Enmanuel (00:01.584)
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Digital Toolbox Podcast. I am your host, Enmanuel Tajada. I own Landscape Maverick. We're a digital marketing agency for landscapers and hardscapers. And today we have a special guest for you guys. We've got Tanner from Green Space Lawn Care. Tanner, introduce yourself, man. Let's do it.
Tanner (00:23.576)
How's it going everybody? My name is Tanner. I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina and I own Greenspace Long Care and been at it since I was a little kid and just wanted to come on and kind of talk about how I got to where I am.
Enmanuel (00:37.723)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So Tanner dude, I know you started off a push more So tell us about that tell us about those days when you were I think you go on maybe ten years old What made you want to start landscaping was it for the money or you just wanted to do something fun? What was it?
Tanner (00:50.968)
Yeah, so I'll rewind even beyond the push mowing because there was something before mowing lawns that was making me money and it wasn't quite enough. But so growing up as a kid, we always had chore charts. I was the oldest of five kids. So every single day after school, even from the age of eight, we had responsibilities to do on top of homework before we could go play. So oftentimes, you know, cleaning the house, doing different chores, whatever.
One of them was scooping dog poop. So I realized that some of my neighbors probably didn't want to do this. And at eight, I was scooping a few of the neighbor's yards, four bucks a pop. It was not much, but yeah, four bucks a visit. I'd go every week, pick up their shit. And it wasn't bad for an eight -year -old. It bought me all the candy and unnecessary things. But then I got to age 10 and my dad let me start push mowing the lawn.
with him, you know, he'd help me walk it. You know, I was barely as tall as the handlebar on that thing. And kind of same thing, you know, the, the lady I was scooping dog poop for became my, one of my mowing customers. She was right across the street. So I once a week, maybe even further spread out than that. Cause it would take me so long. I'd walk over there and it took me four hours to mow a little quarter acre yard. And I was charging 15 bucks and that was awesome. It was, it was triple what I was.
Enmanuel (02:16.496)
Yeah.
Tanner (02:19.064)
more than triple what I was making, scooping dog poop. Sure, it took longer, but I really enjoyed it. And so I just, you know, slowly kind of snowballed from there, gradually got to other neighbors within our little community. Everybody was like quarter to half acre yards. So it was perfect to push well. And, man, just, I'm still working in that same neighborhood today. We actually maintain that HOA, for that neighborhood I grew up in. My parents don't live there.
But yeah, we do a lot of work in that area and I've been running up and down that same street for 17 years, Mone Lawns.
Enmanuel (02:57.892)
That's awesome. And I saw the picture too of you and John Deere on your Instagram, bro. That's a legendary pic right there. Freaking lovely, bro.
Tanner (03:05.496)
Yeah, I was 12 in that photo. so I got enough money saved up. I bought that first riding more for like 220 bucks and it smoked and it didn't have a hood and, but it had a little trailer hitch. So instead of walking to the yards, I was able to get a little card and start running around the neighborhood that way. And that, that carried me through. I use a little riding more like that with a trailer from 12 till I think I was 15.
At 15, I bought a brand new snapper, zero turn. And it was right before I was getting my license. So I got a good zero turn and turn 16, got a truck and trailer and it's just been a, yeah. Yeah. I've never had an investment. No shareholders, no equity partners, no gifts from my parents. It was literally all from scratch.
Enmanuel (03:47.664)
And that was from money that you had saved up over the years.
Enmanuel (04:01.559)
Dude I love it bro and I can tell that you you come from that background too because your content because of your content on Instagram I can tell you're not show off. You're not this. look at me. I'm doing this. I'm this good You know, you're very humble about it. You have fun with it But but the image is definitely about that of a humble dude that works hard and is looking to keep progressing
I know that same note Tanner. I mean, what's your end goal with with green spaces as a grow it up to a billion dollar company or is it so like what do you envision with it?
