When I talk with young entrepreneurs and new landscape business owners, the question I’m most often asked is: What are your secrets for success and how do I avoid failure? Or, given failure, how do I rebound when my big idea turns out to be a dud?

Here’s my list of the best things I ever learned about success:

1. It’s not about you.

People engage with your business because your values align with theirs. Back in the day, we called this “crawling behind your customers” eyes. Understanding your customers, creating a customer-centric culture and putting your customers’ needs first is the only marketing growth strategy you’ll ever need.

2. The best ideas come from anywhere, even your customers.

When we did a rebrand at Conserve, the company I co-owned, we didn’t ask ourselves what we thought our company should be in its next chapter. We asked our customers. When they told us how they thought we could be an even better version of an already great company, we reimagined our platform to their specs, not ours.

3. Leave your ego at the door.

Hire smarter people you can learn from and create teams that can run your business without you. Michael Dell admits to hiring smarter to drive his business to new heights. “Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, invite smarter people or find a different room.”

4. Build relationships outside the office.

Connect with your employees on a personal level. It sounds simple but feedback I get from visiting companies around the country suggest that it’s not that easy. A company is only as strong as its weakest link. Avoid being the CEO who is unapproachable.

5. Be kind.

Building and leading a business is stressful. There will be days that test your patience and your passion. If your company culture has core values around respect, trust and transparency, your internal team will be your most important ally during challenging times.

6. There’s no silver bullet.

Prepare your company for greater resiliency by creating a culture with a thirst for learning and change, and an action plan that puts customers and employees at the center of your strategy for growth. If you take care of your people, your people will take care of your business.

7. Be smart about money.

Anticipate worst-case scenarios and have a good backup plan. Get to know your balance sheet, have a clear set of financial goals and benchmark your performance. Budget for training, professional development, tools and technology, and allocate time for your team to become smarter at what they do. No matter how good you think you are as a financial manager, have a professional on speed dial to help you structure, assess and plan cash flows.

8. Run scared.

Bill Gates says that by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Running scared is a lesson I learned at the beginning of my career about staying out in front. With success, be prepared for competitors to be hot on your heels. Maintain the same sense of urgency you had when you started your business and protect your turf, your customers and your talent.

9. Pay it forward.

Gratitude is a great motivating tool. Ignite the spirit of giving back, be a philanthropic partner and make other people’s lives and careers better. It not only promotes your brand and speaks to your sense of purpose; customers buy from you because of the way you make them feel, giving makes people feel good.

10. Learn from failure and move on.

Everyone who dreamed of building a company and has poured their heart into the endeavor knows what it feels like when the endeavor bombs. Push yourself through doubt, learn from the little mistakes to prevent making bigger ones and know that as a business owner starting out, you are not alone. Surround yourself with other entrepreneurs or CEOs in a peer group of like-minded people who can help you use the upsets as lessons learned.

Contact Bruce Wilson at bwilson@giemedia.com

If you create an environment in your business where the employees actually like their company and what they’re doing, that manifests itself over to the customer. They will buy more, and more frequently, from people who enjoy what they are doing. Creating an environment like that is incumbent on every business leader.

One of the mistakes I have made as a leader – and trust me I have made many of them – is not surrounding my A-players with other A-players to help us grow collectively. Have you ever gotten so frustrated with one of your sales team members that you eventually end up micro-managing them until they quit?

We had that happen a few years ago with a young gentleman. Let’s call him Steve. He was our lead business development person for our organization. He would give you the shirt off his back. Prospects really enjoyed talking with him and eventually buying from him. It was the rest of the process that was a complete disaster for him. His downfall was that he would roll into work at different hours every day, his sales reports were always late and, most of the time, incorrect. He could bring the new business into the door, but the execution and follow through from there is what was missing. He had the tenacity to get in door but he was missing the details after the close to hand off and deliver to our operations team.

What I didn’t understand at the time was that no matter how much we wanted him to make sure the process was completed, it was going to be a struggle for it to happen on his own.

