A FIERCE ADVOCATE FOR TRAINING Desmarais took over the company from her father, Victor, in 2016 and despite growing up as the daughter of a landscaper, this was never the plan. Desmarais went to school for financial analysis and planning, then worked at RBC for 12 years before her dad passed the baton unexpectedly. “He was 67 years old, and it was Christmastime. He was just like, ‘Okay, I don’t want to do the day-to-day anymore, so I need you to quit your job and come run the company. It’s your turn, kid.’ It was a pretty crazy adventure,” Desmarais explained. Her professional background makes Desmarais somewhat unconventional. She’s brought lessons learned in banking to Plantscape: she knows how to negotiate pricing and trim excess, and aims to reduce costs by five to 10 per cent each year. For a recent project, the company received estimates for plant material from three different nurseries. Desmarais sent a spreadsheet to each company and asked them to either match or beat the others’ offers. In the end, she secured $31,000 in savings. “My staff would tell you that everything has to add up when it comes to Liana, because the numbers are the numbers,” Desmarais said. “That’s probably the biggest
piece: I can do analysis to crunch numbers upside down and sideways.” Once she was on board, Desmarais was confident in her abilities to run a business, but she lacked certain technical skills required to run a landscaping business. “Where I didn’t feel confident was like, how long do you have to water sod after you lay it down? What are the successful ways to plant a tree?” she said. She leaned into Landscape Ontario to supplement her business expertise with horticultural know-how. After becoming a member of the trade association in 2016, she attended informative sessions at the Congress Conference and signed up for every professional development course available. Desmarais also participated in Landscape Ontario’s GROW Employers of Choice program, and continues to take courses as they become available. She encourages the same ethos in her staff. Most of Plantscape’s 31 employees have participated in the GROW program, and four are working toward completing the Apprenticeship Program. As a fierce advocate for formal training, Desmarais spoke at length about the many benefits of apprenticeship as part of her employee recruitment and retention strategy in an episode of the Landscape
18 | LANDSCAPE ONTARIO
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