The avant gardener

Liza Lightfoot was gardening on the side while attending University of Wisconsin – Madison, feeding a longtime fascination with plants by getting her hands dirty with side jobs around town. The plan, before landscaping took center stage, was to become a jazz singer.

“But I realized that was probably not the best career choice if I wanted to survive,” Lightfoot says with a hint of a British accent. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and came to the U.S. in 1974. “I was starting to get my jazz vocal degree and about two-thirds of the way through, I decided that if I worked half as hard at something else, I might actually make money.”

She was already drumming up business with a partner and an aptitude test indicated that landscape architecture would suit her talents and personality.

So she switched majors. That was more than 30 years ago, and now Avant Gardening and Landscaping is celebrating three decades of serving high-end clients in a market that has been generous to Lightfoot’s business over the years, she says.

Avant Gardening and Landscaping employs 21 people, seven of whom are full-time. Seventy percent of its customer base is residential, though Lightfoot is hoping to grow the commercial end this year and into the future.

The operation has expanded and grown more sophisticated over the years, and honed a client base with a taste for creative results. But what has always stayed the same is the firm’s focus on interesting design and its balance of maintenance services to ensure recurring revenue and to strike a healthy work balance.

The company is now entering a new phase in its development where the focus is on giving people an opportunity to not just execute the vision but to help shape it. “We are at a growth phase now that I’m really excited about,” Lightfoot says.

Photo courtesy of Jon Jallings Photography

People and partnerships.

People come and go, but when good people have been on board (like now), the business has always expanded and notably improved, whether in customer retention or sales, Lightfoot says.

“If I look back, every time we have good people working in the business we have a growth spurt,” she says, specifically referring to a period of about 18 years of solid growth.

“We brainstormed and developed ideas and designs together, and we took on bigger jobs,” Lightfoot says the type of commercial work Avant Gardening and Landscaping does includes multi-housing residential sites like condominium communities that want landscaping upgrades, and some business properties.

But good people leave, and that’s what happened at Avant. An employee recruited one of Lightfoot’s other employees and started her own business.

“We have spawned a lot of businesses here,” Lightfoot says. “I try to let people do their jobs and stay out of their hair.” She looks at the experience as a challenge that she overcame and the business goes on.

One of her most valuable employees left five years ago, and business did slump a bit for a year or two. She began to recruit a replacement, but that wasn’t easy. “I hired one guy who was brilliant, but he had a temper and that didn’t work out so well,” she says.

What did work was bringing on a landscape design graduate from University of Wisconsin and training him to eventually take on a management role. “He grew into the position and he has exceeded anything I ever expected,” she says.

She has found other talented employees by recruiting through the university, and others came in the door when a larger firm downsized and good people were looking for a new home.

The strong team operating Avant Gardening and Landscaping today has made for smooth running for the last five years, and stability, Lightfoot says.

And now, Lightfoot feels she has flexibility to step out of the rigorous operations and design role and work on other aspects of the business like the nursery and commercial sales. “I am really excited about the team I have and moving the business to a higher level,” she says.

Leading and letting go.

The next level for Lightfoot is one where she’s not working in the business constantly, and where she steps aside, lets others lead and is even absent for some time.

She has been testing this hands-off approach during winters she spends running a side business, Travel Learners, which takes students on trips to South Africa where they build playgrounds and food gardens.

“I hired one guy who was brilliant, but he had a temper and that didn’t work out so well.” Liza Lightfoot, Avant Gardening and Landscaping

While she’s away during the bitter Wisconsin months, a strong snow business is running at Avant and her team is calling the shots. Lightfoot is completely comfortable with this.

“I really like the decisions that others have made for the most part,” Lightfoot says of letting out some rope and trying new things like upgrading the company’s brand. “It’s great to see others take the helm and make those plans and have a vision.”

Lightfoot wants to see the business live on, even when she’s ready to step out of it – which is not anytime soon. But she recognizes that this next phase is one where she’ll focus on growing new areas of the operation while others manage the core business.

Of the team, the market and opportunities for expansion, Lightfoot says: “We are in a position where the business is healthy and we are in a good place.”