We were asking our No. 1 sales person to modify his naturally hardwired behavior at the cost of eventually having him quit and go work for our competitor. We all have a natural hardwire and it is mostly ingrained in us by the age of 12 years old. When we hire people and put them in roles that they are naturally hardwired to do, employee engagement and overall contentment for both employee and company goes up. We can teach the proper technique to a natural born sales person but we can’t teach tenacity. We can’t make them want to wake up every day and want go out there and crush the competition. You either have it or you don’t.

If I could have the chance to do it again, I would have given him an assistant that had high attention to detail. I would have made sure he had the administrative help to delegate all of the low-level minutia, too. His admin could take care of the tedious detailed work for him so that he could focus on what he was naturally born to do, which was create relationships with potential new clients and sell, not live in details. If you create an environment in your business where the employees actually like what they are doing and like working at the company they are in, that transfers to the customer, leading them to buy more. They’ll frequently do business with people that enjoy what they are doing. Creating an environment like that is incumbent on every business leader. We have the right people have them in the right seats, but we as leaders need to coach and maximize them.

Here are some things to consider with your sales team:

• Do you know your top performers’ goals? If not, you are missing a huge opportunity. It needs to be their own goals, not goals that you set for them. The right sales person is going to be tenacious enough to know where they want to be in the next 1-3 years. Agree on the plan and get out of their way. Give them the keys to the car and let them drive. As long as you both agree on where the destination is, look out and support their goals.
• Do you have the right people managing them? It can be difficult to retain these tenacious go-getters. The fastest way to chase them out the door is to micro-manage them. Give them space, as they are going to take it anyway. They can become restless in stagnate environments. Make sure that they have new goals (that they have come up with) and new solutions to keep them happy and focused.
• Who do you have supporting your sales team? My best sales people require detailed people around them. They usually don’t want to live in rules/policies and procedures, so when we can help them delegate lower level tasks and keep them focused on actually selling and building relationships, the ROI for everyone goes up.

The author is CEO of Moscarino Landscape + Design and executive advisor with Culture Index.

As we thaw out of winter, homeowners are once again looking forward to venturing back out to enjoy their outdoor living spaces. But the warmer season ahead also attracts the return of mosquitoes to those landscapes as well. The type of mosquito season we can expect for 2020 is by and large based upon rainfall.

“The more rain you’ve got, the more mosquitoes in general,” says Joe Conlon, technical adviser of the American Mosquito Control Association.

According to the 2019 National Climate Report, last year was abnormally wet for much of the central U.S. with many states exceeding their record for total annual precipitation.

“Where you had record rainfalls, you had totally new mosquito breeding habitats and they took advantage of it. It could happen as little as one town over, and you could have a serious problem due to rainfall in that area. You may have mosquitoes coming into your yard from elsewhere, but there are things you can do to be sure you’re not breeding them there yourself,” Conlon says.

“Where you had record rainfalls, you had totally new mosquito breeding habitats and they took advantage of it.” Joe Conlon, technical adviser, American Mosquito Control

Push maintenance services.

You don’t need to turn to sprays right away to control a mosquito problem. Basic services that you likely already offer can be effective in reducing mosquitoes.

“Mosquitoes are adept at hiding from direct sunlight because they dehydrate easily. So, bushes and weeds are classic places for mosquitoes to rest during the day. If you trim those down low or get rid of those, you’re also cutting down on your issues with mosquitoes,” he says.

Ponds, water features and pools must also be properly maintained to discourage mosquitoes from breeding there. When the water is flowing, mosquitoes won’t breed in it. If pools are properly maintained, mosquitoes won’t breed there, either. Although the chlorination won’t kill the mosquito larvae itself, it will kill the bacteria and diatoms in the water that they eat, so you can starve them out. In ponds, mosquitoes love algae mats and emergent vegetation, so keeping those to a minimum is key.

Utilize your resources.

