From One Truck to $2M/Year

Many contractors get stuck in the same cycle...

They land a few jobs, get busy, hire someone, take on more work, then realize they're working 70-hour weeks and barely making more money than when they started solo.

But last week I sat down with Chase from NextGen Landscaping, and his story is different.

In 2019, Chase started with one truck that’d done 300,000 miles and had no AC. Five years later? Chase does $2 million in annual revenue, has 25 employees, 100 commercial accounts, and a clear path to $10 million per year by 2029.

Here's how he did it.

Chase made a decision early on that changed the trajectory of his business… He set minimums and went after commercial projects. 

"We have a minimum that a lot of residential people probably wouldn't even go for," Chase explained. "It started at $330 a month for twice a month service. Now it's $520 a month for twice a month and $1,125 for weekly."

The turning point came when Chase realized mixing residential and commercial work was hurting his business.

Chase saw that small residential jobs were preventing him from being available for high-value commercial clients. Worse, it made him look like a "guy with a truck" instead of a professional commercial service provider.

Instead of trying to serve everyone, Chase followed the money toward clients who valued quality service and could pay for it consistently. "For the landscaping industry, going the commercial route became a lot more scalable," he told me.

While other landscapers chase one-time yard cleanup jobs, Chase focused obsessively on monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

"I wanted to build that monthly recurring revenue. I want to know what's coming in next month," he said.

Today, 80% of NextGen's revenue is recurring maintenance contracts. The other 20% comes from new construction projects but even those turn into maintenance contracts afterward.

Recurring revenue is a big advantage for service businesses. When you know $X is coming in the door next month, you can make confident hiring decisions, invest in better equipment, and focus on growth instead of constantly chasing the next job.

I’ve never heard of the 24/48 rule until speaking with Chase and I love it! It simply means: 

Respond within 24 hours, on-site within 48 hours.

When a lead comes in through their website, Chase's team calls immediately and schedules an on-site visit within two days. They show up with:

"I always try to put myself in their shoes and what I would want when someone was coming to bid for my property," Chase said.

Most contractors wing it. Chase systematized the customer experience from first contact to signed contract.

When Chase asks prospects why they're switching landscape companies, the answer is almost always the same: communication.

"Nine times out of ten it's communication," he told me. "So we just try to hone in on the communication side of things."

NextGen's communication system:

Instead of customers calling to complain about problems, NextGen identifies and reports issues before customers even notice them and each of their clients knows they can rely on them to communicate clearly about what’s going on with their property. 

Most contractors think they need loans to grow. Chase's grandfather taught him differently:

"My grandpa said once, 'The thing about a loan is the payment rolls around every 30 days.' It can stack up and pile up so much."

Chase's bootstrapping method:

This patience-first approach let NextGen grow sustainably without the pressure of monthly loan payments eating into cash flow.

As NextGen grew, Chase had to shift from being the guy who did everything to being the leader who set systems.

"Some people like, 'Oh yeah, Chase won't beat Chase's standards.' And I'm like, no, it's not my standards. These are the standards needed to be successful and produce a high-quality service."

The difference:

This shift is critical for scaling. When standards are tied to you personally, the business can't grow beyond what you can personally manage.

Recently, Chase started exploring performance-based pay with ShareWillow. The concept: align employee incentives with company success.

Instead of just paying hourly wages, performance pay rewards employees for:

Chase sees this as the next evolution: "When they can see what happens when they do that, not only are they able to increase their pay, but we're able to get the new trucks, we're able to get the new office."

But treating his team right has been a part of Chase’s philosophy since day one. His first hire is still with the company today and even when they only had 32 hours of work per week, Chase paid him for 40 hours. "He was gonna go get a job somewhere else," Chase explained. That investment in people early on built the foundation for everything that followed.

Chase has a clear target: $10 million in revenue by 2029.

"Less than 1% of companies make it past 10 years and make over $10 million with a profit. So if we can hit a couple of those marks, we're putting ourselves in the less than 1% tile of startups."

The path forward:

But Chase isn't just chasing revenue. He's building a company that could attract private equity or strategic buyers because it can operate profitably without him having to be involved in every decision.

Chase's success comes down to a few key principles:

Most contractors try to do everything for everyone. Chase picked his lane, built systems, and executed consistently.

That's how you go from one beat-up truck to $2 million in five years.