Archive for December 2011

Have You Made Your “To Do List” for 2012?

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Friday, December 30th, 2011

Every business owner goes through the year thinking that next year is is going to be better than this year. It is the eternal optimist in every business person who ever owned and operated a business. But I believe that we can and do contribute to our own success by following a few key concepts. First, make a list of the things you want to accomplish personally and professional each year. Secondly, exhibit the confidence that you had when you started the business for all to observe and, thirdly, always follow through on the things you said you would do, including accomplishing your “to do’ list.

I am not a believer in resolutions for the new year, however I am a believer in defining goals for yourself, personally and professionally. There is a big difference between the two. As a business owner you want to continue to grow, both personally and professionally. Part of that growing comes through you setting goals to achieve each year. This ‘to do’ list may contain items that are personal, like running a marathon or learning to ballroom dance. It may also contain items that are business related, like growing the business 10% in 2012 or becoming active in your local community. Either way you are growing yourself and expanding your abilities to manage and operate your business. I recommend that you create two lists one that is personal and the other professional. The reason is that I believe that we, as business owners sometimes lose our identity as individuals and our identity becomes that of the business. At that point you lose prospective on both fronts.

Exhibiting confidence is one way to help others around you believe that you can accomplish the impossible and maybe grow the business 10 % in a down economy. The confidence that you exhibit will rub off on others. As the leader of the business you need to demonstrate that you can accomplish what you set out to do. That’s why your list each year helps you maintain the belief and confidence that all leaders exhibit. Setting goals is not new, but doing for it the reason discussed is perhaps a new view of an old concept.

Lastly, follow through on what you say. It is easy to get side tracked especially when it’s about you, “your business always comes first, no matter what.” It can easily happen, but keep that list of “to do’s” in a place that you will look at on a daily basis, to remind you of the things that are important to you. When times get tough remind yourself of the goals that you set at the beginning of the year and reaffirm the commitment to accomplish those goals on the “to do” list. It will help you enjoy the work you do and make you feel better about everything around you.

Make that list today!
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Company Culture is Important to Most Landscape Businesses.

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Company culture is very important to most landscape contracting businesses for several reasons. Most landscape contractors are small to medium size business and the work can be very hard and difficult, facing the weather conditions as well as employment issues and of course declining margins. Many who have selected to make landscape contracting their profession understand that it is a tough business. The company’s culture plays a vital role in keeping employees engaged in their position and their desire to stay in the landscape industry.

What is company culture and how does it affect the company, employees and the customers? Company culture is created by the ownership and management team. It is something that is created and makes people want to stay with the company. It is a feeling of pride, accomplishment, of feeling wanted and finally feeling part of a team. The culture is not something that you can buy at the store or create by increasing the wages of employees. It is something that is created by the chemistry of the people in the company. It’s like being part of the owner’s family, knowing that you can make a mistake and not feel that your termination is around the corner. It is feeling bad when you make that mistake and wanting to find a way to make up for the mistake.   

Company culture is something that customers recognize and feel when the sales staff goes out to meet them. It is something that makes people want to hire your company. It is how your employees dress, how your equipment looks driving down the street. It’s how your employees greet your customer when on their job site. Company culture is part of the company from top to bottom.  It is a level of confidence that your employees have on the job site. Most of all it is about being part of something, identifying with the people you work with and caring about the results that each and every team member produces for the customer.

Think about what you want your company’s culture to be and set your sights on achieving that goal.  Knowing that this is where you want to go is a very satisfying and rewarding feeling.

It is time to start working on your company culture.
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What Technology is Right for Your Landscape Company?

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

I have been reading a number of articles about whether smartphones are a good idea for landscape crews. I would suggest that if the expense can be off set by reduced cost or improved services, then it is worth the effort. Any technology that will improve the service you offer your customer or save expenses is worth the effort. I have always believed that any technology that can better serve the customer is an improvement in my service to the customer. The major issue with technology is whether you are able to get your crews to buy into the technology. Our people are very skilled at what we ask them to do in the field, however, I feel that many times we ask them to do things that we have not trained them to do, like how to properly use technology.

I believe that technology is great if the training and reenforcement of the technology is included with the technology. In other words, are we as management taking the time to train our crews in the proper use of the technology and are we explaining what it can do for your the customer, the office staff and the crew members? We fail to recognize that our crews need to see the benefits to them before they buy into change. A great deal has to do with the culture that runs in your company, is change and technology encouraged or is it an order that is sent from above?

