Lend a hand

Helping Hand is more than a name for Joxuan “Jay” Burgos, manager of maintenance and enhancements with Helping Hand Lawn Care in Zellwood, Florida — it’s a mentality.

Burgos, 31, who first started with the company at 18, says his success in the green industry is thanks to Helping Hand’s President Norm Ripper, who nominated him for the Employee of the Year award. However, nowadays, Burgos is busy lending a helping hand to anyone in need.

“He’s just fantastic all around,” Ripper says of Burgos. “He always has a great attitude. He comes in every morning to open up the whole shop and he stays late every day. He’s the last person out no matter what so he can always close up.”

Burgos adds he knew from an early age that a green industry career was in his future.

“I truly have a passion for landscaping,” he says. “My uncles started teaching me when I was around 12 years old. I started with just a regular push mower, and then I started running walk-behinds and then got into zero-turns.

“I was just a regular maintenance guy,” Burgos says. “Over time, I moved up as a crew leader and into my current position.”

You don’t know what you don’t know

Burgos’ career advancement hasn’t been easy. He’s the first one to admit it. But, with support from people at the company, Burgos was determined to learn more to improve himself and Helping Hand’s bottom line.

“I’ve worked very hard to get to where I’m at today,” Burgos says. “Norm sent me to school, and I took my courses to become an irrigation tech. I was probably with Norm for about seven or eight years at this point. After that, he gave me a shot to be manager of irrigation and after becoming manager of irrigation, I was manager of maintenance as well. Whenever he gave me the opportunity, I went after it.”

Ripper says education has always been a priority at the company, but Burgos has taken any and all opportunities to learn more to help the company reach $7 million in revenue.

“Education is really important,” Ripper says. “I think it’s important to support any of the people you have to do better, because they will use that knowledge for you. When other people in the industry know that you’re doing that for your employees, you’ll get some of the better people in who want to do that.”

After learning more about trees and hardscapes recently, Burgos brought Ripper the idea of starting a dedicated enhancement division to go after some higher-value work.

“This year, he’s single handedly created our own department for enhancements,” Ripper says. “It’s everything from mulching and tree trimming to irrigation work and installs. He took all of that over. That type of work is much more profitable than regular maintenance is, so it does allow us to capitalize and get all the monies possible from our customers.”

Burgos adds that from Day 1, Ripper was always supportive of him seeking out more knowledge that could benefit the company. He even remembers a time not too long after he started where Ripper allowed him to try and fix a broken lawn mower, which he did.

“He just let me play around with a $15,000 mower,” Burgos says. “Next year, I asked Norm if I could take the test to become a licensed arborist as well. That way we can offer more work and more training for the guys.”

Burgos says with all this learning, he hopes to take more off Ripper’s plate and continue working his way up the ranks.

“I’m an all-around guy for Norm,” he says. “I know mechanics and can work on the lawn mowers and the two-cycle equipment. I learn that from outside and brought it back in-house. It’s been pretty amazing. Norm is now teaching me more of the sales side of things and that’s one of the final steps before I can shoot for vice president.”

Ripper says not only have these educational opportunities made Burgos more knowledgeable, but it’s helped advance him in other ways as well.

“I think it’s really helped professionalize Jay and his approach with everything,” Ripper says. “It’s let him understand some of the things better than before and understand why he was doing everything. In this business, there’s a lot of guys who follow orders to do A,B,C but if you don’t know why you’re doing A,B,C, it can be really hard to own it. At our size now, having our employees educated really helps push us over the line with getting more customers. So, it helps in all ways.”

Another person who says Burgos seeking higher education has been a godsend is Helping Hand Vice President Reggie Pinard.

“He understands all the different nuances when it comes to mowing or irrigation — he’s constantly reading up and studying about new things and looking into them,” he says. “That really helps a lot when it comes to problem solving in the field.”

Pinard admits he’s even learned a thing or two from working alongside Burgos over the years.

“Jay is irreplaceable,” he says. “His ability to decide that there’s a license the company could benefit from or an avenue where the company could succeed — whether that’s financial or in terms of natural growth — it’s contagious here. I’ve learned a lot from him because he’s just so knowledgeable in so many different aspects.”

Land a helping hand

While Ripper gave Burgos a helping hand to learn more and advance his career, Burgos is known as the true helping hand around the company — willing to give assistance to anyone in need.

