Pickle ball? Ever heard of it? It’s a variation of tennis played indoors. Perry Atkinson is an avid player. In fact, when not overseeing his $1.6 million company, he likely can be found on court, honing his hand-eye coordination.
"I’m not ashamed to say I only work about 20 hours a week now," says the owner of 4-A Landscape & Irrigation in Bend, Oregon. "I’ve never been a workaholic."
One wouldn’t know it, though, charting his career path. For several years, this former fifth-grade teacher and principal worked evenings and weekends mowing lawns in Portland.
If teaching was his vocation, then mowing lawns with his son, Trevor, was his avocation. It was something they continued to do when Atkinson moved his family to the resort city of Bend in 2000. They didn’t have the best tools for the job (i.e. an old Chevy Suburban and trailer that hauled a 21-inch Toro mower and a John Deere garden tractor), but they had a work ethic. The duo later added a "beat up" 32-inch mid-size Walker Mower to their repertoire.
In 2002, father and son won their first commercial account. A year later, they linked up with a new builder in town thanks to an introduction from a student teacher.
"Bend was growing fast," says Atkinson. "The new builder was constructing HOAs and giving us more work. Frankly, we needed a better mower. I talked with a fireman friend who advised me to buy a Walker Mower. So I did. It was a 26-hp Model MT with a 42-inch GHS deck that cost around $12,000.
"That first night, I couldn’t wait to finish teaching and try out my new mower," Atkinson continues. "I mowed everything in sight and mentioned to my wife, Sabine, that evening how riding my Walker Mower wasn’t work at all. I was sold, to the extent that we now have five of them."
Every year after that, until the recession, 4-A Landscape & Irrigation doubled its annual revenue, 80 percent of which came from maintenance and 20 percent from landscape renovation and installation. In 2005, Atkinson’s last year of teaching, he retained a salesperson to help grow his commercial business. He also purchased a second Walker Mower.
"I was teaching part-time then, but still putting in 80 hours a week between teaching and running our company," Atkinson recalls. "I enjoyed teaching, but had always wanted to be in business— and landscaping was a passion of mine. So I quit, knowing that I could come back to teaching someday if need be." Two years later, the recession hit.
The 20/95 Rule
Bend’s recession lasted five years. Although 4-A’s landscape construction work dried up, the owner didn’t lay off employees, thanks primarily to his mowing and maintenance accounts.
When the city came out of the recession, the building boom restarted and Atkinson decided to hitch his wagon to a different rising star: residential construction. "We started to do more work with builders, installing landscapes, and moved away from HOA maintenance work," he explains. "The HOA market can be very challenging. Virtually 95 percent of so-called nuisance calls were coming from HOA customers who represented less than 20 percent of our business."
Atkinson still held onto commercial maintenance accounts comprised of shopping centers and other retail outlets. However, what was 80/20 maintenance/construction prior to the recession trended in the opposite direction. Sabine, who was office manager and handled the books, now did more design work. Trevor became a licensed irrigation installer, one of four in the company today.
24-Hour Guarantee
This teacher-turned-businessman attributes his success to many things, including his Walker Mowers and dealer, Superior Tractor & Equipment in nearby Redmond. "I couldn’t believe how much money I was making with them," says Atkinson, referring to his first two Walker Mowers. "Superior’s Tony Sarao has played a key role, too. His dealership provides a timely service not unlike the level of service we offer our customers.
"Our company motto is ‘serving customers with integrity,’" Atkinson con- tinues. "Doing so is our top and bottom line, and that’s why we guarantee to fix anything that wasn’t done right the first time within 24 hours. Since more than 90 percent of our work comes from referrals, customer satisfaction has to be a top priority—and it is.
"But companies and their reputation are only as good as their employees who interact daily with customers," Atkinson adds. "I can teach new employees the profession and to have an eye for how a landscape should look, but I can’t teach them integrity; that has to come naturally."
For Atkinson, integrity implies being trustworthy and having a good work ethic. "I’ve been very fortunate to have a great workforce. We have 16 full-time employees. Many, like Johanna Groza who runs the maintenance division, and her husband, Andrew, who heads up design, have been with us several years." "Perry (Atkinson) treats us well," says Johanna, when asked about their long tenure with the company. "We love what we do and we work hard. Perry appreciates that and he reciprocates." "When you find good employees, you pay them well, invest in them through education and helping advance their careers, and understand that their families come first," Atkinson adds. "You also have to empower them. My 20-hour work week is possible only because I have the right people in the right places who make good decisions. "Does it bother them that I spend time away from work, you ask? Not at all. They’ve taken ownership in what they do and it shows in their work and customers’ comments."
Atkinson also thinks it’s important to continually challenge employees and vary their responsibilities. In his company, for example, this cross training has meant that employees can be interchangeable and fill in when and where needed.
Not to say this works for every owner. Landscape contractors have different philosophical approaches to running a business, and they come in all different shapes and sizes, as does their definition of success. Some want to dominate their markets, while others are content to carve out a comfortable niche.
Others, like Perry Atkinson, work hard to one day be able to disengage a bit and enjoy a hobby or two. Today it’s playing pickle ball and tomorrow it may be doing something else. But no matter what it is, it will only be made possible for this Walker user by having the right tools and right attitude to turn a passion into a profitable business.
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