My name is Stephen Lipscomb II. I am not much of a BLOG kina guy, but a recent attack upon my character by a crazy lady has forced me to become one.
I am 48 years old and have lived in the Fredericksburg area since 1968. I graduated from King George High School in 1981. I had the privilege of playing on the first King George football team to not win a game the entire season.
I graduated with a 4 year Bachelor of Science degree from Mary Washington College in 1985. My major was Computer Science. In 1985, I married my high school sweethart Debra Sue Payne. We are still married and have been together since 1979. In 1990, my only child Stephanie was born. She now attends University of Mary Washington. She is now a senior and will keep the perfect record of my entire family graduating from this fine school.
I worked for NSWC in Dahlgren, Virginia as a civil servant and contractor from 1985 to 2000. I found that I did not care for the desk life. I worked there for 15 years with the dream of some day becoming my own boss.
In 1992, I rented an aerator with a friend to aerate our lawns and splitting the rental fee. I had the idea to share the aerator with strangers. In 7 hours we made nearly $800. I was hooked. My friend and I started L&H Lawn Service, Inc. that year and ventured out to conquer the world one lawn at a time.
My partner did not last long, but I was not detered. I was hooked on the long hours and hard work. The reward was being my own boss and going in the direction that I wanted to go. A few years later, I changed the name to TLC, The Lawn Company. This seemed more catchy.
In 1999, a good friend of mine approached me about purchasing a local national lawn franchise dealership that he had purchased in 1993. I jumped at the chance. I purchased the franchise for $210,000. This was $40,000 more than my house. The kicker was that no equipment or building came with the puchase. Only the permission to use the name and logo. Despite this, I quit my job in 2000 and never looked back.
By the end of 2010, I had given this national franchise 10 years of my life. The venture had cost nearly $500,000. Although my bills had been paid and my credit score remains perfect, I had little else to show for it. In early 2011, I decided to venture out on my own. The company was renamed Firefly Lawn Company. My wife had came up with the name and I had my niece illustrate the logo. The change over cost me nearly $100,000, but it was worth it.
In any small business, cheating people is suicide. There is now way a cheater can stay in business for nearly two decades. I have always prided myself on being fair and trying my best to give people what they want.
Having said this, there are some people out there that are bent on destroying everything they come across. We all know some people like this. A friend once said "You will be dealing with the great unwashed." I cannot agree more. I try my best to work with people like this, but often it ends ugly and the courts have to be asked to settle the disagreement. It is unfortunate, but that is the way it is.
We perform over 10,000 services per year. I have had nearly 400 employees since 1992. We have nearly 1000 customers at this time. We put most of the money we take in back into our local economy.
After the cyber attack, I approached many of my customers about offering testimonials. With out exception, they all wanted to respond to that.
I have the following testimonials that will attest to what we stand for here at Firefly Lawn Company:
"I’ve lived here since the 1960’s. My lawn has never looked this good."
Simon Daryl – 2 year customer – manassas
"I’ve been a customer since 1993. Steve has always followed through and gone above and beyond on anything I’ve ever asked of him."
Gary Nicely – Locust Grove
"I’ve tried to get a lawn here for 5 years. Steve comes in and turns it around in 6 months. He did it cheaper than doing it myself. What more could I ask?"
Bill Cook – Spotsylvania
"I gave Steve the 8 months he wanted to improve my lawn. I just did not turn out the way I wanted. I told him this and he gave me a full refund the THE YEAR! Can’t beat that!"
Stan Crawford – Fredericksburg
"My mower broke and I called Steve. He loaned me his personal mower for two weeks while the shop fixed mine."
Richard Morris – Stafford
I sincerely hope you will question any negative reviews you see and look at both sides of the story.
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