“Location, location, location” was once everything in real estate. But since the start of the pandemic that’s shifted to “space, space and more space” for home buyers and homeowners alike.
Demand for properties with gardens and outdoor areas grew considerably as millions began working and schooling from home. And even though people are now returning to office life, the appeal of the great outdoors remains.
A boon to landscape architects and designers from coast to coast, who are ready to step into the limelight. But the diversity and scale of work in landscape architecture is huge, and the mix of skills and expertise required to make these plans come to life puts landscape architecture right in the crosshairs of labor shortages and staffing challenges.
Which is exactly where Randy Lesperance of LanDesign finds himself in 2022, three decades after he first incorporated.
“It’s been a journey of love,” he says. “The only career I’ve ever really wanted. And yes, there were obstacles along the way, but nothing like what we’re seeing now. First with Covid-19, and then with what is happening inside the United States’s labor market, it’s dramatic. Unprecedented. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to come out of it, either.”
Planting The Seeds
The Rutgers graduate, class of 1983, first started a landscape division within his parents excavating company. Five years later, his designs needed room to grow, so he formed LanDesign and has been a sole proprietor ever since. The 34-year journey began on very small, postage-stamp-sized properties with three-figure budgets. These days look very different, indeed— working on affluent ocean-front estates with unlimited resources.
“There are so many avenues to pursue within landscape architecture, but I wanted to create individual unique oases for people, satisfy all their needs on and compliment the incredibly beautiful architecture. Which is why I chose to focus my business on high-end residential properties and not commercial or parks,” Randy shares.
“The pandemic undoubtedly surfaced an appreciation for our yards like we’ve never seen before.”
And focus he did. Specializing in landscapes along the New Jersey shore—Ocean and Monmouth Counties to be exact—Randy cultivated a roster of clients whose net worth and square footage grew over the years along with his reputation for unrivaled design. “CEOs, CFOs, millionaires, and celebrities alike, the kind of people that have three of four homes,” Randy shares. “They don’t go to just anybody; they’re going to who’s ever at the top of their game and has the best reputation. In fact, I would say that ten years ago, 90 percent of my business was reputation. That’s still important, but now they are researching you before they even meet you to determine your net worth and financial position. You better have a clean record, a good profile, and a great website, because these are people that are shopping Ferraris. And they didn’t get to where they’re at by not being able to make intelligent decisions.”
Still, landscape architecture isn’t the S&P or a banking portfolio or a medical practice. Intelligence is important, but so are creativity and vision and intuition. Great design, landscape or otherwise, can elicit an emotional response. And that’s what keeps Randy in the game, despite such banal business challenges as labor shortages and H-2B visas. “That’s what keeps me motivated. In a nutshell, I still want to be different and come up with the unique design solution, that one that stands out from all the others. I want to push the boundaries and be daring and creative and delightful. And I want to work for the right people, the ones who can afford the creative solution because the creative solution usually costs more money.”


Pandemic Effects
“I lived in my office for 11 weeks to save my business.”
The weight of that statement hangs in the air. “I know I have a partial view, but I feel that business owners took it much worse during COVID than the average employee because it was an awful lot of responsibility. That’s not to diminish what employees went through, not one bit, but as a business owner, I carried the weight of my family, in addition to my employees and their families. It was very isolating.
Randy continues: “To put it in perspective, in our area of the Jersey Shore, I thought the worst thing that I would ever go through would be Sandy. We had over 25 landscapes, more than a quarter-million dollars obliterated, but we were fortunate that our clientele was affluent enough to replace them. With COVID, the situation is way more, the mental, physical, and emotional damage has lasted for years.
Sandy was terrible, but the storm came in, we assessed the damage, and then we could go to work fixing it. In this instance, we’re still waiting for the storm to stop raging. And it’s not just the Coast of New Jersey. It’s the entire world.”
