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The beginning of the year is one of the most important planning windows for lawn care and landscape business owners. The season has not started yet, crews are not fully deployed, and the daily pressure of production has not taken over your calendar. This is the window where smart decisions are made (or avoided).

Most owners approach growth with revenue goals. They want to grow sales, add services, or expand their footprint. Revenue goals are easy to talk about, but profit planning is harder, and often skipped entirely. That is why many businesses finish the year exhausted, busy, and still frustrated with their bank balance.

If you want to build a truly profitable landscaping business, the planning process has to start with profit, not sales.

What Profit First Really Means for Landscaping Businesses

Profit First is not a theory or a budgeting exercise. It is a cash management system that forces clarity, creates structure, and gives your money a job before it disappears into operating expenses. This system allows you to build a cash plan that supports the way your business actually operates, not how you wish it operated.

Unlike traditional accounting, where profit is what remains after expenses (Sales – Expenses = Profit), Profit First flips the formula: Sales – Profit = Expenses. This subtle shift creates a fundamental change in how you operate your business. Profit becomes a priority, not an afterthought.

Why Most Landscaping Businesses Struggle with Profitability

The landscaping industry is notorious for thin margins and cash flow challenges. Many owners work harder each year, grow their revenue, and still struggle to keep money in the bank. The problem is not effort, it is structure.

Without a cash management system, growth actually makes things worse.

• More revenue increases complexity.

• More crews means more payroll pressure.

• More equipment means more financing costs.

• More clients mean more receivables to manage.

Without a system, growth simply magnifies existing problems. You become busier, not more profitable.

This is where Profit First changes everything. It creates a framework that forces profitability at every revenue level.

The Foundation: Understanding Profit First Allocations

The first step in building a profitable landscaping business is establishing your allocation percentages. These percentages determine how every dollar that comes into your business gets distributed.

Your allocations should reflect the current size of your business, your overhead reality, and your seasonality. What worked when you had three crews will not work when you have six.

Here are the four core allocations every landscaping business needs:

Profit allocation. This is the reward for being in business. Even if it starts small, it must be consistent. Profit is not what is left over, it is planned. Start with 1% and as your business matures and becomes more efficient, increase it to 10-15% or higher.

Click here to learn how to implement the 1% challenge in your business.

Owner’s pay allocation. This should reflect a reasonable salary for the work you do in the business, not what feels comfortable after expenses are paid. If you would pay someone $75,000 to do your job, that is your starting point for owner’s compensation. This typically ranges from 30-50% depending on your business size and structure.

Tax allocation. This is not optional. If you are surprised by tax bills, your allocation is wrong or inconsistent. Plan for 15-20% of revenue depending on your business structure and state. Setting aside tax money with every deposit removes the stress and panic of quarterly estimates.

Operating expenses. This is what remains after profit, owner’s pay, and tax are protected. If the percentage feels tight, that is the point. It forces efficiency and reveals where money is actually going.

The goal is not perfection, it is intention. Allocations can and should be adjusted as your business grows and changes, but they must exist and be followed consistently.

Establishing a Tax Rhythm That Removes Stress

Taxes create stress when they are treated as a once-a-year event. A proper Profit First plan turns taxes into a routine process that happens automatically.

For most landscaping companies, twice-monthly allocations (on the 10th and 25th) align well with revenue flow and payroll cycles. Every time money comes in, a percentage goes directly to your tax account before you can spend it on anything else.

When tax money is set aside consistently, it stops being emotional. You know it is there and you stop borrowing from it and hoping revenue will catch up later.

This single change improves decision-making across the business because you are no longer operating under hidden pressure. You are not avoiding your accountant’s calls or dreading April 15th.

Cash Management That Supports Seasonality

Landscaping businesses do not operate on a flat revenue curve. Cash flows in waves. Spring and summer are heavy, Fall tapers off and Winter is tight. A profit plan must respect this reality, not pretend it does not exist.

Building a profitable landscaping business means planning for seasonality, not being surprised by it every year. Your cash management system should include:

Understanding your lowest cash months and planning reserves accordingly. If December through February are historically lean, you need to know exactly how much cash you need to survive those months comfortably. This means setting money aside during high-revenue months.

