From Corporate Job to Lawn Care Business: 4 Points Lawn Care Owner Shares His Story

Starting a lawn care business takes more than just equipment and hard work — it takes strategy, marketing, and a willingness to learn along the way.

In this interview, Nate, owner of 4 Points Lawn Care, shares how he transitioned from the corporate world into running his own lawn care business. He discusses the challenges of launching a new service business, how he approached marketing to attract his first customers, and what he’s learned about building a strong local brand.

Nate also talks about his experience using Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) to get his business in front of local homeowners and why direct mail continues to play a role in his marketing strategy.

If you're thinking about starting a lawn care business — or you're looking for ways to grow your customer base — Nate shares valuable insights from his real-world experience.

Watch the Full Interview

Full Interview Transcript

Introduction & Opening

Riley: All right. Hey again, Nate. Sorry about that. It's all working great though.

Nate: All right, perfect.

Riley: All right. How has your day been so far?

Nate: Um, not too bad. I’ve actually been pretty productive and kind of feels like it's still early, so been doing good.

Riley: Good, good. Well, hoping to continue that. I just want to start off this interview by saying thank you for doing that interview with Lawn Care Life and shouting out Taradel. We're really glad you had a positive experience with us and hopefully that you continue that. I know you just booked another campaign with us, so we're excited for that. But if you just kind of want to give a little background on 4 Points Lawn Care—kind of how you started, your background, your clients, everything like that—we'd love to hear a little bit more.

Background: Starting 4 Points Lawn Care

Nate: My business is actually relatively new. I was in the corporate world for many, many years and decided to get out. It was actually a really challenging transition, you know, having that kind of good job and good career. I just kind of burned out on it and wanted to do my own thing. So, luckily I made some good decisions while I was in that world, so I gave myself some flexibility to do so.

When I got out, I was kind of exploring options to figure out what to do, and one thing that was kind of like therapy to me was lawn care—doing my own, doing family's, things like that—and decided to kind of go down that avenue. And in doing so, in the short time that I've been doing it—kind of like I said when I was with Jason—is I wanted to offer more than just kind of the traditional, you know, mowing and weed-eating. I wanted to know what I was doing. Knowledge is huge for me. So, I wanted to really know the ins and outs of the business and the kind of horticulture world.

So, I'm continuing to learn every day, and I think if I stop doing that, then it's maybe time to hang it up and give up. But I'm just kind of building this business new and getting ready to rock and roll. I'm kind of transitioning into a new avenue of weed control and fertilization, but right now I'm kind of a whole service as I move into that industry.

But building a very personalized relationship with my clients is very important and kind of keeping that small business feel, even though I want to grow this as big as I can without taking away from that very personalized approach. But that's kind of where I'm at with the business and kind of what got me into it is just kind of I enjoyed the work. And now that I'm learning more about it, it still gives me that kind of pride and passion to give somebody a service that I would be happy with myself. So, yeah.

Team & Growth Plans

Riley: That's awesome. Is it just currently you running the business, or do you have any other assistants or landscapers?

Nate: I have a couple guys working with me right now. And depending on how this next big marketing push goes, we'll depend on how the new season approaches and if I need to bring on some more guys to handle that load. But yeah, it's fluid, you know.

Biggest Challenge Starting Out

Riley: For sure. So, I know you said you just kind of started 4 Points. What would you say was the biggest challenge—it can be marketing or it can be something else—with starting a new business and kind of getting your name out there and securing those first clients?

Nate: Marketing was probably one of my biggest challenges—finding the right approach. I did a big push—well, not as big as the one I'm doing now—but I did a marketing push through EDDM last year. I just timed it terribly, and that was completely on me. This is a very seasonal business, so timing has been very important.

And also kind of the learning aspect of things. It's a very competitive market in the landscaping industry. There are a lot of people out there doing it, so the marketing side of things—getting on people's radar—was a little challenging at first. That was kind of the biggest hurdle I had to figure out: how to get my name and my brand in front of people.

