Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Becker.
Blake, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in the lawn care and landscaping industry. My parents had their own lawn care business when I was a kid. I still hear stories from people about how they would see me out pushing a lawn mower with my parents before I could even see over the handle bars. So I guess you could say it’s in my blood.
I founded my company in 2009 right after I graduated High School. I offered lawn care services in the spring, summer and fall and snow removal in the winter. At that time I was just a one man show, only servicing about 20 residential accounts, primarily only performing mowing and trimming services. Each winter I collected a list of area businesses and would call them one by one to see if they would accept a bid for maintenance services from me. Slowly it paid off as I started securing commercial accounts. I expanded my work area further north from my home town in Dwight and that is when Cuttin Edge really started to take off.
My wife started helping me on the back-end of the business in 2014. With her taking on the daily tasks of answering phone calls, setting up my estimates, and doing the invoicing it gave me more time to really focus on the work itself. I quickly realized that I was going to need help if I was going to keep up with my contracts, so we started hiring employees. My first employee was my brother and one other guy to help trim the properties. My brother would do my mowing accounts and I would do landscaping full-time. I tried doing all of the landscaping work myself, it was part of my nature always wanting to ensure the best quality service was provided, but in 2015 I added 2 more employees to help me landscape as well as 2 additional employees for mowing when my brother took another position driving a semi. It took me quite a few years to learn to step back and really put my trust in my employees, but it’s really made life easier now that I’ve been able to step back and take on a more managing role.
Currently I am running three full-time crews of 2-3 guys. 2 mowing crews and 1 landscaping crew. I have stepped back on the mowing and now I just oversee that arena of the business. I am still on the majority of the landscaping jobs with that crew. I enjoy installing the paver patios and sidewalks and getting to see the project take shape from some dirt next to a house to a beautiful hardscape.
I would like to continue to grow my business and look forward to exploring expansion possibilities like adding a small nursery or selling some landscaping materials.
Has it been a smooth road?
In some aspects the ride has been fairly easy and in others it has been extremely difficult. I would consider myself lucky as it seems that the work itself is always readily available. I have always prided myself on providing an excellent quality of service at fair rates. By sticking with this business practice it seems like we have had to do minimal advertising and always have a full schedule of work.
However, finding the right employees as well as dealing with blow back from the competition have been two of our biggest challenges. I can’t tell you how many employees we have hired and have either quit or we have had to let go of since we started hiring employees. I think the problem is two-fold. One problem being that it is a seasonal business, so it’s hard to find good employees that are willing to come back to work for us year after year after spotty winter hours depending on how much snowfall we receive. The other problem is that this industry is tough. It’s 12+ hour days, working out in the elements, running a wheel barrel back and forth loaded with rock or other landscaping material. It’s taxing on the body and not everyone is cut out for the job.
We’ve also had some issues with the local competitors. I don’t think they were expecting another company to come into the industry and shake things up the way we have. Our competitors had all been in the area working for many years before I came onto the scene. They had learned to all work together to set the standard for pricing, and when I came in not willing to “play ball” with their rules the problems started. We have heard everything from we’re pot farmers on the side to my parents bankrolled my business and I’m planning to skyrocket my rates once I’ve secured the contract. Most of the time it makes us chuckle and I think we’ve handled it well.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a full-service lawn care, landscaping and snow removal company.
We offer lawn mowing and trimming services. We also offer lawn maintenance services such as aerating, dethatching and seeding. Another aspect of our business is landscaping. We offer services such as trimming bushes and perennials, designing and installing new plant material, and constructing retaining walls, paver patios and sidewalks. We also do grading work for new yards by setting the final grade on the home, burying all the downspouts and then installing seed or sod. I would say this is what we are primarily known for.
For snow removal we provide snow clearing services as well as de-icing services. We primarily work for commercial customers throughout the winter but also offer our services to residential customers.
As a company we are most proud of the quality of the work we provide. We try and make the whole process as seamless and pleasurable for our customers as possible. We’ve heard countless times that customers had called other landscaping companies and no one had returned their calls or they scheduled an estimate with them and never showed up. I think this is what sets us apart from our competitors.
We care about the work that we provide, and we do it at fair rates.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We are in the far southern suburbs and here is a great place for a business like ours. The grass will always grow, and someone is always going to need someone to maintain it, especially the commercial customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cuttinedgelandscaping.com
- Phone: 815.228.1207
- Email: blake.becker@cuttinedgelandscaping.com
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