Light Up Your Business
Welcome to the Light Up Your Business podcast, where we dive deep into the strategies, stories, and insights that drive growth, change, success and innovation for small business owners.
Each episode dives into the struggles behind the scenes—from burnout and financial pressure to self-doubt and juggling personal life. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling up, this podcast offers candid conversations, practical advice, and encouragement to help you stay grounded, find balance, and keep going. Because building a business shouldn’t mean losing yourself in the process.
Light Up Your Business
The Mower, The Motivation and The Mindset: One Man's Lawn Care Success Story
What does it take to build a successful small business from scratch with limited resources? Ruben Gingrich's journey from the Amish community to owning Redemptive Lawn Care offers remarkable insights into entrepreneurship, perseverance, and strategic growth.
Ruben shares his fascinating path, leaving the Amish at 18 and eventually starting his lawn care business during the height of COVID in 2020. His early entrepreneurial spirit showed itself even during his Amish upbringing, where he operated a small furniture workshop. This foundation, combined with unwavering determination, helped him build a thriving service business despite significant challenges.
Perhaps most inspiring is Ruben's approach to overcoming health obstacles. Living with cystic fibrosis, he made a conscious decision to shift his mindset from limitation to possibility. "I totally believe that's why I kept getting sicker," he explains about his former outlook. This transformative perspective not only improved his health but became central to his business philosophy.
Starting with borrowed equipment and a small trailer, Ruben gradually built Redemptive Lawn Care into a respected service provider across Harmony, Lanesboro, and Preston, Minnesota. His strategic approach to growth stands out in a world obsessed with rapid scaling. "I don't want to grow too fast," he shares, "especially with the way the winters have been lately... I don't want to get a whole bunch of debt to try to grow." This measured approach has created a stable foundation for sustainable expansion.
The conversation delves into practical aspects of marketing, staffing, and exploring new technologies like robotic mowers. Ruben's long-term vision includes potentially franchising his business model while maintaining the exceptional customer service that sets him apart. His commitment to treating customers "the way we want to be treated" forms the bedrock of his business ethics.
Ready to support a small business owner who exemplifies entrepreneurial spirit and integrity? Contact Redemptive Lawn Care at 507-513-3196 or visit redemptivelawncare.com to request their services.
Special Thanks to my guest Reuben Gingerich with Redemptive Lawn Care located in Harmony, MN
To Connect with Reuben please call 507-513-3196 or they can go on the website at redemptivelawcare.com
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Welcome to the Light Up your Business podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of small businesses. I'm your host, Tammy Hershberger, and each episode will bring you inspiring stories, expert insights and practical tips to help your small business thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out or a seasoned business owner, this podcast is your go-to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Hi everyone, I want to welcome you back to another episode of Light Up your Business podcast. Today I have a phone interview, which is my first one, so we'll see how this goes. I have a friend of mine and I also do some bookkeeping with him. His name is Reuben Gingrich and he owns Redemptive Lawn Care out of Harmony, Minnesota, and so today we're going to just do a little conversation with him about his business. He does lawn care and snow plowing and I just want to kind of pick his brain a little. So how are you today, Ruben?
Reuben Gingerich:I am doing good.
Tammy Hershberger:Good, how's the weather there today?
Reuben Gingerich:It's very nice.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh is it Good, it's been warmer.
Reuben Gingerich:huh yeah, it's been a lot warmer.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, good. Well, I mean, it's good for the people who want the warm, but not so good, probably, for snow plowing.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I know, it just melts the snow.
Tammy Hershberger:And that doesn't pay, does it?
Reuben Gingerich:No, it doesn't.
Tammy Hershberger:So for my listeners again, I have listeners all over the country, but do you want to introduce yourself and just tell me a little bit about yourself?
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, so I'm Ruben Kingrich and I am the owner of Redemptive Lawn Care in Snow Riverville. And, yeah, I started my business back in 2020.
Tammy Hershberger:So right during COVID.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I started it right in COVID so it was a little harder.
Tammy Hershberger:but what can I ask? What made, what made you decide to start that business? What inspired you?
Reuben Gingerich:I've always wanted to start my own business. I was never sure what I wanted to do, and then one time one of my friends was like, well, why don't you just start mowing lawns? And I'm like I don't know. And then later I'm like, yeah, that would be a pretty good idea, but I didn't have any money to go buy a lawnmower, so I ended up using my brother's mower to start mowing lawns, and that's how I got started in the lawnmowing business.
Tammy Hershberger:So I have to ask what kind of mower? Was it? A push mower, or what did you start with? Not an Amish mower, right?
Reuben Gingerich:No, it was a 42-inch Challenger mower.
Tammy Hershberger:And that's not a zero turn. I don't know much about mowers. That's not a zero turn. Right, It'd be like a normal deck mower.
Reuben Gingerich:It was a zero turn. Yeah, oh it is Okay. Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:And so, before we dig fully into your business because I find it very interesting To me you're an inspiration, because you and we'll talk about whatever you want to talk about here. But, um, you grew up Amish, right, just like my husband.
Reuben Gingerich:Yes.
Tammy Hershberger:In the same area and you are you related to John technically? I can never remember that.
Reuben Gingerich:I don't think I am.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, okay, cause I think it was.
Reuben Gingerich:Lydia, I should know, but I don't yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, gotcha. Well, um, so you grew up, and what age did you leave the Amish?
Reuben Gingerich:When I was 18. 18.
Tammy Hershberger:Can I have to ask and you can tell me I'm not answering that, but was it scary?
Reuben Gingerich:Because I think that sounds terrifying to leave such a strict community that's very protective into this crazy world we live in.
Tammy Hershberger:I don't think it was really scary.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, you're probably just so excited I made up my mind that I was going to leave a couple months before I actually did then.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh, okay, I see. And did you have help when you left, or were you just on your own, Meaning like did? You have neighbors helping or friends.
Reuben Gingerich:No, me and my brother Dennis left at the same time. No, me and my brother Dennis left at the same time, and then we just went over and stayed at my brother's place that had already left. So he basically helped us out then. Okay, and what did you do for your job when you left, or did you have a job already? No, I worked for Eagle Ridge Construction for the first year, so carpentry work.
Tammy Hershberger:Yup, okay, so I I mean and that's the thing I admire about the Amish people is, you guys are all such hard worker. I've never. I mean, I'm sure they're there, but I've never ran into one. That's lazy, never.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:So that's probably can you. Well, I'm jumping ahead on a question here, but it just popped in my head. Are you allowed to like hire Amish people to work for you or no Like with the community branch?
