“…It makes your business leaner and more cost-effective,” says another LMN Member

For Steve Snider of Snider Turf and Landscape Care Ltd., attending LMN’s Plan for Profit workshop for the second time may not have been completely necessary, but in his opinion it was most certainly rewarding. “You thrive off of the interaction in the room and you learn from the personal attention you get,” he says.

The proud LMN member and business owner, who took over and rebranded his father’s 40-year old landscape maintenance business, says he was adamant about using the program to its absolute full potential. I wanted to get the maximum out of it,” Steve says, explaining that he’s well aware that the program has more than enough features and tools that would help him grow and develop his company. The goal for him, he says, is learning how to capitalize on them. “I wanted to take the guess work out of it,” Steve says, adding that he knew after attending his last workshop that the proper resources were right there waiting for him. He decided to return for another session on budgeting, estimating and business management after using LMN’s software for a year and was more than pleased with the results. “I might even make it a yearly thing,” he notes.

The best thing about the Plan for Profit workshop, he says, is the “invaluable personal support,” an element he adds is especially convenient when trying to “ensure you’re on the right track.” “We’d talk about what we were putting in to make sure we were doing it right and we’d talk ratios,” Steve explains about his one-on-one support with an LMN instructor in the workshop. “It was really great,” he says, adding that with the extra assistance, “we were able to go back and re-tweak what we did” – a detail Steve says, without a doubt, is reason alone to come back.

Steve says the greatest reward and the most applicable business strategy he took away from the workshop had to do with knowing and understanding his “capacity ratio.” Once he got a better hold on his numbers and a deeper understanding of the logistics of his business, as well as the need to eliminate waste, he realized the opportunities that lay ahead for him. “It’s about understanding that there’s always room to grow,” he says, “There’s always thing’s to fine-tune and always things to learn,” which is why he sees the benefit in attending LMN’s workshops. It doesn’t matter how long he’s had the software, Steve insists that the workshops are “invaluable,” and the program, itself, is essential for landscape professionals. “I would absolutely recommend it! It makes your business leaner and more cost-effective. It’s absolutely worth the money!”

Want to know more about LMN’s Plan for Profit Workshop?

Here’s how a typical workshop pans out:

DAY ONE: Planning for Profit

In order to be successful, you need to know how to be successful. On Day One, you’ll build an operating budget specific to your company that will help you manage your company with numbers instead of instincts. Not only will we build a budget, we’ll show you how to use it to:

recover your overhead and profit
pay crews based on performance
make informed equipment decisions
identify and fix waste and lost profits in your business

(Your financial info will be kept confidential).

DAY TWO: Systems for Success

With a plan for profit in place, attendees will estimate based on a pricing system calculated for profit, then learn systems and best practices for hiring, bonuses, pay-for-performance, job planning and preparation, and accounting/jobcosting that will help them achieve their goals for profit, productivity, and efficiency.