Nursery Management – Follow the Numbers

April 10, 2017

Experience may come with age, but characteristics like instinct and perception don’t discriminate based on how many birthdays someone has celebrated.

Jonathan Saperstein became the owner of a 4,000-acre operation at the tender age of 27. It wasn’t a typical family transition – he purchased TreeTown USA, complete with seven locations across Texas and Florida, from his father David Saperstein. TreeTown USA wasn’t a company that grandad had founded 100 years prior. When Jonathan made the purchase in 2015, the nursery was only 14 years old. His father David was not a long-time nurseryman. Instead he had pioneered a new formula in the broadcasting industry. David founded Metro Networks in 1978, a Houston-based company that provided traffic reporting services, as well as local news, sports and weather to television and radio stations globally. Interestingly, David’s dentist told him about a new side venture he had started – a tree nursery. It piqued David’s interest, and in 2001 he founded the nursery.

Although Jonathan assisted his father in the nursery business, his original plan was to be an investment banker. During college Jonathan interned at both a tree farm and at a Wall Street investment firm. Those experiences, coupled with business management lessons from his mentors, were about to pay off. Soon, he’d buy and run the nursery.