Collin Sieracki may have been mowing lawns since he was a teenager, but it was only in the last few years that he’s taken his company, EverGreen Lawn & Landscape, to new heights by identifying his ideal client.
“Around 13 I started mowing lawns in my neighborhood with just a 22-inch push mower,” he says. “After I got up to four lawns, I got a 38-inch walk-behind mower and then that developed into a 52-inch mower with the more lawns I did.
“Once I turned 16, that was it. Five lawns turned into 10 then 12 and by the time I graduated, I was mowing about 80 lawns a week,” Sieracki adds. “That’s when I got another employee and it’s just grown from there.”
Because he started so young, Sieracki admits it took a while for customers to trust his as a skilled leader and business owner.
“It’s about trying to present yourself in the most professional way you can,” he says. “Being so young, it was kind of hard to get people to give you a chance — but once your name is out there, your age doesn’t matter as much. It’s about the logo on the truck and the credibility you’ve established.”
But once his business started taking off, Sieracki says he immediately saw dollar-signs and wanted to grow too big, too fast.
“I used to want to be the biggest and the baddest with a lot of trucks and employees,” he recalls. “At one point I thought that was the symbol of the trucks. It was all about the number of trucks you had or having the nicest mowers. I’ve had my growing pains in labor force and costs and you really have to cut down on what you’re doing and hone in and do a few services really well and/or find the right clientele. It took me years to learn that. And learning to say ‘no’ was the best thing I could do.”
By identifying his ideal client, Sieracki says EverGreen has grown even more by being selective in who they partner with.
“I wanted to do everything for the customer,” he notes. “But instead of doing 40 lawns, you could do 15 lawns just by finding the right clients. Not every client or customer is going to be for your business. So, you can say no and model that around what your focus is.”
Sieracki says that while his Connecticut-based company still provides full-service care to its numerous clients, he is now focusing on dominating in a few select fields.
“There are about five or six services we really dominate in,” he says. “Including fertilizing treatments, mowing, excavation, hardscaping, mulching and recently irrigation.
“I started the irrigation division a couple years ago and it’s been great,” Sieracki adds. “It’s super exciting to learn more about. It’s a very niche market and there are only a few companies in our area so it’s just great to network with other landscapers when you have a question or need help.”