Imagine for a moment that you’re 53 years old and had worked full-time for Borden Dairy for 33 years. For a change a pace, you decide to join your son in a newly formed lawn maintenance venture. Change of pace, and how! For Bill Dardenne, the story unfolded in 1996 when he and son Dennis purchased a Grasshopper mower and a couple of string trimmers. The kicker was they didn’t have any customers, only the confidence to know they could succeed.
Succeed they did. In five years, D&D Lawn & Landscaping, located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has grown from literally nothing into a well-respected lawn maintenance company with between 50 and 60 commercial and residential customers. Business is so good, in fact, that Bill no longer accepts new business, and barely has enough time in the day to keep his customers’ properties maintained.
How does one grow a business so fast, with virtually no advertising except signage on the truck? The answer, say the Dardennes, is twofold. “You have to set your mind to it and you have to do good work with good equipment.”
Transition Period
The owners of the new company had a slightly different idea about mowing. They wanted to mulch properties to save time and to send nutrients back into the soil. The Grasshopper wasn’t quite up to the task, notes Dennis, who says he became interested in a Walker at a Little Rock dealer. “I always thought bigger was better, and when I saw the Walker in the showroom it looked like a toy. But it also looked like a machine that could help us on many of our heavily landscaped properties.”
D&D purchased a Walker, despite protests from Bill, tells Dennis. “My father wasn’t sure how ‘the toy’ would perform, but it worked well beyond my original expectations.” One mower led to another, and now the company operates with three diesel models; a fourth is at Dennis’ home. Bill, a converted Walker believer, attributes more than a little of the company’s success to a machine that, in his words, “makes us look good on a daily basis.”
The Dardennes grew their business in stages, adding a new Walker as they gained more properties. “Our growth was dependent almost entirely on word of mouth,” Bill explains. “We never put our name in the phone book or purchased a Yellow Pages ad. Our work did all the talking.”
The location of their properties tells the story. If there’s one shopping mall or office building in Pine Bluff that is maintained by D&D, chances are there will be a second and third nearby.
“Our customers just like the work we do,” says Bill. “Over the years, we’ve made a point to be on all the properties ourselves, to make sure they are maintained the way we want them maintained. I’ve always enjoyed pleasing people, and this business gives me an opportunity to do that.”
Dennis has similar thoughts, although he couldn’t pass up an opportunity this year to buy a convenience store. The move puts Bill in charge of D&D. With part-time help from younger son Chad (a deputy sheriff ) and crew member Graciano Angeles, he keeps the operation moving — and mowing — forward.
“There’s a lot of work for this small group,” explains Bill. “In fact, we have so much work, we’ve been forced to limit our operation to mowing and maintenance almost exclusively. But that’s not bad since we’re set up for mowing, anyway. The three Walkers with tilt-up decks fit nicely in our enclosed trailer, and we can sure get a lot of mowing done in a day.”
Dennis and Bill estimate that D&D mows upwards of 200 acres of lawn a week. All of it is mulched with 52-inch mulching decks. “Nothing, and I mean no other deck on the market, even comes close to that 52-inch deck,” Dennis adamantly says. “It literally makes the clippings disappear, and the crew can mow even when it rains.”
D&D also has a larger, 62-inch mulching deck and three GHS decks (two 54-inch decks and one 48-inch deck). The latter are used for spring and fall cleanup and, on one property, they even substitute as parking lot vacuums to pick up debris.
“I would say we mow about 42 weeks out of the year and put somewhere around 100 hours a month on the Walkers,” Bill relates. “We charge $35/hour for our Walkers, plus whatever time we spend trimming and edging.”
Although Bill claims to operate a company that is strictly maintenance-oriented, he finds himself doing plenty of property renovation. In fact, a recent mall acquisition will require his crew to re-landscape the entrance, food court area and flower beds. In between, they’ll spend three hours one day a week mowing the property, with three Walkers.
“The more time on the Walkers the better,” he adds. “If those Walkers aren’t running, we’re not making money.”
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