Reuben Gingerich:See, it all depends who it is. I mean, I've had my one cousin work for me for a while and he is still Amish, but most of them won't, or not. It all depends who it is.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean they're really not allowed to, but yeah, and so when you decided to leave, and then, so you were 18. In 2020, how old would you have been when you started the business?
Reuben Gingerich:started the business. Uh, it's like 20, 25 now, so that would have been about five years ago.
Tammy Hershberger:So, yeah, I would have been like 2021. Okay, yeah, so you've been on the Amish a few years.
Reuben Gingerich:Did you have any prior experience starting a business, or did your parents own a business or anything? I'm not really sure of your past, not really. I used to run my own little furniture shop when I was still living with my parents always, so I used to make small crafts and furniture.
Tammy Hershberger:Like tables and chairs or what kind of furniture.
Reuben Gingerich:No, I did a few dressers and some benches, but a lot of it was just little crafts, like where they put their lights on in their houses, and towel holders and just little stuff like that.
Tammy Hershberger:Did you sell to the Amish, or to the English too?
Reuben Gingerich:Both. Both Interesting, so you had all that machinery to do that, or I don't even know what goes into woodworking, but I did yeah, and so did your parents help you get all that, or you had you just saved your money until you got it, or no, so actually it was what they, my sister, if I rose as you get to, you get to make a wish before you're 18, and that's how I got all my equipment. I made a wish for all this equipment and they actually bought all that equipment for me.
Tammy Hershberger:That's really cool. So how old would you have been when you got all that, do you think?
Reuben Gingerich:I think I was 15 or 16.
Tammy Hershberger:So you already had the entrepreneurial spirit in you at that age. Like I want to have my own business.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I've always yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:Now I'm curious your answer because, I mean, I'm always very honest with mine and one of my reasons for being an entrepreneur is because I don't like being told what to do. I want to make my own way. Is that kind of how you are?
Reuben Gingerich:That is a lot Like I like to, yeah, make my own way around my own schedule.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, and not have a boss telling me what to do Be the boss of myself, yeah. Yeah, so we're similar. Okay, so then, when you left the Amish, did you just leave behind all that, or did you sell it off your business for the furniture stuff?
Reuben Gingerich:I just left it.
Tammy Hershberger:Is anyone else doing it? The?
Reuben Gingerich:reason I? No, I sold all that equipment a year or two ago.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, and why didn't you take it with you or try to do it?
Reuben Gingerich:Okay, and why didn't you take it with you or try to do it? The reason I didn't take it with me is because, well, we switched everything over to belt-driven because the Amish can't have electricity and I really didn't feel like messing around with it. I don't know. I just didn't really have much of a desire to do anything with working much. I didn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life, so yeah sure.
Tammy Hershberger:So I'm curious and we'll talk. You just talk wherever you feel comfortable. But uh, on the cystic fibrosis, so how? Because I don't know a lot about that, but like, how limiting is that? Is it something you have a lot of pain, or like, has it been a challenge for you?
Reuben Gingerich:It has. I've changed my mindset on it a little bit, Because when I used to still be Amish I used to use that as excuses for not doing stuff Because it's in your lungs, right?
Tammy Hershberger:Do I understand that?
Reuben Gingerich:correct. Yeah, it's a lung disease.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, and so your mindset, you said, changed what?
Reuben Gingerich:how did you change that or what did what did that look like? Yeah, I started believing in being healed and and that I'm, that I can do other stuff besides. Just because I totally believe that's why I kept getting sicker. Because, when I was, it's just because I totally believe that's why I kept getting sicker. Because when I was, I had two hospital stays of two weeks. One was, well, the first year.
Reuben Gingerich:I left that next fall, which would have been the fall of 2019, I was in the hospital for two weeks, 2016 or 17. I was in the hospital for two weeks just to go in and get my lungs cleaned out and stuff. And yeah, the first time it sounds kind of stupid, but the first time I was in there, actually it wasn't that bad because I was in the kids' section, so everybody kept coming around playing on their iPads and stuff and as an Amish kid, you know you don't get to do that at home. And then the second time, I was not in the kids section, I was in the adults and it was boring, as all kiddos and I'm like this is the last time I'm staying in the hospital.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, that makes sense and I haven't been in since so do you think your mindset shift helped you to I don't know change your health? Almost because I do believe there's power. I mean, obviously your words have massive power, but yeah, yeah, the words and the mindset.
Reuben Gingerich:I totally believe it did, because if you tell yourself you're sick or you can't do something because you get this or that one, then guess what your mind's gonna go into that mode or whatever. Yeah, you can, and I don't know. That's how it seemed to work for me anyways.
Tammy Hershberger:I mean I'm with you because I even think when I have just the flu, the more I kind of lay into it and I'm like I'm just sick. I I even think when I have just the flu, the more I kind of lay into it and I'm like I'm just sick, I can't do anything. I think it almost prolongs it, versus when I'm like no, I'm not having this and I push against it. You know.
Reuben Gingerich:I know, because that's the same for me, because, like you're, like no, I'm not gonna deal, I'm gonna overcome this and move on yeah, yeah then it doesn't last near as long as it does.
Tammy Hershberger:If you're like oh, I'm so sick I can't move, yeah yeah because you almost pity yourself, and I think that does not help yeah, I don't. I totally agree with you on that well, that's inspiring to me because I mean I'm talking like the basic flu. You've got some real sickness that you're dealing with and I like that you are pushing against it and saying I'm not having I mean, you have it until you've been fully healed, which I I'll pray and believe with you on that, um.
Tammy Hershberger:But I like that your mindset shift has changed, because I could see how that could be rough yeah so then, knowing you have that and then knowing that you've now left the Amish and you're working as a carpenter, was any of that, did any of that play in your mind? And maybe not because you shifted your mindset of like, maybe how am I ever going to start my own business because I have this sickness and I never know what I'm going to be sick, or did you were just like I'm not having it, I'm going to do what I want? What's your thought on that?
Reuben Gingerich:Well, I don't know, I had already kind of changed my mind in the sickness part before I even started my business.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, so that was never a challenge.
Reuben Gingerich:I never. Yeah, I tried to not let it be a challenge. I still struggle with it every day.
Tammy Hershberger:Does the cold affect it?
Reuben Gingerich:It does. It does cold, damp wetter and stuff.
Tammy Hershberger:So have you ever had the thought of leaving to a more dry climate to like help that?
