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Life is good for Debby Cole, CCLP, TCLP, and her Austin-based company, Greater Texas Landscapes, Inc. Business is booming, the company has an aggressive growth plan in place, and the owner wakes up every morning excited about going to work. Cole’s company also has a well-defined market niche, commercial maintenance, and a list of 200 very satisfied clients.

“I think our success today is based in large part on knowing what we do well and continually striving to make improvements,” says Cole, whose company looks to nudge the $5 million mark in sales this year. “In our business in this market, it is not about being the best horticulturist, although I believe we are very good at what we do; it is more about taking care of our clients. Maintenance may be a commodity, but service is not. Customers value us because we look after them and their landscapes.”

Her business philosophy is well-grounded in 25 years of experience, one that has seen her leave a teaching profession to start and then guide a company through more than two decades of change.

Small beginnings

After graduating from Texas A & M with a master’s degree in landscape horticulture, Cole taught a vocational education horticulture class in Austin. “I ran the class like it was a business,” she recalls. “We had several greenhouses, and students sold plant material that they had grown. I enjoyed the class, especially the business aspect of it, but I was teaching on a temporary certificate. I was certified to teach history and science and was later offered a position to teach high school biology and physics. It was something I did not want to do. In fact, I found out quickly that I would rather be in business for myself than teach.”

In October 1981, Cole and a friend started a small residential design/build company in Austin. They rented an office for $200 a month. “We subbed out the installation on our first project, and that was the only time we used a subcontractor,” Cole remembers. “After that, we designed projects in the evening hours and installed them during the day.”

The partners decided to each draw $1,000 a month in salary and generate enough work to make it happen. They did. The following year, they completed their first commercial design and installation project and later helped the city develop a landscape ordinance for commercial properties.

The ordinance ushered in a boom period for commercial installation projects in Austin, one that lasted until the bust of the late 1980s. In the meantime, Cole bought out her partner and started to transition the company away from the residential market and toward providing maintenance services for commercial clients. In 1986, she purchased a two-acre plot of land and worked out of a house there until 2000 when the company moved to a former nursery site. It has since established a small second location 20 miles outside of the city.

This year, Greater Texas Landscapes, Inc., projects $4.8 million in sales, 85 percent of which would come from commercial maintenance, enhancements, and irrigation service work and the remainder from upgrades in the high-end residential and small-scale commercial market.
Different clients, similar needs

Cole’s client list includes city and suburban office locations, retail and industrial sites, and residential communities. On any given day, she will talk with or e-mail property managers, building owners, facility managers, and elected board members for homeowner associations. “Everyone is unique with different expectations,” says Cole, referring to her customers. At the same time, she points out that they are all similar because they are relationship driven. They want to be assured that a service provider understands their needs and will deliver on them.
“I am always surprised when I hear contractors say that they routinely walk the site with a property or facility manager,” Cole relates. “For most of our customers, walking a site would be out of the question. They simply do not have that kind of time available.”

She continues, “I believe clients value our service because we look after them as well as their landscapes. We know what they want when they want it. For us, being successful is all about building relationships and communicating at both the individual and group level.”

At the group level, Greater Texas Landscapes, Inc., is an active member of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW), the Community Associations Institute (CAI), and area real estate groups, among other organizations. Three times a year, the company invites 750 people on its promotion list to attend a “happy hour,” and it even caters lunch and breakfast to companies.

“Property managers are so busy today that finding time for a business lunch can be difficult, so we take lunch to them,” says Cole. “It is painless for them and gives us a chance to sit down with an engineer, administrative assistant, and a facility or property manager without the logistics and time associated with going to a restaurant.”

Defining moments

When asked to what she attributes her success, Cole points to two character traits that have served her well over the years — a knack for finding the right people at the right time and relying heavily on advice and counsel from others.

“Success is defined more by the people who work with you than by your own actions,” she relates. “I have been fortunate over the years to have the right people at the right time working with me. The reality is that people come and go in a company, but having the right individuals on board at the right time with the ability to assess an organization’s immediate needs is essential to success.

“Similarly, I have never been afraid to ask for advice. In fact, I have a large network of friends and mentors whom I rely on every day. I am constantly asking questions and listening and have always been a big supporter of bringing in outside consultants for their perspective.” Cole is also a member of a peer group that gets together three times a year to share best practices and other ideas.

This landscape contractor, though, does not spend a lot of time thinking about her past achievements and successes, or the fact that accounts that range in size from $6,000 to $250,000 a year have a 94 percent retention rate. Being successful is not about yesterday, Cole emphasizes. It is about tomorrow and she is making plans to make the most of what lies ahead.
Cole has committed her company to what she describes as “an aggressive five-year growth plan” and is laying the groundwork to transform Greater Texas Landscape, Inc., into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) company. In the meantime, it is business as usual — listening to what her clients, employees, and mentors have to say.