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Business has changed a lot for Skoog Landscape & Design since Alan Skoog (pronounced Sk-oh-g) founded it in 1970. Back then, he operated out of a room in his home in Chadwick, Illinois, a town of fewer than 600.
Fresh from a nursery and landscape business that, as Alan says, was a partnership that blew up, he and his wife, Mary Ann, had no money to relocate, so they started their business. Alan knew at the time that he wanted to run his business right — to be a businessperson first and a landscape person second — so he hired a consultant. The work of Frank Ross, of Ross-Payne and Associates, is still with the company today. Frank helped Alan and Mary Ann set up their systems, including their accounting system and chart of accounts. Mary Ann does all the bookkeeping and maintains those accounts.
From humble beginnings
At the time, Alan had one part-time employee. Later the business grew to two rooms in the family home and then a trailer outside. His offerings consisted of design/build services and plantings. It didn't take long for Alan to start planning for growth. In 1971, he added hydroseeding, purchasing one of the first hydroseeders in Northwest Illinois. From there, it was a steady expansion of the company's offerings, including irrigation, retaining walls, pavers, stamped concrete, water mains and a Christmas Décor franchise.
Though he had gone with Alan on jobs since he was about four years old, Andy joined the business full time in 1988 after earning his degree in landscape construction from Mississippi State University and summer internships with landscape companies in Florida and Wisconsin.
"Dad's philosophy was that when we went away to school, we couldn't come back and work in the family business. We had to work somewhere else first. I worked in Florida for one semester and then the next three intern periods at Lied's Nursery in Sussex, Wisconsin," Andy says.
Now that the trio has been working together for nearly 20 years, the Skoogs believe they've created a significant competitive advantage with the variety of services they now offer. "A lot of our advantage is that we're design-build. We do very little bid work, so to a certain degree, we can design a landscape without regard to having to find subs, we have most all needed capabilities," Andy says.
It took awhile to acquire or develop the various services, but now the company has been hired to do work all across Northern Illinois and the Midwest, including Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. "We now offer the full spectrum, whereas before, we had to pull in a concrete guy or an irrigation contractor. Now, we're a one-stop shop. Though not all of our customers use all of our services, we can manage the entire project and provide so much more to our clients," Andy adds.
He adds that homeowners are weary of scheduling more than one contractor, initiating contact and soliciting bids. "By then, especially those building new homes, people are so frustrated with the whole process. We have a lot of appeal to customers because, by that point, they're so frustrated with building that they're happy to have a one-phone-call place. There's no one in this area that can offer the whole spectrum of services that we can," he says.
Some luck was involved
Not all of the company's service additions were meticulously planned. Skoog Landscape got involved with water mains, now about 15% of the business when counted with excavation, by accident. After buying the Sterling location in 1992, the Skoogs kept the seller on as an employee. While Alan took a rare fishing vacation, the new employee took a job making a street repair for the local private water company. The move wasn't looked on favorably.
"Alan was really unhappy with us when we started bidding on street patches, because his thought was that we'd be running around patching all these little 4 x 4-foot holes. He wondered how in the world we could ever make money on that?" Andy says.
It turned out to be a good move because the water company liked the quality of the work so much, it asked Skoog to bid on their water main installation work. "Andy watched the water company crews work and he learned how it was done. We started bidding on projects and have been installing them since," Alan says.
Alan's apprehension over doing the street patches was alleviated after a two-week rainy patch meant that about all they could do was the patching.
Since the water main installation became such a large part of their business, the Skoogs began investing in heavy equipment including bulldozers, excavators, large trucks and a directional boring machine. They also leverage the equipment by using it for other excavation and installation work.
The Skoogs also learned the value of bringing work in-house while contracting to install water mains. "We initially were subbing out the heavy work because small businesses to avoid the capital outlay. Our subcontractor was terrible and we nearly lost the water company as a customer. We got rid of him, bought our own machinery and started doing the work ourselves. Subbing out work sounds good to bankers, but in reality it's a lot harder to implement. We learned our lesson on that," Andy says.
Learning has helped
Having the knowledge and capability to add a certain service has also been a determining factor. Two things contributed to the company's ability to add paver installation, for example. Andy spent three summers learning how to install them while working for Lied's Nursery. After joining the family business, he was able to transfer the knowledge to his crew members and the company could begin offering the service in earnest. "I learned how to install paving brick because I did so much of it. When I came to the business full time, that was another facet we could offer," Andy recalls.
Another inspiration for additional services are the trade shows and association seminars the Skoogs attend. "The retaining walls and pavers are among the things we've observed in the industry and were happening in the big towns. Because of the associations we belong to and the meetings we go to, we learn about those things and bring them home with us," Alan says.
