Contractor Stories

MNLA Gold and Judge's Choice Award winner
MNLA Gold and Judge's Choice Award winner

Remaking a struggling company
Switzer's makes the difficult transition from a large, unwieldy business down to a small design/build firm now on a solid footing for the future.
By Tom Hatlen

Over the course of a few years Switzer’s Nursery & Landscaping, Inc. went from 30 employees down to 3. They went from 5 installation crews and 1 maintenance crew down to 1 crew total, and they shut down the retail garden center that had been in Glenn Switzer's family for 50+ years.

Today, the company is back up to 2 crews, and is more profitable. The garden center has been transformed into a wedding and events center that may one day become a major source for Glenn's retirement income.

He says, "It's been a long journey. There were some dark days. We had some family members leave the company. But we've seen the light at the end of the tunnel."

The nursery was first to go
Glenn grew up in the family nursery and garden center working alongside his parents and siblings. But the market changed drastically since the company's founding in 1926. As the years passed it became more and more untenable for a mom and pop retail garden center to survive.

Internet nurseries began offering huge varieties of plants that Switzer's couldn't possibly offer. Big box stores, gas stations and grocery stores began selling mass produced plants at half the price.

The quality of Switzer's plants was outstanding. But the personal care that went into producing those plants was expensive. As such, their clientele tended to be serious gardeners who did landscape work themselves. So the garden center generated few installation jobs.

Switzer’s Nursery & Landscaping, Inc.
Northfield, MN
Founded 1926
Glenn Switzer, President & Sr. Landscape Designer

Customer base
90% residential
10% commercial

Services
50% Hardscape
20% Landscaping/lighting
10% Design
10% Property care

Largest project
$210,000

Annual sales
2013 - $416,000
2014 - $537,000 Est.

Employees
3-5
The garden center was open 12 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week with at least 1 family member there at all times. Glenn, his brother and his sister divided up the shifts, so each of them spent long hours working as a clerk and tending plants.

In 2006 Glenn broke down their numbers by division, and it was worse than he expected. He says, "We discovered we could have just 2 or 3 good landscape projects and that would replace all the revenue from the garden center for the year – with half the labor."

The demise of the landscape division
After a lot of soul searching they closed the garden center to focus on landscaping. But their journey was far from over. Just 2 years later, the economy would come crashing down. And when it did, the weaknesses of the landscape division were exposed.

For several years they had gotten by on thin margins at the $1 million to $1.3 million mark. Glenn says they were on the edge of what Charles Vander Kooi calls "Death Valley," where management is stretched, and they needed to either scale back, or grow the company by hiring intermediate management staff and by implementing the systems needed to run a larger company.



Glenn converted his family's
struggling garden center into a
thriving wedding center.


They took on debt to grow the company. Then the 2008 economic downturn hit, and their work dried up all at once. Projects were put on hold or cancelled. Something drastic had to be done. By 2009 the company was down to Glenn and 2 crewmen. His sister still does the bookkeeping, but his brother left the company.

The aftermath & regrouping
Glenn says he cut back as far as he did partly as a back lash from the frustrations of running a big organization where family members had different ideas on the company's direction. Then he intentionally kept the company small for 3 years as he sorted things out.

"I felt happier believe it or not. I wanted to get back out in the field. I love laying pavers, and being on the job with the guys."

Glenn's also passionate about landscape design. He studied landscape architecture in college. He's been able to give each project his full attention producing creative designs and quality construction, and has won several awards.

"I'm in a position where I can say 'no' to projects that don't interest me, and it's great. I'm doing the jobs I want to do. We built a water feature on the 7th floor of a building in downtown Minneapolis, and we've had 3 or 4 architects calling us about it. So it should lead to new things. We get to do so much more of that today because I'm not running around trying to sell a few hostas."

Crews like creativity
Employees are thriving in the new atmosphere as well. "Our crew absolutely loves going to work. I try to balance the things we specialize in like pavers with other work that is different and exciting. They have friends who are in other companies who do repetitive labor every day like hammering in 20 irrigation systems, and they hate their jobs.

"I share my passion for the work and send them to educational classes so they feel like experts. We do 4-day work weeks (10-hour days) so they can enjoy 3 day weekends. They're compensated fairly. I just take care of them. I will always struggle between treating them like employees vs. treating them like family. They see the growth that we're starting to have and that there's a future. I believe that makes a difference."


