Billy Gropp will never forget the time he was servicing a residential property early in his career in the 1980s. The lady of the house would refer to him as “the yard boy.” Billy took it in stride. He just said “Yes, ma’am,” got paid, and moved onto the next property. As a young person trying to build a business, that was the bottom line.
But it still got under Billy’s skin. His vision was to establish a complete groundskeeping company based on tenets like integrity, quality, and professionalism. He decided to simply use that flippant “yard boy” comment as motivation.
Within a few years, Billy’s vision was becoming reality. His company, The Groundsman, was taking on more properties, offering more services, and was becoming a known brand around the Augusta, Georgia, market. Today the company has roughly 40 employees that provide a long list of groundskeeping services to prestigious clients in the health care, commercial and industrial industries. A small portfolio of residential accounts is also maintained, but the focus is definitely commercial.
“It’s much more profitable to work for someone who is spending somebody else’s money,” Billy says. “When a property looks good, a property manager gets a pat on the back from their boss. Now that property manager wants to keep everything going like it has been. So as the contractor, you have to charge enough to provide that level of service. But you never overcharge, ever. You have to build a relationship based on mutual respect and working together.”
Billy Gropp (standing) and Mike Dohn, Billy’s vice president of operations who will be taking over the company when Billy decides to retire.
Climbing the Rungs of the Commercial Ladder
Prior to starting his groundskeeping company, Billy Gropp was working in a chemical plant. It was a good job, but Billy was just a few years out of high school and full of energy. He’d recently purchased a large riding mower to use on his mother’s property. Billy started to wonder if he could use that machine to mow a few other yards in his spare time.
“That’s when I saw an ad in the newspaper for a groundsman at an apartment complex,” Billy recalls. “I decided to look into it. Turns out, they actually wanted someone who would work directly for them full-time. But I still had my job at the chemical plant. They told me to talk to the manager of another apartment complex on the other side of the interstate. That complex was using a contractor, but they weren’t happy with the quality.”
Billy drove right over there. Lo and behold, the contractor was on-site that day. Billy parked his truck and watched for a while. Then he walked up to the contractor to make a little small talk. “I asked, ‘How much do you charge for doing work like this?’ He came right out and told me,” Billy tells.
Later on, Billy got ahold of that apartment manager and said what he would charge to take care of the mowing and groundskeeping. Billy’s price was a little higher than the current contractor’s. “But I told the manager that the price was non-negotiable if they wanted their property to look better than it did now,” Billy says. Billy got the job and was officially in the groundskeeping business. Inspired by that initial newspaper ad, he decided to call his company The Groundsman. The year was 1979.
Within a couple of years, Billy left his shift work job at the chemical plant. He also started shifting away from the apartment complex market. The Groundsman started taking care of other types of commercial properties including banks, smaller office buildings and restaurants. Before long, the fast food industry became The Groundsman’s fast track to the top.
“We picked up some McDonald’s locations which were corporate-owned at the time,” Billy says. “These places saw the value in nice landscaping. They hired us to do all the new construction and maintenance. McDonald’s actually photographed one of the properties and put it on the cover of their franchise magazine, saying this is what every property should look like.”
The Groundsman was taking care of several other fast food restaurants as well, and actually helped pioneer the concept of using annual color on these types of properties. The restaurant market prompted Billy to start changing his views on mowing, too. Rough-cutting wasn’t going to cut it any longer. Billy needed to start collecting clippings to make these lawns look pristine. A small walk-behind wasn’t a viable option, however, because it wouldn’t be productive enough.
Engineering a Way to Increase Productivity
Billy engineered his own homemade ride-on collection mower in the early 1980s. He started with a lawn tractor and a 50-inch mid-mount deck. He built an adapter that attached to the discharge opening. A flex hose connected to that adapter. The flex hose led to a blower assembly with a 5-hp Briggs motor. That led to a tall, rectangular trash can Billy got from one of his fast food clients. Billy also built a frame off the rear axle of the mower where the trash can could slide in and out. The bag from a Snapper push mower went on top of the trash can to contain the debris.
All things considered, Billy’s creation did a pretty good job. But little did he know that a manufacturer in Colorado had recently begun making a ride-on collection mower of its own. Then he saw another ad in the newspaper, this time for something called the Walker Mower that an area dealer had begun selling. Billy inquired, and has been using Walker Mowers ever since. Today, The Groundsman has around 15 units in production: all Model T’s with 48-inch collection decks.
Making those fast food lawns look pristine is what helped catapult The Groundsman to the top of the commercial market. “Those properties gave us a lot of visibility,” Billy says. The Groundsman eventually started shifting from restaurants to larger-scale sites like factories, office complexes and health care facilities.
Four large hospital accounts are managed today, each of which includes a network of satellite offices around the area. “For some reason, the medical industry has been really good to us,” Billy says. “They want the quality level up, and also the attention to detail. That’s what we pride ourselves on.”
The Groundsman landed its first hospital account in 1989, and currently services four hospital accounts.
Perfecting the Art of Client Retention
The Groundsman started servicing its first hospital in 1989, an account it still has today. As a matter of fact, the company hasn’t lost a commercial account of any kind in more than 12 years.
A big part of The Groundsman’s value proposition is the breadth of services it provides. The company does more than mow grass. They trim trees and service irrigation systems. They provide other exterior maintenance services like litter cleanup and pressure washing. Specialized crews blow out parking decks and sterilize ambulance bays at hospitals. Some even clean spider webs from elevator shafts.
The Groundsman has also established a reputation for its willingness to always be on call. That reputation earned the company an opportunity to perform parking lot maintenance at a prestigious sporting event held in the area each spring. The Groundsman has retained that account for a dozen years now, too.
Even though The Groundsman delivers a lot more services than mowing, the appearance of the lawn is still at the top of Billy’s list.
“The type of properties we’ve serviced over the years has changed, but Walkers are still used on what we call our fine lawns,” Billy says. “We employ some rough-cut mowers on some of the perimeters of our larger properties. But there is nothing like a Walker for doing detailed mowing on areas that are irrigated and need to look first class.”
To profitably deliver such a high level of service, The Groundsman must also function at a high level of efficiency.
“We’ve found that you make a lot of ‘little dollars’ in the landscape industry,” Billy says. “You have to watch every penny, which translates to every minute. That’s where I see a lot of additional benefit from using Walker Mowers. You can trim on each side of the mower and collect the clippings. Then it’s easy to turn it around, empty the hopper and go right back to work. Time is money, and everything has to be done as efficiently as possible. We track every minute of every employee on every job. The Walker has been perfect for that type of work environment.”
At age 65, Billy Gropp expected to be backing away from the business more by now. But COVID has disrupted his labor force, which has required Billy to get more involved in certain aspects of the company again. While no specific timetable has been established, there is an exit plan. Mike Dohn is a longtime employee who is poised to become majority owner when Billy does retire. Mike has already been given a small share of the company.
While The Groundsman specializes in commercial groundskeeping, a small portfolio of residential properties is maintained.
“I decided to make Mike part owner now to give our clients some certainty for the future,” Billy explains. “Customer retention is always number one. We’ve never wanted to be the largest company. We just wanted to provide the best service. That is what has worked for us, and is what will continue working after I step away.”
Pretty profound wisdom from a little ole yard boy. Or should I say, Groundsman?
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