Landscaping & the economy lessons from the 2007 recession

Landscaping & the Economy:Lessons From the 2007 Recession

By Brian Fay Landscaping provides various benefits, these benefits can be physical, environmental and aesthetic. The economy in which we live in can go through a recession. Landscape owners need to be prepared to endure the climate of difficulty a recession can bring. After being asked when he started his company, Robert Groff says “It was in 2007, probably the worst time possible.” He explains his experience going through the crisis and explains what he did to survive his landscape design build company, Groff Landscape Design.

Brian:What are you doing in your company?

Robert: We specialize in creating outdoor projects for high end residential clients Brian: Is the business going well so far Robert: Wonderful! Yeah we've been pretty steady for the last few years and this year even better than last so all is well so far.

Brian:So what's the name of your business?

Robert:Groff Landscape Design.

Brian When did you start Groff Landscape Design?

Robert: It was in 2007 probably the worst time possible, hahaha Brian: How did the financial crisis affect your business?

Robert: You know what I think for us and made it really tough because we haven’t established ourselves and we didn't have really anything to separate ourselves from anyone at the time. I was 24 years old and we didn't have a portfolio so it was hard to say “ hey look this is what we do” so I think I might it might of affected us and maybe some of the other companies that a little less established than where we are now.

I also think it might of the hit the companies that were a lot larger and have been around for a long time and all the sudden they had to start lowering their prices and couldn’t catch up. I think it hit a couple sectors more than others Brian: so it was pretty hard to get clients those days?

Robert: It was Brian:How many clients did you have when you first started?

Robert: We are an insulation and design company and not a maintenance company so there's no renewing contract that first year I think we had 5 clients and we had a group project that couple thousand dollars we made maybe $30,000 but there wasn't a lot of revenue coming in first year

Brian:what's a good number for clients for your business?

Robert: For us, right around 50 a year is right where we want to be but in a couple years or more we want to get to one hundred or maybe less so that's one big for us right now Brian::So how do you get clients currently?

Robert:So at this point it's mostly Word of Mouth and I would say the second best thing right now is the online referral services such as Angie's List but it's really predominantly Word of Mouth Brian: So as you may know there's going to be a new president in office. In your opinion do you think the new president will cause a recession in the economy or have a drastic effect on the economy and do you think it will affect your landscape business and other landscape businesses Robert: to be honest with you I stay so busy I don't have enough time to pay attention to what's on the horizon I would say I'm a lot less affected by those decisions made by whoever's coming in and you know we're pretty small and we have under 10 employees so I don't think about this too much, if I had 50 employees I'd be watching the news quite closely right now Brian: So you said that 2008 was a bad time and it affected many other companies. If a recession were to come soon, how would you prepare for it?

Robert: Yeah because we started when we did because I think was a big benefit to us a long term because we know what that looks like and we were struggling but we had to basically just make ourselves the highest client service contractor that you can find so communication is always good and it has never surprised us for the client that is negative and we always try to be on the ball and do things that typical contractors aren’t good at, like communication. I honestly think we set ourselves up and can be separate from most competition and kind of rise above and I don’t want to say our company is Recession Proof by any means but I think we are lot stronger than most. Every chance we get, we have meetings and say “how can we be better from a customer service perspective?” And I think that's really what will make us stand out in the future.

Brian: So the 2007 recession definitely strengthened your business and has you prepared now?

Robert: I think so and it also made sure that we unnecessarily buy any equipment or unnecessarily before and people and has made us lean I know so make sure that we didn't fairly by it equipment or unnecessarily hire any people when we didn't need to. We stayed very lean and because we had to start that way we did and we built from that point on in that manner so I think being lean is good thing. It allows you to keep your costs down or increase your profit margins or both

The effects that a recession can generate can be brutal. Robert Groff said in the interview “You know what I think for us and made it really tough because we haven’t established ourselves and we didn't have really anything to separate ourselves from anyone at the time.” When Groff Landscape Design went through the 2007 financial crisis it was difficult for Robert Groff but it had toughen him and his company. From his experience as business owner in the landscape industry, Preferring to focus on areas outside the box, he said “we always try to be on the ball and do things that typical contractors aren’t good at, like communication.”

Robert Groff has built Groff Landscape Design to be a very successful company. At the end of the interview, he concludes “ I don’t want to say our company is recession proof by any means but I think we are lot stronger than most.”