Campaign Timing Lessons

Riley: Okay, cool. Do you think you started the campaign too early or too late?

Nate: Way too late last year, yeah.

Riley: So, yeah, that's typically what we will always recommend is you want to be in people's mailboxes before spring hits and they really need that landscaping company. You want to get your name out there—which you live and you learn—and you definitely did that with this next push coming out soon.

Why Taradel?

Riley: What was it about Taradel that drew you? I know you said you wanted to keep the personal feel with Every Door Direct Mail, which is a great product to do so. But what was it about Taradel that you decided to work with us as opposed to a competitor or doing Every Door Direct Mail by yourself?

Nate: So, I researched a few companies, and Taradel was one of the top that stood out. I tried to do Every Door Direct by myself. I started researching, I started talking to the local post offices, which weren't a lot of help. I was getting a lot of different answers from a lot of different people.

And so through the research that I was seeing, I was seeing kind of some horror stories from people who tried to do it themselves with very minimal mistakes being made in design or printing and making thousands of copies and taking it off to the post office and then being like, "No, this isn't right."

And I kind of started thinking about that, and as I was doing the research and trying to contact the local post offices and get some guidance, I was getting too many mixed answers to have any confidence in not having an error come up along the way. So at that point, I end up reaching out to a couple of companies that kind of did it for you, Taradel included.

And after speaking with one of the local reps, which was Sunny—who has been helping me out—it just felt right. There was a great rapport, there was a lot of information and knowledge that was given to me, and it kind of built some confidence. So I felt like you all were the right company.

I did that push with you all back then, which had limited ROI, but that was way based on my inexperience and my timing issues. So it was nothing on Taradel's part; you guys did exactly what you promised to do. And that's why when it came time to do it again, I reached back out.

The whole thing has been seamless working with you all, and it's been very pleasant. I have a lot of confidence in what I'm asking for being done flawlessly the first time.

Expanding the Next Campaign

Riley: I want to talk a little bit about your next campaign because you over doubled the postcards you're sending and added Nextdoor and a targeted email blast to that. What was the thought process behind that?

Nate: As I've grown the business, I've put myself in a better position to take on more. And I have the confidence to do so as well, in just the short time that I've done this and the knowledge that I've gained.

I've also opened up some more services, so I wanted to target more. My business is focused in about three cities, if you would. And I wanted to really target more heavily in all three of those cities instead of... my first campaign was really focused on my immediate location instead of really pushing it out.

So I decided this time, since I think my timing is much better, I wanted to do a bigger push and then I'd really be able to see what kind of ROI that I can expect on that. And now that I've built kind of more of a brand and got my website out there, it just made sense to get my brand in front of as many people as I possibly could within the marketing budget that I had. So that was kind of the idea behind it—just get in front of as many people as you can.

Targeting Strategy

Riley: Did you focus mostly on geographic areas or did you use any of the demographic features such as age, income, household residency?

Nate: I used all the demographic resources that were given to me. I had an idea of areas... well, obviously I knew the areas that I was working in. So inside of that, I used all of the resources that were offered to me with your routing software and mapping, where I absolutely went in and looked at median incomes and I looked at the age range that seemed to be the best fit for my services. I took all of those things into account before I chose my routes. So yeah, I used everything that was available to really pinpoint what I was trying to target.

Postcard Messaging & Offer

Riley: Were there any offers? What was your main message?

Nate: I did not offer any discounts or incentives on this mailer. This was more designed as a brand awareness piece to let people know that my service is here, that I am here and I'm local.

I'm offering now a service that, as far as the research that I've done, I'm not really seeing anyone in my direct targeted area or local area that offers specific commercial application in weed control and fertilization. There are many companies outside that come into my area that work that business, but on a local approach, I kind of wanted really people to know that, "Hey, there's a guy right here in your town that offers some of these services that you've probably had to go and outsource to other cities and towns."

