Grounds management company stakes out high-end turf

Columbia Turf owner Bill McWilliams is not a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy, despite his low-key explanation about how he came to buy a lawn-care business from a couple of college students who had two trucks and several accounts.

“I liked the name of the company, and I always liked working in my own yard and on my own things,” McWilliams said.
But his approach to his business is anything but casual.

In 11 years, the company has grown from six employees and two trucks to 26 employees and 11 trucks. In fact, McWilliams may add two more trucks to the fleet housed at his Henderson Road location, a place he’s already contemplating expanding.

Today, Columbia Turf’s customer list includes scores of high-profile companies such as 3M, Lenoir Retirement Community, Missouri Employers Mutual, First National Bank and even the City of Columbia.

In fact, serving very visible clients is part of the company’s marketing plan.

Yet, McWilliams chuckled when he was asked if he was a successful entrepreneur. “I get up in the morning and my bills are paid and my employees are paid,” he said, allowing that perhaps that qualified as successful.

This success, however, comes from planning, preparation and professionalism — the keys to McWilliams’s business philosophy.

In fact, McWilliams doesn’t do lawn maintenance. Instead his company does what he calls “Total Grounds Management.” Instead of simply mowing a client’s grass, his company focuses on providing all the services for a company’s grounds, including mowing, tree and shrub maintenance, landscaping services, leaf cleanup and even snow removal.

It makes more sense–and more money–for Columbia Turf to send out crews to do several jobs instead of one or two tasks, explained McWilliams.

Columbia Turf also focuses on serving companies, rather than households. The company’s client mix is 85 percent commercial and 15 percent residential.

How it works
The key is planning, a process that starts long before Columbia Turf’s workers ever get to the company’s grounds.

Before taking on any job, McWilliams measures the property and uses software to determine how much time, labor and equipment each job requires. This ensures that he can bid each job accurately and that he allocates his workers and company resources accordingly.

He knows exactly how many hours each job should take, and the crews must keep track of their time on each job. If a job takes more or less time than estimated, McWilliams said, they have to explain why, whether it was too dry, too wet or there was another reason the estimation was off.

“It’s always scary if you don’t know your costs,” McWilliams said.

Such accuracy ensures Columbia Turf makes money and keeps the company organized.

Preparation keeps the company’s workers on task. Each morning, when the grounds workers arrive, the equipment is ready to go, with all the blades sharpened each night and even water and ice on board. McWilliams keeps two night maintenance workers on staff to make sure everything is in good shape.

Such organization, he said, is crucial for doing the large jobs Columbia Turf tackles. For example, Lenoir Retirement Community’s 43 acres must be mowed and maintained every week. Clients like this, he said, expect workers to get in, get out and get the job done efficiently and effectively. For Lenoir, this means McWilliams sends 12 workers to get the daylong job done.

“It takes a lot of people and a lot of organization,” McWilliams said.

Some lawn companies are little more than a couple of men with a truck and a trailer, and it takes more than that to do the kinds of jobs in which McWilliams specializes.

At Columbia Turf, workers are prepared for the job before hitting the lawns, with training sessions and safety classes that keep injuries to a minimum. All workers wear protective gear including goggles, McWilliams said.

And when his workers are on the job, not only are they professionals, they look like professionals, in khaki pants and green, buttoned shirts emblazoned with Columbia Turf.

Why the uniforms? “These people are in the front lawns of companies,” McWilliams said. “They have to look good. Nobody wants someone out there with their shirt off.”

There’s another reason for the uniforms and the professional image McWilliams demands: marketing. In lieu of advertising, McWilliams’s sharp looking-crews and uniform fleet of white trucks and other equipment get his message out for him. People tell him all the time that they see his trucks all over town, McWilliams said, crediting a consistent, professional look.

“I think it does make a difference,” he said.

Lessons learned
McWilliams learned the lessons for success during more than 20 years of working as a soft drink manufacturing representative from 1982 until 2005. As a soft drink representative, he learned to take care of his own payroll and bookkeeping, keep a close eye on his profit/loss statement and remember the importance of staying organized, planning ahead and working hard.

McWilliams said another key to success is to not get overextended and to grow your business at your own pace. He never buys equipment until he has the account, rather than buying equipment and hoping more business comes in to pay for it.

This cautious approach meant that for nine years, he kept his former job while operating Columbia Turf as well. But in McWilliams fashion, he said it wasn’t that difficult, noting he had a manager running Columbia Turf. In fact, he’s had the same manager, Tom Boland, since he took over the company, something fairly unusual in a high-turnover industry like grounds keeping. Casey Henage, lawn care division manager, has also helped McWilliams in managing his company.

Columbia Turf crews are roughly half local workers and half Latin American immigrants hired through a firm in Kansas City. In fact, several of his immigrant workers have been on his staff for years.

“They do excellent work,” McWilliams said. “They’re very reliable.”

McWilliams said his approach to employee relations is based on fairness, flexibility, an open-door policy and trust.

His crews are out on the job all day and in many ways, McWilliams said he has to trust his workers. After all, he noted that a crew leader is in charge of $50,000 in equipment and four guys on a truck. But with a chuckle, he admitted, “I do a little snooping.”

And that is another key to Columbia Turf’s success. After McWilliams makes sure the crews are off to their jobs, he tends to some paperwork and then heads out to the properties, making sure the jobs are being done right and customers are satisfied.

Of course, despite all of McWilliams’s plans, sometimes even he gets thrown off course by some tricky weather. His company is set up to handle typical snowfall, not the 16 inches of snow that fell this past winter.

“In this business you have to be an accountant, administrator and a meteorologist,” McWilliams said.

Now he’s pondering purchasing more snow removal equipment, but he won’t be rushing into anything. After all, McWilliams is not a spur-of-the-moment kind of guy. But he might be a successful entrepreneur, if you count being able to get up and pay your bills, make your payroll and operate a company with 26 employees and 11 trucks.