Jeff Heller, president, Innovative Maintenance Solutions, Indianapolis, Indiana
Green Industry Pros: Can you talk to me about your journey of how you first got started in the green industry up to now?
Jeff Heller: It was back in 2005. I was working for a national maintenance company, doing all sorts of different types of maintenance, primarily landscaping and snow. I was with them for seven years, and then for a year, I was with a local landscaping company here in Indianapolis and assisted with their landscaping operations, but my primary work was as the winter services manager. Then in 2012, I formed Innovative Maintenance Solutions and have been doing it for the past 12 years.
Green Industry Pros: How has your company evolved throughout the years?
Heller: It was grown totally organically. I did not purchase an existing business. I operate throughout the state of Indiana, doing virtually anything related to commercial maintenance, but landscaping and snow are roughly about half of my revenues. With my time at the national maintenance company, I had built a pretty solid list of contractors that could help me in other parts of the state, outside of the Indianapolis area. I stayed out of the retail environment. All of my experience with the national maintenance company was in the big box retail arena, and I didn't really want to compete in that space. I started working with various businesses, and it was just a slow and methodical growth. It was very pinpointed and structured. I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to stay away from, and we just built our reputation based on what we did well.
Green Industry Pros: What have some of your challenges been, and how have you overcome them?
Heller: Like most of the solid companies in our industry, we are a service first company. We don’t chase price. We walked away from more business than we took on because we wouldn't compete on price. So, in the last couple of years, when all of the COVID funding dried up, it's been a challenge to be able to continue to sell and maintain our customer base with the value-add proposition, as opposed to just having to continually lower prices.
It’s also always been a challenge to retain employees, but I think we've done that pretty well. We have been very purposeful when we brought employees on to give them a career path and integrate them into our culture so that they felt like they had a purpose, and it wasn't just a paycheck.
Green Industry Pros: Throughout your time in the industry, what’s been your favorite part?
Heller: My background has always been in account management across several different industries, and what I enjoy is taking an account from a prospect to a client and then growing the services offered within that. I take great pride in being able to build and maintain relationships and not be a transactional type of company where we do a job, collect the pay and move on. We like to build relationships.
Green Industry Pros: On the flipside, what could the industry use more of?
Heller: We need more companies out there that are providing services based on a value proposition, and not just not chasing prices downhill and cutting corners to be able to maintain their margins and treating all their customers as though they are just a transaction in the course of the day. I think we could be a much stronger industry if more companies were providing value-add services and selling a value proposition, as opposed to just being the low price provider in their market.
Green Industry Pros: What’s been your favorite tool or piece of equipment to get the job done?
Heller: We’ve always been a big proponent of LMN. The advent of software that's been developed by somebody who has been in the industry and understands what the green industry and the snow industry need to run a successful business has probably been the biggest game-changer for me.
Green Industry Pros: What advice would you give other landscape contractors?
Heller: Know your numbers inside and out. Understand what your costs are, understand what your pricing structure needs to be to be profitable and understand and be able to read a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet.
Green Industry Pros: And outside of work, what do you like to do in your free time?
Heller: I like to read a lot. I'm a voracious reader, and I'm a marathon runner. I've done your Cleveland marathon over there a couple of times that finishes by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was a competitive runner in high school and college, so took it back up again in my 40s. I've done 12 marathons and probably about 60 half-marathons.
To read, I like anything self-improvement and autobiographies and anything business related. I'll mix it up every once in a while and throw a John Grisham book in there to read.
Green Industry Pros: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Heller: It's great to be in this industry. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a career that just likes to do different things each day, likes to be outside, and likes working with the crew.
