Meet a Design/Build Revolutionary: James Parker

Meet a Design/Build Revolutionary: James Parker

Profile: James Parker, Owner, Live Oak Pleasant Landscapes, Isle of Palms, SC

Employees: 30-40 Employees in peak season

Mix: 60% Landscape Maintenance, 40% Design/Build

Years in Landscape Business: 18

Business Focus: Pleasant Landscape serves mostly high-end, residential clients in the Charleston, SC, area. “Our main focus is residential but we do some commercial work also,” says James Parker. “We try to avoid people looking for bids for their work, because we know they’re not looking for art. The Kinmans taught us how to present our work as artwork to a client.”

Pleasant Landscape’s work combines three styles: old-town Charleston landscape style, modern landscape amenities, and beach house landscapes.

What’s Unique in this Business: Pleasant Landscape’s reputation and capabilities to provide a variety of services that has brought in a lot of business over the years. In addition to landscape design, construction, and maintenance, the company also provides irrigation, planting, lighting, swimming pools, recycling, vacation property management, and holiday lighting services.

With the local economy struggling, the company started advertising more in 2009 to keep its name in the marketplace. Even in situations with bidding, Parker has found he can be more than competitive. “It can take as long as a year to negotiate all the work for a large project,” Parker notes. “The Kinman techniques helped us to negotiate a large, public-bid project. We gave the client some spectacular ideas no one else did, and then they understood it wasn’t a simple $2000 fix. Eventually, that project grew to be huge.”

Design/Build Revolutionary: 9+ Years
“Once I attended the Kinman seminar, I understood that what I have to sell is art, not just sod, or a pool, or a fence,” Parker explains. “Their principles are solid for getting high-end, design/build construction work. We can sort through (inquiries) to know if someone is a serious prospect, or ‘big fish,’ with the Kinmans’ techniques.” Parker only works on three to four projects a year personally, and they are usually over $50K. He delegates the smaller projects to some of his landscape architects to build their experience, slowly giving them more complex projects as they become more proficient in the Kinmans’ techniques.

Takeaway from the Kinman Institute: “I used the techniques I learned in the Kinmans’ modeling class to get our first $1-million job,” he says. “It was a two-acre property on the beach. I remember building hundreds of little palm trees for the model, then we showed the client our model. ‘I need that,’ said the client.”

“No one in your local market will give you advice like Gary and Cynthia can. Even at industry events, others will be tight-lipped about their processes, negotiating techniques, etc.,” adds Parker. “For a $2,000 seminar fee, I learned how to negotiate several millions of dollars of projects and also overcome barriers to getting that work.”

“If you are just starting out, without a lot of overhead, you are better off using the Kinmans’ philosophies and doing one to two projects a year,” Parker notes. “You’ll make great money for yourself.”

Business aspiration: “I’d love to travel, knowing that art and history from around the world will give me an edge with affluent customers. My business keeps me busy with a lot of different profit centers going, but I enjoy my work in it. My aspiration is to run my business from the deck of a 65-foot yacht!”

For more information about Pleasant Landscapes, visit www.pleasantlandscapes.com.