Best Practices

Morning zoo

Professional Grounds have procedures in place to get crews out the door before the hectic D.C. morning commute.

Professional Grounds is located in a sweet spot of the greater Washington, D.C., area. Its modest property, little more than an acre in size, is about 12 miles from the capitol and situated along Interstate 95, a main traffic artery.

“A lot of our competition is further out, so we have a niche here close in,” says Bill Trimmer, president of the Springfield, Va.-based company, which he co-founded in 1974 as a maintenance firm. In 1992, the company added a landscape division, and gradually the company has grown from a start-up to 100 employees and $6 million in annual revenues.

“Other companies are within a 20 to 25 mile radius of the city, so to come in and do this work during the day, it could take them an hour to get to jobs we can drive to in 10 minutes.”

Location is a big deal when traffic can kill drive-time productivity. And efficient operations are critical for making the most of precious morning time, when a 5-minute slow-down at the shop can mean an extra hour on the road.

That’s why over the years, Professional Grounds has implemented efficiency measures to make the most of its small parking space, perfectly time the morning rush out of the shop and manage precious labor hours, which are one of the biggest expenses for a landscape company.

“Labor is everything if you are doing maintenance work,” Trimmer says.

The morning rush. A sign posted on the gate lets crews know if I-95 is a logjam. It’s a simple system: The board says I-95, and a “no” or “yes” sign below it instructs crews to take the interstate or local roads.

And as soon as crews arrive at work, they unlock their assigned truck (labeled with an “M” for maintenance, a number and the driver’s name), start the engine and head out of the gate. All of the preparation, including gassing up the truck and all equipment on-site, is completed the night before. “Crews are expected to be loaded up and ready to go in the morning, so all they need to do is get in the truck and leave,” Trimmer says. “It’s so important for us to get on the road early here because of traffic problems.”

Find out more about the internal workings of Professional Grounds by visiting www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters where you can sign up for the A Cut Above newsletter.
 

Kristen Hampshire
 

Mastering the market Bill Trimmer says, “We don’t make excuses here.” He’s talking about the economy in the greater Washington, D.C., area, where his business Professional Grounds is based. “We feel that people have to spend money regardless of the economy, especially in this area, we just have to educate them,” he says. Trimmer admits that the D.C. region is less volatile than the rest of the country. With federal jobs aplenty, the “recession” looked different in his area. In fact, business continued to thrive and people were still buying. “This economy in this area has been good to us,” he says. That’s not to say Professional Grounds has continued on automatic pilot. The company is constantly tweaking its marketing efforts, tapping into technology, embracing social media and implementing systems like charging a $50 design consultation fee. “Two years ago when we did take a hit in design/build work, Melissa [our marketing director] had the idea that we should start charging a $50 design consultation fee,” Trimmer says. “Initially, we thought, ‘In this economy, you think you can charge people for an estimate?’ But its’ the best thing we ever did.” Professional Grounds doesn’t get as many leads this way. But design/build sales closing ratios shot up. “And we are a lot better off because of it,” Trimmer says. That’s because those customers wiling to pay the $50 fee are serious about doing business with Professional Grounds and moving forward on a project. The company waives the fee for referrals and customers that find Professional Grounds through Angie’s List, which is another beneficial marketing tool for the company that has brought business to the door.

 

Watering lessons

A successful sustainable landscape involves the right irrigation as well as the right plants.

Fran Lambert got her start in tree conservation, but this certified arborist is also a certified landscape irrigation auditor and certified water manager.

She also helps her clients at Mariposa Landscape & Tree Service create sustainable landscapes. Lambert says a beautiful and sustainable project comes down to customer education, and offers the following tips to create successful sustainable landscapes.

Think ahead. As an arborist, Lambert is trained to think of trees on a long-term basis – not just a year, but decades. Lambert says this is a great way to think of landscaping as well – plan for a sustainable landscape that will still look beautiful in the years to come. “I urge landscapers not to look at the landscape for today but to think about what it will look like in five or 10 years from now – then plan accordingly from the beginning,” she says.

“Then you truly get the client a return on their investment. Teach them what it will take to sustain this landscape for the long-haul and you’ll sell them on it because it’s protecting their future property value.” 

Learn smart controllers. Lambert says she typically can save a tree most effectively with the use of a smart controller, and she’d encourage those landscapers who haven’t learned about them to get educated.

She believes they’re the way of the near future. “I do believe there are many people in the industry who still haven’t taken the time to really learn how smart controllers work,” she says. “I’ve seen them go into a system and not be operated properly, and that’s unfortunate because it gives the controller a bad name when it was really the operator. You do need to know what you’re doing before you use them.”

Fix the system first. On the same token, Lambert says she’s seen smart controllers installed on broken irrigation systems. “You’re not going to get the full benefit of the controller,” she says. “Right now we still have rebates in California for smart controllers so there’s a lot of interest, but people need to realize that you cannot make up for an inefficient system simply by installing a smart controller. Landscapers need to make the commitment to get educated and go to classes that are available through vendors or manufacturers. Then they should teach their crews and send them to classes as well.” 

Read more about how Lambert is educating customers these days and sign up for our Water Works e-newsletters at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters.

Lindsey Getz

 

Connected to the land In Southern California, water conservation is of increasing importance as the area faces a strain on its imported water supply. “We have an increasing population and that’s made it even more important to focus on saving water,” Lambert says. “Water is going to get scarcer and more expensive as time goes on, so we need to learn now how to conserve better and how to live with less water.” Lambert says that trees are really a good value for the amount of water they use. “Trees give you a lot of plant material for the comparatively small amount of water they actually use,” she says. “They are incredibly efficient at water use, and you can get a great deal of landscape benefit if you make trees your top priority.” Her appreciation for water’s importance began as a child, says Lambert, whose father was a civil engineer for the county of San Diego. He worked on a lot of projects that dealt with water and Lambert credits him for her understanding of water’s value. Having grown up in the region, she says she’s also developed an appreciation for the native plants that live and grow naturally in her area. “I’ve spent my whole life hiking around the local mountains and deserts and have developed a sense of how important our water supply is, that’s always stuck with me,” she says. “That’s why I believe that re-landscaping and using more trees or native plants that don’t consume as much water makes sense. You can still have a pleasing landscape with a variety of water-wise plant life. It’s not really a sacrifice.”

 

Betting on supply-side economics

Dave Stracka launched a landscape center in a bad economy, and is ready to reap the benefits.

Sure, launching a landscape center in a tough economy is risky – betting the farm on the success of a startup when, in general, business is declining takes entrepreneurial guts. But Dave Stracka, owner of D.S. Enterprises Lawn & Landscaping in Rockford, Ill., figured last year was prime time to begin building a new operation. 

“The price was right because of the economy,” he says of the 7-acre property he had been eyeing for a few years before purchasing it in December 2010. “People wonder, ‘Why would someone start a business in a bad economy’ and, well, things are cheaper, so that helps.”

And Stracka had a strong feeling that his landscape center would appeal to other contractors who spent significant windshield time driving from one supplier to the next to gather nursery stock, hardscape materials, equipment parts and everything else required for a design/build or maintenance firm. In fact, it was during one of Stracka’s materials runs that he got the idea for Cherry Valley Landscape Center, which opened its doors in spring 2011. 

“After about a dozen stops at different places, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one place to go to get all of our materials and equipment and service?’” says Stracka, who has run his design/build firm for 15 years.

“That’s when I came up with the idea to start a landscape center,” he continues.

There’s really no place to go to pick up all of the supplies a landscaper needs. “There are places to go get plant material, and places to get stone and pavers and boulders ... but there is not one place where you can go and get everything,” Stracka says.  

Basically, Stracka’s business model for Cherry Valley Landscape Center is to be all things for landscapers and homeowners who are looking for an array of products and services but don’t want to spend the time sourcing products from multiple locations. 

So Stracka built a business plan, remodeled the existing building on the property, added a service shop and began bringing in lines of equipment. He hired six more employees, adding to his staff of 12 that run the landscape design/build and maintenance crews. And since opening Cherry Valley, he has discovered that the two businesses feed each other and the visibility of Cherry Valley’s location puts D.S. Enterprises in the spotlight. Plus, with a collection of snow equipment for sale that takes the business through winter, the operation is viable year-round. “People don’t forget about us over the winter,” Stracka says.

Continue reading how Stracka has grown his design/build company by starting a supply center at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters. While there, you can sign up for the Business Builder e-newsletter.

Kristen Hampshire
 

Starting up smart Dave Stracka, president, D.S. Enterprises Lawn & Landscaping and Cherry Valley Landscape Center shares his tips for growing a business in tough times – or any time, for that matter. 1. Keep credit shiny. When opportunity knocks, the bank will back you if your credit is squeaky clean. Otherwise, good luck. “I don’t think a lot of business owners understand how important credit is,” Stracka says. “If you want to grow your business, you have to have good credit because there will be a time when you need equipment or materials for a big job.” No credit, no sale – no work.  2. Charge premium prices. Customers who value quality are willing to pay for it, that’s what Stracka has found. So he doesn’t play in the price-cutter arena. Instead, he focuses on working harder and doing the best job possible. “And, we watch our overhead expenses, of course,” he adds. 3. Take measurable risks. Without risk there is no gain. But Stracka didn’t go into his landscape center plan blindly. He knew he’d have a market advantage because there was no competition in the area with his one-stop-shop model. 4.Think like your customer. For Stracka, figuring out what customers would want from a landscape center was easy. He had been a customer of a good dozen for 15 years as a landscape professional. So when he began to play on the supplier side, he focused on what he knew was important to him and fellow landscapers: variety, quality, fast service and reliability.

 

Focused service

Tiedeman grew its profit by decreasing services and becoming a niche company.

When Troy Tiedeman launched Tiedeman LLC in Clare, Mich., in 2001, his goal from the start was to keep it small and focused. His goal with a niche market was to provide better customer service and earn higher profit margins.

“I’m a firm, firm believer in specializing, because it allows you to compete with the national companies on both service and price,” he says. “You have systems in place, you’re faster and you know more about the area, so you can respond quickly.”

Given this core philosophy, it made sense when Tiedeman dropped his landscape maintenance and installation services over the past few years to focus on pest management. After all, he’d always earned 60 percent of his revenues from this area, with the rest coming from maintenance, installation and snow removal.

And lthough this momentous decision was in keeping with Tiedeman’s approach, he still endured several grueling seasons of headaches and scheduling nightmares before he was ready to pull the switch.

“We made it through one installation this spring – an absolute killer because we lost money when our supplier fell through – and I finally said enough,” he says.

But today, Tiedeman has a lot fewer headaches – and higher profit margins. Not bad for a small company with three full-time employees and $200,000 in annual revenues. Through it all, Tiedeman attributes his success to keeping a strategic focus. 

“Overall, the margins are higher in a specialized industry,” he says. “There are more stringent requirements and you have to be licensed, which means less competition.”

Like others, Tiedeman got started in as a young man, mowing his neighbors’ yards for extra money. He soon found that he enjoyed working with customers and had a natural affinity for the lawn care business. So he started asking family members if they knew anyone that needed help with their turf.

And though Tiedeman now faces competition from larger, national companies that also provide pest management services, he’s not worried about it. “Smaller companies can compete by specializing,” he says. “There are so many acquisitions that are happening right now, but the big companies try to do everything and spread themselves too thin.”

Read how Tiedeman shifted its marketing when it became a pest-management-only company and sign up for the Growing Green e-newsletter at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters.

Lee Chilcote
 

Sell attention and detail The key to building a great pest management company is to cultivate a small group of clients and nurture them with attentive, personal service, says Tiedeman. That may sound counterintuitive, Tiedeman admits. Yet he argues that his company not only provides better service this way – his residential customers are willing to pay more, too. “By running a smaller company with a limited number of clients, I can give them a lot more attention,” he says. “If a problem arises, I can be there the next day to treat it.” Although Tiedeman says he typically charges 5-10 percent more than larger, national companies for pest management services, he has not lost customers due to pricing. On the contrary, some new customers have actually switched from larger companies to Tiedeman because they recognize that his firm offers better service.  One of the problems with other companies, says Tiedeman, is that they often take 4-6 weeks between applications at a given property. Serious problems can crop up during that time, and by the time these firms get around to treating it, it may be too late. “My costs may be a little bit higher, but I can be there more often,” he says. To market his company, Tiedeman has tapped into what he says is customers’ increased interest in both buying local and supporting small businesses. “What it comes down to is that if you give clients personal attention, they’ll stay with you.”