ADD-ON SERVICES: Concrete Plans

Jim Carter has a single regret about adding curbing to his landscape menu last year, and it’s that he didn’t adopt the service sooner.
 
“For me, it’s been a profitable addition,” says Carter, the owner of Buffalo-based Grassman Lawn and Landscape, which expects to do about $100,000 in overall sales this year. “My only complaint is I didn’t do this sooner.”
 
With a $22,000 investment for a concrete curbing machine, Grassman Lawn and Landscape initially added landscape curbing on a part-time basis to augment its overall landscape service offerings. The initial positive feedback from clients convinced Carter to invest in booth space at a local home and garden show, and by the end of the show he had commitments for 80 curbing jobs this season.
 
“Often curbing seems to sell itself,” he says. “You install it for one residential client and then you get a call from his neighbor, and so on.”
 
There are a number of solid reasons why curbing is a viable service option for landscape contractors. One enticement is that curbing has the potential for a 60 percent profit margin and requires minimum manpower and a single day or less on a job site, says Mark Crosswell, president of Tygar Manufacturing in Atlanta. “Curbing can also be performed in times other than the high season for other landscape activities,” he says, “which lessens the seasonality for contractors.”
 
But for contractors thinking about adding curbing as a new profit center, there are some issues they should be aware of to ensure they operate efficiently and profitably.

COSTS. With fuel prices spiking around $4 per gallon, gas and diesel prices are some of the main cost constraints a contractor has to troubleshoot, both in traveling to various job sites and from visiting potential clients to offer quotes. “Probably 40 percent to 50 percent of our fuel costs are for running to do quotes,” says Jim Hardin, co-owner of Curban Legends, a $200,000 landscape curbing firm in Louisville, Ky. “We have had to make some tough decisions as to what jobs we’re willing to travel for and how far.”
 
For long-distance jobs, Hardin will pre-qualify clients before heading out to quote, or he may subcontract the job to an installer local to that market. “It’s never easy to turn down work,” he says. “But it doesn’t make financial sense if it ties up our crew all day to put down 100 feet when we could have stayed in town and put down 500 feet.”
 
Material cost is another major issue. It’s important to monitor the cost of each key element required for curbing, including sand, colorant, sealer and cement. Gaining a solid understanding of material consumption allows the contractor to not only price the service appropriately, but also more favorably negotiate prices with suppliers. 
 
“If you know you will need 1,000 pounds of brick red colorant you will obtain much better pricing buying it at one time vs. buying it in 25-pound bags,” Hardin says.

SELLING THE SERVICE. Part of the appeal for contractors is that it’s not a service that has oversaturated the landscape market.
 
Pricing differs from region to region, and from market to market. For example, Carter charges $9.50 per foot, which includes color and pattern, for the average residential or commercial curbing job. If the client wants lights recessed into the curbing, then Carter charges an additional $4 per foot because the work requires a second day to complete the installation. If the job requires the removal of a landscape feature, such as sod, concrete or other type of curbing, he charges a $70 disposal fee, which is the minimum to access the local dump. On average, Carter says his profit is about $6.50 per foot per project.
 
Hardin recommends contractors resist the temptation to cherry pick large-scale jobs. There is merit to doing smaller-scale work. “A 50-foot job that was marginally profitable may lead to 10 others that are,” she says.
 
A fair amount of marketing – both grass-roots and traditional – is necessary, Crosswell says, including advertising in local periodicals and newspapers, direct mailers, distributing door hangers and exhibiting at home and garden shows. “One of the best forms of marketing is to simply get new curbing jobs on the ground,” he says. “Whether for neighbors, friends or family, once others see an attractive curbing job your referral network will do the rest.”
 
Hardin emblazoned his truck with graphics of completed jobs to bring attention to landscape curbing’s appeal. “It wasn’t cheap, but it garners a lot of name recognition and attention,” she says. “We hear all of the time, ‘Curban Legends, we’ve seen your truck.’ Now we have a moving billboard.” LL