We recently connected with Ian & Alexis Gaffney and have shared our conversation below.

Ian & Alexis, appreciate you joining us today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

The best investment that we have ever made as business owners is investing in the right people to help us run our business. Looking for trustworthy individuals that are willing to work hard, as if it’s their own is sort of like finding a needle in a haystack.
As business owners we also work hard, with boots on the ground, to help show our employees that we value and respect them — but also to teach/train them how to be better every day.
We invest in our employees not only with equipment – purchasing items that will make them more efficient. Working smart instead of working hard.
We ask their input, offer them time off when they haven’t used a personal day for a while.
We truly value and appreciate all of our employees and we work hard to show them every day.
Our employees have helped us to build our dream (with our business) and in turn, we would only like to do the same!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My father-in-law owns a landscape maintenance company and has for over 30 years. My husband grew up going to work with his dad – learning at a very young age about different plant species, how to build irrigation systems, the proper way to care & maintain a garden; endless levels of knowledge due to the firsthand experiences in the field.
Ian started working for his dad the weekend after he graduated high school. He took the weekend off and literally started work the very next Monday. While I continued studies at Cal Poly, earning a BS in Recreation, Parks & Tourism.
We both have always had a very strong drive; a high desire to succeed in life.
About 8 years into working maintenance with his dad, Ian and another employee started doing landscape installs.
Through that time and experience he learned how to install pavers the correct way. On his knees, physically laying the pavers, grinding, doing all of the installs.
Years later, Ian became one of the few locals certified in interlocking and permeable pavers, couple that with our 5-year warranty that we offer clients, and that gives us a great little niche in the hardscape industry!
Ian is quite literally the local paver expert – suppliers, other contractors, clients, potential clients, friends, family members – they all reach out to Ian when they have a paver question or need to troubleshoot something.
IGL has installed over 500,000sf of combined pavers over the years across the Central Coast, CA.

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

Social media & word of mouth are the best forms of advertising for our company!

My husband/business partner and I are both locals born and raised in the area. Being a local from a small community provides a lot of credibility for homeowners. We work hard to ensure that our employees stand behind our reputation and instill the same values with their work as they do with their lives – being respectful, cleaning up after themselves, helping others if available. We constantly get compliments from clients not only on the exceptional work completed, but also on the wonderful camaraderie between the crews. It is not uncommon for clients to tell us “It looks like they genuinely enjoy working and being together” and that alone transfers to a wonderful experience that our clients share with their friends, neighbors and loved ones over, and over, and over again!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Doing everything yourself and micromanaging. A decade ago, before we started the business, we read an article in “Landscape Today” detailing how a business owner was finally able to grow and expand his business to become a self-made multi-millionaire 20 times over. He had reached success. And he was in our same market. He gave us hope, instantly.

As we read, we learned that he stopped micromanaging all of his employees. He started trusting them. Allowing them to make their own mistakes; and learn from them. He would acknowledge when a mistake was made – hold his crew accountable. And work through it with his crews, together at first, to ensure the teams had success – but more than that, he wanted to ensure the same mistakes wouldn’t be repeated. That although he was holding his crews accountable, he still trusted them; still believed in them to be able to complete the job. And when the crews had successes – he acknowledged those as well. With raises, more responsibilities, different roles.

Banking this knowledge before even starting has changed our mindset about everything. As owners, we know and recognize how valuable our time is every day. If we can free up the time we take to do the little mundane things – and pass that on to a trusting employee, that opens up time for us to focus on other aspects of the business – growing the business, marketing, estimates, expanding, networking. The options are endless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://iglpavers.com
• Instagram: @iglpavers

Image Credits

Photographers: Ian Gaffney, Jay Winter Photography, Filice Images Photography