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Why Include Payments is the Premier Choice Over Traditional Credit Card Processors Like Square, Clover, and Stripe

Choosing an efficient payment processing solution is crucial in the dynamic business world. While competitive options have been widely used, Include Payments, the first app released in our innovative...

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Getting The Most Out of Key Performance Indicators

Having data at your fingertips can be a powerful tool—but only if you’re using it wisely. Include’s iKPI dashboard is a visual analysis tool that allows users to view data quickly and in an easy-to-read format.

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Excelling in Selling Landscape Services: Key Steps for Success

Imagine shaping the look and feel of a space outdoors, like the garden in your backyard or the lawn at a local park. That's exactly what landscape services do! If you provide these services, knowing how to sell them well is essential. Let's explore some key techniques to succeed in this field.

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How Payment Apps Help Your Landscape Business Grow

As the owner of a landscape business, you know that spring means a lot of work and higher costs for materials and workers. But, you also know that sometimes the money coming in doesn't match the money going out. So, how can you solve this problem? One easy way is to use payment apps that allow...

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5 Reasons to Attend iCollaborate

At Include, we’ve been dedicated to helping our users’ businesses grow and thrive. This is why our annual user conference – iCollaborate – has been so important to us over the years.

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Understanding Convenience Fees

When finalizing a transaction – whether online or in person — with a credit card, it’s likely you’ve come across an additional fee referred to as a “convenience fee”.

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Getting More Out of Your Key Performance Indicator Dashboards

Having data at your fingertips can be a powerful tool—but only if you’re using it wisely. Include’s iKPI dashboard is a visual analysis tool that allows users to view data quickly and in an easy-to-read format.

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Landscape Business Software Implementation Tips

James Morris of English Gardens Landscape Company shares his experience and advice on implementing software

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4 Ways to Deal with Rising Gas Prices

4 Ways to Deal with Rising Gas Prices

Around the country, landscapers are continually facing rising gas prices. At press time, fuel prices were at an all-time high in many parts of the country.

As a fuel-powered industry (not only for trucks and vehicles but also for equipment), these costs have...

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Reporting to Keep a Finger on the Pulse of Business

Ed Castro Landscape is using reporting to make the best possible business decisions  

The best way to keep your finger on the pulse of business activity is with reporting. Staying on top of data helps you to make the best business decisions. Meredith Jedlicka, training coordinator for Ed Castro...

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Budgeting and Forecasting for 2021

As we look ahead to another year, many folks are continuing to plan both from a budgeting and a forecasting perspective for their business in 2021. With the COVID-19 pandemic still causing ripple effects that will impact business in the future, many landscape business owners are being prudent about...

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Introducing iEsign: An Integrated Electronic Signature Product

It has always been a goal of Include Software to offer a comprehensive product that fully meets our clients’ needs. That commitment has even included building new capabilities into the software in order to eliminate the need for outside platforms. Most recently, that effort has resulted in the...

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Going Virtual: The Advent of Virtual Events

With the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic creating a need to social distance and forcing a limit on large gatherings, many planned conferences and events were left scrambling to figure out what to do next. Rather than cancel altogether, many chose to shift to a virtual model. This has created the...

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For Easy Sales Success, Sell the Low-Hanging Fruit

In life—and in sales—we often make things complicated. That could mean working tirelessly trying to track down new leads but coming up empty handed. When we’re busting out our best effort, this can be incredibly frustrating. 

Of course, we don’t always mean to take the harder route. It might be...

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Get Ready for Snow NOW

If snow management services are part of your business model, then it should never be too far from your mind.

Even though the warm weather can dramatically shift your focus, if you wait too long to plan for the snow season, you could risk hurting your winter revenue—something that is vital to keep...

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Ready to Go Paperless?

Have you been thinking about going paperless? Besides being an eco-friendly option that will support your efforts of being a good steward of the environment, going paperless can also boost your efficiency tremendously. A lot of landscape businesses get bogged down by paperwork—whether it be sorting...

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Navigating the New Landscape - Ways Your Business Can Survive & Thrive

There’s no question that the coronavirus pandemic has made business challenging for many landscape business owners. Although our industry was lucky enough to ultimately be deemed “essential” across the country, when state shutdown orders first began, many were left scrambling to figure out where...

