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The landscaping industry has come a long way, but still has a ways to go with regard to “image” and “professionalism.” At the same time, a lot of leading contractors are looking to 2009 as the year that will help separate the men from the boys.

“Is it time to panic?” asks consultant Gary Goldman. “That depends on how well your business has prepared itself. If you run a professional company, you will have a lot less to worry about than your fly-by-night competition.”

That’s right—the days of being fat and sassy are over. During those days, too many companies let their standards of performance enter a gradual state of decline. Extraordinary sales velocity seemed to justify less than stellar conditions: messy jobsites, failure to meet completion dates, sloppy proposals and billings, and “take it or leave it” attitudes.

“The message I’d been seeing from a lot of landscape companies was, ‘It’s OK to be just OK … after all, we can sell just about anything we can install, even stuff we can’t install,’” Goldman relates. “I can only surmise that their customers weren’t feeling all that special.”

For those of you who have been through tough times in the past, you know the importance of staying sharp, always improving and not dropping your guard. Why? “Because at some point, like right now, business will slow—and that’s when contractors who have the best people, systems and processes beat the pants off of those who don’t,” Goldman points out.

Creating a culture

There’s something else you need for long-term success: the right culture. And a key component of that culture is professionalism, inside and out.

“Customers, employees, vendors and even your subs want to associate themselves with a company they feel can weather the storm,” Goldman says. “Acting professional and upholding that image is a defined culture that starts at the top.”

Creating a culture takes time, and becomes a little more challenging during tough times. When things tighten up, and the words “bonus” and “raise” become forbidden in the English language, you must have something in your bag of tricks to convince your employees that it’s worth hanging around and giving it their all.

Companies that thrive during times like these have created an informal culture where employees buy into the owner’s long-term plans. The key word is informal. “When nothing has been mandated on the workforce, that workforce is more likely to accept and embrace the culture of professionalism,” Goldman says.

The big question is: What can go in your bag of tricks to help attain that employee buy-in? First of all, Goldman says you need to have a plan that you stick to, because that instills confidence in your employees that you know where you want to take the company. However, it might be necessary to make adjustments from time to time in order to reach your goals. That’s OK, because it too will instill confidence in employees that you’re proactively managing the company to keep things on course. In either case, keep employees informed of what’s going on. The more informed and involved they feel, the more likely they’ll embrace the culture.

Take a culture check

So, do you have a culture that will help your company stand out from the pack? Goldman says you should ask yourself these questions:
• Is the overall caliber of my staff better today than it was three years ago?
• Is my staff more efficient?
• Are my employees growing, learning and developing—or are they just doing what needs to be done plus a little more?
• Is your company continually attracting new applicants?

“There’s one final question you then have to ask yourself,” Goldman says. “‘Are my clients happier today than they were three years ago?’” If you don’t have the right culture, they probably aren’t. And if that’s the case, there’s very little time left to correct the situation. In other words—make it your focus this year.