Reliable year-round

Islands & Beyond, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., takes responsibility for its clients’ lawns seriously.

Co-owner Starla Mullarkey says mowing, maintenance and trimming makes up about 75% of the company’s revenue. Islands & Beyond, which started in 2000, is located on a barrier island seven miles long and its maintenance season is year-round.

Jim and Starla Mullarkey have owned Islands & Beyond since 2000.

Mullarkey says one of the biggest challenges they face every year are hurricanes – especially this year with an extremely active hurricane season.  

“We have been through many hurricanes and are quick to be there for our clients,” she says. “Most of our clients are not here May through October, as this may be their second or third home. They count on us to assure all is taken care of.”

On the flip side, Mullarkey says during peak season the crews face an entirely different problem.

“We are also located in a tourist destination because of our beautiful beaches,” she says. “This can be a huge issue with our crews sitting in traffic for a couple of hours a day.”

When the traffic is all-consuming, Mullarkey says it may affect pricing.

“We are on the island before traffic in the morning and keep our crews working on one end of the island or the other,” she says. “During the worst of the season we know what we will run into and adjust our prices accordingly. We have had to add service charges at certain times of year.”

But even when clients aren’t on the island to see their lawns, Mullarkey says crews always go the extra mile.

“We provide a high-quality gardening service to the majority of our properties,” she says. “We hand prune a lot of our properties’ shrubs. We look at an individual’s bushes and decide what is needed to make this bush look its best. Most companies come in and hedge every shrub to the same height and shear the tops whether it needs it or not. I call them ‘mow, blow and go.’”

Mullarkey says they get a lot of customers who come to them after being displeased with their previous service.

“Most of our clients have come from those type of companies,” she says. “They were willing to take the jump into our service because they were very frustrated with the quality they were getting from other companies.”

Mullarkey notes by taking the time to do more at each property, their maintenance costs may seem more expensive to potential clients.

“I would say it’s not an easier service to sell unless you are a company who is a ‘mow, blow and go,’ who’s quick in and out,” she says. “They can then quote a lower price, but the properties I see are not a quality job. They don’t remove weeds and clean beds…. they mow in same direction leaving ruts. They don’t use an edger; they turn a weed eater on its side and scalp the edges.” 

Mullarkey says in terms of marketing, they let the lawns do the talking for them.

“We don’t advertise as our work is our advertisement,” Mullarkey says. “We have owners and property managers stopping at jobs we are working at to ask us to come and look at their property.”

Mullarkey says one of the things that allows them to grow their maintenance division is being selective with the properties they take on.

“We won’t take every account, only the accounts we feel will be a good fit for our service,” she says. “I tell potential customers we will only take on clients who want to better their properties and want a long-term relationship with us. Our time is better spent on customer who continually upgrade their properties and in return their properties always look great.”

Mullarkey says she has event stricter requirements for taking on condominiums or HOAs.

“Condos are another ball game. We don’t take on any associations unless they commit to a minimum of five years and agree we will take care of all aspects of the landscape,” she says. “Condos change boards and/or management and when a new board takes over… maybe someone thinks they are going to save the condo money by cutting costs (landscaping). When this happens their properties deteriorate, and their property values go down.”