In this episode of The Contractor Grow Show, host Mark Lamberth talks with Daniel Dygowski of Haven Landscape Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, about how he intentionally moved out of low-barrier maintenance work into higher-skill, higher-margin landscape construction.

Daniel shares how Haven now focuses on grading, hardscaping, and softscaping, dropping mowing altogether, and why he prefers complex, reputation-driven projects that require real expertise and infrastructure instead of competing in the crowded lawn-maintenance space.

He explains how he built Haven to roughly seven figures in annual revenue within a few years, why he sometimes outsources specialized masonry and carpentry to protect quality, and how he’s thinking about bottlenecks, oversold work, and the investments required to scale his crews properly.

You’ll also hear his very deliberate approach to earning nearly 250 five-star reviews without automated requests, the importance of managing expectations on every project, and his plans to pursue a GC license and innovate his business model so he can grow without losing control of craftsmanship or client experience.