Kendel White Part 1: A $100 Truck, a Sears Credit Card, and the Beginning of K&D Landscaping
Trades Talk PodcastShow Notes
This week on Trades Talk, Justin White sits down with the K in K&D, his dad Kendel White, co-founder of K&D Landscaping, for Part 1 of a two part father son conversation that traces the origin story of one of the premier landscape companies on the Central Coast. Kendel takes us all the way back to 1986. Twenty two years old, freshly married to Justin’s mom, working as a catering chef at Pajaro Dunes for nine bucks an hour, and looking around at his executive chef mentor pulling 60 hour weeks and thinking, ”there has to be a different way.” That different way started with a $100 rust bucket truck, a Sears credit card, a handheld blower, a weed eater, a Craftsman mower, and four residential yards at sixty dollars a month each. From that low bar of entry, K&D was born. In this episode, we cover:
How a $100 rust bucket truck and a Sears credit card became the company K&D is today The three simple rules Kendel still believes built it all — and why most contractors break them by Friday The Gary Haney quote on a job site trailer that shaped how Justin runs the business at 35 Why Kendel still takes the leads no one else wants — and closes them at twice the company average
Kendel’s biggest takeaway in Part 1 is simple. You do not need capital, a degree, or a master plan to build a landscape company that lasts. You need a truck that runs, a willingness to answer the phone, and the discipline to do what you said you were going to do every single day for thirty plus years. The compounding of those three things is what built K&D. This is the setup. Part 2 picks up in 2007 right before the recession hits, and Kendel walks us through draining retirements, second mortgages, surviving 2008, and how he handed the CEO title to a twenty five year old Justin while still in his fifties — a transition story most founders never get right. If you are starting out, scaling out of residential, thinking about how to bring family into the business, or wrestling with how to hand a company off without losing what made it great, this episode is the foundation. Come back next week for Part 2. JW Group Website: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/ Justin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinwhiteceo/ Justins Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@justinwhiteceo K&D Website: https://kndlandscaping.com/ K&D Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanddlandscaping/ Disruptors Community: https://www.skool.com/disruptors Disruptors Advantage Newsletter: https://disruptors-advantage.beehiiv.com/ 5th Annual K&D Water Summit: https://www.eventzilla.net/e/5th-annual-central-coast-water-summit-2138673574 Leanscaper: https://www.jwhitegroup.com/leanscaper
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