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Featured in Calgary Business Podcast: Episode 162 | Aleks Bradasevic | Rainfall Landscapes

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Calgary Business Podcast is focused on meeting Calgary business owners, educators, influencers and other business leaders based in Calgary to discuss issues of importance to them. Recently, CEO and owner of Rainfall Landscapes, Aleks Bradasevic was a guest on the Calgary Business Podcast. Listen to the podcast to learn more about Rainfall Landscapes and how they navigated through the COVID pandemic.

See transcript below: 

Allen Wazny: Thanks for listening to the Calgary business podcast. During the Covid-19 crisis, everyone is negatively impacted and one sector of society that may be easily forgotten, are the clients and customers of the Calgary food bank. On 24th of February this year, I had the pleasure of having the CEO of Calgary food bank, Mr. James McAra on my podcast. From that discussion, I understand that their operation is highly dependent upon workers and volunteers handling and passing along large volumes of food supplies to its clients. Health and safety is top in mind during this pandemic and the Calgary food bank staff have taken steps to ensure that all parties, including its staff, volunteers, and clients are safe in this critical supply of food stuffs. If you’re donating or considering on making a donation to the Calgary food bank during the COVID-19 crisis, take some time to think about those excess cleaning liquids, rubber gloves, disinfectants, hand sanitizers, safety goggles, or other healthcare protective equipment that you can donate. Once again thanks for listening to the Calgary business podcast. Stay safe.

Allen Wazny: Aleks,

Aleks Bradasevic: Allen.

Allen Wazny: Good afternoon, and welcome to Calgary business podcast. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Hey, thanks for having me. 

Allen Wazny: So the classic worked from home, you got the dog barking. Mine will go probably in a few minutes. Yeah. So welcome. So I want to get your last name. Is it Bradasevic? Do I get that right? 

Aleks Bradasevic: Bradasevic. 

Allen Wazny: c’mon I thought I’d get it. So look, your company is Rainfall Landscapes and your dog is what breed? 

Aleks Bradasevic: Shih Tzu

Allen Wazny: Oh yeah. I like those little guys. Okay. So we’re getting distracted, but episode number 162, welcome. So look Aleks, just tell us a little bit about the history of Rainfall Landscapes and we’ll go from there. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Okay. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I’ve only been, the company was founded in 2018 by myself. Yeah, it’s just been kind of like a startup. 

Allen Wazny: But you were doing something, cause I don’t know your history. So maybe what’d you do before? Were you’re always a landscaping guy? 

Aleks Bradasevic: No, I did landscaping when I was younger, when I was 18 and then I actually went to school for chemical engineering technology.  I had to go to work into the oil field to do like process designs. But unfortunately with what happened in 2014, I ended up actually losing my job and couldn’t end up finding any work in my actual line of work. So went back… 

Allen Wazny: So you pivoted, you look for the pivot. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. I look to the pivot and I’m like, Oh, I need to find something that’s going to be kind of stable and not going to have all these like massive fluctuations and not going to have massive amounts of government interference it seems. 

Allen Wazny: So you went back to school, like you got your chemical engineering degree, that I’m ready to go work in the oil patch and then boom!  2014, the prices tanked. For me, I was working overseas in the middle East and they went from a, this was North Sea brand was $110 a barrel to $30. So Canadian oil was probably much lower.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. That’s exactly right. 

Allen Wazny: So where’d you go? So then you went back and what’d you study then the second time?

Aleks Bradasevic: I actually didn’t go back. I actually just went right into back into like lawn care landscaping. At first, I didn’t actually start rainfall. I just did some contract work for a guy that was starting his own company. And then we just kind of focused on the lawn care and maintenance side just because it was really easy to get into, not a big a gap into that. Build up your clientele that way and then just kind of do progression. 

Allen Wazny: So you must know ULS landscaping, Steve [03:58 inaudible], I don’t know if you know him. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, I actually used to work for him when I was younger. 

