It helps that they look like the boys next door for brothers, Tobin and Dana George, to give their customers that personal touch. Yet, with 500 lawns to mow a week, that’s not easy.“One of our strengths is having a long-lasting relationship with customers and giving them the attention and level of service they would expect from a company many times smaller,” explains Dana, who manages the mowing part of Tobin D. George Lawn Care in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. “To ensure quality, we also simplify our operation as much as possible so everyone is on the same page.”
This again is not easy to accomplish with more than 40 employees offering three services: mowing, landscape installation and fertilizing. Dana’s brother and company founder, Tobin, heads up the landscaping divisions while younger brother, Brett, manages fertilization.
Scientific Approach
Their startup story has a familiar ring as Tobin, with Dana’s help, mowed lawns while going to high school. It takes an unusual turn, though, and both brothers went on to college to become science teachers, all the while keeping the mowing business alive. After getting their degrees, Tobin taught for five years while Dana mowed and continued to grow the business.
“It eventually came to a point where lawn mowing passed up teaching, so I decided to quit and go into lawn care full time,” says Tobin. “That was in 1997. Thinking back, I mowed my first lawn in 1986 and within two years had 25 mowing customers. We incorporated in 1992.”
Not coincidentally, the brothers have a scientific approach to business. They focus on slow, steady growth at a rate of about 10 percent per year, stick to their clients like glue, focus on the residential market they know best, and, once again, simplify moving parts.
Dana explains as he watches a couple of trucks roll out of the lot. “All mowing crews are equipped the same way. They have at least one Walker GHS Mower, a Walker model Super B or B, and a complement of Stihl hand-held equipment.”
The company has all Ford trucks and operates four Bobcat skid-steer loaders and one Bobcat excavator, another indication of how the owners look to simplify their operation by doing business with only a handful of vendors and brands.
Crews not only operate the same equipment, they operate the same way. For example, two crew members mow while the other trims around the yard and edges the walks. Before the mower operators finish up and load their machines, the trimmer operator picks up a blower to apply the finishing touches.
The brothers are very hands-on. They have a truck and trailer and rotate through jobs with different crews—Dana with the maintenance crews and Tobin with the landscaping crews. This approach allows them to keep an eye on quality and stay in touch with customers.
“This business is all about relationships,” Tobin re-emphasizes. “We’re out there with the guys five days a week, and they know there’s nothing we would ask them to do that we wouldn’t do. Also, if a crew has a new member, having us accessible is good for training. We’ve found that it takes three weeks to properly train an employee.”
On Saturdays, Dana and Tobin travel together around the country, visiting customers, selling jobs, and sharing ideas about the business. As they explain, this is the one chance they have during the week to actually compare notes.
Growth Instrument
Landscape installation brings in approximately 50 percent of Tobin Lawn Care’s annual revenue while fertilizing accounts for another 20 percent. Mowing and maintenance bring in the rest.
“We purchased a used Walker in 1992 from Fletcher’s Sales and Service right here in Greensburg,” says Dana. “A year later, we bought our first Model MT, and then started to add on from there.”
Today they operate 18 Walker Mowers—three Model B’s with 42-inch mulching decks, four Super B’s with 60-inch side-discharge decks, and 11 Model MT’s with 48-inch GHS decks. Each has its place. “The B’s with wide tires have taken the place of mid-size walk-behind mowers, and they’re lighter than their GHS counterparts, so they’re less likely to mark up the turf on hills,” adds Dana. “All our GHS machines have 26-hp EFI engines that can mow all day on a tank of gas.
“The Walker Mower has been instrumental in growing our maintenance business,” Dana continues. “They’re small and maneuverable, which makes them ideal for the residential developments we mow. We’re very familiar with the machines, too, something very important to our equipment manager, Sean Noschese, who along with production manager, Andrew Ferrieni, and landscape sales manager, Phil Mann, is a long-time employee. In fact, all three were Tobin’s students.”
Mowing, though, doesn’t generate all the maintenance revenue. The company equips all 21 trucks with snowplows, 17 of which also sport salt spreaders. The contingent takes care of 700 driveways and 95 commercial properties within a 10-mile radius of Greensburg.
When asked if they would like to get even bigger, faster, the brothers hesitate. The 10-percent growth rate is manageable and they enjoy a close working relationship with family members, something that could be compromised if they grow too big, too fast. Tobin’s wife, Jamie, is the office manager. The brothers’ mother, Mary Jane, handles HR responsibilities.
Upon further reflection, both Tobin and Dana admit they have room for expansion on their five-acre property and the market could support faster growth. “When it comes right down to it, the availability of employees is our limiting agent,” says Tobin. “We also want to maintain that ‘boys next door’ image and retain the close relationship we have with customers.”
Excessive growth would likely jeopardize both strategies and stress a very successful scientific formula.
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