Tanner (04:32.536)
Yeah. So I really like, so we're a Fescue only lawn care company. So we don't do any warm season grass. I really like Fescue. I mean, it's just, I know a lot about it. There's a lot here. So Fescue is a variety of grass. So you've got like Bermuda, Centipede, Fescue, St. Augustine. There's tons of different varieties. Yeah. Bluegrass, that's another variety. And they, every grass.
Enmanuel (04:44.24)
What does that mean?
Enmanuel (04:54.224)
like Kentucky Blue, we got like types of grads.
Alright.
Tanner (05:00.728)
lives in a different climate, requires different care, different equipment. So three years ago, I realized, you know, FasQ is really what I like and what we're good at. And we got rid of all the other clients that were warm season, basically, you know, Bermuda and Zoysias, the other really popular one here. So, you know, in order for me to continue doing what we're doing, I really need to stay within the state of North Carolina. You just get much further outside of that and FasQ.
Doesn't do as well. I mean, there's places that it grows all over, but it's just not the same as here. So I want to be, you know, probably 10 location max in my lifetime, within the state. And I'd really like to just kind of slowly grow from Charlotte, move my way out. I've talked about this on another podcast, but I think my first, satellite location, I'm going to end up giving to one of my best employees and, treat it like a franchise for them.
but somebody that I can trust to do what I've done in another area close by.
Enmanuel (06:07.216)
Dude, I love it. And that's a win -win for both of you guys because the brand gets sex spanned. That person kind of has their own business now. And that's a unique angle, bro. I like that. That you're thinking of your best employee, give him that. I really like that. And on the same note, real quick, Tanner, I've never actually heard of a lawn care person like yourself, like a lawn care company owner, niching down into a specific type of grass. That's interesting. So what do you do when a customer...
Is this like you guys can install the sod and then maintain it or what if a customer doesn't have that type of grass?
Tanner (06:43.576)
So we will do everything from killing an existing type of grass and restarting your yard to have fescue. Fescue is the grass you see those beautiful stripes. It's just dark green, it's tall, it's lush. The drone videos I post, that's all fescue grass. And a lot of people in our area really want that image because these other grasses just, they don't perform the same.
Enmanuel (07:01.616)
And...
Tanner (07:09.336)
And Fascue is definitely the most expensive, the most intensive care, the neediest. It needs a lot to be happy and healthy. So there's a lot of money in it and the margins are great when you're trying to keep this stuff alive all summer. Everything about it is expensive. So it's not a grass for the budget homeowners out there. It's just...
It is what it is. So that's what I've really spent time studying and getting to know because it's the elite grass in my
Enmanuel (07:37.456)
do it.
Enmanuel (07:45.68)
Dude, I love it. And I've always said it because it's like, lawn care is definitely a much more affordable service than landscaping and obviously way more affordable than hardscaping. But I think that what you just said there makes you the first person that I know. And the title I'm gonna give you is a luxury lawn care company.
Tanner (08:08.44)
Yeah. And there's a link to that. I mean, it really is. And the people that you end up working for that are willing to spend the money to have those kind of lawns usually own a business themselves. They've been in my shoes many times. There's certainly plenty that aren't business owners, but they have a different perspective and a different outlook on
goods and services and the things you can provide to each other and what those things cost. So it really dials you down into a market that is pretty recession proof and just good people.
Enmanuel (08:46.288)
Love it, bro, love it. Absolutely fucking love it. And I mean, let me ask you a question. Does it hurt your profit margin or your profit overall turning away a lot of the different types of grasses? Like how often do you come across somebody that already has that type of grass or most of your projects just you kill the old grass, install the new grass, and then you start maintaining.
Tanner (09:11.352)
So we turn away a lot of people and I sell those leads to my competitors that are willing to basically do any grass or there are guys that specialize in just warm seasons. So they only do Bermuda and Zoysia. And I used to do all of them. There's plenty of companies that do it all. I think it's really tough to treat those different types of grasses and have all the necessary equipment, the knowledge when you're doing so many different things.
It's like having too many skews in an online store. You're not going to sell a hundred products. You're going to sell your best 10.
Enmanuel (09:43.472)
One minute.
That's true. And you should focus on those 10, keeping those stock and as best as possible. I agree with that. What about, huh. So do you end up taking on more jobs or referring to other people?
