high-touch programs with a lot of our time in them. The price depends on your company and what we build together, so we share it on the call after your application.
Not yet. If we add one later it will be a separate opt-in. Buying the course never signs you up for a recurring charge.
Round 1 · enrollment closes Nov 27
Get off the job site before spring.
Join the interest list. You'll hear first when enrollment opens on Nov 20.
Join the interest list