Ok, what's so "environmental" about this grass seed?

"Green" or "sustainability" or whatever term you want to give to this new era of resource preservation and ecological regeneration is resulting in some far-fetched environmental claims.

A recent one coming to my attention involves a grass seed marketer — not a name most of you would recognize — that's aggressively marketing the environmental benefits of its grass seed mixtures. The company makes some rather exaggerated (remarkable?) claims for its products.

On its website it says that buyers/users of its grass seed need only mow once a month, seldom or never water (after establishment), that it thrives without chemicals and grows 12-in.-deep roots.

Yes, in theory, the grass seed mixtures it sells (a 5-lb. bag costs about $35) will probably survive and may even result is a sward acceptable to a "naturalist" with minimal care. But, my guess is that most people buying these products and expecting to have attractive, high-quality lawns without watering, fertilizing and by mowing just once a month are going to be sorely disappointed.

What do these "environmental" lawn seed mixtures contain? It turns out they're comprised of different ratios of fine fescues, turf-type tall fescues, Kentucky bluegrasses and perennial ryegrasses.

The fine fescues (hard, creeping red and chewings) predominate in the shade mixtures, with Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescues making up a goodly portion of the sunny mixtures. Combining improved varieties of these different species for different growing conditions (sun and share) are a common practice by grass seed marketers.

The fact that this company’s website bears the seal of approval of SafeLawns.org should be enough of a tipoff that this company is aiming its marketing at the naive consumer. And, judging by the press this company is getting, the naive media. (Hey, I've been a part of the media for 40-plus years, and will regretfully admit to being naive on more than a few occasions.)

I hope this one example isn't indicative of where the landscape industry is going in terms of its commitment to sustainable products and services. — Ron Hall

Canadians sneaking weed killers back across their border?

Word comes that some Canadians are buying pesticides online or crossing into the United States to get weed killers and insecticides. The authorities have been informed. This is a no-no. Several provinces in Canada, including Ontario, have banned the sale and use of almost all traditional lawn care pest control products.
Could it be that some Canadian homeowners are fed up with how their properties look? From what we've been told from lawn care pros there, the so-called “natural” or “organic” replacements for these government-approved weed killers are:
— more expensive
— require the use of more product
— more frequent applications and
— provide less satisfactory results.
Moreover, whether these products are “safer” than those they've replaced is debatable. Any reasonable discussion relating to the relative “safety” of pesticides — alternative vs traditional — is now unlikely because the issue has become so emotional and politicized.
Even so, not every Canadian homeowner is enamored with lawn weeds, one of which is now apparently in consideration as the country’s official weed. OK, that’s not funny. Let it be said here first: There’s no chance, absolutely no chance, the national flag will become known as The Dandelion rather than The Maple Leaf.
We don’t condone illegal activities of any kind. We're merely commenting that some of our fine neighbors from the north are crossing our U.S. border to buy weed killers. Here’s a recent news article about that: “Gardeners cross-border shop for illegal pesticides.”

Is someone stealing your fuel? Read this

Rarely do we feature products on this blog. The LM staff's postings are not for sale. Our criteria for posting is simple — helping readers offer better service, save time and money, be more environmentally responsible.

Michigan contractor Mark Bruinius came up with a product, TankShield, that helps contractors save money by stopping fuel theft from skid tanks. We're passing along the information because we've heard lots of stories about equipment and fuel theft this spring.

Bruinius, who ran a landscaping business for 15 years, contacted us after reading the article "Theft: Lock it up" in our Feb. 2011 issue.

Maybe like you, he had a problem preventing fuel theft from his skid tanks. He had three 500-gal. tanks — unleaded, on-road and off-road diesel. Most of the theft involved small amounts taken periodically. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t figure out a way to stop it. It took the theft of $1,100 worth of unleaded fuel for him to say “enough.”

After a lot of experimentation, he came up with a rugged patented product made of 12-gauge steel and secured with using puck-style lock that allows his employees (those he trusts with keys) to access the pump through the front door. A unique internal slide rod at the rear door allows his fuel distributor to fill the tanks.

Bruinius, who manufactures the TankShields in Michigan, says they’re available in 550 and 1000 gal. UL, non-UL, double-walled tanks and high-flow pump models.