It is important that we look for ways to promote technology in our companies, but only when it is recognized as a benefit to all involved. Benefits can be as simple as a time savings for the crew leader or better information being reported to the office for payroll and job cost purposes. The company culture has a lot to do with how technology is received in your company. Is this just something new to try because it is the “in” thing like a smart phone or are there benefits that can be gained?

The decision to use technology is an important choice, but if you chose technology for the wrong reasons,I think it is wasted time, expense and effort. Think about it, it’s not about smart phones it is about company culture and how your company embraces change.

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Planning Doesn’t Stop for the Holidays!

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

It’s the day after Christmas and most people are off work for the next week, but it is no time to slow down and rest. It is time to start planning for your sales push in January. Many customers are not interested in discussing their landscape needs during the holidays, however it does not mean that you should stop planning and working on the business. For most landscape contractors with fiscal years starting January 1, you are already working in the new year. Don’t let up, there is still much to be done to get ready for next season.

The big push for many contractors in January is educational programing that is available for your staff. Many industry associations hold thier annual trade shows in January and February. You need to get your staff involved and determine what education would be helpful for them and the company. Also start developing the marketing and sales campaigns that you budgeted for in your strategic plan. Now is the time to lay out the concepts for these marketing and sales campaigns so that it does not take up your time when the season starts.

I am not suggesting that you should be working 12 hour days, 7 days a week, but now is the time to take care of many of the items that get overlooked  when the season starts moving forward.

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Now that You Created a Strategic Plan, What Do You Do With It?

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Monday, December 26th, 2011

You have now created the strategic plan for your business, so what do I do with it now? As we have been discussing, the strategic plan acts like a road map. It provides you operational direction. But most people complete the plan and place in the file drawer until next year end when they get ready to update the plan. Don’t get caught in that trap.  Usethis plan to guide your decisions for the business for the next year and beyond. Most software programs will assist in the financial area by producing profit and loss statements monthly with comparisons to last month, last year and year to date. But what about the other strategic areas of your business?

This plan should sit on your desk as a constant reminder of the plan you created to guide your business. When it comes time to add a crew or a new piece of equipment you should be referring back to your plan. Using the plan should offer you the milestones that are necessary to make the tough decisions for the business. In fact you should be referring back to the plan at least once per month to insure that you and your business are on track.

The financial information should be reviewed no less than once per month if not more, depending on what services your business provides. For contract services like Design/Build and Bid/Build I would be looking at job costs on a weekly basis. For maintenance services, a monthly review is sufficient. Using this information will help you make decisions about your business and what you need to do to increase margins and profits. The goal is to make profit.

I understand that it is difficult to run the business, sell and take care of clients and employees, but managing the business is how you grow and increase your profit margin. Start the New Year out by planning and using the plan you have created. It will make your business run better and your life will be less stressful.

 

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Writing a Strategic Plan for Landscape Contractors

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Most Landscape Contractors started their businesses for several reasons: they enjoy plants and the outdoors, they know they can do a better job of running a business than their current boss, and finally they want the independences of owning their own business. Many have not had formal business training and know little about starting a business. All businesses, large or small, need a plan, a strategic plan, an operating guide to running their business. Writing a strategic plan sounds much more difficult that it is however, it will require you and your team to gather information about your business before you start writing anything on paper. A Strategic Plan is a process of gathering information and verifying the accuracy of the information and then recording it on paper as a tool for future reference.

The Strategic Plan can take up to 3 months to complete, depending on the size and complexity of your business. This is not a one day event, it will take time to research the necessary information. Start with your team doing what is commonly referred to as a SWOT Analysis: Make a list of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your business. This will assist in determining your company’s position in the market place. This analysis will also help determine the areas of greatest concern and allow you and your team to look at the resources available to improve these areas. You may ask, what are resources? Resources are time, labor, material, capital, technology and any other resource that is pertinent to your business. Next, have your team evaluate the information and determine your position in the market place.

Then begin developing the vision and mission statement for your company. The vision statement states where the company will be in 3 to 5 years. This statement should bring everyone together in a common direction of implementation and to a common end point. The mission statement is describing the business you want to be in a concise statement, while considering the key elements of any business: clients, employees, vendors and community. Also stating the company’s characteristics that you envision for the company, such as professional, family run, etc.

