123
10 min 13 sec

“Uber for Lawn Care” Mows Down the Competition

Four friends take a whack at the lawn care industry’s weeds and find ways to better connect vendors and customers.
High Profit Power of Observation Research Service

Subscribe Now For A Free Five Step Tutorial

What It's About

A couple of friends hack the Airbnb model by introducing it to a broken lawn care industry revolutionizing the way people hire lawn care vendors.

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Research & Bootstrapping
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Gene and Bryan felt certain that this was something that would be beneficial for both vendors and homeowners, but they decided to canvas and go door-to-door around the suburbs of Nashville to see if they were on the right track. It turns out that they were right!

After three whole weeks going door-to-door under the hot Tennessee sun, they discovered that their potential customers were tired of the status quo and would love to have another option available to them. And Bryan’s connections in the lawn care industry were ready to try something new as well. They had the research they needed, so all that was left to do was throw a website up and get started.

Fun Fact

They decided that they needed to create a recognizable visual champion that stood for the hardworking lawn service professionals that participate in the GreenPal community, and "Gary" was born.

The name they gave Gary was inspired by one of GreenPal’s earliest vendors who joined their community after he was laid off in 2011 from the trucking industry. To date, he has grown his company to over 100 customers on the GreenPal network, and his story serves as the inspiration for why the team started GreenPal in the first place—to help hard working small business owners easily connect with homeowners that need a reliable lawn care provider. Plus... Gary the GreenPal has a nice ring to it.

Notes from Chris

Episode 123

Gene Caballero is no stranger to hard work. He spends most of his days working as a corporate sales coach for a Fortune 50 company. But when he isn’t punching his time slip in the corporate world, he’s building an empire with three of his friends revolutionizing the lawn care industry.

This will probably be Gene’s last year at his corporate job since GreenPal has grown around 300% each year, and since this trend shows no sign of slowing continuing, he expects he’ll have to go "all in" very soon.

Like so many of our stories, the success of GreenPal—which is getting quite large—is the result of spotting a problem in the industry and creating solutions to address it. When you think about a big problem like this, there are essentially two ways to go about solving it:

1. Focusing hyper-locally and deciding to fix the problem within the bounds of a city or region (like Christopher did with the cleaning business in Ep. 87).

or

2. Create technology that will make this service applicable more broadly, which is essentially what Gene and his friends did.

Option two brings you more possibilities, but it's also a lot more challenging to implement. Generally, it requires partnerships, start-up capital in order to develop that technology, and it's also just a more technologically intensive approach overall.

There are always going to be pros and cons to each approach, so it's good to be aware of them, know what resources are available to you, start with intention, and then get to work.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • GreenPal: Learn more about what Gene and the rest of the GreenPal team are up to
SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️


Learn More

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today!

Learn More

Quote of the Day
"The best part? Getting emails and texts from our vendors thanking us for building something that makes them more money and makes their lives easier."
—Gene Caballero #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Try ShipStation for 60 Days FREE!

Today’s episode of Side Hustle School is brought to you by ShipStation, the #1 choice of online sellers. 📦

To get a 30-day trial AND an additional month free, click the microphone at the top of their page and enter the word HUSTLE.


Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!





To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau