Curious about the state of industry and where things are headed in the near future? Aspire recently conducted an in-depth survey of over 1,000 commercial landscaping professionals nationwide about their outlook on 2025, goals for the year and anticipated risks ahead.
2024 Versus 2025
According to respondents, 2024 was a year of decreased revenue with 42% experiencing declines while another 33% remained the same. Only 25% of landscape companies had revenue increases last year. More than a third of contractor revenue came from repeat customers highlighting the importance of loyal repeat customers.
As for profits, the pool installation/maintenance service segment was the most impacted, with 57% of contractors reporting lower profitability last year.
Because of a lackluster 2024, 56% of contractors have a neutral outlook for 2025. Another 32% believe the market will be better this year.
Of those expecting growth this year, 35% anticipate a 1-5% improvement in revenue and those who offer pest control are the most optimistic, with 98% of respondents who provide this service expecting equal or greater revenue in 2025.
Business Goals
The top three business goals shared by respondents are to grow revenue (64%), acquire new customers (48%) and optimize their existing processes/workflows (40%). Tied for third is retain existing customers, also at 40%.
Revenue growth is particularly critical for businesses in the $1 million to $4 million range as 77% listed this as their top priority. However, their focus on customer acquisition (28%) and retention (17%) are significantly lower than industry averages.
In an effort to fuel their growth, contractors have listed increasing their sales and marketing efforts (38%), growing their team (21%), and expanding their office as their main strategies.
Only 13% included employee training as an area they planned to invest in the business this year.
Landscape companies focused on commercial maintenance have expressed an interest in expanding service offerings with 51% venturing into commercial bid-build construction, 22% branching into residential bid-build, 19% expanding into commercial design-build and 10% extending into residential design-build.
The main hurdles that survey respondents listed that could keep them from their 2025 goals include the cost of materials (52%), recruiting and retaining staff (51%), and winning new bids and contracts (38%).
Both equipment and material prices and lead times are cited as significant risks by landscape companies.
Opportunities to Improve
With rising costs and staffing ranking as the top concerns, landscape companies should prioritize optimizing their cost tracking/reduction and workforce management.
Technology can help manage expenses with real-time data and analytics of project costs. Twenty-five percent of landscape companies utilize inventory management software and another 19% use time tracking tools.
Other tactics for keeping supply costs down include leveraging relationships with suppliers, renegotiating contracts, and optimizing procurement practices.
Workforce concerns are nothing new but different technology can help with recruiting and retaining your staff. Currently, only 12% of companies use recruiting and applicant tracking software and 14% of respondents use employee training technology.
Additionally, more than half (55%) of respondents will implement wage increases this year. The majority of those implementing increases (31%) will raise wages by 2-3%, while 14% will increase by 4-5% and 10% plan to raise salaries by 6-9%.
As for reaching revenue growth and customer acquisition goals, businesses need to improve their bidding speed and accuracy, customer experience and analyze their market and competitors.
Different technologies can streamline the bidding process and building out customer service processes can ensure jobs are secured and maintained.
Implementing Technology
Investing in technology is another business growth strategy for 14% of respondents. End-to-end business management software was listed as the most popular type of technology companies are adding in 2025 at 33%.
CRM/lead management (25%), customer notifications (25%) and employee notifications (25%) were also identified as important tools.
Utilizing technology that improves your company’s ability to take a customer-centric approach can aid your company’s ability to attract and retain clients.
Currently, 93% of respondents said they use various types of technology already with most saying they use seven to nine different types of software to run their business. Accounting (77%), invoicing (72%) and estimating/proposals (61%) were the top three software categories companies currently use.
As for where they see technology in the next one to three years, 48% of respondents listed property intelligence as a game-changer with autonomous mowers (30%) and drones (24%) also expected to play a pivotal role.
AI is also anticipated to have an impact in field operations (39%), smart routing (33%) and scheduling (30%). Despite respondents believing artificial intelligence will make a difference in these areas, 83% of companies are not currently leveraging AI.
Companies that stay ahead of the curve can create a culture of innovation allowing for growth in an increasingly digitized landscape.
To access the full survey report, click here.
