Episode 008
Jenna Bayer
What is the secret to sleeping well at night as a business owner? In this episode of Women’s Million Dollar Conversations, Alice Tang sits down with Jenna Bayer, the founder of Jenna Bayer Garden Design. Jenna shares the exact moment she moved from “hoping to pay for childcare” to running a high-revenue, intentional design firm.
The highlight of this episode is Jenna’s “Pearl of Wisdom” regarding cash flow management—a strategy that allowed her firm to double its revenue during a global pandemic without laying off a single employee.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-The “6-Month Payroll Rule” that ensures business survival during crises.
-Why referral-only businesses are built on integrity and customer service.
-Transitioning from a technical career (engineering) to a passion-driven one (horticulture).
-The “Stubbornness” factor: Why thinking about the 200+ families you support keeps you going.
"Be diligent in whatever it is you do! Especially in your organizational skills, professional learning, and cash flow management."
[00:00:00] Welcome to women’s million dollar conversations with Alice Tang, where we share stories from successful business women who have saved, earn or sold over a million dollars and discuss how they build their success and insights to help you achieve your goals. Now let’s join the conversation.
[00:00:20] Alice Tang: We are very happy to have Jenna Bayer with us on Women’s Million Dollar Conversations. Today we want to explore the insight and the [00:00:30] inspiration and the motivation from Jenna, so the next generation have a role model to go to and be able to achieve similar or more results, just like Jenna. Welcome Jenna.
[00:00:45] Please say your company name, how long you have been in the industry. And tell us a little bit about your company.
[00:00:51] Jenna Bayer: Okay. So my name is Jenna Bayer and strangely the name of my company is Geneviere garden design.
[00:00:58] We focus [00:01:00] on your outdoor environment and the design surrounding typically your home. However, we do work on some commercial and institutional projects as well. We mainly work with residential clients because we enjoy them. And I’ve been doing this work for officially, for about 28 years. And it’s a lifelong passion. To help people improve their environments.
[00:01:29] Alice Tang: [00:01:30] Very good. 28 years, lifelong passion to help people to improve the environment. I know with the small backyard I have, when we finish, it gave me joy when I sit out there. So I know exactly what you have granted the privilege to your client to enjoy what they have in the environment.
[00:01:48] So thank you for that. Because this. Women’s million dollar conversation. We want to explore a little bit about the value of money for you. Would you tell us a little bit about why is money important to [00:02:00] you or what’s the value for you?
[00:02:01] Jenna Bayer: My business happened a little bit as an accident. I worked as an engineer for a number of years and had some pretty good success with that, but also always enjoyed being outside and working in the garden. And I found that I didn’t know enough. And the reason I share this with you is. What has happened to me and what I have laid out for myself has been lifelong learning in a particular area of interest.
[00:02:29] [00:02:30] And so whatever that interest is for you as a young person, or as someone who is starting a completely new page, new book in their lives to approach it with humility and also in interest in learning, I think leads to success.
[00:02:46] So we specifically provide expertise and empathy and passion, and specifically a professional [00:03:00] approach towards all of our projects.
[00:03:02] So our team there’s 17 of us. Our team is intentional in our work. And that is how we approach our projects and how we approach our clients. So what we actually do for our clients is develop a scope of work around their outside environment and how it integrates with their indoor environment, how they’re the people that are using the space.
[00:03:26] Are functioning how their wayfinding happens, [00:03:30] how do they get from point a to point B? Paths of conveyance and transfer of materials and dogs and families and human, bicycles and all those things. Also the style that they may or may not have define. Also the environmental conditions. Are you on a mountain top? Are you at the beach? Are you in suburbia? Are you on a farm? All of those things. Do you have a little Jewelbox garden, just a few thousand square feet, or do you have 800 acres? Most [00:04:00] people land somewhere in the middle of that. And we do not have a prescriptive way of designing, but we have developed somewhat of a routine on how we approach a project. So there’s a step by step way that we can help guide each of our clients through their project. So that’s a summary.
