How to turn the spring rush into long-term landscaping success

As a landscaping consultant, I’ve worked with many companies that charge into the spring rush with high hopes, packed schedules, and team members eager to put winter behind them. The first six months of the year can feel overwhelming. Winter sometimes overstays its welcome, and then the team navigates the 100 days of hell like an obstacle course, all the while having Mother Nature throw everything she has at them. It’s a pressure cooker of opportunity and challenges mixed together in one pot. But underneath the lid and buried in the chaos are clear lessons that can help you finish the year stronger: more profitable, more efficient and with more team momentum.

Reflect on the Spring Rush: What Worked, What Didn't?

Spring is the landscaping world’s version of a playoff run to the championship trophy. Crews are busy, calls are constant, you’re training new team members and the pressure to produce is intense. But once the dust settles in summer, it’s time to reflect.

Were you and your team prepared properly? Did you hit the ground running with well-maintained equipment, clear schedules and staff that were onboarded and trained correctly? Or were you scrambling to catch up and constantly putting out fires?

Did you communicate well as a team and with clients and vendors? Many operational issues, from late contract signings to unhappy customers, stem from poor communication. Assess how effectively your team, clients and leadership stayed aligned.

Where did the team feel the most stress? These pain points usually reveal cracks in the team or your systems. Things like unclear job roles, over-scheduling or bottlenecks in crew deployment and job sequencing.

Identifying these issues isn’t about blame; it’s about learning, adjusting and building trust together. Document the lessons and come up with a game plan to lay a better foundation to avoid repeating mistakes.

Strengthen Your Operational Foundation

If the first half of the year felt chaotic, now’s the time to tighten your systems. Operational excellence separates companies that simply survive from those that consistently win.

Start with your processes and routines at every level and every role. Is your client onboarding clear? Are expectations communicated effectively from business development to account management to the operations team? A few tweaks in prep can create dramatic efficiency gains across the board.

Review your jobsite inefficiencies, accidents and injuries, then double down on training in these key areas. With the busiest months behind you, use the calmer summer months to cross-train your team, reinforce safety protocols, develop new crew leaders and refine job sequencing on your biggest maintenance accounts. A stronger team now means fewer issues during the fall rush.

Hopefully, you have been monitoring your data on a regular basis and making adjustments throughout the spring rush. If not, then it’s vital that you analyze it now. Look at job profitability, time tracking and client satisfaction. Are you promoting your most profitable services? Are crews hitting their estimated hours? The goal is to be proactive and not reactive.

Revisit Your Goals and Recommit

Remember those January goals? Have you tracked and adjusted them, or did they get buried in the spring chaos? Now’s the time to dust them off and recommit to a strong finish. Make your goals visible. Align your weekly actions to support them. If you’re behind, look at what’s underperforming and where you can pivot. Are other areas performing better? Double down on them!

How is the team performing as a whole? And what about leadership and culture goals? Are you building future leaders? Reducing turnover? Are you sharing progress at the branch, division, and crew level? If not, WHY not? Your team wants to know if they’re winning!

Prepare Now for the Fall Rush

Fall brings its own wave of opportunity and challenges, and your planning shouldn’t slow down. Smart operators treat the second half of the year like a second season. It’s your chance to correct the spring mistakes, to incrementally get better in every area of your business.

Get ahead of the competition, start marketing your fall services now. Reach out to recurring clients and secure work early to keep your crews full. Plan for your labor, material and equipment needs before it’s too late. Make sure your labor and material pricing are updated and ready for fall work and your maintenance renewal season.

If you offer snow-related services, now is the time to get that ball rolling. If you don’t, it’s time to plan for the slower months.

Final Thoughts

The first half of the year gave you more than just revenue — it gave you real-world insight into how your business performs under pressure. Your goal isn’t to survive Q3 and Q4 — it’s to finish strong. That happens when forward-thinking leaders stay focused and lead by example.

Words of Wilson features a rotating panel of consultants from Bruce Wilson & Company, a landscape consulting firm. WILSON360 is the rebranded platform of Bruce Wilson & Company. Brian Brueggemann is an Operations Consultant with Wilson360, the rebranded platform of Bruce Wilson & Company. He can be reached at brian.brueggemann@brucewilsoncompany.com.