Landscape Contractors Optimistic on Economy

Landscape contractors appear to have a more favorable economic outlook for their businesses than other sectors when breaking the down the results from two recent surveys.

The economy has been in a negative state for years as businesses close or implement staff reductions. Hopes for recovery one month are often dashed the next month as the economic swoon continues.

Respondents to the annual Landscape Contractor Design Build Maintain survey have a more favorable view of the economy as relates to their businesses. Fifty eight percent of the survey respondents believe their businesses will grow in 2012, with almost 11 percent of that group predicting growth of at least 26 percent over 2011.

The LCDBM survey also shows that 43 percent of the respondents reported business growth in 2011.The bulk of the respondents to the LCDBM survey are from small businesses, as 70 percent said they were at companies with one to 10 employees.

The positive sense of the economy expressed by the landscape contractors who responded to the LCDBM survey does not appear to be shared by general business owners.

A recent survey of business owners shows that nearly two thirds of small businesses think the nation is in another recession.

Irvine, Calif.-based Sage North America, which makes business software, surveyed some of its 3.2 million customers for the Sage Small Business Perspective on Economic Recovery. Respondents to the Sage Survey covered a wide swath of businesses, unlike the LCDBM annual survey that is specific to the landscape installation industry.

Nearly two thirds (65 percent) of the Sage respondents said the economy has had a negative effect on their business in the last six months; 45 percent say it will have a negative impact in the next six months. The size company most likely to be affected by the economy: six to 10 employees, with 71 percent of that size firm saying the economy had brought their business down.