Tanner (10:01.912)
We turn away way more than we take on. I don't spend money to market. I never have. Everything is word of mouth, the trucks, the website, the Instagram. So we're still growing about 15 % a year. And that is all just people finding us and realizing that we know our stuff.
Enmanuel (10:06.992)
Wow.
Tanner (10:26.136)
So, you know, even though I'm turning away hundreds of lawns every season and selling those leads for 50 bucks a pop, the accounts that you do pick up that are willing to baby this stuff and they've got a nice property make it completely worth it.
Enmanuel (10:40.656)
Wow. And so what does your pricing look like? For example, if somebody already has that grass, you guys are just coming in to maintain that lawn.
Tanner (10:48.824)
Yeah, so everything's an annual contract. So they sign in for a year and we're full service. So we're not just going to mow your lawn. We're not just going to trim your bushes. I mean, we will do odds and end projects for maybe old clients or family and friends and things, but really try to get full service agreements written up. So we mow 42 times a year. We trim the bushes twice. We spray the lawn, you know, nine times a season.
We're planting new grass every fall. We remove the leaves, we do annual flowers, put down mulch, pine needles, you know, anything that is reoccurring, stuff that wears out, grows back. That's really what we focus on because.
Enmanuel (11:31.504)
So you guys include that, so you build them out monthly, but the contract is for one year.
Tanner (11:37.784)
Yeah, so they pay most people pay a flat monthly rate year round bundling a year's worth of service divided by 12 and there you've got your monthly rate.
Enmanuel (11:47.216)
What is that divided by 12 or like, yeah, like what is that number?
Tanner (11:50.264)
Take the total for the year was, make it easy, 12 ,000 a year. They'd pay a thousand a month year round. And those contracts vary tremendously. I mean, we have HOAs that are very valuable all the way down to an average home contract's probably 10 grand a year.
Enmanuel (12:10.128)
which would be maybe like around 800, a hundred bucks a month.
Tanner (12:11.864)
800 a month is pretty standard for an acre lawn if we're going to do full service and it's not something out of the ordinary or super intensive. I mean, you can certainly spend more than that and still have an acre yard. So it really boils down to just what they want to do.
Enmanuel (12:28.656)
Gotcha dude, I think this is a very very unique point of view I've never heard of such a thing before but it's definitely working. So so What are you guys on pace for this year? If you don't mind sharing as far as revenue? Two million Are you fucking kidding me? Holy shit from just one type of grass
Tanner (12:41.08)
It's about two million.
Mm -hmm.
Tanner (12:50.936)
and just maintenance. We don't do any installs. We don't touch patios. We don't touch pavers, no lights, no irrigation. We do a little bit of reading.
Enmanuel (12:53.904)
Dude, what the fuck?
Enmanuel (12:59.76)
Bro, I have parts -kid clients that don't even make that per year. Holy shit. So let me ask you, like, how do you... Like, that's fucking incredible, because you're so niche down into just one... So how do you...
Tanner (13:04.6)
And I...
Tanner (13:12.536)
Sound very niche, but like we're in an area where I mean there's probably over a million people in Charlotte We only service this little 10 -mile bubble within South Charlotte Easily half a million people are just in my little service area because it's all high density housing Then you've got these outlier properties where somebody went and bought ten lots because they wanted privacy and now they have this giant yard and they put in a well and they wanted to look like my Instagram so we try and find those accounts and
Enmanuel (13:22.544)
Mm -hmm.
Tanner (13:42.072)
and hone in on them.
Enmanuel (13:43.887)
Wow, bro, that's amazing. And are you still in the field yourself?
Tanner (13:48.536)
I mean, I get out there whenever I need to, but day to day I'm running around, I'm doing sales. I am the sales. I don't have anybody that manages sales for me. I've got an operations manager and then a bunch of good crew leads and laborers. So I don't have to be out in the field, but honestly still enjoy it. And I'm not married, don't have kids. So it's kind of like, if my to -do list is cleared out, what else am I going to do? Might as well go work with these boys.
