You can’t be – or beat – Brickman

Michael LaPorte runs Commercial Scapes, and he’s not happy.

A while back, he heard from a supplier that his competition had been referring to him as a low-baller, and he took offense at that. Then he emailed me.

Turns out, LaPorte’s not a low-baller; he just knows his numbers and can price aggressively to compete in the already hyper-competitive D.C. market.

And while business isn’t booming, D.C. has seen an influx of government spending that’s helped buoy many companies – if they go out and get it.

“The housing market’s bad – but it’s not Florida, not Arizona, not Nevada,” LaPorte told me. “A lot of guys are lazy and hoping the market’s going to come back. I think it’s going to be a long time, and I don’t know if it’s going to come back like it was.”

To sit around and complain about another company’s prices is a waste of time. You can’t change their prices – you can only change your operation. That’s what LaPorte did.

“There’s a lot of room in the market. You can’t be a Brickman,” LaPorte says. “There’s room for a niche. Brickman is very good at a lot of different facets. You can’t beat Brickman.”

What he’s saying is really a version of the serenity prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.

There are very few companies that could realistically take on an $800 million company with thousands of employees. At that point, it’s a game of numbers and volume that most companies just can’t play.

But what they can do – what Michael LaPorte did – is look at where they can compete, and do it. He’s got 50 employees in the field and brought in $6.5 million last year. They do 95 percent commercial installation, and should grow more than 6 percent this year. But these days, his crews roll up to parks and libraries and hospitals to work, not shopping centers.

“We’ve had to scramble to keep it,” LaPorte says of his workload. “But it is out there.”

He’s not bidding to keep the lights on and cash coming in. He’s got a handle on his costs and knows how to compete. That’s not low-balling. That’s smart business.