We recently connected with Sharrieff Martin and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sharrieff thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
It was years ago maybe some time in 2017 I had resigned from my position as a Substance abuse counselor. I had aspirations of starting my own business because I no longer wanted to work for anyone else’s company or organization. I was unemployed for sometime working odd jobs and temp jobs. I had this app downloaded on my phone that I would use to create posters, album covers, business cards etc I can remember without planning I started working on a landscaping business card. I created the design, the hours of work, and job descriptions although I had no equipment or landscaping business at the time. It was just a vision. In the Bible Habakkuk 2:2:3 God says to write the vision.. I wanted to implement home cleaning and landscaping together in the vision as well as Junk removal. While working for a temp agency I was doing side jobs cutting grass in the neighborhood. At the time I only had 2 houses. I had forgot about the business card that I created but it all made since later why i was lead to create it. I had started to get more properties in the neighborhood but only 2 at the time were on a consistent basis. One morning while at work on the temp job I encountered a lady, middle aged who stop me and said can I talk to you I replied sure. She begin to go in detail about a lawn service company I would start and how lucrative it will be in the future and so on. I listened but didn’t really take it too serious because although I prepared business cards it was the furthest thing from my mind. At the time I had a different vision it was other things I were pursuing like music, book writing producing etc Once the lady told me this it stuck in the back of my mind but still couldn’t see it. Anyway those business cards I created with the app I went to Office Depot and printed off 100. I kept a few in my wallet. I had about 4 properties in the neighborhood and every once in a while I would get a new client. I had a friend who had died in his sleep so me and my father would go and cut and clean the yard every 2 weeks for his wife. I felt that was the least we could do to honor him. While cutting his yard people kept stopping and asking can we cut their yard? Luckily I had printed out those business cards and followed my gut. I would go into my wallet and pass them to future clients. Eventually I had gained more properties residential and commercial. My friend’s wife had a lawnmower that would not start that she gave to me and I fixed the problem and got it started. It was a small lawnmower that me and my father had named Betsy (laughs). We had 2 lawnmowers now and started to gain new clients on the west side of Jacksonville. Betsy never let us down, she was a true rider. If the other lawnmower would give us issues Betsy would be there to get the job done. I still have the frame of Betsy today in my workplace that I plan to hang up as a reminder of my humble beginnings and inspiration to remind me to work with what you have. Work with what God gave you. I believe that when you give to others it will always come back especially when you give and do things without looking for something in return. Sometimea God have a way of testing us all. The service that we were doing for my friend’s wife had open doors for new customers.
Over the next couple years I would lose clients and gain some. I had learned later on that its apart of the business. Some people either can no longer afford to pay and some people just change their minds and thats understandable. I began cutting yards in the Jacksonville Beach area, Callahan etc I went from cutting and cleaning to doing flower beds and any other jobs i were asked to do. I could start to see the slow growth but still i wanted to earned the respect as a business not a yard man. Theres a big difference being considered a yard man and businessman. A yard man can be found right off of the streets and will work for less than hes worth and people would not respect him or his work becahes just their yard man. A business man who is licensed, insured and does good work is more respected and demand what they are worth. I had started sub-contracting which isn’t very popular today because many people are unreliable, unprofessional and do shabby work. However if there was a job that i couldnt I would hire someone experienced,disciplined and take a percentage. I remember working for a lady in Jacksonville beach I had done her flower bed, helped her put up a privacy fence etc We would sit down and talk during my break. I’ll never forget she asked me how much would I charge her to lay tile in her house. I told her I don’t know how to do it but I can get someone. She looked at me and said you can do it, don’t ever tell a client that you don’t know how to do something you can do it. Her words stuck with me and I never told anyone I can’t do anything. I would find a way or hire someone and get paid while helping others get paid. What’s funny is this lady didn’t need me to do anything she could do everything herself.
