As a landscape business owner, you’re probably always looking for tools and processes to help you run your business better. More specifically, you’re in search of ways to improve efficiency and productivity in order to boost the bottom line. For those who have implemented it, one tool for running a better business has been landscape business software. “In general, software is a valuable tool to help you be able to look at data and make better decisions about your business,” says Hank Wilson, CEO of SunScape Landscaping in the Austin, TX area. “We use software in a lot of different ways including closer scrutiny of sales activity, estimating, production, and job costing.” Wilson uses Aspire Software and credits it for helping his business take the leap from an $800,000 business to $6 million operation. He says that being able to know how all jobs were performing—including analyzing budgeted versus actual hours—is what helped him make wise decisions over the years. If a job got off track, corrections could be made before money was lost. That has led to increased profitability. For Julie McHale, controller for McHale Landscape Design, a $20 million full-service landscape and maintenance company headquartered in Upper Marlboro, MD, the benefits have been similar. McHale, who uses Asset from Include Software, says that software has always been an essential tool to the company’s overall success. In fact, McHale was using a simple software program back in 1981 (when the company got its start)—a time when many landscape businesses ...