Creating a space for your work

A contractor’s shop is more than a place to store and repair equipment – it’s a basis of operations for the whole company. That’s what Top Notch Lawn Care owner Brian Shain realized as his company started growing and adding employees.

For the first few years, Shain ran his operation out of the garage at his home in Kansas, but the company was outgrowing that space, so he decided to move the company into a professional shop.

Now in its fifth year, the company employs three to four crew members and runs two trucks and trailers to provide lawn care, flowerbed cleanup, tree and shrub trimming, snow removal and some landscaping, which Shain hopes to expand in the near future. “We’re a little bigger than solo but not quite the big guys yet,” he says.

The same happened to Martin Brigham, owner of MB Landscaping in New Jersey, which employs eight workers who staff three lawn care crews.

While Brigham started off headquartering his three-man company in his own garage, he soon realized he was outgrowing the space and needed somewhere else to do business. “I have to admit, my wife was thrilled with the idea and I think at least some of my neighbors were too,” he says.

And as he plans to expand into snow removal and some landscape services the future, the time was right to invest in a space where he could grow the company.

Read more in our August issue here.