Sep 2024 How I Run My Business: An Interview with Grant Boyle (Owner of Fig Landscapes)
In early August, I interviewed Grant Boyle from Fig Landscapes on Zoom. I invited my clients to attend the meeting and ask Grant questions about the way he runs his business.
We are all fans of his work and loved his humble, open and honest chat with us. Here is a summary.
John: What do you attribute your success to?
Grant: “Having passion for this industry, and for designing and building gardens. I live and breathe landscaping. I am always researching materials, designs, trends. I find it hard to switch off because I love it so much”.
John’s Clients: How large is your team?
Grant: “The business is broken into 3 elements:
Design – I oversee all designs, I have a part-time Landscape Architect (in Byron Bay) and 2 part-time designers (one in Sydney and one in Thailand).
Construction – I am on site often as the Project Manager (sometimes on the tools, but not often). I have 4 guys in construction (Leading Hand, Tradesman and 2 Apprentices).
Horticulture – (2 employees), they do all our maintenance and small softscapes works.
A few years ago, I had a crew of 13 and 3 teams, but I found it too hard to control (both quality and profit), it was too stressful. So, my model now is smaller where I can ensure the quality is high, designs can be more spontaneous and communication with clients and my team is much better.”
John’s Clients: How to you train and manage your team?
Grant: “I give the team the space on site to make mistakes, to learn, to realise why things happen, (the steps and processes), and how it all interplays. Early on, when they join Fig, I take the time to show them how to do things the right way and to avoid cutting corners. Also, I take ownership for every mistake or problem that happens. When mistakes occur, I know, I either didn’t give the guys the right direction, or I didn’t explain something properly, or didn’t give them enough training.“
John: What systems do you use?
Grant: “I tend to keep my systems simple. I still use your quoting sheet you provided for me John when we worked together. I also use Xero, Vectorworks, Instagram and Facebook, and an Apple Calendar. But that’s about it.”
John’s Clients: What Pricing Method do you use?
Grant: “I use a cost-plus method on all our jobs. Most of jobs are too large to quote any other way. We just fix our materials markup and have an hourly rate for our team on site and then bill clients regularly.”
John: What are the keys to growing a business?
Grant: “One of the keys to growing a business is to build the team from the ground up rather than taking on all this work and finding employees quickly. I preferred taking time to find the right guys, train them properly, stay small and ensure quality and grow from there. And by putting effort into developing my young guys, they will become a massive asset to my business. I don’t want to be a large business, keeping my construction team to 5, suits my model at the moment. If you bring on tradesman and your teams are growing and you’re not around a lot, the culture will not be there, and it causes problems. One bad apple can poison everything.
I always say, remember why you started your business and stay true to your core values.”
John: What do you love about working in Byron Bay?
Grant: “What I love about working in Byron is that I can design and build a neighbourhood garden that is 600 – 1000sqm, and then 20 minutes up the road we can be designing and planting a garden in the hinterland that is over 4 acres. We have more space to work with.”
John’s Client: How do you attract the work you want?
Grant: “When I first moved to Byron, I reached out to some high-end architects that I wanted to work with, and our relationships are still strong today. It’s always been important for me to have the right alliances with architects that can feed us the work we want.”
John’s Client: Do you ask a potential client for a Budget?
Grant: “Actually the ‘two Bs’ are really important – Brief and Budget. I place emphasis on really understanding someone’s brief, so I know their project is right for me and to really understand what they need and want. I also discover a budget from the client when I meet a client, so I know what we have to work with.”
John: What is another key element to running your business?
Grant: “I realised early on that my business wasn’t just about me, but about building trusting relationships with subcontractors, suppliers, photographers, architects and my employees. I rely on all these relationships to have a business that works.”
Grant runs a small, highly manageable team and business. He places great emphasis on doing things properly, communicating openly with his greater team and ensuring his quality never suffers. He could talk about landscaping and business for hours because he is so passionate, and it’s a big reason why he will always be successful.
My clients and I thoroughly enjoyed this chat and walked away feeling inspired and grateful.