Luxury on the lake

What started as just two brothers mowing lawns in high school has turned into a nearly $20.5 million business in one of the most desirable areas of New Hampshire.

Brothers John and Mark Stephens have been working since 2007 to not only make their dreams come true — but their clients’ as well.

“Me and my brother John Stephens are partners,” says Mark Stephens, chief innovation officer with Stephens Landscaping Professionals. “We started with a pickup truck, lawn mower and some pull tabs for marketing ourselves at local restaurants and what not. We were both still in high school. I was 15 and my brother was 17.”

Today, Stephens Landscaping Professionals, based in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, has just over 100 employees. In recent years, the company has grown rapidly from $7.5 million in 2020 to a projected $20.5 million in 2024.

John Stephens, chief visionary officer, recalls graduating high school and bringing his brother into a bigger role with the company as he went off to college.

“I ended up not leaving town like most of the high school kids did,” he says. “I fell into an interest in working outside and working with my hands… I didn’t really have employees or anything, but I had clients throughout the season. I had Mark come on board to pick up the slack on things. Fast-forward to 2013 and I had him officially become my business partner and we’ve really taken off from there.”

The pair admit that early on it was difficult to define roles and not step on each other toes, as they both had a vision for the future of Stephens Landscaping.

“We were arguing a lot but ultimately we were trying to solve the same issues,” John Stephens says. “I’ve always had an artistic or creative background in my blood that my brother doesn’t have, and he is definitely more of a numbers guy. When the company started expanding into construction…we split our responsibilities.”

John then focused on the design/build portion of the business, while Mark handled maintenance.

“It’s funny because now we’re less involved in each of those sides of the company, but we find ourselves using our different qualities, and what we’re good at, to still make strong, educated business decisions, which allows us to think through all sides of a problem,” John says. “He is very much a risk taker, and I tend to be more cautious and thought out. The glass is always half full for Mark and I always have my doubts.”

But as the company grew, John and Mark knew they couldn’t keep operating with just the two of them. It was time to find talent they could teach.

That way, they’d be freed up to work on expanding the business rather than the day-to-day tasks.

“We knew back in 2014 that we wanted to grow and scale, so with the two key people we brought on, John Lahey and Hunter Secord, me and my brother both took one under our wings,” Mark says. “That way we weren’t tied to the business day in and day out.

"We mentored them for a couple years and then basically replaced ourselves with them. John is the director of all our recurring revenue and Hunter is the director of all our design/build.”

Secord was also the company’s first-ever intern, as he worked for Stephens throughout high school and college summers.

Lahey’s title is director of property services. He’s been with the company since 2016, having come from outside the industry but was enticed by the brothers’ passion and drive.

“These guys were young like I was, and I could tell this company was really going to grow,” Lahey says.

A meaningful market

One of the things that’s helped fuel that growth is the particular market where Stephens Landscaping is based.

“We’re in a town of about 4,000 people, so hiring was predominantly people we knew — friends, family, kids we went to high school with," Mark says. “In 2014, we started to really grow and hire people who weren’t friends and family. We started to bring in some more management as well. We also started to invest more in equipment, and we got our first office.”

John Stephens adds getting that office was a gamechanger in terms of professionalizing the company.

“Getting into a nice shop facility has been huge,” he says. “We were out of my parents’ yard for the longest time and then into a small rental bay that we grew out of pretty quickly. Ultimately, we took a risk on a property that is now our headquarters and has allowed us to grow more by giving us the space to do so."

But the brothers weren’t able to come in and immediately take over the share of the market. John notes they had to not only be strategic but work extra hard to be taken seriously by customers and the bank.

“We were 17 or 18 years old and in a fairly high-end market,” he recalls. “We were young kids trying to sell some high-dollar services and projects. One of the early keys to success for us was our brand — having a good logo and professional uniforms, while having our trucks logoed and just having consistency of the brand early on gave us a professional appearance.”

A true one stop shop

Because the majority of the market is high-end, second homeowners, Mark and John quickly realized their potential clients weren’t looking for someone to just mow their grass every once in a while — they wanted a dedicated property manager.

Having started out as strictly as a maintenance company, and then adding construction and design/build services, Stephens Landscaping Professionals now offers an array of property maintenance services to better attract clients.

