This Landscaper Uses His Bobcat Machines for Work and Play
Published on November 2, 2016
At the ripe age of 14, Todd Pugh was already cutting a path to his future — quite literally. Instead of sitting around the house or hanging with friends like most kids his age in Louisville, Ohio (pop. 8,000), he decided to take his future into his own hands.
“My mom, dad and grandparents instilled integrity, a strong work ethic and confidence that if I worked hard, I could do anything I put my mind to,” Pugh says. “I needed a way to earn some money, and I was not old enough to get a traditional job. After church one Sunday, I saw an elderly gentleman mowing his lawn, and my dad said ‘ride your bike down there after school on Monday and see if you can mow his lawn.’ It all started with that first $5.00 per cut lawn at 1813 East Main Street. Todd’s Lawn Care was born, which today is known as Enviroscapes.”
Finding the Right Machine
Pugh continued developing his business while attending college at Ohio State University. However, in order to grow and maintain a sustainable relationship with his clients, he needed to expand his equipment fleet.
“In 1992, I stumbled across an extremely large landscaping project, but I was in college at the time and had virtually no money,” he says. “I really wanted to pursue this project, but the only way I could do the job was if I had some equipment. So I visited Bobcat of Canton in Canton, Ohio, to rent a Bobcat® 773 skid-steer loader. After using the machine for a couple days, I dreamed of owning Bobcat equipment someday. Since I had this large project, the dream came to reality sooner than later when the Bobcat sales specialist set me up with a rental purchase agreement.”
Pugh was so impressed with the machine’s performance and dealership support that he purchased the skid-steer loader at the end of his rental program.
Achieving Success
Today, Enviroscapes is a multimillion-dollar landscaping business that has more than 200 crew members between its four Ohio locations and ranks in the top 1 percent of landscape companies nationwide. The company has been able to diversify and grow with its clients by adding a variety of landscaping equipment, including 10 Bobcat skid-steer loaders, two compact track loaders and more than 35 Bobcat-branded attachments. Approximately 70 percent of the company’s jobs consist of commercial grounds maintenance, 15 percent landscape construction and 15 percent commercial snow and ice removal.
“I started this business from nothing, so I always remember where I started from and the people who have helped us get to this point,” Pugh says. “I always say that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, or how smart you are — if you put your mind to something and you believe you can achieve it, you can and will be successful. Once you start to become successful you need to remember success is never owned; it is only rented, and the rent is due every day.”
Pursuing Hobbies
Pugh’s hard work has enabled him to pursue other passions beyond lawn care and landscaping, including raising, breeding and showing Hereford and Angus cattle across the country. Pugh enjoyed visiting his grandfather’s dairy farm as a child, so when his daughters began showing cattle for 4H Pugh decided to go all in.
“After being at these cattle shows, I decided that if I’m going to sit here, I might as well start buying some breeding stock,” Pugh says. ”I think you’ve got to build a business that allows some free time, and that’s why you take care of your people and you want your people to be engaged and to take ownership. Because, at the end of the day, what do you have if you don’t have something outside of work?”
Today, the Pughs have some of the top cattle in the country within their herd of nearly two dozen. The family raises the cattle on a hobby farm at the edge of town with the help of a Bobcat T650 loader, which transports hay and other supplies around the barn and pastures. The latest addition to the herd? A Texas Longhorn bull that Pugh had driven up from Texas earlier this summer.
“Some people have their Harley, some people have their bar they go to. Me? I go to the barn. I just like being out in the barn tinkering, working on fences, seeing the cattle.”
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