Editor’s note: In July, Dave “the BugDoc” Shetlar, Ph.D., addressed preventive and curative grub control in a webinar presented by Landscape Management and sponsored by Valent Professional Products. Here’s a bit of Q&A between Shetlar and participants on this hot topic. Q: In Zone 9 do we really need to be concerned with grubs? —participant from South Carolina Dave Shetlar... read more
How Fairhaven Lawn Care, a social enterprise business, turns the homeless into skilled, productive employees. In 2008, Fairhaven Lawn Care began operating in central Ohio with a modest goal to serve about a dozen customers. Today, the company provides landscape maintenance services to approximately 45 customers. But Fairhaven isn’t your typical landscape success story. Based in Lancaster, Ohio, about 30... read more
Client advisory boards provide business owners an outside perspective. Jeffrey Scott cuts right to the chase. “Clients are always analyzing your company,” says the Green Industry consultant. “As the center of your business, they experience the good and the bad of what your company has to offer, and they have already formulated an opinion, whether you know it or not.”... read more
I’ve had the recent pleasure of managing a client’s account management team for the last six months. I love it, but managing people who are in front of your customer is tough. It takes hard work and patience. The good news is this skill can be learned and refined with experience, but there’s a shortage of good management talent operating... read more
Don’t we all want to be high-profit companies? Bad habits are obstacles to growth for good companies and good people. Changing behaviors in both is one of the toughest things for a CEO to do. In working across the country with landscape companies of every size, I’ve noticed that the behaviors and traits of highly successful companies, and their people,... read more
So maybe you’re not Scotts LawnService. Maybe you’re a small lawn care operator, irrigation company, maintenance contractor or design/build firm. And maybe you saw the cover of this magazine and thought, “It would be easy to get to $250 million backed by a $3 billion parent company.” Let’s face it: You probably don’t have a 730-acre corporate headquarters, a $50... read more
