When featured in Walker Talk, Volume 18, Joe and Tracy Martoccia, owners of Top Job Landscaping in Scottsdale, Arizona, had four full-time employees, none of which were family members. More than 15 years later, it’s Joe, Tracy, son Johnathen and daughter Santina who do the work. The company doesn’t mow 300-plus yards like it did back then, Joe explained. His business model is fewer customers, but better customers.
Pictured from left to right is Johnathen, Tracy, Hunter (seated), Santina and Joe Martoccia.
“We got away from the commercial market, and now target high-end homeowners who look for quality work and excellent response time,” said Joe. “We have about 20 customers, and I tell them you can always get a hold of me and they can. Communicating with customers, especially being proactive with text messaging, helps us keep them informed as well.
“In addition to mowing and maintenance, we still install outdoor lighting and irrigation systems, provide design and build services, and do just about anything a customer asks. I found that we can make just as much money with fewer customers, the kind that don’t go with the lowest bidder and, instead, are willing to pay for a more custom service.”
He calls the approach, “keeping it in the family, family-run and family-owned. Ten-year-old son Hunter is next in line,” said Joe. “He already operates the mower like a veteran, with the blades off, of course. It won’t be long, though, and he will be mowing with us.” One could say Joe’s Walker Mowers are part of his extended family. He still owns the 16-HP model he had in 2001, but looks to a 23-HP unit he purchased in 2008 to do most of the mowing.
“You can’t mow in any tougher conditions than here,” Joe explained. “The days are incredibly hot and dusty. I have never seen a machine that stands up better in conditions like this. But you have to maintain them, too, by blowing them off after work and routinely greasing them, and changing the oil and air filters.”
He continued, “I tell people my Walker Mower does the work of four people.” At that rate, it’s no wonder Top Job can grow its own employees within the family circle. “What better job to have,” said Joe, “than to be able to go to work every day with your family.”
Read the original story, Arizona Landscaper Follows in Dad's Footprints first appearing in Walker Talk 18.
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