Neukam's Landscape

So this is the area I post things about me? Well I am 26 and have a normal life for the most part! I work a full time job as a Sergeant for a prison in Texas on my days off I do landscaping work. I Prison job lets me keep a good schedule. I only work 15 days a month there. I have been mowing yards since I was knee high to a grass hopper! I started mowing for the school district when I was 15 working on a yard crew running the weed eaters. And have since moved up to running my own crews from mow crews to construction crews. In 2002 I started working at the prison and on my days off I did residental landscape construction installs. Then in 2004 I quit the prison and went to work again for the school district for 2 years and during that time I ran my own crew during the day and went to community college at night and worked on my horticulture degree. After 2 years of that I went to work for Valley Crest and hated it. Then moved and started working for TruGreen Landcare in 2006 I worked there a year and got at better job offer working for a small irrigation company as there superintendent. Then I got laid off and went back to the prison in Nov. 2007 So here I am I have been a lurker and now I guess you could say I am a poster. I am going to be posting here in a minute on another post. But you guys wanted me to do a into of myself.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Welcome to our forum! After 2 years of that I went to work for Valley Crest and hated it. Then moved and started working for TruGreen Landcare in 2006 I worked there a year and got at better job offer working for a small irrigation company as there superintendent. What lessons or things do you felt you learned from these different experiences working with these companies? Have you been able to apply any of the lessons to your own lawn care company?

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Well after working for these several diffrent companies. I left each one for diffrent reasons and now have decided I don't like working for anyone that doesn't share my same feelings toward customers/employees.

I am not going to mention the companies names but here are a few things I have learned.

When I worked for a non-profit.
I loved it we all took care of the equipment and worked a steady speed. Not fast but not slow. We all became great friends and always helped each other out on our own time doing side jobs. The only reason I left was I couldn't live off of 8.71 a hour.

When I worked for a for-profit company "by the way there shirts where red"
They would only hire labor that was hispanic and would take 7hr. If you had a special skill which I did "irrigator" they paid decent. But they always took short cuts on the install jobs. When I asked why they informed me that were into big of a hurry and what ever they didn't finish they made it look like it was and then over the warrenty period they would go back and take care of it. That is why all there install jobs include at least 1year of maintence.
Also they didn't see how to keep employees they just treated you like a number. Also they asked me to go out of town and they would always tell me it will only be 2 weeks and before you knew it 2 weeks turned into 3 months.

When I worked for another for-profit company.
They were great! They never took short cuts and they paid really well from labor all the way to manager. But if you wern't a laborer you only got salary. Which isn't a problem because you always knew you were getting paid the same week after week. But then they would abuse you at one point I was going to work at 5am and not leaving the field till 8pm and then getting home and working on paperwork and blueprints/bids till 2am. I know most of you are only thinking this would happen during the summer which I expect but it was all year. And taking a vacation was out of the question. But at the same time all of the employees were very close and I still stay in touch even though none of us work there anymore due to our branch closing.

After the above company I worked for I went and worked for a mediam irrigation company. I worked for them as there residental irrigation superintendent. They promised me they same pay and only working from 7am to 5pm and most days being off at 3pm. I liked working there but there job quality was horible they were always ripping off the customer and over charging them. They once charged a customer $2400 dollars for installing a 8 station irrigation controller. That I installed and it only took 30 minutes to do.

That is my experiance working for diffrent types of companies.
What I have learned in all this is that I will only treat customers with the out most respect and tell them how it is. As far as employees if I am not willing to do the work or work next to them in the field than we dont need to be doing the job.

[Steve]

Gosh! What great stories! It makes you think that if you can offer just average customer service, you could really stand out! Who would have thought all of this craziness went on!