Editor's Focus: March 2000

A couple of years ago, wide-scale acquisitions of landscape companies by TruGreen-ChemLawn and what was then known as LandCare USA spurred considerable concern that small and mid-size businesses would no longer be able to compete and grow in this industry.

Obviously, that has not proven to be the case by any stretch of the imagination. The industry has continued to grow during the last two years and all indications for the future are positive. At the same time, while the pace of consolidation has slowed, there is little reason to believe that we’ve seen the last of the mergers and acquisitions within this industry.

Instead, the many potential buyers and sellers I spoke with at the Lawn Care & Landscape Industry Merger and Acquisition Forum in San Francisco were confident that consolidation will continue in this industry, and there are even reasons to believe more companies – residential maintenance and irrigation contractors, for starters – will receive increased attention from potential buyers.

The big question that independent contractors have to ask themselves is what this means for them.

What has become obvious as this process has continued is that whether owners decide to sell their businesses or not, each owner has to have a plan for the future of his or her company.

A number of contractors have used the past two years to educate themselves about how a business is valued and sold. A key lesson that many contractors have hopefully learned is that businesses aren’t sold overnight and businesses don’t necessarily have to be sold right now.

Yes, there is a chance that the window of opportunity for selling a business and receiving maximum dollars will close as time passes. But there is an even better chance that deciding you want to sell your business and, more importantly, when you want to sell your business will keep that window open for you.

So, if nothing else, sit down and think about what you want – where do you want your business to be five years from now? How are you going to get there?

No one gets in a car and just starts driving without a planned destination. The smart drivers take a map or directions with them. Shouldn’t you do the same for your business?