Rob and duplicate

Lawn & Landscape editors scoured the country to find the best tips that you can use to make your company more efficient, productive and profitable. Some are simple, some are complex, but they’re all created and tested by landscapers in the field.
 

The best idea: Slow down

J. Rick Lawn & Tree, Colorado Springs, Colo., Dakota OutdoorScapes, Bismarck, N.D.

Over the last few years, I have been so involved in day-to-day operations, I have not had any time to think about making our business more efficient. I come up with a lot of great ideas over the winter months, but executing during the busy season has been a challenge since I just get too busy trying to keep up with everything coming my way.

Fortunately, that has given me time to think about the structure of our business. I started making a list last year of my daily/weekly/monthly tasks that I didn’t enjoy doing, or seemed to be too time consuming. After spending a year making that list, I developed job descriptions and created new positions. This has been a huge help and allowed me to start focusing on our efficiency.

I am sure a lot of small business owners are, or have been, in the same position at some point. I always felt confident going into spring that we would have better systems and be more efficient. But what happened was we got so busy doing production, trying to get work done and making new sales that by the time we could breathe, the season was over.

I would liken it to running a race: We started out too fast, got a side ache and didn’t finish in the position we should have. We always do pretty well (better than most actually) but I see so much room for improvement in our processes. Since we started from nothing, we had to create processes and adjust accordingly along the way. There is no manual with policies, procedures or standards of work at the start. We have created everything along the way, which is the way most landscape businesses work. Being efficient is usually one of the differences between success and failure in a landscaping business.

After being able to step back, and just watch how things were happening this year, I was able to see a lot of issues. Most I had created myself, thanks to my style of a very fast-paced, get-it-done approach. I have always tried to under-promise and over-deliver for our customers, which means getting projects done early. We accomplish that most of the time, but with how fast we go through everything, there was not enough proper planning. This meant more hours and more overtime for jobs we bid, which meant a lower margin at the end of the job.

In North Dakota, we have a unique situation, because most materials are shipped in from other states. Sod, plants/trees and all hardscape products are all shipped in from Minnesota. We get mulch trucked from Idaho, flagstone from Arizona, specialty irrigation parts from Colorado and so on. We really can’t get local suppliers to schedule deliveries of bulk products, so we truck it all ourselves, and also do a lot of our own loading from topsoil piles around new developments. With all the logistics, I created a project coordinator position to assist our project manager. About a month into this spring, I noticed things still weren’t running as smoothly as I would have liked. We still had a lot of delays finishing projects due to materials not being available, which meant we were having to start new jobs and wait to finish others once materials arrived.

We had an internal meeting about a month ago and have decided to take a different approach to become more efficient. We are now having a meeting with the customer, project coordinator and project manager a few weeks in advance to make sure everyone is on the same page and everything is ready. There is also an internal discussion on the design and material take-off to make sure everything will work as planned. We are developing much better schedules and have whiteboards showing order dates for products, start dates, in-progress job needs, etc. We are ordering products well before we need them (except for sod) to ensure everything is ready to keep the crews moving from start to completion. Even if that means we need to pay for materials before the job is done, we are making that up in savings on payroll and mobilization.

The key point was to slow down and get organized. I’ve learned that the more planning and preparation that is done up front, the smoother the job goes. There aren’t as many last-minute questions or issues. It’s very easy to get in the trap of just ‘’getting work done’’ once you get into your busy season. My goal is to get work done more efficiently, which in turn will make customers and crews happier and increase the bottom line.

Tidy trucks

John Taylor | Taylor Irrigation Service, Tomball, Texas

We used to hold our staff accountable for clean-up and maintenance of trucks and equipment but never really allotted any real dedicated time for this. At a staff meeting last year when this was brought to our attention, we corrected this problem and set aside an hour or two each Monday morning to accomplish this.

This probably seems like a no-brainer but it is something that we have always just tried to squeeze in when we could and that did not produce the results we were looking for. After making the change I can say with certainty that we are not only much more productive but that this practice builds our brand and promotes the image we want because the trucks are always clean and ready to go.

If you are like most irrigation companies, you have a part of the warehouse that is stocked full of fittings that were not used on completed jobs. They are probably unorganized and sitting collecting dust. Even if they are organized, most of them just sit there. This has been a problem with almost every company I have ever been a part of. We addressed this in-house by not allowing irrigation parts to leave the trucks. This simple policy has saved warehouse space and ensured that the money we have spent on parts is in the field where it belongs, not sitting on shelves in a dark, musty corner.

Obviously it helps us more in terms of efficiency as well because the trucks are stocked properly and the tools are where they belong at all times. All trucks are stocked the exact same way so if someone is borrowing a truck that they are not used to driving they are just as familiar with that truck as if it were their own. Taking this time may seem like a hit. A lot of contractors and smaller companies may say that they do not have an hour or two to dedicate to something like this but it has made us so much more productive in the field that we are not missing that time.