Always feel free to share your ideas with us and we’ll pass them along so that others can benefit from your experiences.

Keep your guard up; thieves see landscape equipment as easy pickens'

John Levonsky, JK Landscaping, speaking to WINK News in southwest Florida, referred to the thieves that hit his company as “being like ghosts.” They cut a hole in the chain link fence at his company’s holding yard in Bonita Springs, FL, and selectively picked out and made off with thousands of dollars worth of his equipment.

“They came in, took it, closed the doors, put the locks back in their place and just disappeared,” Levonsky told the TV station reporter.

Similiar discouraging reports from across the United States and Canada have been filling the news wires. It almost seems like an epidemic this spring. Thieves apparently see landscaping equipment as easy pickens’. The small stuff is easy to fence for fast cash. Apparently, it’s no problem to move the big stuff, too — commercial mowers, skid steers, loaders etc. Thieves even make off with trucks with loaded landscape trailers.

There are two huge costs to equipment theft:

1. The monetary cost represented by the loss of the equipment. Make sure equipment is properly insured!

2. Downtown and loss of production while replacement equipment is rounded up. This will spoil any landscaper's day. Levonsky, speaking to the WINK reporter, took his loss more philosophically than most.

"You shut down for a day, you regroup, you can't let it get you down. You just gotta keep moving,” he said.

When we polled readers earlier this year, more than 60% of respondents said they had been ripped off at least once in the past three years; some said they'd been hit multiple times.

For great information about how to reduce the risk of theft of your stuff, click on our special spring report — "Theft: Lock it up."

Download the new "The Benefits of Turf" pub

The Ohio State University turf team has put together a very nice digital publication, “The Benefits of Turf.” This is something you may want to share with customers, prospects or local regulatory officials. Click on “The Benefits of Turf,” and I think you will agree that this is nicely done.

The Green Industry bigger than most people realize

$175.3 billion. That's serious cash money.

That was the estimated total economic contribution (revenue) for the U.S. Green Industry in 2007. Landscaping services contributed $86.6 billion. That was the largest of the 17 industry categories in the report.

The Southern Cooperative Series shared these number, along with other eye-opening statistics, in its digital publication, "Economic Contributions of the Green Industry in the United States, 2007." The report became available May 12.

Here are some numbers gathered from the 61-page report:

— The Green Industry employed almost two million full- and part-time workers in '07 with approximately half employed in landscaping services.

— Labor earnings in the Industry exceeded $53 billion with landscaping services again the largest segment handing out $28 in paychecks.

— California led the nation in Industry output contributions at about $25 billion. It was followed by Florida at $15 billion, Illinois 8.2 billion and Ohio approximately $7 billion.

— The Green Industry represented 0.76% of U.S. gross domestic product in 2007.

The report makes great bathroom reading. To download a pdf of the report click here.

Will this be the greenest building on the greenest site in the U.S.?

The $7.8 million, 24,350-sq.-ft. Phipps Conservatory's Center for Sustainable Landscapes in Pittsburgh, PA, will be "one of the greenest buildings in the world," says Richards V. Piacentini, executive director. It should be complete sometime next year.

It will sit on 2.65 acres of property behind the conservatory and serve as the conservatory's education, research and administration building. It’s the first project in the world being built to simultaneously meet three sustainable building standards: LEED Platinum, the Living Building Challenge and SITES.

Sustainable Landscape

— Sustainable landscape features all non-invasive, native plants. Click here to view the proposed plant list.
— Plants will use rainwater as irrigation - no additional irrigation will be installed
— A walking trail and boardwalk lead through a variety of landscape communities including wetland, rain garden, water's edge, shade garden, lowland hardwood slope, successional slope, oak woodland and upland groves
— Restores natural landscape function, provides wildlife habitat, and offers educational opportunity

Green Roof

— Reduces volume of storm water runoff and pollutants in storm water runoff
— Insulates building to reduce HVAC cooling in summer and heating in winter
— Extensive green roof design with a 6-in. soil depth and a variety of plants, including edibles and ornamentals
— Reduces heat island effect
— Demonstration gardens for residential applications, especially urban landscapes
— Beautifully landscaped space for an event

