Margin Rules

Team Turf Landscapes

Principal: Jonathan Tucker Location: Marietta, Ga. Established: 1996 2008 Revenue: $1.4 million Customer/Service mix: 95% residential, 5% commercial; full-service landscape maintenance, design/build installation Employees: 13 Pricing philosophy: Professionalism is worth a higher price, and customers who trade quality for cost will eventually return to quality.

Jonathan Tucker started his business at age nine. He cut neighbors’ lawns for $5, “and I’m sure we were considered lowballers at the time,” he says, joking. “We didn’t have to pay taxes or insurance.”

After Tucker graduated college with a business degree in 2000, he began to focus on the financials of running his landscape business, which officially launched in 1996 and had provided a steady cash stream during his student years. “At that point, I was involved with the financials and meticulous about where money was going,” he says.

Many customers don’t realize that a job’s cost involves more than labor and materials. There’s workers’ compensation, liability and health insurance – plus vehicles, utilities, a facility to finance. “And we are really big on keeping up our image, so everything we do is as professional as it can be,” Tucker adds. “Those costs are associated to every job we do.”

Team Turf maintains a lower overhead than some companies because its vehicles are paid off and routing is tight. The office is 5 to 10 miles from every customer. Still, Tucker says, “We like to maintain our profit margins.” He aims for a 25- to 30-percent margin on every job.

“My prices haven’t changed this year,” he adds, acknowledging that the economy may force him to reconsider his rates, but not at the expense of earning a decent profit. He can be flexible with maintenance prices if he knows he will earn back dollars and then some on an installation job at the same site.

Some residential customers have asked Tucker to match lowball competitors’ prices. Those bids may be 20 percent lower than Tucker’s estimate. One client told Tucker another company offered to do the same job for 25 percent less. “I said, ‘Really? That’s amazing that they can do it so cheap,’” Tucker says.

Actually, the other company was offering four lawn care applications, while Team Turf’s annual program includes seven visits. “You can’t keep a lawn healthy with four applications a year,” Tucker says. The customer cancelled service with Tucker, but called him back a week later when the lowball company didn’t show.

“You get what you pay for,” Tucker says, noting that customers who decide not to pay a fair price for service will be disappointed.

Tucker educates clients who ask him to match lower bids. For instance, if a company offers to sell a customer pine straw at $3 per bale compared to Tucker’s $7 per bale, he will urge the customer to find out how much straw is in each bale. “A lot of companies are unethical and inflate the cubic yards of pine straw or mulch to make up for the price,” he says.

Tucker’s crews reaffirm the value of their service by letting customers know when Team Turf goes the extra mile. “Instead of charging a customer to haul away big rocks from their property, we made some boulder walls for no extra charge,” he relates.

The extra customer service touches go a long way toward attracting customers, and so does Tucker’s Certified Landscape Professional (CLP) designation, customer referrals and an “A” rating in a local magazine. Team Turf shows customers their services are worth paying for.

“We let our work speak for our price,” Tucker says simply. 

The author is a freelance writer based in Bay Village, Ohio.