Relaxed pace

Last time we talked to Rick Meinzer for a 2006 cover story, he ran Platinum Landscape with no office staff, no secretary, no payroll or accounting. He answered the phone himself, went on sales calls himself, and built strategic partnerships to supplement his small team of seven – which performed $1 million in landscaping installations annually.

“We have deliberately delayered our corporate structure so the owners are touching the customers,” Meinzer told us then.

With a lean approach to minimizing expenses and maximizing efficiencies, Meinzer strategically controlled the growth of the company, keeping profit margins high and overhead low. This conscientious mindset paid off when the economy crashed – Platinum experienced its two best years of business during the recession.

“Our lean structure was a Godsend. It enabled us to survive relatively stress-free,” Meinzer says now. “Because we chose to be fair and honest and deliver a great experience for our clients in the years leading up to the recession, we got referral jobs no one else even knew about.”

Business has continued to grow since then, with double the revenue and a slightly larger team of 11 seasonal employees, but Platinum Landscape is still extremely lean.

The company constantly seeks ways to maximize efficiency and profitability without sacrificing service, which requires Meinzer to be more selective about the projects he undertakes and more strategic about the way he spends his time.

“You never see one of my guys leaning against a shovel, asking the foreman what to do next. As I have given my guys more responsibility, I have been blown away at how they stepped up.” Rick Meinzer, chief creative officer, Platinum Landscape

Step up to service. As chief creative officer, Meinzer still does the estimating and business development for Platinum Landscape. There’s still no office staff, and he still answers his own phone. But many of the other tasks he previously handled – like scheduling crews, ordering products, coordinating subcontractors and fielding customer questions – he delegated to crew leaders.

Earlier this year, Meinzer promoted an operations manager and two team leaders, who each oversee a crew of four. He’s also bringing a general manager on board to oversee day-to-day operations, office management and business development.

This shift in the organizational structure has been slow as Meinzer spent years leading by example to illustrate the service he expected from employees.

“My biggest obstacle had been trying to do it all myself,” says Meinzer, who founded Platinum in 1998 after 10 years working as a business consultant at what’s now FranklinCovey. “I spent years educating and training my guys on the customer experience I wanted them to create. I slowly asked my senior guys to talk to customers more. I let them handle problems I would usually handle. I let them solve problems I would normally solve. I learned that slow is fast when it comes to developing your people.”

Several employees have been at Platinum more than a dozen years – plenty of time to absorb Meinzer’s passion and preferences by observing him in action. Even without formal training, he noticed that employees closely watched how he handled client conversations and tried to mimic his approach. Now, he regularly meets with crew leaders to advise and instruct, using role play exercises to train for real-life situations.

Besides subbing out a few trades like hardscaping, fences and pools, Platinum performs most landscaping installations in-house, “which allows us to be super-efficient and keeps our quality high,” Meinzer says.

With only two crews, everybody has to pull their own weight to maximize productivity.

“We keep our crews small so that everyone has to produce,” Meinzer says, noting that each crew generates close to $1 million in revenue.

photo courtesy of platinum landscape

“You never see one of my guys leaning against a shovel, asking the foreman what to do next. As I have given my guys more responsibility, I have been blown away at how they stepped up. Now I feel kind of foolish that I didn’t relinquish things years ago. Everyone wins when you share responsibility: They feel more engaged, and I have more time to work on things I never had time to work on.”

Calculated growth plan. To further maximize the efficiency of his small team, Meinzer tightened the company’s focus on certain types of projects.

“We totally moved away from commercial work and only do high-end residential,” he says. “I regularly turn away projects less than $30,000. Annually, that equates to about $500,000 in revenue I choose not to pursue. Some may think that is stupid, but it allows me to focus on high-dollar, high-margin projects. We have been very selective in the work we do, and as a result, more of it continues to come our way.”

Now that he doesn’t have to worry about bidding commercial work, Meinzer can be more strategic with his time. He personally calls each lead to screen potential clients. If they agree on the budget and the design process, he agrees to a one-hour consultation – where he closes the sale 90 percent of the time.

During the design phase, Meinzer partners with a landscape architect, and they meet together with clients on-site to discuss options. The architect drafts a design, and then Meinzer reviews to make revisions before presenting to the client.

“I regularly turn away projects less than $30,000.” Rick Meinzer, chief creative officer, Platinum Landscape

That way, he closely manages the design process, which is less expensive and more effective for him to sub out. Once clients approve the plans, Meinzer passes the project over to the operations manager, who then becomes the client’s point-of-contact – freeing up Meinzer from the ongoing visits, calls and questions that his team can handle.

“I spend a lot more time on the design side, exploring different solutions,” he says. “We can consider things that, quite frankly, I just didn’t have time to explore before because I was so busy. Now that I have time to think through scenarios with clients, it’s resulting in bigger projects, so that time is actually increasing our per-job revenue.”

Slowly and surely, Meinzer is building the company’s capacity to take on more work. In fact, he is nurturing a third crew leader to potentially promote in 2017, but he’s not in any hurry to grow.

“We could add a third crew, but I have deliberately managed growth to keep our service high while generating solid margins,” he says. “I care more about profit margins than I do overall sales volume. Both are important, but like I said in 2006, I would rather make 25 percent profit on $1 million than 12.5 percent on $2 million.” L&L