Coaching, peer groups, and recruiting from Fred and Kelly Haskett. Two operators, in this industry since before it had conferences.
Fred’s writing has appeared in
Most owners who call us are not failing. They are busy, respected, and quietly stuck. If any of these questions sound like yours, you are in the right place.
“Why am I making money on paper, but nothing is left at the end of the month?”
More trucks, more crews, more work than ever, and less of it stays in the bank. That is rarely a sales problem. It is usually a margin problem, and margins can be found and fixed.
“Where can I find good people, and how do I keep them?”
Labor is the number one problem in this industry, and owners burn weeks of their own time searching. Getting the right people in the right seats is a system, not luck, and it is half of what we do.
“Why am I so overwhelmed by one crisis after another?”
You cannot sell work when you are completely tied up getting it done. A business that needs its owner for every call has a ceiling, and you have already hit it.
“What is stopping me from taking my business to the next level?”
Fresh ideas and better systems rarely come from inside the daily grind. They come from real numbers, an outside eye, and a room of owners who have already solved what you are stuck on.
Consulting to fix the business, a peer group so you stop running it alone, and recruiting to staff it. Use one, or use them together.
Direct work with Fred on your numbers, your structure, and your plan. He has run lawn care, landscape, and tree care operations for 43 years, so the advice comes from the seat you are sitting in.
Three groups, one each for lawn care, landscape, and tree care owners. A facilitated room of non-competing owners who share real numbers and hold each other to the plan.
Join a peer group
Managers, account managers, and sales talent who already know the trade. Contingency search: screening and vetting are handled, and you pay only when the seat is filled.
Start a searchA sailor feels two winds. Apparent wind is the one you feel while moving: partly real, partly made by your own motion. Steer by it and you end up somewhere you did not choose.
True wind is what is actually blowing. It tells you the sea state, the right course, and what it will take to arrive.
Most businesses are run on apparent wind: gut feel, busyness, the numbers as they seem from the driver’s seat. Our whole job is finding your true wind. Real margins by service line. Real cost of a crew hour. Real reasons people quit. Then we plot the course from there, and hold you to it.
Fred and Kelly Haskett lead TrueWinds with more than 75 combined years in this industry, and a team of capable associates behind them. These are the two people who set the course for your engagement.
43 years inside lawn care, landscape, and tree care, as an owner and as a senior leader for some of the industry’s most recognizable names. Fred has hired the crews, priced the routes, and turned broken branches into profitable ones. He consults from experience, not theory.
Twenty-five years in the green industry on top of a career leading sales and client relationships in the mortgage industry. Kelly runs the recruiting practice: finding the managers and sales talent this industry is starving for, and making sure clients are looked after long past the first invoice.
“Come to us when a problem has become completely distracting from what you are trying to accomplish. We have walked in the same work boots you have, and we have built these solutions many times, for ourselves and for our clients. We don’t have all the answers, but we have a lot of them.”
Fred Haskett, Principal Partner
We have run organizations from the ground up, the same way our clients do, and done it successfully. Like being at the helm of a sailboat, we know what it takes to be the one in control.
Someone you can confide in with full confidence. Every discussion stays in the room, without exception.
You are the boss, and the boss needs someone to talk to. Bounce ideas, test plans, and share the dreams you cannot say out loud at work.
When those times come, and they do, you will have someone who knows you, your company, and your situation, so the right call gets made.
You talk, Fred asks questions, and together you take an honest fix on where the business actually is. No pitch, no obligation. Most owners say it is the most useful half hour of their quarter.
Not a binder. A short, sequenced plan built on your real numbers: what to fix first, what it should return, and who is responsible for each piece.
The scorecard gets reviewed every month: people, sales, margins, budgets. Course corrections happen when they are cheap, not at year-end when they are expensive.
10 owners from the Leaders’ Peer Groups, in their own words.
Fred has a unique ability to challenge assumptions, spark new ideas, and help our team at Turf Magic think beyond the obvious.
