Exploring Life & Business with Ziquine Hopkins of EDGE – Turf Spa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ziquine Hopkins.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The road to EDGE has been long, rough, and rugged. To understand where the company is now, we have to go back to EDGE’s humble beginning. My wife and I are fans of Shark Tank and would watch everyday ordinary people walk in with an idea and walk out with an investor, fast forward and they would share their success stories.

We would try to think of great ideas, problems we could solve, and how we could walk our own path but could never materialize anything. When we purchased our home, I was excited to do yard work, cut the grass, rake the leaves, all the above. However, the grass our builders gave us was in far less than ideal conditions. It was heat stressed, water-deprived and malnourished, not how newly laid sod should be.

From there, I went to work to transform our yard from the lackluster green, patchy turf into a thick beautiful lawn. My neighbors would see how I kept the yard cut. How it was slightly starting to change and would ask if I could cut and maintain theirs. Then another neighbor would ask, another would admire. I enjoyed the maintenance and watching the turf go from one state to another.

Soon I thought why not broaden my reach, make this a side thing/hobby. I made a post on our community website asking if anyone needed their lawn cut and got great responses. Once I compiled a few clients I was all in, I wanted this to be something, I wanted to carve a path, I didn’t know it, but EDGE was being born. I spent the next few weeks coming up with a name, built a website (SetTheEdge.net), hired a graphics team to help create a logo, formed an LLC and created an Instagram page.

All of this yet, I only had an electronic push mower from Walmart and a blower/weed wacker of the same brand. The early days of EDGE were filled with hot days and hard work manually pushing each yard I would encounter alone. The equipment was less than ideal but it is all I had at the time. There were a few clients that showed grace as the battery-operated equipment would sometimes lose power mid-job and I would have to return to finish.

There were some jobs that completely outclassed what EDGE was capable of at the time which would put a cap on the work that could be taken in. Profit margins were non-existent as any revenue would go into overhead and improving equipment. Slowly but surely, I was able to upgrade to stronger commercial gas-powered mowers, commercial weed eaters, blowers, edgers, etc.

With time things really started picking up, gained commercial contracts, built a strong list of clientele, and was able to bring in help for the rapidly increasing job requests for larger jobs. Things started growing a bit too fast whereas I couldn’t fit jobs into my schedule, equipment needed to be rented, and for that equipment trucks needed to be rented. As the company was growing, the overhead would grow also.

Now all equipment used is fully owned by EDGE, no more truck rentals, fewer equipment rentals, and EDGE are more profitable than ever before. I am grateful for those long hot sweaty days and hopeful for what the future brings to EDGE. God has blessed us with amazingly vibrant earth and has blessed me with the opportunity to maintain and keep his creation beautiful, while also supporting my family.

Without him, EDGE wouldn’t be possible.

Set. The. EDGE.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Simply put, no, the road has not been all smooth.

There were days I didn’t think I could keep EDGE going. Days I would do more work thank profit. Days where the equipment would fail. Days where I could not complete the jobs I was hired for.

Days that I had to turn down business because I didn’t have the resources to do it. Demand was big but my bandwidth was low.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
EDGE is in the business of Turf care and landscaping. Yes, there are tons of other businesses that are in the same market but what EDGE does that helps set it apart is we edge the lawn.

That may sound so small but how many times have you seen a house with a nice cut but the grass bleeds over the driveway a bit? Or you go to the grocery store and it hangs over the curb. Better yet, the side of the streets and highways… It’s cute but it’s not edged.

Edging is one of those small details that’s often overlooked by the big companies cause it can be time-consuming or the average homeowner doesn’t own an Edger. EDGE ensures that is done each and every time, that detail makes the yard pop and gives it that extra clean look.

EDGE also cuts in a diagonal pattern where applicable versus the traditional vertical/horizontal cuts often seen. This also allows the finished Turf to stand out and catch the eye.

Pricing:

• Pricing varies from job to job but EDGE offers a free consultation.
• Our “Wacked package (Mow, Wack, Edge, Blow)” is the most popular and a quarter acre is around $40.

Contact Info:

• Website: SetTheEdge.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/set.the.edge/