Reuben Gingerich:Not really, because I've never been sure where I want to move to if I move anywhere else.
Tammy Hershberger:I haven't really been around that much yeah, sure, okay. So let's circle back to your business now. So it's 2020, covid hits. It's so interesting that you picked that time, because a lot of businesses were going out of business. Like what made you mentally say, I'm just doing it, I'm done with carpentry or whatever? Like, what was that like?
Reuben Gingerich:so back then I was still working at QuickTrip. So I I worked at QuickTrip until the end of 2021 I think. I think I quit that fall. So I was still working part-time at QuickTrip and the first year I did very little in the lawn care business. And in 2021 is when I really tried to get my name out there more and got more confident in myself to actually go, try to sell it to people and do more of it.
Tammy Hershberger:What do you think changed your confidence on that? What made you decide to start pushing it? I'm not even sure, to be honest with you, sure, I think, sometimes, even for myself, I'm like I get fed up with certain things and I'm like I'm not doing this anymore and then I go full bore into what I'm doing yeah was it expensive to start that business?
Tammy Hershberger:I mean, you don't have to give me specifics, but like, because you've probably just started with that one, it sounds like your sorry, I can't talk your brother's mower, so you probably didn't purchase that. Did you need a trailer or did you just load that in your pickup, or how'd you do it?
Reuben Gingerich:I had a trailer, a little trailer. I actually had it when I left the Amish.
Tammy Hershberger:Wait a minute. Did you pull that? With your buggy or your horse.
Reuben Gingerich:No, we always yeah, I just had somebody else pull it. Okay, it was just a little. It used to be a boat trailer and we made a little flat bit out of it.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay.
Reuben Gingerich:And so, yeah, I had his mower, and then I went and bought a mower for $500 or $600. Okay, and that mower was nothing but a big old money machine. What brand mower was it, and that was a Simplicity.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, so it's a cheaper mower probably.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, it was an old one. It had a lot of hours on it. Yeah, because then the next summer I ended up hitting a water shut off valve with my brother's mower and wrecked his deck.
Reuben Gingerich:I bet he was happy well, he really didn't say much about it because we got it straightened out. I was gonna put a new deck on, but he's like I thought it's good enough for my lawn. And then I went down to um to a dealer an actual dealer to see if I can get it fixed. And so he got me sold on a lawnmower. And so he was like, wow, I think the mower was 4,500 or something.
Tammy Hershberger:Was that?
Reuben Gingerich:scary to you.
Tammy Hershberger:To spend that kind of money.
Reuben Gingerich:It was, but also all the money I was pouring into the other mower, just you know, $5,000, $100,000 after I was just done with it. And so he's like, oh yeah, we do financing and stuff. And I'm like, well, I have no credit score of nothing. So I ended up calling my bank and they're like, well, yeah, let me run your credit score. And see, I told them it's like you might as well not even run it because I don't have one. And they're like, oh well, that's fine, how much do you want? And I'm like just $4,500. And they're like, oh well, we'll do that. You've been banking with us for a couple years now.
Tammy Hershberger:So that's cool. Yeah, that was.
Reuben Gingerich:I still feel like that was a good decision, because I got a mower that I should work and I got it paid off that year.
Tammy Hershberger:What a blessing for that small town bank. You know which they do with the Amish probably a lot, so they're probably kind of used to the no credit thing.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, yeah, no, I like that bank. They've always been nice to me.
Tammy Hershberger:So you started with that. Did you have trimmers? I don't know much about lands or mowing, but did you have to buy trimmers and hedge? I don't even know what they're all called Hedge trimmers.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I had a trimmer, but I'm trying to figure out where the heck I got it. But I had a little trimmer and then I think I bought a new trimmer.
Tammy Hershberger:That's the same year I bought that mower. And how did you find your first clients? Like were?
Reuben Gingerich:they just friends or neighbors yeah, friends. And then one thing that I did that worked out pretty nice on it. So when I used to work at Quick Trip and I'd wait on people, I'd always have a stack of business cards in my pocket and then I'd pass them along and you, you know, tell them if they want a professional to take care of their lawn, then they should call me. And that's how I got a lot of business cards out. I just hand them to everybody that comes through the store oh yeah, because you work there yeah see that's a hustler.
Tammy Hershberger:I like that because I mean I deal with coaching clients sometimes and I've had a few people that they just I'm like how many clients did you talk to last week trying to get them to like grow their business because they don't have the money for advertising? And they're like maybe two. And I'm like, well, you have to start getting more aggressive. You've got to talk to people. You've got to hand out flyers. Stop at businesses. I mean you're proof at work by just handing out those business cards Did you have any other?
Tammy Hershberger:techniques in the beginning.
Reuben Gingerich:Besides that, that worked or was that the best one? That was the best one. Well, I put a post on and then Eddie Swartzentrooper shared it and referred me to people to hire me if they wanted lawn care or anything like that done. And he has a pretty big, he knew a lot, a lot of people knew him in town and stuff. So I got a lot of uh, quite a few clients through that, actually through the social media posts from eddie, who knew a lot of people.
Tammy Hershberger:You said right, yeah, yeah what about referrals?
Reuben Gingerich:do you get a lot of people you said, right, yeah, what?
Tammy Hershberger:about referrals. Do you get a lot of referrals, people that are like oh, I use them, they're great, here's their number.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I get quite a few referrals.
Tammy Hershberger:So how long before you had to get it? How many people work for you now?
Reuben Gingerich:It's just me and another person. At this time In the wintertime there's about five or six of us that plow snow.
Tammy Hershberger:And then how many? So just two in the summertime for lawn care.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, so far.
Tammy Hershberger:So we'll dig into that in a second. So for lawn care, tell everybody kind of what you do. So you do mowing, landscaping, what do you all do?
Reuben Gingerich:yeah, we do mowing, landscaping, flowerbed maintenance, retaining walls and patios pretty much almost a whole line of outdoor stuff in your yard anyways. Um, we don't take any tree, stone or not big ones anyway.
Tammy Hershberger:But yeah, what about? And then the summer or summer, in the winter, when it's not lawn care season, you do snow plowing right for commercial and residential yeah, we do, for residential and commercial snow and ice management oh okay, which out of those I mean? Well, let's actually rephrase that question Did you pick up snow plowing because you needed something to do, because lawn care is seasonal?
