Landscape Management, November 2010

MYBIGGESTMISTAKE LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET NOVEMBER 2010 40 The author is a freelance writer with six years of experience covering landscaping BY CASEY PAYTON PHOTO COURTESY NATIVE LAND DESIGN Ben Collinsworth W HEN THE ECONOMY was robust and business was booming in 2006 2007 Native Land Design went from a 4 million business to a 10 million one in just two years People may think How could almost tripling your business hurt you and I thought that too says Ben Collinsworth CEO of the Cedar Park TX based business But it can We have been taught that growth is good pro t is good and if youre doing those things right then everything else will take care of itself That is a fallacy in business Growth can be good when you know what you are getting yourself into and when you develop a model to follow through on the needs of the business Without a plan the growth can spin you out of control And thats just what happened As Collinsworth started taking on any and every job that came through the door he began slipping on payments and wasnt staying on top of accounts He felt like the company was spending all of its time trying to catch up with the impossibly fast pace theyd set instead of having a solid plan to follow I was steering in the dark he admits Clients were paying bills slower than I was used to stretching payments past the 60 and 90 days Even if we had 700000 plus dollars a month in revenue that didnt mean we were collecting that in cash each month With payroll and taxes to pay Collinsworths vendors ended up being the ones to take the hit And as we slowly paid vendors because our bank lines werent large enough to handle the cash ow de cit they started limiting our ability to buy he says That put us in a crunch If you cant pay for the cash ow de cit you cant perform the work Even though we were showing a pro t the cash wasnt available until it was received in the of ce Though things seemed to be spiraling out of control Collinsworth made some wise decisions that not only saved his business but made it much more successful in the long run First he let go of his Dallas market what he admits was an emotional decision losing some of the business he had built up I had to cut off a piece of the business to make it more manageable he says If I hadnt made that decision Im not sure wed be here It allowed me to really concentrate on the other markets we had Getting involved with peer groups and soliciting feedback from more experienced business owners was the other decision that helped turn Collinsworths predicament around Business owners need to realize seeking advice isnt a sign of weakness its a sign of strength he says The best landscape business owners I know surround themselves with the smartest people who give them hard feedback Without those sounding boards you are destined to make bad decisions from a lack of experience Find a good base of professional people to bounce ideas off of and make sure you are heeding their warnings Collinsworth says there are many changes he would have made early on to prevent the company from growing quicker than he could manage He would have solicited feedback from his CPA hired a fulltime controller and paid closer attention to his balance sheets Most importantly Collinsworth says he wouldnt have taken on as many jobs with the mindset that hed gure things out as he went along I would have had a more detailed and wellthought out plan from the start he says Today Collinsworth takes things at a slower pace It can take some hard lumps in business to realize that conquering the world too quickly isnt worth the headache he says That is something that we still practice to this day Setting budgets for slower growth is now standard in our expectations A big boom in business became too much to manage for Texas Native Land Design COMPANY Native Land Design CEO Ben Collinsworth HEADQUARTERS Cedar Park TX FOUNDED 2001 EMPLOYEES 200 plus 2006 2007 REVENUE 4 million 2009 2010 REVENUE 10 million plus WEB www nativelanddesign com BEST ADVICE Solicit advice from your CPA and industry peers and pay close attention to balance sheets