Most landscape companies don’t fail because of a bad year. They fail because they scale chaos.

In the landscape world, it’s tempting to mistake motion for progress. Trucks are rolling, crews are busy and phones are ringing. But when every answer depends on someone’s memory — and every job relies on word-of-mouth, the wheels start to wobble.

After more than four decades navigating growth spurts, economic dips and evolving teams, one thing is clear to me: systems are what separate stress from success. Shifting from reactive adrenaline to proactive structure changed everything for us. The best part? Any company can easily do the same.
 

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
— W. Edwards Deming

Clarity before growth

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) aren’t just paperwork, they’re tools that capture what works, make it teachable and keep it repeatable.

Without SOPs, every task becomes a one-off. That might work when you’re small, but it becomes costly chaos as you grow. SOPs don’t need to be thick manuals, they just need to be clear, tested in the field and created with your team.

Whether you’re onboarding a new hire, loading a trailer, or closing out a project, SOPs bring clarity, confidence and consistency. They form the backbone of scalable, profitable growth.

Start where it hurts most

The biggest mistake is trying to systemize everything at once. Instead, start where it hurts. If you discover crews are wasting time every morning, then build a Morning Rollout SOP. Are materials getting missed? Create a Pre-Job Checklist.

Target the processes that are frequent, high impact, or a recurring source of frustration and roll them out one at a time. Test, tweak and refine as you go and be sure to build them with your team, not just for them.

And don’t wait for winter. Yes, the slow season is great for training, but habits stick better when initiated in real time.

Culture grows from systems

SOPs aren’t just about efficiency, they shape how your team thinks, acts and improves. When done right, they transform culture:

• Continuous improvement becomes the norm.
• Performance becomes visible and trackable.
• Knowledge is shared — no more bottlenecks or gatekeepers.
• Communication flows are clear and responsibilities are defined.

When teams help create the systems they follow, ownership grows and so does pride. SOPs reduce stress, speed up training, protect margins and give leaders space to lead, rather than put out fires.

Progress over perfection

Let’s be real, no company has it all figured out. That’s not really the point. The goal here is to get better, not attain perfection. Each season is a chance to improve. Many companies, ours included, run task-based improvement teams to audit workflows, refine SOPs and fix what broke. It’s not glamorous, but it definitely works.

Every year, the systems get stronger and so does the team — and the business runs smoother because of it.

One problem, one SOP

So I encourage you to identify just one recurring problem in business. Then gather your team and ask:

• What is the real issue?
• What should happen every time?
• Where do we break down?
• What would make this easier?
• Who’s responsible and how should communication flow?

Then write a simple SOP, post it, use it and adjust it together.

Great systems usually aren’t born in the office, they’re built in the field.

Stay tuned

In the next issue, we’ll dig into Revenue Per Hour (RPH) — a powerful, often overlooked metric that tells you how well your field time translates into real profit.

If SOPs create the system, RPH is the scoreboard that keeps it honest.

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