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Welcome to the 2007 Business Planner
1 Oct, 2006 By: Stephanie Ricca Landscape ManagementI just talked to a part-time landscaper last week. He lives near our editorial offices in Cleveland and found the magazine's Web site. He's been taking care of landscapes and tree work on the side and is thinking about branching out (pardon the pun) into full-time. I sent him to the 2006 Business Planner's articles archived online.
Not long before that, I ran into another landscaper at a Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) event who has been in business about 10 years and needed information on finding and hiring good people. That's his biggest challenge, he said, and one that only gets harder as the company grows. I sent him to the Business Planner archives online, too.
Something for everyone
My point? This issue has something for everyone, no matter what stage of business you're in. We plan this issue during the whole year and we refer to it for that long too.
The 2007 Business Planner is Landscape Management's biggest issue yet, and in this case, biggest does mean best. We divide our coverage into three, easy-to-reference areas: Your Profits, Your Employees and Your Operations. Got questions on how to make the jump from residential services into commercial? Wondering how to get great employees at a low cost? Trying to figure out how to weed out the bad seeds (ok, another pun) from your team? The answers are here.
These articles are industry specific, with great case studies from companies like Borst Landscape and Design, CoCal Landscape and The Elysian Design Group, among others.
We've got a checklist for blowing the doors off your residential sales goals ("Sell millions? Yes you can," in this Issue), win-win stories about partnering with your Hispanic staff ("Why not Hispanics as managers?" in this issue) and an excellent primer on how to face legal problems ("Four steps to lawsuit survival," in this issue).
But wait, there's more
In addition to the articles, the Planner includes a quick-hit guide of our industry's top vendors and a series of supplier profiles .
All of this information is archived on our Web site so when you read an article you like, find it online and send it to your co-workers or supervisor. Looking for the latest product information from manufacturers? The supplier profiles are also online all year.
With that, I'll let the experts (many of them readers like you) share their strategies for success. We hope this issue helps your business along your path to success, and as always, keep calling and e-mailing with new ideas.
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