Gardener Bryan Clayton has created the Uber for lawn care (and he’s cleaning up) | #503

Bryan Clayton used to mow lawns for a living. Now he’s the founder of GreenPal, an online service connecting homeowners to lawn care professionals. And here’s the kicker – in just three years it’s turning over $20M a year, and experiencing 100% growth, year-on-year. It’s a well fertilised episode 503 of The (award-winning) Small Business Big Marketing podcast.

A bit more about GreenPal’s Bryan Clayton

Bryan Clayton was the founder of PeachTree, one of the largest landscaping companies in Tennessee, growing it to over $10M in annual revenues before selling it in 2013. He’s now the co-founder of the 3-year old GreenPal business, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. Already it has an annual turnover of $20M, has over 100,000 active customers, completing thousands of transactions every day, and is experiencing 100% growth year-on-year! What’s particularly interesting is Brian has done this without any prior eCommerce experience. Even more interesting is that he could have easily (thanks to the sale of his first business) chosen to sit on a yacht sipping G&Ts somewhere in the South Pacific. Fortunately for us, he took the high road, and he’s here to tell us exactly how he’s done it.

Timbo’s Top 3 Attention Grabbers

1. You never know who knows who. What a great story about one of his lawn-mowing clients being a franchisee of multiple McDonald’s stores.
2. I love his idea of going the extra mile – simply offering to pick up the cigarette buts in the Macca’s drive thrus further endeared him to his client, and attracted more Macca’s franchisees to use his services.
3. And I loved his idea of getting out of the building and meeting your customers face-to-face. Asking them “Where did we delight you?” and “Where did we come up short?”

Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Subscribe to Timbo’s podcast for free on the PodcastOne app and never miss an episode

Last week’s episode – How to successfully rebrand without alienating customers

Other successful eCommerce business owners Timbo has interviewed:

Power Planter founder Brian Chapman

Snotty Nose founder Laura Klein

Spriggy founder Mario Hasanakos

This week’s Monster Prize Draw winner

Sam Squires of Backbone Barbershop in Currumbin Waters

Thanks for tuning in. I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions about this episode, so feel free to leave them below …