Michael Mould and Tiffany Tucker have experienced rapid growth since acquiring New Visions two years ago, and now need to control that growth before they burn out.
When a young Michael Mould wanted to buy a pair of cleats and shin guards, his dad wasn’t going to front him the money. Instead, he recommended Mould use the family lawn mower to cut the neighbor’s grass for some cash. But Mould’s dad would get a cut since he was using the family mower.
“It taught me that everything I get isn’t always mine,” says Mould, who is president of New Visions Lawn & Landscape in Panama City, Florida. “I was counting that money, but it really was owed to my dad.”
That was Mould’s first introduction to owing a landscaping company, and it wouldn’t be his last because in June of 2016, he became co-owner of New Visions.
And while Mould’s dad used his cut of the profits to buy Mould a basketball hoop, he knows as an adult business owner there will be no basketball hoops waiting for him at the end of the day.
But Mould isn’t going it alone. He’s taking the lead on the labor side, but his partner and vice president of the company, Tiffany Tucker, is in charge of all the back office operations.
Fast growth.
Tucker’s husband previously owned New Visions, but became too busy with his job in construction, so he passed it on to Tucker and Mould. When they assumed ownership, they inherited 50 customers and $35,000 in revenue.
After just two years, Mould and Tucker now have revenue of more than $400,000 and achieved that by “Working and working more, and after that we worked again,” Mould says.
Hard work definitely played a role, but so did the market, which Mould and Tucker say is doing well. Currently they are at capacity but will add another truck on the road this season. They have hired two experienced crew leaders with plans on hiring more crew members to run three trucks with two-man crews this season.
Mould especially wants to find someone who can handle installations since he’s been taking the lead on those jobs. He’s also enrolled in college part-time, taking business administration classes, so he has a full plate and would like to delegate some tasks.
“The day gets full pretty fast,” he says. “Every hour counts.”
Mould and Tucker also need to get a handle on their financials. For example, they don’t know if they are making more money off construction or maintenance jobs.
They were able to figure out their net profit margin, which shows they are doing well, but, as Michael wrote in his application essay: “We were doing something right, but we don’t know what that thing is. A quality service? Sure, we offer a quality service, we all work extremely hard and love what we do, but as far as really being able to narrow it down in a category, I am lost.”
Currently, the company is operating out of Tucker’s home, but they hope to have a new building in three to five years. But first, Mould and Tucker need to get their growth under control to achieve that goal and the goal that motivated them to be business owners – “To work on our dream instead of somebody else’s dream,” Mould says.
Harvester’s take:
First impression: Michael and Tiffany seem to have a good working relationship with each having clearly defined roles and strong trust in each other. Michael has a clear vision of the potential of the company but is wearing so many hats he will restrict growth unless he hires and delegates. The quality of their jobs needs help immediately, and their equipment is old and worn and needs an upgrade for work and marketing purposes.
What they are doing well: Along with the good partnership between Michael and Tiffany, they have a great culture and they have good relationships with their employees and as a result it looks like there will be little attrition. Michael and Tiffany are both ambitions and not afraid of growth, and have a good relationship with some of their major competitors.
Immediate areas for improvement: They need to begin a weekly safety program to maintain a good safety record. They need to clean trucks inside and out and add safety equipment to improve morale and make for a better brand identity. Beginning a sales campaign will help reach both short- and long-term financial goals. A written vision, mission and core values statements needs to be developed to give direction for both the owners and their employees. They need to move toward more commercial sales, and begin the Harvest Quality Counts Program to maintain consistent quality on all accounts.
Back on the road
Turnaround Tour - Turnaround Tour 2018
Lawn & Landscape has once again partnered with the Harvest Group to chronicle three companies on the Turnaround Tour.
We here at Lawn & Landscape are thrilled to once again partner with the Harvest Group’s Bill Arman and Ed Laflamme to bring you the Turnaround Tour.
This project allows us to dig in with companies just like yours, that have problems just like yours. Throughout the year, we’ll be able to document the solutions Bill and Ed suggest and watch as the companies implement those suggestions.
After combing through applications solicited last year for the 2018 tour, we chose companies in Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona, that displayed strong characteristics of a growing company – a willingness to learn, listen and take chances.
Bill, Ed and myself were able to spend a few days with these companies in November and December, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our sponsors.
