🎙SMB15: From Backyard Installs to Scalable Lawn Care: How Nick Thompson Built Grounded Lawn

This is SMB15, a rapid-fire interview series featuring small business owners, investors and service providers. We dig into different industries, business models, and SMB topics. Hosted by Will Fry, founder of Mainshares.

Listen now on Spotify or YouTube.

When Nick Thompson launched Grounded Lawn, it started as a side hustle doing backyard installs, sod, rock, and hardscape projects for new Colorado homes. By 2021, he realized there was a bigger opportunity. Recurring maintenance wasn’t just steadier income; it was a more sellable business model.

In this episode, Nick shares how he turned Grounded into a profitable, scalable operation without relying on paid marketing or debt, while keeping a six-person team working year-round.

We talk about the realities of cash flow in a seasonal business, how reputation can grow through simple Google reviews, and why Nick believes buying a business is often easier than building one from scratch.

Some takeaways:

1. From installs to maintenance: Grounded started with project-based installs (median $20K–$30K jobs) before shifting to recurring lawn care for predictable revenue.

2. Recurring revenue wins: Weekly mowing (27–30 visits per client per year) turned one-off projects into year-round contracts.

3. Smart seasonality management: Winter months are filled with installs and snow removal, keeping W2 employees fully staffed year-round.

4. Route density = profitability: Each worker runs solo routes, covering 2–3 properties per hour, maximizing efficiency and reducing payroll bloat.

5. Tech + transparency: Using Lawn Buddy for routing, tracking, and customer communication helped streamline ops without marketing spend.

6. Culture of servitude: Grounded’s three values, Responsibility, Quality, Servitude, drive how they operate and win referrals.

7. Selling the business: Nick’s now preparing for an exit. His main lesson: zero to one is hardest—and buying an existing “engine” can be smarter than building one.

Where to find Nick and Grounded Lawn:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-thompson-b6915587/

• Website: https://www.groundedlawn.com/

In this interview, we discuss:

• 00:00 From backyard installs to Colorado lawns

• 00:45 Landscaping vs. hardscaping 101

• 1:20 Learning installs from his dad’s DIY projects

• 2:05 Targeting new builds during the COVID boom

• 3:00 Job sizes: $3K to $75K, most in the $20Ks

• 3:40 Why recurring maintenance beat one-off projects

• 4:25 Keeping six W-2 employees through winter

• 5:05 Snow removal as the off-season bridge

• 6:00 Over-communicating with customers

• 6:45 The 2021 pivot to recurring revenue

• 7:30 Route density: solo crews > teams

• 8:15 How Lawn Buddy powers daily ops

• 9:00 Splitting commercial vs. residential routes

• 9:40 Smarter gear: ramp racks, standers, no trailers

• 10:30 Lessons from late-night R&D

• 11:20 Grounded’s three values: responsibility, quality, servitude

• 12:00 Growth without marketing—just Google reviews

• 12:45 Nick’s role today: payroll and check-signing

• 13:30 Preparing Grounded for sale

• 14:15 “Buying is easier than building”

• 15:00 How to know if you’re wired to build

• 15:45 Final lessons on leadership and honesty