Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael LeBar.
Hi Michael, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started Holistic Outdoor as a side hustle at the beginning of 2019 when I had a customer from Massey Services, where I was employed, reach out about someone trimming shrubs and pulling weeds on the property. In September of 2021, I entertained the idea of growing after more Massey customers had asked if I knew anyone who could do extra “detail” work or miscellaneous landscaping tasks on their properties. From July 2023, I did small landscaping tasks on about 20 properties per month. Early in 2023, I knew I wanted to be my own boss and grow my own company to provide the best landscape maintenance in the area, so I started acquiring/upgrading equipment to make it possible. In August of 2023, I began offering regular landscape maintenance services which has grown to us servicing 62+ properties and have no plan to slow down!
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been relatively smooth so far?
The road has been bumpy! This company was a dream that started becoming a reality earlier this year, so I knew it would be quite a change financially. I went from making good money with great benefits to paying myself $0 for my first 3 months. Thankfully, I could purchase the necessary equipment with some saved money, and then I upgraded my car to a used Toyota Tundra to pull my landscape trailer. Not knowing how many customers I could reach in my first few months was stressful. I started with 8 customers on August 1st and grew to 60 by the end of November. I couldn’t be more thankful for how well everything has played out after the work I put in the first few months. It was only possible with my wife helping hold down the house!
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Holistic Outdoor LLC is a landscape company providing services to the Winter Garden, Clermont, Windermere, and surrounding areas. We primarily focus on regularly maintaining our customer’s landscapes to ensure a clean and healthy look. We stand out in a few different ways. First, we focus heavily on keeping weeds from taking over landscape beds. We do hand-pulling of weeds during every visit and use a vinegar mixture to help suppress weeds through spraying. Using these tactics keeps us “chemical-free,” which we take pride in! Also, we focus on sharp, crisp edges to your lawn’s perimeters. We rotate and replace our edger blades frequently and use them every visit! Lastly, we use lightweight stand-on mowers and push mowers. This ensures that any unnecessary weight is left off the lawn to keep mower ruts or traffic damage from becoming an issue. Taking pride in these extra things does come at a price. We are not the mow, blow, and go company that comes and goes as fast as possible. We spend time on every property to make it looks exactly as it should. We are also willing to work evenings and weekends to ensure all landscaping needs are addressed so that our customers actually get what they pay for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/holisticoutdoor
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/holisticoutdoorllc?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082052897987&mibextid=LQQJ4d
