The 6-Minute Drive To Increasing Landscape Profits
By Tony Bass
Driving to work this morning, I carefully watched several landscape company trucks in route to their first accounts. With 2 to 6 employees per truck, I reflected on how much money owners spend to mobilize people from job to job. Just 6 minutes of time per day equals thousands of dollars per year (complete chart found here).
As you can see from the chart, saving just 6 minutes per day per employee can transform the profits for the labor intensive landscaping company. How can you save 6 minutes in your daily drive?
Here is a money-saving productivity-raising list of little actions that can save you 6 minutes per day (or more) driving around town.
- Clean windows and mirrors before you leave the shop.
- Avoid school zones in your daily route.
- Plan your route using right hand turns.
- Start your route earlier or later than the morning rush hour traffic.
- Group accounts in tight geographical order.
- Make certain that passengers help drivers watch traffic.
- Avoid phone calls and texting while driving.
- Plan your entire route before you leave your shop .
- Use GPS routing tools to help people find routes to jobs.
- Avoid or eliminate the use of trailers.
Feel free to use this list as a training tool for a morning meeting with your team. The fact is the more you talk about the small goal of saving just 6 minutes per day, the more likely your team will help you get it done. Landscape business owners across the USA report dramatic increases in productivity using this information.
Take a look at the short 1 minute video interview with Tom DeLaney to hear how this information saved his company $500,000. Click Here.
Tom De Lany took the idea of saving 6 minutes per day and said, Lets set a goal to save 6 minutes per hour. With a multi-million dollar company, scores of employees and mega-dollars at stake, Tom took the challenge to raise productivity seriously.
Here is a money-saving productivity-raising list of big actions that could transform your company and your financial position forever&.just like Tom.
- Eliminate daily loading and unloading of tools.
- Eliminate stops at the gas station, deli or convenience store daily.
- Get your tools and supplies organized & standardized.
- Eliminate the use of trailers.
- Invest in productivity enhancing equipment.
- Develop completion checklists for every repetitive activity.
- Complete time and motion studies on repetitive activities.
- Invest in employee training emphasizing best practices.
- Utilize GPS, RFID and advanced software to monitor crews and equipment.
- Apply 5-S and lean process improvement to your trucks, office, shop and facility on a continuous basis.
I provided two productivity enhancing lists for a reason. There are countless little things you can do to improve productivity and the list NEVER ends. However, if you really want to transform your company, you must work on your business. The two lists above are designed to provide a contrast in activities. Ill bet you will agree, list number one is easier to do than list number two. But which list can TRANSFORM profits forever? You decide.
Busy business owners often sabotage their efforts to accomplish transformational goals because their list gets too long. Without clear focus on one issue at a time, you can get distracted with multiple projects and objectives. This leads to frustration and abandonment before the project is completed. So, focus on one item until its done and watch productivity soar. And, I hope you will let me know you did it, just like Tom!
This article was originally written by Tony Bass, Founder of Super Lawn Technologies and Tony Bass Consulting in August of 2012. He can be reached at 866-923-0027 or tony@tonybassconsulting.com
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About Tony Bass and Tony Bass Consulting:
Tony Bass founded Tony Bass Consulting in 1998 to help businesses in the landscape industry succeed. As a consultant and through his entertaining keynote speeches, seminars, workshops and educational materials, Bass translates seemingly complex business procedures into easy-to-follow roadmaps and guidelines that sharply reduce the time and stress involved with doing things right. The results include better, more motivated employees, superior business practices across the board and the precious time required to shift from reactive to proactive thinking. Bass bases his counsel on 25 years of green industry experience, including founding, growing and ultimately selling his initially small landscaping business for a seven-figure profit. For more information on seminars, consulting services, or to purchase books and audio training products online, visit www.superlawntechnologies.com.
