EdenScapes, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, is on track to generate $5 million in revenue this year and expects to double that figure without expanding to multiple locations.
Owner Chap Gary says he wants to grow the company to make space for professional-level people to move up within the company.
“What excites me is to bring people together, and helping people and walking with people through life,” Gary says. “There’s an element of that that’s definitely there, and then who doesn’t want to grow their business and have more financial freedom eventually?”
Growing the Business
When Gary got married in his early 20s, he was a glassblower. He knew he needed a stable job to support his family, so he asked his brother-in-law, who worked at a local nursery as a landscape foreman, if they needed any help.
“I had been waiting to find the right thing, and I went and started hauling wheelbarrows and planting shrubs,” Gary says. “I just knew that this was it. I just knew it was what I was supposed to do.”
Gary says he enjoyed the hard work and the creative aspect of the job. He ended up working for other landscape companies for two and a half years. With his entrepreneurial mindset, Gary always knew he was going to own his own company, but wanted to get experience first.
When his wife had twins, Gary started receiving calls to do side jobs, and he decided to branch out on his own. He started EdenScapes in 2004, but didn’t originally plan to grow the business.
“I basically concluded over the years that in order to be busy in the wintertime, I needed to build up a presence in the community that people thought about us when they thought about landscaping,” Gary says. “So for those reasons, I was like, ‘If I’m going to do this, I need to build something that has some momentum and can have a backlog.’”
EdenScapes’s main customer base is high-end residential, but they still maintain smaller properties as well. They have a 70/30 split between residential and commercial business.
“What we’re really good at, and what we sell at is these multifaceted backyard experience projects where we have all these different services and put them all together to create an experience,” Gary says.
Gary says they don’t plan to move into full commercial like some companies that are preparing to sell.
“I know that residential design/build is not as friendly for that, but at this point, we just built a brand new facility on almost five acres,” Gary says. “We’re building a design center and a whole immersive experience for clients to be able to come and go over their designs, see samples and look at plants. It’s been a big move that we’ve just done so I’m invested in that, and not going anywhere anytime soon. Right now, we’re going to just do what we’re good at.”
Gary says they bought the land in the summer of 2021 and just moved in August this year.
“We were renting,” Gary says. “The office and the shop were in two separate places. This is the first time we’ve ever had everything together.”
Keys to Success
Gary says their people are their number one key to success.
“We make things right and work hard to try to provide good service and take good care of people,” Gary says.
He says they’ve always had a strong company culture with a good group of people who work in a positive environment. Gary says they have also developed a reputation for being able to make it happen.
“People can come to us when they need something done within a time constraint,” Gary says. “I have the staff to be able to pull everybody together and make something happen when they needed it, or a complex project that needed a solution that nobody else would do, or just sustaining quality. We’ve been able to really perform for people.”
He says he’s always been focused on simply doing good work and letting the business grow as much as it is supposed to.
“I think our company grew, not because I was great at any of the things involved with landscaping, it was because we did what we said we were going to do,” Gary says. “We kept our word. We answered the phone and returned people’s calls.”
If he had to start all over again, Gary says he would prioritize business coaching. Early on, he didn’t have any job descriptions or company policies.
This left him incredibly overwhelmed. While attending a conference in 2018, a peer told him it sounded like he needed an operations manager.
“I was like, ‘What does an operations manager do? Sounds great. What is it?’” Gary says. “At that conference, I ended up taking classes and learning about the roles of operations managers, accounts managers, salespeople, team structure and how to plan for that.”
He started building out the necessary structures for two years, and then from 2020 to 2022, they doubled in revenue.
“It was not because of COVID,” Gary says. “We were just able to manage more. We became a lot more efficient. We’re able to get a lot more work done and produce a lot more revenue without adding many more people.”
Gary says they also implemented Aspire and built out internal processes to increase their efficiency.
“Half of our revenue this year is going to be produced by our design/build department, which is only two crews,” Gary says. “Two crews producing half of the company’s revenue. It’s because of some of the efficiencies that we’ve built over time.”
He has also purchased NALP’s Landscape Technician Bootcamp to build out their training programs. Gary says he became an NALP member because he wanted to support what the association does for the industry.
“The bigger industry awareness outside of Lafayette, Louisiana, and the knowledge that NALP is lobbying different things on the legal front is awesome,” Gary says.
Leaning Into Their Specialty
Gary started the business doing design/build work, and it is still their most popular service today.
Last year, EdenScapes began designing swimming pools as well. Gary saysthat while they still have a contractor build the pools, they handle the customer experience and the ancillary services surrounding the pool.
“That was a very strategic move,” Gary says. “It’s something that we’ve talked about and worked on for a long time and is really taking shape and doing well for us.”
The company also creates a master plan for all of their prospective clients. Gary says this enables them to have better communication with the client about what they’re proposing to do and holds them accountable to deliver on that plan.
“If we go and build something and the client doesn’t like it, and it’s exactly the way that we proposed it and they accepted it, we’re happy to change it, but there’s going to be some cost involved, right?” Gary says. “If they’re not happy with it, and we didn’t do it as we proposed, then it’s on us.”
He adds that the master plan also allows the client to think about areas they may want to address in the future.
Gary says they charge clients a design fee as it ensures they are compensated for the time they spend creating the plan if the customer decides not to move forward with the project.
“We do get clients asking, ‘Oh, well, do you credit that back to the job if we did it?’” Gary says. “We tell them no, we don’t, because this is really a professional service that we’re giving you. That is a standalone service.”
Currently, their design fee falls within a certain range, but Gary says they are considering moving to a retainer model where they will track the time put into the job and notify the client if they are close to using up their retainer.
Recruiting and Retention
EdenScapes currently has 40 employees on staff and has been utilizing the H-2B program for the past five years. Gary says they’ve had six H-2B workers in the past and have applied for eight for next year.
He says they recruit in every way possible, including through social media, employee referrals and their company website.
“Now at the new facility, we’re starting to get more walk-ins,” Gary says. “We’ve even done some college career day events. We’re just getting more out in the community and letting people know that it is a trade option for people who don’t want to go to college.”
Gary says they retain their people by taking care of them.
“We talk and we act like we’re the best company around, and that needs to be reflected in the way that we pay our employees,” Gary says.
He says they have raised their pay rate significantly over the years, and while there will still be people who leave for higher pay rates, a lot of their staff see that EdenScapes offers a lot more than just a salary.
“We do a ton of stuff for our employees,” Gary says. “I have a full written-out sheet of all the employee experiences from doing cookouts and events to the monetary things like bonuses and giveaways. We try to foster a really good environment. That’s the key.”
Gary adds that his wife and co-owner, Lauren, ensures they maintain their culture as they grow. She says they stick to their three core values throughout their entire interview process.
“It never fails that the best solution is to lean on those core values and those things that define our culture,” Gary says. “Hire and fire by them. Handle conflict throughout the day by them.”
Gary says he’s excited for the next five to 10 years to see what they’re able to build and how their team members will grow.
Key Takeaways
- With plans to reach $10 million in revenue and promote professional growth from within, EdenScapes is focused on building a sustainable company where team members can advance their careers.
- The company was able to get more work done and produce more revenue without significantly increasing staff by implementing solid processes.
- EdenScapes is staying committed to high-end residential design/build work, expanding offerings like pool design while creating an immersive client experience at its new facility.
