Our Level Up series shares the strategies that help landscape and lawn care companies get to the next level.
Since 2008, GreenWeaver Landscapes, based in Media, Pennsylvania, has had the mission of creating and maintaining beautiful, useful, and healthy landscapes for people and the planet.
Jennifer Nichols, president of GreenWeaver Landscapes, says she grew up in a gardening family, but didn’t consider landscaping as a career. After meeting her husband, who had a property improvement business, she realized it was something she enjoyed but it was still years working for other companies before they started their own.
“We decided to start GreenWeaver when we realized that we were very good at our work and both of our careers were in transition at the same time,” Nichols says.
The company has steady growth of about 15% annually, with a few large growth years, like in 2022 where they grew by 50% after winning two large jobs.
“We had been developing several multi-year projects that all landed at the same time,” Nichols says. “Because we were simultaneously working on business structure and processes, we could manage the increased workload without too much disruption. Our success with these projects has enabled us to build a strong reputation and led to additional large project work.”
Nichols says that they are still growing and have spent the past few years building out their structure and acquiring talent so they can leverage the work they have done. They are approaching $3 million in annual revenue.
“We have not set any limits on size,” Nichols says. “I hope to create a company where every employee can support a family, build a career, and retire in comfort. This requires growth.”
Commitment to Sustainability
GreenWeaver’s services include landscape design, landscape installation, garden maintenance, stormwater management, outdoor living and meadow installation. Nichols says they have offered meadow installation since they started but interest is growing.
“Most people just want help with their landscape and are not sure what they need,” Nichols says. “We approach each property holistically, so most projects have components of environmental design, stormwater management and native plant installation.”
They also work to convert their design/build customers into maintenance clients by offering a three-month plant warranty that extends to one year with a maintenance agreement.
“About 75% of our clients take us up on the offer,” Nichols says. “It protects their investment and ensures plants get established well. Over 80% of our maintenance clients renew each year.”
GreenWeaver’s main customer base is residential clients who value quality and the environment as they understand the company’s service offering. Nichols says they are about 85% residential with 15% a mix between municipal and institutional.
“Other clients come to us because of the quality of our work, so we focus on that and educate them about the ecological aspects of land care in the process,” Nichols says.
Educating customers on sustainable practices is one of the challenges they face as many customers lack awareness or have misconceptions when it comes to ecological landscapes.
“We address this with each individual client, but also by teaching classes on all aspects of ecological design, native plants, stormwater management, and land management,” Nichols says.
She says that sustainable landscapes are so important to their company because the landscape industry is uniquely positioned to accomplish substantial positive change on some of the most important issues of our time.
“Climate change, localized flooding, biodiversity, bird and insect population decline, and human health can all be positively affected by how we manage the land in our care,” Nichols says. “And since 60% of the land in the United States is privately owned, we need to approach these problems one property at a time.”
Nichols says their definition of success is changing how landscaping is done in their region and it is working.
“We are beginning to see more competition in the ecological landscape space, which is welcome competition!” Nichols says. “We believe with enough successful examples of ecological landscapes, some of the worst practices in our industry will no longer be acceptable to the public.”
Keys to Success
Nichols credits her company’s growth to hiring good people, making decision based on their values, and continuously looking to improve.
“We hire, promote, and fire people based on our three core values of Quality, Environmental Stewardship, and People,” Nichols says. “If someone does not share these values, they will never be a good fit for our company.”
Also, by basing their decisions on their core values, they have built a reputation of standing by their work and taking care of their employees.
Nichols says they have weekly management meetings to address issues with a solution-based approach. They also review the direction of the company every quarter.
She notes that NALP’s Awards of Excellence have given them credibility and increased awareness of beautiful ecological landscape projects.
“We believe our clients want and need ecologically sound landscapes, so we design ‘beautiful, useful, and healthy landscapes for people and the planet,’” Nichols says. “We just need to design solutions that address their other desires within their budget. Our award-winning projects show that we can do both.”
GreenWeaver has also been able to cut down on the number of casual inquiries with their free landscape pricing guide.
“Developing a custom design and estimate takes a lot of time, so we have developed a more detailed cost book, which explains factors such as site conditions, material, and labor costs,” Nichols says. “Our goal is to educate our clients at the beginning of the design process so we do not have any surprises at the end.”
Recruiting and Retention
Currently, GreenWeaver has 27 employees but they are always seeking out good talent. They’ve used the H-2B program in the past but found it too unreliable to grow their business with that model.
Nichols says they have a multifaceted approach to recruiting including having a list of industry professionals they email when a position is open, sharing social media videos on their employees and why they love working at GreenWeaver, and an employee referral program.
Any employee who refers someone that results in a hire receives $100 plus $50 a month as long as the new hire stays with the company. Nichols says this engages employees in the success of the new hire.
“Our biggest challenge has been finding field personnel,” Nichols says. “We pay above industry average and take good care of our employees, but there is a shortage of people doing this type of work. Until industry wages match other trades it will continue to be a problem.”
Nichols says they work hard to great a great place to work including four weeks of paid time off for all employees, health and dental insurance, and a Simple IRA. They also encourage professional development including language lessons. She says the bilingual NALP Safety Training Program is a foundation for their weekly safety tailgates.
They have a clear career ladder for their employees and host quarterly state of the company meetings.
“Also, sending young professionals to ELEVATE exposes them to the breadth of our industry and a level of professionalism that is hard to find elsewhere,” Nichols says.
Nichols says that they maintain their company culture by staying true to their core values.
“We treat everyone with respect and are active in our community,” Nichols says. “We are a 1% for the Planet business member and donate to local environmental organizations with both monetary and in-kind donations. Every year, we donate several days of invasive species control at nearby nature preserves. This keeps our crews busy in the winter, and they see that we practice what we preach.”
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