Landscape Management, June 2018
Driving the bottom line No June 2018 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET S7 136 Eric Schultz who mowed lawns in high school naturally joined up with his brothers residential lawn maintenance company after getting out of the Marine Corps in 1982 After five years realizing he did not want to mow lawns for the rest of his life Schultz broke off from his brother to found a commercial focused company with his wife Pam in 1988 Thirty years later the Golden Colo based landscape maintenance and installation firm still focuses on commercial properties and takes a no nonsense approach to profits and growth Tell us about your companys top line is vanity mentality About 10 years ago when things started to tank a little bit during the recession we stepped back The first 20 years of business everybodys mantra is grow grow grow grow We looked at that and said Is that really what its all about At that point in time wed been steadily averaging around the 10 million a year mark At the end of the year you look at what you have left over after your salary and you think Wow was that even really worth the time So we started to refocus our business model One of my senior managers came up with the mantra Top line is vanity bottom line is sanity and cash is king Weve been chasing that model for about the last 10 years and weve seen margins skyrocket How do you apply this concept in your company A lot of times the landscape industry has a tendency to want to eat itself Because if you need that job so badly that youre not going to make any money on it all youre doing is dragging the industry down because youre keeping prices low and nobody can make any money We have a standard goal for staff to hit 10 percent margins We dont want 4 percent or 2 percent margins then youre struggling to replace equipment and its just a downward cycle There are companies doing 50 million a year that are making 2 percent Theyre managing 500 employees and however many assets for a 2 percent return You can get that in a CD During the recession we said We may not be able to hit the targeted revenue goals so lets focus on the internal operations how we get leaner and how we drive more money to the bottom line It has worked really really well for us over the last eight to 10 years What changes did you make to get to this point We went to a profit sharing program similar to an ESOP We were averaging in the 4 to 6 percent range on margins We told employees Were going to cut you a deal Hit 10 percent of 11 million and well Top line is vanity bottom line is sanity and cash is king Weve been chasing that model for about the last 10 years and weve seen margins skyrocket Eric Schultz Photo Schultz induStriES Schultz InduStrIeS By Marisa PalMieri
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