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One of Wair\u2019s favorite sayings is, \u201cNot every opportunity is a good opportunity.\u201d It can be easy to continue taking more varied or secondary projects as your clients request them, especially if they already like your work in another area. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re going to be good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wair and his team looked hard at which services the company excelled in and brought in the most revenue. They also considered opportunity cost, determining how expensive it was to be able to offer a particular service. \u201cFor landscaping, the barrier to entry isn\u2019t very big,\u201d he says. His regional landscaping market also wasn\u2019t oversaturated, so there would be room to grow in the future.<\/p>\n
At the start, residential business was a necessity for Wolff \u2019s team to build the company and generate the revenue to hire good employees and buy equipment. \u201cBut ultimately our passion is in commercial real estate and the people who own and manage commercial real estate. That\u2019s what we love to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Instead of developing both the residential and commercial side of the market equally, Seasonal Solutions has reduced the number of residential customers over the past several years until finally closing that door completely. The company has always had a practice of looking at and possibly cutting the lowest 20% of its client base each year based on low profits and high difficulty. \u201cSo we started weaning residential people off year after year as well,\u201d Wolff says. \u201cFinally, we felt like we had gained enough of a reputation and enough business on the commercial side to replace all of that residential business.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s tough to turn down the possibility for work, one of the main parts of a growth strategy is narrowing a company\u2019s focus to what it does well. \u201cWe\u2019ve decided to be as good as we can, and as focused as we can, on that market,\u201d Wolff says. \u201cIt is paying off in dividends. We\u2019re growing exceptionally fast.\u201d Though it was a little intimidating to remove the rest of the company\u2019s residential customers, its growth rate is at 14% this year.<\/p>\n
Tightening the number of offered services and choosing a specific market allows the company to make the most efficient use of outreach efforts, he says. Rather than advertising to a wide set of potential customers or an overall region, his team can target and market in a way to build relationships that can drive company expansion. Management has been able to spend more time on-site connecting with commercial clients and finding openings to sell enhancement services.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also provided a new way to build the company\u2019s brand to set it apart from competitors. \u201cWe consider ourselves a premier commercial grounds maintenance company in our market,\u201d says Wolff. \u201cWe feel that our job is to arm our property managers with a whole toolbox full of ideas and things they can do to their properties to make them perform better to raise rents and increase occupancy levels.\u201d<\/p>\n Make sure you\u2019ve got a sustainable amount of work coming in to support your growth through the process. Even aiming for a moderate level of expansion, it\u2019s important to understand exactly how much your current business brings in per job and what it costs you to provide those services. Without a solid grasp of your profit and losses, any expansion will be a struggle. \u201cGrowth costs money, so make sure you\u2019ve got enough held back to maintain the business too,\u201d says Wilson.<\/p>\n Zeppa\u2019s Lawn and Landscape in Louisville, Kentucky, has been expanding since it started, but for most of that time without direction or goal in mind. \u201cWe were just growing and growing, but it wasn\u2019t really structured growth,\u201d says Antonio Zeppa, president. \u201cNow we\u2019ve put a lot of systems and processes in place to grow more strategically.\u201d<\/p>\n He developed a management team to give his company\u2019s expansion an overall plan to follow and weigh future opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to put those people in place first,\u201d Zeppa says. \u201cIt\u2019s not just laborers or the frontline workers. It\u2019s all the way through. You\u2019ve got to be able to manage those people.\u201d<\/p>\n For a smaller company, an office manager might be the place to start, Zeppa says. Making sure the employees are in place before pushing for heavy growth will help prevent overextension and encourages the team to develop good business practices from the start. Getting the right hire can take some trial and error, but the right person will find efficiencies and streamline processes, allowing you to focus on expansion.<\/p>\n Hiring even one support position can make an enormous difference, whether that is on the operations or sales side, Wilson says. Take some time to judge your own skill set and determine where your time is best used for the development of your business, and then hire for the responsibilities that you can\u2019t cover as well. \u201cI brought on an operations guy and realized I had some time to really work on my business now. When you\u2019re wearing 12 hats and suddenly it goes down to four, that\u2019s a huge deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Even more important than finding a key employee is developing a solid company culture to protect the hires you\u2019ve already made, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing into the next two to three years, you\u2019d better focus on culture 100%,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where anything else is at, if you don\u2019t focus on that, labor is going to be very frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n Company culture has been a major focus for Wolff \u2019s team, including developing a mission statement and value statement that show a dedication to the job and the employees. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to build a charged, fun, team atmosphere within the company with frequent, open communication,\u201d he says. \u201cWe throw parties. We have training and safety meetings in the morning, and the management team and myself are cooking flapjacks and sausages for everyone at 6 in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea is to keep crews energized and encouraged to think of themselves as part of a high-performing team, one that doesn\u2019t just mow lawns but also thinks about how to improve a property overall.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s created a place where people like to go to work and has created an enthusiasm about that work,\u201d Wolff says. \u201cThat enthusiasm has driven a higher quality job. That\u2019s been contagious to the client. When we\u2019re excited about their property and their landscaping, they\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of that culture has been an additional focus on training, as well as crosstraining employees for different positions, says Wolff. While having skill overlap across crews has helped in covering extra projects, it also gives employees a path forward in developing the daily job into a fuller career. That encourages them to keep showing up every day and looking for ways to advance.<\/p>\n Wilson uses incentives and recognition to help keep his team moving in the right direction. \u201cI try to be like the sideline at a football game,\u201d he says. \u201cI pat them on the back when they\u2019re doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n Building the right team to drive CDI\u2019s growth took a lot of legwork by Wair, who searched for local talent both in the general population and from competitors.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent the last two and a half years really cultivating and identifying the best talent in the market,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t just focused on crew members and supervisors but looked to upgrade the company\u2019s personnel in accounting, human resources and safety as well. \u201cWe had a pretty good program already in place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just had to plug the right person into that spot.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the more useful connections Zeppa has made a priority in building out his company is a consultant. Through his development, he\u2019s working with Fred Haskett of TrueWinds to find the right efficiencies and build an overall strategy. \u201cIt would be really hard to do this on my own,\u201d he says. Working with a consultant has been helpful in charting reasonable goals and milestones and building an understanding of what key positions in the company need to be expanded.<\/p>\n Wair relies on his teams to tell him when the company is at capacity for new work, as he trusts their drive and capabilities. \u201cOur whole team is made of a bunch of \u2018Get it done\u2019 guys, so as I got pushback from them on workload, that\u2019s when I knew we had enough,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Once you do reach those limits, it\u2019s important to be able to say no. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the infrastructure to support growth or the systems or people, you can tarnish your name,\u201d Wair says.<\/p>\n Zeppa uses tools like consultation fees to help his team manage the work they\u2019re taking on. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to be more selective,\u201d he says. His company donates money collected from consultation fees to a charity. On top of being a generous move, it develops the company\u2019s reputation in the community and encourages its culture among employees.<\/p>\n Though some landscape contractors use it as a way to try to get additional work, Zeppa doesn\u2019t do design projects for free. \u201cWe find that there\u2019s a lot of value in design,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Managing overextension is a constant challenge during expansion, felt primarily through tight labor markets. That\u2019s where a strong company culture that prioritizes making employees feel as though they belong and are a part of the success can be a lifesaver, says Wolff.<\/p>\n \u201cOur people are very excited that we\u2019ve got a specific brand and that we\u2019re in a growth mode,\u201d he says. When a new job or contract is picked up, news gets shared quickly around the company to celebrate. \u201cEverybody has bought into that. There\u2019s just a lot of excitement, because that means we\u2019re growing.\u201d<\/p>\n Build your company’s expansion on solid finances and a strong team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3761,"parent":0,"template":"","main-categories":[25],"class_list":["post-3565","features","type-features","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","main-categories-business"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/innovativepixel.com\/IGIN\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/guide-your-growth-3.jpg\")
Build your teams<\/h2>\n
Know your limits<\/h2>\n
This article originally appeared in Irrigation & Green Industry magazine.<\/em><\/h6>\n
Kyle Brown<\/strong><\/a> is editor-in-chief of Irrigation & Green Industry magazine and can be reached at kylebrown@irrigation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"