January 2, 2025 • 45 mins
Is your landscaping business thriving, or just surviving? On this episode of "Roots of Success," join Tommy Cole as he uncovers the gameplay behind building and growing a successful landscape company with Ross Day from Oasis Landscape. Learn how meticulous budget management, innovative enhancement sales, and the power of strong relationships transform the bottom line. Ross shares his career journey from a teenage lawn-mower to VP, spilling secrets on leveraging culture, balancing residential and commercial clients, and executing strategic growth through small acquisitions. Don’t miss Ross’s indispensable advice for navigating challenges and fostering a supportive, profitable business environment.
THE BIG IDEA:
Genuine relationships and efficient operations drive profitability.
KEY MOMENTS:
[03:00] Ross's early landscaping career and industry lessons.
[06:45] Tommy debunks the myth of maintenance being unprofitable.
[11:15] Strategies for managing team budgets and tracking hours.
[15:55] Discussing cost-efficiency adjustments with clients.
[20:40] A story of personal support from a friend in hard times.
[25:25] Impact of small acts of kindness on client relationships.
[30:50] Challenges in uniting diverse team members at a new branch.
[36:30] Importance of on-site visits to maintain company culture.
[42:15] Balancing residential and commercial projects.
QUESTIONS WE ANSWER
How can landscaping companies increase profitability?
What are the best strategies for managing a landscaping business budget?
How important are customer relationships in the landscaping industry?
What are effective ways to build a positive company culture in a landscaping business?
How do you manage multiple branches in a service-based company?
What are the benefits of offering maintenance services in landscaping?
How to balance residential and commercial landscaping clients?
What are some successful strategies for customer retention in landscaping?
How can small landscaping businesses grow through acquisitions?
What techniques can landscaping companies use to improve efficiency and reduce waste?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Roots of Success podcast isfor the landscape professional
who's looking to up their game.
We've got a brain trust of experts tohelp you nurture the roots of a successful
business and grow to the next level.
This is The Roots of Success.
Oh,
(00:22):
Ross Day from Oasis Landscapein Atlanta, Georgia.
My good friend and superawesome, hilarious, fun dude
to be around and socialize.
we're gonna start this off right.
Just kind of jump right intothe to the cold water, right?
Welcome to the show as I kind of
for having me.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
(00:42):
Hey, Ross.
All right.
So.
We want to get to know you.
You've been involved in Oasisfor a long time, over a decade.
You, you and Kevin and theentire organization has just
done a lot of great stuff.
I visited you guys.
I kind of snuck into your facility.
As long as when I was with somebodyelse in Atlanta and I was like, I
gotta see your place and you justopened your arms and the doors
(01:03):
and said, come on, check us out.
And we were there and we hadto hurry up to the airport.
So, what I want to know most andprobably our audience is like,
how did you get in the landscape?
I know you went to Georgia State,
I did, I went to Georgia State.
Georgia State and got abusiness degree and all of a
sudden now you're landscaping.
What do you like?
What the heck happened here?
(01:23):
Did you get, did youlose a bet or something?
No, so the degree at Georgia Statewas really more to facilitate
growing the landscape company.
I, like most of the people in ourindustry, I started at a very young age.
I was 14 years old.
My dad said, I willnot buy your first car.
You can buy your first car.
I will pay insurance andgasoline into your first wreck.
(01:47):
And I got in a wreck 10 daysafter I got my driver's license.
So
Oh, wow.
Good job.
So at 14, my dad told me Ihad to save up money for a car
and I didn't want to be broke.
I wanted to save up money for a car.
So I was cutting grass in my neighborhood.
A guy stopped me.
We started doing his house.
Like, you know, typical everybody does.
And then what really pushed meover to get into the industry is
(02:10):
we, my mom's best friend livedin a neighbor down the street.
My dad put a little push morein the back of a dodging trepid.
He would drive to their house on Saturdaymorning, dad would get me out of the
car and I would cut the grass while heread the newspaper and drink coffee.
He helped me put it back in.
He never helped me on the yard.
And.
That's kind of how it started.
So I started cutting his yard andthen it was a Saturday morning
(02:33):
and this lady stopped and said,my bum husband didn't do our yard.
Can you come do it?
I have a party tonight.
Went over there and cut her yard.
And that happened to be one of thelargest landscape companies in the city.
It was the president of thatcompany's house and he forgot
to have his crews do the yard.
So at 16 years old, he kindof took me under his wing.
(02:55):
He was kind of a mentor of mine.
He told me at a very young age beforegetting into college, anybody can
draw circles like Chris Pencheck, butvery few people can run a landscape
company, go get a business degree.
So that's what I did.
I went and got a business degree.
I grew my company up.
And then I, you know, we talk about.
(03:17):
Our successes, but don'ttalk about our failures.
In 2008, when the market crashed I lostsome contracts and I was real cocky,
young kid who thought, you know, justsell some more and I didn't sell more.
I lost contract after contract aftercontract because Brightview or Brickman
at the time came and took everything over.
So, I ran a maintenance company.
(03:38):
I talked to a consultant who wasa friend of ours who happened to
be a friend with Oasis and Kevin.
And I joined forceswith Kevin 10 years ago.
I sold half my company to somebody else.
The other half to Kevin.
I was supposed to hang outand transition everything.
And then just never left.
And so here I am, 10 years later, we gotover 100 team members and two branches.
(04:02):
When I joined there was probably24 people in the whole company.
So we've we've done, we had somegreat growth over the past 10 years.
Wow.
Just to say, just the storyof how things unfolded.
I, you know, that's like,that's an interesting story.
I got a LA landscape art teacher degree.
And then you know did a lot of designwork for the last five for five six
(04:24):
years and then got on the operations Ikind of wish I took your route I wish
I got like a four year business degreewith a master's in la that would have
been Smarter, I think I would have beenmore advanced at the end of the day
Because what they don't teach you a lotor what you learn a lot is business Type
things like how to make money, right?
Those types of things.
And so I'm sure you've learned a fewthings in school and then that has sort
(04:46):
of pushed you forward along the way.
Well, part of me going to collegewas more of just to create, to
learn how to have relationships.
We're in the relationship industry.
And so it wasn't, you know, theschooling at first, when I was at
Georgia state, I went five days a week.
And by the time I was done, I wastaking night classes because the
company got so big that I couldn'tgo every single day to college.
(05:09):
And I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the networking part of it.
I.
Don't know if I enjoyed theschooling part of it as much, but
I did enjoy the networking and ithelped me understand that, you know,
we run a service business first.
It doesn't matter where they'recutting grass or spreading chemicals.
It's a service business.
And you know, I like to think thatwe are a, a business that happened to
(05:31):
provide landscaping, not a landscaperthat happens to have a business.
And it really doesn't matterwhat we do as long as we put
processes and procedures in place.
Yeah, I get it.
Same for me.
You know, I don't know if I wasactually the college material.
I felt like at some point my familywas like, go to school because no
one else really did in our family.
(05:51):
And that was a huge achievement.
I kind of skated alongand did the best I could.
I was not an A student, barely a B.
And most days, but at the end of the day,I was driven by hard work, and a lot of
effort and a lot of good attitude alongthe way to kind of persevere and move on.
So let's talk about your roleat Oasis, your vice president.
(06:13):
That's a gigantic big title.
But talk about kind of your 10year journey a little bit along the
way, it didn't start out as vicepresident, I would assume, but.
You eventually worked your way, but like,talk about how you got to this role.
And then secondly, talk about whatdoes a vice president do at a company?
Like it's probably anythingand everything, but if you can
(06:34):
help our audience, understandwhat that role is for you,
Yes, so originally when I got toOasis, again, it was just a transition.
My company, half the half thatKevin bought the customers that
did you make, those are your, yourclients to start out with at Oasis?
No.
So we already had when I got toOasis, there was 5 maintenance crews.
(06:55):
They were routed incorrect.
I ran a maintenance company.
I didn't like installation.
I didn't like chemicals.
I liked maintenance.
And this was going back to that mentorwho said you need recurring revenue.
Don't worry about creating.
Creating.
installations and pretty backyards.
It seemed that every time I wanted todo that, when I was running my show,
that I would fail at it because Ididn't have the landscape background,
(07:16):
but I knew the maintenance was rinseand repeat, make a customer happy,
do what you say you're going to do.
And it ended up being pretty goodbusiness at the time split my location.
Kevin didn't service the whole area.
So I split the company in half, soldhalf to Kevin, half to somebody else.
And when I got there, I was transitioningmy clients that he bought over, making
(07:39):
sure they didn't jump ship, and then alsotrying to help build up his enhancement
book of business on his current, youknow, residential maintenance accounts.
I was on a property trying tosell an enhancement, and while
I sat on a property, three Oasistrucks drove by me in 35 minutes.
So I went back to the office and Isaid, Kevin, I know you don't really
(07:59):
know how to run a maintenance business,but three trucks and one road and 30
minutes is probably not efficient.
Yeah.
So we shut the five crews down totwo and a half and then rerouted,
worked on efficiencies, andnow I think we run close to 20.
(08:19):
225 maintenance crewsbetween two branches now.
And so, that was my whole deal.
I mean, I can do the enhancement sales.
I can do the installation sales.
I don't, we have some great team memberswho are sales people and designers
who can draw much better circles.
And we have one that is the bestlandscape architect I've ever seen.
(08:41):
I just don't have that.
I can sell it.
I can, I can.
Put the processes in place.
I can organize it.
I can estimate it.
I can't do the drawing part of it.
So I leaned on our team andthen I realized my baby is
really the maintenance side.
So in the past three years, I'vekind of transitioned to running the
maintenance as best as possible betweenboth branches and lots of team members
(09:04):
help, but it's how do we guide them?
Our main thing mantra now is tomanage processes and lead people.
