SERGEANT'S TOUGH LOVE CUT ME DOWN TO SIZE AS A TROU BLED YOUTH... BUT IT HELPED ME BRANCH OU T ON MY OWN

Published date02 August 2023
Publication titleAirdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
"When I said I wanted to better my life, he said: 'You're a liar.' He told me I wasn't trying hard enough. It was very true

"I went back to the drawing board and thought that maybe he was right."

t." hat was a eureka moment for Jordan, who was brought up in a modest flat in Rutherglen's Eastfield by his mum, Amanda, and his grandmother, 'Nanny' Cathy Grant.

When he began cutting a neighbour's grass at the age of 14 for "a few quid" that would help ends meet at home, word got around and soon he had regular customers who'd pay him up to £10 to mow their lawn and trim their hedges.

Now, he's the owner of a burgeoning Lanarkshirebased gardening, landscaping and tree surgery business, with a 12-strong workforce, an acre of land, a fleet of vehicles, and a turnover that this year fell just short of £1million.

He attributes much of his success to the words of wisdom dealt out, with no holds barred, by Sergeant Major Jimmy Stevenson, who re-trained after leaving the Army, set up a gardening business, and gave Amanda's lad a job.

Jordan, who left Stonelaw High School at the earliest opportunity, channelled his boundless energy into boxing, kickboxing and dragging branches around for Jimmy.

"He was so strict with me," remembers Jordan. "I've told him repeatedly: 'You are the best thing that ever happened to me.'

"Holding me accountable was the main thing he did. Jimmy got me on the straight and narrow.

"He was the voice that said: 'Sort yourself out.'" Not only did Jordan learn from grafter Jimmy the rudiments of the gardening and landscaping industry, he also picked up the ex-solider's strong work ethic.

Deciding to take control of his own destiny and go it alone in 2018, he bought a van for £250 and "started working hard" from a leased yard at Rutherglen's Farme Cross.

By the time he was 21, Jordan had built up as much experience and expertise as the business people in their 30s and 40s who were at the helm of the west of Scotland's small-tomedium sized gardening enterprises - and he wanted a slice of the action. From his earnings, he squirrelled away enough money to pay his way through a course that would lead to Arbocultural (ABR) accreditation.

When the yard was forced to close during the pandemic, a zealous

Jordan continued to run his business, Glasgow Garden Maintenance, from his home in Halfway.

Seeing the collapse of so many companies during Covid only fuelled his determination to grow his business by investing in assets: diggers and dumper trucks...

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