James Cap
President and Owner
NEA Lawn Pro, Jonesboro, Ark.
1. What does NEA Lawn Pro stand for, and how did it get its start?
We’re located in the northeast corner of the state, about an hour away from Memphis, so it stands for Northeast Arkansas Lawn Pro. Back in the fall of 2017, me and a buddy started the company. We worked on a golf course together. We already had some spray and mowing clients established, and it grew from there. Four years ago, I bought him out of the business, and it just continues to grow. We’re a full-service landscape company — everything from weed control and fertilization to Christmas lights, landscape installs, commercial snow removal.
2. Do you have a most memorable day at work?
It was probably the day when my partner and I — we were still working together at that time — bought our building. The day we signed the papers and bought our shop, and it became ours. And then I guess the next one’s probably going to be his final payout — Jan. 31 of next year. The company will be 100 percent mine after that, and it’ll be all good.
3. How has 2025 been for the business?
It has been good. I would say, toward the middle of summer, things kind of slowed down. You can tell the economy is kind of slowing down right now. We’re in the middle of the crop delta. Farming has been hard this year for a lot of farmers. And you can tell that with some of our farming customers, (they’re) not wanting to do add-on services.
4. Any other trends you’re noticing with your customers?
Our insect programs for grubs and armyworms preventative, that’s something that has been a better sell for us. Right now, everybody’s saying there’s just thousands and thousands of grasshoppers everywhere with the way the weather’s been. We have a lot of customers calling in, signing up for insect control programs. That’s probably been our biggest add-on this year. Customers are asking for that mosquito control, because we’re out in the cropland. We have mosquitoes from flooding fields, the rice fields, and that’s been a good add-on service. Big-ticket landscape installs, not so much. But we’re adding on a lot of smaller services, repeat services, and we’ll keep them on the books for years to come.
5. Are you married, and what do you all do for fun?
I’ve been married for four years. We’ve got a 13-year-old boy (Logan), a 7-year-old girl (Hadley) and a 3-year-old little boy (Jameson), so they’re all five years apart, and they keep us busy. We have basketball games, baseball games, numerous school sports. And my wife coaches. She’s the softball coach and an assistant girls basketball coach where she teaches. Kalie stays busy and I stay busy, and it’s a juggling act, because her offseason is my busy season, and my slower season is her busy season. It’s 7 a.m. till 9 o’clock at night with ball games. We’re a very busy family.
