Client Feature: Evergreen Tree Care

Posted 10 Dec '15

Our quarterly client feature is one of our favourite segments as we get to celebrate small business in Brisbane and all the great learning’s and achievements our local business owners have made since making the decision to build their own Empire.

Evergreen Tree Care was one of Beth’s first clients and we love seeing their business grow every year. Evergreen is owned and operated by business partners Henk Morgans and Nick Smith. We sat down with Henk to find out more about Evergreen Tree Care and how the business started.

Q. How did Evergreen start?

A. After travelling and working in both Europe and America I returned home to Brisbane and noticed there was a severe lack or niche market for quality tree care (e.g. pruning and soil injections to maintain safe structure and reduce hazards from trees in suburban areas.)

I met Nick at a tree climbing competition and started working with the company he was working for, where we both decided we could do a better job on our own and hence Evergreen Tree Care was formed in 2011.

Q. What makes Evergreen different from other tree service companies?

A. We pride ourselves on being professional and the most up-to-date. We use cutting-edge technology for the best tree care. We have outstanding safety and training records and probably some of the highest skilled and accredited tree climbers and consulting Arborist’s in Brisbane.

Empire side note: Henk has also won multiple awards for representing Queensland and Australia various tree climbing competitions.

Q. Starting a small business can be challenging in today’s market. What is one thing you feel was a challenge for you and how did you overcome that?

A. You really need to focus on finding the right people to do the job no matter whether it’s working in your business, doing the books, your marketing or anything like that. You have to be extremely careful and know when things are working or not working so you can make the hard decision to either cut it or run with it.

Q. When did you start using The Empire for your business accounting and what differences have you noticed since working together?

A. I’m pretty sure we are one of Beth’s first clients and can honestly say without Beth and the team’s professional advice and help over the years we would not be in the situation we are in now.

I do remember the feeling of embarrassment as I handed over our scrappy poor excuse for accounting to Beth who smiled and slightly giggled before realising how much work was going to be involved to getting our books to a credible level.

Without good financial management and record-keeping you may as well shut the doors to your business straight away because how do you know whether you’re making money or loosing it.

Empire Accountants are the difference between our business becoming successful and profitable or a dismal failure. As awesome as we are at tree work, this wouldn’t make any difference because our books would not marry up or have the relevant information to make educated decisions about what to do next with our business plan.

Q. Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to start a business in Brisbane?

A. Make sure you have a clear decision about what your business can offer that sets you apart from anyone else. Stay true to what you’re good at and don’t loose focus of what is the most profitable part of your business and that is, supplying your customers with a good quality product that generates referrals.

We would like to thank Henk for his time and great advice for business owners in Brisbane. Evergreen specialises in the maintenance of trees in and around the Brisbane area. They offer Arborist reports (to find out whether or not that a tree is structurally sound and healthy) tree trimming and tree removals, pruning crews, soil injections for sick or insect infected trees.

To contact Nick or Henk for your tree care needs phone: 0414 815 688 or 0432 920 715