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When asked what his key to success has been after nearly 40 years in the business, Ron Kujawa, CCLP, president of Kujawa Enterprises, Inc. (KEI) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, says simply “client service.” He notes, ”We have tried to make life easier and more convenient for our clients from the very beginning. That was one of our goals when my brother and I ran a combination beverage distributing business and flower and feed store in the mid-1960s. It was one of the reasons I was retained for our first full-scale landscape contracting job, and I believe it is one of the primary reasons our company has had the success it has over the years.”      

Kujawa’s start in the industry was a bit different from most landscape contractors. He went to work in his father’s distributorship and flower and feed outlet in the early 1960s, and when his father died suddenly, he and his brother assumed control of the business. “At the time, we concentrated primarily on growing the distributorship part of the operation, investing heavily in new equipment,” he remembers. “When we took over, our sales were about $250,000 annually, and within two years, we raised that figure to $2.5 million. We did it by becoming the one-stop shop for customers, carrying all the major brands. We made it convenient for our customers to buy from us, and they did.”

    

The Kujawa brothers ran the business for two years until union pressure caused their suppliers to restrict their activities in order to avoid a major strike. The year was 1966, and Ron’s brother took that opportunity to return to teaching. Kujawa kept his ties to the beverage industry for a year, working for one of the city’s breweries, but the corporate life did not fit his personality, and he retuned to the feed and grain store, eventually transforming it into lawn and garden and power equipment retail outlet.

 

Big Break

    

Kujawa was introduced to the landscaping business when a major utility contractor asked him for a tool that would facilitate laying sod. When he delivered the tool, he noticed how inept the installers were. After making that observation to the utility contractor, he was asked to do the installation. Ron took him up on the opportunity, hired three high school students, and set out to complete the job.

    

“People in the neighborhood were annoyed with the previous contractor because it was taking so long for them to install the new landscaping,” says Ron. “One of the first things I did was to go door to door, explaining to them that I was the new person on the block who was going to rectify the situation. I did just that to the best of my ability, and the utility started getting compliments about our work. Within two years, we were doing 50 percent of the utility’s soft restoration, and a year later, we had its entire restoration package.”

    

In regard to his initial success, Kujawa notes, “It was client service — nothing more, nothing less.” Converting a former distribution business into a landscape contracting company was a different story, however. “Bankers did not look too kindly on our $85,000 in negative assets (a result of leaving the beer business) when I asked for money to buy tractors, trailers, and new truck bodies,” he recalls. “More than one banker thought the best way to start a new business was to declare bankruptcy, but I told them I would not do that. Finally, one banker loaned me $18,000 on a handshake.”

    

Kujawa emphasizes that, second only to delivering what the client wanted, his early success hinged in large part on having a great banking relationship, noting that his business did not truly take off until it procured the necessary capital and, later, the line of credit to prime the pump. His next hurdle was finding the right customer and service mix. In the early 1970s, his company won the contract to maintain 29 schools in West Allis and West Milwaukee. The contract gave him insight into school and municipal work, one of his company’s mainstays ever since. It also entrenched him further into landscape maintenance.

 

“I have always liked the repeat business and opportunities for enhancement associated with landscape maintenance,” he relates. “Over the years, I have found that maintenance is the engine pulling our train. We wanted to become even more valuable to our customers, and providing maintenance gave us that opportunity.”

 

Customer Convenience

   

Today, providing maintenance services accounts for 55 percent of KEI’s annual revenue, and it has helped it evolve into a full-service, four-season company. A list of KEI’s other landscape management services includes parking lot sweeping, snow removal, industrial weed control, irrigation system repair, interior plantscaping, and both interior and exterior holiday decorating. The company also offers full color change out for customers, a service that keeps six trucks and crews busy all summer long.

    

“To make it convenient for customers, we will provide almost any service that is ancillary to our landscape management business, he adds. “We will even patch potholes, and if we cannot provide the requested service ourselves, we have relationships with contractors who can.”

    

Kujawa says that his competitive nature and the fact he never really learned to quit probably added to his company’s success — so, too, did his unwavering allegiance to his own core values. “I have always felt that if you know yourself and remain faithful to your core values, despite changing times and strategies, a person can succeed.” Sharing his success with employees has been fundamental to building one of the top landscape management companies in Milwaukee.

    

“I ended up in this business by accident,” he emphasizes, “but it has provided my family with a good livelihood. It just goes to show that success is not totally dependent on having a base of knowledge or particular expertise before entering a field.” In Ron Kujawa’s case, it was a matter of knowing his strengths, gaining an understanding of his customers, and providing excellent service — nothing more, nothing less.

 

12/03

 

By Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer