Letters: Power Panel feedback

Editor’s note: Our February cover story was the first installment our Power Panel series. At the GIE+EXPO last year, we convened a roundtable of the best and brightest landscapers from across the country to get their perspective on the industry – where it is now and where it’s headed. We’re running excerpts of the conversation all year, and you can get this month’s on page 128.

I chose the panel members for their ability to speak plainly to the challenges and problems facing the industry, and I think they hit the mark. But Webber and Hathaway are correct in their point: I left out two key groups that work in the industry, and that should have been included. So, I asked them for their insight and have included it here. And at this year’s Power Panel, we’ll be sure to include a broader range of perspectives.

– Chuck Bowen

Old boys club
So, the best and the brightest in our country are only males with no representation from the Latinos or women. Come on boys, can’t you at the very least pretend to find a few and say they didn’t return a call? Or maybe you might find one woman or one Latino that make your cut in the next 12 months for the power players or are you stuck with the ones you have?

Pisses me off and just keeps the women out of your old boys club. Silently and politely we are paying attention and we are kicking their butts anyway.

Christy Webber
President, Christy Webber Landscapes
Chicago

Webber’s perspective:
It’s strange out there. We have bid over $20 million in new construction so it’s out there but landscapers are giving it up and their margin. Looks like the older companies, companies that have been around for decades are beginning to crumble.

Lowballers. I think they lowered their margins to get work the last two years without really having the cash to back it up or really understanding their bottom line. Some are scrambling and stepping out of their comfort zone into new markets (mine) but again with 20 percent lower estimates on just about every bid they produce. I tried that game last year, lowered my margins and increased my revenue from $19 million to $25 million to only make the same amount of money with so much more liability, heartache and headache. Something is better than nothing, but something discounted is not better than nothing. Every job I did in 2011, except a couple, went upside down. The general contractors have gotten brutal, the work was bid at no mistake margins and I did not have good project management, a disaster waiting to happen! Change order is the game – the only way you can win work is to game the specifications and fight for the change order.

This was never my business plan, never have I submitted so many change orders to make up for bad specs or because I knew heading out from the bid to the build that something was super messed up on the drawings. Believe me though the general contractors know that, too, so if you didn’t have your stuff together on the bid and you missed something they kept quiet and force you to live by your lump sum.

Independence. I refuse to try to stay ahead of my competition. That is a weird statement to make in these times when the only thing that keeps you ahead of your competition is to lower your price. It is a race to the bottom as fast as a blink of an eye. We are seeing folks come into the urban market (downtown Chicago, traditionally not most Illinois landscapers’ bailiwick) and bid like they are doing a smear the dirt and shrub it up job in the suburbs. But if you talk to the GC, this is happening in all the trades all across the board. Before, where they saw the same six electricians bidding a package they are seeing 25 bidding and the range is easily 30-40 percent from the bottom to the top.

One blip in the job and poof they are out because they have no cash, no understanding of their margins and no one to fall back on. On one job we did, four contractors went out of business and if I didn’t have maintenance to fall back on, if I and relied on construction for my business, I would be out of business in 2012 based on my margins from the projects we did in 2011. It was a super painful year. Never again will I not pay attention to my construction division or have incompetent estimators, project managers or leadership.

We as an industry need badly to get our higher education horticultural schools to update their curricula and stop producing students that only know what a day lily is but have no clue how to read a financial statement or, worse yet, manage a crew. I don’t hire for my construction or even my maintenance from that pool of students anymore.

I look to the schools that have construction management programs. I couldn’t care less if they even knew what a shrub was. I have found that most everyone that comes through my door with tons of experience in the landscaping world from other companies were either paid too much or don’t have a clue how to run a job. In Illinois we are experiencing a witch hunt from the Illinois Department of Labor. They are the body that determines the wage for the work, and they are clearly out to teach the landscapers that they – not us – know what our men should be paid. I couldn’t care less what the wage is. If my profit margin is 7 percent, I make more money on higher wages but what they forgot to do was set the rules up prior to contracts being let and are now attempting to change the game midstream, costing our industry in Illinois millions of dollars in lawyer’s fees and putting companies out of business.

What good did IDOL do for the worker if the worker gets a higher wage but the company is out of business? I can confidently say that of all the cases pending with the state attorney general regarding wage discrepancies to the “unknown” law for our industry are about 30 percent. That is ridiculous, obviously our industry doesn’t understand the direction the Department of Labor is taking (nor does the DOL for that matter) and the fallout is enormous.

Change your attitude
I just finished reading your article in Lawn & Landscape and I am extremely disappointed that you did not include any women in your list of experts. I am a woman and I own a design/build landscape firm in the Raleigh market. I know of at least four other woman owned firms in this market. Please remove my company from your mailing list. And change your attitude. It is 2012.

Shannon Hathaway
President, Green Heron Landscaping
Cary, N.C.

Hathaway’s perspective:
Our market is middle to high income home owners, highly educated, with many demands on their time. The real estate market is competitive and there is pressure to maintain the home and landscape to meet HOA standards as well as for resale, and we are here to help them. But my favorite clients are the ones who want to improve their landscape for their own enjoyment. Our winters are mild so people spend a great deal of time outside, and we provide our clients with great outdoor living spaces.

To stay ahead of our competition, we maintain the highest standards of quality by retaining our well-trained, highly skilled employees. We pay them well and treat them like family. As the owner, I am on every job site at least once a day to keep the dialogue going with clients and workers, and to maintain quality control. We are not interested in being the least expensive firm. We want to be the best. We offer a green focus that is an important niche in the green industry. We do not apply pesticides or fungicides, but instead focus on good soil, the right plant in the right place, and teaching the clients who maintain their own landscape how to do it correctly. It is a business model that has worked well for us, and more importantly, for our clients.

I read the article and was discouraged to see that no one was focused on the environment as a main challenge in the future. As an industry, we need to rethink the amount of chemicals we use in the landscape for the health of our clients, our employees and the earth. The “green” industry needs to become greener. Our company, along with many others who limit use of chemicals, are living proof that sustainability can be profitable. To this end, we work closely with the Cary’s Waterwise Landscaping Program, we encourage clients to limit turf to the amount needed for recreation with an emphasis on warm season grasses, and we focus on soil improvement and sustainable plant choices. We all own big trucks. We have to. But since I am the employee who logs the most miles, I drive a hybrid. The little things add up.

Do you have something on your mind about our Power Panel or other articles you’ve read in Lawn & Landscape? If so, we want to hear from you. Email editor Chuck Bowen your thoughts to cbowen@gie.net.