“Our big thing is to be one point of contact for our clients,” Lahey says. “About 90% of our client base is people’s second homes that we are maintaining. They’re coming from out of state and coming up to the lake. We recognized that there are a lot of services outside of landscape maintenance that our clients were utilizing through other contractors. But most of those people would much rather work with just one company and have one point of contact.”

Lahey says it’s the design/build work that gets them in the door, but after the project is completed — it’s the other services they stick around for.

“A lot of our new customers now come through the company first through a design/build construction project, and then after that’s completed, they get handed off to an account manager and that person can get anything you need done on your property done through services that we self-perform,” Lahey says. “One service we provide is weekly house checks. They want us to go in and check that the generator is functioning, the propane levels are appropriate, the pipes aren’t freezing and all of that. We send our guys out with a tablet and they’re going through a checklist of things and taking photos and documenting what they’re seeing and doing while they’re there.

“Our clients receive an email report at the end of that service,” he adds. “When they sign up for that service, they’re looking for peace of mind, so proactive communication is key. They gain confidence in us.”

Seeking advancements

What keeps the company able to perform that stuff on time and efficiently is its investment and focus on technology.

“A lot of our growth has been because we’re young, hungry and innovative,” Mark says. “We’re innovative when it comes to the technology and software we use, and innovative in the kinds of equipment we’re using in the field. Most of our equipment is cutting-edge.”

In 2013, Mark says Stephens Landscaping reached a point where they knew they had no choice but to invest in software.

“We ran into our first set of challenges when we hit the $1-3 million mark,” he recalls. “That was going from using QuickBooks and paper routes and having no job tracking software to switching over to a software. That was one of our biggest initial challenges to get everything organized and efficient and making sure details aren’t getting missed.

“Our next challenging moment came at the $5-$10 million mark,” Mark adds. “Those challenges were more around procedural things and processes and hiring more managerial-level roles. When we were at $10-$15 million, we outgrew the software we were on and bringing in an account manager or a project manager was needed but we didn’t have a bullet-proof process for those roles.”

Before making the switch to their current industry-specific software in 2020, Mark says he was the software champion at Stephens Landscaping and motivating people to use software was challenging.

“Before that, I was the backbone of the software back in the day and the only one who really knew the ins and outs of it,” he says. “We had to make sure we had the whole leadership team on board for the integration of a new software… and since then everyone in our company is very well-versed on the software. It’s the brain of our company at the end of the day — we use it for everything.”

On the maintenance side, Lahey says the company has gotten contracts with some high-profile clients because of their willingness to go electric. They’ve even invested in a fleet of industry-specific trucks that have onboard fuel and solar charging stations.

“There was a large family of hotels, like a resort community, and the one thing we were able to do as part of our sales pitch was commit to going electric on those properties,” Lahey says. “Noise is a big issue, and people are there to rest, sleep in and enjoy themselves — so we wanted to jump out and get on the electric bandwagon so we could service that client at a high level and close the sale.”

In terms of return on investment, Mark says he was admittedly hesitant to make some of the technological advancements, but savings on time and labor has made it worth every penny.

“You have to look at the ROI for that piece of equipment,” he says. I fought my brother for years on an excavator that has a tilt rotator versus an excavator that doesn’t have a tilt rotator. I’m the financial person for the company, so I said ‘I can’t justify spending an extra $100,000 on this. I just don’t see the value.’ But we made that initial leap, and it was the first big, innovative piece of equipment. Three months of having it, I realized that we were spending more on our equipment but less money on labor at the end of the day.”

This emphasis on technology has also made recruiting and retaining talent easier for the brothers.

“In order to attract that younger talent, us having some of the new, cool equipment that people are seeing on Instagram and stuff like that makes us a more sought-after company to go to,” Mark says. “At the end of the day, that’s a huge benefit to us.”

Secord says the equipment and technology are key motivators for him sticking with the business.

“We are a group of young professionals, and we are active on social media where we see new technology quick and often,” he says. “We’re introducing new technologies and getting on board with those things because we see it as part of the future. We’re hustling to be on the leading edge of that, and I think it’s gone a long way.”

Finding the right fits

Along with attracting young, innovative workers, Stephens Landscaping has solved its labor situation by supporting another demographic of the workforce.