Getting out to conventions and seminars is good for the company, since working in rural areas can put them out of the loop, he adds. "We need to see what's going on in the rest of the world because we're so isolated. Operating here in our rural area, it's very easy not to develop and grow. We need to bring our clients the additional things the rest of the world is enjoying and it's not acceptable for us not to offer things because we don't know them."
Good customer service has been key to the Skoogs' success. "In a small town like this, if you don't take care of the customer, you'd never have stayed in business since 1969," Andy says.
Alan has operated the business with a philosophy he learned in college. "I went to the University of Nebraska and all of my roommates were ranch people. One of their grandfathers had a theory: 'Life's too short to hassle.' This is one of the things I try to run my business with. If we have to take something on the nose, even though it may or may not be our fault, we take care of it with that thought in mind."
While Andy and Alan appreciate what creating a one-stop shop has done for the company, Andy also appreciates what it means for himself. "A good thing about working here is the variety of work you get to do. When I worked in Wisconsin for the summers, it was for a great company, but all I did was paving brick. After three summers of that, you get a little sick of doing the same thing. With the large number of things that we do, it's kind of nice to do the various tasks," he says.
The variety can also be a little hard on his crews. "I don't think my guys put enough thought into how intelligent you need to be. You have to switch gears. If you're the kind of person who doesn't get up to speed quickly, you're not going to work well here because we don't have crews do the same thing all season long," Andy adds. He is quick to say that he holds his employees in high regard, though he'd like them to develop themselves more professionally.
Alan agrees with Andy's assessment. "All of our projects have all these components to them. When we work on a project, the landscape crew may be working on walls today, get done tomorrow and then they're doing plantings, then low-voltage lighting and so on, so they have to be intelligent."
Keeping the books is a challenge
For Mary Ann, tracking the intricate jobs can be a challenge. "We have a fairly complex system and the cogs have to come together. Our employees have to fill out time sheets to provide information for our database and those time sheets are fairly complex, too. Some of the employees aren't too detail oriented and so that's a challenge, making sure it's not garbage in and garbage out. If they're putting things down without being somewhat close to reality, then all of our time is wasted," she says.
She admits that she is much more attuned to the expense side of the business than either Alan or Andy are since she pays all the bills and everything crosses her desk. Not knowing what goes on in the field sometimes limits her perspective, she says. "Sometimes I have to step back when I wonder how something could happen if we spend too much time on a job. At times Alan and Andy have to give me a reality check because I'm not out in the trenches. I don't understand as much as I should about how disasters happen sometimes and then we have to do things to keep our customers or employees happy. I'm just looking at how much something costs because that's the side I see."
Having a family business has been rewarding for the Skoogs, though there are some aspects that have been difficult. "Mary Ann doesn't care for the number of hours Andy and I put in compared to the compensation we're given. My work day starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 7 or 7:30 p.m. Andy does a little better by getting home at 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. We do that six days a week. In the winter we end at noon on Saturdays," Alan says.
Alan and Mary Ann have two sons and a daughter. The second son, a landscape architect, worked in the business for a time, but decided he wanted to work in another field. He returns to pitch in on Saturdays when they get into a jam. Their daughter has had limited exposure to the business. Both Andy and his brother have two sons. Andy's son, who is 12 years old, already helped out on a steady basis this summer, assisting on irrigation jobs. "He was basically my slave and gopher," Andy jokes. "I handle all the irrigation and he helped me with that."
Enjoyed the family business
Andy is grateful he was able to grow up in a family business. "It's really good for my kids to grow up in a family business. I think that's one of the problems with society right now. Kids today can't help but not have a work ethic. When I was a kid, every one either grew up on a farm or their parents owned a business. Whether they go on in the business or not, there are super-important life lessons to learn in a family business."
Mary Ann has also found it rewarding. "Having Andrew back and his brother for a time, and now grand kids in and out, has been the greatest part of running a business; being able to spend time with my family members. If we didn't have this business, I'm not sure either of the boys would have come back to this area to live."
Alan, about to turn 63, has altered his dream of more locations in rural Illinois. And as Andy prepares to take over, he says growth for the sake of it doesn't interest him. He'd rather become more productive with his crews and become even more profitable. Both would like to have employees who see the opportunity and are more interested in personal career growth.
"We need to have people who can take Andy's place so he can take my place. I want to take my four grand kids fishing sometime," Alan says.
One thing is clear: Alan is grateful to have his son at his side building Skoog Landscape & Design. "Without him, the business would not be operating. He's been in the business almost since he was in diapers. I took him with me when he was four. He's turned out to be a truly outstanding man."
author: By Bob Warde