Rainwater Harvesting

— Storm water from upper campus glass roofs and lower site will be captured and
stored in two 1,700-gal. underground cisterns
— Rainwater will be used for toilet flushing, as well as interior irrigation and maintenance as required
— Ultralow flow plumbing fixtures include waterless urinals and dual-flush toilets for water conservation
— Greatly reduces impact on municipal sewage treatment and energy-intensive potable water systems

Lagoon System

— Captures stormwater runoff from portions of the site, the CSL roof, the maintenance building roof, and overflow from the underground cisterns
— Replicates natural water treatment process that occurs in wetlands and marshes
— Water flows through a 7-step process where plants and their symbiotic root microbes absorb organic and mineral nutrients
— Water is processed to tertiary non-potable standards, which is comparable to water exiting sewage treatment plant post-treatment conservation
— Post-treatment water that overflows the lagoon will be permeated naturally into the landscape through a series of infiltration system.

Constructed Wetland

— Treat all sanitary water from CSL and adjacent maintenance building
— Subsurface flow constructed wetland system
– 2-stage wetland treatment cell system
— Sand filtration provides additional treatment of the wetland effluent
— Ultraviolet process disinfects water to gray water standards
— Greatly reduces impact on municipal sewage treatment and energy-intensive potable water systems

Permeable Paving

— Permeable asphalt, unit pavers and stone paving
— Maximizes permeability of all paved surfaces throughout site
— Allows natural infiltration of site storm water

Safety first

We don't have to tell you how dangerous a profession landscaping is. Every few months (and that's conservative) we read about a contractor who rolled his mower over into a lake and drowns. Or there's carelessness with equipment that results in the loss of a limb or some other injury. Maybe it's a driving accident while guys are heading from one job to the next. Injuries on the job mean loss of productivity, workers compensation concerns, moral issues just to name a few.

The website, The Daily Beast has put together a list of the top 20 most dangerous professions. Firefighter and police officer are there right where you'd expect them to be. And sitting at No. 17 is landscaper (see the full list here).

According to the article there were 4,700 injuries and 15.6 fatalities per 100,000 full-time workers. The statistics are based on 2009 data.

Clever, very clever — The Lawn Institute calls upon its "Turfgrass Team" to tell its story

A tip of the hat and hearty “well done” to the staff at The Lawn Institute for a very creative series of video vignettes to highlight the many benefits of natural turfgrass to the public.

Thanks to Jim Novak of Turfgrass Producers International for sharing the following information and images with us so we can pass it on to you.

The Lawn Institute has developed a cast of characters identified as The Turfgrass Team that will be featured in a series of short videos addressing everything from the environmental, economic and health benefits of natural grass, to misconceptions and/or misinformation about natural grass and lawns.

The Turfgrass Team will also take on other issues; for example, the pilot episodes, address the benefits of natural grass over artificial turf as it relates to field restrictions and surface temperatures. The plan is to post fture videos on You Tube and various websites to create maximum exposure.

In announcing the posting of the videos, Kirk Hunter, executive director of The Lawn Institute stated, “There’s a great deal of misinformation out there when it comes to natural turfgrass and home lawns. The environmental benefits of natural grass are numerous and our challenge is to convey information that underscores what those benefits are and how they benefit everyone. By creating The Turfgrass Team we have a vehicle, along with some appealing characters, who can address the subject in an entertaining, informative and memorable way, and more importantly, reach a broad audience of young and old alike.

"Future videos are still in the planning stages but it’s likely they will address how natural turfgrass cools the air, produces oxygen, filters air, reduces pollution, suppresses dust, recharges and filters groundwater, reduces runoff, controls erosion, stores carbon, restores soil quality, etc.

In addition to the environmental benefits, future videos might provide helpful information on best management practices as it relates to proper lawn care such as water conservation, lawn mower care, proper use of fertilizer, core aeration, etc.

You can view the pilot episodes by entering The Turfgrass Team on the You Tube site , or use the following links to go directly to the videos.

The Turfgrass Team - Talks About “A Few Restrictions”.

The Turfgrass Team - Tackles the Heat Issue. — Ron Hall

The branding lesson of a breakfast sandwich

Given the choice, would you willingly spend 100% or more for one product over another essentially identical product, all other things being equal —quality, service and ease of purchase?

A no-brainer, you might think.

Think again.

What I’m about to share with you — as obvious as it might seem once I reveal it — has important implications for your success as a Green Industry service provider, my guess is far greater than many of you realize, especially those of you that, because of the excellence of your services, have earned great loyalty or positive word-of-mouth from your clients but still struggle to gain traction in your markets.

A muffin with egg, cheese and sausage

Strangely, I’ve come to this conclusion after studying the simple and popular fast food breakfast sandwich of egg, cheese, and sausage patty on a toasted muffin.

Let me start at the beginning for some perspective.

For the last several years I’ve been working from a small messy office overlooking my wife’s flower garden. Working in a home office has its good points and its bad points, but mostly good points. I no longer own and maintain an extra car, and am free of the hassles and expense of the daily commute. Best of all, shedding the drive has added extra time to my life. I spend one of these hours almost every weekday morning walking a mile to the local Number Two national burger chain outlet where I enjoy a cup of coffee, read the newspaper and share a minute of friendly banter with its staff. As I walk home I relax and plan my workday.

Better and less expensive

My early morning stroll takes me by a franchise location of the Number One fast food chain. But I continue to Number Two across the street because it’s cleaner (especially the rest room), quieter and less expensive. In fact, I can buy a coffee for 1/3^rd less there and essentially the identical egg, cheese, and sausage and egg muffin sandwich for $1 there compared to the $2.38 for basically the same sandwich at Number One.

Gven the better customer experience and lower cost for food, why do people crowd into the dining room, endure longer waits and pay the extra cost of the simple breakfast sandwich at the rival’s drive-thru window? Wouldn’t cost be the biggest buying factor, especially for comparable products, such as coffee and a simple breakfast sandwich?

What I see almost every day is that cost doesn't have to be (and often isn't) the biggest factor in customers’ buying decisions.

The power branded marketing

If not cost, then what?

People buy products and services for many reasons, but developing a brand, then keeping that brand top of mind with advertising and marketing is incredibly powerful in influencing customers to buy one product or service over another — even identical products or services. Once consumers become, in effect, bounded to a brand cost becomes less important in buying decisions. Why else do so many more people buy the $2.38 sandwich instead of the $1 breakfast sandwich?

The message seems clear. Even when the economy is tough (and probably especially so), consumers will pay more for branded products and services. I don't see any reason why this would be any different for landscape products and services than it is for breakfast sandwiches. — Ron Hall

PLANET Day of Service — get crackin', it's almost here

Thinking about participating in PLANET Day of Service April 22 but haven't made up your mind yet?

My late father, bless his heart, had a saying when he saw me dithering over whether I should do something or not. "Poop or get off the pot," he would say. Fathers tend to say those kinds of things, right?

OK, so get crackin'. Pull the trigger if you've been debating whether to select a project, mobilize your team and be counted among the Day of Service volunteers. You still have time to get Day of Service shirts for your workers. The deadline is April 13. Popular projects include grounds of schools, parks, playgrounds, senior centers, shelters, etc.

“The concept behind the PLANET Day of Service is to bring volunteers together to fill needs in each community by creating and caring for green spaces,” says PLANET President David Snodgrass, Landscape Industry Certified Manager. “Our members know how important it is for people to have parks to enjoy and gardens where children can learn about the environment.”

In the past two years of the event, PLANET members completed more than 480 projects in 43 states and in Canada, with nearly 5,000 volunteers donating more than $1,000,000 in time, material, and services.

There’s a lot of great information on the PLANET Day of Service website. Start there.

The Lead Sponsors for this year’s event are Agrium Advanced Technologies, American Profit Recovery, JOHN DEERE, PBI/Gordon Corporation, and Shindaiwa.

Other sponsors include Corona — Season after Season, Duke’s Landscape Management, Inc.; Ewing; HighGrove Partners; Hoedown Gardening & Landscaping, Inc.; Kichler Lighting; Lebanon Turf; Nufarm Turf & Ornamental; Project Evergreen; Puryear Farms; Sebert Landscaping; Snapper Pro; STIHL Inc.; Terracare Associates; The Greenwood Group, LLC and Turf Appeal Inc.

