Humble Beginnings

I founded Scott’s Quality Lawn Care in 2010 upon graduating from high school. I began working in lawn care two years prior in 2008 (during grade 10) for a family friend on his lawn mowing crew and I absolutely loved it!  This was in Tofield where I was born and raised.  He often told me, don’t be like me when you grow up. Well, little did he know that I wanted to be just like him! 

That is until 2010 when I expressed my interest to him in starting my own lawn care business.  I wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t step on his toes by entering a nearby market such as Sherwood Park or Camrose.  It just so happened that he was looking to get out of the residential side of the business and offered that I take over his 10-15 Tofield clients to get started.  This was an advantageous start that I will forever be grateful for.  I soon realized that a residential lawn care business would be tough to sustain in a smaller town so in 2011, I opted to additionally offer my lawn care services to the City of Camrose where I would come into the city on Tuesdays and Fridays. 

Camrose was a natural fit as I entered the Bachelor of Management Program with a major in Business Economics in the fall of 2010 at the U of A’s Augustana Campus.  Upon finishing my degree in 2014 I entered the lawn care business on more of a full-time basis.  Finishing my degree couldn’t come soon enough as I was eager to focus all my efforts on my lawn care company.  Gone were the days of trying to coordinate September mowing, October Fall Clean-ups and midterm exams all at the same time.  Not to mention, in April eagerly wanting to be done final exams so I could start spring clean-ups for my clients as soon as possible.  I was finally free to go out and help as many people as possible with their lawns and not be held back by other responsibilities. This is what I dreamed of all throughout the later years of my university days.

I also met my wife Meagan while attending university in my final year in the Fall of 2013.  We would later get Married in September of 2017 and she would play an instrumental role in helping me grow the company when she joined the company in the spring of 2017. More on this later.

The company grew quickly from 2014 onward.  I moved to Camrose full time in 2014 as I saw the need I could help fill in this great city.  I offered snow removal in the 2014-2015 season for the first time as I was no longer attending school.  I added my first full time summer employee in 2015.  I had previously had helpers in the spring, but never someone throughout the whole lawn care season.  By 2016 I had help year-round.  By this time, it was difficult to keep up with the demands of answering phones, emails, equipment maintenance, marketing etc. while still being on my clients’ lawns.  

By this point I wondered if I should selfishly just take on the clients that I had and not take on anymore, but the guilt of saying “no” to people who really needed the help was too great.  This is where things had to change if I was to continue helping more people.  During the winter of 2016, I began training my soon to be wife Meagan on all things customer service/sales and office operations related.  I could no longer be the one answering the phones and doing everything. I had to take a step or two back. She was also the one who had to convince me that this was needed.  For those who don’t know me, I can tend to be a bit on the stubborn side. She was instrumental in optimizing our software to work better for our business too.

In the Spring of 2017 we hired Matt Santos to work alongside Daniel who worked alongside myself the previous season.  This crew of 2 took care of all the residential mowing, and I took a step back on a separate crew mowing mostly the larger properties and some residential.  While the other crew was full out, I worked mowing for only about 5-6 hours a day. This was perfect as it freed me to do the other things in the business, and I no longer felt that what I was doing wasn’t sustainable.  I knew I couldn’t be on a crew forever and continue growing the business and helping more people.  Although, I love the work and selfishly wanted to be mowing, I knew I would need to get off the truck full time eventually.

In the Fall of 2017, we were approached by a company by the name of Pro-Lawn. Pro-Lawn exclusively offered Liquid Fertilization & Weed Control to Camrose and the surrounding communities.  Long story short, we finalized a deal to acquire them and by the spring of 2018 we were offering this service also.  I dedicated pretty much all of my time to managing the lawn mowing crews and spray crews.  It was no longer sustainable for me to be out on the crews as there was much more to manage now. 

Since this time, growth has been greater than I could have ever imagined.  I went from operating out of my parent’s home in Tofield in 2010, to a dorm room in 2011 where I would store my equipment at a friend’s, to a home-based business in Camrose in 2014, to a small office and shop in 2018, and then finally to a larger office and shop in 2020 which is still our current home.  

Since 2018 we have added managers for both the lawn mowing side and the spraying side.  This all would not be possible without the people and the timing of things.  My wife helped save me from a slippery slope of burnout in 2016/2017 and helped supercharge our growth and marketing efforts. The Pro-Lawn acquisition was instrumental in our growth, the ability to find the right people at the right times was also very timely and important.  Without the people who magically found their way into my life at the right times, none of this would have been possible.  I am very thankful for our crews, managers, and our office staff.  We truly have a unique and hardworking team here at Scott’s Quality Lawn Care.

Finally, I owe a huge thank you to the citizens of Camrose and surrounding communities.  When I was the new kid on the block in 2011, I was blown away by the support and how quickly people started to refer me.  In fact, I started as “Quality Lawn Care” but people kept saying things like, “you’ve got to get Scott” so naturally I switched to “Scott’s Quality Lawn Care” in 2013.  Without our clients, we would not have built anything special.  Thank you for your support and trusting our company with your lawn care needs whether you have been with us since the beginning or just signed up this season.  We truly appreciate your support!

Scott Kallal
Founder & President
Scott’s Quality Lawn Care

    Back to About Us