Just wanting people to know that I'm here, and kind of brand awareness was really the focus of it.

Results from First Campaign

Nate: The first one, I got very limited. I got a few calls from it, but again, my timing was exceptionally poor, and that was a live-and-learn mistake.

I did catch a few people that didn't have any service and kind of weren't really sure about it, and I've actually secured some very solid clients from that. But the numbers were kind of minimal in my hopes.

But it's kind of funny that I've actually gotten a few calls this year based on people who got my flyer last year and held onto it. So there's definitely a value that I'm seeing there, and I'm really excited about this new push.

Expectations & ROI Perspective

Nate: I think people need to be aware of what their expectations should be in something like this. A lot of people who maybe are getting into it like me look at a 1% or 2% ROI as like, "Man, that's terrible." But in the grand scheme of things, it's really not.

Customer acquisition in business generally costs money with marketing, and when you do the math on how many people you're getting in front of, it actually makes sense.

If I could hit 1% on this next campaign going out, it was a success. Sometimes looking and seeing 1% is like, "Ah, I don't want to do that," but it actually makes sense. There's a reason a lot of these big companies do it, because it does work.

Retention & Client Value

Nate: Going into this season, my definite retention is probably about 30—25 to 30. So again, they're very low. This is a new business. But everybody that I gained from last year who had services—not just like cleanouts or one-time landscaping jobs—for the most part are either upping their services this year or maintaining the original service. So retention has been fantastic.

I'm still working numbers, and now with the transition, the numbers are going to be changing because the service is changing. So there's still a lot of math and numbers that I'm working on, but it's fluid.

Most Valuable Leads

Nate: Word of mouth—referrals are huge. Because if somebody's getting a referral from someone that they know, there's a huge value in that because they're getting it from someone trusted.

When you're getting EDDM leads or website leads, those people are looking at me as just that. I have to build the trust. But when you get a referral, you're sometimes a step ahead.

Why Direct Mail?

Nate: Absolutely. I wanted people to have it in their hand and be able to see it. The digital world is changing now—it's huge—but a lot of people are hesitant to click on an email that may look like spam.

So I think you get it in a mailbox, you have it in your hand, there's that tangible... it's a more personalized feel to me.

Would You Recommend Taradel?

Nate: Absolutely. Depending on what their approach was. But somebody who's going about it like I am—who wants to hit the masses, build brand awareness, get in front of a lot of people at one time—I would absolutely say yeah, it's solid.

As for Taradel, I would absolutely recommend you all to anyone who was interested in doing it because the process with me has been seamless. Everything that was offered to me has been done just like they said it was going to be done.

There was a level of nervousness with building a business and doing marketing that you're not really familiar with. Taradel made it a very comforting experience.

Advice for New Business Owners

Nate: Starting a new business can be really scary, but take your time, do your research, build your plans, think it through.

It sounds really sexy to have your own business, but there's a lot to it. Run your numbers, do your due diligence to understand what you're getting yourself into before you do it.

And then once you do it, do it—make the push. Push through the anxieties and the fears. It's a grind. If your expectation is to go buy some equipment and have a full load the next day, you might want to rethink it because it doesn't always work out that way.

You gotta go full in or not at all. It's nerve-wracking, it's stressful, but just do it smartly and do it. It's very achievable if you really understand what you're getting yourself into. Use your resources, have your budget ready, and use all the outlets that you can fiscally do to push ahead.

Closing

Riley: That was a great response. I couldn't have said it better myself. But it was great talking to you, Nate. Do you have any questions or anything for me before I let you go?

Nate: No questions. Just excited about this push coming out next week. I've appreciated everything you all have done, and I will continue to support you all's business because you all been great for me.

Riley: Yes, well thank you, Nate. I look forward to catching up with you and Sunny about this upcoming drop and seeing how that goes. I'm sure it's going to go great. But I hope you have a great rest of your day and stay in touch.

Nate: Thanks.

Riley: Bye, Nate.