Discussing the Landscaping Industry with Bryan Clayton

Yeah, I think that’s the thing. It’s the hardest part, and you obviously understand this in the lawn care or landscaping industry—it’s very old. A lot of these guys have always done it this way, and jumping into the tech side is a big change. Now they’re retiring and passing the business to their sons or daughters, or selling their business, and someone else is going to say, “Hey, invoicing takes 10 hours a week. It really shouldn’t take that long. There’s a better way to do it.”

I think that’s what you looked at: “How can we make this better?” The same questions are still being asked, but now we can put them in an app. I used your app and thought, “Let me check the user experience,” and it’s so easy. I clicked a few buttons, and I don’t think I even finished before I got a message saying, “Hey, John wants to mow your lawn tomorrow.” I was like, “Tomorrow?” You took what was offline and made it possible online, which makes everything easier. We’re talking about mowing lawns, not brain surgery. It shouldn’t be super intensive. There’s someone who wants to do it and someone who needs it—let’s put them together and make it seamless. I think you’ve done an awesome job of that.

That’s what’s cool about it. So, when we talk about the landscaping industry and how competitive it is, if someone wants to jump into the landscaping business, is there still room for them? Obviously, I think so, but do you feel there’s room for people who want to get into landscaping? They can leverage your platform, get in easily, and use it for instant business, right? That’s what we’re seeing. But do you think it’s too competitive? Are there too many landscapers, or is there still more room?

Yeah. At the end of the day, it’s stupid easy. They can throw it up there, and guess what? I can find people in whatever area, and you get bids coming in. You guys are doing the lead gen, which is the hardest part. We can still knock on doors, but from a technical standpoint—if someone searches “lawn care near me” or whatever keywords—I looked at your site, and I’m proud of what you’re doing from an SEO perspective. I think that’s awesome.

So, what role has technology played for you? You’ve built the app; you’re doing coding and all kinds of things you probably never would have guessed 20 years ago when you started this, or even 10 years ago.

I love that. What you all have really done is spend time figuring out the headache part, because you understand it—you did it yourself. You had to do lead generation on your own, right? That’s what a lot of entrepreneurs miss. For example, with restaurants, someone might say, “I’m a chef; I make amazing food. All I have to do is open a restaurant, flip the sign on, and 10,000 people will come in.” But it doesn’t work that way. You might be great at mowing lawns, but then there’s getting people in the door, accounting, HR, and so on. Lead generation is hard. If it were easy, we’d all start businesses and make millions.

You all took that headache away. A lawn care pro won’t want to learn SEO or build landing pages. You said, “Just be good at what you do—take care of lawns, handle customer service. We’ll handle leads, invoices, everything.” It’s a no-brainer. You made it super easy for someone to start a business, generate leads, and get paid.

Obviously, we’re on the same page about technology and the evolution of the lawn care industry. You’re a shining example of what happens when you add technology to an older, pen-and-pad industry. Now, what about predictions for the future of the lawn care industry? I’m sure you’re always tweaking the app, making it better, bringing on more people, and growing. What do you see coming?

So it’s funny—one of your quotes was literally a quote from me. My wife would say, “Are you going to mow the lawn this weekend?” and I’d say, “Why? Why would I mow the lawn if there’s someone else out there who’s way better than I am? I’ve already mowed a thousand lawns when I was younger, and I don’t want to do it again. I have allergies, and so does my son. If someone wants to mow my lawn for 35, 40, or 50 bucks, that’s awesome. Why would I stand in the way of progress?

Think about what I make per hour compared to what they charge. They’ll be a thousand times better at it, and they’ll finish in an hour, whereas it’ll take me three hours. I’d come in smelling like gas, and nobody would want to be around me. Why do that? I also don’t want to spend my whole weekend cleaning my house, so I pay someone else. I work 80 hours a week—I don’t want to come home and do five hours of manual labor for the rest of my life. There’s someone better than I am at it, and I’d rather enjoy my life a bit. It’s a win-win because this is their time to work.

Bryan, this has been awesome. I knew it would be good because of your background and your grind mindset. We were fellow lawn mowers on different coasts—West Coast and East Coast. Who knew we were brothers like that? It’s cool to hear. Now we’ll jump into what we call the fun section, although I’d like to think we already had some fun. But here’s a question: If you weren’t in the lawn care industry, what would you be doing for a living? You’ve been in lawn care practically your whole working life. Is there anything you’d do if you weren’t in lawn care? What excites you?

Love it. I love it. Yeah, I like the fact you just focus on one thing. I’ve always had ADHD; I’ve always had multiple businesses. I’m not saying that’s not the way to go or that it is the way to go. There are upsides and downsides to both. But I love that you said, “Hey, this is the goal. It’s going to evolve, but this is my goal, and this is what I want to do,” and that’s what you’ve done.

So, my other fun question for you: If I were to give you $100,000 in cash—and we wouldn’t even tell the IRS, right, like we didn’t earlier, after those 30 years of free cash with no taxes—if I were to give you $100,000 in cash, man, where would you go? Where would your trips be?

We—if I had a dollar for every time my wife sent me one of those, “Oh, look at Turks, look at the Maldives…” Actually, about two years ago, before COVID, I had a speaking event in Sri Lanka. I didn’t even know the Maldives was literally an hour away. The hotel chain I was working with—one of the biggest in Sri Lanka—had a hotel there, and they said, “Oh yeah, you could have stayed for free.” I didn’t even know I was that close. I was almost in the Maldives for free. But anyway, maybe next year, after a few more speaking events.

So, what do you think is your superpower as a serial entrepreneur? I think you said it might be your ability to focus on one thing and just grind hard.

Love that. You understand it’s going to be a long haul, but most people don’t. Most people think it’s a year or two, but you’re saying you’re willing to put in time and effort—it might be five or even 10 years—and you’ll grind forward to make that happen.

So I think the big question is: if anyone wants to get in contact with you, how can they do that? What’s the website? How do they reach out to sign up if they want their lawn done, or if they want to start their own business in the lawn care industry?

That’s awesome. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. We are one of the top 33 business podcasts on iTunes. Subscribe and share so we can make it to the top of the list.

Next time, we’ll talk to another marketing expert. Stay tuned for expert tips on various marketing and business growth-related topics.