Here are some images taken of the Mirrorscapes LLC team in Ohio by the Landscape Management magazine staff during its 2010 Day of Service project. — Ron Hall

Spring Green guy writes SMART check

CHILLICOTHE, IL — Remember that jaw-tightening screech that chalk made when your 8th-grade English teacher diagrammed a sentence on the blackboard.

Stop! Pleeeseeee Stop!

Well, that screech may become history thanks to technology like the SMART Board. What’s a SMART Board you might be wondering (as we did)? Replace that vision of the blackboard at the head of the classroom with a huge, white I-Pad-like, interactive instructional tool. In truth, that description hardly does it full justice.

OK, why are we writing about SMART Boards in a landscape blog? It’s because Spring Green Lawn Care franchise owner Dave Vojta donated $3,500 to outfit a classroom at Illinois Valley Central (IVC) High School with a SMART Board. The IVC District is raising money to put one in each of its 110 classrooms.

“This level of instructional technology will set IVC apart as a technological leader throughout Illinois and the country,” said IVC Superintendent Dr. Nick Polyak in the Chillichothe Times Bulletin that shows a smiling Dave Vojta in a classic grip-and-grin

Vojta was the first businessperson to step forward and write a check for the “IVC Parents for Smart Students SMART Board Campaign. Cool. Very cool.

Social media — get with it!

The days of the uneducated customer are over. Kaput. Done. Finished. Extinct. History. Evaporated.

That's what Tim Miles, partner in Wizard of Ads, told an audience at the Water Quality Association in San Antonio recently.

He said that social media is revolutionizing how people research and share information. Given the choice to participate or not to participate — you have to go for it, said Miles. If your service offers benefits for the environment, improves people’s well being, adds value to their properties, etc. (sounds like the landscape industry to me) why wouldn’t you?

Other points he made:

— Never overestimate the importance of word of mouth.
— Technology is transforming commerce. Get with it.
— Transparency is not an option; it’s the reality.

Added Miles, there’s still no substitute for getting face-to-face with prospects or clients. (OK, so this isn't news to those of us in the landscape business, but it's good to get a reminder anyway.) — Ron Hall

Here are the most valuable two minutes you'll spend on your business today

Can you spare two minutes to find out what really motivates your front-line employees? Money? Nope, says Mel Kleiman, the one-time owner of three different businesses, including the largest group of Hertz Rent-A-Car franchise locations in the United States.

Below is the URL for the 2-minute video from Mel sharing the 5 things your best employees want from their jobs.

We can guarantee you that it will be the most valuable business-building two minutes you spend today. Click here and tell us if you agree or not.

Oyler's presentation on sales got the troops stirred up

Tom Oyler, hobbled with an injured leg, nevertheless was at his animated best in sharing some of his sales and marketing thunder at the Next Level Network (NLN) University in Dallas recently. From time to time, in fact, he grabbed the wooden cane he kept at his side, and waved it around when making what he felt was a particularly vital point.

Wow, that kept everybody’s attention riveted on the speaker! That and Oyler’s recipe for marketing and sales success which he shared in his day-long presentation to a full room of managers from the seven participating NLN companies. They expected some powerful sales advice from Oyler who has sold tens of millions of dollars of landscape services and built and operated several successful Florida businesses . . . and they got it big time.

And as the presentation rolled along audience members started chiming in with their own experiences and thoughts, making for a lively exchange of ideas, some of which Oyler agreed with and some he challenged.

And why do we keep returning to the NLN event, since we’ve reported on it in previous blogs? The answer is simple. When we review our notes from the event we keep finding things to share.

In this post, let’s talk branding which Oyler says is one of the toughest things for a landscape company (or any high-labor service business) to establish. That's too bad. A brand is differentiator in the market with a “good” brand commanding a premium in sales.

So, what’s a brand, according to Oyler?

— A brand is a “living” thing.
— A brand is the “idea” about your company your created with your customers.
— A brand is what your company “stands for” in the market.
— A brand deals with every way you deal with your customers.
— A brand is “grounded” at the point of delivery of your goods and services
— A brand is a major differentiator.
— A brand is often poorly managed in high labor services industries
— A brand once established generally lasts a long time — for good, bad or for worse.

Again, the reason why you want to establish a brand, a "good" brand in the market is so that you can command a higher price for your services. And generally that's the case when everybody is offering pretty much the same services and saying pretty much the same things, such as "we can do it faster, cheaper and better." And who doesn't say that these days?