If you need to use products, LCOs can apply pesticides to foliage as a barrier treatment. Which type of pesticide to use and how to use it becomes the critical questions for achieving safe and effective mosquito control. Conlon suggests maintaining a liaison with the local mosquito abatement district to help figure that out. They can identify what species are in the area and what special considerations there are in treating those species. They can also tell you if there are any issues with developing resistance, which may determine the class of pesticide you choose. In many cases, they may be able to provide mosquitofish to use in your pond for free.

“I have found over the years that mosquito abatement districts do not consider the commercial applicator as the enemy or a competitor. What they don’t want is them poisoning the well, so to speak, going out there and using pesticides improperly. They are more than happy to help out,” Conlon says.

Educate Homeowners.

Mosquito abatement districts and lawn care companies often get called to task for polluting the environment. LCOs can reassure their customers that a lot of research and about $250 million goes into developing how much of each pesticide should be used for it to be effective yet not harmful, Conlon says.

“Most pesticides have a 1,000 times safety factor built into them by law, meaning you would have to spray more than 1,000 times the amount on the label before human health would be a concern,” he says.

Overapplication at any rate can cause environmental harm. On the other hand, under-use of pesticides is in some cases even worse because it also creates resistance.

Applicators should only use pesticides in accordance with the label, he says. It is a legal document which outlines exactly what rate to apply the chemicals to eliminate mosquitoes while also protecting humans, animals, pollinators and other beneficial insects that may come into contact with it as well.

“People need to understand there is no silver bullet out there,” Conlon says. “Mosquitos are a natural part of our environment and you have to do something decidedly unnatural to get rid of them.”

The author is a freelance writer based in Kentucky.

Landscape contractors can commiserate with the wasted time spent stuck in traffic, burning gas to get to the next job.

But what if that traffic could be a source of new business instead of headaches? What if your trailer or vehicle could promote your services for you? The right wrap can do that.

“Vehicle wraps are perfect for landscape trailers, specifically, because whether your company is residential or commercial, the trailers are (parked) in front of your clients' neighbors every time you provide service,” says Torri Westmoreland, who started In-Depth Wraps with her husband in Atlanta 18 years ago. “Vehicle wraps are marketing all the time.”

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, a single vehicle wrap can generate between 30,000 to 70,000 impressions each day. That’s more than 2,000 impressions per dollar invested – giving wraps the lowest cost per thousand impressions compared to outdoor ads, radio, television or print media advertising.

But your mobile billboard might only be in front of someone’s eyes for a few seconds as they drive by, so it’s critical to maximize your marketing potential. Here are six tips from the pros to enhance your brand image with a wrap.

1. Tell a story...

The biggest mistake Westmoreland sees is when companies just want to “put some stickers on a trailer” before thinking carefully about the brand story they want to tell.

Capital Wraps, a vehicle wrap company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, helps clients define a strategy by filling out creative briefs to define their ideal customers and the message they want to send.

“You have to have a clear understanding of what your company is and how you want to portray it,” says Keoni Denison, director of business development. “You need to understand who you’re trying to target so we can make the design more compelling for that audience.”

The imagery on your wrap should showcase solutions for your target demographic, whether it’s young families playing in the backyard, older couples relaxing on the patio or perhaps a pristinely landscaped entryway.

Consistency is key but that doesn’t mean repeating the same image on every side of each trailer. For example, “if a company does residential and commercial work equally,” Westmoreland says, “we can design different sides of the trailer for different demographics.”

2. …but keep it short.

Once you decide what to depict on your wrap, pare down your message to the bare minimum.

“Design it so you can get most of the key information in less than three seconds as you’re driving down the road,” Denison says. “Who are they, what do they do, and what’s their contact information? If it’s cluttered or the words are hidden in the graphics, it won’t be legible.”

One of the biggest mistakes Westmoreland sees is too much info crammed into wraps, like a full list of services instead of a few.

“A vehicle wrap is not a brochure. It’s a moving billboard, so you want the least amount of information with the highest impact,” Westmoreland says. “One area where we might recommend putting additional text is on the rear, because when someone is stuck behind you in traffic, you have extra time with their eyeballs. But on the side of a trailer, we try to limit our customers to three services.”

