FROM SINKING TO SWIMMING

Industry Leader | Why Taylor Milliken Lives by the Motto, “I Don’t Know. I’ll Find Out.”

When asked to describe himself, the first thing Taylor Milliken, CEO of Milosi, a luxury Tennessee landscaping company, will mention is that he is a husband and a father of three. The story you are about to read has ups and downs. Even so, it is clear that family, both blood and acquired, is the linchpin that keeps Taylor moving toward his full potential.

At the age of 15, Taylor watched out the window as Sevren Sanders and Rusty Barber of R&S Groundskeeping in Castalian Springs, Tennessee, mowed perfect parallel lines across his parents’ property. He was so fascinated by their work that he roped his buddy Chad into inventing their version of the company, C&T Lawn Care. Though the business only lasted one summer, their slogan “If it grows, we will cut it.” is hard to forget.

Every summer that followed in his adolescence, Taylor lent a hand to his dad, doing heavy civil work, underground utilities, asphalt paving and site grading. Up until Taylor left the nest, he and his siblings viewed their father’s construction company as a haven, one that they would always work their way back to and find stability inside. That was before a plight involving the Department of Transportation resulted in what Taylor calls his parents’ financial reset.

“I remember I was sitting on my brother’s couch,” says Taylor. “We were all considering what to do, too, because this situation shook the whole family. My brother said he might start building homes, and if he did, he wanted me to do the landscaping.”

That conversation, though Taylor gave little credence to it at first, planted a seed. It occurred to him that the mowing crew his parents hired back in the day had become friends with his sister. He asked her for their contact information, she obliged, and he dialed the number.

“I called R&S Groundskeeping and said, ‘Hey, have you ever considered subcontracting some yards to another company? You guys could focus on other important things. You’re going to get a markup and still make money ...’ They dismissed it, and I said, ‘OK,’” Taylor says.

Six months later, Taylor was earning his money by filling oxygen tanks for his friend’s family business—a job he found unfulfilling, partly because he lacked the status to push his ideas for innovation forward—when he received a call from R&S Groundskeeping. Rusty and Sevren liked his idea and were ready to make him a proposal. After reviewing the terms and cosigning with his mother for the equipment, 19-year-old Taylor Milliken had a business to run.

Time went by, and Taylor was doing well for himself. Two years down the line, he realized that he was making more money doing yards himself than he was partnering with Rusty and Sevren. After talking it over, the three decided to cut business ties. They remain good friends to this day.

At this juncture, Taylor’s father asked if he would like to start working for him again. Taylor agreed.

“Now I have this brand new business, and I also have a large role as a 21-year-old with my dad’s business estimating and managing projects,” says Taylor. “What that did is it flatlined my company. It just stayed small and almost hobbyish. I had a couple of people I could trust to run mowing routes, and I would do sales, bids and things like that basically whenever I got off work. Looking back, I was in over my head.”

Taylor only saw in hindsight that he was forged in fire. He was a young man sitting across from people with 20-30 years of experience grilling him on logistics for $2 million projects. Instead of succumbing to pressure, Taylor adapted. He was once a shy kid, yet in this environment, he found his confidence. He learned to accept the discomfort of not having all the answers as sustenance for growth.

“My dad has always been a very fearless person, a take the bull by the horns kind of guy,” says Taylor. “I never saw my dad nervous about anything in his entire life.

That example made me feel like this situation was normal. This is just a life experience that I’m getting and that I’m blessed to have. I think it laid the foundation for me to progress with my company.”

Several years later, Taylor found himself struggling financially. A contractor had filed for bankruptcy, and his landscaping company was in debt because of it. He had become a husband, then a father and had recently hired his first two managers to oversee his company, while he focused on his role with his father’s company. Now, Taylor was meeting with his sister regularly to figure out how to pay his vendors back.

“When you’re not paying your bills, it’s hard,” says Taylor. “It’s easy to get to that point where you feel like a failure and like you don’t know what you’re doing. There were many sleepless nights, but I never had to dodge a conversation out of guilt. I wasn’t taking a vacation or going out to eat when I couldn’t pay people back. My parents taught me to always do the right thing.”

Even when Taylor lost hope for his company, those close to him believed he would pull through. Around this time, Taylor’s father sat him down and encouraged him to leave the family construction business behind and go all in on his landscaping business.

Taylor met with a landscaping consultant, admitting he could not fathom making it in this industry, but the consultant recognized the strength behind his fears. He presented some case studies and told Taylor to keep going. He did. After a couple of years, Taylor paid off that debt and prepared to soar.

“There was a moment where I fell in love with this industry,” says Taylor. “It was on our first six-figure job, with one of the best clients we’ve ever had. I was on the back patio watching the retaining walls we built being installed and the landscaping coming together. It was the first time I had done several things, and I witnessed a combination of art and construction, two things I love, take form in front of my eyes. I remember thinking, ‘Why doesn’t everybody want to do this?’”

The tale of a landscape business owner is often fraught with snippets of struggle and sink-or-swim moments. Taylor’s upbringing and ability to embrace uncertainty became the foundation for a flourishing future. When fear of the unknown becomes too heavy, we encourage our community members to lean on each other and hone skills to weather the next storm.