Russell Alvey needed a job in a hurry. He had just moved back home to southern Indiana after determining a career with his uncle’s construction business in Florida wasn’t for him. When Russell saw a help wanted ad from a local lawn maintenance company, he quickly applied. Mowing lawns could be an enjoyable way to make some money that summer. But Russell never imagined that this temporary job would become a lifelong career.
“I was 21 years old when I first came to work for Glenn and Carol Smith,” Russell says. “I figured I might as well mow grass until I figured out what I wanted to do in life. But almost 30 years later, I’m still here mowing grass.”
Russell has been doing a lot more than mowing grass over the past three decades. In fact, Glenn attributes much of the company’s success to Russell’s ability to build relationships in the commercial market. Now Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care in Evansville, Indiana, is Russell’s company. He and Glenn started discussing the idea of Russell taking over about five years ago. Those talks turned serious in 2021.
Russell Alvey, owner of Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care in Evansville, Indiana
“Glenn started teaching me about the business side of things,” Russell says. “There’s a lot to learn that I’d never thought about. Thankfully, Glenn is still just a phone call away.”
Russell has been the company owner for a little over a year now. From an operations standpoint, his goal is to make sure productivity and quality are maintained. “I think we’ve developed a pretty good system as far as getting things done,” Russell says. “I don’t know that there’s much that needs to change. I just want things to keep rolling like they have been.”
You Can’t Teach Work Ethic
Glenn Smith started mowing lawns in the late-1980s while attending college. He decided to keep the business going after earning his accounting degree. Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care was officially incorporated in January 1991.
The business buzzed along for the next several years, thanks in large part to Glenn’s very patient and supportive wife, Carol. Then, just as the company was closing in on that pivotal five-year mark, Glenn made a management decision that would change the trajectory of his company. Glenn hired Russell Alvey in August 1995. He was immediately impressed with Russell’s work ethic.
“Right away Russell told me he’d work anytime I needed him,” Glenn recalls. “Then we ended up with a major drought and weren’t doing much mowing. I needed a new roof on my house and wanted to build a barn. Russell offered to help me with that to stay working and making money. I knew having a guy like that who really wanted to work was valuable. I needed to do what I could to keep him.”
A big part of keeping Russell was providing opportunity. Glenn saw an opportunity to grow the company in 1999, and Russell could play an influential role in achieving that growth.
“We picked up our first two commercial accounts, and it didn’t take long to realize it’s what we should be focusing on,” Glenn says. “We could service two properties a day and make money while the truck was parked. In residential, we ran around servicing sometimes 30 lawns a day. That’s a lot of windshield time and a lot of administrative time dealing with so many customers. When I got into this business, my goal was to mow as much grass as possible. But soon I realized the goal should be making as much money as possible. For us, that would be in the commercial market.”
Commercial maintenance led to another opportunity. A prominent client asked Glenn if he could install and service irrigation systems. Glenn decided he would oversee the new irrigation division with help from another longtime employee, Josh Gish. Russell would oversee the maintenance division. Russell’s job was to ensure that Arrowhead’s trademark attention to detail was maintained. He was also tasked with business development.
“I went out actively looking for business those first couple of seasons,” Russell recalls. “I was knocking on doors and handing out brochures. That’s how we landed one huge account we still have today, a property management company with several commercial and multi-family properties. Once we had that account, we became more known and started adding other commercial properties.”
Russell Alvey (right) with Glenn and Carol Smith.
Over the next several years, Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care grew from just a few employees to more than a dozen. Today the company employs roughly 15 year-round, with as many as 22 during peak season.
Three Decades of Grooming
Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care was already using Walker Mowers when Russell joined the company in 1995. However, Glenn was a little skeptical at first. A self-professed numbers guy, Glenn was initially put off by the price of a Walker. But then he started crunching the numbers from both a financial and productivity standpoint.
“I’d always liked how I could put different decks on the same tractor,” Glenn says. “So really, for a little more money, we could have a bagging mower and a side-discharge mower with just a single machine. That made a lot of sense from a numbers standpoint.”
Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care has been using Walker Mowers since 1991. The company has 10 machines today.
Russell shares the same attitude. The only difference is that he opts for a bagging/mulching combination. As Glenn relates, the Walker mulching decks have come a long way since he first started running Walkers 32 years ago.
“It is such a versatile machine, and it’s what I call a grooming machine,” Russell adds. Whether bagging or mulching, Russell says Arrowhead crews use the Walkers in all those high-visibility areas their commercial clients want to look pristine, like the front yards of industrial complexes and at retail properties.
Arrowhead Custom Lawn Care currently owns 10 Walker Mowers. Each of three maintenance crews has two Model T’s on its trailer. Another Model T is set up with a sprayer attachment. Three more Model T’s are reserved as backup units. A 48- inch deck has become standard. “We run collection decks in the spring, mulching decks in the summer, and collection decks again in the fall to pick up leaves,” Russell says.
Creating value in the commercial market requires more than a beautifully groomed lawn, though. Glenn points to Russell’s initiative as a big reason for Arrowhead’s success.
“When our maintenance crew would be finishing up a property, Russell always spent those last 15 minutes inside talking with the client,” Glenn says. It wasn’t just about making sure the client was satisfied with the work being done. It was about building relationships on a personal level. “Russell knew about their kids and the vacation they just went on,” Glenn says.
Russell also knew how to lead by example, something he learned firsthand from working alongside Glenn for so many years. If a customer ever called saying the crew forgot to blow off a sidewalk, Russell made sure it got handled right away—even if it meant driving to the property to do it himself.
Nowadays, as owner of the company, Russell is counting on a few key employees to help keep an eye on things in the field. He’s also counting on his wife, Lyndsey, to help with some of the management-related tasks he’s still getting his arms around.
“Lyndsey and I have been together for 17 years,” Russell says. “If not for her, I would not be where I am today. Just like Carol did for Glenn, Lyndsey was a stay-at-home mom. She took care of the kids and our house so I could work all those late nights. Lyndsey always pushed me to be the person I am today, which has allowed me to also become a business owner. Now she’s helping run the company so we can take it even further. I’ve been amazed by how quickly she learned the business and how to run the office side of things. We’re very excited about the future.”
Glenn and Carol Smith are excited, too.
“Once my body started telling me it was time to go, Carol and I talked about how important it was to make sure Russell could reap some of the rewards he’d helped build,” Glenn says. “I’d talked with two other landscape companies about buying me out. But the more I looked into them, I didn’t feel good about it. The level of quality Russell has helped us maintain is something Carol and I are very proud of. We wanted to make sure Russell didn’t think all of his efforts were made in vain. Selling the company to Russell was the only thing that made sense.”
Now, carrying on Glenn and Carol’s legacy is the only thing that makes sense to Russell Alvey.
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