Thom Holley, owner of Holley's Landscaping in Valparaiso, knew at an early age that hard work paid off, starting in middle school with a push mower mowing individual lawns to earn some spending money.
"As a kid, you want to have some money to spend, and I understood you gotta work to earn it," he said. But he had no idea, however, the passion that it would light inside of him to learn about everything green, landscape design, and building a strong business around him with a team of hard workers just like him.
"I started with one push mower, and then bought more mowers as I grew the business, and had the opportunity to work on larger jobs.," Holley said. "St. Andrews Church gave me an early chance, and believed in me, that helped me take the next step. I started taking more classes, and learning all about the plants, the design, and everything I could. Almost became an obsession for me."
Building out the team has been as important as building his knowledge, and both aspects of the business require near every waking minute of his time, almost a decade since his first mowing jobs began. Now with three full crews and a fourth in development, the company provides everything from routine residential and commercial mowing, landscape maintenance, and snow removal services, to advanced landscape designs and a growing hardscape business using pavers and landscape stone to create incredible outdoor environments.
"You're always learning, both from what works and what does not," he said. "You earn your reputation by the work you do every day. Growing a business is hard work, and you need good people around you and you need to keep investing in your business. More equipment, more knowledge, more people."
On the landscaping end of things, Holley's works on new and existing home construction, new lawn installations, full landscape designs, maintenance, mulching, irrigation, and aqua scapes. In the fast growing end of the business that is building the hard aspects of outdoor designs, they create outdoor patios, walkways, fire pits, brick pizza ovens, and a variety of landscape walls and structures.
You can check out some of the latest projects on the Holley's Landscaping Facebook page, their Partner Profile on ValpoLife.com, contact them via holleyslandscaping@yahoo.com, and can reach them at the office (219) 299-2768.