Meet a Design/Build Revolutionary: Tom Taylor

Meet a Design/Build Revolutionary: Tom Taylor

Tom Taylor

Profile: Tom Taylor, Owner/Designer, Integrity Landscape and Design, Fairview, TN

Employees: 2-4 Employees

Mix: 100% Design, Build and Installation

Years in Landscape Business: 15

Business Focus:Tom’s business started as a part-time endeavor in grad school, then quickly grew to become a lucrative, full-time business. He has consistently focused on design/build work, mostly on the residential side.

Soon after, industry colleagues assured him “You need to grow,” Tom and his wife Nancy broadened the business into commercial design/build and maintenance. This quickly grew in the between 1999 and 2001, to the point that Tom employed several crews to handle the business.

However, after attending his first Kinman Seminar for landscape design/build professionals, Tom rethought his business focus and started to turn away commercial work, focusing again on the work he enjoys – residential design/build. He hasn’t looked back.

Business Lessons Learned: Tom doesn’t have a single regret in turning his business around. He dramatically cut staff – now, it is only 3 employees including himself. “You don’t need a large staff to do bigger, meaningful projects,” he says.

“At full capacity (in 2001), we were making more than $750,000 annually,” he explains, “and we needed 10 to 15 projects a month to make payroll and overhead. Now, we’re making $500,000 plus in residential design/build, but I’m less stressed, happier and personally making much more money. And we only need to have one to three projects going each month.”

The Kinman Process encourages contractors to set up a design studio and require potential clients to visit it, rather than the other way around. This was pretty radical for Tom.

“We live in a farm community that is about 15 to 20 minutes from the Nashville, TN, area,” he notes. “We were concerned that the studio concept would either be unique or wouldn’t work. But once we started doing it, it worked right away. We started to close our biggest projects ever, ranging from $75,000 to $300,000.

What about potential clients who balk at coming that distance? “We believe they probably wouldn’t be the greatest clients anyway, and we wanted to give this a try. It worked from the very first time,” says Tom.

“It helped us get rid of the tire-kicking curse!”

Design/Build Revolutionary since: 2001

Tom first heard Gary Kinman speak at an industry event in 2001 and soon after, he began attending their seminars. He attended two more seminars in subsequent years, each time picking up more ideas and details. “The Kinman process changed our way of doing business forever. We enjoy having clients to our studio and believe that the studio experience significantly builds value into the project and strengthens consumer confidence in our company.”

Staying with the Kinman Process has helped Integrity Landscape weather this year’s economic downturn. “Although our area is more fiscally sound than others, people are still investing in their homes. Since there is still so much work to be done in Nashville, I don’t see our competitors as competition. The Kinman process eliminates competition and allows us to keep our ‘cool’ and our focus.”

Because Integrity Landscape has built up a reputation as a go-to landscape design/build firm, its clients know what to expect. Some have migrated to Integrity from other landscape firms offering a wide palette of services, but no strong focus on design/build.

Integrity Landscape is located on a five acre property with a design studio in a 1960s-era ranch home. About two acres of the property are landscaped, showing a wide range of features like paver patios and walkways, stone walls, an outdoor kitchen, formal and less formal plantings, native plants, water features, gates, fencing, etc.

“We call that our ‘touch and see’ experience,” says Tom. “Most potential clients have difficulty visualizing design elements. The studio and gardens allow clients to see and feel these elements in action and understand how the landscape enhances and extends the home’s architecture.”

Takeaway from the Kinman Institute:

Dare to be different!
“The investment you spend in the cost of the Kinman Seminar is minimal, compared to the results you will be getting. I never regretted a single penny or the time I spent attending these seminars.”
If you want to be a more effective contractor, get this training.
“After my third FOP seminar, I had an enlightening experience working through the Kinman process, resulting in a renewed passion for our company.”

Loves to:

Take the family and spend a few weeks each summer and winter in Vermont’s mountains: hiking, swimming, skiing, snowmobiling etc
Plays music professionally (drummer)
Enjoy his five-acre farm, fishing, riding go-carts with his wife and two sons, plus the recent addition of a newborn daughter.

For more information about Integrity Landscape and Design, visit: www.integritylandscapeanddesign.com.