After 23 years building Bare Roots Landscaping into one of Dallas-Fort Worth's most respected names, Chris Bacala realized something: his growth plan only existed in his head.
"It was just my vision. I kept introducing it to my team, but what I wasn't giving them was the plan of action — how to get there," he says.
Outgrowing the Owner
As a landscape architect, Chris built Bare Roots as its lead designer. He managed people, clients, and his books along the way. That model worked at $5 million, but by $10 million, his system couldn't keep up. "We're no longer working off of my relationships," he says. "We're working off my team's relationships."
Over the past 18 months, Chris leaned on three McFarlin Stanford services — his ACE Peer Group, Executive Coaching with Jason New, and search and placement through McFarlin Stanford Recruiting — to turn vision into a plan, and build the team to execute it.
Hard Decisions, Real Change
His Executive Coaching started simply: "Can you just come see what I'm doing?" What followed was a three-year plan built around a leadership team and some hard calls Chris had to make. Early this year, the company restructured its org chart, and some long-tenured team members moved on.
"I always try to end things amicably," Chris says. "Who knows if we're going to run into each other 10 or 15 years down the road?"
A Role He'd Never Heard Of
Through coaching, Chris identified a gap he didn't have, a Director of Administration. McFarlin Stanford Recruiting found Shannon Davis to fill it. She's since moved up to the General Manager role, working alongside Chris on the company's next phase.
Building the Foundation
Chris is building toward a $42 million company and says every part of the process is revealing. "As we dig in, we find more problems, and we're fixing them. To me, that's the solution."
"Jason and McFarlin Stanford are the springboard for helping us get to our next phase of growth," he says. "It's as simple as that."
Talk to the McFarlin Stanford team to learn how coaching, peer groups, and recruiting can work together for your company.