Enmanuel (14:17.328)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's definitely builds culture. You know, the owners out here getting down and dirty with us. He's one of us. He's one of the boys. So it's a good image.
Tanner (14:28.536)
Yeah, it goes a long way and it really helps to train those people when they see the way that, you know, kind of the baseline standard, the way I work is the way I expect everybody to work or better.
Enmanuel (14:40.528)
or better. Love it, bro. And let me ask you this, Tanner, how do you guys keep organized? You guys use a CRM? What type of tools you guys use to make the magic happen?
Tanner (14:50.456)
Yeah, so I only take on new clients a few months out of the year because we really need to get your lawn started in the fall. So if you're trying to sign up right now in June, there's not much I can do to fix your lawn. My demand on myself for me to go out and sell and sign new contracts is fall, winter, early spring, and then we close the door, we maintain what we got for the year. So that's why I don't have a salesperson.
Enmanuel (15:02.864)
Yeah.
Enmanuel (15:14.256)
you
Tanner (15:16.088)
You know, I'm doing everything between QuickBooks and FieldRoutes. FieldRoutes is a service -tightened CRM that manages all of our routing, our day -to -day, you know, notes, addresses, documents, pictures, like everything that the crews are doing is happening in FieldRoutes. And then QuickBooks is basically there for bookkeeping and taxes. you know, I have a full time, not full time, I hire a bookkeeper to do our books on a monthly basis. So I don't have to touch any of the,
accounting side of things. Those two programs are huge. I mean, we would not be where we are today without a good CRM and a good accountant and accounting software.
Enmanuel (15:56.624)
What a what a what's your arm do you guys use again? Field routes, is that more for lawn care?
Tanner (15:59.032)
field routes. It's owned by... Yeah, it's owned by Service Titan. They have CRMs for everything.
Enmanuel (16:06.352)
Gotcha. Yup. I definitely heard of service site and I've heard a lot of their other services too. that's awesome, man. Holy shit. But I can't believe 2 million from lawn care, one specific type of grass, a 10 mile radius on Charlotte or a specific part of Charlotte.
Tanner (16:23.608)
Yeah, South Charlotte. So we're outside of the city. My trucks never really hit a highway. My furthest outlier lawn is under 30 minutes from the shop and that's with some pretty good traffic. So I'm blessed that I fit there. But we do a lot of stuff in the community. We are in the same service area every single day. So it's kind of hard not to see a green space truck if you live around here. I've got eight trucks and six of them go out every single day.
Enmanuel (16:37.52)
Amazing.
Enmanuel (16:48.944)
You
Enmanuel (16:53.584)
All of them have trailers.
Tanner (16:53.624)
There's this, yeah, well, I run one box truck. Everything else is truck and trailer, but everything is got a wrap on it or a logo or lettering. So wherever we go, we look good and we, we do a good job.
Enmanuel (17:10.096)
Dude, that's the formula right there. That's the go -to formula. I freaking love it. And as far as equipment, I did see one of your pictures where you had a thing, it was like maybe like 20, 30 steel weed whackers laying around and then I guess you were doing maintenance on them. That was a sick picture, bro. And do you guys stick to a specific brand for the zero turns or for the weed whackers? Do you guys just flirt around with different brands?
Tanner (17:37.976)
So I've always bought steel for all the handheld stuff that picture you're talking about actually just replaced all of the steel equipment I own so I spend close to 30 grand on steel equipment replaced every single string trimmer edger blower, hedge trimmer, chainsaw, you name it. So that was all. No, it's all gas. Yeah, everything's gas. And then for the mowers.
Enmanuel (17:55.472)
Wow. Are you guys going electric with that?
god.
Tanner (18:03.992)
Predominantly we use right which are the yellow stand -on units those are just by far the most elite machine you can buy certainly the most expensive but they last a long while and They're all gas -powered to nothing's diesel or electric So we try and stick with those two. I mean they're vibrant. They really contrast awesome against a nice green yard in the blue sky so if you pull up and all your equipment's clean and bright
Yellow, I mean it just it looks good. Yellow and orange are two awesome colors out there.