“Any single person who works here who has any kind of problem — Jay’s on it and volunteering his time to help. Even on the weekends or after work,” Ripper says.

Pinard adds this is the reason that Burgos is a true standout employee.

“He’s always willing to learn and to help in any way possible,” he says. “It’s almost to a fault. He’ll put aside whatever he’s working on to jump into any problem or situation. He’s not scared to try anything new or figure out any situation.”

Pinard and Ripper say they’ve seen Burgos stay late on several occasions to help his coworkers who are having car troubles. He’s even given other Helping Hand employees a place to stay when they’ve fallen on hard times.

“His openness and willingness to help is a big contributing factor for a lot of our employees staying on,” Pinard says. “They go to him for advice. Jay is really kind-hearted. He’s always willing to help.”

Burgos says the ultimate driving force behind his behavior comes from his mother.

“My mom was always my biggest inspiration,” he says. “My mom used to always say, ‘From one piece of bread, 15 to 20 people can eat from it.’ She also always taught me that the more you know the less you’ll have to pay people to do stuff for you.

“I feel that if I can help in some way, at the end of the day God will always repay me somehow — even if it’s just another day to live. That’s enough for me,” Burgos adds.

Aside from that, Burgos says his heart goes out to people who have expensive car repairs or can’t afford their rent.

“I didn’t come from a rich family, so if I can help in any type of way I always will,” Burgos says. “If your car broke down, I can stick around for an hour or two to help you out — I don’t mind. If I can’t help, I will get your car towed to your house…Nowadays, life is very expensive. We all know the cost of living is going up and up and I feel bad for people.

“When I hear that people are paying $1,700 for a two-bedroom apartment it breaks my heart,” he adds. “The cost of living is so much that I feel bad for people.”

Lead with inspiration

The concept of lifting others up goes beyond lending a hand for Burgos, who incorporates those values into his leadership style.

“As a leader, I always tell everybody to strive for more,” he says. “They shouldn’t just feel comfortable. I explain to them that the more they learn, the more money they can make. And what’s better — taking orders or giving orders? A lot of them at first don’t think they can do it, but I try to be their backbone and reassure them that they can.”

Ripper adds that Burgos pushing his crews to do more has helped them take more pride in their work.

“He’s doing a lot of really great training over in that department, which I think helps,” he says. “The guys understand that we’re in charge of everything out there and it’s not just mow, blow and go.”

Pinard adds that Burgos being such an approachable leader has helped curb turnover. The company currently has about 85 employees during peak season.

“He looks at everybody who works here with potential to move up and be better or more than they can be,” he says. “He’s very honest about letting them know where they stand and in what areas they need to improve in. He’ll help them achieve their goals in any way he can.”

As the company continues to grow, Ripper says he hopes Burgos continues to be an inspiration to his team.

“He’s honest to his word and following through with everything that he does,” he says. “That’s the type of work ethic I feel like a lot of people are lacking. If we had 20 more Jays, it’d be a whole lot better for sure.”

While Burgos may be an inspiration to others at Helping Hand, he says his ultimate inspiration is his two sons who are eight and 10-years-old.

“My kids are what motivates me every day,” he says. “I’m excited when my kids tell people ‘My dad’s the boss.’ It motivates me and drives me even more.”

Sitting in the boss’ seat

That drive will hopefully propel Burgos to leading the company one day.

“I always joke with Norm that someday I’ll hit the lottery and buy the company from him,” he says. “Norm is really a mentor to me. I really look up to Norm and always have. He always gives me advice whether it’s a personal matter, financial information or anything.

“He explained to me how to build better credit, create a savings account and all that. Someday, I want to either own Helping Hand or be running Helping Hand. I’d like to be sitting in Norm’s chair.”

Pinard predicts that Burgos will continue to be integral to the company as he works toward his ultimate goal.

“I see Jay being a very pivotal part of the company,” he says. “We’re constantly thinking of expanding and moving into other locations, and Jay is more than capable of being a leader to help start a new location or help jumpstart in a whole other field we aren’t even thinking of.”

Ripper says that predicting the future has never been his strong suit, but he’s confident in Burgos’ ability to continue leading at Helping Hand Lawn Care. “The sky is the limit for anything that he wants to do in the future,” Ripper says.

“I definitely think he’s put himself in a situation where he’s on the track to become a VP… I think Jay is going to be able to take on anything that I push his way.”

The author is senior editor with Lawn & Landscape.