Landscape Management, September 2017

One size doesnt fit all LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET September 2017 22 Photo U S LawnS profit centers Mowing Landscape Maintenance A s you plan the future of your landscape management business its important to recognize that crew size drives profitability If your crews are too big you dont make money if theyre too small you dont make money Setting up your crews for the right size influences how profitable you are but establishing the crew numbers to ensure youre operating at peak efficiency is a complex thing For starters you must calculate how much revenue you need per person to cover all your overheads and make the profit you want To get to that number you need to factor in four variables 1 Equipment The amount of equipment you have on the truck dictates how much revenue that equipment must produce to cover its own cost and it also governs crew numbers For example if you have a threequarter ton truck and a two axle 18 foot trailer with three mowers on it this equipment is fixed overhead you have to pay for no matter what So depending on what your financials look like you need to produce X dollars of volume to pay for that equipment To produce that volume you need X number of people in that truck Now heres a key point on the subject of equipment expenses as well as other business costs You cannot charge the customer for inefficiencies Think about it this way Say you just started out and bought a 48 inch mower which will only cut grass so fast Then you go out to price a job that really requires a 72 inch mower which is 33 percent more productive than a 48 inch mower You must bid the job based on that 72 inch mower because your competition certainly will Then if you win the job you must decide whether you want to buy the 72 inch mower and if you do you need to start looking for work that fits that size mower It all comes down to having the right equipment for the jobs and the right jobs for your equipment 2 Route density The distance between your job sites also plays a role in crew size The farther apart the properties are the fewer crew members you want in the truck because youre paying each of those people for travel time and you dont want to pay for any more unproductive time than you need to 3 Property job size If you have small jobs you cant send a five man crew to do them because all their budgeted hours get sucked up by travel time Mike Fitzpatrick Continued on page 24 newsfeed robomow joins mtd F robotics Acquisitions the makers of robomow is now a subsidiary of mtD products parent company of Cub Cadet the transaction closed July 2 robomows operations will remain headquartered in Israel Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed briggs expands mower ops briggs Stratton Corp will move production from its facility in munnsville N Y to neighboring Sherrill N Y to expand capacity the munnsville facility produces commercial zero turn mowers under the Ferris and Snapper pro brands and consumer zeroturn mowers under its Simplicity and Snapper brands Some production will begin in the spring and it will be fully operational in 2019 Follow these guidelines from U s Lawns to help determine your ideal maintenance crew size By Mike Fitzpatrick sizE mattERs Mower size is one factor contractors should consider when determining crew numbers