Begun as a side hustle by Southeastern rock climbers to earn their daily bread, the Higher Ground rainwater management company has taken a prosaic chore – gutter cleaning – and elevated it into a highly-evolved business through professional management and meticulous customer service.
The company, which employs up to 16 people during seasonal peaks, grew 32 percent last year and had revenues of more than $620,000. Typically, higher ground has five trucks on the road with about a dozen laborers along with an office manager and a building manager, a company leader says.
The operation here is run by Knoxville native Beckett Honicker, 32, who partnered with a climbing buddy, Walt Dickinson, before purchasing the Chattanooga half of a business that also included a similar operation in Asheville, North Carolina. Meanwhile, Dickinson went on to start a successful craft brewing brand in Asheville called Wicked Weed.
About 90 percent of Higher Ground’s employees are serious climbing enthusiasts, so emptying second-story gutters is a snap for them. Many are highly-educated former professionals who have decided to live the rock climbing lifestyle, and enjoy simple outdoor work to finance their hobby, Honicker says.
“The employees are happy, and they refer their friends,” Honicker says. “We try to create a good culture. A lot of these climbers have college degrees – former engineers and bankers – and they want to work outside.”