Allen Wazny: No way. So Steve was in one of my earlier podcasts, but him and I, we were like, we go back grade nine. I mean, when the flames came and I’m just giving you a quick history, but he went on, played hockey. I just went to the hockey school when the same one. And then we, met each other in the university, but he’d started, the guys did the hustle during the university and they were just doing whatever painting and landscaping, snow removal during the university. And I left, went overseas. And so I came back and he’s built up this massive empire. I called it an empire. Anyway so I had Steve on the podcast a lot earlier. So, I wanted to get another person like, I’m glad you’re on.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. It’s actually kind of funny. Yeah, I used to work for ULS when I was, yeah, 18, 19 before I went to school for engineering. So yeah.

Allen Wazny: So I mean literally you started the name, come on, the rainfall landscapes. I mean, you need rain, or you don’t want rain.  Where’d you come up with the name?

Aleks Bradasevic: So I wanted something that was going to be kind of different from what you kind of always see, like usually with landscaping, it’s going to be somebody’s last name or something to do with like lawn care or something along those lines. But I wanted for, I was thinking like more in terms for like SEO, if people are just kind of looking for like, the weather or rain or something like that, that, it could possibly pop up in their search.

Allen Wazny: That’s actually pretty smart. I mean, just to think of, cause you’re kind of this digital thinking, cause if you go back 2015, there were a lot of apps out there and you were already, you’re not even a tech guy and you’re thinking SEO, that’s actually quite smart actually.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. I was thinking of a name that’s going to be kind of like catchy, but also like, you know what I mean? 

Allen Wazny: Because if I Google, Well, if I Google landscape or if I Google rain, I don’t know, it’s like, it’s what you Google and you don’t know what comes up. That thing comes up, your name comes up now. I looked, I literally Googled it just to get your website and it comes up as ad. So that’s a Google ad. Is that a paid thing and just for the benefit of listeners, because maybe some people don’t know that.

Aleks Bradasevic: So I don’t really handle that portion of the business. I actually have that handed off to a friend of mine. Yeah, she’s amazing with that stuff. Like I basically said, I’m kind of looking to increase my presence online because that’s where the future is. And so she’s like, yeah, we can do all this great stuff and I’ll get you, I’ll make sure that you’re highly ranked and all this stuff. And I was like… 

Allen Wazny: Can we give her a shout out? What’s her name? 

Aleks Bradasevic: Her name’s Hannah, she’s with studio eight designs.

Allen Wazny: Okay. Oh, that’s cool. I mean, like I said, I never thought of that. I mean, just cause I Googled your name and sometimes those ads come up and then, it’ll come up with something else, like a pizza, for example, it just comes up with local. It knows where you are, but you’ve actually got an ad in there. So that’s quite good because you get the top ranking.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely trying to get top rankings just to get more exposure and whatnot. 

Allen Wazny: I guess, speaking, okay, so let’s go to Covid. Because lawn care has been something that they were opening up garden centers early on, like I guess a month ago. Or did you notice that?

Aleks Bradasevic: So for us, I actually back in like April, I was reaching out to like our local governments and all that stuff. Cause I didn’t know what they were planning for lawn care guides. Cause I’m like really, we don’t really have a lot of public engagement except for like the people that kind of peek out their houses and being like, Hey, come over here. How much to do this?  

Allen Wazny: That’s hilarious. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. So I was talking to them and I was like, Hey, I don’t really see that a lawn care is on here. And then obviously the people didn’t know because everything was changing. They’re like, well, if you don’t see it on there, then it’s considered non-essential and you can’t do anything. So I was like, Oh Jesus, like really? They’re like, well, if it’s not on there and so I did some more digging and I actually ended up contacting like the Alberta government, like, Hey, just want to be a hundred percent sure that I’m not going to get shut down for going out there and cutting lawns. And they’re like, yeah, no lawn care is considered essential. So you have no problems.

