You have undoubtedly experienced previous projects that did not work out the way you had anticipated. For example; Construction mistakes that had to be rebuilt, different parts of the scope that took much longer to build than was quoted, material costs increasing and clients that ended up being difficult to work with
Do you prepare your quotes on a fixed quote or a cost-plus basis? If you run a maintenance business, the basis is cost-plus generally, however, many clients want the service capped at a certain number of hours. In a landscape construction business, most offer a fixed quote rather than a cost-plus, however over the last few years in the residential sector, I have witnessed a small shift toward cost-plus quoting. Let’s look at the pros and cons of the 2 offers. FIXED PRICE QUOTING Fixed price quoting means
The Landscape industry has benefited from increased enquiries since the pandemic started. But, we should never expect enquiries to remain strong without a proactive approach to our marketing. So to assist you, I have highlighted some marketing trends that emerged during the pandemic and will remain strong throughout this year and into the next. HOW YOUR BRAND IMPACTS THE ENVIRONMENT With climate change as an important global issue, consumers are selecting brands whose business practices impact the environment less. Making your clients aware of how you care
At the beginning of 2021, we were hoping the worse of COVID might be behind us, and some sort of normality could be experienced. But no, the delta variant, prolonged lock downs and imposed vaccinations dominated the year. Considering this year was even crazier than last, the Landscape Industry, and most businesses operating in this area, have done very well. Now that we are at the end of the year, let's reflect on what worked well and what could be done differently next year. Some ideas
Think about how often you have said yes to a request in the last couple of months but wish you hadn’t. You may have arrived at a job, realised it wasn’t the right project for you, but you agreed to quote it anyway. You may have agreed to a wage increase for an employee, but realised the increase was too great, and now you will likely need to increase the wages of some of your other employees. Or, you may have told a client you would
When it comes to growing a business and succeeding, billionaire Richard Branson is a guy we listen to. He founded the Virgin Group in the 70's, which today controls more than 400 companies in many diverse sectors from travel, to telecommunications, health, banking, music, and leisure. Below are some of his tips for growing a business. PLAN FOR THE LONG-TERM "Setting some milestones for you and your team to work towards will keep you motivated and driven. If you have a clear vision of where you would
Since COVID began, I have taken a stronger interest in golf and am playing more regularly. I always found this game quite frustrating, but the more I play it, the less frustrating it is. Funny how that works! Playing regularly has helped me to refine my technique, practice more, and know what I am doing wrong when my game isn't working. And running my business has always been similar. Here are some business lessons playing golf has taught me. LESSON 1: KNOW WHAT LIES AHEAD, SO YOU
Years ago, Stephen R. Covey wrote a ground-breaking book, titled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” that changed the way many leaders manage their business and life. In this article, I summarise the 7 habits, so you can choose to apply some, or all of them. BE PROACTIVE A proactive person takes responsibility for all the good and not so good that happens in his life and business. A proactive person focuses their time and energy on things they can control. They plan what they want
It’s been a busier year than expected, and the financial year is coming to a close. So now is a good time to start planning profits for 2022. This plan is called a “Financial Forecast”, and it’s done by looking at your 2021 P&L and predicting the next 12 months of sales, expenses, and profits. IS IT ACCURATE? The predicted sales and net profit are quite accurate because it is created based on past data and using the last 2 quarters to help guide patterns. The exercise is simple
We are coming to the end of a busy financial year in just over 30 days, so now is a good time to start planning your business for a successful new financial year. Now is also a good time to start thinking about what has worked well over the past 12 months, and what could be improved on. The 4 R’s will help you develop your business with more efficiency, effectiveness, proving much more satisfaction.. RE-ENGINEERING In business, we all tend to continue doing everything the