Here are some tips on how to succeed in the lawn care and landscaping
business:
1. Your success in the lawn care and landscaping business will depend on
how prepared you are to do the work and execute. You need to take time to
evaluate your business and how you are doing different jobs by asking
critical questions:
- How can you do the job more efficiently next time?
- Are you meeting
your budget for the year?
- Is your business showing profit?
- Do you know
what it costs for you to run your equipment per hour?
- Do you know what
your overhead costs are per hour?
2. Keep close track of the financial performance of your business,
particularly your cost relative to sales. According to Lawn and Landscape
magazine, general industry standard in terms of cost relative to sales are
as follows:
For a Maintenance company
- Labor = 35-40 percent of sales
- Materials =
5 to 10 percent of sales
For a Design/Build company
- Labor = 20 percent
of sales
- Materials = 30 percent of sales (or more, depending on scope of
project)
3. Find an effective work scheduling system to allow you to more clearly
see the tasks ahead and prioritize your committed jobs. Proper scheduling of
work allows you to manage your resources to ensure that you are not
stretched too thin. Scheduling can be tricky and confusing, given that some
jobs are done weekly, while others are biweekly and even monthly. The
schedule should also incorporate fertilizer schedules often done to clients
4 times a year, the monthly shrub trim, and allows you to see your extra big
jobs.
4. Understand and learn plant production cycle to help you get the
material you need. Knowing the production cycle --- from specialty growers
to wholesale finish growers to retailers – can help ensure you can get the
freshest plant materials as well as preferred plant varieties in a timely
fashion
5. Properly manage the number of your workers. The number of your crew
should depend on your typical workload and average job size. Avoid having
too many – or too little – crewmembers on board. Productivity goes down if
you have too little crew, while profit margins hurt if you have too many.
You don’t want too many crews just standing idly because you have little
projects for them. You also don’t want a situation where you are scrambling
from one job to another because you have inadequate crewmembers on board.
6. Train your crew. Avoid the situation where crew members, upon arriving
on the work site, simply idle around and do nothing but wait for
instructions. Give them all the necessary directions and what their
responsibilities are to ensure that the job runs smoothly. Plus, they need
to be trained on various types of plants and other important information
about customers’ yards. You don’t want a situation where you asked your crew
to prune Crape Myrtle and then end up pruning the customer’s prize winning
rose plants.
Make sure your crew members are friendly and do a thorough and complete
job. Before they leave the job site, make sure they did their job by
checking the location and ensuring that they did not do a lopsided job. Make
sure that things in the yard removed during the job such as toys or
flowerpots are put back in place. A good lawn company doesn't just come out
mow then leave; they will weed flower beds, and water the lawn.
7. Always use quality equipment, and keep them well maintained. Invest in
good equipment. Inspect all your equipment and tools before going to job
sites. You don’t want your equipment to break down in the middle of the job.
Plus, if your staffers don't take care of equipment they most likely not
going to care what kind of a job they do either.
8. Focus on maximizing production and profitability and eliminate wasteful
practices. One way is to learn to schedule smart. Do quotes and schedule
jobs in the same area of town and on the same day to reduce travel time and
save on fuel.
9. Immediately address equipment issues. If the crew breaks a tool, devise
a system that will compel the crew member to report the problem and not just
leave the broken tool in the truck. Designate a place where they can put
broken tools. That way, when crews are on the job, their productivity is not
hampered as a result of broken tools while someone else in your crew has to
drive between jobs bringing in tools to replace the ones broken.
10. Be on top of your billing and collection processes. Keep track of the
work you provide, and make sure you leave a note to your customer that you
came and worked on their yard. Send the bills promptly at the end of the
month. Pursue delinquent clients to ensure steady cash flow.
