Home Grown
Jenkins Enterprises LLC builds business with family values
In 2006, 18-year-old Josh Jenkins had a secondhand lawnmower in his parents’ garage where he grew up in Mechanicsville, Maryland. His younger brother, Jake, was his only employee. Add a lot of dedication, hard work and stellar customer service, and today his enterprise is what Josh describes as a million-dollar company with multiple crews and divisions that range from landscaping to carpentry, remodeling and electrical work.
Jenkins Enterprises LLC has grown from two teenage brothers to a staff of 15, serving Calvert, Charles and Saint Mary’s counties in southern Maryland. The company has also moved out of the garage and into a larger space, though it’s still very family-oriented: Josh’s wife, Valyn, helps in the office; Josh’s brother, Jake Jenkins, is the lead carpenter; sister, Sarah Jenkins, does bookkeeping; and brother-in-law, Jacob Salvio, and childhood friend, Conner Nauman, are crew leaders.
This group makes Jenkins Enterprises very special, according to Office Assistant Gwendolyn Lacey. “We’re all really good friends, so that makes working together special. We all have our own jobs, but at the end of the day, we’re all for the same goal. We see each other’s potential,” she says.
Much More Than a Landscaper
Josh describes how, when the company first started out, the crew would cut grass for their original customers in the suburbs near his childhood home from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. in order to save money to expand the business.
Times may have changed in some aspects, but, Gwendolyn says, “We still have long hours some days, because our customers come first.”
Although the company continues to do a lot of landscaping, the employees all have their own specialties. Jenkins Enterprises offers remodeling services, decks and fence construction, electrical work, roof and siding repair and installation, and even pressure washing and snow removal. The company has three landscaping trucks and two carpentry trucks and often subcontracts on remodeling projects.
Jenkins Enterprises serves both residential and commercial properties, recently undertaking electrical work for Walmart stores. The company has doctors’ office remodels as well as kitchen and bath renovations in its portfolio, and is embarking on restoration work for insurance companies following disasters such as fires and floods. The team will soon undertake a master closet addition.
Gwendolyn says, “Josh’s big ideas always keep us going and on to new adventures. We’re always doing something new, and the business is growing every day.”
Family Values
After 13 years of considerable growth, Josh says he is most proud of being able to keep the company family-oriented with regard to his employees and how they treat customers. This sentiment especially rings true for Gwendolyn, who has worked for Jenkins Enterprises for four years and thinks of her co-workers as family. “I feel like I leave my home and go to my other home,” she says.
Family values have been important to the growth of the business. Josh says, “Customer service, honesty and trust were the most important things to us when we started the business and remain our top priorities to this day.” He describes how these values, and employing people who hold these same values, has enabled the company to multiply its customer base each year while continuing to grow the company’s business and capabilities. Gwendolyn says, “We treat our customers the same way we treat each other, like family.”
Says one satisfied customer about the company’s customer service and performance: “They cut the underbrush in an acre of woods. They were very professional and came with the right equipment. The job was finished in less time than anticipated and at a reasonable price. Workers arrived when scheduled.”
Another customer writes about Jenkins Enterprises’ snow removal service: “The young lady that helped me with snow removal for my business was very nice and knowledgeable. She was quick and efficient and made the process for booking snow removal last minute so easy. The estimate was very reasonable and I am very satisfied with the overall job they did. Everything was clean and clear when we arrived the next day. I would like to commend the entire team for their grade A service!”
Says another customer about a landscaping job: “Jenkins cleaned and mulched beds, performed weed removal and built a small deck extension where we will be doing additional landscaping to restore and expand the garden areas next spring. High-quality work, good customer service. We will use them on a continuing basis for maintenance and as we expand the landscape plans.”
“We often reflect back to when we first started this business in my parents’ garage with a secondhand mower and my younger brother as our first and only employee,” Josh says. “Remembering where we came from helps us stay humble and eager to continue to provide exceptional service to our customers.”
If there’s another word Gwendolyn would use to describe Jenkins Enterprises, it’s “reliable.” She says, “There’s not much we can’t do. We’re eager to learn and grow. If there’s something we don’t know, we’ll figure it out.”