Author: Kevin Kehoe

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Kevin Kehoe

Kevin Kehoe was the founder of Aspire Software and a longtime landscape industry consultant.

How account managers can use technology to retain clients

Account managers (AMs) have a tough job. It’s hard enough to handle customers, but the job becomes impossible if you’re poorly organized despite all your hustle. Hustle is important, but a system is essential to become an A-plus account manager. There are three metrics that define an A-plus AM: contracts under management, upsell rate and […]

Sell more: Make technology part of the plan

Use technology to be disciplined and detail oriented in your sales strategy.

Technology cloud (Photo: iStock.com/gorodenkoff)

5 things that will change the way we do business

In my business lifetime, I’ve experienced many innovations that changed the way I worked: the copier (yes, I’m that old), the computer, the laptop, the Internet, the cell phone and the smartphone. These technologies were all once considered groundbreaking and are now the norm. In the five short years since I started a technology company, […]

Pricing, overhead tips

Even the most astute contractors struggle to understand and manage pricing. There are clear principles you can apply—with some amount of science and art—that can help you handle this more confidently. The principles are: Pricing is a function of item costs (labor and materials) plus a markup and a profit margin. All overhead is recovered […]

Let’s Grow: Year-round spring cleaning

It’s the end of renewal season, and spring work is about to commence. While sitting at your desk late in the day, you receive an email. The message is from a customer. It essentially says, “Thanks for your service, but you’re fired.” After considering some options, like begging or “getting a drink,” you might want […]

Resolve to raise prices

Everything is going up: the stock market, gross national product, the cost of labor, your overhead expenses. Yes, everything is going up except your pricing. Resolve that this year, you will raise your prices. This simple act doesn’t require a big announcement with balloons and confetti and letters to customers. You don’t have to raise […]

Photo: iStock.com/Nomadsoul1

The secret to growing your business

The secret is not really a secret. Like the secret in life is “hard work,” the secret to sustainable growth is “the system.” There are at least 90,000 landscape maintenance, snow and construction businesses in the U.S. and Canada. Fewer than 10 percent of these ever grow larger than $1 million in annual revenue. There’s […]

Web Extra: Make money while you grow

Two key parts of a management system are a rolling budget, which points out where problems are, and key performance indicators, which identify what the solutions must be. You hear it all the time – basic blocking and tackling can win a game. If one of the primary goals of your business is to make […]

How to manage your sales process for better results

Picture your Monday morning sales meeting: “How are we doing in new sales?” “Good.” “Are we close to getting any new work?” “Oh yeah!” “Really?” “Yeah. Everyone I talked to loves us.” “How many is everyone?” “A bunch.” “What’s the plan for this week to get these guys?” “I have lots of meetings set up.” […]

Photo provided by: The National Association of Landscape Professionals

Leveraging tech to attract millennials

In March, I was in Provo, Utah, at the National Association of Landscape Professionals’ National Collegiate Landscape Competition. If you have not been to this event (formerly called Student Career Days), you need to go. These kids are your future salespeople, account managers and operation supervisors. Their relationships with—and uses of—technology are totally alien to […]

Is it time to invest?

The November election changes everything, as every election does. The question is, “Is there more upside than downside for your business?” Over the past few years, we’ve framed our discussions about growth in terms of sales. Now, we need to think about growth in terms of investment. If you believe there’s more upside, then you […]

How to keep a small company vibe while growing

In case you haven’t noticed, the number of companies doing more than $1 million in annual revenue is growing significantly. In addition, the number of large companies growing via acquisition has increased, as have the number of once small mid-size companies ($3 million to $5 million) now achieving revenue in excess of $10 million annually. […]

Getting employees to go above and beyond

Get ordinary people to do the extraordinary more often than not through company culture. Running a company is exciting until it becomes a slog, isn’t it? A slog is when profits sag, revenue growth slows and you feel like choking more than 50 percent of your staff to death on a daily basis. What happened? […]

Photo: ©istock.com/kyletperry

Can you trust your numbers?

Too many companies work with bad numbers. They only discover this fact after someone drills in and shows them they’re losing money in areas they assumed were profitable. This scenario is so prevalent that I suggest you review your processes and identify areas of inaccuracy. Accuracy is a function of assumptions you make and the […]

“Am I really making money?”

  Can you really trust your numbers? That depends on how you manage your workflow and transactions. I spoke about this challenge at the GIE+EXPO 2015 and the response was, “Wow, my numbers are only as good as my management system? That’s scary!” In simple terms, the numbers accounting turns out are only as good as […]

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