Robert Lodge wasn’t in the lawn maintenance business nine years ago when a neighbor asked Lodge to mow his front lawn. Lodge worked full-time in the sheriff ’s department. Yet, he mowed the front lawn as requested, and, as he walked away, the neighbor asked him to mow the back yard, too.
Lodge obliged, but refused the check handed to him. After all, he was just being neighborly. The neighbor, however, wouldn’t take no for an answer, and forced him to take the check, one that Lodge later ripped up.
A few weeks later, Lodge mowed the same lawn again. This time, the neighbor presented him with hard, cold cash and said, “Rip this up and both you and I are out $20.” That was the inauspicious beginning of Quality Lawn Care in Amarillo, Texas.
Lodge’s neighbor recommended him to another neighbor who recommended him to her mother, etc. Before Lodge knew it, he was working two jobs — and enjoying it. Today, he still has two jobs. Instead of working in the sheriff ’s office though, he works for the Department of Energy. Instead of a few lawns, he mows and maintains 125 residential accounts and seven commercial accounts. He does it with two full-time and two-parttime employees, along with two Walker Mowers.
Looking back, Lodge just shakes his head. “You’ve heard the story before,” he relates. “I started out with a cheap push mower and string trimmer, a push broom and a trash can — all in the back of a half-ton pickup truck. But I liked what I was doing and people kept on calling.”
Lodge worked this way for years, eventually graduating into a couple of 21-inch commercial-grade walkbehind mowers and a rear-engine commercial rider. “I walk by that rider today and just laugh,” he says. “It was commercial in name only, and is no comparison to the two Walker Mowers I have today.”
It took Lodge seven years to buy his first Walker. At the time, he had built up his business to include one commercial account and 35 residential properties. “I walked into Profits, my local dealer, looking for some oil and trimmer line,” he recalls. “My dealer asked me if I was ready. I responded, ‘Ready for what?’ He replied, ‘Are you ready to buy your first Walker?’ The dealer had a special program running at the time — nine months same as cash. I bought the mower on the last day of the special, on October 31. Within two months I added two commercial accounts and 15 residential customers, mostly for fall cleanup work. Within four to five months, I had the Walker paid for.”
Lodge purchased his second Walker last year. Altogether then, a year and a half after buying his first Walker, Lodge’s business had more than tripled in size.
As he explains, the decision to pay as much for a mower as he would a nice used car was not an easy one. His wife Cheryl agrees. “I’m not easily impressed, especially with lawn mowers. When Robert told me he was going to buy a Walker, I just couldn’t comprehend why he wanted to spend so much money for a mower. Now, I understand.”
With those push mowers, Lodge says he used to come home exhausted. Now, with the Walkers, he has more energy, enough energy to work four days on, four days off for the Department of Energy and to grow his business at the same time. “What do I think of Walker Mowers?” he asks with a smile. “I can’t say enough good things about them. They have made my business what it is today.”
Work Ethic
This entrepreneur would rather give more credit to his Walker Mowers and their 42-inch GHS decks than to himself for growing his business. As the saying goes, however, “It takes two to tango.” And Lodge can dance with the best of them. When not working for the DOE and mowing lawns, he either operates his “Music Man” DJ service for area weddings and special events or spends time adding to his sizeable baseball card and sports memorabilia collection.
“Why do I spend so much time working?” he asks. “That’s easy. Cheryl and I have dreams for us and our three daughters.” Cheryl works alongside her husband, helping out on the business end of things and holding down her own job. She recently took some time off to raise their youngest daughter, but is now back at work.
For the Lodge family, the Walker Mowers are a means to an end, helping them work smarter instead of harder to reach their goals. Over the years, Lodge has learned some other “tricks of the trade.” For example, signing up commercial accounts to 12-month contracts gives him year-round cash flow. This, in combination with his company’s seasonal decorating service, keeps full-timers employed all year.
In addition, he is vigilant about taking advantage of operating efficiencies, including keeping his routes tight to reduce “windshield time.” Lodge explains, “When a new customer calls, I look at my schedule to see when a crew will be in the area, and then encourage that customer to allow us to come by that day. If the customer cannot accommodate us, we will charge an extra $10 to $15 for the stop. But nine times out of ten, the surcharge will bring the customer in line.”
Little efficiencies pay off over time, he emphasizes. So, too, will incentives like the ones he gives customers for referrals. For every “lasting” referral, Lodge takes $20 off a customer’s monthly invoice. If every customer gives just one referral a year, Lodge would double the size of his business.
How does this contractor feel about growth? “I am not worried about growing too fast,” he says. “Not yet, anyway. I’ll just add another Walker or two.”
Ultimately, he says he wants to grow, but not so much that it jeopardizes his close relationship with customers. In the meantime, he is preparing for more work by bringing a partner, Tully Latham, on board. Latham works at the DOE with Lodge. Working opposite shifts will allow them to share lawn maintenance duties.
“I am truly excited about our lawn maintenance business and its longterm potential,” says Lodge. “We field phone calls every day. We have an excellent team. And we have topof-the-line equipment. Ideally, I would like to have enough work to have five Walker Mowers and two crews. Each crew would have two Walker Mowers and one would be a spare.”
That ideal isn’t too far off, he adds. Following close behind is turning a dream or two into reality.
Site Search
