Did you say your grandfather was in the landscaping/nursery business? And your father, too? Then what's left for you, Jonny Heinz, owner of Jonny Heinz Landscaping in Saginaw, Michigan? Quite simply this, "fine-tune my operation so it's the best it can possibly be."
That's precisely where this landscaper is today. Providing landscaping and maintenance services in and around Saginaw since 1975, Jonny Heinz is a purveyor of some of the best this industry has to offer. His properties are colorful and neat as a pin. His operation is also. Trucks and equipment are spotless, well-maintained and updated every few years to ensure reliability.
Jonny is proud of his operation, one he runs with wife Cindy and six employees. Work is divided 75/25 between commercial and residential properties, and he offers a wide array of full-service landscaping services including new installations, renovations, fertilization, turf and ornamental spraying, and maintenance.
Home Base
Like so many landscapers, the Heinz couple operates out of its home office. The 2-acre spread, located in the Saginaw suburb of Shields, has plenty of room for two pole barns that provide storage for, among other things, eight pickup trucks used primarily for snow plowing, sprayers, spreaders and three Walker Mowers.
"We were the first in the Tri-City area to buy a Walker," tells Jonny. "And believe me when I say I did my homework."
He visited landscapers who operated them in the Midwest, on the East Coast and in Florida, where he and Cindy vacation each winter.
"He saw a Walker mowing at a resort while we were walking the beach," Cindy recalls. "We just walked up to the operator, introduced ourselves and asked how he liked the machine. We were a little out of place with our bathing suits on, but Jonny really wanted to talk with him."
It was shortly after the Florida beach encounter that Jonny Heinz Landscaping purchased its first two Walkers, 20-hp models with 48-inch GHS decks, from local dealer H&B Equipment. That was five years ago.
"I thought they would save me time and labor, and they have," he adds. With the addition of a third 20-hp model, Jonny figures his Walker fleet saves him approximately one person per week in labor and one day a week in time. In mowing vernacular, what used to take him 5.5 days to mow now takes 4.5 days with one less person. That is part of the fine-tuning process.
More Fine-Tuning
Magnetic ramps help turn minutes into dollars. Jonny is a stickler for detail, both on properties and with his equipment. Trucks, mowers, hand-held equipment ... the entire lot is impeccably maintained. He even trades his Walkers every two years to make sure he has the latest in mowing technology. He recently sold one to a commercial customer who wanted it for his home.
On the job, this operator, who started out with one pickup truck and a Lawn-Boy mower, does things the old-fashioned way. He tells customers he will hand-rake lawns, and emphasizes the fact that he is as dependable as the sunrise. Whatever he does, he does it to the best of his ability - no questions asked.
His Walkers help out here, too, by providing what he calls "the finest cut on the market." And Jonny claims nothing can touch the combination of a dethatcher and GHS system. The dethatcher loosens thatch and debris, bringing it to the surface while the mowing deck neatly picks it up and places it in the hopper.
For both dethatching and leaf removal, Jonny raises the front of the mowing deck two settings, a move that increases the deck's vacuuming action. The end result is a whistleclean lawn.
The Heinz maintenance crew collects grass on every property. A dump truck/trailer combination allows for effortless loading and unloading of both grass and leaves. An area compost facility charges $8 a load for dumping.
Changing Industry
Before starting his own company,Jonny worked for his father in the nursery business. He went on his own because he wanted to get more involved with landscaping and installation. After more than 20 years in business, this entrepreneur often thinks back on how difficult it was to grow the business.
He also looks around quizzically at younger competitors, many of whom seem to be getting in over their heads way too quickly - in terms of the types of jobs they're taking on and in their equipment selection.
As Jonny explains, it takes time to accumulate both the knowledge and equipment required to do a decent job for customers. His advice to new landscapers is to take it one step at a time, find a niche and grow slowly.
The wait will pay off, Jonny emphasizes. "The opportunities for our company have changed dramatically over the years. Just as an example, my customers are more willing now to pay for the level of service we provide - for the quality of work we deliver and the personal attention we give them."
The change is no doubt the combination of customers, especially commercial customers, realizing the value of a well-maintained property, along with their knowledge that in landscaping, as in every walk of life, "you get what you pay for."
Ahead Of The Power Curve
Successful landscapers and lawn maintenance professionals all have one thing in common: They understand the relationship between time and money. Just thinking about their Walkers, Cindy and Jonny point to little things Like the new tilt-up deck, big hopper and speed-up kit that help turn minutes into dollars, or to magnetic ramps that mower operators use to "jump" curbs, then reattach to the top of the deck. They discovered them at a Florida turf show.
Their office also employs a DTN Weather Center radar package that gives them up-to-the-minute forecasts and a satellite view of a storm's progress.
The system is a requisite during snow removal but also comes in handy during the mowing season. Just by clicking on the screen, viewers can tell whether crews will be rained out or if a storm will quickly pass by. The package costs $65/month, but Jonny says it is well worth it, even if it only saves one day of labor a month.
If Jonny Heinz Landscaping has one challenge, it's to stay relatively small. There is only so much time in a day, and the couple wants enough time and energy left over to enjoy their four daughters, home and a lake cottage.
As Cindy points out, there is always pressure to take on more accounts, but the availability of good employees really inhibits growth. They have excellent employees, but finding others is no easy task.
Despite their best efforts to contain growth, the company recently signed a contract with a new condominium complex. The project, with 14 acres of grass to mow, will be up and running next spring. So, too, will a new Walker, and another crew for Jonny and Cindy.
Some things can't be helped, including growth. The Heinz team in Michigan doesn't have a problem with growth, as long as it doesn't infringe on their time and efforts to continually fine-tune the business.
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