It’s a bit ironic, really; a lot of very successful landscape contractors began their careers pushing lawn mowers. But after they established their businesses, a lot of them stopped, dropping the ...
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Some people have to learn everything the hard way, and apparently, I’m one of them. For instance, for years when cleaning house, I’d use the same bottle of spray cleaner, toting it from room ...
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Whether you’re learning how to throw a fastball, or to play the piano, everything starts with the fundamentals. Throwing a ball against a pitchback over and over or practicing the scales may not ...
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After a few years, he decides that mowing lawns and doing other landscape maintenance chores isn’t really his strongest service area. He decides to focus on other aspects of his enterprise that will ...
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New York, Wright gravitated to anything mechanical. He loved to tinker with cars. “I fixed everybody’s cars and lawn mowers; I just couldn’t get my hands away from tinkering with things,” ...
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You’ll get a chance to do just that when the seasons turn and winter’s chill forces green grass into dormancy. In fact, if you play your cards right, you can earn a steady income working through ...
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Gary Mallory grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While in high school, he didn’t give much thought to where his career path would take him. He never imagined that he would be in the landscape business, ...
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If you're an action-movie fan, you may have heard a character - perhaps a superhero - boasting: “I have the strength of ten men!” As a landscape or irrigation contractor, you probably have ...
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At the time, he was heading up the office of the FBI in Dayton. One day, he received a call from J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, informing him that he was going to be transferred. The new job sounded ...
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The other day, I was having a conversation with George and Mike LaForest, the principals of Apartment Services Company, Inc., a landscape maintenance and snow removal company located in Livonia, Michigan. ...
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I first met Steven Kinzler at a chapter meeting of the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA).That was about 14 years ago. He was a newly-licensed landscape contractor at that time and very ...
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Nick Gramer, the owner and operator of Blue Moon Lawn and Landscape in Muskegon, Michigan, is a stickler for safety. It all stems from a serious accident he witnessed about six years ago ...
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By taking a strategic approach to dealing with the challenges that winter brings, you can put your company in an advantageous position. If you can do this, you won’t be caught in a bind when Mother ...
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As a business owner, your days consist of one decision after another. Some are no-brainers: “Should I update my website?” Of course! “Should I check this prospective employee’s ...
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The green industry would not exist as it does today without the invention of the motorized mower. These mighty machines are many times more efficient than their muscle-powered predecessors, and you could ...
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Hutcheson does not have an easy job, but then again, ‘easy’ is not in his vocabulary. Hutcheson is the president of U.S. Lawns; he’s held that position for the past 14 years. Trying to ...
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Although this study was conducted in 2004, more than 11 years ago, it is still relevant today. We recently spoke with John DeCell about this report, which compared prices for doing ...
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Pumps are among the oldest machines ever invented by mankind. All the way back in 2000 BC, the Egyptians invented a device for raising water called a shadoof, a long, suspended rod with a bucket at one ...
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