For the record: Oyler partners with Bruce Wilson in the Wilson-Oyler Group, a full-service consulting firm specializing in business improvement services to the landscape industry. Read Wilson's "Best Practices" column in Landscape Management magazine each month.

Lambert Landscape knows gardens like few other companies

One of my first assignments with Landscape Management (then known as “Weeds, Trees & Turf”) in 1984 was visiting Lieds Landscape, Sussex, WI, founded in 1945 by the late Delmar Lieds. I spent that soft, early-autumn day with Delmar (he passed in the mid 1990s) and his son, Tom, who was then running the company. The company is now under the guidance of Robb Lieds, the third generation directing the family business.

What I remember most vividly about that first facility tour is the colors and textures Delmar evoked in describing the “gardens” his company designed and produced for its clients. His love for plants and their unique characteristics, which he shared as the two of us walked a stand of blue spruce in the company nursery, struck an emotional chord within me that remains to this day.

Those of us in the industry talk about landscapes. We talk property maintenance. We talk lawn care.

Why don't we talk more about giving our customers "gardens"? Who doesn't like a garden, after all?

It seems to me that to answer that from a business perspective, at least, we have to answer "yes" to two questions: 1) Do we have the special knowledge and skills required within our teams to install and to care for gardens? 2) Do we have a sufficient number of customers desiring, willing able to pay for them and their maintenance, recognizing that gardens are constantly evolving and maturing?

It's a brave landscape company, in this case Lambert Landscape, willing in late winter to show the gardens under its care — even in Texas where people are apt to be a bit more on the bold side. This time of the year the turfgrass (St. Augustinegrass in most cases) is dormant and brown, and residential gardens are a month or more away from even approaching their true attractiveness.

Several weeks ago I was fortunate (and delighted) to join a group of knowledgeable horticulturists from some of the nation’s top universities and tour gardens designed and installed by the Dallas-based company.

Lambert's Lara Moffat, MLA, director of marketing & recruitment, and several of her colleagues walked with us and answered our questions regarding the gardens their company had installed and maintains in Highland Park, an exclusive community three miles north of downtown Dallas. The gardens were impressive — the design, the attention to detail, the hardscape, the huge containers, the statuary, etc. — in spite of plant material still suffering from the unusually bitter cold and snow that dampened nearby Super Bowl activities several weeks earlier.

My main takeaway message from the afternoon walking the properties is that Lambert Landscape, founded in 1919, intimately knows its market, knows its customers' desires and needs, and the people on the Lambert team know gardens.

Enjoy some of these images we took as we walked the gardens of several of its clients. We look forward to sharing images of some of these same gardens on this blog when they're at their amazing best. — Ron Hall

This book could be your game changer

DALLAS — More than 20 years ago Carl Sewell, the owner of a local motor vehicle dealership here, wrote a book. The name of the book is “Customers for Life.” Because its message is timeless the book was recently re-released by Doubleday. After the book’s initial publication, Sewell was in big demand as a speaker although he readily admits he is not professional speaker nor, for that matter, a professional writer. He sold and sells motor vehicles, just like his father did before him. And he's sold a lot of them. A lot.

He doesn’t do much public speaking these days. But when the folks at Lambert Landscaping, based here and hosting the Next Level Network University, asked Carl to speak to the 120-plus owners and managers of the seven companies here he agreed. It turns out he has been a lifelong customer of Lamberts.

Speaking in a calm and friendly voice and with more than a little folksy humor he shared some very powerful insights with the Green Industry professionals.

I’m just going to relate a couple of his key points, hoping that you’ll buy the book, read it and put in practice what he’s learned over the course of his extremely successful career running a family business. At the core of his message were two fundamentals for anyone’s business success: 1.) absolute integrity and 2.) performance.

I’ll share just a few other take-homes from Sewell’s presentation to keep this message short.

Start out by determining what exactly you want to be within your industry or market, said Sewell. Do you want to be a top 50 company? A top 10? Number one?

“If you decide you want to be the best it simplifies many things,” he added.

You get to be the best by finding out who’s the best (not necessarily the biggest) in your industry, studying how they got to be the best, in fact going to see them, if possible, and taking some of your key folks with you. You want more viewpoints than your own.