Enmanuel (18:36.496)
Yeah, yeah, especially coming out of that nice clean wrapped truck. So dude, I think that your branding is definitely 10 out of 10. Gotta give it to you.
Tanner (18:44.408)
That is crucial for anybody. I've had this argument, I shouldn't say argument, I've had this discussion with numerous other guys I'm friends with here in town and they run all white trucks, no logos and they're like, people keep calling, they're finding me and it's very possible you don't have to brand your business to get business. But the longevity of your sales and the constant trickle of sales is gonna do a lot better if you have some good branding.
Enmanuel (19:13.84)
100 ,000 percent that's something that I wish all of my clients understood it's something that I have to convince them on it's like You know branding is important. You know, it's it's not just about having good work You have to be able to make it that look sexy to the customer right whether it's a branded shirt
Like you said, making sure your equipment is shiny, making sure that your website's on point, making sure that everywhere you guys go, you guys look uniform. Just to make the company look bigger than what it is too. I mean, you know, not everybody's doing too many like you, but if it's a smaller company, one thing I recommend is like try to look as professional and as big as you can, right? Try to make a customer think, holy shit, these guys look so professional. They must have 50 guys on their team. In reality, it's just a two man crew, but they're just so dialed in that it really helps the brand.
Is that something that you had to do earlier on? What do you say as far as branding yourself to look bigger and be able to win those contracts over?
Tanner (20:09.496)
Well, the first year I incorporated when I went from just being, you know, side job mowing lawns for people to becoming green space incorporated in January of 2017. And by March, my personal truck was lettered. I had logos on the trailer. nice t -shirts made. I mean, that was like a number one priority because I realized early on. How's anybody going to find you? You know, that 2017 Instagram was not what it is right now.
I didn't have an Instagram or a Facebook or website when I started and it wasn't, it didn't do the volume that it does right now. I mean, Instagram is a huge tool right now for any, any business. so you really had to organically grow eight years ago when I was coming out of the gate. So branding on everything we did, everything we touched was huge.
Enmanuel (21:01.52)
Dude, yep, I love it. I love it, man. And I know that we're running close on time here. Tanner, I would definitely want to be respectful of it. But I have one quick question for you, which is, I know that you refer a lot of leads out, but what does your sales process look like? How do you market? Like, do you get calls from Instagram, from your website, your Google business profile? So somebody calls you, and what does the rest of the process look like?
Tanner (21:21.528)
Yes.
Tanner (21:25.688)
Yeah, so we get most of our leads, leads that I can measure because word of mouth is tough to really track down how many of those are converting. But the majority is coming from a high ranking website and Google page. And I've built my own website, done my own SEO, go in and just constantly edit your website, add new pictures, new videos, new texts, reword it, use ChapGPT, make your website.
kind of change and Google recognize something happened and that will really get you ranking. I get about 20 ,000 impressions on my website a month and probably 150 calls and that's coming from Google analytics. So, you know, it's definitely more than that, but I'd say half of those are disqualified almost from the get go because they either are too small or don't have the right grass. Yeah, we want an acre and up and it's got to be fast queue.
Enmanuel (21:56.688)
Yes, sir.
Enmanuel (22:21.808)
fast food. Right.
Tanner (22:21.88)
When it's going to be in my service area. So people phone me because my website ranks, but they're in Matthews or they're in Indian trail or Rock Hill. And we just, we refer all that stuff out. but if somebody calls. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's coming to my cell phone. So, I mean, that's why I try to only sell and pick up new leads a couple months out of the year, because there's just such an influx on my phone. I mean, it is getting to the point where I'd love a 1 -800 number and somebody to answer that, but.
Enmanuel (22:33.2)
Gotcha. All those calls come to you.
Tanner (22:51.8)
It is irreplaceable for the owner to pick up the phone and give you the time of day for a minute, two minutes, whatever it is. I mean, that alone is going to help you sell that job. So when somebody gets a 1 -800 number and there's no one there and it's a recording, I mean, they're going to hang up before they even get to press number two.
