5 hidden barriers to growing your landscaping business

While many landscape company owners aspire to expand and grow their businesses—and their profits—most fail to achieve these goals, or at least not to the level of their expectations.

There's no denying that unique circumstances and uncontrollable changes in the market can negatively impact revenue and profitability; however, these factors are often just the tip of the spear.

Truth be told, the largest inhibitors to growth usually lie closer to home.

If your landscaping company isn't reporting consistent, reliable growth, it may be time to examine your processes and establish a plan for change. With this in mind, here are five hidden obstacles that might be interfering with your company's growth strategy:

Inefficient internal processes
Unintegrated systems
Lack of insight
Unsustainable leadership and management practices
Failure to plan for risks

Now let's take a closer look.

1. Inefficient internal processes

Establishing and adhering to a structured set of processes is key to staying on track and ensuring operations run smoothly. Although your company must remain flexible enough to adapt to change, you must also be mindful of avoiding inefficient and unorganized procedures that create unnecessary bottlenecks and delay progress throughout all facets of your operation.

From inaccurate job costing and estimating to outdated and lengthy billing methods, over time, ineffective internal processes affect revenue and limit your profit margins.

Nevertheless, while it may seem daunting to identify and address every problem—it's never too late to take action. If you want your business to grow effectively, you must be willing to look inward and gain visibility into the processes and practices that are hindering your potential for success.

2. Unintegrated systems

Centralizing your business's information into one integrated solution can do more than just alleviate frustrations—it can also help minimize mistakes. Besides ensuring accurate and seamless data sharing between departments, an integrated platform can also streamline communication and collaboration between staff members.

Even better, the end-to-end functionality provided by the leading systems can help increase speed and productivity, which leads to higher profits and reduced losses.

While investing in advanced technology may feel overly aspirational, it's important to think long-term. Not only are most software tools customizable, but they can also be configured to scale alongside your operation.

3. Lack of insight

Gaining access to the information you need to make smarter business decisions is vital to scaling your business. Still, even the most perceptive business owners need more than just broad facts to effect real change.

However, sifting through mounds of data and struggling to gather insight detracts from more important processes—like transforming information into action. Plus, without any real information to rely on, there's no way to benefit from lessons learned.

If you want your company's growth to be both reliable and repeatable, you must make practical and profitable decisions. Although adopting and implementing new software platforms can require you to make short-term adjustments, these intuitive tools can also enable you to gain full visibility into your business and empower you to regain control of your company's success.

4. Unsustainable leadership and management practices

No matter how committed you are to growing your landscaping company, as a business owner, you can only juggle so many tasks. After all, you're only one person—and there are only so many hours in a day. Most importantly, burnout can create judgment errors and contribute to poor decision making.

Besides deserving a break, it's important to understand that your company must be able to function effectively in your absence. Aside from time off for planned vacations, you may, at some point, need to step away unexpectedly for personal or health issues, in which case you'll need to hand over the wheel.

Even further, establishing a team of competent, versatile employees is vital to your business's growth. Empowering your staff to step out of their comfort zones and not only increases your team's autonomy and problem-solving abilities but also encourages them to take full accountability for their role in your company's success. Plus, as you start contemplating your exit strategy, these crucial steps can help in developing your company's future leaders.

5. Failure to plan for risk

Whether in life or business—there are three rules you must never forget: There are no guarantees for tomorrow, risks are unavoidable, and hope is not a plan.

That said, while you may be focusing on growth strategies, you must also assess your company's strengths and weaknesses. Although it may be tempting to stay positive, understanding your company's tolerance for risk is critical to ensuring its future.

If you haven't conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis in a while, it's time to revisit the risks and recovery strategies that could impact tomorrow's plans. Of course, it may pay to seek professional assistance with these initiatives. However, if your company uses business management software, the leading solutions are equipped to provide you with a broad perspective that can serve as a solid foundation for reference.

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Regardless of your growth strategy, it's imperative to gain visibility into how the company is performing as a whole.

Aside from identifying and fine-tuning your processes, staying adaptable, informed, and aware can help you discover new opportunities and empower your company's future success.

At Aspire, we understand that when you’re running a landscape company, it’s important to have the right tools for the job. That’s why we’ve developed an all-in-one, cloud-based solution with the functionality you need to keep your entire business running smoothly—and profitably. If you’re ready to take your company to the next level, contact us today!

Need help finding the right business management software? Download this helpful buyer’s guide to learn everything you need to know before selecting a solution, from initial research to final decision.