Reuben Gingerich:or did you just always like that, or how did you get into that? I never really plowed snow until, yeah, I was like, oh, I should add something for the winter. I'm like everybody else that does lawn care does snow in the winter. So that's how I just decided to start doing snow and I had some people ask me that we mowed for snow removal. So that's how I got started in the snow.
Tammy Hershberger:Was that an expensive revenue stream to bring on Because you probably already had a pickup, or did you have to buy a pickup? I had a pickup.
Reuben Gingerich:It was actually kind of weird how it all worked, because I had another guy that was going to put a plow in his truck for me to plow with, because everybody was telling me you don't put a plow in his truck for me to plow with, because everybody was telling me you don't put a plow on a half ton. So I was getting all these accounts lined up for plowing snow and I told him I got a plow truck. You know, we're gonna, we can take him. I even had, I even had the bank for plowing their parking lot and stuff and I still didn't, still didn't have plow truck. But he said he's gonna put a plow on. Well, then he goes and trades his truck in and he gets a newer truck and I'm like I don't want to drive, I don't want the responsibility of driving somebody else's newer truck. I don't want a newer because the other one he had was an older one it was.
Reuben Gingerich:You know, he got a Denden or something. It wouldn't have been the end of the world. And so I ended up. He said he'll still put a plow on if I want to. I didn't really want him to, so I'm just going to put a plow on my half ton. And we got the plow on the guy that was putting it on. He's kind of hard to get him to do stuff. Sometimes he kept watching the weather. He's like well, it ain't snowing yet, so I don't have to hurry up. And we didn't even know if the plow worked. They got it off of eBay, not Craigslist. I got the plow off of Craigslist and by golly he put the plow on on and we put it on the truck. There's already four inches of snow on the ground. Oh wow, plow snow. That whole night was that plow and it worked. But only one headlight worked on the plow. But yeah, that was. That was kind of weird.
Tammy Hershberger:But because I would imagine you have to be up early right to do plowing for people.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, we normally start as soon as it's done snowing.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh, okay. So then we got oh go ahead.
Reuben Gingerich:No, go ahead. We got a lot of count that's open, you know, 24 hours, 24-7. So we got as soon as there's two inches of snow on the ground, we got to go clear them. Is a lot of commercial like that, or is that more like older people homes or whatever you call them? No, this is the only one that's the other ones that are not open 24-7, they only need to be cleared during the day, if it's snowing throughout the day. But, yeah, this is a veteran's home, okay, the day. But, um, yeah, this is a veteran's home, okay, so it's people. Old people live in there and you gotta always make sure it's open so they can get an ambulance and stuff in there if they need to sure, and how did you get those bigger?
Tammy Hershberger:that's a pretty good size account, right like how did you get it? You just walked in there no, they actually.
Reuben Gingerich:They actually reached out to me. It was quite a hassle to bid on it actually, because they reached out to me and told me that they'll be looking for somebody to just build for them. They just built this building. It's a new building, and so we got everything registered through the state to bid on it, and then it so turns out I guess I was the only guy that actually bidded on the project, so oh, do they have a contract with you, or is it just like yearly?
Tammy Hershberger:They just call you again, or anything like that.
Reuben Gingerich:No, this is a two year contract, so I'm really hoping they just give it to me for another three years which they can do that without anybody bidding on it. Oh, okay.
Tammy Hershberger:But, how did they find you? Because do you have a lot of competition in your area? Is there a lot of other people doing what you do?
Reuben Gingerich:There's one other snow contractor in the area that I know of that would be able to handle them, Because they're a pretty big commercial client and there's not there's really only me and that other company that I know that really offers salting services too.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh, okay.
Reuben Gingerich:So everybody else just kind of pushes snow and what about in the? Lawn care and they don't do any salting.
Tammy Hershberger:Is there a lot of competition for that?
Reuben Gingerich:Right in my area there's not that much. There's two other companies in the area. One's just him all by himself, and then the other company has quite a few guys working for him.
Tammy Hershberger:So do you think that kind of helped with the growth of your business?
Reuben Gingerich:because you don't have, you know, tons of people competing against, because that usually when that happens they drive the price down so bad yeah, I think that helped, um, not having that much competition, because that's like, because that's what I was thinking like, if I go up to like a like rochester, for instance, they got a lot of little lawn care companies up there like yeah, yeah, then you got to compete with.
Tammy Hershberger:I mean, service is really important, but you have to compete with the price and you're driving a long ways.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, exactly because I'd have an hour just to drive one way, so I'd have to, you know, figure two hours basically to go up there and back.
Tammy Hershberger:So that's definitely a challenge for your business, right, is some growth in that way? Because, I mean, is it possible to pick up? Well, okay, tell me this, what areas? Because you're doing Harmony, what areas do you all service land?
Reuben Gingerich:it's a Lanesboro my main focus is Harmony Lanesboro and Preston Preston is there to go past that?
Tammy Hershberger:it's probably like a good drive, right.
Reuben Gingerich:Chatfield is half an hour have you?
Tammy Hershberger:you thought of going into that market.
Reuben Gingerich:I have See I'd probably work my way up through that area. Rochester is mostly focused on, maybe Chatfield next, and then Spring Valley is another town. It's about 20 minutes, 25 minutes from here. I don't know the population of those towns off of my head, but I know they're all under 10 000 people, so they're not very big yeah, how many people are in harmony?
Tammy Hershberger:do you know right?
Reuben Gingerich:around a thousand wow lanesboro has 750 to 800 people, so they're small towns, like really small towns.
Tammy Hershberger:So then tell me this, If you so, because Iowa's? How far is Iowa from you? Or at least a decent town that you'd maybe go to in Iowa Is Decorah.
Reuben Gingerich:I don't really know that yeah, 20, 25 minutes from Decorah. Okay.
Tammy Hershberger:Is that a very big town?
Reuben Gingerich:That's about 6,700ora. Okay, is that a very big town? That's about 6,700 people, I believe.
Tammy Hershberger:So tell me this for customer demographic meaning, like your clientele, is it mostly older people? Is it people with so many acres? Do you know that information? Because I would imagine a 20-year-old's not using you because they either don't own anything, don't have to mow or just do it themselves.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, most of my people are older people. Yeah, I think they're all older people.
Tammy Hershberger:Are they probably all retired? There's one couple that's making this.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, retired are people that we do quite a bit in Lanesboro, because Lanesboro is a pretty big town for people where they just you know they own places there, but they're never really there.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh okay, Second homes.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, so they're in and out. I would have never guessed that there's a lot of people in Lanesboro that we work for, especially Snow, that I've never even met the people.
