So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Before I could walk or talk I was infatuated with trucks. When I was 4 years old, a water line broke on Lincoln Street in my Boston suburb just a few steps away from my front door. I went down to see all the big trucks and watch how they operated. The workers were too frantic trying to shut off the valve and stop the water to notice a young child creeping closer and closer to the excitement. The smell of the diesel and the sound of the engines roaring hypnotized me and I knew that one day I would be a construction worker digging holes and building things. Every day I would rush down to greet the DPW crew and watch every move they made from sun up to sun down. Before long, I was part of the crew. They would get me juice at coffee break, sit me on their lap in the big machines and put their hands over mine on the controls and let me operate, take me in the dump truck to haul material away, and they even cut a whole assortment of tools down to my size so I could shovel, sweep, and rake. At the end of each day they would put my bike in the Front End Loader and drive me home where my parents would just laugh and thank the guys for being so good to me. Years went by as they continued water lines and repairs in the streets throughout my town and I was with them on each site wearing my DigSafe hat and work boots loving every minute of it. Christmas would come and the guys would invite me to the DPW Christmas party and then come by my house on Christmas day with $20 and sometimes I’d get lucky and they would give me a new Swiss Army knife. I remember each and every guy I worked with and will never forget them. Bobby, George, Ralph, John, Jimmy…. the list goes on and so doesn’t my appreciation for what they taught me and for inspiring me to do what I really love……. play in the dirt. I’m fortunate to cross paths with these guys now and again when marking out utilities for projects or performing municipal work in the town I grew up in. They treated me with the utmost respect since I was 4 and they still do today.
Whether it was mowing a neighbor’s lawn or shoveling an elderly woman’s driveway after a big snow storm, I continued my adventure towards my construction dream. Sometimes I got paid, other times I got cookies and cranberry juice, and still other times I simply got a thank you. Nonetheless, I enjoyed doing it regardless of the compensation. As I got a little older and realized I needed money to buy the tools and equipment I needed, I would go door to door seeing if people would hire me. If they seemed unsure I told them “let me cut your lawn for free, if you like my work then you can hire me for future services.” It seemed to work.
As I entered high school, I continued landscaping and the momentum carried into college. In 2001, I drove up to Stonehill College to play hockey and study law with my white F150 full of landscaping equipment and smelly grass clippings. My senior internship was at the DA’s office in Dedham where I realized wearing a suit and trying to keep my finger nails clean was something I wasn’t capable of. I needed to be outside, operating some sort of machine, wearing work boots. It was upon graduating college that I was forced to make a real-life decision. For many, wondering what they were going to do after college was an overwhelming mystery.
For me, I knew that law school was a nice thought given my degree, but my heart was someplace else. GroundMasters Corp. was incorporated in November of 2005 and it’s the best and easiest decision I ever made.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Nothing worth doing is easy, and the best and most rewarding things in life seem to always come along with intense sacrifice and hard work. The difference is your outlook, or at least that’s what I believe. I never looked at working endless hours, missing vacations or events due to work, and ultimately surrendering a typical social or personal life as a sacrifice. There was no place else I’d rather be and nothing else I’d rather do than mow a lawn, mulch a bed, or cut down a tree. I often caught myself smiling at work while thinking back to when I wished I’d be doing exactly what I was doing now. As they say, do what you love and you will never work a day in your life. That was me.
However, were there challenges? Absolutely!!! In 2007, the Great Recession hit hard after the subprime mortgage crisis put the country in a tailspin. People started to cut back on home services like landscaping. Nothing was going to disrupt my dream and this dilemma put me in a situation that ultimately grew my company as well as my business plan. I realized that people may have decided to cut their own lawn, or only do a fall cleanup and not a spring cleanup during these tough times, but other services weren’t so easy to neglect. For example, a drainage problem against an old fieldstone foundation is going to cause cracks and eventually deteriorate the structural integrity of a home. This calls for excavation and pipe installation……so I bought a mini excavator and taught myself water management systems. A retaining wall has fallen down and a homeowner is in jeopardy of erosion and losing their backyard….so I taught myself to build walls. Snow was going to fall from the sky regardless of the condition of our economy…….so I bought a skid steer loader and plows and built a snow and ice management division. The impact of this recession expanded my scope of work, taught me invaluable business lessons, and motivated me to grow in any type of economy. This challenge was probably the best thing that happened to my company. It came with extreme financial risk and severe stress hoping that I could keep all my equipment working on a daily basis, but it paid off!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our company foundation was built on a genuine respect for old fashioned hard work and a love of the outdoors. Watching our clients relish in a completed project is the ultimate reward of a tough’s days’ work. Interestingly enough, I feel that we are successful simply because our motivation is not money, but instead, making an idea or an architectural drawing become a reality.
Think about it, someone hands you a piece of paper and says “make this.” The challenge of completing the task is an excitement shared by all members of our staff and once the job is finished, the outdoor environment we’ve established is to be enjoyed forever. Notes, phone calls, emails thanking us for a job well done, or a story about a party they had in their new backyard with friends and family is a priceless payment that keeps us all inspired to continue doing what we love.
From it’s infancy to today, GroundMasters has grown into a firm with over 45 landscape employees, more than 100 snow and ice personnel, a full time in house mechanic that keeps our countless pieces of equipment running daily, a Vice President that has created an infrastructure second to none, and the support of a full administrative staff. We have two main locations and a third office site where it all began, in Stoneham. Our construction and maintenance foreman work hand in hand with operations managers to complete every job on time and on budget. From the top down, we hold everyone accountable and expect the best from everybody while working as a team to complete our tasks. GroundMasters is not one person, or one crew; it is a lineup of hard working individuals going in the same direction to complete projects in a field that we all enjoy.
