Best Practices

Building a board

Adam Linnemann formed a board of advisers to get an outside perspective on business issues and to grow his company..

An A-team of advisers is giving Adam Linnemann the outside perspective he needs to make some significant business decisions for Linnemann Lawn Care & Landscaping. Bringing in outside voices is a big deal for Linnemann, who started his business at age 14, before he even had a driver’s license. Today, the Columbia, Ill.-based firm is 15 crewmembers strong, and it brought in about $700,000 in revenues last year.

Here’s how Linnemann chose his advisory team to help him make challenging decisions.
 

Choosing the cast. Pulling in a few good friends (and obligating a family member or two) to join the board would have been easy. Who’s going to say no to a buddy asking for help? And as for providing feedback, the friends-and-family clan is waiting for an invitation to participate. But how possible is it for people we know well and like a lot to bring an honest opinion to the table? That, of course, depends on your friends and family.

Linnemann decided when searching for a board, to pursue candidates that he knew were highly qualified – people he didn’t personally know all that well.

“We knew we had our own ideas about how to run the business, and we felt it would be good to get ideas from people who are outside of the company, people we trust,” Linnemann says.Linnemann did a lot of asking around, and he gathered referrals. He invited a Boeing employee who specializes in technology management, a commercial banker and an owner of a John Deere dealership with locations in and around Linnemann’s service area. He offered each a small payment for participating in each board meeting (so far, none have accepted the honorarium).The mix of professionals on Linnemann’s board is what makes the team so valuable. For example, the technology manager can sound off on customer relationship management (CRM) software options and help Linnemann take inventory of his tech suite, what works and what doesn’t. The dealer is practiced in sales and has industry insight. “He has the knowledge of what other landscapers in our area are doing and purchasing,” Linnemann says. “But because he’s a dealer, he’s not in direct competition with us – and he has four or five locations in the area where we want to expand our business.”

The commercial banker can advise on growth decisions, including acquisitions. This input is important for Linnemann, who just purchased a smaller lawn care firm and grew his customer base that way.

Choosing a board from the outside is giving him insight on how customers see his business. “I wanted to see what (our advisers’) perception is of our company and how they see us, which is, in turn, how our clients may see us,” he says.
 

Read how Linnemann’s board of advisers helped him reconfigure his service offering and add technology at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters.

Kristen Hampshire
 

Working together

Three ways irrigation designers and installers can ensure a smooth project.

In the past, there has been some butting of heads when it comes to the world of irrigation design versus the world of installation. But Timothy Malooly, president of Water in Motion, a water consulting firm that designs and specifies landscape irrigation systems, says it doesn’t have to be that way.

“In the world of irrigation installation, the concept of design is often met with rolling eyes by the contracting community,” says Malooly, who also owns an irrigation contracting business in his local market. “But there’s no reason that the process has to be a negative experience.”

Malooly suggests keeping the following three points in mind to help ensure a smooth project.

1. Collegial conversation. Forming a friendly relationship is important – and a demonstration of professionalism.

“Instead of having an adversarial argument, have a collegial conversation,” Malooly says. “It can be to your benefit. An installing contractor should consider that the consulting designer likely has the direct ear of the client and knows why a given approach is included.

By the same token, a contractor may have an idea, method or experience worthy of consideration out of concern for the client’s best interest. How the parties interact is often key to a successful outcome.”  
 

2. Rely on partners. Malooly says it’s likely that the consultant has a wealth of helpful information about a project that an installing contractor may appreciate. “The designer knows why something was designed a certain way, which can be vital,” he says. “And generally speaking, an irrigation consultant may have an inside track on new and emerging technologies. Because of their proximity to clients and because of their knowledge of trends in building, landscape architecture or civil engineering, they’ll have a good read on what’s coming down the pike.”  

Likewise, a contractor may have an inside track on installation techniques and practical applicability of certain elements that the consultant might consider. 
 

3. Everyone can “win.” It’s important for all parties to remember that the design was made with the client’s best interest – and their specific wants – in mind. But Malooly says that, more often than not, an installing contractor may start to make changes that deviate from those original plans without working collegially with the consultant or because they think they can do it better. Such behavior often causes major and unnecessary problems on projects.  

Malooly owns three water-related companies. Learn how he’s grown his design, installation and fountain businesses at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters.

Lindsey Getz
 

Drought defiant

Kelby Reed’s portfolio of sustainable landscape designs and elaborate water feature projects show Tampa residents that going green is a beautiful thing.