And that's all I want to do.
So when you ask about vice president,that's really what it is, is to
manage processes and lead people.
And it's, and it doesn't matterwhich part of the business it is.
It can be in, in finance.
It can be in the operationsor account managers.
(09:25):
It can be I am a great firefighter.
It could be putting out fires.
It's just managed process and lead people.
And that's probably my daily mantra now.
Yeah.
So, all right.
Great analogy.
You have five crews, reducethem to two and a half.
You've eliminated that or reduceddramatically that waste that we
always see in landscape companies.
(09:46):
Love it.
So you streamline that and that's kind ofwhere you, that's your, That's your niche.
I get it.
Then you all sudden catapultedand fast forward all to 25 crews.
That's massive growth in a decade.
Talk about if we're talking aboutmaintenance here, talk about two to three
things that made you successful, madethe company successful in maintenance.
(10:11):
What are those few things thatyou've learned in a decade at
Oasis, but across your career?
So, when we talk strictly growth,the 1st thing that happens, we've
acquired 2 companies in the past 10years, both small, very, very small
mom and pop owner operated companies.
When you buy a company, you're buyingsome equipment that's pretty, but
(10:32):
it's just steel, but what you'rereally buying is team members that,
you know, that are trained andunderstand what our industry is.
It's hard to find those as youknow, and then you're buying a book
of that, you know, probably eight,70 to 80 percent of it really.
falls in line with your core clients.
But what it does is it opens thedoors to other property managers,
(10:54):
other HOAs, other businesses that youdidn't have without purchasing that.
So when we catapult over, we've had somegreat organic growth, but two acquisitions
also helps that in the past 10 years.
Yeah.
And let me jump in here, Ross.
This is fascinating because this goesback to what you originally said is
(11:14):
you took cruise from five to two and ahalf by efficiencies eliminating waste.
And when you buy a small mom andpop, we'll sort of use that term.
That's essentially what you'redoing at the same time, right?
You said, I can buy this group and I'mgoing to inherit these great people,
great managers, and great clients.
But we're going to become efficientand we're going to eliminate the waste.
(11:36):
And I feel like that's what you did again
Well, yeah.
Most of the time when you have a companythat's that size, they haven't figured
out they need all the processes yet that,you know, they, they still, the, the
owner operator, mom and pop, whatever youwanna say, they're still working on going
out and putting out fires themselves.
They're still turning onand off irrigation clocks.
(11:56):
Heck, one of the companies we purchased,the guy was still mowing yards on a
Saturday, has to keep his crews afloat.
With us, when they come involved, we cannot only offer those team members access
to stuff they don't have, whether it'sbetter benefits more time off, better
equipment, more the technology that weruns a lot nicer than some of those, cause
they just don't have, they can't, they'renot, they don't have the access quite yet.
(12:20):
And so we're able to offerthat to these team members.
And then that creates efficiency thatthey weren't able to see Bye hebing.
The growth and that andthat helps them quite a bit.
Yeah, what are a couple more?
You got an acquisitionthat helped you get to 25.
Is there any, any more thatyou would attribute to or any
processes that you, you reallysay this is, this is, was the key.
(12:42):
Yes.
So we run 2 branches, which we'vementioned before 2 branches, but
they're very different branches.
1 is a strictly commercialmaintenance branch.
And the other 1 is a heavier residential.
How we set them up.
Thanks to McFarland Stanford, actually,is we talked to some of your team
members and through our peer groupsand realized on our commercial side,
(13:05):
we can't have our account managers, wecall them CRM's, custom relationship
managers, also manage crews.
So we give them a book of business.
Their main goal is to work onrelationships, because again, it's
a relationship business workingrelationships, sell enhancements
to those, to that book of businesskeep client retention high.
(13:26):
And make sure that the propertieslook good enough that when we have our
business developers go try to sell,they have something they can go look at.
We split their roleand a field supervisor.
So field supervisors manage efficiency,safety, quality, trucks, and team members.
By splitting that their bandwidth makes.
everything exponentially faster.
(13:47):
Our guys can make sure theproperties look better.
They perform monthly auditson every single property.
Our enhancement goals went out the roof.
We find more touches on a property,sells more on the property.
So that alone, with a constant lineof communication, Helps quite a bit.
And that's driven that, you know,the branches to exponentially grow
because our clients understandwe're always have their back.
(14:10):
It doesn't matter what day itis, what time you have a customer
relationship manager who's goingto answer any of your questions.
I love it.
That's what we coached you all thetime is taking the account manager,
making them a relationship expert, thetouch point expert, the enhancement
sales, all of that managing the client.
And then the operations is handedoff to the team, the production team.
(14:32):
That's.
All the training, the hiring, thequality, executing the hours, all
those types of operational things.
Quite frankly, that's twodifferent types of people.
That's like left brain, right
It's, it's very different.
One has to be understand thatrelationships are very important.
The other one person justneeds to get stuff done.
(14:53):
And it's and the other thing bydoing that, it also gives our,
our team members out in the field.
They can see a growth path.
I can become a field supervisor andmanage teams of eight to ten crews.
Then after that we have anotherlevel and then you can get up to CRM.
So it's a growth path for all of ourteam members when they land with us.
Yeah, that's great.
That's kind of like, alittle bit difference in us.
(15:15):
I feel like you're morerelationship, right?
You're kind of likeaccount manager heavier.
On that side a little bit and I feellike I'm a little more dominant on
the operation side I feel like youand I would make a great combo.
I've got some relationship too, butit's driven through operations more
And I think you are driven more likelooking out for the client type deal.
(15:40):
So have you had to find someone that was?
Sort of a little bit different thanyour ways to sort of counterbalance
that sort of off that Operation side alittle bit more or how does that work?
Yes.
So one of our branches, we havea branch manager who does that.
He's an operational guy.
He's learned how to become relationship.
But we do.
(16:00):
We test everybody when they come through.
We try to figure out what they're good at.
They good in operations.
Are they good in relationships?
It is a different brain.
It is a very different brain.
I can do both.
I don't like operations.
I don't.
I have never enjoyed the operations side.
But, you know, you needboth to get stuff done.
And so way I look at this is if Iget metrics that are put in place
(16:24):
for operations to make sure they'reworking, I don't have to worry about it.
Just make sure you hit your metrics.
After that, you know, the restis I can mess with and spend
my time growing relationships.
Yeah.
So what kind of metrics areyou looking at in maintenance?
So obviously budgeted versusactual, that's the main thing.
Everybody knows that if you'rein the landscape industry.
It's how many hours did yousell and how long did it take
(16:46):
you to perform those hours?
We have a quality metric.
We look, we have an auditing system thatwe use for all of our account managers.
They go out, they audit theproperties once a month, that gets
sent down to the field supervisor.
So if they see anything thathas to be done the, they can
handle it with the crews.
We also, we're not shy about it.
We actually send thataudit to the customer.
(17:08):
And it doesn't matter if it calls us out.
If we have a weed that's four foot tallbehind the juniper bed, that picture
gets sent to the customer becausethat way they know we're out there.
We don't, we don't,we're not shy about it.
We'll let you know when we mess up.
And then the idea is by the time thenext audit runs around, you'll take
the same picture and that one's welltaken care, that area is taken care of.
(17:28):
So that's it.
We look at efficiency.
Of course, we look at enhancement salespenetration on your book of business.
Each account manager has a ratio they haveto hit based on the accounts they have.
Retention is extremely high.
Enhancement goals.
So you have an enhancement goal tosell, then we have to perform them.
(17:49):
We look at how much we'reperforming on enhancements per
month, on the maintenance side.
And we do the samething with design build.
So it's, you know, we're, it'smore of just making sure material
over and under that's important,but you really can't control that.
You hope you hit it most of thetime, you're not overbuying.
It's, you know, Labor is40 percent of our business.
So if we can save 3%, it goesright to the bottom line.
(18:12):
And when you're a maintenance company,it's the biggest part of the business.
And so how do you managelabor effectively?
Love it.
Got a couple little Detailed questionswith what you just mentioned here
Enhancement sales, how many enhancements,dollar value, what do you guys strive for?
Is it sort of seasonal base, likedepending on spring, summer, fall,
(18:35):
winter, you sell enhancements?
Is there a goal for each account manager?
How do you monitor thatalong the way to hit goals?
Like what do you, what are enhancementsales like in your organization?
So Atlanta is a little different market.
We don't get to include flowers,mulch, or pine straw in the contracts.
That's all after.
(18:55):
So we consider that anancillary enhancement.
That is an enhancement.
It's usually going to happen onthe property, whether our account
manager talks to them or not.
Most of the time, whether we had anaccount manager or not, they're going to
call, they're going to do pine straw twicea year, they're going to do flowers twice
a year, and they might do some mulch.
So we have two buckets.
We look at ancillary.
Okay.
And we look at true enhancements.
(19:15):
We budget for 2025 to say what monthswe know ancillaries are going to happen.
We know that in May, or well right afterEaster is usually when flowers go in.
We know October is when flowers go in.
Those two budget numbers get put in there.
And we expect our team to sell those.
July's pine straw, December'spine straw, we expect that.
(19:37):
Then we go back and we look at ourtrue enhancements, which are things
that are safety concerns on a property.
aesthetic concerns or, almost qualityconcerns, whether you have some sod
that's bare, some drainage areas,those are considered true enhancements.
And each account manager or CRMhas a ratio for their book of
(20:01):
business they're supposed to hit.
We try to say that we're going todo this month every single month.
It doesn't always happen.
We really look and go on average, we needthis much per month to hit our goals.
You might have an account manageras a whale of a month and the
other four are struggling and thenthey pick it up the next month.
It's just for the entire year.
How are we trending?
(20:21):
And we average about 40 to 50 percentpenetration on the book of business.
Wow.
Love it.
