Roll call! Meet & introduce yourself to other Green & Exterior Service pros
If you’ve ever thought, “How are other businesses like mine handling this?” you’re in the right place! This space is for Green & Exterior Service pros to connect, compare notes, and talk shop with others who understand the day-to-day realities of running your type of business. 👋 Introduce Yourself Drop a comment and tell us: Your name Business name Industry Years in business Location (City/State/Province) Let us know if you’re joining us for LIVE networking on March 17 (more details below) The more context you share, the better connections you’ll make. 🙌 Pro tip: Search your city or state in the forum to easily find other pros in your area. 📅 Want to connect LIVE? We’re running a pilot to host virtual weekly LIVE Industry Networking starting on March 17, running until April 7. If you’d be interested in joining for the first or following sessions (don’t need to commit to all but you're welcome to join!), make sure to let us know in the comments. 🤝 Culture of this space Think of this forum board like a room full of peers who understand your world. Share what’s working. Ask real questions. Talk through challenges. The goal is to power your success and raise the standard of home service industries together. 💬 Looking for conversation starters? This space works best when conversations are industry-specific and experience-based. You might jump in with something like: “How are other [industry] pros pricing this service right now?” “Is anyone else seeing this shift in their market?” “What’s been working for you when it comes to ____?" 🤔 Why are industries grouped together? We’ve intentionally clustered similar industries to keep conversations active and relevant. These groupings reflect shared business models, operational challenges, and pricing conversations so you can learn from peers who “get it,” even if they’re not in your exact trade. If your question applies to all home service businesses, feel free to post in our broader forum boards. Pro tip: Check out the industry tags to get even more specific Looking forward to seeing this space come to life. 🚀Growing a Business With Purpose: Looking for Your Best Advice
Looking for Advice on Growing My Business With Purpose Hi everyone! My name is Elisha, and I own Mowing With A Purpose Landscaping here in Texas. I started this business with a goal that’s bigger than just cutting grass. I want to provide great service, build lasting relationships with customers, create opportunities for my family, and make a positive impact in my community. I’d love to hear from those of you who’ve been in the home service industry longer: What was the biggest thing that helped you consistently gain new customers? How did you turn first-time customers into loyal, recurring clients? What marketing strategies gave you the best return on your investment? If you could give one piece of advice to someone determined to build a business with integrity and purpose, what would it be? I’m here to learn, grow, and connect with others who believe that success comes from serving people well. Thank you in advance for any tips or wisdom you can share—I truly appreciate this community! — Elisha Owner, Mowing With A Purpose Landscaping
Hello!
I'm not 100% sure how to use this platform yet, but I thought we'd introduce ourselves. We are Dillon and Sarah, husband and wife business owners. Dillon brings the vision, and Sarah locks in the steps. We own a lawn care business in Idaho and are expanding into offering landscaping services. We'd love to hear from other business owners! What do you do and where are you located?
Hey guys I am curious about business plans for landscape business.
I just don't know where to begin with building a business plan. I have been in business for 5 years without having one. Now I see why they are so important. I need some advice on where I can go cost-effective is important. I need help building out the plan. Anyone willing to connect and see if you can help me in he right direction.Bryant’s lawn Care services LLC
Hey everyone, I'm Jeremy, owner of Bryant's Lawn Care Services LLC in Eastern North Carolina. I started my business after losing my job during COVID and turned a setback into a growing full-service lawn and property maintenance company. Excited to connect and learn from other service professionals.
How to quote materials accurately and avoid underbidding as a landscaping contractor?
Hey everyone, I’m a small landscaping contractor just starting out to use the jobber and the interface and one of the challenges. Me and my team are having is consistent quoting. Often times we find ourselves going back to clients because we underbid materials and I’m not pleased about it. What is the best way in jobber that you guys find to help quote out jobs? Do you just have a baseline markup on all your materials or do you go different each job?
How long did you work a full-time job before going all-in on your business?
I’ve been building Latiolais’ Lawn Co. on evenings and weekends while working a full-time job during the week. The business has grown a lot since I started, and I’m at the point where I’m trying to be smart about growth instead of rushing the process. For those who made the jump from side hustle to full-time business owner: What was the moment you knew it was time? Did you leave because the business could support you, or because you were missing opportunities by staying employed? Looking back, what would you have done differently? I’d love to hear some real experiences from those who’ve already been through it. Thanks in advance.
How to grow a landscaping business stuck at “owner + one crew” stage
TLDR: My spouse and I run a small landscaping business that’s stable but stuck at the owner + one crew stage. We still have to work in the field daily because we haven’t been able to develop reliable crew leaders, and hiring more staff feels unmanageable. Our maintenance model works well in a dense service area but doesn’t scale easily to nearby towns, and clients mainly see us as a maintenance company rather than landscapers. We’d like to move toward higher-value work and build a business that doesn’t rely on our physical labor long-term. For those who’ve grown service businesses: how do you break past this stage and start working on the business instead of just in it? My spouse and I run a small landscaping business that we somewhat fell into unexpectedly, and we’re looking for advice from people who have grown service businesses past this stage. The business started informally in a neighbourhood about 20 minutes outside a nearby town. Over time, several gated communities were developed nearby, adding a few hundred homes. Many are vacation properties and many residents are snowbirds, so there’s strong demand for property maintenance. Right now we operate with one truck / crew (2–4 people including us), and season that runs roughly March–December. We do have another truck and a few other trailers so have had short stints of running two crews. The business is financially stable. We pay ourselves modestly, have an accountant/bookkeeper, and use QuickBooks and Jobber. However, we feel stuck at this size. Main challenges We’re still on the tools every day. Most hires are entry-level and turnover is high, so we don’t have anyone who can reliably run a crew, quote jobs, train others, or solve problems independently. Crew leads aren’t long-term. Even when someone steps up, they still require constant support. Growth feels unmanageable. Hiring more staff means more work to manage, which already feels like full capacity. Our model relies on a dense service area. Maintenance works well in the clustered neighbourhoods we serve, but expanding into nearby towns becomes inefficient (plus there is a lot of more established competition outside our main service area). We’re stuck between models. Clients mostly see us as a maintenance company, but we’re not big enough to run separate maintenance and landscaping crews. Goals/Ideas We've Thought Of Move toward higher-end design and installation work Reduce dependence on daily physical labor Build a business that is sustainable and potentially sellable For context, I handle marketing (website, social media, Google reviews) and have a graphic design background. One of us also has an irrigation technician certificate, but we haven’t added irrigation services yet due to limited experience. Each winter we plan to work on business development, but the time usually goes toward preparing for the next season. Questions How do service businesses break past the “owner + one crew” stage? How do you develop reliable long-term crew leaders or managers? Is it better to scale maintenance crews or pivot toward higher-value landscaping work? How do you make time to work on the business when operations already take everything? Where do you start to work on the business? We’re approaching middle age and don’t want to rely on physical labor forever. I’d love to build something more sustainable than just owning a job. Neither of us have "dream" careers, but owning a landscaping business wouldn't have been on the list of contenders. We want to know how to make this work and how to figure out what to do in the future whether that is with the current business or doing something completely unrelated. If anyone has gone through this stage in a landscaping or service business, or just as a middle-aged person who still doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up, I’d really appreciate hearing what helped you gain clarity / move forward!
