2020 Green Industry Benchmark Report
HindSite Software released its 2020 Green Industry Benchmark Report. With responses from nearly 300 businesses, the 2020 Green Industry Benchmark Report provides comprehensive analysis of the industry. The 63-page is available for free download.
According to the report, 2019 continued a trend of growth for green industry businesses, as 37% of respondents indicated they’d grown their revenue by 10% or more in 2019, and 70% of respondents experienced a revenue increase in 2019.
Most expect more of the same in 2020, with 37% expecting moderate improvement, up 6% from a year ago. However, a labor shortage is still weighing heavily on the green industry, with 88% of respondents finding it very or somewhat difficult to find good employees.
Key report findings include:
- Training matters. Among businesses that grew, just 15% offered no recurring training for their employees. Those that saw their revenue decrease were nearly twice as likely to say they didn’t offer recurring training.
- Despite the labor shortage, businesses expect to grow their staff in 2020, with 70% saying they plan to increase their employee count.
- Profit margins were nearly identical to the previous year, with 33% of businesses reporting profitability in the 11-20% range, while 24% saw profits in excess of 20%.
- The typical green industry business spends roughly 39% of its revenue on wages.
- Service specialization is on the decline, with just 7% of businesses saying they offer just 1 of the 9 most common green industry services. That’s down 5% from the previous year.
- QuickBooks Online continues to slowly gain market share among accounting platforms, gaining 4% and now being used by 30% of the green industry. QuickBooks Desktop tops the list and is used by 44% of the industry.
- Aside from referrals, websites and truck signage continue to be sources of new customers for the typical green industry business. Social media grew slightly – from 14% to 16% — but the biggest mover was online advertising, which was up to 9%, compared to 5% the previous year.
