EDITOR'S FOCUS: Connect With Us

This is the time of the year when the editorial team is planning our features and product coverage for 2006. One aspect of this is to decide what topics to write about. The other is to find the interesting companies to interview. You can help us. We want your suggestions on feature topics and product coverage. We are also interested in hearing from you in case you or your company could be included in one of our features.

We discover great contractors to interview in a number of ways. We hear about them from other contractors at trade shows, from staff and members of the national and state associations and from university sources. Seldom do we get a feature lead directly from the contractor. Most think that pitching us about their company would be too self promotional. Others don’t think anything they are doing is all that special.

This is my invitation to you to tell us about yourself and your company. You can do that by calling any of the editors on the masthead, by e-mailing us, or by striking up a conversation with one of us at a trade show or industry meeting. We don’t want a fancy letter. Just send us a note with a few bullet points. What should you tell us about your company? Pretend you have been invited to speak to 200 other contractors in an industry meeting – what aspect of your business would you talk about? It could be how you find good personnel, do great marketing, have improved production efficiency or any other aspect of your business that you do particularly well. One final point – you don’t have to be a huge company to be interviewed. Great ideas and business solutions come from all sizes and kinds of companies.

The media business is changing fast and connecting with subscribers is more important than ever. We want and need to hear from you. So, contact us with story suggestions, to tell us about your company, or even to complain about something you didn’t like in an issue – complaints help us learn how we can do a better job. I make it a practice to always return your calls, whether you are calling with a compliment, a complaint or a question.

We’re also improving our Web site to make it more useful. Check out the message board on our Web site (www.lawnandlandscape.com).  The contractors you will meet there will offer you their best advice on how to improve your company, and then you can return the favor.

Another Web site innovation is our new “dealer search” capability. We have more than 10,000 dealers in our online database representing more than 100 manufacturers. You can access this information by clicking on the “Dealer Search” button on the left-hand of our Web site home page. You can locate dealers by zip code or by distance from your area. You can also use our Web site to search for equipment by type or manufacturer.

One final suggestion is to make sure you are getting our weekly e-newsletter with headlines on top industry news and announcements, and we also offer a weekly product e-newsletter. You can sign up for either by sending an e-mail to Lauren Spiers, our Web site editor, at lspiers@gie.net.

We look forward to hearing from you.