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Before coming to work for Utopian Landscapes LLC full-time, Terra Phelps, the āhandlerā (because she āhandles it allā) had already been consulting on various jobs and tasks. As the wife of Nikos Phelps, the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based companyās founder and co-owner, sheād offer design advice or contribute to projects, even though she was working for the […]
Preparation is the key to conducting an effective interview. This is your opportunity to get to know a candidate, and to determine if this person is a fit for your company culture. First, prepare a job description so you can determine what qualifications you are interviewing for. You must also know what skills are needed […]
Building a team is a multi-step process that involves recruiting, interviewing, hiring and developing team members. Ideally, you work through this process from beginning to end, because we know from experience if you skip any one of these steps, the result could be a very expensive mistake. Because hiring and onboarding is a process, it […]
The lawn and landscape industry has an interesting dynamic in that it involves quite a few āentrepreneurial couples,ā a new term that is replacing āmom-and-pop.ā The term refers to businesses owned by couples (spouses or life partners). And the truth is, there are more of them out there than people realize. Couples run many small […]
The landscape industry is constantly changing. Fluctuating fuel costs, vehicle prices and indeterminate weather during busy seasons all contribute to uncertainty. But for innovative landscape fleets, uncertainty doesnāt need to be foreboding. Instead, it should be an opportunity for fleet managers to hone in on wasteful procedures and replace them with streamlined processes that both […]
Edward Joseph Klaas, II, owner of Southern Sprinkler Systems LLC in Roswell, Georgia, has made an effort to assist in every major hurricane in the Southeast since 2005 when his companyās assistance with Hurricane Katrina left a lasting impact. After Hurricane Dorian left parts of the Bahamas devastated, Klaas teamed up with a local business […]
If youāre struggling to hire or retain employees, itās possible you may need to revisit the way you do things. Today, the post-millennial generation (Generation Z) is arriving in the workforceāand their wants and needs are quite different than you might be used to. That means if youāre still employing yesterdayās approach to hiring and […]
Shayne Newman, founder and president of YardApes in New Milford, Connecticut, credits his upbringing to his ultimate career choice in landscaping. Having spent so much time outdoors as a kid made it seem virtually impossible to choose a career that involved the confines of four walls every day. āI donāt just like being outside; I […]
There are a couple of effective ways to price your work for profitāand we do not recommend bidding all jobs at the same hourly rate (figured on your overhead and desired profit). In a competitive market, youāll need to go deeper with pricing. Letās illustrate how three different companies can price jobs three different ways. […]
For years, H. Jaclyn Ishimaru-Gachina, president and CEO of Gachina Landscape Management, was by her husbandās side as he ran the company. A āGame of Thronesā fan, Ishimaru-Gachina jokes that she was like the āhand of the King.ā Though she was at home raising her boys, Ishimaru-Gachinaās husband, John, spoke about every aspect of the […]
