If you’re thinking about breaking into the hardscaping industry, you might be wondering if you have what it takes to succeed.
The good news is that many of the most critical skills aren’t about knowing how to lay pavers, they’re transferable skills you may already possess or can develop right now.
Let’s call them “the 5 Cs.”
1. Curiosity
Andrew Letersky, Founder of Ultimate Landscape Academy, was the kid with endless questions, taking apart household items, tagging along on handiwork, and always building contraptions. His insatiable curiosity became one of his greatest business assets.
“If you have that curiosity, that burning desire to figure things out,” Letersky said. “That really leads you into an investigation mode.”
When you’re curious, you naturally ask the important questions when things don’t work the way you planned. How can I make this better? How can I tweak this? How can I make the customer experience better? How can I get more leads? How can I do this faster? How can I be more efficient?
“If you tell your potential employer, ‘Listen, I’m teachable, and I will learn fast. I just need someone to show it to me and answer my questions,’ every employer wants to hear that,” said Frank Bourque, Landscape and Hardscape Business Consultant.
This mindset of constant questioning and refinement is what drives career and business growth.
2. Character
“If I had one piece of advice to any human on the planet who wanted to become a stronger, a more dedicated, a more present, a more successful version of themselves, it would be simply: do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it,” Letersky said.
It sounds basic, but think about how rarely people actually follow through, especially on promises they make to themselves.
“It’s easy to keep promises to other people, but it’s super hard to do it for yourself because typically the repercussions are not as present,” Letersky said.
When we break promises to ourselves, something deeper happens.
“You lose self-trust, and the self-trust translates into self-love, and self-love is what you need for true confidence,” Letersky said. “Because if we aren’t confident, then sales are difficult. Communication is difficult. Showing up is difficult.”
3. Consistency
Consistency is closely tied to character. It’s an active choice to keep showing up and to showcase what is a priority to you.
“When we try something new, we’re going to go through that uncomfortable phase. It’s the people that try something and push through that difficult phase and get to the other side of it that are the ones that really succeed,” said Vanessa McQuade, VP of Sales & Marketing and Co-Owner of Intrigue Media. “Look at yourself as a person that’s adding value. Lead with confidence.”
Letersky frames it as “discipline,” the ability to do the work day after day, even when motivation fades.
“If it was easy, every single person would be doing it. Starting’s the easy part, but the hard part is what separates people,” Letersky said. “The hard part is what leads to the freedom. It’s what leads to the financial rewards, the success on the other side.”
An employee who shows up consistently, communicates absences well in advance, and can be counted on becomes invaluable, whether you are working directly on a hardscaping crew or in the office.
“If you want your value to go up, focus on reliability,” Bourque said.
4. Communication
Strong communication skills impact every aspect of your career and business.
“If you’re not able to communicate the services you offer, or the way that you can help them, or the emotional benefits to them—the certainty that they get or the removal of fear or things like that—if you can’t communicate those things with a customer, then your sales process takes a big hit,” Letersky said.
“Communication is as much about being able to speak as it is to be able to listen…It’s not about the answers you give, but it’s about the quality of the questions that you ask that you’re judged on. Instead of giving them what’s important to you, being able to ask a simple question of, ‘Before I tell you about our company, what is it that you’re looking for from a landscaper?’ That shift changes the whole conversation because then they’ll tell you what’s important for them and you can relay now why you’re the best choice based on the things that they said were important.”
The same advice goes for a job interview in hardscaping.
“I think you should be asking more questions than talking about yourself—about the company, about the process, about the company culture, about the management,” said David Huber, National Hardscape Sales Manager for Alpha Professional Tools.
5. Commitment (to Self-Reflection)
The final C might be the most transformative: the commitment to honestly evaluate yourself.
“The ability to self-reflect—if you’re the kind of person who can look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, listen, let’s think about the last day, week, month. What did we say we were going to do and then we didn’t do it? Where do we need to focus some more time and energy over the next month?’” Letersky said.
“Being able to self-reflect on your own performance to see where the gaps are in your own skill sets or your own mindset or your own habits, that sets you in the top 1 percent or even .1 percent of the people in the industry.”
Getting Started
You don’t have to wait until you have mastered “the 5 Cs” to get started. Work toward developing these foundational traits and trust that the technical skills will grow alongside them.
“I was probably the most inadequate individual when it came to starting my business,” Letersky said. “I had no business experience. I had no idea how to get customers. I had no idea how to win. I did one patio in my entire life prior to starting my landscape business. Through my inquisitive nature and curiosity and the desire to not quit and go work somewhere else, I pushed ahead.”
If you’re unsure whether you belong in hardscaping, start by honestly assessing these qualities in yourself. Which ones do you already have? Which ones need work? The beauty of these skills and traits is that they’re all improvable and you can start today.
“You don’t have to be the smartest. You don’t have to be the quickest. You don’t have to be the best at getting the stuff that you need,” Letersky said. “You just have to have that vision and that belief that you’re going to get what you want and you’re going to go after it no matter what happens.”