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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.
Biggest thing is just do the best job
you can because if your work is
your advertisement. Do a good job,
people tell other people. That's how
I get a lot of my work. It's word of
mouth.
Welcome to the Green Pal Lawn Care
Business Growth Show. My name is Gene
Caballero, one of the co-founders. On
the show, we talk to real landscaping
professionals that have built reliable
and profitable businesses. On the show
today, I have Mark Kwiatkowski with
Affordable Lawn Care out of Powder
Springs, Georgia. Mark, welcome to the
show. Tell us a little bit about your
business in Powder Springs, Georgia and
how you got started.
Well, it was kind of an accident I got
into really cuz I worked at UPS for
about 10 years.
Started there in the late '80s and then
around 2000, just decided on a career
change. Did it part-time a little bit in
the '90s.
But I did it throughout pretty much
full-time since 2000. So, about 26
years. Okay. And so, you were at UPS for
It's just me. I go
Yeah, I worked there like 10 and 1/2
years as a driver.
Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. And today, roughly
what revenue stage are you at? How many
lawns are you doing on a on a on a
weekly, monthly basis? About 9 months
out of the year. Obviously not in the
winter. But uh I do about 50 yards a
week by myself.
45 to 55, something like that.
And it's just you. You don't have any
crews or anything like that? No, not
now. I had a guy that worked for me for
about 10 years and he left about a year
after COVID. And then uh got to the
point where I just kept doing it myself
and it just made about the same amount
of money.
Up more when I wanted to and you know,
didn't have to worry about somebody not
filling up. This year, I'm going to try
to maybe hire somebody again, I think.
I'm going to go back to like an extra
person. Just, you know, just
Really cuz
a lot of different things, you know, you
can get stuck in the yard, you know, you
need help. Mostly just, you know, don't
want to do everything myself.
Got you. Got you. And so, what changed
Definitely in the summer months and the
fall.
Got you. Okay. And so, what changed that
kind of pushed your business forward?
Was it pricing? Was it marketing? Was it
dropping bad habits, dropping bad class?
Tell us a little bit about like was
there one single thing that kind of
helped you grow your business and move
it forward? Well, you guys did mostly
cuz before that, I've never been any
good at uh
advertising or knowing what to do, you
know. Back in the day I used to put
signs up on trees and
stuff like that. And nowadays, you know,
you get a ticket for that.
We've done ads and, you know,
paper or whatever, putting up I used to
run around and put up, you know, cards
on mailboxes for years and ride around
on my bike doing it, scooter.
I don't advertise at all. I think the
only thing I don't like as much is I
don't really talk to
or that
You know, cuz now everything's done in
app. I don't even talk to customers
hardly anymore, you know.
But I go weeks without seeing people
sometimes. But sometimes that's really
good though, you get a lot more done,
you know.
You're in and out seems like a little
bit quicker if you don't have to
Yeah. you know, get out and kind of
explain yourself as well. Right. Right.
Right. Yeah.
They just text or email what they want.
That's about it. Much more efficient
these days. Well,
not really. Actually, I used to fish a
lot more than I I'm actually going to go
Sunday, I think. I haven't been in about
3 weeks.
I have I try to go go once a month or
something. Got you. Got you. And so, get
as specific as possible on here. What
specific neighborhoods and areas do you
service? So, you're located out of
Powder Springs, but do you do like
Austell, Douglasville, Smyrna, Marietta?
Do you go into the into any other parts?
Tell us a little bit more in detail of
what areas you specifically service. I'm
in Powder Springs, Smyrna, Hiram,
Dallas, a little bit of Douglasville,
Austell, mostly Cobb County like
Marietta, parts of Atlanta that's on the
west side. Little bit of Kennesaw, you
know, I'm in an area where it's like 10
cities within
My circle is I try to stay within 20
miles of my
Got you. Are there any of those areas
that are better for steady weekly or
bi-weekly homeowners?
Smyrna is one of the better. Smyrna, of
course, East Cobb, you know, Marietta
area,
parts of Kennesaw, but and Powder
Springs has gotten a lot better the last
few years, but there's a lot more people
living out here, too, you know. And so,
what does a typical day look like for
you? Like in a route wise, as well.
Well, like today, I got up, you know, on
a typical day, I I try to do anywhere
from eight to 12 yards a day. Like
today, I did eight cuz uh it's still a
little early in the season. I'm not
super busy yet, but
I get up, I leave, and I can do like
today, I did eight yards. I was only
gone about five hours, but
road, you know, probably less than
about 50 miles.