[00:04:20] We’re all about plants. We work with plants. We work with hardscape surfaces, so patios and decks and swimming pools and [00:04:30] ADU, which are accessory dwelling units. We do all of that. We work with soil conditioning, soil building, soil health, and we also do irrigation, design, drainage. Really fun, exciting thing. Who wants to have water inside their house. It’s supposed to be outside. And lighting. Landscape lighting is the last thing that we do, but we keep in mind how it’s going to look at night all the time on the west coast, specifically. People live quite a bit of their day and night outside and they enjoy our [00:05:00] wonderful climate. So lighting outside is really a particular point that we have to cover. All of this is covered by sustainability. And that’s my soap box that I’ve been standing on for about 30 years, which is let’s make sure that it’s the right plant right place, purpose. That this plant is going to be successful and live its entire life in a healthy way with the appropriate amount of water. We do try to start people off with a low water, low [00:05:30] maintenance approach and that usually allows for a more successful and sustainable installation.
[00:05:35] Alice Tang: That’s a lot to share with our audience in your last 28 years. But sustainability is the word I picked up. And also doing your work with intention, with passion, with high standard.
[00:05:48] I’m onto my next question here. I’m gonna take you back to your first million dollar revenue. So how long does it take for you to get there and when you hit it, [00:06:00] is that kind of like a milestone that create a lot of emotion and feelings and such? So would you share with us?
[00:06:07] Jenna Bayer: It took a while. I will tell you, it took a while. What made the difference for me when we did hit a million in revenue and we had a pretty decent net profit on that as well, which was nice. Because a million is a million dollars, but if you’re not making money that you’re keeping not really a million dollars.
[00:06:24] But, I didn’t have it as a goal. I didn’t have that million as a goal. Because honestly, I [00:06:30] never thought it was attainable. And as, as I worked and the company grew and it grew and we were successful and we are referral only, we really, we don’t advertise at all. So it matters how well you do with each of your clients so that you can build your business. When I decided, Hey, this is within reach and it’s when we hit about $700,000, I thought, we might be able to get to a million. And when we did, I have to tell you, it was a [00:07:00] little hard not to brag about it. And it was so a little bit like, oh my gosh, Did this just happen?
[00:07:07] And the truth is it didn’t just happen. It took a lot of work and it took being honest with myself also that, I got a great project and maybe it was $150,000 project. And another one that was $20,000, but I loved doing the $20,000 and the 150 was really hard or vice versa.
[00:07:26] The first time I had a project that our revenue on it was [00:07:30] half a million dollars, I was a little shocked, but it totaled up to that. Client’s happy we were on our third property for them. It’s a story. There’s a, there’s an arc to our story and the money came to us after we started setting some goals. So I will say that it did and that arc continues and it really is all the people in our company, [00:08:00] and the people that are our clients, and the people that are installing our designs. So long as I keep that forward, then I’m able to set the next goal. And I do have a new goal for this year, and it’s not a million it’s more than that. So.
[00:08:15] Alice Tang: Very good. If you don’t mind you said it took a while. How long does it take if you recall?
[00:08:19] Jenna Bayer: Once I set the goal, it took me a year, when I went from 700 to a million it took a year, but I guess it was 10 years, from the start. However, when I started, [00:08:30] I was just trying to make enough money to pay for childcare. That was my goal.
[00:08:35] Alice Tang: It’s important. Cuz going after your passion, what you like to do, you also have children at the same time, we can not have only children time only business time. That would take two lifetime of three life time to finish that. Very good. I also heard that In your message, you felt your team actually is kudos to them too, without them, you wouldn’t be able to take your company to the level. [00:09:00] So I just felt that there is a lot of gratitude at least through what you just shared.
[00:09:04] Jenna Bayer: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Play How long did it take to reach your first million dollars
[00:09:06] Alice Tang: Right. On your road to success, that last 28 years I’m sure there is some bias that you have to face. So, Would you mind sharing a little bit about that and maybe pick one of them well that you have to face and then conquer or change your mindset?
[00:09:24] Jenna Bayer: Right? Yeah, I will. I will just preface what I’m going to say with I didn’t know that I [00:09:30] had biases, until fairly recently in my life. And I was shocked.
[00:09:34] I was like, oh I don’t have biases. I think it’s a human condition, to have them. And for me to realize that I do have biases has really opened my eyes. One of my biases is that I don’t deserve something. And that’s an unusual thing to think about, but there’s so many women out there that feel that way. And I am working very hard. To help them get [00:10:00] rid of those feelings because together we are so much better and together we have so much we can do. And I’m very proud of the people I know, the women and the men who are going for it, and recognizing that, with empathy and humility, we can just make wonderful things happen.