The goals and objectives are the next order of business. The goals are ongoing and longterm.They have no time frame or amounts assigned to them. The objectives are the results of the goals and have a time frame and amount assigned to them. For example the goals is to increase market share. The objective is to increase market share 10% in the next year. Each objective will then be assigned an action plan to define who does what by when to meet the objective. A risk analysis for internal and external factors should be done for each of the goals and objective to determine the resources needed for these goals and objectives, identifying the high risk area and contingency plan developed to deal with these issues should they occur.

A budget should be created to determine if this plan is financially feasible and used as a tracking tool for the plan. This budget becomes the report card of your success with this plan.

The next phase would be a analysis of the market and competitive forces and how far in that direction can you move the company. This is where benchmarking against competitors is important. In this phase you will consider things like: market and competitive analysis and your cost and pricing barriers are reviewed.

This plan is a future looking document with a life of 3 to 5 years, making revisions every year to tweek any changes that may have occurred in the marketplace or competitively. Don’t be deterred by what you may perceive as a complex under taking. Break this plan into pieces just like building a landscape, you will find this to be much easier than trying to do it all at once. This process will also offer you a look into your business that you have never had before. This tool is something that you can and should keep on your desk, referring to the document throughout the year.

 

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Strategic Plan Versus Business Plan for the Landscape Contractor

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

 When it comes to Strategic Plans versus  Business Plans, the terms are used interchangeably, but they are not interchangeable. The Strategic Plan is a long range planning tool used to look into the future, usually 3 to 5 years. The Strategic Plan contains the company’s vision and mission statement, goals and objectives over a specify period of time and how the company will achieve those goals and objectives in that time frame. The Strategic Plan is a living document that is flexible, taking in to account changes that occur in the world. The Strategic Plan acts as a guide for the daily operation of your business. The Strategic Plans contains the following elements:

Vision Statement

Mission Statement

Goals

Objective Action Plans

Risk Analysis and Contingency Plans

Competitive Analysis

Financials

The Business Plan is a document that aids readers in understanding what your business is all about.  It’s a tool to help outsiders decide if they are interested in investing in your business. The Business Plan  follows a distinct format and contains the following:

Cover Sheet

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

The Company

The Market

Production

Sales and Marketing

Management

Financial

The Business Plan is used for seeking investors in your business and is formatted to address those specific questions for the reader.

Most existing businesses should have a Strategic Plan with a plan for the future of 3 to 5 years, adjusting the plan once per year to account for changes in the market, competition or other major occurrences. When starting out in business I would develop the Strategic Plan first because it will impact the Business Plan. The use of a strategic plan is to evaluate the use of limited resources, (time, labor, materials, equipment, technology) and for management to develop a plan that gets everyone working in the same direction to achieve the goals and objectives. The strategic plan is an internal document used as a road map for your staff to reach and achieve success.

Planning is a process it can takes months to develop all the specific information necessary to make accurate calculations and develop a viable plan. The process requires  someone in the company to check the information for consistency and accurate input before it is added to your plan. For example if you are going to make sale projections, how accurate is the sale projection? Where did the data come from? Is it tested based on company history or past achievements? Much of this work can be done during the action plan phase, allowing for the appropriate review of the data. Keep the process simple and understand that you are creating this document to help guide the company through the future.  It must be simple enough that you and your employees can understand it and use for that purpose.

For most landscape contractors this may seem very complicated and time consuming however, without this information how can you run your business? If you are unable to complete a strategic plan I would suggest you find a facilitator that can assist in developing this document. This is key to your business’s success.
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If You Were to Start Over Today, What Would You Do Differently?

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

I was thinking if I were to start a Landscape contracting business today: what would I do differently? I know that I would have a written plan, that spelled out the direction of the business and created the path to take. Secondly, I would look very carefully at the financial factors affecting my business: for example the cost of equipment, the ability to raise capital and the pricing structure necessary to be competitive. I would look much differently at the labor force necessary to perform the landscape tasks and would consider the source of labor before I opened the doors.

The business plan is such a critical part of any business and landscape contracting is no exception. The business plan will contain the financial information and the milestones to judge my success. I would also create a guide for making the next progression in the business before I open the doors. I would want to know when do I increase my company size, when do I need additional capital to move to the next level. I want this plan to be a document that I would refer to each year, updating the information as I go. It would become a living document.

The financial projects are such a large piece of any business, budgets, job costing, profit and loss statements, payables, receivables and many others. It is vital that you know what your financial picture looks like as you grow and plan for future expansion. The profit and loss statements are your report card of financial performance, but also your report card of management performance in meeting the critical points on the profit and loss. For example, labor is a critical factor for most landscape companies because it is mostly likely the largest expense you have. If you are making your labor budget and the customers are happy and the company is performing as planned, then you and your manager are accomplishing the most important goals. If all is working as planned then profit is part of the plan as well, because that is why you are in business.

