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

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.

©stonepic | adobestock

Your favorite meal, a car service, and even your new car can be ordered in the palm of your hand. And now, lawn care services like mowing, trimming and even snow plowing can, too. On-demand lawn care apps, deemed the “Uber” of lawn care, offer a different type of business model for those wanting to get involved in the green industry.

For Richard Vonderau of Cleveland, he makes the bulk of his money from an on-demand lawn care app. “I have about 94 recurring jobs through the app,” he says. And, it’s proven to be a better alternative for him than his previous experience in the industry.

Vonderau has been involved in the green industry for 21 years, and he says business hadn’t been as good as it is now that he uses an app-based service to find his clients.

“The money is always there,” he says. “It’s my bread and butter for income.” With the app Vonderau uses, there’s no need to search for your own clients, they essentially come to you – no marketing is required on the end of the field worker.

Pay day is every day. And, when it comes to getting paid, there’s no invoicing, calling or knocking on doors to get what you earned. “You don’t have to hunt your money down,” he says.

With two decades of experience, Vonderau knows the struggle that comes with trying to be profitable, and time is money. Through the app, time spent quoting jobs only to get turned down is entirely eliminated. “I’d show up and tell them how much it costs and then I have to waste my time driving there, too, for them to say, ‘Let’s try again next year,’” he says.

One of the perks that comes along with the app, he says, is that he’s also able to service his own clients on the side. While he usually works jobs on about 75 houses a week for the app, he still has clients he mows for as well.

“I can work it so that I get paid every single day of the week,” he says. If he takes a job on a Monday, he knows he will see the paycheck on Wednesday. Wednesday jobs mean Friday paychecks and Friday jobs pay out on Mondays.”

With these apps, most of the service providers are contracted employees, or, in tax terms, a 1099 employee. Your income is definitely still taxable as a contractor for a lawn care app, but according to tax law, your employer doesn’t have to send you a 1099 form if you made less than $600 during the year. Contractors can find apps that employ their service providers like traditional W-2 employees as well.

One program offers employee training and onboarding just like traditional jobs would, but with the flexibility to make your own hours and work more independently.

To get involved with these apps, not much is required aside from insurance and a lawn mower. Vonderau says the app he uses just requires service providers to be insured and have the tools to complete the job – even if that’s just a normal pick up truck and a push mower. With his client base, Vonderau has professional tools like a larger zero-turn mower.

Reviews are everything when it comes to these on-demand apps. It’s how service providers build their clientele and score better jobs. Vonderau says the app he uses also lets a homeowner request the same provider for repeat service – something Vonderau sees often with his clients. “It’s simple: Good ratings equal more jobs and previous customers,” he says.

Gladys Martinez, a recent graduate of Sam Huston State University, says she accidentally fell into this field of study. Her original interests began in the medical field, and she began to realize after researching, most medicine comes from plants.

“I thought that would be a very interesting degree to get so that I would be more familiar with what is in each plant,” she says. Thanks to a school visit by an employee development representative from Yellowstone Landscape, Martinez realized she could pair two of these interests into a degree.

“There was an internship opportunity (with Yellowstone) and I wanted to see what was out there and I did an internship with them and I loved it,” she says. “I didn’t realize that I was ever going to fall into the green industry in this way. And it was one of the best choices that I made. I love being outside and interacting with people.”

Martinez was able to intern with Yellowstone over three years and assisted with account managing. “I learned all the aspects from that, a little bit of irrigation, a little bit about management and how to deal with clients,” she says.

Through the program at Sam Houston State University, Martinez was able to participate in some meaningful community projects as well. As the vice president and treasurer of the plant and soil science club her sophomore year, she helped students in the club, as well as other clubs, come together to create a community garden.

“We built a garden from scratch in a horticulture department, and it was something that kinda took off,” she says. “And it was great because you had all these different clubs from the university that were able to volunteer and adopted plot.”

Some of the plants included vegetables that the club then donated back to the university. “Anybody who was on campus and couldn’t afford food or vegetables, we had our food pantry once a month and they were able to go out there and get any food they needed,” she says. “With that, I learned more of the ornamental aspects of the green industry.”

After completing her internships, Martinez graduated with a degree in plant and soil science and a minor in biology, pairing two of her favorite subjects.

She’s currently employed by Yellowstone and works in the same branch that she completed her internships at. She was offered the job upon graduation and is currently an assistant account manager.

“I help out with the Woodlands Park township area,” she says. “We take care of about 149 parks right now and I help assist with that, helping with designs and helping with sales and with crews.”

Her education didn’t stop after graduation, either. She enrolled in a week-long irrigation course to get certified in that area as well. “That’s something I wanted to learn on my own. And I had spoken to my branch manager about it and he had offered to help me get that license,” she says. With some help from the irrigation manager, she was able to start the course with some basic knowledge she already had.

While she landed a job right after graduation, Martinez says she hopes employers understand that sometimes students aren’t well represented on a resume.

“Don’t overlook any students because you might have a great individual who has not had the ability to take an internship or had the time to work more in the industry before graduating,” she says. “They should not be overlooked because they’re great individuals, too.”