OGIA Member Profile

OGIA MEMBER PROFILE J. BARKER LANDSCAPING COMPANY

BY ALANA SETTLE

Established in 1974 by Jeffrey Barker, J. Barker Landscaping Company provides design and maintenance services to residential and commercial clients throughout Northeast Ohio. The business has seen steady growth since its beginnings as a one-man shop. Today, J. Barker employs 25 full-time and 10-15 seasonal staff.

In 2016, Jeffrey’s son Brandon Barker joined the team as a full-time account manager. Brandon is currently the company’s General Manager, overseeing daily office and field operations and focusing on commercial clients.

OGIA: How has the company grown over the years?

Brandon: We have always had a strong focus on the residential design/build landscape market. The residential housing boom in the 1990s elevated our business greatly, as we eventually completed hundreds of new lawn and landscape installations during that time. Outdoor living spaces and hardscapes became a specialty of ours during that same period and continue to be a large part of what we do today. About 15 years ago, we made a big push in the commercial maintenance and snow removal arena and it is currently the area of our business that we are most interested in growing.

OGIA: What’s different about J. Barker Landscaping Company?

Brandon: We are a very customer serviceoriented company. I believe we have wonderful business skills. We have excellent communication with our customers from start to finish with any project. Customers are sometimes left in the dark regarding the progress of a project. Not at J. Barker—we make sure our customers are informed, feel comfortable, and are satisfied with our work. We will go the extra mile for our customers and do whatever it takes to get the project done. In this industry, it can be very hard at times for companies to deliver that kind of service.

OGIA: In 2007, The Barker Group LLC was created to offer demolition of single-family homes and dumpster services. Not many landscape companies offer those services.

Brandon: Yes, when the recession hit, we knew that we had to diversify our company to make up some of the business we were losing in the residential landscape market. Homeowners were cutting back on landscape construction projects, such as outdoor living spaces, patios, water features, grill stations, etc. These types of jobs were a big part of our business.

At that time, the City of Cleveland had an abundance of vacant residential homes that needed to be demolished and we became a demolition contractor for them.

About ten years ago, we diversified into the dumpster services business as well and mainly offer smaller dumpster rentals to homeowners and contractors.

I have heard of some other landscapers getting into the dumpster rental business, but not many have broken into the demolition business.

OGIA: What’s your company culture like?

Brandon: Many key employees have worked for us for 15+ years. We do our best to make sure that our employees enjoy coming to work each day. The company provides our employees with quality uniforms/clothing, new and clean trucks, the best equipment in the market, and much more. It is important that our people are successful in what they do each day and we strive to give them the tools to do just that. Having these valuable tools keeps our employees happy, knowing that they have everything they need to get their jobs done.

We try to be very collaborative. Everybody wants to share opinions. They want to be a part of something.

OGIA: Regarding day-to-day operations, anything you’re proud of that you’d like to share?

Brandon: Our company has been around since 1974. Some of the things we do may seem a little “old school” but they still work. One of those things is having a weekly morning “huddle”. All our field employees gather in our main shop area for a meeting to review what’s going on with our company. The huddle is typically led either by me or our owner and President, Jeff Barker. We discuss general topics such as job performance, the week’s priorities, the status of certain large projects, safety, company updates, review of company policies, etc. We also ask for feedback from our crews on what things we can do as an organization to make them more successful. This helps us get everyone on the same page and gives our employees an idea of what is the current status of our company.

OGIA: What are your goals for the company?

Growth is a great thing, but we want to be smart about it. Many companies want rapid growth, with goals to double or triple in size in a few short years. That is not our company. Many problems can arise when trying to grow that fast. We are focused on growing but we want to do it at a comfortable pace. We don’t want our quality workmanship and service to suffer.

One day, we would like to open a second branch in Northeast Ohio by growing our commercial landscape maintenance and snow removal business. Our passion has always been residential design/build and we want to continue to grow our market share in that area as well.

OGIA: Where do you see the industry heading? Any trends you’re watching?

Our passion has always been residential design/build and we want to continue to ” grow our market share in that area as well.

There are never enough skilled and qualified people to complete the large workload that landscapers in this country have. I’m hoping that the government will fix or improve the H-2B Visa program to allow more workers to enter the United States each year to help with our concerning labor issue. I believe we are headed in the right direction to make that a possibility.

Due to the labor deficit, I see more autonomous technology being developed to combat the issue. For example, the robotic lawn mower market seems to be on the rise. We will likely see more and more unmanned lawn mowers in the years to come.

Additionally, the sales of labor-saving type machines and products, both in the landscape and snow removal industry, will continue to grow.

OGIA: Any advice you’d like to share for landscape business owners who are just getting started?

Brandon: Don’t sell yourself or your services short. Many landscapers out there are very talented and work very hard. Make sure that you are being properly compensated for the work you are doing. I see so many landscapers get started in the industry by doing their jobs for a minimal amount of money so they can get lots of work or new accounts. In many cases, the companies who do this are out of business after a few years because they didn’t charge enough money. Respect yourself and the work that you do. Trust me, if you do quality work, there are customers out there who will appreciate you for that and will compensate you accordingly.

To be profiled in The Buckeye, please contact Sara Cantees | sara@ogia.org

Photos via J. Barker Landscaping Company Instagram - @jbarkerlandscaping