The Yellowstone Landscape Blog | Yellowstone Landscape

Does your landscape company's size matter?

Written by Joseph Barnes | May 20, 2015 4:00:00 AM

This week one of our industrys major publications, Lawn and Landscape, released their annual Top 100 listing...

This week one of our industry’s major publications, Lawn and Landscape, released their annual Top 100 listing of the largest landscape companies in North America. For the second year in a row, Yellowstone Landscape Group, which includes Austin Outdoor and BIO Landscape, is ranked #15.

While we’re certainly happy to be included among the top companies in the landscaping industry, we’re equally delighted to see the tremendous growth in our industry as a whole. There are lots of landscaping companies out there working as hard as we are - serving our clients, growing our businesses and creating new opportunities for Landscape Professionals.

The green industry is filled with some very competitive people, which is why we look forward to the Top 100 issue every year. But outside the landscape industry, what is the value of knowing where a company ranks among the largest landscape companies in North America?

When clients choose a commercial landscaping service, do they really care where the company ranks on the Top 100 list?

Having been a part of many, many proposals and RFPs, we can tell you that we've never seen any questions about where we rank on our industry’s list of largest companies.

However, this doesn't mean that the size of the company isn't important when clients are choosing a commercial landscape service partner.

Larger companies are able to negotiate better pricing for materials, supplies, and equipment. While not as substantial as the cost of labor, these savings do sometimes equate to an ability to offer lower pricing than smaller firms.

Larger companies are capable of meeting rigid insurance requirements, which is especially important for landscape installation projects and for work performed for local governments.

Larger companies also have greater resources to maintain our own equipment, rather than relying on outside repair shops. Internal repair facilities and the ability to hire our own mechanics means that the equipment owned by larger landscape companies will be repaired more quickly when it breaks. Our equipment managers also perform preventative maintenance checks, extending the life of our equipment while making it safer for our employees to use.

All important benefits, but in commercial landscaping services, the great leveler of companies large and small is the quality of the services that we provide.

And quality means something different to each client we serve. For some, quality is strictly about the appearance and health of their landscaped spaces. They only judge our worth by the results we produce.

For others, quality is the way we communicate with them. We have to answer our phone every time they call, because knowing when we’ll be there and what we’ll be doing is every bit as important to these clients as how their properties look.

To assume that a small company can’t deliver the same quality of service that a large one can is a mistake. Likewise, you shouldn't assume that a large company can’t deliver quality service or be responsive to our clients’ needs. While size alone isn't the deciding factor when choosing a commercial landscaping company, larger firms do come with some benefits that should be carefully considered when you’re looking for a new landscape service partner.