Hank Parker, owner of Bay Landscaping, shares his Mobile roots before leaving college to pursue business ownership. After framing houses, he earned a real estate license in 2007. When the 2008–09 Hank bought used landscaping equipment to start Bay Landscaping.

Hank shares lessons learned about seeking advice, using contracts, and niching down. He outlines plans to expand into Florida and Mississippi with a five-branch Gulf Coast footprint. Listen in as we learn more about Hank Parker

Transcript:

Hank: I'm, I'm Hank Parker, owner of Bay Landscaping.

Marcus: Well, dude, it is good to finally meet you 'cause we've-

Hank: Nice to meet you ... yeah,

Marcus: never met before, but I know, you came, highly recommended to sit down with and have a conversation, so I'm glad to get you in the hot seat and have a conversation with you, so- Yeah

thank you for coming today.

Yeah, glad to be here. Thank you.

Yeah. So to get started, did you grow up here in Mobile? And if not, what's the path that brought you here? If you did, then tell us a little bit about that experience.

Hank: Yes. I grew up here, born and raised. Been in Mobile my entire life.

Went to a little... I don't even think the school is a, is a school anymore. It was a little church school, Oak Park Christian. So yeah.

Marcus: Is that over on the Eastern Shore or here in the-

Hank: No, it was... It's off Salley Road. It's right by what's that? Isle of Palms.

Marcus: Okay.

Hank: Right. It's just, it's not even a school anymore.

Marcus: Wow.

Hank: So.

Marcus: And was that elementary school or did you go through all, the whole thing?

Hank: The whole thing.

Marcus: Wow.

Hank: The year I graduated, they decided to shut the school down, so So you

Marcus: just... It was like close, turn the lights off when you leave- Yeah ... kind of thing. Yeah. So, and so did you end up going to college in the area or no?

Hank: Yeah, I went to South for a few years and then decided to hang that up as well.

Marcus: Yeah. Just wasn't for you.

Hank: Right.

Marcus: Yeah. And what were you going to study when you did go to South?

Hank: I went... Originally I was gonna go into the medical field, and then I just kind of reduced that down to a business degree, and then I figured the best way to get a business degree-

is just go own your own business.

Marcus: Yeah, exactly. There's no better degree than the school of hard knocks, for sure.

Hank: Right.

Marcus: But, do you think... , i mean, when you look back at your time, were you, do you think you were a good student?

Hank: Oh, absolutely. I was straight As in, in high school. I mean, I made good grades in, in college.

I think I, I graduated with, I think, 4.0 high school, so.

Marcus: Wow.

Hank: You know, like I, I was valedictorian in my class, but only having eight people in there, that's not much- to brag about,

Marcus: That's, that's a far cry from the... I think, what did I have? I had almost 1,000 people in my graduating class.

Hank: That is insane.

Marcus: Yeah.

Hank: That

Marcus: is crazy. So the schools were a little bit bigger in Washington, D.C.

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: So, but I mean- Mm-hmm ... so why, I mean, honestly, you had everything lined up. What made you decide to leave college? Was it truly just-

Hank: Tired

Marcus: of school or?

Hank: Yeah, I mean, I've, I'd always wanted to own my own business. And I had an opportunity to...

I was framing houses. I had the opportunity to be the lead foreman and, and go that route. But then the opportunity presented itself to get my real estate license, so I did that. And, quit framing and got my real estate license in 2007, and then we all know what happened in 2008 and '09.

Marcus: Yep.

Hank: So then I was like, "What am I gonna do?" A guy was getting out of landscaping, sold me his lawnmower, trailer, blower, and weed eater, and I'm like, you know, 25 yards. And I'm like, "Well- That's a good

Marcus: start ...

Hank: I'll try."

Marcus: Yeah.

Hank: At the end of that year everybody canceled but one, so I-

Marcus: Oh my gosh ...

Hank: I had a mower and nothing to cut.

Marcus: Wow. Okay, that's, I mean, 'cause that is a, that is a cliff.

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: I mean, I can't just leave that alone. Like, what did you do? You know, it's not like, "Hey, next question." You know? What did you do in that instance?

Hank: Well, I started going around just knocking on doors. Knocking on doors. I mean, and then luckily I landed three or four, three apartment complexes.

They were about medium-size, but still it wasn't enough work to have, you know, crews or... You know, so it was just me and, and one guy- Yeah ... on, two, three days a week. And then the days that I wasn't mowing I was, you know, trying to drum up real estate sales and, um-

Marcus: Hustling

Hank: Yeah, it was hustling.

Marcus: Yeah. Wow, okay. 'Cause I mean, you would think that 25 yards would be a good start and that, that would be something that you could build on. But man, if they all, say 24 of them, you know, dropped at the end of the year, that's, you know, that's usually a... Man, that's a, that's a hard thing to overcome, let's just put it that way.