I, I have never heard of that.
I love the fact that you saidthese are like necessities.
That have to happen on our properties,which is really Anywhere in the country
you can imagine it's essential tofor your property It's not just like
(20:42):
mowing grass and call it a day and thenyou got another bucket that are truly
enhancements and I like have you breakit all down between safety aesthetic
quality type Things it's fascinatingstuff You mentioned the second branch.
We have to cover this thing thatthis second branch, I think a lot
of organizations really struggle,you know, for a lot of reasons.
(21:04):
Why is like, why a second branch?
Right.
So I want to learn about whyyou came to the conclusion.
Does it make sense?
Is it not?
At some point you had to say,oh my god, that's enough.
Something's got to change at some point.
And talk us through that sort oftransition into another branch.
The one thing that is extremelydifficult, Ross, is to continue
(21:26):
the culture of the second, third,and fourth branch, the same as the
mothership, I'll call it, in Atlanta.
That's the trickiest part.
How did you guys navigate through that?
So the second branch wasalmost out of happenstance.
We purchased a company that was, it was.
Right before all these M&A's were really happening.
So we're talking six or seven yearsago, we bought a company out there,
(21:49):
owner operator, we found out afterthe fact, we bought it on March 28th.
We found that after the fact, ifwe had not purchased it, he was
shutting the place down on April 1st.
So we bought.
For lack of a better word, a turd.
And it just, so not only were thecustomers not being taken care of,
the equipment wasn't taken care of,the team members were struggling to
(22:10):
figure out what their direction was.
When we bought it, I think we lost.
45 percent of the book ofbusiness because customers were
just so mad about a transition.
They weren't happy in the first place.
They sure as crap didn't want us on it.
And so we threw everything wecould heart soul dollars time.
(22:31):
So it wouldn't fail because wewere on the hook for the money.
It didn't matter.
We had to spend the money exactly.
So we did.
And so we lost 40 percent of thebook of business the first year.
And now it's It'll doabout half the revenue.
It'll split about right, right about halfof what the other branch does in revenue.
So between the two companies, itdoes about half the revenue, which is
(22:53):
great, but it's strictly maintenance,which the other branch is not.
The other branch is heavy in design build.
Bringing culture there was difficult.
Culture is one of those terms
everybody uses.
You can have great.
It is.
And so it's how do you turn it around?
And the other thing is, yougot to figure out who you have.
We realized real quickly.
The team members up there arenot the same nationality as the
(23:13):
team members at our other branch.
They think differently.
They party differently.
They pray every morning.
It's a very differentatmosphere than the other.
And if you go in guns a blazing,you're not going to get any buy in.
So we really sat around for three to sixmonths and just observed, just to see what
they were doing right, what we consideredthey were doing wrong, and then started
(23:35):
showing them why with us there can bemore reach and And of the, I think at
the time there was 12 team members, Ithink seven of them are still with us.
The rest have gone on to other things.
Two of them started their owncompanies, which we completely promote.
I mean, that's the American dream.
So go do it.
And for that matter, we send them businessthat is not in our ideal customer.
(23:59):
They were great in, in, inhelping us get to the next level.
Having a second branch spreads you thin.
I spend 60 percent of my week atone branch and it depends on which
branch it is during which week.
So it's a lot.
It's, it spreads you very thin.
What's, what the best thing we didwas get the right team members there.
(24:21):
We brought people from the main branchup there, And they, between account
managers, the branch manager, we showedthem that all of a sudden you have
another platform to grow faster, becauseif you're in the main branch, you have
a couple of people you've got to jumpover to get to where you want to be.
This is ground level and you showed, webelieved in some few key team members
(24:44):
and they've, they really shined for us.
And that branch, that branch is on trackto do really well in the next five years.
No, I love it.
I love it.
So it's all about the culture at theend of the day is getting it right.
And I love your, your point aboutobserve and why that's, that's like,
can we also do that in our own onebusiness or our one location, right?
(25:07):
Observe.
What's going on?
I use this analogy all the time that thegeneral manager that the gym I attend
uses the four corners of The gym andhe's always observing the four corners at
any given part of the day night eveningYou know because he has a an awareness
of what is going on at any given point.
He can see things that are not goingwell bottlenecks with certain equipment
(25:31):
here who's using what who's not andfigure out the reasons why we're here
because you got to continue this culture.
Across multiple
Um.
Um.
out of there makes a lot of sense.
I love it.
Well, what you do there is you'realso taking the team members that
(25:51):
you, you know, have invested timewith you and understand your culture.
And that way, you're not the dictator.
You've got other people that are havethe buy in and they're spreading the
buy in without you having to be there,which is, you know, what happens.
At a branch when you're notthere is truly what's going on.
And so to have other people therethat had the same culture, the same
(26:12):
drive the same mantra of manage peoplein a managed process, lead people.
It's really, really important.
So everybody's on the same page andhaving extra people who understand that
put into the other branch really helps.
We did buy a 3rd or 2ndcompany or 2 years ago.
And we took that branchand we moved it over.
So we had three branches for abouta year which that's even more, and
(26:37):
the branch wasn't big enough tosustain itself, so we combined them.
So are you there or do you need toget there as far as managing the
home base location versus the branch?
There's a lot of same metricsthat have to be watched.
Like you mentioned budget versusintellectual and all that.
Can you see those metrics afar?
(26:58):
So say you're you're atyour home base office.
Are you aware what's going on remotely?
Or do you got to physically gothere to see how things are doing?
No, we can, I mean, we use aspire.
So everybody and a lot of peoplein the green industry is aspire.
We've got metrics put in placethat we can manage both branches.
I mean, I hop off the call with you today.
I can see how the branch is doing.
(27:20):
It's again, just putting stuff inplace that you don't have to be
physically on site to But there arestill we have a status meeting every
Monday that for the entire branch,everybody's everybody gets in there.
Everybody explains what'sgoing on their life.
We still have one on ones, whichMcFarland Stanford coaches.
We do all that, but you can stillremotely see how the branch is going.
(27:43):
What you can't do is you can't remotely.
feel how culture is.
And so you still have to get there,walk around, see what's in the air,
talk to people, see how their week'sgoing, see what's hurting them.
And half the time it's me, I'mbottlenecking something and I
don't even realize I'm doing it.
But trying to, metrics are one thing,but you still have to spend the time to,
(28:06):
love it.
That's great stuff I noticed youguys do residential commercial
clients A little tricky.
I would imagine, you know, it's, it's notbeen like the most easiest process talk
about I've got plenty of clients are likemaybe heavily in residential or heavily in
commercial and they want to dabble in it.
They're just not sure.
Tell me about that experienceand how you guys have been able
(28:28):
to build a company with both.
started off as residential.
That 2nd branch that we bought,they had a church and that was
the 1st foray into commercial.
It was a very large mega church.
They were doing.
We lost the church right after covid.
Or right coming out about COVID.
(28:48):
And I was, I cried.
I physically cried.
I was so, it was thebiggest account we had.
And if I was honest with you, we werelosing our butt on it, but it was, it was
something to say that we did that churchin that area and we could put on our
resume, we had that church, losing that.
What happened shortlythereafter was we had a HOA.
(29:08):
It was a gentleman who was on HOA board.
He stopped us and said, I can't do this.
I thought I could.
Can you bail us out?
We went over there.
We bailed him out.
The property manager had didn'twant anything to do with us.
He hated us.
And then we won himover and a year's time.
Of his 15 properties, we weremanaging 13 of them and then got
(29:29):
into it and blew it up and gotbigger and bigger and bigger based on
relationships and doing a good job.
And doing that got us the commercialside built up relatively quickly.
Residential we try to turn everyone of our because we have a
heavy design building residential.
We try to turn 1 of those every 1of those into a maintenance customer
(29:49):
and then just word of mouth.
If I was honest, we are not promotingresidential maintenance because
we find the enhancements are toodifficult at a certain level.
tier.
When you get a certain point,you know, that, that can ends
up being a little better.
So we are transitioning the book ofbusiness to be more of a state homes and
(30:11):
commercial projects as we get larger.
But we also know we got to pay bills.
And so we keep these customers happy.
We've had customers for 10, 15, 20 years.
We will continue to do the yards.
We will never say goodbye to them as longas they stay, you know, happy with us.
It's just a different,it's different managed.
Our Atlanta branch, the crews aremanaged by their account manager.
(30:34):
So there's, they manage the crewand the, and a property, but they
manage a smaller book of business.
So it's about a third of the sizeand, but it's a lot more hands on
and it's decisions are quicker.
You get paid faster in residentialbut the dollars and the longevity
in the commercial world makes sense.
(30:54):
I think as we, as COVID shows you, theservice sector is not going anywhere.
People will still alwayshave to have their yard cut.
It's just making sure that theyfit in with us as a company.
Our margins are very small inmaintenance, which most people understand.
It's how much other extras they'regoing to pay to have us do.
And we make sure that that margin isthe right level for us as a company.
(31:18):
Yeah.
So there's a myth out there.
You hit it earlier.
You can't make money on maintenance.
What are you doing?
Right?
That's that whole, like you're notgoing to make money on mowing grass.
That is a load of BS.
I'm tired of hearing about it.
Residential or commercial.
Okay.
So tell me about this.
You became profitable.
(31:39):
Oasis is profitable.
Maintenance.
Along with enhancements, but you gottamake money in maintenance you can also
make lots more money in enhancements.
Tell me about that.
Yeah, so it goes backto budget versus actual.
We manage that with our team.
We have to, every team memberknows every single month.
January one shows up.
Here's how many hoursyou have for the year.
(32:00):
Here's how you're trending per month.
And our team knows to look at that.
You know, if it's, if we get halfwaythrough the year and we realize we're
not going to hit it, we'll go backto the customer and say, this is why
we're not doing it, it can be thatit was bid with a large lawnmower and
Miss Sally comes out and says, I hatethe large lawnmower where you do a
push more, where our teams out there.
