As a small business owner, do you ever feel like the cards are stacked against you? The larger companies have greater buying power and therefore access to greater discounts. At Nextra Network, we want to level the playing field a bit. The Nextra Network buyers group allows smaller companies to combine their purchases in order to create more buying power - and therefore greater discounts - for everyone. 

We’ve been listening to you and have created a group of suppliers for the Buyers Group with your specific needs in mind. Our commitment is to work behind the scenes to bring these deals together for you while working with reputable companies that we can recommend you use without reservation.

Currently we are working with companies to get you:

• Licensed vehicles
• Equipment & large commercial vehicles
• Materials
• Software & Hardware
• Direct access to manufacturer reps

If you’d like more information on the Network and to request a meeting with Grant please click HERE.

If you're a s...

“When Grant from Nextra Consulting asked us last year if there were any areas where he could help us, we jumped at the opportunity to work with him. Nextra Consulting helped us to not only see areas where we could grow our business, but to operate more efficiently on a daily basis. With his help, we have defined our vision, core values, immediate and future goals and added vital positions we did not realize we needed. We also run more productive team meetings with set timelines, agenda items and a rating system. If you're looking for a consultant to help you organize and run your business more efficiently, we strongly recommend Nextra Consulting.” (Mountview Landscaping)

Business coaching is about more than just having a cheerleader in your corner. A coach helps you gain clarity and create a long term vision for your company. 

At Nextra, coaching means having a sounding board when you want input or advice on company decisions. It means having accountability to stay on track with y...

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” -  Henry Ford

You didn’t go to school to become a bookkeeper or accountant and that’s not why you started your landscaping business. Yet here you are, a business owner, who needs to suddenly understand business finance.

Did you know most landscape companies fail because the owners don’t understand their numbers? It’s frustrating when you don’t know where to start and it’s normal to feel frustrated and intimidated by it. 

It’s your accountant/bookkeeper’s job to record data and relay it to you - but not necessarily to help you understand the numbers and make decisions based on them. This is where we come in. We know the numbers for our industry and what they should reflect, as well as the impact changes to the numbers will mean for the business.

Allowing us to help you with the financials takes away a lot of the stress of running the company. Through the Network we'll come alongside yo...

When we were in business, we worked really hard but didn't make any money. 

At the time, we didn't know what questions to ask or who to contact to help us figure out where we were going wrong. Yes, we created beautiful landscapes and had excellent staff and customer service, but we drove ourselves - and each other - crazy trying to figure out how to make the business profitable.

We know our experience is not unique. This is why we started the Nextra Network. We want to provide landscape business owners with the tools they need to create strong and profitable businesses, not just beautiful landscapes. 

The Nextra Network provides business coaching, financial services, a buyers group, and education, along with health & safety and human resources advice. It’s kind of like "business success in a box". By helping ensure these elements are taken care of, the Nextra Network allows owners to focus on what they do best, and sleep better at night knowing that the important details of the busi...

One of the best ways to ensure winter success is to plan ahead regarding your fleet needs.

Your relationship with your suppliers will play a key role in this. You can help them out by getting your equipment ordered early and/or getting your existing equipment scheduled for service before the forecast is calling for snow. Setting up a system where they can call you when they have some time and they know what equipment needs servicing is a small thing that can make a huge impact.

I highly recommend working with local suppliers for ordering and delivery of trucks, equipment and small machinery. I would also choose a supplier that allows you to standardize the equipment you’re using, making it easier for budgeting and repairs. If you’re using all the same equipment (ie, same type of plow), you can order parts that will work for all of the pieces. You can also identify when an issue is a manufacturer’s defect rather than just a one-off. For example, if you use one type of plow and they al...

Earlier this month we talked about the importance of pre-qualifying your sales calls. It’s also important to remember that clients typically need 8-12 “touches” before they’ll make a decision. Phone calls, emails, online or face to face meetings are all things that count as a “touch”.

A few years ago Kevin Kehoe wrote an article in which he stressed the importance of being persistent and creative to keep potential customers engaged with each touch point until a decision is made. 

For example, he says, “sending an email asking, ‘Have you made a decision?’ isn’t creative nor does it advance the decision. It’s much better to send an email that states, ‘I’ve thought about our conversations. Let me suggest a way to solve your problem…manage your price concerns…handle your primary concern for communication…Here’s how we do this …’ This is advancement.”

We know that a good sales closing rate is about 20%. With that in mind, providing value with each point of contact will ensure we’re that ...