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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Building Branches: Secrets to a Successful Branch Model

Building Branches: Secrets to a Successful Branch Model

Building Branches: Secrets to a Successful Branch Model

Announcing our newest Virtual Masterclass: November 1st, 11am to 4pm ET

Once your local market is saturated, where do you grow from here?

Growth-minded landscape companies can develop a branch network, offering more growth opportunities to their employees and clients.

Building a branch model is a logical way to expand your business. But it also has many pitfalls and challenges!

Whether you are a commercial or residential company, In this virtual masterclass you will learn from proven landscape entrepreneurs how to successfully launch and expand your branch model.

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Give Your Clients the Ultimate Five-Star Experience

Give Your Clients the Ultimate Five-Star Experience

How do you know if you are giving your clients a five-star experience? You can check your google reviews, but that gives very limited info.Here are two stories to illustrate the need for clarifying your customer service vision in today’s uncertain economy. I was recently helping a friend of mine (an entrepreneur in another industry) with his 3-year growth plans. Over the past few years his business has scaled nicely, and he was enjoying the sweet spot that he called ELF (Easy, lucrative and fun). He wanted to keep growing, but it was not clear what direction he should take his business. Should he change direction, or do more of the same?

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