0:00 Hello, my name's Matt Holland and I'd like to welcome you back to the Allbiz Deal Room Podcast. Today's guest is Hamish Darling of Grouse Gardens in Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs.
0:10 I had the pleasure of speaking with Hamish around six months ago when he was first considering selling his business and today he's taken the next step.
0:17 Hamish is going to tell us about the business and how he launched it right out of high school while studying at university.
0:23 Hello and welcome Hamish, first and foremost, tell me how you got started in the industry. So I grew up in a country down four hours south of Sydney in a place called Young and so I grew up in the land and had a love for outdoor work.
0:38 I went to school up here in Sydney and upon completion my HSC did a bit of travelling, came back to Sydney and just wanted to find a way to support myself up in Sydney and go to uni.
0:52 So at the start I just bought a lawnmower off my mum and an old band and it just started from there and then eventually we just increased and this was in late 2019 that we registered as a business and then one of my friends bought in and then it just kept growing from strength to strength had to drop
1:08 out of uni and then we just kept continuing to grow in our local area to the point where it is now.
1:14 That's fantastic. One of the most appealing aspects for buyers for your business is that you've grown it to a point where you've assembled a management team.
1:22 Tell me how that works. Correct so I've got two managers so I've got an operations manager And he focuses on maintenance and I've got another manager who's just come to us.
1:32 He's a bit older and he's quite experienced. His name is Mario and he's just come in and he overseas two things mainly the landscaping side of things.
1:42 So he does quite medium clients and a lot of administration work. And he also manages the boards on the landscaping team but he can transfer over to helping in the day-to-day operations as well.
1:53 So they've been really good to have in the business and they've made it run quite autonomously. Well that's really impressive and it's so great to see that you've already managed to set your business apart from others by stepping away from the day-to-day operations.
2:09 Definitely so I'm gradually pulling away from the day-to-day operations and I'll be dealing more with collaboratively collaborating on bigger projects involving landscaping or even big maintenance jobs, so I'll be kind of dealing more directly with the managers rather than the staff, such as kind of
2:28 a chain of command essentially. And I do still go, I still go, like to meet with the clients, of course, because a lot of them we've had for three, four years.
2:37 So kind of like to maintain that connection with the clients, but I've definitely stepped away from the operations and I'm more focusing on the bigger picture, how to expand financial kind of things.
2:48 Okay, so the big question is the why. Why would you want to sell after putting in all the effort to build a business like this?
2:54 I have had an opportunity where my mum and dad were hoping I could come back to the farm and oversee a large venture capital project, and we're trying to attain some properties next door.
3:05 So I always said I'd come back and help mum and dad on the farm, especially anything financed or kind of project management related.
3:13 So I'm just kind of hoping to get my foot in the door there and see if I can go assist in the farm as soon as possible.
3:19 Okay, so what would you say the highlight has been for your business and why do you think it's been so successful?
3:25 The highlight definitely has just been seeing it grow from the ground up. Like we talked no debt finance, everything we bought out right, we've got no debt at all hanging over our heads.
3:35 So it was really nice just to see it grow organically, just building a relationship it with people in the local community, it was probably my favorite thing.
3:44 Going around meeting your clients, quieting jobs, speaking with local cafe owners, seeing if they could promote us, just all that kind of stuff, like making a really like local impact on the community, and just building off that, like we get a lot of people coming to us through referrals and word of
4:00 mouth. And I think that's one of our selling points, all the boys who work for me are personable, intelligent, hardworking, and have made a really good connection with all the people we surround ourselves with.
4:11 So I think definitely we're a friendly local community face and we're known for doing the high quality work and I think that's definitely been my favorite part is just building those connections and then making that standpoint as that friendly local phase.
4:25 Okay so if I'm getting this right it sounds like you build a really awesome work culture that's positively affecting your customers.
4:32 Definitely and punctuality always wearing the uniform speaking world to clients, no issues too big or small and then just always putting 100% effort into every job and I think that's would be a reflection of how the business is going right now and I'm sure our clients could are attest to that.
4:49 Okay so where do you see the immediate opportunity in the business for somebody that wants to buy and build upon what you've already achieved?
4:58 Someone coming especially in the area I mean like a higher socio-economic demographic or area, there's just the continual growth in the market for people coming to either if it's just maintenance or landscaping.
5:12 But if you have a good enough staff, we have new enquiries coming in probably for every week. So the thing is just keeping the staff up to the demand and finding good skilled labour for people who are able to lead teams and just continuing the growth pattern as it is.
5:29 Like already from last year, I think we grew by like 200 or 300% financially in terms of our revenue and Obviously much better staff roster as well So it's just a continual growth pattern and if you can keep up with it, then there's unlimited opportunities Some really good points there So what's the
5:46 current ratio between recurring maintenance work and the project work that you've got coming through? And I know I'm of course we've covered this off in the information memorandum But for anybody listening it would be really helpful to understand that So we've got about 75 recurring clients who are 
6:01 just on a round about a monthly schedule during winter and then that goes up to fortnightly during summer. Thanks, Hamish.
6:08 Okay. So one thing that buyers often find intriguing is what you personally as the business owner considered to be the big opportunity.
6:17 That major opportunity in the business today, if you were to stay in it. What would you do? If I were to stay in the business, something I was looking at pursuing was just the gap the market for trades as a as a holy seek approach in this area in the eastern suburbs.
6:33 There's a shortage of plumbers, carpenters, all that kind of stuff. So if someone was to say this business long-term and had a passion for it, a potential could be taking this specified business like landscaping and maintenance and then sub branching out some other trade services under one kind of arena
6:50 . So that would definitely be a positive opportunity in this area, which I'd see a lot of potential for. All right, so just a recap, you're looking for offers over $180,000, so how can somebody who's interested in your business get in touch with you and start a conversation?
7:04 A dominant way to connect with me would just be directly through the AllBiz platform, and then all channels of communication will come to me and we can go from there.
7:12 If you like the sound of this business, why not go to www.AllBizDealRoom.com.au and search the landscaping business in Sydney and we'll help you connect with Hamish.
7:22 Thanks again for listening, and if you ever need any assistance with buying, selling, or investing in a business, we're always here to help.