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Over the last 29 years of running an accredited lawn care and landscaping business, I can tell you that the key to success is profitability. When you price your jobs with profit in mind, it changes the way you run your business.

Profit use to be known as SALES – EXPENSES = PROFIT, but thanks to the Profit First method, my community of followers are adapting a new way of understanding their financials. It is now SALES – PROFIT = EXPENSES!

Since starting my business at the age of 14, I’ve grown my landscaping business from just me to upwards of 10 crews and more than 25 employees. As an industry leader making consistent profit, the next logical step was to create a consulting agency. Thus, The Green Executive® was formed. With the help of my wife, Sahra, we now teach others how to become profitable in the green industry.

We’ve been doing that for 6 years now, which has lead to a lot of growth, travel, and changes in how we teach other’s to scale. A part of that change was us adding the Profit First method to our business offerings in order to teach best practices in the businesses of other green industry leaders. Doing this has not only changed our lives, but the lives of so many lawn care and landscape businesses.

 

What clients are saying:  Being in the green industry comes with its own, but rewarding struggles.  But having a like minded team that wants to see you succeed, such as The Green Executive on your side, really helps.  They are able to relate and understand where you are and how to get you where you want to be.  -Jesse C.

 

If you’re not familiar with the Profit First method, it’s a cash flow management system. It takes one account, your income account, and teaches you to allocate certain percentages into four other accounts – profit, owners pay, taxes and operating expenses.

 

 

Our ultimate mission is to help lawn care and landscape business owners eradicate entrepreneurial poverty in the green industry.

Here’s how we are going to do that…

Know When To Pivot

“Do you want to be the firefighter or the preventer of the fire?” You can either battle the flames and challenges head on as they appear OR you can be thinking steps ahead and preparing for anything that may come your way.

In truth, the second option, is the only one that is going to take you from where you are to where you want to go in your business. A part of our process at Linnemann Lawn Care and Landscaping is to brief the team on a scheduled basis so they know what to do in any given situation – big or small. Doing this, allows them to take care of our customers no matter what the circumstances. Our motto, “always have a backup plan!”

Manage Your Customers Expectations

I’ve never seen a time where a customer is 100% certain in what they want or what to expect during a landscaping project. They have an idea, but it’s up to you to guide their vision and be transparent on cost. Cost is a big one too, because you are going to get push back if you don’t fully communicate the cost of materials and time. This is why we teach our clients to set a project minimum that meets their profit goals.

When pricing projects, here’s what you HAVE to consider:

• Profitability margins
• Cost of overhead
• Cost of equipment upkeep
• The Crew

Profit has to be built into pricing from the very beginning in order for the business to run successfully. By taking these four things into consideration when quoting a job, you’ll be on your way to doing just that!

 

Pro Tip: On the Linnemann Lawn Care and Landscape website, we provide a price range for a variety of projects. This helps to give our customers an idea of what the cost will be. It has also proved to be a great way to weed out potential customers that are looking for the cheapest option for a project.

 

Invest In The Team & In The Business

Successful businesses invest in themselves, as well as in their team. Your team are the people who interact with your customers on the job site. By investing in the them, you are ensuring employee retention and a “can do” attitude.

One of the ways you can invest in your team is by doing an annual orientation day. We do this every year before the Spring season in order to update the team on the inner workings of the business, review policies and procedures, sales goals and of course, to eat! This is shown to be a valuable meeting/resource in our business.

The Green Executive® is the go-to resource for preparing your business for success. Through 1:1 consulting, Profit First training, and implementation of LMN software, we know what it takes to get your business running effectively and efficiently.

Let us help you scale to the next level in your lawn care and landscape business!