Do you know the Get, Keep, Grow methods? My guest today, Bryan Clayton, shares his experience in those methods through his growth and sale of a successful company and as the co-founder and CEO of GreenPal. He examines his strategies and experience with growing his previous and current businesses through the start-up, grow-up, and scale-up phases. Next, Bryan talks about the lessons he learned in growing his first business, and how he applies that to another business. He also discusses the nitty-gritty of selling a business, the mistakes he made, what he would do differently, and coming up with different game plans.

Bryan Clayton started his first landscaping business in high school with just a push mower. Over 15 years, he grew that business to over 125 employees, dispatching 90 trucks a day, and an annual revenue of over $7 million. After selling his business and retiring, Bryan realized he was wired to love business, solve problems, and be in the game. He used his problem solving skills to address issues in the landscaping industry and co-founded the mobile app GreenPal that connects homeowners with local lawn care providers.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• Bryan’s journey in creating and founding GreenPal
• Bryan’s experience with founding a business, working it as a lifestyle, to selling it
• Running a business as a lifestyle vs. planning to exit
• Working a five-year plan with the goal of selling
• Maximizing value from existing customers—“Get. Keep. Grow.”
• Using a broker with a niche
• Retaining employees by utilizing a family culture
• The difficulties in inventing and developing a brand-new technology
• Where the idea and vision for GreenPal came from
• Maintaining vendor and user satisfaction through problem solving
• Solution-based approaches to handling startup issues
• Bryan’s future game plan for GreenPal
• Founding a startup using your own capital vs. a venture capitalist

Links and resources mentioned during this episode:

• Connect with Bryan on Instagram
• Listen to Your Green Pal with Bryan Clayton podcast
• Give and Take by Adam Grant
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
• Lawn car service, GreenPal

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