Tammy Hershberger:I did not know. Is it just that tourist? I would have never guessed. I don't know that area well, but Lanesboro it's a pretty area though.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, it's a big known for tourist town.
Tammy Hershberger:And then is it mostly people with a bigger yard or do you get a lot of people just with a basic city lot? You know that they want at Mode.
Reuben Gingerich:Most of them are just city lots.
Tammy Hershberger:We get quite a few out in the country area too. Yeah, so then expansion is possible then into those smaller towns, as long as you know they're more older generation of people or second homes.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, interesting. So there's some definite opportunities for growth.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, there is.
Tammy Hershberger:What do you think is holding you back from growing? Is it just you don't have the people? Obviously, it takes some money to grow. What do you think is holding you back?
Reuben Gingerich:Well, because so far I've never really done much for marketing and it seems I'm just kind of stuck at this one level. You know, last year we did about the same as we did the year before, so I'm going to try and do marketing and stuff this summer to try to actually grow more, get another crew out there for mowing or at least utilize more of the trucks that we got for snow, because we got three trucks for plowing snow and we only really need one in the summer, the way everything is for summer now.
Tammy Hershberger:And so is your snow plowing. Is that mostly for commercial, or is it mixed? Commercial, residential?
Reuben Gingerich:It's probably almost a 40-60, probably about 40% commercial and about 60% residential.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, so it's a pretty good mix. Is there one side or the other you'd rather grow? Maybe it's even because sometimes commercial might be more profitable than residential, or maybe you enjoy residential better. Is it pretty even mix for you?
Reuben Gingerich:now. It's pretty nice the way I got it with the equipment I got. I would I'd like to just get more commercial, get more bigger accounts for this um plowing and salting involved versus just plowing, because solving is nice and the only thing was getting way more commercial. Then you got to get more equipment because you got to get that stuff all done at x amount of time in the morning. You know you don't residential so you can push them off and be like, yeah, we'll be there within 12 to 24 hours after the storm. But commercial ones you know a lot of them they want to be open by 7 in the morning or this and that.
Tammy Hershberger:So so you have to really make sure you have the equipment and the people to handle that.
Reuben Gingerich:I know. That's why, especially if it quits snowing at five o'clock in the morning or it's still snowing, you know, then it's where it gets tough. I like it when it snows and it's done snowing at seven, eight o'clock at night, and then you just plow snow all night. Everybody's off the road out of your way and everybody's happy in the morning yeah, sure man, if we could just control that yeah, then we'd be in business.
Tammy Hershberger:And you told me earlier, before I started this podcast, that the weather, the snow, has not been great this year there for plowing You're not getting a lot of it.
Reuben Gingerich:No, last year was actually worse than this year.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh really.
Reuben Gingerich:For snow.
Tammy Hershberger:So how does that work? I mean, the guys you have, I mean and you don't have to give me specifics but do they kind of just know that, like, the season is questionable, so you're not guaranteed hours, you're just going to get what you get and they're cool with that, or that's got to be kind of a struggle, isn't it?
Reuben Gingerich:It's really not that bad, because all the guys that help me do construction so they're always doing construction unless it snows. So then when it snows, they just come help me plow snow.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh, okay, so that's nice. So they have another side job or a full-time job.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, they just keep their other full-time job and then they just Because a lot of that's one thing that works. It actually works pretty good for them in the construction industry, because if it snows a lot of times, if we get a lot of snow, they don't go to work anyway, so then they just come help me plow snow.
Reuben Gingerich:Think about that yeah, so then in the summer time you just had, you said you, and I think is it your sister that's working the lots and you have just two people and that's working pretty good for now yeah, for the most part it's just two people and that's working pretty good for now. Yeah, for the most part it's just two people. I've had it last summer, a couple bigger projects that I had my brother or somebody help get it done quick, but for the most part it's just two people.
Tammy Hershberger:So for growth I mean other than branching to other towns. Do you have any plans in the next couple years to start growing? I know you said you want to do some marketing. Just remember, on your marketing, focus on your clientele. You're trying to hit right. So for an example would be if you have older clientele you know, don't go into a college and post flyers.
Tammy Hershberger:It's not going to work right, unless you're looking for help or something. But just try to remember, like, where are these older people? Are they shopping? Are they reading magazines? Are they on TV? Where are they that you've got to get the stuff in front of them, you know.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:And maybe that's a lot of referrals. Maybe you push up a referral program where you offer, you know, a discount or a gift card or something to your current clients to help bring more clients, because word of mouth is how we've built most of the barnyard. Word of mouth is how we've built most of the barnyard. Social media has been really great because we have mostly older probably not quite as old as yours, but we do. 35 and up is for sure our clientele. You know young kids are not buying sheds and so facebook.
Reuben Gingerich:They're cheap ads and we've that's helped us a bunch lately, so you might try that out yeah, because I wanted to do some facebook ads and dollar hangers and maybe some direct mail flyers.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, direct mail would be good for older people.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, Maybe I should run some ads in the newspaper. But I did it one time, which one time really doesn't prove much, but I didn't get anything from it.
Tammy Hershberger:It costs a lot of money to run a little three by five ad in a paper yeah, and I mean I would imagine that clientele is probably reading the newspaper, but a lot of people are switching to. I don't like electronic newspapers and magazines or books, I don't. I think it's crazy to read it like that. But you want to definitely track your marketing, um, so, like one thing to do is a call to action. So like if you can put a coupon or the first 50 callers I don't know something, because that way they want to like, put an urgency to it instead of just like oh, that's nice and keep going.
Tammy Hershberger:I mean door hangers for us in the window business people would hold on to them for a year or two years and then call us. Surprisingly. They'd stuff it in their drawer. But just keep that in mind. Like if you can have a call to action on it and maybe you can't do a coupon or I don't know if you could figure something out to kind of get them to like oh yeah, there's some urgency, the coupon expires on this date or I don't know.
Reuben Gingerich:You know, get creative with that I know that's things that I'm trying to work on and figure out like or do, like a discount on the first service, or whatever yeah, you don't want to keep it because the way you find them is the way you're gonna have to keep them.
Tammy Hershberger:And so, like we one time did a I don't know if you have them there, but it was called the coupon saver or something and it was like I don't know the long story short, it was really a you had to put a big old discount in there and what we found is the clients who use that were more. When I say low end, I just mean they didn't have much of a budget and we get them through that. And then when it was time to like this is a one-time price, the next time they wouldn't come back because they were like we just can't afford it. And so we wanted more long-term clients, right, like repeats. So that was not the best. We finally stopped doing it because it was just not working for what we were spending.
