Applying properties all over Northern Illinois for 20 years we have racked up miles and experiences.

Yes, after 20 years of business this year, we have a lot to be thankful for. Even after years like this, the rainiest year, yet we still keep our promise of the way it should be.  Seems like just yesterday we were driving around an old rusty 1987 yellow and green Barefoot Grass van, rechristened at 200+ thousand miles to be the first Aaron’s Greenscape flagship.

The idea of doing it the way it should be was hatched the previous year in 1997 by several customers of the company Aaron worked for at the time, who wanted more than what their current company’s products and application techniques offered. Many times, the right course of action couldn’t be followed because he lacked the ability with what was available from the company he worked for.  This happened from time to time and several customers encouraged Aaron to start his own business doing it “The way it should be done.”  Some of those early customers have been with us for now 20 years, thank you!  So, after that current company’s promises fell through, he knew it was time to seriously consider starting his own business.   

Planning out how to do this right and be a specialist, it was obvious that a certain volume had to be reached just to exist and we would have to have hundreds if not thousands of customers, so cheap effective marketing was going to be key. First and before we could sell anything, the vision for a lawn company that would be different had to be formulated.  So, in 1997 on a donated 10-year-old computer running Word, Aaron spent a better part of November and December thinking and putting down how his company would do things differently.  As he put that down on paper with a business plan, he also had to build an account card system to manage accounts on. That plan was enough for his family to encourage him to invest $3,500 in the newly incorporated business. 

Soon tougher times came calling that we all felt in 2008, but for Aaron, he had bigger concerns, slowly losing one of his biggest fans in his life, his father in November.  After months of focusing on him, driving to and from Madison, it was time to do what he could. There wasn’t much that could be done with the fact that the cost of fertilizer had more than tripled in price over that year, being caught up with the commodities going crazy. It took several years to unwind but we made it thanks to our loyal customers and some hard work and a bit more sweat equity.  Now looking forward to the future of the company that we have had the privilege to build and run with renewed growth there are some new ideas we have just rolled out and others on the horizon and may take several years to shake out.