[00:10:20] So in my day, which I started off in engineering back in the the eighties, there was a lot of bias. And there was bias that [00:10:30] was, external and obvious, and there was bias that was manipulative and hidden. And I found it at every corner. And it was very difficult and it was mental anguish.
[00:10:41] It was, you’re not smart enough. You’re not good enough. Why would we pay you this? Things that were just like really ridiculous, but demeaning. And I think that’s one of the reasons that when I got my hooks into horticulture, I, decided, Hey, I can do this!
[00:10:55] So I wasn’t running away. I had a good career. I was successful, but I didn’t love it. [00:11:00] I loved the engineering. I didn’t love working with the people. And yes, and it was sexual harassment and it was being paid half of what everybody else was. And it was being given not the easy jobs. You know. And being put in positions where I wasn’t safe also.
[00:11:16] Recently, we brought a new person on our team and she’s a young woman who is smart and savvy, but hasn’t had such a great childhood. And she mentioned to me, some [00:11:30] difficulties she had from bias. And so this still continues. Our work is not done. It’s important to talk about it and it’s important to help everyone know that they’re worthy. And so that’s one of the things I’m working on.
[00:11:48] Alice Tang: That is really nobel. Because I know personally, how busy you are, but having the time to be present with the newest member, having so many things on your plate, is [00:12:00] remarkable. Jenna, you really care.
[00:12:02] Jenna Bayer: I do. Thank you.
[00:12:04] Alice Tang: Awesome. What is your number one piece of advice for a woman who is looking up to you and said, I wanna be you. I want to get to that million too. What is your number one piece of advice for them?
[00:12:16] Jenna Bayer: Diligence. Just be diligent in whatever it is you do. Be diligent in your organizational skills, be diligent in your professional learning, be diligent in managing your cash flow. Oh my gosh. When I learned that [00:12:30] one, whew. I just mentioned to someone today and that this is probably the Pearl. This was a few years ago.
[00:12:36] And I thought to myself, self, if I could just have six months of payroll in the bank, I could sleep at night. And when I did it, I had the best night sleep ever. And I continue to just keep that amount in a reserve, just sitting there because I know if something like a pandemic happens. [00:13:00] I’m not gonna have to lay people off. I can make it through, we laid off not one person. We cut. No one’s hours. We cut. No one’s pay. And we didn’t have a great first quarter of COVID, but we bounced back and we doubled our revenue. We doubled our revenue in a pandemic because we were there to serve people. So watch your cash flow. I guess that’s my big one.
[00:13:25] Alice Tang: Awesome.
[00:13:25] Be diligent of, watching your cash flow. And I think that really circled back [00:13:30] to the individual households too. Perhaps you are helping your younger members. So when people say how much is enough to be in the bank, so it’s between three to six months of your expenses.
[00:13:43] Payroll is the expenses for a company. And usually it’s one of the bigger item. So home is the same, right? Your fixed expenses. Even if you don’t eat, you don’t travel. You got to have this fixed the electricity, the water, the property tax will not forgive you. Because it’s a [00:14:00] pandemic or not.
[00:14:00] Jenna Bayer: Right.
[00:14:02] Alice Tang: Thank you very much for sharing that. You singing my kind of songs on my way. When you process a big decision when the stack are very high how do you do that?
[00:14:02] Alice Tang: Thank you very much for sharing that. You singing my kind of songs on my way. When you process a big decision when the stack are very high how do you do that?
[00:14:13] Jenna Bayer: I work in gardens. So our stakes are never really high . We’re not, we’re not heart surgeons and, whatever. We had this gal that was on our team a few years ago, Pam, and, cracked me up, just cracked me up. But, she’s from New York and she had a, just a [00:14:30] great, just great demeanor, but she would talk with somebody on the phone and be very just wonderful and usually it was somebody freaking out or something. And she would say, thank you, we’ll get right back to you and she’d hang up and she’d go. Saving lives one garden at a time.,
[00:14:50] Really, and that was just her personality and it was just so great. So I think about these sometimes when I’m a big decision and it’s, Am I saving a life? No, I’m really [00:15:00] not, but I am intentionally helping someone and so long as I am honest with kindness so I can be blunt, but honest with kindness and provide a service with integrity, then we’ll be okay.