As a landscape contractor, we conduct work in 2 major categories…. maintenance and construction. Our maintenance division performs services for Residential clients (single/multi-family homes), Commercial/Industrial clients (condos, hoa’s, retail stores, banks, hospitals), and municipalities (state/local parks, schools, cemeteries). Services include lawn mowing, spring/fall cleanup, fertilizer, shrub/tree pruning, and all aspects of maintaining any property. We do roughly 30% Residential, 35% Commercial/Industrial, and 35% Municipal contracts. Moreover, our construction division focuses on masonry and hardscape services such as walls, walkways, patios, and stairs. We also conduct lawn and shrub/tree installations, site work, excavation, drainage and more. Whether we are working on a large sub division install for a developer or a bi-weekly lawn cut for a homeowner, we pay close attention to detail and thrive to exceed our client’s expectations.
Snow and ice management is in a class all by itself. I consider this independent from the landscape portion of GroundMasters.
This division only services municipalities and commercial clients. Managing this type of work involves strategic planning and preparation as well as dedicated employees that understand working for 24 hours straight is not uncommon. Holidays and weekends don’t exist…. the weather doesn’t take days off. Thinking ahead is the name of the game and experience has no price tag. During the winter season of 2014-2015 we got buried with 112 inches of snow in Boston. The most important items any snow contractor could have was windshield washer fluid, extra wipers, and diesel fuel. All these things were of the utmost importance and finding diesel fuel was like hitting the lottery as most gas stations were completely out and the trucks transporting new fuel were delayed due to the weather. Salt prices doubled for this same reason as the ships bringing in all the salt were not expecting the accumulation we received in such a short span of time. Trucks broke down, machines gelled up, and the workers were exhausted. Snow and ice is not something to take lightly with all the variables that come along with keeping properties safe and fulfilling your contractual obligations against incredible odds. Our personnel take great pride in having our lots down to pavement and wet before the neighboring property has even been plowed. Perseverance and hard work is what it takes to be a successful snow contractor……it’s as simple as that.
Our maintenance crews may be mowing Oak Grove Cemetery one day, trimming animal enclosures at the Franklin Park Zoo the next, and planting annual flowers at Hallmark Health the following day. Our construction crews may begin their week installing a paver walkway at Temazcal restaurant on Monday and finishing up a fieldstone wall for the Charlestown Battalion Armory by Friday. Our scope of work encompasses almost every aspect of “working the land.” Some days, I find myself operating the pay loader or excavator at a site job at 8am, spraying hydroseed to assist a crew at a school soccer field before noon, then spending my afternoon laying out grades and elevations with an engineer for a development job. This is what makes us different. This is what makes our staff excited to see what each day will bring. It’s ever changing and we are always learning new things. I have never been bored at work……. NEVER. I have always believed in leading by example and I think, and I hope, that my enthusiasm has become a company philosophy.
When asked what we specialize in, to me it is hard work, professionalism, and the pride that shows through in every job we complete. Good communication and quality work create happy customers……and happy customers are return customers. Our reputation is built not only on our work, but also the experience a client has during the process, which starts with a phone call to one of our offices and results in a completed job at your property. Furthermore, what sets us apart is our staff. I firmly believe in hiring people smarter or more skilled than me in their specific area of expertise. Laura, GroundMasters Vice President, brought her creative mind and management background to a little lawn mowing company and made it into a multimillion-dollar corporation. Her endless efforts have allowed me to focus on my passion of being in the field with the crews, while she handles everything from marketing to payroll. Our Construction Supervisor, Jose, is an expert with more years of masonry experience than I have on this earth. Hollie, our Director of Operations, graduated from the prestigious Stockbridge School of Agriculture at Umass Amherst and has more credentials in the landscape industry than anyone in our company. Jason, our Mechanic, can repair or rebuild everything from a weedwacker, to a Caterpillar engine, or weld a truck body back together. As you can see, everyone can learn something from the other. When you put the right people on the same team, great things can happen. There may be a chain of command in theory, but in reality, we are just a group of people working toward the same goal. I’ve always believed that if my company can run without me, then I’ve succeeded. The staff at GroundMasters has proven to be just that, independent and self-sufficient and for that I couldn’t be more proud. I have a hard time taking a day off, which I still haven’t done; but it’s comforting to know that I could if ever the day came.
Bottom line, GroundMasters is a company that truly appreciates the work we are privileged to do every day. I started this company because it was my passion…. turning it into a career was just a dream come true!
What were you like growing up?
As depicted in “My Story, How I got here” I was obsessed with trucks and couldn’t stay out of the dirt. I knew the name of every piece of heavy equipment before I knew all my extended family members names. Very independent, curious, and not shy, my days consisted of being outside and constantly on the go. If I wasn’t playing with tools or learning how something functioned I would be playing sports with my brother or fishing with my dad. School classes were boring to me but at a very young age I figured that if I had to sit through class then I might as well pay attention and my grades reflected that as I was a straight A student my whole life, even in college. If I got an A minus I was not happy. I always expected the best out of myself and was a fierce competitor. I had lots of great friends and really enjoyed my youth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.groundmasterscorp.com
- Phone: 7812790818
- Email: info@groundmasterscorp.com
Image Credit:
GroundMasters Images
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