Optimism defined the start of 2024. The green industry was continuing to rebound from the impact of the pandemic, and business owners were confident in the growth of both their companies and the industry. 

For the most part, that optimism played out; the median and mean revenue in the landscaping industry was $1 million¹. But that didn’t mean there weren’t challenges—rising material costs and staffing constraints, to name just a few.

If there’s one thing we’ve seen year after year, it's the ability of Aspire customers to face challenges head-on and turn them into new opportunities for growth. This year was no different, and Aspire remained committed to providing industry leaders with the technology to overcome new hurdles in their operations and stay ahead of the curve in their markets. 

Providing the tools you need to cultivate success

In 2024, Aspire recognized the evolving challenges facing the green industry and created tools and processes to fuel profitability and growth through ongoing product investment. These included enhancements to the mobile app, innovations in the customer portal, and improvements to construction-specific processes. 

You shared the pain points in your operations, and we took your feedback as an opportunity to improve the software and hone its toolset to better serve your needs. 

In 2024, Aspire implemented over 200 ideas sourced from customers to improve the software, with hundreds of users chiming in to vote for the most requested features, including: 

• 217 votes: Updating the Mobile app to display hours worked, making it easier for crews to view their timesheet in Mobile.

• 130 votes: Introducing the ability to add a change order after a fixed-price open billing opportunity has been fully billed, making it easier to invoice customers for added services.

• 124 votes: Providing the ability to anchor the start and stop locations of a route before optimizing, making crew schedules even more efficient. 

• 120 votes: When renewing contracts, providing the ability to update to the newest version of the template in use, making it easier to renew contracts even as your operations evolve.

• 118 votes: Incorporating a new built-in attachment reader to let users open PDFs, pictures, and more in-platform, eliminating the need to download attachments and open them externally. 

• 118 votes: Streamlining document management by adding the option to print or email original estimates, with all subsequent change orders in a single document.

• 99 votes: Introduced a gallery view for attachments, making it easier to view all images from the field in one location.

With these new features and enhancements, your teams were able to take staffing constraints and rising material costs in stride by utilizing improvements in the PropertyIntel integration and work ticket management for advanced resource allocation.  

Aspire users confidently adapted to industry challenges with the launch of Marketing Pro, activating new direct mail capabilities and dynamic forecasting abilities to stay ahead of the competition. 

As your customers continue to emphasize environmental sustainability, aesthetics/curb appeal, and outdoor living spaces, we’ve given you the resources to respond and win more contracts. The revamped customer portal provides clients with an enhanced experience and insight into the improvement and management of their property like never before, so you can deliver results that continually exceed expectations. 

Here’s what we accomplished in 2024 and how it’ll change the way you work in 2025—and beyond. 

Grow revenue: Maximize your earning potential

Aspire released new features designed to transform complexity into clarity and maximize opportunities for new profitability. While comprehensive operational control and drill-down reporting have always been mainstays of Aspire’s benefits, two feature enhancements went further to improve communication, transparency, and forecasting: 

Budget with greater efficiency. 23% less time spent budgeting.^*

We Made Managing Your Schedule of Values Easier

With the ability to seamlessly align schedules of value (SOVs) against scope, you can more easily manage large projects with complex scopes of work. Grouping schedules of value by service or general scope of work while supporting dollar-based or percent-based invoicing (with as much granularity as needed) maintains accuracy and flexibility for both you and your customers.

Supercharge Your Project Management

Access dynamic monthly forecasting for revenue, labor hours, and material spending, and take comprehensive financial overviews to a new level with a three-year financial view (plus easy exports to share data with stakeholders).

Activating your existing customer data with these next two capabilities doesn’t just increase calls and booked jobs but also boosts upsell, cross-sell, and renewal opportunities. 

Marketing Pro Lets You Market Like a…Well, Pro

Leverage your customer data to generate new revenue and grow existing accounts with a direct integration of Marketing Pro from ServiceTitan. Users can maximize their marketing budget with targeted campaigns for specific audiences (such as unsold estimates and expiring contracts) and get unparalleled visibility into ROI by connecting campaign performance to booked jobs and earned revenue. 

Simple Solutions That Deliver Big Results ($$)

We released customizable templates to send postcards to potential and existing clients based on property data, educate customers on industry changes, and remind expiring contracts to renew. 

Grow your revenue. 86% higher YOY revenue growth reported.^*

In the year ahead, these features will reframe the existing aspects of your business operations with new revenue potential. Head into 2025 with the confidence that

✔ Every decision is informed

✔ Every opportunity is captured

✔ Every client interaction is maximized for revenue potential

Throughout 2024, Aspire continued to equip every employee—from sales teams to field workers—with the insights needed to maximize their impact, streamline operations, and boost customer spend.