[00:15:17] If somebody, we have had it where somebody came in and said, Hey, I want you to come do this big, residential complex with a thousand homes or something like that. That’s not us. We do custom be scope, bespoke work. We do that. So [00:15:30] I don’t have those. High stakes type of decisions where I’m going to have to commit every person on our team to project, that’s boring.
[00:15:39] We, we just don’t do that work. So we don’t really have when I would say high stakes, but again, back to honesty, kindness, and integrity. If I can check all those things off, then I feel good about my decision.
[00:15:53] Alice Tang: Wow. Every time you look back, you just say, am I having integrity in making this decision?
[00:15:58] Jenna Bayer: Yeah.
[00:15:59] Alice Tang: Am I kind, [00:16:00] am I intentional?
[00:16:01] Jenna Bayer: Yeah.
[00:16:02] Alice Tang: Am I empathetic? Yeah. And if it all this, and it didn’t work out, guess what? Sometimes things doesn’t work out.
[00:16:08] Jenna Bayer: Sometimes things don’t work out.
[00:16:10] Alice Tang: Yes. Yes. We just need to accept the fact that, perhaps they need somebody’s else help or there’s nobody who can help them. So when you want to quit, I would assume you never, but just in case 28 years, sometimes life becomes a little tough and you say, God, I can’t do it. What keeps you going?[00:16:30]
[00:16:30] Jenna Bayer: I’m stubborn.
[00:16:34] Alice Tang: Tell me something. I don’t know, Jenna.
[00:16:37] Jenna Bayer: I am stubborn. I will tell you a really short story. A couple years ago I was exhausted. I was having problems with cash flow. I was like, how do I get this done? And maybe I just lock the door and leave, I just, I, I lease an office, maybe I just call the landlord and say, that’s it, we have a very high talent density on our team.
[00:16:55] So that means that we don’t have a lot of big trucks and buildings and things [00:17:00] like that. We don’t have manufacturing machines. We have computer. And pencils and ourselves. The thing that I realized when I was feeling low was I started thinking about the people that would not have jobs, except for the projects that we had designed and put out there to be built.
[00:17:19] So we’re in the construction industry. So our clients call us and they have a backyard full of weeds, and they’re like, it’s COVID we [00:17:30] need to cluster around ourselves and live in our backyard. And we want a swimming pool and an outdoor kitchen and a shade structure, and a lot of plants. We can do all of that. How many people does it take to do that? And I went through and I actually calculated. The number of people that were working for the contractors that were installing that the number of people that were on my team that had families, and then also added in a percentage of, key [00:18:00] consultants and vendors and things like that. It was over 200 people.
[00:18:02] Alice Tang: That’s a lot of families.
[00:18:04] Jenna Bayer: And I thought, wow, if I just lock the door and say, I quit, yes, they’ll find other jobs cuz they’re challenged people. That’s not very nice to do.
[00:18:15] Alice Tang: Its the people who keep you there and thinking about making sure that they have.
[00:18:20] Jenna Bayer: Yeah.
[00:18:21] Alice Tang: Because it’s not it’s about you, but it’s not only about you. Wow.
[00:18:27] Jenna Bayer: The thing of it is if you’re a gardener. If you’re a parent, [00:18:30] it’s the most humbling experience. You have plants that just die and they tell you not why. You have kids that just like break things. It just it’s a humbling experience. And so you learn humility, and I catch myself out when I make mistakes. I look at them and I try to learn from them. And I care about the people that are around. So.
[00:18:51] Alice Tang: Wonderful. Wonderful. So we are winding down to a couple more questions. What is the one thing you would do differently? If you know what you [00:19:00] know now, like 27 and a half year ago.
[00:19:03] Jenna Bayer: When I was 15, I told the guidance counselor I wanted to be an architect. And she said you’re really smart, but you have to be really talented to do that. And I was like, what does that mean? And then I talked to one other person and they said, yeah, architecture, that’s a man’s career, and so you’re never really gonna be successful in it. And I held onto that for a long time. And I ended up applying to engineering [00:19:30] school because I was good at math. And because there was a shortage of engineers and because I got a scholarship, so I did that. But I wish I hadn’t listened to those people that said, yeah, but you’re not that smart, you’re not that talented ,or it’s for men only. I wish I had gone to architecture school. I do. So I guess my advice is listen to yourself and go for it. And I would say that there were only three women in the engineering program when I started, there was only one of us left [00:20:00] when I finished and look at all the engineers that are women that are out there now, look at that. That’s pretty cool. That’s pretty cool. So we can do anything we want.