We'll make the customer happy.
They will start cuttingthe R with a push mark.
(32:21):
What they won't understand isthat will blow our budgeted hours.
And so, so we'll go back and saywe have no problem doing that, but
it's going to cost you X, Y, Z.
We analyze, we make sure thatthe properties are profitable.
Our margins are small.
We, we, oh, and the maintenanceworld margins are relatively smaller.
You can't be competitive.
(32:43):
So it's making sure that we understandour margins, understand how we're bidding
and then track what we bid and we dothat on residential and commercial.
And then we make sure that we havean enhancement pot and that's a
separate budgeted versus actual,you've got to watch and make sure,
cause it can bleed from both.
yes.
Love it Okay, I got something foryou You're a relationship guy through
(33:07):
and throughout Kind of funny storyThis is gonna get a little little
weird, but it's a great story.
I think how I got introduced to you Ithink we were like at the same place our
wives were together Drinking some wine andhaving fun and the story goes like this I
had a procedure done at the end of a year.
(33:29):
Yeah, you did.
Yeah.
And let's say that procedure was going tohappen because I've already met my quota.
And it needs to happen and youcaught wind and said, yeah, I got it.
I've done that too.
Cool.
Sounds good.
And a little care package showedup at my doorstep one day because
you were a little sneaky behindthe scenes, contacted my wife.
(33:51):
I got a care package.
Listen, I don't receive anythinglike that from anyone ever.
But I thought it was the most hilariousthing that I had ever seen in my life.
And I've shared that story toprobably no less than a dozen
people across the, my travels.
Mind you being so funny about yousending me this care package, but
most importantly, Ross, it was likesomething to do with a relationship.
(34:15):
Like we connected, wehave a lot in common.
We're goofballs.
You know, we like to have a good time.
We work really hard.
You're very relationship driven.
Expand on some of that, why youdo this and why it's part of you.
It's just your natural tone.
You're always saying happy birthday to the
case the
(34:38):
what the hell's going on?
Why does that mean so much to you?
It goes back to how I wasraised my mom and dad.
My dad was from the Jersey shore.
My mom was from a farmand Cochran, Georgia.
Yeah, you're telling me
so.
Very, very,
very good.
show.
Yeah, no, it wasn't.
It was, it was the nicerpart of the Jersey Shore.
(35:00):
And then my mom was, you know, cowtipping and farms in Cochran, Georgia.
So very different upbringingbetween the two of them.
My dad was a sales guy.
for international shipping companies.
So it was alwaysrelationship based with him.
I always saw that growing up.
My mom actually sold for Oxford,which is a clothing line.
And she's, she was shipping stuffin my dad's containers across
(35:21):
the country, across the ocean.
And they basically taughtme it's not who you are.
It's who, you know, and, and learningthat, as long as you're genuine in what
you're doing, building relationships is.
It's almost easy.
You just got to say helloand be nice to people.
(35:42):
And once a while, catch him offguard with some funny gifts.
It make I remember learning whenI was younger, receiving a gift
is fun, but giving it and seeingsomebody's smile is even better.
And whether it's a.
You know, just paying a tab.
and junior year of prom, there was a,we were, there were 10 people and there
was a couple sitting in the room andthey were all dressed to the nines,
(36:04):
I mean, full and they were in theirlate eighties and she was wearing
a gown and he was wearing a tux.
The guy comes over to give us thebill and he says that couple over
there took care of your bill.
They come in here every year andthey take care of a bill for somebody
because somebody did it for them.
And I remember in junior year thinkingI want to be able to do that because
that's the type of giving that'sunforeseen that We had no idea was
(36:28):
coming and has lasted a lifetime.
I mean, I still talk aboutthat story to this day.
So creating an impact like that onsomebody's life, a little dumb care
package has become a funny story.
Yeah.
And it, it goes a long way andit makes it so you're memorable
(36:48):
without being memorable.
And I like that.
And I always have.
And it makes people feel good.
I mean, this world is somessed up in so many ways.
And I let, let somebody feelgood for 30 seconds for, what,
42 I think I spent on you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
it's fun to
It's an appreciationat the end of the day.
That's what we've done.
You know, we were picking upa tab a couple years ago for
(37:10):
our crossing guard lady at ourelementary school that my kids go to.
And she's out there 150 degrees.
or one degree rain,sleet, snow, you name it.
Making sure the safety of those kids getacross the street to school every day.
We saw her at a restaurant.
Wife's like, we're going to come tothe tab and we're going to walk away.
(37:31):
That's it.
Like, she's so appreciative totake care of our kids like that.
That those types of things just kindof like are expected now these days.
It's just an expectation.
But later we did tell her that wasus, you know, at some point, but
that that's the level of care andtradition that I really believe in.
And it's not just personal, butit's in business along the ways.
(37:53):
Those relationships go onforever and ever and ever.
I just think that if I take care of thepeople around me, even if it's given this
and an old cliche, give the shirt offyour back, it doesn't have to do that.
Just listening, give us some time.
And I remember when my.
I, I had, I haven't through a reallyrough patch of my life and one of my
(38:13):
best friends got up and I know you'rea gym rat and he got up with me every
morning at five 30 and we worked out fromfive 30 to seven and as I came out of
that rough patch, I said to him, I waslike, I really appreciate you getting
up with me and he goes, I hate it.
Getting up in the morning.
I couldn't stand it, but you neededsomebody for you and I was there for you.
(38:35):
And then a year and a halfgoes by and he went through a
rough patch and I was there.
And it's one of those that you, if yousurround yourself with people who will do
that for you, life becomes a lot easier.
And you know, whether it's a smallgift or a phone call or, you know,
a peer or a peer group member, oreven a competitor in the industry.
(38:58):
If you need something i've got iti'm going to help you because there's
going to be a day when I call andyou'll answer The phone for me and
that if you can live by that the doorsseem to open a lot easier for you
I love it.
Good stuff.
So I got, I got, as we sort of wrap uphere, I got a couple more things for you.
Yeah,
Tons of notes tons of notes.
I'm going to do a few Tommy's takeawaysa little little tease here, right?
(39:20):
So
Yeah
involved in and translatingyour business into Oasis.
So love that side.
Your idea of eliminating waste inmaintenance is awesome because it
(39:42):
comes down to budget versus actual.
I like the small acquisitions of thesmall guys inheriting good team members.
And I love this enhancement type deal.
More touches equal more sales.
So it's a once a month property auditwith an accountability checklist that the
(40:02):
entire company sees and the client seesto hold each other accountable and see
the progress of that maintenance client.
100 percent agree with that.
Also love your idea of enhancement salesbetween the must have ancillary type
sales And the awesome like enhancementsales that are needed throughout
(40:23):
the year for safety concerns qualitycontrol It can be drainage issues.
It could be party prep those typesof things Budget versus actual and
maintenance has to happen There'snot enough said there the second
branch my summary of the secondbranch is culture and metrics
That's
(40:43):
it.
culture, a good culture, andyou've got to have metrics.
Otherwise, you can't have thatremote or second or third location.
No, we haven't figured it all out.
Trust me.
I got an email yesterday about somethingthat we're still working on that is
a metric and it is about culture.
And, you know, it's we, we arestill struggle on day to day stuff.
(41:05):
But at least if you have a corethat, you know, that we're going
to take care of each other and weknow we have to have these metrics
to figure out what we're doing.
You can build on that again.
It's managing processes and leadingpeople and leading people as
culture and processes as metrics.
If you manage process and leadpeople, you can figure that out.
Culture, metrics, and processes.
Just give me that all daylong and I'm going to sign up.
(41:28):
I love it.
Ross, any sort of lessonslearned, takeaways?
There's a lot of goodat the very end of that.
It's about relationship based.
Anything I'm forgetting, anywords of wisdom, advice What's
something that you live and die by?
Again, it's all about people.
We are in a relationship business, andthe relationships aren't just with our
(41:49):
customers, it's with our team members.
At our Atlanta branch, there are fourlandscape companies within a half a mile.
Four.
And so anybody can leave ouroffice and go left or right, And
go work at a different company.
Why do they keep coming back to us?
And so there was an old ourwedding photographer owns a
(42:09):
very large camera company.
And he used to say, if you took careof your customers and you take care of
your team members, the profit will come.
If you lose sight on those two,and then we got even more granular.
We decided customers chooseto come to you, but team
members choose to come to you.
So you better have yourteam members, right?
(42:30):
So they understand tomake the customer, right?
And in that way, the more customers come.
So if you focus back on cultureand it's not gimmicks, it's true.
You know, how do theyfeel when they show up?
It's not, Oh, we have a prettier shirtor a nicer hat or, or a bag clip.
We put on, on You know tortilla chips.
It's what do we do that they want tocome hang out with us instead of the
(42:52):
three other companies down the street.
yeah,
If you're true to that,everything becomes a lot easier.
So it's just excuse me.
It's just taking care of the teammembers and then making sure they
understand that they have a voice.
They have area to grow.
And then the rest just kind of falls inplace and you're going to make mistakes.
And, you know, You know, our biggestthing is every one of us makes mistakes
(43:15):
is how fast we get up and fix them.
And whether that's a customer or ateam member Hell i've got so much crap.
I got to figure out in the next 10 days.
And so it's but it's You know,if you're not making mistakes,
you're not trying and and I and wekeep learning We have good years.
We've had bad years.
Koba was great and kovatstunk at the same time.
(43:36):
yeah,
We're excited to see what thenext 10 years show for oasis
that's great.
I people, people, people.
It's your number one asset.
It's not the piece of equipment.
It's not the facility.
It's not.
It is the people, the team thatyou have built, take care of them.
And what a better situation.