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Are you Charging Enough for Labor?

Labor is a critical element of the profitability of your landscaping business. If you aren’t charging enough for labor, you’re going to hurt your bottom line. But how do you know if you’re falling short? 

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3 Metrics Every Landscaping Operations Manager Should Be Looking at on a Daily Basis

As a landscaping operations manager, you have a tough job simply based upon how much you oversee. You are the one that keeps the day-to-day “show” running and there are certainly times when that can feel like a lot. So often, you are the liaison between the crews, the office staff, and sales. Plus,...

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4 Metrics a Sales Manager Should Review Weekly to Crush Landscaping Company Growth Goals

Successful sales are driven by metrics. As a salesperson, you recognize that numbers are everything. Whether sales are up or down is the heart of what it is that you do as a landscaping sales manager. The fact is, you could have an amazing sales team but if you aren’t staying on top of how your...

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Daily Numbers Every Landscaping Company CFO Should Have at Their Fingertips

The most successful landscape businesses are those that are able to make real-time decisions. They recognize if a job is profitable—or not—and can make important changes before it’s too late. A company like this paying attention to “daily numbers” and not waiting until the end of the month to...

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4 Metrics Every Landscaping Company Owner Should Review on a Weekly Basis

Monitoring your landscaping company’s metrics is the way in which you keep your finger on the pulse of your business—and there’s no denying how essential that is to be successful. 

Numbers are such an important aspect of running a company and can literally make or break you. In fact, poor...

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4 Accountability Tips for a Healthy Landscaping Business

Accountability in the workplace is vital to any healthy and successful landscaping business—but it is not something that just happens. Instead, business owners must be incredibly intentional about creating and also supporting leadership positions in which team members are held accountable.

Of...

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How Guided Learning Can Help You Learn How to Master Landscape Business Software

Learning a new landscape business software program can be challenging, even for the seasoned user of technology. Whether you’ve already had a software program and you are switching to something new, or you’ve never had landscape business software before, there will undoubtedly be learning curves to...

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QuickBooks for Landscaping Companies: 5 Signs You've Outgrown Your Software

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...

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How to Proactively Secure Snow Plowing Contracts for Your Landscape Company

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...

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4 Signs You Need New Landscape Business Management Software at Your Landscaping Company

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...

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Age and New Landscape Business Management Software Adoption: Some Surprising Revelations

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...

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The Benefits of Visual Reporting for Your Landscape Business

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.

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6 Time-Saving Tips for Scheduling Landscaping Projects & Routes

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...

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5 Tips to Get Paid Faster by Landscaping Customers (Plus a Look at Customer Portal Software)

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.

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Tips for Determining Markup on Landscape Materials and How to Track Profit at Your Company

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?

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How to Set Up and Track a Landscape Employee Incentive Program

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...

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How to Create Great Relationships with Landscape Material Vendors (and Save a Ton of Aggravation)

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...

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How to Sell More Landscaping Work By Using Technology to Improve Your Response Time

Technology has made our lives faster and more efficient in so many areas. From banking to airline check-ins or even making purchases, technology allows us to perform tasks at a faster rate than ever before.

Of course, when it comes to your landscaping business, there are many great benefits to...

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Exploring ACH and Credit Cards for Your Landscaping Business: Options, Fees, and More

Getting paid is obviously a key part of doing business. But exactly how you get paid may be more of a point of confusion and concern than ever before. After all, if you’ve been in business for a long time then you may still be operating under the notion that payments are best made in the form of...

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How Many Landscaping Employees Do I Need? A Look at Labor Forecasting

Do you ever wish you could predict the future? After all, planning for your company’s future when you have no idea what it holds is challenging. It can feel like quite a bit of pressure to make decisions that impact the future of your business (and its people) when you’re not sure what to base them...

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Tips on Growing a Landscape Business: Where and How to Find the Best Profit Centers

Do you feel as though you’re aimlessly chasing after growth through your company’s profit centers? Or, are you making smart and calculated decisions when it comes to which profit centers to put the focus on? Hopefully, it’s the latter. Growing a landscape business in a healthy manner is not...

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6 Essential Year-End Reports Every Landscaping Business Needs to Run

If you’re stressing about running reports to evaluate your past year of business, you’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for owners to feel intimidated about pulling reports for their landscaping business. It might feel like an arduous task and on top of that, you probably don’t have a lot of free...

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The Power of Peer Groups with Common Landscape Business Management Software

Landscape peer groups can be an incredibly powerful tool. In many ways, they allow business owners to get a “glimpse into the future.” As part of a peer group, the opportunity to chat with business owners who have already been through some of the same experiences (or challenges) you might be...

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How to Get More Landscaping Customers: Powerful Tips from 2 Successful Companies

Do you feel as though despite your best efforts, you’re failing to get more landscaping customers or the wrong new ones? You might even feel as though you’ve dumped too much money into ineffective advertising time after time. Though you might be getting some return, it may not be what you had in...

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How and Why Employee Surveys Can Help Landscaping Companies Become More Profitable

Do your employees enjoy coming to work every day at your landscaping company? Do they feel supported in the role they’re in? Do they have any ideas for how operations can run more efficiently?

You might think that you know the answers to these questions, or others like them, but are you just...

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Surveying Customers: What Every Landscaping Business Needs to Know (and Do)

What if you had a way that you could get inside of your customers’ heads and know exactly what they like—and dislike—about your landscaping business? It would give you the insight you require to make smart decisions and it would help you keep your customers’ best interests at heart.

The truth is, a...

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Landscaping Sales Commission: Rates, Models, and Tracking Methods

You have the freedom to choose how you wish to structure your landscaping sales commission rates and salaries. Of course, you want to choose a model that will work best for your company (and its profitability) while also motivating your landscaping salespeople to perform their best.

There’s...

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Should We Add (or Change) Landscaping Business Management Software When Business is Booming?

How many times have you heard someone use the expression change is hard? It gets thrown around all of the time in business—admittedly for good reason. Change really is hard, the main reason for which is because it requires work.

While change is always hard to some degree, the truth is, it’s hardest...

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Selling Landscape Maintenance Contracts After Design Projects: Secrets from 2 Successful Companies

A key to securing ongoing and steady revenue for your landscaping company is developing an easy transition from design/build jobs into maintenance contracts. If you’re not converting the vast majority of your design/build contracts into landscape maintenance agreements, then you’re missing an...

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6 Keys to Developing a Great Landscape Crew Leader or Foreman

Do you find it much easier to choose entry-level employees than you do good crew leaders? If you do, then you’re not alone. Most landscape companies say that finding crew members who would make good crew leaders or foremen is a major challenge.

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Managing Underperforming Employees at Your Landscaping Company

Do you feel as though your underperforming employees are dragging your landscape company down? If you do, you’re not alone. A survey performed by a leading staffing agency found that underperforming employees are a major concern in businesses across the country.

In the survey, respondents reported...

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Timekeeping Tips for Landscapers: How to Structure and Track Attendance

You rely on your people to get the job done and to keep your landscaping business profitable as a result. But in order to do that, they need to actually show up!

Unfortunately, employee absenteeism is a real problem and the landscape industry is certainly not immune to it. How many times have you...

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8 Worst Field Mistakes that Will Kill Your Landscaping Profit Margin

What your crew members are doing (and how efficient they’re being) can make all the difference in terms of how profitable your landscaping business is. Unfortunately, field workers often make blunders that can have a negative impact on profit.

If you’re worried that your crews are experiencing...

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How to Hire a Landscaping Salesperson for a Goal-Crushing Team

When it comes to growing the revenue of your landscaping company, you’d like to see a goal-crushing sales team jump in and make things happen.

Of course, you may be tired of hiring the wrong people. You’ve been there before. You’ve hired a salesperson for landscaping and assumed they were going to...

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How to Hold Great One-on-One Meetings at Your Landscape Company

One-on-one meetings are a critical form of communication within your landscape company. And it’s no secret that open and ongoing communication is one of the keys to successful management. Even so, it is safe to say that one-on-one meetings are drastically underutilized within the landscape industry.

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9 Innovative Marketing Tips for the Stagnant Landscaping Business

Are you worried that your landscape company has become stagnant? Are you seeing a decline in new growth or has it tapered off completely? If so, then it might be time to refresh your business with some new approaches.

With the incorporation of some marketing tips for your landscape business, you...

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5 Tips for Building a Great Landscape Company Culture

You may have heard the expression that a happy worker is a productive worker. While you might have implemented some efforts to build a stronger company culture, you could still be wondering whether you’re doing enough.

Considering the fact that a positive company culture not only helps you to...

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How Creating an Upside Down Organization Makes Your Landscaping Company Come Out on Top

The landscape industry is unique in the fact that its lowest paid employees have some of the greatest power in their respective companies. While they’re certainly not the ones making major business decisions, their actions can have a big impact on the overall success—or failure—of the business.

...

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Is Your Landscaping Equipment Costing You More to Maintain Than It’s Worth?

Do you find that your landscaping equipment is costly to maintain? While most landscape business owners recognize that their equipment maintenance costs are high, they might be unsure as to exactly what they’re investing in it. That may be the case for you. In fact, you might even be wondering: Is...

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Green Industry Embezzlement: How Landscaping Accounting Software Either Helps or Hinders

The possibility of employees stealing company money is something that most landscape business owners don’t want to think about. It’s one of those things that make a lot of people say that could never happen to me.

But the fact is, it happens more than most people realize. It’s estimated that...

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How Customer Portal Software Can Help Your Landscaping Company Save Time, Money, and Aggravation

In this day and age, where customers want their questions answered and their problems solved as quickly as they present them, it can be hard to keep up. Customer demand and expectations only continue to rise. You try to be as supportive as you possibly can, but it’s impossible to be physically...

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5 Landscaping Billing Blunders and How to Prevent Them

Billing is a fundamental process of your landscaping business. That’s because billing is your “bridge to cash flow,” making it an essential process that allows you to sustain your operations.

Despite the importance of billing, it’s a process that can go awry for many different reasons—and that’s a...

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6 Landscaping Website Design Ideas & Tips to Consider

At Include Software, we’ve worked with hundreds of landscape companies and often end up discussing their business needs. Occasionally, we hear a lot of companies are looking at updating or improving their websites.

This is a smart business move. After all, your website is one of your most important...

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How Landscaping Career Pathways Reduce Employee Turnover

If you’re worried about retaining landscaping employees, you aren’t alone. No matter what trade show, conference, or other green industry events you attend, listen to the chatter and you’ll likely hear about the same struggles come up again and again.

Landscape business owners nationwide are all...

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What is Job Costing and Why it’s Crucial for Landscape Contractors

Let’s be honest, the financial aspect of your business can be a big challenge. While the landscaping part of your operation may be cut-and-dry to you, the inner-workings of the business, may not be. After all, financials are complicated and require a certain level of business acumen that typically...

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Landscaping Profit and Loss: 4 of the Biggest Impacts on Your Business

Chances are, you started your business because you’re passionate about landscaping. Not because you are passionate about accounting. While you know that staying on top of the financials, and making better decisions is key to your profitability, it may be a struggle to do so.

After all, very few...

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Expert Tips for Recovering Landscaping Overhead Costs in Your Pricing

If you’re like a lot of landscape companies, then chances are a good chunk of your revenue is being hijacked by landscaping overhead. Certainly, a lot of that is to be expected. There are always going to be overhead costs associated with doing business that you can’t avoid. Paying the mortgage on...

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7 Great Ways to Improve Your Landscape Sales Team

You already know that your landscape sales team is at the heart of your profitability. How they perform can either positively or negatively impact your business. But what can you do to make improvements? How can you ensure that your team is constantly getting better and not repeating bad habits or...

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6 Winning Ideas for Selling More Landscaping Services to Existing Clients

New client acquisition is expensive. Chances are, you’ve heard the stats. It’s been said that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. That’s why you do everything you can to treat your clients right and to keep them happy.

While it’s undoubtedly...

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5 Tips for More Profitable Commercial Mowing Contracts

There are a number of factors that go into creating the best commercial mowing contracts and all of them must be in line in order to have success. In fact, even if you have just one item askew, it can eat away at your profitability.

As a commercial mower, your goal is for all of your jobs to be...

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3 Innovative Recruitment Strategies for Landscaping Companies

Recruiting in the landscape industry is often cited as being one of the biggest challenges landscape business owners face. How many times have you heard an industry peer say (or maybe you’ve even said it yourself), “I just can’t find good people!”

There’s no question that it’s become increasingly...

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How Quickbooks for a Landscaping Business is Like a Complicated Relationship

Things started out okay with you and QuickBooks. In fact, you were getting along pretty well. But that was a simpler time in your relationship. Now you feel like QuickBooks isn’t meeting all of your needs and the relationship is starting to feel a bit one-sided. Actually, you’re beginning to wonder...

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Making Money Plowing Snow: Expert Tips on Profitability

There’s no question that the snow business can be stressful. It requires a lot of work in a little amount of time and comes with difficult hours, expensive equipment, and extremely expensive liability insurance. But you do it in order to keep cash flowing in the offseason—at least your plan is to...

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The Best Landscape Business Software According to 3 Profitable Companies

There are a lot of landscape business software options out there. Some of the names that you might have heard, or even researched, include LMNPro, Aspire, Asset, and others. There are even a number of business software products available that are not green industry specific, but that many landscape...

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A.I. and Landscape Business Management Software: Making it Easier Than Ever

Artificial Intelligence (or “A.I.”) is defined as the theory and the development of computer systems that are able to perform tasks which normally require human intelligence. A.I. is everywhere and it is undoubtedly revolutionizing the world we live in.

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When Does My Landscaping Company Need Landscape Business Software?

Does my company really need landscape business software? It’s a question that we’ve heard asked many times before. It’s likely a question that you may have even asked yourself or other professionals as you contemplated the growth of your own business, or maybe even as you began your search for...

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Setting Up Next Year: How Landscape Scheduling Software Saves Time and Reduces Frustration

Moving the data from recurring work orders from one year to the next is an incredibly time-consuming job. Whether you’re manually entering data, or even if you’re working with multiple systems that don’t automatically transfer that data, it is a monumental task to make sure all of that information...

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5 Steps to Take Before Sending Out a Landscape Contract Renewal Letter

In the landscape business, repeat clients are incredibly valuable. That’s because landing repeat work requires a lot less investment of time and money than it does to acquire brand new clients. But what if that repeat work isn’t profitable? Even worse, what if that repeat work puts you at a loss?...

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Landscaping CRM Software: Turning Your Landscape Company Into a Customer Service Machine

Regardless of the size of your business, keeping track of all of your clients—and all of the specifics linked to each of their accounts—can feel like an overwhelming task. Complicating it even further is the fact that multiple departments and individuals can make decisions that impact a specific...

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7 Landscape Sales Tips to Grow Your Company

Even after rapid growth, it’s not uncommon for landscape businesses to hit a plateau. After watching revenue steadily increase for several years, it can suddenly get “stuck” at a certain point. While this number can differ from business-to-business, it does seem that the $1 million mark is a...

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A Deeper Look Into Landscaping Business Management Software Costs: 5 Points to Consider

If you’ve begun any research into the different landscape business management software programs out there, then you probably already know just how differently they can be priced. Not only does the overall cost vary, but also the pricing structure. Regardless of what landscape business management...

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Using Landscaping Proposal Software for Quick & Reliable Estimates

Writing landscape business proposals may be one of your least favorite parts of the job. For one, it can be a rather menial task. Proposal writing can be a big time drain when what you’d rather be having face time with a prospect, closing a deal. It can be especially cumbersome if you don’t have a ...

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6 Oops! How Landscaping Estimating Software Reduces Common Sales Blunders

Salespeople, no matter how good they are, forget stuff. Whether it’s leaving something off the proposal or not budgeting enough man hours for the job, these mistakes can cause hassles and be costly to your landscaping company.

In their defense, it’s a hectic job with a ton of things to keep track...

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Implementing Green Industry Software with Spanish Speaking Crews

According to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the landscape industry is comprised of 35% Hispanic workers. Many of the companies employing a Spanish-speaking workforce say that they still struggle with language barriers. They often utilize several bilingual employees to serve as translators...

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How Landscape Sales and Estimating Software is Like a Crystal Ball

How could your business change for the better if you had a crystal ball handy? What would you do differently if you could get a good read on exactly where your company’s year stands at any given moment? While the idea of peering into a crystal ball to tell your company’s future seems silly, let’s...

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The Best Green Industry Software Solutions for Landscaping Companies

You’ve already reached a point where you know landscaping business software is necessary. You’re dealing with too many different systems that require multiple data entry and you’re just not operating as efficiently as you could be. There are simply too many sources of wasted time when it comes to...

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8 Ways Snow Plowing Software Can Make Life Easier for Your Landscaping Company

Keeping track of data is incredibly important when it comes to snow operations. But it can also be a completely overwhelming task. How often do you not end up getting your bills out to the client until two or three weeks after a major snow event? That may not seem like a long time but it’s long...

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How Landscape Scheduling Software Creates Confident Salespeople & Happy Customers

In sales you always do your best with the information that you have available. When it comes to selling a landscaping job and giving the customer an approximate timeline for when the job will be completed, you can only work with what you’ve been given by the rest of your team. You put your trust in...

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How Much to Charge for Landscape Labor? Ask the Right Questions First

If you’re like a lot of landscape business owners you might decide how much to charge for labor simply by using gut instinct. You might have asked around and have a sense of what most companies in the area pay their laborers and you aim to pay your people somewhere in that same vicinity.

Then,...

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How Landscape Inventory Software Can Increase Profits & Reduce Aggravation

Operations is often the first place where owners or accounting departments look when profits aren’t hitting the mark. The big question is whether inventory is being managed properly and without waste. But it is an overwhelming task to keep track of hundreds or thousands of plants, yards packed with...

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Matching Numbers via Green Industry Software from Estimates to Final Billing

In your landscape company, it’s a challenge trying to make the numbers match. There are many reasons why you’re losing profits. You know that your overhead costs are out of control and it’s costing you.

The company is stagnating or losing money because you’re getting inaccurate data and your people...

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Using Landscape Operations Software to Schedule and Organize Materials & Equipment

As an owner or operations manager for a landscaping company, you have a tough job. You need to keep a lot balls in the air—juggling schedules, communicating with sales and the office staff, managing labor crews, and making sure the right equipment and plant materials are there for each job.

Things...

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15 Ways Landscaping Business Software Will Reduce Paperwork for Your Crews

You need completed timesheets, work orders and incident reports on time. You constantly remind your field supervisors that you need all of the receipts from his team’s stops at the local nursery.

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Farewell QuickBooks: A Green Industry Accounting Software

As you know, QuickBooks was great software when your landscaping company was small. However, your company has grown over the past years. In essence, you need more from your landscaping software than what QuickBooks can provide.

Even though Quickbooks has some of the the same capabilities as...

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5 Steps to Effectively Implement Business Software in Your Landscaping Company

It’s a big job to convince a landscape company (either as a consultant or as as the internal IT guru) to switch to a new software tool. Yet, it can be done.

The secret to success is to focus on the benefits of the new program and that everyone can easily learn it. There’s plenty of support; no one...

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How to Get Your Sales Team on the Same Page with Landscape Estimating Software

Imagine this scenario:  You’re responsible for managing the sales team of your landscaping company and the owner came to you yesterday wanting to know why the company is not growing and is also frustrated about profits being down.

Sales and profit projections and the actual results are not squaring...

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How Much Does Business Software Cost for a Landscaping Company?

You’ve had team members in your landscape company come to you suggesting that it’s time to upgrade the company’s software. You realize that your business would run smoother with specialized software that would provide more accurate estimating, better accounting and connecting functions with the...

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Beware of Ransomware in 2017 – 10 Tips

10 Tips to Protect Your Landscape Company’s Computers and Devices

Can you imagine, you turn on your Smartphone to check your email and read the news—only to get a strange message telling you that you’ve one hour to send $500 to an unfamiliar email in order to unlock your phone? And if you don’t pay...

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5 Ways You Can Save Money with Year End Tax Deductions

After the holidays are over and we’ve rung in the New Year, it’ll be time to make an appointment with your accountant. Did you know that a part of the IRS tax code allows you deduct on your year-end equipment purchases?

It’s called Section 179.

When you add your equipment purchase deductions and...

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9 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Landscaping Company in 2017

It’s that time of year again. Dust off the books and see how you did last year and what you can do to improve your company’s sustainability in 2017.

What New Year’s resolutions do you have in place to take your company to the next level?

To help you get started, here are nine New Year’s resolutions...

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Why iCREWtek is the Right App for Managing Your Crews

Do you want to give your crews up-to-date information while they’re out in the field? Do you want to save money and yield better efficiency by having all materials on hand the day of the project rather than having crews stop at a big box store on the way to their first job?

Then you need iCREWtek.

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Free Up Your Time to Grow Your Landscape Business & Make More Money

It’s difficult to keep track of where your money goes when running a busy landscape company. You have vendors and employees to pay as well as keeping you updated on jobs and materials.

Include Software’s Asset can help you keep all of your accounting and administration duties in one place.

When you...

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How Asset Helps You Stay on Track with Production and Operations

Could you use a software program that keeps track of your landscape company’s labor force with pinpoint accuracy?

Asset’s Production and Operations program allows you to keep the following organized in one place:

  • Optimized schedules and routes
  • Allocated man hours
  • Purchased materials
  • And equipment...
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How to Free Up Your Time to Grow Your Landscape Business & Make More Money with Asset™

It’s difficult to keep track of where your money goes when running a busy landscape company. You have vendors and employees to pay as well as keeping you updated on jobs and materials.

Now Include Software’s Asset™ can help you keep all of your accounting and administration duties in one place.

...

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Connect. Attract. Retain.

Struggling to attract the right type of candidates to work at your company and keep them on staff once they have been there for a few years?

While this question comes up frequently, there is no easy answer. However, there are steps every company can take to attract and retain the most qualified and...

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How Asset™ Grows Your Landscape Company’s Profitability

Are you tired of keying the same data into multiple software programs? Yet, you know that all of the data is not complete or is redundant because it’s not streamlined.

Include Software’s, Asset™ can help you consolidate all of your information into one software program.  Asset™ is specifically...

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Client of the Month Feature : Milieu Design, Inc.

Here at Include Software, we love our customers. It’s easy for us to feel the love too. Why? Because we truly have the best clients a business could ask for: intelligent, hardworking, and fun! We would not be able to do what we do (and love) without you! To help show the love, we have embarked on a...

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The Many Benefits of Landscape Design Software

Saving Time, Saving Money

Of course, time equals money, so by saving time, you become more profitable. Hordyk says with design software you will spend less time designing and estimating each project, plus your designs will have a better perceived value and thus you should be able to charge more for...

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Client of the Month Feature : The Ohio Valley Group

Here at Include Software, we love our customers. It’s easy for us to feel the love too. Why? Because we truly have the best clients a business could ask for: intelligent, hardworking, and fun! We would not be able to do what we do (and love) without you! To help show the love, we have embarked on a...

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We LOVE Learning from our Clients — 17 secrets from Asset-User Complete Landsculpture

DALLAS – About 200 landscapers descended on Dallas last week to attend GROW! 2016, a three-day conference organized by Marty Grunder.

A key part of the event was a tour of Complete Landsculpture, a $15.5 million, full-service company. So before sunrise Thursday, attendees boarded a half-dozen buses...

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Happy New Year – Well Almost.

Happy New Year – Well Almost.  A Post For Clients

Before anything else, I’d like to take the opportunity to say thank you for your continued support. You are the reason this company exists and prospers, and I’m profoundly grateful for you and the work you put into your business, and the faith you...

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SIIA New Member Interview: Include Software Corporation

The SIIA (The Software & Information Industry Association) is delighted to introduce a new member to the Software & Services Division, Include, a software provider for the landscape industry. Rhianna Collier of SIIA, sat down with, Nanette Seven, Vice President of Include, to learn a little more...

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Include Software Corporation : Office Tour

Welcome! We have been located in Annapolis, Maryland in the Parole Towne Centre for the past 5 years. At Include, we pride ourselves on our strong work ethic, an even stronger team and, perhaps most important of all, enjoying what we do — which is helping you enjoy what you do! Take a...

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GIE+Expo 2015 — A High School Reunion

The dust has just about settled from the whirlwind that was GIE+Expo 2015. Once again, I proudly represented Include Software on the trade show floor along with a handful of other members from Team Include. Booth 9063 became our home away from home for two very busy, very full days.

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Progression of Business Growth of a Landscape Service Company

Landscape contractors often start a company pretty simply: they buy trucks and equipment, hire their buddies, and go to work. At some point, the company becomes a viable business, and the owner realizes they must pay more attention to: what they are selling their work for, how much their materials...

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Getting the Most of Attending a Trade Show

  1. Spend time checking out the trade show’s website. What companies are going to be there? Are there specific products you want to see?
  2. Register in advance.  Attend Breakfast of Champions.  Attend educational sessions.
  3. NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK – Stay at the host hotel associated with the event. After...
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10 Unexpected & Cool Ways to Use Asset

Sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Whether you use Asset every day, all day long or you are just exploring its power and all that it can do for your business, here are 10 unexpected or cool ways to use the program that you may not realize:

1. Asset Client Portal: The Asset Client Portal...

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Recruiting Young People from Generation Y — Meet the Millennials.

Recruiting Young People from Generation Y — Meet the Millennials

We are all looking to add ‘bench strength’ in our organizations, and over the next several years, most of us will be recruiting young people from Generation Y, also known as Millennials. You may even have children of your own who are...

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Four Ways You Can Use Asset to Make Money and Save Time

What should any business improvement do? Affect your bottom line, enable you to make more money and streamline your processes. Software is no different. You’ll experience undeniable empowerment and financial reward when using Asset’s features to make billing easier and processes faster. Here are...

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What is the most innovative use you’ve seen for one of your products?

Lisa Scrivener, from our Client Care team shared her thoughts on the most innovative ways she has seen our clients use our products; Asset, iCREWtek and the Asset Client Portal.

innovative

adjective in·no·va·tive \ˈi-nə-ˌvā-tiv\

: introducing or using new ideas or methods

: having new ideas about...

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How Asset Has Helped Our Clients Achieve Success

What is success?

Winning the Super Bowl?

Having front row seats for the World Series?

Owning your own business?

Making it through the work week? 

Catching all green lights on your drive home?

Getting the kids to bed by 8pm?

Everyone defines and measures success in their own way. Here at Include,...

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iCREWtek Q&A

iCREWtek™ is Include’s mobile app that integrates seamlessly with Asset, provides a real-time connection from field to office for ultimate command and control. Track crew locations, hours worked, and materials purchased. Dispatch job data, receive instant status updates, and send invoices. We...

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The Past The Present The Future

I recently returned from a landscape industry event hosted by JP Horizons at the beautiful Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Having attended several….okay, probably more like 20 JP Horizons events in the past few years… I thought I had a reasonable idea of what to expect. Boy, was I wrong.

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Snow Business Magazine

JULY/AUGUST 2014 P 50
Product Spotlight
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Face To Face With Schill Grounds Management

CLEVELAND, OHIO

Schill Grounds Management is a family-owned company that is among the largest and most successful commercial landscaping services and snow management firms in Northern Ohio. Serving Commercial Properties in Northern Ohio for 20 Years, Schill has a strong culture of training and...

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Face To Face With Sposato Landscape

MILTON, DELAWARE Interacting with the Sposato Landscape Team will energize you! In business since 1992, they serve a very unique market of HOAs and high-end residential customers that cause the crews to be very responsive and diverse in their skills. An interesting approach to fleet management will...

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PLANET’s Renewal & Remembrance 2014

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

We have participated in the event for the last 7 years!

FOX News Story
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Face To Face With Eastern Land Management

STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT Bruce Moore Sr. and Bruce Moore Jr. are great examples of first-generation transitioning to a second-generation company. As a family-owned business since 1976 they have a strong culture focused on safety and provide a full line of exterior landscape services. With this...

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Lawn & Landscape Magazine

AUGUST 2013

Gone are the days when schedules were tracked on a calendar on the wall, work orders were written out by hand and invoices were sent by snail mail. Now, contractors of all sizes are relying on comprehensive business management software to do all of that – and more.

“It’s really the...

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Office Plants Magazine

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