[00:20:10] Alice Tang: Yes. Yes. I think we were heading to a place where we were talking about limiting beliefs that we impose on ourself or somebody told us, we just believe it without questioning about it. So, Limiting beliefs how do we get rid of it? I do not have the best answer, but I thought that at least we chat with the [00:20:30] people like the other power woman. If I believe I’m dumb, somebody told me I’m dumb. I’ll go call Jenna and say, Jenna, I’ll come in friend. Not mention name told me that I’m dumb. Would you just tell me. Is he for real?
[00:20:46] And most of the, our friends, especially girlfriends who trust us, we hang out with we are there to live each other. We are Wolf packs. Yeah. So trusting each other and having the wonderful circle of people around us.[00:21:00]
[00:21:00] So last piece, perhaps you’ve answered already. Maybe you have another answer is. What is the piece of advice, very good or very bad that has made a huge impact in your life?
[00:21:12] Jenna Bayer: I think the simple one is I have a bunch, but for business, for people in business who are, definitely have a revenue stream, that’s part of their their journey. I would say, always answer the phone for heaven sakes. Always answer the phone. The [00:21:30] answer doesn’t have to be, yes. Just always answer the phone. And I find it frustrating these days to call and I get the automated thing and I have to press one and press two. And then, you know what, it doesn’t work. They hang up on you. Recent experience with the airlines, it’s just very frustrating and it puts you in a bad mood.
[00:21:48] Leading up to this my brother asked me in the past year, he goes, what is it you do exactly again? He’s a lawyer, and I said we are in the customer service [00:22:00] business in the residential landscape design market. And what I did was turn it around to, we are in the customer service business. And that means we are there to take care of our customers and we are there to create a user experience for our customers. That is good. So you pick up the phone, they call you, they send you an email, they hit your website. You answer them. If you don’t, [00:22:30] it will come back on you.
[00:22:31] Alice Tang: Or they’ll go with somebody else.
[00:22:35] Jenna Bayer: Yeah. That’s the thing. If you don’t answer, at least you answered, we have people call and say hi, do you sell watermelon? And we’re like, it’s a plant, but no, we don’t. And we have people that call and say, hi, we’re building a new home on this and this street and our architect recommended you, and we’re like, absolutely. We’re there.
[00:22:54] Alice Tang: Agreeing with you, what service are we in? This is my 21 year [00:23:00] of in business, so I still remember maybe my first, second year, you know, when you’re new, you’re like a sponge when you’re at company meeting, winning 40 advisor, I’m the youngest and only woman.
[00:23:10] My general manager ask, what business are we in? So all of these more successful boys, I call them. They might be older than me. They said we are in a financial services business. I raised my hand and said we are in a relationship business.
[00:23:24] Jenna Bayer: Yes, absolutely.
[00:23:26] Alice Tang: And then my general manager rolled his eyes and said the [00:23:30] youngest, not the youngest in age, but the youngest number of years in business, hit the right answer. Really? It is right.
[00:23:39] Jenna Bayer: It is. Yeah, I agree.
[00:23:42] Alice Tang: Good. Good.
[00:23:42] Well, Jenna, this is great. Thank you so much for granting us your wisdom and share with us candidly, what are the insights to your success? And we don’t have enough time here but we wanna thank you here. And hope you come back to our interview later [00:24:00] on the second round.
[00:24:01] Jenna Bayer: Thank you.
[00:24:02] Alice Tang: Thank you so much.
Play One thing you’d do differently if you knew what you know now
Jenna Bayer is the owner of Jenna Bayer Garden Design, located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland Metro Area. Jenna has been in business for over 18 years and is an expert in Garden Design and Sustainable Gardening, Horticulture Science, Organic Practices, Green Building and Landscape Construction Management. Jenna started her career in Mechanical Engineering, earning her degree at Bradley University. On discovering her passion for horticulture in the early 1990’s she studied at NCSU under Dr. J.C Ralston and then at OSU in horticultural science. Her education and interests lead to a successful firm including staff providing services in Landscape Architecture, Landscape Construction Management and Maintenance, and Horticultural Consulting. Jenna’s attention to technical, aesthetic, and environmental details is constant. A balanced approach to design, sustainability, functionality and a smart sense of construction and cost management consistently bring forth successful projects and experiences for her clients.