Your Professional Choice for Liquid Lawn Fertilization, Weed & Grub Control
Interview conducted with Jordan Nun, owner of Fox Liquid Fertilizer Service
Locally owned and operated, Fox Liquid Fertilizer Service (www.FoxFertilizer.com) is the area’s only authorized applicator of Conklin’s AgroVantage Lawn Pro System. Conklin is a company known nationally for working with competitive farmers and world-record holders, and this proprietary system utilizes the highest-quality liquid products available on the market today.
Jordan Nun, Owner
Give us a brief synopsis of what your company does.
We specialize in 100% liquid fertilizer and weed-control applications for businesses and homeowners. Our mission is simple: To keep our customer’s lawn green and weed-free all season long with the fewest applications possible. This saves our customers money over the course of the season, keeps us out of their hair and allows them to actually ENJOY their beautiful lawn!
How long have you been in Nebraska?
I’m proud to be a Lincoln native and we’ve been offering turfgrass maintenance for about two years in Lincoln. Prior to that, we worked exclusively with agricultural producers, offering crop inputs for their farm and working with a number of competitive, high-yield producers (which we still do during the winter months).
Who are the owners/important executives?
My wife Sarah and I run the business and we’re proud to be family-owned! When our children are older, through the business, we plan to teach them about what it means to provide great service and run their own business with integrity.
What do you think makes you different from other companies similar to yours?
Honestly, we were frustrated with the lack of options available for liquid fertilizer and weed-control in the area, and the ones we found wanted to sell us 6-8 treatments a season! Fox Liquid Fertilizer Service focuses on results, not “up-sells.” Instead of offering everything possible, we choose to specialize on a specific aspect of the lawn that most homeowners shy away from: liquid fertilizer and weed control. We’re also a truly local business and plan to stay that way.
What do you like about doing business here?
Most homeowners in Nebraska take great pride in their lawns and enjoy doing the work themselves. So, we like to think of what we do as “partnering” with homeowners to get the job done.
What kind of community organizations/groups are you involved with?
We’re members of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and my wife Sarah, who is a registered nurse, teaches childbirth education classes at the Pregnancy Center in Lincoln. I’m a graduate of the Nebraska LEAD Program (lead.unl.edu), which is designed to help train and bring up the next generation of leaders in the agricultural industry. As a graduate of Southeast Community College’s entrepreneurship program, I enjoy attending their functions and events as well.
Do you have a business philosophy or mission statement?
Service, integrity, and quality are what we strive for in our work. Our approach is to treat our customers like family because we believe if we take care of our customers, they’ll take care of us.
What changes have you seen in the industry and your company in the past few years?
We’ve seen a positive industry swing towards focusing on plant and soil health and not just “top growth.” For example, by focusing on a strong, dense root system, when Nebraska hits a hot, dry summer your lawn doesn’t need to be watered nearly as much as it would otherwise. Instead, the turfgrass is better able to pull moisture and nutrients from within the soil, which is better for the environment too! New seed genetics with disease resistance has also made it possible to cut back on fungicides and other pesticides.
What do you see happening with the business in the next five years?
We see a big shift coming in the industry and we want to be part of it. With the technology now at our fingertips, we’re more capable than ever of being the best possible stewards of our environment. As we continue to expand our business, we plan to continue the movement towards environmental consciousness in the turfgrass industry. Along the same lines, we plan to be a part of training future lawn and landscape professionals, however that may look.
What is one of the biggest challenges that your company has faced?
We haven’t had the time or resources to expand as fast as we would like and as a result, we haven’t been able to tap into the acreage industry as quickly as we would like!
What has been your most important achievement as a business?
We operate on a zero-debt basis. This hasn’t always been easy to do, but for us, it’s been a goal we’ve been able to achieve thus far.
What was the biggest turning point in your business?
As previously mentioned, we don’t do “up-sells.” We don’t offer a “good-better-best” program; we offer “our program.” We decided let’s just offer really good service, guaranteed work and at a fair price. This “turning point,” happened before we opened for business and we’re so glad we chose to intentionally make our business customer-centric.
What is the most unique or interesting thing about your business that most people don’t know?
A lot of what we’ve learned about turfgrasses we actually learned from large-scale corn production. After all, corn is a “grass,” and many lawn products actually came from the farming industry.
What is one goal for your business that you have yet to accomplish?
We have a goal of developing a series of online resources for other lawn care professionals and DIY homeowners, primarily through YouTube and Facebook. This is still in the works!
In closing, is there anything else you’d like to add?
We love getting to know new individuals and we feel blessed to be invited into people’s yards and for the opportunity to partner with them to achieve their desired results. At the end of the day, we want them to have the lawn they’ve always dreamed of and for their families to enjoy. We truly feel honored to serve families in this way and we look forward to doing this for many more seasons!