Put yourself in Ross'sshoes at Oasis and go.
(43:58):
I'm within minutes of four competitorsleft or right as you exact if you
manage your business to that level.
I mean, they have to be good atculture and good at building teams and
taking care of people along the way.
Otherwise they don't have anything.
So it's a mandatoryitem in their business.
So think about your business andgoing, if I go left or right, within
(44:22):
a couple of minutes, they can goanywhere they would ever want to.
So keep them from leaving.
We got to build a great team thateveryone rose in the same direction.
Good stuff.
Good stuff.
man.
I appreciate the
Yeah.
Ross.
It's been a pleasure, bud.
You're a good friend of mine.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this great morning.
Lots of great content andwe'll see you soon, buddy.
(44:44):
great time.
See you soon, man
Ready to take the next step?
Download our free Profitability Scorecardto quickly create your own baseline
financial assessment and uncover thefastest ways to improve your business.
Just go to McFarlinStanford.com/scorecardto get yours today To learn more about
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(45:06):
our website at McFarlinStanford.comAnd don't forget to follow us on
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See you next time on the Roots of Success.
The Roots of Success podcast isfor the landscape professional
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business and grow to the next level.
This is The Roots of Success.
Oh,
(00:22):
Ross Day from Oasis Landscapein Atlanta, Georgia.
My good friend and superawesome, hilarious, fun dude
to be around and socialize.
we're gonna start this off right.
Just kind of jump right intothe to the cold water, right?
Welcome to the show as I kind of
for having me.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
(00:42):
Hey, Ross.
All right.
So.
We want to get to know you.
You've been involved in Oasisfor a long time, over a decade.
You, you and Kevin and theentire organization has just
done a lot of great stuff.
I visited you guys.
I kind of snuck into your facility.
As long as when I was with somebodyelse in Atlanta and I was like, I
gotta see your place and you justopened your arms and the doors
(01:03):
and said, come on, check us out.
And we were there and we hadto hurry up to the airport.
So, what I want to know most andprobably our audience is like,
how did you get in the landscape?
I know you went to Georgia State,
I did, I went to Georgia State.
Georgia State and got abusiness degree and all of a
sudden now you're landscaping.
What do you like?
What the heck happened here?
(01:23):
Did you get, did youlose a bet or something?
No, so the degree at Georgia Statewas really more to facilitate
growing the landscape company.
I, like most of the people in ourindustry, I started at a very young age.
I was 14 years old.
My dad said, I willnot buy your first car.
You can buy your first car.
I will pay insurance andgasoline into your first wreck.
(01:47):
And I got in a wreck 10 daysafter I got my driver's license.
So
Oh, wow.
Good job.
So at 14, my dad told me Ihad to save up money for a car
and I didn't want to be broke.
I wanted to save up money for a car.
So I was cutting grass in my neighborhood.
A guy stopped me.
We started doing his house.
Like, you know, typical everybody does.
And then what really pushed meover to get into the industry is
(02:10):
we, my mom's best friend livedin a neighbor down the street.
My dad put a little push morein the back of a dodging trepid.
He would drive to their house on Saturdaymorning, dad would get me out of the
car and I would cut the grass while heread the newspaper and drink coffee.
He helped me put it back in.
He never helped me on the yard.
And.
That's kind of how it started.
So I started cutting his yard andthen it was a Saturday morning
(02:33):
and this lady stopped and said,my bum husband didn't do our yard.
Can you come do it?
I have a party tonight.
Went over there and cut her yard.
And that happened to be one of thelargest landscape companies in the city.
It was the president of thatcompany's house and he forgot
to have his crews do the yard.
So at 16 years old, he kindof took me under his wing.
(02:55):
He was kind of a mentor of mine.
He told me at a very young age beforegetting into college, anybody can
draw circles like Chris Pencheck, butvery few people can run a landscape
company, go get a business degree.
So that's what I did.
I went and got a business degree.
I grew my company up.
And then I, you know, we talk about.
(03:17):
Our successes, but don'ttalk about our failures.
In 2008, when the market crashed I lostsome contracts and I was real cocky,
young kid who thought, you know, justsell some more and I didn't sell more.
I lost contract after contract aftercontract because Brightview or Brickman
at the time came and took everything over.
So, I ran a maintenance company.
(03:38):
I talked to a consultant who wasa friend of ours who happened to
be a friend with Oasis and Kevin.
And I joined forceswith Kevin 10 years ago.
I sold half my company to somebody else.
The other half to Kevin.
I was supposed to hang outand transition everything.
And then just never left.
And so here I am, 10 years later, we gotover 100 team members and two branches.
(04:02):
When I joined there was probably24 people in the whole company.
So we've we've done, we had somegreat growth over the past 10 years.
Wow.
Just to say, just the storyof how things unfolded.
I, you know, that's like,that's an interesting story.
I got a LA landscape art teacher degree.
And then you know did a lot of designwork for the last five for five six
(04:24):
years and then got on the operations Ikind of wish I took your route I wish
I got like a four year business degreewith a master's in la that would have
been Smarter, I think I would have beenmore advanced at the end of the day
Because what they don't teach you a lotor what you learn a lot is business Type
things like how to make money, right?
Those types of things.
And so I'm sure you've learned a fewthings in school and then that has sort
(04:46):
of pushed you forward along the way.
Well, part of me going to collegewas more of just to create, to
learn how to have relationships.
We're in the relationship industry.
And so it wasn't, you know, theschooling at first, when I was at
Georgia state, I went five days a week.
And by the time I was done, I wastaking night classes because the
company got so big that I couldn'tgo every single day to college.
(05:09):
And I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the networking part of it.
I.
Don't know if I enjoyed theschooling part of it as much, but
I did enjoy the networking and ithelped me understand that, you know,
we run a service business first.
It doesn't matter where they'recutting grass or spreading chemicals.
It's a service business.
And you know, I like to think thatwe are a, a business that happened to
(05:31):
provide landscaping, not a landscaperthat happens to have a business.
And it really doesn't matterwhat we do as long as we put
processes and procedures in place.
Yeah, I get it.
Same for me.
You know, I don't know if I wasactually the college material.
I felt like at some point my familywas like, go to school because no
one else really did in our family.
(05:51):
And that was a huge achievement.
I kind of skated alongand did the best I could.
I was not an A student, barely a B.
And most days, but at the end of the day,I was driven by hard work, and a lot of
effort and a lot of good attitude alongthe way to kind of persevere and move on.
So let's talk about your roleat Oasis, your vice president.
(06:13):
That's a gigantic big title.
But talk about kind of your 10year journey a little bit along the
way, it didn't start out as vicepresident, I would assume, but.
You eventually worked your way, but like,talk about how you got to this role.
And then secondly, talk about whatdoes a vice president do at a company?
Like it's probably anythingand everything, but if you can
(06:34):
help our audience, understandwhat that role is for you,
Yes, so originally when I got toOasis, again, it was just a transition.
My company, half the half thatKevin bought the customers that
did you make, those are your, yourclients to start out with at Oasis?
No.
So we already had when I got toOasis, there was 5 maintenance crews.
(06:55):
They were routed incorrect.
I ran a maintenance company.
I didn't like installation.
I didn't like chemicals.
I liked maintenance.
And this was going back to that mentorwho said you need recurring revenue.
Don't worry about creating.
Creating.
installations and pretty backyards.
It seemed that every time I wanted todo that, when I was running my show,
that I would fail at it because Ididn't have the landscape background,
(07:16):
but I knew the maintenance was rinseand repeat, make a customer happy,
do what you say you're going to do.
And it ended up being pretty goodbusiness at the time split my location.
Kevin didn't service the whole area.
So I split the company in half, soldhalf to Kevin, half to somebody else.
And when I got there, I was transitioningmy clients that he bought over, making
(07:39):
sure they didn't jump ship, and then alsotrying to help build up his enhancement
book of business on his current, youknow, residential maintenance accounts.
I was on a property trying tosell an enhancement, and while
I sat on a property, three Oasistrucks drove by me in 35 minutes.
So I went back to the office and Isaid, Kevin, I know you don't really
(07:59):
know how to run a maintenance business,but three trucks and one road and 30
minutes is probably not efficient.
Yeah.
So we shut the five crews down totwo and a half and then rerouted,
worked on efficiencies, andnow I think we run close to 20.
(08:19):
225 maintenance crewsbetween two branches now.
And so, that was my whole deal.
I mean, I can do the enhancement sales.
I can do the installation sales.
I don't, we have some great team memberswho are sales people and designers
who can draw much better circles.
And we have one that is the bestlandscape architect I've ever seen.
(08:41):
I just don't have that.
I can sell it.
I can, I can.
Put the processes in place.
I can organize it.
I can estimate it.
I can't do the drawing part of it.
So I leaned on our team andthen I realized my baby is
really the maintenance side.
So in the past three years, I'vekind of transitioned to running the
maintenance as best as possible betweenboth branches and lots of team members
(09:04):
help, but it's how do we guide them?
Our main thing mantra now is tomanage processes and lead people.
And that's all I want to do.
So when you ask about vice president,that's really what it is, is to
manage processes and lead people.
And it's, and it doesn't matterwhich part of the business it is.
It can be in, in finance.
It can be in the operationsor account managers.
(09:25):
It can be I am a great firefighter.
It could be putting out fires.
It's just managed process and lead people.
And that's probably my daily mantra now.
Yeah.
So, all right.
Great analogy.
You have five crews, reducethem to two and a half.
You've eliminated that or reduceddramatically that waste that we
always see in landscape companies.
(09:46):
Love it.
So you streamline that and that's kind ofwhere you, that's your, That's your niche.
I get it.
Then you all sudden catapultedand fast forward all to 25 crews.
That's massive growth in a decade.
