SIMPLE WAYS TO KEEP
THE REVENUE FLOWING IN
LANDSCAPING AND THE
SKILLED TRADES
Tips for Landscape Contractors to Improve Billable Time,
Reduce Financial Waste, and Schedule Efficiently
REDUCE
CHAPTER 1
DON’T LET YOUR
MISTAKES COST YOU
This chapter discusses skillset vs. cultural fit
andwhat you as an employer should be looking
for depending on your business goals and needs.
Most owners don’t realize that their company’s capacity is usually brought down to 50-70% capacity due to waste and inefficiencies. A lot of the heavy lifting is done purely by identifying where these wastes and inefficiencies come from within the business. Once you identify the sources of waste, you can take steps to solve the issues.
Where to Start Looking
Every owner should start analyzing their business searching for these 9 common types of waste:
1. Overproduction – Taking unneeded steps while producing the work and
using the wrong equipment for the job. Examples include over-excavating areas, or spending too much time chipping or ‘crafting’ stonework.
2. Waiting – Waiting for information, decisions, specifications, material,
specialized skills, subcontractors, or equipment.
3. Unnecessary Transportation – Moving equipment, people, and materials
more than required as a result of poor planning.
4. Excess Inventory – Wasted inventory that doesn’t get used; bringing too
much material to site resulting in loading, unloading, loading, and re-unloading.
5. Unnecessary Movement – Results from poor work area design – wasted
motion field workers need to make to reach material or equipment during production.
6. Defective Work – Any work that needs to be re-done as a result of defects or
changes in scope.
7. Extra Processing – Unused paperwork + reports, relying on post-work
inspections instead of proper procedures, unnecessary, inefficient processes.
8. Unused Employee Creativity - Losing time, ideas, skills, or improvement
ideas by not engaging or listening to employees.
9. Saying ‘No’ – Resisting change, ignoring waste, and not empowering workers
to improve their work processes + procedures.
Get it right the first time
PLAN YOUR DAY FROM
TOP TO BOTTOM
Planning your day-to-day seems like common sense until you account for the micro details that eat up billable minutes in a day. Without the proper processes and systems in place, you’re effectively capping the ceiling of revenue you could be earning.
It’s critical to maintain strong administrative and supply support for jobs. A simple oversight can disrupt production flow, which will cost your company large sums of money. Waiting at the building supply with a crew full of workers makes absolutely no business sense if a simple process can be implemented to divert billable time spent on non-billable activities directly towards production on site.
It’s a good idea to stock critical path supplies in bulk, like string, to support productivity on the job site. It is also crucial to set inventory levels with minimums and maximums along with a solid ordering process that will minimize visits to the Home Depot, especially during peak traffic times.
LMN provides a multitude of equipment
inspection checklists in the LMN Systems
Library!
Here’s an example list of checks you and your team
should maintain daily:
• Quick cut saw filter changes
• Mixing and topping up fuel
• Cleaning dirt out of the trucks
• Vehicle Circle checks
• 10 Hp and over Equipment checks
• Greasing machines
• Re-supply of the supervisors binder with daily Forms
• Material orders
• Tailgate meetings
CHAPTER 3
LET TECH DO THE
HEAVY LIFTING
Technology has and will continue to revolutionize the way landscapers work and operate. By implementing the right tech into your business, you can streamline and/ or expedite tasks that will open up capacity for yourself and your crew(s). That open capacity can leave more room for businesses to make more money, scaling up operations at a faster and sustainable growth rate.
Can this be automated?
Could you possibly imagine going back to writing your accounting transactions in a lined journal? Think about the time spent trying to report on your transactions, or trying to find mistakes. Computer software has completely streamlined this process. Ask yourself: what’s still being done manually in your business that could be automated with software?
Like it or not, to be successful in today’s economy, landscape business owners will have to jump on the technology bandwagon. What can you do with your company?
• Manage and report finances with accounting software
• Equip staff with Smart Phones for instant email communication, camera functionality, and even time and location tracking
• Estimating software that prices your work with a system, and produces reports that can be used by the field staff to manage their work better
• GPS technology to track vehicle and equipment locations, customer service times, battery life, speeding incidents, plus man
• A great website for a 24/7 brochure that shows off your work and makes your customers want to do business with you