Carrying such a burden is lonely, and isolating. Two years into the pandemic, health challenges still exist as the virus mutates, but now there is the added element of supply chain and labor shortages. And the landscaping industry can’t exactly work remotely.
“Our yards have become the space to do essentially everything we also do inside—dine, cook, entertain, work, play, and relax.”
“There’re some businesses where remote works very well, and there’re some businesses that don’t. Meetings and CAD design can occur virtually, but excavating and digging and laying materials are all-in-person endeavors. But truth be told, my full-time staff, and there are about 15 of them, can function in a hybrid model. But a large percentage of my project employees, my laborers, are here on the H-2B visa program, which may or may not even be running this year. Then what? I have a business that is poised to grow exponentially, but I may not even have employees available to me. And then the ones I do find are going to be in high demand. Poaching is, and will be, a huge problem.”
Randy leans back in his chair, obvious concern furrowing his brow, and takes a deep breath.
“Here’s what the last thirty years have taught me: I can be as uncomfortable as I want, as angry as I want, but the bottom line is if I want to stay in business, improve and grow my business, I have to go with the flow. I have to work around the supply chain, and I’m doing that. My team is doing that already. H-2B? I have no control over that, but what can control is the work environment, the benefit structure, and the kind of things that make working for me more compelling than other companies. And you know who’s been really great at helping with this? Rachel Siegel.”

Make An Impact
Properly managing your books and making the right financial planning decisions takes time, skill, and effort. It’s not a one-time thing, either. “Our financial lives are complex and inter-related,” says Rachel Siegel, owner of Go Figure Accounting. “Pulling one lever can have unintended consequences in another aspect of your business, today, tomorrow, and well into the future. Which is why we really value our long-time clients.”
LanDesign and Go Figure have been working together for close to 15 years, possibly longer, but neither Randy nor Rachel want to do that math. Suffice it to say, both of their businesses have grown exponentially over the last decade and a half.
“When I first met Rachel, she was young, passionate, full of good ideas, and aggressive. In a good way. She has a tremendous personality and wit, but when it comes to finances, she has always been firm and confident. It was just a good fit from the very beginning,” says Randy. “I knew I could trust her, and she knew that I was the kind of client that was going to get her whatever she needed at whatever particular point because I understood the value of good finances. I also knew that I needed to plan well and I needed to run the business well, and Rachel’s guidance during those growing years was crucial for me.”
These days Randy’s goals are steadfast: Optimizing the business finances, running a tight ship, and “minimizing the amount of benefit that goes to the government,” he explains. “I believe in the government, and I believe in the tax system, even though there are inefficiencies. But I prefer to stay in the middle lane, paying the proper taxes, but maximizing the benefit that goes to me, the employer, so that I can better take care of my employees.”
A hot topic for Randy, who is keenly aware of ongoing labor shortage issues and looming visa challenges. “Keeping my employees happy and healthy is a top priority for me,” says Randy. “It has been for a number of years, and Rachel has been very good in helping me find the right opportunities. For example, she introduced me to a profit-sharing program that has worked really well for my team, while benefiting my bottom line at the same time. She’s very creative numbers, how you can maneuver things to make this situation better. And you can genuinely see how passionate she is about her client’s success. She’s invested, personally invested.”
Also on Randy’s mind is his own future. “About 10 years ago, I started talking to Rachel about planning for the future sale of the company, specifically how that relates to my tax exposure. What purchases would optimize the company, which do not. Controlling the end bottom line. And about seven years ago, eight years ago, we put a plan into place. You know, I already had a financial advisor. Now I have three different ones working all together to do the best thing. That’s all Rachel. She helped put those pieces together for me, and it’s working. That’s why I’m with Go Figure, why I stay here.”
Randy pauses, and then continues. “You can get accounting anywhere, but really good, intuitive tax and financial planning? That’s a skill. That’s a creative skill that has an intangible element. Like landscaping, but with money,” he laughs.