Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amy Bales. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

If you are of the mindset, endeavoring to start a business will be one of the hardest things you ever do. I don’t have children, but I would liken it to having a baby. The first few years it consumes you, you have little time for anything else. Friends, even some family, may fall by the wayside. It requires a level of commitment that, well – you have to love what you are doing and maybe have just a little be of crazy in you to pull it off.

When I started Bales Custom Gardening Services (BCGS) for the first few years I did all of the work myself. At the time I was actually trying to launch another business and gardening was essentially my side gig. A fun way to bring a bit of extra cash in the door so to speak. Throughout my entrepreneurship courses it was ingrained that a start up’s success was more attainable if you kept an alternate source of income going to pay your bills while you were getting off the ground. Probably one of the most useful takeaway lessons, and even once I shifted sights to focusing on growing the garden business over my other ventures, I still continued to work other part time jobs until incoming New Business funds were more consistent.

Back to scale up… after a few years of going it solo I brought in my partner and once we could divvy the work it became much easier to take on (have energy for) new projects. We operated under that fashion for a few years and it was exhausting yet comfortable. But breaking out of our paired mindset to bring in an actual team member really helped us to take the next steps to gain more of a foothold in the market. In my experience it can be a hard thing for entrepreneurs to relinquish control, however it is absolutely impossible to do everything a business requires and have any sort of life. You have to let others in and give them the space to do the jobs that need to be done to move The Dream forward.

I never wanted to take on loan debt and thus BCGS has always been entirely self funding. At one point in our second scale up growth phase (3-7 employees) we reached a crossroads where vendor credit/ payroll and accounts receivable did not meet and I had to reevaluate what we could do differently to bridge that gap without taking on things I wasn’t comfortable with. Getting deposits in advance and communicating to our customer base in a mindful way that sustaining our small business was dependent on their timely payments was not difficult to implement, but until it became a problem of ends meeting hadn’t been a top of mind concern. Being able to respond quickly with logical steps is important to scaling – and it never hurts to ask business mentors for advice. I find they are always happy to help and will usually bring to the table a new idea that makes a world of difference.

Of course, once you have ‘scaled up’ where do you go from there? Businesses, like friendships, tend to run a life span. How do you navigate that 7-10 year itch? Once you’ve gone past start up, you’re in operational mode, things are happening, you’re making a living wage for yourself and are able to pay it to others … what then? It varies across the board. Every entrepreneur is different. More, more, more? Life/ work balance? Sweet spot of existence? It’s a constant juggling act. When you are in the process of trying to get a business off the ground, it’s hard to imagine a time where you’d ever say ‘No’. Exit strategy? What’s that? But those are always things to keep in the back of your mind as you are growing, it’s just scaling in a different way. Responding with logical steps to your current market situation. Your ‘child’ is growing but still needs your undivided attention and your moves need to be made in accordance.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Bales Custom Gardening Services has provided garden care and landscape maintenance to families throughout the Denver metro area for well over a decade. Our services include but are not limited to: Garden Bed & Leaf Clean Ups, Routine Garden Care & Landscape Maintenance, Plantings, Mulching & Composting of Beds, as well as Organic Food Crops Management. My husband/ business partner Clint and I moved to Denver from Kansas in 2000. After spending several years managing a local residential design/build firm, I decided to pursue my dream of self-employment which led to the start-up of BCGS in 2004. Initially providing customized gardening services to a small group of hand selected clients, with lots of hard work and an astute eye for detail things began to take off. BCGS now employs an experienced team of garden professionals who share my love of plants and the great Colorado outdoors.
I am a Certified Colorado Gardener via Colorado State University’s Master Gardener Program and have a thorough working knowledge of Zone 5 perennial/ shrub plant material.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Showing up when you say you will, doing a good job and inspiring word of mouth referrals.

The first few years in business we wasted a lot of good money on print advertising. It is a different world now, but I still find that personal referrals go much farther than any social media engagement so far as translating to actual work.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I communicate with clients in a variety of ways – in person meetings, phone calls, texts, emails – whatever people are most comfortable with. I think what customers appreciate most about our company and service though is that we treat their yard like it’s our own. Having a personal investment in the outcome of their space solidifies our connection.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.balescustomgardening.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balescustomgardening/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymbales

Image Credits
Amy Bales, Clint Bales