Mark Gilliland runs Greenz Outdoor Services from Phenix City, AL, right on the Alabama-Georgia line across the river from Columbus, GA. On episode 10 of the Mow Money, Mow Problems podcast, he explained how a company that used to live on cutting grass became a landscape design, hardscape and excavation business that has made it through the 2008 recession and today's rising costs without losing its name.
His answer has almost nothing to do with advertising. It is a reputation he protects on every single job, a crew he pays enough to keep, and a habit of building rising costs into every bid before a customer ever has to ask why the price moved.
Key takeaways
- Reputation beats every marketing channel. Gilliland's rule is simple: do what you say you're going to do, and nine times out of ten a customer becomes a friend who sends you the next job.
- Fewer, better-paid people on higher-margin work beats a big mowing crew. Moving into landscape design, hardscaping and excavation let Greenz Outdoor Services do more with fewer bodies to manage.
- Giving customers options, not just a price, wins more jobs. Gilliland says showing a range of ways to solve a problem demonstrates expertise and keeps budget-tight customers in the deal.
- A luxury-service business has to build its costs into every bid. The 2008 recession and today's fuel prices taught Gilliland to price in swings up front instead of absorbing them quietly.
How did Mark Gilliland get his start in the green industry?
He learned the trade working for other people, then decided to get paid for what he already knew. Gilliland worked summers for an irrigation company in high school. After an injury took him out of his original plans, he went to work on a golf course, "riding on a tractor cutting, rough cutting this and that." Under the man he worked for there, he learned erosion control and water dispersion, then moved to a second golf course before deciding he was done working for someone else.
"I've put down enough squares of sod enough irrigation," he said. "Let me get paid for what I know." That decision became Greenz Outdoor Services, which he's quick to point out is spelled with a Z "where the S would be on the greens." No founding year came up in the conversation, just the decision to go out on his own.
Why does reputation outperform every marketing channel for Greenz Outdoor Services?
Because in Gilliland's view, a kept promise is the only advertising that turns into the next job for free. His standard: "You got to do what you say you're going to do." At the end of every job, the customer has to look him in the eye and say they're happy, and he doesn't consider the job finished until that happens.
He leads every job "with a smile," and says the payoff is simple: "nine out of ten times my customers are going to become a friend." That's the whole strategy. A happy customer does the next bit of selling for him, in a business where, as he puts it, almost anybody can learn to do the physical work, but not everybody will build the relationship around it.
Why did Greenz Outdoor Services stop cutting grass?
Because landscape design, hardscaping and excavation paid better with fewer people to manage. "We no longer cut grass," Gilliland said, "but the biggest change has been going into moving dirt, clearing lots, and working on the more detailed side of it." A mowing operation needs a lot of bodies to cover a route. Landscape and hardscape work can run with a smaller, more skilled crew doing fewer, bigger jobs.
What draws him to the work now is finishing something, not maintaining it: taking a project "from the dirt to the finish" and documenting the transformation along the way. He doesn't knock companies that still mow for a living, calling it honest work with people in the area who do it well. For his own business, moving away from it meant, in his words, "a little less headaches."
| Cutting grass (then) | Landscape, hardscape & excavation (now) | |
|---|---|---|
| Crew needed | A lot of bodies to run the route | Fewer, more skilled hands per job |
| Work style | Recurring, kept cash flow moving | Project-based, start to finish |
| What satisfies Gilliland | Paid the bills early on | Watching a property "transform into what it was before and after" |
How do you get your first landscaping customers without a big ad budget?
Knock on doors, then let the work you're already doing introduce the next job. Gilliland's first customer came from knocking on a door. The landscape side grew out of his lawn-service relationships: "if you're on the site, you always see what people need, and there you are." Small sod jobs, small irrigation and small drainage work came first, often started as something he'd point out while already on a property.
Today he leans on a Google Business Profile, which he says brings in a lot of calls, alongside word of mouth that's built up over the years. His advice to anyone starting out now is to treat the online pieces as the baseline, not an afterthought: get a website, a Google Business Profile and reviews on sites like Yelp set up early, "because it's just that's where people go to find people now, to find someone for service." Word of mouth, he says, only starts carrying weight once that base is built and every job is treated like it's the one your reputation rides on.
Why does Mark Gilliland give customers multiple bid options instead of one price?