Labor is the other area that would require some consideration, as it is your greatest expense. It also requires a plan, landscaping is generally a young persons game and as your employees age, do you have a plan for there ability to move to positions that allow for the aging. Most of us never consider the fact that turn over is a part of our business. That turnover is sometimes very costly. Replacing and retraining employees is not cheap. It is true that most younger employees are not thinking about the career movement until they get married and settle down, but you need to plan for it. Offering your employees an opportunity to advance in the company is a big deal, you have trained and nurtured those employees and to find new employees is expensive and time consuming. I would create a plan to help better understand the issues surrounding employee turnover.

The idea of this blog is to make one think about the things we would have done differently, there is still time to do these things now. Planning is critical to any change, but it will help run a much smoother company. Think about what you would do differently and start making those plans today. You will be glad you did.
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Predictions for the New Year and the Landscape Contractor

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

All the Landscape chat room sites are busy discussing the predictions for next year. The reality is that all the predictions in the world are not going to affect most landscape contractors. We  know the economy is improving slowly, we know that financial institutions are not lending money, we know that customers are unhappy about the state of the middle class in America and we know that most Americans are unhappy about our elected representatives. So how does this really affect you, the local Landscape Contractor?

First, let’s look at what can you do to affect changes in any of the above issues right now? Not much can be changed by the individual contractor. What you can affect change in is your business and the way you manage it. Things are changing and knowing that you must adjust your business to the changes is key. With a slow growth economy, I would not be planning any large expansions in services without a solid plan for capital. Plan that the average size job that you did last year is most likely the norm for 2012. The general mood of the country is not favorable to spending a lot of money on non essential items. At least not until the election cycle for 2012 is completed.

However, you can affect change in your organization by working to eliminate waste in your operations, embracing the principles of lean management. Get more done with less. Now that does not mean that you are cutting people, but improving the amount of wasted motion in your operation. You can affect change by making sure that your customers are happy and satisfied with the level of service your company provides. Customers may be unhappy with the economy and the politicians, but that should not affect you. Make sure your pricing is on target, the competition is going to try to under cut your pricing, but if your company provides the best service most customer will stay with you.

Make sure that any change in services has a plan to insure that you are making the right moves. The plan should contain a financial plan, operational plan and bench marks to let you know if you are meeting the planned goals. And if you are not meeting the goals then you need a plan to get out of the service line as quickly as possible.

All the predictions are great for conversation at the next Association meeting, but if you or your company can’t affect any change to the issues then it’s not worth the time and effort. Work on what you can affectly change in your business.

 

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Is Landscape Contracting So Much Different Than Other Contracting?

By Sitesource · Comments (0)
Monday, December 19th, 2011

As you look at your landscape contracting business, it is important to consider other service businesses for bench marking and other business ideas. It is amazing how many other businesses are similar in structure and size to the typical landscaping firm. I think  some times we miss opportunities to look at other service businesses because we are so caught up in the technical side of the business. Many contractors from other disciplines experience the same issues and concerns that the average landscape contractor faces. Looking at different contractors or service businesses will give you a much broader view of the business world and may offer marketing or management ideas that have not found their way into the landscape industry.

Recently I was discussing Peers Groups on a landscape chat room on the web and found many individuals who don’t have a an open mind to the idea, much less considering other type service or contracting businesses. This is unfortunate because one can learn a great deal from  businesses other than landscape contracting. One areas that comes to mind is that by meeting with other landscape contractors you would not be  able to share information with your competition. The difficulty with many local groups is that you are competing with the very same people you would be discussing your most closely held secrets concerning your company. Also, consider the marketing potential of meeting with other contractors. Most likely you serve the same customers and can build a referral network that may help all parties involved.

I believe that we miss out on some very good ideas because we think that we are so special and no other contractor is experiencing what we are. Not so, most contractors experience the same labor, sales and management issues that you do. The one element that I would agree is different is the technical side of the business. Landscape contractors are handling a live product and therefore have special issues when dealing with transportation and storage issues. But other than that I find the issues very similar.

It is healthy for you to get out of your world and see the world that others live. Make sure you take advantage of that opportunity by visiting and talking with other contractors in your market, it might surprise you.

 

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