Key Takeaways:
RealGreen helps lawn care businesses scale from pen-and-paper operations to multi-million dollar success stories through integrated software that automates routing, customer management, and growth.
- Immediate Digital Transformation: Moving from manual processes to RealGreen's comprehensive platform enables businesses to handle exponential customer growth — from 300 to 3,000 customers — without operational chaos.
- 10x Growth in 3 Years: Yard Guard's revenue jumped from $200,000 to $2 million while expanding from 3 to 20+ employees, proving that the right CRM scales with your business rather than limiting it.
- Industry-Specific Functionality: RealGreen's robust routing, customer management, reporting capabilities, and integrations are purpose-built for lawn care operations — not generic solutions retrofitted for the green industry.
- Strategic Software Selection Matters: Choosing specialized lawn care software from day one prevents costly migrations and operational complications as your business grows.
- All-in-One Platform ROI: The right CRM pays for itself by streamlining team workflows and enhancing customer experience, while the wrong choice strains both operations and profitability.
Ready to see how RealGreen can transform your lawn care business from a small operation into a scalable, multi-million dollar company? Schedule a demo with our team to discover why industry leaders choose RealGreen as their growth partner.
The Company:
Montana-based Yard Guard offers lawn and tree care services, holiday light installation, and sprinkler blowouts. They have locations in Belgrade, Bozeman, and Livingston. Yard Guard was founded in 1993; they became a RealGreen customer in 2020.
The Problem:
When Yard Guard’s current owner Colin Engstrom purchased the company from its founder in 2020, the entire operation was still run using pen and paper. This old-school approach wasn’t going to work for a forward-thinking, growth-minded company in a booming location. “We have a really great market in Bozeman – it’s growing like crazy. People are moving here, and a lot of people have second homes here, too. It has created great growth opportunities for us,” said Yard Guard Office Manager Sidne Gardner.
The Solution:
“The previous owner had done a great job with the company. He had 300 very loyal customers that he serviced, which is great for a one-man operation but not at the scale where we wanted to grow,” continued Gardner. It was also immediately clear that the previous owner’s old-school style of running the business wasn’t going to work as the business scaled. “After Colin purchased Yard Guard, he moved all of our operations to RealGreen immediately – Colin learned from a previous experience that getting on the right software from the beginning will allow the business to scale with it rather than trying to add software later when operations are more complicated.
According to Gardner, Engstrom did research other potential software, comparing the strengths and drawbacks of each before ultimately selecting RealGreen because of its robust routing, customer management features, reporting capabilities, integrations, and overall functionality. “I don’t know of another software that can fully do what RealGreen does.”
The Results:
Booming growth in a booming town. In just three short years, Yard Guard has grown tenfold – in terms of customers, employees, and total revenue. Engstrom started with a team of three; the team now numbers upwards of 20, including CSRs, management, and technicians. The original 300 customers have increased to 3,000. And revenue, which stood at $200,000, has grown to $2 million.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about what your goals are for your business,” Gardner said. “We’ve seen other companies choose different software and then end up with false promises and less-than-stellar results. Picking a CRM for your business is a huge deal. The wrong one can put a strain on your team and your customer experience – but the right one will more than pay for itself. For lawn care businesses, RealGreen is the way to go!”
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