Allen Wazny: Was that great though? Because you kind of thinking people wanting to get out and get into, they can get in their yards. And if you can’t do any, if you can’t go to the garden center you are really stuck, the sort of mental health side of it. But I like your term that you said you did a little more digging and come on, literally, that’s what you do. That’s what you do. So online or offline right in the garden. And then you go online and dig. I think you’ve got to put that out there. We’ve got to have… If you’re digging for, you’re digging for some work on your yard. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, no, I was actually kind of very nervous because I’m like, oh man, if everybody’s at home, then no, one’s going to really be looking for these services. So I thought, but it was the complete opposite. Since everyone was at home and they can’t go on vacation, they’re like sprucing up the yard.

Allen Wazny: So go back to the Covid, the start a Covid, because there was a lot of snow in March. 

Aleks Bradasevic: And April. 

Allen Wazny: March and April.  Were you guys busy?

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. So I have ongoing yearly contracts with like residential and commercial guys. But since we were doing an end transitioning from snow over to spring, I was very, very nervous because I’m like, oh man, like if we get two extra weeks of snow, that means I’m backed up two extra weeks. 

Allen Wazny: But this was pre Covid. Like you were kind of just thinking of the logistics of things happening. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. I wasn’t even thinking about Covid. I was just thinking I’m like, oh man, like with weather, like in landscaping, like it really depends on if the weather is going to be in your favor or not, how much you can do. But yeah, well, not luckily, but since we had the two extra weeks, everything got pushed back two weeks and then just got slammed. It was literally like nothing for two weeks. And then all of a sudden everyone’s starting to call in. They’re like, oh yeah, my snow’s gone. Like I want this cleaned up. I want that cleaned up. And I’m like, Jesus, okay, Like, let’s see if we can fit you in.

Allen Wazny: I don’t think Jesus, I don’t think Jesus had any play in this. I mean, think of it, there was that messy, okay this was more late April early may, right? I meant just taking a personal side of it, the yard it’s just ugly. You got to kind of rake it and there’s this, there’s that, the snow is melted, but it’s not really, you can’t really cut it yet.

Aleks Bradasevic: That’s right. Yeah. It’s like that. Like everything’s matted down. It’s still wet. Still gross looking. You got to wait for it to finally for all the moisture to go away. So you can actually do something with it.

Allen Wazny: Cause I love, I mean, I love that land, like here Calgary is great cause it’s green in the summer and Brown in the winter. Cause you know, I’m old enough to remember the Olympics, the Brown Olympics. But when it gets green, this is a pretty lush city. But that means for you there’s more work. 

Aleks Bradasevic: That’s right. 

Allen Wazny: So you’ve got both residential and commercial because I noticed the city, maybe you have as well. There’s a lot of little overgrown, like a lot of beard. There’s a lot of hair, the city is really just kind of wild. I don’t know if, I’d driven around a bit, but not much. What did you notice?

Aleks Bradasevic: You mean like in terms of like just… 

Allen Wazny: The common kind of city. They’re starting to get to it now. Why was that delayed?

Aleks Bradasevic: I really can’t say for that stuff. I know that the city just kind of has their schedule and they just kind of, get to it when they get to it. And if people complain, they’re like, well, we’ll get to it when we get to it. They’re not really, they have no sort of risk per se, if anybody complains versus the guys who do it privately.

Allen Wazny: Well, [11:48 inaudible] I spent a lot in the last couple of weeks, my daughter is working in the South. So we go down the coach trail, are those your typical clients, those commercial industrial, you know what I mean? Like as you drive around there, they have their pieces of the grass. Is that your clients?

Aleks Bradasevic: No. I’m mostly focusing on like the smaller commercial guys. So that would be like fourplexes, condominiums like that.

Allen Wazny: So the main streets or boardwalks of the world or whatever, if you get in.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. That’s more for the bigger guys I think that have like the… 

Allen Wazny: You get the tail end. 

Aleks Bradasevic: I get the scraps. Yeah. So when the big guys are done eating, I’m like, I’ll take what’s left, you know.

Allen Wazny: So wait, but you got contracts, so you’ve got those buildings and they’re there. They’re quite, I remember it was in February. I was doing a podcast down by ATB. I don’t know if you know, in 17th ave ATB, no, no, no. It’s like 12th or 11th. Anyway, there was a woman with one-year two-year point about [12:51 inaudible] and she’s shoveling and then she was struggling, could see it. So I kind of helped her. It was just a small patch, but I’m thinking, wow. I mean, there’s thousands of those four story walk-Ups right. Where they’re just a few buildings. Those are your clients. You’re driving around and like, they’re your slim pickings or whatever, but there’s a lot.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. Like with Calgary and just the way that it is like, there’s literally thousands of landscape companies, if they’re listed or unlisted, but again, there’s so many people out there that there’s more than your fair share to go around. And everybody’s always switching from somebody else because some guys are kind of getting out of the business where new guys are coming in. So like the market’s quite large. I was actually kind of surprised by it.

Allen Wazny: I guess once you dig in you see it. Cause you just take it for granted. But going back to my podcast with Steve, Steve Wheatcroft from ULS. I mean, he’s like, I don’t care about those little things. He goes, I just focused on this and sort of, but they moved into asphalt and more, kind of industrial, like parking lot cleanups and things like that. I mean, once the big guy gets too big, he’s not interested in the smaller ones. And then as you said, you pick up the scraps, but well let’s go back to the Covid period. So in Covid were you guys, it was a tepid kind of, what do you do, you’re wondering where you should go and things like that, or how was it?

Aleks Bradasevic: Just trying to think of there, to be honest. Well the lucky thing for us was that we were already on contract for snow removal. So we had basically March and April kind of locked in. But for May we were kind of uncertain at the point. So I’m just like, whatever happens, happens. And I guess, it’s kind of hard to plan for it, but in the event that we weren’t able to work, I was already kind of getting everything kind of set up for the CRB to try and mitigate that the $2000 a month that the government would have given you. 

Allen Wazny: Okay. Yeah. For small businesses loans. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, I was already starting to call and do like all the prep work for that and just kind of make sure that I had enough money, floating money to kind of keep the company going for however long and then just kind of decide rather than do like, decide on a whim, just kind of see how it played out.

Allen Wazny: But your clients were, as you said, you were locked in, there was still work, cause that’s where you transitioned to the summer, the spring cleanup, right? And you had this, and you still have the contracts. So I guess that helps. In terms of the, you know, you don’t have to share everything, all the details, but where your client’s saying, well, we don’t want it because of, say whatever,  cause I know if you take the news and they’re saying people, tenants weren’t paying their rent and there’s this sort of period where there’s uncertainty, were your clients, were there anybody coming back to and saying, can you do this or that any changes or is it something you want to share?

Aleks Bradasevic: So for someone like the property management companies, they kind of, they scale off at the end of the snow period and they kind of let me know if we’re going to be continuing on in the spring summer. So those guys skipped off and then a couple other people who lost their jobs just kind of reached out to me and said, Hey, nothing personal, but I don’t have any more disposable income to be using your services. But I was very fortunate enough to have, the clients that I do and I’m grateful for them every single day because they’re like, yeah, Nope, I want you to just continue on with what you’re doing. You’re doing a great job. 

Allen Wazny: Is there anything creative? I mean, cause going back to your original, when you made your name, there was some creativity there. Was there anything different, maybe you and Hannah and maybe your team came up with during, sort of with that other than the CRB or whatever, but was there some ideas you were bouncing

Around? 

Aleks Bradasevic: We were tossing around ideas such as possible like planter designs for clients. Because there was a lot, since a lot of people are going to be staying home and buying like plants and all that stuff, we started looking into just kind of good plants to keep around the house, to improve air quality or just kind of boost your mood, stuff like that. So in the event that if we weren’t going to be able to do like any sort of like landscaping outside, we’re going to start growing these essentially these plants and trying to sell them out.

