Wednesday, April 15, 1998 | 10:28 a.m.
Lewis Landscape Design started out with a $35,000 loan and is now a company with $9 million in annual sales.
The company regularly overcomes the challenge of creating appealing vegetation designs in the middle of the desert.
But what really sets Lewis Landscape Design apart is its commitment to its employees, say the firm's partners.
Jerry Bowlen, Robert Bracken and Scott Lewis, all partners in the company, were named Nevada's Small Business Persons of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration this week.
While the partners received the award, they are quick to credit the teamwork of the company's 230 employees as the foundation of the company's success.
"They (employees) can grow with this company," Bracken said. "They kind of write their own ticket. We give them a lot of leeway and a lot of freedom."
That in turn helps the company because clients see a consistent face in dealing with the company, Bowlen said.
That kind of loyalty has helped the company grow and diversify. When the company started in 1990, the emphasis was on high-end, master-planned residential clients on a design-build basis. Since then, the company has been able to ride the wave of Southern Nevada's construction boom of the 1990s.
Bowlen came on board in 1993 and is credited by his partners with allowing the company to procure commercial clients through his contacts with development giants Howard Hughes Corp. and Del Webb Corp. Work with those companies started with small projects.
"Once we showed them we were qualified we were awarded more contracts and it just grew and grew," Lewis said.
From there, the company further progressed to larger projects with resorts, landing jobs with Harrah's and the Flamingo Hilton.
Aware of the tenuous nature of boom times like the Las Vegas Valley is experiencing, the company is working with some of its clients to expand into Arizona and California.
"One of the biggest reasons we're licensed in other states is because of our relationship with strong clients here. We'd like to be able to go wherever they need us," Lewis said.
Bowlen said the company will seek to remain strong through pursuing maintenance work and retro-fitting projects.
While operating in a robust economy has been beneficial, the endeavor has not been without challenges. In the early days, the partners say many employees were taking home more pay than the partners as they sought to put as much money as possible back into the firm.
And then there's the challenge of landscaping in the desert.
"Landscaping in the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas is a challenge because of all the hostile environmental things here," Lewis said.
There is the combination of wind and heat that "blaze the life out of plants," Lewis said. And calichi, a rock strata almost like concrete in the ground, can make planting difficult.
"We have to import all the plants," Bowlen said.
All the partners have extensive backgrounds in hands-on landscaping. Bowlen started in the business when he was 18 and living in Arizona. The person who gave him his first job now works at Lewis Landscape Design.
Bracken began in the industry with summer jobs and it evolved into a career choice. Likewise, Lewis started in 1973 with a couple of friends in Lake Tahoe taking care of cabins. That evolved into lawn maintenance and by 1976 they were doing landscaping.
Lewis Landscape Design hit another plateau earlier this month. Landscape Management Group and Bill Adas merged with the company April 1. The union is expected to swell Lewis Landscape Design's 1998 sales to $20 million.
"We're very excited and appreciative of this award," Lewis said of the SBA recognition.
His wife, Linda, owns the Plantworks -- she was 1995's Nevada Small Business Person of the Year.
Other SBA winners were: * James Lytner, managing director of EBM Mortgage Corp. commercial division, and Thomas Gutherie, president of Southern Nevada Certified Development Co., were recognized as Region XI Business Media Advocates of the Year. The region includes Arizona, California, Nevada and Hawaii.
* James Yu, CPA, Accountant Advocate of the Year.
* Wayne Wedlow, minority business analyst for city of Las Vegas, Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year.
* Deborah Conway, manager of Clark County general services division, Woman in Business Advocate of the Year.
* Cindy Gerlachowski, president/CEO of Cover Contact Business Lending, Financial Services Advocate of the Year.
* J.D. Calhoun, Southwest Gas Corp., Veteran Small Business Advocate of the Year.
* Nancy McRight, president/owner of Computer Skills Institute, city of Las Vegas Small Business Person of the Year.
* Karen Ann Spencer, owner/vice president/secretary of Go For It Inc., Henderson Small Business Person of the Year.
* David Cadish, president/owner of Midnight Printing, city of North Las Vegas Small Business Person of the Year.
The SBA said the winners will be honored at a June 10 luncheon. They were chosen by an independent panel on criteria including staying power, growth in number of employees, increases in sales, financial performance, response to adversity and community contributions.
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