There are times when one good customer can be a big deal to a small business.
Take the story of Bob Peccoralo and the unexpected floral landscaping he designed for Cubby's BBQ Restaurant in Hackensack, N.J.
Few people traveling the bleak industrialized stretch of River Street where Cubby's makes its home could fail to miss the improbable growth of multicolored flowers, sculptural trees and elegantly trimmed bushes outside the rib joint.
To say the place stands out is an understatement.
Peccoralo, owner of South Hackensack-based Peck's Landscaping, is the man behind the artful plant work. And his small company has benefited in many ways from the high-profile client, including numerous referrals that helped him expand.
But like a lot of business relationships, it's the customer who created the chance.
Cubby's owner Bobby Egan, a successful restaurateur who drives a spotless black Hummer and has achieved a unique measure of fame as a result of his business ties to North Korea, decided a few years back to use the landscaping as a form of advertising.
"I took advantage of Bobby's talents," Egan recalls, adding that not a day goes by without some customer commenting on the landscaping. People even stop by for wedding pictures, Egan says.
As for Peccoralo, he recognizes that without Egan's enthusiasm, it would be just another mowing job.
"The customer has to want his place to look nice," says Peccoralo. "If [Egan] didn't want flowers then you and I aren't having this conversation."
As Peccoralo tells it, Egan spares little when it comes to landscaping.
One year he put in 13,000 tulips, Peccoralo recalls. Then he wanted something for later in the season.
"He asks me, 'What's the nicest flower?' and I tell him 'impatiens,' and he tells me 'FILL it!!!' " Peccoralo says, his arms shooting out wide, tilting his head and letting go with a jovial laugh at the memory.
Egan and Peccoralo have a kind of mutual admiration society that comes with long years of doing business with each other. Peccoralo initially got the job because he parked his landscaping trucks on a nearby lot. Through a series of ownership changes, the lot became Egan's property and Peccoralo became Egan's tenant.
Peccoralo cut the grass as part of his rent.
Then came Egan's decision to put some money into the landscaping, and he jumped in with both feet, hiring Peccoralo to bring in hundreds of yards of dirt and design the garden.
Peccoralo began to plant, and eventually the referrals started to trickle in. At least one large commercial account came about as a direct result of the Cubby's job, as well as a good number of smaller accounts including an entire block of homes.
But like a lot of business owners, Peccoralo wasn't eager to take on every job. He turned down a large real estate company that contacted him directly as a result of the Cubby's job. Large commercial landscaping jobs can be a headache for the smaller outfit since they mean having to hire more people or buy special equipment.
In the aftermath of a difficult divorce 10 years ago, Peccoralo decided to keep his operation limited. He doesn't advertise, and his company isn't listed in the yellow pages (he'd spend half his time doing estimates, he says). Instead, Peck's Landscaping has existed for three decades entirely on word-of-mouth.
During the years since his divorce, he's built his business back up with five full-time seasonal employees and around 130 accounts split about evenly between residential and commercial.
Peccoralo's business operates on a tight margin, and the competition is "murderous," he says. But largely as a result of his forthright demeanor and people skills, Peccoralo has survived and thrived.
It's not exactly a glamour job – "come by and blow leaves on a windy day," the affable Peccoralo says, laughing. And costs of doing business such as gas and labor have skyrocketed in the 30 years since he began right out of high school.
But he is pleased to have the Cubby's account and marvels at Egan's good luck with gardening.
"One year he decides to put in petunias," Peccoralo recalls, "and it was dry, we had a drought, but the petunias, they love it dry. He ended up with the nicest petunias I've ever seen."