In season 2, episode 19 of the Growing in the Green Industry Podcast, hosts Miles Kuperus III, system architect at Include Software, Brett Lemcke, VP of R.M. Landscape and Luke Melograno, production coordinator at Mariani Landscape, talk with Jason Craven, president & CEO of Southern Botanical and Dylan Richmond, commercial business development for Southern Botanical.
Craven began mowing neighborhood lawns when he was just 12 to earn money for a new bicycle. But his entrepreneurial spirit and attention to detail kept him going long after he’d bought that bike. By high school, his business had extended well beyond his neighborhood — and beyond what he could maintain alone.
After graduating from high school in 1995, Craven founded J.C. Services and hired his first two associates right away. Now, over 25 years later, that company has become Southern Botanical, a Dallas landscaping services company and includes over 250 dedicated team members who share the same devotion to quality that the company was founded upon.
Richmond is an experienced commercial maintenance business developer who has been in the landscape industry since he was 12 years old, working in various positions in the industry. Over the past two years, Richmond has been responsible for the addition of over $3 million in recurring revenue.
Richmond keeps a focus on community and HOA contracts through training, seminars, and multiple other networking events. He is an active member in both CAI and BOMA, a licensed irrigator in the state of Texas, and is fluent in Spanish.
In this podcast, Craven and Richmond share the importance of mastering the basics of customer service. They discuss recruiting the right people, finding the right mentor and how to encourage your team members to build confidence in themselves to grow in their roles.
Listen to the full podcast below.