One-way yard

Kelly Dowell | DowCo, Chsterfield, Mo.

Our facility is designed so that traffic circles in only one direction around the shop. When the trucks pull in at night the flow moves them from the dumpster to the fuel tanks to the debris pile to the washing dock then to the mulch and material bins. This way they can throw out their rubbish and fill up with tomorrow’s materials all before they park their truck for the evening. On top of saving time, it also keeps our crews and equipment safe by eliminating the need to ever put trucks in reverse. Any equipment that needs to be repaired is left in the warehouse and fixed before our crews even show up in the morning by our mechanic who arrives before the sun comes up. We’ve found this model to be successful because it increases our time efficiency and keeps us safe.

Houzz homework

Lauren and Micah Bloom Bloom, Concrete and Landscape, Lakewood, Colo.

Many clients don’t know what they want until they see it, or until a design has been partially executed in the landscape. Then come the change orders, which result in project delays, budget concerns and maybe a frustrated customer.

A little Houzz/Pinterest “homework” assigned to clients as a precursor to creating the design can go a long way toward establishing expectations and ensuring a vision is understood.

“A lot of our clients know Houzz or use it, so I can tell them to make an idea book on Houzz after our first meeting,” says Lauren Bloom, co-owner with husband Micah of Bloom Concrete and Landscape, Lakewood, Colo. She shows them the tool and how to use it to gather images.

“I let them know it’s a great resource for finding patios or gardens they might like,” Bloom says. After clients assemble a collection of 20 to 50 pictures they find on either Houzz or Pinterest, she has a much stronger understanding of what “pergola” means to that client – or what “cottage garden” brings to mind. There’s a lot of interpretation in these words, but pictures solidify those ideas.

“A lot of people might have a vision in their heads, but they can’t put it to words,” Bloom says.

Meanwhile, Bloom Concrete and Landscape also uses these online tools to get its work out there. Lauren posts project images on Pinterest and Houzz to provide inspiration to anyone researching landscape designs online. The company does field calls from people who find their work on Houzz, mainly. Pinterest is diverse while Houzz can elicit direct calls, says Lauren Bloom, co-owner of the Lakewood, Colo., firm.

The other great thing about these sites: They’re free. And that fits in with the virtually 100 percent referral business Lauren and Micah operate. – Kristen Hampshire

Punch-list priorities

Peter Estournes | Gardenworks, Healdsburg, Calif.

We have found that using regular punch lists for our landscape management crews/projects that are generated from one of the management team has been very useful in keeping productivity up and prioritizing workload. These lists may be short for smaller projects and longer for estate gardens.

Download the punchlists here and here.

Color-coded crews

Jeff Rak | Land Creations Landscaping, Columbia Station, Ohio

Land Creations Landscaping in Columbia Station, Ohio, color-codes all of its tools to stay streamlined and organized. The 12-person company implemented the system 15 years ago to make sure that crews have all of the equipment they need for the job. It also keeps crews from stealing each other’s tools.

“We can keep a tight inventory of what our crews have in the way of tools,” says Jeff Rak, president. “We know that they have what they need.”

If broken tool shows up at the shop, Rak immediately knows which crew it came from. Each crew leader has his own specific color of tools, which he is responsible for throughout the entire season. They inventory their own tools, with Rak double-checking and having them sign off on their tool list.

And the crews, which all get the same set of tools, like the system. “They take pride in their tools,” Rak says. “They are protective of their tools and always make sure that they are clean and sharpened. They know that the tools they have need to work properly so they are not wasting time on the jobs.” – Kate Spirgen

Hour counters

Joe Chiellini | Ameriscape Services, Thonotosassa, Fla.

Each morning, the foremen and account managers at Ameriscape Services in Thonotosassa, Fla., gather in the war room – the center of one of the trailers the company uses for offices, to compare notes on the day’s jobs and budgeted manhours. The counts for all the firm’s jobs are listed on large whiteboards all over the trailer.

When crews return, the foremen write in how many manhours they actually worked – black if they worked under budget, and red if they worked overtime. The foreman and crews with the most time in the black get gift cards – and recognition in front of the whole company that they’re the most productive.

“Those guys take ownership. They’re having to write their hours on it,” says Joe Chiellini, president and CEO. “That’s one of the reasons we have a bottom line in the middle of summer. You don’t want to have a bunch of red on your schedule. You’ve got peer pressure now.” That bottom line as of early July was about $280,000, Chiellini says. – Chuck Bowen

We’re going to continue to feature R&D ideas in a regular department later this year. If you have a system, tip or trick that you use to make your company more profitable, productive or efficient, send it to Editor Chuck Bowen at cbowen@gie.net. The best ideas will be featured in Lawn & Landscape.