Why I Started CPS

The story of why I started CPS starts at the end of 2019.

At the time, I worked for a landscaping company where I cut grass, pulled weeds, and cleared snow.

Landscaping always seemed like a temporary thing for me.  I started landscaping in the summer while I was still in school and got another landscaping job while applying for the jobs I actually wanted.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved working outside and making people’s homes and businesses look amazing, but I needed something more.

The jobs I wanted weren’t coming.

I told myself that if I didn’t get a job by the new year, I would start something new.

I also knew that start-up costs for a lawncare business were pretty low.

Carroll Property Services was founded on February 24, 2020.

This was the day I registered my business with the government, but I didn’t get much business for a while…

I thought I would sell jobs going door to door.  Suddenly, March 2020 hit and door knocking was no longer an option.  I knew my marketing strategy had to move online and quick if I ever wanted to quit my full-time job.

I had already bought the domain name for this website, but I had nothing to put on it.

My mom works for a small business that sells lab equipment where she has a multitude of responsibilities including web development (check out her work: www.scipro.com ).  If you need an e-commerce website built she’s really good at it.

Anyways, she set me up with a basic website with a few services and a contact page, but she kept telling me she couldn’t make a website without content.

I couldn’t think of anything to write.  

“I’m a landscaper.  I cut lawns!  What else is there to say?”

I had nothing of value to tell the world.  I thought everything about lawncare had already been said.

I wasn’t finding any new clients.

I spent countless nights watching business videos, taking notes, and making plans.  I bought online courses with savings to accelerate my learning.  

I was taking one particular course about running ads on YouTube.  I still haven’t run a single YouTube ad and my course instructor Alex would scold me if he knew, but I still learned a lot from him and I give him credit for leading me to my next discovery:

My product needed to be better than my competitor’s product.

It’s amazing that it hadn’t occurred to me before, but it seemed obvious now.  My product was the same service every other landscaping business in Ontario was offering.  If anything, my service was less valuable because I had less experience, equipment, employees, and funds than other local companies.

Once I realized that the product was wrong, it was easy to readjust my path. The lawncare industry has so many carbon emissions: lawn mowers, trimmers, leaf-blowers, trucks with trailers, fertilizers, pesticides, water, etc. Grass crews drive to the same properties every week to cut a crop that has no productive value.

CPS wasn’t going to be just another lawncare service. In fact, CPS no longer provides lawncare services at all.  

CPS is a native plant garden design firm.

I finally had something to write about.  I was passionate about making the world a better place and dove deep into the benefits that native plants and urban farming offered.  I immersed myself in the world of permaculture and sustainability.  I had content for my website.

I kept doing research and started witting blog posts about things that actually interested me.  I fully re-branded CPS with new direction and my mom helped me give the website a full make-over.  I kept working hard and producing content.  

Soon, the phone started ringing.  

I got my first client that wasn’t a friend or family member. 

It was the first time that I felt like I had a real business.

I scheduled the work for a Saturday and asked my brother to help me plant the trees.  My client wasn’t happy with my prices so they sourced some cheaper trees themselves.  I obliged as I wasn’t going to lose my first client.  I drove about an hour out to get the trees they picked out, dropped my brother off with the trees so he could start digging, then turned around and drove to another nursery for the rest of the trees.  While I was driving back to my client’s house, I got a call from my brother…

My client was saying that the trees that they sent me to pickup were too small!

The day didn’t get better from then on. Still, everything went wrong that chaotic day because of my mistakes.

I am learning to listen carefully to what my clients are saying and asking lots of questions.  They don’t always know what they want and it’s my job to help them figure that out.  It is crucial that we continue asking each other questions until we can both agree on the expectations we have for each other.

I can think of many other times when I’ve made the same mistake. Hopefully, after writing it down, I will finally learn my lesson.

Later that summer, I started getting more calls, more often.  I scheduled a tree planting job for a Monday.  Then a Tuesday.  I told my boss that I wasn’t coming in on Monday.  Quitting my full-time job was a turning point in my business.  

I poured all my energy into CPS and made it my primary source of income.

Now, I’m going through the process of hiring my first employee (send tree planting resumes to scott@carrollpropertyservices.ca).

I’ve made many mistakes and taken many jobs that I should have turned down.  I’ve planted many trees, shoveled many driveways, and designed many gardens, but I still have so much to learn.

The reason I started CPS was just so that I could quit my job and continue looking for my “dream job”.  As things turn out, it might be easier to create your dream job than to find it.

I don’t know what’s in store next for CPS, but I can’t wait to find out.

(Who wants a custom wildlife pond?)

Scott Carroll

Carroll Property Services

289-943-5477