What operating cost metric is most important to track to ensure a landscape company’s success?

Landscape Professionals

Richard Bare
Arbor-Nomics Turf
Norcross, Ga.

“Cost of sales, which includes direct labor and cost of materials. Those are huge variable costs.”

Adam Linnemann
Linnemann Lawn Care & Landscaping
Columbia, Ill.

“Tracking your budgeted hours versus actual hours and adjust your bidding accordingly to that.”

Industry Consultants

Kevin Kehoe
3PG Consulting
Laguna, Calif.

“EXACT cost of goods sold. Job cost percent and gross margin percent.”

Phil Harwood
Pro-Motion Consulting
Farmington, Mich.

“Net marketing contribution is one of the most insightful and underutilized metrics in the landscape industry. It measures profit after relationship costs are deducted.”

Frank Ross
3PG Consulting
Alpharetta, Ga.

“I prefer revenue per hour. It’s virtually infallible in measuring job profitability!”

Jeffrey Scott
Jeffrey Scott Consulting
Trumbull, Conn.

“There are two: payroll percentage and daily/weekly production.”