"Class is in session."

With Aspire Academy, class is always in session.

This e-learning platform from Aspire, full of videos, interactive tutorials and quizzes, gives all customers a chance to stay ahead in the industry or to just sharpen skills. If your company is considering a switch to this business management software leader, Aspire Academy is a great way to get a sneak peek.

"This is Aspire's opportunity to give back to the industry, to give back to our clients, and to give back maybe to our prospects," says Jon Gohl, Aspire's director of customer experience.

And class is most certainly in session for students. The Aspire in the Classroom learning path is available in 27 universities and in two high schools, showing how Aspire is used in the green industry and offering student certification. That’s perfect for inclusion on a resume.

"It is key that students come out of college with this real-world skill," says Todd Reinhart of Reinhart Landscaping & Snow in Bloomington, IL. "They've been able to touch, feel, use the Aspire program, and they know what it's capable of and they know why. 

“Whether you're in operations, sales or admin or financial, you get a basic understanding of why it's so important in the green industry."

The Aspire Academy concepts are found in more than 100 learning modules related to the CRM, estimating, scheduling, mobile and time entry, purchasing, invoicing, and administration in the green and commercial clean industries.

In addition, specific learning paths are tailored for roles such as account manager, branch admin, branch manager, operations manager, sales rep, system admin, controller, crew leader, and executive. 

Plus there’s a learning path featuring modules specifically for students. 

"I carved out 65 that would give a student a real strong understanding of the workflow and Aspire, which also aligns with a landscape company," says Gohl, one of the Aspire in the Classroom creators along with the late Kevin Kehoe, who co-founded Aspire with Mark Tipton.

Reinhart and his team helped introduce Aspire in the Classroom in 2024 at Illinois State University. The company’s directors of operations and analytics teach a couple of classes each semester. 

Reinhart considers his firm “a computer company that happens to be in the landscaping business.” And Aspire software, he says, has opened the landscaping industry to new talent.

"Aspire can be looked at as almost gamification of the industry," he says. "You're playing a game every single day.”

Reinhart points to one area of his business being managed in the spring and summer of 2025 by an intern from the University of Illinois.

"He's mowing lawns,” Reinhart says, “but he's mowing lawns with 35 autonomous lawn mowers. He's running the entire fleet. 

"You tell your parents or you tell an advisor you're going to mow lawns for the summer, they're pretty much like, 'You're doing what? Mowing lawns?' 'Well, no, I'm running an autonomous mowing fleet that goes in and charges on their own. And then we look at the data analytics and the use time and the battery technology, and then we're running these off-grid with solar.' The whole conversation changes.”

Reinhart is aiming to make young people believers in the landscaping industry and, by extension, believers in the power of Aspire software. 

"You come out with your certificate that you know Aspire,” Reinhart says. “You can go get a job anywhere you want, any day you want, and you have a skill set. You go for a job interview as an operations manager, and maybe you and someone else are exactly equal. And you go, ‘I've already been on Aspire. I know how to use it. I know how to create bids. I know how to run operations, schedule things.’ This is a skill set that instantly propels you to the top of the list.” 

And Reinhart certainly sees Aspire at work in his own company, founded in 1986 with his brother, Chad, and which has more than 100 employees and should approach $15 million in revenue in 2025. 

“It is the tool of the industry,” Reinhart says. “It’s what has allowed us to scale. I don't know how you would ever do the things we're doing without it."