We are thrilled to have Fleetmatics, a Verizon company, once again be the Platinum sponsor for this project.
“As the sponsor of last year’s Turnaround Tour, it was truly fulfilling to see the participants improve their businesses by adopting best practices and making better decisions based on data,” says Todd Ewing, director of product marketing at Fleetmatics, a Verizon Company. “As a company that’s dedicated to delivering vehicle and workforce data that drives that type of insight, Fleetmatics again is proud to sponsor this new group of growth-oriented landscapers on their journey to success.”
In addition to Fleetmatics’ support, we are excited to welcome Greenius and Exmark as gold level sponsors.
I know all of our sponsors are looking forward to watching these companies achieve their goals for 2018.
Throughout 2018, Lawn & Landscape will chronicle the participants’ ups, downs and everything in between through our different multimedia platforms.
We hope you can pull tips from here that will help you turn a problem you have into an opportunity to grow your business.
Travels with Jim follows Jim Huston around the country as he visits with landscapers and helps them understand their numbers to make smarter decisions.
They’re called hoagies in Pennsylvania and are usually filled with sliced country-cured ham, cheese, fresh shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions and mayo. In Massachusetts, they’re called grinders. The meatball with marinara sauce is perhaps the most popular. My favorite, however, is the Italian sandwich from Maine. It’s loaded with ham, provolone cheese, onions, black olives, dill pickles and tomatoes, smothered in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper – all on a delicious freshly baked foot-long roll.
Whenever I drive across the Piscataqua River Bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, into Kittery, Maine, the only items on my menu are Italian sandwiches (and Maine lobster). While the name and inside ingredients might vary around the country, the sub sandwich is an enduring American tradition. The fresher the contents the better – no stale bologna in these delicatessen delights.
Like the sub sandwich, the name of your subs and their contents may vary (plumbing, irrigation, electrical, fencing, pools, etc.). However, by any other name, a sub is a sub.
How it works in the field.
Mike called from Pennsylvania, asking how much he should mark up the subcontractor costs on one of his projects. The sub was going to clear and grub a property, then soil prep and seed it. Finally, he was going to cover it with jute netting. The cost for the sub to do this was $100,000.
I asked Mike how much he was thinking of marking up the cost of the subcontractor. He had been taught the multiple overhead recovery estimating system (MORS) and to mark up subcontractor costs by adding 5 percent to cover general and administrative overhead costs and 10 percent for net profit. He replied 15 percent. I asked him how involved he’d be supervising the subcontractor. He replied that he had worked with this very good sub on many occasions and that all he’d have to do was to make a phone call to tell the sub when to start and send an invoice to the client when the work was done.
Me: “So you want to charge $15,000 to make a phone call and send an invoice?”
Mike: “Well, I guess so.”
Me: “How about if I either make the call or send the invoice and we split the $15,000?
Mike: “Chuckles.”
Me: “If you can get it, by all means charge $15,000 to make a phone call and send an invoice. However, would you be willing to take $5,000 for doing so?”
If the market would allow him to charge $15,000 (15 percent), by all means do so. He might want to lower the net profit percentage. He should also lower the 5 percent ($5,000) to cover G&A overhead costs.
Industry pricing benchmarks.
The market will usually allow you to apply an all-inclusive 10 to 20 percent margin to subcontractor costs. Occasionally, a higher figure is used and in extremely competitive situations, subcontractor costs are simply passed through, not marked up at all. The 15 percent margin is intended to cover some G&A overhead costs and net profit, but not necessarily costs associated with direct supervision of and coordination with the subcontractor. These costs are often added to the cost of the sub.
Just as a supplier gives you a discounted “re-wholesale” price for the materials you buy, so should a subcontractor give you a discounted re-wholesale price for the work that he does for you. A subcontractor should give the homeowner a retail price and you a lower price.
Think of it like a nursery or supplier that buys plants at a wholesale price, sells them to the homeowner at a retail price but sells them to the contractor for a discounted re-wholesale one. The contractor usually brings much more business to the supplier than does a single homeowner. Also, the contractor does the selling for and requires less advertising from the supplier. Viewed from the subcontractor’s perspective, he should give you a re-wholesale price because you are doing the selling. Similarly, the sub should pay you an 8-10 percent commission for selling the jobs in the form of a discount. An additional 5-10 percent discount is warranted to help cover some of your G&A costs.