Talk about if we're talking aboutmaintenance here, talk about two to three
things that made you successful, madethe company successful in maintenance.
(10:11):
What are those few things thatyou've learned in a decade at
Oasis, but across your career?
So, when we talk strictly growth,the 1st thing that happens, we've
acquired 2 companies in the past 10years, both small, very, very small
mom and pop owner operated companies.
When you buy a company, you're buyingsome equipment that's pretty, but
(10:32):
it's just steel, but what you'rereally buying is team members that,
you know, that are trained andunderstand what our industry is.
It's hard to find those as youknow, and then you're buying a book
of that, you know, probably eight,70 to 80 percent of it really.
falls in line with your core clients.
But what it does is it opens thedoors to other property managers,
(10:54):
other HOAs, other businesses that youdidn't have without purchasing that.
So when we catapult over, we've had somegreat organic growth, but two acquisitions
also helps that in the past 10 years.
Yeah.
And let me jump in here, Ross.
This is fascinating because this goesback to what you originally said is
(11:14):
you took cruise from five to two and ahalf by efficiencies eliminating waste.
And when you buy a small mom andpop, we'll sort of use that term.
That's essentially what you'redoing at the same time, right?
You said, I can buy this group and I'mgoing to inherit these great people,
great managers, and great clients.
But we're going to become efficientand we're going to eliminate the waste.
(11:36):
And I feel like that's what you did again
Well, yeah.
Most of the time when you have a companythat's that size, they haven't figured
out they need all the processes yet that,you know, they, they still, the, the
owner operator, mom and pop, whatever youwanna say, they're still working on going
out and putting out fires themselves.
They're still turning onand off irrigation clocks.
(11:56):
Heck, one of the companies we purchased,the guy was still mowing yards on a
Saturday, has to keep his crews afloat.
With us, when they come involved, we cannot only offer those team members access
to stuff they don't have, whether it'sbetter benefits more time off, better
equipment, more the technology that weruns a lot nicer than some of those, cause
they just don't have, they can't, they'renot, they don't have the access quite yet.
(12:20):
And so we're able to offerthat to these team members.
And then that creates efficiency thatthey weren't able to see Bye hebing.
The growth and that andthat helps them quite a bit.
Yeah, what are a couple more?
You got an acquisitionthat helped you get to 25.
Is there any, any more thatyou would attribute to or any
processes that you, you reallysay this is, this is, was the key.
(12:42):
Yes.
So we run 2 branches, which we'vementioned before 2 branches, but
they're very different branches.
1 is a strictly commercialmaintenance branch.
And the other 1 is a heavier residential.
How we set them up.
Thanks to McFarland Stanford, actually,is we talked to some of your team
members and through our peer groupsand realized on our commercial side,
(13:05):
we can't have our account managers, wecall them CRM's, custom relationship
managers, also manage crews.
So we give them a book of business.
Their main goal is to work onrelationships, because again, it's
a relationship business workingrelationships, sell enhancements
to those, to that book of businesskeep client retention high.
(13:26):
And make sure that the propertieslook good enough that when we have our
business developers go try to sell,they have something they can go look at.
We split their roleand a field supervisor.
So field supervisors manage efficiency,safety, quality, trucks, and team members.
By splitting that their bandwidth makes.
everything exponentially faster.
(13:47):
Our guys can make sure theproperties look better.
They perform monthly auditson every single property.
Our enhancement goals went out the roof.
We find more touches on a property,sells more on the property.
So that alone, with a constant lineof communication, Helps quite a bit.
And that's driven that, you know,the branches to exponentially grow
because our clients understandwe're always have their back.
(14:10):
It doesn't matter what day itis, what time you have a customer
relationship manager who's goingto answer any of your questions.
I love it.
That's what we coached you all thetime is taking the account manager,
making them a relationship expert, thetouch point expert, the enhancement
sales, all of that managing the client.
And then the operations is handedoff to the team, the production team.
(14:32):
That's.
All the training, the hiring, thequality, executing the hours, all
those types of operational things.
Quite frankly, that's twodifferent types of people.
That's like left brain, right
It's, it's very different.
One has to be understand thatrelationships are very important.
The other one person justneeds to get stuff done.
(14:53):
And it's and the other thing bydoing that, it also gives our,
our team members out in the field.
They can see a growth path.
I can become a field supervisor andmanage teams of eight to ten crews.
Then after that we have anotherlevel and then you can get up to CRM.
So it's a growth path for all of ourteam members when they land with us.
Yeah, that's great.
That's kind of like, alittle bit difference in us.
(15:15):
I feel like you're morerelationship, right?
You're kind of likeaccount manager heavier.
On that side a little bit and I feellike I'm a little more dominant on
the operation side I feel like youand I would make a great combo.
I've got some relationship too, butit's driven through operations more
And I think you are driven more likelooking out for the client type deal.
(15:40):
So have you had to find someone that was?
Sort of a little bit different thanyour ways to sort of counterbalance
that sort of off that Operation side alittle bit more or how does that work?
Yes.
So one of our branches, we havea branch manager who does that.
He's an operational guy.
He's learned how to become relationship.
But we do.
(16:00):
We test everybody when they come through.
We try to figure out what they're good at.
They good in operations.
Are they good in relationships?
It is a different brain.
It is a very different brain.
I can do both.
I don't like operations.
I don't.
I have never enjoyed the operations side.
But, you know, you needboth to get stuff done.
And so way I look at this is if Iget metrics that are put in place
(16:24):
for operations to make sure they'reworking, I don't have to worry about it.
Just make sure you hit your metrics.
After that, you know, the restis I can mess with and spend
my time growing relationships.
Yeah.
So what kind of metrics areyou looking at in maintenance?
So obviously budgeted versusactual, that's the main thing.
Everybody knows that if you'rein the landscape industry.
It's how many hours did yousell and how long did it take
(16:46):
you to perform those hours?
We have a quality metric.
We look, we have an auditing system thatwe use for all of our account managers.
They go out, they audit theproperties once a month, that gets
sent down to the field supervisor.
So if they see anything thathas to be done the, they can
handle it with the crews.
We also, we're not shy about it.
We actually send thataudit to the customer.
(17:08):
And it doesn't matter if it calls us out.
If we have a weed that's four foot tallbehind the juniper bed, that picture
gets sent to the customer becausethat way they know we're out there.
We don't, we don't,we're not shy about it.
We'll let you know when we mess up.
And then the idea is by the time thenext audit runs around, you'll take
the same picture and that one's welltaken care, that area is taken care of.
(17:28):
So that's it.
We look at efficiency.
Of course, we look at enhancement salespenetration on your book of business.
Each account manager has a ratio they haveto hit based on the accounts they have.
Retention is extremely high.
Enhancement goals.
So you have an enhancement goal tosell, then we have to perform them.
(17:49):
We look at how much we'reperforming on enhancements per
month, on the maintenance side.
And we do the samething with design build.
So it's, you know, we're, it'smore of just making sure material
over and under that's important,but you really can't control that.
You hope you hit it most of thetime, you're not overbuying.
It's, you know, Labor is40 percent of our business.
So if we can save 3%, it goesright to the bottom line.
(18:12):
And when you're a maintenance company,it's the biggest part of the business.
And so how do you managelabor effectively?
Love it.
Got a couple little Detailed questionswith what you just mentioned here
Enhancement sales, how many enhancements,dollar value, what do you guys strive for?
Is it sort of seasonal base, likedepending on spring, summer, fall,
(18:35):
winter, you sell enhancements?
Is there a goal for each account manager?
How do you monitor thatalong the way to hit goals?
Like what do you, what are enhancementsales like in your organization?
So Atlanta is a little different market.
We don't get to include flowers,mulch, or pine straw in the contracts.
That's all after.
(18:55):
So we consider that anancillary enhancement.
That is an enhancement.
It's usually going to happen onthe property, whether our account
manager talks to them or not.
Most of the time, whether we had anaccount manager or not, they're going to
call, they're going to do pine straw twicea year, they're going to do flowers twice
a year, and they might do some mulch.
So we have two buckets.
We look at ancillary.
Okay.
And we look at true enhancements.
(19:15):
We budget for 2025 to say what monthswe know ancillaries are going to happen.
We know that in May, or well right afterEaster is usually when flowers go in.
We know October is when flowers go in.
Those two budget numbers get put in there.
And we expect our team to sell those.
July's pine straw, December'spine straw, we expect that.
(19:37):
Then we go back and we look at ourtrue enhancements, which are things
that are safety concerns on a property.
aesthetic concerns or, almost qualityconcerns, whether you have some sod
that's bare, some drainage areas,those are considered true enhancements.
And each account manager or CRMhas a ratio for their book of
(20:01):
business they're supposed to hit.
We try to say that we're going todo this month every single month.
It doesn't always happen.
We really look and go on average, we needthis much per month to hit our goals.
You might have an account manageras a whale of a month and the
other four are struggling and thenthey pick it up the next month.
It's just for the entire year.
How are we trending?
(20:21):
And we average about 40 to 50 percentpenetration on the book of business.
Wow.
Love it.
I, I have never heard of that.
I love the fact that you saidthese are like necessities.
That have to happen on our properties,which is really Anywhere in the country
you can imagine it's essential tofor your property It's not just like
(20:42):
mowing grass and call it a day and thenyou got another bucket that are truly
enhancements and I like have you breakit all down between safety aesthetic
quality type Things it's fascinatingstuff You mentioned the second branch.
We have to cover this thing thatthis second branch, I think a lot
of organizations really struggle,you know, for a lot of reasons.
(21:04):
Why is like, why a second branch?
Right.
So I want to learn about whyyou came to the conclusion.
Does it make sense?
Is it not?
At some point you had to say,oh my god, that's enough.
Something's got to change at some point.
And talk us through that sort oftransition into another branch.
