As a landscape business entrepreneur, it can be extremely valuable to learn from your peers, regardless of their age. On a recent episode of the Landscape Disruptors podcast, host Stanley Genadek sat down with up-and-coming landscape business owner, Garett Williams of G&M Outdoor Services, to discuss methodical business expansion strategies and what it is like to juggle school and entrepreneurship at the same time.
Below are some of the 2021 landscape business tips that Garrett and Stanley believe will be integral to the success of any land and landscape business owner heading into the new year.
Garrett Williams: A Landscaping Wunderkind
Most landscape business entrepreneurs start their land and landscape business after they graduate from high school or college, but not Garrett. At only 17, he had taken the money he had saved up during his summer contracting jobs and filed to become an LLC alongside his sister, Marlena. Starting with just $3000, Garrett was able to gross over $48,000 in his first summer of operation. He even continued to run the business during the fall and winter while he was still attending school.
Defying all the odds, Garrett has been able to establish a prominent landscape and hardscape business enterprise with three professionally trained crews all, before turning 21. After his third year of operation, the 20-year-old landscape business entrepreneur is projecting to hit a revenue benchmark of between $1 – 1.2 million.
How to Become a Successful Landscape Business Entrepreneur
So, how did he do it? How did Garrett take $3000 and turn it into $1 million in the course of only three years? Here are some 2021 landscape business tips that you can take from Garrett’s success as a young landscape business entrepreneur.
Network Wherever Possible
When you first launch your land and landscape business, you have no leads and no clients. The two things that fuel your business and your success. What Garrett did to overcome this obstacle is network with other landscape business entrepreneurs. At first, this seems counterintuitive. But there are always jobs landscape companies are unable to do. This can be for a variety of reasons. Either the job is too far or it involves an area that they are not equipped to handle. To this day, Garrett continues to network as much as possible.
Establish a Professional Payroll System Early
A payroll system was one of the first things Garrett set up with his sister when they started the business. This is because professional habits and infrastructure are what allow your business to scale. By hiring an accountant, G&M was able to establish a payment channel that followed tax standards and effectively monitored costs. Prioritizing the back-end of the business made it easier to focus on the front-end work since it was easier to identify profitable and non-profitable areas.
Managing Expansion
Using an established payroll and accounting system allows a landscape business entrepreneur to better manage their profitability. This sort of information is invaluable when it comes to growing your workforce. You should never add crews or contractors if you are currently unprofitable. A good corporate structure allows you to profitably scale at every stage of development.
From generating leads to developing payroll infrastructure, Garrett has utilized his years of experience in the landscape industry to grow his landscape business the right way. But sometimes, implementing these practices can be expensive and time-consuming for landscape business entrepreneurs to tackle all on their own. In addition to hiring back-end staff, it might be useful to leverage an existing payroll model to manage and grow your land and landscape business.
If you want to establish a scalable, cloud-based payroll system, LMN has you covered. Using the LMN Time app, you can eliminate all the obstacles associated with paper-recorded payroll. Start growing your business the right way and try out LMN Free today.
