This article originally appeared on LandscapeManagement.net on November 29th, 2024. Greg Herring regularly writes for Landscape Management, providing financial analysis and insights tailored to landscape business owners.
Few people would argue that making better, faster decisions is essential to running a more efficient landscape business. Still, many owners in our industry continue to run their operations from the top down based on instincts.
If owners have good instincts, their businesses grow. But what happens when owners start adding managers and no longer make all of the decisions? If a company does not have actionable reports from which managers can make informed decisions, there will be a problem.
Part of what we do at The Herring Group is to help people at landscape companies, down to the crew leader level, make decisions based on timely, relevant data. This approach fosters a results-oriented culture, improving companies’ profit margins, owners’ life margins and employees’ autonomy.
So, how do you help your team make better, faster decisions? You get the right data to the right person at the right time in the right format. The best way to accomplish this is to automate reporting.
Is your data trustworthy?
We are all familiar with the idea of “garbage in, garbage out” — aka GIGO — when it comes to data. Hopefully, you operate your company with proven processes and a software platform you trust so you can rely on your data.
Even with those things in place, many companies still are not confident in their data.
How do you know if you have a GIGO problem? Two big signs are if no one is using the data or if people are using the data but complain about its accuracy. How do you fix a GIGO problem? The issues would have already been fixed if there were internal resources to identify the problem. So, you probably need an outside resource who knows the industry and understands the numbers to get to the root of the problem.
Strategic Planning
Once you address your GIGO problem, the next step is to formulate your data reporting strategy.
Start by determining what information is needed at each level. Owner/executives, managers and field personnel will need different reports for different uses on different timelines. Consider what information will create understanding and motivate your team members to act to achieve the results you want.
Then, think about the best way to convey this data — spreadsheets, charts, graphs or dials. Visuals are often the default and can help create understanding and motivation, but spreadsheets clarify the next steps. Scoreboards are also an effective format. People are familiar with the concepts of winning and losing, and most people want to win. In areas where you may want to create friendly competition, such as with crew leaders and account managers, displaying data on TV screens can be helpful.
Taking Ownership
As part of your strategy, you will want to appoint someone to own the reporting process and set a budget. Creating and managing automated reports requires coordinating people with many types of expertise—someone with a vision for the reports, someone with knowledge about your software system and how to access the data within it, someone with database expertise and a development expert, etc.
You also will need a plan to implement this new data-focused approach in your business, including training your team members and incorporating it into your everyday practices and culture.
Ready, Set, Go
Once you are confident in your data integrity and data strategy, you can begin executing your automated reporting program.
While it may seem complicated to set up automated reporting, it is more important than ever to forgo managing based on instincts alone and instead find a way to put relevant data into your team’s hands as soon as possible. I can assure you that your competitors at private-equity-backed landscape companies are focused on automated reporting.
When it comes to automated reporting, you have three choices — do it yourself, hire a firm to help you do it or do nothing. Which do you choose?