We recently made the trip out to Guthrie, Oklahoma to work with the team at Huskey Turf. The goal was to help them scale up their operations and their marketing. While we were there, they gave us a full shop tour and we got to deep dive into their business. I wanted to walk you through what we saw, because there’s a lot other lawn care and pest control operators can learn from how these guys have set things up.
Huskey Turf’s office is small, but it gets the job done. They’ve got a main area where they hold meetings, and then individual offices for the key people. Heather, their head CSR, has her own space. She handles all the client communication, upselling new jobs, all of that. Brook, who’s the owner’s wife, runs the financials and backend office work from her office.
Here’s the thing most people wouldn’t guess: this office used to be a dirt floor barn. About three years ago, they converted it into what it is now. When I walked in, I honestly thought it was built that way from the start. That’s how clean the conversion turned out. There are even plans down the road to build a house on the property and convert the current house into a full office with a kitchen, bathroom, showers, the whole setup. Smart thinking.
The Shop
The shop itself was built in 2011 and came with the property when they bought it. Inside, they’ve got a batch mixing area with a big tank, though it’s not fully plumbed up yet. The goal is to have that dialed in by end of year. For now, they’re mixing chemicals on a table, which works fine for the volume they’re running.
They also just added on a new section to the shop with room for five more garage doors. That’s huge. Right now they’ve got four trucks, and with the expansion they’ll have space for nine total. Plenty of room to grow.
The Trucks
This is where it got really interesting. They’ve got a brand new truck that’s about to go in for a wrap on the 18th. Same pink branding as the rest of the fleet. But the setup on this truck is what caught my attention.
Everything runs off electric pumps. The whole rig is designed to do 20 gallons an acre, whether you’re hand spraying or running a ride-on. There’s a massive bilge pump inside that can fill up the ride-on in about one minute. Sixty gallons in one minute through a 2-inch hose. That’s serious.
The truck is set up with separate tanks for different applications. One for their regular pre-emergent for Bermuda grass, since that’s mostly what they deal with out there. A smaller tank for bug treatments. And another for their fescue mix. They’ll also have backpack sprayers mounted and ready to go so the crew can get in and out efficiently.
It’s basically an acreage truck. Perfect for a pallet of fertilizer so they can hit a ton of properties in a day.
The Custom Rig
One thing I’d never seen before was this custom piece of equipment they built. They took a standard 48-inch mower, pulled the deck off, and built it up with about a 14-foot boom for spraying Roundup on big parking lots and gravel driveways.
The owner’s own words about it: “It’s pretty ghetto looking, but that dude makes some money.” I love that. It doesn’t have to look fancy. It just has to work and bring in revenue.
The Property Deal
The backstory on the property is worth mentioning because it’s a lesson in itself. The owner’s dad bought the whole place at auction. It was a house, a shop, and a dirt floor barn sitting on a big piece of land. The dad kept 13 acres and started a subdivision on it. The owner ended up with about 36 or 37 acres.
Since then, they’ve sold 9 acres to one neighbor and 5 to another. Six years in, they’ve got about 21 acres left and only around $40,000 remaining on the deal. The monthly payment ended up being cheaper than their old house payment plus shop rent combined. And they got way more space out of it.
He told me his dad kind of forced him into it. Sometimes the best business decisions are the ones somebody else pushes you into before you think you’re ready.
The Water Situation
One detail I always ask about is how companies handle their water fill. Right now they’re getting about 10 gallons a minute from their current setup, which isn’t terrible for filling a couple trucks. But once you’re scaling past that, you need a better solution.
The plan is to put a big trash pump or water pump on their system to speed things up. Right now the crew is mostly running fertilizer, so mornings are quick. They’re on-site for about 15 minutes loading up and then they’re out the door.
Where They're Headed
We spent the rest of the visit working on their operations, sales funnels, and marketing. Phase one is getting Huskey Turf to a million dollars, and they’re just about there. Phase two is pushing to $1.5 to $2 million.
If you’re in a similar spot with your business and have questions about scaling, drop some comments and we’ll answer every single one.
