Here’s a recap on how Hawkins Landscaping managed the first half of 2020.
April
David Hawkins Jr. says his employees are doing everything they can to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Of course, he adds that these measures are all things they should’ve been doing anyway: wiping down trucks at the end of the day, creating wash stations around the company yard and washing hands before lunchtime. But there’s only so much he can do to prevent the spread of germs and fear at his own company – clients are going to be equally concerned about the virus as well.
To this point, Hawkins Jr. says he hasn’t lost much business yet, which is a positive. He says his company has many long-standing relationships with clients that are handled differently now to maintain physical distance. No handshakes or hugs; just service and quick conversation.
“We just talked to them and we’re taking everything that we can do,” Hawkins Jr. says. “We want to keep our people safe. We’re one big family and try to do the right thing, which is not panic.”
Among the chaos caused by COVID-19, one thing’s remained constant: Harvester Ed and Bill call Hawkins Jr. and the Hawkins Landscaping crew, based in Frederick, Md., every three weeks to catch up on the progress made on the team’s objectives. They’ve had plenty of time to focus on big-picture stuff given that it was a mild winter, though that presents a variety of problems on its own. With $60,000 worth of salt still in storage, it’s taking up space where seed and fertilizer usually goes. Plus, it resulted in less business over the winter than usual.
“But that’s part of the animal that you deal with when you do when you do snow removal,” Hawkins Jr. says. “It seems it’s either feast or famine.”
They never took any days off over the winter though, and Hawkins Jr. says they got a head start on spring maintenance work since the weather was so mild. They also did some hardscaping work, and some of the clients they have for snow work ended up giving the go-ahead for more work this spring. Plus, through word-of-mouth advertising with the clients they already have, Hawkins Jr. says they’ve landed some extra accounts like a nursing home recently.
The word-of-mouth helps because he says their prices are probably higher than some of the larger competitors in the area, but referrals ensure that potential clients know Hawkins Landscaping will spend more time on the little details.
“That way we didn’t have to bid it out,” Hawkins Jr. says. “That’s worked out pretty good, and we’ve got a couple others like that in the works.”
Now they’re working through creating a mini budget and identifying 200 possible clients over time. Hawkins Jr. says it’s been a while since they’ve looked at the bigger problems like pricing out new materials properly because usually, with so much going on, they just buy the first ones they find right at last minute.
“That’s one of my problems. You get busy, and we stay busy year-round, so we don’t watch our numbers as good as we can,” Hawkins Jr. says. “Traditionally, when we first started, we would work on equipment, but as the business evolved, we ran out of that time. Now we might be even busier over the winters than in the spring.”
Harvesters’ take.
It’s been a year of very little snow for the Hawkins team, but that has allowed them to work more on the company than in it. In a good snow year there is plenty of cash coming in for the spring, but this is not happening this season, so it’s been all hands on deck selling work and working on the urgent items in their playbook.
As of this writing, they are in full production with cleanups beginning and design build work underway. At this point, they have a solid backlog of work priced at our 50% gross margin goal. We talked about morphing over into more commercial maintenance work but this has been slow, in that they prefer to be selective in the accounts they go after. They are working with Harvester Ed’s Be 2@200 Campaign, which should bear fruit later in the year. One thing for sure: They don’t want to do any HOAs.
From a financial standpoint, Kristi Hawkins is working on setting up the Harvest Mini Budget so she will be able to see at a click, what the gross margins are each month, for each department. This will really help (in real time) in making sure their estimating, pricing and efficiency is on track. Carol Hawkins is working on their field-to-office paper flow to better track the work. She is also reviewing what was purchased last year to see if there is a way to be more strategic and save money. D2 an D3, that’s father and son, are working to improve their proposal process to be sure their estimates are more accurate.
So, all in all it looks like a good start and we will monitor their progress along the way.
June
David Hawkins Jr., says the annual frenzy of new jobs is slower this year, but his company, Hawkins Landscaping, is managing the COVID-19 crisis as best they can.
First, it’s certainly true that they don’t have as many lawns to maintain at this time, but Hawkins says that it’s easier to deal with the usual stressors that accompany every spring. They have more time to spend at each site and have a better work-life balance for the 26 employees at the company. Plus, Hawkins says he can use everyone staying at home to his advantage. He pitches his services as creating a “staycation” environment and tells them it’s something they’ll always have. Plus, for customers looking to buy into a design/build project, Hawkins reminds them that the interest paid on certain home improvements are a tax write-off.
“It’s made (our work) more in their face. They’re there every day now,” Hawkins says. “In a way, it’s just like anything else – one door closes, another one opens.”
Of course, Hawkins Landscaping is not immune to the pressures of COVID-19. Among other things, some of Hawkins’ primary goals once he was selected for the Turnaround Tour have taken a backseat to putting out daily fires he didn’t anticipate would happen this year. Hawkins and his son, David Hawkins III, have had preliminary conversations with their insurance company as they discuss a transition plan so Hawkins Jr. can retire, and Hawkins III can lead the company.
Hawkins’ employees are still doing physical appointments and keep their distance. Hawkins recalled one weekend where he went on a jobsite and explained their services to a potential client in person because nothing beats face-to-face communication, he says. He jokingly calls email electronic volleyball, and apparently, his client agreed. Despite having lower bids, the client liked that Hawkins came out to educate them and signed on for his business. He recommends other companies simply be smart about how to handle everyone’s perspectives on COVID-19.
“When we go there, if they have their mask on, I put my mask on. A lot of people are really appreciative of that,” he says. “Like everything else, you have to be an opportunist. You have to have a little nerve and take a chance on it.”
Hawkins is also reexamining his pricing with the Harvesters. For example, they offer clients a 10% discount if they offer their whole hardscaping job to Hawkins, but the Harvesters pointed out that there’s a good chunk of possible money being left on the table as a result. “But sometimes, you’ve got to keep the guys busy,” Hawkins says. “So, we’re working through that now.”
Harvesters’ Take
Overall, the Hawkins team is doing good. Sales are up over last year at this time and net profit is up $50,000. The only sales that were down were from a slow snow season. They are still close to meet their sales goals for 2020 at $2.2 million in sales.
They have had little effect from the virus issue and have received their PPP money. Their focus remains on the residential market with installs and maintenance.
Their install backlog is at four weeks and pricing seems to be pretty competitive. They have also been getting some new sales from posting completed jobs on Facebook.
Moving forward over the next several months, they are focusing on four areas:
- Get testimonials from existing satisfied customers: The Harvesters have coached them up on these and given them a step-by-step method to get great testimonials.
- Marketing and advertising: Harvester Ed is assisting here by using Facebook, testimonials and “safe distancing” six feet face-to-face meetings with customers.
- Cost tracking: Production manager Carol Hawkins will track labor and material costs and will be adding this to the mini budget program.
- Getting more efficient: We want to get really close to the installation process and see where we can get more efficient, especially if they are giving 10% discounts!