Remember these pricing levels:
Retail (or list): The price paid by the homeowner to the supplier.
Re-wholesale: The discounted price the contractor pays the supplier.
Wholesale: The price the supplier pays to the grower.
Baloney detector.
When you work with your next subcontractor, get out your baloney detector. Show him this article if you have to. But don’t allow your subs to feed you a bunch of baloney in the form of an inflated price.
Jim Huston runs J.R. Huston Consulting, a green industry consulting firm.
Sales Call offers landscapers Marty Grunder’s practical and tactical advice on how to improve their sales and marketing, and grow their company’s bottom line.
Recently, one of our most successful Marty Grunder! Inc. clients asked me what actions the CEO of a landscaping company should take on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. The head of a $5-million operation, this client is always looking for ways to improve and grow, as this question shows. And it’s a great question. So I put it to three of the smartest green-industry CEOs I know. Here’s what they had to say:
STRATEGIC PLANNING.
It all starts with strategic planning, according to Frank Mariani, CEO of the largest privately owned landscape company in the country. “We look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and then it’s off to the races,” he says. “This drives our budgeting process, identifies our people’s needs and addresses our capital expenditures. Most important, we utilize (the International Organization for Standardization) so that all of this preseason planning is used daily, weekly and monthly as a living tool rather than as a report card where you just check your results at the end of the year.”
On a monthly basis, Frank’s management team gathers for a chart meeting, with everyone coming prepared to explain in detail any item that may be 5 percent less or 5 percent more than what their budget had in place.
Frank also cites the importance of networking for new opportunities by taking part in civic, charitable, and industry events, and of taking the time to connect internally with team members.
“Lastly, very few days pass that I don’t check out the competition,” Frank says, whether it’s local or it’s national, to see who is a trendsetter and who is doing work of the highest quality. “Great competition drives us all to higher levels.”
GROWTH.
On a daily basis, as CEO your primary focus is always growth, says Mike Rorie, who started GroundMasters in Cincinnati in 1979 with a pick-up truck and a lawn mower and parlayed that into a $30-million operation that he sold to Brickman in 2006. Never one to sit idle, he now heads up GroundSystems in Cincinnati.
“Growth is the vehicle to provide opportunity to the entire organization,” he explains. “There’s a lot of areas that require attention, but strategic growth is paramount to the overall success and sustainability of the business.”
But, Mike reminds us, with growth comes new challenges, which requires being staffed at key levels of the business. You need a strong sales team, field leadership that can deliver to the customer, and well-planned account management and operations management. “Growth brings prosperity, but the demands it brings to manage and deliver are very real. If I’m doing my job well as CEO, I’m ensuring we’ve got the right people in place to do what we need to do.”
VISION.
Think about scalability in every aspect, including yourself and your team, advises Jim McCutcheon, CEO of HighGrove Partners, Atlanta’s market leader in commercial maintenance. “If most decisions have to run through the CEO, you will limit the growth of the company to just what you can handle. I have four senior leaders and, as I always say, I have done all of their jobs but I can’t do them as well as they can do them individually. The team is stronger than any one person.”
Jim says he spends most of his time as CEO focused on the vision and on motivating his team to build the mission and reach success. They have strategic planning meetings twice a year, which he leads, and they meet at least once a month to ensure they are on track with their plans. He’s always got his eye on the future, too: What are the opportunities and risks? When do they need to make investments for the future that might have a short-term negative impact?
His last bit of advice on the role of the CEO is crucial. “I often call myself the ‘Protector of the Culture,’” he says. “I want to make sure the actions, tone, words, look and feel are all commensurate with the type of culture we want at HighGrove.”
And my advice? Wise CEOs do what I did here. They go and seek out guidance from other CEOs who are running larger and more successful companies than their own. They strive to learn from and emulate the best, because that’s how you get better.
Marty Grunder is a speaker, consultant and author. He owns Grunder Landscaping Co.
Landscaper volunteers services after Hurricane Irma
Departments - L&L Insider
A landscaper in Estero, Florida, volunteered to clean up Everglades Wonder Gardens.
When O'Donnell Landscape volunteered to help Everglades Wonder Gardens clean up, free of charge, one challenge was determining which trees to save.
Photo courtesy of O'Donnell Landscape
When Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September 2017, cleanup work added to many landscapers’ workloads. Companies like O’Donnell Landscape in Estero, Florida, transitioned from their usual landscape design work to tree care work to help perform cleanup jobs. For O’Donnell Landscape, cleanup work occupied most of their time for six to eight weeks after the storm.
