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Though his son has grown up around the businessāand the industryāCody Whelchel, owner of Texas-based Cody Landscape, says the process of transitioning business ownership to his son has been more complicated than he anticipated. Currently in the midst of that process, Whelchel, who founded the landscape design, installation and maintenance business in 1986 along with […]
Letās face it: As a result of the lack of knowledge available to people about the landscape industry and the career potential within, its image is tainted. This is particularly true with younger generations. āStudents and parents think itās a dirty job and that you donāt make any money in landscaping; we just have this […]
Chris Lee admits he canāt pinpoint exactly what got him into the landscape business. But he is certain that the opportunity to ādo his own thing,ā and to āput his stamp on something bigger than himselfā were driving factors. Since founding Earthworks Inc., in 1979, Leeāwho serves as presidentāhas adapted and evolved the business many […]
A savvy business owner knows he or she constantly needs to be on the lookout for a growth bottleneck. If they want their businesses to continue to grow and perform, they need to remove these āhold-ups.” But what if the owner is the bottleneck? That was exactly the case for Doug McDuff and his business […]
Like so many other landscape professionals, Mark Borst, owner of Borst Landscape & Design in Allendale, New Jersey, says the labor pool in his area often feels quite dry. Itās an ongoing struggle to find qualified workers. Thatās why, about seven years ago, Borst began experimenting with employee referral rewards.Ā Since that time, refining the […]
A high school summer spent working on the grounds crew at a local golf course set Krisjan Berzins on a path toward the green industryāhe just didnāt know it yet. At the time, he says he was just trying to earn some summer income. āOne of the best perks was that weād start really early […]
Like so many other landscape business owners, Bret Achtenhagen, president and CEO of Bret Achtenhagenās Seasonal Services in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, was struggling with attracting, hiring, onboarding and retaining quality individuals to add to the companyās production teams. As a result, Achtenhagen says the company was growing faster than its ability to develop foremen and other […]
Bob Grover was a self-described “outdoorsy kid” growing up. “I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s,” he explains. “We had three television channels. Kidsā TV shows only happened on Saturday mornings. There were no video games. We went outside and played. I had the fortune of living on 1 acre in suburbia. It was […]
Landscape business owners often feel like there is an āus versus themā mentality when it comes to employees. They feel like everyone is just in it for themselves. Nikos Phelps, founder of Utopian Landscapes LLC based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, says that he sensed tension building in his company and took a step back to ask […]
The first time NALP member Jarod Hynson mowed a lawn with a push mower at 8 years old, the smell of fresh grass, the symmetry of perfect stripes and the sense of accomplishment made the outdoors a place that he wanted to forever call āhome.ā He started his company, Earth, Turf & Wood, based in […]
