Business Spotlight: Lean & Green

GreenTech Enterprise LLC took root in 2014 when Missouri State University entrepreneurship major Brandon Jacobsen created a lawn care company as a senior project.

“I started the business at the beginning of that school year to work around my college schedule,” Jacobsen says.

With previous experience at Branson-based Treasure Lake Resort and the now defunct Arbor Gardens, he used gas mowers at first to start building capital.

“I named it GreenTech because I knew that was the area I wanted to go into,” he says.

Two years later, the business plan is more than a graded project. Armed with solar-charged electric lawnmowers, Jacobsen and co-owner John Krygiel, who came on board at the end of 2014, are making good on the original idea for GreenTech Lawn Care: zero-emissions mowing.

“We really looked at our options in terms of making ourselves stand out more and what we could do to lessen our impact on the environment,” Krygiel says. “There were a few other companies on the coasts using this approach, but none in this area.”

Jacobsen, who works as a retail and industrial specialist with a manufacturer in St. Louis where he’s also trying to grow GreenTech, estimates company revenue was $28,000 last year. The business has generated over $10,000 in the early season this year, and by year’s end he anticipates GreenTech will beat a 20-percent growth expectation of $33,600, aided by additional customers and lines of business.

“I think that’s an attainable number,” Jacobsen says. “We’ll definitely pass that if we keep going at this rate.”

New energy
With the profits of two prior gas-powered seasons in hand, the company researched Seattle-based Clean Air Lawn Care and The Googleplex – Google Inc.’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. – to choose the right electric equipment.

“We looked at that and thought, ‘If they are using these, they are probably pretty commercial grade,’” Krygiel says. “We wanted to make sure they weren’t going to be dying out in the middle of the day.”

Krygiel says the cost for two mowers was roughly $26,000 through Hamilton, Ohio-based Mean Green Mowers. The average life of each is 7,000-8,000 hours, and Jacobsen estimates that’s triple the run time of conventional gasoline models. The electric versions don’t require maintenance, such as oil changes and belt replacements, or the $150 per week in fuel that GreenTech bought last season.

“It made us viable,” Jacobsen says of eliminating the strain on time and finances.

The company has 50 clients across its five service areas – Springfield, Republic, Nixa, Ozark and Branson – up from 33 last year. The roster is almost exclusively residential, except for two Lend Nation branches, at 1102 S. Glenstone Ave. and 1200 W. Kearney St. Pricing starts around $35 per month, ranging up to $75 for a one-acre lot – about the maximum size the company’s gear and four local employees can handle, Krygiel says.

Lend Nation Branch Manager Liz Potter says GreenTech charges about $15 per mow for the small West Kearney Street yard.

“(GreenTech) comes out as soon as the grass gets a few inches tall,” Potter says. “We’ve had other lawn companies in the past you would have to call and beg to come back.”

New roots
Seeking to become a full-service lawn care company, Krygiel says GreenTech started offering reseeding, weed control and organic fertilizer – using a product called Milorganite – toward the end of last season. The new revenue streams helped develop a client referral relationship with garden landscaping company Sustainable By Nature LLC.

“A lot of our customers don’t mind having weeds because they don’t think they’re a problem, but if we get a more traditional customer, that’s always a question,” Sustainable by Nature co-owner Drake Hughes says. “We don’t do any lawn care, so it’s an easy referral for us.”

Although GreenTech’s season lasts March through November, the team added a combination mowing-fertilizing package with a monthly payment plan to keep cash flow positive through winter.

More customer revenue isn’t the only target. Since its conception, Jacobsen has sought out a franchise model for GreenTech, but getting there will take some tweaks.

Presently, the company recharges the mowers every night using energy generated by the solar array at Krygiel’s home, but the co-owners are working to attach a similar setup to the transport trailer so the lawnmowers can power up between jobs.

Noting the $3,500 cost, Jacobsen says it’s a small investment compared to the mowers.

“If someone is interested in the business, all they have to do is have a truck, fire it up and go,” Jacobsen says. “They don’t have to rely on our solar bank because they are generating their own fuel.”