Allen Wazny: So grow them in your garden or your areas wherever you could find. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. That’s right. Just something to, you know…

Allen Wazny: Did you grow that? 

Aleks Bradasevic: Luckily, no, I didn’t, but luckily, I didn’t have to. But we were still kind of like doing research on it. Cause when we were starting to put out that stuff on Instagram to everybody, just kind of trying to give people some good… 

Allen Wazny: Like a nursery. Like a nursery, you create a tree nursery or whatever. That’s actually….  But outdoor or indoor. 

Aleks Bradasevic: I think it would have to be a little bit of both. I mean, I got a lot of space in my backyard, so I was just going to either look at building up some garden beds and start doing that.

Allen Wazny: Well, Aleks, we’re breaking up here a bit. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Can you hear me? 

Allen Wazny:  There it is. Now you’re back now. It was kind of going all [18:14 inaudible]. So you’ve got space in your back. I mean, see this is what I say, Aleks, this is why we need to have these chats. Because there’s video, you’ve got a yard. Get the camera going, show the early stages. I don’t know if you’ve heard a guy called Gary Vaynerchuk. So Gary V would say, Aleks, get on the garden, start digging. You’ve already said that several times on this podcast, start digging, showing that early stages, here’s our nursery coming together, the little plants, whatever. And you know, we got some diapers on over here, but you know what I mean? And just show that real early film and then next spring, when you’ve got the plants, you can start that side business. Even if you have the landscaping going full tilt. I don’t know. I think it’s pretty cool. I’d never heard of that. It’s actually really brilliant. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. It was just kind of like a spur of the moment type of thing, really. Cause we were again trying to keep everybody positive and happy. Cause every time you like read the news or anything, it’s just like new cases, everything, this, everything that, and people are just like, oh man, like this is brutal.

Allen Wazny: Could you do Christmas trees? Could you do? Okay. Houseplants is one thing, but Christmas trees? 

Aleks Bradasevic: Probably not. It would just be something like super small and easy to kind of manage. 

Allen Wazny: It’s a side hustle. You can work on your side hustle. We can bounce ideas later. So how big is your staff, the teams, your partners, what have you got?

Aleks Bradasevic: So I’m pretty small when it comes to like landscaping people. It’s myself, obviously Hannah, who does all my marketing and then just a couple of contractors here and there. I don’t have any full-time staff just because unfortunately. Don’t have enough sustainable revenue to have another person with me full time. And as well as well, since everyone’s getting paid to stay home, you can’t really pick up guys on every now and then.

Allen Wazny: Right. But let’s look at, cause I’m looking here, I’m looking at, I’ve got your Instagram opened and I like, so do you learn the aesthetics of a yard cause you’re doing the landscaping. When someone gets a new home in certain areas of the city and have you done work like that, it looks like you got some photos up where you do the whole shaping of the yard and you do all, not just grass.

Aleks Bradasevic: So I have done like sod installs and the works for that. I do work with a landscape architect who kind of does like majority of the designs if need be. Yeah, I have done some of that work myself.

Allen Wazny: Cause you got the big chipper; do you have that big woodchipper? Do you have one of those?

Aleks Bradasevic: No. No. I only try and stick, I’m trying to keep my focus too strictly like lawn care and like monuments and property maintenance. So I’m trying to stay away from like, cutting down big trees and doing up decks, fences and all that stuff. Cause like you could literally do a million different things with landscaping

Allen Wazny: So the focus, it is just your focus and do one thing well, and then scale from there. I mean, is training a big thing for, for me I just know how to cut grass and I know how to snow and shovel, but not everyone does.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, no, it’s actually kind of funny how many people like that just kind of come in and they’re like, oh yeah, I’ve done this before. And you know, I can definitely handle this kind of stuff. Breaking up again. Sorry. How about now? 

Allen Wazny: I think that’s good. So you were saying what some guys say, yeah, I can do it, but…

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, usually when you put them out in the field to do the work…

Allen Wazny: We can keep record the two together. I’m going to reconnect you Aleks. Hey Aleks, welcome back.

