Today we’d like to introduce you to Pam Dooley.
Pam, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have worked in the agricultural/green industry in some capacity since I was 14. Growing up in Indiana, the big summer job opportunity was to detassel corn, so I spent a couple of summers working in corn fields. During high school, I worked summers and after school at a family garden center and then headed south for college. I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Atlanta, working at the 1996 Olympic Games. After the games were over, I moved to South Carolina and worked at another family garden center for seven years, relocating back to Atlanta in 2003 for a management opportunity with a commercial landscape company. This was a great learning experience, really providing my first real exposure to landscaping. I worked there for a little over two years and decided that I wanted to go back to school. Plants Creative officially began in June 2005 and was started out of the need to earn income while attending classes at The University of Georgia. I mowed lawns, did small planting jobs and received new opportunities through referrals. Over the course of two years, I began to purchase better equipment, add new people to the team, and build a loyal customer base. We now employee 45+ amazing team members, maintain our primary office/warehouse in Decatur, and we’re in the process of building another location two miles away from the Decatur office that will be for our construction division.
Has it been a smooth road?
I think the phrase “opportunities to learn” would be the most applicable description for us. Obstacles or struggles, to me, implies that something has prevented or restrained us from making progress, which isn’t true. I believe that every experience, both good and bad, has grown us a company and has provided us the opportunity to improve as professionals and individuals. As we continue to grow in size, and create/maintain more challenging landscapes, we will have new opportunities to learn and improve, Our shared team values of relationships, excellence, and integrity will lead us through these new opportunities and provide us with unwavering guidance on every decision that we make,
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Plants Creative Landscapes story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a residential landscape design-build and maintenance company. We also do some light commercial work on a referral basis. We encourage ourselves and our clients to embrace the “what’s possible?” in landscape design. It’s the foundation of our creative approach and it starts at our first point of contact. Our empathetic approach, the daily building of relationships of trust, and the quality of work that we do creates an enormous sense of pride with our team. I believe our competitive advantage is how we treat people.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see a lot of growth opportunity for our industry over the next few years. The challenge will be in finding and maintaining people to produce the work. Labor costs are going up due to people shortages, so landscape companies are having to pay higher wages for qualified people. Educating customers on the reasons why service costs are rising should be a big focus for our industry. We also need to continue building companies that offer greater purpose, flexibility, and inspiration so that we’re attractive to millennials.
Pricing:
- Design Build Projects (generally full landscapes) start at $10,000
- Enhancement Projects (generally a section of a landscape) start at $1,500
- Maintenance Services start at $278/month for 36-annual visits
Contact Info:
- Address: Plants Creative Landscapes
425 E. College Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030 - Website: www.plantscreative.com
- Phone: (404) 309-7175
- Email: info@plantscreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantscreativelandscapes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plants.creative.landscapes/
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/plants-creative-landscapes/
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