Wasting no time

Her husband and co-owner of the company, Bobby, had a stern meeting with the employees about how much time seemed to be wasted. The company is now changing its time sheets to show when crews should be completing tasks instead of when they should arrive to begin work. The Whites believe this will reinforce reasonable deadlines and force the crews to report any problems finishing a task.

“The goal is that on some of the routing sheets, we give time specifics,” Lauren says. “So (we might say), ‘You need to be done with that job by 1 o’clock.’ That won’t allow them the time to freely just take their time and do whatever they want.” 

Lauren says the company also installed GPS tracking on its vehicles, which the employees didn’t know about at the time of implementation. The process only took an hour, and while they’ve only been able to really use the devices during snow management so far, they’re learning how best to utilize GPS ahead of their lawn care rollout on April 1. “That will be the big time that we’re really going to pay attention to it,” Lauren says.

The Whites were also in the process of purchasing a maintenance company, which Lauren says will improve the company in more than one way. They’ll get an additional 100 to 200 residential clients and an account manager to help Lauren ease up on running all administrative aspects that she currently manages. One of the couple’s top concerns entering the Turnaround Tour was finding the time and confidence in their team to take a much-needed vacation.

The contract negotiations presented a lot of back and forth, but with the season just about to begin, the Whites are itching to finalize the deal. Lauren says they’ll be prepared in case the deal falls through, but she also says she’s been ramping up her organization efforts in the probable event they’ll take on a slew of new clients.

“It’s a lot of back and forth in regard to salary, what do you have for clients and equipment, and what do you make per month?” Lauren says. “We’re trying to get all those details before we present an offer.”