JENNEKA, JANNA & JARED TEMKIN Co-owners of J&J Property Pros

GIP: How did you all get into the industry?

Jenneka: I started to learn the ropes of plant identification and maintenance and design. Jared was a farmhand, had a mowing clientele and did side work in construction. Janna had her cleaning and pet care business that eventually merged with the landscaping side. We didn’t pick landscaping. It picked us.

GIP: Tell me about J&J.

Janna: We were separate from the start, but then we had cross clients, so we were scratching our heads and saying, ‘why don’t we join forces and become a one-stop shop?’

Jenneka: We merged in 2020 to become J&J Property Pros. Before it was just the landscaping side. We do landscape maintenance, cleaning and pet care. On the landscape side, we offer landscape maintenance, design, hardscapes and sub out and provide irrigation and fall and spring cleanups. With cleaning, we do deep cleans, organizing, decorating, staging, things like that.

GIP: What have been some of your successes and challenges along the way?

Jared: A success would be people seeing what we offer as a business and wanting that.

Janna: There are so many variables in a day, and you have so many human elements when you’re trying to do a project.

Jenneka: A lot of successes came with getting our modes and systems in place. When you have an all-encompassing service, things can get confusing. We’ve streamlined our client process and created a monthly system for billing and property plans.

GIP: Do you have a favorite tool in the shop?

Jenneka: Java has changed our lives. We can schedule our teams, send invoices and estimates and communicate with it.

Jared: Battery-powered hedge trimmers from Echo.

GIP: What are your future company goals?

Jared: The end goal would eventually be to bring the business to a point where it can be sold, employee owned or franchisable. To be employee owned and profit share would help our employees. They’re able to make a living full time doing landscaping, but it’d be nice to even go beyond that.

GIP: What could the industry use more of?

Jenneka: The industry sometimes gets a bad rap of not being professional. People don’t realize there’s a lot of expertise and knowledge that goes into it. We’re trying to create a space for our team to say, ‘this is a professional business, so let’s treat it as such.’

Jared: There are some ‘weekend warrior’ type people who don’t take the industry to a professional level, but that lowers expectations for everyone in the area.

GIP: What advice would you give to others?

Jared: When we first started off, our mother had breast cancer and was given only a few months to leave. She survived another 11 years, but at that time, everything was stressful. We were scaling up almost too fast, and when our mom passed away, we still had to function and do our jobs. In some areas, we were burnt out because we didn’t have the right systems, and we grew too fast. So, take your time, grow slowly, hire slowly, fire quickly, make sure you have a good team around you and learn to enjoy it.

Jenneka: Also, get an accountant as soon as you can.

GIP: What are your favorite things to do outside of work?

Janna: Canoeing, reading, hiking, traveling, dabbling in fashion.

Jenneka: We were all home-schooled, which played a part in learning to grow and being content where you are. There’s so much beauty in the small simple moments of life. Traveling also nourishes our souls. We get to see cultures, and it helps restructure our perspective.

Jared: We believe that in life, you never stop learning until you’re done. So, if you’re still breathing, you’re still learning.