Founded in 1984, Pleasant Places built a reputation as a trusted commercial landscaping provider throughout the Lowcountry region. But rapid growth brings its own problems, and by the time company leadership reached out to Waters Business Consulting Group in 2017, Pleasant Places had grown from $10 million to nearly $18 million in annual revenue in just a few years — without the processes and infrastructure to support it. “I have been working with John Waters for around 8 years,” said Gilly Artigues, President of Pleasant Places. “I did a quick google search for a consultant that could help me and my company navigate through the obstacles we were facing during a period of rapid growth… John Waters called me in less than 2 hours. We spoke on the phone for well over an hour that day. After that, John didn’t rush into trying to get me to sign a contract or pay a fee. Instead, he took the challenges I told him about on our initial phone call and called me back a few days later with an honest take on everything and some ways he thought he could help. He impressed me with not only his knowledge and business experience, but with his genuine desire for my company to be successful.” Growing Fast, But Not Cleanly That kind of growth squeezed Pleasant Places’ profit margins and exposed gaps the company hadn’t needed to worry about at a smaller scale. There was no centralized ERP system to manage workflow, and accountability among the team was inconsistent. Pipeline visibility was murky, making projected growth hard to plan around, and a high cost of capital was eating into cash flow. The company’s mission, vision, and core values weren’t clearly articulated or aligned with ownership, and roles and responsibilities across the team were disorganized — all classic growing pains for a family-owned business scaling past what its original structure was built for. Rebuilding the Business Underneath the Growth Waters Business Consulting Group started by analyzing Pleasant Places’ historical financial trends to build a model for controlling cost of goods sold, margins, and managing breakeven. The company now has significantly higher valuation. That model did double duty — it also gave lending sources the assurance they needed, which led to negotiated reductions in lending fees. From there, the team established systems to track labor hours and materials against budgeted estimates, and reworked the company’s pricing strategy so every estimate was built to hit the gross margins Pleasant Places actually needed. On the people side, the team identified leadership and management gaps in the organizational structure, created position descriptions aligned with a clearer reporting protocol, and helped guide a sensitive transfer of management responsibility from father to son with defined authority and autonomy. A full ERP system implementation — the industry platform Aspire — gave Pleasant Places real-time visibility into work in progress and trending margins for the first time. From $18 Million to Over $36 Million, With Healthier Margins The combination of pricing discipline, cost controls, and regular accountability meetings turned a low gross margin into an average of 42%. With clearer estimates and more confidence in their numbers, Pleasant Places has pursued new projects and maintenance contracts with far more conviction, growing top-line revenue to over $36 million. Beyond the numbers, the organization now has a clearly defined chart of roles and responsibilities, formalized core values and mission, and a stronger employee review process — all of which have improved accountability, culture, and retention. Employee polling reflects that shift directly: workers now see themselves at the company for years to come. The family management transition was completed successfully, lending relationships improved, and net operating income has shown dramatic improvement across the engagement. Growing Fast? Make Sure Your Systems Keep Up Rapid growth is a good problem to have, but only if the business underneath it can support it. If your company’s growth has outpaced its processes, pricing, or leadership structure, a free consultation can help map out the fix. Contact Waters Business Consulting Group to schedule your free consultatio

.elementor-widget-text-editor{font-family:var( –e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif;font-weight:var( –e-global-typography-text-font-weight );color:var( –e-global-color-text );}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:var( –e-global-color-primary );}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap, .elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-default .elementor-drop-cap{color:var( –e-global-color-primary );border-color:var( –e-global-color-primary );} Strong Demand, Stretched Leadership Cannon’s Upholstery, a Phoenix-based upholstery business led by Latrice Cannon, had what most small businesses want most: an established brand, strong market demand, and roughly $600,000 to $700,000 in annual revenue. What it didn’t have was the operational bandwidth to grow beyond that plateau. Production scheduling was reactive rather than planned, job tracking lived in people’s heads and notebooks instead of a centralized system, and Cannon’s own time was stretched across estimating, customer communication, material ordering, accounting, and financial oversight all at once. Ready to Grow, But Not Yet Built to Scale In February 2025, Cannon engaged Waters Business Consulting Group to support the company’s next phase of growth and operational refinement. The core issue was clear: reactive scheduling was creating production bottlenecks and overbooking, and without a centralized system for tracking jobs, it was difficult to know project status at a glance. Forecasting and margin visibility were limited, workflows across estimating, billing, and accounts receivable were inconsistent, and Cannon’s own bandwidth constraints made it hard to delegate or train staff systematically. Staffing challenges called for clearer role definitions and accountability, and marketing lacked a structured, data-driven strategy tied to actual growth targets. Without defined KPIs, it was hard to know whether the business was actually improving month over month — even as ownership pushed to expand both its commercial and residential client base. A 150-Day Plan Built on Data WBCG introduced its Profit by Design™ framework, starting with a comprehensive business assessment across marketing, sales, finances, organizational structure, and culture. A thorough analysis of three years of profit-and-loss trends fed into a two-to-three-year financial forecasting model, giving Cannon clarity on exactly how many transactions would be needed to hit higher revenue and margin targets. From there, the work turned operational: streamlined estimating and scheduling workflows to reduce the bottlenecks that had been slowing production, a new organizational chart with draft position descriptions tied to performance metrics, and pricing and cost analysis guidance aimed at strengthening gross margins. WBCG also completed a break-even analysis to determine when the business could afford to hire an internal bookkeeper and office support, then helped Cannon actually make that hire — developing position descriptions and assisting with training. A data-driven marketing strategy focused on commercial-sector expansion and brand leverage, and weekly coaching sessions kept the whole plan moving through a structured 150-day action plan designed to stabilize operations and set up sustainable growth. The Results: Growth With a Foundation Underneath It By 2025, Cannon’s Upholstery had grown to approximately $950,000 in annual revenue with roughly a 35% gross profit margin — solid progress toward the $1.2 million baseline the engagement was built around. Streamlined estimating drove higher project conversion rates, and the business now has structured financial forecasting, defined KPIs, and clearer operational accountability in place to support continued growth. Just as important, Cannon’s has a documented three-year strategic roadmap and the organizational clarity to pursue expanded commercial and residential opportunities deliberately, rather than reactively — along with the early groundwork for an eventual succession plan. Ready to Build the Systems Behind Your Growth? Strong demand can only carry a business so far without the operational structure to support it. If you’re ready to move from reactive to strategic, a free consultation can help map out what that looks like for your business. Contact Waters Business Consulting Group to schedule a free consultation.