Landscape Management, October 2010

Retain to gain BUSINESS PLANNER 2011 Focusing on existing customers brought organic growth to Native Land Design BY LINDSEY GETZ CASE STUDIES ON GROWTH 119 OCTOBER 2010 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET Ben Collinsworth GROWTH PROFILE Native Land Design Cedar Park TX 2010 Growth 21 Ben Collinsworth CEO of Native Land Design in Cedar Park TX says his key to success this year was simple he didnt try to reinvent the wheel While many others in our market and industry are trying to add revenue in a bad economy we have tried to get better operationally in our business and give our current customers more attention and better customer service Collinsworth says We want to spend our time trying to retain our current clients instead of hitting the streets trying to add a lot of new people to the mix Focusing primarily inward on existing clients has lead to organic growth for the company In fact despite the down economy Native Land Design is looking at bringing in a little more than 92 million this year in revenue Last year they brought in 76 million And for the past three years Native Land Design has made the Inc magazine list of the Fastest Growing Private Companies in America with 1085 growth from 2005 to 2008 In Cedar Park TX people are starting to spend money again Collinsworth says and thats allowed his company which is driven by 90 commercial work to grow without having to pick up a ton of new clientele But Collinsworth did pick up a few big jobs this year which also helped growth The economy has actually created a unique situation in which Native Land Design has had the opportunity to get some work that was previously unavailable Jobs went up for bid that had been tied up with one landscape business for years he explains There were companies out there that had their budgets cut and they had to shop around for a lower price That has allowed a business like ours to secure projects that previously werent even available for bid So in some ways the economic situation has actually helped us While the economy allowed Collinsworth to get some new work it also led to his biggest challenge to overcome As a relatively young company Native Land Design found it diffi cult to fi nd the funds they needed from local bankers Collinsworth overcame this by looking for the right lending opportunities out of state We actually had to look nationally he says to make sure the funding was available to fi nance the equipment we needed for growth Operationally growth has also required more equipment and labor Collinsworth points out The latter is another area where the economic situation has actually helped Because the construction industry was so hard hit by the economy theres some good talent thats readily available right now he says While the company has made some pretty big strides in growth Collinsworth says hes looking to be conservative in his plans for continued growth In the past the company grew too quickly going from a 4 million business to a 10 million one in just two years and that almost put them out of business Were anticipating 7 to 10 growth for next year and think thats a comfortable conservative number he says There are a lot of clients who cut back services and were hoping theyll start spending even more next year and add some of those services back So were looking at growing again without having to pick up a lot of new clients LM getz is a freelancer with experience covering landscaping