HOW I DO IT
Shifting Gears: What to Consider When Changing Your Company’s Focus
By Jill Odom
PEOPLE ARE CREATURES OF HABIT AND TYPICALLY AVOID CHANGE when they can. However, sometimes it may be necessary to take a hard look at your current business model and shift your focus.
In the case of The Plant Concierge
The Plant Concierge, LLC has shifted gears, not
once but three times. Photos: The Plant Concierge, LLC
LLC, based in Dallas, Texas, the company has actually changed its model several times. The first time the interior plant maintenance company added on land- scape maintenance installation services. “As clients were asking me for those services, I realized that that was some- thing that we needed to shift gears and do,” says Thomas Fancher, president of The Plant Concierge. “So, we started the company in 2007 as Fancher Interiors. In 2009, we incorporated and became The Plant Concierge.”
Five years later, The Plant Concierge made a change again as the mainte- nance, and design/build side of the business had become much larger than the interiorscaping side. Fancher realized he was spending 20 percent of his time on five percent of their revenue. “We decided to shift gears and we got away from the interior maintenance side of it, and shifted all of our focus towards maintenance and design/build,” Fancher says. The Plant Concierge’s last shift was in 2015 when they moved completely away
from synthetic chemicals and became a fully organic company. “This was a big shift for us because we did it for all of our clients, we no longer offered any kind of synthetic program,” Fancher says. “We did that in 2015 and that was one of the best decisions that we’ve made.”
WHEN TO SHIFT GEARS Client demand is often the best motivation to seriously consider shifting your business’s focus. Fancher says his decision to add on maintenance and design/build services was a business decision based on cus- tomer requests. Similarly, he decided to drop interior plantscaping when it was no longer contributing a substantial amount to the company’s revenue. For Chapel Valley Landscape Com-
pany, based in Woodbine, Maryland, they started out as a commercial design/build company that picked up residential de- sign/build and residential maintenance along the way. In the 70s and 80s com- mercial clients’ desire for the company to handle their maintenance as well as the installation prompted the company to begin building out its commercial mainte- nance division. The decision was customer-driven, but Chapel Valley saw the long-term viability of the division. The development of the commercial maintenance division slowly took shape over time because of the on- going need. They also started to actively sell maintenance services. “Through recessions, the maintenance aspect is a much more sustainable model,” says Lucas Castor, chief growth officer for the company. “The mainte- nance side year over year, that’s revenue you can count on while construction it has some ebbs and flows year over year.” Fancher advises speaking with your clients if you’re considering shifting gears. He says it’s important to find out what they’re looking for as far as services.
“Your clients have all the information of what
the information of what
f
they’re look- ing
they’re look- ing for
for,”
28 The Landscape Professional //May/June 2021
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