“We went from a landscape company to tree care. Getting roads open for safety and medical professionals was job No. 1,” said Al O’Donnell, president of O’Donnell Landscape.
While O’Donnell Landscape contracted most of the cleanup jobs it performed in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, O’Donnell received a call from a past client and acquaintance who needed help restoring Everglades Wonder Gardens, a botanical garden and zoo in Bonita Springs, Florida.
“Thomas Hecker, (executive director of Everglades Wonder Gardens), called us and asked us to help him,” O’Donnell said.
Over half of the Everglades Wonder Gardens’ trees were destroyed and almost all had broken limbs. So, O’Donnell Landscape donated time and equipment to the park about five weeks after the storm, free of charge.
“It’s a local park, and they weren’t getting anyone else to do the job and bring in a crane to help move trees – that wasn’t in their budget,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell first came up with a game plan to salvage some of the trees that fell. He said he had to figure out how to maneuver equipment into the park and determine which trees would be able to stand up, even though many trees were lying on top of each other. He also ran into the challenge of trees breaking after trying to stand them up. “It was like going to a pile of pickup sticks and figuring out what to save,” he said.
O’Donnell Landscape crews assisted with cleanup at the Everglades Wonder Gardens for about 10 days. Other volunteers also helped with efforts at the park, and nurseries donated plant materials, O’Donnell said. Although the park looks “stumped back” now, O’Donnell estimates it will look as good as normal in two to five years. In the end, O’Donnell’s crews provided about $31,000 of free services to Everglades Wonder Gardens. Had his crew not helped, most of the trees that fell would likely have died.
“This was a situation where professionally it was something we could do to make a difference,” O’Donnell said.
Pesticide professionalism
How LCOs can maintain professional personas to avoid scrutiny. By Lauren Rathmell
With growing scrutiny targeted at lawn care companies, Bob Mann, director of government relations for the National Association of Landscape Professionals, said it’s important for companies to do their best to maintain a professional persona. “We need to be trying to advance the professionalism in this industry,” he says.
At Real Green’s Solutions 2018 conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, Mann offered a few tips for lawn care companies to keep their operations professional and productive.
KNOW YOUR EQUIPMENT.
This might seem like a no-brainer, but understanding when to use what type of equipment will help prevent an accident or damage.
“You need to make sure you keep your equipment properly maintained and calibrated for every application,” Mann said.
He said it’s important to keep up with small maintenance duties like scraping buildup off propellers and cleaning nozzles before or after each use.
“If you need to, take your equipment to some asphalt to see what the spray pattern will look like,” Mann said.
Real Green Solutions 2018 took place Jan. 7-10 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Photo by Lauren Rathmell
Notify customers in advance.
Mann recommends sending email blasts that include the date and time of the service, along with any important information related to the service.
Keep productivity in mind.
Try to keep operations consistent. Walking around the property to look for obstacles will enhance your productivity. Also, enforcing uniform operations such as always knocking on the customer’s door to let them know you’re there will build trust.
Be professional and precise.
“We always started our applications in the back and worked our way to the front,” Mann, formerly an agronomist at Lawn Dawg, said. He also said to work in straight lines only to get the best-looking results.
“Don’t get too close to the edge, either,” he said. “We would always go in with a sprayer to do the edges.”
Recording the work you perform will also come in handy in case any issues pop up with the property owner.
Clean up your mess.
Keeping those pesticides off areas like driveways and streets will portray a look of professionalism.
“If it’s not turf, it needs to be cleaned up immediately,” Mann said. “Spray it off and get it cleaned. When you don’t clean it up, it reflects on all of us.”
Using a deflector will control the flow and direction of the spray to make your cleanup easier.
Be aware of ‘do not’ on labels.
“The two most important words on any label are ‘do not,’” Mann said. Follow all label instructions word for word to avoid accidents and malpractice. The labels will have information regarding the amount of application, working conditions and any safety information related to the product.
Transportation.
“Other people need to know what you have in your containers,” Mann said. “They need to be clearly labeled.” If there is an accident on a job site, first responders may need to know what type of chemical was involved to respond to the situation appropriately.
Reusing containers can also cause confusion for newer employees trying to learn each type of pesticide. Once the containers are empty, be sure to read the label for proper disposal.
