Landscape Contractor Education

Landscape contractors are turning to new classes at Rutgers University to broaden their landscape education with business skills focused on today's challenging markets. After Evangeline Costa founded her landscape design and consulting company on Martha's Vineyard five years ago, creating eye-catching gardens quickly became second nature to her. Bookkeeping, however, did not, and that soon started to erode profits, forcing her to solve problems that can leave even the greenest thumbs operating in the red.

“We wasted a lot of opportunities,” Costa said. “We couldn't anticipate what was needed to move projects forward.” Then the former account executive for Fortune magazine registered at Rutgers University for a one-day course “The Six Key Elements of Success for Landscape Contractors.” The course covers effective leadership, business planning, production costs, overhead allocation and improving employee accountability. “Key Elements” is one of five landscape business courses on the horizon at Rutgers.

“Many business owners call us looking for a landscape design education, but our most successful students realize they can't continue to create beautiful landscapes without finding a sustainable business model,” said Dan Serpico, a finance major from Rutgers who coordinates more than 50 courses in landscape design, plant identification, pest control – and business strategies.

Costa made key changes after attending the seminar, including keeping better records of time spent at different job sites, which are mostly summer homes on an island where the average quaint casa costs more than $900,000.

She learned more effective marketing and networking strategies. The better she knew her clients the better her work proposals became. Going after every job was a recipe for failure, she learned. Having a full grasp of the company's cash flow was not.

“Now we find that we have the income to do great projects. Knowing those numbers, the bookkeeping, who we are targeting and what we should be charging has been our saving grace,” Costa said. “This has allowed me to sleep at night.”