We’re fortunate in our professional lives to cross paths with people who consistently bring value and perspective. For me, over the past four years, one of those people has been Fred Haskett. … His insights and perspective have made a lasting impact on how we approach challenges and opportunities. I’m grateful for the partnership and the fresh thinking he continues to bring to the table.
Our company has been transformed since we joined the Leaders’ Peer Group 4 years ago. Every aspect of our company has seen a change for the better. I only wish we joined many years ago. I am sure we would have avoided quite a few mistakes. Thank you Fred!
Being a part of the Leaders’ Peer Group has proved invaluable to me and my company. The sharing of information, knowledge, and experiences in everything, ranging from marketing strategies and retaining employees to compliance matters and financial advice, have aided me in Majestic’s growth and health.
Fred Haskett and my peer group have become my “go to” people and my sounding boards. In a stressful, fast paced industry such as ours, it’s comforting to have such a great group to share with and lean on.
After having been involved in the Leaders’ Peer Group for over 6 years I can testify that it is one of the most valuable things I do as a business owner. Our group facilitator has over 40 years of industry experience and that is also a strong piece of the value of the Peer Group. Success is never easy, convenient or cheap so get involved and grow along with us!
I have a long list of the benefits of my participation in the Leaders’ Peer Group:
- Not feeling alone at the top.
- Being able to look at best practices of the other companies.
- Help with solving problems you have not encountered before.
- Being held accountable by all members to accomplish set goals.
- The camaraderie established with the others in the group and the satisfaction you have been able to help them with their problems.
- Having a consultant like Fred Haskett who has vast experience in financial, human resource, management, and production to bounce things off of.
I was skeptical to join the Leaders’ Peer Group at first. My business partner was in a larger landscape group and encouraged me to give it a chance. Making the decision to join the group was one of the best things I could have done for myself and my company.
… Fred does a great job facilitating the group and provides us with some great resources that saves us time and money.
I have just returned from my second Face to Face meeting with my peer group. The feeling of being “re-energized” is exactly what I have. I had hesitated joining a peer group for many years and am just now realizing that was a mistake. The knowledge the other members and facilitator bring is simply incredible. I have learned many new savvy business ideas.
In addition, they have provided pricing tools for commercial opportunities and other business planning templates. The knowledge and experience of Fred Haskett, our Peer Group leader, has been extremely valuable to my business.
Few things give both a good return of your time and money. My involvement in a peer group has done both. I’ve had the opportunity to bounce ideas, share struggles, and celebrate success of both myself and with others in a noncompetitive, supportive, challenging and enjoyable atmosphere.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Leaders’ Peer Group over the past 5 plus years. Fred has helped me build systems to allow us to be more efficient and profitable. I recommend them to anyone in the landscape industry.
A good one finds the gap between what your numbers say and what you believe they say, then builds a plan to close it. In practice that means pricing, margins by service line, organizational structure, and the people plan. It is not all about the numbers, either: a big part of the work is helping you develop yourself as a leader, and develop your team and your culture. A bad one sells you a binder. We do not sell binders.
Well-run companies in this industry hold net margins in the low double digits, and the best do better. Most owners we meet are several points below where they could be, usually from underpriced work and untracked crew hours. Finding those points is the first thing we look at.
Yes, and this is rarer than it should be. Fred has run lawn care and tree care operations, not just landscape crews. The consulting, peer groups, and recruiting all cover the three trades.
A facilitated group of owners from non-competing markets meets on a regular schedule, shares real numbers, and works each other’s problems. It is confidential, it is structured, and it fixes the loneliest part of owning a company: having no one to talk to who gets it.
Every engagement is scoped and quoted in plain terms before anything starts, and you approve each piece of work separately. The first conversation costs nothing, and you will leave it with something useful either way.
Thirty minutes with Fred about where your business is and where you want it to go. No pitch and no pressure, because the work only works when the fit is right.
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