McCoy Landscape Services

Aspirations

Don McCoy started McCoy Landscape Services in Marion, Ohio in 1977 as a side gig to help pay for his six kids’ college education. After his oldest son, Matt, completed his education at Ohio State University, he and his brother Mark teamed up to grow the family business. That first year, the McCoys recorded around $100,000 in sales.

Today, McCoy Landscape Services is a $3M company with 45 employees serving a 60-mile radius in central Ohio. The McCoys specialize in commercial maintenance and generate 35% of revenue from residential design-build work.

“Our market is hyper-local, so recurring revenue is imperative,” says Matt McCoy, CEO. As such, the company focuses on quality work and reputation management, aiming for retention rates of 90% and above. 

Go With What You Know

Since the mid-90s, McCoy Landscape Services has used industry software to support operations. Their previous software provider was sufficient until they grew to over $2M in sales. Then, they needed something more robust.

The McCoys learned about Aspire Landscape from founder Kevin Kehoe, whom they knew as an expert in the industry. “We thought Aspire Landscape made sense primarily because we trusted Kevin,” explains McCoy. “Kevin is strategic and financially savvy and Mark [Aspire Software co-founder] has the technical ability to make it happen.”

McCoy Landscape Services went live with Aspire Landscape on January 1, 2016.

Results

McCoy trusted Kehoe’s vision because of his proven ability to drive financial success and discover operational efficiencies. In their time using Aspire Landscape, the company has reaped these benefits and more.

For several years, McCoy Landscape Services has been shifting its focus toward commercial maintenance. When McCoy analyzed the numbers on Aspire Landscape’s dashboard, he was able to objectively verify that this division was yielding the highest growth margin. “Seeing the numbers live helped me determine the direction our company needed to go,” says McCoy. This specialization is allowing McCoy Landscape Services to scale more efficiently.

Similarly, McCoy Landscape Services uses Aspire Landscape’s dashboard to understand the current-state profitability of each property. “Seeing the trailing 12 months of revenue and gross profit for every property is insanely valuable in our line of business,” says McCoy. “It allows us to see when we have underpriced a property, so we can make a calculated decision on how to increase that price. We can also see which accounts are pulling down the average gross profit, so we can work to replace them with higher-yield accounts.”

This insight and analysis has helped the company target customers and services that are increasing their average gross profit.

On a granular level, Aspire Landscape has helped McCoy Landscape Services streamline its processes and increase productivity in the field. Every crew member uses an iPad with Aspire Landscape to track their hours on every service. “Tracking our fieldwork per service has allowed us to accurately understand what we’re spending on each service. We use that data to keep our pricing competitive and fine tune our productivity standards.”

In the office, McCoy Landscape Services’ accounting team uses Aspire Landscape to invoice customers efficiently. The production manager relies on the app’s reports to understand output. These processes aren’t new, but the company has benefited from being able to manage everything in one centralized location, alleviating confusion and increasing productivity by reducing redundancies.

On January 1, 2020, McCoy Landscape Services will celebrate its fourth anniversary with Aspire Landscape. With each passing year, McCoy says the quantity and quality of data he gets from Aspire Landscape compounds, allowing him to make increasingly insightful decisions.

What's Next

McCoy intends to continue to grow and develop the commercial end of the business while staying focused on gross profit.

He also intends to continue relying on Aspire Landscape. McCoy appreciates that the app is constantly evolving and rolling out new features to increase the value-add. As for their original impetus to go with Aspire Landscape, McCoy says his faith in Kehoe’s vision has only strengthened. “Kevin continues to move forward and lead the industry, and we want to follow his vision. We are relying on him to help us run our business and he hasn’t let us down yet.”