“Design it so you can get most of the key information in less than three seconds as you’re driving down the road.” Keoni Denison, director of business development, Capital Wraps

3. Know your budget.

The most common misconception about wraps, Denison and Westmoreland agree, is assuming that they’re all or nothing. Don’t overlook the potential of partial wraps to maximize limited budgets.

“As long as the design is effective, it’s not necessary to cover every square foot of a trailer,” Westmoreland says. “Maybe you can partially wrap two trailers for the same cost that you would fully wrap one.”

If your budget can only wrap either a truck or a trailer, Westmoreland might lean toward the trailer.

“Trailers are the easiest opportunity for vehicle wraps because they’re literally rolling billboards. You have fewer obstructions and body angles to consider, versus wrapping a truck,” she says. “I’d recommend lettering the truck and wrapping the trailer so they both have the brand, but the billboard tells the story.”

4. Use it.

You wouldn’t cover up a billboard at night, so don’t hide your vehicle wrap.

“One thing we tell all of our clients after we give them back the keys to their baby is not to hide it,” Westmoreland says. “You have this beautiful moving billboard, so go use it.”

She encourages clients to show off their wraps at community events, tradeshows and other high-traffic areas. Wrapped trailers can boost your brand visibility, even when you’re off the clock.

“Take your truck or trailer with you wherever you go. If you’re off on the weekend, go park it somewhere great, like an outdoor event or festival,” she says. “If there’s an opportunity to park it, you have an opportunity to market.”

“If there’s an opportunity to park it, you have an opportunity to market.” Torri Westmoreland, owner, In-Depth Wraps

5. Keep your fleet clean.

Make sure your wrap presents the best image possible by using quality material and protecting it over time.

“Most landscaping companies use their vehicles until they cannot use them anymore, so the longevity of the wrap is critical,” Westmoreland says.

Inferior materials can fail or fade within a year, Denison says. Even if they hold up, they could pull the paint off your trailer when you remove them. Both In-Depth Wraps and Capital Wraps rely on premium material that lasts about five years. Trailer wraps often last longer than other vehicle wraps “because all the surfaces are vertical,” Westmoreland says, “so trailers are more cost-effective if we’re talking about longevity.”

During that lifespan, proper care helps preserve wraps against the elements. Denison recommends a silicone-based spray wax after installation, followed by routine cleaning with soap and water. “Keeping it clean will extend the life of it,” he says, “but when it starts looking bad, you need to make it look better because it speaks to your company brand.”

In fact, Westmoreland says wraps tend to get more attention right after a wash. “If you’ve got dirt, salt or clay creating a layer of grime over your moving billboard, then your message is harder to see – and it says something about your company’s reputation,” she says. “You wouldn’t hand someone a crumbled-up business card with coffee stains on it. In the same way, you want to present your vehicle wrap as professionally as possible.”

6. Drive targeted growth.

Vehicle wraps can be key to unlocking growth.

Denison’s clients have reported that their call rate increased by 75% in one month after wrapping a vehicle. Another client gets “an additional 10 calls a month by having their car out on the road – which is 120 calls a year, and 600 calls over a five-year period,” he says. “That’s about $50-$60 a month when you break down the cost.”

Some of In-Depth Wraps’ customers generate half of their business through vehicle graphics, according to the company’s website. One client even uses wraps to build new business. “It sounds like putting the cart before the horse, but it works,” Westmoreland says. “They wrap a vehicle first and then create the market from it.”

Whether you’re driving down a crowded highway or conveniently parked in a neighborhood where you see growth potential, a well-wrapped trailer captures attention and creates credibility.

“It’s a lot easier to trust a landscape company that shows up with a professional image on their trucks, than someone who shows up with a magnet that can be easily removed,” Westmoreland says. “(Vehicle wraps) offer legitimacy, and that’s a real benefit in the landscape industry.”

The author is a freelance writer based in Ohio.