Got you. I went up off today, Smyrna a
little bit, but I stay pretty close to
the house a lot more than the last year.
More in Powder Springs and Austell area.
And how do you price jobs in your
market? Is it per yard? Is it per
minute? Square footage?
kind of
Mine's all just kind of time. I look at
Well, like for instance, if I look at
one of y'all's yard,
I look at the square footage, I look
where it's at.
Of course, just kind of get an idea what
kind of grass they have cuz I do do a
lot of yards, you know, that are vacant
or you know, aren't taken care of a lot
of times and I actually kind of like
those yards cuz they're a lot faster.
But you know, I'll I'll do any but
mostly I charge by time cuz I know I can
average a couple yards an hour usually
by myself. Mhm. But most of my yards are
small, you know, trying to stay under
10,000 square feet.
Not a lot of grass. Most of our yards
around here aren't big.
Okay.
They're small here.
And what's a mistake that a lot of guys
make when pricing lawns?
Probably just again is where it's at.
You got to look at where you you know,
where you're going to have to park
sometimes.
Hills, how many trees they got.
Sidewalks, that makes a big difference.
You know, I have some yards where the
yards don't even have you they have
gravel driveways. You don't have to have
anything.
That right there can make a yard
quite a bit easier to do. I will you
know, charge somebody a little bit less.
Sometimes I get out and don't even have
to hardly run the blower yet.
Right, right. That's uh
And a lot of those around here.
And where do most of your customers come
from now? Is it GreenPal? Is it word of
mouth? Or is it just from the neighbor
stopping you? I don't get a lot of
neighbors stopping me like I used to
years ago. I get most of my yards off of
three different apps and the majority of
them are on your app. But probably close
to half of what I do is through
GreenPal. You know, I've been with you
guys probably about nine years maybe.
Yeah. Whenever you guys pretty much
started it out here. Probably the first
year. I think Atlanta was was one of our
top five.
2015 I think actually. It might be 10
years.
Yeah, I think the Atlanta metro area,
you know,
Smyrna, all those little pockets, that
that area has been very popular for us
and it was probably maybe the third or
fourth market that we launched.
You know. Yeah, probably wasn't.
And so last question for you. If someone
is starting a lawn care business in
Powder Springs or Smyrna or Austell or
or Dallas, what's one piece of advice
that you would give them? Well, I mean,
there's a lot of different things. I
mean, I don't know what type of
equipment you have or what your goals
are. Do you just want to do it
part-time? Biggest thing is just do the
best job you can because your work is
your advertising on it. You do a good
job, people tell other people. I'll do
That's why I get a lot of my work. It's
the word of mouth. I mean, nobody's
going to hire you if you don't do a good
job.
And then just be fair. You got You got
to stay in contact with people. You
can't blow them off. Somebody sends you
a message, I usually send a message back
as soon as I can. I don't care if it's
2:00 in the morning. I'll send them back
or whatever to let them know you got it.
But, uh
Yeah, I mean, that and just
you know,
there's a lot of little things, I guess,
but Yeah.
Biggest thing is really just talking to
the customers and staying in contact and
getting it done on time, you know,
try to do it on the day they want. Yeah,
the basics, huh?
Yeah, I mean, that's that's kind of what
a lot of businesses are.
If a homeowner is looking to hire
someone to to to mow their lawn, what
should what should they be doing? What
should they be asking? Any red flags
that they should avoid in hiring a a
landscaping professional or anyone that
cuts grass?
Well, a lot of it's the equipment they
have, you know, or you know, they're
they've got stuff that's not going to
break down all the time. They're not
telling up. Of course, you want to know,
you know, if they have insurance.
Doing an app like you, you guys all
check all that. A lot of people like
that, too, you know, it's just security
of, you know, like
you're not just going to disappear.
Yeah, they get a
picture of the job, you know, paperwork
through the app or everything, you know.
It's just hard to
fraud, I guess, or
Yeah, it's uh you know from what I hear
quite a bit is don't pay anybody up
front
and you got to you got to be able to to
see their equipment and make sure that
it's you know something that can handle
the job as well.
Right, right.
Yeah, you just want to make sure they're
going to be able to do it. Yeah,
absolutely.
Yeah,
it's something else
crazy at least you know that they're
insured that you know you're not going
to you're not going to get a broken
window though they're going to disappear
on you or something like that you know.
Yeah, awesome awesome. Well Mark thank
you so much for for joining the show and
and sharing your advice over the decades
that you've been doing this. So any
landscaping guys out there keep going
keep mowing and keep growing until next
time.