Ten courses. Real exit tests. A certification designed by a Ph.D. who has passed and failed students at the graduate level — and run P&L across six divisions in a real landscape company.
Browse the CoursesMost landscape education falls into one of two categories: field certifications or generic business theory from someone who never held a P&L. GCG Academy is built to be neither — designed by someone with a doctoral credential and real operator results on the board.
The exit test isn't optional. The passing score isn't a gift. The certification means the person who holds it actually demonstrated fluency — not just time spent in front of a screen.
Graduate-level rigor applied to operator-level content. Structured for adult learners, not undergraduates taking a survey course.
Every example, every benchmark, and every case scenario is built from real results — $4.85M GTM, 55.4% peak GM, 9.4% labor efficiency gain.
80% to pass. Scenario-based questions. Calculation problems. The same standard used in graduate-level evaluation. Retakes available — but the bar doesn't move.
Send your managers. Require the certification before promotion. The LinkedIn badge is the proof — and the company that required it is the one competitors can't catch.
For the manager who wants to stop running someone else's business and start owning one. This track pairs the two courses that matter most for that transition — B2B Contract Sales and Exit Readiness — with The Operator's Playbook as required reading.
Understanding how to sell commercial contracts (Course 3) and how buyers value and acquire service businesses (Course 9) gives you both sides of the transaction. The book ties the operator mindset together. This is the track for the operator who's ready to make the move.
Browse the Courses →General courses apply across all service businesses. Landscape-specific courses go deep on the division P&Ls, platform choices, and field dynamics unique to the green industry.
Markup vs. margin, COGS vs. operating expense, job costing, and the 30-minute monthly review that changes how you run the business. The foundation course — where everything else starts.
Enroll →Fully-loaded labor burden, phantom labor, time tracking, windshield time, and the daily labor dashboard. The 9.4% efficiency gain that pushed $500K to the bottom line started here.
Enroll →ICP definition, 5-touch prospecting cadence, proposal structure, pipeline management, and closing without discounting. The GTM framework that originated $4.85M in 10 months.
Enroll →SOPs that stick, management rhythms (L10, daily huddle, monthly review), KPI scorecards, accountability conversations, and EOS basics for a service business. Required for certification.
Enroll →Maintenance, enhancement, construction, and turf care P&Ls. Overhead allocation across divisions, WIP, BOB forecasting, and identifying your drag division before year-end does it for you.
Enroll →Enhancement economics, opportunity sizing from the existing book, account manager enablement, close rate benchmarks, and incentive structures. The program that converts maintenance clients into recurring enhancement revenue.
Enroll →Cost inputs, productivity rates, material takeoffs, markup targets by work type, common estimating errors, and post-job analysis. The feedback loop between estimate and actuals that most companies skip.
Enroll →How to evaluate, configure, and fully use your landscape software — chart of accounts, division mapping, workflow design, reporting setup, and team adoption without losing three weeks of productivity.
Enroll →EBITDA multiples, SDE, owner dependency audit, financial normalization, due diligence package, deal structure, and the exit process from start to close. Required reading: The Operator's Playbook.
Enroll →What AI can actually do for a service business today, how to evaluate tools using an ROI framework, scheduling and routing automation, AI-assisted reporting, and building an AI usage policy for your team.
Enroll →There are field certifications in this industry, and there are business courses. GCG Certified Operator is built to a different standard: doctoral-level curriculum design, required exit testing, and a passing threshold that means something. A credential worth putting on a resume.
Pass the 20-question exit test at 80% or higher. This is the foundation everything else stands on.
Pass the exit test at 80% or higher. Labor is typically the largest cost center in a landscape business — you need to own it before you can manage it.
Pass the exit test at 80% or higher. Systems are what make the other two sustainable — and what make a business run without you.
A real business scenario — P&L, labor report, operational snapshot. Write a one-page assessment and recommended action plan. Graded by Brian. Pass or fail. No partial credit.
Each course is $797 — a flat, one-time fee. No subscription, no upsell, no cohort timing.
Brian works live with your leadership team — half-day or full-day, virtual. Not a webinar. Not a recorded session. An interactive, operator-led training built for the people who run your business.
Monthly call plus async support for operators who are past the crisis stage and need a direct sounding board — not a consultant. Bring the P&L, the pipeline, or whatever's on the whiteboard.
Questions about the right course, the right pricing tier, or whether GCG Academy is the right fit for your team — send a direct message.
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