Aleks Bradasevic: Hey Allen, how are you? 

Allen Wazny: Yeah, it’s better. I really want to get on this training thing. Cause I think it’s important even on something seemingly so simple as mowing the grass or shoveling the walk.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. So with me with training and all that stuff, because I typically like to do things a certain way. And just because you’re using like commercial equipment, they do tend to like skip a lot. And there, I have seen places that do get kind of, let’s just say a short haircut time and time again. So there is like, a good amount of training involved just so you can like kind of get comfortable using the equipment and having like the processes to do everything right. So that like, I don’t know if you’ve seen the Instagram photos, but like to do those stripes, perfectly straight and to do the edging perfectly and all that. So it does take some time to… 

Allen Wazny: That’s that whole thing. If you go and then there’s that cutting the grass one way and the next time you reverse, it. Do you note that down or you can just see it when you come up?

Aleks Bradasevic: Well, the program that I use typically helps me like kind of keeps track. So yeah, for me, since I do majority of the clients myself, I mow it one way, one week and then mow it the other way the other week. Cause then, the grass grows a different way each week.

Allen Wazny: So let’s go, cause you said something that you’ve got, do you have a system like a tech or is there some tech involved?

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, I have like a client relations manager called jobber. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. 

Allen Wazny: I’ve heard of jobber. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. It’s awesome. Cause it’s actually like a Canadian company. And yeah, it’s super awesome. Like it keeps track of like all your clients, it helps you with like invoicing. It helps you with like logistics, everything.  So that’s the thing that, cause the biggest thing is like in the industry guys will say, yeah, I’ll be there this day. And then, they can either completely forget unless they like, are super organized. So this just helps me like keep organized and like, eliminate so much of like the backend work when you’re a small business.

Allen Wazny: So then I guess in terms of the post Covid period, you’re not, you don’t, it’s not like common areas have to be sprayed or clean cause you’re outside anyway, your work is, you kind of benefiting from that part of it.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. Yeah. But needless to say, I do carry like, the wet wipes and the hand sanitizers and stuff for that. Cause when you are dealing with things outdoors, it can be things like trash. It could be whatever the deal may be, then you’re like, oh man, like I don’t want to.

Allen Wazny: The touching. The touching points. Like the fence, you got to grab the fence. You got equipment, you’re exchanging, well, I don’t know if they’re exchanging rakes or shovels in wintertime such as a big deal, but in the summer, you’ve got, you probably should have the gloves in and cleaning stuff as well.

Aleks Bradasevic: And then if you’re doing like cleanups and all that stuff, there’s a lot of dust out there. So obviously having like a mask tends to help.

Allen Wazny: So now you don’t look so goofy, goofy. Why is that guy wearing a mask? Cause now it’s like, his mask is really easy, got a designer mask. I think you’re going to have to get something made with the rainfall logo on it.

Aleks Bradasevic: I was actually thinking about that. Cause yeah, someone complimented me on like the mask I was wearing. I’m like, Oh, okay, well that could be another avenue. 

Allen Wazny: I always wear this mask.

Aleks Bradasevic: Mike, I was born with this mask.

Allen Wazny: So I guess with the whole sort of, small business, I liked that fact the job, I’ve seen the ads for jobs, but I didn’t realize it. Do you have an app, or would it be something, cause you can get apps now they’re virtually the same price as an easy software, like cheap? I don’t know if you’re using one or if that’s really important.

Aleks Bradasevic: So for me, I kind of wanted to, again, when I was starting out, I’m like for me, I really wanted to make it easy for clients to kind of interact and just have, where we don’t have to like exchange, ask for a check or whatever that they have like the option because everyone’s kind of going digital anyway. So I was looking for this program and jobber actually ends up having, you have like a desktop version, you also have a mobile version and the mobile version and the mobile version you can add….

Allen Wazny: It’s like an App anyway. 

