Lawn & Landscape Looks Back at the Early '80s

While Lawn & Landscape got its start as American Lawn Applicator in 1980, our current owner, GIE Publishers, also started a green industry publication in December 1981. ALA was eventually merged with Lawn Care Professional after we acquired ALA.

A survey presented in the January 1983 issue of Lawn Care Professional noted that 64 percent of all lawn care businesses averaged less than $50,000 in business in 1981, with 78.5 percent of them doing so profitably. (Lawn & Landscape's 1998 market research found that just 9 percent of the industry did less than $50,000 in business in 1998, with 81.2 percent of the entire industry reporting some profitability.) The 1981 survey found that the industry billed $1.5 billion in sales collectively, compared to $61 billion in 1998.

What Do You Think?. . . . . . . .

Have you watched the profes-sional lawn care, landscape and irrigation industry grow up over the last 20 years? If so, do you have any thoughts on what have been the most important changes – for better or for worse – that have occurred in that time? Or do you want to share your thoughts on what are the most important issues and challenges facing the industry as a whole for continued success in the next 20 years? Let us know by faxing us at 216/961-0364 or e-mail us at bwest@lawnandlandscape.com, and we'll share them in a future issue.

The 1981 survey also estimated that lawn care professionals serviced 7 million lawns that year, with another 21 million not being serviced by contractors.

Yellow Pages advertising was, as it is now, a tremendously popular marketing method. More than 70 percent of respondents in 1981 used the Yellow Pages, followed in popularity by newspapers (49.2 percent) and direct mail (40.9 percent).

Labor prices have obviously been on the rise since the early 1980s, as survey respondents then put the average labor cost for salaried workers at slightly less than $6 per hour, whereas many contractors today report paying more than $10 an hour for hourly personnel.

PRICE CUTTING CONCERNS. "Price Slashing – Is It Everyone's Problem?" was the cover story of Lawn Care Professional in March 1983, and, obviously, no one has found a solution for this industry scourge as of yet.

Contractors interviewed for this 1983 article sounded remarkably similar to their 1999 counterparts as they lamented the frustrating frequency with which competitors "stole" business via under-measuring lawns, intense telemarketing or other unpopular approaches, and the struggling economy of the early 1980s wasn't helping matters.

"The recession may be actually swelling the ranks by making the easy way out of cutthroating seem more attractive to legitimate, but struggling, lawn care businessmen," wrote then-managing editor, Tim Weidner. "Many lawn care operators see budding cutthroats enter their local market with low-price, high-volume tactics, and they think that these people cannot possibly survive very long. In fact, most of these cutthroats do not survive because they don't possess enough business sense, but the few who do possess these skills continue to grow at an alarming rate."

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