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The GreenPal Lawn Care Business Growth Show features real lawn care professionals sharing how they build reliable, profitable landscaping businesses in cities across the United States.
Do your homework. Talk to a few of their
customers.
Okay.
You know.
Oh yeah.
Price around. Definitely price around.
Don't get one price. Get three quotes.
Acting any any indiv.
I'm not scared to go against quote. You
can quote all you want against me.
Welcome to the Green Pal Lawn Care
business growth show. My name is Jean
Cabalero, one of the co-founders. On the
show, we talk to real landscaping
professionals that have built profitable
and reliable businesses. On the show
today, I have William Fiser with BDR
Landscaping out of Somerville, South
Carolina. William, welcome to the show.
Tell us a little bit about your business
in Somerville, South Carolina, and how
you got started.
Yes. Uh I started in about 2012 doing my
uh foot leg finding employee their jobs
and everything and mailing stuff. Then I
ran into Green Pal online which was a
phenomenal help with finding customers
and everything and we've grown for word
of mouth. We kept customers for 10 years
now a lot of them.
Wow. Wow. So what were you doing before
you got started and what did those first
couple of months in the landscaping
industry look like? The first years when
I started landscaping were
a lot of footwork to find employ to find
the work and and get your word out
there.
But my my work has speaks for itself and
everybody keeps staying on. So
Gotcha. Gotcha. That's good. So keeping
those customers happy is what's kept
them with them with you for 10 years
now, huh?
Oh yes, you have to.
Yeah. Yeah. So roughly what revenue
stage are you at right now? How many
yards on Green Pal, off Greenpal total
are you doing, you know, weekly or
monthly?
Every week we do about 45 with Green Pal
I want to say.
Awesome. And are you doing anything off
of Green Pal as well?
Yes, I have about 60 of my own like
which broken up by 30 35 each.
We do average 150 yards bi-weekly.
Wow.
Wow. That's a lot. And is it just you?
Do you have a crew? Do you have somebody
that helps you? Talk us a little bit
about that.
Two guys and me that go out, but I'm
breaking out to do more estimate because
it has been growing a lot more.
And so, what was one thing that you did
that kind of pushed your business to the
next level? Was it marketing? Was it uh
route density? Was it pricing? Was there
something that kind of just kind of
moved your business forward?
Pricing. I try to be honest with you
lowball some people to keep the price
down and help everybody save the money
because the economy be getting worse out
here.
It's getting tough. It's getting tough.
And so pricing is something that you're
you're really accurate and you're really
tied on. Is that what I'm hearing?
Yeah, I'm trying to keep the numbers
tight.
Gotcha. Gotcha. And uh I'm sure your
customers are are loving you for for
that, not um raising the prices every
year for them, which I hear is just
It's been four years since I raised the
price and they're surprised.
Four years.
Mhm.
Four years. You think they expect it
sometime soon or do you think you can
absorb it for another couple
of gas? Some raise it theirelves, but I
try to keep it where it's comfortable
for everybody.
Gotcha. So you you let them raise it,
huh? I try to, but if they if the
insurance and the gas goes up anymore, I
might have to raise a couple dollars.
Not like everybody else 5, 10 bucks.
Yeah, that's kind of what we're hearing
across the board is just, you know, it's
inevitable that you can only do it for
so long, but if the gas prices stay
where they are right now through the
summer, it's it's going to be a
nationwide uh increase sounds like. So,
yeah, it's that I mean, your towns want
more money. Each town wants their
percentage.
That's a very good point, too. So, what
specific areas do you service? like
Harleyville, Somerville, Charleston.
Walk us through a list of all of those
markets that you service.
I start from Harleyville down to
Niceville, Ridgeville, Old Somerville,
Monks Corner, Hugert, Mount Pleasant,
John's Island, James Island, Hanahan,
North Charleston, Charleston. So I cover
between Somerville out 354 miles out
roughly. And are any of those
neighborhoods specifically better for
like weekly or bi-weekly homeowners?
They're all starting to get pretty full.
I mean, it's you get busy in all the
neighborhoods.
Really? Okay. So, everybody there is is
either weekly or bi-weekly. There's no
one at a times in your route.
Mostly it's bi-weekly. You have some
people that want it weekly. Not many,
but mostly bi-weekly.
Okay. So, what does a typical day look
like for you?
We do an average 20 yards a day. 20
yards a day. And that's just you by
yourself or you and your helpers?
Me and one worker or if I if I go out
price, we have another guy goes help to
helper and two guys in the truck.
And how do you keep everything so
reliable with the unpredictable weather
out there in uh in Somerville and
sometimes you got to work through the
weekends and when you don't want to, but
you have to to catch up.
If it only rained every Sunday night,
right?
Yeah. It'd be life for all of us.
it'd be so much easier. And so, how do
you price jobs in Somerville? How do you
price jobs in Harleyville and all those
areas? Is it per minute? Is it square
footage or do you just
per yard? Like if I get into big
communities, they're cookie cutters. You
know, you're in and out. I do an average
$50 a yard. It's 55. And if you go to
the big area like Ridgeville, it all
depend. They have acre or two acres,
then you go up on the price on that. is
more of a you figure out how much time
you're spending and then you up it a
little bit. You know, again, I try to
keep it lower and then most the other
people.