Also, find and develop mentors. This is critical. It saves a lot of mistakes and prevents a lot of sleepless nights. Sewell says retired people who have been very successful in their respective fields often greatly appreciate the opportunity to help younger people that are interested in learning. Almost in all cases, these relationships lead to lasting friendships. At least they did for him, Sewell said.

A couple final points.

While today’s economy is discouraging to a lot of people it still offers “infinite opportunity” and especially for the landscape business, he said. It’s a great time, best in decades to acquire new talent, acquire other companies and to strengthen your business teams with training and additional education, he believes.

“You might not have another opportunity like this for quite some time again,” he said.
Get Carl Sewell’s “Customers for Life." It’s a quick and enjoyable read, and a book that you will revisit again and again to keep you and your company headed in the right direction.

Note: when I goggled the book on Amazon I saw that there were used copies for as little as $1.38. Regardless of what the book costs, if you take to heart what Carl’s experiences taught him, it will repay you over and over again. – Ron Hall

Good karma is what it's all about in the end

The Fisher House in Miami

DALLAS – Times are tough and budgets are tight in the landscape industry as they are in just about every sector be it private or public. There is more need in our communities and among our charitable organizations than there’s been, probably since the Great Depression.

So, how do we as landscape/lawn service companies or individuals within these companies help out? What and how do we give back to the neighborhoods and communities where we provide our services?

A small group of landscape professionals discussed this at the Next Level Network University here this morning and several things became clear:

1. Companies should contribute beyond their day-to-day revenue-producing activities to the welfare of their communities and to special causes. The community gives to you; you give back where you can, right? This is commonly called community service, but I prefer to look at it as generating good karma; it's creating bursts of positive energy the pushes us farther down the road to where we want to be as individuals, an industry or, get this, a society. (Wow, too heavy for a blog about landscaping?)

2. Companies are having to make tough choices in determining which charities and community projects to undertake or contribute to. The needs and requests are much greater than any of us can meet.

3. A lot of times we can do it in support of other business partners or vendors, in the vein of Extreme Home makeover or Habitat for Humanity.

4. Most of us probably do a lot more community service than we realize, not all of in the form of contributing to charity golf outings either. Some of us coach Little League baseball, football or soccer, touching the lives of dozens of youths. Some of us support and participate charitable and humanitarian efforts through our spiritual organizations. We could go on and on. Indeed, as the eight of us sat around the table, eating French toast and drinking coffee, more examples kept popping up.

5. Then there are some neat and established programs that we can become involved with, such asthe Professional Landcare Network's Day of Service this spring or Project Evergreen's Greencare for Troops.

6. The best and most important karma we can contribute to our neighborhoods, our charities, our neighbors, sometimes even fellow employees in need, comes from our hearts, those things that touch our souls and move us to get out of day-to-day worlds and do something cool for somebody else.

In that spirit, let me call out one great example that was shared at our round table -- and not pridefully either -- the commitment that Juan Carlos Vila and his company, Vila&Son, made in contributing to and helping raise funds to get a Fisher House established near the Veterans Hospital in Miami, FL, several years ago. Vila is the CEO of Vila&Son. His story is incredible. He and family members escaped Castro’s Cuba in the 1960s, arriving in Miami with little more than their clothes. Vila&Son is now the largest landscape company in Florida with nine locations. Few people realize his or her hard-earned good fortune more than Vila, a generous man of great personal charm and humility.

A Fisher House is “a home away from home” for families of patients receiving medical care at a major military and VA medical centers. The homes are normally located within walking distance of the treat facility or have transportation available. There are more than 53 Fisher Houses with perhaps a dozen more being readied for occupancy. Click here for more about Fisher Houses.

It’s always tough to write about stuff like this because most of things that we do, we don’t necessarily expect anybody to pat us on the back and say “hey, what a great thing you did.” (Although, isn’t it nice when that happens?)

Finally, thanks to Gary Fears, a young account manager at Heads Up Landscape (and proud BYU alum), for doing a great job facilitating our discussion.

