Fay-Ark Lawn Goes from Small but Growing to Multimillion-Dollar Dreams with Aspire

Amanda Rhodes remembers what life was like at Fay-Ark Lawn Co. before it added Aspire as its software.

“Goodness,” Rhodes said. “Chaotic. Drowning. We were tired a lot. We were busy and couldn’t keep up. There was a lot of misinformation for our guys because we couldn’t keep up.”

Worse, the business was losing money due to missed opportunities or software inefficiencies. Things were so hectic that Fay-Ark, a Fayetteville, Arkansas, residential and commercial landscaping business that recently entered the commercial landscaping construction market, couldn't keep up with the time spent on jobs, tracking, waste, and drive time.

“We felt like we had the best crew, a great procedure, a great mentality and drive,” Rhodes said. “So what was happening? Where did we have a lapse in the business?”

Careful study led to one place: the CRM software.

Fay-Ark found its solution with Aspire, the cloud-based software for landscaping and commercial cleaning businesses. Adding Aspire in March of 2024 turned the ship, which now is headed in the right direction.

“Aspire is our game changer,” said Rhodes, who informally calls herself the vice president and helps run the business with her boss, Eric Hill. “It’s exactly what Eric and I have been waiting and looking for to help take our company to the next level.”

From $1.2 million in revenue to… 

The numbers tell the story. When Rhodes joined Fay-Ark in early 2022, the business was doing $1.2 million with the old software. By bringing new ideas and skill sets together, the team was able to increase revenue to grow in 2023 while studying its options.

With Aspire, the business has taken off. Fay-Ark expects to hit $3.2 million, an increase year-over-year of 28%–after only eight months.

“We started to see numbers within the first month, the first few weeks, and every time we saw one thing, we were excited to get to the next,” Rhodes said. “Then you could marry the two and, oh my gosh, we could see something else.

“It gave us a way to support our company, protect our company, and bring in the value that we know is inside to the outside so that our clients could feel it too.”

That impact, plus the insight she has gained from peers who use Aspire at the Ignite user conference in August, has Rhodes thinking that the company’s goal of eventually hitting $10 million is modest. 

“I told Eric our goal needs to be $20 million to $30 million easy,” she said. “Because I'm looking at the people I'm networking with, and I'm seeing what they're doing, and we're doing the same things.”

Not bad for a business that began in 2018 when Hill started mowing lawns out of college. As that business grew, Hill started buying plants from Rhodes to do some landscaping.

“We developed a friendship and a professional working situation,” Rhodes said. “And when we decided to put those two things together, everything just kind of took off.”

Commercial, continuity, and community

Fay-Ark now specializes in property maintenance and landscape installs and is about 60-40 commercial to residential. With Aspire’s help, Fay-Ark was able to land two large commercial contracts, which will be complete by the end of 2024.

“The ability to turn around a quick quote and a proposal for these guys and to present it in a well-reasoned manner (was huge),” Rhodes said. “Give them every bit and piece that they need. Upon approval, we were able to get them scheduled.

“It was seamless, and they loved it.”

While growing, Fay-Ark has tried to maintain its traditional approach, which recognizes the team is as important as any employee and that the company is part of a larger community.

In May 2024, tornadoes swept through Benton County, about 30 miles north of Fayetteville. The Fay-Ark team did not hesitate.

“Our guys were ready to go,” Rhodes said. “We loaded up five trucks, every chainsaw, piece of equipment, skids that we had. And we hit the road. We went up to Bentonville, got into one neighborhood, and started helping people out. And it went from there. It lasted about three weeks. There were multiple colleagues of ours who did the same thing, and we all just joined together to help our community.

“I would like to think that any of us would've done the same thing when they knew it was our friends and family.”

Warp-speed onboarding, with support

Fay-Ark was so intent on maximizing what Aspire offered it did its onboarding in 90 days, which some may call warp speed. Rhodes said it was hectic but worth every second, in part because of the support offered by Aspire.

“If somebody is worried about coming onto Aspire because they're overwhelmed and worried that it's going to be a lot of work, I would want to tell them, ‘Don't worry about it,’” she said. “You're going to have a community of people around you. You're going to have an implementation manager right there every day talking with you going through this. And it's so incredibly smooth of a transition.”

Rhodes has also made the best use of what she calls Aspire’s “community of members” to gain help and insight.

“It's absolutely worth it to switch to Aspire,” Rhodes said. “It's worth it to put in the sweat equity. It's worth it to put in the time. It's worth it.”