A best-case scenario for any businessperson is to be in a business that is also a passion. A worst-case scenario for any businessperson is to be in a business that is also a passion. If you are passionate about your business, then you understand the dichotomy. Your heart may not always lead you to a profitable end. Bruce Moore, Sr., CCLP, president and founder of Eastern Land Management, Inc., in Stamford, Connecticut, found that out when his enthusiasm for renovating and constructing golf courses nearly put his operation in the rough. That was back in the early 1990s, shortly after an economic downturn slowed his commercial maintenance and installation business. “We wanted to diversify; we needed to diversify,” he recalls. “Golf course renovation was an exciting market, one for which I had a passion. We started renovating courses and actually constructed a couple of them. The business brought in good revenue, and then we hit the proverbial wall at the $1.5 million mark.”    

Moore says part of the problem was that his company did not have good management reporting systems in place and also lacked an effective training program. Added to his financial and personnel challenges was a lack of focus. Getting the golf course division up and running distracted him from his company’s mainstay — commercial maintenance. The owner made an executive decision. He dropped the golf course business and refocused on maintenance. To facilitate the move, he brought in a consultant who helped develop a sound pricing strategy and implement tracking and training systems. Bingo! The company took off, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I have had more learning experiences than I cared to have,” says Moore, who graduated in 1973 with a degree in business management. After working a couple of years for Bartlett Tree Expert Company as a manager trainee, he started his own company in Stamford. “My wife’s uncle operated a pool company, and he helped me by sending out letters introducing my company,” adds Moore, noting that, like other startup contractors, he started out with a small truck and a couple of mowers. The residential market, though, did not appeal to him, and when the area experienced incredible commercial growth from a New York business exodus, he changed gears and targeted corporate accounts.

At the time, in the early 1980s, there was not nearly as much competition in the commercial maintenance market as there is today. Furthermore, remembers Moore, corporate clients were shocked to see a landscape contractor walk into their offices dressed in a suit and tie. “The professional look was part of my business training,” he relates. “I picked up a couple of key accounts and grew fairly rapidly until the bust later in the decade.”

Looking back, this contractor admits to making a few rookie mistakes. Spending too much time in his new golf course venture was a significant one, but it was magnified by not having people and systems in place. Yes, he had some of the systems in his head, but he had no way to implement them because he was working in and not on his business. To make matters worse, Moore was ignoring that part of the operation that got him to where he was.”

The refocusing paid off. His company took off in the mid 1990s, again with a sharp focus on maintenance. Today, Eastern Land Management brings in $2.5 million in revenue, almost exclusively from commercial maintenance. During the busy season, employee rolls grow to 35 people.

After nearly 30 years in business, Moore hangs his success on more than the education he received from the “school of hard knocks.”  As he puts it, “I think one of my most important attributes has been perseverance. I wanted to succeed and would not be dissuaded from it. I also think my business training helped when I needed it the most. It eventually dawned on me that this is a business and that the golf course diversion was detracting from making it profitable. It goes without saying that, to be successful, you need to have a pricing strategy, a system to measure performance, and a training program in place. It just took me a while to come to that realization. Furthermore, I think any single owner needs to rely on consultants, if for no other reason than to be able to bounce ideas off them. Yes, they are expensive, but they will become valuable business partners.”

Eastern Land Management is grooming another partner today. Like his father, Bruce Moore, Jr., is getting a degree in business and has plans to assume control of the company one day. When that day comes, he will have a wealth of experience on which to build and his own in-house consultant.  Just the right amount of passion and a lot of perseverance is all that he needs to carry on a successful tradition.

5/04

By Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer