Exploring Life & Business with Harley Keranen of Superior Land Improvements

Today we’d like to introduce you to Harley Keranen

Hi Harley, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started this business in December of 2020. I had a good job at the time working in the trades but I found myself constantly looking for the next job or at least checking the indeed app pretty often. After a good amount of thought and a little preparation I started Superior Land Improvements. At the time it was winter but I wanted to get the LLC and insurance out of the way so I could just get started with the physical work in the spring of 2021. We were more focused on lawn care and light landscaping as the cost to get started was cheaper versus with excavation. After a few months of doing the lawn care I was able to purchase a tracked skiddsteer and started offering small dirt work jobs like grading, topsoiling, and driveway maintenance. The business started to really take off during that summer of 2021 and I found that both the dirt work and lawn care services were a hit. On top of starting a new business, my wife and I were expecting a baby in September of 2021. In August of 2021 I really started to consider leaving my job and taking a shot at making this full time but with the baby that was coming, covid, and the uncertainty of entrepreneurship I was hesitant. Our daughter arrived that September and quickly realized that life was going to get busier and busier so I had to make the decision on leaving my job and taking Superior Land Improvements on full time. I made the choice! I left my job and gave it my all with this business and here we are 4 years later with 8 Employees, a handful of different types of equipment for dirt work, almost 100 lawn accounts and 80 snow removal accounts. To say it was stressful and challenging would be an understatement. We still have a lot of work to do and are constantly looking at ways to improve how we operate and to be as efficient as we can be in the field.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I can’t say it’s been smooth, but we have had our fair share of ups and downs. A big help that we’ve had is just knowing the right people when issues arise, calling them and asking for advice. Networking is huge in the contracting world in my opinion at least. We have also lucked out by hiring great guys that are hard workers. Breakdowns and weather are our industries toughest challenge. Both of them are unpredictable and having someone on your team that is mechanically inclined, or having a good relationship with a Mechanic Shop, is a huge help for the breakdown aspect. As for the weather the only thing we can do is just pay attention to what’s being called for (rain, snow, or cold temps) and hope that it’s accurate. We always try and have a plan b for the worst case scenario options but sometimes it either plan a or b just goes out the window and your figuring it out as you go. We tell everyone that works here that you need to be calm during the chaos otherwise your moral will go out the window when unexpected problems arise.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
At Superior Land Improvements, we specialize in outdoor home services, from recurring lawn or snow services to driveway and yard installs. We also provide Site work and building services like excavation for house foundation, clearing, and septic installs. Our hardscaping crew builds retaining walls and patios regularly in the summer time to add an outdoor area that people can enjoy the summers outdoors during the summer months. We hear this all the time and our reviews speak for themselves, communication has been one of our big advantages and our response time to when a lead comes in to when that customer gets an estimate is what we try and focus on. Customer service is also a big thing we try to stand out on, wether we did something wrong or maybe we didn’t live up to the expectations the customer had we won’t leave you hanging without resolving it and making sure both us and the party we worked for are in a better position than before we started. The team here is something special, our hardscape team lead and his crew takes a lot of pride in the work they do, our office staff is amazing at dealing with the communication and customer support, and our excavation crew gets in and out so the customer can get to the next step on there project. We’ve never turned down an opportunity to learn or try something new and figure it out. If you reach out to us for a quote on some work that you need done we will either give you what your looking for if we can’t, we will recommend someone who might be a better option for that particular project.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
If you’re just starting out I highly recommend networking with just about everyone. Wether its a video/photo company, general contractor, or a mechanic shop, chances are you are going to need something done for marketing, repairs, or questions on the local code/ordinances and other people/companies will have an answer for you. Even if its a company in the same industry as you, if you have a good relationship with them and you have a breakdown they can help you out and you’ll still be able to get the job done.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.superiorlandimprovements.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superior.land.improvements.llc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/superiorlandimprovements