Yeah. To save the save the customer some
money. Huh.
To fill up, keep busy.
Yeah, that's true, too. So, what do you
think separates a profitable landscaping
business from one that that struggles?
People like to hit people with one-time
fees. Even if you're not my customer,
you're going to get the same price. If
you want a one time do mulch, one time
do anything. I don't go, well, you know,
God don't do work for you. I don't
charge you more. I don't believe in
that. It's the same price for us more.
Like here, landscapers charge almost
twice to go down to Mount Pleasant. I
charge the same price from Sunville to
Mount Pleasant to John's Island. I don't
believe in that hike cuz you go over
that bridge, you know? It's crazy down
here.
Yeah. So, sometimes people just outpric
themselves so they lose a customer.
Yes. Or customers are paying it and they
don't realize how much more they're
paying.
Yeah. Then you come in and you you mop
them up.
Yeah. It's like even side jobs like
people solder seed they have a hard time
because people don't come and finish
people don't get it done right
stuff don't grow don't pay me till it's
done when you got grass right but seed
you don't pay during the grass grows
I'll show you the grass grow
yeah I we hear about a lot of scams in
the uh in the landscaping industry where
people want to pay upfront for
everything and they never show up
all contracting they do that it's crazy
yeah it's like pay upfront I'm like but
it's just mulch you know it's not that
expensive
Multimon payments. If they can't afford
the whole thing at once, pay it off in a
couple months.
Yeah, that's that's a very very good
point. So, if a homeowner was looking to
to hire a landscaping company in
Somerville or Harleyville or any of
those areas that you service, what's a
piece of advice you would give them?
Do your homework. Talk to a few of their
customers.
Okay.
You know,
Oh, yeah.
price around. Definitely price around.
Don't get one price. get three quotes
in any any industry you go to.
I'm not scared to go against quote. You
can quote all you want against me.
Yeah, that's that's good advice. Find as
many quotes as you can and and compare
them and and talk to their references.
That's that's that's very good.
Cheapest isn't the best way. You know,
you might find the middle guy you like
better, you know, but don't go with the
cheapest. Sometimes they're just fly by
night guys.
Yeah. Yeah. And that leads to my next
question. What are some red flags that
homeowners should avoid? Is that uh the
the cheap guys? That one red flag.
Dollar cuts that are cut and run. They
don't weed whack. They don't age. I
mean, they tear your yard up. They have
no insurance.
They don't pay the town. That's why we
we charge a little more. We pay the
insurance.
We have We have to pay the towns.
They're they're 5% whatever they get.
Each town, we have fees. We have to pay.
We wish it was all our money, but it's
not.
Yeah. That $30 guy is not going to be
around very long and he's not he's not
going to come back for $30.
He's not reliable. What's he realizing?
He's working that out hard for nothing.
If he if he pays all the fees,
they come and go.
That's very true. So, last question,
Will. What's one piece of advice that
you would give someone that's looking to
start a landscaping company or a
lawnmowing business in Charleston or
Somerville? What's a couple pieces of
advice that you would give them?
Show up. Do the best you can like it's
your home and get on Greenpal. They'll
help you to help you grow.
Show up. Huh? That's a lot of people
don't show up sometimes.
Yeah, that's the basics, you know. Um
you would think that a lot of people
would just would do that, but
yeah,
they get higher paying jobs.
I had six people like maybe two showed
up. I'm like they don't want to work. I
guess
maybe they have some work somewhere else
but uh
or maybe it's an after afternoon work
after work or something they're trying
to build something to start but it's
hard but that's a good way to start
build up a day here and there then go on
your own
so you have steady income don't just go
out there on your own
start as a side hustle
side hustle till you fill up a couple
days where you go to poor then get off
on your own then get on your own
there you go there you go and if you had
touh go back and do one thing over again
what Would that be
one thing over again? I wouldn't have
started my prices. I was I was one of
them cheap guys, but I I would sple and
I did my work right. I would have
started at the average price than most
people.
Ah, okay. Yeah. So, you started you kind
of cut yourself short a little bit on
the front end.
Fine. I like Yeah. Well, this it is too
much, man. I raised my price and then I
found a niche where I'm still $15$20
other some of the cutters. They're
they're about $75 in some communities
and I'm only charged 50/50 bucks
and you're still making money.
You ain't trying to make a bank, you
know, just trying to make an fair
living.
It's okay to make a buck. Just don't
make a living on a customer.
Exactly. Like like these people want one
time hits. I mean, you're killing
people.
That's very very solid advice. Solid
solid advice. All right, William. Well,
thank you so much for joining the the
show. You've dropped some knowledge to
me and I know some viewers and some
listeners as well. So, thanks again for
coming on the show. All you landscaping
guys, stay going, stay mowing, and stay
growing. Until next time, we'll see you
again. Thanks, William. God blesses.