The famed Robert Burns quote “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” speaks volumes to Kurt Bland, president of Bland Landscaping, to this day.

Bland says it was a tumultuous journey to get the company to where it is today after deciding, alongside his brother, to bring in private equity and give up control of the business.

Bland was just one of four panelists who shared their experience on what it’s like working in and transitioning a family business during a panel at Wilson360’s annual Thought Leaders Retreat recently held in Denver.

In addition to Bland, panelists also included Bruce Moore Sr., founder of Eastern Land Management; Kevin McHale, owner of McHale Landscape Design; and Doug Stacey, president of Landscape Services.

Bland says that back in 2005, he and his brother unexpectedly took over the business from their father after their mother received a terminal health diagnosis.

“We went through an accelerated succession planning that was supposed to take years but ended up taking less than a week,” he explains. From there, Bland and his brother ran the business with their father as equal partners. Eventually the two bought the business from him and were 50/50 partners. The decision to bring in private equity came in 2017.

“Like every family, we were trying to do all the right things…but that just got thrown out the window when mom got sick,” Bland says.

Because life and business can be so unpredictable, all of the panelists recommended creating a transition plan sooner rather than later. And the first step for a lot of them was bringing in outside council to guide them through the process.

That’s what Moore says he did when wanting to transition the business over to his son, Bruce Moore Jr.

“We ended up turning the company over to him three years ago in 2021,” Moore says. “He still runs it today.

“We knew he was very passionate about the industry, and he’d been in the business since he was six years old,” he adds. “When it came time to start thinking about an exit strategy, I reached out to my peers and sorted out what we needed to do.”

Moore explains the guidance allowed him to work out a plan with his son where he would provide him with a 15-year loan to be bought out from the business. That loan would be paid out over a pre-determined period of time, which Moore adds has been nice recurring revenue for his retirement.

Stacey notes that even back when his father was running Landscape Services, they had non-voting board members who would help with future planning.

“We had four advisory board members from people in different industries,” Stacey says. “We met quarterly to get their advice. It really helped with the family issues to have an outside perspective.”

And when it became clear that someone else would be taking over the family business, Stacey says the first thing they did was bring in an expert.

“We actually hired a consultant to help us with succession planning,” Stacey says. “There’s a lot of challenges with it.”

Over at McHale Landscape Design, with so many family members in the business, a third party was absolutely necessary to iron out who will lead the next generation.

“We have 10 McHales now in McHale Landscape Design,” McHale says. “You can imagine it’s very interesting day-to-day.

“Ten years ago, there was no inkling anyone would join — it was never in the cards,” he adds. “We woke up one day and had six of them in our company…Our biggest regret was not having the foresight to start this sooner. We’re behind the eightball now.”

With that many parents, children and cousins working together, McHale says a lesson their consultant taught them early on has been invaluable in terms of redirecting their mindset.

“One of the first things our consultant told us was do not use the word ‘children’ or the word ‘kids’ — they are the next generation. Refer to them as ‘next gen,’” McHale recalls.

Calmer heads prevail

Panelists add that while having someone else involved to bring out the hard truths is ideal, it’s still important for everyone to check their egos at the door when it comes to transition time.

“One of the toughest experiences in any family business is deciding who is the ultimate decision-maker,” Stacey says. “That’s where the challenges exist… there’s a lot of emotion behind it…you have to have a clear chain of command.

Stacey says he and his three siblings saw even more problems on the horizon when their children began to take an interest in joining the family business. But all that was solved when they found the solution in a sale.

“When HeartLand knocked on our door, we listened to what they had to say and with us making the move to HeartLand it has made all the family issues go away,” Stacey says. “There wasn’t any further discussion needed — it was all over with. That was almost three years ago now, and our family has never been closer.

“Now I’m not the ultimate decision-maker. So, if they bring an idea to me and it doesn’t get approved, I can say ‘it’s not my decision’ and we can all complain together,” Stacey jokes. “That alleviated a lot of tension with the structure that we had.”

Bland also made the case for private equity, saying it saved his relationship with brother as, in his opinion, 50/50 partnerships seldom work.

“That’s a major reason we decided to bring in private equity,” he explains. “My brother and I tried a bunch of approaches to not have that corporate governance be a family matter… we had some knock-down, drag-out moments as brothers… but that took the decision out of our hands.

“It’s easy to divide money,” Bland adds. “It’s very, very hard to divide a business.”

McHale adds that while they are still actively going through the transition process, no one has let it affect the family dynamic.

“What I will give everyone in the family credit for is, nobody brings it outside of work,” McHale says.

“They’ll have their arguments or disagreements during work, but if we’re at a family function… it never crosses the line where it affects the family.”