Because options show a customer the range of what's possible and keep the deal alive even when their budget is tight. "I'm going to give them options if there is option," Gilliland said. "Now, if there's not any options, it's straightforward." When there is a choice to make, he'll walk a customer through more than one way to solve the problem rather than opening with a single take-it-or-leave-it number.
Part of the reasoning is practical. "I'm bendable. I'm flexible and I'm gonna help somebody if I can," he said, noting he can often sense when a customer is working with a tighter budget and will shape the options around that. It also does quiet work for the brand: laying out options shows a customer how much a contractor actually knows about the job, which makes it harder to justify calling anyone else.
How did Greenz Outdoor Services survive the 2008 recession and today's rising costs?
By remembering that landscape and hardscape work is a luxury purchase first, and building every cost swing into the bid. Gilliland has been through two rough economic stretches. The first was 2008: "that was almost brought us to our knees cuz we again we're a luxury item," he said. "People weren't concentrating on luxury. That's for sure." The business made it through, but he's clear that a downturn hits a luxury service harder than most.
His lesson for today's fuel prices is to price for them up front rather than eat the difference. "You've got to cover yourself on this gas," he said, calling fuel "a major player in your expenses." He's upfront with customers about it, telling them plainly what a line item costs and why, rather than quietly padding a bid: "you got to treat it with velvet gloves and it'll go along." His read is that most customers already expect the worst from a contractor, so straight talk about rising costs tends to land better than silence.
What changed in customer demand during COVID?
Demand didn't drop, it moved toward the properties people were suddenly spending all their time in. Aside from having to wear a mask on some jobs, Gilliland says COVID "didn't stop the world spinning" for Greenz Outdoor Services. People stuck at home started noticing their yards more, and spent on them: "when people are bored, if they have money, they spent money."
He also keeps a tight lid on how far out he'll book work, no matter how busy things get. "The farthest we're going to get is two weeks out," he said, because promising a customer a month-long wait tends to send them straight to a competitor. He'd rather turn away a job he can't get to soon than lose a customer's trust over a long wait.
How do you keep good crew members from leaving for 50 cents more?
Pay them what they're worth before someone else does it for you. "Pay them what they're worth," Gilliland said. "Bottom line, pay them what they're worth because they're going to help you be successful." He's blunt about the cost of losing someone good: he's picked up experienced crew members whose previous employer wouldn't give them 50 cents more, and all the time spent training a replacement almost never beats just paying the person you already trust a little more.
His view of a crew is simple: "you're only as good as that guy or those guys underneath you." If someone makes his day-to-day easier, he says to "lean on them and make them feel loved," because a polite, respectful crew reflects directly on the company. He hears it back from customers constantly, in the kind of word-of-mouth praise that, as he puts it, money can't buy.
The operator takeaway
Mark Gilliland's story is a reminder that the most durable growth engine in a landscape or hardscape business isn't a channel, it's a reputation, built job by job and protected through every kind of economy. Say what you'll do, give people options instead of an ultimatum, pay your crew so they stay, and price your real costs instead of hiding from them. None of it requires a bigger ad budget. As he put it himself: "if you're going to build something that's worth having, you got to do the extra stuff."
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Frequently asked questions
Why did Greenz Outdoor Services stop cutting grass?
Mark Gilliland found that mowing required a lot of workers just to keep cash flow going, while landscape design, hardscaping and excavation work pays better with a smaller, more skilled crew. He now focuses on taking a property from the dirt to a finished, documented transformation instead of recurring mowing routes.
How do you get your first landscaping customers without a big ad budget?
Mark Gilliland started by knocking on doors, then found landscape jobs by noticing what existing customers needed on site. He leans on word of mouth and a Google Business Profile today, and tells new owners to set up a website, a Google Business Profile and online reviews before anything else.
Why does Mark Gilliland give customers multiple bid options instead of one price?
Offering options shows a customer the range of what's possible and lets Gilliland work with someone's budget instead of losing the job outright. He only gives one straightforward price when there genuinely isn't another way to do the work.
How did Greenz Outdoor Services survive the 2008 recession and today's fuel costs?
Gilliland says landscaping is a luxury purchase, so it was hit hard when the economy tanked in 2008. His lesson for today's fuel price swings is to build those costs into every bid up front and tell customers plainly why a line item moved, rather than absorbing it quietly.