Aleks Bradasevic: So you can add people. So like it’s really good for when you are having either contractors or employees, you can keep track of like how they’re progressing throughout the day. If they’re having any issues. You can kind of, this was really handy for us, especially in the snow time, because if one guy was getting super bogged up and the other guy was working, at a decent pace, then you can just kind of move some jobs from one guy to the other guy. And then that way everything’s just kind of… 

Allen Wazny: So it’s like, yeah, it’s like an efficiency or look at productivity. Then you can kind of shift your resources that way. If I was looking bigger and if I was ULS or someone, I would look at the data and telling me what you just said but looking at the analytics on a workforce of 10, 15, 20 guys, and then you shifting. So predicting, you know, cause if you take, I’m not going to get too off track here for you, but that AI or machine learning, it says, Aleks, look what you did last six months. Here’s where your people and it forecasts or predicts where you guys should move. And you’re a small team. It’s not a big issue. But if you just scale that up, how could Aleks scale? Well Aleks, I would think of, you run a bunch of videos and showing how to do that trimming. Cause it’s not easy. I’m telling you; I’m looking at you and I’m looking at your website or your Instagram, those whippersnappers, they’re not people cut, you can see when they cut it too short. 

Aleks Bradasevic: That’s right. Yep. 

Allen Wazny: I still have no clue how to get that right. Or that changing that stupid, what is it? Plastic, the wire. What size fits, I’m telling you, that’s an age-old problem. Like you can’t Google it. I mean, maybe you can now. But it’s difficult, how to bump it, when you bump it and then it spits out the next level of the wire, how to get that perfect.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. No, I actually never thought about going to that simplicity of a level, but it’s definitely something to explore for sure. 

Allen Wazny: Well you tag it on, you can tag it onto your website or whatever it is. Here’s how to the small things. Cause if you help that guy who’s, just whatever he’s busy and doesn’t have the time or, but he just wants to get it done, later he’s going to remember that. If he sees, Aleks said that little clip and like, and then when he’s got a bigger yard and he moves up, he moves from downtown into a bigger place. There’s suddenly he remembers your name. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, exactly. That’s actually a really good idea.

Allen Wazny: Cause that’s just a simple, stupid thing. How do you get it off? Like you twist it, the Briggs and Stratton, those yellow orange, they’re kind of, and I’m like, wow, I literally, Aleks, I’m just reliving a nightmare. And I don’t know if there’s many guys like me and maybe they’re not, but I love garden work. I love that how to…

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, no for sure. I mean, the equipment that we use is obviously like commercial grade. So it tends to be a little less, a little more simpler and less complex. Like I’ve seen some of like the residential trimmers and all that stuff. And they have that like weird arch in it and people are just kind of awkwardly using it. So I was just like, oh man, like I would just end up just getting one that’s completely straight. And then that way you kind of avoid that awkwardness when you’re trimming. Cause I think that’s where people struggle the most because they’re like, I don’t even know why they have that to be honest. 

Allen Wazny: The curve at the end. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah like that unnecessary curve in my opinion.

Allen Wazny: Well then, I’m looking okay, I’m sorry to belabor this, but I’m looking at you, you said industrial and you know, some of them, they have this big, heavy, cause they’re the kind of on the lower back, the longer you use those weedeaters you’re holding that thing. Cause that thing is bottom heavy, whatever, that one part is really heavy. Cause it’s the engine and the tank. Do you have something special for the lower back?

Aleks Bradasevic: You can get like straps for it. There’s products that are available, but I haven’t found any that will ship up to Canada unfortunately. There’s a bunch of stuff like, cause I follow a bunch of guys in the States and they have like access to like a whole arsenal of landscape products and all these like different attachments and whatnot. And I’m like, Oh, it’d be great to have that up here. But unfortunately, I haven’t found any company that kind of…

Allen Wazny: What about an extendable one? Like an extendable so that you don’t have to bend over and it’s just this comfort movement. I don’t know. Cause I’m looking at you, it’s seamless, but if you’re short guy or tall guy or you are little, whatever it is, holding that weedeater for a long time, long period of stretch, and I’m thinking really long periods of places where you got a lot of grass, industrial kind of zone. 