Tammy Hershberger:So make sure you track that stuff like as much as you can always ask how did you hear about us? And if that's why, if you can get a coupon or a discount or something that they have to turn in that way, you're like oh yeah, they got a door hanger, because we find even on social media. We've had some reach directly out to us through social media, like through messenger, but sometimes we're like, how did you hear about us? And a lot of them say google. Well, if you really could dig into it, they saw us somewhere right on facebook.
Tammy Hershberger:But they then went and searched us on google to call us and then they usually just use the last thing they did to tell you yeah, so it gets a little bit tough, but that, if you can track that, and then if you know like facebook brought me suzy, and suzy spent a thousand bucks with me last year and I paid you know, I don't know a hundred dollars for the ad. What is that? Like a hundred or ten times return or a hundred. I can't do math, but you can figure out what your return on investment is and you can see, like that was a.
Tammy Hershberger:That was a crap show. Um, we can't do that again. We're not gonna like billboards for us. I spent 50 grand in billboards. We never heard anyone say they saw like it was terrible yeah, so anyway, I know there's billboards.
Reuben Gingerich:I've never done billboards, but I've always heard that they're very expensive.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh terrible and I mean obviously it was some branding, but it was not. The return on investment was not there for us. So yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay, anyway, sorry I got off on a tangent there. Um, okay, so growth, so I think there's definitely potential. Um, do you ever struggle with fear of growth? Cause I talked to a lot of business clients that I deal. You know coaching and they're so like they got the business going and you know money's a little tight and like that to grow it. It's a machine, it takes some money right, and they're just so scared to try to grow. Do you have experienced that, or it doesn't scare you?
Reuben Gingerich:I mean to an extent, like I want to grow, but I don't want to grow too fast. Yeah, the reason for that is because growth sucks cash big time. Yes, it does, and I don't want to bury myself in a big hole, especially with the way the winners have been lately. You know, and what I mean by that is I don't want to get a whole bunch of debt to try to grow.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, because cash flow will kill you.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, and so yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:So you just I think that's a smart plan, um, especially if you don't have a ton of savings to pour into the business is to do it slower and get that foundation built really strong. I think, um and it's interesting, on that I'm going to throw something in quick but the cash flow in my window business for four years we doubled and doubled and went from like 80,000 to 160,000 to like 320. I mean, like we just hit these huge numbers fast and we couldn't hire fast enough and then we were getting bad hires and then my business partnership went awry because we were just on different pages and we couldn't agree anymore and and the foundation was really broken. And I that's always my advice, you know, unless you have a ton of money Like, just take it slow, do it right, and then you'll be there in 20 years instead of being gone in five, you know.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, exactly Because I don't know, because you got to get the right foundation in place first, otherwise it'll just collapse.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah.
Reuben Gingerich:That's what I've been told. I haven't really experienced it that much, but I can attest to it myself.
Tammy Hershberger:I mean barnyard. We've done that, you know, really smooth and even if your business is good, if your foundation I'm working with a company, I won't say their name, but I coached them and for the last year they have they they opened their business brand new. I mean they had an article in the newspaper exploded their business, crazy numbers. And they can't. It's chaotic because they don't have systems, they don't have procedures, they didn't have enough hires. And you know they're doing their very, very best but man, they're struggling because it's tough to kind of go backwards when you're that large already to put all this stuff in place, because they're so busy they don't have time to sit down and figure out the system and the procedures and get the right hires and it's wild to watch. So I commend you for doing it.
Reuben Gingerich:The right way Ruben yeah, because that's like my focus this summer. I'd like to to get more and then hire the guy that wants to come work for me and then try to focus on getting systems and stuff in place. So then, like next summer then maybe grow more than this summer and then we can maybe hire a couple of people. I already have two people that know exactly everything that's supposed to be going on and and then they can help out with. Like if you get new people and I can't be out in the chop, you know they can. They can hopefully train them, and Because I don't want five new people coming in and train them all because I can't be at every place at once- yeah, go ahead, oh because especially in my industry.
Reuben Gingerich:You know a lot of. You know, if you have more than a two-man crew, you're not efficient at all, especially not doing lawn mowing and stuff. So it's not like you can take five people out and mow and actually you know you got to split them up.
Tammy Hershberger:So yeah, and it's really important, you know, obviously to have your training materials because, like you said and I don't know how much that works in your business but we had at one point which I was really proud of, that, because the first couple of years of the window business, me and Eric we dug in and we did, you know, coaching classes and, like I, was putting procedures and I spent two years working on it, we did training videos and we were honed in.
Tammy Hershberger:It's just the problem became with you know, partnerships are tough and we just we had different visions and it was not working. And, um, but yes, in the hiring side, like you said, you got to look at efficiency, you got to look at the money on that, because I'm dealing with another client that they do mobile detailing and they're finding that having two guys on the job, one's just standing around right while the other one's spraying the car off or whatever, and then there might be a moment where they both can drive, but it it's just not efficient. It's sucking money out of the company. That's not necessary. Do you have to have?
Tammy Hershberger:for safety two people, or can it's. One is fine, right, because?
Reuben Gingerich:One is fine as far. Yeah, yeah, as far as I know, you can have just just one person out there mowing and trimming away.
Tammy Hershberger:So you had mentioned, like I assume, your dream is to someday be more of a business owner and not have to work in the business. You can work more on growth and money and all that stuff. Is that kind of your dream? For the business To not sit?
Reuben Gingerich:on a mower all day. Yeah, and that's why I think it's so important to try to get systems in place while you're small.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah.
Reuben Gingerich:So then once you want to actually have somebody go sell the lawn, so you know, so they can just follow a system to do it. They're not trying to pull numbers out of the sky. Well, I don't know how he goes about fitting this or that.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, yeah. I noticed that that's part of what I had to get out of my old business partner, because he had done it his whole life and then everything was jammed in his head but nothing was on paper, and so when we'd have questions, everything had to go through him, because I was like I don't, we don't have a price sheet, I don't know how that works, we can't teach him this, or and he used to have a big fear of like, if I put it on paper, one of my employees might steal it and go do their own thing. But I'm always like I, I have a god that I serve. I'm not going to worry about that. You know, they're going to figure it out somehow. They see that we're charging this much for this many windows. They'll figure out the system, and to me that's. I don't want to live in fear, you know yeah, exactly, and I don't know.