When transporting your chemicals, make sure to keep them securely tied down to prevent spillage.
Dress for success.
Anyone handling any sort of chemical must have the proper attire. Long sleeve shirts, long pants, long gloves and eye protection are necessities. Nitrile gloves are easy to find, but read the labels of the products to find out how thick the gloves should be.
For safe, chemical-resistant shoes, Mann recommends hiking boots for comfort while walking as well as rubber impervious boots to put over them during application.
RCI acquires Massengale Grounds Management
Slidell, La. – Rotolo Consultants Inc. (RCI) acquired Massengale Grounds Management, a commercial landscape maintenance company with operations throughout south Louisiana. The acquisition helps RCI to expand its footprint in Louisiana. RCI has operations in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. It employs more than 600 people at its nine locations.
This marks RCI’s second acquisition in the past year. The company also acquired Greenscape Grounds Management, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, in June 2017.
“We are excited to include Massengale as part of the RCI family,” said Keith Rotolo, president and CEO of RCI. “They have an exceptional management team that brings a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge to RCI.”
Massengale has provided landscape maintenance services to customers near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for decades and RCI will continue to provide those customers with services there.
“We are very excited about the possible opportunities when two great organizations join to leverage their strengths,” said Toby Massengale, Massengale owner.
Rotolo said RCI plans to make other acquisitions in 2018 in its core geographies as well as expansion in adjacent markets.
Maine city council passes synthetic pesticide ban
Portland, Maine –The Portland City Council approved an ordinance on Jan. 3 that prohibits the use of synthetic pesticides for outdoor pest management on public and private properties, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Councilors voted 9-0 to approve the ordinance after a one-hour workshop that was followed by a debate on 10 proposed amendments to the pesticide law. Two amendments passed, one of which set the ordinance’s start date for July 1, 2018.
According to the Portland Press Herald, the ordinance was recommended in October by the council's Sustainability and Transportation Committee.
NALP offers online business courses for 2018
Fairfax, Va. – The National Association of Landscape Professionals partnered with Cengage Learning and ed2go to deliver online courses that can help develop staff skills. The online courses are each about 12 lessons and take six weeks to complete. There are more than 100 courses to choose from, including topics such as leadership, supervision, QuickBooks, accounting, Microsoft Office products and Speed Spanish.
“We know that the winter season is a key time for staff training and development, and we hope this low-cost solution for self-directed education offers companies a good resource,” said Sabeena Hickman, CAE, NALP CEO.
The courses can be found at ed2go.com/nalp/. Most courses offered cost about $115.
All questions about the course options can be emailed to NALP Director of Technical Education Rex Bishop at rex@landscapeprofessionals.org.
Ruppert expands in Virginia, names new branch manager
Laytonsville, Md. – Ruppert Landscape expanded its operations to include a new branch in southern Richmond, Virginia. This branch joins four existing landscape management branch offices in Virginia located in northern Richmond, Gainesville, Alexandria and Fredericksburg. With the expansion, Dave Sharry has been promoted to serve as branch manager in southern Richmond.
“Dave’s work and performance was a major factor in Richmond’s growth and our ability to create the opportunity to split the existing Richmond branch into two,” said region vice president Fred Key.
Sharry has more than 26 years of green industry experience and is a Marine Reserve veteran. He joined the company in 2011 as an area manager at a time when Richmond operations were just getting off the ground, and he has since been instrumental in the growth of the Richmond branch.
As a branch manager, he will be responsible for the overall welfare of the branch, including the safety and development of his team, strategic planning and budgeting, training and day-to-day operations.
In addition, the company promoted Rob Groves to serve as the new branch manager for its branch in northern Richmond, Virginia. Groves has more than 15 years of green industry experience and holds a degree in ornamental horticulture from Pennsylvania College of Technology. He has been with Ruppert for over 10 years, having started his career with Ruppert as an enhancement field manager in the company’s Gainesville, Virginia, landscape management branch. Within a year, he was promoted to enhancement manager and after serving in that role for six years, he took a position as area manager.
As a branch manager, he will be responsible for the welfare of the northern Richmond branch, including the safety and development of his team, strategic planning and budgeting, training and day-to-day operations.
New products: New to market
Here are some of the latest tools and products to help contractors.
