Chances are you've used QuickBooks for landscaping, at least at some point in your business. Most landscape contractors have. Actually, most small business owners in general, have—after all, it is not industry-specific software. QuickBooks can work just fine for many businesses in their early stages. But as your business grows, your software needs are most likely going to grow, too.
If you are not a snow-exclusive business and securing snow plowing contracts is not constantly on your mind, then you could fall into the trap of waiting until the last minute to start working on your snow sales. This happens to a lot of landscaping companies, so by no means are you alone.
But that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with the ramifications.
The truth is, when you wait too long to plan for your snow season, you find yourself scrambling. You might not even be able to hire the right number of laborers or have all of the proper equipment lined up if you didn’t plan ahead.
Fortunately, you can prevent a lot of headaches by starting the planning process now.
As the CEO, it is your responsibility to oversee your landscaping company as a whole and make sure that it’s running as best that it possibly can. In order to ensure that, you’ve likely implemented various tools over the years, including potential software solutions. But how do you know when the tools you’ve implemented are no longer enough?
How do you know when it’s time for new landscape business management software?
Technology is part of our everyday lives—and becomes more so every day. From online shopping to using devices to remain informed or connect with others, technology is used daily and that’s no different for those age 50 and older. Over 90 percent of adults over 50 own a computer or laptop, 70 percent have a smartphone, and more than 40 percent own a tablet, according to a national study.
Data is so important when it comes to how you run your business. If you’re regularly looking at data through a landscape business report, then you’re likely making major decisions based on what you read.
But what you see is also so important. In fact, one might argue that seeing is understanding.
Scheduling landscaping work can be one of the most tedious and time-consuming aspects of running a business. It can also be an area where efficiency can be lost if smart decisions aren’t made.
Losing 10 minutes here or there might not sound like a big deal but it can really start to add up over the course of a week. And as you know, when it comes to the landscaping industry, time is money.
Getting paid in an efficient manner is important when it comes to maintaining a healthy cash flow at your landscaping business. After all, having multiple clients fall behind on payments can become quite detrimental when you have your own bills to pay.
Are you performing the right markup on landscape materials so that you are keeping jobs profitable? Or, on the flip side, are you marking materials up so dramatically that it’s making you lose sales?
Keeping landscaping team members motivated to continue working hard is essential given the state of the industry and how challenging it is to find new hires. Retention is the name of the game. But how exactly can you encourage workers to stay? And, on top of that, how can you continue to engage them so that they’re both hardworking and happy?
When it comes to your landscape business, efficiency is everything. You’re likely always looking for different ways that you can be more productive and efficient while reducing hold-ups and hassles that slow your business down. You may have refined everything from your routes to the way that you handle invoicing, constantly looking to be better.
