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The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
JULY 2021
Who Pays for the Increase in Material Costs During a Landscape Installation?
The price of materials is always in flux. There’s no guarantee that the price of one material will remain the same from when a project is sold through to when the materials are purchased. If a project is sold, and the pricing is based on the cost of materials at a particular time, then material costs go up, and the business could easily lose money on that job. How should landscape professionals handle situations like this? Who is left with the responsibility of paying for the difference in cost? The business owner? The customer? During Ramblin Jackson’s recent Annual Company Retreat, we held a client advisory panel where we talked with seven of our clients about what it’s like to own a landscaping business. The topic of fluctuating material costs came up as a challenge in running a landscaping business. Job costing is incredibly important for a landscaping business to remain profitable, and doing it wrong can create big money problems within the company. When talking with our clients, we heard a variety of responses on how they handle situations where material costs change. Some ate the cost. Some had their clients pay. One of our clients, Nate
Fetig from Alpine Gardens in Fort Collins, Colorado, told us that the situation depends on the type of client they’re working with:
“On a commercial project that was a hard bid, that’s really competitive, and we’ll probably seek a change order. In our residential market, our customers are less accepting of change orders. Because of that, we have a higher margin built into our job costing, and we do our best to keep price changes happening in our bidding system.” Another one of our clients, Jeffery Riddle from Alterra Landscape Design in Dallas, Texas, told us that he has conversations with clients early in the sales process about how material costs can change. He offers them the opportunity to delay the start date of their project until the market settles down, or, if they want to start immediately, he makes it clear, both verbally and in their agreement, that material costs are subject to change. A general contractor neighbor of mine told me he pretty much doesn’t care about the price of lumber: He has his clients pay for the material when he buys it, not at a predetermined price at the start of the sale. He has baked-in margin protection. If people don’t want to pay it, he stops building their house. Aspire Software’s founder, Kevin Kehoe, and I had an interesting conversation around the five transactions in job costing on our podcast, “The Landscaper’s Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing Podcast,” so be sure to check out that episode for more details from Kevin.
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How do you handle this? Do you pay for the cost or does your customer?
Take the quiz on Page 3 to find out!
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Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
4 Life Lessons From 8 Years of Marriage On June 8, Kara and I celebrated our eighth anniversary. We planned a picnic dinner with our kids along the river where we had our wedding. I picked up takeout from our favorite restaurant. Kara surprised me with decorations, flowers, and an impromptu ceremony. One of the boys handed me a It solved a lot of the issues, and we’re creating a new version of this document for the next phase of life. 3. 24 Hours Away Continuing on the “Parents Come First” topic is something we do called “24 Hours Away,” where we go and do our own thing for a day/night. I often go camping
2. Parents Come First Your marriage comes first, then your kids. If Mom and Dad don’t have their relationship together, what kind of parent can they be? A few ways we practice this include going on “dates” — even if it’s 1:1 time planned after the kids go to bed, or, on the rare occasion, a dinner out while we have a babysitter.
or hunting, while Kara takes her time with girlfriends. This alone/solo time is rejuvenating. 4. Annual Plan A few years ago, we started planning out the year for the business and our family — together. This leads to Ramblin Jackson’s four-day summer workweek (in May, June, and July), which comes with some struggles but is overall adding 12 extra family days to the year and worth it. Now, sometimes pandemics happen, etc. and the annual plan needs to change, but the year is planned intentionally around key family events.
card from Kara asking me to marry her again, and the other boy helped officiate!
While not every day of the last eight years has been sunshine with ukulele music under a willow tree, it has overall been great. Kara and I collaborated on a reflection on four things that are working. 1. The Great Compromise of Lyons When we moved to the small town where we live (which was where I wanted to live …), it was an unequal drive to work. For Kara, it was 1.5 hours each way … for me, it was only 30 minutes. We literally created a piece of paper called the Great Compromise of Lyons that outlined who was doing what around the house and shifted some responsibilities considering the commutes.
To creating a business around the life you want,
–Jack and Kara Jostes
3 BUSINESS TRICKS THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR PERSONAL LIFE
When you’re constantly in the “zone” at work, you’re not always thinking about what’s best for your personal life. While many business owners prioritize balance, what will truly benefit both your home and work life? Check out these three tricks. 1: Start your day with a plan. We know what you’re thinking: Writing out my plan is more work than just doing it. The key is to plan whenever you can. If you jot down things you want to accomplish the following day as they come up, all you’ll need to do is spend a few minutes organizing your list the next morning.
Clear, every new habit has a simple formula behind it: motivation, ability, and prompt.
Whether your reminder is an alarm at the same time every day or even
another habit (“I’ll exercise before I take my morning shower”), make sure it’s part of any new process you implement.
3: Remember, work is flexible —your personal life isn’t. Bryan G. Dyson, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, once told his staff, “Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them — work, family, health, friends, and spirit — and you are keeping all of these in the air.” In his metaphor, work is a rubber ball. “If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same.”