70-series EXL saw chain - Oregon
The pitch: Oregon Outdoor Power Equipment’s 70-Series EXL saw chain features:
A proprietary multi-axis grind technology and precision-ground cutters to help the saw power through timber.
LubriTec technology that keeps saw chain and guide bar oiled for less friction and longer life.
Improved grind shape profile to better match the shape of the file, making it easier to file a precise edge.
The Gold Loop Start Indicator makes sharpening easier with start-stop identification.
An overall design that reduces the force applied by the operator.
The pitch: The L-series models are built for tasks that require peak productivity in small spaces and over rough terrain.
The 62 horsepower (46 kW) 204L and 67 horsepower (50 kW) 304L models are equipped with Tier 4 Final Yanmar engines and fuel-efficient hydrostatic transmissions to keep noise to a minimum.
An optional ride control is now available to reduce material spillage.
Automatically activated front- and rear-differential locks provide increased traction in harsh conditions.
The machine height of the 204L is configurable to less than 8 feet.
Compatible with about 100 John Deere Worksite Pro attachments.
Optional enclosed cab or open station, providing 360-degree attachment visitliy. An improved interior cooling system keeps the operator comfortable in warmer temperatures.
The pitch: The Ultimate Combo from BWise Manufacturing was designed with the serious landscaper, hardscaper and contractor in mind.
An 8-foot enclosed v-nose box with 72-inch side ramp door and 30-inch man door provide storage and access for mowers, hand-held equipment and supplies.
The 10-foot x 82-inch dump box with 47-degree dump angle can handle dirt, mulch, sand, stone and other landscape material.
The Ultimate Combo is also equipped with a landscape ramp/gate, allowing for easy unloading and loading as well as transport of additional and larger equipment. The Ultimate Combo is manufactured with a BWise 4-inch power up / down cylinder and a Bucher pump.
A 25-foot corded remote, wireless remote and 110V/5Amp charger are standard equipment, along with a BWise 10,000 pound Hyjacker hydraulic jack. Standard aluminum wheels complete the package.
Ask the Experts: Guidelines for safety and finance planning
Professionals offer input on OSHA safety guidelines and becoming stronger financially.
Q: We are looking for information for how to properly mark and secure our vehicles on the side of the road. Can you please advise where we can get specific Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements for our state? We have looked at the DOT website and can’t find anything.
A: There are federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines on work zone safety that would be useful for landscape firms that may have vehicles operating near their work sites that could create potential work zone hazards to themselves or the general public.
The best reference on the proper worker and site safety recommendations can be found online at bit.ly/OSHAworkzone – this is a helpful document that should provide the information needed to reduce a firm’s liability in the event of a personal injury incident. I also would recommend that if your firm regularly works on or near public right-of-way, and that you prepare and enforce a "written" Work Zone Safety Plan to be shared with employees at new employee orientation and during periodic safety training sessions. There are also guidelines and resources provided in an article written for National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) – bit.ly/NALPsafetytrucks – on how to safely park trucks and trailers at jobsites that would address your concerns. This article has a checklist for employers and supervisors on how to prevent any incidents from occurring and includes links to resources such as “flagger training and certification requirements by state” which can be found here: bit.ly/WorkzoneFlaggerTraining.
By meeting OSHA standards despite a possible lack of DOT standards your company will be proactively protecting the welfare and safety of not only your employees but general publics as well.
Sam Steel, Ph.D., NALP Safety Advisor
Q: We have been struggling financially this year. I need some help with financial projections/cash flow predictions. Do you have any advice?
A: I am sorry to hear about your financial struggles and please know that everyone has experienced the ups and downs of running a business. There are a few immediate things that come to mind that may help your situation.
First, if you aren’t using one already, I would encourage you to look for a good landscape industry software that would provide you with tools for budgeting, estimating, scheduling and time sheets to name a few. You should look for software that will help you understand your numbers and what you should be charging or if you are charging enough.
I would also recommend that you price shop your commercial insurance package to possibly save some money for your landscape firm. Prices do vary, and shopping around can help.
Lastly, I would encourage you to offer customers a prepay discount at the beginning of the year with the discount coming back in the form of a gift certificate for the client. This will help you with cash flow up front.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. Reaching out to others to network and get guidance on solutions for your business problems is always a good start.
Adam N. Linnemann, NALP Trailblazer, Linnemann Lawn Care & Landscaping