Aleks Bradasevic: So for those places you would definitely get a different kind of weedeater. They would be like one that kind of it basically has two straps that go around your back and then it has, what do you want to call them little handles on both sides and you just, Jesus and you just…

Allen Wazny: Well you got to work. I know you have to work. Yeah. So it’s kind of like this big one where you’re kind of, it’s got two handles and you’re gripping like a little different than a little, I understand what you’re saying. And it’s more favorable to your muscles or whatever. 

Aleks Bradasevic: It alleviates all the pressure from like your shoulders and just kind of puts it more towards your like your back and then you can just kind of pivot and rotate to cut all those. Yeah. I’ve seen guys doing that.

Allen Wazny: So Aleks, [32:10 inaudible] of your time, the phone’s ringing for you. You’ve got SMS’s coming and all that. But look, any final words, like some words of wisdom for landscaping people out there or people at home? I don’t know clients, your potential clients.

Aleks Bradasevic: So with like potential clients, I would just kind of let them know that like, because of the landscape industry is so broad and diverse, you are going to get a range of different types of skill levels with guys. And that will kind of like vary with, big companies, small companies. So I would say at the end of the day, just kind of be open to like meeting with people and just kind of like getting to know who they are and how they do processes. Cause if they’re just kind of looking to like kind of get in and out, then that’s exactly the kind of quality you’re probably going to get from them. And if they actually take the time to like meet with you and do all this stuff and their pricing is a little bit more than the other guy, but they’re putting in the effort, then you kind of know what you’re going to be getting for the price that you’re paying.

Allen Wazny: It’s funny because if you think of, here’s what I’ve done.  So you showcase that, that’s one thing. But I heard that in terms of, so let’s say your yard, you’re great for his yard, but what about my yard? So people’s yards are different. So you might show visuals for the 10 different yards. And the guy’s like, well, I’ve got this edge over here and I’ve got this grade. How are you going to deal with that, Aleks? And it’s like, well the picture show the work. No, from what you just said is, you kind of, I think you’re meeting them and you’re talking through that. It gives that different edge as opposed to, well, my photos say enough, but my yard’s not like those 10 photos or whatever it is.

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah. I mean, obviously every yard is different. There are yards that I cut that are like complete almost like 45-degree inclines. So in order to get like, everything looking smooth and dandy, you do have to like kind of be wary of that. But that’s unfortunately the way the cookie crumbles. 

Allen Wazny: So you just remind me, because the golf courses, and I know, they use, the guys [34:17 inaudible], they drive in the machine, they have the big ride mower thing.  Do you have ride mowers?

Aleks Bradasevic: We don’t have any large clients enough to kind of justify purchasing a large Ride on Mower. 

Allen Wazny: But those are fun. Come on.

Aleks Bradasevic: Those are the best. If you got clients that are all ride on mowers, like you’re on easy street. 

Allen Wazny: Well Aleks really thanks for your time today and your dog and everyone else. And Hannah, Hannah, when you listen to this, I love the visuals. And I think the work you guys are, I don’t really have much I can say, but I think really, I like this profession, I don’t know what it is about what you guys do, but it gets me excited, but I guess it’s just that the shovel and pick or axes or whatever it is, is it’s great. And that you’re in a great profession. And I think you’re always, there’s always a need for you. 

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, and that’s the beauty thing, right? So the grass is always going to grow. You’re always going to get snow.

Allen Wazny: The grass is always greener. The grass is greener on this side. Don’t worry about it over there. We got it. We got you covered

On this side. That’s actually great. Okay Aleks we are good. Stay safe and good luck with the rest of the [35:31 inaudible].

Aleks Bradasevic: Yeah, for sure. Thank you for having me on here.

Allen Wazny: My pleasure. Take care. Bye bye.

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