The one thing that is extremelydifficult, Ross, is to continue
(21:26):
the culture of the second, third,and fourth branch, the same as the
mothership, I'll call it, in Atlanta.
That's the trickiest part.
How did you guys navigate through that?
So the second branch wasalmost out of happenstance.
We purchased a company that was, it was.
Right before all these M&A's were really happening.
So we're talking six or seven yearsago, we bought a company out there,
(21:49):
owner operator, we found out afterthe fact, we bought it on March 28th.
We found that after the fact, ifwe had not purchased it, he was
shutting the place down on April 1st.
So we bought.
For lack of a better word, a turd.
And it just, so not only were thecustomers not being taken care of,
the equipment wasn't taken care of,the team members were struggling to
(22:10):
figure out what their direction was.
When we bought it, I think we lost.
45 percent of the book ofbusiness because customers were
just so mad about a transition.
They weren't happy in the first place.
They sure as crap didn't want us on it.
And so we threw everything wecould heart soul dollars time.
(22:31):
So it wouldn't fail because wewere on the hook for the money.
It didn't matter.
We had to spend the money exactly.
So we did.
And so we lost 40 percent of thebook of business the first year.
And now it's It'll doabout half the revenue.
It'll split about right, right about halfof what the other branch does in revenue.
So between the two companies, itdoes about half the revenue, which is
(22:53):
great, but it's strictly maintenance,which the other branch is not.
The other branch is heavy in design build.
Bringing culture there was difficult.
Culture is one of those terms
everybody uses.
You can have great.
It is.
And so it's how do you turn it around?
And the other thing is, yougot to figure out who you have.
We realized real quickly.
The team members up there arenot the same nationality as the
(23:13):
team members at our other branch.
They think differently.
They party differently.
They pray every morning.
It's a very differentatmosphere than the other.
And if you go in guns a blazing,you're not going to get any buy in.
So we really sat around for three to sixmonths and just observed, just to see what
they were doing right, what we consideredthey were doing wrong, and then started
(23:35):
showing them why with us there can bemore reach and And of the, I think at
the time there was 12 team members, Ithink seven of them are still with us.
The rest have gone on to other things.
Two of them started their owncompanies, which we completely promote.
I mean, that's the American dream.
So go do it.
And for that matter, we send them businessthat is not in our ideal customer.
(23:59):
They were great in, in, inhelping us get to the next level.
Having a second branch spreads you thin.
I spend 60 percent of my week atone branch and it depends on which
branch it is during which week.
So it's a lot.
It's, it spreads you very thin.
What's, what the best thing we didwas get the right team members there.
(24:21):
We brought people from the main branchup there, And they, between account
managers, the branch manager, we showedthem that all of a sudden you have
another platform to grow faster, becauseif you're in the main branch, you have
a couple of people you've got to jumpover to get to where you want to be.
This is ground level and you showed, webelieved in some few key team members
(24:44):
and they've, they really shined for us.
And that branch, that branch is on trackto do really well in the next five years.
No, I love it.
I love it.
So it's all about the culture at theend of the day is getting it right.
And I love your, your point aboutobserve and why that's, that's like,
can we also do that in our own onebusiness or our one location, right?
(25:07):
Observe.
What's going on?
I use this analogy all the time that thegeneral manager that the gym I attend
uses the four corners of The gym andhe's always observing the four corners at
any given part of the day night eveningYou know because he has a an awareness
of what is going on at any given point.
He can see things that are not goingwell bottlenecks with certain equipment
(25:31):
here who's using what who's not andfigure out the reasons why we're here
because you got to continue this culture.
Across multiple
Um.
Um.
out of there makes a lot of sense.
I love it.
Well, what you do there is you'realso taking the team members that
(25:51):
you, you know, have invested timewith you and understand your culture.
And that way, you're not the dictator.
You've got other people that are havethe buy in and they're spreading the
buy in without you having to be there,which is, you know, what happens.
At a branch when you're notthere is truly what's going on.
And so to have other people therethat had the same culture, the same
(26:12):
drive the same mantra of manage peoplein a managed process, lead people.
It's really, really important.
So everybody's on the same page andhaving extra people who understand that
put into the other branch really helps.
We did buy a 3rd or 2ndcompany or 2 years ago.
And we took that branchand we moved it over.
So we had three branches for abouta year which that's even more, and
(26:37):
the branch wasn't big enough tosustain itself, so we combined them.
So are you there or do you need toget there as far as managing the
home base location versus the branch?
There's a lot of same metricsthat have to be watched.
Like you mentioned budget versusintellectual and all that.
Can you see those metrics afar?
(26:58):
So say you're you're atyour home base office.
Are you aware what's going on remotely?
Or do you got to physically gothere to see how things are doing?
No, we can, I mean, we use aspire.
So everybody and a lot of peoplein the green industry is aspire.
We've got metrics put in placethat we can manage both branches.
I mean, I hop off the call with you today.
I can see how the branch is doing.
(27:20):
It's again, just putting stuff inplace that you don't have to be
physically on site to But there arestill we have a status meeting every
Monday that for the entire branch,everybody's everybody gets in there.
Everybody explains what'sgoing on their life.
We still have one on ones, whichMcFarland Stanford coaches.
We do all that, but you can stillremotely see how the branch is going.
(27:43):
What you can't do is you can't remotely.
feel how culture is.
And so you still have to get there,walk around, see what's in the air,
talk to people, see how their week'sgoing, see what's hurting them.
And half the time it's me, I'mbottlenecking something and I
don't even realize I'm doing it.
But trying to, metrics are one thing,but you still have to spend the time to,
(28:06):
love it.
That's great stuff I noticed youguys do residential commercial
clients A little tricky.
I would imagine, you know, it's, it's notbeen like the most easiest process talk
about I've got plenty of clients are likemaybe heavily in residential or heavily in
commercial and they want to dabble in it.
They're just not sure.
Tell me about that experienceand how you guys have been able
(28:28):
to build a company with both.
started off as residential.
That 2nd branch that we bought,they had a church and that was
the 1st foray into commercial.
It was a very large mega church.
They were doing.
We lost the church right after covid.
Or right coming out about COVID.
(28:48):
And I was, I cried.
I physically cried.
I was so, it was thebiggest account we had.
And if I was honest with you, we werelosing our butt on it, but it was, it was
something to say that we did that churchin that area and we could put on our
resume, we had that church, losing that.
What happened shortlythereafter was we had a HOA.
(29:08):
It was a gentleman who was on HOA board.
He stopped us and said, I can't do this.
I thought I could.
Can you bail us out?
We went over there.
We bailed him out.
The property manager had didn'twant anything to do with us.
He hated us.
And then we won himover and a year's time.
Of his 15 properties, we weremanaging 13 of them and then got
(29:29):
into it and blew it up and gotbigger and bigger and bigger based on
relationships and doing a good job.
And doing that got us the commercialside built up relatively quickly.
Residential we try to turn everyone of our because we have a
heavy design building residential.
We try to turn 1 of those every 1of those into a maintenance customer
(29:49):
and then just word of mouth.
If I was honest, we are not promotingresidential maintenance because
we find the enhancements are toodifficult at a certain level.
tier.
When you get a certain point,you know, that, that can ends
up being a little better.
So we are transitioning the book ofbusiness to be more of a state homes and
(30:11):
commercial projects as we get larger.
But we also know we got to pay bills.
And so we keep these customers happy.
We've had customers for 10, 15, 20 years.
We will continue to do the yards.
We will never say goodbye to them as longas they stay, you know, happy with us.
It's just a different,it's different managed.
Our Atlanta branch, the crews aremanaged by their account manager.
(30:34):
So there's, they manage the crewand the, and a property, but they
manage a smaller book of business.
So it's about a third of the sizeand, but it's a lot more hands on
and it's decisions are quicker.
You get paid faster in residentialbut the dollars and the longevity
in the commercial world makes sense.
(30:54):
I think as we, as COVID shows you, theservice sector is not going anywhere.
People will still alwayshave to have their yard cut.
It's just making sure that theyfit in with us as a company.
Our margins are very small inmaintenance, which most people understand.
It's how much other extras they'regoing to pay to have us do.
And we make sure that that margin isthe right level for us as a company.
(31:18):
Yeah.
So there's a myth out there.
You hit it earlier.
You can't make money on maintenance.
What are you doing?
Right?
That's that whole, like you're notgoing to make money on mowing grass.
That is a load of BS.
I'm tired of hearing about it.
Residential or commercial.
Okay.
So tell me about this.
You became profitable.
(31:39):
Oasis is profitable.
Maintenance.
Along with enhancements, but you gottamake money in maintenance you can also
make lots more money in enhancements.
Tell me about that.
Yeah, so it goes backto budget versus actual.
We manage that with our team.
We have to, every team memberknows every single month.
January one shows up.
Here's how many hoursyou have for the year.
(32:00):
Here's how you're trending per month.
And our team knows to look at that.
You know, if it's, if we get halfwaythrough the year and we realize we're
not going to hit it, we'll go backto the customer and say, this is why
we're not doing it, it can be thatit was bid with a large lawnmower and
Miss Sally comes out and says, I hatethe large lawnmower where you do a
push more, where our teams out there.
We'll make the customer happy.
They will start cuttingthe R with a push mark.
(32:21):
What they won't understand isthat will blow our budgeted hours.
And so, so we'll go back and saywe have no problem doing that, but
it's going to cost you X, Y, Z.
We analyze, we make sure thatthe properties are profitable.
Our margins are small.
We, we, oh, and the maintenanceworld margins are relatively smaller.
You can't be competitive.
(32:43):
So it's making sure that we understandour margins, understand how we're bidding
and then track what we bid and we dothat on residential and commercial.
And then we make sure that we havean enhancement pot and that's a
separate budgeted versus actual,you've got to watch and make sure,
cause it can bleed from both.
yes.