You get to decide your growth potential in 2025 because of:

• Precise financial planning and new billing flexibility, which lets businesses optimize resource allocation while driving new profitability in their operations

• The ability to activate your existing customer data with targeted marketing campaigns and transparent ROI to unlock continual improvement in their approach to M&A

Gain insights & visibility: Enhance operations

In 2024, Aspire introduced key features that significantly boosted the visibility and management capabilities of landscaping operations. Focused enhancements in mobile and project management technologies have redefined how teams coordinate and control their daily operations:

No More Field Team FOMO 

In the past year, users have gained more control over the functionality of the Aspire Mobile app, including route visibility for team members. Users can easily adjust the settings to show field crews only their assigned properties, allowing them to focus on their route and eliminating FOMO from the workday. 

Gain insight in an instant.

20% less time spent tracking KPIs and performance.^*

Stay Ahead of the Curve with Responsive Decision Making

Your WIP projects shouldn’t be a mystery until they’re completed. That's why Aspire’s expanded landscape construction capabilities included better work-in-progress reporting capabilities for tracking job progress and costs. Now, your accounting and production teams can make responsive decisions that protect your profit margins and continually improve how you work for an even better 2025. 

Get Your Teams on the Same Page 

Aspire users are no strangers to using Gantt charts for visual project management, but the release of enhanced landscape construction capabilities improves collaboration and empowers better job performance. Users can now manage activities and milestones directly within the Gantt and use the quick export feature to share with stakeholders easily. 

Plan projects with precision. 

26% less time on planning and communications.^*

Maximize What Your Resources Can Do 

Rethink how you build routes with Aspire’s new equipment scheduling feature. Designate and schedule your assets to specific projects to improve planning efficiencies and maximize the benefits of savvy resource allocation. Users can quickly view equipment assignments on the route schedule to avoid double booking or missed jobs due to uncertainty about equipment availability. 

Manage work tickets with ease.

26% less time spent on work ticket management.^*

Hate Being Ghosted? We Get It. 

Our new suite of features around work ticket cancellation gives users visibility and insight into why jobs are canceled and allows you to use key feedback to refine your processes. With new categorization and search capabilities, we’ve made it easier to find the ones that got away–and understand why. 

Achieve more with less: Superior efficiency

While it would be nice if 2024 were the last year with unpredictability, 2025 will undoubtedly bring new challenges. We implemented the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense to our software and helped our users to streamline in entirely new ways, letting them achieve more (with greater precision) in bidding, material and supply ordering, and sales management with less effort. We’re particularly proud of these updates that maximize efficiency and productivity for our users:

Propose and win more projects.  (Aspire + PropertyIntel) 

Submitted nearly 2X the number of bids per week.^*

Increased closed-won opportunities by 50%.^*

More Bids and Better Management with Fewer Site Visits

We’ve improved the integration with PropertyIntel for property measurements and takeoffs, giving users greater-than-ever access to detailed work order information, streamlined navigation, and increased workflow efficiency. Users can effortlessly transition between the platforms, ensuring all necessary data is readily available to build more accurate bids faster, make quick decisions from the office, and empower teams in the field to resolve issues faster.

Precisely purchase materials.

22% time saved on product sourcing.^*

Greater Control of Things That Feel Out-of-Control

We can’t lower rising material costs, but this year’s product updates gave Aspire users more control over vendor management. If they find better prices, they can assign or change vendors directly from an estimate or work ticket. The purchasing assistant in Aspire simplifies procurement by allowing users to filter items by vendor, reducing vendor communications and improving efficiency. 

Bid and win more work. (Aspire Core)

18% less time spent managing the sales funnel.^*

Nearly 2X closed-won opportunities reported.^*

Better Sales Management to Close More Deals

A granular understanding of your sales process lets you pinpoint what works and what doesn’t. This year’s product release improved sales funnel visibility and performance with new visualization tools for sales-oriented data, including KPIs, metrics, and opportunity status. If you are as excited about continual improvement as we are, this feature update is a game changer. 

How to Win Friends and Grow Your Bottom Line 

Commercial landscaping is a service business, and without your customers, you’re nowhere. This year, no product update was complete without the software providing tools to help you improve service delivery and enhance the customer experience. Our users aren’t satisfied with simply meeting client expectations; they’re building a robust base of loyal customers to fuel growth through 2025, and these features helped contribute to that goal: 

Resolve customer issues quickly.