Reuben Gingerich:I always look at it too. If they want to go do that, that's their problem. Yeah, and I don't know.
Tammy Hershberger:I always look at it too. If they want to go, do that, that's their problem. Yeah, and I don't. You know, not everybody's a believer, but I'm like God's not going to bless that, so he'll bless me for doing it the right way. You know, and if I take care of my stuff, there's plenty of work for everybody.
Reuben Gingerich:Exactly. So then we won't stay too long on this topic but can you tell me your dream for your business Like what are you hoping in five years from now? What do you see? Do you have 10 trucks in every city within a 50?
Tammy Hershberger:mile radius. What do you think? I guess I'm not a hundred percent clear on that vision yet. Sure, do you have anything you can share? I mean, it's always changing. My vision changes all the time, like one year to the next. I'm like, okay, maybe I don't want that, now I want something different.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah Well, I'm hoping by in five years that I will be basically just working on the business, not in the business.
Tammy Hershberger:Okay.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:And you don't have the dream of like franchising or anything that crazy right um, that is the thing.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I like to franchise my businesses. Oh, that's cool. Okay, get more, more locations started. Um, because, especially, like you know, here you have to rochester something. You just start another location up there and you get all people up there to work at it. Well, now you eliminate that whole drive time.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, absolutely, and you just duplicate your money like crazy.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, that, and yeah, I got to look into how franchising all works yet, but I don't know how that all works. Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:I've obviously never done it but I did work, did work in conquer this coaching program. I was in um for service businesses. They the guy that ran that. He franchised his uh flooring floor coating company um, I think it was called wise coatings anyway. He always talked about even as you're growing your business because, like john and I are working to do some of that with barnyard, but me and er Eric were really wanting to do some more locations before we even got to the franchise model, like Glenwood Springs, you know that kind of stuff.
Tammy Hershberger:And the guy always said make sure you're like you said that foundation, make sure you've got everything perfected in the one location you have, because when you duplicate it it's another set of problems. You're probably not going to be there every day. Someone's going to have to fully run that and if you can't get it perfected in one location you're going to have massive problems going to more locations where you're not at it every day yeah, exactly, I've heard that too from the guy I listen to a lot yeah but you gotta establish one successful location first, and then you can start thinking about yeah branching out in other locations yeah, and so you know it was a yeah, branching out in other locations yeah, and so you know it was a dream of ours.
Tammy Hershberger:It fell apart before we got there, but yeah, so that's exciting. I'm excited to hear that you've got some big growth potential there, and I believe god will get in there and bless your business, ruben, because you do it the right way. Um, a couple more questions here, and then I won't keep you too long. I know it's already been 48 minutes, but what is the reason? Like the fun part of what you do? Tell me the fun thing, like the thing that you most love about your own business besides being your own boss? And then what's the one thing that's like I could do without that?
Reuben Gingerich:um, the one thing I really enjoy in the business is selling the projects and dealing with the homeowners.
Tammy Hershberger:So the sales side.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I like doing the work too. Like sometimes I've already had it like, especially in a snowstorm and something. It's like you're out there plowing. It's like I like just plowing snow too, like man, if I could just have somebody answer this damn phone, because it just keeps, especially especially if it's quit snowing at five in the morning and it's the first snowstorm of the year. Everybody's calling when are you gonna be here? When are you gonna be here? I'm like we'll be there when we get there. Yeah, it's like sometimes you just get frustrated like um, so that's sometimes like that stage was like yeah, I'd like to just plow and not have to worry about any of that stuff.
Tammy Hershberger:But so maybe, um, it might be a couple hires down the road, but maybe getting some kind of office gal or a phone center or something to do your phones, because I mean, I know that's something at Conquer, they really push because a lot of business owners they keep the phones for as long as they can. But it's like when you're trying to do jobs, and especially in the window business, you're on a ladder or like John, if he's out delivering, trying to answer. You can't always do that. You're missing calls, you're missing jobs, you're missing bid opportunities because some people are okay if you call them back but some people move on to the next place.
Reuben Gingerich:You know I know because the first guy that answers the phone and gets to bid out the quickest normally gets the job exactly, yeah, so especially in the, especially if you're dealing with residential people yeah, I, I could believe it.
Tammy Hershberger:I don't know how it is there here at the barnyard for sure, but even in the window business when I had it, people would be like, oh my gosh, you answered your phone. Like they would tell me nobody calls them back, nobody answers their phone, and so we got it because they're just so impressed by answering the phone.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I've had that. I've done some work up in Rochester, mostly landscaping and this person's like oh well, you actually answered the phone and you actually gave me a price. I've called probably five different people. They're like you know, three of them didn't even answer and two of them were going to give them a price but they never even came out to look at anything.
Tammy Hershberger:Or I've had people personally I'm bidding something for, like I had a cleaner one time coming to clean the office and they showed up, did the walkthrough and then never sent me the bid. I kept contacting them and I just couldn't get a hold of them. I'm like that's crazy. Why would you run your business like that?
Reuben Gingerich:I know. I mean I've caught myself in that scenario, like when you're really busy in the summer, it's easy to let that stuff slide through, like somebody calls you or something, and I don't want to do that. But it can happen Sure, especially if they just sent you a text and you got 10 other people texting you.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, it's a lot. I don't know how you do it, especially when you're in the field all the time.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, well, one thing I started doing is, if I have somebody because a lot of times if I'm out in the field, I'll have them text me their you know all their information, Uh-huh, and then I will not open that text message until I'm ready to do something with it.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, that's really smart, because then it stays there. That's what I do, because if I open it, I'll forget about it.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, because then it always stays. I know you open it and you'll forget about it and lose it. Yeah, it's like okay now who is this person that texted me? I don't know. You start looking through and you don't even know, because you got 10 other people that yeah yeah, I have to ask you this question.
Tammy Hershberger:It's going to come way out of the blue here, but my, my buddy, dan, said I have to ask this question. Um, he, he told me that to ask you about Barney Fife because he said something he said something about. I don't even know what year this was, but used to always, wherever you were, you had to be home at a certain time to watch barney fife is that accurate?
Reuben Gingerich:um, it is accurate. Well, especially when I was working, uh, living with my brother, I could always get it on his tv. So I always had that set like at seven, seven o'clock, I gotta be home watching barney fife.
Tammy Hershberger:Oh, that was funny yeah, because it's funny, because we long story short me and dan I don't even know. He brought it up to me about barney fife and I was like you are old enough to know who that is.