After a name change – the firm started out as Reed’s Landscape and Water Features – and a portfolio of green landscape designs with impressive water features, Rainscapes is a veteran in Tampa’s sustainable landscape and native plant arena. 

“If you can show someone what you can do and how you can do it as opposed to just talking, it makes a world of difference,” Kelby Reed, president, says of using pinnacle projects as a launch pad for his business. Case in point: an extensive landscape job in a high-profile neighborhood traveled by local celebrities. 

“I finally found a customer who loved the idea of building an entirely sustainable project,” Reed says of the homeowners, who lived in a prestigious golf course neighborhood. Plus, they loved the idea of a koi pond. They wanted to capture rainwater to use for filling and maintaining the pond. They were interested in a significant rainwater collection system. 

So Reed started to make job signs explaining exactly what his crews were doing every day on that property, and that got passersby talking. “We really capitalized on where we were and what we were doing,” he says. “Instead of signs that just said ‘Rainscapes,’ we put out a sign that said, ‘Currently collecting rainwater,’ or ‘Changing the landscape environment one step at a time.’”

Every week Reed created a new sign. 

Neighbors called, or they picked up one of Reed’s business cards. This job helped elevate Reed’s clientele, but more importantly, it gave him that key portfolio project he needed to define himself in the sustainable landscape market. He had the knowledge, the skill, the creative drive – he just needed that “wow” work to show off so other homeowners could see the potential and fall in love with it. 

“By showing people what we are capable of doing, they can say, ‘I’d like that but maybe a smaller version’ or ‘I want that but two times as large,’” Reed says. “Everyone can talk, but without having a job to show people, they could just be telling a pretty story.”

Reed takes his show-don’t-tell philosophy to the streets in his marketing efforts. His trucks are wrapped with dramatic imagery of completed jobs. “My background is in art and architecture,” Reed says, adding that before his company had those flashy jobs to show off, he created dynamic renderings that were splashed on his trucks. “Now, we are almost like a mobile portfolio,” he says. 

Read why Reed’s clients were being ticketed for the elaborate fountains he built on their properties at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters.

Kristen Hampshire
 

Custom built

After years of working for larger companies, Mike Haskell started his own small, specialized lawn care operation to fill the gap in customer needs.

Mike Haskell, a third-generation tree care professional from central New Jersey, knows something about climbing around on wet, slippery trucks. In fact, he remembers well the spray trucks his dad and uncles rode on when he was growing up – and their dangers.

“I remember the guys climbing around on the truck, slipping and sliding,” says Haskell, who owns Plant Solutions Tree & Lawn Care, a lawn and landscape company in Warren and Short Hills, N.J. “A couple of times, they slipped right off and broke their tailbones.”

The old trucks were also wasteful polluters. “The chemicals they used would wash out at night and pollute the soil,” he says.

So when the time came to launch his own business, Haskell looked for a truck that was safe, efficient, environmentally-friendly and had a professional image. A state-of-the-art truck could provide better service, he thought, increasing both his productivity and profits. In the end, his quest led him to custom-build a truck to meet his needs.

By working with a national manufacturer of customized spray equipment for the landscape industry, Haskell was able to create his own truck. This innovative truck carries more than 1,000 gallons of water, catches up to 300 gallons if a spill happens, contains a compost tea brewer and carries chemical and advanced biological treatments. In short, the all-in-one truck is the ultimate in efficiency and service.

“We’re able to provide the highest quality product for less to our customers because of the equipment we have,” says Haskell, who has 10 full-time employees and whose business is focused on high-end residential properties. “And because we’re a specialist and a boutique company, our customers are willing to pay for this.”

Haskell worked for several larger companies prior to starting Plant Solutions. “I started my own company because I was tired of treating clients like they were numbers,” he says.

Haskell also sought to create a family-owned business that utilized the same cutting-edge equipment as larger companies. “As a small business owner-operator, I was tired of the ‘family business way’ of doing things,” he says. “I wanted our work to be a pleasant experience, and to have equipment that uses only what we need.”

The Plant Solutions truck has enough hose reels to allow two or three operators to service a property at the same time. If arborists find something they didn’t plan to address, then the chances are good the truck comes equipped to handle it. Plant Solutions’ biological treatments and ability to conserve water also make it a forerunner in the field of sustainable landscaping.

Haskell requires his employees to become trained arborists. Read why as well as other safety techniques he put in place at Plant Solutions at www.lawnandlandscape.com/newsletters.

Lee Chilcote