Noe Loarca
President, Avanza Landscaping and Maintenance
Arlington, Va.
1. Tell me about Avanza Landscaping — how did you get into the business?
I’ve always loved grass. I always make the joke that only Snoop Dogg knows grass better than I do. I started working when I was 12. I’d ask my mom to take me to Home Depot so I could buy Scotts fertilizer. I think it’s the soccer player in me — I was always looking at that soccer field. Then I had the opportunity to join someone in landscaping, and I fell in love with it, and it evolved from that. We started in September 2012. We’re a luxury brand, a one-stop shop, even for commercial customers.
2. What are your goals and dreams for the company in the next year, five years, 10 years?
My biggest goal is that nobody is in the same position that they are in now. My dream would come true if every single guy — say he’s a field guy that’s mowing and weed whacking — that in a year he’s more focused on the commercial sector. I think of Melody, who happens to be my niece. She started answering the phone for me. Now she’s our operations manager, literally running the crews, doing the scheduling, overseeing a lot of the invoices. And now she’s handing some of this work off to Jasmine, who started as an assistant to me. Looking even further, in 10 years, I’d love it if my son was involved, maybe on a crew in the summertime.
3. What is your favorite tool to get the job done?
One of the key things for me is technology. We use technology to the extreme. We use LMN a lot. It’s very robust. It helps us improve, especially with analytics, and to run reports. People make appointments with us through Calendly, we send them a calendar link, they go in and find an appointment that works for them and us. When people meet with us, they’ll say, “You guys are really up to date with everything.” If they love it and I love it, then why not?
4. Tell me about your family, and what do you all do for fun?
My family is extremely important to me. It’s also one of my core beliefs of my company — no one is going to get any stick for anything that is family-related. If someone is going to be late because they have to drop off their kids, that’s fine, that’s normal. My wife, Nardy, and I have been married 15 years, and we have a 5-year-old. I think he’s visited four different countries, and he’s also been to Hawaii, Florida, New York, Boston, New Orleans. We’re all about traveling, and we’re all about being together.
5. Do you have a most memorable day at work?
I love what I do, I really do. I could go back to almost any day and say, “That was really critical for me.” But there’s probably two days … it scares me that sometimes I remember things a little bit too much. One was when I showed up to Elevate, and I said to someone, “Hey, I met you three years ago. You were talking about this and that…” and he goes, “How do you remember that?” I’m like, “Is something wrong with me?” Another was when I had a customer call in and she said, “So I’m up on 40th Street…” and she gives me their address. I said, “I know exactly who you are. I met you when you had your daughter with you, she was about eight months old at the time.” Well, that kid is in middle school by now. It throws me off that people are surprised by that, but I also think it gives people a good feeling that I actually remember them.