Switzer's still has all the equipment from when they ran 5 installation crews. Why keep it all? Glenn says, "A skid loader that's been maintained perfectly, but it's 30 years old doesn't have a value for selling it. I don't owe anything on them, and they work great. We have 4 skid loaders and trucks and all the hand tools. So we're somewhat spoiled on the equipment side. I can leave a skid loader on every job site and still have 1 or 2 at the yard."

Taking time for personal growth
After downsizing, Glenn spent more time learning and developing plans for where he would take the company. He's received several certifications from ICPI and the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association. He's been further expanding his design abilities thru the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. But he says the most impactful experience he's had was probably a 2-day seminar program put on by Vander Kooi Associate Tony Bass in 2012.

Glenn had been loosely following Vander Kooi principles for some time and had a reasonable handle on where they stood financially. But he says Tony's seminar helped him pull everything together, to take a good hard look at his entire business situation, get everything in-line and produce solid profits.

"I left his seminar with a pretty good game plan, and I came back and executed it. So I'm excited moving forward this year."

Developing an exit strategy
One of the things Tony stressed was the need to have an exit strategy, a plan to build the value of your company so you can one day sell it and retire.

"I'm 47 now. I'm still laying pavers. How many more years can I do that? I need to step back from working in the field so I can manage the company, build relationships, and focus on designing and sales. Last year I was out probably 3 days a week. This year I'm planning to only be out once or twice a week."

Leaving field work behind means Glenn needs to grow the company to support his salary. But this time around he's planning very cautious, calculated growth.


Between his awards, certifications and social media activity (he's on Youtube, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Vine, Instagram, Hometalk and Houzz) Glenn caught the attention of Borgert, his main hardscape supplier. They brought him out to Colorado to teach a 2-day class based on Pave Tech's School for Advanced Segmental Paving program.

"They look for real contractors who are the top installers to teach others how to install pavers correctly and efficiently. We'd watch a segment of the video, and then spend 15 – 20 minutes talking about how the video relates to real life installations. Then we'd go out and build it using Pave Tech/Probst tools. I use a lot of their tools in my business.

"It was awesome. They learned a lot. And I've had quite a few calls asking questions after it was over."

Glenn's game plan
The plan initiated at the Tony Bass seminar included adding the 2nd crew and a 3/4 time office assistant this year. Next year's plan involves switching over to task-specific crews like a hardscape crew, a softscape crew and an excavation/material delivery crew.

Those 3 crews will be grouped into a team with everyone on the team cross trained so manpower can be shifted around as needed. Each team will be run by a Team Lead. Glenn says "The Team Lead understands our commitment to customer satisfaction and the level of artistry I want in every project we complete.”

Adding new teams will allow the company to grow while still providing the level of quality, artistry and customer satisfaction Glenn demands. Growth also helps retain the best employees by giving them a path for career advancement without leaving the company.

Garden center becomes wedding center
Another promising part of Glenn's exit strategy has been the transformation of his garden center into a wedding center. He's modeled it after a competitor that has sold out this year's season with over 80 weddings after just 3 years in business – at $5,000 per wedding. So, over $400,000 annually.

"Our garden center display area was a really nice space with a lot of mature trees. We had built patios, retaining walls and gardens there in hopes that people would hire us to do landscaping. There's plenty of parking space now that I don't have 5 crews. It transitioned to a wedding center nicely. Now it will showcase our landscape work to 100s of wedding goers every weekend."

Glenn invited a friend to get married there in 2012 to test the waters. It went great. So, he spent 2013 developing a business plan, making more improvements, getting permits and putting processes in place.

To produce referrals Glenn has been networking with wedding professionals including an open house for those involved with providing wedding décor, vintage rentals, flowers, catering, travel, bakery goods, etc. He has 10 weddings sold for 2014. And, with 5 to 6 showings each weekend, Glenn expects many more for 2015.

The wedding center is set up to generate income operating on its own, a key for making it a valuable asset in retirement. "I have someone outside my landscape company who answers the phone and does all the booking. So we don't get bogged down with that. I just need to make sure the venue's clean and ready to go."

The wedding venue is called The Gardens of Castle Rock. Visit TheGardensOfCastleRock.com

Today, with the company's past debts nearly cleared up and a clear direction in place, Glenn sees a bright future for Switzer’s Nursery & Landscaping.


HNA project award winner

Digital Edition
April/May 2024