As the years went by I had realized my business wasn’t straight. I was making a little money but my business wasn’t registered as an LLC. I wanted people to respect and see me as a legitimate business so I registered my business in my name, my wife and children and hired my children to keep money in the family and put them in the mindstate of owning and running businesses . As the years went by I begin to make more money, earned more clients and learned to work certain equipment. I am a very hard worker and very detailed. I like to take my time and do things right. I knew that going above and beyond would separate us from the competition. Jobs may take a little longer to finish but the quality of our work will stand out and people wouldnt mind paying you what youre worth. I remember a guy telling me to buy every tool that you can get your hands on even if you don’t plan on using it because as long as you have the tools you will always have work. It made sense to me even if I don’t know how to use the tool I could hire someone who can until I learn how to use them myself. Anyway those were my humble beginnings and the lady’s words at the temp job begin to manifest. God was working all that time and lead me to start working on business cards without a business or business plan. You can be focused on one vision and God can take you in a whole different direction and although it may be scary or doesn’t make sense at first if you follow his directions it will make sense later on and you will not regret obeying. Sometimes I would be working a job and I would reflect back to my childhood being in the garden and yard with my grandmother helping her with her peas and listening to her stories. On weekends I would go out and clean and rearrange the yard. I would put a speaker in the window and be raking dirt we had no grass back then. My grandmother was so impressed that she got me a few jobs cleaning yards.. Now it all made sense, this where it comes from. I realized that landscaping wasn’t just work or business it was also healing for me from losing my grandmother.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I believe I touched on all of this already. but we provide all landscaping services it’s no job too hard or that we can’t do. We cut, we edge, clean leaves debris remove junk, we trim hedges, we do flower beds mulch rock etc. we cut trees and limbs we clean gutters we do commercial and residential properties. We make hard work look easy. Soon we will be branching off into irrigation thats where the real money is at but yea we do almost anything pertaining to landscaping and cleaning up yards
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Many times I didn’t have the proper equipment to do jobs or I would have equipment malfunctions while on jobs and no back up. It can be very discouraging starting a business being in a middle of jobs and equipment starts acting faulty. Over the years I’ve learned to repair equipment myself after being over charged by repair shops and equipment not being properly repaired. So I had equipment in my workshop that needed repaired minor and major but didn’t have the time. My goal was to hire someone in the future to repair equipment while we work. Anyway I remember being on jobs and my weed eaters would not run properly or blower I would have to improvise to get the job done. As I said in the beginning you have to learn how to use what God gave you. You have to use what you have. On a few occasions I couldn’t edge because of equipment malfunctions so I had learned to edge with a shovel, I also learned to cut, trim and edge with a weed eater. I’ve learned so good that I can do a whole yard with a weed eater and no one would notice that I didn’t use a lawnmower. If I didn’t have a blower to blow the edges etc I would use the lawnmower as a blower (smiles) I’ve learn several techniques through trial and error how to get the job done. I was buying used equipment so I eventually started buying new equipment therefore It would be under warranty if anything went wrong. I remember one job me and my daughter was working we were about done and had a couple more properties to do afterwards. I had backed my work truck in and as we were finishing up I was weed eating and all I hear is a big boom. A rock had smash out my back window. This was very discouraging at first. I had to clean the mess and instead of making money I’ve just lost over $200 and something dollars because insurance doesn’t cover back windshields so that money came out of pocket. I was discouraged at first but pulled myself together and told my daughter let’s go and we proceeded to the other jobs with the back windowshield smashed out but we got the job done. I’ve learned the trick to overcoming discouragement and that is to keep going. Discouragement and distraction are meant to get you to stop, to give up and focus on the problem instead if an solution so keep going
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I believe I touch on this in the beginning. Landscaping is my full time hustle. I plan to become so lucrative in the future and provide job opportunities to others while pursuing other passions. I plan to also teach others how to start their business about the mistakes I’ve made in the beginning. Some people these days they do not like to share wisdom or information even if they are not going to use it. They are wisdom hoarders so while building I will teach and while teaching I will also learn. I believe in being the student as well as the teacher
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