Yeah. So, so you left USA. I guess I gotta ask too, m- married, kids, all that stuff. G- what's, uh, your current-

Hank: I'm divorced. Okay. I do have three kids. I have a senior at UMS, and I've got a seventh-grader, she'll be going into eighth, and fifth going into sixth. So two girls and a boy.

Marcus: Spread out.

Hank: Yeah. Yeah.

Marcus: Yeah. I've got them from grown adults to fifth grader.

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: So I feel you. But single?

Hank: Single. Ladies. Well, I, I, I, I am currently- I don't see- ... in a relationship.

Marcus: Yeah. All right, all right, all right, all right. So, well, so you bought, you say you bought the business from from a guy, but was there any more story behind that?

Like, did... i'm assuming that he wanted some money for that. Did he just hand it over? Was that, did you have to go through and get financing and do all that stuff, or was it pretty easy?

Hank: I mean, it was, I mean, just his equipment that had been used for years. So I mean, it was like $12,000. Yeah. Um, but I didn't have $12,000 at the time.

I think I borrowed some from family, and, uh, and then it was kinda like an owner finance deal, paid him off.

Marcus: Yeah.

Hank: So.

Marcus: Cool. Um, now what's something that you wish someone had told you before you started? Something that you learned the hard way.

Hank: Oh, something I learned the hard way. Well, to, I guess, lean on others' advice and don't think that you always have it figured out. And to...

Marcus: It's not an easy question.

Hank: No, it's not.

Marcus: Yeah. It's not meant to be. You know what I mean? But sometimes you don't think about these things, you know, until, you know, somebody prompts, you know- Mm-hmm ... prompts you about. But, you know what I mean, bus- owning a business is full of bumps and bruises along the way, whether it's, hey, you know, when presented with a, a situation where you lo- losing a lot of money, the answer isn't suing.

The answer is contracts.

Hank: Correct.

Marcus: Right?

Hank: Right. '

Marcus: Cause you're never gonna get your money back.

Hank: Right.

Marcus: So, I mean, those are just the kinds of things that we're looking for, but anything come to mind or?

Hank: Not, I mean, not really. I mean, it's just to get out of your own way. Like, don't- Saying yes will get you...

There's a saying in my peer group, like, "Saying yes will get you to a million. Saying no will get you to 10 million."

Marcus: Yeah.

Hank: Um, so just finding that niche that you wanna focus on, and go for that. Don't be everything to everybody. You know, find out what you're good at and focus on that.

Marcus: Very

Hank: cool. I, I wish that I would've done that from the beginning.

Marcus: Niching down, in other words?

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: Yeah.

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: So, I mean, that all comes down to positioning, right? I mean, so how... What have you done... I mean, what... How have you positioned Bay Landscaping? I mean, what's different?

Hank: Well, what's different now from when we started, we were, we were everything to everybody.

And we have, you know, narrowed that focus down now to where we are, strictly commercial. Commercial maintenance and bid build. Um, we did have architect, and we did a lot of, you know, design build, and we got out of that, so we're, we're strictly bid build and commercial maintenance now. Nice.

Um, which I feel like is she's a little more

Marcus: stable The

Hank: opportunity. Yeah, and the opportunity for growth is a lot more.

Marcus: Yeah. No, that's cool. I

Hank: mean, if you were in some, market like Chicago or Atlanta, I mean, those are completely different. I'm sorry.

Marcus: No, you're good. Yeah, for sure. I mean, this is a, a, it, it is a unique market to say the least.

Hank: Mm-hmm.

Marcus: Now, is there a person, a book, or some other resource that's changed the way you think about business?

Hank: A person or a book?

Marcus: Or a resource. I mean, it could be a, a group of, you know, like if you're a part of your BNI group or the chamber or, some other peer group or something along those lines.

Hank: I mean, yes, I'm, I'm part of a peer group that is probably 100 plus, um, green industry companies over the United States. Cool. And we meet once a quarter just sh- kind of share ideas and, I mean, they have been tremendous in, you know, helping us navigate and grow. But I would say, we were talking about this book earlier today.

Um, actually Andy, uh, Vickers and I were talking and he asked me if I'd ever read it, and I was like, "Yeah, it's a great book." It's Who Moved My Cheese? Yeah. It's awesome. I would say- Made

Marcus: the rounds back in the '90s.

Hank: Yeah. I would say that's probably... I mean, it's a, it's a small book, but it's one of the-

Marcus: Yeah

Hank: ones that I put into practice

Marcus: a lot. I mean, if I... And I probably have a copy of it on the shelf behind you, but I mean, it's like tiny and it's, it's not big either. Yeah. It's not like a full size. It's like a half size book or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, what was it? Why'd that come up?

Hank: Uh, he was just looking at all the books on my bookshelf and he'd asked me if I read all of them and I said yeah.

And-

Marcus: He was just calling your bluff? Yeah. Leave it to Andy. Gosh. So what are you building towards right now? Is there anything exciting that you can tell about, you know, like maybe what the next chapter for...

