Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Good things are happening in Oz!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Good things are happening in Oz!

    Tonight was our annual Christmas party, we also just so happened to take delivery of a brand new New Holland C227 skid steer. Made a nice present for the guys! :alien::alien::alien:



    2015 will mark our forth year since the merger. The partnership has been working out well. The majority said this would never work, but reality is, I'm in a much better position now than I was 3 years ago. I cover my partners weaknesses, and he covers mine - this is why it works.

    The first year was a major learning curve; a survival year so to speak. Our second was more ironed out, but at the same time, we were still figuring our selves out. 2014 had much more organization to it. Everything is now falling into place as it should. Just when we are beginning to become comfortable, things must change.

    Our installation side weighs heavily on new landscapes for builders. We work for several. One of these builders broke ground on a new development earlier this fall with 20+ high end residences, all to be installed and maintained by us thereafter. We have been told four residences will be going up at the same time until the development is finished. Once this development nears completion, he will break ground on a smaller development with several $2M homes, supposedly with $100k landscapes. I find this hard to believe, but he asserts there is a market in Poverty for $2M homes.

    The loose goal we had when we merged was $1M in sales within ten years. That's a joke now. The best part is, we really don't try --- seriously, we don't. Our marketing is pretty shabby. If I spent some energy there, we could expand in all sorts of ways, but I'd rather curtail the growth for now. We are definitely still a young company; however, I feel we have such a stronghold in our community now, we can acclimate ourselves to our market's condition and still survive whatever challenges lie ahead.

    I always think back to when GM told me to get the hell out of Poverty and into a larger market; said I'd never make it here. I've been told too many times I'd never cut it in the business by many on this board. When I told of the merger, the gross majority said I was a moron and "set sail for fail." I won't say it's all been rosy and pretty, but what really is?

    More pictures to follow throughout the year. :alien::alien::alien:
    2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and future 2015 LSF RECEPTED AWARD recipient!

    Hortikulture Kolledge Grad + Licensed Master Irrigator + Certified Backflow Technician +
    Licensed Fert & Squirt Applicator = Jack of all trades, master of none.

  • #2
    Re: Good things are happening in Oz!

    Our booth from the local home show this year.









    2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and future 2015 LSF RECEPTED AWARD recipient!

    Hortikulture Kolledge Grad + Licensed Master Irrigator + Certified Backflow Technician +
    Licensed Fert & Squirt Applicator = Jack of all trades, master of none.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Good things are happening in Oz!

      Hello MASTERMOWER,

      Thanks a Million for dropping by and sharing your booth pictures with us.
      GrassMaster, LSF Administrator!
      LawnPro - Lawn Care Business Software:
      www.lawnbook.com --- www.lawnservicing.com

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Good things are happening in Oz!

        Well, it's 2017. Still running at this partnership deal-e-o. Again, it works only because my partner and I cover each others weaknesses. We came oh-so-close to hitting our $1M gross goal this past year. Projected to hit it this year however. I'm pretty pumped to get this season going. Each year I keep telling myself I need to spend more time behind a desk, but it never fails - I end up filling my days out working in the field. However, I've finally been piecing together a killer USP which if followed, ought to make us stand far apart from our competitors. In ways, the USP built itself. It boils down to our great value and interest we have in our employees and realizing the impact they have on our customers, aside from what employees in a managerial role play. Our motto is "Relationships: The Roots of our Business." Keep in mind our business name is Deep Roots...... Our mission statement elaborates upon the motto. May sound cheesy, but I'm pretty pumped about it. I've been reading and learning for years about marketing, but could ever truly incorporate what was learned into our business until now. Along with the USP, I've developed a CRM (customer relation management) plan which will most definitely leads to faster growth, should we want it. I guess my point is maintaining a business is quite a lot of work. Seems like a long time ago now those days when I would work solo from sun up to sun down 6 days a week. It was a great beginning, but times sure have changed. It's stressful at times, but I still enjoy the freedom which comes from running your own business - even when I now own just 50%. :alien::alien::alien:
        2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and future 2015 LSF RECEPTED AWARD recipient!

        Hortikulture Kolledge Grad + Licensed Master Irrigator + Certified Backflow Technician +
        Licensed Fert & Squirt Applicator = Jack of all trades, master of none.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Good things are happening in Oz!,

          Hello MASTERMOWER,

          Thanks for dropping by and sharing your success with all of us, we need to hear more success stories like yours. It seems to be getting harder & harder to make money. I also know for a fact how hard it is to move from the field to the office.

          It takes time to be able to sit back & watch the operation. When you do, you'll see quite a few little things that you can change that will make a big difference in the bottom line.

          Hang in there!
          GrassMaster, LSF Administrator!
          LawnPro - Lawn Care Business Software:
          www.lawnbook.com --- www.lawnservicing.com

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Good things are happening in Oz!,

            It's like you said Grassmaster, a true successful business is one survives to see 20 years. I may have started "in the business" back in 1998, but I don't consider actually owning a business until I merged in 2012. Way entirely different animals running a solo-op compared to a owning business with employees and gobs of overhead.
            2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and future 2015 LSF RECEPTED AWARD recipient!

            Hortikulture Kolledge Grad + Licensed Master Irrigator + Certified Backflow Technician +
            Licensed Fert & Squirt Applicator = Jack of all trades, master of none.

            Comment


            • #7
              Well, we're half way through the 2018 growing season. I've become some lazy dude. Long gone are those days of trying to set personal best records on the number of lawns I could mow in one day. Even so, I find it's still hard to pry me away from physical work - it's what I love to do, but that's no way to run a business, not talking a solo operator business, I mean a business with many employees. Might sound silly, but I bought myself some nice embroidered polos to wear at work instead of dirty worn t-shirts. I don't want to ruin the polos....so I limit the work I do. Silly right? But it works. I've found myself sitting behind my desk more this year than any other year in the past. A couple years ago former office staff left, and in the process they left the financial side of our business a mess. I had enough and stepped in to direct the ship where it needed to go. As such, I've become obsessed with running numbers on our business. Numbers are wonderful things. We run our company with different divisions. Each division is responsible for such a percentage of general administrative overhead in addition to the overhead the division incurs directly. We can track performance of each division at any given point in the year. It wasn't the easiest to get such a set-up going, in fact, it took a majority of last year to iron it all out to be as accurate as possible. I even have spreadsheets which outline the true cost of each employee (factoring in uniforms, vacation, paid holidays, overtime, workmans comp insurance, etc) - such information is worth gold. Even though I feel these numbers happened so late in the game, it's still a wondrous thing. Without such information, you're just sailing the ship blindly --- and we are certainly very lucky we're still in business after all these years running without such data. (where did my alien head smilies go?)
              2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and future 2015 LSF RECEPTED AWARD recipient!

              Hortikulture Kolledge Grad + Licensed Master Irrigator + Certified Backflow Technician +
              Licensed Fert & Squirt Applicator = Jack of all trades, master of none.

              Comment


              • GrassMaster
                GrassMaster commented
                Editing a comment
                Good for You MASTERMOWER...
                Sounds like You really got your act together. I Wish You & Yours the Best of the Best!!!!!

            • #8
              Yes it's really good!

              Comment

              Working...
              X