"We own a commercial building and there was this gentleman from Puerto Rico who was renting from us, and we had convinced him to come work from us,” Mark says. “That became a domino effect, and he was recommending friends and family he had from Puerto Rico and since then we currently employee 75 to 80 people from Puerto Rico. Some of them have moved their families here and live here full-time. We’re approaching Year 10 or 11 with a lot of them, so we’ve had a great return rate and it’s been a huge success for us.”

John Stephens agrees — adding that the business was really able to take off after finding that quality, reliable labor.

“That started the wild expansion of really great, seasonal help for us,” he says. “It also started our expansion of professionally hiring full-time staff with benefits and things like that. I attribute a lot of our growth and success to the people we had on the team early on and who are still with us.”

While most of their employees now reside in the U.S. fulltime, Mark says a few still make the trek back to their island during the off season.

“Usually, it’s about a 34-week stint that they’re here,” he says. “It starts early April and goes to the week before Thanksgiving. Some will stay for our winter months or sometimes they will bring in staff just for the winter months as well.”

John adds having a predominately Puerto Rican workforce allows the company not to rely on the uncertainty associated with the H-2B program.

“Puerto Rico being a U.S. territory means we have not had to touch H-2B at all. I don’t even know about it, but all I hear is it’s chaotic and not super reliable,” he says. “It’s not much of a trade secret anymore — I think a lot of people have latched on to Puerto Rico as a possible staffing source. Their culture is very tight knit, so the referral program happened naturally. We didn’t really have to put much in place. We went very quickly from one to well over 50 now that come up seasonally.”

John and Mark Stephens say they are happy to provide whatever resources they can for their employees while they are here working.

“We do pick up a lot of the accessory care and costs, and we do so willingly,” John says. “We do provide housing for them, and we get them set up with all of their needs. We have banks come in to help set them up with their own bank accounts, and we just try to make them acquainted with the area. It’s going to be a second home for them for a while so it’s important for us to welcome them and support them. A lot of them leave their wives and children for a stretch of time, so we’re their second family up this way.”

Another solution to the company’s labor challenges was instituting fractional partners for growth, financing, accounting and HR.

“As we approached that $15 million mark, I was looking for that next level of security as we continued to grow at a growth rate of about 25% year over year,” Mark explains. “I wanted to be able to do some strong forecasting.”

Stephens Landscaping then decided to hire a fractional CFO to consult with part-time.

“What’s nice about a fractured service for us, is we have someone who is a real tenured CFO, but I don’t have a salary of $250,000 on my payroll,” Mark adds. “We have HR staff in-house but for the more strategic side of things we have someone we can lean on for that strategic HR support. We’re getting that high-level support that normally a large salary would be spent on it…. We’re spending a fraction of that by having a fractional position working with us.”

On the horizon

All of this seems to be working out in Stephens Landscaping’s favor, as the company growth remains upward of 25% year-to-year.

“There are revenue goals of $30 million by 2030, which could be very possible, and I think we’ll look beyond that soon,” John Stephens says.

And Mark says they’ll reach that milestone just like they’ve reached all the others — organically.

“The industry has changed drastically the last few years, and a lot of money has been dumped in through private equity. A lot of our competitors have been backed by private equity firms lately, but what’s nice is we’ve put a lot back into the business, so we don’t need that PE backing,” Mark says.

Even without private equity backing, the brothers are predicting big things for the future of the company.

“We plan to continue to grow and maintain our growth rate,” Mark says. “We plan to acquire other like-minded companies that meet our core values and to continue to scale.”

Lahey adds the biggest factor in fueling growth for the future will be the company’s property management services.

“Over the next five years, I see our property management type services will be catching up with our landscaping services,” he says. “I think there’s a ton of room for growth there. If we’re 75% landscape services now and 25% property management services, I think those two numbers will start to get a lot closer. Maybe by five years we’re be 60/40 and start to close that gap.”

Though whatever happens in the future, John Stephens says it’ll be done near the lake.

“Long-term, our goal is to be the go-to company in this region,” he says. “I think we’ve done a great job thus far, but there’s still plenty of work to do to improve. We’re not looking to expand outside of our market. We don’t want to be statewide or throughout New England but remain hyper focused on the lakeshore region.”

The author is a senior editor with Lawn & Landscape.