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After six years in business, Bill Leidecker, CLP, president of Five Seasons Landscape Management, Inc., in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, understands the meaning of slow, controlled growth. He just does not choose to practice it. In its first year in business, his new company brought in $250,000 in landscape maintenance revenue. Today, it generates nearly 15 times that figure.

“Growing slow has its merits,” says Leidecker. “It helps cash flow, puts less stress on employees, and keeps everyone sane.” At the same time, this former ChemLawn employee believes in the axiom, “Strike while the iron is hot.” He explains, “When you have an opportunity to take on new business, the salesperson in me finds it extremely difficult to sit back and wait until some future date when we are ’perfectly’ positioned to handle it. We have been successful in the past in managing multiple priorities that allow us to take advantage of timing.”

    

Leidecker worked for ChemLawn for nine years and left after the company was acquired by TruGreen. Five years later, having spent most of that time in the insurance industry, he decided to opt out of corporate life and do something on his own. He wanted back into the landscape industry, so he founded Five Seasons. The new owner brought in his friends Steve Woods and John Forrester, and both are still with the company. Woods is a co-owner and vice president of operations; Forrester is senior production supervisor.

    

Five Seasons started out in commercial maintenance, a market that is still the company’s mainstay. Opportunity, though, has caused the owners to revisit their original game plan and to look for new growth in landscape installation and residential maintenance. Like other landscape contractors in the northern reaches of the country, the company offers snow removal to help cash flow, a proposition dependent on Mother Nature’s whims.  The lack of a dependable “fourth season” makes one wonder why the owners invented another one with their name.

    

“From the very beginning, people have inquired about the ‘fifth’ season,” says Leidecker. “I knew that people had to be thinking about the name if they were asking questions about it. This reinforced my belief that it was a winner. And a name like mine does not belong on the side of a truck.” 

     

Quick Start  

    

Leidecker attributes his company’s fast start to building on past relationships that he had developed while working with ChemLawn. “People knew me and had confidence in me,” he recalls. “All we did was call upon those past relationships to get our foot in the door. We then had to prove ourselves.” He continues, “There is no secret to this business; it is a people business. Personal integrity and relationships are critical. As a service company, if you are in a situation where relationships are not important or meaningful, then you are probably bidding for work. Bidding usually, not always, equates to the lowest price. In that situation, the job becomes transactional. We are focused on the long-term relationships. We want to do business with clients who care about us, too.”

 

As the company grew, so did the challenges. Immediately, people became an issue. Although relationships and reputation provided the fuel for growth, employees would drive the company. “In 1999, our biggest challenge was finding people,” Leidecker remembers. “Sure, we advertised, but we were unknown in the area, and response to our ads was under-whelming.” However, the lack of people did not discourage growth; it just made for longer days. Since those early days, the company has assumed a higher profile within the community. Developing a reputation as a good place to work helped the recruiting effort, as did having a new shop and business location on Interstate 70. According to Leidecker, employees do most of the company’s recruiting today, and the quality of individuals has gone up dramatically.  Assistance also comes from having a new Web Site and fostering a relationship with the Landscape Department of Columbus State Community College.

    

Finding and retaining good employees can be a challenge for most any contractor, says Leidecker, noting that emerging contractors will likely go through different stages when looking for people. “When first starting out in business, owners are on crews and, therefore, need employees who can follow directions and get the work done. Later on, as the owners separate from frontline duties, they need more thinkers, people who can make the right decisions. Our growth has been dependent on developing our people from doers into thinkers. Currently, every crew leader with Five Seasons has been promoted from within.”

    

Analogies

 

For this contractor, growth brings to mind two analogies. First, he likens the recruiting process to a baseball team that develops most of its players within its farm system and then, from time to time, will go on the free agency market to bring in a new talent. Just like in baseball, the players who make up the best team are usually the most successful.

    

Then, he says, growth also brings with it an inherent loss of control, not unlike trying to get your arms around a tree. “When a tree is young, you can wrap your arms around it and actually clasp your hands together. Later on, as it grows, you may be able to touch only your fingers. Eventually the tree grows so big that you cannot get your arms around it; there will be gap.” Good systems and employees, he emphasizes, are needed to make the gap comfortable. 

    

Five Seasons is at the “gap” stage where continued growth is dependent on finding and training more good people. The owners are up to the challenge, as recruiting and training have become ongoing priorities. “We did not train consistently until recently,” Leidecker admits. “The best companies train year-round, and we consider ourselves to be a great company. It was time that we not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. We can only expect our people to make good decisions if we give them the training to do so. It is so logical that we missed it.” 

    

Aggressive growth remains part of Five Seasons’ long-range plan. The owners look to eventually double the size of their company. Not all landscape contractors want to grow as fast as Five Seasons Landscape has. Some choose, instead, to practice the more manageable slow, controlled growth approach. The point of difference between the two approaches has more to do with personal goals than anything else. Yet, they both share a common trait — relationships. Solid relationships with customers and employees are keys to a successful company, no matter what size it is.

 

3/04

 

By Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer