How do I find and keep quality employees?How do I grow my business from residential to commercial clients? Get your top business questions answered by longtime green industry veteran Ken Hutcheson in our Ask the Expert event. He will be live for a two-hour Q&A session to answer questions about your unique landscaping business challenges.
Who? Ken Hutcheson joined U.S. Lawns in 1995, nurturing the company into a multi-state franchise operation. Since becoming President in 2002, he has grown U.S. Lawns into the largest commercial grounds care franchise in the nation.
When? Wednesday, June 29, 2016
What Time? 12:00-2:00 P.M. ET
Where? Here! Bookmark this thread and join Ken right here for the live chat event.
As the largest online community for landscaping professionals, LawnSite invites you to the second installment in the Ask the Expert series, where you can get advice from industry experts in a live Q&A forum, brought to you by U.S. Lawns.
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Hello and welcome to the LawnSite Ask the Expert event, sponsored by U.S. Lawns. You must be a registered member to participate in today's Ask the Expert event. Click here to create your free account now. Also, please remember to refresh the page to keep updated with the comments on the thread.
These live Q&A sessions are a chance to get your burning business questions answered by leading green industry experts. Today, we're honored to have Ken Hutcheson, President of U.S. Lawns, back for another two-hour session.
Born and raised near Orlando, Hutcheson graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Horticulture. From there, he cultivated a thriving business in interior plant design, which he franchised in the 1980s. Ken joined U.S. Lawns in 1995, nurturing the company into a multi-state franchise operation. Since becoming President in 2002, he has grown U.S. Lawns into the largest commercial grounds care franchise in the nation. Ken is an esteemed public speaker, renowned innovator and franchising expert. He sits on the Accredited Snow Contractors Association (ASCA) Board, and has been honored with the prestigious Lawn and Landscape Leadership Award. In 2013, he achieved his longtime dream of completing the Boston Marathon.
While we are waiting for questions, let me ask you a question. What is the greatest challenge you face in your business today: Finding work or finding employees?
No E Verfy. Good otherwise labor is very hard to come by. Are accounts primarily commercial or residential? If a mix, what is standard ratio? Do some/any/most provide hardscape installations?
Ken,
Thanks for answering questions today. Our company seems to struggle in keeping up with quotes. Is there any advice you could give in that area? Is everything based off of cost/square foot?
Keeping up with proposals/quotes can be a challenge for a growing business. There are several best practices that we utilize, including: documenting information in a CRM, using a proprietary estimating system, and teaching our owners time management skills to help prioritize what's important to the business.
As for why we focus solely on the commercial customer:
1. We like dealing with professional customers that spend a budget, not their own cash.
2. The customer doesn't expect to see the landscape business owner on their job site. They expect to see a trained and uniformed crew.
3. A lesser number of customers are required to deliver a significant amount of revenue.
Please understand, "commercial" covers a large number of market verticals, including: HOA, condos, apartments, shopping centers, hospitality, healthcare, retail, commercial office space, and industrial.
Are owners trained in site takeoff estimating to be competitive in their particular market? I have owned a small company for 10 years that primarily serves residential. Estimating commercial seems daunting not knowing if my process will be result in competitive pricing or make me look like I don't have a clue!
Considering a US Lawns franchise as you must have some great resources learned from your Parent company.
Regarding cost/square foot for estimating ... we recommend using production based estimating so our estimates are accurate and tailored to the specific of each property.
Starting a customer off on the right foot is critical. You only have one chance to make a first impression. The goal is to honor the promises you made to the customer during the sales process. We use a documented process to ensure our crews fully understand the expectations of the new customer, then follow up with the customer after every service for the first 30 days to ensure we are meeting those expectations.
"What is the #1 challenge (labor, competition, etc.) in the commercial business?"
The #1 challenge in any service business is your ability to build and manage a team. We think it starts with recruiting the right employee and continues with transferring your company's culture to that person. Then you must activate and empower them to carry out the mission. Otherwise, your business becomes too dependent upon YOU.
Yes, measure the turf, linear feet for edging/trimming. Each piece of equipment, for example, should have a factor associated with how much it can accomplish with competent operator. For 1,500 SF of turf, lokely will use push mower. How long will it take to mow that with the push mower. How long do your factors tell you it will take to perform each operation?
Have factors for EVERYTHING. Then, take into account cost of using equipment, labor rate, time to do the work. Add it all up and then determine what profit margin you want to sell the work at.
First step is a cost factor for each piece of equipment and materials.
I know a common question we typically receive is "should I focus on residential or commercial, or a combination of both".
Here is what I have to say about that. It depends on your goals. You can make a good living doing residential work. However, if you are looking to create a business that is scale-able, that can operate in your absence, and that does not have the season to season fluctuations that many businesses experience ... you may want to focus on commercial.
There are plenty of great people out in the market. The question you need to ask yourself is "why are they not working for you". Let's sweep pay off the table. You need to pay competitively and fairly. Take it a step further ... are you the best place to work? Are your current employees referring people to you? Do you treat your employees with respect? Do they feel safe when they come to work? Are they proud to wear your uniform? Do they have the right equipment to do the right jobs? Do you train them on a consistent basis or let them figure it out on their own?
Additionally, you need to let the market know you're hiring. Include multiple channels, such as: media, print, digital.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions regarding the cost of investing in a franchise. I encourage you to reach out to us and investigate on your own. We offer a conversion program as a cost effective way to join our franchise family.
We are excited to be celebrating our 30th year in the commercial landscape industry, as well as franchising. We are looking forward to hosting our franchisees, their managers, and their families at our annual conference in July. The conference is a week camaraderie, training, and memorable experiences, capped off with an awards program to recognize the stellar success of our franchisees, like our 47 million dollar territories and the Hall of Fame inductee.
Also, we are looking to continue aggressive growth as we expand into new markets. We are currently targeting the following cities for expansion: Chicago IL, Toledo OH, Madison WI, Springfield IL, Corpus Christi TX, Austin TX, Syracuse NY, Portland OR, Seattle WA and many more.
If you are located in one of these markets, I encourage to reach out to us at www.uslawns.com/franchise. Our preference would be to partner with someone already in the landscape industry.
We've reached the end of the Ask the Expert event. Thank you to everyone who joined today, to Ken Hutcheson for once again providing his insight and advice, and to U.S. Lawns for sponsoring this event. This thread will be closed for further commenting but will remain archived in the Franchising forum for future reference. Be on the lookout for details of our next live Ask the Expert event in September and be sure to check out our first Ask the Expert event for more advice from Ken.
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