Most are aware that operating a landscaping business of your own is extremely tough. But with advancements in tech, this has streamlined things tremendously. Technology has been the greatest gift we have ever been given when it comes to easing the management of a landscape business. Specifically because in recent years there has been an explosion of available software and mobile applications that allow an owner to nearly run their entire business (management-wise) from a smart phone, tablet and/or computer in their office or remotely from home. The software tracks nearly every single operational aspect of a landscape business, including a critical function we are covering in this installment – job costing. For any landscaping business to be on track to hit their goals for profitability, they must be aware of these figures.
Job Costing To Know Your Numbers
Previously, a contractor would rely on the old school aluminum clipboard, a pen and paper – usually with a spreadsheet printed out that was designed in Microsoft Excel or Mac Numbers containing information about the tools needed for the job, what materials are going to be used, how much of each material, who or what crew is assigned this project, an approximate timeline and so forth. While the paper version of this works just fine, paper is susceptible to the elements, it can easily get lost, dirty or wet, rendering the data placed on this sheet completely useless if that happens. With the power of a cloud-based software, all of this information is stored securely, and can be easily accessed by anyone within the company if they want to see the numbers for profitability or to assess project completion efficiency and more.
A Tulsa landscaping company recently started using this tool and was able to drastically increase efficiency and more importantly, able to track their profits on each project down to the penny because they are able to know how much time the crew spent at the job site, including knowing when they arrived, when they departed, etc. with the help of GPS tracking on the tablet that the crews use.
The realization that an owner, operations manager, or any other top-level executive of a landscape contracting company gets to experience when they now are fully aware of all the activity within the business is truly empowering. Previous leaks in time wasted or resources that did not need to be used are now gone. Increasing profits in the company and often times this can lead to a lower price for the customer because the company can operate even more efficiently.
Additional information on the landscaping company in Tulsa, OK.