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A career in landscaping? The thought of lawn care hadn’t flowered much in John Battle’s mind back in 1992. He did know that his job at a major computer network management firm wasn’t giving him what he wanted out of life: a challenge and a chance to be his own boss.

“I found out that corporate just wasn’t for me, and there was just an opportunity for me to go out there and try to do something on my own,” Battle said.

That opportunity eventually became JBa Land Management, a Small Business Administration award recipient with designs on growing more potential work though government and commercial contracts. Battle has grown JBa from a one-man operation to a 46-employee lawn/grounds maintenance company with a fleet of 10 trucks, and major contracts with the North Texas cities of Dallas, Allen and Carrollton. He’s also landed work with Northgate Constructors, one of the firms tasked with the Highway 114 expansion project through the Dallas-Fort Worth mid-cities.

Not a bad career choice for someone who needed a push from a relative to find his way. “I went into the trucking business and I was really enjoying that, and I just so happened to be in Michigan with my uncle and he was telling me about a contract in the landscaping business,” Battle said. “He’s in the landscaping business, and he told me to bid on it. I told him, ‘I don’t even own a lawnmower!’ So it’s kind of interesting, I went ahead and bid on the job and didn’t think the company would call me. But they actually called me and said ‘you’re our new contractor.’”

Battle’s story could serve as a primer for all entrepreneurs, no matter what industry they are targeting. He’s overcome obstacles in his search for operating capital, trusted vendors and projects that would allow him to compete over and above the typical mom-and-pop landscaping crews seeking work in the residential market. Battle wants more municipal and government contracts – hopefully some federal work soon.

“Any business that you start initially is difficult, especially when it comes to money, even though there was a low threshold as far as getting into the business. Still, you need some good equipment and that cost dollars. Also, finding a vendor who really believes in you, to give you that shot, that’s one of the most difficult things to do. But we found a vendor who has believed in us and it’s been a great relationship.”

Battle also knows that as an entrepreneurial pioneer of sorts in the North Texas African-American business community, he’s blazing a trail for others to follow. “There’s not a lot of African-American companies in this particular industry. We’re one of the few companies in our size doing over a million dollars worth of business. Very few companies are at that level and so we are there and we’re looking to get bigger and compete.”

For more information on JBa Land Management, call 214-660-1500 or email JBaLandscape@cs.com.