Six Guidelines for Better Budgeting. Start Now!

Six Guidelines for Better Budgeting. Start Now!

Budget season comes earlier than you think. It starts now. You need to budget early for a few reasons: It confirms your pricing for next year.It brings clarity to big investments. It forces you to get next year’s goals figured out now. The budgeting process should “ideally” start at the end of Q3 (September) after you have 8 months of current year actuals. Here are six critical guidelines.

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Lessons From Seven Top Landscape Companies

Lessons From Seven Top Landscape Companies

The following seven landscape professionals were awarded the prestigious 2023 Mighty Oak for their outstanding achievement. This honor is given each year to one member of each of Jeffrey’s high-impact peer groups — based on how they performed the previous year. The Four Achievements

There are four “developmental” areas in which a winner must show outstanding achievement.

Personal development
Professional development
Company development (their team, processes, strategy, etc)
Financial achievement (how their finances have developed over the past couple years)

Here are the winning contractors plus insight to their path to success.

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Jimmy Buffett’s Famous Business Strategy Is Not For Everyone

Jimmy Buffett’s Famous Business Strategy Is Not For Everyone

With the passing of Jimmy Buffett, I am inspired to ponder the oft cited “work/life balance” that Jimmy skewers. Jimmy sings about working as little as humanly possible. According to Jimmy, life should be about beach bumming, drinking whenever, and fooling around. And yet, Mr. Buffett passed away a wealthy man based on the incessant hard work he invested into his business.

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7 Takeaways from the Summer Growth Summit

7 Takeaways from the Summer Growth Summit

Our Summer Growth Summit at Mariani Landscape in Lake Bluff, IL was the HOTTEST landscape event of the year! Over 3 days, we had 26 speakers covering inspiring and cutting-edge topics to help any attendee grow to their next level of success. The Summit concluded with a discussion between Jeffrey Scott and Frank Mariani regarding how Mariani Landscape grew from 90k in 1973 to 59 million in 2020. Then they discussed what has happened since making a private equity deal in 2020 and where the company is headed now. Frank and Jeffrey were like two old friends talking around the fire pit. They also covered the pitfalls of the 4 day work week, how to solve the labor issue, and how any company could pursue an acquisition growth strategy. Many companies brought their teams, and the energy was palpable. Here are 7 takeaways to get your mind thinking:

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Midyear Report For The Landscape Industry:  “Better Than Expected”

Midyear Report For The Landscape Industry: “Better Than Expected”

I am proud to present my latest interview with two movers and shakers in the landscape world: Loriena Harrington and Shanna Scordo.This interview is valuable whether you are a woman or a man! Women will gather ideas, motivation and empowerment. Men will broaden their perspective, and increase their chances of attracting and retaining women in their company.

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Women in the Landscape Industry

Women in the Landscape Industry

I am proud to present my latest interview with two movers and shakers in the landscape world: Loriena Harrington and Shanna Scordo.This interview is valuable whether you are a woman or a man! Women will gather ideas, motivation and empowerment. Men will broaden their perspective, and increase their chances of attracting and retaining women in their company.

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Build a Better Sales Team with These 7 Tips

Build a Better Sales Team with These 7 Tips

In order to succeed in this economy, someone needs to be in charge of building your sales team: Hiring, Motivating, Steering and Managing. You need a Professional Sales Manager to do all this. The funny thing about Sales Management: You can’t study it at school, there are not many books about it, and a great many sales managers are really salespeople pretending they enjoy managing. For those of you who are dedicated to this mysterious trade, here are few practical updated tips from my Sales Symposium, that I held last year: 7 Tips To Improve Your Sales Team’s Performance:

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100 Days to Sell

100 Days to Sell

There is an expression in our industry, The 100 Days of Hell. While it is humorous, it sets the wrong tone.I like the following upbeat expression better: 100 Days To Sell. Spring is here and many of you across the country have already been selling into this year’s goals. But you can always get better. Answering the phone and returning calls promptly puts you ahead of 90% of your would-be competitors. The following ten tips above will help you get ahead of everyone else. 10 Sales Knowledge Bombs to help you up your sales game.

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