Identifying when large expenses hit, such as insurance renewals, equipment payments, and seasonal labor increases. Map these out on a calendar so they are anticipated, not surprising. When you know your annual insurance premium hits in March, you can plan for it starting in the previous spring.

Building buffers before they are needed, not after. This means creating a separate account for irregular but predictable expenses. When your mower deck needs replacing or your truck needs new tires, the money is already there.

Profit First accounts make seasonality visible. When cash is separated properly into different bank accounts for different purposes, you can see problems earlier and respond with clarity instead of panic. The separation creates transparency that a single checking account never will.

How Profit First Changes Your Operational Decisions

A profit plan is not separate from operations. It informs every decision you make throughout the year.

When profit and cash are protected first, everything changes. You price differently. You schedule differently. You hire differently. You say no to work that does not make sense. You stop chasing revenue that costs more to deliver than it brings in.

This is where many owners miss the point. Profit First is not about restriction, it is about clarity.

• It shows you what the business can support and what it cannot.

• It reveals which services are profitable and which ones are draining resources.

• It shows you which clients pay on time and which ones create cash flow problems.

That clarity is what allows growth to be intentional instead of chaotic. You can say yes to the right opportunities and no to the wrong ones because you have data, not just gut feel.

Looking at Profit First through the “small plates” theory can help you stay consistent in your business.  Click here to learn how to manage cash flow and increase profitability.

Pricing for Profitability, Not Just Market Rate

One of the biggest shifts that happens when you implement Profit First is how you approach pricing. Most landscaping businesses price based on what competitors charge or what they think clients will pay. They build quotes around labor cost, add a markup, and hope it works out.

Profit First forces you to price based on what the business needs to be profitable. Your allocations tell you exactly what percentage of revenue must go to profit, owner’s pay, and taxes. What remains is your true operating expense budget.

If your current pricing cannot support those allocations, you have three choices: raise prices, reduce expenses, or accept that you are not running a profitable business. Most owners have never looked at pricing this way, and it changes everything.

Making Growth Intentional Instead of Reactive

The difference between owners who feel in control and those who feel overwhelmed is rarely effort, it is structure.

A landscaping profit plan built on Profit First creates guardrails that support better decisions when things get busy. When a crew member quits mid-season or equipment breaks down, you have a framework for responding instead of scrambling. When a large commercial opportunity appears, you can evaluate whether it actually fits your profit model.

You do not need to guess where the money went, you know because you planned for it. And when you want to invest in new equipment, hire another crew leader, or expand into a new service, you can see whether the cash is there to support it.

Getting Started: Your First Steps Toward Profitability

If you are ready to build a more profitable landscaping business, here is how to start:

Step 1: Open your Profit First accounts. At minimum, you need five accounts: Income, Profit, Owner’s Pay, Tax, and Operating Expenses. All revenue goes into Income, then gets distributed to the other accounts based on your allocations.

Step 2: Determine your starting allocation percentages. Use your last year’s financial statements to see where money actually went. Then adjust to where you want it to go. Be realistic but intentional.

Step 3: Set a rhythm for allocations. Twice a month on the 10th and 25th, distribute the money in your income account to your profit accounts according to your percentages.

Step 4: Pay expenses only from your operating expense account. This is the discipline that makes the system work. If the operating account is low, you cannot spend money that has been allocated elsewhere.

Step 5: Review and adjust quarterly. Your allocations are not set in stone. As your business changes, your percentages should too.

The system is simple, but simple does not mean easy. It requires discipline and a willingness to confront what your business is really doing with money.

Why Now Is the Right Time

The beginning of the year gives you space to step back and decide how you want your business to operate. You are not buried in production or reacting to daily fires. This time of year gives you the space to think strategically.

If 2026 is going to be different, it starts with how you manage cash before the season begins. Not in March when you are already buried. Not in July when you are wondering why the bank account is empty despite record revenue. Now!

Building a profitable landscaping business is not about working harder. It is about working smarter with a system that protects what matters most.

We are certified Profit First Professionals.  Click here to hear what Mike Michalowicz has to say about working with a Certified Profit First Professional.

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If you want help building or refining your Profit First system for your landscaping business, now is the time to do it. The Green Executive® works with lawn care and landscape business owners to implement Profit First in a way that fits their operation, their seasonality, and their long-term goals.

Do not wait until the season is underway to address profit. Build the plan first, then let the year work for you.