Intel from the capital

NALP’s Andrew Bray gave Wilson360 Thought Leaders attendees insight into some of the ongoing legislation and issues impacting the industry.

By Kim Lux

Election years can be their own kind of whirlwind for the National Association of Landscape Professionals, says Andrew Bray, senior vice president of government relations.

Despite the uncertainty looming in November, Bray says there’s plenty of other concerns for the industry. He outlined some of those during the 2024 Wilson360 Thought Leaders Retreat.

“There’s a lot going on in DC,” Bray says. “I’ve never seen anything like what we’ve been seeing over the past few weeks.”

H-2B happenings

Bray offered his yearly update on the H-2B program and what to expect going into the 2025 season.

“It’s always changing,” Bray says of H-2B.

Bray quickly polled attendees and was relieved to see that the vast majority of them received their H-2B workers this season.

Bray says he and his team would still love a permanent fix to the issues surrounding the program’s supplemental cap of 66,000 annual visas, but he admits it’s all up to Congress.

“This Congress has been interesting… I’m very optimistic that we can resume those conversations with the next Congress,” Bray says.

Bray notes NALP is also lobbying hard to reinstate the returning workers exception which would exempt any workers from the cap from the past one to three years looking to return again. Bray predicts reinstatement would raise the cap to around 190,000 H-2B visas.

Also, in terms of H-2B changes, Bray notes he and others are working hard to change some language that would speed up the process for additional visas to be released once the caps been exceeded. Bray says that can be done simply by changing “may” to “shall.”

“We want that language changed to shall, so we don’t have to go in and argue with the President or the Department of Labor. If it’s ‘shall,’ the minute the cap hits, the visas are rolled out,” he explains. “Next season, regardless of who wins the election, the cap will be hit in September or October and Biden will still be the president to release the supplemental visas. We should still be good for next year.”

Gas, oil & water

Bray points out that the California ban on the sale of gas-powered landscaping equipment is now underway. There are other states looking to make similar moves.

Bray notes that California only has this authority if the EPA grants it, which has still yet to happen. That’ll make it difficult for the state to enforce the regulation.

He adds that more and more states are attempting to enact similar laws, but instead of using language that aims to regulate emissions, they are using noise regulation as the motivating factor.

“We had 10 states try to ban leaf blowers or gas-powered equipment this cycle, and as of now, nine of those 10 have been defeated,” Bray reports. “We only have on left in the hopper — and it’s New Jersey."

And while gas-powered bans have been making headlines these past few years, Bray says water restrictions will be the next hot topic for regulation.

“It’s not just about the water restrictions but the implications of how people view turf,” Bray says. “It’s not catching us off guard, but Colorado came out with a pretty significant ban on having turf in new construction, and they’re looking at taking out turf in commercial settings.”

In addition to Colorado, Bray says Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and Utah are all also looking into similar bans and restrictions.

“NALP is taking this to the top,” Bray says. “We’re working on bringing some like-minded associations and groups together to solve this problem.”

Handling the heat

Bray says business leaders should also be aware of Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new heat standards. While it hasn’t been formally introduced yet, Bray explains a copy got leaked recently.

“You don’t need to worry about this until next summer,” he says.

Bray adds that NALP worked with OSHA to help create the new heat standards and regulations.

“Regardless of where you work and how hot it is, you will have to create this new heat injury and illness prevention plan,” Bray says. “This will need to be accessible to all your workers and this will need to be taught annually.”

When temperatures are above 80 degrees, other regulations include having accessible, cold drinking water for staff and shaded break areas. When temperatures rise to 90 degrees, employees will have to receive mandatory 15-minute rest breaks every two hours.

Bray warns that when these new heat standards go into effect, it will take a lot of communication on the business’s end to make sure they are being followed.

“We wanted OSHA to make temperatures thresholds different based on region,” Bray says. “Because you can argue that 90 degrees in Texas is different than 90 degrees in Oregon or another region.”

Presidential predictions

Bray wrapped up his session with some information on the election and his insight and predictions on who will win the White House in November.

“I’m an election junkie,” Bray says. “And I’m a gambling man, so as much as I’d love to say I pick winners, I usually pick losers.”

With Kamala Harris being named the Democratic candidate, Bray says it will force Republicans to start campaigning in more states.

“Kamala now has several paths to victory,” Bray adds. “She has the Sunbelt path, and Kamala is going to bring North Carolina into play — and the same thing with Georgia and Arizona."

NALP’s holding its annual Elevate event during election week and Bray says he isn’t certain the election will be called Tuesday night. “I don’t anticipate being able to tell you guys who the president is on Wednesday morning,” he says.

The author is associate editor with Lawn & Landscape.