July 2013 Web Extra: Increase your profitability by specializing
When you first open your business, you’re just thankful customers come your way. Once you’ve been in business for a while, you realize that not every customer is a good fit for you. As I’m sure you...
View Article1-Minute Mentor: Chris Davitt
Meet Chris Davitt, president of Ruppert Landscape, Laytonsville, Md. Who’s your mentor? Over the course of my life and career, my mentor has changed, but one is Craig Ruppert. That started when I...
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I want my WBE
Women-owned businesses benefit from third-party certifications. Katharina Hoffman, president of Hoffman Commercial Landscaping, says getting a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) certificate isn’t easy....
View ArticleThe design/build brain
Q. When creating job descriptions, what’s the best way to separate the roles of design and production? —Mark Muzio, The Landscape Design Group, Waltham, Mass. A. This is a great question that companies...
View ArticleFocus on the right stuff
In the last several months in this space, Jeff Harkness, Kevin Kehoe and I have written about sales performance, margin generation (a sign of pricing and productivity) and, of course, my favorite, net...
View ArticleDisaster plan dos and don’ts
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting an active hurricane season this year, with more than a dozen big storms and a couple major hurricanes statistically overdue to...
View ArticleA good option
In Naperville, Ill., a public-private partnership demonstrates removal isn’t the only option for EAB-infected trees. Municipality maintenance budgets typically have two line items for trees: prune and...
View ArticleIn the long run
In late spring I traveled to Naperville, Ill., to see how that city has put in place an aggressive program to save its 16,000 municipal ash trees from Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). (See this story for more...
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Design debate
Does software save time or muddy the irrigation design process? Designing an irrigation system can be a time-consuming process that becomes increasingly complicated when errors occur. Many irrigation...
View ArticlePaying by piecework
Does compensating employees by the job pay off? When it comes to paying maintenance crewmen and foremen, have you considered the piecework system—paying your employees by the job instead of by the...
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Seeing is believing
3-D imaging software makes life easier, clients happier for Pennsylvania-based Plantique. When Brian Richardson shows his clients 3-D images of their landscape design projects, he says he can see the...
View ArticleJuly 2013 Web Extra: A connection between tree loss and poor health
An improved natural environment leads to better health conditions, according to a study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Seven researchers conducted a study...
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