Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Deceuster.
Hi Benjamin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I graduated during the tech bust so no one was hiring in the field I wanted as a career. I went into retail management, and part of my responsibilities was to plan custom closets. One client appreciated my service so much they asked me to interview for their landscape company as a project manager.
As a kid, my Dad had my brothers and I work to keep his garden with 200+ rose bushes the envy of the neighborhood so I thought I would give it a shot. I was hired on and quickly advanced because I excelled at running operations, selling, designing, and achieving industry certifications. I was able to complete projects at facilities for Apple Computers, HP, and Stanford Shopping Mall to name a few. I also spoke Spanish so that helped with avoiding miscommunications with my crews.
I moved from the SF Bay Area to Austin, TX to pursue a sales position with ValleyCrest, a national company, where I won multiple top quarterly sales awards and worked on deals for organizations like the University of Texas and Exxon. I wanted to move closer to family so I took a national sales position out of Southern California with another large company and then spent a couple of years working for one of the water districts managing their conservation programs.
I have always been interested in irrigation and saving water so my hands-on field and irrigation auditing experience enabled me to help them achieve the 25% reductions required by the state of California during their major drought. Most of my family moved to St. George, UT and an opportunity came up to buy a landscape company so today I have owned my own company for six years.
I ran multiple side projects and companies on the side to build the savings necessary to buy the company and to continue investing in other ventures. Today, landscaping is still my main focus as I continue to invest and build other companies.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
During my career, I left a solid position to pursue an opportunity that I thought would get me into an executive-level position, but within my first month, I realized they were not going to provide me with any resources to enable me to perform so I eventually had to leave. The experience was so frustrating moving across half the country and walking away from $200K in commissions, only to have been sold short. As with any career hardship, I had to focus and look towards my future and not dwell on the negative past. I also recognized the need to be more cautious about changing jobs if you are in a good position.
When I first bought my current company, the owner had a manager and key crew leader running the company. I had to continue working out of state for nine months and showed up every other weekend to check on the business. The number of hires and payroll went way out of control beyond the numbers shown in the acquisition so the first year that I hoped to bank profits was sucking more money out of my pocket. Eventually, our new house was built and I was able to move to be present full time only to see the manager and crew leader quit to start their own company and take a full crew and nearly half my client base with them.
Rather than pursue court action, I focused on rebuilding the business, targeting more commercial and installation work as well as leveraging water district rebates to sell a lot of irrigation retrofit work. The company turned very profitable and today I have a great team and client base that match up with my business philosophy and approach to landscaping. Delegating is necessary, but always remember the only person who truly cares about the success of your business is you.
The most rewarding work I have done has been helping others. I have trained multiple employees to be able to create their own successful landscaping businesses and have seen them buy homes for their families and send the first generations of their families to college to achieve the American Dream. I have been able to bring suppliers and contacts in the industry together to complete larger scale charitable landscape projects like installing new landscapes for battered women’s shelters, charter schools for low income communities, and a park for a veteran’s Habitat for Humanity development. Cutting checks is helpful; however, applying my expertise and sweat equity along with funds creates a real connection to the work and the people I am helping. Of all the business lessons I try to teach my two teenage sons, the most important are those charitable moments of helping someone like an old widow with her yard and being just as excited about being paid in popsicles and thankyou’s.
I am truly grateful for how my career has allowed me to provide for my family and am even more grateful to be in a field where I can look back at my projects knowing billions of gallons of water will be saved for future generations and there is a legacy of maturing trees and beautiful landscapes for them to enjoy as well. It is rewarding to feel like I have done something that matters with my career.
As you know, we’re big fans of Rainmaker All-Season Maintenance, Inc. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We do about $1M in annual revenue and I have about four crews with 14 employees. Customer service and communication are what we are known for which sounds like a cliche, but in this market, it is crazy how people do not return phone calls, emails, and cannot manage expectations with their clients. We also focus a lot on helping properties become more efficient with water usage and leverage complicated rebate programs to help cover most of the expenses.
Not a lot of landscapers have both the field knowledge and the data on what actually works as I do. My time working for a water district gave me access to tons of data to see where the best ROI and results are when consulting my clients. My very first job taught me the principle of spending more for higher quality employees because they may cost more; however, they eliminate so many problems by doing things right and needing less supervision.
I have put together top talent for maintenance, irrigation, and installation services. Overall, I am selective of my clients and projects so that we do not overwhelm our crews and so our clients don’t have to wait months to get their projects going. As a result, we have a 99% retention rate and almost all our project leads come from referrals or repeat business.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
As masks, mandates, vaccines became such polarized topics, I learned it was best to simply play neutral and accommodate clients and employees as needed so they would be comfortable.
At the same time, it was critical to take advantage of the programs that were made available to save as much as possible so that I could take care of my employees and be prepared for an uncertain future.
Contact Info:
- Email: ben@rainmakerallseason.com
- Website: www.rainmakerallseason.com
- Facebook: @RainmakerLandscaping
