Loving the industry used to be enough. Now more than ever, ‘you have to have business sense, too.’ Where does the landscape marketplace fall short most today? “Bidding, billing and paperwork,” explains the president of Chicago’s Christy Webber Landscapes. “We’re not savvy businesspeople.” The numbers don’t lie. Only 56% of landscape business owners prepared a 2010 budget (which is... read more
While applicants abound, contractors learn to hire smarter, control costs and build their management teams. In Landscape Management’s survey results and contractor interviews, there is one thing that was fairly unanimous: No one is having a problem with hiring today. But that also depends how you define “problem.” While contractors are receiving an unprecedented amount of applications for open... read more
Landscapers avoid frivolous spending and focus on efficiency and vendor relations. When it came to keeping crews outfitted with the right equipment to get the job done in 2010, landscapers on average maintained last year’s spending. The National Federation of Independent Business calls it being in “maintenance mode,” replacing vehicles or equipment only as needed. To carry this out,... read more
Contractors try to uncover true value in commercial maintenance work as clients force price reductions. As Brian Golembiewski describes the state of the commercial market, one can only picture a vast, vacant Western movie street with just the hint of wind and the slightest bits of tumbleweed rolling across the dusty, quiet space. “There is such a huge amount... read more
The sensitive residential housing market will stabilize at a ‘frustratingly slow pace’ as home prices return to pre-boom levels. If most of your landscape work was in residential design/build in Tempe, AZ, then “you’re probably out of business because it dried up.” This from Brian Golembiewski, president of Tempe’s $2.95 million Paramount Landscape. And it’s just one example of... read more
Contractors fight lowballers in a battle for core business. What’s the biggest obstacle to growth today for the average landscape contractor? Certainly, the prolonged recession comes to mind for most contractors, as that tops Landscape Management readers’ list of top success blockers. But a mere fraction of a percentage point behind sits lowball/underpricing competitors. Giuseppe Baldi calls them “the undercutters.”... read more