Keep following this blog because there's some powerful sales and customer care stuff arising from this NLN University that we're going to share with you that I'm confident, if you take it to heart and act on it, will help you get to the next level too. – Ron Hall

These firms are serious about taking it to "The Next Level"

DALLAS – If you want to know where the landscape industry is going – or at least where some of its most progressive companies think it should be going – you need to be paying attention to The Next Level Network (NLN), which is a tiny organization of progressive landscape companies that network and collaborate to energize their staffs and bring innovation into their operations.

Today the NLN - founded and facilitated by industry business consultant Bruce Wilson - consists of just seven companies: HighGrove Partners, Atlanta; CoCal Landscape, Denver; Heads Up, Albuquerque; Mariani Landscape, Lake Bluff, IL; Vila & Son, Homestead, FL; Pacific Landscape Management, Portland, OR; and Lamberts Landscape Company, Dallas. Owners and management of the companies get together three times a year. They’ve been doing so since 2005.

As I write this, key managers of the companies, including most of the owners, are meeting here in the Next Level Network University. Lamberts Landscape Company is hosting the University. To kick off the event, key personnel (including several owners) of the seven companies dined together in a Marriott Hotel ballroom here Monday evening (about 130 people, including guests) and shared brief overviews of their companies. Several broad themes emerged.

1. Each company is adamant about building the skill levels (technical, sales, operational and financial/business expertise) of its employees. And, in spite of several of the companies being among the largest in the country (Florida’s Vila&Son and Mariani in Chicagoland) each company views itself as a “family” of like-minded individuals working cooperatively.

2. Each company is intensely customer-focused. Vila&Son, for example sports a WIT emblem on each one of its service vehicles. WIT stands for “Whatever It Takes,” the slogan it promotes to its clients in achieving their satisfaction.

3. The owners of these companies are still totally engaged in the success of their employees, and by extension, their companies.

4. Green is not just a color. Without exception these companies are implementing best practices when it comes to environmentally responsible landscape design, construction and maintenance. Lamberts, the host company, has been practicing “organic” landscape care since the late 1980s. Companies such as CoCal and Heads Up, located in arid regions of the United States, are strong into Xeric landscaping; High-Grove Partners instituted its innovative “WaterKnow” services several years ago; but Pacific Landscape Management is taking environmental landscape practices farthest of all, even to the installation of solar panels on its headquarters.

Stay tuned and I’ll continue to report on the NLN University. This small group of entrepreneurial operations, especially as the managers of its member companies start trading experiences and observations, is going to generate some great ideas the next couple of days. – Ron Hall

Extra fees, no! Increasing productivity, yes!

My wife Vicky and I just returned from a short vacation. We stayed at a nice hotel in central Florida then visited some nieces and nephews and finally ended up in Fort Myers where we hooked up with our son and daughter-in-law.

We were surprised by the “extra” expenses that we incurred in what we had planned to be a frugal vacation. First came the airline baggage and snack fees. We had anticipated these and paid them without a whimper. However, we decided not to pay extra to sit in seats closer to the front of the plane. Until recently none of these services cost extra. They used to be part of the deal when you bought an airline ticket.

Then at the hotel, a very nice hotel, we were surprised to learn that, in addition to the room rate we had been promised we were charged a daily resort fee ($16 plus tax) and also a parking fee ($13 plus tax) — this at a hotel that on our previous stays did not levy a resort fee or charge for self-parking. I don’t even want to talk about the extra taxes and charges accruing to our car rental.

So, what’s the point you’re probably wondering?

The point is this: Inflation is here and it’s likely to get worse. Perhaps much worse. Prices of commodities, all commodities, are rising. Check it out for yourselves.

Businesses that because of competitive pressures can’t raise their base prices are generating cash by other means, in the case of travel with lots of new and innovative fees. (What's next a towel use fee?)

Landscape/lawn services, participating in one of the most competitive and price-conscious industries in North America, find it difficult to tack on fees as evidenced by the fuel surcharges many of them attempted to pass to customers when fuel prices spiked prior to the 2008-09 Recession. So, what to do?

The most obvious answer is to put in place processes to generate more productivity out of each unit of input — be it capital or labor. This has got to be a continuous effort, and it'll only work if you involve your whole team. After all, everyone in your company has a stake in helping it prosper (survive?) as a business in 2011 and beyond.

If you thought operational efficiency and productivity mattered in the success of your landscape operation before, I'm saying that you ain’t seen nothing yet. — Ron Hall