22% less time spent on issues management.^*

Convert work to cash quicker.

7 days less from invoicing to payment reported.^*

Your Customers are Our Customers. Kind of. 

The American Elm update included Customer Portal 2.0, revolutionizing client interaction with your business. This enhanced portal allows clients to access proposals and invoices easily from web and mobile platforms, facilitating quick reviews and faster payments. It also streamlines requests and communication, enabling you to deliver customer experiences that drive loyalty, referrals, and revenue.

Speed up scheduling.

Scheduled jobs 32% faster.^*

Off-Season? We’ve Never Heard of It 

Aspire is by your side through the 100 Days of Hell and the winter months alike. Our improvements released in our snow update make scheduling more efficient—such as anchoring the first and last visit of the day directly from the schedule board and overriding start and end points at the route level, ensuring timely, reliable service even through the unpredictability and stress of inclement weather. 

These enhancements are designed to keep your existing customers happy and turn them into loyal advocates for your business, ensuring that you remain at the forefront of the landscaping industry.

Increase profits: Streamline your way to new revenue

Growth isn’t just about getting more customers and keeping them (don’t get us wrong, it’s mainly about that), but also exceptional operational and financial management—the secret hack for widening margins, improving revenue, and significantly enhancing profitability. 

Only it’s less of a secret hack and more the driving force behind these next feature releases that dropped in 2024: 

Empower your account managers. 

63% more revenue managed per AM.^*

Another Manual Process Defeated in the Name of Efficiency

You shared that manually adjusting prices during the estimating process slowed you down, so we released an update with catalog-level price overrides that populate in the estimate. Increase your estimating consistency and efficiency while eliminating the hassle and annoyance of manual adjustments. 

Expand operations manager capacity.

More than 2X the number of crews managed per ops manager.^*

Stay Unbothered with Improved Change Order Management

Who would have known 2024 would be the year you became completely unfazed by project changes? Just imagine what 2025 holds in store. With this feature update, you can even apply project modifications to open work tickets and fully invoiced work. This capability ensures adjustments align with client expectations and project realities without burying your team in paperwork and panic. 

Grow more profitably.

7% or more increase in profit margins reported.^*

Stay Ahead of the Game with Streamlined Contract Renewal

First, we redesigned the interface of the contract renewal module, and then we gave users the ability to renew multiple contracts under the same parameters. Save time while increasing the accuracy of your renewal process—fewer errors while ensuring continuous service for your customers. 

We want our software to empower users to do more than keep up. We want to partner with industry leaders who stay ahead in the competitive landscaping market by maximizing every opportunity for profitability.

Get more out of your partnership with Aspire

You’re more than just an Aspire user; you're a partner in making the software better year after year. There’s no shortage of ways that we try to connect with our customers to hear your concerns for the upcoming year, understand your frustrations with the industry and ideas for our software, and provide guidance and support to make the most of our platform. If you missed out last year, put these on your New Year’s resolutions for making the most of 2025:

Aspire Customer Awards

If there’s one thing we love more than efficiency, it’s celebrating our customers for driving innovation and success in their businesses and the industry at large. Nominate yourself, your coworkers, and your bosses to be recognized at the Ignite 2025 Customer Awards. 

Aspire Academy LMS

Give your employees the tools they need for professional development and growth, fueling your business's future success. Aspire Academy features accessible, engaging, and aligned self-paced lessons that maximize your team's use of the software.  

Aspire Ambassadors

Engage with fellow industry leaders and share feedback to shape the future of Aspire products (your idea could be in a future Year in Review!). By joining the Aspire Ambassador Network, you can join monthly calls, test new features, and attend exclusive in-person events while collaborating on impactful, co-branded content.  

Aspire Together

Join the Aspire Together community and leverage the experience of subject matter experts and fellow users to expand your knowledge of the software and maximize the benefits of Aspire for your team within the interactive Aspire Together Community. 

We hope these feature releases and the improvements made across the platform have enhanced your operational capacity and overcome whatever challenges you faced in 2025. We’re excited to face 2025 together; Aspire has some great things in store. Here’s to another year of shared success, innovation, and continued partnership in the green industry. 

Want to be a part of making the industry’s leading software even better in 2025? Schedule a demo to see how becoming an Aspire customer can transform your operations. 

¹ 2024 State of the Industry Report, Lawn & Landscape.

* Aspire Client ROI Survey conducted in n Q3 2023. Reported results are illustrative of certain customers' success;your individual results may vary.