During the pandemic, the impact on business was felt very differently by every organization. For Naylor Landscape Management, a Kalamazoo family-owned full-service lawn and landscape service company, it was a weed that stopped its work altogether. However, eventually the situation blossomed into success.

Shutdown for five weeks during what would have been one of its busiest months of the year, Naylor suffered a difficult time. Despite the unknown, Barney Naylor, president and owner of Naylor Landscape Management, continued to lead his company and help plan for his company’s return to work which he knew would be busier than ever. “During the shutdown, we assured employees that once the governor allowed us to work, we were going to get all the work done that we contracted for. And we did,” said Barney.“We had to lay some people off,” said Barney, explaining the difficulty that Naylor Landscape Management faced while being shut down. “There was a lot of unknown and initially some of those people were reluctant to come back to work because of the extra federal unemployment that they were making.” During this time, Barney explained how he strategically fought for the success of his business. While employees couldn’t work outside, all of the sales team worked from home, continuing to do consultations with clients virtually.

Persistence Pays Off

Because of tenacity and optimism, Naylor is now mowing its way to new heights. “Everyone came back, and now we’re working at full staff probably for the first time in five years, which is great. And we’ll probably be sold out in the season later this month.”

Barney noted, “The good side of [being shutdown] was that a lot of that work just got kicked down the road. It still needed to get done, and we did lose some work permanently, but most of the routine maintenance type work just got kicked down the road.” Not only was a lot of the work able to be completed after being shut down, Naylor gained new business thanks to the shutdown.

“The good news for us was that a lot of people spent time at home while we were shut down. While a lot of people were furloughed or working from home—cocooning—they [decided] to make their homes a better place to work and play and live. They wanted to have something to look out at in between staring at the computer screen.” Able to provide improvements to outdoor spaces with design, construction, and maintenance, Naylor jumped in to provide services to these folks. “Even though we shut down for five weeks, we have probably made up for it already. Business has been booming since we’ve been allowed to go back to work.”

Process Creates Efficiency

With over 30 employees, another task for Barney has been managing the return to work to keep people safe. Normal protocols are being followed by employees in the field, including wearing face masks and doing temperature checks. One piece of advice that Barney offers to employers is to ensure that you are “communicating really well with your staff about the procedures and policy you’re adopting during the pandemic and about when and if they’re going end or not.” Barney continued, “You need to look harder at your processes, and that’s something that we did. The result for us is that we’ve been much more efficient in the field. Our guys are getting their work done more efficiently than they ever have.”

Going back to work, Naylor Landscape Management had a company-wide meeting to let employees know what they were going to be up against. The message was clear: everyone needed to step up to get the job done. “We had a lot of positive reaction from our staff. They could see other people still unemployed, and every single one of them was very grateful they still had a job. The most important thing to them was that they were still employed and that we were issuing a plan. Between those two things, they came out of the gates raring and ready to go.”

Rely on Your Team

“The most challenging part, once we were allowed to work, was trying to get everything done quickly because we were already behind,” Barney continued. Flexibility from the team was key. “One team stopped their work entirely during the first few weeks back to jump in to help another team get caught up. This was a game-changer ‘because grass doesn’t stop growing.’ No one around here was holding their head down. Especially after the first week of really working; no one was even worried.”

As Naylor Landscape Management continues to catch up with the demand, Barney knows that the secret to success is to rely on his team. “During times of stress on your business, you have to rely on your people and not be afraid to do so. If you have good people, they’ll want to step up.”