Landscaping firm based in North Naples has grown quickly
By Laura Layden
Saturday, March 25, 2006, Naples Daily News
It wasn\'t quite two years ago when Tim Felts drove the first truck and trailer down from Michigan to service Crawford Landscaping Group\'s first customer.
That customer was Staybridge Suites Hotel in North Naples. Felts did the job himself, working in the sweltering summer heat to spiff up the grounds.
North Naples-based Crawford Landscaping has come a long way since then.
Felts was the first employee hired by Blake Crawford, the company\'s CEO. Together, they\'ve grown the business to 45 employees and more than 500 commercial and residential clients in 18 months.
Recently, Crawford purchased Ohlis Enterprises, a 5-year-old Naples landscaping company with 30 accounts in Port Royal, Collier\'s Reserve and Islandia.
And Crawford Landscaping may consider other acquisitions.
\"We\'re not going to chase after businesses that aren\'t strong or aren\'t a good match,\" Crawford said. \"We do get a lot of phone calls. We do speak to everybody.\"
This year, Crawford and Felts, both in their early 30s, expect to rake in about $4 million in revenues.
And they don\'t plan to stop there.
With an expected annual growth rate of 30 percent, they say the company is positioned to reach revenues of $10 million by 2010. And that\'s in a competitive market.
In Collier County alone, there are more than 2,500 landscapers, said Felts, president of business development.
The partners say their secret to success is simple.
\"Our motto is that we do what we say we\'re going to do,\" Crawford said.
That means consistently delivering quality service, responding to most work orders within 24 hours and meeting the special needs of clients.
\"We have a client that has a serious allergy to fire ants,\" Crawford said. \"When crews show up at his property they know to eliminate any ant hills.\"
And there are other little extras.
At least 60 percent of the plants on a property are hand-pruned, every crew leader is bilingual and the company uses advanced computer software to keep close track of every job.
\"We record our guys\' time up to the minute,\" Crawford said.
Crews wear a uniform — red shirts and charcoal pants. And the company has signature trucks that are red with gold lettering.
The company also hopes to set itself apart from competitors by achieving the ISO 9000 certification. The international certification program has its roots in manufacturing, but it has now spread to all types of industries. The focus is on quality management systems.
Crawford said there are few landscapers that have sought the certification, which requires companies to meet rigid standards.
The ISO 9000 program has grown in popularity. At the end of 2004, there were 670,000 certifications in 154 countries, said Stacy Leistner, a director in the New York office of the American National Standards Institute.
He couldn\'t say how many landscapers have the certification. But, he said, others have inquired about it.
With the quality service it offers, Crawford Landscaping has attracted high-end clients, including Villoresi at Mediterra — a wealthy golf course community.
In Collier County, other customers include the AmSouth Bank building on U.S. 41, Bingham Galleria, Equestrian Center, Fifth Third Center on Vanderbilt Beach Road and Pelican Marsh, another upscale golf course community.
The company boasts a growing number of clients in swanky Port Royal.
In Lee County, the company\'s client list includes Pelican Landing and Wildcat Run, two affluent golf course communities.
Where once the partners worked hard to drum up new business, they now have customers knocking at their door, Crawford said.
\"People are asking for us by name,\" he said.
Over the past three months, much of the new business has come from referrals.
The company has many customers eager to sing its praises.
\"I had great expectations when I hired them to do our community, and they\'ve done nothing but fulfill all my expectations,\" said Peter Crawford, manager of landscaping at Villoresi. (He\'s not related to Blake Crawford.)
The community has 48 homes. The homeowners association contracted with Crawford Landscaping 16 months ago to provide landscaping and maintenance, including hurricane repair for the entire grounds.
Peter Crawford said the community sought out Crawford Landscaping because it was having trouble with its former landscaping company.
\"Everything was just being done improperly,\" Peter Crawford said.
He said Villoresi has become a showcase community in Mediterra, and now more than a dozen owners of estate homes in the development have hired Crawford Landscaping.
\"In our industry, there are a lot of ways to cut corners,\" Crawford said. \"But we want to do it the right way.\"
The company\'s monthly charge for a single-family home ranges from $225 to $990, depending on the size of the job and level of service.
\"We\'ll never compromise quality for price,\" Crawford said.
His business principles began to develop many years ago. In high school, he founded Crawford-Mourad Landscaping in Gross Pointe, Mich.
He said it taught him many lessons that he\'s applied to his newest venture.
Before he started Crawford Landscaping in Naples, Crawford worked in the automotive industry in Detroit and the real estate industry in Central Florida.
Crawford found Felts through a want ad in a trade magazine. At the time, Felts was working as a superintendent for the north golf course at Mediterra. He was a leader in a team that earned Mediterra\'s golf course the Audubon Society\'s Silver Certified Sanctuary designation, which recognizes golf courses that respect the environment.
Before joining Mediterra, Felts worked at various golf clubs in Raleigh, N.C.
He flew to Detroit for an interview with Crawford. When the two met, they hit it off.
\"Our beliefs matched up well,\" Crawford said.
\"We share similar interests and personalities,\" Felts said. \"Blake and I would say what we shared most was a commitment to quality.\"
With that commitment to quality, the two hope to continue to expand their company.
They\'re renting an office off Immokalee Road and have a separate yard for their equipment in North Naples. They\'re looking for land to construct their own building, which would enable them to bring all their operations under one roof.
\"Our ultimate goal is to have everything on site so we can achieve greater efficiencies and monitor everything more closely,\" Felts said.
Though the company is growing fast, Felts and Crawford say they want to keep the small company atmosphere for customers and clients.
\"We want to make customers feel they are as important from day one as they are on day 10,\" Felts said.
