In winter, landscaper Andrew Riegert can gauge his business' success largely by how many nights he sleeps in a spare basement bedroom. Why? It's the only place he can get some peace and quiet after a full night of snowplowing.
"During a two-week stretch last winter, the only night I had off was Christmas Eve," says Riegert, who owns Natural Surroundings Landscape and Design, based in suburban Minneapolis. "When I'm out plowing, I usually get in at 6 a.m., give my driveway a couple swipes with the blade on my pickup truck, and go to the guest room to get some sleep.
"It's a good thing, though, because it means we're making money," he says. "You can always make up for lost sleep later. But I'm glad it's only seasonal. I don't think I could do it year-round."
That work ethic, combined with a diversified business base, has led Riegert down the paver-block path to success as a high-end landscaper, doing mostly residential work in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. Since 1997, he's been honing his hardscaping skills and developing a solid base of repeat and word-of-mouth customers, including snowplowing clients that rely on him to keep their businesses humming when the snow flies thicker than a retaining wall.
Riegert plows snow only for commercial accounts (except for his own driveway, he says). He has snowplowing contracts with about a dozen customers that own distribution yards or parking lots.
His company relies on 2000 and 2001 Ford F-350s, both equipped with snowplows made by Hiniker Co.; a 2007 Ford F-550 outfitted with an 11-foot contractor body dump box built by Crysteel Manufacturing Inc., a Hiniker snowplow and a tailgate sander made by Western Snowplows; a 2002 Ford F-550 with a Crysteel 11-foot contractor body dump box and a homemade tailgate sander; and a 1989 Ford F-350 equipped with just a Western V-box sander.
A 2000 Bobcat 773 skid-loader and a 2001 Bobcat 863 skid-loader; a 2000 Daewoo 55 track loader; a 1998 Volvo L70 wheel loader; two flatbed trailers made by Felling Trailers; and an enclosed trailer made by Interstate Trailers Inc., complement the trucks.
Riegert also owns the following attachments, made by Bobcat Co.: an auger, grade bar, snow bucket, plow, ice scraper, edgers, walk-behind trencher, sod cutter and tiller. Riegert purchased the trucks from Wolf Motors in Jordan, Minn.; the Bobcat and Daewoo machines, the Felling trailers and the attachments from Lano Equipment Inc. in Shakopee, Minn.; and the Interstate trailer from Ace Trailer Sales, also in Shakopee.
"I have a lot of equipment that easily converts to snowplowing," Riegert says.
DILIGENT ABOUT DIFFERENTIATION
Riegert says his snow success is based on thoroughness and attention to detail. That means, for instance, knowing exactly where catch basins are so they don't get covered with snowpiles.
"In fall, we go through customers' yards and lots and mark the perimeter drains with orange, high-visibility fiberglass stakes," he explains.
In addition, each job typically requires two trips: one for the initial snow removal, and another the day after a snowfall to clean up loose ends, or sand or salt ice pools formed by thawing and freezing snow.
"A lot of guys just rush through plowing, and it shows," Riegert says. "We never lose parking spaces to snow, and that's a big deal to customers - and me. I take a lot of pride in it."
In winters with heavy snowfalls, Riegert and his crews sometimes run out of room to put snow around the perimeter of parking lots. When that occurs, he rents a large dump truck that hauls snow away.
All in all, though, snowplowing is a lot easier than landscape work, because it basically involves only driving. But on some nights, Riegert says, it takes a lot of coffee to keep him and his employees going. A good diet during those times is essential to maintaining energy, he says.
LANDSCAPING COMES NATURALLY
Riegert first dipped his toe in the landscaping waters in high school by doing light landscaping for his sister's gardening company. When she kept getting requests from customers for more skilled, labor-intensive "hardscaping" work, Riegert heard opportunity banging on the door.
"I saw an opportunity, so I went to school to get a background in landscaping," he says. During four years of school, he earned certificates in landscape management, landscape design, arboriculture and landscape construction. He started his own company in 1997.
Ironically, one of Riegert's biggest business challenges is convincing customers that they're better off with a certified, formally educated landscaper.
"It's hard to separate ourselves from the guy who goes out and buys a truck and instantly becomes a landscaper," he says. "Those are the guys who drive prices down and increase competition. I run into it every day, at nurseries, driving down the road and talking to potential customers.
"I tell customers that I belong to and am certified by the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association, which is the only organization in the state that gives us an edge in professionalism," he continues. "You want to be as professional as possible - it's the only way the industry can survive and be profitable."
BIGGER NOT ALWAYS BETTER
Riegert says he's content with just three full-time employees and a small fleet of equipment. There was a time when he believed in the business philosophy of "grow or die." But his own experience dictated otherwise.
"I'm small for a reason," he says. "I like to be involved on the jobsite. I've got a foreman, but I work with him a lot.
"Three years ago, I expanded to two crews and hired a landscape designer so I wouldn't have to do as much design work. I got more into managing the business … and customer service and job quality started to suffer. I don't blame my employees - I just bit off more than I could chew."
Riegert takes great pride in doing quality work. About 90 percent of his customer base is either repeat business or word-of-mouth referrals, so he figures customers recognize they're getting good value for their dollar.
To improve profitability in this tough economic climate, Riegert says he's trying to "shrink the market" by passing up jobs that are farther away, in an effort to save fuel. He also closely scrutinizes overtime pay, since labor is the biggest expense on his income statement.
"One of my biggest challenges is controlling costs," he says. "If you can't control what's going on (with the economy), then you've got to concentrate on what's going out in expenses."
GREEN LANDSCAPING IS THE TREND
Demand for so-called "outdoor living rooms," one of the hottest trends in landscaping, is waning because of the economic slump.
"Instead, we're doing a lot more essential work, like patios, instead of $30,000 outdoor fireplaces or pizza ovens with a wet bar," Riegert says.
Landscaping that conserves natural resources, like rainwater, are catching on fast. A good example is rain gardens, which are planted in a depression to collect rainwater runoff. That way, the rainwater soaks into the ground, instead of streaming into storm sewers, possibly creating erosion along the way.
"You use lots of native plants that can filter chemicals out of the rainwater," Riegert says. "We use plants such as purple coneflowers, sedges, dogwood bushes and deep-rooted grasses. We're even seeing communities replacing (traditional) gardens on their medians with rain gardens."
Another trend is "green" roofs, which use drought-tolerant ground covers like sedum to keep houses cooler in summer, and extend roof life by reducing exposure to harmful ultraviolet rays, Riegert says.
"I've attended a few seminars on green roofs," he says. "I haven't done any yet, but I'd like to get into doing them."
MAINTAIN EQUIPMENT
To make sure his machines last as long as possible, Riegert and his crew do a lot of their own machine maintenance. Most maintenance is performed on rainy days, or between fall and winter.
"Of course, around here, there's not much of a transition between seasons," he notes. "One day you're building a retaining wall, and the next day you're doing snow removal. Regardless, we try to spend a good week working on equipment repairs.
"I usually push my equipment hard until I need something new, but I'm also careful to not overextend myself financially," he adds. "I don't rent much machinery, either, because in a pinch, I can usually borrow equipment from friends or relatives."
While machines are important, it's the pure work of landscaping that gets Riegert jazzed about his chosen profession.
"I just really love trees and shrubs, and the way they can shape your environment and your yard," he says. "At the end of each day, it's all about horticulture. It's really gratifying to see the progress you make on a daily basis. It's a lot of hard work, but when you see the results every day, it's a lot of fun."
Even if it means a lot of nights without sleep during winter.