Industry Veterans Form Bicoastal Consulting Firm

This fall, Bill Arman and Ed Laflamme formed The Harvest Group, a consultancy specializing in on-going coaching and support for landscaping businesses.

“The value in our approach is that this business is part of our very fabric,” says Bill Arman, head harvester, West. “We’re not just business consultants or motivational speakers, we’ve been there, or as we like to say, ‘we’ve been in our clients’ boots’; and together we know the landscape business as well as anyone out there.”

Having most recently served as president of maintenance at Landscape Development in Valencia, Calf., Arman’s career also includes 30 years at ValleyCrest. He’s been on more than 15,000 quality reviews, assessing landscape operation practices across the West. He has examined everything from recruiting, hiring and training processes to estimating, pricing and tracking systems (or lack thereof), safety measures and procedures, down to how organizations build healthy and productive teams from the ground up.

Lawn & Landscape recognized Arman in 2006 with one of its annual leadership awards.

Arman has served on both the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Environmental Horticultural Science Board and the Board of Visitors at Cal Baptist University. 
He was born, raised and has lived in Southern California his whole life. Bill received his Bachelor's degree in horticulture with highest honors from Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo.

Ed Laflamme, head harvester, East, founded his own landscaping company in Connecticut, grew it to a $7-million corporation, and then sold it in 1999. This fall he published a book, Green Side Up, a how-to guide about the process.

“We love this business and the people in it,” Laflamme says. “We are stoked about sharing everything we’ve learned with anybody out there who’s stuck, wants to improve and grow their business, but doesn’t quite know how.”

Disclosures: Starting in 2008, Arman will write a monthly column for Lawn & Landscape. Also, GIE Media, Lawn & Landscape’s parent company, is the publisher of Laflamme’s book, Green Side Up.