Tammy Hershberger:And he's like, yeah, we used to watch it and then he told me that I think it's andy was the other guy right, like supposedly in the beginning andy was supposed to be the funny one, and Barney Fife was just way better at it, so they made him the serious one and Barney Fife was the funny one gosh, I guess I didn't know that part of it, but yeah, and then today he said you have to ask him this question. So I was like bring it up and see what he says, and I said okay.
Reuben Gingerich:So, dan, that was for you yeah, at least we know he'll listen to the podcast, because he'll be listening for it yeah, that's why I stuck in the middle, so he has to stick it out for the most of the podcast okay, I have just a couple questions left.
Tammy Hershberger:Um, oh, I want to ask you really fast. We had talked prior about that robot mower thing. What can you just tell me and what did you kind of find out? Is it not worth it, because nobody else?
Reuben Gingerich:probably knows what we're talking about. I've been looking into that more. I totally kind of think in the next five to ten years, everything is going to be more robotic and battery-operated mowers, and I still think they'd be very cool and that's one thing I'd like to do is get like a whole. If I could get a whole block or something of people that I mow for, I think it would be worth getting a couple of robotic mowers and just turn them loose.
Tammy Hershberger:Which because, without going too down the road, but you have to set boundaries electronically, you have to put some kind of stakes in so it knows where to go. How does that work?
Reuben Gingerich:I believe you just program them all on like, like on Google Maps or like something like that, where you just pin everything out, okay, and then, yeah, you don't have to put stakes out or wires or anything, you just control them that way.
Tammy Hershberger:And then do you just have one guy that you would hire to go start it and then pick it up, or how does that work?
Reuben Gingerich:Because then I would have one guy that goes out with that mower and mows the lawns with it and what he does that is, while the mower's mowing all the lawns, he does all the trimming and the etching and blowing off sidewalks and sideways etc.
Tammy Hershberger:Does it doesn't bag it right, it would just shoot it out, the chute kind of this grass.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah.
Tammy Hershberger:I just keep thinking. I saw this video the other day. You know how they have those. I don't know maybe you've never seen it, but like Sam's or whatever. I've seen these big robots that like sweep and clean the floor or whatever, and this guy had a video. Somehow that thing had escaped out the door and it's like just cruising through the parking lot just wildly going, and I picture your robot mower just going wild and getting lost somewhere.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, and it caught, Like I'm not going to say it wasn't. But that's funny, It'll be interesting because those things are pretty expensive. Right, they are expensive. I mean, if you look at the other side, if they were actually work and were efficient, you would really be replacing employees. So therefore, you probably save 50 to 60,000 a year, you know, which is anywhere between 40 and 60.
Tammy Hershberger:Do you think maintenance would be a lot on those? I don't know if they would hold up well.
Reuben Gingerich:See, that's the thing I don't know. And if hold up, well, see, that's the thing I don't know. And if they break down, it's probably something I couldn't fix.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, especially if it's like electronic issue or something yeah, I'd be curious as far as is the parts expensive? Are they hard to get? Does it, you know? Do they have good stock to get them? And then you'd have to almost have a mower with you to like, oh it broke down, now I've got to manually do it, right yeah, like I don't know, I'd like to let them just test them out for a couple years.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah yeah, I think that's really smart to kind of let them figure all the kinks out and what's working, what's not, because even those eye robots or whatever they've improved. But man, I've had those things. I don't have one anymore because it annoyed me. It would always jam into my. I used to have more of Amish furniture, but it would jam into the legs and ding them up all the time, and then when I had stairs it would fall on the stairs all the time. It was so stupid so I finally gave up on it.
Reuben Gingerich:But yeah, because they do have. Well, they got gas mowers too that are robot-y, oh really. So they're just like a normal lawnmower. You just you actually can drive them. So what you do there is you just you mow around the perimeter and then you just hit auto and it knows the line, what you mowed on the outside, and then it'll mow everything in between. I think that would be a pretty good way to go. But then again, like last year down in Kentucky, we were looking at one just asking questions and stuff. They want $75,000 for one of those mowers.
Tammy Hershberger:It would take a while to pay for that.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, I'm not ready for that. I mean, if you look at the other picture, if it were to replace an employee, it would be a little easier to justify to it. But yeah, they're expensive. Everything's getting really expensive these days.
Tammy Hershberger:Yeah, that's true. Okay, so to slowly wrap this up here, so will you tell me, for anyone listening that's in your area what sets your company apart from? I mean, I know there's not that many in your area, but what makes your company different, ruben, why are you so great?
Reuben Gingerich:Part of the customer service part responding to the customers and actually doing what we say we're going to do and doing what we're going to do. I think that is one thing that would set us apart.
Tammy Hershberger:So your value is there because you take care of your customer.
Reuben Gingerich:Yeah, and our mission is to treat our customers the way we want to be treated, so we got to take care of them that way too yeah, and that's hard to find.
Tammy Hershberger:I mean, a lot of businesses are out there just wanting the money and the paycheck, so I admire that about you, um, and then we already went over your service area. If, if someone's listening or like, I want to use this, I want to support this company, you know how do they get a hold of you?
Reuben Gingerich:um they can reach reach me at 507-513-3196 or they can go on the website um at redemptivelawcare. com and fill out the work request form and we'll get back to them okay, excellent, well, excellent, well, ruben, I want to thank you for coming on taking your time.
Tammy Hershberger:I know you're busy. We appreciate you. I highly recommend Redemptive Lawn Care. What I've known of them and my husband knows them better than I do, but he's a good guy, his company is a good company and I highly suggest supporting him. Ruben, thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it.
Tammy Hershberger:I hope you enjoyed, you know, my conversation today. Yeah, it was my pleasure, it was fun. Okay, well, for everyone listening, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to my podcast. Um, remember to like, share, subscribe, you know, send it to your friends. Uh, if you ever have an episode idea or anything that you kind of want to discuss or you want to be a guest on my podcast, you can go to lightupyourbusinessllc at gmailcom and send me an email. You can also click on the podcast. On Apple, there's a send me a message button that you can click on and we just thank you all. We'll see you on the next one.
Tammy Hershberger:And remember, in the world of business, every success story begins with a passionate dream and ends with a strategic billion-dollar handshake. Stay ambitious, stay innovative and keep making those deals that reshape tomorrow. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time, remember. Proverbs 3.3 says Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, that way you will win favor and a. Write them on the tablet of your heart, that way you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. And remember if you like what you heard today, click the follow button so you never miss an episode.
