If there is one thing experience can teach us in running a
landscape business it is the importance of time. It doesn’t matter if you run a multi truck
operation or you are just a one Truck one trailer kind of guy. Your time is worth money. If you’re the one truck one trailer I would think your time
is even more valuable as you do not have the same resources a large scale
operation would have. In most cases landscaping is a part time job for you so
the days you are out mowing you cannot be dealing with down machines or
something breaking on the job.
If you are the mid to large scale operation every time your
crews are spending more time hanging out at the dealership versus on the job
site the money you are billing for is going right out the window.
Think about this for a second. You are on a lawn and break a
belt or recoil. If you are lucky it
happens as you are putting the machine back on the truck but if it happens when
you get there or in the middle of the job your whole day just changed, causing
you to lose time which equals money. A trip to the dealer to pick up the repair
part could be 30 minutes, because as you know when you have to be somewhere you
will get stuck behind someone who hasn’t figured out yet how to push the gas
pedal. So now you are at the dealership, it could take another 15 to 20 minutes
to get the part provided it is in stock. Then another 30 minutes back to the
job. So if you are lucky you only wasted and hour and a half getting the part
never mind installing it.
So where does that Hour and a half maybe two go? Well, you either need to hustle to make it up
or it is lost forever. What do you bill an hour? Does throwing out $60 maybe $75 dollars sound
good?
Now imagine if you had kept a few repair parts on your
trailer. In the case of a belt breaking
simply walking to the trailer and putting on a new one just saved you an
hour. Not only did you save time and
money by not leaving the job you also maintained a level of professionalism
that does not go unnoticed by your customers that could lead to future
business. So Not only did you save that
$60 dollars in waste travel but you may have also preserved future income.
This just scratches the surface of the other hidden little
costs that you saved on just by having a few parts in stock. Wear and tear on
the truck, traffic, gas, professionalism and your own sanity for the long haul
are just some things to mention.
Take a small inventory of your machines, Look at the stuff
that could break, items you always replace and keep and extra one or two. In most cases if you buy in bulk you will
save a few extra cents here and there. Most big companies think like this and
make great profits, No reason you can’t do the same.
As the saying goes. Time is money. Corny but seems to make
sense here.