The hill was steep, hard-to-climb-make-your-legs-sore steep, but Lease Landscaping easily cruised up and down it with new, high-tech machinery, which the company founder said changed her business.
Though onlookers were amazed at the job — developing a beachfront for a homeowner whose house was perched high over a lake up a 2-to-1 slope covered with trees, rocks and shrubs — it was commonplace for Diane Lease, owner of Lease Landscaping in Grand Rapids, MN.
“People are amazed at what we do — sometimes they just stand around and watch,” said Lease.
No, you can’t buy season tickets to Lease Landscaping job sites, but with growth that has doubled every year for the past eight years, plus the technology the company uses, it’s no wonder people enjoy watching them work.
Part of that comes from Lease’s philosophy on how she’s grown her business from an extremely small outfit to one of the largest in a city of 10,000.
“We stress more equipment, and a small, family-like crew of extremely talented employees,” she explained.
According to Lease, it’s important for every landscaper to determine the proper mix of machinery and hand labor. In other words, if a machine can replace a number of laborers on a job site, those workers can move to another job, which increases profits and productivity.
“We have five full-time employees, but have two excavators, two dozers, one skid steer, three all-purpose crawlers and one all-surface loader,” she said. “With that equipment, plus our seasonal help, we do the work of landscapers with many more employees.”
Lease credits much of her company’s success to the equipment from ASV Inc., a Caterpillar affiliate. She owns three of the company’s Posi-Tracks, but it’s the newest addition, the compact RC•30, that has her the most excited.
The new machine is small — less than 4 ft. (1.2 m) wide and 6 ft. (1.8 m) tall — and so it occupies about the same space as a laborer. At the same time, it utilizes a technologically advanced rubber tracked undercarriage that gives it the traction and power to be productive like larger machinery, or a crew of laborers.
What’s even better for the company is that the 3,000-lb. (1,361 kg) machine has the same gentle impact on the earth as a small child on foot — a mere 2.5 psi.
The RC•30, introduced to the industry in July 2000, is the result of a two-year product development program. The unit’s undercarriage is a scaled-down version of the one that carries ASV’s larger all-purpose crawler.
“We couldn’t get along without it now that we have it,” said Lease. “There are so many jobs it’s made for. And the amount of labor we save by having it is incredible. We used to send three laborers to a site and now we just send one with the machine.”
In building the beachfront, Lease Landscaping used a Posi-Track to haul dirt to the bottom of the hill, where the RC•30 was waiting to landscape the area into a proper beach.
“It’d be difficult to do that job otherwise,” Lease said. “Few other machines could even go down that hill.”
In more conventional applications, the RC•30 is used to work in tight areas without harm to sensitive turf, jobs that typically would have been left to costly hand labor.
“Homeowners do not want you to damage their lawns when you’re working on their property,” said Lease. “If you damage the turf, not only does it cost more to re-sod, but then they’re left with having to nurse the new sod for months before it’s as good as the old.”
In addition to that advantage, Lease Landscaping offers customers much more than a typical landscaper.
“I think we’re the only one in town that can do everything from start to finish on a new home site,’ said Lease. “From clearing lots to digging basements to putting in septic systems to manicured landscapes, we do it all.”
Humble Beginnings, Fast Growth
Though Lease Landscaping today owns an impressive line-up of equipment, it wasn’t always this way. Eight years ago, Lease had just left her job as a nurse at the county hospital and her husband was a sheriff’s deputy for Itasca County.
“We got started part-time in landscaping because my husband loved machinery,” said Lease.
But, work at the sheriff’s office was busy, and soon, Diane discovered that she had taken over the business. Quickly, it became a full-time passion.
“It was a big learning experience,” Lease said. “We started small, with just a skid steer and a little dump truck, spreading dirt and planting flowers. Fortunately, I hired great employees who brought their knowledge of the industry with them.”
And, with the purchase of the company’s first Posi-Track, Lease said she realized the role equipment could play in growing a business.
“We did so much work after we bought that first one, that almost immediately, we bought another one, and then we bought more equipment,” said Lease.
The ability to work quickly and efficiently also helped her institute a policy she believes should be standard practice for all landscapers.
“We always start a job and then finish it; we don’t jump around from job to job to job, leaving the customer unsure of when we’ll be back,” she explained.
In addition, Lease said, her business continues to excel because she has loyal employees whom she trusts. In contrast to the labor shortage that is harming landscapers across the country, Lease has experienced no difficulties with turnover.
“I treat my employees like they’re my kids — we’re a family and we trust each other,” she said. “It’s important to have the ability to go and be with your family when you need to; we don’t have a time schedule. If employees have a baseball game to go to with their children, they leave early, with no questions asked.”
Though Lease said her business could continue to grow, Lease Landscaping may have reached the perfect size.
“I think we might be big enough,” she said. “If we get much bigger, I’m worried we could lose something of our personal touch. I think we’ve reached the right size with the right equipment where we can continue to be great on every job.”
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