BOOSTING YOUR BUSINESS


then now you’re tasked with coming up with these finan- cial projections every week on top of what you’re already doing.” McDuff points out that once it becomes part of your day-to- day and helps


you make better decisions and have


better discussions with your team, it is well worth the effort. It also helps to tie some form of bonuses or profit sharing


to your open-


book man- agement. “If you’re


going to get people


Photos: Creative Roots Landscaping


to help design the game,


you have to give them a stake in the out- come through rewards and recognition,” Markewich says. Markewich says they prefer to call it


profit gains sharing, rather than bonuses, as employees have to reach a certain profit threshold to receive a share. “We have 10 levels of profit sharing


over and above that threshold,” Marke- wich says. “Now the hourly employees have the ability to earn 15% of their gross earnings at level 10. Salaried


KEYTAKEAWAYS


 Open-book manage- ment helps employees understand the business’s performance and their role in its success, foster- ing a sense of ownership and accountability.


 Focus on sharing metrics that your team can influence.


 Effective implementa- tion requires consistent communication, financial literacy training, and ty- ing employee incentives to business performance to create a team-focused mindset.


employees have the ability to earn 25% of their salary of their gross earnings. So it’s not an equal system; it’s an equitable one and it’s paid out quarterly.” Aquilino says connecting open-book management to bonuses gives staff a taste of victory that makes caring con- tagious. He says it’s not just managers stressing the importance of safety, but crew leaders are invested in avoiding accidents.


“Not only do they care if something bad happens, but they understand the cause and effect of it happening as well,” Aquilino says.


Both Landscape America and Outdoor Pride pay out bonuses quarterly.


THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL LITERACY


One essential element for open-book management to be successful is to invest in financial training for your entire team. Markewich says you can’t just report out numbers to your team. You must ensure they truly understand what the numbers mean and how they can influ- ence them. He says about 80% of their business literacy is shared in an informal way. “Just being part of the conversations


around how those numbers are simply stories about people and work they’re doing,” Markewich says. “It’s tying being human and what we do as humans to the outcome.” Markewich says it’s important for your


team to understand the rules and the outcomes beyond just working hard so they know how to win. Aquilino says they do an open-book


rollout every year where they go over the plan, cover how the team can earn bo- nuses and educate the team on financial topics. Price says they conduct trainings every year for all their managers to un- derstand basic accounting principles. McDuff says they have a kick-off meet- ing at the beginning of the year where they will explain what the different numbers and terms mean. He will also


play the penny game with the team. “Everyone gets 100 pennies, and we


go through the profit and loss with that,” McDuff says. “That’s usually a really fun exercise. It helps the team understand the true costs of the business and maybe dispel some misinformation. They pull pennies off the table for each line item on everything, right down through overhead.”


ADVICE ON OPEN BOOK MANAGEMENT For those still hesitant about open- book management, understand that it does not mean making everyone’s compensation public. McDuff notes it’s more about forecasting and sharing a scoreboard with your team. Aquilino says sharing the health of the company is extremely beneficial. “Understand that open book is a tool that makes business a team sport,” Aqui- lino says. “It teaches financial literacy and if you follow that process, and you own it, and you breathe it throughout the organization, it can have a massive effect on your bottom line.” Price notes transparency becomes


more critical to driving behavior and performance in larger companies. “No matter what size you are, I think


it’s amazing,” Aquilino says. “I think the smaller you are, the more influential it can be. I think it’s a great training tool and a great resource to be able to teach financial literacy to people.” Markewich agrees that no matter your company’s size, it only helps to have everyone on the same page and work from a place of honesty and trust. “I think that if every landscaper adopt- ed open-book management, we would have a much stronger industry and be able to attract more talented people,” McDuff says. “People would stick around at companies a lot longer than they do because they would they would under- stand it. They would trust the manage- ment. They would be appreciative of the transparency. It just changes the culture of the business.” TE


“I think that if every landscaper adopted open-book management, we would have a much stronger industry and be able to attract more talented people. People would stick around at companies a lot longer than they do because they would they would understand it. They would trust the management. They would be appreciative of the transparency. It just changes the culture of the business,” - Doug McDuff, president of Landscape America,


34 The Edge //March/April 2025


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40