Steve Griggs transforms backyards into multimillion-dollar outdoor experiences. After 40 years in the landscaping industry, Steve has built a $5M/year design firm catering to high-net-worth clients—including lawyers, investors, athletes, and celebrities.

In this episode, Steve sits down with Ryan Atkinson to share the gritty reality of scaling a premium service business. From trimming bushes with his union-worker father in New York to starring on Bravo's Backyard Envy and authoring a best-selling book, Steve knows exactly what it takes to command top-tier prices. He explains why trying to be "good at everything" is a race to the bottom, why you should never just cut grass, and the exact strategy he recommends for landing your very first luxury client using nothing but a $500 investment and a yard sign.

If you're ready to stop competing on price and start becoming the undisputed expert in your market, this episode delivers the blueprint.

🎙️ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The Free Yard Sign Strategy: How to land your first high-paying customers by offering free, creative work in wealthy neighborhoods to trigger word-of-mouth referrals.

• Commodity vs. Creative: Why services like laying pavers or cutting grass kill your margins, and how to pivot to high-profit, creative planting where you charge for the outcome, not the flower.

• Managing Elite Clients: The "no excuses" approach to project management that wealthy clients demand when things inevitably go wrong on a job site.

• Trust and Verify: Steve’s golden rule for hiring a team and stepping out of the day-to-day labor so you can focus purely on sales, marketing, and brand vision.

Tags: Home Services, Service & Consulting, Business mindset, Business scaling, Luxury Landscape

Resources

Grow your business today: https://www.upflip.com/course/start-a-landscape-design-business

Follow Our Second Channel Here: https://next.upflip.com/spotify 

Connect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegriggsdesign