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    ScaleUp Success: Tim Ney of TNT Landscaping

    Tim Ney founded TNT Landscaping when he was just 15 years old. Back then, it looked like any other landscaping business run by a teenager, offering residential mowing and yard maintenance to his Blacklick neighbors at a cheaper-than-usual price. Fast forward seven years, and Ney now manages two trucks and three trailers, and TNT Landscaping is still growing.

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    As Ney evaluates his business plan, he’s working through the tricky phase of changing his pricing structure with longtime customers, as well as landing new opportunities within the commercial realm.

    “So many people look at me and this whole business as the neighborhood kid, because so many of my customers I’ve had since I was 15, and I’m trying to take away that image,” Ney said.

    Tim Ney
    Tim Ney

    Ney’s endeavor may have started out as a neighborhood kid trying to make some extra cash, but he made intentional steps to take the business further. Skipping senior year of high school, Ney went on to study business finance and earned his bachelor’s degree from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. After his graduation last May, Ney could finally channel all of his energy into growing TNT Landscaping.

    TNT now offers mowing and mulching, as well as a range of landscaping services focused on shrubs, flowers and trees. They’re dabbling in landscape design as well, and are looking to use their design skills to their fullest potential.

    Ney is inching into the commercial market, and as he does so, he’s balancing the needs and expectations of the clients he’s had since his teens, and structuring his business in a way that works for him and his employees.

    To help him along, Ney enrolled in the Entrepreneur Exchange program.

    TNTlogo“It’s focused on my business,” Ney said. “Obviously when I went to college, you have all those different case studies, so it wasn’t my business — I was always studying others. The thing that ScaleUp does is it breaks it down into a small business.”

    Ney is learning ways to streamline and formalize TNT landscaping. With the help of his business coach, as well as the other entrepreneurs in the program, he’s developing his mission statement, setting goals, and laying out policies and procedures. At the same time, he’s learning about hidden expenses, analyzing his business, and seeing where he can make more and spend less.

    In the near future, Ney wants to add two more trucks and two more trailers. As he pushes further into the corporate market, though, he’s aiming to add 10 maintenance trucks and five landscaping crews in the next five years.

    For more information, visit landscapingincolumbusoh.com.

    To take the next step in scaling up your business, visit YourManagementTeam.com/EE to apply and learn more about the Entrepreneur Exchange Program, funded by SBA ScaleUp America.

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    YMTlogo

    YMT Consultants is a microbusiness consulting and training firm providing monthly consulting and business development. We help microbusiness owners change their mindset, resulting in greater control of their business, increased revenue and bottom-line, and a strategic growth plan to achieve their “big-picture” vision for them and their business.

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