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As smaller lots become more common in various parts of the country, you may be wondering if these projects are worth taking on with the challenges they provide.

Justin White, owner of K&D Landscaping, Inc., based in Watsonville, California, encourages not turning away a potential client just because they have a small yard or are in a certain neighborhood. He says you should give them the opportunity to go through the process and see if they’re a good fit for your team.

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised on some of these projects that our team has done in small areas that we would have never imagined a project would come to us,” White says.

When narrowing down what genuinely matters, features like pools, spas, putting greens and outdoor kitchens are the most common for clients to do without. Rossen says they let the client make the call on what landscape elements to leave out.

Liz Ryan, a landscape designer with K&D Landscaping, Inc., based in Watsonville, California, says she strives to think outside of the box and ensure the features are multifunctional to make the most use of the space.

Picture this: I’m at a conference last month, talking shop about sales strategies, and I drop a mention of EOS, or the Entrepreneurial Operating System. Next thing I know, I’m swamped with stories of EOS-driven success and a flurry of other folks asking, “What the heck is EOS?” This got me thinking — why not share how EOS transformed K&D Landscaping?

APTOS, CA — JUNE 20, 2023 —  Seascape Beach Resort in Aptos, in collaboration with K&D Landscaping of Watsonville, has made waves in the field of water conservation. Their remarkable achievement of saving 1 Million Gallons of Water has garnered them national recognition. The duo’s success is the focal point of the latest issue of Irrigation and Lighting, a prestigious national magazine.

When you set goals for your landscape company, are they truly ones that challenge your business or are they ones you can easily achieve?

Justin White, CEO of K&D Landscaping, based in Watsonville, California, says when he brought on a business coach, he challenged White to create a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG).

White settled on reaching $30 million by 2030 with 300 employees. They are at $15 million this year, and he says they are on track to reach $30 million by 2026-27.

“Your goals can be so much more than you know,” White says.

Landscapers and professionals in the green industry excel at delivering top-notch services. Yet, one crucial aspect often overlooked is how much to charge for these services. Our landscape company, K&D, was once in the same boat. We had a solid reputation for quality work but we didn’t truly understand our numbers. As a result, we consistently undervalued and undercharged for our services.

What would happen in your life if you started trusting yourself a little more each day? Could this belief in your ability to set and achieve goals truly make a significant difference? A few weeks ago, I found myself preparing a presentation for NALP’s Elevate conference. The topic was, “How to build a 5-year plan.” During this process, a simple but profound question surfaced in my mind and has since become an obsession: What if I trusted myself more?

Last month I attended the annual Lawn & Landscape Technology Conference and Top 100 Executive Summit in Las Vegas. It was another amazing event with many new vendors and cutting-edge discussions filling the weekend. As one might imagine, there was a steady buzz of talk around AI (artificial intelligence). The keynote speaker of the conference, Kevin Surace, gave an inspiring conversation on AI, the tools of AI and how to implement modern technology into your business.

I was recently talking with a few of our supervisors at our mid-year planning session and received some great feedback that I think many of us overlook. The busy rush of summer brings more work than available people, more leads than estimators and more to do than time allows. This leads to increased stress and reduced efficiency. We also tend to lose sight of important data points like “shop-time,” “drive-time” and “non-billable time,” or in other words, time spent by employees that you do not get paid for. This was what our supervisor team was worried about.

WATSONVILLE, CA – K&D Landscaping, Inc. has been named to the winning list of Nextdoor’s 2023 Neighborhood Faves, the only annual awards where neighbors vote to celebrate their favorite local businesses. This year, Neighborhood Fave winners like K&D Landscaping, Inc. will receive greater visibility and ranking on the Nextdoor app as well as a sticker to showcase their win in the real world.