Enmanuel (23:15.152)
Yeah, well it depends on who you route them to because automatically you probably get a shutdown of course and it probably Interrupts your workflow. So maybe it's something to consider in the future. Who knows?
Tanner (23:25.844)
yeah, it definitely will reach a breaking point, but at the moment, I mean, I manage it. It's definitely doable. And I let a lot of stuff just hit voicemail and if they're going to leave a voicemail, they're interested. So I'll call you back. But I certainly don't pick up every single call. That's for sure.
Enmanuel (23:39.76)
Dude, what a beautiful problem.
Enmanuel (23:45.552)
Dude, I love it. I love it. I'm a huge fan of the niching down. But Tanner, I know that you have to go. I don't want to keep holding you. One last question. This is going to be 30 seconds to answer. 30 seconds to a minute. But if you were to start over, what's one thing that you would do to speed up the amount of money that your company is making? The profitability of it.
Tanner (24:09.399)
Yeah, so some stuff I definitely messed up on in the beginning is just not having enough resources, not having enough friends that were in the same boat as me. There's a ton of knowledge to be found in just talking to somebody else that's struggling with what you're struggling with. So that certainly would have helped me cross some hurdles much, much quicker. But, you know, it was...
There was nobody my age that I could go or nobody even slightly older than me that I knew that I could go and talk to for legitimate advice. Long care in our area has really exploded with the massive influx of housing being built in the last 10 years. I mean, this area has quadrupled, if not more. So long care has become a huge industry, just like pressure washing and garage door repair and HVAC. You know, all these service businesses are just coming out of the woodwork.
Enmanuel (24:52.912)
Hello.
Tanner (25:03.224)
to meet the demand of all these new homes. So I was, you know, at the age that I was at and the time that I was at, there weren't a ton of resources for me to go to. So anybody out there that's listening to this, you know, really try and connect with somebody that's doing more work than you're doing and ask them, how'd you do it? You know, that's basically what it comes down to.
Enmanuel (25:23.771)
Who are some mentors that influence you?
Tanner (25:27.832)
So there's a local guy here that is probably in his 50s. He started doing lawn care back in the 70s here in Monroe. His name is Darryl. Awesome dude. Sold his business right when I was getting out of high school and sold it for a lot of money. And that was in 2015. But I met him in 2014 or 2015, somewhere around there. And he was a huge resource for me to learn about the industry and learn about scaling.
Cause when I got out of high school, I had no idea that you can make a full -time living mowing lawns. I mean, I, I just thought it was good cash for a teenage kid. so that guy was huge, really opened my eyes to the growth potential of something like this. then my dad is, you know, business owner owns multiple businesses, does my, my bookkeeping and my taxes. he's a financial planner and just huge resource when it comes to money and,
paying for things, making decisions on what to buy and when to buy and who to hire. I mean, irreplaceable knowledge from my father. So those two have been huge resources and still are.
Enmanuel (26:35.728)
Wow, man, that's amazing, Tanner. And I appreciate you sharing all that and getting on here with the time that we had. I know that you're about to head out, but Tanner, I really appreciate you coming on, bro. You're definitely a youngster. You're killing it. I think what you have in your hands and your business, what you're running through this incredible, bro. So keep doing your thing. Keep grinding. Maybe we'll have you on again for a longer podcast down the line. But in the meantime, bro, keep killing it. How can people get in contact with you if they want to be your customer or they might need some coaching in the future? They have a question for you. What's the best way to reach you?
Tanner (26:52.856)
and
Tanner (27:05.816)
Yeah, just Instagram, that's probably your best bet. DM me, give me a follow, whatever. I'm happy to help answer questions and give you guys some good resources that I've found that really have changed things and been good for me.
Enmanuel (27:20.88)
Awesome. Well, then you guys have a go and follow Tanner at green space lawn care on Instagram. Give him a follow. He's a great dude. Great heart hustling. Love it. Tanner. Thanks for coming on, bro. Have an amazing rest of your day. Yes, sir.
Tanner (27:34.168)
I appreciate it. Y 'all have a good night. See ya.
