What’s a landscaper going to do to boost profits in 2024?
We shared the 2024 Lawn and Landscape Business Plan to boost profits a few days ago. You can read it in its entirety right here in case you missed it. We laid out a proactive plan that we’ve seen pay handsome profit-boosting dividends for years.
So today, we thought it would be a good idea to tell you what’s NOT on the priority list…just so you don’t get confused, distracted or mixed up about profit-boosting priorities. After all, landscapers are busy people with a long to-do-list.
You may find our comments a little controversial. But that’s okay.
On the subject of boosting landscaping profit in 2024…
I don’t care how hard you try to cut expenses, you will never-ever-ever fix a low profit problem by focusing all of your effort and energy on cutting expenses. There is a limit to how many expenses you can cut.
Think about it. Can you cut the cost of your business license? Should you drop your insurance? How about selling your computers and stopping the subscriptions to your software? Perhaps you would be more comfortable with cutting your salary?
Hopefully you get the point. There’s expenses that you really can’t cut or you would rather not cut. Besides, if you cut these costs inside your company, would your company still be able to function?
Yes. If you have staff that are not pulling their weight, cut them loose. If you have a marketing program that is not bringing in more business than it costs to implement, stop it immediately. If you have a truck, skid steer, lawn mower or old trailer sitting around that’s not being used, sell it and put the cash into your company.
But remember this. There’s only so much you can cut. And since what you can cut has a limit, your profit boost has limited upside from the standpoint of “cutting expenses”. If you could invest a week of your time to boost profits, we recommend 75-80% of the time to be used on the following activities.
Unlimited profit boosting strategies? Can landscapers really do this?
There is unlimited upside with the following strategies to boost profits:
- Raise prices on the jobs you are pricing today, tomorrow and next week.
-
- Correct old pricing mistakes on recurring revenue jobs.
- Improve your sales system.
-
- Improve your estimating or quote system to avoid future pricing mistakes.
- Improve your follow-up process for all future (and past) quotes
- Revise, update and enhance your marketing efforts.
- Improve your billing system.
-
- Improve your payroll system.
- Tell a better story about the future of your company to your clients, employees, vendors and the general public.
Does this make sense to you? Can you see this list of activities has unlimited upside?
Each of these activities could compound your profit-boosting benefits for years to come. I’ll say it again. There’s significant limits to boosting profits via cost cutting.
We believe every lawn and landscape business has unlimited potential. But if you invest your time, energy and effort on the wrong activities, your upside is limited. It’s important that you understand your expenses and that each expense has a legitimate reason for you to spend your money.
If you understand your expenses, it will give you the ability to price work more accurately. If you understand your expenses, you’ll have the confidence to stand up to hard-bargaining-buyers trying to take advantage of your good nature.
We want you to boost your profits. We know many landscapers who have busted their butt to provide low-price services. At the end of the year, there’s not enough profit left to pay the bills. That’s not good.
But that’s why we exist. We help landscapers boost profits by understanding their cost to do business while building a profit producing business and then we help you learn the business skills to create an unlimited upside.
If you own a lawn or landscaping company and you want to improve profits, we are here to help. There are 3 ways we can connect to work ON your business. Just reach out and say hello. We will be ready to help you.
Tony Bass, founder
Phone – 478-822-9706
Email – Tony@tonybassconsulting.com
Online – www.superlawntoolkit.com
PS – Join us for an upcoming Profit Builder Training event! We want to help you know your numbers better in 2024 than you have in your past.