Pro Tip: Remember to include time to unwind and relax!
2: Develop new and improved processes. While certain activities can’t be replaced with shortcuts (like spending time with family), consider ways to make your current processes more efficient and beneficial. For example, you can’t lose weight if you don’t change your diet and exercise.
Adjusting your habits might seem difficult, but there’s actually a straightforward method. According to “Atomic Habits” by James
We hope these tips help you protect the “glass balls” in your life!
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Read It in Your Tru
Low Close Rate + Inefficient Sales Process Wasting Time With Unqualified Leads Clients Not Understanding Realistic Budgets or Timelines … and then they get angry at you. Read On IF you Suffer from One or More of the following: 1. 2. 3.
In Working With Ramblin Jackson, We Can Help You SOLVE These Common Landscaping Sales Challenges.
What we can help you with:
Branding Logo Design + Visual Identity Photography + Videography Website Design & Development Copywriting Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Masterminds Sales Coaching + Marketing Consulting Analytics + Reporting
Schedule your strategy meeting at ramblinjackson.com/schedule
Take the Quiz
Overcoming Entrepreneurial Anxiety About Money With Firewood and Hammers
1. Who pays for the cost of material price increases in your business?
a) We do b) The customer does c) I have no idea
2. Does your agreement/contract include information about material costs?
a) No b) Yes c) It sometimes does
I can always figure out how to get firewood and make a fire.
3. Do you talk with your customers about this in the early stages of your sales process?
Once I started thinking about money that way, a lot of my anxiety about money honestly went away because I know how to make money. I know where to get money. I could scrounge up some quarters in my center console. I’ve got some quarters in there, and nickels, and dimes. I know how to make sales. I could pick up the phone and call a customer. I could call an existing customer who hasn’t paid me yet. If I needed to, I could ask somebody or I could borrow money from the bank.
a) No, we avoid talking about the possibility of material cost fluctuations b) Yes, we try to bring it up early on c) Once in a while we do, but not every time
If you answered mostly A or C for these questions, you could be losing money because of this! Consider your sales process and how you can add steps to address the possibility of changing material prices.
I can always figure out how to get money and make a profit.
If you’re stressed about money, check out the video I recently recorded (at 8,000 feet next to a campfire) for a healthy money mindset exercise I learned: RamblinJackson.com/podcast.
JACK JOSTES, CEO RAMBLIN JACKSON
TAKE A BREAK
UPCOMING EVENTS
ALIEN BALLPARK CHERRY FIRECRACKER FLAG INDEPENDENCE ORCHID PADDLEBOARD PATRIOTIC SUNDAE
2021 Nursery/Landscape EXPO Education Conference Aug. 5–6 • San Antonio, TX Jack Jostes’ Book Launch Party! Oct. 20 • Louisville, KY Register for our events at RamblinJackson.com/events.
SUNSCREEN TRAMPOLINE
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uck on a Rainy Day
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PO Box 1429 • Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 544-2125 • ramblinjackson.com
1 Who Pays for the Increase in Material Costs During a Landscape Installation? 2 Lessons I’ve Learned in 8 Years of Marriage 2 Make Your Work-Life Balance Easy 3 Overcoming Entrepreneurial Anxiety About Money With Firewood and Hammers 3 Upcoming Events 4 Should Green Industry Businesses Have an Online Presence? INSIDE
In the past, I’ve received the question of whether or not it’s important for small landscaping businesses, even ones that are owner-operators, to have an online presence, or if they can get away with running an entirely word-of-mouth business with no digital presence. Should Green Industry Businesses Have An Online Presence (Even If You’re Already Slammed With Work AND Understaffed)?
Does Your Online Presence Impact Recruiting? Your digital presence will also help you look more professional if you do decide to grow your business or hire more employees. Who would you want to work for: someone who has no website and a 1.5-star review average online, or a company with a professionally designed website and incredible ratings online? We have a client who has a waitlist of people wanting to work for his landscaping company. They have over 120 Google reviews! While it’s not the reviews alone that are leading to this result, we’ve found that high-performing, well-reviewed landscaping companies typically have less trouble finding labor compared to ones with a poor online presence. At Ramblin Jackson, we help landscape professionals build a robust online presence. Not only do we build beautiful websites for our clients, but we also build websites that help our clients get found online. To be clear, our services are not for everyone. If you’re content with your business and the number and quality of clients you attract, then you may not need Ramblin Jackson’s services! But if you find yourself driving around wasting time meeting with clients who are a bad fit, then building up your digital presence with Ramblin Jackson could be a game-changer.
The simple answer is this: It depends on what your goals are.
Customer Perception Impacts the Price You Can Charge Your prices will depend heavily on how customers perceive you and your services compared to other businesses in the industry. If customers think you’re a Chuck-in-a-Truck because you look like one online — meaning you have negative reviews and an ancient website — guess what they’ll think? “Perfect, this company will be cheap .”
If that’s the image you put out online, what kinds of customers do you think you’ll attract? Cheap ones.
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