Hank: Yes, um, we are, expanding into the Florida market, so we're, you know, trying to, to get that figured out and Mississippi.

So I mean, the goal over the next, four to five years would be to have five branches and be able to cover the majority of the Gulf Coast here.

Marcus: So that'd be Mobile, Baldwin County, the Beach- Mm-hmm ... Pensacola, Biloxi?

Hank: Yeah, Freeport, uh- Okay ... Florida.

Marcus: That's pretty good expanse. But no, I mean, I'm...

There... I'm sure that there's businesses that have done that, so there's no reason why that's not, not doable given the right structure. Yeah. You follow any kinda like business management, I guess, what's the... processes or theories or whatever it is, like, um, what's the one I'm thinking of? Ugh, it's, you know, right on the tip of my tongue.

Wes Coody and I always uh, get together and talk about it, and there's a group over in Fairhope that meets on a regular basis. Um, but I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. But anything in how you structure your business or how you manage people or anything along those lines?

Hank: Um, I mean, that's the, the peer group that I'm in, do a lot of that, and, you know, huge emphasis on our, you know, mission, vision, values, our core purpose.

You know, just kinda hiring, firing, you know, living by those principles. And, you know, my, our leadership team at the office is phenomenal. Our entire team is phenomenal, but yeah.

Marcus: Chosen some good people then.

Hank: Oh, yeah.

Marcus: How do you like to unwind?

Hank: How do I like to unwind? I like to... I really, I mean, I love surfing.

Yeah, we don't get-

Marcus: You're on the wrong coast, brother.

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: But y- go... What were you gonna

Hank: say? I mean, it's, it's... it has to be like a cold front or- Yeah ... a low pressure system, a hurricane or tropical storm or, you know, something like that to, to get good swell here. But when the opportunity presents itself-

Marcus: Hey, man

Hank: I like to do it.

Marcus: That's cool. I, you know, we... I think it was, um, a year or so ago, we were down at the beach and there was something happening, and we were on the beach just kinda sitting there watching the waves kinda come in, 'cause you don't really ever see that here. Right. And, uh, there were some guys out there surfing, and I was just like, "Oh my gosh, guys," you know, like- You know.

It was a rough day, let's just say, uh, say that, but... All right. So I've got a couple of rapid fire questions here for you. Just, rattle off whatever comes to top of your head. So what's your favorite type of music?

Hank: Country.

Marcus: What's your favorite type of food?

Hank: Italian.

Marcus: Favorite restaurant in Lower Alabama?

I'd

Hank: say Noja.

Marcus: Noja. Favorite city outside of Mobile?

Hank: Charleston.

Marcus: So where's someplace that you want to travel to but haven't been to yet?

Hank: Fiji.

Marcus: That's a good choice. And what comes to mind when I say guilty pleasure?

Late night ice cream raids or something like that

Hank: I do love some ice cream.

Marcus: Yeah.

Hank: Uh.

Marcus: And, uh, favorite movie or TV show?

Hank: I don't really have a favorite. I mean, I, I guess y'all are gonna-

Marcus: Roast you for this one?

Hank: Yeah.

Marcus: What is it?

Hank: Yeah, I like Notebook. Like a chick flick.

Marcus: I wasn't expecting that. But you know what? I mean, solid choice. I mean, it's obviously, it did well for a reason. But, um, but yeah, you're definitely gonna get some crap for that one in the office.

So, all right. No, uh, no rapid fire on this one, but what are you most thankful for?

Hank: Man, I'm thankful for, you know, my health, my family. I'm thankful for the team that we have at Bay. I mean, it's, it's been You know, business-wise you know, the team at Bay has pulled together just a year ago, you know, we lost just about everybody we had, and they pulled together and made it happen.

I mean, we're fully staffed again. And they're just... They're phenomenal. Like-

Marcus: Yeah ...

Hank: none of this is possible without them. So, I mean, I'm super thankful for them.

Marcus: Yeah. It's... It... As someone who, you know, has... I've led, you know, groups of people, you know, of all sizes. You know, it, it is, It is not something that true leaders take lightly when people, give their time, energy and, thoughts and stuff like that to whatever crazy idea it is that we have, whether it's building a business or, whatever.

And so I get... You know, I get that, and I feel that you don't take that lightly as y- um, either. So, where can people find out more about you?

Hank: Where... Um, our website is baylandscapinginc.com.

And we're trying to, to put more stuff out on social media. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.

Marcus: Very cool.

Well, you've got somebody on staff now that can probably help you with that, so. Yeah,

Hank: yeah.

Marcus: Well, I wanna thank you for coming on the podcast. Uh, any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share?

Hank: No. I mean, I appreciate you having me and appreciate the opportunity.

Marcus: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, Hank, it's been great, uh, sitting with you and I appreciate you sharing your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur, man.

It's been, it's been fun.

Hank: Thank you.