Love it Okay, I got something foryou You're a relationship guy through
(33:07):
and throughout Kind of funny storyThis is gonna get a little little
weird, but it's a great story.
I think how I got introduced to you Ithink we were like at the same place our
wives were together Drinking some wine andhaving fun and the story goes like this I
had a procedure done at the end of a year.
(33:29):
Yeah, you did.
Yeah.
And let's say that procedure was going tohappen because I've already met my quota.
And it needs to happen and youcaught wind and said, yeah, I got it.
I've done that too.
Cool.
Sounds good.
And a little care package showedup at my doorstep one day because
you were a little sneaky behindthe scenes, contacted my wife.
(33:51):
I got a care package.
Listen, I don't receive anythinglike that from anyone ever.
But I thought it was the most hilariousthing that I had ever seen in my life.
And I've shared that story toprobably no less than a dozen
people across the, my travels.
Mind you being so funny about yousending me this care package, but
most importantly, Ross, it was likesomething to do with a relationship.
(34:15):
Like we connected, wehave a lot in common.
We're goofballs.
You know, we like to have a good time.
We work really hard.
You're very relationship driven.
Expand on some of that, why youdo this and why it's part of you.
It's just your natural tone.
You're always saying happy birthday to the
case the
(34:38):
what the hell's going on?
Why does that mean so much to you?
It goes back to how I wasraised my mom and dad.
My dad was from the Jersey shore.
My mom was from a farmand Cochran, Georgia.
Yeah, you're telling me
so.
Very, very,
very good.
show.
Yeah, no, it wasn't.
It was, it was the nicerpart of the Jersey Shore.
(35:00):
And then my mom was, you know, cowtipping and farms in Cochran, Georgia.
So very different upbringingbetween the two of them.
My dad was a sales guy.
for international shipping companies.
So it was alwaysrelationship based with him.
I always saw that growing up.
My mom actually sold for Oxford,which is a clothing line.
And she's, she was shipping stuffin my dad's containers across
(35:21):
the country, across the ocean.
And they basically taughtme it's not who you are.
It's who, you know, and, and learningthat, as long as you're genuine in what
you're doing, building relationships is.
It's almost easy.
You just got to say helloand be nice to people.
(35:42):
And once a while, catch him offguard with some funny gifts.
It make I remember learning whenI was younger, receiving a gift
is fun, but giving it and seeingsomebody's smile is even better.
And whether it's a.
You know, just paying a tab.
and junior year of prom, there was a,we were, there were 10 people and there
was a couple sitting in the room andthey were all dressed to the nines,
(36:04):
I mean, full and they were in theirlate eighties and she was wearing
a gown and he was wearing a tux.
The guy comes over to give us thebill and he says that couple over
there took care of your bill.
They come in here every year andthey take care of a bill for somebody
because somebody did it for them.
And I remember in junior year thinkingI want to be able to do that because
that's the type of giving that'sunforeseen that We had no idea was
(36:28):
coming and has lasted a lifetime.
I mean, I still talk aboutthat story to this day.
So creating an impact like that onsomebody's life, a little dumb care
package has become a funny story.
Yeah.
And it, it goes a long way andit makes it so you're memorable
(36:48):
without being memorable.
And I like that.
And I always have.
And it makes people feel good.
I mean, this world is somessed up in so many ways.
And I let, let somebody feelgood for 30 seconds for, what,
42 I think I spent on you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
it's fun to
It's an appreciationat the end of the day.
That's what we've done.
You know, we were picking upa tab a couple years ago for
(37:10):
our crossing guard lady at ourelementary school that my kids go to.
And she's out there 150 degrees.
or one degree rain,sleet, snow, you name it.
Making sure the safety of those kids getacross the street to school every day.
We saw her at a restaurant.
Wife's like, we're going to come tothe tab and we're going to walk away.
(37:31):
That's it.
Like, she's so appreciative totake care of our kids like that.
That those types of things just kindof like are expected now these days.
It's just an expectation.
But later we did tell her that wasus, you know, at some point, but
that that's the level of care andtradition that I really believe in.
And it's not just personal, butit's in business along the ways.
(37:53):
Those relationships go onforever and ever and ever.
I just think that if I take care of thepeople around me, even if it's given this
and an old cliche, give the shirt offyour back, it doesn't have to do that.
Just listening, give us some time.
And I remember when my.
I, I had, I haven't through a reallyrough patch of my life and one of my
(38:13):
best friends got up and I know you'rea gym rat and he got up with me every
morning at five 30 and we worked out fromfive 30 to seven and as I came out of
that rough patch, I said to him, I waslike, I really appreciate you getting
up with me and he goes, I hate it.
Getting up in the morning.
I couldn't stand it, but you neededsomebody for you and I was there for you.
(38:35):
And then a year and a halfgoes by and he went through a
rough patch and I was there.
And it's one of those that you, if yousurround yourself with people who will do
that for you, life becomes a lot easier.
And you know, whether it's a smallgift or a phone call or, you know,
a peer or a peer group member, oreven a competitor in the industry.
(38:58):
If you need something i've got iti'm going to help you because there's
going to be a day when I call andyou'll answer The phone for me and
that if you can live by that the doorsseem to open a lot easier for you
I love it.
Good stuff.
So I got, I got, as we sort of wrap uphere, I got a couple more things for you.
Yeah,
Tons of notes tons of notes.
I'm going to do a few Tommy's takeawaysa little little tease here, right?
(39:20):
So
Yeah
involved in and translatingyour business into Oasis.
So love that side.
Your idea of eliminating waste inmaintenance is awesome because it
(39:42):
comes down to budget versus actual.
I like the small acquisitions of thesmall guys inheriting good team members.
And I love this enhancement type deal.
More touches equal more sales.
So it's a once a month property auditwith an accountability checklist that the
(40:02):
entire company sees and the client seesto hold each other accountable and see
the progress of that maintenance client.
100 percent agree with that.
Also love your idea of enhancement salesbetween the must have ancillary type
sales And the awesome like enhancementsales that are needed throughout
(40:23):
the year for safety concerns qualitycontrol It can be drainage issues.
It could be party prep those typesof things Budget versus actual and
maintenance has to happen There'snot enough said there the second
branch my summary of the secondbranch is culture and metrics
That's
(40:43):
it.
culture, a good culture, andyou've got to have metrics.
Otherwise, you can't have thatremote or second or third location.
No, we haven't figured it all out.
Trust me.
I got an email yesterday about somethingthat we're still working on that is
a metric and it is about culture.
And, you know, it's we, we arestill struggle on day to day stuff.
(41:05):
But at least if you have a corethat, you know, that we're going
to take care of each other and weknow we have to have these metrics
to figure out what we're doing.
You can build on that again.
It's managing processes and leadingpeople and leading people as
culture and processes as metrics.
If you manage process and leadpeople, you can figure that out.
Culture, metrics, and processes.
Just give me that all daylong and I'm going to sign up.
(41:28):
I love it.
Ross, any sort of lessonslearned, takeaways?
There's a lot of goodat the very end of that.
It's about relationship based.
Anything I'm forgetting, anywords of wisdom, advice What's
something that you live and die by?
Again, it's all about people.
We are in a relationship business, andthe relationships aren't just with our
(41:49):
customers, it's with our team members.
At our Atlanta branch, there are fourlandscape companies within a half a mile.
Four.
And so anybody can leave ouroffice and go left or right, And
go work at a different company.
Why do they keep coming back to us?
And so there was an old ourwedding photographer owns a
(42:09):
very large camera company.
And he used to say, if you took careof your customers and you take care of
your team members, the profit will come.
If you lose sight on those two,and then we got even more granular.
We decided customers chooseto come to you, but team
members choose to come to you.
So you better have yourteam members, right?
(42:30):
So they understand tomake the customer, right?
And in that way, the more customers come.
So if you focus back on cultureand it's not gimmicks, it's true.
You know, how do theyfeel when they show up?
It's not, Oh, we have a prettier shirtor a nicer hat or, or a bag clip.
We put on, on You know tortilla chips.
It's what do we do that they want tocome hang out with us instead of the
(42:52):
three other companies down the street.
yeah,
If you're true to that,everything becomes a lot easier.
So it's just excuse me.
It's just taking care of the teammembers and then making sure they
understand that they have a voice.
They have area to grow.
And then the rest just kind of falls inplace and you're going to make mistakes.
And, you know, You know, our biggestthing is every one of us makes mistakes
(43:15):
is how fast we get up and fix them.
And whether that's a customer or ateam member Hell i've got so much crap.
I got to figure out in the next 10 days.
And so it's but it's You know,if you're not making mistakes,
you're not trying and and I and wekeep learning We have good years.
We've had bad years.
Koba was great and kovatstunk at the same time.
(43:36):
yeah,
We're excited to see what thenext 10 years show for oasis
that's great.
I people, people, people.
It's your number one asset.
It's not the piece of equipment.
It's not the facility.
It's not.
It is the people, the team thatyou have built, take care of them.
And what a better situation.
Put yourself in Ross'sshoes at Oasis and go.
(43:58):
I'm within minutes of four competitorsleft or right as you exact if you
manage your business to that level.
I mean, they have to be good atculture and good at building teams and
taking care of people along the way.
Otherwise they don't have anything.
So it's a mandatoryitem in their business.
So think about your business andgoing, if I go left or right, within
(44:22):
a couple of minutes, they can goanywhere they would ever want to.
So keep them from leaving.
We got to build a great team thateveryone rose in the same direction.
Good stuff.
Good stuff.
man.
I appreciate the
Yeah.
Ross.
It's been a pleasure, bud.
You're a good friend of mine.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this great morning.
Lots of great content andwe'll see you soon, buddy.
(44:44):
great time.
See you soon, man
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